alanjjohnstone
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When the Black Panthers began armed protests on the steps of the Californian state legislature building the then governor Ronald Reagan changed the law to ban it. He had the support of the NRA to do so.
There will be no justice for George Floyd. Already it is said that he did not die of suffocation or asphyxiation, that he had a pre-existing heart condition which would have been exacerbated by alcohol or drugs. Police treatment of him will be determined as only a contributory factor which the police officers were unaware of and therefore they will be let off.
Sacking from the police force does not mean that they cannot re-join at a later date through appeals or be recruited by another police force.
https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/animals-that-can-do-math-understand-more-language-than-we-think/
A related article that has coincidentally appeared on the web.
But one of arguments is that humans are prone to humanising some animals yet deny affinity with others. My favourite example is the octopus and squid species…proven to be intelligent, proven to have a language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_intelligence
https://qz.com/908695/squid-speak-a-unique-undeciphered-language-using-their-skin/
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52842303
UK could offer British National (Overseas) passport holders in Hong Kong a path to UK citizenship if China does not suspend plans for a security law in the territory, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says.
There are 300,000 BNO passport holders in Hong Kong. An estimated 2.9 million people are eligible for a BNO passportIn itself I have no objection, the more the merrier, in fact, but we already see the reluctance of the UK government to give similar rights to EU and non-EU migrants who all have to go through many difficult hurdles to achieve residency much less citizenship.
Imagine the uproar among the right-wing if he said he was issuing 300,000 UK passports to Syrian refugees so to admit them.
Where now is the argument that we are a small overcrowded island and that foreigners will steal “our” jobs.
But more than likely it he is just posturing and the invite will only be for the well-off Hong Kongers as it was back in 1997.
The blog has already posted it, Janet, to give it a wider audience and agree with you on the clarity and the relevance of its explanation.
https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2020/05/blaming-people-for-pandemic.html
Some our worse enemies, the Malthusians, are the among our supposed closest friends, the environmentalists.
I have a habit of referring to all dogs as he and all cats as she regardless of actual gender. Makes little difference to the animal concerned.
Making the killing more humane
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/05/28/case-new-technology-help-slaughterhouse-workers
Controlled Atmosphere Stunning. In a CAS plant, chickens are left in their transport crates, as they are conveyed through an air-sealed tunnel. There, chickens are slowly induced into an unconscious state using a precise mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide in oxygen. Using the CAS system, chickens are not shackled until after they are insensible.
Matt, I may be wrong but we presently do suggest how the content of work will change in socialism, and we also say that the culture of conspicuous over-consumption will disappear. We do project into the future socialist society what we already know about many aspects of our lives.
We acknowledge that capitalism has created an entire advertising industry devoted to the psychological manipulation of our desires regard many everyday activities we take for granted and as normal.
Yet I feel that we have a hold-over from our earlier days that we are now very reluctant to declare that the “Full Monty” fry-up, the traditional diet dominated by various meat products, as well as our addiction to various food ingredients such as sugar and salt, will be a thing of the past in socialism for very good rational reasons, social and individual.
We have to add flesh to the bones of our case for socialism (pun deliberate)
Just as we expect fellow-workers to question their nationalism, their racism, their sexism, their homophobia and many other prejudices, our attitudes towards the suffering of other sentient life-forms must be involved in the development of socialist consciousness.
We are unanimous in agreeing condemning needless and avoidable cruelty yet we have a debate on what level of cruelty is acceptable and will be in socialism. I think the inescapable conclusion is that killing of animals inevitably involves distress for the animal and also for the actual perpetuator of the violence.
Again, I am wondering when there is very much an increase awareness among many on animal and food issues, are we providing them with specific answers to their ideas, demonstrating that to bring them into practice, to make their beliefs a reality requires socialism.
It is important that respond to changing views of our fellow-workers on many topics. I survey of all our printed pamphlets show we constantly are required to address them. I’m not proposing anything particularly controversial or radical, but simply to take a clearer and stronger stand on what we eat and how we produce what we eat.
Wasn’t it Feuerbach who said we are what we eat.
And other socialists who also added, those who own the bread, control our head.
But Matt, isn’t it an integral part of our campaign for socialism to give fellow-workers a guilt-trip by pointing out that all the ills of society ultimately comes down to their own acquiescence and acceptance of their capitalist conditioning leading to their continual support for a system that is vampire-like sucking their and others life-blood away?
