The Egyptian masses rise up again to complete their revolution!

Click here to access article by  José Antonio Gutiérrez D. from Anarkismo.net.

At this very minute, there is street fighting in all of the major cities of Egypt, particularly in Cairo, Port Said, Alexandria and Suez. In Southern Egypt there are numerous demonstrations, and clashes with the repressive apparatus of the SCAF have also been reported. Police stations have been attacked and barricades have been built on most important roads and streets.

Exposed: US Press "Freedom"

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar. 

This perceptive writer once again exposes the reality behind one of a number of myths broadcast by the propaganda machines of the Empire: freedom of the press in the US. 

So this is how the much-lauded "freedom of the press" myth in the US actually works. If you perform the job of an actual journalist, telling truth to power, forget about attending press conferences at the White House, Pentagon or State Department. You won't even be admitted in the building.

Standoff sets in at Egypt's Tahrir Square

Click here to access article by Malika Bilal from Al Jazeera. 

Sunday's violence followed a day of clashes in downtown Cairo and other major cities, with thousands of rock-throwing protesters demanding that the ruling military announce a date to hand over power to an elected government. At least two people were killed and hundreds wounded across the country on Saturday.

"People here are not thinking about elections they are thinking about their revolution and how to finish it."
 

Occupy Oakland Calls for TOTAL WEST COAST PORT SHUTDOWN ON 12/12

Click here to access article from Occupy Oakland. 

We call on each West Coast occupation to organize a mass mobilization to shut down its local port.  Our eyes are on the continued union-busting and attacks on organized labor, in particular the rupture of Longshoremen jurisdiction in Longview Washington by the EGT.   Already, Occupy Los Angeles has passed a resolution to carry out a port action on the Port Of Los Angeles on December 12th, to shut down SSA terminals, which are owned by Goldman Sachs.

The article doesn't mention any consultation with the International Longshoreman's union.

Here on the West coast of the US there are so many actions going on by the Occupy movements in the various cities--this is only one planned event. See also Occupy Seattle, Occupy Portland, Occupy Los Angeles.

Financial secrecy: We really are in it together

Click here to access article by Charles Abugre from Pambazuka News (Africa). 

The author provides a good, succinct explanation of how financial deregulation and banking secrecy, the latter involved in what is known as the "shadow banking system", often has disastrous effects on the lives of ordinary people.

Buckle up – Credit Crunch 2

Click here to access article by David Malone from Golem XIV.

There is a crisis and it is in Europe , but the ‘contagion’ is not at all what our cretinous media and brain rotted politicians are telling us it is. The contagion the markets are worried about is bank contagion. Nations’ borrowing woes are the radioactive material, but the banks built the bomb.

The author explains how another credit crisis is brewing in Europe over sovereign debts that is very much the same type of scam that was involved in sub-prime mortgage securities. And, guess who the banksters again are insisting should pay for their reckless gambling?

What price the new democracy? Goldman Sachs conquers Europe

Click here to access article by Stephen Foley from The Independent.

This is the most remarkable thing of all: a giant leap forward for, or perhaps even the successful culmination of, the Goldman Sachs Project.

It seems that the banking interests, especially Goldman Sachs, are overtly taking control of Europe. See also my recent posting entitled, "The Great Putsch: welcome to post-democratic Europe".

First Five Thousand Years of Debt

Click here to access article P2P Foundation. 

This lengthy article features information on a recently published book entitled, First Five Thousand Years of Debt, by David Graeber, an anthropologist and anarchist. Although I haven't had time to read all of the article, I have read some of the three interviews that Graeber had about his book with various people, and found them to be useful in elucidating Graeber's new findings about the historical origins of money and debt.

...the very principle of exchange emerged largely as an effect of violence—that the real origins of money are to be found in crime and recompense, war and slavery, honor, debt, and redemption. That, in turn, opens the way to starting...an actual history of the last five thousand years of debt and credit....

Here’s what attempted co-option of OWS looks like

Click here to access article by Glenn Greenwald from Salon.

Having SEIU officials — fresh off endorsing the Obama re-election campaign — shape, fund, dictate and decree an anti-GOP, pro-Obama march is about as antithetical as one can imagine to what the Occupy movement has been.

I was shocked to see Mary Kay Henry of SEIU make her pro-Obama statements the other day on TV (see this video and interview on MSNBC. Surely the American people are not so politically naive as to fall for this brazen attempt at using the Occupy movement to support a ruling class puppet. Because it is hard for me to believe this mainstream union official is completely out of touch with reality, I am left with the only other alternative: she is making a colossal blunder by making such an obvious attempt to function as a political operative of the ruling class. Surely, this will backfire on her to the discredit of all such union officials.

Breaking the Silence

Click here to access article by Michael Pooler from Red Pepper (UK).

Humans are by nature peace loving, cooperative, and desire to produce goods and services for the well-being of their families and communities. Thus, in order to prepare its young people to serve as enforcers of a system of oppression and exploitation, a ruling class must carefully eliminate such impluses and cultivate fear of others through comprehensive campaigns of indoctrination in the family, in education, and the media. This article illustrates how such indoctrination functions in Israel to brutalize their young people who, in turn, brutalize and dehumanize Palestinians.

Through an organization called Breaking the Silence, former Israeli soldiers are attempting to recover their humanity by speaking out about their experiences.

Full of tales of abductions, humiliation within homes and the beating of children perpetrated by soldiers, the testimonies make for shocking and at times harrowing reading. In doing so they uncompromisingly reveal the day-to-day of life under occupation for Palestinians - subject to measures justified under the banner of 'security' - from the unusual perspective of those meting the treatment.

Food Policy, Economists, and the Hazards of Assuming a Can Opener

Click here to access article by Anna Lappé from Civil Eats. 

The author challenges the capitalist assumptions that serve to justify industrial agriculture.

The arguments are based in flawed assumptions, obfuscated by fancy charts, big words, and complex calculations.

Neo-Paramilitary Gangs Ratchet Up Their Threat to Colombian Civil Society and the Long Term Survival of Civic Rectitude in the Public Arena

Click here to access article by Denise Fonseca and Candiss Shumate from Council on Hemispheric Affairs.

This article brings us up-to-date on affairs in Columbia. It seems that nothing has changed since Uribe's administration (see this, this, and this for details). The Empire's satrap in South America continues to use paramilitaries to terrorize any opposition to the military clique trained and indoctrinated in the US.

Likewise, contrary to earlier reports in 2008 after a Colombian army raid on a FARC camp, this article reports that FARC seems to be alive and well.

Occupy London takes over empty UBS bank – live

Click here to access article from The Guardian.

The British Occupy movement demonstrates more creative militancy by entering a new phase of struggle--occupying capitalist property.

Occupy London demonstrators have opened up a new front in their campaign against the banking industry and the government's response to the financial crisis by taking over a complex of buildings owned by a subsidiary of UBS bank just north of the City of London.

 

Tens of thousands protest in Egypt

Click here to access article from Al Jazeera.

The demonstration, dubbed as the "Friday of One Demand," was called in response to a document of "supraconstitutional" principles floated by the government which declares the military the guardian of "constitutional legitimacy", suggesting the armed forces could have the final word on major policies even after a civilian parliament and president are elected.

The first phase of revolution in Egypt happened when the people ousted Mubarak, but now the second phase begins with the conflict against the Empire's satrap in Egypt, the military council. This contest will be much more difficult to pull off; but Egyptians, like most other people in the world, have no other choice but to fight to stop further descent into fascism and barbarism. People everywhere must continue to join the Occupy movement if we are to reclaim control of our lives and that of future generations. 

