Bulletin #704
Subject: HOSTS :
PARASITES = WORKERS : CAPITALISTS.
2 July 2016
Grenoble, France
Dear
Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
The
story goes that months before the Apollo 11 astronauts
landed on the moon in July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
were in training at a remote desert region in the western US. This area is home
of several Native American communities. One day when the astronauts were out
training they came across an old Native American, who asked them what they were
doing there. They replied that they were part of a research project preparing
for a landing expedition on the moon.
The
old man fell silent for a moment; then he asked if the astronauts could do him
a favor.
“What
do you want?” they asked.
“Well,
the people of my tribe believe that holy spirits live on the moon,” said the
man. “I was wondering if you could pass an important message to them from my
people.”
“What
is the message?” asked the astronauts.
The
man uttered something in his tribal language, and then asked the astronauts to
repeat it again and again until they had memorized it correctly.
“What does it mean?” asked the
astronauts.
“Oh, I can’t tell you. It’s a secret
that only our tribe and the moon spirits are allowed to know.”
When they returned to their base, the
astronauts searched and searched until they found someone who could speak the
tribal language. When they repeated the message and asked him to translate it,
he started to laugh hysterically. When they calmed him down, they asked him
what the words meant. The man explained that the sentence they had memorized so
carefully meant:
Don’t believe a single word these people are
telling you. They have come to steal your land.(taken
from Harai, 2014, p. 318)
Midway
into his book, Sapiens, a brief history of
humankind (2014), Yuval Noah Harari
produces a schematic description entitled, “Humanist Religions –Religions that
Worship Humanity.”
All
humanists worship humanity, but they do not agree on its definition. Humanism
has split into three rival sects that fight over the exact definition of
‘humanity’, just as rival Christian sects fought over the exact definition of
God. Today, the most important humanist sect is liberal humanism, which believes that ‘humanity’ is a quality of individual humans,
and that the liberty of individuals is therefore sacrosanct. According
to liberals, the sacred nature of humanity resides within each and every
individual homo sapiens. The inner core
of individual humans gives meaning to the world, and is the source for all
ethical and political authority.(pp.
256-257)
The
author proceeds to differentiate between three historic forms of Humanism --liberal, socialist, and
evolutionary or fascist humanism :
For
Liberal humanism, “Humanity is individualistic and resides within each
individual Homo sapiens. [and] . . . The
supreme commandment is to protect the inner core and freedom of each individual
Homo sapiens.”
For
Socialist Humanism, “Humanity is collective and resides within the
species Homo sapiens as a whole. [and] . . . The
supreme commandment is to protect equality within the species Homo sapiens.
For
Evolutionary Humanism, “Humanity is a mutable species. Humans might
degenerate into subhumans or evolve into superhumans.
[and] . . . The
supreme commandment is to protect humankind from degenerating into subhumans, and to encourage its evolution into superhumans.
Thus,
Harari points out that “the Nazis did not loath
humanity. They fought liberal humanism, human rights and Communism precisely
because they admired humanity and believed in the great potential of the human
species.”(pp.260-261)
The
12 items below present a contemporary picture of social
relationships that have evolved in the recent years of “Disaster Capitalism”
gone global, and of our attempts to find real signs of light at the end of the
tunnel.
Sincerely,
Francis Feeley
Professor of American Studies
University of Grenoble-3
Director of Research
University of Paris-Nanterre
Center for the Advanced Study of American Institutions and
Social Movements
The University of California-San Diego
a.
Poll: Most
Americans Believe the Economy is Rigged Against Them
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=16651
Economist Gerald Epstein says U.S. workers are beginning to realize that their
hardship is due to underlying workings of corporations, the banks, and
neoliberal economic policies that are against their interest
===========
b.
Why Are We Sliding Toward Hell…?
Most
working people have never encountered a capitalist. Not once. But, they
routinely encounter doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, and others who have
highly empowering jobs.
===========
c.
From:
Briault Vicki
Sent: Wednesday, June
29, 2016
Subject: Brexit,
l’oligarchie panique en découvrant que le peuple existe !