Our constant refrain is “think, change and resist”. Class consciousness does mean a shift in life-style if that means how we look at the world around us, respond to it and interact with it. We take action where and when we can, not just as individuals but part of a Party and part of a class movement both of which we endeavour to grow through our individual contributions so to make them part of the collective consciousness – (apologies for making it sound a bit like Star Trek Borg).
Our case is not to proselytise vegetarianism or even to proclaim that we live lives of universal brotherhood, love and charity. That is putting the horse before the waggon. As you say, our argument is that you will not achieve those objectives without building socialism first and that is our political priority as a Party. But it does not mean that we do not sympathise with such aspirations or cite them as examples and evidence of the validity of socialism.
It isn’t about casting blame and then shaming fellow-workers towards socialist ideas but it is pointing out individual and collective responsibility and culpability, that we are complicit in our own exploitation, touching our forelock and tipping our hat to our “social betters” as I already referred to in an early post.
(every now and then as with the Dominic Cummings affair we recognise the hypocrisy of the privileged and rightly say fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me and then get angry. But rage has to be directed somewhere.)
There is no doubt we already present our case for socialism but i think we are all aware that it is insufficient and inadequate. We all recognise that improvements can be made to increase its efficiency.
We don’t seek the answer in jumping on every band-waggon and we don’t seek out popularity by agreeing with everybody but we should try to relate socialist ideas to social trends that are taking place that are small signs and signals that we are shifting closer to a more socialised future. The MCH explains it happens without us. But we have say of ourselves, the Socialist Party’s task is to hasten that movement, to speed up the process.
EDIT
My argument is that we have to incorporate a vision of socialism much more into our campaigns so that it inspires and that does mean to a certain extent picturing it with broad brush strokes as the late comrade Pieter Lawrence would often do.
I’m not sure what you are objecting to Matt.
<i>”The Socialist Party’s position</i>
Our position on socialism in relation to the environment may be outlined as follows.
Production for needs
A socialist society requires that the productive system as a whole should meet the needs of its members and be sustainable for the rest of nature. In other words, what humans take from nature, the amount and pace at which they do so, the way they use those materials and dispose of them after use, should all be done so as to leave nature to go on supplying and reabsorbing those materials after use.
In the long run this implies stable or only slowly rising consumption and production levels, though it does not rule out carefully planned initial rapid growth over a period to reach a level at which consumption and production could then level off. Production would be geared simply to meeting current needs and to replacing and repairing the stock of means of production (materials and instruments) required for this.
The only rationale for accumulating means of production would be to be in a position to satisfy all reasonable consumption needs, not as at present to manufacture ‘wants’ for marketing and profits. Once achieved then accumulation, or the further expansion of the stock of means of production, could stop and production levels be stabilized. “The steady-state economy is already part of our case for socialism. Arable and animal farming (along with fishing) to provide for the food demands of society is inherently part of that decision-making which people will take into their control with socialism, shaping it to be sustainable. What food we consume today as with all commodities, is determined by the capitalist market, and choices directed very much by its big-budget advertising. Much of it is socially wasteful. While Big Ag and the handful of meat corporations dominate and steer demand then there will be little change in consumer choices.
If it is along with Bijou that you think answering how will socialism work means laying out a blueprint, then I have to disagree.
We already try to do that with a series of our pamphlets. We can reach some generalised conclusions based on basic premises and can outline broad principles or options that could be applied. We do not have to draw up a detailed farming plan for socialism, but simply and broadly demonstrate what it is possible. If we are to be given serious consideration we should be clear that our proposals are not a far-off dream but is anchored in todays realities that everyone is capable of understanding and that it is in fact a simple, practical alternative.
Have we done enough to spark our fellow-workers imagination with what is possible?
Have we done enough to latch our ideas on to the thinking that some of our fellow-workers are already exploring for themselves?
A plethora of “blueprints” for an ecologically sustainable world have been presented by the environmentalists, many containing common-sense solutions to the environmental crisis. They fail not because their renewable tech-fixes are far-fetched. They fail because capitalism is incapable of implementing them.(that is perhaps why Planet of the Humans goes a bit awry by solely dismissing new technology)
This new knowledge and innovative practice applies also to farming with agroecology and is opposed by the vested interests of industrial farming.
One thing that has been absent from this discussion is just how do we use our common ground in the case for socialism to persuade and convince non-socialists.
We have responded to the increased awareness of the environmentalist movement to climate change with various articles but have we given the same attention to the way we produce and consume our food?