We are now in a critical period of this struggle. The Empire is both attempting to take advantage of the chaos and trying to divert attention away from the struggle. I am referring to the increasing vitriolic propaganda attacks on Iran and Syria, and the further extension of military bases in Africa, Australia, and Asia. FireDogLake has also noticed this--read their brief article entitled, "Trainers, Marines, Troops Everywhere; More US Deployments Around the Globe".

Warsaw protester launches drone to spy on police

Click here to access article by David Edwards from The Raw Story. 

I never cease to be excited and inspired by the creativity of activists throughout the world. Check this out.

The Rush for Oil in West Africa – The New Wild West?

Click here to access article by Meena Bhandari from Inter Press Service. 

...the history of oil in Africa has so far been a tumultuous one. A recent EU report found that the negative impacts of the oil industry in sub-Saharan Africa were a major concern, for the health and livelihoods of local communities.

It also stressed the need for better accountability, transparency and governance, and came hot on the heels of the United Nations findings highlighting the impact of oil spills in the Niger Delta.

The Niger Delta is said to be one of the most polluted sites in the world with oil spills over the last 50 years, having a devastating impact on human and wild life. A clean up is estimated to take 30 years at a cost of around one billion dollars, according to the U.N.

As more discoveries of oil occur in Africa, many worry about whether such discoveries are a blessing or a curse given the history of oil on this continent. Perhaps there is some connection between these discoveries and the new US military mission in the heart of Africa. See especially this article entitled, "Scramble for Africa", for much more background on the involvement of Western countries and China in the continent.

Obama moves to legalize cluster munitions

Click here to access article by Scott Martin from World Socialist Web Site.

Although the US is not a member, the Obama Administration is now leading an effort to invalidate what modest effect the CCM treaty has had. It has proposed a treaty, as part of the CCW, which would allow the use of all cluster munitions made after 1980 for twelve years after the treaty comes into force. This covers practically all the stockpiles of cluster munitions, as weapons older than 1980 are past their service life anyway. Moreover, all recent usage of the weapons has been with models made after 1980.

Meanwhile, the US military-industrial complex is constantly developing more weapons with which to impose its domination over the world. See this for the latest weapon.

We Power

Click here to access article by Julie Ristau & Alexa Bradley from On the Commons.

Through our experience with numerous community projects, we’ve come to see how deeply contemporary society is immersed in the market mentality. So long as market fundamentalism remains the lens through which most Americans see the world, it will be very difficult for people to envision a commons-based society, let alone work to revive actual commons that are under threat in their communities.

This realization led us to examine how people’s social, political, and even personal consciousness is conditioned by their belief in the market as the only efficient system to organize society, and to look for points of entry for introducing commons-based ideas to the wider public.

The authors suggest that a revolution in consciousness is mandatory if we, the people, are going to survive the attacks on our families, communities, and society. People are beginning to see the necessity of recovering the values of the commons which sustained humanity for more than 98% of its historical existence.

David Leonhardt’s fairytale of austerity

Click here to access article by Jim O’Reilly from his blog, Comments on Global Political Economy.

The author deconstructs an opinion piece about the economy published in the NY Times and reveals what many in the OWS movement are now understanding: the one percent are hoarding and denying the fruits of technological wealth created by working people to working people--unless or until they can derive sufficient profit from it.

The earth is a great casino for the owners, nothing more, and human society will be allowed to fall to the dark ages if the species becomes no longer profitable.

The Struggle for Syria

Click here to access article by Joseph Massad from Al Jazeera. (Joseph Massad is Associate Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University in New York.)

Those who see the Syrian popular struggle for democracy as having already been hijacked by these imperial and pro-imperial forces inside and outside Syria understand that a continuation of the revolt will only bring about one outcome, and it is not a democratic one....

This assessment of current Syrian events makes so much sense given everything else we know about US foreign policies in the region--both overt and covert. Apparently the US-friendly Oman ruling family's sponsorship of this media source has not yet limited the opinion pieces that they allow to be published.

Occupy and Anarchism’s Gift of Democracy

Click here to access article by David Graeber from The Guardian.

...we have to understand that there's always been an enormous gap between what those ruling America mean by "democracy", and what that word means to almost anyone else. According to the official version, of course, "democracy" is a system created by the founding fathers, based on checks and balances between president, Congress and judiciary. In fact, nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or Constitution does it say anything about the US being a "democracy". Most defined democracy as collective self-governance by popular assemblies, and as such, they were dead set against it, arguing it would be prejudicial against the interests of minorities (the particular minority that was had in mind here being the rich). 

So true! The new capitalist class of North America were profoundly fearful of the town meetings and other popular assemblies. They countered such democratic tendencies by establishing huge voting districts or even state-wide candidates for the election of representatives. Given that roads were poor and the means of communication were rather primitive, it was difficult for ordinary people who might have the right to vote, such as small farm landholders, to organize any effective political action. (Nowadays, ruling class control of all major media insures their continued rule.) This new ruling class found that such an arrangement encouraged voter apathy since only the wealthy were known by most of the people in these huge districts. Some people of the ruling class even went so far as to claim that this was America's single greatest contribution to political theory.

Originally the gathering of the young nation's ruling class in 1787 was publicized as intended only to reform or revise the Articles of Confederation which was the constitution of the 13 colonies. Instead, this new landed and commercial aristocracy decided on a revolutionary course of their own design by crafting a whole new Constitution which centralized control over the nation under their supervision. Only by tacking on the Bill of Rights and the use of political chicanery, could they get the state assemblies to ratify it. 

Contrary to official doctrine, the designers of the Constitution intentionally structured the government into three branches (a so-called system of "checks and balances") not to impede the development of authoritarian rule, but to serve as a bulwark against democratic influences from below. (One of the best single sources for further study on this subject that I know of is historian Woody Holton's book entitled, Unruly Americans.)

Politburo uber alles

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from OpEd News. 

The eurozone is now in fact run by an eight-member politburo. What a sterling job. This Gang of Eight is accountable to no one, except mythical Zeus with his trademark thunderbolts. In the liquid modernity era, Zeus goes by the name of the God of the Market. The only thing that matters to the Gang of Eight is what financial markets -- run by the God -- want; mere mortals, as in European voters, are at best a nuisance.

Ergo, eurozone national governments are totally meaningless. The shots are called by a troika formed by the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Commission (EC) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). All of them gloriously unelected.

Could it be that the capitalist "politburos" really want to balkanize Europe--the better to control it? The author uses his typical sardonic writing style to suggest not only that capitalists are dropping the usual pretenses of "democratic" processes by openly using politburo-like panels to impose their interests, but may have decided to break up the European Union into something more manageable.

Occupy Wall Street: police violence reveals a corrupt system

Click here to access article by Penny Laurie from The Guardian. 

Better-off Occupy Wall Street protesters are learning something about the relationship between citizen and state

The Great Putsch: welcome to post-democratic Europe

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

With the removal of European leaders elected in ruling class managed elections, it has become even clearer what "democracy" is to the ruling elites: merely a facade for them to hide behind. When the facade no longer serves their purposes, they ignore it and show the reality of capitalist class rule.

Having pushed through “technocratic” regime change in Greece and Italy, the EU is paving the way for the diktak of an unaccountable clique of bankers.

Paul Feldman in his article entitled, Goldman Sachs adds Italy and Greece to its portfolio, reports
that the newly appointed puppets on stage are connected with Goldman Sachs--hence, he makes the argument that the puppeteers who are directing the stage play from behind the curtain in Europe are Goldman Sachs.  

