Showing posts with label workers goverment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workers goverment. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

From SocialistAlternative.org -Capitalism, Social Movements and Police Repression

Published by SocialistAlternative.org Read online at: www.SocialistAlternative.org/news/article20.php?id=1721

Capitalism, Social Movements and Police Repression

Oct 28, 2011
Ted Virdone

On September 24 an #OccupyWallStreet protester videotaped a NYPD officer macing peaceful protesters in the face for no apparent reason.

The video shows several women standing calmly as the police unroll and surround them with a bright orange net. Once the women are corralled, a white-shirted police officer walks up to the group and sprays them all in the face with pepper spray. He then walks away.


Over the next couple days, over a million people watched that video on YouTube as the Occupy Wall Street movement spread to hundreds of cities around the world. Far from fearful, protesters responded with renewed vigor, joining the anti-corporate protests in the thousands.


The mace-wielding maniac was identified as NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, who, if former incidents of police brutality are any indication, will receive no consequence.


A Few Bad Apples?


On the other side of the country at the Occupy Wall Street solidarity protest in Seattle, Seattle Police Department officers spent the nights tearing down tents and even arresting protesters who attempted to shelter themselves under umbrellas. One protester called 911 on himself so that he could be taken to the hospital to be treated for hypothermia.


During the day, however, the police moved through the crowd of protesters with friendly smiles saying, “We are not interested in taking away anyone’s freedom of speech.” There was even a debate at one General Assembly meeting on whether to include the police in the General Assembly meetings.


However, the actions of Deputy Inspector Bologna were not the isolated incident of one bad apple. He maced women who were already being corralled by other members of the NYPD. Other videos of the NY protests show one protester punched in the face by a different officer and another protester getting his leg run over by a police motorcycle.


Acts of police violence around the country are systematically covered up, and rarely does any officer receive any meaningful consequence. This is because police brutality can serve a purpose for the ruling class and the corporate elite. JP Morgan Chase has gone so far as to donate $4.6 million to the NY City Police Foundation (jpmorganchase.com).


Violence is Political


Police violence has been used around the world and throughout history to keep oppressed people fearful and subservient. From the revolution that swept northern Africa last spring, to the Civil Rights Movement to the current Occupy Wall Street movement, protesters have had to face intimidation tactics. Protesters were killed in Egypt, but they were still able to overthrow the dictator.


In the United States, police intimidation is far subtler, but the principal of repression remains the same. In New York, over 700 Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested in just one mass arrest. And the FBI is still calling activists from the antiwar movement before a grand jury.


Compare this to the pro-corporate Tea Party protests. These right-wing demonstrations never see police harassment, even when they bring firearms and live ammunition. The police do not assault these right-wing demonstrations because they are not a threat to big business.


Racial Profiling


For most people of color, police brutality is nothing new. 400,000 Latin American immigrants were rounded up and forcibly deported in the last year alone. African Americans face constant police harassment, leaving one in ten African-American males in prison at any given time.


Police brutality against oppressed minorities again serves a political purpose for the ruling class; it keeps these doubly exploited sections of the working class desperate for even the worst-paying jobs and afraid to revolt.


A Movement Without Fear


Sometimes, however, police violence cannot dispel a movement and, instead, enrages broader sections of workers, young people and the oppressed. When the NYPD pepper sprayed peaceful protesters in the face, new people joined the protests around the country.


At this time, the more violence the ruling class is willing to resort to, the more resolved workers and young people are to overthrow them. The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt are just two examples of this courage.


The Limits to Repression


Throughout history, every ruling elite has used the laws of the land and their police to try to maintain their power. This means that sometimes the oppressed 99% of society have to break those laws.


This decision shouldn’t be taken lightly or in an individualized manner. Mass civil disobedience can demonstrate that certain laws are corrupt. This is especially true when the movement finds support among large numbers of people, as the Occupy Wall Street movement has. In this situation, mass support can often hold the hand of the police, who fear that further repression could further enflame an already erupting movement. Resting on broad public support, the Occupy Wall Street movement has defied bans on tents and protests – and in this way managed to spread its message.


Also, when thousands of people break these undemocratic laws the police have found it far more difficult to intervene. Mass movements have repeatedly overthrown despotic leaders and regimes when soldiers broke from a regime they despised and found a common interest with workers and youth in the streets. As long as capitalism remains intact, however, the ruling 1% will look to find a way to use police violence to maintain its interests.

