$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 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021 VOL. 21 NO. 1 June 2, 2020: Black Lives Matter Protest at Clifton City Hall - Clifton, NJ, (Shutterstock)Read Colin Kaepernick: Free Mumia on page 58. On the Front Cover: s June 07 2020: Peaceful protest against racism and recent U.S. police brutality—Palma de Mallorca, Spain (Shutter- stock). Read Finding the Road to Utopia on page 2. Finding the Road to Utopia - Page 4 - Page 6 (Art by Nick Roney) Read Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop on page The ABCs of Dialectics Read Liberalism and Fascism: Partners in Crime on page 16. 29. Year of the Plague: Socialism or Barbarism - Page 12 « « « Attention Prison Mail Room: « « « Colin Kaepernick: Free Mumia - Page 58 Prisoners retain their free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That means you cannot 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.” Money for War U.S. arms sales soar and bipartisan militarism thrives amid COVID-19 pandemic By Kenny Stancil The United States sold more than the polls on January 5 to avenge his loss The U.S. “…has by far the biggest $175 billion in military equipment to in the “rigged” presidential contest. military budget on the planet, spending foreign governments in the fiscal year “At stake in this election is control more than the next ten countries com- that ended September 30, Pentagon and of the U.S. Senate and that really means bined,” Lazare continued. “There is no State Department officials announced control of this country,” the president indication that U.S. lawmakers plan to Friday—a 2.8 percent increase com- said. “The voters of Georgia will deter- reverse this trend any time soon: For six pared to 2019, when weapons exports mine which party runs every commit- consecutive years the military budget has totaled just over $170 billion. tee, writes every piece of legislation, either increased or stayed roughly the The latest figures on arms transfers controls every single taxpayer dollar.” same, taking inflation into account. As were released one day before President the National Priorities Project pointed out in June, the military budget in 2019 Donald Trump said that “military accounted for 53 percent of the federal offense...is the most important thing a “That we can find the discretionary budget.” president can do,” during his meander- money for war but not ing speech at the Republican Party’s for coronavirus relief While millions of the country’s Saturday night rally on behalf of Senators working-class households—battered by Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue of exposes the moral rot the Covid-19 pandemic and corre- Georgia who are facing Democratic can- at the center of sponding economic crisis—await a new didates Raphael Warnock and Jon U.S. politics...” relief package that ameliorates wide- Ossoff, respectively, in runoff elections spread hardship, “Congress had no next month that will determine which problem passing legislation to continue party controls the U.S. Senate. Trump’s rationale for backing U.S. military violence,” Lazare added. Loeffler and Perdue came in the form of Although he spent most of the eve- She pointed out that the Senate ver- a warning: “If the radical Democrats...get ning repeating unsubstantiated claims sion of the National Defense power, they will...ram through the most of voter fraud in the November elec- Authorization Act (NDAA) passed on extreme left-wing agenda ever conceived tion and baselessly asserting that July 23 in a vote of 86–14, while the while at the same time, destroying our Democrats will “cheat” again, Trump House version was approved on July 21 military through a lack of funding.” on Saturday still encouraged rallygoers by a margin of 295–125. The NDAA to support the two GOP lawmakers at Whereas Trump portrayed congressio- was subsequently approved last week nal Democrats as by both chambers of Congress. eager to pursue Lazare wrote that while it is “entire- “draconian mili- ly routine at this point, it’s useful to tary cuts,” jour- highlight on the eve of yet another nalist Sarah massive Pentagon handout how the Lazare argued last budget for war could instead go toward week that “the life-preserving social goods.” annual approval “That we can find the money for of the gargantuan war but not for coronavirus relief U.S. military bud- exposes the moral rot at the center of get,” which she U.S. politics, a rot that must be dug out called “one of the and expunged if we are to get through most reliable ritu- this crisis,” she added. als in Congress... is so ordinary and —Common Dreams, December 6, 2020 overwhelmingly https://www.commondreams.org/ bipartisan, it’s news/2020/12/06/money-war-us-arms- U.S. Air Force F-16 Thunderbirds fly in formation at the Thunderbirds barely considered sales-soar-and-bipartisan-militarism- Airshow in Malaysian Air Force Base on October 3, 2009 in Subang, Malaysia. (Shutterstock) newsworthy.” thrives-amid-covid-19 2 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 21, No. 1 SocialistViewpoint January/February 2021 Vol. 21, No. 1 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT www.socialistviewpoint.org CONTENTS email: [email protected] (415) 824-8730 U.S. and World Politics Incarceration Nation Money for War ................................... 