He concludes his essay with some hopeful comments:

As the present political system is ossified, alienated and generally in someone else’s pockets, then it follows that entirely new forms of democracy are needed. The assemblies that have been a feature of 2011’s uprisings are an experiment in democracy that actually works.

Democracy here is not an add-on, to obscure some other power relations, but a conscious effort to do things better. The general assemblies have the potential to go further than the spaces they currently occupy. People’s Assemblies can become not just the voice but also the power of the silenced, disenfranchised 99%.

They could reach out to neighbourhoods and communities and offer new forms of representation, participation and direct democracy. A network of assemblies could begin to draw up strategies and plans for a democratic alternative to the power and rule of the market capitalist economy.

Syria In Western Strategy For Global Military Supremacy

Click here to access article by Rick Rozoff from Stop NATO. 

I find the author's writing style--his use of lengthy, complex sentences--rather difficult to read, but in this piece he provides considerable evidence of NATO's penetration into the MENA region. While he offers no specific evidence, he provides a lot of circumstantial evidence to suggest that NATO is now targeting Syria as their next victim and addition to the Empire.

If indeed Syria becomes the next Libya and a new Yemeni regime is installed under the control of the Gulf Cooperation Council, then the only nations remaining in the vast stretch of territory known as the Broader or Greater Middle East, from Mauritania on the Atlantic coast to Kazakhstan on the Chinese and Russian borders, not tied to NATO through multinational and bilateral partnerships will be Lebanon (see above), Eritrea, Iran and Sudan.

Egypt to IMF: ‘Topple their debts’

Click here to access article by Eric Walberg from Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt.

...the loans propped up the economy as it was being gutted under an IMF-supervised privatisation programme from 1990 on, allowing foreign companies and Mubarak cronies to pocket hundreds of millions of dollars and spirit them abroad. Meanwhile, what investment that trickled down from the loans went to financing prestige infrastructure projects like the Cairo airport expansion, which was riddled with corruption and serves only the Egyptian elite. Virtually all the loans from this period should be considered liable for writing off.

Egypt is only one illustration of how international banksters have placed citizens of entire countries into debt slavery.

The limits of objectivity: Qatari rulers reassert control over Aljazeera

Click here to access article by A.E. Souaiaia from OpEd News.

This article essentially announces what many others have sensed during the past several months--Al Jazeera has ceased to exist as an independent Arabic news source.

This morning I was surprised to find a video on their site entitled, "The US and the new Middle East: The Gulf" with a descriptive sentence following it that reads "Fault Lines travels to Bahrain and asks why the US backs democracy in one Arab country, but not another." Hence, I was intrigued to find out what kind of spin they put on this subject. I wondered if the reporter didn't spin it well enough because the video doesn't function on my computer.

Lying to Eat

Click here to access article from American Civil Liberties Union.

Dishonesty, in its various incarnations, is not an admirable trait. But in moments of desperation, a lie can seem like the only option. Anita McLemore, a Mississippi mother of two, faced one of those unfortunate moments when filling out her application for food stamps — and now she’ll pay the price, by spending three years of her life behind bars in federal prison.

Mic Check: Now We Are the People!

Click here to access article by Gary Corseri from Dissident Voice. 

In this piece Corseri, my favorite wordsmith, captures the very essence of the Occupy Wall Street movement that has spread across the US and Canada. Little did the New York City enforcers of the ruling class know, when they took the sound equipment away from the Occupiers at Liberty Park, that the latter would create an even more powerful sound system.

This is how it begins:

When in the course of human events
WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS

It becomes necessary for one people
IT BECOMES NECESSARY FOR ONE PEOPLE

To dissolve the political bands…
TO DISSOLVE THE POLITICAL BANDS…

"Free Trade" & Corporate Power [53:00m audio interview]

Click here to access audio interview from KPFA radio in Berkeley, California. (Note: there is one five minute interruption at 32:00m to report on a U. of California student protest march to Bank of America.)

Using the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a vehicle, global capitalist elites began a campaign several decades ago to establish multinational "free trade" agreements. To counter this, the Anti-globalization Movement engaged in many protests at WTO meetings across the world, one of the most notable was here in nearby Seattle in 1999. As a consequence of so much global opposition, capitalist elites began to use another strategy-- bi-lateral "free trade" agreements. As Professor Martin Hart-Landsberg explains in this interview, these agreements are accomplishing the same purposes--undermining the ability of governments to impose any control over capitalist practices and weakening workers rights. 

Using the recent bi-lateral agreement with South Korea approved by Congress as an example, Hart-Landsberg provides a very clear understanding of what such agreements actually contain. He explains how economists try to rationalize these agreements under the theory of Comparative Advantage to hide the reality of a stealth attack on workers and their governments to control out-of-control global capitalist elites.

Showdown at the Occupy Wall Street OK Corral

Click here to access article by Robert Oak from The Economic Populist. 

This provides very good coverage, including videos, of recent OWS scenes, mostly focusing on Portland, Oregon. 

In addition, I highly recommend more detailed coverage of the Portland events in this article by Ben Schreiner from Dissident Voice.

...although ultimately cleared out of their encampments, Occupy Portland demonstrated its continuing relevance as a vibrant and powerful movement.  For if nothing else, the battle Saturday night and early Sunday morning confirmed that the movement has strong support within the city and is more than capable of mobilizing sizable masses to stymie police action.  Beyond question then, Occupy Portland will continue to be a force in the national Occupy movement.

For more general coverage of OWS events across the US, I suggest you read this piece by David Walsh of the World Socialist Web Site.

City governments and police across the US have stepped up their attacks on Occupy movement encampments. Using a variety of pretexts—ordinances against sleeping in city parks, alleged health and sanitation violations, unrelated crimes, etc.—the authorities are attempting to criminalize the protests.

It's Time, Nationalize the Banks

Click here to access article by Duncan Cameron from Rabble (Canada). 

Canadian educators are providing a critically important role for the Occupy movement by informing ordinary citizens about the underlying factors that cause so much havoc for the economy.

Protestors want to know why out-of-luck banks got bailed out, while bad-break mortgage holders got evicted from their homes? Are unemployed college graduates struggling to repay tens of thousands of dollars in students loans undeserving of debt relief? And the big question: who allowed public money for bank bailouts to end up as bonuses in the pockets of bank executives?

The focus on bankers, a.k.a. banksters, is appropriate. Banking and finance is where power lies: power to satisfy individual greed, or power to act in the general interest.

The author shows how private banking creation of money provides them with huge profits (30% of all profits generated by the economy) which they use to control government and control who gets money (credit). 

Recently at a teach-in at Occupy Toronto Jim Stanford provided further clarification about the private banking scam of creating money-out-of-thin-air, what the banksters do with all their profits, and finally, what needs to be done so that money serves the public interest. Here is an excerpt from his teach-in lecture.

They produce paper. And then they buy and sell paper, for a profit.

Here's a little economic lesson. You can't live off paper. You need food, clothing, and shelter to survive -- not paper. And since we are human beings, not animals, we need more: we need education, and culture, and recreation, and entertainment, and security, and meaning. Those are the fundamentals of economic life. Not paper.

What is paper actually good for? You can wallpaper your house with it. You can line your birdcage with it. In a pinch, you can wipe your butt with it.

But other than that, paper is just paper. It is not concretely useful in its own right.

How do banks create that paper? Let me put it bluntly again: They create it out of thin air.

