by Matt McCarten
from NZ Herald
8 November 2009
Every thinking New Zealander should go and see Michael Moore's film Capitalism: A Love Story that is now out in cinemas.
I've been a fan of Moore ever since his first film, Roger & Me, which had him chasing down Roger Smith - the then head of General Motors - after Moore's father and thousands of other auto workers were laid off in Flint, Michigan.
His Oscar-winning documentary, Bowling for Columbine, and his last film Sicko, posed serious challenges to corporate capitalism. Moore's latest film is the most politically potent of all.
It's a full-frontal attack on his usual target of corporations and on the whole capitalist system. It has all the usual "corporate greed versus ordinary people" stories, which have parallels in New Zealand. But what particularly resonates is his defiant critique - that corporate capitalism is evil, immoral and undemocratic.
Chris Harman, SWP leader dies
by David ColyerI’m very sad to hear that Chris Harman, one of the leaders of the British Socialist Workers Party has recently died.
Chris Harman has always been my favourite among the many fine authors in the SWP.
His writing, as editor of the British Socialist Worker newspaper until 2004 and as the author of many books and longer articles have had a profound impact on my own political thought, and I’m sure that is true of many other Socialist Worker members and our organisation as a whole.
For several years we reprinted and sold his How Marxism Works, a collection of short, accessible articles on the basics of Marxism. Economics of the Madhouse was a popular introduction to Marxist economics. We also turned his article ‘Anti-capitalism: theory and practice’, written in the wake of the 1999 Seattle protests, into a pamphlet which sold well.
Harman’s best work, in my view was his histories, which brought alive key moments in history by explaining how the struggles of ordinary people to liberate themselves from oppression and exploitation arise from and class with the contradictory developments of capitalism.
The Lost Revolution: Germany 1918-23 (1997) showed just how close the German workers came to making a revolution that could have saved the USSR from isolation and Stalinist counter-revolution and stopped Hitler’s rise. The pamphlet Russia, how the revolution was lost (1969) offers a brief account of what went wrong in Russia. While Class Struggles in Eastern Europe, 1945-1983 (1988) detailed the struggle of workers against the Stalinist regimes.
Best of all are The Fire Last Time, 1968 and After (1988), an inspiring classic, and has the honour of being recommended by Rage Against the Machine in their Evil Empire album. And A People’s History of the World (1999).
Over the next month or so I’ll post links to some of Chris Harman’s work. An appropriate one to start with, given that he died on the 92nd anniversary of the October Revolution is ‘Russia: How the Revolution was Lost’.
What we need is a just transition to a low carbon economy
by Tane Feary
8 November 2009
Mining in national parks in New Zealand is one of the National Governments suggested "solutions" to the economic crises and New Zealand's place in the financial world. This is yet another example of short term profit and long term environmental destruction. Nick Smith, the New Zealand climate and environment minister talks about balancing economics and the environment, what he is really talking about is bank balances.
New Zealand plays on a brand and image of being a "clean and green" country, yet reality suggests otherwise. Dirty dairy from corporate agriculture companies, coal mining and energy, motorway expansion and a raft of industries are being given the go ahead as they are financially lucrative, and provide a fast buck, the long term cost is not factored in, neither is the environmental cost.
Creating pollution markets does not alter the unsustainable nature of an economy built to make economic growth and profit out of the destruction of ecosystems. Until economics has environmental and social considerations, big business will continue to profit from ecologically and socially destructive activities. A low carbon economy would provide what carbon pollution markets never can.
8 November 2009
Mining in national parks in New Zealand is one of the National Governments suggested "solutions" to the economic crises and New Zealand's place in the financial world. This is yet another example of short term profit and long term environmental destruction. Nick Smith, the New Zealand climate and environment minister talks about balancing economics and the environment, what he is really talking about is bank balances.
New Zealand plays on a brand and image of being a "clean and green" country, yet reality suggests otherwise. Dirty dairy from corporate agriculture companies, coal mining and energy, motorway expansion and a raft of industries are being given the go ahead as they are financially lucrative, and provide a fast buck, the long term cost is not factored in, neither is the environmental cost.
Creating pollution markets does not alter the unsustainable nature of an economy built to make economic growth and profit out of the destruction of ecosystems. Until economics has environmental and social considerations, big business will continue to profit from ecologically and socially destructive activities. A low carbon economy would provide what carbon pollution markets never can.
Dinner & Meeting with Venezuelan diplomat, Nelson Davila
Nelson Davila, Venezuela's Canberra-based senior diplomat for the Pacific region, is in Auckland for a short stay.
Nelson is a longtime revolutionary turned diplomat in the service of the people's cause. What he says is well worth hearing.
He is to address a local meeting on latest developments in the unfolding people's revolution in Venezuela, led by Hugo Chavez, who is advocating "socialism of the 21st century".
Before the meeting we are sharing a dinner with Nelson. (Please bring a few dollars for koha to fund the dinner.) Details:
DINNER: 6pm this Thursday, 12 November
MEETING: Starts at 7.30pm
VENUE (for both): Socialist Centre, 86 Princes St, Onehunga
All friends of the Venezuelan Revolution are welcome. Please inform your own networks so that Nelson gets a good crowd.
For further info, contact:
Grant Morgan
634 4432 (10am-10pm)
021 2544 515
grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz
Nelson is a longtime revolutionary turned diplomat in the service of the people's cause. What he says is well worth hearing.
He is to address a local meeting on latest developments in the unfolding people's revolution in Venezuela, led by Hugo Chavez, who is advocating "socialism of the 21st century".
Before the meeting we are sharing a dinner with Nelson. (Please bring a few dollars for koha to fund the dinner.) Details:
DINNER: 6pm this Thursday, 12 November
MEETING: Starts at 7.30pm
VENUE (for both): Socialist Centre, 86 Princes St, Onehunga
All friends of the Venezuelan Revolution are welcome. Please inform your own networks so that Nelson gets a good crowd.
For further info, contact:
Grant Morgan
634 4432 (10am-10pm)
021 2544 515
grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz
Banks know there’s a bad mood rising
The Big Four Australian-owned banks know that the public mood is against them, because, well, they’re interest gouging, profit-taking, tax dodgers – there’s not much to like!
But they’re trying to do the impossible and suck up to us anyway. See the NZ Herald article below, ‘Banks: your new best friend’. In the article, the BNZ’s person in charge of media spin, Dianne Maxwell, says “Banks just genuinely believe that we need to be a part of the community”. That’s a hard sell when you’ve just been caught avoiding $661 million of tax.
This clumsy attempt at sucking up to us could seriously backfire. Most people will see it for what it is, and if we can highlight the banks’ deception, perhaps we can turn the mood even more sour against them. And in doing so we can seek to achieve a higher public profile for pro-grassroots policy demands like removing GST off food and introducing a Financial Transaction Tax instead, which would force the banks and other “fat cat” financial speculators to pay a greater share of the tax burden than they do now.
But they’re trying to do the impossible and suck up to us anyway. See the NZ Herald article below, ‘Banks: your new best friend’. In the article, the BNZ’s person in charge of media spin, Dianne Maxwell, says “Banks just genuinely believe that we need to be a part of the community”. That’s a hard sell when you’ve just been caught avoiding $661 million of tax.
This clumsy attempt at sucking up to us could seriously backfire. Most people will see it for what it is, and if we can highlight the banks’ deception, perhaps we can turn the mood even more sour against them. And in doing so we can seek to achieve a higher public profile for pro-grassroots policy demands like removing GST off food and introducing a Financial Transaction Tax instead, which would force the banks and other “fat cat” financial speculators to pay a greater share of the tax burden than they do now.
Banks: your new best friend
by Adam Bennett
from NZ Herald
7 November 2009
You may have noticed the big Australian-owned banks trying to cuddle up to you lately.
In one television commercial a big clumsy Westpac guy, prompted by wordless admonitions from a bunch of everyday Kiwis, eventually does the right thing by going to some inconvenience to retrieve his discarded icecream wrapper from the sea.