2 Incarcerated Women Punished for Their Trauma ..42 By Kenny Stancil By Elizabeth Hawes Finding the Road to Utopia ........................ 4 Julian Assange’s Farcical Hearing .................46 By Bonnie Weinstein By Joshua Cho The ABCs of Dialectics ............................ 6 New Push to Free Leonard Peltier .................48 By John Blackburn By Nate Rau Year of the Plague: Socialism or Barbarism?........12 Torment in Indiana Prisons ......................51 By Chris Kinder By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson Billionaire Bonanza Continues ...................15 Gas Abuses in Indiana Prisons ....................53 By Brett Wilkins By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson The Untold Story of Jerod Fralerson...............55 Liberalism and Fascism: Partners in Crime.........16 By Peter Kamau Mukuria By Gabriel Rockhill COVID-19 in Jails and Prisons....................56 Jim Crow Joe ....................................20 By Ella Fassler By Jack Delaney Colin Kaepernick: Free Mumia! ...................58 Biden, the Emcee at the Billionaires’ Ball...........24 By Glen Ford A New Development in the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal ..........................59 Socialists Shouldn’t Vote for the “Lesser Evil” ......26 By Robert Belano “Accelerate Our Efforts” to Free Mumia ...........60 By Angela Davis Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop..............29 By Officer A. Cab You Cannot Decarcerate by Using Tools of Incarceration .........................62 U.S. Government has Blood of Millions on its Hands ..36 Maresi Starzmann Interviews Mumia Abu-Jamal By Dr. Nayvin Gordon COVID Economy: A Deliberate Disaster . 37 Book Review By Bruce Lesnick Thoughts on Socialism ...........................64 By Comrade Pitt Their “Global Security” is Fueling Our Revolt! .....39 By the Etincelle fraction of the New Anti-Capitalist Party Letter to the Editors . 65 Israeli Racism in Palestine ........................40 MOVE Family Says: Free Mumia! .................67 By Ramzy Baroud MOVE family Statement Socialist Viewpoint (ISSN 1535-5438) is published bi-monthly by the Socialist Viewpoint Publishing Association, 60 29th Street, #429, San Francisco, CA 94110. Rates: For one year (6 issues): Introductory rate in the U.S. $20.00; Regular rate in the U.S. $30.00; Bargain rate: $35.00 for two years; All other countries $50.00 (Money orders, checks, etc., should be in U.S. dollars.) Periodicals Postage Paid at San Francisco, California. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Socialist Viewpoint, 60 29th Street, #429, San Francisco, CA 94110 Vol.Vol.Vol. 21, 21,3, No.No. 121 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 3 U.S. and World Politics U.S. AND WORLD POLITICS Finding the Road to Utopia Through the death throes of capitalism By Bonnie Weinstein To say the whole world is in crisis is have the power to stop this downward- In other words, we, the working not an exaggeration, it is a statement of spiral back into barbarism or extinc- class, paid lock, stock and barrel for the fact. Not only are we on the verge of a tion. We have the power to create a development of that vaccine—and all world-ending environmental crisis, we paradise on earth for everyone if we the others coming down the line. And are in a worldwide pandemic under a unite together to create a socialist Moderna, and all the other pharma- system of vast economic and social world of equality and justice for all. ceutical corporations which stand to inequality. Working people across the earn billions from the sale of the vac- Obscene wealth globe are being squeezed by the same cines, pay nothing! Then they will sell capitalist austerity program that is being According to a November 18, 2020 those vaccines back to the government carried out in every country, except for article from Common Dreams by Brett who will pay for the so-called “free vac- Cuba, whose austerity is forced upon Wilkins titled, “Billionaire Bonanza cines” with our tax dollars.