It is not an economic exaggeration to state that the private banking system has the power to create money out of thin air.

Not cash. Not currency. Only the government can produce that.

But most money in our economy -- over 95 per cent of money in our economy -- is not currency. Most money consists of entries in electronic accounts. Savings accounts. Chequing accounts. Lines of credit. Credit card balances. Investment accounts.

In that electronic system, new money is created, not by printing currency, but through creating credit. Every time a bank issues someone a new loan, they are creating new money.

It's like a big magic machine, creating money out of thin air. And it's called the private credit system.

One of my favourite economists, John Kenneth Galbraith, put it this way: "The process by which private banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled."

How do they do it? They start out with some capital. Let's say a billion dollars. Then they lend it out. Then they lend it out again. And again. And again and again, 10 or 20 or 50 times over.

Each new loan, is new money. The economy needs that money, let's be clear. Without new money, we wouldn't be able to pay for the stuff we make. So we'd stop making it, and we'd be in a depression.

So the creation of new money (or credit) is as essential function for the whole economy. It's like a utility. But we've outsourced that crucial task to private banks. We've given them a legal license to print money -- and the freedom and power to do it on their own terms.

Their goal is not providing the economy with a sensible, sustainable supply of the credit we need. Their goal is using their unique power to create money out of thin air, to maximize the profits of the banks, and the wealth of the shareholders.

How does this system work, creating money out of thin air? It only works if:

Number 1: Not everyone comes to the bank to withdraw all this imaginary money, in the form of real cash, at the same time. And if...

Number 2: The banks keep lending to each other, which is essential to make sure each one has the cash it needs for withdrawals.

We can immediately see that this system is inherently fragile. Banks create new loans many times larger than their capital, profiting off the interest they earn. But the money was created out of thin air. It's not actually there, if people want it at the same time, and if the banks won't help each other out.

So Canada's banks are fragile, too. True, our banks only lent their capital out 20 times over, not 50 times like the Europeans did. That's because Canadian regulations capped the leverage at 20. But they've still got 20 times more loans out there, than they actually have money in the bank.

Confidence is essential to the stability of the whole system. But confidence is intangible and impossible to predict. If confidence went south, Canadian banks would collapse as surely as Lehman Brothers or Dexia did.

Now, what do the banks do with all that money they created out of thin air? They lend it out. Some of it flows into the real economy, to pay for homes and cars and capital equipment. But not enough goes there. That's why our real economy is stuck. That's why there are 2 million Canadians unemployed, official and unofficial.

What about the money that doesn't flow into the real economy? Unfortunately, the banks use enormous amounts of it to place bets, enormous bets, buying and selling the paper assets that are created and traded in these towers. It's gambling, not production. It's legalized, subsidized gambling, all protected by the state.

The interaction of the private credit system, together with the speculative motive, that creates such turmoil and destruction, with each successive financial bubble. Without massive injections of new credit, the asset bubble could never expand so far -- whether it's sub-prime derivatives, dot-com stocks, or rare earth futures.

If speculators had to spend their own money on these asset bubbles, the prices could never rise to such precarious and destructive levels.

Now, there are two key problems with the operation of this private credit system, and its interaction with speculation, that we must understand in order to fight for change.

First, the flow of credit -- created out of thin air by these banks -- is like a roller-coaster, all depending on the mood swings of the bankers.

When their greed overwhelms their fear, they will lend to anyone with a pulse. But when their fear overwhelms their greed, and they want to hoard every penny possible against the feared run on the bank, they pull back loans even from their most reliable customers.

This roller-coaster, called the "bankers' cycle," is an inherent and destabilizing feature of the private credit system. And since the whole economy depends on the flow of new money, the flow of new credit, we are forced to follow the same roller-coaster.

The second problem is that there's nothing underpinning the paper valuations of financial assets, when they've been pumped up by the combination of speculation and irresponsible credit creation.

Then, when speculators' moods switch polarities, the whole thing comes crashing down. Quoting Galbraith again, "A popped balloon never deflates in an orderly manner."

And then we all pay the price for a crisis we didn't cause. And we all suffer the hangover from a party we weren't invited to.

This cycle of paper expansion and contraction, euphoria and panic, is hard-wired into the DNA of the deregulated private financial system. The cycle has happened before. And it will happen again. The current crisis was no unfortunate accident, no "perfect storm." This crisis is simply par for the course, for a system that values speculation over production -- and that gives the private credit system free reign to throw gasoline on the fire, through unlimited, unregulated credit creation.

It will happen again and again, until we change the rules of this pointless, destructive game.

So what do we do?

First, tax them. That's the idea behind the Robin Hood Tax, that we are fighting for today. Make them pay a little bit, with every pointless, unproductive transaction, to help clean up the mess they left behind.

A transactions tax alone won't solve the problem. It won't stop the process. But at least it will support the public services that we need, all the more so in the wake of each financial meltdown.

Same goes for corporate tax cuts. Let's reverse them. Put the federal rate back to 18 per cent for the financial sector alone, and we'd raise $1.5 billion per year for essential public services.

Taxing the banks is important. But taxing the banks is not enough.

So, second, we must control them. Put in place rules that require them to use this immense power, the power to create money out of thin air, to use it sensibly and productively. Prohibit the gambling. Make sure loans are aimed at sustainable, productive purposes.

The new measures being promoted internationally by Mark Carney are a step in the right direction. But a tiny, tiny baby step. We need more powerful restrictions.

And friends, even controlling the banks is not enough.

What we ultimately have to do is take them back. There's nothing magical about creating credit out of thin air. There's no special technology or knowledge needed. Just the legal power.

We can create credit out of thin air, just as well as any private bank can. Ultimately, we need a public, democratic, accountable banking system. One that serves the Canadian economy, not the wealth of those who own banks.

If we can create money out of thin air to buy and sell sub-prime mortgage bonds, then by god we can create money out of thin air to pay for affordable housing that could end homelessness.

If we can create money out of thin air to buy short options on Greek sovereign debt, then we can create money out of thin air to invest in a green energy system to stop global climate change.

If we can create money out of thin air to speculate on international currencies, we can create money out of thin air to buy needed medicines to prevent hundreds of millions of needless deaths from disease in the Third World.

There's no magic to it. These ideas are prudent and rational and economically sound. Because like we said at the beginning, it is work and production and sharing and sustaining that supports our real economy. Not gambling with paper.

These towers look powerful. But ultimately they are built on paper.

We've got the real power, with our ability to work and produce and share and sustain. We've got the power to build something new. We've got the power to replace these towers with a system that works.

And that's exactly what we've started to do with this movement. Thank you for what you are doing! And let's get on with the job!  

Baghdad's Gone Missing...

Click here to access article by Mark Thompson from Time.

Let me be clear--I am not posting this article because I think it is a good one. I was astonished to read it--not by the article itself posted in this ruling class online magazine, but by the huge gap between the imperial views expressed in the article regarding Iraq and the cynical reactions of the people in the comments section following the article. Could this be evidence of a widening gap between the ruling one percent and the ninety-nine percent? Should this apparent gap continue, what does it suggest about the legitimacy and durability of our governing capitalist class?

Introduction to the Israel Lobby

Click here to access article from Veterans Today. 

The Israel Lobby is one of the most powerful and pervasive special interest groups in the United States. It began its activities many decades ago and played a major role in the creation of Israel.

It consists of a multitude of institutions, many of them extremely well-funded, that work to influence Congress, the Presidency, academia, the media, religious institutions, and the American public on behalf of Israel. It also includes influential individuals.

