Bulletin N°484

Sincerely,
Francis McCollum Feeley
Professor of American Studies
Université de Grenoble 3
Director of Research
Université de Paris 10 - Nanterre
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/

P.S. For readers living in Grenoble, I would like to invite you to our local conference on "War, Resistance, and Counter-Resistance," that has been organized on campus next Friday, March 25. Please see the bottom of the CEIMSA page, "Colloques" for more information about this confernece : http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/colloques.html.
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A.
from Ralph Lopez :
Date: 11 March 2011
Subject: The systematic torture of Private First Class Bradley Manning.

Bradley Manning Now "Catatonic"
by Ralph Lopez

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/07/953639/-Bradley-Manning-Now-Catatonic;-Obama-ENOUGH!

As Obama's crime of the destruction of Bradley Manning continues to unfold before our very eyes, Manning friend David House now tells us that over 8 months in isolation with movement and sleep restrictions placed on him have been having their intended effect.  House has told MSNBC that by the end of January Manning appeared "catatonic"  and that he had "severe problems communicating," with it having taken House nearly 45 minutes on a recent visit to engage in any meaningful way (video below.)  House said Manning's demeanor was as "if he had just woken up and didn't know what was going on around him."   Manning was "utterly exhausted physically and mentally...it was difficult to have any kind of social engagement."
Mannning has been held in a bare, windowless 6x12 cell for 23 out of 24 hours a day, with no sound or personal effects, no radio or clock with which to distinguish night from day.  He is not allowed to exercise in his cell.  His only exercise is walking figure eights in another room, in shackles.  Since last week he has been forced to strip naked while he sleeps and to stand at attention in the morning in this state.

Is The Republican Party Becoming Fascist?

by Stephen D. Foster, Jr.

Republicans have been busy since they took power in January. Busy alienating every single group of people they can think of, except themselves. The United States is being transformed into a fascist state before our eyes and now is the time we must fight back and turn this evil tide.

Instead of focusing on jobs and the economy like they were elected to do, Republicans have used the excuse of budget crises whether real or not, to take rights away from us. In the 1920¢s and 1930¢s, fascists in Europe used economic crises to gain power and that is exactly what Republicans are doing now. Using the recession as an excuse to create a police state. Let's examine how Republicans are frighteningly similar to fascists.

Fascism is the ultimate manifestation of social change and moral revolution, and glorifies nationalism. Sound familiar? It should. Republicans are all about culture wars and preach morality and how great America is. Fascists, like Republicans today, reject democracy and liberalism. Many Republicans called for violently overthrowing the government if the 2010 midterm elections didn't go their way and have viciously attacked liberalism. Fascists also reject internationalism and pacifism and support militarism and war. Republicans have been calling for the United States to pull out of the United Nations since the 1950¢s and have since 2001, been the party of war as evidenced by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the calls to attack Iran, North Korea, and most recently Libya. Fascists also promote heroism, vitalism and violence. Ever notice how Republicans promote themselves by chopping wood or firing guns or some other "manly" activity? They are trying to prove how tough they are. And the examples of violence are aplenty. Just look at the shooting in Arizona and the calls to shoot liberals in the forehead and the threats of "second amendment remedies" among many others. Republicans have ALL of these traits. Now let's examine how fascists and Republicans agree on the issues.

As we all know, Republicans claim to be the party of family values. This is the exact stance of fascists as well. Fascists, like Republicans, believe that a woman's role is confined to the home as a mother. In Italy, the fascists banned literature on birth control and increased penalties for abortion in 1926, declaring both crimes against the state. Fascists even pushed policies designed to reduce the number of women in the workforce. Republicans are attempting to do all of these things. They have relentlessly railed against birth control, and have pushed their idea of abstinence as if they have always practiced it themselves. Hypocrites. They are attempting to ban abortion, considering laws to legalize the killing of abortion providers and laws that destroy Planned Parenthood and allow hospitals to let women die rather than give her a life saving abortion. Republicans are also assaulting unions that represent professions held by mostly women such as nurses and education and have been highly critical of single mothers who work.

