Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Bobfest 2015: Two Missed Opportunities of Solidarity

Hello, Genossinnen und Genossen.

The weekend of the 19th, I (along with Genossin Jessie and Genosse Sam) attended Fighting Bobfest 2015- I've written extensively about the sorts of presentations there and how awesome the speeches are, even when we know we're in trouble.

Well, in some ways, this year was a really strong showing- Once and Future Senator Russ Feingold headlined, and made an excellent argument for his signature issue: ending the Citizens United regime of legalized bribery which is poisoning the frail remains of American Democracy.  Even knowing how high the money is piled against our efforts, it's obvious that Russ loves talking about it, and everything else- he really is fun to watch, and I look forward to seeing more of him.

It was also great to see Secretary of State Doug La Follette and Professor Nancy Unger again-

Professor Unger gave a great presentation on Belle La Follette and her Peace and Equal Rights work, still carried on by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, which she helped to found.  I highly encourage you to check both Unger and the WILPF out.  I'll post a more detailed analysis once I read Unger's new book.

Doug pointed out how alienated the working class tea partiers and evangelicals are from benefiting by the supply side cult they support, a classic example of what he has technically termed "bamboozlement", which has operated in this country for centuries.  It's been expressed in a variety of artful phrasings- Walker's own "Divide and Conquer", the villain's mantra from Gangs of New York- "You can always hire half of the poor to kill the other half" and deployed in so many situations, none more visibly than in race relations and social policy.

While depressing, this should encourage us in that the evil system of capitalism seems to require a divided society- achieved with  those tools of the ruling class: religion, racism and revision of the facts- to sustain itself.  

Of course, other systems of oppression have been tried and have been able to work with less reliance on any particular of these tools: for example, fascism, by reducing reliance on religion and pursuing economic policies less transparent in their hostility to workers, compensated for by increased central control and heightened racism, is rather different in its functioning but no less horrific, and this is precisely the menace of the Trump campaign.  But I digress.  (If you want me to explain why Trump is a fascist, let me know in the comments- for now I'd rather not discuss him further unless you want to see it).

This brings me to a sad point I want to document- this is the fourth consecutive year I've attended Fighting Bob Fest, and it keeps getting whiter and less diverse both in speakers and audience.  It's gone from having Wisconsin's two leading Black Progressive Politicians as featured speakers in 2012 to having one of them in 2013 to having a single speaker dedicated to the BLM movement in 2014 to... a bone white morning lineup with police brutality issues mentioned in passing by some speakers but mostly relegated to breakout sessions.  This is a gross failure of representation and solidarity.  Our comrades at the Progressive Magazine/FBF need to make sure Bobfest 2016 takes steps to reach out to all communities, both for the audience and for the lineup.  Moving the festival back to a major city (Madison) was a good but clearly insufficient step- if we are serious about rebuilding a leftist movement we need to work on all leftist concerns, and nothing is more leftist than equal dignity and safety under the law.  Why was there no special attention paid (at least in the first half of the day- I didn't stay for everything I admit) to the 6 Black men killed by the police every week?  This seems to be a growing blindspot for our comrades at FBF- we need to address that quickly.

Finally, South Korea's sex workers, endangered and cut off from social services by a decade of criminalization, are marching for legal recognition, allowing them to win better working conditions, increased safety and independence, and the full benefits of the law to protect them, not persecute them.  This is a tremendously important step- whether or not the practice is legal, prosecuting the prostitutes themselves can have no effect but to hurt the most vulnerable person involved and enable greater violence by johns and pimps.  Yet, according to Aljazeera, no other unions in the RoK have joined their march or even expressed support.

These two problems are clear examples of failures of our leftist movement: we cannot ignore the struggles of those who are different from us, or else we will continue to be divided and conquered.  All Workers and Allies must welcome all Workers into an inclusive United Front to have any chance of beating the Right and establishing a just society.

Genossin Elise

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Special post- anti choice extremists exposed

Firstly, sorry that last week's post has been so uninteresting apparently.  I did want to drop you a quick line about journalism agency Fusion, which has discovered the origin of the faked elements of the Planned Parenthood Attack videos- i.e. the picture of the terminal prematurely born infant which supporters or Women's Health were ostensibly about to dissect and sacrifice or something- this actually - as we've said- had nothing to do with Planned Parenthood- the child was prematurely born to a far right Christian photographer by the name of Letzi Fretz.

The tragic story of her miscarriage was posted to her blog, and reposted to this fundamentalist propaganda site

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/our-son-lived-only-minutes-after-birth-but-has-touched-thousands

https://f2photographybylexi.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/walter-joshua-fretz/

and on her personal facebook she mentions this








Lexi Oliver Fretz                                          

So we see, the antichoicers actually cannibalized the loss of one of their own, all to try to keep women from accessing the healthcare that would helps prevent more tragedies like Mrs. Fretz's every day.

I'm not sure there are words for how disgusting that is.  Stand with Planned Parenthood!
https://secure.ppaction.org/site/Donation2?df_id=12913&12913.donation=form1&s_src=Evergreen_c3_PPNonDirected_banner&_ga=1.117100481.630934458.1435273599

Today is also national Pink-Out for women's Health day, so wear pink tonight!

