Daily Archives: February 18, 2017

Trumps America, wrote a leading African American journalist, Charles Blow in the New York Times, January 30, is not America: not todays or tomorrows, but yesterdays.

Trumps America is brutal, perverse, regressive, insular and afraid. There is no hope in it; there is no light in it. It is a vast expanse of darkness and desolation.

There is a lot of disgust toward Trump and his white nationalist strategist Steve Bannon, former executive chairman of Breitbart News, a leading promoter of conspiracy theories and white supremacists.

However, those liberals attempting to label Trump a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin are seeking the easy way out, rather than address their own failures or the decline of unions and working-class political influence.

The fact is the Republican Party is now under Trumps control. The official leaders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, are on board with Trumps America.

They agree that wielding power, especially white power, is how to Make America Great Again. African Americans, Mexicans and Muslims especially, Trump says, make America weak. Many white working people accept this myth.

During the struggle against the white supremacist Apartheid regime in South Africa, the leading anti-apartheid force, the African National Congress (ANC), coined the phrase: make the country ungovernable. The ANC rejected apartheid rule as illegitimate, since it excluded the clear majority of the population from basic rights.

That strategy inside and outside the country worked. Especially with the rise of Black South African workers organising and a powerful mass democratic movement, Apartheids central ally, Washington and especially then-president Ronald Reagan, could not prevent the Black majority from winning political rights.

Fighting back

Since Trumps Electoral College victory, there have been unprecedented protests by a wide cross-section of the country. They include the largest marches ever in Washington, DC and other cities. More than 3 million people marched under the banner National March for Womens Lives.

Native Americans have led the anti-pipeline protests at Standing Rock Reservation, immigration rights activists are defending the undocumented and the Movement for Black Lives (a broad coalition of more than 50 groups, including Black Lives Matter, formed last year) is stepping up resistance to police violence.

Trump is the bombastic figurehead for the ruling super-rich. However, if his bizarre behaviour, inflammatory rhetoric and policies begin to hurt their interests because the majority sees Trumps presidency as illegitimate, it could affect domestic stability and international alliances.

A weathervane historically is the Black population. Resistance by African Americans, as slaves and then as second-class citizens, has stimulated others to fight back. The two greatest struggles in US history were the movements for abolition of slavery and to end Jim Crow segregation last century.

The vanguard role of African Americans in these and other struggles has shaped the country.

My African Americans

Trumps view of Blacks fits his vision of how to make America great again, a view in which social progress has made the country a disaster. He refers to his Black supporters as My African Americans, a condescending comment reflecting his view that Blacks are lesser to himself and other whites.

At the same time, he seeks to use more police terror to put down Black resistance to racism. He has already targeted the largely Black south side of Chicago, speaking of sending more federal forces to the city.

Trump met with Black supporters on the first day of Black History Month. He praised the greatness of African American anti-slavery fighter Frederick Douglass, referring to the 19th century freedom fighter as someone who has done amazing things and is being recognised more and more, I notice as though he were still alive.

He holds the same view of all non-whites. For the first time since Reagan, there is not a single Latino in his cabinet, even though they are the largest minority in the country.

A statement by the White House on National Holocaust Day failed to mention that Jews were targeted by Hitler for extermination. His spokesman said it was by design because other groups were also murdered by the Nazis. But it reflects the anti-Semitism of the alt-right white supremacists.

Racism is about power, as Malcolm X and many radical Black nationalists and militants explained in the 1960s. The Trump administrations agenda is about returning to a pre-civil rights era.

Blacks women especially will likely be in the vanguard of the new resistance. Black women voted most strongly against Trump, gave the largest No vote to Trump, initiated the Movement for Black Lives and were key leaders of the January 21 March for Womens Lives.

Racist history

The historical context is important to grasp why African Americans have historically played a vanguard role in struggles to better society.

After the American War of Independence, a clause in the constitution gave Southern slave states extra votes in the Electoral College by increasing their voting power by adding slaves to the total (three fifths per person). This helped keep the slave states, who feared domination by Northern states, in the union.

Once slavery was abolished, its original purpose should have made it obsolete. But the rulers saw value in preventing citizens from directly electing the president, the most powerful branch of the state.