I feel a reticence from some to emphasise that along with advocating socialism as a sustainable and non-polluting system by changing extractive and production methods and means of transportation, there will be required a change in our life-styles and our food consumption habits. We can happily make generalisations about how work itself will be transformed into socially useful and satisfying jobs.
But there is a reluctance I think to be more detailed and say that the menu from which we choose our meals will be very much different, a flexitarian diet rather than the presently predominant meat-eating one.
Maybe we are wary of being accused of holding a fringe belief, as I think was the case in the past with vegetarianism/veganism but today is very different. People are concerned about what they eat, where it comes from, how it is grown, and what impact it has on the various eco-systems. We have a receptive audience.
We can speculate about some aspects of socialism, such as creating the steady-state, zero-growth economy and explain broadly how that can be accomplished but are we wrong not to be more specific on how it can be achieved through changes in our daily diets.
Or is such conjecture risking deciding a blueprint for socialism.
Ten corporations that agreed to a total of $56m in civil penalties for allegedly breaking environmental laws are not being required to make payments under a pause granted by the US government during the Covid-19 pandemic. They signed settlements with the government agreeing to pay fines without admitting liability but the justice department last month advised most of the companies of extensions.
One company, Virginia power provider Dominion Energy, settled and agreed to pay $1.4m for allegedly releasing 27.5m gallons of water from a coal ash impoundment that seeped into groundwater along the shore of the James River. Coal ash contains dangerous pollutants, including mercury, cadmium and arsenic, which can cause widespread environmental damage. The company said it plans to pay the settlement penalty once it is finalized.
Dominion has a number of ties to high-ranking Trump officials, including EPA’s former top enforcement official, Patrick Traylor, who had Dominion has a client. Attorney general William Barr has served on the company’s board of directors and received more than $500,000 from Dominion.Another violator, one of the world’s largest steel companies, ArcelorMittal’schief executive was at a Trump roundtable of business leaders in India in February and also was one of about 20 executives to dine with Trump in Davos at the World Economic Forum in January. Trump’s commerce secretary Wilbur Ross was previously on the company’s board of directors.
Denver-based oil and gas company K P Kauffman allegedly violated air pollution laws, emitting volatile organic compounds that form smog in the Denver-Julesburg Basin. KP Kauffman spent $200,000 lobbying the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2019 and the beginning of 2020, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In 2016, the company hosted a meeting between oil industry executives and president Donald Trump. CEO Kevin P Kauffman is a major GOP donor.
Chris Saeger, director of strategic initiatives at Accountable.US, said:
“When we’re facing a public health crisis that causes respiratory problems, this is a time to be holding companies to a higher standard of air quality, not a lower one.”https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/27/epa-corporation-environmental-fines-decision
Skeletons in the closet but they won’t be made public.
The Biden senatorial papers comprise 1,875 boxes of “photographs, documents, videotapes and files” and 415 gigabytes of electronic records at the University of Delaware in his home state.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/27/joe-biden-papers-archive-democrats-republicans
Related to another thread on the forum on manipulation of culture for political subversion, the United States funded rock groups in Venezuela to record songs promoting democracy – and undermine the rule of Hugo Chávez.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/27/venezuela-us-funded-rock-bands-hugo-chavez
More than 10 bands were contracted in 2011 to produce new songs promoting freedom of expression.
In 2014, it was revealed that USAid, the American development aid organisation, had been secretly attempting to infiltrate Cuba’s underground hip-hop scene.
“The forgotten C”
Cancer is going undiagnosed for up to 2,000 people a week due to Covid-19 concerns in hospitals and GP surgeries, with a charity warning the UK now faces a “ticking time bomb”…putting off cancer surgery for three months could lead to almost 5,000 excess deaths in England alone…
Security forces in Argentina have cordoned off one of the country’s poorest slums, preventing inhabitants from entering or leaving the neighbourhood after a surge of coronavirus cases. Police officers erected barriers at the entrance to Villa Azul on the outskirts of Buenos Aires on Monday.
Who said coronavirus was not class war camouflaged? (rhetorical question)
From the horses mouth
“The first thing the pandemic has taught us, is that we live in an unfair country – and no one has the excuse of saying they didn’t know because we’ve all seen it,” said the country’s president, Alberto Fernández, in a speech about the situation in the country’s slums.
“It looks like we are creating ghettoes for poor people,” said a junior minister for social development, Daniel Menéndez.