Mutinerie à bord
|
Les Britanniques ont voté et ont décidé
de quitter l’Union Européenne. C’est la panique à la City. Toutes les bourses
sont en train de dévisser les unes après les autres. Preuve que cette Union
Européenne est l’intérêt du capital. La leçon du Brexit
c’est que le rapport de force national face aux institutions européennes est
possible et nécessaire. "L'heure du Plan B sonne en 2017 !" Les Britanniques ont voté et ont décidé
de quitter l’Union Européenne. C’est la panique à la City qui chute,
après avoir enregistré une hausse record hier soir quand les pronostics
prédisaient la victoire du maintien dans l’Union Européenne. Toutes les
bourses sont en train de dévisser les unes après les autres. Le CAC40
s’effondre et même si l’ouverture à New York ne se fera que vers 15h, heure
française, le Dow Jones sera entraîné dans la même chute. Preuve que cette
Union Européenne est l’intérêt du capital. On assiste ce matin à la gueule de bois
des médias à la solde du système qui découvrent un acteur sans cesse méprisé
et piétiné dans la construction européenne : le peuple. Ils sont tellement
scotchés dans leur bien-pensance qu’ils n’ont rien
vu venir. Bien sûr, les médias n’ont donné à voir
qu’une campagne réduite à l’opposition entre deux camps, l’un acquis ou
soumis à l’ordolibéralisme autoritaire de la droite
allemande, l’autre, dominé par l’ultralibéralisme xénophobe de la droite
anglaise. Les questions essentielles de démocratie, de justice sociale et
d’urgences écologiques n’ont eu aucune place dans ce débat. Avez-vous eu
accès aux positions des organisations syndicales très ancrées à gauche qui
soutenaient le Brexit ? Non. Etouffées, ignorées
des médias. C’est une grave erreur de réduire les
motivations des électrices et électeurs britanniques en faveur du Brexit aux ressorts ultralibéraux et xénophobes. Les
premières analyses du vote en faveur du Brexit
montrent une cartographie sociale claire et nette : les couches populaires du
salariat, celles et ceux qui subissent le plus les politiques libérales austéritaires, la précarité, le chômage et la misère.
Cependant, l’absence d’expression politique à gauche contre cette Europe
libérale porte une lourde responsabilité dans le boulevard laissé à l’extrême
droite. Et maintenant ? Le monde va t-il
s’effondrer ? Va t-il pleuvoir des grenouilles comme les euro-idôlatres de Bruxelles nous l’ont prédit ? Ne cédons pas
à la peur panique alimentée. Cette Union Européenne est en pleine crise de
dislocation. Ce n’est pas un drame en soi, ou, dit autrement, le drame n’est
pas ce dernier épisode. Si l’on montre qu’une autre voie est possible, cette
crise peut être salutaire. Mais la course de vitesse s’accélère plus encore.
Si le maintien dans l’Union Européenne était passé, la crise serait tout
autant conséquente. L’Allemagne et l’Eurogroup
n’avaient pas hésité à céder en amont aux demandes néolibérales et
réactionnaires de Cameron pour éviter le Brexit,
quand les mêmes menaçaient du Grexit pour imposer
les mémorandums austéritaires au peuple grec.