After the Civil War the issue was: should the freed slaves get the vote? Radical Republicans supported it, but Democrats, including in the North, were against full equality.

For his part, Abraham Lincoln opposed slavery but sought to appease slave holders with compensation.

It took a long time for presidents to open the door of the White House to African Americans. President Teddy Roosevelt (1901-09) was the first president to invite an African American to a White House dinner Booker T. Washington in 1901, shortly after his inauguration. The outcry led him never to do that again.

Franklin D Roosevelt (1933-45) never invited an African American to the White House for meetings or official events. FDRs base included the racist southern DixieCrats; it is noteworthy that his New Deal policies effectively left many African Americans out as he refused to challenge racist laws.

After the 1936 Berlin Olympics, white US athletes were invited to see and meet Roosevelt. No such invitation was made to the African American athletes, such as Jesse Owens who had won four gold medals. Owens commented: The president didn't even send me a telegram.

Roosevelt also refused to support an anti-lynching bill for the same reason.

Immigration and African Americans

African Americans are, for the most part, not descendants of immigrants. That phrase that the US is a nation of immigrants misses the reality of deep institutional racism and white supremacy.

Barack Obama was an unexpected break from this racist past. Even whites who voted for him hoped that the issue of race and racism would be consigned to historys dust bin. Instead, racism increased in the Obama era. Obamas actual policies were mainstream Democratic and Republican. He did little for African Americans directly.

However, with the rise of Obama, hardcore white supremacists saw the US as a white country undermined by the other. Obamas colour-blind approach to racism did not mollify them.

For a brief period of 10 to 15 years after the end of the Civil War in 1865 (known as the Reconstruction), former slaves won some real freedom and could vote. Many were elected to office.

But a violent counterrevolution arose to end these rights (a period during which the Klu Klux Klan rose as a white supremacist terrorist group). Slavery as a system never returned as it was less efficient and profitable than wage slavery.

Blacks were not paid equal wages. Many white workers falsely believed their situation was better thanks to the super-exploitation of African-American labour.

It took 100 years for Blacks to win back the vote in the post-slavery South. Now, more than 50 years after the vote was won, it is being suppressed again and civil rights are under attack.

Resistance is key

The mass protests show that African Americans, many women and others know that the electoral system is not the solution to institutional discrimination. Trump and his white nationalist advisers seek to use executive orders, the Congress and Supreme Court to impose a new presidential dictatorship, but the public is not ready to give in.

A majority oppose racist and anti-immigrant policies, but sentiment alone cannot stop the right. The ruling class knows that its control of the state depends on public acceptance of the system.

Unjust laws and orders by Trump and his backers must be met by civil disobedience the active, public, conspicuous breech of the law to bring about a change in law or public policy. The civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s deliberately broke segregation laws to force federal action and fundamental change.

The authoritarian president will always blame those he fears as the enemy. He hits the fake media first, then all critics. The battle to defeat Trumps regime will require the same determination as that of earlier generations.

The goal of opponents should be to make the Trump presidency ungovernable. In such a struggle, revolutionary change is possible.

[Malik Miah is an editor of Against the Current. A longer version will appear in the March/April edition of ATC.]

Read the original post:

To make Trump's America ungovernable, African American struggles are key - Green Left Weekly

I hope to explain what libertarian capitalism is, and what anarcho-capitalism is. Government has two main aspects extent and purpose. Extent how much violence-power it wields can be gauged by how much a government taxes, spends, incarcerates, and so on. Anarchists, by definition, reject all government violence-power in principle, preferring voluntary cooperation.

Anarchists believe that all the good things that government currently produces, such as courts, police, roads, and education, can be done better and more morally by voluntary society the market. Anarcho-capitalists believe that private property (by entitlement, not decree) is generally the best way to solve the scarcity problem peacefully. This belief makes us capitalist. We favor out-competing government, not violent revolution, and work on projects such as private education (online learning) private money (crypto currency,) private courts, and private police firms. (Would citizens of Ferguson choose a belligerent all-white police patrol in a freed market with competing companies?)