Speaking of education, Republicans and fascists have that in common too.

Fascist states pursued policies of social indoctrination through propaganda in education and the media and seek to regulate the production of educational and media materials. We see Republicans doing this every day. They have their own news network that uses blatant lies and misinformation to paint liberalism as evil. Fox News is directly responsible for spreading hate and fear on behalf of the Republican Party and even promotes Republican candidates with total disregard to acceptable journalism ethics. Republicans have criticized journalists for asking tough questions and have called for laws to change the mainstream media. Many Republicans are against Freedom of the Press and have even detained journalists against their will for asking questions. Then there is the GOP stance on education. Their attempts to destroy public education is nothing more than an effort to create private schools designed to do their ideological bidding. Private schools can deny an education to anyone and can discriminately hire any teacher they wish which means an army of conservative teachers that will only teach the Republican ideology and their view of history. Fascists created their systems of education to glorify their movement and sought to inform students of its historical and political importance to the nation. It attempted to purge ideas that were not consistent with the beliefs of the fascist movement. Republicans are also doing this. Take Texas and the South for instance. In those Republican controlled areas, the Confederacy is being glorified and Joe McCarthy is being portrayed as heroic. The Civil Rights movement is being largely ignored and the Founding Fathers are being transformed into Republicans that agree with everything the Republicans are doing today. They are trying to portray the founders as Christians that wanted Christianity to rule the state. Republicans are also trying to abolish the Department of Education and are trying to slash education spending to a bare minimum. Republicans and fascists hate the well educated because they want the people to be stupid in order to manipulate them. Fascism tends to be anti-intellectual and so does the Republican Party.

Another major aspect of fascism is its relationship with corporations. In 1925 the Fascist regime in Italy created a corporatist economic system. In theory, Fascist Corporatism is supposed to give unions a voice but in practice, that's not what it did in Italy and Germany in the 1930¢s. The Fascist regime first created a Ministry of Corporations that organized the Italian economy into 22 sectoral corporations, banned workers' strikes and lock-outs. Even Hitler banned unions. This is similar to how corporations were before America declared its independence. At that time, corporations such as the Massachusetts Bay Company, controlled entire colonies. The Founding Fathers hated this practice so much they rebelled against it and set many restrictions against the corporate world they abhorred so much. Republicans are attempting to reintroduce this idea that corporations should run states and the government. They've already called for privatizing policemen and the military and they already allow the Koch brothers to call the shots. It won't be long before they introduce corporatism. Marxists accuse fascism of being a capitalist tyranny that attempts to make conservative reaction popular to the working class but in practice represses the working class. Even Lenin claimed that "Fascism is capitalism in decay." Fascists dismantled working-class organizations, significantly reduced wages in certain areas, abolished taxes on inheritance and war profits. Republicans seek to do ALL of these things. They have called for an end to the minimum wage, are ending union rights state by state, most recently in Wisconsin where Republicans slammed through an anti-union bill illegally, and seek to destroy any and all corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthy.

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Another aspect shared by fascists and Republicans is their hatred of homosexuals and people who are different. Just as fascists banned homosexuality in 1931 and hated certain groups like gypsies and Jews, Republicans seek to make homosexuality illegal and have made it clear that they intend to persecute those they feel are inferior such as Muslims, African-Americans, hispanics, and other ethnic groups. The current hearings in Congress specifically targeting Muslims is sufficient proof of that, not to mention their constant racial attacks on President Obama and the laws being passed against hispanics in Arizona.

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Another major aspect of fascism that Republicans share is the fixing of elections. If the 2000 Election isn't enough to convince you of fraudulent elections then also consider these current attempts to subvert democracy. Republicans in New Hampshire are pushing bills that would keep college students from voting. One bill would require a students parents live in the state and another would ban same day registration. Why? Because the youth come out to vote for liberals. This is the reason Republicans are out to destroy unions too, since unions support Democrats in elections most of the time. One Tea Party leader has already suggested a bill that would only allow people with property to vote. Even the voting rights of women are being threatened. These are blatant attempts to subvert Democracy and destroy political opponents. These are things that fascists do.