ASB Bank, on the other hand, is trying to convince people it is one of us, running adverts telling us it has been a “Kiwi bank” since 1847.
Honduras: Deal signed for Zelaya’s return, but struggle continue
by Stuart MuncktonGreen Left Weekly, Australia
After more than 120 days of mass resistance by the poor majority against a coup regime that overthrew elected President Manuel Zelaya [pictured right], the regime has finally signed an agreement for Zelaya’s reinstatement.
On October 30, Zelaya and the coup regime signed an agreement opening the way for the elected president to take office once more. However, the key demand of the mass resistance for a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution is excluded by the deal until Zelaya leaves office in late January.
The National Resistance Front against the Coup (FNRG) is pledging to continue its campaign of protests around this demand and it is unclear whether it will continue with a planned boycott of the November 29 elections.
Only one month away, preparations and campaigning for these presidential and Congressional elections have occurred in the context of brutal repression and the silencing of anti-coup media. This makes a free and fair vote almost certainly impossible.
Although the victory is only partial and involves significant compromises, it is an example of people’s power forcing its will on one of the most extreme right-wing oligarchies in the region. Mass resistance has stopped plans to consolidate a savage dictatorship that gives free reign to the rich.
Is this as good as it gets?
by Marty G
from The Standard
November 5, 2009
Most of the wealth in New Zealand is owned by a tiny fraction of the people because our political/economic system makes it that way. 10% of people have more income than 50% combined.
We allow a tiny portion of the population to control the wealth of this land. This isn’t some natural state, an inevitability. It is the result, the purpose, of the capitalist economic system, which is only possible because of the legal framework that exists to create and support it. Our company law, our land law, our tax system are all set up to enrich those few at the expense of the rest of us.
My question is: ‘why do we let it be this way?’ We have a democracy, we have a relatively uncorrupted political system. The people that capitalism steals from far out-number the people it serves; we can out-vote them. Another way is possible. We can easily create a fairer, and ultimately more successful society than this without drastic reform, just sensible changes.
So why don’t we do it? Why won’t we vote for it? Why don’t we demand change?
Is it the endless pro-capitalist propaganda in the corporate media (not just the news, the ‘entertainment’ too)? Is it that the promise of some income growth blinds us to the greater injustice? Or is the reason that the capitalists have won and are still winning is that they are the most aggressive and greedy members of our society, while we are too weak and subservient to fight back?
Although worth checking out is Marty G’s second post on this topic ‘The myth of upward mobility’
from The Standard
November 5, 2009
Most of the wealth in New Zealand is owned by a tiny fraction of the people because our political/economic system makes it that way. 10% of people have more income than 50% combined.
That’s just income. The inequality of wealth distribution is far greater. The net wealth of 10% of people is 20 times the wealth of 50% of us combined. In fact, the wealthiest 10% have more wealth than everyone else put together.
We allow a tiny portion of the population to control the wealth of this land. This isn’t some natural state, an inevitability. It is the result, the purpose, of the capitalist economic system, which is only possible because of the legal framework that exists to create and support it. Our company law, our land law, our tax system are all set up to enrich those few at the expense of the rest of us.
My question is: ‘why do we let it be this way?’ We have a democracy, we have a relatively uncorrupted political system. The people that capitalism steals from far out-number the people it serves; we can out-vote them. Another way is possible. We can easily create a fairer, and ultimately more successful society than this without drastic reform, just sensible changes.
So why don’t we do it? Why won’t we vote for it? Why don’t we demand change?
Is it the endless pro-capitalist propaganda in the corporate media (not just the news, the ‘entertainment’ too)? Is it that the promise of some income growth blinds us to the greater injustice? Or is the reason that the capitalists have won and are still winning is that they are the most aggressive and greedy members of our society, while we are too weak and subservient to fight back?
Although worth checking out is Marty G’s second post on this topic ‘The myth of upward mobility’
Nobel Peace Prize winner backs convicted kidnappers
by Grant Morgan
An Italian court yesterday convicted 23 US CIA and military personnel of the 2003 kidnapping of a Muslim cleric in Milan and sending him to Egypt to be imprisoned, tortured and, years later, released without charge.
You can read a BBC report on the trial at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8343123.stm (or see previous post)
This is the first time any court in the world has convicted US state agents for their illegal kidnappings, detentions and torture under the “war on terror” begun by George Bush.
And what was the reaction of the latest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Barack Obama?
A spokesperson for the Obama administration declared, “We are disappointed by the verdicts,” saying an appeal is likely.
If the mass media were at all even-handed in their reporting, here’s how they would headline the Obama administration’s reaction:
Of course, expecting fairness in the media is about as realistic as expecting any other reaction from Obama than the one we got.
The US imperial war machine obeys its own laws, which require it to break the ordinary laws against kidnapping, torture and worse which govern mere mortals like us.
And Obama obeys the US imperial war machine. But we all knew that, didn’t we?
An Italian court yesterday convicted 23 US CIA and military personnel of the 2003 kidnapping of a Muslim cleric in Milan and sending him to Egypt to be imprisoned, tortured and, years later, released without charge.
You can read a BBC report on the trial at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8343123.stm (or see previous post)
This is the first time any court in the world has convicted US state agents for their illegal kidnappings, detentions and torture under the “war on terror” begun by George Bush.
And what was the reaction of the latest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Barack Obama?
A spokesperson for the Obama administration declared, “We are disappointed by the verdicts,” saying an appeal is likely.
If the mass media were at all even-handed in their reporting, here’s how they would headline the Obama administration’s reaction:
Obama ‘disappointed’ at kidnappers
being brought to justice
being brought to justice
Of course, expecting fairness in the media is about as realistic as expecting any other reaction from Obama than the one we got.
The US imperial war machine obeys its own laws, which require it to break the ordinary laws against kidnapping, torture and worse which govern mere mortals like us.
And Obama obeys the US imperial war machine. But we all knew that, didn’t we?
CIA agents guilty of Italy kidnap
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8343123.stm
BBC News
4 November 2009
An Italian judge has convicted 23 Americans – all but one of them CIA agents – and two Italian secret agents for the 2003 kidnap of a Muslim cleric.
The agents were accused of abducting Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, known as Abu Omar, from Milan and sending him to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured.
The trial, which began in June 2007, is the first involving the CIA’s so-called “extraordinary rendition” programme.
The Obama administration has expressed its disappointment at the convictions.
“We are disappointed by the verdicts,” state department spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington.
He declined to comment further pending a written opinion from the judge, but said an appeal was likely.
Three Americans and five Italians were acquitted by the court in Milan.
Symbolic ruling
The Americans were all tried in their absence as they have not been extradited from the US to Italy.
The CIA’s Milan station chief at the time, Robert Lady, was given an eight-year term, while the other 22 Americans convicted - one of them a US air force colonel – were sentenced to five years in prison.
Lawyers for the 23 Americans said they would appeal against their convictions.
The two Italian agents, who were convicted as accomplices to kidnapping, were given three-year prison terms.
The court also ruled that those convicted must pay 1m euros ($1.5m) in damages to Abu Omar and 500,000 euros to his wife.
CIA spokesman George Little in Washington declined to comment on the convictions, telling the Associated Press news agency: “The CIA has not commented on any of the allegations surrounding Abu Omar.”
Secrecy laws
Italian prosecutors said Abu Omar was taken as part of a series of extraordinary renditions carried out by the CIA – when terror suspects were moved between countries without any public legal process.
They told the court he had been kidnapped in daylight on a Milan street in February 2003 and flown to Germany, and then Cairo, where he was held for years until being released without charge.
Judge Oscar Magi acquitted the CIA chief for Rome, Jeffrey Castelli, saying he was protected by state secrecy rules, as were the former head of Italy’s military intelligence agency, Nicolo Pollari, and his deputy, Marco Mancini.
Mr Pollari, who resigned over the affair, told the court earlier this year that documents showing he had no involvement in the kidnapping were classified under secrecy laws.
Prosecutor Armando Spataro rejected the argument that legal provisions could shield those accused from prosecution, saying any agreement to carry out a kidnapping was “absolutely against Italian law”.