Than call (202) 224-3121 to tell your representatives how important women's health and freedom is to us.


Wednesday, September 23, 2015

David Cameron is Coming for Your Facebook

Hello, Genossinnen und Genossen!  Now back to regular business.

Back to business, sadly, is going to become a lot more common in coming weeks if our British Comrades don't manage to stop the UK government's new Trade Union bill, which (in certain draft versions) will among other things ban union members from using social media for the month surrounding and the duration of any strike action while massive regulating the conditions under which a strike is legal.

This legislation will also require the appointment of dedicated picket leaders who will need to provide all their information to the police weeks in advance, allowing for ease of disruption.  When passed, this will greatly restrict the flexibility of workers to react to aggression by their employers.

Curtailed here in 1947, the right to strike is the one way people can prove the truth of Marxism: that it is the expenditure of labor that creates value.  We are told of course, that it is the wise men of business who create wealth, and that we are parasites.  They enforce this fiction by forbidding the human right to strike and organize, with strikebreakers, conservative police departments, and now with online censorship making any union member who discusses labor issues online within 2 weeks of an action a criminal.

Let that sink in- discussing your union on facebook will be illegal (if you're British, but honestly Walker Inc. and co. won't wait long to copy this tactic in the states will they?)

Meanwhile, the Missouri legislature just overrode Gov. Nixon's veto of a bill allowing companies to commission their own policemen with full jurisdiction over the entire state, and not even the limited codes of conduct required of real police departments.  Can you guess how these new Pinkertons are going to be used?

There is a bit of good news from my own side of the pond- Capitol building workers and other federal contractors are striking for 15$/hr and adequate guarantees of union rights as we speak.  Stand with the Strikers!  (More information at http://goodjobsnation.org/ )  Genosse Bernie Sanders is marching with them, at least as of when I write this on Tuesday afternoon.

It's the workers that create our economy, the workers who produce our wealth, and the workers who keep our very capital functioning- with rather more consistency and efficacy than the Republicans do, I might add.

It's especially indecent that those serving our elected officials are paid starvation wages and are often homeless.  About time somebody fought back.  If you're in DC, please go support them! 

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen

P.S.  I'm now on twitter!  Elise Krueger (@Waldmarschallin).  I promise not to make your feeds explode with too many messages, so please follow me and let's keep talking!

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Special post- a death averted

Hallo Genossinnen und Genossen

Not sure who else was watching yesterday but a condemned man was given a two week reprieve to review certain  particulars of the case.  Convicted only on word of mouth, and due to be killed with an extremely painful, unreliable poison, Glossip is the current face of death penalty resistance.

Of course, it helps his case that he's white- Troy Davis obviously didn't have this advantage, and while Clayton Lockett did provoke major outrage it was only posthumously.

I thought I should take the moment to weigh in on the death penalty.

Of course, whenever anyone raises questions about the morality or desirability of killing prisoners, they are asked to personalize it- "wouldn't you want someone who killed your wife to die?"  Asking whether we would want revenge in the case of a family member being taken from us is wrong, distracting and misleading- it's also highly insulting, because it suggests that opponents of execution are hypocrites.  The answer there is the assumption of personal vengeance.  Is the justice system to be about revenging ourselves on those who wrong us, or about maintaining the safety of society?  If it is meant to be about maintaining the safety of society and its constituents, then arguments based on revenge or desire to hurt someone are automatically insufficient.  Every example we see shows us that systems based on revenge are less sustainable and less efficient than those based on safety and rehabilitation, or even restoration.

Asking "don't you want revenge?" isn't the only question we should ask, even if we accept the bloodthirsty view that the system exists to hurt people who hurt others.  We also need to ask the uestion "Do you trust the government not to make a mistake in something so irrevocable, and if so, why?"  Our justice system has ordered and carried out the deaths of some 1500 people by execution since the reinstatement of executions.  Scores of condemned prisoners have been exonerated in that time, proof that our justice system is far from infallible.  Estimates based on systemic biases suggest that as many as 1 in 4 death row prisoners may be innocent. 

So we also need to ask- why is a given person to be killed?  Is it because they are guilty of a heinous crime, or is it because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, because they are too poor to afford quality legal representation, or even just because they are Black or Latino?  African-Americans are represented at more than double a proportionate rate among condemned prisoners despite the lack of corresponding disproportionality in crime statistics.  Meanwhile, court after court has held that it's totally ok to execute someone even if the prosecution deliberately concealed DNA evidence, or the defense literally slept through the courtroom portion of the trial. 

Our system is riddled with errors which tip the scales of the death penalty away from a blind tool of enforcement to a racist tool of oppression against the poor and oppressed.  It's also wildly expensive compared to life in prison.

And yes, after all of that, there is also at least one limit this Socialist wants to put on the government: we must not allow anyone to be needlessly killed in our names.  Having someone in prison is guarantee enough of safety without spending untold quantities of money and prestige in a barbaric ritual like execution.  We could fix all of the problems I mentioned before, and I would still oppose execution.  The scariest problems are the ones we can't ever fix- in that regard, killing someone is much like permitting climate change to continue unabated. 

