Socialism

“Imagine socialism”

Ohio Wesleyan English Teacher’s First Book Explores Early Socialism Writings

By Ohio Wesleyan University

DELAWARE, Ohio – The title of the new book by Ohio Wesleyan University professor Mark A. Allison – “Imagining Socialism: Aesthetics, Anti-politics, and Literature in Britain, 1817-1918” – immediately raises two questions: Why an English professor would he write a book on socialism? And what is “anti-politics?” “

“These are good questions,” said Allison, Ph.D., English professor Ben T. Spencer of the OWU. “In Britain, writers and artists were very important supporters of socialism throughout the 19th century.

“For example, Nobel Prize-winning playwright George Bernard Shaw has given hundreds and hundreds of pro-socialist speeches, and HG Wells, remembered for his sci-fi classics like ‘War of the Worlds’ and “The Invisible Man,” wrote works of socialist propaganda that sold as well as his novels, ”Allison said.

“The more I searched for that connection, the more it made sense. Unlike other forms of social organization, such as, say, monarchy or democracy, there has never been a fully realized socialist society. Imagination, this key trait of artists, was needed to imagine what it could be. Hence my title, “Imagining Socialism”.

And “anti-political? “

“Most people think socialism means great government and state control,” said Allison, who joined Ohio Wesleyan faculty in 2007. “But all of the founders of socialism had a bad opinion. of politics, which they associated with partisanship, corruption, and unnecessary activity.wars.This was especially true in Britain, which, like America, has a long history of distrust of centralized authority. .

“Socialists were mainly interested in what they called ‘social’ rather than ‘political’ reform,” he continued. “They thought that if you wanted to make society fairer, you had to focus on places like the workplace, the school and the local community. By transforming the constituent elements of civil society, you could promote cooperation instead of competition, leading to social harmony. Over time, these reforms would reduce the scope of institutional policy, or even replace it altogether.

“As I investigated socialism’s ‘anti-political’ approach to reform, I discovered that there was a second reason writers and artists were so central to British socialism,” continued Allison, who is also co-director of the Ohio Wesleyan Honor Program. . “The arts themselves have resources that could help depoliticize collective life.

“For example,” he said, “William Morris, the great poet and great thinker of art, argued that while men and women were allowed to approach all work with equal pride and the same creativity that skilled artisans bring to their work, this would eventually allow citizens to relate to each other in mutual respect which would eliminate the need for a formal policy.

“Robert Owen, director of a cotton mill and founder of British socialism, believed that the way to achieve a form of non-governmental society was to educate young people to seek their own happiness through the good of the collective. “Allison continued. . “Owen called it ‘rational education.’ But when you look at his school’s program, you find that teaching song and dance was at the heart of it. These activities literally taught the children to “harmonize” with each other: to channel their natural desire to excel into some form of effort that would improve group performance.

“While nineteenth-century socialists approached social problems from different angles, they repeatedly turned to the arts in their efforts to tame ‘politics’ and imagine the world differently.”

Although Allison’s book deals with the British tradition of 19th-century socialism, it does address the concerns of the day: growing economic inequality, exasperation at political polarization and deadlock, and the surprising resurgence of interest in socialism among Millennials and Generation Z.

“When I started researching this book, socialism was not on the contemporary radar,” Allison said. “Then the Great Recession of 2007-2008 happened and things started to snowball.

“Bernie Sanders ran two unexpected presidential campaigns, and Jeremy Corbyn had his five-year term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Newspapers have started to publish opinion polls showing that young people have more favorable views on socialism than on capitalism. Suddenly, what I considered a very specialized subject no longer seemed to me specialized at all. “

What does Allison want readers to take away from her book?

“First of all, I believe in the intrinsic value of literature and literary analysis,” he said. “The backbone of this book is the close examination of the works of great 19th century writers, some famous, others unjustly forgotten.

“Beyond that, I will quote the last words of my introduction: ‘It would be foolish to believe that a literary study of 19th century British socialism could open the door to utopia. But it would be vanity to think that the struggles of so many intelligent, committed and well-meaning men and women have nothing to teach us today.

Learn more about Imagining Socialism and Allison and Ohio Wesleyan’s English Department at owu.edu/English.

Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts universities. Located in Delaware, Ohio, the private university offers more than 70 undergraduate specializations and participates in 24 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Through its signature program, The OWU Connection, Ohio Wesleyan teaches students to integrate knowledge across disciplines, build a diverse and holistic perspective, and apply knowledge in real-world contexts. Ohio Wesleyan is featured in the “Colleges That Change Lives” book and is on the US News & World Report and Princeton Review “Best Colleges” lists. Learn more at owu.edu.

Banaag at Sikat ”, the monumental novel that Lope K. Santos published in 1906, is the first great novel of the proletariat in Asia. Its two main characters, Delfin and Felipe, represent the twin poles of socialism and anarchy; the novel oscillated between these two poles. I translated this novel under the title “Radiance and Sunrise”, which will be published in December by Penguin Random House as part of their South East Asian Classics series.

In the chapter titled “Darkness and Light”, the characters come to bury the rich and greedy old man, Don Ramon, who is the father of Meni, the wife of Delfin. The two men are abandoned in the cemetery.

Felipe said, “Shouldn’t we commemorate all of Don Ramon’s evils, his greed, his carnal ways, his oppression of the poor? I have always hated the hypocrisy of our old ways. When a rich man dies, his life should be an open book where all his misdeeds are exposed, so that no one follows in his footsteps. “

“I don’t agree with you, Felipe. On the contrary, exposing a man’s wickedness would only awaken the evil that lies dormant in others. But I see the benefit of extracting socialist teachings from the life of Don Ramon, because our country can learn a lot from the death of a rich man.