From The "Occupy4Jobs" Website-JOBS OR INCOME NOW! IT'S TIME TO FIGHT BACK!

OCCUPY4JOBS!

JOBS OR INCOME NOW! IT'S TIME TO FIGHT BACK!

LET'S DEMAND A WPA STYLE - 30 MILLION JOB -

PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAM - PAYING UNION WAGES FOR

ALL UNEMPLOYED WORKERS REGARDLESS
OF IMMIGRATION STATUS!

NO CUTS TO SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE OR MEDICAID!

AFFORDABLE FOOD, HOUSING, HEALTHCARE &
EDUCATION IS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT!

Come to a planning meeting for the Boston Chapter of the Occupy4Jobs Network. The main goal of Occupy4Jobs is to demand a massive WPA style Public Works Program big enough to provide jobs at union wages for the 30 million unemployed and under employed workers in this country. Occupy Wall Street has opened up the space for larger sections of the poor and the working class - including women, people of color, LGBT people, youth, immigrants and seniors to fight Wall Street and its decaying profits-before-people economic system.

Join Us!

MONDAY DECEMBER 19
6PM

at the Boston School Bus Drivers Union, USWA Local 8751 25 Colgate Road, Roslindale, MA
617-524-7073

Initial Endorsers: Frantz Mendez, President, USW Local 8751 Boston School Bus Union; Chris Silvera, Secretary Treasurer IBT local 808, Million Worker March Movement, Cynthia Mckinney, International Anti-War Activist, 2008 Presidential Candidate, The Occupy Wall Street Jobless Working Group -NYC Unemployed Council Rhode Island, Donna Dewitt, President South Carolina AFL-CIO*/or Id only Charles Jenkins, TWU Local 100, VP Coalition Of Black Trade Unionist NY, Larry Adams, VP Peoples Organization for Progress, Former President, Mail Handlers Local 300, Teresa Gutierrez, Co-coordinator May 1 Coalition for Immigrant and Workers Rights, Deputy General-Sec. International Association of Migrants, Bernadette Ellorin, Chair BAYAN-USA; Job Is A Right Campaign, Baltimore; Father Luis Barrios, Co-Executive Dir. Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization; Rev. CD Witherspoon, Pres., Baltimore Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Pam Africa, MOVE Organization, Concerned Friends & Family of Mumia Abu- Jamal; Nellie Bailey, Harlem Tenants Council & Occupy Harlem; Bishop Filipe Teixeira, OFSJC, Diocese of St Francis of Assisi, CCA, Moratorium Now! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures Evictions and Utility Shutoffs, MECAWI, Michigan Emergency Committee against War and Injustice, Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Committee and Women's Fightback Network (WFN).
Occupy4jobs Boston Qccupy4iobsBoston@gmail.com Occupy4Jobs.org

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The Latest From The "Jobs Not Cuts" Website-National Week Of Actions-November 16-23 -In Boston November 19th At The Occupy Boston Site (Dewey Square)12PM-3PM

NATIONAL WEEK OF ACTIONS November 16-23

JOIN THE RALLY AND PROTEST:

JOBS NOT CUTS

In Boston November 19th At The Occupy Boston Site (Dewey Square)12PM-3PM And Then We'll March on Kerry's Office

WE DEMAND:

Hands off Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid! No cuts to education and social services!

We need jobs, not cuts! Fund a federal public works program to create millions of jobs for the millions unemployed.

Make Big Business Pay! For major tax hikes on the super-rich and corporations!

End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan! Slash Pentagon spending!

For the impressive growing list of endorsers check out
www.jobsnotcutsprotest.org
End the Dictatorship of Wall Street!

A Socialist Strategy to Build the Movement


All around the world attention has been drawn to the occupation of Wall Street. The protests have captured the imagination of thousands and inspired new occupations which are spreading across the U.S.

The police crackdown in New York, intended to intimidate this movement, completely failed to break our spirit. Now we are more determined than ever to fight. Inspired by the revolutionary upheavals in Egypt and across North Africa, as well as the mass youth occupations in Spain and Greece, protesters have taken to the streets of New York and cities across the U.S. to stand up to the domination of Wall Street and Big Business over our lives.

Below the surface there is deep anger in U.S. society which only seemed to be getting a twisted expression in the right-wing lunacies of the Tea Party. But the mass movement in Wisconsin this spring, and now the occupation of Wall Street provide a glimpse of the enormous potential to turn that anger into a progressive social movement.

