the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Aug 16, 2010
Obama announced that U.S. combat operations in Iraq will end on August 31. Another lie, just like “WMD,” “Mission Accomplished,” and “The Surge Worked.”
Yes, some U.S. combat troops are being taken out of Iraq. But U.S. troops are not going home. The U.S. is shifting troops to Afghanistan, and the other wars U.S. officials don’t talk about.
Obama says there will be “only” 50,000 U.S. troops left in Iraq. Only! Fifty thousand still constitutes an enormous occupation army. And they are to be reinforced in every way possible. There are already more than twice as many mercenaries and private contractors as U.S. troops, and the State Department recently announced plans to hire thousands more over the next few months. U.S. aircraft, most of which are based outside Iraq, continue to bomb, strafe and carry out rocket attacks. U.S. Special Forces–also not counted in the 50,000–continue to carry out assassinations and terrorist attacks, black box operations which are almost never reported on. And the U.S. has paid for and put together from scratch its own colonial army–the Iraqi army and police force, with U.S. officers as “trainers.”
The vast U.S. embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone is at the center of these operations. More than 80 football fields in size, it is already the largest embassy anywhere in the world. This monstrosity symbolizes U.S. imperialism’s real plans: to turn Iraq into its own colonial fiefdom, to control its people and resources, including all that untapped oil, as well as to tighten its grip over the entire Middle East region and all of its riches.
Like all big imperial powers, the U.S. continues–and will continue–to play on ethnic divisions, bribery and corruption, thus feeding the wars fought by Iraqi factions to get a share of the booty from the U.S. occupation. These wars are becoming increasingly violent. Despite Obama’s lies that violence in Iraq is down to levels that are “the lowest it’s been in years,” July was the bloodiest month in over a year. And August is already worse. On just one day, August 7, close to 100 people were killed in gun battles, bombings and assassinations in Baghdad, Basra, Fallujah, Mosul, as well as in Diyala Province.
For the Iraqi people, the U.S. war and occupation is a complete catastrophe. It has already cost the lives of well over a million people. And it remains so dangerous, millions more–who were forced to flee the violence and ethnic cleansing many years ago–are still too afraid to return home. They continue to live as refugees, either in other parts of Iraq or outside the country.
The U.S. war continues to destroy much of the country and infrastructure, with big parts of the cities turned to rubble. As for the lies about how the U.S. spent 60 billion dollars to rebuild the country–all of that went to enrich big U.S. contractors, as well as to buy the loyalty of Iraqi henchmen. There is still little or no electricity or drinkable water, streets are strewn with garbage and raw sewage, and basic services, such as health care and education are practically non-existent. All of this in a country which was once among the most advanced in the Middle East.
In many ways, Iraq is this generation’s Viet Nam. In Viet Nam, after more than a decade of war, the U.S. encountered so much resistance and opposition from the populations in Viet Nam and the U.S., by 1968 it was forced to announce that it was starting to “drawn down.” But the U.S. remained in Viet Nam for another seven long years of war, a period when the U.S. carried out some of its most terrible bombing and destruction. The U.S. finally left only because it was forced out by the Vietnamese and the rebellion of U.S. troops, with the last stragglers at the U.S. embassy shoving their way onto overcrowded helicopters. Otherwise, the U.S. would be in Viet Nam to this day, as it still is in Korea.
Working people of this country have also paid a steep price for this war. We cannot afford to wait for the U.S. to get out of Iraq, neither for ourselves, nor for U.S. soldiers, nor for the common human solidarity we hold for the Iraqi people.
Aug 16, 2010
Suddenly, wheat prices are skyrocketing again, just like they did in 2008.
Newspapers are full of stories telling us that this price rise is caused by shortages, due to floods in Canada and drought in Russia.
But in fact, there is no shortage. Daniel W. Basse, president of AgResource, an agricultural consultant firm, has said, “This is still going to be the third-largest wheat crop in world history, even with the Russian shortfall.” Wheat stocks in the United States are at a 23-year high.
