Trader Joe's Protest Produces Distracted Shopping

by Billy Wharton

For one evening, at least, the supermarket chain Trader Joe’s was unable to enforce its pledge to provide “distraction free shopping.” While a sign advertising this pledge encourages consumers to “feel free to ignore anyone with a clipboard or cheap folding table without feeling any guilt at all,” the crowd outside the door could not be ignored. Having a marching band helps. The protesters were allies of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) who assembled to demand that Trader Joe’s sign an agreement that would increase wages by 1 cent for every bushel of tomatoes the workers pick.

Trader Joe’s is the latest target of the CIW. Taco Bell and Burger Kind were forced to sign agreements after protracted struggles. WholeFoods gave in without a fight choosing to defend its brand name from bad publicity. Trader Joe’s shares a similar image as a provider of organic foods making it a natural target for the worker’s group. Today’s demonstration was the first step toward escalating the campaign.

More than 100 people participated in the demonstration, lining the sidewalk in front of the store. The allies’ network was broad, drawn from more mainstream activist organizations such as Make the Road New York to radical political groups such as the IWW and Socialist Party USA. All were united behind the demands for dignity and justice being issued from the small South Florida town of Immokalee.

Customers entering and exiting the store were receptive to the message of the protesters. Most took flyers from activists and some stopped to talk. They were informed that the Farmworker Solidarity Alliance, CIW’s ally group in New York City, had not yet called for a full boycott, but was asking customers to encourage management to meet the worker’s demands.

Many were amazed at stories of the modern day forms of slavery farm workers in Florida have faced. Activists described the recent Slavery Museum tour sponsored by the CIW that visited New York.

One moment of note during the demonstration came when a passer-by in his late 20s railed against the demonstrations “for not caring about people here.” The fellow shouted angrily about defending workers in New York City not some far away place in Florida. Organizers were sympathetic to this argumentative fellow and he left the demonstration CIW flyer in hand. His comments, though, express the need to extend the struggle for justice into many other sectors of society.

Today’s demonstration will be followed up by a teach-in on the struggle of the CIW workers. And the marching band was the Rude Mechanical Orchestra, a self-organized association of musicians who belted out tunes ranging from Lady Gaga to protest classics such as Bella Ciao. If Trader Joe’s management decides to dig in and deny the farmworker’s demands there will be many more days of “distraction filled shopping” for their customers. The march ended with the chant “We’ll be back and we’ll be stronger; We won’t take this any longer.” This was no idle threat.

***
Billy Wharton is the editor of the Socialist WebZine, a writer and activist whose articles have appeared in the Washington Post, the NYC Indypendent, Spectrezine and In These Times. He can be reached at whartonbilly@gmail.com

Support the Farmworkers - Protest Trader Joe's

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is demanding that Trader Joe’s join its competitor Whole Foods and many other major food retail corporations -- such as McDonalds and Burger King – and agree to work with the CIW to improve wages and working conditions for the farmworkers who pick the tomatoes sold in Trader Joe’s stores.

Come Join Us and Support Farmworkers’ Human Rights!

PROTEST!

Thursday August 19, 6pm
Outside Trader Joe's (6th Ave. & W. 21st St.)

DOWNLOAD THE FLYER - CLICK HERE

contact Community Farmworker Alliance
farmworkersolidarity@gmail.com

Is Capitalism Killing the Green Movement?

by Billy Wharton

What if the Green revolution in the US is more fluff than substance? Author Heather Rogers explored this possibility during a book discussion organized by the Socialist Party of New York City. Rogers’ new book, Green Gone Wrong, proposes that the capitalist economy is undermining attempts to address the looming environmental crisis. Her presentation centered on three items promoted as pain-free ways to “green” society – organic food, biofuel and carbon offsets.

