Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, December 9, 2020 (might add posts later)

• Nineteen Tragic Facts About Covid 19 by Bill Quigley from Dissident Voice.

• WATCH: Ask The Experts (Covid-19 Vaccine) from Off-Guardian. 

• US hits Search and Destroy against the New Silk Roads by Pepe Escobar from "The Saker" weblog.
  

• Watchdog Report: Fed’s Billions in Emergency Repo Loans to Wall Street Didn’t Go Away in June; They Just Went Dark by Pam and Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade.

• New Research Shows 'Pandemic Profits' of Billionaires Could Fully Fund $3,000 Stimulus Checks for Every Person in US by Jake Johnson from Common Dreams. 

• BREAKING - More Repubs Than Dems Vote Against Military Budget featuring Jimmy Dore of The Jimmy Dore Show and posted on his YouTube channel.
  

• COVID Whistle Blower RAIDED with Gestapo Tactics! featuring Jimmy Dore of The Jimmy Dore Show and posted on his YouTube channel.
  

• Protecting Individual Rights: Can COVID Vaccines Be Mandated? from Children's Health Defense.

• Want Vaccines Fast? Suspend Intellectual Property Rights by Dean Baker, Achal Prabhala and Arjun Jayadev from CounterPunch. My commentary follows:
  

With the assumption that mainstream reports are accurate regarding the current pandemic, I don't care of you read the article or not because the more informed readers will know beforehand the gist of this story as an illustration of how capitalism functions. Such readers already know the rest of the story. They will already know the socially dubious ways property owners have by taking advantage of public subsidies to acquire more of this type of intellectual property for their own, and their families', benefit.

But, aren't the authors indulging in a bit of confusing contradictions? Their only defense is an argument that matters of life and death deserve some suspensions of capitalist rules which "liberals" such as these authors like to argue. But this is a specious argument that soon collapses under the weight of another argument that people should be provided all necessary goods for their health and survivability such as shelter, food, sufficient clothing, and health care. But why stop there? 

Don't people need to be productive so that they can contribute to an economy that supplies these needs? The first thought that comes to mind is education, and then training in a productive specialty. Shouldn't all people have access to these fundamental needs? Is the capitalist system which considers all property, intellectual and real economic property, as privately owned and controlled to be used for their, and their families', benefit? Isn't this system, which has succeeded in bringing vast types of all property under private control for the benefit of a relatively few individuals and their families, considered almost sacred by it proponents, many of whom "own" much of this property? Because property rights are considered by such people as sacred, does this not justify in the minds of these people the right to exploit others, force others to comply with property owners ideas and demands with threats of harm, even maim or kill them? But you say, that is fascism! (Neo-fascism, which is prevalent today, relies more on controlling your mind with censorship and manipulation of information. However, if that doesn't work there is always the police and military to enforce compliance.)

In spite of the heavy censorship provided by media corporations, you might know that this happening everywhere in the world today. Given such thoughts, you might reconsider your commitment to capitalism by supporting efforts to end all property rights (except over personal property). But, you say in horror, that would be socialism/communism!

• Black Dirt Farm Collective: Building a Self-Sufficient Community by Kayla Soren from CounterPunch. My commentary follows:

This collective type of ownership of economic property is often described as a alternative to capitalist enterprise, even as a revolutionary alternative for some enthusiastic supporters. The latter are usually employed in educational institutions and enjoy comfortable careers. 

Some 50+ years ago even I was taken in by their rhetoric. I studied them in the few obscure sources that I discovered, and even participated in a few collective type enterprises.  However, the proponents rhetoric failed to live up to the reality I encountered. Such enterprises barely survived, and most workers had to supplement their income from conventional sources of employment. Many failed or were taken over by private owners who turned them into conventional industries. 

It seems that conventional enterprises are supported by the legal, educational, and social institutions of capitalist countries and collective enterprises are not. This adversely affects collective enterprises in two decisive ways: 1) such enterprises could not compete with conventional enterprises because of lower costs of labor for the latter, and 2) many people who participate in these enterprises have experienced capitalist culture all their lives. 

The first difference results in the employment of people exclusively based on their philosophical preference of working in such a collective enterprise, but not on their skills or productivity, and because less productive members can't fired. The second reason resulted in workers who were socialized in selfishness and competitiveness of the larger culture and were unable to function effectively in a collective enterprise.

• Dangerous Provocations Ahead for Iran by "Tony Cartalucci" from New Eastern Outlook. My reaction: Once again the author relies on a Brooking's document to demonstrate the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire's plans for Iran. This is sound because the ruling capitalist class never allows exposure to their plans in a mainstream source which are for self-serving propaganda purposes only.