Nonetheless, wheat prices have risen by 90% since June.
Speculation, not shortage, is the cause.
Agricultural investment funds, controlled by large banks, establish the prices for goods like wheat by how much they buy and sell. One of the first such funds was created in 1991 by Goldman Sachs, and now they’ve multiplied to the point that they dominate the entire agricultural market. A United Nations report estimated that in 2008, fully 80% of the world wheat contracts were controlled by such investment funds. That allows them to drive prices up at the drop of a hat.
Here in the United States, that means that we’ll be paying higher prices for bread and pasta. We saw prices double in 2008, and they never came back down to their earlier levels; now, they’ll rise again–at a time when more and more families can’t afford the slightest price rise.
But in other areas of the world, the effect is catastrophic: skyrocketing prices means outright starvation for millions of people in places like Egypt, Nigeria, or the Philippines.
Firms like Goldman-Sachs will starve millions of people more–only to line their pockets.
Aug 16, 2010
BP and government officials once again are claiming the Gulf oil crisis is over.
Soon after the government claimed that the oil was so “dispersed” it no longer posed a problem, scientists–including some the government had hand-picked–disagreed. They also pointed out that even if only one-quarter of all the oil released was still a problem, this one-quarter alone was about six times all the oil released in the Exxon Valdez oil disaster in Alaska. Damage from that spill is still continuing today–more than 21 years after it happened!
Who should we believe? BP and the government, both of whom have repeatedly been caught in lies, or scientists who expose those lies–despite the risk they take to do it?
Obvious, isn’t it?
Aug 16, 2010
“We can’t stand by and do nothing while pink slips are given to the men and women who educate our children and keep our communities safe,” so said Obama when Congress passed a bill providing 26 billion dollars in aid to the states and 4.6 billion to school nutrition.
What he didn’t bother to mention was Congress had stolen part of the money to fund the two measures–from the funding for food stamps!
Just at the time when 1.4 million people have been out of work for 99 weeks or more, making them ineligible for further extensions of their unemployment benefits–the politicians are cutting the last program that provides them with something to live on!
It’s hardly something to crow about.
Aug 16, 2010
Bill Gates, the owner of Microsoft, and Warren Buffet, the financier at the head of Berkshire Hathaway, a giant diversified holding company, launched an appeal to the 400 richest Americans called the Giving Pledge. Gates himself is the second richest man in the world, holding 53 billion dollars, and Buffet, with 47 billion, is the third richest. Gates and Buffet asked their fellow billionaires to sign a promise giving at least half their personal fortune to the charity of their choice, to be paid out either now or when they die.
Billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York; Ted Turner, the former owner of CNN; Baron Hilton of the hotel chain of that name; the financier George Soros, who is a super-big speculator; and George Lucas, who directed Star Wars, have signed on.
Generous? Hardly!
The wealth of these people didn’t fall from the sky. It came from the growing exploitation of an ever larger portion of humanity, exploitation which robs us of the value of our labor and destroys the very fabric of society.
With one hand these exploiters donate, while with the other they’re busy grasping for still more.
Aug 16, 2010
When JetBlue flight attendant Steve Slater spectacularly exited the plane on an emergency escape slide, he became an instant hero to lots of people.
No wonder! The airlines have cut thousands of jobs while pushing more work on fewer people. And since airlines started charging passengers to check their luggage, the carry-on baggage situation has gone crazy, making it impossible for passengers and crew members alike.
So yes, people identify. Similar attacks have been carried out in every industry.
Don’t we all–in the words of someone who wrote to the New York Times–wish our workplace came equipped with an evacuation slide?
Aug 16, 2010
The government has allowed BP to limit the money it pays into the Gulf disaster compensation fund to profits it makes on its operations in the Gulf of Mexico. What a gift! BP gets out of paying even the measly 20 billion dollars it promised to eventually pay. And it gets authorization to continue its operations in the Gulf.