The notion that Rogers intends to challenge is that “we can consume our way out of the environmental crisis.” To demonstrate how inefficient this idea is, she traced out environmental changes in the US since the major global climate negotiations began in the early 1990s. Despite all the high-profile agreements and pronouncements by politicians looking to appease concerned voters, CO2 emissions have increased by 17% and agribusiness has expanded. As Rogers stated, these agreements “sound good, look good, but are not working.”

Biofuel is the latest hot proposal to phase out fossil fuels. President Barack Obama has pledged $1.2 trillion over the next 20 years to expand biofuel production globally. However, Rogers documented the unintended negative impacts of biofuel policy. During a trip to Indonesia, she observed farmers deforesting rainforest areas in order to plant crops to sell to big biofuel makers such as Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). “This,” Rogers stated, “seems totally insane, but makes sense under capitalism.” The small farmers are looking to make a quick buck and ADM is attempting to satisfy demand in a heavily state subsidized biofuel market.

Carbon offsets are a more personalized way to limit your environmental impact. For a fee, a traveler can offset their carbon footprint by funding a carbon-neutralizing project somewhere else in the world. This often means funding the creation and operation of biomass power plants in developing countries. Since these plants only consume the carbon that already exits in the plants they burn, they are, theoretically, carbon neutral. However, on a trip to India, Rogers documented local farmers clear cutting forests to produce fuel for biomass plants. Here again, the short-term profit logic of capitalism ensures that every step forward produces two steps back.

Organic food is another exploding market connected to attempts to green society through consumption. Here, Rogers identified two primary problems. First, food multinationals like Monsanto and Kraft heavily influenced the writing of the regulations about which crops qualify as organic. As a result, certification requires a massive amount of paperwork, but does not require chemical residue testing of produce or soil. These factors, combined with the high cost of property and taxes, often drive small producers out of the market.

Not surprisingly then, multinational companies have also begun to outsource production to cheaper labor markets. Sugar farming in Paraguay, Rogers explained, was organic, but also resulted in the displacement indigenous groups and the deforestation of their lands. Once again, the rules of capitalism served to undermine the potential positive impulse of moving toward organic farming.

Rogers exposed the serious limitations of consumer attempts “to vote with your wallet.” Instead, especially during the question and answer session, she expressed support for local initiatives such as organizing Community Supported Agriculture projects, urban farms and local green markets. However, ultimately, large-scale changes are needed and these can only be carried out through global cooperation that addresses the dual motives of development through economic growth and environmental survival. If Rogers’ presentation is any indication, attempts to “green” capitalism will fail and the consequences for the environment may be dire.

***
Billy Wharton is the editor of the Socialist WebZine, a writer and activist whose articles have appeared in the Washington Post, the NYC Indypendent, Spectrezine and In These Times. He can be reached at whartonbilly@gmail.com

Act Now to Stop the Wars and Defend Our Civil Liberties

Andrea Pason and Billy Wharton, co-chairs Socialist Party USA

The recent disclosure of thousands of top-secret documents by Wikileaks and the Washington Post media project “Top Secret America,” makes one point perfectly clear – the American people need to act now to stop the US military and the growing security state. With hundreds of bases worldwide and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military constitutes the greatest threat to peace in the world. Simultaneously, a growing security state threatens to shred any semblance of civil liberties and personal freedom at home and abroad.

The Wikileaks documents that were bravely secured by Bradley Manning and published by Julian Assange reveal a US military operation in Afghanistan that has violated nearly every tenet of international human rights. Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama both openly lied to the American people about the conduct of the military and the status of the wars. The use of CIA-trained death squads, the manipulation of the puppet government of Afghanistan and the consistent use of drone bombers all reveal a war that cannot be won being carried out by a military willing to commit acts of aggression against a defenseless civilian population. These documents prove decisively that the truth is indeed the first casualty of war.

The “Top Secret America” report reveals a growing security state that is as active domestically as it is internationally. This security apparatus constitutes the single greatest threat to civil liberties throughout the world. The post-9/11 US security state is responsible for torture, extraordinary renditions, false imprisonment, racial profiling and covert assassinations. All of this has been done secretly, in the name of the American people.

