Race and Class Matters & Modern Day Slavery

[2banon]

reposting from another forum


It is imperative in my view to keep in mind the direct causation of institutionalized Racism and the struggle to eradicate it requires a Race and Class analysis as it is deeply and intimately entwined in our culture and socio-economic and In-Justice system and which DIRECTLY BENEFITS the RULING CLASS which could not exist if it, Institutionalized Racism, were to ever be dismantled and/or eradicated.

Contrary to our mythological narrative, I'm also arguing that Slavery has not been eradicated.

It continues to this day and it is perfectly legal. In the form of low wages, prohibitively expensive education, prohibitively expensive housing, high medical costs, childcare, food, and all other necessities needed to provide a decent living and healthy environment to raise our children, ensuring quality care for seniors, etc.- conditions in which healthy communities would be able to thrive and would be the norm, were it not for the structure of institutionalized SLAVERY.

And who are these modern day slaves? All of us who are not in the 1% (aka the Ruling Class). I'm guessing members of the Ruling Class isn't a reader, so the modern day slaves generally speaking would be you, me, family, friends, neighbors and other community members.

Although I have not read Marx, I've picked up enough through out the years from peers and other sources whom I tend to largely agree with, and thus I consider myself a self identified Socialist..

Although I haven't read Mao's Communist Manifesto, I've picked up enough over the years through conversations with peers and other sources whom I am not so inclined to agree with.

That said, I have no illusions with regard to "dismantling" the Capitalist system in Amerika.

Not in my lifetime. There's a reason why we have never, ever had a self-avowed Socialist as POTUS.

But I am both intrigued and hopeful with the possibility of a more Just and
Equitable society and it would restore some considerable measure of faith in humanity and my fellow citizens if we were united with a shared vision in achieving socio-economic JUSTICE and equality in the understanding that what we're dealing with here is a struggle against the Ruling Class and all of it's permutations and manifestations.

I'm currently reading this Black Agenda piece which was nicely excerpted and linked in an OP on DU a few days ago, which does not seem to be getting any notice it deserves to have, imo. .

to AOR


En solidaridad en la lucha por la justicia y la igualdad!

dans camarades de solidarité!

[Cosmic Kitten]

1. Wage slavery is alive and well

Does the TPP allow slavery
and human trafficking?

If our legislators approve a trade
agreement, the "gold standard"
of trade agreements while ignoring
that trade partners engage in forms
of indentured or outright slavery and
human trafficking, is it any wonder our
culture has not eradicated such abominations?

TPP Opponents Force Obama to Ignore Human Trafficking
According to news reports, the Obama administration is planning to upgrade Malaysia’s ranking in the State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report. Advocacy groups are complaining that the move is motivated not by an improvement in Malaysia’s practices but by the administration’s desire to include Malaysia in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. These critics are probably right, and it’s all the fault of anti-TPP legislators who tried to scuttle the TPP by linking it to human trafficking.

The trade promotion authority statute passed by Congress earlier this summer prohibits the President from negotiating fast-tracked agreements with countries listed as Tier 3 in the trafficking report. This language was added during committee mark up by Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ). The ban is a direct and intentional obstacle to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which includes Malaysia, a Tier 3 country.

The linkage is sorely misplaced. As I’ve noted before, no one who’s worried about human rights and the TPP has explained how U.S. or foreign tariffs improve human rights. Will lowering U.S. and Malaysian tariffs increase the incidence and severity of Malaysia’s human trafficking problems? How so? No, the linkage appears to be driven more by traditional opponents of trade liberalization than by concern for improving the plight of people in Malaysia.
http://www.cato.org/blog/tpp-opponents-force-obama-ignore-human-trafficking

MOST INTERESTING is the idea
that it's the TPP opponents who
are FORCING Obama to ignore the
crime against humanity!?!

[2banon]

2. Very Bizarre statement.

MOST INTERESTING is the idea
that it's the TPP opponents who
are FORCING Obama to ignore the
crime against humanity!?!

Classic Orwellian political tactic.

Just classic. The more egregious the abomination, the more Orwellian the tactics employed to ensure their ultimate goals.

[Cosmic Kitten]

3. It's from the CATO Institute

Do they ever accept responsibility
for their disastrous policies?

