Two Too Many Starbucks

There are, of course, a whole myriad of levels to the current economic crisis. Some of them are more obvious than others. What Marx writes here on the basic contradiction of capitalist crises is still awfully trenchant. He places the heart of the contradiction between the purpose of capital; the expansion and accumulation of capital, with the means; the unconditional development of productive forces.

The crumbling and abandoned buildings I saw in Detroit today on the way to a (sadly) rained out Tigers-Yankees game are about as empty as the housing divisions built up outside the city during the housing bubble, I mean boom. Amidst the empty homes are thousands of homeless people. Foreclosed and for sale signs everywhere and not a buyer. Point one for Marx.

I saw documentary about a wealthy housing development built in Dubai being completely sold out- and completely empty. The multi-million houses built on an artificial island jutting into the Persian Gulf were only built to be investment properties for international investment firms. Those that built the homes live in trailers in the desert. Point two for Marx.

Any of us could come up with a thousand examples. The common joke of meeting someone at Starbucks and missing them because they were at the one across the street comes to mind. Which side of the street will Starbucks close down, pauperising yet more workers, when people can’t afford a two dollar luxury?

From Volume III of Capital

“The last cause of all real crises always remains the poverty of and restricted consumption of the masses as compared to the tendency of capitalist production to develop the productive forces in such a way that only the absolute power of consumption of the entire society would be their limit”

or put another way….

“The real barrier of capitalist production is capital itself. It is that capital and its self-expansion appear as the starting and the closing point, the motive and the purpose of production; that production is only production for capital and not vice versa, the means of production are not mere means for a constant expansion of the living process of the of the society of producers. The limits within which the preservation or self-expansion of the value of capital resting on the expropriation and pauperisation of the great mass of producers can alone move - these limits come continually into conflict with the methods of production employed by capital for its purposes, which drive towards unlimited extension of production as an end in itself, towards unconditional development of the social productivity of labor. The means- unconditional development of the productive forces of society- comes continually into conflict with the limited purpose, the self-expansion of capital.”

Aside: A rainy Sunday afternoon with a comrade; smoke filled room, a discussion of the Cuban intervention in Africa, strong coffee and a visit to the used book store where I found a hardback of Gustav Mayer’s biography of Engels and my comrade added several more volumes on the African liberation struggle to his library. If you’re ever in Ypsi you might find Cross Street Books (523 Cross) open. A bookwormer’s wet dream.

War Clouds

The decision by the Siniora “government” in Lebanon to choose now to go after Hezbollah’s security regime around the Rafik Hariri Airport in Beirut was seen by Hezbollah as a move to undermine its capacity to resist another anticipated Israeli assault on Lebanon. Hezbollah has quickly moved to change the balance of forces on the ground taking over West Beirut and besieging Walid Jumblatt and Saad Hariri in their homes on Friday morning.

The immediate crisis in Lebanon is part of a far bigger crisis. The confessional system of Lebanon is untenable in the long run and in the short run would have to be rebalanced to work.  In part this re-balancing is happening now.  The Lebanese workers that held a general strike over living conditions on Wednesday show just how incapable this system is addressing social needs.  That sectarianism is a mask for other, broader,  political forces is proved by the labyrinth of allegiances that makes up the opposing coalitions.

The Saudis are increasingly bankrolling the pro-US governmental parties. The US and Israel are certainly playing their roles as are the Syrians, Iranians and Europeans. The more that the Lebanese stress that this is an internal matter the more the international implications come into view. Everyone has their ante in the pot and is playing for stakes.

The United States has been ratcheting up its war of words as well as its military posture laying the ground work for some sort of confrontation with Iran. Lebanon is certainly a part of those calculations as is Sadr City where preparations for a large scale assault are under way. The unwinnable war in Iraq has damaged the US in many ways but no one seriously suggests that the United States is going to up and leave the Middle East to others. They can’t leave the Middle East and the can’t stay in the Middle East. The only alternative is to change the Middle East.

Israel, in the midst of its 60th anniversary celebrations and a deep corruption scandal centered on Prime Minister Olmert, has yet to respond to Hamas’ truce proposals. The crisis of leadership in Israel has to be resolved. But by whom? Barak and Bibi wait in the wings. Zionism sinks further into the morass.