“Yes. The death of a man like Don Ramon should mean freedom for the oppressed, not the death of his source of sustenance.”

“And even with the death of Don Ramon and your father, Captain Loloy, the cycle of oppression will remain unbroken as long as the legacy agency is in place. It’s just money and authority changing hands.

“But when will that day of change come?” Will it ever happen? “

“I’m just as tired of waiting. But we have to be patient and let things take their natural course. Nations and their peoples, like everything else, change over time.

“But we can act now, Delfin.” Felipe’s eyes sparkled. “We can certainly bring about change through revolution! “

“Yes, Felipe, but a revolution cannot take place before an evolution. A nation will only take up arms if it can no longer bear to be oppressed. A revolution must first gain momentum before it can explode.

“That’s why I say it’s high time we took up arms. The oppressed masses are already desperate.

“I don’t think this is the right time. Look at them, they are not yet part of an organized movement. They don’t go wild. They will not move without a leader or a martyr to rally them to action. The revolutionary movement must come from below if we are to bring down oppression. “

“Let’s not forget the government,” Felipe added. “We can succeed in bringing down capitalism, but it will be for nothing if there is no change in our local government. We must also prevent the transfer of wealth and power to the government oligarchs. “

“I assure you, Felipe, the rise of the revolutionary system will also lead to the rise to power of the socialist republic which will ensure the common well-being.”

“But what good is having an alternative system of government? We will always put the power to rule in the hands of a few. We should abolish all form of government altogether and allow an autonomous system to flourish instead. “

Delfin froze as he waited for Felipe to speak. “It is true that our lives are still dictated by religious beliefs, but that will change soon. We are taking our first steps into the era of revolutionary heroes. We have seen figures like José Rizal and Andres Bonifacio stir up the revolutionary sentiments of our masses, and we have come to shape our ideals after them. They have already changed the course of our history. But I believe we need more heroes to wake our masses from their slumber. Only then can we say that we have made good progress in the second phase. And then we can move on to the third phase, which is when a real social revolution can take place. “

“And then, what comes next, Delfin?” “

“Then we will achieve a true egalitarian state. The time will come when we no longer subscribe to the notion of a supreme being as the all and the end of all things, where we no longer worship individuals but instead consider each member of society as our equal.

“I believe what anarchist Grave said about socialist revolutions. He stressed the importance of disseminating socialist ideas beyond geographic borders. Respect for human rights must be universal, which means that the same socialist ideals must also be upheld in other countries. Western civilization in the twentieth century has already seen the dawn of socialist reform.

Felipe was elated. “Yes, thanks to the martyrs of anarchism, we now have the instrument to oppose the ruling class and dethrone false kings.”

– You speak of means which can only lead to bloodshed, Felipe. We cannot achieve peace and harmony by violent means.

“Not if it means liberating the oppressed masses.”

“However. We are talking about lives at stake …”

“Lives! What about the lives of the ruling class martyrs? What about the millions whose blood they shed?

“I understand where you come from. But that doesn’t mean we should be just as cruel.

“Yes. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Only death can put an end to the abuse of power.

Delfin pleaded his case. “But what you say is unlikely to happen in the future, especially in our country. What will become of humanity if you get rid of the government?

“At your first point, I say, why not? In the second, after having plowed the land, the harvest will be abundant, and the wealth can be evenly distributed among our people. “

“We have to start somewhere. The seeds were sown, thanks to the revolutionary movement of the Katipunan in 1896. We must establish our own ways of governing our affairs. Once these are in place, we can work towards establishing a socialist state. I am optimistic. The future of our society is in the hands of the heroes and of our country. But you can’t force the hand of fate. We have to be patient and let things take their course. The wheel of fate will inevitably turn. The old regime will die, and in its place will arise a new regime that will shine like the day.

The shine, the sunrise and a new day are recurring images in this redemptive novel of hope.

My friend Chanie Rosenberg, who died at the age of 99, was a remarkable and inspiring revolutionary socialist, active in Britain for more than seven decades after arriving in 1947 with her partner, Tony Cliff. She is one of the last survivors of the Revolutionary Communist Party (1944-49), then in 1950 participates in the foundation and construction of what has become the Socialist Workers Party.

Chanie was born into a middle-class Lithuanian Jewish family in Cape Town, South Africa (one relative was poet and artist Isaac Rosenberg). Anti-black racism disgusted her, as did anti-Semitism amid the rise of fascism in Europe.

First drawn to left-wing Zionism as an antidote, she studied Hebrew at the University of Cape Town, after graduating from Good Hope Seminary, and in 1944 moved to Palestine to live in a kibbutz, where she witnessed anti-Arab racism.

In Palestine, she met and married in 1945 Ygael Gluckstein, a Palestinian Jewish Trotskyist, better known by his pseudonym Tony Cliff. She herself joined the small Trotskyist movement and, after the couple moved to London, was a courageous and determined activist of the Socialist Review Group (where her brother Michael Kidron also played a leading role), later the SWP.

Chanie challenged right-wing stereotypes that Marxists were austere and humorless. She worked as a math teacher in Islington and Hackney elementary schools, then for 12 years at John Howard School (now Clapton Girls’ Academy) and was secretary of the Hackney National Union of Teachers. As the main breadwinner, Chanie combined family life, union activity, writing, art, sculpture, music, swimming and political activism, with a verve few could match.