We have to stop it.

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen.

Elise

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Guest Post- Genossin Sophie: You and I, we are Slaves.

A long time ago, a German named Johann von Geothe said this: "no man is more deeply enslaved than the one who falsely thinks he is free".  We can all recognize why this statement is true: but are we not all those deeply enslaved men who falsely think they are free? We talk about modern slavery happening in Southeast Asia or Africa: but we forget that we ourselves are slaves.  How can a slave make another slave free? You can only free slaves when you yourself are free.  How are we slaves? money: or more precisely, usury to give it it's ancient name.  And how are we kept enslaved? think about it: our politicians are always going on about taxes, but taxes aren't the cause of home foreclosures and economic crises.

What is? a system of perpetual debt.  You see, most of the world's money cannot legally be traded for property.  This was determined beyond a shadow of a doubt in a Minnesota court case many years ago.  Why? the money is not and does not represent property of any type.  In a legal setting, property can only be traded for property.  As the Minnesota judge put it: only God can create something of value out of nothing.  Of course, as the PUDHYS have pointed out: money, or more precisely consumerism, is the new religion and the God of this religion is a master of false promises.  How did this happen you ask? very simple.  In the time of the Founding Fathers money was used to stand for property: which could increase in various ways.  People bought and sold property with this money, and also used it to give loans which were backed up by their property.  But in those days, modern banking would have been considered usury: and in most states usury was banned.  What happened was that people demanded more loans than could be given and so others filled the demand through trickery.  What is usury? just look at the word.  it means manipulation of or use of someone else or something which isn't yours.  What do modern banks do? they use wealth which doesn't belong to them to give out loans.  And then we're surprised when this leads to periodic crises?  Also, modern banks always charge interest on transactions.  But the question is: where does this interest come from? All the money in circulation is the principle of a loan which the federal reserve makes to the government.  That interest is created out of thin air by the banks.  Which means this: if they charge interest, and they created that interest out of thin air then how can you have the interest? you can't.

We talk about predatory loans, but that implies that there are non-predatory loans.  All loans are predatory: because there is no way you can ever pay them back without taking out another loan.  Which we do all the time, because loans come under many names (credit, wages, etc).   So, how much does a middle class person properly own? almost nothing.  They own only what they have traded for other property, what they inherited or what they produced for themselves.  How much do I own? I don't own the computer I'm writing this on, the clothes on my back or the objects surrounding me in my room: the only thing I own is a violin.  How did this happen? well, ask yourself this: how did the US suddenly expand property ownership in the 1950s? the answer is they didn't because you can't do that.  The people buying houses in the 1950s weren't trading property for property: they didn't have any property to begin with.  Except for the few people who paid with money obtained from selling family heirlooms or their mother's jewelry most of the "money" came from the Government who created it out of thin air to reward (white) soldiers returning from WWII.  They didn't give this illusory money to black soldiers in the same quantities and so we have the origin of the modern wealth gap.

This is an illusion which they have forced you to live with, the religion that they have forced you to believe in, and the ideal which they have forced you to give your labor and your blood for.  In what way is that not slavery? But before you pack your bags and flee the country remember that this is, and has always been a global system.  There is no place that you can go to escape it.  This is the necessity of revolution and struggle: this system cannot be escaped.  The system must instead be sabotaged from within. Struggle, and with enough patience, a lot of work and a little luck you will overcome.
Solidarity,
Comrade Sophie

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Very Special Post- VICTORY!

omigodomigodomigodomigodomigodomigodomigodomigodomigodomigod

JEREMY!  JEZ!  GENOSSE CORBYN!  JEREMY CORBYN, MP, OUR COMRADE IN THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE, LONGTIME PEACE ACTIVIST, AND HERO OF WESTMINSTER, NOW HAS ANOTHER TITLE.

COMRADES, FRIENDS, FAMILY, cats, beautiful sunlight and the sycamore trees outside my window, the voters of Great Britain's Labour Party have given us

JEREMY CORBYN, MP, LEADER OF HER MAJESTY'S OPPOSITION!


Wow- who else would thank each union individually in a mainline speech?  I love this guy, I love him.

Now we get to watch one of our own debate the monster Cameron every week over every inch of his evil and evel plans, speaking up for peace and justice in every instance, and being the top contender for Prime Minister in 2020.  A safer world, less ravaged by climate change, with better workers' rights, and guaranteed access to education, transportation, housing, healthcare, and clean energy.  But first we get to watch him participate in the justice for refugees rally later today.

Watching his victory speech is incredible.  Opposing gentrification and eviction of the poor, calling for fully socialized NHS, internally and externally, saying "we don't have to be this way"- outlining vision for a truly fair society with no homelessness or deprivation or desperation, a vision that hasn't been attempted since Clement Attlee.