It is, therefore, the responsibility of the American people themselves to put an end to the military and security apparatus’ ability to operate. Building a mass movement that both demands the end of the current wars and reclaims civil liberties would be a first step in that direction. As democratic socialists, we believe that any non-violent action that seeks to disable or derail the US military machine is a just act.

Such a movement should also push for a permanent end to militarism by calling for an immediate 50% reduction in military spending as well as the closing of all American military bases abroad. The resulting “peace dividend” could be shared between necessary domestic social services and in repairing the global damage done by the US military. Once in motion, such a movement would find widespread support from peace loving people throughout the world. Only then, after the US is well along the road to disarmament, can serious discussions about global peace and reconciliation begin.

Now is the time to summon the courage of Bradley Manning and Julian Assange. To protect them against the repression of the US government. To demand an immediate end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And, to put our bodies on the line in support of a vision of the future that moves beyond capitalism and the wars it fuels.

***
Check out the Socialist Party USA - http://www.socialistparty-usa.org/
Contact us - natsec@socialistparty-usa.org

CSA Meeting and Summertime BBQ

What is summer without some grilling? Come join the Socialist Party NYC for a summer time BBQ to end our month dedicated to food. Also for those of you who live in Crown Heights and are interested in finding out about a great way to get cheap, healthy, environmental friendly food on a regular basis join us for our South Crown Heights CSA kick off meeting.

CROWN HEIGHTS CSA
The Socialist Party NYC is working to build a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in Crown Heights Brooklyn. The project is aimed at supporting an alternative model for food production and distribution. We aim to promote affordable local green agriculture as well as incorporating democracy into the process of food distribution. This meeting will be the kick of for the project.

Saturday August 7th, 12:00
Crown Heights Community Mediation Center
256 Kingston Avenue, Brooklyn
(3 Train To Kingston Ave)
508 524-2118

SOCIALIST BAR-B-Q
IT'S SUMMER AND TIME FOR A BBQ! While the world of food is filled with problems, it is also a place of community and celebration. Join us for a summer roof BBQ in Crown Heights. $5.00 donation suggested (or more for those who can afford it!). Please RSVP to stern.zelig@gmail.com if you know you are going so we can estimate on food. Food will be provided for vegans and meat eaters.

Saturday August 7th, 3:00
786 Washington Ave.
Call (508) 524-2118 when you get there to be buzzed in.
(2 or 3 train to Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn Museum)

As Mercury Soars, Con Ed Takes a Hit

by Billy Wharton

As the mercury soars, concerns about New York’s electricity supply rise. Con Edison, the private energy conglomerate that provides service to most of the areas residents, reports slashing voltage to more than twenty different neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens as a result of overwhelmed power lines. More than 5,000 outages have been reported and Con Ed reports that more than 400,000 customers have been affected by the surge reduction. Such shoddy service by Con Edison raises two questions – how can a for profit company operate what should be a public utility and how can such an antiquated power grid handle the needs of so many people.

Con Edison is a child of the energy deregulation of the 90s. In 1998, Consolidated Edison Inc. was established as an investor-owned holding company. The new company moved away from the old model that included the ownership of the electricity generating plants and toward profiting from the distribution of energy. Today, profits from electricity make up nearly 70% of all profits the company takes in. To accomplish this, Con Edison defended its virtual monopoly over the physical infrastructure of power distribution, even while Democratic and Republican politicians lauded “a new era of competition in energy.”

Con Edison’s track record has always been a source of anger for local residents. They were responsible for major blackouts in the New York City region in 1965, 1977, 1999, 2003 and 2006. In recent years, they have also received approval from the Public Service Commission for substantially increasing electricity rates. As a result, one can perfectly understand why the 400,000 customers affected by the current surge reduction might be feeling like this is more of the same from Con Edison. The company does not need to react to residents who desire the restoration of power it just needs to defend the bottom line for its stockowners.