She has remained politically active her entire life, from the Aldermaston marches against the bomb in the 1950s to the Stop the War coalition in the 2000s; from the confrontation with the fascists of Oswald Mosley in the Ridley Road market in the 1940s to the mass protests of the Anti-Nazi League against the National Front in the 1970s.

I remember traveling to Burnley with Chanie (80) in 2002 for an ANL protest against the BNP. While some of us were anxious, she was totally fearless. Tear gas, water cannons, fascists and riot police did not stand in the way of the tireless Chanie, who visited Prague in 2000 and Genoa in 2001 as part of the major anti-capitalist mobilizations.

Throughout, she was cheerful, warm and extremely optimistic about the struggles for a better society.

Tony passed away in 2000. Chanie is survived by her four children, Elana, Donny, Danny and Anna, six grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Conspirators in Florida employing Colombian mercenary soldiers arranged to kill Haitian President Jovenel Moïse on July 7; rivalry between Haitian oligarchs may have played a role. A deadly earthquake followed, followed by flooding from a tropical storm. Amid the chaos, emergency services are lacking in rural areas. The US Marines intruded, as the US military had also done after the 2010 earthquake that killed some 230,000 people. The unwanted effects of all of these persist.

The marginalized descendants of the rebel slaves who founded independent Haiti in 1804 are resisting, however. The turmoil of socialist ideas and practice is evident.

The assassination of Moses marked the end of ten years of corrupt and despotic rule. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton propelled President Michel Martelly to the presidency of Haiti in 2011. Moïse, her protégé, became president in 2017 on the basis of 500,000 votes drawn from six million eligible voters. Haitian political parties and their candidates serve a corrupt oligarchy.

Moses had ruled by decree, having refused to allow legislative elections. His term was to end in February 2021, but supported by the US government and the Core Group, he remained in office, defying Haiti’s 1987 constitution. He called for a new constitution that would allow agricultural conglomerates to swallow up small land holdings. Although he’s gone, the proposal is still alive.

Composed of the ambassadors of the United States, Canada, France and Brazil and representatives of the United Nations, the OAS and the European Union, the Core Group met in 2004, immediately after the progressive government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was toppled in a US-designed coup . Aristide was elected in 2000 with a majority of 92%.

The Core Group oversees governance in Haiti and oversees political activities in general. With a United Nations military occupation force that remained until 2017, the entity aims to maintain a Haitian status quo satisfactory to foreign powers.

For three years, aggrieved Haitians periodically organized large demonstrations. As economist and socialist Camille Chalmers has described, they have called for: relief from shortages of fuel and other goods due to the withdrawal of neoliberal-inspired subsidies, more looting of billions of funds from the PetroCaribe program of Venezuela, the resignation of Moïse, an end of American interventionism and the end of the support of the Core Group to the autocratic regime of Moïse.

In August 2019, Haitian progressives from 62 organizations met to discuss constitutional change and aspects of a transitional government. The business at hand, according to participant Chalmers, was “to establish the revolutionary left as a united force” and to develop a transitional program to deal with current political problems. They deliberated for three days and established the Patriotic Forum.

The Patriotic Forum gave birth to the “People’s Political Front” (PPF), which is now a potential vehicle for an alliance of six parties ready to participate in the elections. The alliance includes the socialist party Rasin Kan Pèp La. (“Roots of the popular camp”) Functioning since 2015, this party has organized street mobilizations and published statements and analyzes remarkable for their anti-imperialism.

Interviewed in 2018, Guerchang Bastia, member of the party, described the role of his party as “to be present with the masses … to develop genuine popular education …. So that when the masses are in the streets they will recognize you as a leader [with] a proposal for a new company. The aim of the left-wing organization, Bastia said, “is to create a new relationship with the masses. [and] build the strength to fight against the capitalist system.

Examining the situation in Haiti ahead of a virtual meeting of international supporters in March 2021, Chalmers outlined the tasks ahead for the socialist cause and the PPF. Founding member of Rasin Kan Pèp La and frequent spokesperson, he declared that “the Haitian people must take their destiny in hand. [with] a redefinition of the patron-slave relationship maintained between the international community and Haiti, and particularly between Haiti and the United States.

Chalmers sees international solidarity as a “pressing need [required] for the success of the Haitian people in their struggle for a radical change in the mafia system installed to guarantee … the political, economic and social interests of the imperialist powers, multinationals and corrupt local elites.

According to sociologist Lautaro Rivara, a member of the Dessalines Brigade in solidarity with Haiti: “The history of the class struggle in Haiti is predominantly a history of rural workers, as we can currently see in the protagonism of peasant organizations… in the convocation and organization of the Patriote Forum. Today, as the People’s Patriotic Front, it is the best defender of the popular classes in the country.

Rivara indicates that more than half of the Haitian population lives in rural areas and practices subsistence agriculture. Illiteracy rates remain high, and health care and education for them are rudimentary or lacking. Large numbers of needy and fearful Haitians have settled in cities or, more recently, in countries like Chile, Brazil and the Dominican Republic.

Following the example of the American military occupiers (1915-1934) in the fight against a guerrilla insurgency, the paramilitary forces allied with the Duvalier dictatorships (1957-1986), and later the American intelligence agencies, perpetrated massacres in the Haitian countryside. The now-terminated United Nations occupation force also led a counterinsurgency mission, according to Chalmers. Privatized paramilitaries were responsible for many murders during the Moses era.

Regarding international solidarity, Chalmers praised the contributions of the Cuban government and people; the Bolivarian revolution of Venezuela; Jubilee South, based in Latin America and the Caribbean; and the Dessalines Brigade formed by the Brazilian Landless Movement and Via Campesina.