I'm not sure that AIPAC serves Israeli interests at the exclusion of US (imperial) interests simply because I think that there is a convergence of interests. I think that Israel serves the West's ruling Anglo-American ruling class as a fortress outpost in the oil rich Middle East. But, I acknowledge that a good argument can be made for Zionist interests being the dominant party as does this article. On the other hand, the fact that the US has not (yet) gone along with Israeli's insistent desire over the past decade to attack Iran suggests otherwise. 

Voices From the Occupations

Click here to access article from In These Times by Jeremy Gantz who interviews activists from Oakland, Chicago, and Washington DC. 

The Occupy protesters have been ridiculed by the press, celebrated by the left, and reviled by the right—but rarely allowed to speak for themselves. After the initial New York protest morphed into a national movement in October, reporters struggled to understand the spectacle and pundits stepped in to pontificate and prognosticate. They were right about one thing: United in anger, the mostly young protesters have lost faith in America’s political and economic system—but they don’t always agree on how to repair it.

Sugar Daddies of the Tea Party

Click here to access article by Phillip Doe from CounterPunch. 

I formerly had a habit on Saturdays to post an article about the one percent. Most of these articles were written by Jamie Johnson, heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune. He has made two excellent films about the one percent whom he knows intimately. I always accessed his articles on the Vanity Fair website; however they are no longer to be found there, for whatever reason. In place of such an article, I am running this one about the infamous right-wing Koch brothers who are attempting to swap some of their land for public land that is bisecting their property. That story is not as interesting as the other tidbits offered by the author regarding the Koch brothers lifestyle and influence. 

Also, see this piece which illustrates what is typical of the one percent--they sponsor both political parties. That way they control the whole electoral system which pretends to be a function of "democracy".

Terror and Revenge Engulf NATO’s Libya

Click here to access article by Franklin Lamb from CounterPunch. (You will need to scroll down to the article.)

It is clear that the current period is cascading into paroxysmal revenge attacks and political cleansing.

(Note: Saif al Islam, mentioned in the article, is another Gaddafi son.)

Nature is the 99%, too

Click here to access article by Chip Ward from Al Jazeera. 

What if rising sea levels are yet another measure of inequality? What if the degradation of our planet's life-support systems - its atmosphere, oceans and biosphere - goes hand in hand with the accumulation of wealth, power and control by that corrupt and greedy 1 per cent we are hearing about from Zuccotti Park? What if the assault on America's middle class and the assault on the environment are one and the same?

Clearly they are the same and it's a point that I have been trying to make for the last two years on this blog. Of course, its not just on "America's [so-called] middle class", it is on every person in the world who is not a part of the global ruling class who live off of money--not mental or physical labor that contributes anything to anybody but themselves. Globalization, right?

But notice that he can't name the system that organizes the economy. That's either because he's been educated indoctrinated to believe that there is no alternative, or he knows that he dare not name the system if he wants to keep writing for corporate media and earn a living.

A Chill Descends On Occupy Wall Street [updated on 11-12-2011]

Click here to access article by Fritz Tucker from Counter Currents. Because I ran out of time yesterday, I have expanded on my comments today, Saturday, November 12.

I have been posting articles that have reported on the positive accomplishments of this radical experiment in people power that has characterized the OWS movement; and this is especially true in New York City which is the original impetus and ideological center of the movement in the US. In contrast, this article offers some very serious criticisms of OWS-NYC that are have been picked up by other bloggers to reinforce some rather cynical views of the movement. In this article Tucker alleges that OWS-NYC is being run undemocratically, run by mostly white middle class males who are selectively using others, especially minority people, to serve their interests, are controlling large sums of money and hence are corrupt. Furthermore, he sees the recent creation of a Spokes Council as merely another ploy to consolidate their control over the movement and the money. Wow!

So, what are we, who are unable to participate directly in the movement, to make of this? I notice in Tucker's article that while participating in proceedings at OWS-NYC, he had some of his views overruled by other participants and the facilitators. Could this be merely sour-grapes on his part?

Tucker's piece is starting to circulate a bit on the internet. Probably the most serious commentator who has made reference to the article is William Bowles, a long time activist in English leftist politics. He seems to feel that it confirms his doubts about the OWS model for political activism. (Read his piece entitled, "OWS: Leading from behind?")  He seems to take Tucker's criticisms at face value. He almost ridicules the OWS participants who he sees as rather naive in their discoveries about existing society: 

    “For the last six weeks we have been meeting at the New York General Assembly…and we get about eighty to one hundred people…[where]…we discuss the economic crisis…debt, the stratification of wealth and try to formulate alternatives to the existing system which we see as flawed and having failed us.” Marissa Holmes

Ok, so for weeks they’ve been talking about stuff that we’ve already spent the last 150 years talking about. But for those of us on the Left, being red-baited is as old as being a Red. Get used to it.

He then goes on to criticize them for a lack of a political agenda:

I hear that the NYC-GA has ‘plans’ or ‘programs’ up to the year 2014 but what these ‘plans’ or ‘programs’ consist of is a mystery to me. They could be a new layout for a tent city for all I know. 

It seems to me that his cool reaction to the Occupy movement is informed by an older tradition of leftist activism that was based on a vanguard organizational model. Such a model was typically inspired and led by a small group of "enlightened" political ideologues who offered a well worked out platform, principles, and agenda. That model seems to have had its day and failed miserably.

Giving birth to a radically different way of organizing people, a way that is democratically inclusive, and that can pose a real threat to the established overwhelming power of today's one percent is undoubtedly going to be a messy process. It is becoming clearer to me everyday that the movement is posing a real threat to the ruling class. They don't seem to know how to deal with it, but they no doubt will employ every means at their disposal to destroy it as they are attempting to do now. In some places they are using heavy handed police tactics to intimidate people (see video at this link regarding more police attacks in Oakland); in other cities especially in the northern US, they are quietly waiting out the Occupiers hoping that the cold weather will discourage them; in some places the authorities are trying to wear them down with all kinds of legal restrictions and obstructions; and I suspect that they are using other more subtle and indirect methods of disruption. For example, as reported the other day in Socialist Worker:

...the media's stories of crime and violence, including sexual assault, at Occupy camps may be sensationalized, but they aren't whole-cloth fabrications. In particular, tensions have increased where police have steered people with mental or substance abuse problems to the camps in an obvious attempt to stir up conflict.

Other tactics that I have directly witnessed during the anti-Vietnam War activities was the planting of people in organizations who proceeded to engage in as many disruptive tactics as possible: spreading rumors and misinformation, and sowing suspicion of other activists. This in many cases was effective in undermining trust and group cohesion.

It seems to me that there really isn't any alternative to an inclusive democratic movement that can provide for equal opportunity for participation while creating practical structures that can accomplish goals. A lot of creative, hard work will have to be done and is being done by the incredible work of many thousands of activists in the Occupying movement. Only a global movement based at the grass roots has the capability of taking power away from the Empire and establishing healthy, sustainable societies. They may fail, and they will, if we don't all get involved and support their work.

A new culture of resistance: from WikiLeaks to the squares

Click here to access article by Pedro Noel from Reflections on a Revolution. 

As activists look ahead to future actions, it might be worthwhile to do a review of what has already happened in this new resistance movement. This article provides a good review. 

Now that the grassroots movement that started inadvertently with the Arab Spring has gone global, it is necessary to cast a backwards glance to try and figure out, with some perspective, the dynamics of what has happened, physically and conceptually, over the last year.