On a grimmer but necessary note, Jez is also calling attention to the Union censorship bill, (barring unions from using social media during strikes or for a 2 week window on either side, and restricting the conditions of permitted strikes yet further, as well as the Tory's "evel" plan, and their other forms of evil to soak the poor.

"It's not right, it's not necessary, and it has to change!...  Our Demand for Humanity is intact! ... No one is left on the side, everyone has a decent place in our society!"

Our British comrades have just done the impossible in the face of skepticism, purging, and manipulation of the results, and mobilized half a million new fighters in the ranks of the Labour Party and its crusade for fairness, delivering a massive mandate for socialism from hundreds of thousands of voters who haven't had that choice for at least 18 years.  Be proud of them this day, and be proud of our Jeremy!

Rot Front and Solidarity!

Genossin Elise

http://grahamkrueger.blogspot.com/2015/08/special-post-jeremy-corbyn-british.html

for a fuller explanation of how big a fucking deal this is, just read that!


Thursday, September 10, 2015

to Quote Josh Lyman...

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, WE CAUGHT THEM!


BERNIE IS LEADING IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND FOR THE FIRST TIME IN IOWA!  KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND DONATIONS, GENOSSINNEN UND GENOSSEN!

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

VP Candidates: Thinking about Bernie's Future, or Holy Rosa Luxembourg! We're doing it!

Thinking about Bernie's Future, or Holy Rosa Luxembourg, We're doing it!

Hello, Genossinnen und Genossen!

As I write this (August 30th), I've just returned from a day's canvassing for Bernie Sanders in Burlington, Iowa! My timing couldn't have been better- I was part of the team on the day that the Des Moine Register found that Clinton's lead has shrunk by two thirds! She now leads Sanders by only 7 or 8 points, depending on whether Biden enters the race as well.

Let that sink in. Within single digits in Iowa, winning in New Hampshire. And the debates haven't even happened yet.

If Sanders wins both Iowa and New Hampshire, or even loses Iowa by less than expected, this primary cycle will go on for a long time. It will get harder of course: Sanders will need to build up organizations in many more states to sustain the current trajectory, which can be nigh impossible for a campaign eschewing big dollar fundraising...


-just click the link to mitigate that problem:)

and compete in larger states where campaign events matter even less relative to television spending than they do in comparatively small and intimate Iowa ad New Hampshire. That said, the flurry of media attention resulting in such a scenario would go a long way towards mitigating Bernie's comparative fundraising disadvantage. 


In short, it now looks conceivable that Senator Bernie Sanders could be the Democratic candidate for president in 2016, but only after an incredibly long, strenuous, season-long primary fight, probably being ultimately decided by late caucus results and with an element of uncertainty lasting until the convention itself. Something like this hasn't happened since 1972, when the George McGovern insurgency, with the help of their Feminist, Student and Gay comrades, ultimately prevailed and threw open the doors of the Democratic Party for the first time. This was a triumph not since equaled by the American left, and while McGovern didn't win, the coalition around him has strengthened, achieving many of his campaign's goals, and bringing the Democratic Party (however reluctantly) into the 21st century, at least on many issues of social policy.

Sanders could well do better, but that's not what I'm writing about today.

You see, one of the many, many lessons of 1972 is that picking a VP candidate takes lots of time, time that a small scale campaign boxing well above its weight class doesn't always have to spare. So I wanted to go through the qualities that would be helpful in a crassly political way to our movement for Democratic Socialism through a Sanders presidency, and then analyze the merits of ten possible choices, (and rule out four popular ones.)

At the time of the election, Sanders will be five years older than the oldest president ever elected, and while he is apparently in good health, age will be a consideration in a running mate. Much of this is going to be crass ticket balancing talk. And with a northeastern, white, elderly, male, religiously agnostic, culturally and ethnically Jewish representative of the far Left as a candidate, we have a lot of balancing to do.  Therefore, we could use

  1. An ideological Goldilocks. We need a candidate sufficiently removed from Sanders' ideas to show that we're still open to working in the mainstream of Democratic and democratic politics. At the same time, we need someone who will likely work to protect whatever Sanders accomplishes, ( http://grahamkrueger.blogspot.com/2015/07/why-president-sanders-could-actually-do.html ) and therefore shouldn't be too conservative either. A current Clinton supporter could do this nicely.
  2. Executive Experience- voters like people who have been in charge of something, anything no matter how small, much more than they like someone with legislative experience. While Bernie does have a commendable record as mayor of a midsize city, finding a governor would be excellent.
  3. Outreach: This is partially a function of time, but as Genossin Sophie has written ( http://grahamkrueger.blogspot.com/2015/08/black-lives-matter-and-bernie-sanders.html ), there is a perception of friction between the Sanders campaign and minority communities, and an even less justifiable perception of one between the campaign and women. Putting it bluntly, on every issue of representation- women being the oppressed majority of voters, and our Black and Latin@ comrades being at the forefront of the struggle in so many ways, as well as for crass political considerations, Sanders' running mate should probably not be a white male, though an astute observer will note that I have included a few possible choices from that demographic as well.
  4. Region: New England is not the most popular region of the country, sadly (for the same reasons that make it certainly MY favorite), so if Sanders can get someone from the “heartlands” it would help us in several ways.
  5. Youth. Can we please get a VP less then 65?
  6. Finally- an Obama Goldilocks- as well as an ideological Goldilocks- someone who has served the president by appointment and will be appreciated for it in mainstream Democratic circles, BUT not someone high profile enough that the Right-Wing have included her or him in most of their attacks on the president. (Think 1920: Governor Cox made this same calculation with regard to the Wilson administration, and picked then-Assistant Navy Secretary FDR as his VP candidate)