Libertarian capitalists want an economy based on free markets and private property. Free markets, to us, mean no government intervention whatsoever no subsidies, cartelizing regulations, or licensure. We make a clear distinction between market capitalists and crony capitalists. Like our libertarian socialist cohorts, we strongly oppose corporatism, which is collusion between government and favored crony firms. If government is involved, it is not libertarian capitalism.

Anarcho-capitalists are the radicals we want no compulsory government whatsoever. More centrist libertarian capitalists are called minarchists since they want a minimal State limited to courts, police, and national defense. Redistribution and social engineering are not valid functions of government.

Libertarians see mainstream media as offering a false dichotomy between statist socialism and statist capitalism. Free market solutions are off their radar. To mainstream media, a treaty creating a trade cartel is a free trade agreement! Similarly, we are offered the choice between nationalized medicine and fascist medicine, with no mention of the free market alternative. Libertarians want people to consider voluntary alternatives to the government gun.

Some libertarian capitalist positions:

1) Anti-war and anti-imperialist. We oppose military intervention in foreign countries. Minarchists want a defense-only military, or no standing army at all. Anarcho-capitalists would rely for defense on insurance firms, guerrilla warfare, militias, and the lack of incentive to attack peaceful trading partners. Free markets create an automatic constituency for peace.

2) We are against neo-liberalism and other efforts of governments to control, regulate, or capture international trade. Trade should be voluntary, not enforced by governments. We oppose the corporatocracy; States should not be loan sharks to developing nations.

3) We are against corporatism. We think large corporations would mostly disappear in a freed market, lacking the government subsidies that give them advantages and create barriers for competition.

4) Employment is incidental to capitalism. It is fine so long as it is voluntary. We look forward to a time when everyone is an individual entrepreneur, cooperating with other producers as equal traders. (Here we disagree with libertarian socialists. We think employment is okay but sub-optimal; they think it is evil wage slavery.)

5) Anarcho-capitalists want voluntary society to prevail, and take over all (legitimate) functions that the state now does. Anarcho-socialists, our counterparts, concur.

Libertarianism, in essence, is about moving humanity away from the coercive rule of authorities, and toward a society where all activities are voluntary. Libertarian capitalists predict that, in a stateless society, many/most people will opt for some type of private property. Libertarian socialists think that many/most people will opt for some type of collective property. In a stateless society these wouldnt conflict; there is ample scope for experimentation in freedom.

Most libertarians hold a non-aggression ethic that one should not initiate force (violence) against others. Libertarians (as such) are not pacifists; we believe in self-defense, but the initiation of force is criminal. Most people agree with this non-aggression presumption in their personal lives, but statists give government a free pass. E.g. People who would never demand money from their neighbor at gunpoint, think nothing of voting for their government to do just that. Government, to statists, is above human morality. Libertarians, in contrast, hold everyone to the same moral standard.

Abel is a libertarian socialist, so he shares my belief in limited government. When he speaks against capitalism, keep in mind that he defines capitalism as only the statist type, corporatism. In past discussions he didnt address libertarian capitalism at all. But listen to him! Libertarian socialists have a very good critique of statist capitalism. Libertarian capitalists agree with his analysis of capitalism perverted by government. We hate Pinochet and fascism, too. The kind of capitalism libertarian capitalists favor is no-government free market capitalism the separation of economics and State.

See the original post here:

Point/Counterpoint: On Liberal Capitalism - The Free Weekly

By American-Statesman staff

Editors note: This article was originally published April 8, 2014

President Jimmy Carter said that although much progress has been made on human rights in the United States and around the world, much still needs to be done.

Speaking to LBJ Presidential Library Director Mark Updegrove at the Civil Rights Summit, the 39th president said womens issues including wage disparity, sexual abuse, sexual slavery and racial inequality are issues that still need addressing.

Asked if the country has progressed on race issues as much as he wouldve hoped in the years since hes been president, Carter was blunt.

No, he said. We still have gross disparity on employment, in quality of education, a good many public schools in the South are still segregated.

He also spoke at length about womens issues around the world, including the number of girls strangled at birth by parents seeking boys.

We believe about 40 million people were killed in Second World War. Four times as many baby girls have been killed in this generation by their parents, he said. That creates a shortage of girls that leads to an increase in sexual slavery, including in the United States.