Do the Bomb Iran Shuffle

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times Online. (You may want to turn off your speakers to avoid listening to a commercial.)

Get ready for a flurry of fuzzy satellite ''intelligence'' of generic warehouses all across Iran frantically described as segments of a nuclear bomb assembly line (Remember a famous ''secret nuclear facility'' in Syria not long ago? It was a textile factory.)

Get ready for a flurry of crude diagrams depicting suspect devices, or the containers that hide them, all capable of reaching Europe in 45 minutes.

This writer satirizes the latest Empire campaign to launch a war against Iran using documents and the Empire's historical record.

Debating our tactics in Oakland

Click here to access article by Todd Chretien from Socialist Worker.

In the aftermath of the Oakland general strike on November 2, a debate over tactics has emerged among supporters of the Occupy struggle. The discussion centers on the late-night attempt by a relatively small group of self-described anarchists to occupy a building that formerly housed the Traveler's Aid Society, a homeless advocacy organization closed by city budget cuts.

This piece provides an excellent discussion of tactics by sectarian groups such as the Black Bloc's late night occupation of a building in Oakland following the November 2nd general strike. I think it is clear that independent acts such as this are always going to occur whether directed or encouraged by police agent provocateurs to discredit the larger Movement or by more independent actions of immature activists seeking photo-ops. There will always be these elements who will attempt to tag onto the Movement's actions for each of these purposes. 

The question is: how does the new participatory democratic structures of the Occupy Movement attempt to deal with such events? It seems to me that the obvious answer is the answer to all other decisions: they will be answered by the democratic structures of the Movement. An excellent piece such as this begins the discussion which will lead to such decisions.

A Movement That's Here to Stay

Click here to access editorial from Socialist Worker.

 ...nationally, the day of action initiative out of New York City for November 17 can provide a focus for every local Occupy movement. The list of New York unions backing the call is long and growing longer--the United Federation of Teachers, the Transport Workers Union, Service Employees International Union, AFSCME DC 37, Communications Workers of America and many more.

November 17 is the next stop for Occupy--another opportunity for the movement both to strengthen itself and to reach out to unions, community organizations and beyond.

It is crucial that we, the 99%, keep the Occupy Movement moving. This is another opportunity not to be missed. 

This piece provides another very useful discussion of the pitfalls and opportunities that lie ahead.

Perfect Storm of Internet Censorship

Click here to access 4:44m video and transcript by James Corbett from Global Research TV. 

...the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that it’s considering using social media to track and surveil its own population. DHS Undersecretary Caryn Wagner said that the government fears social unrest like that seen in Tunisia last December and wants to use social media services like Twitter to monitor its own population. Last January, Senators Lieberman and Collins renewed calls to give the president a kill switch over the internet to protect the government in times of emergency, a call echoed by Senator McCain last July.

Resilience Circles Resilience Circles small groups for tough times What is a Resilience Circle? Get Involved Resources Blog About For Real Change, Build Relationships: Resilience Circles & Occupy Wall Street

Click here to access article from Resilience Circles.

...we talk about what our groups might accomplish together, not just as isolated individuals. The curriculum takes its time getting to this stage, letting people get to know each other and find ways to help each other. This creates a firsthand experience of solidarity. From there, groups talk about how to “change the rules” and make a better world.

I am just amazed at all the creative ideas that are generated by people when they come together in a spirit of cooperation, sharing, and respect for every participant. People are coming together in affinity groups, collectives, work groups, etc. Clearly, such groups generate good ideas in such a way that illustrates the principle that "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts". 

I only know what I have just read perusing the Resilience Circles website, but they look like they are making a promising effort at building a basic social unit upon which a healthy society can be constructed.

I have become aware of how different these activist groups function from that of more conventional groups. I recently went to a large housing association meeting where everything was tightly controlled by the moderator and a parliamentary procedure expert. Very little of substance was discussed and some people were rather arbitrarily cut off while others were given wide latitude to discuss what they wanted. It was clear that the decision to include and exclude were based on indications of social status exhibited by the participants. 

Then I recalled many other such meetings in the past including some that appeared on the surface to be for progressive causes. Such organizations mirror the way larger, more influential institutions of our society function which is to create the appearance of democratic procedures, but manipulating them in such a way as to exclude people who do not conform to the values of a power structure created by the ruling class. 

This experience made me more conscious of how corrupted egalitarian values have become living in a capitalist society. This form of social organization has bestowed huge benefits in terms of wealth and power upon a small group of people who have accumulated so much while the rest of us have been placed in debt servitude to them. This corruption has permeated nearly all layers of our society to the point where it often feels perfectly normal to treat people in a highly differential way.

Debtor's Revolution: Are Debt Strikes Another Possible Tactic in the Fight Against the Big Banks?

Click here to access article by Sarah Jaffe from AlterNet. 

What does it mean to stop cooperating with the banks? Some activists, organizers, and technologists think the answer might be mass refusal to pay debts.

This is another creative idea coming out of Occupy Wall Street movement that needs further study. It looks like a major weapon that, if properly organized, could threaten the major banks and their overlords who constitute the very nerve center of capitalist rule. Social technology seems to exist to be able to create the organization necessary to pull this off.  

However, the use of this tactic would constitute a declaration of war on the capitalist class, and thus should be undertaken with an awareness about all that this implies. On the other hand, I don't see that many people have much of a choice: it's either live out the rest of their lives as debt slaves or wage war.

Take down letter from Citigroup

Click here to access article by John Schmitt from Real-World Economics Review.

I’ve just received my second Digital Millenium Copyright Act take-down letter. As before, the letter is from the Kilpatrick Townsend, Attorneys At Law, and, as before, the letter is on behalf of their client, Citigroup.

It looks like Citigroup is going after websites that have posted their infamous "plutonomy" document, a document that I first discovered in May 2010, posted a link to it on this site, and when that was removed, re-linked to a posting from another site which is still carrying the document. Like the author of this piece, I don't see how they can remove it from the entire internet. But, it appears that they are starting to panic at the prospect of too many people learning about the deep sociopathic characteristics of their class of people.

The Future of #OCCUPY

Click here to access article from AdBusters. 

This brief article provides a good overview of how the Occupy movement is progressing which it must do if it is to become a formidable foe to the system of organized crime--capitalism. The New York City Occupy group is moving forward with a promising organizing innovation:

...how to gel into a global movement without sacrificing the decentralized, leaderless model. There is a widespread acknowledgment that there are challenges that can only be dealt with on a global scale, such as a climate change accord and overturning international casino capitalism, and that we must therefore forge a globally united people's movement. However, there is also a growing recognition that the general assembly model that has worked beautifully thus far may be fundamentally limited on a structural level.

A breakthrough came on Friday from the New York City General Assembly where the structure working group has proposed, and the general assembly has accepted, the adoption of a modified spokes council model....

Major powers successfully dictate regime change in Greece

Click here to access article by Chris Marsden from World Socialist Web Site.

Seeking to force the opposition parties and the trade unions to abandon their token opposition and rally behind a national effort to impose austerity, Papandreou announced plans to hold a referendum on the issue. The financial elite responded with the worst run on world markets since 2008, while ruling circles in Berlin and Paris decided that Papandreou had shown himself to be irresolute.

Even after abandoning his referendum demand, Papandreou was told to go by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

This report illustrates how the capitalist version of democracy typically functions. The real power that determines the major decisions regarding austerity measures in Greece don't even need to be citizens of any particular country: Merkel and Sarkozy have decided that it is time for Papandreou to go. He apparently committed the sin of deciding on a Greek referendum which he didn't clear with them and the European ruling class. "But wait, there's more!"