He had sought a 13-year jail term for Mr Castelli and Mr Pollari and 12 years for Robert Lady.
Activist group Human Rights Watch welcomed the verdict, saying it sent “a strong signal of the crimes committed by the CIA in Europe”.
Spokeswoman Joanne Mariner said: “For us, this first case puts the war on terror on trial.”
BBC News
4 November 2009
An Italian judge has convicted 23 Americans – all but one of them CIA agents – and two Italian secret agents for the 2003 kidnap of a Muslim cleric.
The agents were accused of abducting Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, known as Abu Omar, from Milan and sending him to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured.
The trial, which began in June 2007, is the first involving the CIA’s so-called “extraordinary rendition” programme.
The Obama administration has expressed its disappointment at the convictions.
“We are disappointed by the verdicts,” state department spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington.
He declined to comment further pending a written opinion from the judge, but said an appeal was likely.
Three Americans and five Italians were acquitted by the court in Milan.
Symbolic ruling
The Americans were all tried in their absence as they have not been extradited from the US to Italy.
The CIA’s Milan station chief at the time, Robert Lady, was given an eight-year term, while the other 22 Americans convicted - one of them a US air force colonel – were sentenced to five years in prison.
Lawyers for the 23 Americans said they would appeal against their convictions.
The two Italian agents, who were convicted as accomplices to kidnapping, were given three-year prison terms.
The court also ruled that those convicted must pay 1m euros ($1.5m) in damages to Abu Omar and 500,000 euros to his wife.
CIA spokesman George Little in Washington declined to comment on the convictions, telling the Associated Press news agency: “The CIA has not commented on any of the allegations surrounding Abu Omar.”
Secrecy laws
Italian prosecutors said Abu Omar was taken as part of a series of extraordinary renditions carried out by the CIA – when terror suspects were moved between countries without any public legal process.
They told the court he had been kidnapped in daylight on a Milan street in February 2003 and flown to Germany, and then Cairo, where he was held for years until being released without charge.
Judge Oscar Magi acquitted the CIA chief for Rome, Jeffrey Castelli, saying he was protected by state secrecy rules, as were the former head of Italy’s military intelligence agency, Nicolo Pollari, and his deputy, Marco Mancini.
Mr Pollari, who resigned over the affair, told the court earlier this year that documents showing he had no involvement in the kidnapping were classified under secrecy laws.
Prosecutor Armando Spataro rejected the argument that legal provisions could shield those accused from prosecution, saying any agreement to carry out a kidnapping was “absolutely against Italian law”.
He had sought a 13-year jail term for Mr Castelli and Mr Pollari and 12 years for Robert Lady.
Activist group Human Rights Watch welcomed the verdict, saying it sent “a strong signal of the crimes committed by the CIA in Europe”.
Spokeswoman Joanne Mariner said: “For us, this first case puts the war on terror on trial.”
Copenhagen: mass protests planned
by Simon ButlerTens of thousands of people are expected to take part in climate action protests in the Danish capital of Copenhagen during the United Nations-sponsored climate talks in December.
The biggest action will be a six-kilometre march under the slogan “People First — Planet First”. More than 115 organisations have endorsed the protests, which will demand the richest countries “take the urgent and resolute action needed to prevent the catastrophic destabilisation of the global climate”.
It will take place on December 12, midway through the Copenhagen conference. Organisers have called for the date to be a global day of protest.
The protest call to action says: “We demand that those industrialised countries that have emitted most greenhouse gases take responsibility for climate change mitigation by immediately reducing their own emissions while investing in a clean energy revolution in the developing world.
“Developed countries must take their fair share of the responsibility in paying for the adaptive measures that have to be taken, especially by low-emitting countries with limited economic resources.
“Climate change will hit the poorest first, and hit them hardest. All those who have the economic means to act therefore must do so urgently and decisively.”
A range of other protest events are also planned to coincide with the Copenhagen talks. Climate Justice Action, an international activist network, announced it will organise a mass action to shut down Copenhagen Harbour on December 13.
Spokesperson Tadzio Mueller said: “The UN climate talks will not solve the climate crisis. We are no closer to reducing greenhouse gas emissions than we were when international negotiations began 15 years ago: emissions are rising faster than ever, while carbon trading allows climate criminals to pollute and profit.”
The network will also organise a People’s Climate Justice summit on December 16.
In an October 18 statement, Climate Justice Action said it opposed the false, market-based solutions that are likely to come out of Copenhagen.
Instead, it called for a safe climate policy that includes: leaving fossil fuels in the ground; reasserting peoples’ and community control over production; and recognising the ecological and climate debt owed to the peoples of the global South and making reparations.
For more details of protests planned during the Copenhagen climate talks, visit www.12dec09.dk/en and www.climate-justice-action.org. From: International News, Green Left Weekly issue #815 28 October 2009.
Jim Flynn & Eugene V Debs
by David Colyer
At the recent* Alliance Party national conference Jim Flynn, emeritus professor of politics at Otago University, gave an informative account of the busting of the USUS housing bubble in 2007, explaining how the banking system got caught out when the housing bubble burst.
Flynn explained that an important part of his “social-democratic” analysis was looking at the world through “class spectacles”. Nevertheless, he seemed to accept, rather than challenge the basic pillars of a capitalist economy.
For example, he talked of banks having a “legitimate function”, which is to spread risk for investors and to match those who have money to lend with those who want to borrow. But surely, looking through “class spectacles”, reveals that the wealth capitalists invest and the “return” on investments, comes from the exploited labour of workers. How can any part of this system be considered legitimate?
Another gripe: Flynn’s solutions to financial crisis seemed very technocratic. Several times he mentioned the idea of a committee of academics (on one occasion this was to include business leaders too) who would regulate the banks and other corporations and “tame the market”. But why would the corporations submit to being tamed?
One theme that Flynn returned to several times was the lack of a “social-democratic culture” and the need to build one in the US and NZ.
For those not so familiar with political jargon Wiktionary gives a useful definition:
A “social democrat” is:
When he talked of “social-democratic culture”, I took Flynn to mean a situation were social-democratic policies (such as a strong welfare state and government regulation of the market) are the standard or common sense response of politicians and business leaders, to any problem or crisis.
Leaving aside the question of whether social democratic policies really can tame the market and ameliorate injustices of capitalism, the question of how to fight the dominance of market ideology and push social-democratic, socialist or generally left-wing ideas back into the mainstream, is an important one.
As you might expect from a professor of politics, Flynn’s ideas on how this might be done seemed to come back to the work of academics and other experts. However, this wasn’t the main topic of his talk and he and the Alliance may well have other ideas about how to rebuild a left-wing culture.
One answer is to look at how the mass socialist movements that existed 100 years ago were built in first place.
Flynn mentioned the tradition of the US Socialist Party, and it’s greatest leader Eugene V Debs (1855–1926) [pictured below]. For Debs promoting socialist ideas and political campaigning went hand in hand with union organising, industrial action and other grass roots campaigning. I think that this remains the way forward for the left today.
Eugene V Debs
* OK so it was on October 17, which isn’t all that recent. It’s just taken me a long time to finish off this article.
At the recent* Alliance Party national conference Jim Flynn, emeritus professor of politics at Otago University, gave an informative account of the busting of the USUS housing bubble in 2007, explaining how the banking system got caught out when the housing bubble burst.
Flynn explained that an important part of his “social-democratic” analysis was looking at the world through “class spectacles”. Nevertheless, he seemed to accept, rather than challenge the basic pillars of a capitalist economy.
For example, he talked of banks having a “legitimate function”, which is to spread risk for investors and to match those who have money to lend with those who want to borrow. But surely, looking through “class spectacles”, reveals that the wealth capitalists invest and the “return” on investments, comes from the exploited labour of workers. How can any part of this system be considered legitimate?
Another gripe: Flynn’s solutions to financial crisis seemed very technocratic. Several times he mentioned the idea of a committee of academics (on one occasion this was to include business leaders too) who would regulate the banks and other corporations and “tame the market”. But why would the corporations submit to being tamed?