Slavery at this moment is greater than it ever was in the 19th Century, Carter said, quoting state department numbers. Last year 800,000 people were sold across international borders, 80 percent are young girls. Its the worst human rights violation on earth.

In the United States, the problem is glossed over at universities and in the military by officials and commanding officers who dont want their reputations besmirched, Carter said.

Only 4 percent of rapes on college campuses are ever reported to authorities, Carter said. He also quoted a report that said only 300 of the 26,000 cases of sexual assault in the military last year resulted in punishment.

Carter also said American women get paid 23 percent less than men for doing the same type of jobs and working the same number of hours as men.

This is a human rights abuse of the grossest character that needs to be addressed by every American, and we need to set an example for the rest of the world, he said, drawing applause from the crowd.

To combat these problems, Carter said federal funds should be withheld from colleges whose administrators fail to act on sexual assault cases, commanding officers should be removed of any role in bringing forward rape charges, and cities should begin prosecuting brothel owners, pimps and male customers instead of girls.

You only have to arrest several prominent men and the situation would change overnight, he said.

Carter said his greatest concern for America is the unlimited amount of money flowing into campaigns and governments. His greatest concern for the world is the breakdown in international harmony and the abilities of countries to get together to deal with crises before they get to conflict stage.

He also gave a message to young people in the audience who might be looking for ways to create positive change. Citing his presidential inauguration, in which he quoted a high school teacher, Carter said, We must accommodate changing times but cling to principles that never change.

Read more from the original source:

President Carter: 'We must cling to principles that never change' - Austin American-Statesman

Laurinburg native David Evans has rightly called me out over an omission from last week's column, in which I wrote: "Slavery, and the peonage that took its place until World War II, are gone."

Peonage of the kind that Douglas A. Blackmon described in his searing "Slavery by Another Name" died out about then. That was the kind that enabled a white man - be he planter, industrialist or something else - to point to an able-bodied ex-slave and tell the local constable, "Get me that one." The victim would be arrested for vagrancy and delivered into unpaid, involuntary servitude for a year or more to cover the "expenses" of the officials who had been paid to arrest and convict him. Beatings were the norm. Many lawfully shanghaied laborers died of violence or sickness before their time was up. Others had their time extended, with little explanation or none.

There has been no end, though, of opportunists eager to exploit people who aren't positioned to protect themselves. Myriad cases of migrant farmworker abuse have been preserved in state records and exposed in the pages of this newspaper and others.

Folks of David's vintage and mine well remember Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons" (he didn't write it, but no one else made it a major hit in two genres) and the last line of its refrain, "I owe my soul to the company store." Credit Ernie's big bass voice for some of its success, but only some. You didn't have to be nonwhite or lack a green card to get its drift. There were many thousands of millworkers who could relate to a coal miner whose income was committed to his employer before he even got his hands on it.

Among them were David's father, grandfather, great-uncles, and great-grandfather. His father put in 46 years as a textile worker with Waverly Mills in East Laurinburg. Today, David can reel off a list of good things that the mill's owner, McNair Investments, did for East Laurinburg and add, "The mills no longer exist and we are worse off because of that." But he also remembers how things were back in the day.

Until the major civil rights legislation of the 1960s sent waves of change across the land, his daddy was paid in cash. "He was paid 60 percent American money and 40 percent 'dookie' money," redeemable only at the company store. "It was probably the best provisioned store in Scotland County and it was said that you could get anything from a chaw of Black Maria to a new wedding dress. The prices were high and every time the workers were given a 2 or 3 percent raise the prices went up 3 or 4 percent. The same thing happened for the rent in the houses that were ALL owned by the McNairs."

Not long after the Civil Rights Act was passed, though, the store and the "dookie money" disappeared and David's daddy began drawing a paycheck that could be deposited in a bank. Workers who wanted to buy their rental houses were invited to do that. So include white textile workers among the beneficiaries of the movement.

On average, American women earn much less than men doing comparable work. We quarrel about whether a minimum wage higher than $7.25 an hour would be too generous to sustain. And in some undeveloped countries where U.S. manufacturers do business, laborers living on the brink are paid much less and dare not ask for more.

It isn't over. And justice is not inevitable.

More:

Gene Smith: Hard labor, funny money and Tennessee Ernie Ford - Fayetteville Observer