Via Campesina recently published a report on the grim Haitian realities. Accessible here in English, it describes the factional fighting between the adherents of former Presidents Martelly and Moïse over the disposition of funds stolen from PetroCaribe and foreign reconstruction funds following the 2010 earthquake. , such politicians would work overtime to defeat any popular mobilization.

The US government is also inclined. The report accuses US agencies of complicity with corrupt sections of the Haitian government by turning a blind eye to the profits from drug trafficking. He asserts that “imperialism wants a new Haitian constitution to allow transnational corporations to buy land legally and openly in Haiti in order to squander and steal the state’s natural resources.”

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DONOR

You may have heard Republicans in Congress complain that the Democrats’ agenda is filled with frightening “socialist” policies.

We have socialism in this country, but these are not the policies of the Democrats. True socialism is well-being of companies.

Thousands of large U.S. corporations rake in billions each year in government grants, bailouts, and tax loopholes – all taxpayer-funded, and all of them contribute to the rise in stock prices for the richest 1% who own half the money. stock market, as well as CEOs and other senior executives who are paid largely in stocks.

Big Tech, Big Oil, Big Pharma, defense contractors, and big banks are the biggest beneficiaries of corporate welfare.

How? ‘Or’ What? Follow the money. These companies and their business groups spend hundreds of millions each year on lobbying and campaign contributions. Their influence peddling is paying. The return on these political investments is enormous. It is institutionalized corruption.

An even more insidious example is that of companies failing to pay their employees a living wage. As a result, their workers must rely on programs like Medicaid, social housing, food stamps and other safety nets. Which means you, me, and other taxpayers are indirectly subsidizing these companies, allowing them to enjoy even higher earnings and stock prices for their wealthy investors and executives.

Not only does corporate welfare take money away from us as taxpayers. It also hurts small businesses, which have a harder time competing with the larger businesses that get these grants. Everyone loses except those at the top.

It’s more socialism for the rich, hard capitalism for others.

It should be finished.

Robert reich

Republished with permission from Robert Reich’s blog.

The flood disaster in Humphreys County, Tennessee, over the weekend has so far killed at least 21 people, including two toddlers, and 45 others are still missing. The flash floods were the result of a storm that dropped 17 inches of rain over the area on Saturday night, possibly a new state record.

The first images show entire communities devastated, with dozens of homes simply gone as if a hurricane, tornado or wildfire had blown. Rescue efforts are currently underway by several agencies, including the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, the State Department of Transportation, the Tennessee National Guard, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, and the Tennessee Department of Health. .

The deadly floods in Tennessee, as well as those in Michigan, are not just natural disasters, however. As with forest fires, hurricanes and polar vortices, floods are becoming more frequent and “extreme weather” events more severe due to human-induced climate change. This causal relationship was definitively established by the most recent report of the United Nations Panel on Climate Change, which stated that “human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land”, which in turn are linked to “observed changes.” in extreme conditions such as heat waves, heavy rainfall, droughts and tropical cyclones.

The same report also directly linked climate change to specific recent events, including flooding across Europe, wildfires in the western United States, droughts in various parts of the world, and more powerful hurricanes. , such as Hurricane Henri that hit Rhode Island on Sunday and caused power outages across New England.

Other recent extreme weather events related to climate change include:

• A record-breaking heat wave in Greece that reached 116.8 degrees Fahrenheit and sparked several wildfires across the country that have so far killed 2 people, injured 20 others, burned down several homes and around 482 square miles , and forced the evacuation of thousands of people. Similar to the UN, the World Meteorological Organization has linked forest fires to the impacts of climate change and global warming.

• The mountains of Algeria’s Tizi Ouzou region have been burned by more than 100 forest fires in the past two weeks, with heat from the fires apparently sweeping through mountain ranges. Hundreds of square kilometers burned and the towns of Larbaâ Nath Irathen, Beni Douala and Aït Mesbah were reduced to ashes, causing more damage than all the fires from 2008 to 2020 combined. So far, 90 people have died fighting the flames.

• Forest fires in Bolivia burned more than 580 square miles of land in the Amazon and Chaco regions. The areas include large populations of indigenous South American peoples as well as a variety of plants and animals. The region is also one of the most important areas on the planet for capturing and storing carbon from the atmosphere, one of many natural processes that reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in free circulation.

• The largest forest fires on Earth are currently occurring in Siberia, where hundreds of fires have burned more than 62,300 square miles of land since the start of the year, an amount comparable to the catastrophic bushfire season. Australians 2019-2020. The fires were partly exacerbated by record high temperatures reaching 118 degrees Fahrenheit over the summer. Smoke from the fires blanketed the sky for 2,000 miles from east to west and 2,500 miles from north to south, reaching as far as Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, and for the first time to the Pole. North.

• Heavy rains in Turkey’s Black Sea region have caused flash floods which have so far killed at least 82 people. The deaths follow the July floods in Europe, in which more than 230 people were killed in Germany, Belgium, Romania, Italy and Austria. Other severe and fatal floods have occurred in China, the United States, India, Pakistan, Japan, Afghanistan and New Zealand, which have claimed thousands of lives and affected the lives of hundreds of millions. of people.

Another indication of global climate change, rain fell on the summit of Greenland on Saturday for the first time since the records began. Temperatures exceeded freezing for the third time in less than a decade, allowing abnormal precipitation to occur. The rain follows a significant melt in July, when more than 8.5 billion tonnes of surface ice melted in a single day. This rate of melt is similar to what happened in 2019, when a hot spring and heat wave in July caused Greenland to lose 532 billion tonnes of ice in a single year, causing the level to rise permanently. from the sea of ​​1.5 millimeters.