• General Flynn, QAnon and the US Elections [and this post] USA: General Flynn calls for suspension of the Constitution both by Thierry Meyssan from his weblog VoltaireNet.
  

Slavery Past and Present

Click here to access a YouTube video showing an excerpt from a talk delivered by Prof. Richard D. Wolff who explains Marxist concepts like surplus value ("value added"), revolution, fake democracy, class structure, strikes (as a weapon used by workers against employers) in terms that most ordinary people can understand. (This video was sent to me by an activist.)



However, the implication he leaves us with is that the establishment of worker coops, which he promotes within capitalism, is a method to change the system of capitalism into something that is egalitarian. This is utter nonsense. If this were true, the capitalist ruling class would never permit the establishment of such coops. Thus, he avoids offending the ruling class and any adverse repercussions to his teaching career by advocating something that is no threat to the system. Likewise, by permitting such talk to exist in their universities, the ruling capitalist class can still lay claim that it promotes free discussion of ideas in their educational institutions. The fact that such discussion of socialist concepts is so rare in our universities rejects this view.

This what Yugoslavia had before the US Empire destroyed the country in 1999 and restored capitalist control of that country. The working class under the anti-fascist leadership of Tito established worker coops at the end of WWII when it wasn't possible for the Western capitalist nations to stop this social experiment. The point is: that the establishment of worker coops cannot be a revolutionary method to overturn capitalism. It can only be a basis for a socialist type of society following the overthrow of capitalism.

Autonomous Co-ops, Planning, and the State: Some Considerations for Cuba's Economic Transition

Click here to access article by Al Campbell from Grassroots Economic Organizing. 

I don't like the way this article is written, but it is important, especially for Cubans, to discuss what kind of society they want. I will offer only some brief problems I had with the article.

First of all, there was no introduction to identify the writer. Then there were indications that this was a talk, but where and when was never specified. It was only later that I learned he was a professor at a US university. Also it seemed to me that the content was poorly organized. Basically, I think that he tries to do too much by weaving in abstract remarks about what socialism is with specific problems that coops can pose for a society.

I'm reasonably sure that many such discussions are going on in Cuba; but living in the US, I have no access to this knowledge. It would be very interesting to learn what is currently going on there.

Cooperatives in Socialist Construction: Commoners and Cooperators Key to Cuba's 21st Century Socialism

Click here to access article by Cliff DuRand from Grassroots Economic Organizing.

As Cuba re-establishes relations with the North American giant capitalist society, it is also undergoing social experiments to create a socialist society that is sustainable in the present century. Because the two are incompatible, Cubans must be on their guard to protect what they love about living in a socialist society no matter how imperfect it presently is. I wish them luck because they are going to need it with the North American giant doing everything it can to transform it back into a gambling casino and brothel for rich North Americans to play in.

Whereas capitalism focuses on the benefits to individual families, socialism attempts to create a social consciousness based on a commitment to society as a whole. Thus I believe the following reasoning is not valid logically, nor empirically on the basis of the Yugoslavian experience.

...commoners must identify themselves as a community sharing the common resource and thus feel a commitment to its proper governance, i.e. for the common good.  This is the foundation of a democratic governance of the commons. 

These are precisely the conditions that obtain in a worker cooperative.

To construct a society using cooperatives competing according to market principles will only result in people merely identifying with their cooperatives, not with society as a whole. This is the crucial dilemma, that is, to get ordinary people to "...identify themselves as a community sharing the common resource and thus feel a commitment to its proper governance, i.e. for the common good". As I see it, only by solving this problem is there any hope that humans can survive. 

There cannot be groups of people who have significantly more power than others because this is a condition fertile for exploitation of the powerful over the powerless. Kinship ties have predominated among humans since they settled into agricultural communities and capitalism has even weakened these ties by its emphasis on the nuclear family and their "ownership" of a society's economy. As a result we have families like the Rockefellers and Bill Gates running the world to promote their interests while the great mass of humans experience poverty, ill health, ignorance, and shortened life spans.

Still, I recommend this article because it encourages discussions about these important issues.

Cooperatives becoming bigger part of Cuba’s reforms

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder. 

The Cuban government and the Cuban people are trying to find a path forward to make socialist principles work while facing the overwhelming power of their nearby capitalist neighbor. Many people in Cuba and elsewhere see cooperatives as a means to a better life both economically and politically. Other people in Cuba see threats that cooperatives operating in a market environment pose for socialist egalitarian, participatory principles. And as I recall, such threats posed problems in the former Yugoslavia. Anyway, Dolack explores these important issues by examining what is happening in Cuba.