One theme that Flynn returned to several times was the lack of a “social-democratic culture” and the need to build one in the US and NZ.
For those not so familiar with political jargon Wiktionary gives a useful definition:
A “social democrat” is:
A supporter of social democracy, a political ideology which in its contemporary form aims to reform capitalism democratically through state regulation and state sponsored programs which work to ameliorate injustices inflicted by the market economy.And “social democracy” is:
A moderate political philosophy that aims to achieve socialistic goals within capitalist society such as by means of a strong welfare state and regulation of private industry.
When he talked of “social-democratic culture”, I took Flynn to mean a situation were social-democratic policies (such as a strong welfare state and government regulation of the market) are the standard or common sense response of politicians and business leaders, to any problem or crisis.
Leaving aside the question of whether social democratic policies really can tame the market and ameliorate injustices of capitalism, the question of how to fight the dominance of market ideology and push social-democratic, socialist or generally left-wing ideas back into the mainstream, is an important one.
As you might expect from a professor of politics, Flynn’s ideas on how this might be done seemed to come back to the work of academics and other experts. However, this wasn’t the main topic of his talk and he and the Alliance may well have other ideas about how to rebuild a left-wing culture.
One answer is to look at how the mass socialist movements that existed 100 years ago were built in first place.
Flynn mentioned the tradition of the US Socialist Party, and it’s greatest leader Eugene V Debs (1855–1926) [pictured below]. For Debs promoting socialist ideas and political campaigning went hand in hand with union organising, industrial action and other grass roots campaigning. I think that this remains the way forward for the left today.
Eugene V Debs* OK so it was on October 17, which isn’t all that recent. It’s just taken me a long time to finish off this article.
Capitalism: A Love Story, movie trailer
Capitalism: A Love Story, the new film from radical documentary maker Michael Moore opens in this country on Thursday November 5.
UNITYblog: the next two months
From near the end of this month, to just before Christmas my partner and I will be travelling round the North Island, finishing up at Climate Camp (16–21 December) in Wellington.
The trip itself and all the preperation required beforehand means I won’t have much time to work on UNITYblog until after Christmas.
However, I’m aiming to keep things ticking over with an increase in overseas articles, and a few things I’ve been saving or just haven’t got round to publishing yet.
So there’ll be more from Green Left Weekly and other overseas socialist papers and blogs.
There’ll probably be a few slightly out of date articles, including my thoughts on Jim Flynn’s talk at the Alliance Party conference from a few weeks ago, which will be posted in a couple of days.
I’m hopeful that Vaughan Gunson and will continue posting on the Bad Banks campaigns and other issues. And that Grant Morgan will continue to write on his controversial ideas about the “collapse of capitalism”.
The trip itself and all the preperation required beforehand means I won’t have much time to work on UNITYblog until after Christmas.
However, I’m aiming to keep things ticking over with an increase in overseas articles, and a few things I’ve been saving or just haven’t got round to publishing yet.
So there’ll be more from Green Left Weekly and other overseas socialist papers and blogs.
There’ll probably be a few slightly out of date articles, including my thoughts on Jim Flynn’s talk at the Alliance Party conference from a few weeks ago, which will be posted in a couple of days.
I’m hopeful that Vaughan Gunson and will continue posting on the Bad Banks campaigns and other issues. And that Grant Morgan will continue to write on his controversial ideas about the “collapse of capitalism”.
David Colyer
UNITYblog editor
UNITYblog editor
Four new articles from an ecosocialist perspective
The excellent Climate and Capitalism website has just posted an Ecosocialist Round-Up which includes four recent articles by international ecosocialists: Patrick Bond on Copenhagen; Carter Burke on Cap-and-Trade; Michael Löwy on perspectives for ecosocialism; and Jubayr on the broader context that must inform our strategy and tactics.
These articles (see below) may help stimuate some thinking on how we develop an ecosocialist vision in New Zealand. Socialist Worker members are interested in trying to build an ecosocialist network, one that's open to people from different political backgrounds and organisations, but who share an awareness of the profound political and social transformation needed to avert the ecological crisis.
If you're interested in helping to build an ecosocialist network in New Zealand, contact David, colyer(at)pl.net. And join the Ecosocialism Aotearoa group on Facebook.
These articles (see below) may help stimuate some thinking on how we develop an ecosocialist vision in New Zealand. Socialist Worker members are interested in trying to build an ecosocialist network, one that's open to people from different political backgrounds and organisations, but who share an awareness of the profound political and social transformation needed to avert the ecological crisis.
If you're interested in helping to build an ecosocialist network in New Zealand, contact David, colyer(at)pl.net. And join the Ecosocialism Aotearoa group on Facebook.
When the Climate Change Center Cannot Hold.
Patrick Bond discusses what green left activists should do and demand, when “it seems clear that no meaningful deal can be sealed in Copenhagen on December 18.”
“Obama’s climate legislation is so far off on the wrong track – by commodifying the air as the core climate strategy and empowering the fossil fuel industries – that the train cannot be steered away from its over-the-cliff route. Just let it crash.”
The Cap and Trade Debacle.
Carter Burke examines the “climate change solution” that was designed “by American and European industrial interests to essentially make money from privatizing the atmosphere, permitting themselves to pollute it for free, and creating an entire bureaucracy for quantifying and trading various offset ‘products,’ regardless of their ability to actually limit the emission of greenhouse gases.”
“It is one thing to support something imperfect but functional. But it is another thing to support something that is imperfect, decidedly non-functional, and that has the potential for additional destruction.”
Climate Change – a contribution to the debate
Michael Löwy offers some “some criticisms and reservations” regarding Daniel Tanuro’s recent report to the Fourth International on how Marxists should view and respond to the climate change crisis.
“The ecosocialist project implies the establishment of democratic planning of the economy which takes into account the preservation of the environment and, in particular, prevents a catastrophic disruption of the climate. … The necessary prerequisite for this democratic and ecological planning is public control of the means of production: decision-making on matters of public interest concerning technological investment and change must be removed from the banks and the capitalist companies, if we want these decisions to serve the common good of society and the safeguarding of the environment.”
The Ecology Movement, Climate Change & US Empire.
On the Gathering Forces blog, Jubayr discusses “how the broader political terrain today forms the hot topics of the ecology movement if we’re to effectively plan our campaigns and strategies.”
“In a period of diminishing returns, the ruling classes are both unwilling (just look at the climate bills) and unable to grant concessions to the ecology movement. But the crisis in ruling class legitimacy opens up space for new struggles by the ecology movement.”
Senior investment guru forecasts longrun damage to capitalism’s profits
by Grant Morgan
29 October 2009
Bill Gross [pictured] is the managing director of PIMCO, one of the planet’s biggest investment firms. Consequently, in the world of corporate investment, the name of Bill Gross is writ large, and his views are hugely influential.
On 27 October 2009 this US investment guru, who is expected to speak in conservative terms, published these radical views:
“The U.S. and most other G-7 economies have been significantly and artificially influenced by asset price appreciation for decades.”
Over the past 50 years “you would have been far better off investing in paper than factories or machinery or the requisite components of an educated workforce. We, in effect, were hollowing out our productive future at the expense of worthless paper such as subprimes, dotcoms, or in part, blue chip stocks and investment grade/government bonds.”
“Financial leverage, in other words, drove the prices of stocks, bonds, homes, and shopping malls to extraordinary valuation levels – at least compared to 1956 – and there could be payback ahead as the leveraging turns into delevering and nominal GDP growth regains the winner’s platform.”
“The six-month rally in risk assets – while still continuously supported by Fed and Treasury policymakers – is likely at its pinnacle. Out, out, brief candle.”
To read the full essay by Bill Grosscan go to http://www.pimco.com/LeftNav/Featured+Market+Commentary/IO/2009/Midnight+Candles+Gross+November.htm.
So Gross predicts the likely quenching of the “brief candle” which heated up share market values over the last six months. And, more importantly, he expects systemic “payback” for the financial leveraging which inflated global capitalism’s profit margins and asset prices over the past half-century.
Stripped of qualifiers, Gross is forecasting not only market downturns, but also longrun damage to corporate profitability, the lifeblood of capitalism.