Talk about killing two birds with one stone!
Aug 16, 2010
Raising the Social Security retirement age to 70 is one of the proposals floated by the so-called “Deficit Reduction Commission.”
It’s a vile attack. But politicians justify it, saying that people live longer than when Social Security was passed in 1935.
Yes, we’re living longer. But we are vastly more productive at work. And this greater productivity could let every one of us retire at 55 or 60, with a much bigger check from Social Security–if the increased wealth produced by our work came to those of us who do the work.
Let arrogant politicians work to 70, let them get an actual job! But for many of us–who do work all our lives–working to 70 would be a death sentence. “Many older workers are in jobs that require substantial physical effort, jobs that may not afford them the option of working into their 70s.” This is the conclusion of a study done by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
We’re not ready to die at work, and we don’t intend to starve to death on a reduced benefit because we go out at 65.
No cuts to Social Security!
Aug 16, 2010
The following article comes from a presentation made in the "Hall of Discovery" at Spark’s annual Summer Festival.
In its April issue, Scientific American magazine reported about a new discovery in brain science. Recent measurements made on the brains of depression and PTSD patients showed something that scientists had not been able to observe before: in patients with these mental disorders, there seemed to be an electrical—that is, physical—abnormality in different brain parts that deal with fear and anxiety.
What is so significant about this discovery? The fact that a physical abnormality in a living person’s brain has been linked with a problem that, so far, has been considered purely "mental"—that is, not physical.
It’s true that there was the case of Phineas Gage, the American railroad worker who, in 1848, had a 1½-inch-thick iron rod go straight through his head. Gage lived—which allowed scientists to link the physical damage in Gage’s brain to his changed behavior. But how many people survive such an accident? Maybe one in a million, maybe even less!
And it’s also true that, for some time, we have had technology that gives us detailed, 3-D pictures of the brains of living people. These pictures allow us to see physical changes in a person’s brain—such as the dead part in the brain of a stroke patient. Or, they show us chemical abnormalities—such as the plaque in the brain of an Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s patient.
For sure, these brain scans are very helpful for doctors in providing treatment for their patients. But still, there is a problem. The dead part in the brain of a stroke patient is just that—dead, and apparently incurable. And the chemical changes in the brain of an Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s patient can be detected only at a point when the illness is at an advanced stage, when it’s already beyond cure—or beyond any effective treatment even.
In fact, from these scans scientists usually can’t even tell what, physically, is causing these illnesses.
And that’s the key word right there—cause. Today we don’t know how to cure many illnesses and disorders associated with the brain, because we don’t know their physical causes.
We do know some things about the brain, of course—so we can start there.
We know that the brain regulates all functions of the body. That’s an enormous task. So the brain works very hard, and it never stops. That’s why, as scientists have found out, the brain alone uses 20% of the body’s energy.
Yes, the brain regulates literally all the functions of the body. For example, you touch something—you would not feel the heat if your brain didn’t tell you that. It doesn’t feel like that, of course. We naturally think it’s the finger that feels, not the brain—especially since the finger also suffers physical damage if it’s too hot. But it is the brain that feels—or more accurately communicates with the rest of the body about what is happening. First the brain gets a signal from the finger, and then sends back another signal to the finger, which says, "HOT!"
So this communication with all parts of the body—how does the brain do that, physically? Through the nerves, which look like wires. And sure enough, the signals between the brain and the other parts of the body are electrical in nature! Now we can begin to understand what’s going on.
Think of the light switch—how fast electricity travels through wires. That’s what it is. Look at the nervous system in the body—just like a network of electrical wires. And the brain itself—a collection of electrical circuits; just like a computer. Except that the brain is far more complex than any computer human beings have been capable of building.
The essential thing to keep in mind is that the brain is electrical—it functions on the principle of electric pulses traveling through it.