Before we begin, I sadly must eliminate some otherwise exceptional candidates for various reasons. Senator Elizabeth Warren: she hates campaigning, and doesn't add much regional value, and has practically no ideological distance from Sanders. Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellin is excellent, but far too valuable (and irrepaceable) in her current (unpopular) position. California up-and-comer and birth control activist Sandra Fluke is too young to be legally eligible still, Oregon Governor Kate Brown, while a capable legislator has failed every test of leadership on environmental issues, and former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm who would be maybe the ideal candidate... is actually Canadian. Well Goddamn it.

New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan is in class by herself, because she would be an ideal candidate in all ways except region, but is currently locked in a politically damaging budget fight.  If she pulls through that ok, I'll revisit my decision to exclude her form the list.

Let's start the rundown with our top-tier eligible candidates.  All pictures from wikimedia commons.  Thank you, internet sharers!

  1. Former Secretary of Labor (2009-2013) Hilda Solis. I've got to say, at this early juncture, my recommendation would be Hilda Solis. She has an excellent state legislative record on energy issues, especially cleaning up polluting systems in minority neighborhoods. She's been a lifelong campaigner for union organization and environmental justice- lifelong at the comparatively young age of 57. While a long-term Democrat she does have a history of independence on important issues- she defied the California Democratic Party to primary challenge an antichoice incumbent Democrat and won in 2000. As Secretary of Labor, she massively expanded the wages and hours enforcement division, oversaw the levying of record fines against BP for a disastrous piece of 2005 negligence. Solis was also able to suspend some guest worker restrictions that Bush enacted shortly before leaving office. Hell, I like Obama more for reading about this woman being in his cabinet! She was the most underrated part of his administration, but hasn't caught any major flak since 2009. She's also a longtime Clinton supporter, for what it's worth. I can't think of a better choice for the first Latina on a major party national ticket, or for Bernie's vice president.
    Hilda Solis official DOL portrait.jpg


  2. 2.  Former Governor of Massachusetts (2007-2015) Deval Patrick.
    Following a major increase and redistribution of school funding, Governor Patrick presided over the biggest improvement in student performance in the country. He also brought Massachusetts into the New England Greenhouse Initiative, increased infrastructure resources, preventing the institution of a regressive, unfair toll system, and has always done whatever it takes to protect Planned Parenthood from anti-choice terrorists. Has a rock-solid gun control record too. Governor Patrick would strengthen any administration, and any campaign- highly intelligent, truly progressive, two term governor of a major state... He also happens to be African-American, though we get no regional bonus here- Vermont and Massachusetts being close as they are.
    2007 DevalPatrick 445495309.jpg


  3. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray- a popular Obama appointee from swing state Ohio, Cordray leads the bureau set up under Elizabeth Warren to investigate market manipulation and swindling by financiers. Again, very little policy difference, and a nominated Sanders frankly shouldn't give the only office sure to be in his gift: the Vice Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party- to a white man in 21st century America. Cordray is a brilliant administrator though, and if Solis and Patrick are both out of the picture, we could do a lot worse.
    File:Richard Cordray.jpg

  1. Attorney General Loretta Lynch: though she, like Obama and her predecessor, Eric Holder, has been known to cozy up the the big banks and get them off the hook, but has been an effective spokeswoman on issues important to the Black Lives Matter movement, and gotten major international star power for her role in the investigation into football/soccer corruption. She'd bring a lot of star power with no real drawback except that she is pretty much a Republican on many economic issues. Put it this way- I'd love to see her working WITH Bernie, not INSTEAD of him. She's be a great leader on so many issues, but I wouldn't trust her with Bernie's economic plans. 

    Loretta Lynch official photo.jpg

Past the top tier now, these others will be less ideal choices but still worth considering as the previous ones are eliminated from consideration by one mishap or rejection or another.
  1. Non-Profit Director Michelle Nunn- a moderate Democrat from Georgia whose highest political office has been a losing run at a senate seat might not top many people's lists, but Nunn has years of experience and contacts heading Bush 41's charitable foundation, and is well respected by many political actors. She also ran a really, really fine effort in a very bad year, and came up closer than she could have. Having a native daughter on the ticket could help put certain areas of the south that are crying out for economic justice into play.
    File:Michelle Nunn 2012.jpg 

  2. Admiral Mike McMullen- a true ticket balancing choice despite being another white male- this former Joint Chiefs Chairman does tend to be pro war, however he did testify honestly about the impossibility of successfully maintaining our occupation of Iraq in 2007, and has been a strong advocate of LGBT personnel in the military. But he's almost as old as Bernie.  (No wikimedia picture available)

    Ok, here come the really bizarre choices who could nonetheless be helpful in some areas and terrific in office- I'm sure there are more possibilities here- if you know of some awesome congressman or former governor I've forgotten, comment! Actually, comment anyway.