Here is something else that Republicans and fascists have in common: death panels. In Arizona, Republicans have already decided the fates of 98 people by taking their names off the transplant lists in an effort to save money. Never mind the fact that the federal government has sent funds to cover these people. The Republican fascists in Arizona are too busy spending that cash on private prisons so they can send suspected illegal immigrants to them. Death panels are expected to spread to other Republican controlled states such as Texas and Mississippi among others. Fascists like death panels and private prisons too. Millions of Jews died because of death panels and the deaths only stopped after American soldiers liberated the prison camps.

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The last aspect that fascists and Republicans have in common is their obsession with Christianity. The Republican party is one with the Christian Right today. Their goal is to make Christianity the national religion in order to create a Christian state. Republicans would then tear up the Constitution and replace it with the Bible. Republicans hate separation of church and state and have vowed to destroy it. Republicans have even gone so far as to make up quotes and falsely attribute them to the Founding Fathers to make it seem like they wholeheartedly agree with them. They actually do not agree. This obsession with religion is very familiar, in fact its Hitleresque. Take a gander at these quotes.

"The National Government will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built up. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality and the family as the basis of national life."

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"It is the purpose of the Government to fill our whole culture once more with a Christian spirit, and that not only in politics. We want to burn out the harmful features in our theater and our literature."

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"The Government, being resolved to undertake the political and moral purification of our public life, is creating and securing the conditions necessary for a really profound revival of religious life."

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"The struggle against materialistic views and for a real national community is just as much in the interest of the German nation as in [the interest] of the welfare of our Christian faith. The Government of the Reich regards Christianity as the unshakable foundation of the morals and moral code of the nation. The rights of the churches will not be diminished."

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All of these quotes were spoken by Adolf Hitler, one of fascisms biggest stars. And Republicans agree with his words. In fact, Christianity is one reason why Republicans are doing all of the above things stated throughout this article. If you are a white Christian male that votes Republican, you are safe. But if you aren't, you are targeted.

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The time for compromise with Republicans is over. The time for tolerance of them is also over. We could sit here and allow them to control things and turn the country into a fascist state or we can take action and bring down fascism before it takes hold and strangles us. I'm not suggesting general strikes or pacifism. Republicans would only be too happy to abuse the law and use military force against us. I'm calling on freedom loving Americans everywhere to storm Republican controlled capitals across the country and drag these Republican fascists out of power kicking and screaming and then elect new people to replace them. There may be little other recourse by the time Republicans are finished serving their terms and waiting to recall them will take too much time. Voting rights are being attacked from every angle. Our personal lives are under constant assault. Our right to negotiate our wages are being terminated and war and corporate power are increasing. We can no longer risk allowing this dangerous political party to have any power whatsoever. There was once a time in this country when a party rose up and forcefully put the other one on the sidelines for a long period of time because it was a danger to the nation and its ideals. During the Civil War era, Republicans, also the liberals of the era, came to power and brought down the once conservative Democratic Party for being a threat to freedom and Democracy. Once again, we liberals must rise to the occasion and be willing to fight for ourselves, for others, and for our nations ideals no matter the cost. Only this time, it must be Republicans that pay the price. They must be restricted from holding public office for a couple decades so that Democrats have ample time to clean up their mess and reverse all of the damage done by Republicans. In these dark times, it is our duty to do whatever is necessary to keep America free and its people equal. We must stand up and march together in the millions and topple every Republican controlled capital in the nation and then press forward to Washington DC and chase Republicans out of Congress. Its the only way to save America, ourselves, and those we love. Perhaps after a couple decades in political exile, Republicans will have denounced the fascist elements of their party and come to their senses. If forcing Republicans out of office is our only option to save America and ensure the freedom, equality, survival, and prosperity of the middle class, then in the words of John Boehner, "So be it."