It is my view that as long as capitalism exists in any advanced country, socialist experiments will have very difficult struggles even surviving much less defeating their arch enemies among capitalist countries. Capitalism in any advanced form means, and has always meant, the exploitation of workers by a tiny class of capitalists. Only a worldwide revolution against the capitalist system can create conditions for a decent, sustainable human existence.

Working collectively beats working for a boss

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder.

Cooperative enterprises are more stable than conventional capitalist enterprises, are more productive and create jobs that are more sustainable. And although the temptation to see coops as a magical solution to the ills of capitalism should be resisted, that they are better for workers than top-down enterprises shouldn’t be any surprise.

Workers Control in Venezuela and Beyond: An Interview with Dario Azzelini

Click here to access article posted on LeftEast by Marko Miletic about his interview with Azzelini. The article includes a 34:21m film made by Azzelini and an associate that takes us into one worker-run factory in Italy to learn how workers manage their enterprise.

With the daily neoliberal assaults on workers all over the world, we sometimes forget about the operations of enterprises that workers have created in narrow spaces of the capitalist world. Then, too, these receive very little publicity probably because the workers are too busy and the capitalist world does not want us to know about their activities. The participants in this interview are two activists that are very much involved with worker enterprises, and they share their valuable experience and insightful ideas with us. 

The interviewer Marko Miletic

Marko Miletić is a political activist from Belgrade, Serbia. He is member of Kontekst collective, and Social Center October. He is member of editorial board of portal masina.rs.

Dario Azzelini

Dario Azzellini is assistant professor for sociology at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria, writer and documentary director. He holds a PhD in political science and a PhD in sociology. His research and writing focuses on democracy, social movements, self-management, popular power, migration and racism. Azzellini published several books, essays and documentaries.

Dario Azzelini is a theoretician and political activist splitting time between Berlin and Caracas. He recently stayed in Belgrade to participate in the conference “Let’s bring socialism back into the game“. That gave us an opportunity to talk about different topics he addresses in his work – ranging from the question of Maduro’s election loss, the interrelation of art and politics, to cases of recuperations of workers’ factories throughout Europe.


 

SYRIZA in power, social movements at a crossroads

Click here to access article by Theodoros Karyotis from is blog atonomias. (Note: Theodoros Karyotis is a sociologist, translator and activist participating in social movements that promote self-management, solidarity economy and defense of the commons in Greece. Like most Greek writers, he frequently makes reference to the word "imaginary" which in English appears to be a word that is only used by sociologists. Here is an excellent definition. ) 

The dire circumstances in Greece compel the social movements to reposition themselves in front of the SYRIZA government.

This writer for Greek grass-root social movements clearly see the need for the grassroots' social movements to formulate a plan of action now that the middle class Syriza party has caved in to the neoliberal demands of European capitalists.

...at the end of February a forum of thinkers and activists of grass roots movements took place in Athens, with hundreds of participants, under the title “Prosperity without growth”, with the explicit goal of translating their activities into concrete proposals, addressed as much to the political powers, as well as to society. Starting from the premise that economic growth is already incompatible with social wellbeing and environmental sustainability, the grassroots movements seek to complement the creative resistance to neoliberal politics and the construction of viable alternatives from below with the demand for radical reforms: from the introduction of a basic universal income, to the institution of new regimes of management of the commons, to the creation of a legal framework that permits the operation of recuperated factories, like Vio.Me in Thessaloniki. ....

.... ...one of the most relevant initiatives that emerged from the forum was the effort to connect and integrate antagonistic projects in defence of the commons into a political agent capable of playing a protagonistic role in a postconsumerist society, helping thereby to overcome the artificial dilemma between austerity and growth.

Re-imagining the future of work

Click here to access article by Rhiannon Colvin from openDemocracy. 

This extract from a book entitled Resist! Against a precarious future provides some visions about how society could be organized to serve everyone in society instead of what now exists--serving only those few who "own" part of society--the economy. While reading this and other articles like this, I question whether such ideas are merely exercises in fantasy to detract from effective revolutionary activities, to encourage a belief that one can simply create such egalitarian institutions within a society that is organized to serve the needs of one tiny, but very powerful class. 

The answer that I arrive at is frequently the same: there are many paths to a future of social justice and a sustainable economy, and there are many people who will take these paths. No one path guarantees success, but many people going down many promising paths can add up to a better future. What is dead certain is that simply doing nothing in the way of radical social change is no longer a serious option. Human survival now makes social change of the greatest urgency. Before we choose a path, we must ask ourselves if the path's activities can somehow contribute toward the construction of a new society, the realization of an egalitarian and sustainably society, a society designed for the benefit of all that can exist within the natural limits of our planet. 

