$4 at Newsstands and Bookstores SocialistViewpoint H The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. —Karl Marx H SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 VOL. 20 NO. 5 Renters facing risk of evictions and their supporters protest as they demand developer Geoffrey Palmer to cancel their rent on July 31, 2020 in Los Angeles. Read All Evictions are Violent on page 29. On the Front Cover: s Screen shot of New York Times video report on Port- land protest showing “Wall of Moms” carrying banner declaring "No War but Class War," July 23, 2020. Read Symptoms of Terminal Capitalism, on page 4. Wrecked framework of the Museum of Science and Industry in Hiro- shima, Japan. This is how it appeared shortly after the dropping of the Larkspur, CA — August 2, 2020: Over 700 demonstrators march down Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in Larkspur, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 2, first atomic bomb, on August 6, 1945. (Shutterstock) Read Another Symptoms of Terminal Capitalism - Page 4 Hiroshima is Coming on page 10. 2020, from the Larkspur Ferry parking lot to the state prison closing down Sir Francis Drake Blvd to road traffic. Read 30 U.S. Prisons: Mass Releases Demanded on page 57. Year of the Plague - Page 6 « « « Attention Prison Mail Room: « « « The Attack on Science - Page 14 - Page 19 Prisoners retain their free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That means you cannot Huge New Military Budget legally suppress the expression and consideration of ideas. Prison walls do not form a barrier separating prisoners from the protection of the Constitution, according to the Turner v. Safley ruling. [482 U.S. 78, 107 Sct 2245 (1987)] If you exclude printed matter on an improper basis, or give a false pretext or rationale for its exclusion, because of the ideas expressed in it, you are breaking the law. The prisoner denied access to material he wants to read can bring a civil rights lawsuit against you with cause for seeking punitive damages. In the case of Police Department Chicago v. Mosley, 408 U.S. 92, 95, 92 Sct 2286, 2290 (1972) the court found that “[A]bove all else, the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, subject matter or content.” Vote Socialist in 2020 sustainable energy and seizing the oil and coal companies to stop fossil fuel pollution, are urgent steps needed to reverse climate change. Ultimately, only the socialist reorganization of society can assure the future of the people and the planet. 3. End racism, police brutality, mass incar- ceration-Pay reparations to the African American community. Mass incarcera- tion and racist policing are symptomatic of the 400 years of brutal repression meted out to African-descended peoples in the U.S. and the genocide committed Gloria La Riva against the Native nations. Reparations Sunil Freeman must be paid to the African American and Gloria La Riva for President Native communities! More than 2.2 mil- 6. Honor Native treaties. Free Leonard lion people are behind bars in the largest Peltier now. Both major parties have Longtime San Francisco labor and continued to allow the destruction of antiwar activist prison complex in the world. End mass incarceration of oppressed and all work- Native lands by mining and corporate agricultural interests in blatant disre- Sunil Freeman for Vice President ing class people. Fully prosecute all acts of police brutality and violence. Free gard of indigenous sovereign rights. Anti-racist and disability rights Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal and 33% of Native children live in poverty advocate all political prisoners! and many of America’s poorest coun- ties are reservations. The crisis of Socialist Campaign Program 4. Full rights for all immigrants. Abolish all missing and murdered Indigenous 1. Make the essentials of life into consti- anti-immigrant laws. Stop the raids and women and the over-incarceration of tutional rights. The U.S. has more deportations and demonization of immi- Native peoples shows the bankruptcy than enough so that all the essentials of grants. Shut down ICE and the concentra- of capitalism from its earliest incep- life—food, housing, water, education, tion camps and reunite families. The gov- tion in the Americas until today. healthcare and a job or basic income ernment’s war on immigrants must end. 7. Full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexu- can be guaranteed rights—rather than The border wall must be dismantled. al, transgender and queer people. distributed only for profit. Create a Amnesty and citizenship for those without Fight back against anti-LGBTQ dis- completely free and public healthcare documents. Full rights for all! crimination and violence. Defend system. Make education free—cancel 5. Shut down all U.S. military bases marriage equality. Full equality in all all student debt. Fully fund rebuilding around the world—bring all the matters governed by civil law, includ- of the infrastructure in transport, water troops, planes and ships home. U.S. ing employment, housing, healthcare and utility systems. Stop all foreclo- foreign policy uses the pretext of and education. No to “religious sures and evictions. End all discrimina- national security to enforce the impe- exemption” laws that allow discrimi- tion based on ability/disability. rialist interests of the biggest banks nation against LGBTQ people! 