[2banon]

6. CATO is in denial that any of these policies are disasterous.

[PatrickforO]

4. Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto, Mao the Little Red Book

Sanders isn't a socialist in the Marxist sense. He's a Democratic Socialist in the northern European sense. Think Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway. In those countries, college tuition is free because the governing bodies know how economically important an educated workforce is. Workers have strong protections including paid maternity and sick leave, strong pensions and reasonable employment security. And everyone has single payer healthcare.

Interestingly, the economies in these countries are generally sound, and their people much happier, healthier and less stressed.

There's a new essay out there called Regenerative Capitalism you should look at. Most thoughtful people, on either side of the aisle, recognize that the current neoliberal capitalist model is not sustainable, yet what do you replace it with?

A regenerative capitalist approach calls for us to rethink a couple things: Our biggest problem lies in the current business model calling for the primacy of shareholders at the expense of everyone else. So we can say that the CEO's ONLY job in a publicly held company is to increase the value for shareholders. This at the expense of labor, customer and environment.

On a related note, a regenerative approach calls for us to jettison the concept of the 'externality.' In business parlance, an 'externality' is some consequence of doing business that the company itself does not have to pay a penalty for. An example is if a company fouls the water table in your community and taxpayers end up paying for the clean up but the company is not financially penalized, then to the company the pollution it caused is an 'externality.'

A regenerative approach eliminates these externalities, and calls for companies to consider not only shareholders, but labor, customers and the environment. Some local approaches that are regenerative include slow money and slow food - which call for investment within a 50 mile radius of the locality and a balanced agricultural approach that actually meets the needs of that community while at the same time producing surplus for export. It calls for micro lending and encourages entrepreneurship. It encourages the growth of B corporations (benevolent - the CEO of a B corporation must take into account externalities, and the needs of all stakeholders, not just shareholders. Finally, it promotes engagement of people through employee owned companies or coops.

That was Marx's genius by the way - he spoke of the ownership of the means of production being out of the hands of labor, which then necessarily were little different than the old feudal serfs.

As to Sanders? I think he can win. Oh, there will be major smears against him because the oligarchs don't want to do the things he advocates, but he's no more radical, or socialist than was Franklin Roosevelt. In fact, Sanders would have fit right in as a New Dealer. As long as he sticks to the issues he's been talking about, it is a winning message.

[2banon]

5. Interesting ..

Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto, Mao the Little Red Book

All these years, I thought it was Marx who wrote Das Capital, and Mao wrote the manifesto, thinking the Little Red Book was the manifesto. sheesh! Thanks for the correction!

Sanders isn't a socialist in the Marxist sense. He's a Democratic Socialist in the northern European sense. Think Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway. In those countries, college tuition is free because the governing bodies know how economically important an educated workforce is. Workers have strong protections including paid maternity and sick leave, strong pensions and reasonable employment security. And everyone has single payer healthcare.

Exactly. 'Wall Street' and their political surrogates have managed to succeed so thoroughly to convey to the American Public the economic system instituted in these countries are so repugnant to "our way of life" that the very idea of shifting our system similarly simply must not be entertained for a moment, despite the evidence that there systems are sound, and people are happier, healthier.

There's a new essay out there called Regenerative Capitalism you should look at

Thanks I'll google it, assuming it's published on-line?

Very much agree with your take on Sanders's political persuasion and inclinations wrt FDR/New Deal.. . And your take on his campaign!

[fasttense]

7. Marx did write Das Capital

He did NOT write the communist manifesto. Of that I'm sure. Marx was an economist. He analyzed capitalism and found it wanting.

I've read some of Das Capital - a translation with comments. But it is huge. So it will take me awhile.

I think we as a species must evolve away from capitalism as an economic system if we are to survive on this planet. We managed to evolve out of fuedalism and slavery. Now we must evolve out of capitalism or we will perish or regress back into feudalism and slavery.

The next step is socialism. We have no choice. But the type of socialism will make all the difference. I believe a socialism that leaves control of the means of production and the resultong profits in the hands of those who do the work wil be the best. We can not trust owners, CEOs, board of directors, shareholders and corporte executives to do what is best for all of us.when those corporate and business executives make decisions, those decisions impact us all. Such decisions can not be left in the hands of people with no resposibility or affect from the results.