Aucune révision des traités n‘était envisageable pour répondre à l’urgence
humanitaire et aux exigences sociales légitimes du peuple grec. Pour la City,
tout fut possible. Les tenants de l’Europe austéritaire ne peuvent plus faire gober aux peuples que
nous aurions “une Europe qui protège”. Dorénavant ,
chaque pays sait qu’il pourra faire du chantage à la sortie pour obtenir ce
qu’il voudra. Rétrospectivement, cela démontre toute l’incurie de Hollande,
autant soumis qu’acquis à l’Europe allemande, lui qui a trahi sa promesse de
renégocier le traité Merkozy. Cela montre également
rétrospectivement que la capitulation de Tsipras
fut une terrible erreur stratégique. Le référendum français et sa victoire
pour le Non au Traité constitutionnel Européen de 2005 (ainsi que le
référendum aux Pays bas), comme le référendum grec “Oxi”
aux mémorandums n’ont pas été respectés. Cameron, lui, concédons lui cela,
entend respecter le vote. Il a d’ores et déjà annoncé sa démission pour
octobre prochain. Mais que voulons-nous ? Continuer à
laisser la troïka piller les peuples un par un à coup d’austérité forcée,
imposer la privatisation de l’ensemble des secteurs, déréglementer les
marchés du travail par leurs lois El Khomri, via
ses coups d’état financiers répétés comme en Grèce ? La laisser encourager
l’agriculture intensive qui pollue, tue nos paysans et nous condamne à la
malbouffe ? La laisser servir et de défendre les intérêts de tous les lobbys
pro énergies carbonnées et nucléaires,
chimiques, pro diésel, etc. ce qui accélère le réchauffement climatique dans
la logique effrénée du productivisme ? Et se morfondre devant la montée du
fascisme se nourrissant d’une politique calamiteuse sur les réfugiés, qui
délègue à la Turquie le contrôle des frontières, remet en cause le droit
d’asile et aggrave les causes des exils par ses politiques va t-en guerre et
de libre échange ? La soumission à cette Europe sans les peuples et contre
les peuples doit cesser, sous peine de laisser la main à Madame Le Pen et ses
amis Hongrois and co. La leçon du Brexit,
c’est que le rapport de force national face aux institutions européennes est
possible et nécessaire. C’est notre Plan A. En grand secret, Merkel prépare un nouveau traité visant à renforcer
l’intégration européenne qui ne tiendra aucunement compte des cris de colère
des peuples. Pour quand ? 2017… Donc, plus que jamais, nous devons poursuivre
notre implication dans le Sommet Internationaliste du Plan B, de
rupture unilatérale avec les traités, initié par le Parti de Gauche et Jean
Luc Mélenchon au lendemain de la crise grecque. Sur la méthode, c’est bien au
peuple souverain de trancher pour préserver sa souveraineté. L’enjeu de
l’élection présidentielle sera de faire sauter ce verrou : rompre avec les
traités libéraux européens, pour permettre d’engager d’autres coopérations
entre les peuples, non basées sur les intérêts de la finance, du libre
échange et la logique mortifère du Grand Marché Transatlantique, mais de la
préservation de notre écosystème, de la justice sociale et de la démocratie. =========== d. |
Brazilian
Artists Speak Out Against "Coup" Government
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=16655
In a nation-wide occupation movement, artists in Brazil fight the impeachment
of Dilma Rousseff and lead
a protest against newly instated right-wing government
===========
e.
Puerto
Rico 'Rescue' Bill to Reinforce Colonial Relationship with US
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=16659
The so-called PROMESA bill imposes an imperialistic, open-ended fiscal
control board that will determine the livelihood of Puerto Ricans for the
foreseeable future, says activist Julio Lopez
===========
f.
International
House Negroes Defend European Union
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45008.htm
by
Glen Ford
The international House Negro is a bi-product of 500 years of European plunder
and conquest of the planet. When the European Union was threatened by the exit
of Britain, “house Negroes of all colors on both sides of the Atlantic acted
like their own worlds were coming to end.”
===========
g.
Who Should Make Political Policy, the
People or the Politicians?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44951.htm
by William John Cox
Another
case study of the smoke and mirrors agenda-setting and consent-manufacturing
role of plutocracy.
===========
h.
How Western Military
Interventions Shaped the Brexit Vote
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=16612
Michael Hudson argues that military interventions in the Middle East created
refugee streams to Europe that were in turn used by the anti-immigrant right to
stir up xenophobia
===========
i.
From:
"Monty
Kroopkin" <mkroopkin@juno.com>
Sent: Sunday, 26 June, 2016 3:10:46 AM
Subject: Sawant in CounterPunch:
Still Not With Her
Friends
and Fellow Workers,
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/24/beyond-bernie-still-not-with-her/
This brand new article
in CounterPunch by the socialist Seattle city
councilmember, Kshama Sawant,
does a solid job I think of making the case for a new party.