Such economic pessimism from a Top Hat within the Belly of the Beast adds to the erosion of legitimacy which is besieging global capitalism.
These intertwined crises of profitability and legitimacy are two of the quartet of contradictions that are tipping global capitalism towards collapse. The other two are the ecological crisis (notably climate warming) and the resource crisis (peak oil, peak water, peak farmland, peak minerals).
These four contradictions are intensifying and coalescing, while also interacting in unpredictable ways with shifting imperial relativities as America’s Premier Power status comes under threat from a resurgent but conflicted China. Such fundamental drivers of social transformation cannot simply be wished away by defenders of capitalism.
We appear to be entering the era of the collapse of global capitalism. And that will throw up social conflicts more turbulent than most of us can imagine as rival forces go into battle to determine what new world system will emerge from the chaos.
If you liked this story, forward it to your friends. Feel free to contact the author at grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz
29 October 2009
Bill Gross [pictured] is the managing director of PIMCO, one of the planet’s biggest investment firms. Consequently, in the world of corporate investment, the name of Bill Gross is writ large, and his views are hugely influential.
On 27 October 2009 this US investment guru, who is expected to speak in conservative terms, published these radical views:
“The U.S. and most other G-7 economies have been significantly and artificially influenced by asset price appreciation for decades.”
Over the past 50 years “you would have been far better off investing in paper than factories or machinery or the requisite components of an educated workforce. We, in effect, were hollowing out our productive future at the expense of worthless paper such as subprimes, dotcoms, or in part, blue chip stocks and investment grade/government bonds.”
“Financial leverage, in other words, drove the prices of stocks, bonds, homes, and shopping malls to extraordinary valuation levels – at least compared to 1956 – and there could be payback ahead as the leveraging turns into delevering and nominal GDP growth regains the winner’s platform.”
“The six-month rally in risk assets – while still continuously supported by Fed and Treasury policymakers – is likely at its pinnacle. Out, out, brief candle.”
To read the full essay by Bill Grosscan go to http://www.pimco.com/LeftNav/Featured+Market+Commentary/IO/2009/Midnight+Candles+Gross+November.htm.
So Gross predicts the likely quenching of the “brief candle” which heated up share market values over the last six months. And, more importantly, he expects systemic “payback” for the financial leveraging which inflated global capitalism’s profit margins and asset prices over the past half-century.
Stripped of qualifiers, Gross is forecasting not only market downturns, but also longrun damage to corporate profitability, the lifeblood of capitalism.
Such economic pessimism from a Top Hat within the Belly of the Beast adds to the erosion of legitimacy which is besieging global capitalism.
These intertwined crises of profitability and legitimacy are two of the quartet of contradictions that are tipping global capitalism towards collapse. The other two are the ecological crisis (notably climate warming) and the resource crisis (peak oil, peak water, peak farmland, peak minerals).
These four contradictions are intensifying and coalescing, while also interacting in unpredictable ways with shifting imperial relativities as America’s Premier Power status comes under threat from a resurgent but conflicted China. Such fundamental drivers of social transformation cannot simply be wished away by defenders of capitalism.
We appear to be entering the era of the collapse of global capitalism. And that will throw up social conflicts more turbulent than most of us can imagine as rival forces go into battle to determine what new world system will emerge from the chaos.
If you liked this story, forward it to your friends. Feel free to contact the author at grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz
Venezuela: Power workers fight against bureaucracy
Kiraz Janicke, Caracas31 October 2009
A 14-month struggle by Venezuelan electrical workers for an industry-wide collective contract culminated with the resignation of the president of the state-owned electricity company Corpoelec on October 22.
The struggle is emblematic of a growing conflict within Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution, as the process of transforming the oil-rich nation is known, between the workers’ movement and the pro-capitalist state bureaucracy.
The dispute occurs in the context of a growing crisis in the electricity sector. This has included several big blackouts in 2008 and 2009, and electricity rationing throughout much of the country’s interior.
Along with a growing number of bitter industrial disputes in state and private industry, the struggle raises questions about the future direction of the revolution — in particular the role of the working class in a process whose stated aim is “socialism of the 21st century”.
US ratchets up pressure on Russia amidst shifting imperial relativities
by Grant Morgan
27 October 2009
During October 2009, Washington suddenly ratcheted up its pressure on Russia. We are starting to see a slide back to a Cold War chill between the world’s two big nuclear powers.
Acting on orders from US president Barack Obama, his vice-president Joe Biden toured Eastern Europe where he called for revolutions against authoritarian rule in Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Biden specifically named these six countries, which all happen to border Russia.
Revolutions against authoritarian rule is, of course, code for
pro-US revolutions. Likewise, Biden’s talk about spheres of influence being an outdated 19th century concept is code for Washington’s drive to undermine Moscow’s influence over bordering countries in order to defend US global influence.
The US private intelligence agency Stratfor has analysed Washington’s renewed pressure on Moscow and its likely downstream implications. See the essay “Russia, Iran and the Biden Speech” on the Stratfor webpage.
Washington’s renewed sabre rattling against Moscow grows out of the relative decline of American imperial power in the face of the economic, political and military rise of China, which is allying with Russia.
The 20th century’s two World Wars grew out of Great Power moves to redivide an already divided world at a time of shifting imperial relativities.
Now we are beginning to experience something similar with the upturn in Washington’s belligerence towards Moscow as a consequence of America’s relative decline, especially in relation to China. This frightening scenario contains the germs of new wars, possibly on a global scale and including nuclear exchanges.
The shifting imperial relativities of the early 21st century both spring from and intersect with the quartet of contradictions driving late capitalism towards global collapse.
The profitability crisis, the ecological crisis, the resource crisis and the legitimacy crisis are accelerating and coalescing worldwide. While the existential impacts of this quartet of contradictions may be slowed by intelligent government actions, they cannot be halted. Indeed, they are more likely to be hastened by stupid government actions flowing from the imperatives of competitive profiteering and imperial rivalries.
The world is entering very dangerous times as social collapse contradictions become interwoven with shifting imperial relativities. Nearly a century ago, the Marxist Rosa Luxemburg predicted our future in her famous phrase “Socialism or Barbarism”. Given today’s perils of climate warming, nuclear warfare and resource depletion, we possibly need to upgrade her warning to “Socialism or Extinction”.
Some of the feedback I get from good people runs along these lines: “We hate and fear what’s happening in the world. But socialism as a global force appears to be dead. There doesn’t seem to be any believable alternative to capitalism.”
While I understand these sentiments, I don’t share them. Why? Because the intensification of social contradictions and imperial tensions mean that global capitalism is on a slide towards collapse and revolution. The real question arising within a historically short time period will be: “Capitalism is dying, so what will replace it?” During that interregnum the world will experience turbulent conflicts between opposing social forces.
A new global order that’s better, not worse, than capitalism will grow from struggles for practical gains that strengthen the grassroots and weaken the elites. This is the living terrain of a powerful socialist rebirth. This is a process already underway in every country. This is where hope can realistically be found.
If you liked this story, forward it to your friends. Feel free to contact the author at grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz
Full address of the Stratfor article: http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20091026_russia_iran_and_biden_speech?utm_source=GWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=091026&utm_content=readmore
27 October 2009
During October 2009, Washington suddenly ratcheted up its pressure on Russia. We are starting to see a slide back to a Cold War chill between the world’s two big nuclear powers.
Acting on orders from US president Barack Obama, his vice-president Joe Biden toured Eastern Europe where he called for revolutions against authoritarian rule in Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Biden specifically named these six countries, which all happen to border Russia.
Revolutions against authoritarian rule is, of course, code for
pro-US revolutions. Likewise, Biden’s talk about spheres of influence being an outdated 19th century concept is code for Washington’s drive to undermine Moscow’s influence over bordering countries in order to defend US global influence.The US private intelligence agency Stratfor has analysed Washington’s renewed pressure on Moscow and its likely downstream implications. See the essay “Russia, Iran and the Biden Speech” on the Stratfor webpage.