 

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C.
from Bertell Ollman :
Date: 11 March 2011
Subject: Class War in Public Schools.
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/index.php

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WHY SO MANY EXAMS? A MARXIST RESPONSE
Bertell Ollman
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/publications/Scholars/ScholarlyEssays2011.htm
          

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D.
from Democracy Now! :
Date: 11 March 2011
Subject: The Shocks Continue ...
http://www.democracynow.org/

As a wave of anti-union bills are introduced across the country following the wake of Wall Street financial crisis, many analysts are picking up on the theory that award-winning journalist and author Naomi Klein first argued in her 2007 bestselling book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. In the book, she reveals how those in power use times of crisis to push through undemocratic and extreme free market economic policies. “The Wisconsin protests are an incredible example of how to resist the shock doctrine."

As the Arab revolt broadens and deepens, the roles of a global and a regional empire, USA and Israel, will surface increasingly. There will be more about that next week; here the focus is on the third one of the kind, the United Kingdom, or simply England, Albion, known for its perfidity, Lord Palmerston's famous "no permanent friends, no permanent enemies; permanent interests". John Bull = John Bully?

That empire had model character, and Tony Blair did his best to revive Albion by serving an Eagle across the Atlantic:

* misled the Parliament to believe the war was legal;

* lied about WMD, weapons of mass destruction;

* pretended that secret intelligence could be trusted;

* exaggerated the threat from Iraq and Saddam Hussein:

* concealed his agreements with Bush to go to war;

* obstructed the work of the UN WMD inspectors;

* inconsiderate warfare against Iraq's civilian population;

* misled the people to believe the war increased the security.

(extracted from the Chilcot hearings, Klassekampen 22-01-11).

A person like that-with a US co-defendant or two-belongs in the International Criminal Court,  beyond its use for Yugoslavs and Africans. Instead, he operates from the top floor of the American Colony in Jerusalem, to bribe West Bank Palestinians into lucrative private sector deals.

In the Security Council both USA and UK are protected by direct veto, and Israel for its brutal warfare against the Gaza population indirectly. The three together managed to kill the Gaza report by Justice Julius Goldstone (Naomi Klein, "Goldstone's Legacy for Israel", The Nation 14-02-2011); a report that may serve as a model for US-UK atrocities.

The arch-imperialist Sir Winston S Churchill-what is good for the Empire is also good for me-looms high. In 1953 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Nobel statutes states that literature should not only cover belles-lettres, "but also other writings that in form and content show literary value". The 1902 prize was given to Theodor Mommsen for The History of Rome, and in 1953 to Churchill for The Island Race-an inspired macro-history of the island whose history he shaped, and wrote. As, indeed, World War II.

The two presentation addresses, by C. D. Af Wirsen and S. Siwerts are themselves small highly professional masterpieces. Of course there are controversies-like an omitted Henrik Ibsen-but happily Alfred Nobel did not entrust the task of appraising literature to five amateurs from the Swedish parliament like he did for peace from the parliament of Norway, even a client of the only surviving global empire.

Churchill concludes his The Island Race at the end of the 19th century, "Nearly a hundred years of peace and progress had carried Britain to the leadership of the world. She had striven repeatedly for the maintenance of peace-The future is unknowable, but the past should give us hope".

In 1911 a parliamentary commission compared the economies of India and Britain, found them quite similar in early 19th century and vastly different a century later. Britain was far ahead, India behind with deepening gaps. What had benefitted one had not benefitted the other. But that mattered little to Churchill; his concern was to be #1, the rallying cry in the USA right now, competing with other countries disregarding exploitation within and between. Like Harvard professors Ferguson and Nye on the CNN GPS program 6 March 2011.

In a recent book by Madhusree Mukherjee, Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India During World War II (Basic Books, 2010) the author holds Churchill responsible for not authorizing food shipped from Australia to save the three million who perished in the 1943 Bengali famine. Churchill hated Gandhi, a "naked fakir", a "thoroughly evil force, hostile to us in every regard" and hoped he would starve himself to death by fasting. About Hindus he had this to say: "the beastliest people in the world next to the Germans".