However, company officials like to point to New York’s aging power grid as the real source of resident’s power troubles. Indeed, no significant upgrade on the grid has taken place since the fiscal crisis of the 1970s. It is no far leap to argue that the city operates on what amounts to a “third-world power grid.” Yet, simultaneously, Con Edison has enabled the process while making a tidy sum by securing payments from the city and state to patch up holes in this system. Con Edison and stingy City officials work hand-in-hand on this.

The conclusion one comes to is that energy deregulation in New York State has been an abject failure for New Yorkers. One privately owned company exercises monopoly control over the electricity market in New York City. No choice and competition here! However, the solution is not to bring more competitors onto the scene. Instead, Con Edison should be operated as a highly regulated public utility in the service of providing for the energy needs of New Yorkers instead of serving the profit desires of investors. New Yorkers should exercise democratic control over this utility and, at some point, might even use a system of participatory budgeting to decide how to deploy limited energy resources in their communities.

New York also needs to get serious about its power grid. A good chunk of the cash that was flushed into Wall Street banks by Bush and Obama might have been employed upgrading the grid. This would have the dual positive effect of stimulating the economy by putting unemployed workers back on the job while improving energy services. Additional funds should have been used to make energy development and distribution greener – to reduce our reliance on electricity generated by polluting plants or, worse yet, through nuclear energy. Instead of improvement, New York got more of the same- fat cat bankers and, for some, no electricity.

Time to get serious about creating a people’s movement for the right to affordable, dependable and sustainable energy.

***
Billy Wharton is a writer, activist and editor of the Socialist WebZine whose articles have appeared in the Washington Post, the NYC Indypendent, Spectrezine and the Monthly Review Zine. He can be reached at whartonbilly@gmail.com

A Conversation with Howie Hawkins

A Conversation with Howie Hawkins, Green Party candidate for Governor of New York State and Socialist Party USA member

Sunday, July 18
3:00 pm

Howie Hawkins, along with a slate of state-wide candidates for the Green Party, is offering a dramatic alternative to the corporate mentality of the Democrats and Republicans this year. The NY Green Party needs 50,000 votes in the 2010 Gubernatorial race to secure ballot status for all of its candidates over the next four years. Join us in a conversation with Howie about the key issues he sees in this campaign, his overall campaign strategy, and what socialists can do to help.

339 Lafayette Street (at Bleecker St.) 3rd Floor
Ring Buzzer #11
(6 train to Bleecker Street)

Sponsored by: Socialist Party, Solidarity, International Socialist Organization
All welcome

Organizing Meeting- Trader Joes- July 13

Organizing Meeting- Trader Joes- July 13

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is demanding that Trader Joe’s join its competitor Whole Foods and many other major food retail corporations -- such as McDonalds and Burger King – and agree to work with the CIW to improve wages and working conditions for the farmworkers who pick the tomatoes sold in Trader Joe’s stores.

Come Join Us and Support Farmworkers’ Human Rights!

ORGANIZING MEETING
for FAIR FOOD NYC’S Trader Joe’s Campaign
TUESDAY JULY 13 2010 -- 7pm
TO BE HELD AT:
National Economic & Social Rights Initiative (NESRI)
90 John Street, Suite 308
New York, NY 10038 212.253.1710 www.nesri.org
Subway: A/C/J/Z/2/3/4/5 Fulton Street Station

Connect with us with any questions or if you'd like to organize a campaign in your state!
farmworkersolidarity@gmail.com
http://farmworkersolidarity.blogspot.com/

Communism Comes Alive in New York City

by Kristin Schall -

Communism is alive on the stage of the Acorn Theater in New York City. The play Modotti brings to life Tina Modotti, a little known Italian communist, photographer and free spirited women’s rights advocate. The play opens in the home of Modotti and Roubaix "Robo" de l'Abrie Richey and draws the viewer into the life of prohibition era American bohemians. The opening scene is highlighted with a lively discussion of the free-spirited sexual politics of the era, communism and the juncture of art an politics. This discussion sets the tone for the rest of the play and introduces the audience to the complex topics the show tackles through its depiction of Tina Modotti’s life as an artist and communist organizer during the Mexican Revolution.