Washington’s renewed sabre rattling against Moscow grows out of the relative decline of American imperial power in the face of the economic, political and military rise of China, which is allying with Russia.
The 20th century’s two World Wars grew out of Great Power moves to redivide an already divided world at a time of shifting imperial relativities.
Now we are beginning to experience something similar with the upturn in Washington’s belligerence towards Moscow as a consequence of America’s relative decline, especially in relation to China. This frightening scenario contains the germs of new wars, possibly on a global scale and including nuclear exchanges.
The shifting imperial relativities of the early 21st century both spring from and intersect with the quartet of contradictions driving late capitalism towards global collapse.
The profitability crisis, the ecological crisis, the resource crisis and the legitimacy crisis are accelerating and coalescing worldwide. While the existential impacts of this quartet of contradictions may be slowed by intelligent government actions, they cannot be halted. Indeed, they are more likely to be hastened by stupid government actions flowing from the imperatives of competitive profiteering and imperial rivalries.
The world is entering very dangerous times as social collapse contradictions become interwoven with shifting imperial relativities. Nearly a century ago, the Marxist Rosa Luxemburg predicted our future in her famous phrase “Socialism or Barbarism”. Given today’s perils of climate warming, nuclear warfare and resource depletion, we possibly need to upgrade her warning to “Socialism or Extinction”.
Some of the feedback I get from good people runs along these lines: “We hate and fear what’s happening in the world. But socialism as a global force appears to be dead. There doesn’t seem to be any believable alternative to capitalism.”
While I understand these sentiments, I don’t share them. Why? Because the intensification of social contradictions and imperial tensions mean that global capitalism is on a slide towards collapse and revolution. The real question arising within a historically short time period will be: “Capitalism is dying, so what will replace it?” During that interregnum the world will experience turbulent conflicts between opposing social forces.
A new global order that’s better, not worse, than capitalism will grow from struggles for practical gains that strengthen the grassroots and weaken the elites. This is the living terrain of a powerful socialist rebirth. This is a process already underway in every country. This is where hope can realistically be found.
If you liked this story, forward it to your friends. Feel free to contact the author at grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz
Full address of the Stratfor article: http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20091026_russia_iran_and_biden_speech?utm_source=GWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=091026&utm_content=readmore
The ‘collapse’ of global capitalism
by Grant Morgan
22 October 2009
Something molecular is changing in the DNA of capitalism. Look at these three recent quotes:
Each of the three quotes includes the word “collapse” in the sense of a collapse of global capitalism, rather than merely a crisis in a particular part of the world system (such as cracks in the financial architecture or deflations of housing and share bubbles).
What we are starting to see is collapsing confidence among the defenders of capitalism. While far from universal, it is becoming a common phenomenon among the more insightful ideologues of the global marketplace.
History is crystal clear on this point: a crisis of confidence among the ruling elites of any social system is both a symptom and a catalyst of impending social disintegration (and, after a turbulent interregnum, the rise of another type of social system).
Increasingly common talk among our “betters” about the possibility or probability of capitalist collapse is tightly intertwined with the crisis of legitimacy, one of the quartet of contradictions which are besieging late capitalism. The other three contradictions are the profitability crisis, the resource crisis and the ecological crisis.
Corporate profitability is in overall longterm decline despite late capitalism’s frantic efforts to compensate via the ultimately self-destructive mechanism of financialisation. The system is reaching peak oil, peak water and peak farmland as the scramble for dwindling resources sparks new imperial wars. Capitalism’s predatory exploitation of the environment has unleashed the revenge of nature, facing humanity with the catastrophic dangers of climate warming.
The mounting fury of this quartet of contradictions points towards only one possible outcome: the collapse of capitalism on a global scale within a historically short time span.
When a country’s rulers become so isolated that they block even the “normal” evolution of capitalism, they can be ousted by a grassroots revolt without fatal consequences to the system as a whole. That’s what we have seen in Russia (1917), Spain (1935), China (1949), Cuba (1959), Czechoslovakia (1968), Nicaragua (1979), Venezuela (1999) and Nepal (2007). And so often the world system has rolled back the people’s gains as isolation gutted the revolution.
The structures of a social order spanning the entire planet will be weakened to the point of collapse only by an elemental conjunction and intensification of worldwide contradictions.
The quartet of contradictions eating away at global capitalism’s profit rates, natural resources, ecological stability and popular legitimacy may be slowed by intelligent policy options, but they cannot be halted. Indeed, they are more likely to be hastened by stupid policy options driven by the dynamics of competitive profiteering.
That brings us full circle to the despair expressed at the outset of this story by defenders of capitalism. They feel that the financial institutions which increasingly drive not only investment strategies but also government policy have “lost all sense of fiduciary duty, ethical responsibility and public obligation”, to quote the words of US financial guru Paul Farrell. Their short-run thinking, he says, will inevitably generate “bigger, more frequent bubble/bust cycles” and the “rapid decline” of global capitalism.
Self-doubt and cynicism have now taken such a hold of capitalism’s intellectuals that it is becoming commonplace for them to parody the stupidity and greed of big banks.
The website of the Financial Times, that once-magestic propagandist of the corporate marketplace, hosts a side-splitting video send-up of banking practices, political economy and how everything yet nothing has changed in the last year. It features a bumptious banker saying, “Show me a stupid risk, and we’ll take it”, because governments will always shovel more money into his bank vaults. This must-watch spoof can be seen at http://www.ft.com/cms/4fe40d1a-07b4-11dd-a922-0000779fd2ac.html?_i_referralObject=10664514&fromSearch=n (also below).
While tapping into a deep vein of public disquiet, the criticisms of bankers made by capitalism’s intellectuals seldom offer real alternatives because of the mental chains and social bonds constraining the critics.
Socialists need to tap into the same vein, but with different objectives. That’s why Socialist Worker recently initiated a Bad Banks campaign in New Zealand. By joining the dots between big banks, which most people love to hate, and the entire workings of a world system sliding into existential crisis, the campaign aims to prepare people for life after capitalism.
Different campaigns on different issues in different countries are organising resistance to global capitalism’s mistreatment of people and nature. All these campaigns are necessary, and all deserve support. Since the Bad Banks campaign in New Zealand is just one campaign among many, it does not claim any special status.
And yet, in one way, this campaign is special. It targets a key driver of early social collapse: the grotesque financialisation of global capitalism. We must be prepared for that early collapse, and we must prepare others. We must propose socialist alternatives now so that we prepare the ground for the green shoots of popular recovery.
If you want to be part of the Bad Banks campaign in New Zealand, or spread it to other countries, visit http://www.blogger.com/www.badbanks.co.nz and email campaign manager Vaughan Gunson at http://www.blogger.com/svpl@xtra.co.nz.
If you liked this story, forward it to your friends. It all helps to spread the word and make the links. And reply with your feedback to the author at http://www.blogger.com/grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz.
22 October 2009
Something molecular is changing in the DNA of capitalism. Look at these three recent quotes:
- “The future will be a total disaster, with a collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it today.”
- “Capitalism is near the tipping point, unprepared for a catastrophe, set up for collapse and rapid decline.”
- “There is a high probability of a crisis and collapse by 2012. The ‘Great Depression 2’ is dead ahead. Unfortunately, there’s absolutely nothing you can do to hide from this unfolding reality or prevent the rush of the historical imperative.”
Each of the three quotes includes the word “collapse” in the sense of a collapse of global capitalism, rather than merely a crisis in a particular part of the world system (such as cracks in the financial architecture or deflations of housing and share bubbles).
What we are starting to see is collapsing confidence among the defenders of capitalism. While far from universal, it is becoming a common phenomenon among the more insightful ideologues of the global marketplace.
History is crystal clear on this point: a crisis of confidence among the ruling elites of any social system is both a symptom and a catalyst of impending social disintegration (and, after a turbulent interregnum, the rise of another type of social system).
Increasingly common talk among our “betters” about the possibility or probability of capitalist collapse is tightly intertwined with the crisis of legitimacy, one of the quartet of contradictions which are besieging late capitalism. The other three contradictions are the profitability crisis, the resource crisis and the ecological crisis.
