Last week I read a statement
by a BLM protester. “They know we will get tired of protesting and go home.”
Well, yes. You will get tired as you got tired of
Occupy because so far nothing
exists beyond the acting out of protest, and protest bows to inconvenience.
In the U.S. there is no historyof revolution, no memory, no ideology, no tradition of political and
philosophical thought, no leaders (they have been assassinated) and no
tradition of education through generations to expose our structural dilemmas.
I started out as a
theater-maker. In my own lifetime, I have encountered one, and only one American
institution that has demonstrated the kind of legs that has kept it going for
over 60 years now: The San Francisco Mime Troupe. Why is that? Because from the
beginning like no other theater, the Mime Troupe has had as its spine a clear
sense of the political ideology that motivates it. It has skirted the anti-intellectualism
of the mainstream culture; reading political theory is part of its practice. It
has refused to bow to the U.S. propaganda bugaboos of anti-socialism,
anti-communism, and anti-thought. It has refused the notion that art must
somehow be “pure” and never tied to political ideology.
At present the U.S. suffers
from an ongoing and exacerbating pandemic, a laughably incompetent head of
state, a collapse of its financial system, and the servility of both the media
(the fourth estate) and the judiciary (the Supreme and lower courts.) The popular response? Rebellion, but not revolution. For revolution, as the Russian model has shown us,
time, history, philosophical and ideological background are necessary, plus long-term
education of a populace and recognition of deep divisions of class, economics,
and race (race being a quintessentially deeply unscientific American construct).
Some understanding of other
models is part of that kind of awareness. A life of Plekhanov, for example, the
father of Russian Marxism can be read in The
Jewish Bund in Russia by Henry Tobias. The death of apartheid in South
Africa, provides some valuable lessons. There the birth of African National
Congress could be grafted onto an already existent Communist Party, clear in
its history, ideology and methods. A useful book to read is Slovo:
The unfinished autobiography of ANC leader Joe Slovo. Joe Slovo, married to
Ruth First, was one of the apartheid resistance’s chief exponents.
 |
| The struggle to end apartheid |
Slovo came to
activism through a working class background. His autobiography outlines the thrilling
adventures, life-threatening risks, and sacrifices required in overthrowing the
apartheid regime. Another case worthy of study is the take over of political
institutions by Israelis when the British left Palestine in 1946. The British
allowed the Jews (but not the Palestinians) to establish self-governing
institutions such as the Jewish Agency in anticipation of their withdrawal. When
that day came in 1948, the State of Israel came into being because the groundwork had been laid well ahead of time.
It is essential that we hit
the streets now to voice our displeasure with a system that has stressed violent
militarism at home and abroad (where it consumes over 60% of the national
budget and where it destroys life on Earth by consuming more fossil fuel than
many countries) at the expense of services which other industrialized states
take for granted, such as universal health care and universal education based
on thinking and not the mindless testing that prepares our youth for nothing
other than functioning as cogs in the corporate machinery, in prison, or out.
But what of the larger
questions: What might a new constitution free of the founding father’s racism,
look like? What form of government might be more responsive to human needs, and
less malleable by corporate interests? What governing bodies might be
preferable? How would a Parliamentary system function for a truer Democracy? Should
the bicameral system and an electoral college be things of the past? How might
a judicial system and a public health system be set up independent of political
hackery? How might the media remain independent bodies, not blathering to the
news du jour or slathering to the lure of the Golden Calf? How could our
political landscape undergo significant change starting with voting by paper
ballot? What ministries might represent a new style of government: A Ministry
for the Rights of the Earth, for example, a Ministry for Peace, a Women’s
Ministry, a Ministry for the Rights of Children? A Ministry Addressing Racial,
Ethnic and Sexual difference? How might we confront the need for reparations to
Native Americans, and to Black people who still wait for their 40 acres and a
mule? A Ministry of Labor that would represent the rights of the working class,
a class which this pandemic has revealed to be the real backbone of this
country?
Yesterday I received this
message from a friend who, because of her employment, lives half the year in
Berlin.
[On arrival I got] a cheap handout from the
health ministry saying we should enter a 14-day home quarantine. So I did. My
GP… across the street… gave me a virus test [after 5 days]… The test would have
been free if I had had any symptoms. Without symptoms, it cost 65 euros ($73) so
I was "free" the following day when the negative result arrived.
I had forgotten what a reasonably functioning government/
administration looks like. On receiving the negative result the first thing I
did was go cycling through the city. Everybody is out and about, no one wears a
mask outside, almost all stores are open and no lines are evident, people pull
a mask out of their pocket upon entering shops and put it back in their pocket
upon exiting, restaurants are open (no masks) and tables are supposed to be
distanced but this rule doesn't look terribly strict. The city-state of Berlin
has about 750 active cases (recorded) which is not bad for a population of
around 3.5 million (the equivalent would be 75,000 total U.S. cases). Cinemas
opened yesterday… with restricted entry. But there are no restrictions on
inter-household contact. No one does the evasion dance on sidewalks, and I've
seen a lot of people shaking hands. This relaxed atmosphere will almost
certainly make the population more willing to accept stricter measures if
needed in the winter.
The other great difference is that the news
consists of descriptions and analyses of events instead of ad hominem screeds.
No one is calling people racists or supremacists or snowflakes or deplorables
or whatever, I don't have to steel myself to turn on the radio. Actual problems
are discussed, stridently at times, yes, but not in a blizzard of invective.