And therein lies the new hope, actually. Today, for the first time, we have enough technology to measure small electrical currents inside the brain by putting sensors on a person’s head. That way, we can follow the communication between different parts of the brain, as a person, alive, goes through all the activities of living.
The brain parts have to communicate with each other all the time—communicate with each other and work together with each other. They have to, because anything and everything we do involves more than one part of the brain.
Since brain activity is electrical, it can be measured with certain types of electric sensors. Unusual, or abnormal, activity can be detected in different parts of the brain of a—without causing any physical harm to the brain; and, possibly, while there’s time for a cure.
I want to use PTSD as an example to show why treating brain disorders—especially those we call "mental" disorders—has been so difficult. Post-traumatic stress disorder—as the name implies, it’s a mental disorder that follows a traumatic experience. It’s common among combat veterans. Symptoms include nightmares, flashbacks—it’s as if the person is going through another traumatic experience, not only with all the fear, anxiety, all the emotions; but even with some physical features of the event, such as sound and smell.
PTSD is the most recent name for this disorder. Historically, it’s been called other things, such as shell shock, battle fatigue, etc. And military and government officials have even denied that such a disorder exists. Part of the reason authorities have been able to get away with denial is because not every battle veteran shows these symptoms.
By the way, this is nothing unusual. Take, for example, cancer caused by asbestos contamination. When asbestos in a building is dislodged, a fine asbestos dust goes into the air. You don’t see the dust, but you inhale it. It stays in your throat and lungs—and, in the long run, it can cause cancer. So workers, who work with and around asbestos and who are exposed to asbestos dust, are at risk. But not all of them get cancer—and, for decades, companies have used this fact to deny responsibility (and government regulators and courts have allowed them to get away with it).
Another example is habits people have—or even addictions, what are called chemical dependencies. For example, smoking cigarettes. Some people who have the habit can’t get rid of it. Others can. Some people don’t even seem to be prone to addiction from cigarettes.
Everyone’s body, chemically and physically, functions a little differently—a difference that we notice in situations like this, but can’t explain physically. I think that’s an explanation people would accept today. And because we don’t have a physical explanation, when we deal with a problem like an addiction, all we can do is to try different solutions—which work for some people, and don’t work for others.
But it has been the same with mental illness, for centuries. Trial and error—that’s all medical science has been able to do. Because we have never fully been able to observe the physical workings of the brain, every treatment, every kind of care medicine has come up with to help people with mental problems has remained at the level of trial and error. It has worked for some, and it has not worked for others. Even the most modern treatments—psychiatric counseling, anti-depressant drugs—have remained just that: trial and error. It works for one patient, but not for the other. And we don’t know why. It has been very, very frustrating—and it still is—for people who struggle with some kind of mental problem and, of course, for their families and friends.
It’s really important for people to understand that there actually are physical reasons behind the illnesses we call "mental." In fact, the very word "mental" implies that the illness is not physical. And that, in turn, makes people view these kinds of illnesses under a different light than other illnesses.
To put it more bluntly, there is a stigma attached to what we call "mental illness." But then, historically, that has been true for practically every kind of illness. In the old days, people shunned those who were sick; ran away from them, isolated them, whether the illness was contagious or not—which increased the suffering of the sick even more. People’s attitude toward many illnesses—and those who had them—changed when science was able to explain the physical causes of those illnesses—such as germs, cancerous cells, or a physical condition in the body. The same way, people’s attitudes toward the mentally ill will improve—when it’s clear to people that what we call "mental" illness, like other types of illness, has physical causes.
When we don’t understand why one combat veteran gets PTSD and another doesn’t, when we don’t understand why, under stressful work conditions, one co-worker succumbs to depression and another doesn’t, that makes it possible, and easier, for some to blame those who are ill, and say: "See, it’s all in your head!"
But that’s exactly why this recent discovery is so significant. Because this new finding now says: "No, it’s not in your head! It’s not your fault! The way your brain functions, there is a physical reason why you show the symptoms and others don’t!"
