FOLLOWING
KSHAMA SAWANT from the distance of 37 miles I find myself repeatedly
moved, sometimes literally to tears, by her breathtaking courage and
eloquence.
I
desperately wish I could be there to see her and hear her and applaud
her in person. I wish too I were able to contribute my knowledge and
skill to her causes, not just the fight for a $15-per-hour minimum wage
but the struggle for world socialism we must win if our species is to
survive.
But
I am old, I live in a realm of vindictively downsized public transport,
and – as will be true for the remainder of this lifetime – I am denied
an automobile by the inescapable poverty that has afflicted me since
2009.
Thus Councilwoman Sawant's Seattle is, for me, as impossibly distant from Tacoma as Paris or Mumbai.
Even
so, her words are more elating than I can describe. I never imagined I
would live long enough to hear any candidate for office anywhere in the
USian Empire – much less any elected official – declare herself a
Marxist and urge displaced workers to take over the abandoned factories.
But that is what she does:
She says we need to “organize a revolt,” that “the laws of the rich are
unenforceable if the Working Class refuses to obey.” (The linked tape,
new material here in OAN, is from 2012, after she was defeated
in a battle for a seat in the Legislature – which makes her defiance all
the more energizing.)
Thus
human beings like us – we proletarians and peasants who are being flung
onto the socioeconomic garbage heap or herded into slave pens by the
capitalists – are at last (again) blessed by a leader who truly speaks
for us alone.
(See also the link to Sawant's inaugural address, “I Wear the Badge of Socialist with Honor,” below.)
*****
Outside Agitation Elsewhere: Relevant Remarks on Other Threads
“What Congress Does When We're Not Watching”
Thom Hartmann, the perennial defender of President Obama,
disingenuously tries to blame Congress for fast-tracking the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, never mind it's one of Barack the Betrayer's
pet schemes for further enslaving the USian Empire's already subjugated
proletariat. I contribute my usual anti-capitalist skepticism to the
resultant discussion thread and also post vital links to the fast-track
legislation itself. But the occasional Outside Agitator award for a
truly exceptional comment goes to the poster screen-named Aliceinwonderland:
“Thom, maybe I oughta try calling you sometime while you're on the air.
I would love to ask why you're still so Obama-friendly, knowing he's
behind the TPP... even to the point of wanting to fast-track it!
Between that and his hit lists with murder-by-drone, I've had my fill
of President Obama. I am ashamed of myself for having squandered my
vote on this smooth-talking fascist. 'Change we can believe in' has
turned out to be little more than a clever sales pitch...” As is often
the case on this excellent blog, the associated thread is still running,
and – depending on time and energy (mostly the latter) – I may post
additional commentary before it closes. Meanwhile, kudos to Alice for
speaking out.
***
“I Wear the Badge of Socialist with Honor”
Newly elected Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant again dares name
our true enemy: “Shamefully, in this, the richest country in human
history, fifty million of our people - one in six - live in poverty.
Around the world, billions do not have access to clean water and basic
sanitation and children die every day from malnutrition. This is the
reality of international capitalism.” I salute her by noting the subtle
changes in Obamanoid rhetoric that indicate her victory is already
terrifying the Ruling Class. Later I applaud another poster's definition
of capitalism as “slavery or serfdom for the 99 Percent” and (again)
point out the moral imbecility at capitalism's core: infinite greed
elevated to maximum virtue, the deliberate rejection of every
humanitarian principle – therefore the closest our species has yet come
to embracing Absolute Evil.
***
“A New Low in Health Care Rhetoric” Matt Taibbi of the thoroughly mainstreamed Rolling Stone
predictably criticizes a publicly malevolent disciple of Ayn Rand for
her expressed belief health care for poor people is a waste of money –
that they should be denied health care and abandoned to die. I chide
Taibbi for his (obedient?) bourgeois blindness to the obvious fact
inadequate and/or prohibitively expensive health care is part of the
elaborately euphemistic program of genocide imposed on us by the USian
Imperial Ruling Class – its final solution to the “problem” of surplus
workers. “The only difference between the Nazi German One Percent and
the Capitalist USian One Percent is the latter is troubled by the public
relations problems arising from death camps,” I say. “Thus in their
infinitely evil cunning, the USian One Percenters now hide mass murder
behind Ayn Rand ideology and thereby shift the blame onto the victims.”
***
“Capitalism in Crisis: Who Are the Real Takers?”
Ruling Class Propagandist Bernard Weiner uses the classic ploy of an
obvious truth (“Capitalism is in crisis around the globe”) to
pontificate a Big Lie, claiming the Democratic Party is the only
rational hope of the USian Working Class. I respond that we who are
socialists should be heartened by the escalating efforts of our
opponents: “the One Percent aristocracy Mr. Weiner so obediently serves
is clearly frightened. The pivotal question is whether its legions of
soldiers and federalized cops will follow orders or stand down in 99
Percent solidarity, as their Petrograd counterparts did at the Neva
River bridges on 8 March 1917.” (Disclosure: I knew Weiner in
Bellingham c. 1970-1972, where we were not friends. Weiner organized and
led the clique of anarchists and useful idiots who pablumized,
neutralized and eventually destroyed Northwest Passage, which
had begun life as a fearless, credible, generally well-written
alternative journal with a keen but uniquely accessible focus on local
environmental issues. At the time there were rumors Weiner was a spook,
though these were never substantiated.)
LB/12 January 2014
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