Corporate profitability is in overall longterm decline despite late capitalism’s frantic efforts to compensate via the ultimately self-destructive mechanism of financialisation. The system is reaching peak oil, peak water and peak farmland as the scramble for dwindling resources sparks new imperial wars. Capitalism’s predatory exploitation of the environment has unleashed the revenge of nature, facing humanity with the catastrophic dangers of climate warming.
The mounting fury of this quartet of contradictions points towards only one possible outcome: the collapse of capitalism on a global scale within a historically short time span.
When a country’s rulers become so isolated that they block even the “normal” evolution of capitalism, they can be ousted by a grassroots revolt without fatal consequences to the system as a whole. That’s what we have seen in Russia (1917), Spain (1935), China (1949), Cuba (1959), Czechoslovakia (1968), Nicaragua (1979), Venezuela (1999) and Nepal (2007). And so often the world system has rolled back the people’s gains as isolation gutted the revolution.
The structures of a social order spanning the entire planet will be weakened to the point of collapse only by an elemental conjunction and intensification of worldwide contradictions.
The quartet of contradictions eating away at global capitalism’s profit rates, natural resources, ecological stability and popular legitimacy may be slowed by intelligent policy options, but they cannot be halted. Indeed, they are more likely to be hastened by stupid policy options driven by the dynamics of competitive profiteering.
That brings us full circle to the despair expressed at the outset of this story by defenders of capitalism. They feel that the financial institutions which increasingly drive not only investment strategies but also government policy have “lost all sense of fiduciary duty, ethical responsibility and public obligation”, to quote the words of US financial guru Paul Farrell. Their short-run thinking, he says, will inevitably generate “bigger, more frequent bubble/bust cycles” and the “rapid decline” of global capitalism.
Self-doubt and cynicism have now taken such a hold of capitalism’s intellectuals that it is becoming commonplace for them to parody the stupidity and greed of big banks.
The website of the Financial Times, that once-magestic propagandist of the corporate marketplace, hosts a side-splitting video send-up of banking practices, political economy and how everything yet nothing has changed in the last year. It features a bumptious banker saying, “Show me a stupid risk, and we’ll take it”, because governments will always shovel more money into his bank vaults. This must-watch spoof can be seen at http://www.ft.com/cms/4fe40d1a-07b4-11dd-a922-0000779fd2ac.html?_i_referralObject=10664514&fromSearch=n (also below).
While tapping into a deep vein of public disquiet, the criticisms of bankers made by capitalism’s intellectuals seldom offer real alternatives because of the mental chains and social bonds constraining the critics.
Socialists need to tap into the same vein, but with different objectives. That’s why Socialist Worker recently initiated a Bad Banks campaign in New Zealand. By joining the dots between big banks, which most people love to hate, and the entire workings of a world system sliding into existential crisis, the campaign aims to prepare people for life after capitalism.
Different campaigns on different issues in different countries are organising resistance to global capitalism’s mistreatment of people and nature. All these campaigns are necessary, and all deserve support. Since the Bad Banks campaign in New Zealand is just one campaign among many, it does not claim any special status.
And yet, in one way, this campaign is special. It targets a key driver of early social collapse: the grotesque financialisation of global capitalism. We must be prepared for that early collapse, and we must prepare others. We must propose socialist alternatives now so that we prepare the ground for the green shoots of popular recovery.
If you want to be part of the Bad Banks campaign in New Zealand, or spread it to other countries, visit http://www.blogger.com/www.badbanks.co.nz and email campaign manager Vaughan Gunson at http://www.blogger.com/svpl@xtra.co.nz.
If you liked this story, forward it to your friends. It all helps to spread the word and make the links. And reply with your feedback to the author at http://www.blogger.com/grantmorgan@paradise.net.nz.
20 reasons America has lost its soul and collapse is inevitable
by Paul B. Farrell
MarketWatch
20 October 2009
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) – Jack Bogle published “The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism” four years ago. The battle’s over. The sequel should be titled: “Capitalism Died a Lost Soul.” Worse, we’ve lost “America’s Soul.” And worldwide the consequences will be catastrophic.
That’s why a man like Hong Kong’s contrarian economist Marc Faber warns in his Doom, Boom & Gloom Report: “The future will be a total disaster, with a collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it today.”
OK, deny it. But I’ll bet you have a nagging feeling maybe he’s right, the end may be near. I have for a long time: I wrote a column back in 1997: “Battling for the Soul of Wall Street.” My interest in “The Soul” -- what Jung called the “collective unconscious” -- dates back to my Ph.D. dissertation: “Modern Man in Search of His Soul,” a title borrowed from Jung’s 1933 book, “Modern Man in Search of a Soul.” This battle has been on my mind since my days at Morgan Stanley 30 years ago, witnessing the decline. No, not just another meltdown, another bear market recession like the one recently triggered by Wall Street’s “too-greedy-to-fail” banks. Faber is warning that the entire system of capitalism will collapse. Get it? The engine driving the great “American Economic Empire” for 233 years will collapse, a total disaster, a destiny we created.
Has capitalism lost its soul? Guys like Bogle and Faber sense it. Read more about the soul in physicist Gary Zukav’s “The Seat of the Soul,” Thomas Moore’s “Care of the Soul” and sacred texts.
But for Wall Street and American capitalism, use your gut. You know something’s very wrong: A year ago “too-greedy-to-fail” banks were insolvent, in a near-death experience. Now, magically they’re back to business as usual, arrogant, pocketing outrageous bonuses while Main Street sacrifices, and unemployment and foreclosures continue rising as tight credit, inflation and skyrocketing Federal debt are killing taxpayers.
MarketWatch
20 October 2009
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) – Jack Bogle published “The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism” four years ago. The battle’s over. The sequel should be titled: “Capitalism Died a Lost Soul.” Worse, we’ve lost “America’s Soul.” And worldwide the consequences will be catastrophic.
That’s why a man like Hong Kong’s contrarian economist Marc Faber warns in his Doom, Boom & Gloom Report: “The future will be a total disaster, with a collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it today.”
OK, deny it. But I’ll bet you have a nagging feeling maybe he’s right, the end may be near. I have for a long time: I wrote a column back in 1997: “Battling for the Soul of Wall Street.” My interest in “The Soul” -- what Jung called the “collective unconscious” -- dates back to my Ph.D. dissertation: “Modern Man in Search of His Soul,” a title borrowed from Jung’s 1933 book, “Modern Man in Search of a Soul.” This battle has been on my mind since my days at Morgan Stanley 30 years ago, witnessing the decline. No, not just another meltdown, another bear market recession like the one recently triggered by Wall Street’s “too-greedy-to-fail” banks. Faber is warning that the entire system of capitalism will collapse. Get it? The engine driving the great “American Economic Empire” for 233 years will collapse, a total disaster, a destiny we created.
Has capitalism lost its soul? Guys like Bogle and Faber sense it. Read more about the soul in physicist Gary Zukav’s “The Seat of the Soul,” Thomas Moore’s “Care of the Soul” and sacred texts.
But for Wall Street and American capitalism, use your gut. You know something’s very wrong: A year ago “too-greedy-to-fail” banks were insolvent, in a near-death experience. Now, magically they’re back to business as usual, arrogant, pocketing outrageous bonuses while Main Street sacrifices, and unemployment and foreclosures continue rising as tight credit, inflation and skyrocketing Federal debt are killing taxpayers.
Show Me a Stupid Risk, and We’ll Take It
Very funny Bird & Fortune video conversation on the Financial Times website about banking practices, political economy and how everything yet nothing has changed in the last year.
Length: 10 minutes.
[Unfortunately I can’t figure out how to embed this video, but if you click on the image it should take you to it. Otherwise the address is below.]
http://www.ft.com/cms/4fe40d1a-07b4-11dd-a922-0000779fd2ac.html?_i_referralObject=10664514&fromSearch=n
Length: 10 minutes.