The Germans. The "splendid decision" by the newly appointed Prime Minister to bomb, killing civilians, in Westphalia in Germany, using the retribution against Coventry and London to stimulate the British will to fight. And the massive bombing of Germany, after his gas attack by air in Iraq, 1921, against rebels who threatened civilization. 600,000 killed in Germany; women, children, old. Were British and German warfare different? Democracy differs from dictatorship and Churchill from Hitler, but warfare? Is democracy a license to kill for victory at any price (Churchill); total war?

To Churchill Hitler was a monster, filled with envy, shameful, a carrier of hatred; to Hitler Churchill was insane, putting the world afire (Klaus Wiegrepe, "Sieg um jeden Preis", Der Spiegel, 3/3/2010). A world war. And a personal duel.

The Royal Air Force was superior, so was the Wehrmacht. But Japan fell into the trap of attacking the USA, and Germany stupidly attacked the Soviet Union. The stronger won after untold suffering-Russians, Jews, Roma, Germans, others. And Churchill lost what he coveted most, the Empire. World War II was only a battle in the war for world power. He was a genius like Napoleon, in the sense of winning battles and losing the war.

The real war is fought by real people for livelihood, freedom, dignity. The heroe(ine)s are millions and unknown, not individuals with inflated egos. Their future is knowable.

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Prof. Johan Galtung is acting rector of the TRANSCEND PEACE UNIVERSITY: An All-Online educational facility for academic Peace Studies. Born in 1930 in Oslo Norway,  Prof. Johan Galtung holds a PhD in mathematics from 1956 and a PhD in sociology from 1957. He is widely known as the pioneering founder of the academic discipline of peace studies. He has served as a professor for peace studies and peace research at the universities of Olso, Berlin, Cairo, Belgrad, Paris and Hawaii, just to name a few, and has mediated in about 50 conflicts between states and nations since 1957.


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G.
from  Mark Crispin :
Date: 6 March 2011
Subject: Les nouveaux rebellions américaines s'inspirent du monde arabe.
http://markcrispinmiller.com

Contact: Jeanne Mirer, International Commission for Labor Rights

(313) 515-2046

<jeanne@eisnermirer.com>

Dean Hubbard, NLG Labor and Employment Committee

(203) 216-2262

<deanhub@gmail.com>

§ 653. Right to refrain

A person may not be required, as a condition of employment or continuation of employment, to:

1. Become a member. Become or remain a member of a labor organization;

2. Pay dues. Pay any dues, fees, assessments or other similar charges, however denominated, of any kind or amount to a labor organization; or

3. Pro rata portions. Pay to any charity or other 3rd party, in lieu of payments under subsection 2, any amount equivalent to or a pro rata portion of dues, fees, assessments or other charges required of members of a labor organization.

273-D:4 Freedom of Choice Guaranteed, Discrimination Prohibited. No person shall be required, as a condition of employment or continuation of employment:

I. To resign or refrain from voluntary membership in, voluntary affiliation with, or voluntary financial support of a labor organization;

II. To become or remain a member of a labor organization;

III. To pay any dues, fees, assessments, or other charges of any kind or amount to a labor organization;

IV. To pay any charity or other third party, in lieu of such payments, any amount equivalent to or a pro-rata portion of dues, fees, assessments, or other charges of a labor organization.

Section A.290.590.2. No person shall be required as a condition or continuation of employment to:

(1) Become or refrain from becoming a member of a labor organization;

(2) Pay any dues, fees, assessments, or other similar charges however denominated of any kind or amount to a labor organization; or

(3) In lieu of the payments listed under subdivision (2) of this subsection, pay to any charity or other third party any amount equivalent to, or on a pro rata basis, any dues, fees, assessments, or other charges required of members of a labor organization.

In fact, the bills, excepting legaleese required to make the bill fit with each state's laws, are nearly identical, down to unusual vocabulary and phrasing.