I think her comparison
of the 1968 Nixon risk to the 2016 Trump risk is trenchant.
Seeing Sanders tell
the press he will vote for Clinton strongly implies he will not support further
efforts to sway super-delegates to vote for him on the first ballot at the DP
convention. This is a stab in the back to all the (millions of) anti-corporate
voters who have supported him. Nothing he can say now about continuing the
political revolution will have much credibility. He is now supporting
"evil".
The basic Social
Democrat stance (in European terms) of the party of Franklin Roosevelt lived
through the Johnson administration. What it became after that, especially
with Clinton, is the main home of Wall Street and a section of big business,
with some window dressing and weak token measures to con progressive
constituencies into voting for it. I would never say internal reform is
"impossible" because the history of the progressive radicalism
(slavery abolitionism) of the early Republican Party has certainly
"reformed" to now being the party of the new Jim Crow. And the
Democratic Party has zigged and zagged
even more in its time.
But then there's
the glorious Whig Party. RIP. An inspiration.
High on the list of
concerns about the entrenchment of Wall Street and Big Business control in the
DP is the fact that the DP has held hands with the RP in promoting the most
harmful policy changes over the past recent decades: from Patriot Act type
stuff to deregulation of banks and corporations to bailing out big banks and
letting millions loose their homes and pensions to
militarizing police and sheriff's to mass incarceration to illegal drone strike
murders to not prosecuting war crimes and on and on. WHICH
leads to a conclusion that the DP is unfortunately MORE of an impediment to
political revolution than the RP because it fools people into wasting energy
within itself and deflects that energy into dead ends instead of building
the energy to win progressive majorities. Progressives understand the RP
is an enemy. Not enough progressives understand the DP is enabling much of the
RP agenda. The Trump movement and its counterparts in Europe, etc., are
impossible to imagine without the DP ( and DP
counterparts in Europe) holding hands with the RP to force austerity policies
on us. I don't think we can fight Trump by supporting Clinton. I also believe
he can beat her, despite recent bad polling for him.
If I am right, then
the conversation needs to include what to build now not only for the general
election, but to reverse the long term drift to the right of national and
transnational policy. The Sanders campaign has shined a bright search light on
the viability of a mass national political campaign funded independently of the
corporate graft. The next step, on the electoral politics front, is
to completely cut off the corporate influence from a new political party.
NOW would be a very
good time for Left parties and organizations to negotiate support for a
socialist unity candidate. Jill Stein has the most chance of drawing votes. The Green Party
is the best place for established parties and organizations to focus on the
work of creating a mass left coalition party. No small party or organization
should surrender its own positions while entering into the GP and working
simultaneously for a rapid growth of a new mass party and for support for its
own positions in that new party. We should not sleep through this critical
historic moment and allow the millions of Sanders voters to tune off and drop
out.
I still think even
more important than a new party is to build an independent revolutionary union
movement. I still say working in the IWW is the most logical place to do that. http://www.iww.org/ Regardless
of any other current union membership or lack of any union membership, all
revolutionary working people should build the IWW.
Yours for the 'Whole
Damn Pie Shop' (not just bigger pieces of pie),
Monty Reed Kroopkin
member, IWW
past State Corresponding
Secretary, Peace and Freedom Party of California (1992-94)
===========
j.
Kshama Sawant: Attempting to Work Within
The Democratic Party Only Stymies Outside Strategy
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=16600
At The People's Summit in Chicago, Kshama Sawant tells Paul Jay that to create real political change,
movements must abandon the Democratic Party
===========
k.
Judge: Nobody Died in Orlando Shooting
Until SWAT Teams Entered The Building
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45012.htm
by Tim Brown
===========
l.
Turkey-Israel Deal Leaves Gaza Siege
Intact
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/turkey-israel-deal-leaves-gaza-siege-intact
by Ali Abunimah