Many other indicators of the dangers posed by climate change could be mentioned. As the geographic extent of the above examples indicates, there is no country that does not experience the deleterious effects of extreme weather events caused by climate change.

The scale of the disasters also exposes the bankruptcy of capitalism and its complete inability to face the ongoing climate crisis in any meaningful way.

In a 1982 internal memo that was “circulated widely to Exxon’s management,” it was made clear that global temperatures would rise sharply as more CO2 was released into the atmosphere. The memo at the time predicted an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases and global temperatures seen today and also predicted that global temperatures would exceed an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius by the middle of this century and 2 degrees. Celsius around 2060.

Similar reports had been presented to the administrations of Democrat Jimmy Carter and Republican Ronald Reagan, who warned in the 1980s that the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to the burning of greenhouse gases and the resulting increase in global temperatures would eventually lead to catastrophic environmental consequences. for the world’s population, such as melting glaciers, rising sea levels and entire coastal regions submerged by tens of meters of water.

More recently, the 2017 Carbon Majors report showed that only 100 companies globally now produce around 90% of all global greenhouse gas emissions each year and are responsible for around half of all greenhouse gas emissions. greenhouse effect caused by human activity since the industrial revolution. This same presentation also noted that if the trend towards the extraction and release of fossil fuels continued over the next quarter century, global average temperatures would be on track to reach an increase of 4 degrees Celsius by now. 2100.

Such a rise in global temperatures, for which the world is currently on the right track, would only be the precursors of much more devastating storms, longer heat waves, drier droughts and incessant forest fires. Along with rising sea levels and the drowning of every coastal city on the planet, coral reefs around the world would likely die, wiping out a cornerstone in the food chain and threatening survivors of massive famine floods. .

There is also the growing danger that Earth’s climate will enter a qualitatively different stage, one where the positive feedback effects of the current stage of global warming will ultimately decouple Earth’s climate from human industrial activity. Under these conditions, other geophysical processes such as the massive release of methane from melting permafrost threaten to warm the planet much more than even the burning of fossil fuels allows. Such a scenario would be exponentially more difficult to contain for modern scientific techniques.

For the capitalist class, however, stopping the cataclysms ending civilization is far less important than preserving their profits. As has been the case for decades, ExxonMobil, BP and other major fossil fuel companies, as well as the hedge funds and Wall Street banks that own their shares, are very concerned that coal, Oil and gas continue to be mined and sold to enriching others as well as their fellow oligarchs. If the Earth will be poisoned and burned in this pursuit, so be it.

A parallel must be drawn with the coronavirus pandemic. Just as politicians and media figures around the world have ignored or actively sought to stimulate deadly contagion to protect corporate profits, killing at least 4.4 million, they are actively behind the destruction of the world. ‘environment. The objective need to increase the rate of profit results in the acceleration of the exploitation of the world’s resources and has directly led to current (and future) ecological catastrophes.

Workers and young people must learn the lessons of the persistent inaction that is at the root of the current crisis. The fight to stop climate change, like the fight against the pandemic and the threat of war, must become political. It requires the revolutionary mobilization of the international working class against capitalism. It demands that workers understand that their social interests are objectively and diametrically opposed to those of the capitalists and private ownership of the means of production. It requires a fight for the socialist transformation of society.

The spectacular fall of Kabul shocked everyone with its speed. Western media are garish and chirping about the seriousness of the incidents cited by the Taliban, but they are not yet very alarming. The Taliban are in power, not the US-backed Gani government. With the exception of the Panjshir, there is no resistance against them which concerns the tribes and not the ideology. Compared to Bangladesh in 1971, it is very peaceful. No last fight for Pakistan like the Mirpur event which killed so many people.

When two states clash, there is violence at all levels, including social, but nothing on this scale is visible. The media always hope to brag about everything they get, but it hasn’t exploded. But the big story is that three enemies of old – Islam and Communism not to mention the Russian invaders – joined together to overthrow the United States and its ideological baggage. It’s a tough lesson in political history, but it shows that after a century the era of ideology as state building is about to end with much delay.

The trio in power

The triumvirate – Russia, China and Afghanistan – now presents a scenario that would have been difficult to imagine even a few decades ago. The United States and its pro-democracy / HR lobby have always sold both socialism and Islam / the Taliban as anti-democratic and anti-Western. Again, Islam was also seen as a bulwark against socialism, as evidenced by its activities during the anti-Soviet mujahedin.

But a few months after the inglorious departure of the Soviets, he was fighting “Terror” – read Islam. This is one of the reasons the Gani gang got support. The United States still fought socialism even though the ideologically based USSR died as a result of its war and the whole inefficient system collapsed and the Soviet Union was reduced to Russia.

The problem is, ideology has a bad habit of growing quickly and dying after a while. If it is not an external trigger like the USSR in Afghanistan that pushes it, it is an internal constraint like in China which has turned to market capitalism to push the economy and lift people out of poverty. . More or less, this model based on the managed economy, etc. is generally complete.

Western ideology is based on the primacy of European development which is based jointly on colonialism and industrial capital – the conquest of the market through asymmetric competition – while promoting democracy, human rights, elections , etc. However, the world has evolved further, moving through global evidence towards more economical and pragmatic governance than towards ideology. Moreover, if the great promoter and the vanguard state practice wars as they see fit – Iraq, Afg, Vietnam, etc. The Statue of Liberty and slavery as a co-product are hard to sell.

