TBF
TBF's JournalThe Richest 211,000 People
Own 13% of the World’s Wealth
Translated Tuesday 25 November 2014, by Gene Zbikowski
A new study confirms that the ultra-rich are concentrating more and more wealth in their hands. Despite the crisis, their number is increasing, and their wealth even more.
The study, by WealthX and the UBS bank, is on the very wealthy who have amassed fortunes of over 30 million dollars. There are 211,000 of them, an increase of 6% over the previous year, and their aggregate wealth has increased by 7%. They thus own 13% of the world’s wealth.
They are spread increasingly evenly throughout the world, although the United States is still home to the biggest contingent of ultra-wealthy people, followed by Europe and Asia. The African continent remains in last place, with 3,005 ultra-rich people, but Africa is also where the increase has been sharpest, with an 8.3% increase ...
More here: http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/spip.php?article2591
In Defense of the Ferguson Riots
8.14.14 (Published when Mike Brown was killed & obviously still relevant)
Robert Stephens II is the online editor at OrchestratedPulse.com
Over the weekend, police in Ferguson, Missouri murdered Michael Brown, a black teenager. While details are still trickling in, it’s clear that during a confrontation with a squad car a block away from his grandmother’s house, an officer shot and killed the unarmed teen in the middle of the street. Witnesses say Brown was running away from the policeman and had his hands in the air just before the officer shot him.
Ferguson is a city with a large concentration of poor blacks under the control of overwhelmingly white institutions. The killing immediately struck a nerve. Rallies and protests erupted as people took to the streets — eventually culminating in a riot. Crowds went from holding candle light vigils at the site of Brown’s death to burning down a number of businesses and lighting molotov cocktails during confrontations with police. How did we get here?
Far from a mindless, violent mob, the people of Ferguson were engaged in concerted political consciousness-raising leading up to the insurrection. A video taken at the scene shows a number of political agitators talking with the crowd, converting momentary outrage into political unity. One speaker in particular, a young black male, offers a cogent political analysis that frames the injustice of police brutality as a byproduct of the community’s economic dislocation.
"We keep giving these crackers our money, staying in they complexes, and we can’t get no justice. No respect. They ready to put you out [if you] miss a bill … You got to be fed up."
Riots, like other forms of political action, can build solidarity. They can create strong feelings of common identity. The outrage in Ferguson quickly attracted marginalized people throughout the region. Rather than evidence of illegitimacy, the presence of these “outsiders” reflected the magnetic power of the political moment ...
More here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/08/in-defense-of-the-ferguson-riots/
Race, Class and Marxism
(Note: an older article which takes on the subject of whether Marx himself ignored race and only focused on class - long and interesting)Race, class and Marxism
January 4, 2011
FOR REVOLUTIONARY Marxists, there is an inextricable link between racism and capitalism. Capitalism is dependant on racism as both a source of profiteering, but more importantly as a means to divide and rule. Racism is necessary to drive a wedge between workers who otherwise have everything in common and every reason to ally and organize together, but who are perpetually driven apart to the benefit of the ruling class.
Thus, any serious discussion about Black liberation has to take up not only a critique of capitalism, but also a credible strategy for ending it. For Marxists, that strategy hinges on the revolutionary potential of a unified, multiracial and multi-ethnic working-class upheaval against capitalism.
Marxists believe that the potential for that kind of unity is dependant on battles and struggles against racism today. Without a commitment by revolutionary organizations in the here and now to the fight against racism, working-class unity will never be achieved and the revolutionary potential of the working class will never be realized.
Yet despite all the evidence of this commitment to fighting racism over many decades, Marxism has been maligned as, at best, "blind" to combating racism and, at worst, "incapable" of it. For example, in an article published last summer, popular commentator and self-described "anti-racist" Tim Wise summarized the critique of "left activists" that he later defines as Marxists ...
Much more here: http://socialistworker.org/2011/01/04/race-class-and-marxism
Marxism Day Schools
Marxism provides a revolutionary understanding and strategy for ridding society of exploitation and oppression once and for all. We want more than just resistance--we want to win. Please join the International Socialist Organization for our Regional Marxism Conferences--a day of discussion and debate on Marxist theory, history and politics. Our goal is to understand the world in order to change it!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Topics include: | Which Way Forward for Socialists Today | Reform or Revolution | Marxism, Imperialism and War | Marxism and Trade Union Struggle | Race, Class and Revolution | Marx's Method | Marxism and the National Question | The United Front: Revolutionary Strategy and Tactics | Why the Working Class is Still Central | Women's Liberation and Social Reproduction Theory | Leninism and the Revolutionary Party | The Legacy of Stalinism | Patterns of Working Class Revolution
Many locations nation-wide: http://socialistworker.org/marxism-day-schools-2014
Spills in Alberta in the past 4 mos -
*similar info cross posted in socialist progressives group*
As a socialist I am always concerned about labor, and jobs being created for people both in the US and ultimately worldwide. Ideally full-time jobs at a livable rate of pay. But this is probably the worst possible way to create 50 permanent jobs. At the very least let's invest in alternative, sustainable forms of energy.
