Surviving Capitalism (Not)

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, February 1, 2010

Haitians will defend their sovereignty, Prt 1 (8:17m video)

from The Real New Network. Paul Jay interviews Ronald Charles who is a PhD student in Biblical studies at the Department of Religion, University of Toronto. He has family in Haiti.

White House Whitewash: Can the Agribusiness Lobby Kill Small, Organic Dairy Farmers?

from Politics of the Plate.

Greeks protest over debt crisis

from The Guardian.

For the first time in the modern history of Greece, anti-government protesters last night pitched tents outside the large standstone building of the Athenian parliament amid growing public anger and unprecedented international concern over the country's dire public finances.

As Greeks attempt to get to grips with an economic crisis that has begun to spill over the borders of their tiny state into the rest of Europe, the sight of tents lined up in Sydagma Square has conjured the mood of the nation: one that is veering, perilously, between bewilderment and despair.

The bottleneck century

by Curt Cobb from Resource Insights.

A historic gathering of workers and peasants in Pakistan

from Europe Solidaire Sans Frontiéres.

Are We Yeast in a Wine Vat? Reflections on Sustainability

from Health After Oil.

From Bill O’Reilly to Bill Moyers there is consensus that a return to growth is the remedy for what they see as an economic recession. Their political divisions arise over how to rekindle demand and consumption, with the right favoring a market led recovery and the left typically advocating massive government stimulus spending.

Were I to meet O’Reilly or Moyers I would ask, “Since we live on a finite planet, with finite resources, why is economic growth the solution and not the source of our dilemmas?” The failure of media, political, educational, scientific, and cultural leaders to consider this question illustrates what Joseph Campbell calls the power of myth. Questioning growth is at odds with our faith in the American Dream, whose main promise is that future generations are entitled to a higher material standard of living than their parents enjoyed.

Barack Obama to drop Nasa moon mission in budget cutbacks

from The Guardian. The end of an era when we looked beyond this planet for adventures, salvation, exploitation, etc?

The government will instead call for $6bn to be spent over five years to develop a commercial craft to transport astronauts into orbit. Such a move would mark a sea change in how Nasa works, forcing it to rely on a private company to design and manufacture a spacecraft.

Michael Griffin, a former Nasa administrator who championed the Constellation programme, told the Post the budget would prevent the US from being "a significant player in human space flight for the foreseeable future".

Secret CIA-Mossad meeting, preparation for new war?

from Press TV.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

An ethical critique of pollution as a right

from P2P Foundation.

“Capitalism itself is being proposed as the solution, through the means of establishing pollution as a property right. This is the meaning of the “cap and trade” system. Government will give the biggest polluters the biggest rights to pollute, and then slowly withdraw the rights, leading to a market in pollution rights. And since the market knows all things, sees all things, the market will solve the problem without any further government involvement.

NPR Finds Right-Wing Crank to Spit on Zinn's Grave

from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

I regard NPR as little more than a fairly sophisticated propaganda organ of the US ruling class aimed at the American middle class. Their selection of news items reflects the interests of the ruling class. News analysis is shaped by interviews with conservative figures, especially pentagon officials, and rarely by any critics of American foreign or domestic policies. I also see a lot of Zionist influence in their coverage of news and analysis.

Americans arrested taking children out of Haiti

from Yahoo News. Members of a Baptist charity caught at border with the Dominican Republic.

Working-class Anger Unleashed Against [Mayor] Bloomberg’s Education Policies

from Socialist Alternative re New York public schools. I especially recommend the 2nd section entitled, "Stop All School Closings."

The movement against school closings should become the beginning of a broader fightback against the attacks on the public sector. There needs to be a full mobilization of the unions and working class communities on the streets. In doing this we will inevitably come up against the opposition of the bulk of the political establishment, both Democratic and Republican. It is after all a Democratic governor and legislature that have been implementing these cuts, not just a Republican mayor. As this struggle develops, both here and around the country, other questions will be posed including the need for independent candidates representing the interests of working people to run for higher office.

The myth of China’s blithe consensus

from China Financial Markets. Michael Pettis argues that their is a lively debate within China re economic policies.

Michael Pettis is a professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, where he specializes in Chinese financial markets, and a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Depletion of Key Resources: Facts at Your Fingertips

by Peter Goodchild from Culture Change.

Modern industrial society is based on a triad of hydrocarbons, metals, and electricity. The three are intricately connected; each is accessible only if the other two are present. Electricity, for example, can be generated on a global scale only with hydrocarbons. The same dependence on hydrocarbons is true of metals; in fact the better types of ore are now becoming depleted, while those that remain can be processed only with modern machinery and require more hydrocarbons for smelting. In turn, without metals and electricity there would be no means of extracting and processing hydrocarbons. Of the three members of the triad, electricity is the most fragile, and its failure serves as an early warning of trouble with the other two.

Bolivia: We Must Support a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

from Bolivia Rising website.

Climate change is like a fever that is symptomatic of an underlying disease which must be cured before the fever will dissipate. The underlying cause is the belief that humans are separate from, and superior to, nature and that more is better. These beliefs have fueled the misconceived and doomed attempts of industrialized, consumer-based societies to achieve lasting human well being by exploiting and damaging Earth.