So yes, there is a new hope now—because now we actually can begin to see, measure—and understand—the physical workings of the brain.
There is hope that we are at the beginning of a path that can lead us to better, more effective treatments for a whole range of disorders and illnesses that are seen as "mental" today.
When scientists see more in detail what electrical changes happen in the brain during a certain brain disorder, they can understand why, for example, a drug works and another doesn’t for a particular patient. They can also find ways to reduce the side effects that a drug has on that patient. Perhaps they can also come up with new drugs, which are more effective and have fewer side effects.
And, finally, there is now hope that, eventually, we’ll be able to cure some mental illnesses altogether.
And why not? We have been able to do that for so many illnesses that, at one time in the past, were thought to be impossible to cure because no one understood their physical causes.
Then, perhaps, we will also discard from the name of these illnesses the label "mental"—and, with it, all the stigma we attach to that label today!
Aug 16, 2010
Thousands of textile industry workers in Dacca, the capital of Bangladesh, are in a struggle for wage increases. Defending themselves in violent clashes with the police, they hurled rocks against tear gas grenades and rubber bullets.
The movement has gone on for months, fueled by high price increases which struck workers hard. Tens of thousands of workers were involved last June, forcing 700 mills employing 800,000 workers to close their doors for a time.
The government’s proposal to raise the monthly wage from only $24 to $43, while the unions demanded $72, was seen as worse than insulting and stoked the workers’ anger. On July 31, more than 20,000 workers stopped work in Dacca, going from factory to factory, blocking roads to the north and south, occupying streets downtown and sometimes forcing the police to retreat.
The Bangladesh textile industry employs around 3.5 million workers, mainly women, who are among the lowest paid in the world. These factories produce for some of the biggest and wealthiest companies and Western brands such as Wal-Mart, Tesco, H&M, Zara, Carrefour, Gap, Marks & Spencer and Levi Strauss. The human rights group Action Aid says, “the sales of H&M are higher than the total annual government budget of Bangladesh.” One factory producing for H&M had a fire last February which killed 21 workers.
Not content from super-exploiting workers, these businesses cynically threaten to go to China or Viet Nam, where they also have subcontractors. But these threats, reinforced by the government and Bangladeshi bosses for the past months, have been ineffective. The Bangladeshi workers know that in China workers are also striking.
Aug 16, 2010
An analyst with the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor had this to say about the policy of concessions pushed by top UAW leaders:
“The UAW is showing the way. What they’re basically telling the economy is the defined pension benefit is dead.
“That retiree health from the company is dead. That high wages at the start of your career are gone.”
We’re in a war, a class war. And union leaders who push concessions are traitors to the working class. Time for a new fighting policy and leaders who stand for it!
Aug 16, 2010
Ford Motor Co. just announced that its chairman, Bill Ford, Jr., will get 16 million dollars in salary and stock options for compensation he gave up over the past two years.
When the Big Three tried to exact huge concessions from their workforces, executives like Bill Ford offered to give up all or part of their salaries, pretending that the company and the workers were all in this together.
Together? Come talk to us about togetherness when you offer us a check for the $30,000 we lost, when you get rid of two-tier, when you fund retiree health care fully, when you restore our lost breaks, when you restore all the jobs you cut, when you reduce the line speed, when ....
You get the picture!
Aug 16, 2010
The “new,” “radically different” UAW, under the “new” leadership of Bob King, is acting just like the same old UAW, fronting for the companies.
The local membership at a GM stamping plant in Indianapolis voted not to reopen their contract to allow concessions. The local shop committee, respecting the membership, refused to reopen.
International leaders worked out a big concessions deal with the company anyway–despite clear language in the UAW Constitution preventing them from doing it. They said they found “a loophole”!
Gangsters stop at nothing!
Workers in Indianapolis know all about gangster tactics–they have been subjected to threats, bribes and other less polite tactics.