Just in case you haven't been at Huffington Post to this week - this is important info:
Mon Nov 17, 2014 at 02:52 PM PST
There's Been HOW Many Pipeline Spills in Alberta in The Last Four Months??
by Gwennedd
Oct 3, 2014 – Canadian Natural Resources Limited – 11Km East of Delia – 10,000 litres of Crude oil
Oct 5, 2014 – Nexen Energy ULC – 2.5Km SouthWest of Kinosis – 5,800 litres of Toxic water
Oct 5, 2014 – Cenovus Energy Inc – 56Km East of Brooks – 9,800 litres of Toxic water
Oct 5, 2014 – Nexen Energy ULC – 41Km SouthEast of Ft. McMurray – 13,000 litres of Condensate
Oct 10, 2014 – Husky Oil – 30Km SouthEast of Vermilion – 50,000 litres of Crude oil and 25,000 litres of toxic water
Oct 13, 2014 – Arc Resources – 5Km North of Redwater – 150,000 litres of Toxic water
Oct 11, 2014 – TAQA North Ltd – 44Km SouthWest of Spirit River – 24,000 litres of Crude oil
Oct 14, 2014 – Whitecap Resources Inc – 37Km NorthWest of Sexsmith – 10,000 litres of Toxic water
Oct 15, 2014 – Penn West Petroleum Ltd -14Km SouthEast of Slave Lake – 52,000 litres Crude oil
Oct 14, 2014 – Zargon Oil & Gas Ltd – 26Km NorthWest of Vauxhall – 8,000 litres of Toxic water
Oct 17, 2014 – TAQA North Ltd – 32Km NorthWest of Rocky Mountain House – 18,000 litres of Toxic water
Oct 21, 2014 – Harvest Operations Corp – 20Km East of Galahad – 200,000 litres of Toxic water
Oct 26, 2014 – Apache Canada Ltd -9Km East of Zama City – 50,000 litres of Toxic water
Total = Over 625,000 Litres of toxic crap spilled in Alberta for just the month of October and not one Mainstream media reports about it.
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Source here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/17/1345431/-There-s-Been-HOW-Many-Pipeline-Spills-in-Alberta-in-The-Last-Four-Months
Keystone XL pipeline
The Basics from Friends of the Earth
The Canadian company TransCanada hopes to begin building the northern section of an oil pipeline that would trek close to 2,000 miles from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas. If constructed, the pipeline, known as Keystone XL, will carry one of the world’s dirtiest fuels: tar sands oil. Along its route from Alberta to Texas, this pipeline could devastate ecosystems, pollute water sources and jeopardize public health.
Giant oil corporations invested in Canada's tar sands are counting on the Keystone XL pipeline to make the expansion of oil extraction operations there profitable: The pipeline would double imports of dirty tar sands oil into the United States and transport it to refineries on the Gulf Coast and ports for international export.
Unfortunately, an area the size of Florida is already set for extraction. Before TransCanada can begin construction, however, the company needs a presidential permit from the Obama administration because the pipeline crosses an international border.
More here: http://www.foe.org/projects/climate-and-energy/tar-sands/keystone-xl-pipeline#sthash.Wf8EjGuO.dpuf
*Includes a good list of resources if you're interested in reading more about the environmental consequences of this pipeline
End the Student Debt Crisis Today
by Raúl Carrillo ~ Nov 12, 2014
Last month, Lower Saxony became the final state in Germany to abolish tuition for all students at public universities. Meanwhile, in the United States, student loan debt has passed the $1 trillion mark. The burden is now becoming increasingly heavy for middle-class and wealthy students, but especially for those from lower-income backgrounds. This injustice has spurred many organizations, like the Occupy Wall Street offshoot Strike Debt, to do what they can to pay off student debt on their own.
Borrowers could use the support of their government, but U.S. policymakers don’t seem to see student debt through the same moral lens as officials in many other countries do. Can you imagine Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, for example, arguing that “Tuition fees are socially unjust,” as German member of Parliament Dorothee Stapelfeldt told The Times of London? Or even, as she went on to say, that, “[fees] particularly discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up studies”?