Merkel, Sarkozy, Papandreou, etc. are the paid servants of the class of people who are hidden behind the facade of democracy and shaping it for their ends. They are merely the forms that the wizards of the ruling class take to deceive the people into believing that they must submit to generations of debt slavery, and that there is no alternative. But, like the Wizard of Oz, they are being exposed by the Occupy Wall Street activists.

...the all-powerful Wizard is exposed and his true identify revealed. Far from a mighty magician, "Oz, the Terrible" is merely a "humbug," a wizened old man whose "power" is achieved through elaborate acts of deception. The Wizard is simply a manipulative politician who appears to the people in one form, but works behind the scenes to achieve his true ends. Such figures are terrified at being exposed; the Wizard cautions Dorothy to lower her voice lest he be discovered and "ruined."

European elites should be wary of the Greek spring

Click here to access article by Costas Douzinas from Greek Left Review.

It is not only Papandreou: Europe’s hubris is also exposed. The Greek people with their prolonged struggles and sacrifices will finally get rid of their government. The weakest link has fallen partly as a result of popular resistance. Now the dominoes will move west. The economic future of Greece will be difficult, but democracy has won. The elite’s fear of “contagion” should not be just about the euro – they should also fear Greek resistance spreading across Europe.

Coming to America: Running From the School of the Americas

Click here to access article by Laura Schleifer from The Leftist Review. 

She author fills in American ignorance with knowledge about the pervasive role of the C.I.A.-run School of the Americas in subjecting Latin Americans to the rule of the Empire.

In Latin America, the role the United States has played in war, dictatorship, manufactured poverty, and human rights abuse is common knowledge. Yet, the vast majority of U.S. citizens have no idea of the existence of the SOA/WHINSEC, and in fact usually assume that the belief in the existence of such a place must be a conspiracy theory, upon hearing of it for the first time.

Yet, her conclusion about simply according immigrants to the US the rights of citizenship is fine, but very limiting. Working on that objective is only treating the symptom, not the cause of the diseased state of affairs for immigrants who, because of the neo-liberal policies of the Empire, have been forced to leave their homes and communities. Nothing less than the dismantlement of the Empire's ruling class and their system must be accomplished before there is peace and justice anywhere in the world.

See the latest activist notice against SOA.

Libya Recolonised

Click here to access article by Aijaz Ahmad from Frontline [India]. 

This rather lengthy article provides breadth, depth, and passion to the events recently concluded with the Empire's victory over Libya. It is well worth your undivided attention. You may think that you have already read all there is to know about the subject; but I think after reading this article, you will change your mind.

Suffice it to say that the fall of Libya is likely to serve as the first major step in the offensive to capture Africa's plentiful natural resources. In the fullness of time, as multiple insurgencies and bloodlettings are let loose across the continent, we are likely to see the erection of many new bases for the AFRICOM-NATO combine, very much on the model of Iraq and Afghanistan. The objective is not only to reserve African resources for the Euro-American imperium as much as possible but also to deny those resources to China....

Scramble for Africa

Click here to access article by John Cherian from Frontline [India]. (The link to the Frontline article can no longer be accessed, but I found it again at this link.)

The installation of the National Transitional Council (NTC) government in Libya by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) could signal the beginning of an open neocolonial scramble for Africa. Suspicions about such a blueprint were first aroused when President George W. Bush set up the United States-Africa Command (AFRICOM) in 2008, months before demitting office. The demand for a permanent American military footprint on the African continent had come from right-wing think tanks that enjoyed great clout in the corridors of power during the eight years of the Bush presidency.

Because there are so few independent Western journalists covering Africa, the Empire's media coverage shows little restraint in reporting events there from a highly skewed point of view. This magazine from India is helping to fill the vacuum.

What do Banks Actually DO? Teach-In for Occupy Toronto

Click here to access the transcript from Real-World Economics Review of a 12:17m speech given by economist Jim Stanford at the Occupy Toronto rally on October 29. The Occupy Wall Street gatherings that are happening all over the world are providing educational forums like this to help people understand how they are being robbed by the 1% of the wealth which they as a working class have created, and what steps are needed to recover that wealth for the benefit of the 99%.

Democracy Is Direct

Click here to access article by Cindy Milstein from Commons Not Capitalism. 

For me the key insight expressed in this article that has sustained the human race for at least 98% of its existence is this ethical foundation:

Embryonic within direct democracy, if only to function as a truly open policy-making mechanism, are values such as equality, diversity, cooperation, and respect for human worth—hopefully, the building blocks of a liberatory ethics as we begin to self-manage our communities, the economy, and society in an ever-widening circle of confederated assemblies.

This passage expresses the essence of human beings as social creatures. Should we continue to abandon that fundamental nature as we have during the past 10,000 plus years, we will descend further into barbarism, and after that, disappear from the Earth like the brontosaurs and the dodo birds. So much is now at stake!

On Corporate Power Miseducation and the New Slavery

Click here to access article by Michael Barker from Ceasefire.

Unlike the vast majority of American historian/writers who write about the US Civil War as being about the freeing of African-American slaves, Barker's article suggests to me that this horrendous war was more about freeing them from traditional slavery so that they could become low paid wage slaves in the newly burgeoning capitalist industries. Barker doesn't directly make this point, but such an inference is blatantly obvious.

Ruling class philanthropists have maintained a long history of subsuming educational needs to capitalist growth prerogatives. In his latest column, Michael Barker looks at how industrial education served as “a major force in the subjugation of black labour in the New South” in the United States.

New Dept. of Energy Priority-Setting Analysis Seriously Flawed

Click here to access article by Gail Tverberg from The Oil Drum. 

This writer has been following the oil/energy resource issue since the 1970s and has published and edited on this website for a number of years. She is a recognized expert in the energy field and widely quoted in energy publications. (For example, see this.) She is honest, objective, and well-informed on the subject. Her only limitation, as I see it, is that she only looks at the issue within the context of a capitalist system. She, like her colleagues, received extensive capitalist indoctrination from an American university which sees the system as fixed, or as the center of the universe much like the Catholic church that up until the 17th century insisted that the Earth was the center of the universe.  

In this piece, she is highly critical of a recent overly optimistic report sponsored by the Department of Energy of the US government which like all important institutions is under the control of the ruling capitalist class and reflects their head-in-the-sand thinking.

The new report sets priories based on a distorted view of the future. One issue is that it is trying to set priorities based on an overly optimistic view of energy supply presented in the EIA's International Energy Outlook 2011 (IEO 2011). Another issue is that it overlooks the way the US and world economy can be expected to change as a result of lower oil and natural gas supply. A third issue is that its view of climate change mitigations is based on a view of fossil fuel supply that is far greater than is likely to be the case.

US long-term unemployment 1967-2011

Click here to access original posting of chart by David Ruccio from Real-World Economics Review Blog.

There are probably many more than a thousand words that can be written about this chart, but I will offer only a few. You probably have many more to offer. 

The periods following the peaks shown here show the periodic busts of a typical capitalist economy, which are followed by periods of growth where workers are needed. What is startlingly clear from the chart is that since 1967 dramatically fewer and fewer workers have been required to maintain this type of an economy. 