Take back the factory: worker control in the current crisis

Click here to access article by Dario Azzellini from Reflections on a Revolution.

In this edited excerpt from Dario Azzellini’s new book, An Alternative Labour History: Worker Control and Workplace Democracy, the author looks at worker enterprises that attempt to provide a real alternative to capitalist organized companies. He provides a survey of such experiments in several countries and looks at their features and the problems they experience while functioning within a capitalist system.

Excellent Profile of Enric Duran and Catalan Integral Cooperative

Click here to access article by David Bollier from his blog. 

This article functions as an introduction to a much longer article about the development of a cooperative venture in the Catalan region of Spain.  The venture seeks to build a network of cooperatives and one which has its own currency.

The Catalan Integral Cooperative (CIC, pronounced “seek”) is surely one of the more audacious commons-based innovations to have emerged in the past five years.  It is notable for providing a legal and financial superstructure that is helping to support a wide variety of smaller self-organized commons.

Contemporary Crisis and Workers Control

Click here to access article from The Occupied Times of London.

Published below is a heavily condensed and edited version of a chapter from Dario Azzellini’s recent book,“An Alternative Labour History”. The chapter can be read in its entirety here (PDF). 

Yes, this article appears highly condensed, but it offers an important overview of worker taker-overs ("recuperations") of factories that were closed by the owners in various countries. It is must reading for anyone contemplating such an action and, to others, an important study as to the potential this sort of action might have in transforming capitalist organization of a society into something that served all of the people.

System Change, or There and Back Again: Capitalism, Socialism, Fascism

Click here to access article by Richard D. Wolff from TruthOut.

I had quite a debate with myself about posting this article, but in the end I thought it necessary because of the popularity of TruthOut to run "alternative" writers. Time is running out on the human race, and there are many popular critics ready to lend a hand to solve the numerous crises that capitalism is creating. Unfortunately, not all of them have much of a contribution to make, and some may be consciously serving the ruling class's security state by deliberately confusing issues and leading potential activists in the wrong direction. I would put Wolff in the first category. On Wednesday I posted and responded to a pamphlet entitled "The One Party Planet" published by an "activist" organization called The Rule. This pamphlet is getting a lot of attention from alternative websites. I think The Rule they may be in the second category.

I think this essay is mostly rubbish. Wolff's "alternative" views about political-economic matters and their history has been bred within US academia which rewarded this retired professor with a long and "distinguished" career. People who are serious critics of capitalism do not get rewarded and are forced to live very marginal lives outside of any mainstream institution.

I am not going to waste much time on attacking this essay, but a few observations are required. Let's examine what Wikipedia has to say about Wolff.

Richard D. Wolff is an American heterodox economist, well known for his work on Marxian economics, economic methodology, and class analysis.

Reviewing this posted article, can you find anything of significance about Marxian economics or class analysis? The word "class" doesn't even make an appearance. Socialism becomes "traditional socialism"--those historical attempts in the name of socialism that we saw in the 20th century. And he sees fascism as a different system! He sees worker cooperatives, or "workers self-directed enterprises", as a significant revolutionary force that holds much promise to transform capitalism. He regards government and capitalists as independent actors. It is no wonder that he has constructed such a piece of rubbish having used such worthless conceptual materials!

Five Inspiring Struggles to Celebrate on May Day

Click here to access articles by various authors posted on Reflections on a Revolution.

The link takes you to "Yue Yuen: wildcat strikes and labor struggles in China" which is one of five articles in this remarkable collection, with the remaining four listed and linked to in the article. They are all about workers taking actions to improve their lives by organizing protests and taking over enterprises. 

Economic Prosperity and Economic Democracy: The Worker Co-Op Solution

Click here to access article by Richard Wolff from Truthout.

Workers' self-directed enterprises (WSDEs) are a response to capitalism's failure to deliver economic prosperity and socialism's failure to deliver economic democracy.

This is the political project which Wolff supports in this article. First, he expresses what he believes is the resistance by ordinary US citizens to socialist alternatives, which, in my opinion, are due to a massive misunderstanding of traditional and misidentified "socialist" governments and parties. This, of course, is no accident. Ideological institutions in the West have always been flooded with intense propaganda to confuse and obscure any such understanding. (Even the Nazi party, the corporate sponsored party of fascism in Germany, was called "National Socialist German Workers' Party"!)