Israel doesn’t want peace. Zionism can only survive if its legitimacy is furnished by conflict. It views the continued power of Hamas in Gaza as unfinished business. The inconclusive results of the 2006 war against Hezbollah are a deep challenge to Israel as well. A challenge that Israel cannot leave unanswered indefinitely. It choses to see Iran as an existential threat. What would Israel be if it were not for existential threats? If Israel’s actions did not already provide ample enough natural enemies Zionism would have to invent them.

Iran and Syria are increasingly at odds with pressures pulling them different ways. The second generation of the Assad dynasty will be the last. Syria’s duplicity and pathological self-interest inherent to all bureaucratic regimes have alienated all but their own security services. Syria would make a deal with Israel tomorrow if it they thought they could. Iran sees its future more clearly, but the internal jockeying that will accompany Iran’s growing influence will also undermine it. The restless Iranian workers and young people also demand a role in Iran’s future.

All of these crises and others are converging into a general crisis. The weaknesses shown by Israel and the United States in imposing their solutions on the region makes them dangerous and emboldens the opposition to them. The “deck has to be reshuffled” I heard one commentator on Al Jazeera say. Reshuffling decks in the Middle East is dangerous business, but so is the status quo.

Each new incident brings with it potential for war. When forces are sent into the field, even in a limited way as is happening now in Lebanon, the first thing to go out the window is the plan that put them there in the first place. Military plans rarely survive the first steps at their implementation as their implementation changes the circumstances in ways that are unforeseeable.

There are war clouds gathering across the Middle East. The crisis might subside, but for how long? How long can the contradictions of the region inflamed and exacerbated by imperialism contain themselves in the wretched political systems that seek to mediate them? One thing is for sure; the anti-war movement in the States, incapable of effectively challenging the Iraq war, is not prepared for an increasingly likely new war.

The left needs to start taking the possibility seriously. It has been lulled by the notion that a new war would be insane. Of course a new war would be insane, but the point is that the system that drives these things cannot be said to be governed by anything approaching sanity. The imperialist system is irrational; don’t expect it to make rational decisions, especially when it is challenged. You don’t have to be smoking something to be paranoid about what may come next.

Marxists Increasingly Joining the 21st Century

There is an explosion of left wing sites, blogs and forums out there. All that is to be welcomed. While letting a thousands flowers bloom is often a good idea, especially in such times as these where the US left is in, how shall I say it, really dire straights the revolutionary Marxist left ought to find its way to collaboration on and off the web.

Solidarity has recently launched a webzine on the site. The webzine is getting better and better as more people contribute to it and respond. There is currently a great review and discussion of the emergence of blogs whose traditions come from the New Communist Movement and 1970’s Maoism. Solidarity’s website has come a long way and looks great.

Solidarity has also just published “Hell on Wheels”; a pamphlet on the reform movement in New York’s Transit Workers Union Local 100. A must read for any labor activist. Against the Current, Solidarity’s venerable magazine, is also on line and the latest issue is chock full of good articles on everything from American Axle, Jeremiah Wright and the global economic crisis to Winter Soldier reports.

One of the very best Marxist publications in the United States is International Socialist Review put out by the ISO. ISR routinely has some of the best long form articles on the left. Far from shying away from theory and historical context the ISR has the exemplary quality of raising key Marxist concepts without being stodgy (see Lenin’s Return from the latest edition). Now the ISO has relaunched the site for their paper Socialist Worker. It looks good, if a little busy, and is well stocked with updates, features and activist info. Here’s the video introduction to the new site.

Now how about a collaborative site between the ISO and Solidarity? Here at the RBR we cannot see a whole lot of compelling reasons for these two organizations to exist separately. I know there is plenty of blood under the bridge from previous splits and disagreements, but I can’t help but thinking that the strengths and weaknesses of these two organizations are so complimentary as to beg unity.

The differences that exist between the two organizations already exist within the organizations. It would change the landscape of the American left, that’s for sure. While not on the agenda of either organization right now it ought to be. Unity just for the sake of unity would, of course, fail. What are the programmatic or principled differences then? Let us find out; I don’t expect we would find many. Differences in practice are real, but again those differences exist within the organizations already.

In the meantime collaborate, collaborate, collaborate and hopefully collaboration will clarify the issues and ease some fears. And that is saying nothing of the positive practical consequences to the class struggle of closer work. Organizations tend to get in a routine over the years and then that routine gets an organizational logic all of its own. Time to break some 20th century routines.