A capitalist economy requires growth to maintain profits for those who "own" it--and it has indeed grown in terms of GDP during this period due to the system's promotion of huge expenditures for military arms and wasteful spending on unnecessary items of convenience and those which seem to enhance self-image. Of course, this growth is causing lethal long term damage to the earth's ecosystem, but that doesn't seem to bother those in charge of the system who benefit from the rewards that accumulate to them in terms of wealth and power. 

The ruling class in charge of this system believe that wealth is money and the things that money can buy which, besides commodities, includes influence. Thus their system is based on the private ownership of this wealth and over all the activities that can produce money. The latter includes economic enterprises such as farms, mines, and factories where working people engage in such activities. But the labor of working people has also been transformed into a commodity that can be rented by these "owners" to transform raw materials and ideas into things that can be bought and sold for profit to the "owners". 

The reason, of course, for this trend of fewer workers is simply because of the enormous contributions that workers have made through their creativity and labor over the many generations of humanity. Thus, the efficiencies produced by these many generations of workers should be a legacy handed down to us as a society, but unfortunately under the existing system only the "owners" really benefit from this legacy. 

People in increasing numbers are now beginning to question the legitimacy of such a system whose rewards are going to such a small number of people, people who are currently labeled as the "one percent" (actually they are much smaller), and not to the rest of us, the "ninety-nine percent". The latter group is now once again seriously questioning the justice and legitimacy of such a system.

Why Europe’s democrats are terrified of democracy

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

The way Europe has handled the Greek referendum is the clearest indication yet that European capitalism and national democracy are incompatible.

Of course, democracy and capitalism have always been at odds, it's just recently that the latter system has caused so much economic and environmental destruction that the people are increasingly aware that they have no alternative but to fight back.

Processed Food: Trick or Treat?

Click here to access article by Bruce Bradley from his blog.

Do you eat corporate manufactured food that's labeled "all natural"? Well, you might not want to continue doing so after reading this article by a former employee of food manufacturers who knows of what he writes. It seems that profit seeking corporations are once again playing deceptive games when they describe their concoctions as "all natural". Well, they might be natural, but would you really want to eat food made with some of the ingredients they put into them?

What’s so infuriating about these ingredients is how they can lurk in your food and you may not even know it. Whether they’re disguised as natural flavors, enzymes, glazes, or colors, you deserve to know if they’re in your food, right? Unfortunately big food companies disagree.

Casino Capitalism and Higher Education

Click here to access article by Henry Giroux from CounterPunch. (You will need to scroll down to the article.) 

This astute scholar explains why the ruling class is currently making savage cuts to all areas of education. Do you think it would be too rash to conclude that the ruling class wants only obedient, ignorant, and only a few highly trained wage/debt slaves to employ in their enterprises?

Ignorance is now the political and cultural currency of choice and provides the foundation for an ongoing neoliberal attack on the social state, workers, and unions, matched by a full-fledged assault on higher education. Such attacks are not happening just in the United States but in many other parts of the globe where neoliberalism is waging a savage battle to eliminate all of those public spheres that might offer a glimmer of critical thought and any viable form of opposition to market-driven policies, institutions, ideology, and values.

Oakland Police Strike Army Ranger...

Click here to access article from Washington's Blog. 

Police Lacerate Army Ranger’s Spleen and Cause Internal Bleeding … Then Deny Him Medical Treatment for 18 Hours

A Brief Analysis from a Wall Street Occupier [a must read]

Click here to access article by Yotam Marom from The Organization for a Free Society. 

This is one of the finest pieces I have seen coming out of the Occupying Wall Street movement. The writer, who is an OWS activist and well grounded in this movement, knows of what he writes. There are so many gems in this article that I have no idea which one to highlight--so, I won't highlight any. It seems to me that the OWS movement is incubating a revolutionary consciousness which appears to be unstoppable. 

Capitalists and their enforcers are shaking in their boots, their political operatives are in a quandary about how to stop it, political liberals are trying to find ways to co-opt or tame it so that only reforms to capitalism are made, and leftists are often confused by its messiness. It appears that this writer is the latter who has undergone the process of this new movement and reached new insights as to what it means. Read it and benefit from his experience. 

After reading it, you might also be interested in another "best post" that I posted on October 25th entitled, "They Don't Get It".

The Global Square: an online platform for our movement

Click here to access article from Reflections on a Revolution. 

More posts are showing up suggesting ways to make the OWS movement move forward. This one has some good suggestions...

...to perpetuate the creative and cooperative spirit of the occupations and transform them into lasting forms of social organization.

Stage One: Occupy Public Space. What Next?

Click here to access article from Ben Brucato blog. 

The blogger has some interesting suggestions as an answer to the question he poses.

The U.S. is Planning World War 3 [8:41m video interview]

Click here to access video interview with Michel Chossudovsky for Russia Today.

With the OWS movement flaring all over the US and in many parts of the globe, and the there-is-no-alternative-capitalism in disarray, ruling class political operatives may out of sheer desperation look to an old ploy: start another war to distract people. They have had their sights on Iran for some time and would love to add this oil rich country to their Empire. Now we are seeing Western officials making frequent references to Iran (and Syria) as a threat to security. See this, this, this, and this. Chossudovsky offers some interesting perspectives to support his thesis that although the planners have a more limited objective in mind, this attack on Iran would inevitably lead to WWIII.

Big profits, zero taxes for large U.S. companies

Click here to access article by Andrea Coombes from Market Watch. 

The official federal corporate income tax rate in the U.S. is 35%, but plenty of the nation’s largest publicly traded companies are paying no taxes — even getting money back from the government in some cases — in years when they reap big profits, according to a new report. 

Global carbon dioxide output soaring

Click here to access article from Al Jazeera. 

The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record, the US department of energy has calculated, in a sign of how weak the world's efforts have been at slowing man-made global warming.

The new figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago.

Thousands march in Oakland to defend Occupy movement

Click here to access article by Jerry White from World Socialist Web Site. This writer provides a good worker point of view on the events in Oakland during the general strike. However, he only mentions "general strike" in passing and puts it in quotes. I think this is largely due to the rather sectarian slant that this website has to any left events that it doesn't control.

Meanwhile, mainstream ruling class media focuses on the late night violence that occurred as in this report by Voice of America. In contrast, see this very good report regarding the late night violence.

Naked Capitalism's site provides a very interesting report more in sympathy with the protestors.
For minute by minute reports of the events, see this report from IndyBay.

The final blackmail of Baron Papandreou [updated]

Click here to access article by Costas Douzinas from Greek Left Review. (My commentary has been updated from November 1st.)

The unexpected announcement by Greek PM Papandreou yesterday that he is to call a referendum and ask people to vote about the October 24 agreement is the opening salvo in the endgame of the Greek tragedy. Is this extraordinary gambit a genuine request for a popular mandate or a desperate bluff of a gambler down on his chips?

From what I've seen this morning both from business sources (for example, this) and activists at various internet sites, everyone is quite stunned by the announcement of this Greek referendum. The referendum looks very much like a desperate gamble that may very well become a pivotal event. Because if the Greek government fails to gain support for the Oct. 24th agreement, it could precipitate a dramatic unfolding of world changing events in the near term. And that is precisely what worries the global capitalist leaders.

12:25 PM (Pacific Time) Update: the latest word is that the referendum has been cancelled! Clearly, the European ruling class vetoed it.

1:00 PM  Now we hear that the referendum will be held.

11-3-2011: It seems that the referendum is again cancelled, according to this report from the Guardian. After all, the ruling class of Europe can't have the Greek people making a decision about whether they will mortgage their lives for generations into the future. Why shouldn't the people approve this deal made by the elites? See this article.