Chronicling the Crisis of the Working Class http://mrzine.org Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:42:01 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/al030212.html 26. In Homs and Dera'a, the Mission observed armed groups committing acts of violence against Government forces, resulting in death and injury among their ranks. In certain situations, Government forces responded to attacks against their personnel with force. The observers noted that some of the armed groups were using flares and armour-piercing projectiles. 27. In Homs, Idlib and Hama, the Observer Mission witnessed acts of violence being committed against Government forces and civilians that resulted in several deaths and injuries. Examples of those acts include the bombing of a civilian bus, killing eight persons and injuring others, including women and children, and the bombing of a train carrying diesel oil. In another incident in Homs, a police bus was blown up, killing two police officers. A fuel pipeline and some small bridges were also bombed. 28. The Mission noted that many parties falsely reported that explosions or violence had occurred in several locations. When the observers went to those locations, they found that those reports were unfounded. 29. The Mission also noted that, according to its teams in the field, the media exaggerated the nature of the incidents and the number of persons killed in incidents and protests in certain towns. . . . 44. In Homs, a French journalist who worked for the France 2 channel was killed and a Belgian journalist was injured. The Government and opposition accused each other of being responsible for the incident, and both sides issued statements of condemnation. The Government formed an investigative committee in order to determine the cause of the incident. It should be noted that Mission reports from Homs indicate that the French journalist was killed by opposition mortar shells. . . . 73. The Mission noted that the Government strived to help it succeed in its task and remove any barriers that might stand in its way. The Government also facilitated meetings with all parties. No restrictions were placed on the movement of the Mission and its ability to interview Syrian citizens, both those who opposed the Government and those loyal to it. 74. In some cities, the Mission sensed the extreme tension, oppression and injustice from which the Syrian people are suffering. However, the citizens believe the crisis should be resolved peacefully through Arab mediation alone, without international intervention. Doing so would allow them to live in peace and complete the reform process and bring about the change they desire. The Mission was informed by the opposition, particularly in Dar'a, Homs, Hama and Idlib, that some of its members had taken up arms in response to the suffering of the Syrian people as a result of the regime's oppression and tyranny; corruption, which affects all sectors of society; the use of torture by the security agencies; and human rights violations. 75. Recently, there have been incidents that could widen the gap and increase bitterness between the parties. These incidents can have grave consequences and lead to the loss of life and property. Such incidents include the bombing of buildings, trains carrying fuel, vehicles carrying diesel oil and explosions targeting the police, members of the media and fuel pipelines. Some of those attacks have been carried out by the Free Syrian Army and some by other armed opposition groups. Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:40:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/emersberger020212.html "Russia's threats to abort a binding UN resolution on Syria for the second time are utterly irresponsible," said José Luis Díaz, Amnesty's representative to the UN. "Russia bears a heavy responsibility for allowing the brutal crackdown to continue." With Libya still suffering the lethal consequences of western military "liberation," with Iran gravely threatened with war based on remarkably similar lies to those the West used against Iraq, Amnesty decides to lash out at Russia for demanding that a repeat of Libya not happen. Clearly Amnesty remains oblivious to who the world's most dangerous criminals are. Amnesty has disgracefully chosen to encourage them. Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:02:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/latuff010212.html Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:21:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/do310112.html The other side of cultivating a cold hard hatred for the 1 percent, the rich, is love for the people, for the 99 percent, for ourselves, so that arguments and criticisms might be loving and compassionate, and mutuality will prevail. The two sides are integrally linked and inseparable -- hatred for the rich, love for the people. We have a long, hard road ahead. Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:21:00 EST http://bit.ly/AwsktF Later that day I met with the first person on my list of regime opponents, most of whom had served prison terms at some point in their lives. I will write in more detail about these men and women later, but they varied from those who desired an overhaul of the regime while keeping Assad's presidency intact, to those who would not consider dialogue with any part of the existing government. There were some commonalities. All rejected any foreign military intervention and the militarization of the protests. The majority were scathing about the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and external opposition groups like the Syrian National Council (SNC), so liberally quoted by the Western media as the definitive voice of the Syrian "opposition." "Their decisions are made in America and Turkey," said one regime critic about the foreign-based Syrian opposition. "I want decisions made in Syria." Another one parried: "The external opposition are not an effective part of the opposition. They don't participate in any political parties here. We want to change the system in a safe way -- we don't want to pay a higher price than necessary. We want national cohesion, we don't want a collapse of the economy and we don't want to lose our sovereignty." Most of these domestic-based opposition figures I met were disparaging about international sanctions too: "Life is very expensive for the Syrian people now and [the sanctions] will take the country into a vicious cycle of poverty and violence and harm the democratic transition," says Louay Hussein, leader of the Building the Syrian State movement, who spent seven years in prison during his 20s. "Sanctions will not affect the authorities, but will affect the people," claims retired political economist Aref Dalila, an organizer of the 2000-1 Damascus Spring (a period of unusual political and social openness in Syria immediately following Hafez Assad's death) who was released from a seven-year prison term in 2008. "People are already paying a high cost -- prices have risen dramatically, factories have shut down, imports have decreased by around half and unemployment has risen, especially in the tourism sector." Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:46:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/parenti270112.html Two days after surgery I noticed a dark red discoloration on my lower abdomen indicating internal bleeding. I was supposed to get a follow-up call from a nurse who would check on how I was doing. But the call might never come because the staff was planning a walkout. "We have no contract," one of them had told me when I was in the recovery room. So now the nurses are on strike -- and I'm left on my own to divine what my internal bleeding is all about. What fun. Fortunately, it didn't turn out that way. A nurse did call me despite the walkout. Yes, she said, it was internal bleeding, but it was to be expected. My surgeon called later in the day to confirm this opinion. Death was not yet knocking. A few days later, there were massive nurses strikes on both coasts. Among other things, the nurses were complaining about "being disrespected by a corporate hospital culture that demands sacrifices from patients and those who provide their care, but pays executives millions of dollars" (New York Times, 16 December 2011). One cold-blooded management negotiator was quoted as saying, "We have the money. We just don't have the will to give it to you" (ibid.). . . . For my out-patient operation, the hospital charged Medicare $19,466. Of this, Medicare paid $2,527. And I was billed $644. The hospital then writes off the unpaid balance thus saving considerable sums in taxes (amounting to an indirect subsidy from the rest of us taxpayers). Had I no Medicare coverage, I would have had to pay the entire $19,466. I was informed by the hospital that the $19,466 charge covers only hospital costs for equipment, technicians, supplies, and room. So besides the $644, I will have to pay for any pathologists, surgical assistants, and anesthesiologists who performed additional services. I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. How much does my surgeon earn? Not much at all. He gets about $400 to $500 for everything, including my pre-op and post-op visits and the surgery itself, an exacting undertaking that requires skills of the highest sort. He also has to maintain insurance, an office, an assistant, and an increasing load of paperwork. Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:06:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/millar260112.html As with much so-called psychogeography, and particularly the work of Ian Sinclair, the tone of Savage Messiah wavers between doom-struck millenarianism and urban transcendence. Sometimes it's mapping the pale dawn after the bacchanalian night before, where the dream of transcendence has evaporated in the red mist of a comedown, at others it is an attempt to tap into the anarchic and erotic energies of the city. . . . There is a romantic longing in her prose fragments for a moment of cleansing violence born of the city's haunted energies, calling up the spirits of Broadwater farm, Robin Hood Gardens, the Brixton riots. London is mapped in an act of necrophilia as Ford attempts to channel the disappointment and rage embedded in the very bricks of the city through her own eroticised excursions. . . . Ford's drawings of brutalist architecture are not just backdrops for her ghostly punks; they are symbols of mourning for the collapse and betrayal of utopian narratives. "What might be at work here is the common contemporary phenomenon of nostalgia for the future, a longing for the fragments of the half-hearted post war attempt at building a new society, an attempt that lay in ruins by [1980]. These remnants of social democracy can, at best, have the effect of critiquing the paucity of ambition and grotesque inequalities of the present." Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:40:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/dmello250112.html I don't know if she will agree with me, but I'd like to believe that Arundhati Roy has embraced 'Romantic Marxism'. I know the ideological censors would be frowning at me; for them, there can never be anything like 'Romantic Marxism'; "comrade Bernard, you cannot mix romanticism with Marxism". I differ and in this I am with E P Thompson. And, with Marx of the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 (1959) and his passionate denunciation of capitalism in Capital, Volume-I -- with a language and imagery that makes the reader realize the need for Kranti. Marx did, after all, also hitched romanticism with his exposition of the structure, the social relations and logic of the inner workings of the capitalist system. At its core, 'Romantic Marxism' brings together Marx's thesis of alienation with his theory of value and welds these with the basic structure of feelings that such a consciousness evokes. Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:40:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/ajl240112.html In Finkelstein's explicit demands to water down the struggle lies a tacit recognition that his battalions of disaffected liberals, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, are not the ones capable of fighting an anti-systemic struggle. In another irony, they are not so different from the battalions that those who pin the blame for the occupation merely on the lobby and the foreign influence on our government -- and it cannot be stated strongly enough that this is a raw appeal to racist white-power jingoism -- assume will liberate Palestine. Both camps appeal to the middle classes to liberate Palestine: the former to its Democratic component, the latter to its Republican one, the former to liberalism, and the latter to nativist nationalism. Rejecting anti-systemic struggle, both refuse to embrace an insurrectionary politics of bottom-up mobilization. Both look for a quick solvent to melt the chains shackling the Palestinian people. That solvent is snake oil. There are no short cuts. Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:40:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/henwood210112.html Q.: Clearly, your skepticism about small banks, corporate personhood, and community money aren't motivated by love of the established order. If these solutions aren't radical enough, what would be? Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:40:00 EST http://bit.ly/ADJrgQ The purpose of manipulating the media coverage is to persuade the West and its Arab allies that conditions in Syria are approaching the point when they can repeat their success in Libya. Hence the fog of disinformation pumped out through the internet. Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:11:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/navarro200112.html Schröder's only priority in economic policy was to stimulate the economy on the basis of boosting exports, which meant a huge concentration of euros in Germany, which were then used to buy public debt of Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain (PIIGS) and also to make loans to private banks in PIIGS, the sum of whose trade deficits is equal to the German surplus. Schröder achieved this great accumulation of euros by reducing the percentage of the value produced (by higher productivity) that went to labor, at the cost of augmenting the percentage that went to capital (that is to say, the bosses who own or run banks and exporters). A condition for Schröder's achievement of it, in other words, was the weakening of labor, as a consequence of the former chancellor's application of neoliberal measures (of the sort that Zapatero also implemented and the Rajoy administration will undoubtedly continue). A result of that is that Germany lost 2.1 million full-time jobs, replaced by 1.1 million new part-time jobs, half a million self-employed, and another half million temporary jobs. To be sure, unemployment is relatively low at 7.1% (in comparison to the EU-15 average), but that is no thanks to Schröder's reforms; rather, that is due to the German system of co-determination (in which workers participate in the management of firms for which they work), which facilitates job retention by reducing work hours, transforming full-time jobs into part-time or temporary jobs. The weakening of labor has resulted in the reduction of wages and social protection. Germany doesn't even have a minimum wage, and millions of Germans work for 400 euros a month, the solution proposed by Corporate Spain. The percentage of workers in poverty grew from 15% in 1998 to 22% in 2005. There is no full awareness in the media and political circles in the European Union that it is an error to define the German model, based on exports, as an exemplary one to follow. German economist and political scientist Fabian Linder has written extensively about the scant success of this model (see "Following Germany's Lead to Economic Disaster"). German economic growth has been very low and slow, due to weak domestic demand, caused by a remarkable decline in real wages as a consequence of the measures carried out by Schröder and continued by Angela Merkel. Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:33:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/unac190112.html UNAC members participated in a national conference call on Tuesday with many other antiwar and Iranian groups. The meeting called for demonstrations on February 4 to protest the threat of war against Iran. Please join us on February 4 and plan a protest in your local area. There is a Facebook event for February 4 here: www.facebook.com/events/214341975322807/ Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:50:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/grossman180112.html It now seems that Wulff is stubbornly refusing to quit, despite BILD, and there is no impeachment process. And what is gradually becoming clearer to many Germans: the whole Wulff affair served to distract attention from other subjects, which were far too prominent for the bosses of BILD. One was the increase in the pension age from 65 to 67, a gradual process which began on January 1st. . . . Of little interest to BILD, the Left party and many smaller, more radical left-wing groups again took part in the annual pilgrimage to the gravesites of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, who founded the German Communist Party in January 1919 and were brutally murdered two weeks later. Once again several ten thousand either paraded for two miles to the site with leftist songs and banners or went by subway and walked quietly the last 5 or 6 blocks to place the traditional red carnations on the gravesites of the two and other old Social Democratic, Communist, and GDR leaders and artists whose urns are set in the semicircular wall around the large memorial stone. Noteworthy this time: not only the faithful old-timers, many of whom worked most of their lives to build an anti-fascist, socialist Germany, lost their struggle, but maintain their dreams; but also, now outnumbering them, thousands of young people, mostly German but of other nationalities as well, who may carry on the fight. A constant theme among the participants: where is the Left party going? It has been torn by personal and political disputes for over a year, failed to overcome media opposition or general apathy, and dropped from its high of almost 12 percent in the 2009 elections to a current level of 6 or 7 percent. Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:28:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/perelman170112.html A young veteran was just arrested for murdering homeless people in Los Angeles. Regardless whether he is actually guilty, a large number of terrible acts have been committed by returning veterans traumatized from the war. None of the studies of which I'm aware accounts for such costs (including the cost of imprisoning them) in the costs of war. Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:06:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/salt140112.html Jeremy Salt: I don't think there's any doubt at all that a large number of military, of civilians, have been killed by armed gangs and by defectors. So, what we actually need to do is to disaggregate these (casualty) figures. How many people have been killed by the Syrian Army? How many of them were innocent, entirely innocent? How many of them were men who picked up arms? How many civilians have been killed by armed gangs? And so forth and so on. You need to break the whole thing down, but these figures are not broken down. Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:27:00 EST http://bit.ly/x19XC5 Markets are already planning for the post-euro era. So, why was only France downgraded? Why not Germany? Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:34:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/latuff140112.html Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:35:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/castro130112.html I am certain that Iran will not take any thoughtless actions that may contribute to an outbreak of war. If a war inevitably breaks out, it will be due solely to the congenital adventurism and irresponsibility of the Yankee empire. Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:46:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/food130112.html Experience firsthand the change sweeping through Latin America in the areas of food sovereignty, indigenous resistance, climate justice, and human rights through a trip to Bolivia or Venezuela this summer. Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:45:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/moore120112.html Civil libertarians and others excoriated the "Kingfish" for the high-handed and often vindictive methods he used as Louisiana Governor and U.S. Senator. Some compared him to Italy's fascist dictator Mussolini, a former socialist who had swung to the right and established an authoritarian regime. More accurately, critics of Long in and around the Communist Party observed that under his Plan the rich capitalists, with their excesses of wealth trimmed through taxation, would still remain in ownership and control of the means of production. As long as that were the case, the bourgeoisie would do whatever it could to sabotage the redistribution of the wealth. Moreover, workers would still be exploited by the capitalist owning class and capitalistic relations of all sorts reproduced. The other primary motto of the "Share Our Wealth" movement, "Every Man a King," betrays the movement's rural petit-bourgeois, not urban working-class, origins and orientation. Nor can a complex modern society be run effectively or justly by a set of small individual producers, however equal they've been made in their share of income and wealth. Society needs to be democratically planned and managed by the associated producers who have attained political power. These observations are germane with respect to the Occupy Wall Street movement today. More fundamental than the gap between the 99% and the 1% (or the .01%) is the division of society between the few who own the means of production and the rest of us who must work for a living. Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:29:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/longview110112.html The International Longshore and Warehouse Union is waging a battle against union-busting. ILWU Local 21 in Longview, Washington is under attack by a giant consortium, EGT, which has built a $200 million grain terminal and is running it as a scab operation. This directly violates the port agreement with ILWU which has had jurisdiction for over 75 years. This union-busting must be stopped. It's the fight of working people everywhere. If EGT succeeds, other grain handlers will push for scab operations as well. That would affect the entire ILWU, as grain contracts contribute 30% to our benefits. Not only health and welfare but also our pension fund, dangerously underfunded at 64%. Breaking ILWU jurisdiction would immediately threaten our container ports. ILWU is one of the most militant unions in the country. This is a make-or-break struggle for all organized labor. Longview Local 21 and San Francisco Local 10, Harry Bridges's local, are asking for your support. The struggle is coming to a head as EGT plans to bring in a ship to load the scab grain stored in their terminal in Longview. This could happen at any time, possibly in mid- to late-January. We are urging workers to join a caravan to go to Longview from your area when the ship comes in and to participate in a mass labor protest rally. It's your right and your duty, to your fellow union members and to yourself. Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:06:00 EST http://bit.ly/wS32w5 Any type of student debt strike, which is likely to lose on the material battle, will have to be targeted to the public's sympathy and opinion. Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:06:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/day100112.html "Maybe, if we want the Occupy movement to last, we've got to see the ordinary people our government has killed all over the world as part of the 99 percent." Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:29:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/venezuela080112.html The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela repudiates this odious act of intimidation, which will not break the will of the Syrian people and their government to push for a broad national dialogue, while reiterating its support for President Bashar al Assad in his effort to push for a sovereign and independent political solution to defeat the attempts at destabilization whose target is the Syrian Arab Republic. Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:42:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/eneko080112.html Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain. Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:41:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/bellvitge060112.html The policy of cuts to public health applied in Catalonia has caused the closure of referral hospitals, like the Bellvitge hospital, and the closure of Primary Medical Centers (CAPs), making the quality of medical care deteriorate. One of the closed CAPs is the Rambla Marina CAP, leaving a barrio of nearly 30,000 residents (10,000 of whom are older than 60) with only one outpatient clinic. Since 28 October 2011, Bellvitge residents have continuously occupied the Rambla Marina CAP, even during Christmas, to demand its reopening. Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:28:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/jaza040112.html Ibrahim Jaza is a Syrian cartoonist. Note: "Ghalioun" means "pipe" in Arabic. Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:34:00 EST http://bit.ly/u8LN8z I will organise the following general proposals under three headings: (i) socialise the ownership of monopolies, (ii) de-financialise the management of the economy, (iii) de-globalise international relations. Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:12:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/jaza020112.html Ibrahim Jaza is a Syrian cartoonist. Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:10:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/bp311211.html The Brazilian government bets that the domestic market will save the Brazilian economy: that the wage increase above productivity, apart from reducing inequality, will create demand for the Brazilian industry and will offset the overvalued exchange rate. In other words, the same recipe that produced good results under the Lula administration, it hopes, could be repeated under the Dilma administration. But this time I am afraid that it does not compute. It will still be possible to increase real wages without increasing inflation, because international commodities prices are trending down, but this is precisely what leaves no room for the government's economic policy. Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:10:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/mora291211.html Juan Ramón Mora is a cartoonist in Barcelona. Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:51:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/buglalilar271211.html A new epidemic has broken out in Turkey. It's called "terrorism." This ideologically transmitted disease (ITD) appears to be extremely infectious. Otherwise how can we explain the large and growing number of terrorists in the country? The Associated Press carried out a survey on terrorism convictions in the world. The figures are worrying. According to the findings of the survey, at least 35,000 people were convicted of terrorism in the world in the last ten years. 12,897 of them were convicted in Turkey. (For comparison, China, with a population of 1.3 billion, has 7,000 people convicted of terrorism.) In other words, Turkey alone accounted for one third of the world total. A rough estimate shows the size of the epidemic of terrorism in Turkey: of every 5,500 Turkish citizens, one is a terrorist. Tue, 27 Dec 2011 22:56:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/willis271211.html Nadia Khiari, aka Willis from Tunis, is a Tunisian painter and cartoonist. Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:56:00 EST http://bit.ly/uCoKmG The rial has been weakened by the inflation unleashed by the subsidy reform, a cost of the reform that was both foreseen and justified. At the same time, the precipitous devaluation of the rial adds to uncertainty and macroeconomic instability that can undermine the subsidy reform. The real benefit from the reform derives from reduced demand for energy, which can only happen if households and firms are willing to change their behavior and invest in energy saving equipment, which in turn requires confidence that the post-reform energy prices will not be washed up in some cycle of inflation and devaluation. Remember, unsubsidized energy prices are equal to their world prices multiplied by the exchange rate. With 15,000 rials to the dollar, gasoline (at 4000 or 7000 rials per liter) is 50% cheaper than it was a year ago when the new price was set, and is once again subsidized. . . . The instability in Tehran's foreign currency market is in part the result of past inflation that has gradually pushed rials out of alignment with other currencies. Iran's price level has jumped by about 50% in the last two years (despite price controls during the last 12 months) while the currency hovered around 10,000 rials per dollar. This has made foreign goods cheap in the Iranian market and Iranian goods uncompetitive at home and abroad. Local businesses were suffering from real appreciation (caused and financed by rising oil money) even before subsidy reform added fuel to the fire by raising inflation. Parity between rial and foreign currencies is thus long overdue. So with a 50% devaluation, which has occurred with the dollar hitting the 15,000 mark, a previous wrong has been put right. Tue, 27 Dec 2011 10:40:00 EST http://bit.ly/sLfNU1 The difference between living standards in China and India seems more striking in this graph than in GDP per capita. China's GDP per capita is about 3 times that of India (and one-fourth of Iran's). The distributions here show that, thanks to rapid economic growth in the last two decades, in China a relatively large middle class has emerged (defined loosely as people above the 75th percentile line of the global income distribution). India's global middle class is by comparison very small as a proportion of its population, though it is large in absolute numbers. Brazil is more of a middle class nation than either China or India, with about half of its population with incomes above the 75th percentile. Iran has an even larger middle class in relative terms, but to be accurate I should note that Iran's middle class is more a product of rising consumption made possible by rising oil income than rising productivity. Tue, 27 Dec 2011 10:26:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/latuff251211.html Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. Sun, 25 Dec 2011 12:20:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/cuba251211.html The Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Cuba energetically condemns the criminal attacks by car bombs that took place in Damascus, Syria, causing dozens of dead and wounded. Cuba condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and firmly opposes the attempts to undermine the stability of Syria, foreign interference, and the threats to its independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. Sun, 25 Dec 2011 11:30:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/venezuela251211.html The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has the full confidence that the Syrian authorities will use all legal means to clarify the facts and bring to justice those responsible for these acts of violence, which are aimed at sowing fear and creating a climate of uncertainty in Syria, in order to undermine the initiatives for dialogue and negotiated solution to the ongoing conflict in the country. Sun, 25 Dec 2011 11:06:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/syria231211.html E.g., A flag of the Islamic State of Iraq sighted at a Syrian opposition demonstration in Khan al Sabl, Idlib, Syria, 23 December 2011. . . . Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:52:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/broad231211.html So, where is the opposition to the Harper government's neoliberal onslaught? Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:52:00 EST http://bit.ly/seSMa9 We will save the markets, not the climate. That is how we can summarize the outcome of the 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC) which took place in Durban, South Africa between 28 November and 10 December 2011. . . . They postponed any real action until 2020 and ruled out any binding regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It was the representatives of the most polluting countries, headed by the United States, who argued for an agreement based on voluntary reductions and opposed any binding mechanism. . . . With regard to the Green Climate Fund, as a first step, rich countries pledged to contribute up to $30 billion in 2012 and 100 billion per year until 2020. In the first place these amounts are insufficient. Further, no source of public funds has been identified. Therefore, the doors are wide open to private investment run by the World Bank. As has already been noted by social movements, this is a strategy to "transform the Green Climate Fund into a greedy employers' fund". Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:26:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/eneko231211.html Cf. "El BCE pidió a España crear 'minijobs', trabajos con sueldos por debajo del salario mínimo" ["ECB Demanded Spain Create 'Minijobs' with Wages Below Minimum Wage"] (Público.es, 7 December 2011). Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:21:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/rowlands211211.html Over the past decade, Sino-American tensions have been increasing on all energy fronts, including the South China Sea (SCS). In addition to being the world's most valuable maritime trade route (worth at least $5 trillion to annual global trade), the SCS possesses significant fossil fuel reserves. Just how significant these reserves are is not yet fully known, but estimates range from 7 to 28 billions barrels of crude plus vast gas fields numbering in the hundreds of trillions of cubic feet. Methane hydrates (frozen methane) are also thought to be abundant. Dubbed the "ice that burns," methane hydrates have been identified by the US Energy Department as "the gas resource of the future." Present technology does not permit its commercial exploitation, but that is likely to change in the foreseeable future. . . . The Chinese government has also entered into extraction arrangements with some Western commercial entities. However, as far as "Big Oil" is concerned, dealing with a powerful country like China leads to a less favourable return on capital investment. The game plan for the future is to negotiate with weaker SCS governments, using a position of comparative advantage to extract maximum profit. Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:53:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/wolff211211.html Let's take a momentary step back from what is an ideological -- or better said, propagandistic -- usage of the term. "The markets" is a conceptual device that serves to hide and disguise those particular corporations that stand behind and work those markets to pursue their interests. The politicians' and mass media's language makes it seem as if self-interested pursuit by those corporations were the machine-like operations of some unalterable, fixed institution. Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:51:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/perelman211211.html Or, to be less extreme, a second rate power, comparable to previous imperial powers, such as Holland or England? Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:23:00 EST http://huff.to/smQkbh According to the Texas-based geopolitical risk analysis group Stratfor which released an eyebrow-raising piece on Syrian opposition propaganda efforts last week, "most of the opposition's more serious claims have turned out to be grossly exaggerated or simply untrue, thereby revealing more about the opposition's weaknesses than the level of instability inside the Syrian regime." Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:09:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/kazakhstan191211.html Introduction by Timofei Dnieperin: The following reports are from Socialist Resistance of Kazakhstan. Their website is www.socialismkz.info. The background to all this is that the oil sector in western Kazakhstan has been hampered for seven months now by strikes and work stoppages (see Joanna Lillis "Kazakhstan: Labor Dispute Dragging Energy Production Down," Eurasianet, October 13, 2011). According to some recent reports, the striking workers and their unions have become quite class conscious and radicalized during the labor dispute, as their demands have gone from wage increases and better working conditions to: "a complete nationalization of all industries and the introduction of workers' control, reorganization and nationalization of the banking, construction industry, the formation of militant labor unions, taking class-based positions on issues, and the creation of a Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan based on a united front of workers and social movements that puts forth a consistent program of struggle for socialism" (See "Zabastovka neftyanikov v Kazakhstane dlitsya uzhe 5 mesyatsev," IA REX, October 28, 2011). Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:07:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/turkey191211.html An effort by an international media organization to manipulate numbers and thereby belittle the gravity of the situation in Turkey would cast a dark shadow on the universal struggle for freedom of the press. We, as the Freedom for Journalists Platform of Turkey, condemn your report claiming that only eight journalists are in jail because of their professional activities. Accepting your figure as the truth would mean agreeing with those who have charged the remaining 56 (in jail for long periods of time, even though the trials of many are yet to start) with terroristic activities. This would harm those journalists and influence the judicial process. . . . There is one more thing we have failed to understand. Why has the CPJ refused to use for Turkish journalists the criteria it used in declaring that 42 journalists are in jail in Iran? Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:07:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/adenov191211.html Adn Adenov is a Tunisian artist. Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:32:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/rizk171211.html It all began with the kidnapping and torture of Aboudi Ibrahim, a protester from the #OccupyCabinet sit-in. . . . Thank you, world, for believing in our "democratic transition." This is why we don't go to vote. The generals overseeing this massacre oversee our elections. Sat, 17 Dec 2011 18:58:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/latuff171211.html Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. Cf. Ayça Çubukçu, "Turkey: The 'Progressive' Land of Repression" (Guardian, 11 December 2011). Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:31:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/russia151211.html Political rejects like Yashin, Navalny, Nemtsov, Limonov [trans. note: leader of the National Bolshevik movement, a "left-leaning" nationalist group], and others are all hoping to ride atop this wave of spontaneous and so far ideologically formless protests into the political "big leagues" (just like Zhirinovski and his ilk managed to do 20 years ago right before the collapse of the USSR). Why help them in this endeavor? A repeat of 1991 (and 1993 and 1996 and 2005) -- this is the same damn rake. The country's economy will not withstand a second 1991; there is no Soviet material reserve left to tap. It has already been devoured and pillaged. Our entrance into the WTO is literally on the horizon, which assumes, by the way, a second edition of "shock therapy" -- and right now would be a great time from the ruling class's perspective to have an occasion to tighten the screws even further. . . . If you want change -- do not bother to choose between Putin and Zhirinovski, Medvedev and Navalny, or Zyuganov and Nemtsov. Do not entrust your fate once again to another new, wonderful "daddy." Instead work to create structures that reflect your own social interests. Certain comrades on the left have already claimed that the current events are a "revolution," an "uprising," a "revolt" and see in them the specter of a Russian Tahrir Square. This rrr-revolutionism and exaggerated self-ascribed importance is not only laughable, but shameful even. It is inexcusable to mislead the youth (who are still not all that politicized) with talk of easy fixes. In Moscow there are eleven million people, but only about seven thousand took to the streets, whereas those in the provinces remained mostly passive and indifferent. . . . Do not rely on elections or career politicians to solve your problems. Career politicians are professional con-men and flimflammers. If you wish to defend your rights and your interests, create blocks of resistance to oligarchic and bureaucratic caprice at your places of work, study, and residence. Fight against the introduction and/or increase of tuition and medical fees; against the closing of hospitals, schools, and daycare centers; against the demolition of parks for the more churches; against the imposition of religion and obscurantism in schools; against low salaries, speed-ups, and overtime; against the thievery of the utilities companies. Begin with these small things as there is no other choice! Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:33:00 EST http://bit.ly/sPU3Cs Fethullah Gülen's organisation began systematically taking over the Turkish security apparatus from the mid-1980s, and it is now common knowledge that the great majority of this is in the hands of his followers. Another important observation is that it is not wrong to say that Fethullahism, commonly seen today by the military and others as an "Islamist threat", was itself enriched by the very same leaders of the 12th September 1980 coup who now see it as a threat. Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:33:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/afn151211.html Ali Fathollah-Nejad: So far we have been able to bring together civil-society forces from almost all countries of the region. They are unified in the desire to break out from the vicious cycle of armament-based deterrence and instead bring about regional cooperation. In addition to security policy, the CSCME process comprises a number of fields for cooperation, among others in the areas of socio-economic development, cross-border resource management, inter-religious and -cultural dialogue, and health. We hope that the next expert conference will be taking place in the region itself. All of that in view of holding a founding conference for the civil-society CSCME process in the near future. For 2012, the first United Nations Middle East WMD-Free Zone Conference is planned. Our desire is that concrete steps towards the realization of that aim will be defined and civil-society groups involved. Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:31:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/sader151211.html In the last several decades, as democratic struggle gained weight again -- after being underestimated, generally speaking, by the Left -- the category of civil society reappeared. By its very nature, it is opposed to the state and displaces class relations. It is a return to classical liberalism, in parallel to the turn to liberalism on the economic front under the name of neoliberalism. In the framework of this category, organizations of a distinct type came to take shelter, ranging from those closely tied to social movements and other forms of resistance to military dictatorship, to others that are very much ambiguous. This amalgamation is possible because the category of civil society lends itself to it. It means "what is not the state," including, under this broad umbrella, agribusiness associations and rural workers' associations, bank owners' associations and bank employees' associations, private school operators' associations and student associations -- even aside from other yet more problematic expressions of "civil society," like drug traffickers, militias, etc., all of whom belong to "civil society." . . . Besides ambiguity -- not to mention bad faith -- the definition of "non-governmental" is itself a problem. This anti-government position easily joins neoliberal positions. It has no limits in relation to "partnerships" with major private corporations and their foundations, while defining its frontier limits against the state. Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:27:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/goodarzi151211.html Abbas Goodarzi, born in 1978, is an Iranian cartoonist. Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:07:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/grossman131211.html The treaty more or less agreed upon in Brussels would sharply limit deficits, require members to submit their budgets for review by the European Commission, and thus make the economy of every European Union country from Estonia to Malta subject to decisions from above, with stiff penalties for straying out of line That is part of what's meant by "discipline." What such discipline enforces will be "austerity." Many samples are already available; Portugal, Greece, and now Italy must cut their budgets radically to save the euro. And, as in the USA, the 1 percent may have caused the mess but the 99 percent must pay to clean it up. . . . And austerity requires discipline -- also the violent kind mentioned above. Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:30:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/latuff131211.html Cf. "500 students, 65 journalists, 8 MPs detained under Turkey's Anti-Terror Law" (Carlos Latuff, 9 December 2011). Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:25:00 EST http://bit.ly/tt2kMI ILWU members and officials expressed alarm at how the port shutdown was called and questioned why the Occupy movements called for action without consulting the people that action would affect most. . . . Samantha Levens, a Bay Area member of the Inland Boatmen's Union, an ILWU affiliate, said education and preparation among the members should have been a first priority. She noted that some previous shutdowns took months to prepare—like a May Day work stoppage in 2008. When confronted with a picket line at port gates, ILWU members have the right under their coastwide contract to stop work and call an arbitrator to rule on possible safety threats or the validity of the picket line. Success in shutting down ports along the coast depends upon presenting a credible safety threat to longshore workers. If emergency vehicles cannot make it into the port, or if the workers feel threatened by mass pickets and police presence, they will call an arbitrator to decide whether the action presents a bona fide risk. The decision to call an arbitrator can delay the beginning of work, and if the workers are sent home they may not be paid, depending on the circumstance. Port bosses warned the ILWU that the 2008 May Day stoppage against the military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan was "unauthorized" but members went through with it regardless. "Because the members had discussed and debated it before they voted on it and had been building support amongst the ranks heading towards the vote, the buy-in and ownership of the action was firmly in the hands of the members," Levens said. . . . Mike Parker says the occupiers may have to look for new ways to hit the 1%. "The continued focus on the docks, because it is easy and takes advantage of the solidarity traditions of the dock workers, makes the dock workers themselves the targets and the targets start resenting it," Parker said. . . . Supporters of Occupy and ILWU Local 21 are preparing for January, when a ship headed for Asia is scheduled to retrieve grain from the disputed elevator in Longview. An independently organized action could allow the ILWU to circumvent the legal minefield set in front of its own membership. Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:44:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/murphy131211.html The Irish government stated that it could get the country back on track over a four-year period in which severe austerity measures will be carried out. As Ireland is officially a 'programme country' we must answer to others; our own domestic dealings are not entirely ours to decide on anymore. In order to meet the financial targets imposed by the IMF-EU-ECB troika, the government set out a plan to raise 1.6 billion euro through taxes while making a saving of 2.2 billion through draconian spending cuts. The sectors most affected by such cuts included health and education. While suicide rates in Ireland are soaring, cuts in mental health projects have been made; and no longer can we claim to be the island of saints and scholars as the education system is crumbling under such cruel austerity measures. Before the budget was delivered to the Irish public it was firstly given a look over by the Bundestag. Our economic sovereignty is gone and so too it seems is our general dignity. It did cause a slight uproar across the country, but only slight, because the Irish people were not surprised that the likes of Germany had to look at our domestic financial issues and decide what is best for us. We are essentially part of their economic empire, Ireland bowing to Europe as a serf. The real winner in this economic crisis is Germany. Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:42:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/bahrain111211.html Over 1,000 Bahraini workers sacked for political reasons held a protest in front of the Labor Ministry in Isa Town, Bahrain on 11 December 2011. The number of workers sacked by the Bahraini regime in its attempt to quell the uprising that began on 14 February 2011 is estimated to be about 4,500. Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:00:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/farmer111211.html Most current academic discussion of radical movements populated by whites is devoted to understanding ultra-right movements based largely on demands for less government intervention and nostalgia for a lost time in the United States. Amy Sonnie and James Tracy in Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power challenge this norm. Surveying radical left-wing movements from the early 1960s to the late 1970s, the authors demonstrate the importance of multiracial activism and the role of poor and middle-class whites in it. . . . By publicizing the stories of those whites who resisted the call to submit to racial politicking, this book makes visible what has long been invisible, in particular a strong current of white consciousness that developed in a similar fashion to the consciousness of nationalist movements of black, Puerto Rican, American Indian, and Asian communities in the 1960s (9). The consciousness of those whites working for justice arose out of class consciousness, but not of a vulgar Marxist kind that simply identified the elites as the problem and advocated an impersonal class struggle. Rather, this book chronicles how they went about building communities and developing links between minority power movements and the demands for recognition of working-class whites. Sun, 11 Dec 2011 11:34:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/tahrir111211.html While the army generals overseeing parliamentary elections in Egypt denied that live ammunition had been used on the protesters, Ahmed and Maged have the bullets still embedded in their bodies to prove it. Sun, 11 Dec 2011 06:56:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/pacotilla091211.html Manuel Alfredo: "Attention! Exclusive photo of the main boat of the third-rate gusano flotilla." Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:30:00 EST http://bit.ly/udfbtU For Occupy, defending workers under attack is a way to survive, grow roots and develop a strong base. That's not always the direction activists take, however. Near Oakland, over 200 immigrant workers at the largest foundry on the West Coast, Pacific Steel Casting in Berkeley, are being fired in another "silent raid" like that hitting the janitors. Through the summer and fall, foundry workers went to city councils, unions, churches and community organizations, seeking help to pressure ICE not to force them from their jobs. Their campaign held "the migra" off for months, but the firings began nevertheless in November. Now, these immigrant families are trying to survive. Occupy Oakland has yet to respond, however. Instead, some of its activists are trying to shut down work in Oakland's port a second time, as well as others along the West Coast. An earlier march to close the port after the first eviction of Occupy Oakland drew thousands of people. The proposal for a second coast-wide shutdown, however, is opposed by the longshore union. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union's (ILWU) opposition does not come from conservatism. The union, whose members make a living from international shipping and trade, has been one of the most vocal critics of US free-trade agreements. ILWU members have taken action many times to defend the SME and unions in Mexico, as well as other countries. Its locals and members, however, had no role in the decision to try to close the ports, nor did other port workers. Real solidarity is a two-way street, based on mutual respect. Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:00:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/nour091211.html Cf. "Why act surprised to see Salafis becoming 'friendly to the US'? Look at Saudi Arabia. Should have been clear from the get-go" (Hassan Ko Nakata, 9 December 2011). Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:38:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/latuff071211.html Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist. Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:42:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/shotwell071211.html Bankruptcy in the US isn't a sign of economic distress or mismanagement. It's a business plan -- calculated, cunning, and void of redeeming social value. American Airlines is the latest in a long line of financial obscenities that make vulture capitalists salivate. . . . American Airlines' debt doesn't outweigh its cash and assets. In fact, American Airlines is financing its own bankruptcy. That's not distress, it's brass-knuckle union-busting. . . . American Airlines ordered 460 new planes from Boeing and Airbus less than five months ago at a cost of $38 billion. Those contracts will be honored even as American Airlines plans to dump pensions underfunded by about $10 billion for approximately 130,000 workers and retirees. . . . Labor has a legitimate lien on Capital. A pension isn't a gamble or an investment -- it's earned with hard steadfast work. . . . We won't win this struggle in court. The operative word for rank-and-file workers isn't competition, concession, or compromise. The operative word is "Occupy." Bankruptcy at American Airlines shouldn't be allowed to fly. Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:00:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/egypt051211.html On the night of Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011, just a week before parliamentary elections in Egypt began, 31-year old Mohamed Mounir went to Tahrir Square to join thousands of Egyptians once again demonstrating there. . . . "I went to carry the injured from the front lines," Mohamed told us. At one stage Mohamed was caught in the middle of the American-made tear gas and lost consciousness. The security forces captured him, beat him, and accused him of being paid to incite violence against them. The video featured within the video above, which first appeared on YouTube, seems to have been filmed and uploaded by one of the officers involved in his interrogation. Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:46:00 EST http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/flanders051211.html Eric Mann is after more than just an organizing manual, however. He wants to see "transformative organizing" which he describes as ". . . recruiting masses of people to fight militantly for immediate concrete demands that have to be won . . . but always as part of a larger strategy to change structural conditions in the world." Here's where some agonizing comes into play. How do we do that? How does opposing de jure racism in a transit system transform people into supporters of labor struggles? How do we transform the always temporary triumphs of new buses or postponed plant closings into permanent victories? Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:48:00 EST