How can we take the struggle forward?

Many are occupying to "liberate space" in order to build a new, more equal and just community, hoping it will inspire others to follow. While the Wall Street occupation is an example of a community based on democracy, cooperation and solidarity, unfortunately the occupation alone will not be enough to build a mass movement capable of changing society.

Many have alluded to Egypt saying that a growing occupation with one basic de¬mand is how the dictator was overthrown. But in fact, the situation was more complicated than that. In the week before Egypt's dictator Mubarak was ousted, the working class entered the scene with decisive strike action paralyzing key parts of the economy.

The occupations in Spain and Greece have been much bigger than Wall Street, but they too need the more powerful forces of the working class to move into action in order to win. In Wisconsin, a huge occupation of the Capitol lasted for over 3 weeks and was at the center of mass demonstrations of the workers and youth. They could have won if that movement had moved toward a general strike of public sector workers to shut the state economy down.

Instead the Wisconsin battle was consciously derailed by the Democratic Party and the top union leadership by diverting the mass movement into a campaign to recall the Republicans from power in order to elect Democrats in their place. However, the Democrats, like the Republicans, are a party of Wall Street and Big Business, and they offer no solutions. We need an independent struggle which seeks to draw in the widest layers of workers and youth. United we have the power to withdraw our labor, stop "business as usual," and hit the banks, corporations and ruling elite where it counts.

We need to build up the confidence to take such bold measures. That's why Occupy Wall Street needs to call for mass demonstrations around key demands that address the burning issues that working people and youth face like jobs, education, healthcare and so on.

System Change

Not only the economy but society as a whole is in a deep crisis. Global capitalism is a failed system that cannot overcome the problems of growing inequality, poverty, mass unemployment, environmental destruction, and war which it creates. The movement has to challenge Wall Street and both parties of big business. We must stand up to their policies where they try to solve their economic crisis on our backs in order to maintain a system which only benefits the elite in the first place.

But we must also provide a clear alternative. We need to fundamentally trans¬form society to one not based on profit but instead on meeting everyone's basic human needs. The only real alternative to corporate greed and capitalism is democratic socialism where the economy, workplaces, and society as a whole are democratically run by and for the vast majority of people.

Join Socialist Alternative! We say:

Spread the occupations across the U.S. and into schools and communities. For systematic, mass campaigning to mobilize the widest layer of workers, young people and labor unions into struggle.

•Organize weekend mass demonstrations that call for: No cuts
to social services, A massive jobs creation program, Major tax
hikes on the super-rich and big business, End the wars, Slash
the military budget, and Defend union and democratic rights.

•Build up to the November 16-23 National Week of Action to combat the
Congressional Super Committee plan for $1.5 trillion in cuts to social
services. We demand jobs not cuts!

•Prepare to run independent anti-corporate, working-class candidates in
2012 to challenge the policies of the two parties of Wall Street as a first
step towards forming a new party of the 99%, a mass workers' party.

End the dictatorship of Wall Street! Bring the big banks that dominate the U.S. economy into public ownership and run them under the democratic management of elected representatives of their workers and the public. Compensation to be paid on the basis of proven need to small investors, not millionaires.

Build the movement to replace the rotten system of capitalism with democratic socialism and create a new society based on human need.
*****
Markin comment:

Some of the demands stated are supportable although the method of achieving them seems unclear since the march is on Congressional Committee of 12 member Senator John "War" (Iraq and Afghanistan support) Kerry's office. Do the sponsors really still expect that parliamentary action (nudging the Congress to do the right thing, or else) is the way forward after last summer's debacle? Christ, let's learn something right now. You only get what you fight for-and are ready to take. We created the wealth-let's take it back! Labor and the oppressed must rule!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

The Latest From The "Jobs Not Cuts" Website-National Week Of Actions-November 16-23 -In Boston November 17th At The Boston Common

NATIONAL WEEK OF ACTIONS November 16-23

JOIN THE RALLY AND PROTEST:

JOBS NOT CUTS

Thursday Nov. 17th @ 4pm-6pm Bandstand, Boston Common Near Park St. T station and Then We'll March on Kerry's Office

WE DEMAND:

Hands off Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid! No cuts to education and social services!

We need jobs, not cuts! Fund a federal public works program to create millions of jobs for the millions unemployed.