2. For the Earth to live, capitalism must and corporations. That is what is 8. Equality for women and free, safe, be replaced by a socialist system. behind the endless wars and occupa- legal abortion on demand. Stop the Global warming, pollution, acidified tions. Use the $1 trillion military bud- attack on women’s reproductive rights and depleted oceans, fracking, critical get instead to provide for people’s and defend Roe v. Wade. Women must drought, plastics choking the seas, needs here and worldwide. Abolish have the fundamental right to choose & nuclear weapons and waste—it is clear nuclear weapons. Stop U.S. aid to control their own bodies. Women still that capitalism and production for Israel. Self-determination for the earn 22 percent less than men, and the profit are destroying the planet and Palestinian people, including the right gap is even more severe for Black and threatening all life. The crisis is already of return. End the U.S. blockade of Latina women. Close the wage gap and here, with the most vulnerable and Cuba and sanctions against Venezuela, end the gender division of labor. oppressed areas of the U.S. and Global Iran and all countries. Independence South bearing the brunt. Using truly for Puerto Rico and cancel its debt! Continued on page 67 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 20, No. 5 SocialistViewpointSOCIALIST VIEWPOINT September/October 2020 Vol. 20, No. 5 www.socialistviewpoint.org CONTENTS email: [email protected] (415) 824-8730 U.S. and World Politics Police Don’t Belong in the Labor Movement .......42 Vote Socialist in 2020 ............................. 2 By Kim Kelly Symptoms of Terminal Capitalism ................. 4 Secret Police Deployed in Portland ................44 By Bonnie Weinstein By Jake Johnson Year of the Plague ................................ 6 Military’s Role in Civil Unrest ....................46 By Chris Kinder By Jeff Paterson Another Hiroshima is Coming ....................10 Dictatorship of (White) Capital ...................47 By John Pilger By Glen Ford The Attack on Science ............................14 Immigrants are Dying in Detention ...............49 By Dr. Nayvin Gordon By Bianca Sierra Wolff and Lisa Knox When America Bombed Itself.....................17 UK Compensation to Slave Traders................50 By Joshua Wheeler By Jack Peat Huge New Military Budget .......................19 Palestinian Day of Rage ..........................50 By Glen Greenwald By Jessica Corbett Inhumane at Any Time...........................21 How Israel Shaped U.S. Policing ..................52 By Eoin Higgins By Sheren Khalel The Two-Headed Hydra..........................22 By Behrooz Ghamari Tabrizi Environment The Disproportionate Blues ......................25 Microplastics Falling from the Sky ................56 By Kevin Cooper By Scott Hershberger Remaking the World .............................27 By Amna A. Akbar Incarceration Nation U.S. Prisons: Mass Releases Demanded!............57 “All Evictions are Violent”........................29 By Chris Kinder By Emma Ockerman Racism and Murder Against Black Lives ...........58 Cell Phones, Not Guns in Today’s Protest Movement..30 By Shakaboona By Tina Jenkins-Bell No Slavery! No Exceptions! .......................61 Suicide or Lynching? .............................32 By Shaka Shakur By Ezra Brain Punished for Being Sick at San Quentin............62 “Please Forgive Me”..............................34 By Juan Moreno Haines By Abby Zimet The Perils of Reform .............................63 Breonna Taylor: Victim of Gentrification ..........35 By Mumia Abu-Jamal By Phillip M. Bailey and Tessa Duvall Children of the Corn .............................64 Portland Mom Speaks Out! .......................37 By Mumia Abu-Jamal Statement by Maureen Healy America: Rogue Nation?..........................64 Freedom or Freedom of Assembly? ................38 By Mumia Abu-Jamal By Daniel Villarreal Portland Dads with Leaf Blowers..................39 .........................65 By Chris Walker Letters to the Editors Terror Tactics in Portland ........................40 Eight Minutes Forty-Six Seconds ..................67 By Kenn Orphan By Rickie Richburg