  3. Milwaukee Congresswoman Gwen Moore: great advocate on Civil Rights and childcare issues, she's at least as good a campaigner as Bernie himself. Also has the distinction of being the last person to defeat Scott Walker in anything. She's not terribly well known, and congressmen seldom make effective running mates. 
    File:Gwen Moore 113th Congress.jpg

  4. Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Bradley: maybe my former local colors are showing, but Wisconsin is a midsize state that has turned sharply over the cliff of Right Wing Extremism, and most any Democrat will need to pull it back somehow in a close election. Why not look at the last progressive to win a statewide election in Wisconsin then? Picking a judge is an extremely unusual choice- it was last seriously discussed in 1944 I think- but I can see certain advantages to it: for one, it reinforces the concept of rule of law, which can be handy to have around when you're talking about a revolution. For two, this particular judge has a great history on union rights, and three: she has no power in her current position anymore. The Republican response to losing to Bradley was to relocate the meeting place of the Supreme Court and refuse to tell her when or where, preventing her from voting on most cases. I'm not kidding. This is actually moderate compared to the abuse she usually suffers- her fellow Justice, Bart Prosser actually vaulted the table and strangled her to try to persuade her to vote in favor of Walker's union busting Act 10. She didn't back down, which is more than can be said for many Wisconsin Democrats who weren't so physically threatened. 

     biography-photo
















  5. Gavin Newsom- progressive Lt. Governor of California, former San Francisco Mayor, as far as I know everybody likes him though he doesn't command a very well-respected office yet. Since Kamala Harris is precluding him from running for senate, he might be amenable. He should be considered as an up-and-coming rockstar in his own right, not for the office he holds though.  If this were in the offing, Jerry Brown should probably step down to give him a year or so as governor
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Gavin-newsom.jpg



  6. Nina Turner- badass Ohio state senator, who bravely led the fight against round after round of voter suppression last year in her campaign for Secretary of State. I can't really imagine a state senator making it onto a national ticket, but she's looking to be Ohio's next Sherrod Brown if not next Dennis Kucinich, and we should pay attention to her at least.

    (No wikimedia picture available) 


    Ok, Genossen und Genossinnen- that was wildly premature, but I hope you like what you see.  Most of these leaders are worth watching and supporting in their own right, so look into them and think who you'd most like to see with Bernie.

    Solidarität
    Genossin Elise


Monday, September 7, 2015

Special Post- American Labor Day, Lessig's attack, Labour Debate

Happy American Distraction Labor Day, Genossinnen und Genossen!  (The real Labor Day is celebrated on May 1st, to commemorate strikers' resistance against police violence at a demonstration in Chicago, some 140 years ago.  It was Grover Cleveland's administration that instituted today as our "labor day" to stop both celebration of a workers' revolt and to stop the growth of solidarity with the rest of the world through a shared holiday).

I just wanted to shoot you all a few updates- for one, Genosse Jeremy "Jez" Corbyn, MP is continuing to dominate in the polls and the debates for leadership of the British Labour Party.  At this point I'll go so far as to say that hope is on the way!  Watched the last debate from Sky News last night, and Jez was terrific- he laid out calm, witty philosophical arguments for withdrawal from participation in American wars and for renationalization of key infrastructure.  He remained cool and mild mannered throughout the evening until the end when Yvette Cooper decided to tear up over the "false hope" provided by his plan of infrastructure and housing investments and his rapacious cruelty to the people to try to increase the quantity of affordable housing which baffles all economists- except, you see, for the forty-one who have endorsed Corbyn's plans, including several Nobel Laureate economists, and he came out swinging at that time, forcefully but respectfully citing examples from Germany to Japan where his moderate socialist ideals have succeeded in recent years under similar conditions, and the room went wild.  Fully 85% of viewers thought he won the debate!

There is some bad news- Lawrence Lessig, quixotic pirate activist and professor, disappointed that Elizabeth Warren has not run for president, has declared his own candidacy to act as a spoiler for Bernie, even promising to resign his term of office early, with no coherent plan of how to implement any agenda, let alone a campaign fiannce reform plan good enough to justify opposing Genosse Bernie.  Lessig has betrayed us all, and many of the causes he's claimed to hold dear over the years by this attack on the single best chance for a political revolution our country has seen in forty-three years.  I have little hesitation in calling his candidacy a tragic mistake at best, and call on his supporters to unite under the banner of the man who has broken through our systems barriers again and again to speak the message of the people's interests, Senator Bernie Sanders. 

Both history and the present- with Genosse Corbyn's campaign- show us the unvarnished truth: With a strong, united, popular front of all leftists our tasks become much easier- it will take a collaboration between everyone who rejects the status quo of manipulation and domination by the capitalist elite in favor of the people's democracy.  Again and again, the failure to unite has proven deadly to movements for social justice: the refusal of the SPD to work with the KPD in the 30s and with die Linke now paved the way for fascist domination and mass murder in the 1930s and 40s, and for Germany's vindictive assault on the Greek people today.