Today, as we write, Indianapolis workers are in a meeting–hopefully, they are giving these goons for the company the welcome they deserve.
And then the Indianapolis workers vote.
We don’t know the result. But what’s happened so far in Indianapolis is important for every GM worker, every auto worker. GM is trying to cut wages at ALL the stamping plants–by first cutting Indianapolis, which is isolated, then using those much lower wages to force every other plant to give in. After stamping, comes the rest of GM’s empire.
It’s time to throw concessions back in the bosses’ face. Time to throw so-called union leaders who front for the bosses out with the garbage!
Aug 16, 2010
The Los Angeles City Council voted to give Eli Broad, a billionaire real estate man and financier, 30 million dollars for a parking garage next to a museum he is planning to build. This museum is part of the Grand Avenue Project–a 16-acre development which will include upscale businesses and a luxury hotel–for which the city is providing the land and more tax breaks to businesses involved.
The same politicians who claim the city has a nearly 500-million-dollar budget deficit nonetheless handed out big gifts to wealthy businessmen. Gifts paid for by cuts in library hours and more than 100 librarians laid off. Gifts paid for by cuts and early retirement forced on city workers.
Don’t tell us that tax breaks create jobs. Politicians have been telling that lie for decades. No jobs were created–only more profits for the wealthy.
Aug 16, 2010
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigated 15 for-profit college campuses recently. They found deceptive practices by admission officials at all 15 campuses.
These included two University of Phoenix campuses, two Kaplan University campuses, and a university run by Education Management Corp, or EDMC.
Kaplan is owned by the Washington Post company, and its 212 million dollars represented 80% of the Washington Post’s operating income last year. EDMC, with an annual revenue of 2.4 billion dollars, is part-owned by Goldman-Sachs.
Clearly, “education” has become a big business. And, this take-over of education by wolves out to make a profit has the backing of the U.S. government. Last year, for-profit colleges received the proceeds from one quarter of the government’s Pell grants and Stafford loans, even though they enroll less than one-tenth of the students.
At every single campus the GAO investigated, admissions counselors lied to prospective students–about their credentials, about expected job pay, and about financial aid. At the Kaplan campuses, officials told students that Kaplan had the same accreditation as Harvard. And several campuses advised students to commit fraud on their financial aid applications.
These places are nothing but high-priced scam artists, telling students anything to get them in the door. They charge outrageous tuition, then arrange loans that the students can’t afford. Students routinely rack up debts of up to $100,000 for a degree they find is worthless. Once the colleges get paid, the students end up defaulting on their loans more often than not. Repayment rates at for-profit schools are 36%.
That’s the only thing bothering the government: that these students are defaulting and the government isn’t getting paid back.
This is what happens when education is turned over to profit-making machines. These companies make that profit by hook or by crook, taking advantage of people desperate for some way to get a leg up on getting a job.
Aug 16, 2010
Authorities finally arrested the Israeli Christian citizen who apparently had stabbed 18 men, killing five, in 11 weeks time. Elias Abuelazam was about to board a plane bound for Israel on August 11. Fourteen of the attacks occurred in Flint, Michigan, three in Leesburg, Virginia, and one in Toledo, Ohio.
According to the county prosecutor in Flint, there was no evidence that the attacks were racist. Evidence? What more evidence is needed when a white serial killer chooses black men almost exclusively as his victims?
Evidence of racism? How about this: for nearly three months, officials gave no warning while a white man was attacking and murdering black men on the streets of Flint.
The killer made no effort to change his vehicle, his style of dress, or the way he lured victims to his SUV, asking them for help. How many of those black men would still be alive and unharmed if the warning had been given?
The killer stabbed nine victims between July 26 and August 3, more than one per day, before the police finally held a press conference on August 4 to announce they had a serial killer on their hands.
Stopping the murder of black men was, by all evidence, not an official priority. What could be more racist than that?