There is more than enough room politically for a revolutionary Marxist organization of the combined qualities of the ISO and Solidarity. Of course what constitutes a revolutionary Marxist organization and if that is even desirable continues to be a debate. The key is for those who agree on its necessity to engage. It seems to me that in times of crisis, and what a crisis the world is in, organization (not artificial nor artificially denied) becomes even more necessary as does the utilization of the awesome tools of Marxism and the Marxist tradition.

Free Pol Brennan!

Pol Brennan is currently being held in solitary confinement at a Federal detention center in Texas on immigration charges after attempting to return to the United States, where he has lived since 1984, from Mexico. Texas can be hell even if not in prison. In 2000 Pol won the right to stay in the United States and in 2006 applied for a work permit. Pol was not in hiding, but lived openly in the Bay area with his wife and children for years. Why is Pol Brennan deemed a threat by Homeland Security?  Pol recently did an interview with Radio Free Eireann from prison to talk about his case.  His wife joined him on the line.

Pol Brennan was born in Belfast in 1953. He watched the pogroms of the late sixties against nationalist communities in Belfast. His own twin brother was abducted and tortured by Loyalist death squads. Pol joined the republican movement and was first arrested in 1974 under internment. In 1976 he was again arrested and convicted of possessing explosives. He was sentenced to 16 years in the H-Blocks right at the beginning of the British campaign to criminalize the republican movement.

Pol, who at one point shared a cell with Bobby Sands, protested the condition inside Long Kesh. He spent three years on the Blanket Protest; going naked in the cold cells instead of wearing the convicts uniform. Two of those years Paul was on the Dirty Protest living with others in their own urine and excreta.

In 1983 37 republican inmates of the H-Blocks escaped. It was the largest jail break in British history and it happened at Britain’s “most secure prison”. Pol was one of them. Many were arrested shorty after. Some like Seamus McElwaine and Padraigh McKearney would return to active service only to be cut down by the Special Air Services in the following years. Some, like Pol, made it across the water.

He lived in the Bay and worked the trade of a migrant; construction. In the intervening years Pol was married and had children with an American woman. Pol was arrested in 1993 and held for 3 years in a Bay Area prison waiting to be extradited. While in prison in the 1990’s Pol wrote for a number of publications on politics and his situation.

The “Peace Process” in the North of Ireland ended many of the extradition fights that Britain engaged in to bring wanted republican activists into their “justice”. Pol rightly felt that his ordeal was over. It was not. To find out what you can do to help Pol’s case or to write him in prison please visit the support site set up for Pol.

McKinney in Ypsi!

Here in my little town, sandwiched as it is between Ann Arbor and Detroit, people pass through they do not stop. We’re delighted to have Cynthia McKinney at Ypsi’s newest watering hole, the Corner Brewery. Cynthia joined the May Day march against the war (see photo above) led by ILWU in the Bay yesterday.

If you’re in Ypsi or the area come on down! A report on her visit will follow.

Meet Cynthia McKinney, candidate for President of the United States

May 5, 7-9 PM
The Corner Brewery
720 Norris St
Ypsilanti

(I-94 to exit 183, Huron St north past Michigan Ave and Cross St to Forest Ave, and Forest Ave east to Norris St)

A six-term former Member of Congress from Georgia, Cynthia McKinney is seeking, and will likely be, the Green Party nominee for President of the United States

Cynthia wants to:

• End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bring the troops home now.
• Implement universal, single-payer healthcare.
• Repeal NAFTA, fair trade, not corporate globalization.
• Spend money for education, not pay prisons for profit.

As a Congressperson, Cynthia:

• Opposed funding for bloated military and secret intelligence budgets.
• Introduced Articles of Impeachment for George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Condoleezza Rice.
• Introduced, championed, and passed in the U.S. House the Arms Trade Code of Conduct, prohibiting the sale of arms to known human rights abusers.
• Passed legislation to extend health benefits for Vietnam War veterans still suffering the health from exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange.

She currently serves on (a) International tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, (b) Brussels Tri-bunal on Iraq, (c) is participating in War Crimes prosecutions in Spain, and (d) is working with the Malaysian Peace organization to criminalize war.

Visit her website: www.runcynthiarun.org

Paid for by the Power to the People Committee Cynthia McKinney for President
Joan Christian, Treasurer, P.O. Box 311759 Atlanta, Georgia 31131-1759

May Day 2008

“Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you–
Ye are many–they are few.”

Videos of ILWU Local 10’s Jack Heyman and Clarence Thomas connect the dots and prove to us all what is possible. An inspiration and an example. Once again, ILWU takes the lead.