$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 JULY/AUGUST 2016 VOL. 16 NO. 4 When Janis Joplin sang, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose,” she spoke perhaps unconsciously for millions of America’s victims in faraway places. Read Get Ready for Another World War on page 17. On the Front Cover: s Capitalism is destroying the planet. Read Replanting Paradise on page 2. French citizens take to the streets to stand up against the One Percent’s relentless attacks on living standards. Read French Stand Up on page 51. Replanting Paradise - Page 2 Let Them Drown, The Violence of Othering in a Warming World - Page 4 Once More on the European Union - Page 32 Supporting the “lesser evil,” because we can’t live with a Trump victory, is a tacit admission that the status quo is tolerable. Read Leap Manifesto - Page 49 Trumpophobia on page 19. Vol. 16, No. 4 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT BC Muhammad Ali Fighter for Palestine By Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network On the occasion of the passing of leg- United States, and as a force against “U.S. my people is here. I will not disgrace endary athlete and struggler for justice, imperialism worldwide. He wrote poetry my religion, my people or myself by Muhammad Ali, Samidoun Palestinian in tribute to the Black leaders of the Attica becoming a tool to enslave those Prisoner Solidarity Network joins mil- prison uprising. At the height of his who are fighting for their own jus- lions around the world in remembering career, Muhammad Ali refused to fight in tice, freedom and equality. Ali’s historic legacy of commitment to the Vietnam War in 1967, was sentenced “If I thought the war was going to the liberation of oppressed peoples and to five years in prison and stripped of his bring freedom and equality to 22 mil- his willingness to sacrifice in order to title. When asked about his refusal while lion of my people they wouldn’t have adhere to those principles. participating in a Louisville housing jus- to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my tice struggle, Ali said: In 1985, Ali traveled to Israel in an beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? attempt to secure the release of Lebanese “Why should they ask me to put on We’ve been in jail for 400 years.” and Palestinian prisoners imprisoned a uniform and go 10,000 miles from in occupied Southern Lebanon. This home and drop bombs and bullets on Dave Zirin writes, “Ali’s refusal to fight followed on his visits to Palestinian Brown people in Vietnam while so- in Vietnam was front-page news all over refugee camps in 1974, when he called Negro people in Louisville are the world. In Guyana there was a picket of declared in Beirut that, “the United treated like dogs and denied simple support in front of the U.S. embassy. In States is the stronghold of Zionism and human rights? No I’m not going Karachi, young Pakistanis fasted. And imperialism.” While visiting Palestinian 10,000 miles from home to help mur- there was a mass demonstration in refugee camps in South Lebanon, he der and burn another poor nation Cairo.” While Ali’s later de-politicization simply to continue the domination of declared, “In my name and the name of and cooperation with the U.S. govern- white slave masters of the darker peo- all Muslims in America, I declare sup- ment speak to a more complex legacy, the ple the world over. This is the day national and international resonance of port for the Palestinian struggle to lib- when such evils must come to an end. erate their homeland and oust the his resistance to imperialism in the 1960s Zionist invaders.” “I have been warned that to take and 1970s at the height of his athletic such a stand would cost me millions greatness echoed around the world. Ali championed the Black liberation of dollars. But I have said it once and struggle on multiple fronts; within the I will say it again. The real enemy of Ali’s history of struggle illustrates the lengthy and deep history of joint struggle and mutual solidarity among oppressed peoples and national libera- tion movements, and that Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon—and the Black Liberation Movement—were centers and incubators not only for the Palestinian revolution and Black strug- gle, but revolutionary movements the world over. We recall Ali’s role in rep- resenting a deep and collective legacy of resistance to imperialism, to anti- Black racism, and to Zionism, and of the struggle to free prisoners—and peoples—from the jails these systems of oppression create. —Samidoun, June 5, 2016 http://samidoun.net/2016/06/ remembering-muhammad-ali-i- declare-support-for-the-palestinian- struggle-to-liberate-their-homeland/ FC SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT Vol. 16, No. 4 SocialistViewpoint July/August 2016 Vol. 16, No. 4 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT www.socialistviewpoint.org CONTENTS email: [email protected] (415) 824-8730 Environment Fidel Castro and Cuba............................40 Replanting Paradise............................... 2 By Solomon Comissiong By Bonnie Weinstein Belgium.........................................42 Let Them Drown ................................. 4 By Erik Demeester By Naomi Klein Imperialism’s Junior Partners ....................44 No Water For You!...............................10 By Patrick Bond By Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo Brazil ..........................................47 America’s Next Flint .............................12 By Glen Ford By Stuart Smith Peña Nieto’s Murderous Regime ..................48 Great Canada Fire ...............................13 By Jorge Martin By Paul Street Leap Manifesto ..................................49 French Stand Up.................................51 U.S. Politics and the Economy By Richard Greeman Get Ready for Another World War ................17 By John Pilger Incarceration Nation Trumpophobia ..................................19 Times May Have Changed, But The Truth Hasn’t...54 By Robert Meeropol By Kevin Cooper Orlando Massacre ...............................20 Censorship in U.S. Prisons .......................54 By Chelsea E. Manning By Jaan Laaman Freddie Gray Case ...............................21 Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Fourth of July ................55 By Glen Ford By Chris Hedges Detroit Teacher’s Strike ..........................22 Wrongful Convictions ...........................57 By Glen Ford By Lorenzo Johnson More Than a Few Rogue Cops ....................23 Political Prisoner Reverend Pinkney ..............58 By Mary Anne Henderson and Brian Platt By Glen Ford Guns in America ................................27 Child Lifers .....................................59 By Steven Katsineris By Shakaboona “Disposable” Americans .........................30 September 9th Strike.............................60 By Paul Buchheit By Margaret Kimberley Catastrophe Unmasked ..........................31 Security Threat Group “Kickouts” ................61 By Nayvin Gordon, M.D. By Jose Villarreal International Out of Order ....................................64 Once More on the European Union................32 By Wilbert Saunders, Jazz the Poet By Tony McKenna Book Reviews Britain: Heads They Win, Tails We Lose ...........37 Criminal Injustice ...............................65 Editorial By Socialist Appeal, Britain By Chris Hedges Brexit...........................................38 Lies Military Recruiters Tell ......................68 By Mumia Abu-Jamal By Ron Jacobs South Africa’s Gold Miners .......................39 By Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo Just In From Facebook ........................70 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. 16, 16,3, No.No. 244 SOCIALIST VIEWPOINT 1 Environment ENVIRONMENT Replanting Paradise A socialist revolution is the only solution By Bonnie Weinstein Naomi Klein delivered this year’s and water can be sacrificed to open- ed in this issue of Socialist Viewpoint. Edward Said lecture in London on May pit mining and oil spills.” As in Klein’s piece, it takes on the 5, 2016 titled “Let Them Drown: The And she does blame capitalism: “extractive economy.” Violence of Othering in a Warming “These ways of explaining our It starts from the premise that: World” reprinted in this issue of current circumstances have a very “Deepening poverty and inequal- Socialist Viewpoint. specific, if unspoken meaning: that ity are a scar on the country’s pres- It accurately depicts the connection humans are a single type, that ent. And Canada’s record on climate between climate catastrophe, war and human nature can be essentialized change is a crime against humanity’s oppression, and blames the profit- to the traits that created this crisis. future. In this way, the systems that certain driven capitalist system itself. “These facts are all the more jar- humans created, and other humans ring because they depart so dramati- But it does not promote the only powerfully resisted, are completely cally from our stated values: respect alternative, the overthrow of capitalism let off the