Make Big Business Pay! For major tax hikes on the super-rich and corporations!

End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan! Slash Pentagon spending!

For the impressive growing list of endorsers check out
www.jobsnotcutsprotest.org

End the Dictatorship of Wall Street!

A Socialist Strategy to Build the Movement


All around the world attention has been drawn to the occupation of Wall Street. The protests have captured the imagina¬tion of thousands and inspired new occupations which are spreading across the U.S.

The police crackdown in New York, in¬tended to intimidate this movement, completely failed to break our spirit. Now we are more determined than ever to fight. Inspired by the revolutionary upheavals in Egypt and across North Africa, as well as the mass youth occupations in Spain and Greece, protesters have taken to the streets of New York and cities across the U.S. to stand up to the domination of Wall Street and Big Business over our lives.

Below the surface there is deep anger in U.S. society which only seemed to be getting a twisted expression in the right-wing lunacies of the Tea Party. But the mass movement in Wisconsin this spring, and now the occupation of Wall Street provide a glimpse of the enormous potential to turn that anger into a progressive social movement.

How can we take the struggle forward?

Many are occupying to "liberate space" in order to build a new, more equal and just community, hoping it will inspire others to follow. While the Wall Street occupation is an example of a community based on democracy, cooperation and solidarity, unfortunately the occupation alone will not be enough to build a mass movement capable of changing society.

Many have alluded to Egypt saying that a growing occupation with one basic de¬mand is how the dictator was overthrown. But in fact, the situation was more complicated than that. In the week before Egypt's dictator Mubarak was ousted, the working class entered the scene with decisive strike action paralyzing key parts of the economy.

The occupations in Spain and Greece have been much bigger than Wall Street, but they too need the more powerful forces of the working class to move into action in order to win. In Wisconsin, a huge occupation of the Capitol lasted for over 3 weeks and was at the center of mass demonstrations of the workers and youth. They could have won if that movement had moved toward a general strike of public sector workers to shut the state economy down.

Instead the Wisconsin battle was consciously derailed by the Democratic Party and the top union leadership by diverting the mass movement into a campaign to recall the Republicans from power in order to elect Democrats in their place. However, the Democrats, like the Republicans, are a party of Wall Street and Big Business, and they offer no solutions. We need an independent struggle which seeks to draw in the widest layers of workers and youth. United we have the power to withdraw our labor, stop "business as usual," and hit the banks, corporations and ruling elite where it counts.

We need to build up the confidence to take such bold measures. That's why Occupy Wall Street needs to call for mass demonstrations around key demands that address the burning issues that working people and youth face like jobs, education, healthcare and so on.

System Change

Not only the economy but society as a whole is in a deep crisis. Global capitalism is a failed system that cannot overcome the problems of growing inequality, poverty, mass unemployment, environmental destruction, and war which it creates. The movement has to challenge Wall Street and both parties of big business. We must stand up to their policies where they try to solve their economic crisis on our backs in order to maintain a system which only benefits the elite in the first place.

But we must also provide a clear alternative. We need to fundamentally trans¬form society to one not based on profit but instead on meeting everyone's basic human needs. The only real alternative to corporate greed and capitalism is democratic socialism where the economy, workplaces, and society as a whole are democratically run by and for the vast majority of people.

Join Socialist Alternative! We say:

Spread the occupations across the U.S. and into schools and communities. For systematic, mass campaigning to mobilize the widest layer of workers, young people and labor unions into struggle.

•Organize weekend mass demonstrations that call for: No cuts
to social services, A massive jobs creation program, Major tax
hikes on the super-rich and big business, End the wars, Slash
the military budget, and Defend union and democratic rights.

•Build up to the November 16-23 National Week of Action to combat the
Congressional Super Committee plan for $1.5 trillion in cuts to social
services. We demand jobs not cuts!

•Prepare to run independent anti-corporate, working-class candidates in
2012 to challenge the policies of the two parties of Wall Street as a first
step towards forming a new party of the 99%, a mass workers' party.

End the dictatorship of Wall Street! Bring the big banks that dominate the U.S. economy into public ownership and run them under the democratic management of elected representatives of their workers and the public. Compensation to be paid on the basis of proven need to small investors, not millionaires.