It's not even civility, just a functioning
society. I had also forgotten what that is like.
To
understand fully the background behind the fairly normal atmosphere in Berlin, it’s
necessary to understand that epidemiology is not politics. That politics has no
business dictating how people are to manage their health, their bodies, or
their abortion rights. Epidemiology is both a science and an art. To get a perspective of what has gone terribly
wrong in America, I suggest reading “The Pandemic Protocol” by Charles Duhigg
in the May 4, 2020 New Yorker which contrasts West Coast Seattle and Governor
Inslee of Washington State, who got it right, with very few cases, with Gov.
Cuomo of New York and Mayor de Blasio, who got it terribly wrong at the expense of the
lives of many New Yorkers, because rather than allowing scientists who had
trained for years in the realities of epidemiology to speak, they micromanaged
the issue from a political perspective, playing amateur to professionally
trained people whom they silenced or sidetracked at every turn.
Iran issues arrest warrant
for #45 over Suleimani assassination and asks help from Interpol.
EU should reflect on possible
U.S. withdrawal from role of world leader,
Merkel says.
World rebukes U.S. over Iran
embargo.
‘We shouldn’t settle for
crumbs’: Palestinian Americans stage virtual walkout of Biden meeting.
Even thugs have red lines in
the sand: Johnson warns Israel against plans to annex part of occupied West
Bank.
New ICC complaint filed over
U.S. Israel war crimes in Palestine.
Progressive lawmakers call on
U.S. to suspend military aid if Israel carries out ‘illegal’ annexation.
100 Jewish lawyers and judges
call on Israel to halt annexation plans.
DNA damage, and brain cancer:
34 doctors and 900 Belgian professional sound alarm over 5 G.
Bayer settles glyphosate
cancer lawsuits for $10.9 billion.
Bernie Sanders calls on
Congress to expand Medicare coverage ruing the pandemic.
Sanders files amendments
forcing Pentagon to pass audit, and mass produce masks.
Markey bill backed by Sanders and Warren moves to abolish qualified
immunity for cops once and for all.
More than 300 law professors
agree Congress should pass bill ending qualified immunity for police.
Fair housing advocates
celebrate passage of AOC’s repeal of Faircloth Amendment.
More than 60 groups demand
Senate pass Sanders Amendment to slash ‘out of control’ Pentagon budget by $74
billion.
U.S. judge strikes down #45
border ban aimed at Central Americans.
Citing unconscionable and
irresponsible omission, ACLU demands equal COVID-19 protections for immigrants.
Trump-appointed federal judge
throws out administration’s inhumane asylum ban.
Appeals court deals blow to
#45 on border wall, ruling his money grab from the Pentagon illegal.
In Canada people with jobs
are sharing their stimulus checks with out of work people.
Toxin Free USA supporters
donate 400 pounds of food for the needy in Butte Cnty, California.
Houses passes DC statehood,
anticipating House will do same.
Supreme Court strikes down
Louisiana’s dangerous abortion restriction.
California Governor Newsom
signs AB 350 giving state protection that PG&E will be transformed into a
safer utility.
Shell latest oil company to flounder,
writing down $22 billion on balance sheets.
Poster company for U.S.
fracking fails as Chesapeake Energy files for bankruptcy.
Activists deliver Formosa
Plastic pollution to lobbyist’s homes, and get slapped with felonies.
Activists shut down
cancer-causing Willowbrook, Louisiana Plants.
Katie Porter demands
resignation of #45 small business chief for enabling abuse of COVID-19 relief
funds.
Coast-to-Coast rallies demand
keep U.S.P.S. viable.
Civil rights groups sue NC
city over law that effectively bans any protest.
The #StopHatefor Profit
Facebook advertising boycott hits Zuckerberg in the pocket of ad revenue with
more than 500 companies, including Verizon, Coca-Cola, Ford, Starbucks and
Target pulling ads.
Amid pandemic, Oklahoma
residents vote to expand Medicaid coverage.
Southern Poverty Law Center
announces successful suit allowing
people in Alabama to have absentee and curbside voting.
Workers stage 540 wildcat
strikes in support of BLM in the first half of month of June.
Families of deceased workers
sue Tyson over outbreak at meatpacking plant.
King County Labor Council
expels Settle police union, SEIU considers disaffiliation if police unions
don’t reform, and National Writers Guild proposal receives its first serious
discussion by the AFL-CIO executive council.
Detroit Fiat Chrysler workers
halt production for days.
FCA Toledo workers support
call for rank-and-file safety committees.
Mathematicians urge
colleagues to boycott police work in wake of killings by cops.
116 California DNC delegates
demand Pelosi hold floor vote on Medicare for All.
Grassroots movement led by
Gwich’in people delays oil leasing and
discourages prospecting in the Wildlife Refuge.
U.S. District Court in
Washington D.C. blocks the federal govt. from revoking the Massachusetts
Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s reservation status.
Treaty defenders block road
to #45 Mt. Rushmore event before being arrested.
Corporate sponsors finally
join native American call for Washington Redksins name change.
No more ‘lesser of two evils’
as Maine passes ranked choice voting.
Housing activists unite to
fight mass evictions and defund police.
Protesters attacked by police
are suing to vindicate their constitutional rights.
In LA, Supervisor Solis
imagines closing Men’s Central Jail, a proposition the County will vote on July
7.
In S.F. Councilman Yee moves
forward with ballot proposition reallocating funds destined for cops to
community before 2022.
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