Following this, he then launches into what he believes are the virtues and possibilities of "workers' self-directed enterprises". Many people have favored worker cooperatives as a progressive movement, and people might easily mistakenly believe that he is arguing for the same thing. (Setting up worker cooperatives has been argued elsewhere as very problematic.) His different argument did not become clear to me until a careful reading of the final paragraph.

Transforming capitalist enterprises into WSDEs in this context would radically change workplaces, residential communities, and hence, the daily life of virtually everyone. It could realize the systemic change that traditional socialisms pointed toward but never achieved: a viable and attractive alternative preferable to capitalism. It offers leftists a means to overcome their frustrations and a focus around which to regroup, existing, as well as building, new left movements and organizations.

The key difference between his proposal and most who favor worker cooperatives is that he argues for transforming existing capitalist enterprises into worker controlled enterprises (and obviously publicly owned, but this wasn't explicitly stated) while others merely argue for setting up worker cooperatives within the capitalist system which are forced to compete with capitalist firms that exploit both workers and the environment. The difference between the two positions is startlingly dramatic!

Bankruptcy of Mondragon company demonstrates limits of cooperation under capitalism

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from his blog Systemic Disorder.

The announcement that one of Mondragon’s companies is filing for bankruptcy isn’t a commentary on cooperatives, but it is a reminder that even the world’s largest cooperative enterprise is not immune to capitalist competition.

I occasionally meet people who almost fanatically think and argue that cooperatives are the answer to capitalism's global economic instability which has disastrous consequences for working people. Dolack explains that while cooperatives offer a better alternative to working in strictly profit-making enterprises, they can never enjoy complete security competing within a capitalist system against such enterprises.

Greek police raid occupied and worker-run TV station

Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from Reflections on a Revolution.

As one ERT veteran described the experiment after spending a month at the occupied station, the worker-run ERT “was not professional but it was a good effort. Many people thought that it was for the first time a free voice, an anti-government voice from the state TV, from the public TV that used to be controlled by the government.”

It is precisely for this reason that Samaras’ government decided to shut it down.

The control of media is a vital method of any ruling class to control what information their subjects receive about issues that affect them. They will never allow even independent voices access to media if they in any way interfere with the interests of the ruling class.

The Greek media are an ideological keystone in the crumbling edifice of the transnational class coalition that is now sucking Greek society dry with its insistence on full debt repayment.

...[after they were forcibly removed]  journalists took out their gear and continued broadcasting outside of the headquarters in front of the lines of riot police who have cordoned off the building. According to its workers, 1.2 million people watched the 9pm broadcast tonight.

Battlefield Indonesia: resistance to corporate destruction

Click here to access article by Peter Storm from Reflections on a Revolution (Netherlands).

Price rises are provoking revolt in yet another country. This time, it is Indonesia, the price hike concerns fuel, and the revolt takes the form of rallies and strike action. The unfolding events in Indonesia can be seen as just a new round in a series of workers’ struggles for better living standards, against a state and a capitalist class that tries to make profits by keeping wages as low as possible, by destroying the forest and undermining the livelihoods of the people.

Meanwhile, German protestors are joining the continuing protests in Turkey.

Occupy ERT [Greece's PBS]: the revolution will be live-streamed

Click here to access article by Leonidas Oikonomakis from Reflections on a Revolution. 

...in the morning of June 12, 2013 Greece woke up without a public TV channel or public radio, while 2,700 ERT workers woke up unemployed. Ever since, the fired workers of ERT have occupied the station’s headquarters in Athens and have kept broadcasting through live-streaming. That makes ERT the first public television network under workers’ control in Europe, and maybe the first in the world.

Hopefully, their public TV is better than PBS regarding news coverage.

Vio.Me: Self-Organization in Greece

Click here if you wish to access the source of this 21:44m video posting from Global Uprisings.

The workers at the Vio.Me. Factory in Thessaloniki, Greece have quickly grown into a symbol of self-management internationally. After going on strike and occupying their factory, on February 12, 2013 they re-opened the factory and started production under worker’s control. For many, the factory represents a new potential way forward for unemployed workers in Greece – seizing the means of production, running factories without bosses, producing only goods that are needed, and distributing them through solidarity networks.

“Every extra profit we make will be given out to people who need it. Our plan is to offer help to unemployed people or others who are in great need,” says  Dimitrios Koumasiouras, a worker from Vio.Me.

This film tells the story of how the worker’s re-opened the factory under self-management and looks to where the factory is headed now.

Here is a key statement from the film: 

...the workers did not give up, they showed the way for a different workers movement with bottom up processes, with direct democracy, with general assemblies, unions based in the grass roots and the real struggle for workers' needs.