Build the movement to replace the rotten system of capitalism with democratic socialism and create a new society based on human need.
*****
Markin comment:

Some of the demands stated are supportable although the method of achieving them seems unclear since the march is on Congressional Committee of 12 member Senator John "War" (Iraq and Afghanistan support) Kerry's office. Do the sponsors really still expect that parliamentary action (nudging the Congress to do the right thing, or else) is the way forward after last summer's debacle? Christ, let's learn something right now. You only get what you fight for-and are ready to take. We created the wealth-let's take it back! Labor and the oppressed must rule!

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

The Latest From The "Jobs Not Cuts" Website-National Week Of Actions-November 16-23 -In Boston November 17th At The Boston Common

NATIONAL WEEK OF ACTIONS November 16-23

JOIN THE RALLY AND PROTEST:

JOBS NOT CUTS

Thursday Nov. 17th @ 4pm-6pm Bandstand, Boston Common Near Park St. T station and Then We'll March on Kerry's Office

WE DEMAND:

Hands off Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid! No cuts to education and social services!

We need jobs, not cuts! Fund a federal public works program to create millions of jobs for the millions unemployed.

Make Big Business Pay! For major tax hikes on the super-rich and corporations!

End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan! Slash Pentagon spending!

For the impressive growing list of endorsers check out
www.jobsnotcutsprotest.org
*******
End the Dictatorship of Wall Street!

A Socialist Strategy to Build the Movement


All around the world attention has been drawn to the occupation of Wall Street. The protests have captured the imagina¬tion of thousands and inspired new occupations which are spreading across the U.S.

The police crackdown in New York, in¬tended to intimidate this movement, completely failed to break our spirit. Now we are more determined than ever to fight. Inspired by the revolutionary upheavals in Egypt and across North Africa, as well as the mass youth occupations in Spain and Greece, protesters have taken to the streets of New York and cities across the U.S. to stand up to the domination of Wall Street and Big Business over our lives.

Below the surface there is deep anger in U.S. society which only seemed to be getting a twisted expression in the right-wing lunacies of the Tea Party. But the mass movement in Wisconsin this spring, and now the occupation of Wall Street provide a glimpse of the enormous potential to turn that anger into a progressive social movement.

How can we take the struggle forward?

Many are occupying to "liberate space" in order to build a new, more equal and just community, hoping it will inspire others to follow. While the Wall Street occupation is an example of a community based on democracy, cooperation and solidarity, unfortunately the occupation alone will not be enough to build a mass movement capable of changing society.

Many have alluded to Egypt saying that a growing occupation with one basic de¬mand is how the dictator was overthrown. But in fact, the situation was more complicated than that. In the week before Egypt's dictator Mubarak was ousted, the working class entered the scene with decisive strike action paralyzing key parts of the economy.

The occupations in Spain and Greece have been much bigger than Wall Street, but they too need the more powerful forces of the working class to move into action in order to win. In Wisconsin, a huge occupation of the Capitol lasted for over 3 weeks and was at the center of mass demonstrations of the workers and youth. They could have won if that movement had moved toward a general strike of public sector workers to shut the state economy down.

Instead the Wisconsin battle was consciously derailed by the Democratic Party and the top union leadership by diverting the mass movement into a campaign to recall the Republicans from power in order to elect Democrats in their place. However, the Democrats, like the Republicans, are a party of Wall Street and Big Business, and they offer no solutions. We need an independent struggle which seeks to draw in the widest layers of workers and youth. United we have the power to withdraw our labor, stop "business as usual," and hit the banks, corporations and ruling elite where it counts.

We need to build up the confidence to take such bold measures. That's why Occupy Wall Street needs to call for mass demonstrations around key demands that address the burning issues that working people and youth face like jobs, education, healthcare and so on.

System Change

Not only the economy but society as a whole is in a deep crisis. Global capitalism is a failed system that cannot overcome the problems of growing inequality, poverty, mass unemployment, environmental destruction, and war which it creates. The movement has to challenge Wall Street and both parties of big business. We must stand up to their policies where they try to solve their economic crisis on our backs in order to maintain a system which only benefits the elite in the first place.

But we must also provide a clear alternative. We need to fundamentally trans¬form society to one not based on profit but instead on meeting everyone's basic human needs. The only real alternative to corporate greed and capitalism is democratic socialism where the economy, workplaces, and society as a whole are democratically run by and for the vast majority of people.

Join Socialist Alternative! We say:

Spread the occupations across the U.S. and into schools and communities. For systematic, mass campaigning to mobilize the widest layer of workers, young people and labor unions into struggle.

