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Is the economy “recovering”? What does a “jobless recovery” mean anyway? How should workers respond to a deteriorating situation? Professor Richard Wolff drops some knowledge and suggests that workers need to take control of their companies.
An excellent talk on the relation between mental health and capitalism/neoliberalism. This is worth watching all the way through if you can. Dr. Stephen Bezruchka discusses the pharmaceutical/psychiatric industry and the spiraling rates of anti-depressants and other drugs given out to adults and children. This medicating of America doesn’t seem to be curbing mental illness or mental disorders, which are more prevalent in the US today than ever before, or in any other countries.
He suggests a more “caring and sharing” society, focused especially on better childhood development and reducing the gap between rich and poor, would do much to help us heal our over-stressed and depressed nation. This is a great line of thought, as understanding psychological disorder within the context of political decision-making allows us to imagine strategies to overcome it. Human-made problems have human solutions.
For up-to-date coverage of these events, check out Narco News.
As the demonstrations in Iran continue despite mounting repression, another dramatic showdown between military and public has broken out in Honduras after a violent coup organized by the country’s wealthy elites kidnapped left-leaning president Manuel “Mel” Zelaya and removed him from the country. This action has not only been condemned by much of the international community, it was immediately resisted by Hondurans taking to the streets in large numbers.
Image from Narco News
Image from School of Americas Watch
Image from the BBC
Even before the coup had taken place, anxious pedestrians shouted and cursed the approaching soldiers. In this video, one woman hits every soldier passing her. The surging protesters than begin to block military vehicles and surround a tank!
I’ve also reposted an article giving some background on the situation, this one from the School of Americas Watch. The “School of Americas”, now called the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” is a combat and torture training institute in Fort Benning, Georgia that has trained thousands of Latin American paramilitary soldiers to return to their countries and terrorize peasant and student movements. Many of these “graduates” have gone on to become fascist generals or dictators in their home countries, as in the current coup in Honduras. The institute remains open to this day, but every year SOA Watch organizes large protests to shut it down.
From: SOA Watch <info@soaw.org>
Date: June 28, 2009 1:26:08 PM EDT
Subject: Military Coup in Honduras
Military Coup in Honduras
A military coup has taken place in Honduras this morning (Sunday, June 28),
led by SOA graduate Romeo Vasquez. Read the rest of this entry »
This is What Democracy Looks Like is the definitive documentary about the 1999 Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization. Shot from the perspective of organizers, this film shows how the most iconic event of the (successful) movement against corporate globalization was created, day-by-day. We follow students, labor, environmentalists, and everyone seeking global justice as they brave police violence in order to shut down the Seattle Trade Summit, which led eventually to the collapse of the WTO. Creative visuals, hot beats, protest footage and powerful interviews combine into a very inspiring form of art – reminding us that when regular people come together, they can change the course of history. WATCH THIS MOVIE!!!
[This is Part 1 of 11 – make sure to click the Up-Arrow button to watch the rest!]
In 1995, multinational oil corporation Shell conspired with the Nigerian government to brutally suppress a popular nonviolent social movement that called for environmental justice in their polluted land. A key moment in this campaign of violence was the military show-trial of Ken Saro-Wiwa, leader of the Ogoni people and nonviolent advocate, which led to his execution.
Shell is currently facing trial in New York in a lawsuit brought by the Wiwa family, charging the oil company with “requesting, financing, and assisting the Nigerian military which used deadly force to repress opposition to Shell’s operations in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta.”
This short video tells the story of Ken Saro-Wiwa and how corporate and state power merge to violently suppress grassroots social movements in order to protect the exploitation of the environment and workers.
Salt of the Earth is a classic organizing movie about striking Mexican-American miners and their wives. Based on an incredible true story, the 1953 film follows the organizing efforts of the town’s women, who must overcome the company’s classism, the sheriff’s racism, as well as their own husband’s sexism, to win the strike (while the men stay at home and take care of the house and children). Highly recommended!
This is just the first segment of the movie, make sure to click the Up-Arrow button to watch the rest!
“The Mass Psychology of Fascism”
by Wilhelm Reich
1946 The Noonday Press
First written in Germany in 1932 as Hitler was coming to power, then revised in the US in 1944, this is a classic study of the characteristics of fascist movement. Reich, a former Marxist from the Frankfurt School, emphasizes that fascism is not unique to Germany or Japan or Italy, but is instead “the basic emotional attitude of the suppressed man of our authoritarian machine civilization and its mechanistic-mystical conception of life.”
In other words it’s not enough to blame Hitler or the Nazis or any political party for the rise of fascism, we have to understand why millions of people have been, and continue to be, drawn to Right-wing movement (its mass character is what distinguishes fascism from simple authoritarianism). Finding its base in the Middle Classes, fascist movement feeds upon authoritarian patriarchal social structures, especially the father-dominated family, which prepares children to obey and even revere a harsh “leader.”
But what was most interesting to me about this book is the politics of sexuality. Reich as a psychiatrist observed that the repression of sexuality, especially from a young age, prepares people for lifetimes of neurotic self-hatred as some of their most basic and healthy life functions become embedded with deep shame and guilt. I would add, sexual assault and child abuse add much fuel to this fire. Reich stresses that children, adolescents and women are perpetually denied control over their sexual desires and bodies, which is what gives the patriarchal father so much power in the family, and therefore the sexual repression of masses of people becomes the seeds that grow fascist political movements.
I will write more on this train of thought in my review of Yes Means Yes!, and it’s also something I’ve been sparked to consider after watching the film The Handmaid’s Tale, about a dark future where pollution has made most women sterile, and a Christian fascist movement seizes control of society to make the remaining fertile women into the sex slaves of powerful male leaders. It’s surprisingly realistic in some scary ways, because it builds from the sad truth that the patriarchal Christian Right is a real force in society and continues to attack the rights of women to control their own bodies and sexuality. This tendency must be overcome, by women and trans folks taking back their body sovereignty and proclaiming their sexuality as no one’s but their own.
Part 1 of The Handmaid’s Tale. Read the rest of this entry »
After two weeks of protests and “rebellion” in the streets of Oakland, CA, police have arrested Johannes Mehserle, the BART transit cop who shot and killed unarmed Oscar Grant on an Oakland train platform New Year’s Day. This is significant because this is perhaps the first time a California policeman has faced murder charges for killing someone while on duty.
Oscar Grant, the 22-year-old black man who was killed while lying flat on his stomach unarmed and restrained, has become a symbol for the racism and brutality that are endemic of police forces after his death was captured on video and circulated on Youtube.
This music video tribute by Jasiri X explains the story of Oscar Grant, but does contain somewhat graphic images of the shooting.
Follow the story at the website of Oakland activist Davey D, http://daveyd.com/
Here is a news article about the arrest.
http://hiphopnews.yuku.com/topic/1002
OAKLAND, Calif.
— Several well-placed sources are telling KTVU news that a warrant was issued for former BART officer Johannes Mehserle and that the officer is now in police custody.
Mehserle was the officer involved in the New Year’s Day fatal shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant on the platform of the Fruitvale BART station.
KTVU sources say Mehserle was some distance from the Bay Area when he was taken into custody and won’t arrive at the jail Tuesday night. Published reports indicate the BART police officer was arrested in Nevada. Read the rest of this entry »
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