We must all awaken as comrades and struggle together in a united effort to have any hope of beating the corporations.  Lessig's declaration makes our job that much harder, but we will not be turned from our mission, nor our human rights.


Finally, here's today's message from Genosse Bernie Sanders!

" The middle class is at a tipping point, and it won't last another generation if we don't boldly change course now.
The surest path to the middle class for American workers is with unions. The security and strength of a union job means that workers can have good pay, health care, and a voice at work.
Today our country celebrates Labor Day in honor of the working people who fought for our rights to regular hours, fair pay, and a decent living. For decades, the labor movement propped up the middle class in America by ensuring a level playing field for workers.
There are many reasons for the growing inequality in our economy, but perhaps the most significant reason for the disappearing middle class is that the rights of workers to join together and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions have been severely undermined.
That is why this fall I will introduce a bill in Congress whose sole purpose is to restore and encourage workers' rights to bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. It's called the Workplace Democracy Act, and if it is made law, it will help rebuild the middle class.
Workers need unions because there are people working for minimum wage, barely able to afford to put food on the table — if even that. There are people whose jobs are dangerous, or even life-threatening, who can't speak up for workplace safety for fear of being fired. And there are countless people working without sick days or even health insurance.
Unions change that equation. When workers have unions, they are no longer afraid to speak up. They have a clear path to getting health care, sick days, basic safety precautions, and better pay. They don't have to live in fear of their employers, and they can work to provide for their families.
That is unfortunately far from the reality that exists today. Under the current law, it is incredibly easy for corporations to prevent workers from joining unions. One in five workers who try to form a union today will be fired for doing so. And half of all employers threaten to close or relocate their businesses if workers elect to form a union.
But there's effectively no deterrence for when companies do break the law. The penalties are far too weak, and there is no incentive to stop corporations from dragging their feet when workers want to negotiate contracts.
The Workplace Democracy Act changes that equation. Our bill would:
  1. Ensure companies can’t prevent workers from getting a first contract.
  2. Make it easier for workers to form unions through a majority sign up process.
  3. Strengthen the enforcement when corporations break the law.
This is a commonsense idea that will help our economy and rebuild the middle class. Can you say you support it?
Thank you for your support.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders"

Senator Sanders has expanded his New Hampshire lead over the corporate hacks to 11 points, by the last reputable polls anyway. We need more though, we need to hit the corporate candidates hard and repeatedly to have any hope of success- please come to the Adams School cafeteria at 1311 Tower Grove Ave, St. Louis, MO 63110, Thursday September 10th at 6:00pm to learn what you can do to help our movement win Iowa!

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen.

Elise

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Socialism- Now More than Ever, We Need It

Hello, Genossinnen und Genossen.

It occurred to me that I've not offered a good summary of the broader cause which motivates me: Socialism.  I'd like to seize on this opportunity to so do in light of recent events. 

Our scene is set in a climate of hostility towards workers

These are far ranging- starting with pensions- delayed compensation for work performed, timed to come when workers need it most- old age in order to permit retirement with dignity.  A New Jersey court has ruled that pension contracts are no longer binding in case of bankruptcy- so an owner or board can sell off their company's assets to another firm- even one they own, holding the means of production hostage, bankrupting their original firm, shed pension obligations to the workers who created all their wealth- and use the stockpiled pension investment to pay their own bonuses, before starting a new venture, even with the same equipment, and it is now perfectly legal in New Jersey!

Labor unions- the most important development in this country's history for narrowing the wealth gap both between classes and between sexes, are being attacked on all sides, starting with the right to organize and strike- the Air Force may no longer report for duty when called in to bomb union meetings like they did in the 1920s, but the consequences for attempting to unionize are often dire.  And we're now seeing broader erosion of union power across the western world- their right to charge dues has been abolished in 25 states or more, and Cameron is passing a new British law banning union members from using Social Media during an organizing effort or within two weeks of a strike action.

Back home here Democrats are busting unions too, starting with teachers' unions, and by keeping the health insurance system privatized when 70% of Americans wanted a public one, facilitating attacks on the people's health insurance- a company's religious delusions are now more important to the law than the health of its productive workforce!

Meanwhile government services- the core of any so-called "sewer socialism" beginning, are being reduced like disability insurance, abolished like the federal welfare system, or sold to the highest bidder like most municipal services like energy and waste collection.  Most quietly but still dramatically, two years ago the Obama administration privatized poultry inspection with a stroke of the pen.  Now much of the South and Midwest- especially my native Missouri- is in the grip of a bird flu epidemic, wiping out entire flocks, and costing taxpayers and consumers enormous sums of money both to pay higher prices for food and to bailout the largest, least responsible producers!