•Organize weekend mass demonstrations that call for: No cuts
to social services, A massive jobs creation program, Major tax
hikes on the super-rich and big business, End the wars, Slash
the military budget, and Defend union and democratic rights.

•Build up to the November 16-23 National Week of Action to combat the
Congressional Super Committee plan for $1.5 trillion in cuts to social
services. We demand jobs not cuts!

•Prepare to run independent anti-corporate, working-class candidates in
2012 to challenge the policies of the two parties of Wall Street as a first
step towards forming a new party of the 99%, a mass workers' party.

End the dictatorship of Wall Street! Bring the big banks that dominate the U.S. economy into public ownership and run them under the democratic management of elected representatives of their workers and the public. Compensation to be paid on the basis of proven need to small investors, not millionaires.

Build the movement to replace the rotten system of capitalism with democratic socialism and create a new society based on human need.

*****
Markin comment:

Some of the demands stated are supportable although the method of achieving them seems unclear since the march is on Congressional Committee of 12 member Senator John "War" (Iraq and Afghanistan support) Kerry's office. Do the sponsors really still expect that parliamentary action (nudging the Congress to do the right thing, or else) is the way forward after last summer's debacle? Christ, let's learn something right now. You only get what you fight for-and are ready to take. We created the wealth-let's take it back! Labor and the oppressed must rule!

Friday, November 04, 2011

The Latest From The "Jobs Not Cuts" Website-National Week Of Actions-November 16-23 -In Boston November 17th At The Boston Common

NATIONAL WEEK OF ACTIONS November 16-23

JOIN THE RALLY AND PROTEST:

JOBS NOT CUTS

Thursday Nov. 17th @ 4pm-6pm Bandstand, Boston Common Near Park St. T station and Then We'll March on Kerry's Office

WE DEMAND:

Hands off Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid! No cuts to education and social services!

We need jobs, not cuts! Fund a federal public works program to create millions of jobs for the millions unemployed.

Make Big Business Pay! For major tax hikes on the super-rich and corporations!

End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan! Slash Pentagon spending!

For the impressive growing list of endorsers check out
www.jobsnotcutsprotest.org
*****
Markin comment:

Some of the demands stated are supportable although the method of achieving them seems unclear since the march is on Congressional Committee of 12 member Senator John "War" (Iraq and Afghanistan support) Kerry's office. Do the sponsors really still expect that parliamentary action (nudging the Congress to do the right thing, or else) is the way forward after last summer's debacle? Christ, let's learn something right now. You only get what you fight for-and are ready to take. We created the wealth-let's take it back! Labor and the oppressed must rule!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

The Latest From The "Jobs Not Cuts" Website-National Week Of Actions-November 16-23 -In Boston November 17th At The Boston Common

NATIONAL WEEK OF ACTIONS November 16-23

JOIN THE RALLY AND PROTEST:

JOBS NOT CUTS

Thursday Nov. 17th @ 4pm-6pm Bandstand, Boston Common Near Park St. T station and Then We'll March on Kerry's Office

WE DEMAND:

Hands off Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid! No cuts to education and social services!

We need jobs, not cuts! Fund a federal public works program to create millions of jobs for the millions unemployed.

Make Big Business Pay! For major tax hikes on the super-rich and corporations!

End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan! Slash Pentagon spending!

For the impressive growing list of endorsers check out
www.jobsnotcutsprotest.org
*****
Markin comment:

Some of the demands stated are supportable although the method of achieving them seems unclear since the march is on Congressional Committee of 12 member Senator John "War" (Iraq and Afghanistan support) Kerry's office. Do the sponsors really still expect that parliamentary action (nudging the Congress to do the right thing, or else) is the way forward after last summer's debacle? Christ, let's learn something right now. You only get what you fight for-and are ready to take. We created the wealth-let's take it back! Labor and the oppressed must rule!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

The Latest From The "Jobs Not Cuts" Website-National Week Of Actions-November 16-23 -In Boston November 17th At The Boston Common

NATIONAL WEEK OF ACTIONS November 16-23

JOIN THE RALLY AND PROTEST:

JOBS NOT CUTS

Thursday Nov. 17th @ 4pm-6pm Bandstand, Boston Common Near Park St. T station and Then We'll March on Kerry's Office

WE DEMAND:

Hands off Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid! No cuts to education and social services!