Instead, higher education is peddled as the ticket to economic security by the federal government, commercial lenders, and universities—no matter the cost. Policies that would reduce the fear of unemployment, like the Job Guarantee programs supported by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and demanded by Martin Luther King Jr., might make it more feasible for young people to opt out of college. Yet policymakers in the United States seem unwilling to consider such options.
Thus, as sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom has argued, many young Americans, especially people of color, are desperate for higher education. Yet day by day, the student-debt status quo taxes borrowers while doing less and less to subsidize social mobility ...
More here: http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/how-the-government-could-end-the-student-debt-crisis-today
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The Comet Landing -
The comet landing: A new milestone in space exploration
15 November 2014
Millions of people around the world greeted with enthusiasm the news this week that the Philae lander had successfully touched down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a small and rocky celestial body half a billion kilometers from earth. A new milestone has been reached, with scientists for the first time able to conduct an on-the-spot analysis of a comet.
During its sixty hours of operation, Philae’s nine instruments gathered information about the comet that will assist in answering long-standing questions about the history of the solar system. In particular, scientists hope that the mission will provide insight into the theory that comets are an early source of water and organic compounds on Earth. Though the lander has gone into hibernation from a lack of power, the results it has sent back are already providing insight into the comet’s composition.
There is hope that the small “hop” Philae undertook Friday to change its orientation will let the probe collect enough power quickly to briefly come back online. More likely, it will silently gather power during the days and months ahead, eventually allowing it to continue its studies. The Rosetta orbiter that carried Philae to its destination will remain on station and monitor the comet through at least next year as it approaches the Sun and begins to shed large amounts of itself.
Amidst endless proclamations of the supposed glories of the profit principle, one must emphasize that the Rosetta mission, launched a decade ago, was not motivated by the private gain of one or another giant corporation, but rather the rational integration of the collective labor of thousands of scientists around the world ...
More here: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/11/15/pers-n15.html
Serve the People
Homelessness isn’t an accident. It’s the result of a brutal economic system and conscious state policy.
by Ari Paul ~ 11.15.14
If Jesus of Nazareth ever returns to the earthly realm, he would be advised not to make his debut in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The police would likely cuff him.
Arnold Abbott, age ninety, has made international headlines for being arrested multiple times for organizing feedings of the homeless in public spaces in his hometown, famous for its retirement community and spring break party-goers. The town’s mayor, Jack Seiler, believes the threat of fines and a four-month jail sentence for the elderly churchman is appropriate, telling reporters that Abbott “has decided that he doesn’t think these individuals should have to have any interaction with government, that they should be fed in the parks. We disagree.”
Beyond the David and Goliath nature of the affair, the absurdities of such an injunction abound. Is it not a clear First Amendment freedom for people to convene? Can a state claiming to be democratic really prevent such acts of charity? And how does the state decide who’s homeless anyway? For example, would a couch-surfer be considered without shelter and thus, under this grotesque logic, a public safety risk?
While it might be easy to dismiss this as one more strange occurrence in the Sunshine State, Florida is hardly a callous outlier. Around the country, municipalities have deployed a variety of methods and statutes to harass and criminalize those lacking shelter: banning panhandling, instating “quality of life” ordinances, confiscating personal property, playing booming construction sounds as a deterrent, and even killing a man for camping in the desert.
The goal, of course, is to push the unseemly to the periphery, rather than solve the underlying problem. And the problem is indeed dire: homelessness is on the rise nationally ...
Much more here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/11/serve-the-people/
Capitalism’s Victims
Increasingly dehumanizing work has caused an epidemic of suicides in France.
by Sarah Waters
Earlier this year, a female manager in her fifties who worked for France’s postal service was found hanging in her office building in Seine-Saint-Denis, just northeast of Paris. Although no suicide note was found, the death has been linked to the company’s announcement two days earlier of “Horizon 2020,” the latest in a series of restructuring plans that will transform the status of workers in the company.
Far from being an isolated incident, the tragedy is part of a suicide epidemic at a whole range of large French companies. One such company is French telecommunications giant, France Télécom (rebranded as Orange in 2013), whose especially acute “suicide waves” have coincided with the privatization and restructuring of the company.
Twelve France Télécom employees took their own life in 2008, nineteen in 2009, twenty-seven in 2010, and six in 2011. Despite a new agreement on workplace conditions negotiated with the trade unions, there has been a renewal of suicides recently with eleven cases in 2013 and ten suicides since the beginning of 2014.
Work-related suicides are an international phenomenon, as evidenced by the spate of suicides at Foxconn’s production sites in southern China in 2010 or the phenomenon of karoshi, or death by overwork, in Japan. Yet France stands apart for the sheer number of work-related suicides, the media coverage of these suicides, and the intense legal and political debates that have followed ...
More here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/11/capitalisms-victims/
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