All of this is carried on in the belief in individual property rights, and the thought that workers are not responsible for all that they create.  In short, Capitalism requires a belief that the rich have a right to be rich in order to function.  Even on Daily Kos there was a question asking how Bernie Sanders can accomplish his goals without the support of the Capitalists once in office, a worthy question perhaps, but the reason behind it was that rich owners produce all the wealth of this country!  Rather than respond heatedly, I wanted to outline in detail exactly why that is philosophically, morally, and economically incorrect.


There is an alternative- both of organizing and conceiving of society: Socialism

This actually starts with a simple question:  how do we own stuff?  Marx actually reaches a similar conclusion to America's grandfather, John Locke.  In the state of nature- without society, everyone has an equal right to everything, which is to say, no property right.  How one acquires the right to use a resource is by expending labor to refine, prepare, transport, or otherwise process it.  This seems simple enough- Locke actually mentions the process of Ausbeuterung/Exploitation though not by name as he concedes that one with enough money can buy the product of another's labor and profit from it, but he doesn't address the inherent class structure created in this transaction.  That was left to Marx.

Marx points out that we can all expend labor given the correct structures and tools to do so: these are the means of production- the factories, tools, distribution networks and such needed to bring products into the market at an efficient rate.  One's ability to use one's own labor efficiently depends on one's relation to the means of production, which is constantly changing to preserve class divisions as technology advances.  This has several implications

1.  Since in Capitalist societies, the means of production are sold freely, there is a class of the dispossessed, who cannot use their own labor profitably without subordinating it to the owner- compare independent farmers with mega farms, or any other situation.
2.  Since ownership is linked to money, not actual ability, the owners will require laborers of some quality and quantity to operate their empires.
3.  Profit is the extraction of value from labor- that is, getting more out of something than one puts into it.  Goods and services have different utilities to different people, but that value is the property of those who produce it, not those who control the means of production!  We can't get the full value of our work as long as the business we serve are making profits, unless we own them ourselves.
4.  Since Capitalists all extract more from their workforce than the goods that they buy and sell are worth, they will not be able to turn a profit unless they pay their employees much less than their competitors, or find a new market to sell them in.  This explains why wages relative to productivity are half of what they were 40 years ago.

This brings us to Socialism: a system in which ownership of these means of production- these tools of society- is shared, whether in a system of co-ops or by a state that represents the interests of the productive class, and gives everyone meaningful, productive status within that class.

This would stop so many problems!  For one, we could produce what is needed, not what is profitable.  Further, by eliminating the financial interest of elites in favoring certain policies, we could achieve a much more sustainable society, whether it's a centrally planned one or a decentralized, cooperative one.  Without the wealthy classes need for profit, we could switch to clean energy without meeting any opposition, we would have no need for a massive military industrial complex, because decisions could be made without concern for profit!  Society must run on the interests of all, not on the interests of an ever-strengthening owner class.  That is what Socialism promises- a society where the means of production are shared.

The question of course remains whether the co-op or the centrally planned model is best.  I rather like the idea of democratically deciding what we divert resources to: in a society where every price is by default based on the labor cost of production, we will need to make some tradeoffs.  While the examples we have of planned economies are somewhat less than democratic, the model of centrally directed investment in things like the arts has proven extremely effective in countries like East Germany, with a high degree of artistic freedom retained in the bargain.  As for the cooperative model, the best example I know of was the post-revolution Spanish Republic, but it didn't really last long enough to establish anything approaching normality.  (Productivity did rise dramatically when ownership was shared, as people are better motivated when their labor's earnings aren't being siphoned off to enrich the coffers of the wealthy).

For a society that is politically and economically democratic, we need Socialism.  With ever-increasing concentrations of wealth out of reach of our democratic institutions, we need to break the control of elites over the key sectors of our economy, and make decisions together in the interest of the people, not the highest profit margin.

Now that we have two prominent socialist campaigns, one on either side of the Atlantic, these ideas are at least approaching the public's consciousness once more.

In Britain, the heroic campaign of Genosse Jeremy Corbyn for leader of the Labour Party (and Prime Ministerial nominee in 2020) has revived a conversation about the essence of Socialism: public ownership rather than private exploitation.  Promising to renationalize Britain's energy and transit sectors and diverting funds to restore free higher education, Corbyn is promising a democratic reordering of the British economy, and a recognition of common cause with the Workers of the World, including South America.  Backing off from imperialist wars abroad, and instituting economic justice at home has never looked so possible for Britain since the Attlee government.

Meanwhile, here in the United States, Genosse Bernie Sanders is running for the Democratic nomination for president.  Promising to strengthen unions and increase public sector involvement in infrastructure as a remedy to both Climate Change and unemployment, Sanders has done much to raise awareness of our rigged economic system, and may well win several primaries, keeping the discussion going for weeks longer than scheduled by the DLC elites.  His promise to break up the financial manipulators that produce crisis after crisis, only to demand more taxpayer dollars, is resonating with millions of voters, and the word "Socialism" is exciting Americans in droves for the first time in decades.

Maybe Marx is right: maybe Capitalism inevitably pushes too hard and makes itself unsustainable.  We could well be witnessing the beginning of the final struggle for liberation.

Down with Profit!  Long live Justice!

Genossin Elise