We need jobs, not cuts! Fund a federal public works program to create millions of jobs for the millions unemployed.

Make Big Business Pay! For major tax hikes on the super-rich and corporations!

End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan! Slash Pentagon spending!

For the impressive growing list of endorsers check out
www.jobsnotcutsprotest.org
*****
Markin comment:

Some of the demands stated are supportable although the method of achieving them seems unclear since the march is on Congressional Committee of 12 member Senator John "War" (Iraq and Afghanistan support) Kerry's office. Do the sponsors really still expect that parliamentary action (nudging the Congress to do the right thing, or else) is the way forward after last summer's debacle? Christ, let's learn something right now. You only get what you fight for-and are ready to take. We created the wealth-let's take it back! Labor and the oppressed must rule!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Labor's Untold Story-From The Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Archives-The Struggle For Working Class Organization-Joseph Weydemeyer, 19th Century Socialist and Karl Marx Associate

Click on title to link to Karl Marx's Letter To Joseph Weydemeyer from the Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels Internet Archives. More of their correspondence can be clicked on there. For more information about Wedemeyer a key transplanted to America German supporter of Karl Marx Google for his Wikipedia entry.

Every Month Is Labor History MonthThis post is part of an on-going series under the following general title: Labor’s Untold Story- Reclaiming Our Labor History In Order To Fight Another Day-And Win!

Other Septembers in this series I have concentrated on various sometimes now obscure leaders and rank and file militants in the international working class movement, especially those who made contributions here in America like "Big Bill" Haywood and Eugene V. Debs. This year, given the pressing need for clarity around the labor party question in America(algebraically expressed in our movement as the struggle for a workers party that fights for a workers government) I have gone back to the sources-Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and their correspondence on working class organizationwith various associates and opponents. Strangely, or maybe not so strangely given the state of working class organization here these days, many of their comments, taken in due regard for changed times and circumstances, are germane today. This correspondence is only a start and should just whet the reader's appetite to research further.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Economic End Times - by Stephen Lendman

Economic End Times
by Stephen Lendman

Economic End Times - by Stephen Lendman

Despite a deepening global depression, establishment economists are in denial. On June 9, the Wall Street Journal said those surveyed expected slow, steady growth through 2011, despite high US unemployment, a housing depression, European sovereign debt in crisis, and the unreported insolvency of major French and other banks.

On June 8, testifying before the House Budget Committee, Fed chairman Bernanke fantasized about 3.5% US growth through 2011, stopping just short of ruling out the possibility of recession he called "unlikely."

And in 2007, when equity and housing bubbles peaked, neither he or Greenspan expressed alarm, destroying their credibility in the process.

Based on an early August survey, establishment (in bed with Wall Street) economists now put the chance of "another" downturn at 30%, compared to 15% in May, expecting 2.5% growth over the next year.

Some, in fact were sanguine, calling America's economy strong, attributing negative views to a crisis of confidence, not hard reality, signaled by the August 4 shot across the bow market rout.

Despite a predictable rebound, it signified much worse to come because conditions are dire getting worse. Even manipulated data show enough to sound alarms, highlighted by economists like David Rosenberg.

On August 15, he expressed surprise about so "little reaction to the shocking US consumer sentiment data that were released on Friday - the worst since the tail end of the Jimmy Carter recession era in 1980."

Moreover, consumer spending is weak even with suspect upward revisions. In addition, "(n)ew mortgage and refinancing loan volumes fell 19% in Q2 to" a three-year low. Further, auto buying plans declined to a decade low, likely headed much lower as economic conditions deteriorate. Other big ticket buying plans also dropped to 2008-09 depths when the economy falling off a cliff seemed possible.

In fact, growth indicators overall are rapidly heading south at a time they're already woefully weak. There's no end to decline in sight. Remarkably, negative household assessments of government policy hit record lows, surpassing the depths of the early 1980s recession and Watergate.

As a result, Rosenberg called the US economy "recession-bound, expecting" even manipulated data to show negative Q 3 growth, followed by greater contraction in Q 4 and 2012 Q 1.

"(P)ractically every major variable is" negative. "We are past the point of no return....I can understand the innate need to be hopeful," he said, but it's impossible to dispute reality.

Weakness and imbalances are extreme. American and European sovereign debt are overextended and troubled. "Anyone who thinks this gets contained (especially in Europe) slept through the last financial crisis after Lehman failed."