All ideologically based models – Islamist, Democratic and Socialist – have failed to convince people despite the use of force and are now on their deathbed. A practical and functional state model based on rational demand and supply seems to work best. If the Taliban can hold the Russian-Chinese hand, that means a fundamental shift in doing what works and not what you think should. The world is maturing.

As the Socialist Equality Party candidate for governor of California, I call for the broadest mobilization of resources to fight the catastrophic fires that have erupted across the state. To protect future generations, we must proceed with a massive redistribution of the wealth of state billionaires and put them in the integration and modernization of electrical infrastructure and the protection of workers against the catastrophic impact of climate change.

The ongoing, catastrophic fires have consumed more than 1,470,000 acres in California this year and at least 2,540,000 acres nationwide. They are an indictment against the capitalist system and each of its political and media servants.

Just three years after the camp fire destroyed the town of Paradise, the Dixie Fire burned down Greenville and became the largest recorded fire in the state. Poignant images of people fleeing their homes as besieged firefighters do their best to contain the fires have shocked millions around the world.

Air quality remains unsafe or unhealthy in large parts of California and Oregon, and states as far east as Utah and Colorado are affected. Health experts warn that prolonged exposure to such small particles in the atmosphere poses a particular danger to young people, the elderly and people with respiratory problems such as Covid-19, asthma or other long-term health problems.

The immediate responsibility for these disasters rests with state utilities like Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), which have prioritized paying billions in dividends to investors rather than maintaining and upgrading the system. electrical network. The courts have always held them criminally responsible for forest fires caused by their faulty equipment. To evade their obligations to wildfire victims, PG&E declared bankruptcy, and the Newsom administration responded by bailing them out with rate hikes and public funds.

PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter after its role in starting the campfire in 2018 and destroying the town of Paradise, caused by poorly maintained power lines. He also admitted that this year’s Dixie Fire, which started near where the campfire originated, was likely also sparked by a similar issue, a fallen tree knocking down a power line. Yet not a single leader has been charged, let alone arrested, for his role in destroying the livelihoods and lives of working people.

Newsom’s bourgeois opponents in the recall elections are also beholden to the interests of the ruling class. Right-wing talk show host Larry Elder has claimed he was “not sure” whether or not climate change has caused an increase in the severity of wildfires, a statement that goes against the grain. overwhelming scientific evidence gathered over decades.

Both Democrats and Republicans are responsible for the deregulation that has occurred over the decades, allowing utility companies to operate with virtual impunity while cutting funding for necessary utilities such as fire prevention. forest in one of the most forest fire-prone regions on the planet. . At the same time, PG&E and other utility companies continue to rake in billions.

The situation is the same at the national level. The U.S. Forest Service budget has remained largely static across successive Democratic and Republican administrations, even as the fires have escalated. In effect, this means that the resources previously spent on fire prevention are used to fight forest fires, which means that the fires of the following year are even larger in a continuous cycle and increasingly dangerous. .

The fires across California reflect the broader changes resulting from global warming that will have increasingly devastating consequences. The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published by the United Nations has now established a causal link between the increase in global temperatures caused by human industrial and agricultural activity and specific weather events. such as droughts, heat waves, hurricanes, floods and wildfires, including wildfires in the western United States.

Without a concerted, systematic and scientific response to global climate change, the Camp and Dixie fires will become normal, and even more devastating extreme weather events are on the horizon.

As with the Covid-19 pandemic, the fight against climate change is blocked by two interrelated factors: First, the subordination of social need to private profit. The continued overuse of fossil fuels and other greenhouse gas-generating activities is subordinate to the imperative to pump more money for corporate executives, hedge fund managers and Wall Street bankers, as well. as the politicians and media figures who ultimately defend and justify their actions. .

Second, a rational and scientific response to climate change is blocked by dividing the world into competing nation-states, each beholden to the interests of its own ruling elites.

The real solution is for the working class to fight for its own independent policy. Climate change, like the coronavirus pandemic, is unsolvable without a global strategy that places social need above private profit. The massive fortunes of the ruling class must be expropriated and resources diverted to tackle the immediate problem of wildfires and the broader problem of climate change.

The Socialist Equality Party calls for:

• A massive influx of resources to fight current forest fires and for forest fire prevention efforts.
• Full compensation for those who lost their livelihoods and loved ones as a result of the fires.
• Genuine international coordination to mitigate and ultimately reverse the impacts of climate change.
• The investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the fires, including PG&E executives and officials, which allowed the company to inappropriately maintain its infrastructure and equipment.

I urge all who agree with this prospect to contact my campaign and stand up for socialism among the working class in California, the United States and around the world!

Stopping climate change in the long term requires the intervention of the working class and the scientific and rational restructuring of industry and agriculture on a global scale. This can only be done through a political struggle of the working class to end capitalism and establish a socialist society.

Support David Moore’s campaign for governor!

Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1144/32890

From The Socialist newspaper, August 11, 2021

In a world facing crisis on all fronts, the discussion of how socialist ideas can change the world is more necessary than ever.

The Institute of Economic Affairs, a pro-capitalist think tank, recently sounded the alarm when it found through a survey that a majority of young people want to live in a socialist society.

How could it be otherwise? Adolescents and twenties have spent their conscious lives in a world where all they have known is climate catastrophe, economic crashes, war – all met with capitalist ineptitude at best.

The openness to an alternative mode of managing society is indicated by the massive support of the young people questioned for the renationalization of various industries such as energy, water and railways (72%). The same number also believe private sector involvement puts the NHS at risk.