[Unfortunately I can’t figure out how to embed this video, but if you click on the image it should take you to it. Otherwise the address is below.]
http://www.ft.com/cms/4fe40d1a-07b4-11dd-a922-0000779fd2ac.html?_i_referralObject=10664514&fromSearch=n
John Pilger: Britain’s postal srtike is the war at home
by John Pilger
London
23 October 2009
The struggle of striking British postal workers against privatisation plans is as vital for democracy as any national event in recent years. The campaign against them is part of a historic shift from the last vestiges of political democracy in Britain to a corporate world of insecurity and war.
If the privateers running the Post Office are allowed to win, the regression that now touches all lives bar the wealthy will quicken its pace.
A third of British children now live in low-income or impoverished families. One in five young people are denied hope of a decent job or education.
And now, Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government is to mount a “fire sale” of public assets and services worth £16 billion. Unmatched since former PM Margaret Thatcher’s transfer of public wealth to a new gross elite, the sale, or theft, will include the Channel Tunnel rail link, bridges, the student loan bank, school playing fields, libraries and public housing estates.
The plunder of the National Health Service and public education is already under way.
The common thread is adherence to the demands of an opulent, sub-criminal minority exposed by the 2008 collapse of Wall Street and of the City of London, now rescued with hundreds of billions in public money and still unregulated with a single stringent condition imposed by the government.
Goldman Sachs, which enjoys a personal connection with the PM, is to give employees record average individual pay and bonus packages of £500,000. The London Financial Times now offers a service called How to Spend It.
None of this is accountable to the public, whose view was expressed at the last election in 2005: New Labour won with the support of barely a fifth of the British adult population.
For every five people who voted Labour, eight did not vote at all. This was not apathy, as the media pretend, but a strike by the public — like the postal workers are today on strike. The issues are broadly the same: the bullying and hypocrisy of contagious, undemocratic power.
Since coming to office, New Labour has done its best to destroy the Post Office as a highly productive public institution valued with affection by the British people.
Not long ago, you posted a letter anywhere in the country and it reached its destination the following morning. There were two deliveries a day, and collections on Sundays.
The best of Britain, which is ordinary life premised on a sense of community, could be found at a local post office, from the Highlands to the Pennines to the inner cities, where pensions, income support, child benefit and incapacity benefit were drawn, and the elderly, the awkward, the inarticulate and the harried were treated humanely.
At my local post office in south London, if an elderly person failed to turn up on pension day, he or she would get a visit from the postmistress, Smita Patel, often with groceries. She did this for almost 20 years until the government closed down this “lifeline of human contact”, as the local Labour MP called it, along with more than 150 other local London branches.
The Post Office executives who faced the anger of our community at a local church — unknown to us, the decision had already been taken — were not even aware that branch run by the Patels made a profit. What mattered was ideology; the branch had to go.
Mention of public service brought puzzlement to their faces.
The postal workers, having this year doubled annual profits to £321 million, have had to listen to specious lectures from secretary of state Peter Mandelson, a twice-disgraced figure risen from the murk of New Labour, about “urgent modernisation”.
The truth is, the Royal Mail offers a quality service at half the price of its privatised rivals Deutsche Post and TNT.
In dealing with new technology, postal workers have sought only consultation about their working lives and the right not to be abused — like the postal worker who was spat upon by her manager, then sacked while he was promoted. Or the postal worker with 17 years’ service and not a single complaint to his name who was sacked on the spot for failing to wear his cycle helmet.
Watch the near frenzy with which your postie now delivers. A middle-aged man has to run much of his route in order to keep to a preordained and unrealistic time.
If he fails, he is disciplined and kept in his place by the fear that thousands of jobs are at the whim of managers.
Communication Workers Union negotiators describe intransigent executives with a hidden agenda — just as the National Coal Board masked Thatcher’s strictly political goal of destroying the miners’ union.
The collaborative journalists’ role is unchanged, too. Mark Lawson, who pontificates about middlebrow cultural matters for the BBC and the Guardian, and receives many times the remuneration of a postal worker, dispensed a Sun-style diatribe on October 10.
Waffling about the triumph of email and how the postal service was a “bystander” to the internet when, in fact, it has proven itself a commercial beneficiary, Lawson wrote: “The outcome [of the strike] will decide whether Billy Hayes of the CWU will, like [Arthur] Scargill, be remembered as someone who presided over the destruction of the industry he was meant to represent.”
The record is clear that, 25 years ago, the miners and their union head Scargill were fighting against the wholesale destruction of an industry that was long planned for ideological reasons.
The miners’ enemies included the most subversive, brutal and sinister forces of the British state, aided by journalists — as Lawson’s Guardian colleague Seumas Milne documents in his landmark work, The Enemy Within.
Postal workers deserve the support of all honest, decent people, who are reminded that they may be next on the list if they remain silent.
From www.johnpilger.com Hat tip Green Left Weekly
SOCIALIST WORKER FORUM: Pollution Market & Bad Banks
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
DAVID PARKER
writer for http://www.wellsharp.wordpress.com/
BRONWEN BEECHEY
Socialist Worker-New Zealand
7.30pm on Thursday, 5th November
Socialist Centre, 86 Princes Street, Onehunga, Auckland
This educational forum explores why the so-called "Emissions Trading Scheme" should be more properly called the Pollution Market, and exactly how it will make our environmental problems worse. This is closely linked to the political agenda of big banks, investment drivers of the global economy and, therefore, of the politics of late capitalism. All greens and leftists welcome.For more information, contact Bronwen i_c_red@slingshot.co.nz or phone the Socialist Centre (09) 634 3984.
BAD BANKS leaflet #3: 'Their Pollution Market Stinks!'
Bad Banks leaflet #3 is available now. It addresses the link between global banking power and the ecological crisis, specifically focusing on the banking class's prosposed "solution" to climate change, pollution markets (or as they're calling them, emission trading schemes).
This leaflet has contributions on the back page from David Parker (writer for www.wellsharp.wordpress.com/), Mike Treen (Unite Union National Director), Omar Hamed (Unite Union organiser & Rainforest Action co-ordinator), and Roger Fowler (editor of www.farefreenz.blogspot.com/).
Climate Activists to Expose Carbon Trading Scam for “350” Global Day of Action
From: Rising Tide North America Date: Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 8:13 PM
Subject: Spread the word! 350 reasons to launch Oct 24!
For Immediate Release
October 21, 2009
Contact:
Hilary Moore: 916.802.4984
falsesolutions@RisingTideNorthAmerica.org
www.350reasons.org
Media Advisory
Climate Activists to Expose Carbon Trading Scam for “350” Global Day of Action
What: An online video report exploring 350 reasons why “carbon trading” will not work, as well as printed literature distributed at dozens of “350” events around the world. The video will be available for download at www.350reasons.org on October 24th. A teaser zine with 35 of the full 350 list is available now.
The activities are part of the “350”, an international day of climate action expected to be one of largest days of global political action in history, with over 300 simultaneous events in more than 170 countries. (More information on the international day of action at www.350.org).
Who: The reports are produced by Rising Tide North America, Carbon Trade Watch, the Camp for Climate Action, the Mobilization for Climate Justice West. Submissions to the 350 reasons came from nearly 100 people on 5 continents.
Why: Domestic and international climate policy arenas are failing to protect people and planet by opting for carbon trading schemes proposed by major industrial polluters. Instead of taking scientific, tangible and democratic measures to reduce industrial sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and many of the wealthiest countries in the world are instead choosing to mitigate impacts to corporate profits and carbon-intensive industrial growth through the marketing and offsetting of emissions.
This markets-driven approach only exacerbates current levels of climate pollution, while making it impossible for the most impacted communities to be relieved of their burden of toxic pollutants, and to receive the trillions of dollars of reparations owed them for decades of illness, exploitation and death.
In order to stabilize the global climate before billions of people around the world suffer the consequences, we need to:
a. Immediately start reducing the carbon emissions of major corporate polluters
b. Prioritize just transition and local renewable energy strategies that are democratically determined by the most impacted communities and workers
c. Stop carbon-trading regimes from swindling our economies.
Website: www.350reasons.org
Email: falsesolutions@risingtidenorthamerica.org
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