And when weak economies beg for stimulus, austerity is force-fed, assuring far greater economic pain. It's coming, will deepen and persist because policy measures are opposite of what's needed.

Commenting on the August 4 market rout, Rosenberg said nearly always it signals downturns. Western economies are fundamentally weak. Unlike earlier times when the Fed could cut interest rates, it now relies on "untested methods to underpin investor confidence and the economy."

And if America's economy plunges, so do others even deeper. Hunker down believes Rosenberg and independent economists believing the worst is yet to come.

Other Respected Views

Economist Michael Hudson is unequivocal explaining a debt deflation caused Depression. The game is over. The global ponzi scheme ran its course. Papering over conditions only works so long before hitting a wall. Tunnel vision assures trouble. Wrecking economies to save banks is lunacy, and forced austerity when stimulus is needed guarantees disaster. It's not a matter of if, just when, how deep and protracted.

Economist Paul Craig Roberts, trends analyst Gerald Celente, and others worry whether Washington will choose greater war to distract public attention from economic distress. In 2009, in fact, Celente warned about the oldest trick in the book, saying:

"Given the pattern of governments to parlay egregious failures into mega-failures, the classic trend they follow, when all else fails, is to take their nation to war."

In 2011, he called it a worrisome wild card, perhaps preceded by a major 9/11 type false flag to enlist public support.

Bet on it, in fact, if conditions become bad enough, public anger grows, and Obama's approval rating crashes ahead of the 2012 election. War based on heightened fear is how to raise it perhaps high enough to win.

Highly respect analyst Jeremy Grantham began his August letter to investors headlined, "Danger: Children at Play" with a "Stop Press Addendum," saying:

"My worst fears about the potential loss of confidence in our leaders, institutions, and 'capitalism itself' are being realized. We have been digging this hole for a long time. We really must be serious in our attempts to resuscitate the 'average (number of) hour(s) worked' and the fortunes of the average worker."

"Walking across the Boston Common this morning, I came to realize that the unpalatable (to me) option of some debt forgiveness on mortgages looks increasingly to be necessary as well as tax changes" he discussed in his report.

"To go further, if we mean to prosper long term, I am sure we need to act to make debt less attractive to everybody: it really is a snare and a delusion" to think otherwise.

Calling America's Congress "dysfunctional," he said it has to decide between two bad choices:

-- austerity to kill demand when the economy is on its knees; or

-- do nothing, risk default, compromise the integrity of the dollar and send "a powerful signal to the world that the US, at least for now," is past its prime.

In fact, growing numbers acknowledge that reality. "Come to think of it," said Grantham, "the choice was between a technical default and looking like a Banana Republic (or) technical blackmail and looking" like the same thing. "Just different bananas perhaps."

Overall he sees hard times, "lean years." Any pretense otherwise "is beyond wishful thinking or weak math skills. It is either childish or gross and cynical politics: that is to say, even worse politics than usual."

With balanced budgets mathematically impossible without major politically unpalatable policy changes, the alternative is "kicking an enormous can down the road" for even greater predictable disaster.

It's the equivalent of not dealing with a metastasizing cancer until the patient dies or is too far gone to save.

Adding his own grim assessment, Grantham said if we keep "drift(ing) around rudderless, if we don't develop some real (nowhere in sight) leadership soon, then seven lean years may be the least of" America's woes.

Commenting on the August 4 market rout, he added that it "always (has a) disturbing habit of ignoring the obvious and ignoring it some more, until, in the blink of an eye, it doesn't."

On August 4, it blinked, making "risk avoidance....a good idea," Grantham believes that may be his polite way of saying watch out! I warned you! There's no visible light at the end of this tunnel, getting increasingly darker. Watch out indeed.

In fact, a deepening global Depression just began. It'll last years before ending, and cause grave harm to billions worldwide, not responsible for their leaders' malfeasance, especially those domiciled on Wall Street, complicit with political puppets in Washington they own.

Moreover, the greater pain caused, the more they benefit like their Western counterparts, wrecking their economies for personal gain.

No wonder astute analysts like Grantham expressed lack of confidence in America's leaders, disgust with a "dysfunctional Congress," and questioned "capitalism itself," perhaps self-destructing as he wrote.

For billions of global victims, it can't happen a moment too soon, if it isn't already too late to help.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen (at) sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
See also:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com


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