An even higher proportion (78%) blame capitalism for Britain’s housing crisis and believe its resolution requires large-scale government intervention, through measures such as rent controls and social housing.

Capitalist climate crisis

Three quarters of those polled agree that climate change is a specifically capitalist problem. And more than seven in ten agree that capitalism fuels racism

The survey also found that “there are no detectable differences between the economic attitudes of people in their late teens and those of people in their early 40s. It is no longer true that people “grow” socialist ideas as they age. ”

Workers and the elderly also face a world dominated by austerity and a struggle against the bosses and their political representatives in the Tories and Blairite Starmer work.

Most of those interviewed believed that a socialist system would promote solidarity, compassion and cooperation.

How to achieve this socialist change? What is the role of the working class in building a new society? Discussing these pressing issues is why we hosted the Socialism 2021 weekend event.

Socialisme 2021 will run from Friday 19 to Sunday 21 November. It will begin with an online opening session on Friday evening. Then those traveling to London can attend the workshops in person while those for whom this is not possible can attend the zoom workshops.

The main rally will run from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday so people can have a chance to return home afterwards if they wish. The rally will be broadcast live. Further workshops will take place on Sunday – again with the option to attend those in person or those held online.

Due to the pandemic, we haven’t been able to finalize all the arrangements yet – but we can now confirm that in-person and zoom options will be available.

This opportunity to meet members of the Socialist Party, trade union activists, other socialists, young people, community activists, student organizers and others to share ideas, experiences, to debate a Marxist approach and combative of the challenges we face, and to learn collectively from history and theory will be a major asset for all involved.

Those who have already purchased tickets will not be required to pay more when we confirm details – unless it is an additional charge to cover accommodation. But for those who book later, there may be an increase in the price of tickets to cover the cost of renting the venue.

Book now!

• Tickets and info: socialism2021.net

In The Socialist from August 11, 2021:

NHS

Defend the NHS. Fight the Tory pay the insult. Prepare for the strike!

NHS: kick out privatizers, fight for funding, build for strike

New

Conservative government nationalizes Sheffield steelworks

Conservatives reduce aggravated crime, Johnson ‘blitz’ won’t help

Fight against rising energy prices

Thank you to the miners – an example of workers’ struggle and solidarity

News in brief

Comment

Olympic “success” masks cuts and inequalities in sport

Starmer’s Faithful Guardian

Campaign news

Capitalism = climate catastrophe

Speak out against a rigged and rotten system – Socialisme 2021

London Pride canceled – pandemic shows protest Pride is needed

London: hundreds protest for trans rights

Save Newham Theaters from Labor Council cuts!

Summer school for young members of the Socialist Party

A day in the life of a young hotelier

West Midlands: austerity and capitalism offer no future for young people

Why I joined the Socialist Party

Don’t privatize Dudley Libraries

Socialist Party: only funded by the working class

Critique – The Struggle for World Socialism

Lodging

Waltham Forest: Fighting for a Home for Nadia and Homes for All

Story

August 1991 – The failed military coup in the “Soviet Union”

Workplace News

Majority of ballots essential to continue DVLA strike

Night strike in subways suspended to allow talks – remove compulsory tariffs!

RMT hits hard on East Midlands rail

You need a union when the time comes to fight

Unions protest against Leicester exploitative Food Attraction

More than 3,000 votes to fight against the socialist program of the CWU

The NSSN will put pressure on the TUC

International news

The devastating explosion in the port of Beirut a year later

Residence
|

Le Socialiste August 11, 2021 |
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The CET Fall Congress will analyze the national and international situation since the previous one in 2017; define the strategic and tactical objectives of the party for the coming period; and elect a new executive committee to direct its work accordingly.

The outgoing PC executive has now published its resolutions for debate until and during the 56th Congress. The national resolution begins with an assessment of the game-changing 2019 general election.

The main causes of Labor’s defeat were, first, the disastrous change in party policy, from respecting the outcome of the European referendum to obstructing Brexit and proposing a second referendum; and second, the slanderous assassination of Jeremy Corbyn by the ruling class, aided and abetted by a significant part of the Parliamentary Labor Party.

The result was the election of a central government that put the interests of big business well above those of workers, their families and the general public when the Covid crisis hit. Moreover, the pandemic itself has confirmed that Britain’s economic and political system was designed to meet the needs of monopoly societies, not the people.

The Conservative government’s refusal to stop international travel and put in place a lockdown early enough; transferring elderly patients from the NHS to nursing homes without testing or staff with PPE; the premature relaxation of protective measures against Covid; the refusal to work with unions and enforce an adequate workplace safety regime – all of this has helped propel Britain to the top of the global Covid mortality table.

But there is also a deeper explanation. As the Congress resolution says: “A decade of deep austerity cuts and privatizations has fatally weakened the ability of the NHS, elderly care and civilian emergency services to protect lives despite the heroic efforts of staff. and other frontline and key workers.

What a contrast to the drastic and decisive measures taken in China, Cuba and Vietnam where the state, workers and the people in general have mobilized to push back the pandemic.

Safeguarding corporate profits was and remains the government’s top priority. In the end, however, this criminal negligence not only claimed the lives of 152,000. It also costs the Treasury £ 407 billion, much of it in grants to large corporations.

Once again, public funds were used to bail out capitalism in Britain, this time on an even larger scale than turned out to be the case after the 2008 financial crash.

Who will foot the bill is a question we already know the answer to. This year’s spring budget announced the first round of cuts in public spending – with the military exempt – and tax increases in real terms.

Other government policies, including authoritarian measures to strengthen the powers of the police, courts and intelligence services and to curb public protests, signal a new ruling class offensive against the living standard of the working class. and democratic rights. The first signs of this offensive can be seen in the wave of “shoot and rehire” attacks on jobs and wages by large private sector companies.

Neoliberal economic policies do not deviate from “state monopoly capitalism”. State power at the British level is being used ruthlessly to advance the interests of monopoly capital more than ever. This means, among other things, that all forms of bribery and corruption experienced under pre-Brexit Conservative and Labor governments are flourishing under Boris Johnson.

Johnson’s Conservative regime intends to reshape Britain, using populist rhetoric and deceptive slogans – Build Back Better and Leveling Up – to maintain its support for a more centralized ‘free market’ Britain in which the capitalist monopolies (in particular “Big Pharma”) are free to profit at will. In the battle of ideas, British nationalism and militarism are deployed to rally people to the flag against challenges to Conservative rule at home and British imperialism abroad.

The Home Market Act cancels the powers of the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments to administer regional development funds and monitor state aid to industry.

Such a blatant attack on the devolution regulation highlights the case of what the Communist Party calls “progressive federalism” (also known as “radical federalism” in some left-wing Labor circles).

Communists defend the right of the Scottish and Welsh peoples to independence and the mandate of the majority SNP-Greens in Edinburgh to hold a second referendum. But rather than pursuing a false model of independence whereby Scotland is subject to the Bank of England, the Treasury, the EU and NATO, we are calling for maximum economic power in a Great Britain. Federal Brittany.

A federal chamber, an English parliament and regional assemblies elected by a true system of proportional representation would consolidate a new constitutional settlement, preserving greater powers for Wales and Scotland and aiding the growth of progressive English patriotism .

Labor and progressive movements must stand united in the struggle to challenge the power of capitalist monopolies and to seize and redistribute the vast wealth concentrated in the City of London and British tax havens abroad.

What the objective conditions now demand is a return to class politics and unity to build an anti-monopoly alliance against British state monopoly capitalism.

Hence the focus of the congressional resolution on how big business, corporations, state, and monopolized media are blocking the road to progress on all fronts. Economically, they are resisting the policies needed to tackle the chronic weaknesses of the unbalanced UK economy.

They do this by underinvesting in industry, infrastructure and technology – except in the state-subsidized arms sector – and in education and training; the predominance of the City of London’s financial institutions and markets and the over-reliance on financial and real estate services and income from overseas investments; lack of central planning and controls; the refusal to tax the super-rich and big companies to finance public services; and the use of household and corporate debt to maintain demand in the economy.

On the environmental front, the inability to plan and invest much more in low-carbon transport and non-nuclear renewables is undermining Britain’s contribution to the fight against global warming.

Socially, the use of for-profit construction companies and landowners to build the millions of houses needed has clearly failed; instead, we have real estate speculation, escalating prices, the spread of second homes for the rich and the return of slums.

No successful mass movement can be built without the broad participation of women. But many are trapped in precarious, poorly paid jobs and poverty, burdened with unfairly heavy burdens of household chores and family care.

But instead of receiving remedies based on labor rights, public services and social benefits, women must now take rearguard action to defend recent gains against reactionary forms of identity politics. gender.

Our position is clear: “The Communist Party recognizes no antagonistic contradiction between the class struggle against the oppression and overexploitation of women and the campaign to end discrimination against transgender people.

Meaningful dialogue and debate will help advance the legitimate interests of women and trans people, not the division and disunity within labor, women’s and LGBT + movements.

The ruling class has another weapon in its arsenal against the prospect of unity in an anti-monopoly alliance, namely racism. Employers large and small continue to profit from the overexploitation of black, immigrant and undocumented workers.

Racism is rooted in capitalist exploitation and imperialism. The participation of anti-racist activists in a larger alliance targeting capitalist monopolies can only be to the mutual benefit of all the forces involved.

Young people face more and more significant education, employment and housing problems than in a generation or two. The Youth Charter of the Communist Youth League offers a way forward and every movement needs the energy, skill, daring and ingenuity of those who will inherit our society.

As the congress resolution points out, “Building such an alliance through discussion, debate and action must now be the top strategic priority of the Labor and Progressive movements and the left, including the Communist Party. “

The People’s Assembly looks like a budding anti-monopoly alliance. But it must be an alliance built in campaigning at all levels, in workplaces and local communities as well as in national protests. And it must not only oppose cuts and privatization, it must offer a positive alternative.

This is why the Communist Party is proposing a left program of the main demands that challenge state monopoly capitalism. These include:

• A Green New Deal of job-creating investments.
• Reduction of military spending and diversification of the armaments industry towards civilian R&D and production.
• Public ownership of key sectors of industry and utilities.
• Repeal of anti-union laws and return to collective bargaining.
• The restoration of full employment as a central objective of economic policy.
• British racist immigration, asylum and nationality laws abolished.

An anti-monopoly convention could consolidate such a program as the basis of a mass movement, laying the groundwork for replacing the current government in London with a left-wing government.

There will be controversy around these perspectives.

They refute the escape from modern monetary theory and a universal basic income. They abandon the superficial “anti-Toryism” peddled by the self-proclaimed “center-left” and part of the extreme left. They defend the unity of the working class against national separatism.

In short, the resolution rejects idealism and makes a concrete class analysis of the concrete situation, followed by concrete proposals that point the way to socialism.

The main CP Congress resolutions can be found at: www.communistparty.org.uk/56th-congress.

Readers are encouraged to send comments (up to 300 words) to [email protected] or Morning Star, Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Rd., Croydon CR0 1BD.