Modotti was born in 1896 in Italy and moved to the US at the age of 16. She worked as an actress during the 1910’s and 1920’s. Modotti put into practice the free-love philosophy that she espoused. Though she entered into a co-habitation relationship with Robo in 1918 she also had a relationship with the photographer, Edward Weston. It is with Weston that she would eventually move to Mexico to photograph the Mexican Revolution. Once there, she became embroiled in communist politics and transformed herself from an artist to a militant.

Complex relations between men and women, politics and art, and party politics and personal principles are all explored. Using sparse, minimalist sets that locate Modotti’s photographs as a focal point, writer and director, Wendy Beckett effectively captures the emotions and frustrations of political life. She treats radical politics gently and honestly is able, allowing the ideas and characters to speak for themselves in a language that political activists of today will recognize.

However, the shortcomings of the play may have more to do with the bleak historical and political knowledge of the average American than any fault in Beckett’s treatment of the politics of the age. The tumultuous period she is attempting to capture requires a lot of insider knowledge about the complex history of the Mexican Revolution, and the workings and factionalism within the Communist Party. Much of the historical subtly of the play will fly past the average theater goer. This leads to making the show difficult to follow at times.

Modotti is clearly a political play. It treats political activity as difficult on the artistic soul, but worthwhile for society, and the play has positive contributions to make regarding gender politics. Tina Mondotti is a free sexual spirit, an innovative artist and a committed political actor. This breaks down a bit near the end of the play when action is moved forward with Edward reading from Tina’s letters. This serves to take the viewer out of the first person perspective of Tina and gives control over the narrative to Edward.

Alysia Reiner gives a stellar performance as Tina Modotti and Mark Zeisler is a commanding presence in multiple roles, but most notably as the Comintern representative, Vidala. A notable weak point in the show is the forced Mexican accents. It might be best, in this case, to lose the accents and let the suspension of disbelief set the scene.

Overall Modotti is well executed and highly enjoyable. Unfortunately, it might have a limited appeal in this apolitical cultural environment. The insider knowledge may confuse those who are uninitiated to left politics, but even they can appreciate the passion of Tina Modotti and her struggle between love and politics. Then again, you might pick up Adolofo Gilly’s concise The Mexican Revolution before heading out to the Acron Theatre to encounter the history of a woman whose life was exciting as it was inspiring.

Modotti runs through July 3 at the Acorn Theater located at 402 W. 42nd St.

***
Kristin Schall is a writer and activist whose articles have appeared in Common Dreams, Dissident Voice, The Socialist and Socialist Webzine.

Killer-Coke Hits the Screens: A Review of the “Coca-Cola Case”

SCREENING OF THE COCA-COLA CASE THIS SUNDAY - FOR MORE INFO, CLICK HERE!

by Billy Wharton
from Counterpunch

“Sailing round the world in a dirty gondola,” Bob Dylan sang in 1971, “Oh, to be back in the land of Coca-Cola !” After forty years of corporate globalization, Dylan would be hard pressed to find a place that isn’t the land of Coca-Cola . Multinationals have torn up the globe converting the repression of workers into cheap labor and free trade agreements into new market opportunities all in the name of ever-increasing profit margins. Left in their wake are legacies of environmental destruction, corrupt governments and employer violence. This process is precisely what a documentary currently making the rounds in campus political circles, by German Gutierrez and Carmen Garcia’s entitled “The Cola-Case,” aims to expose.

The film documents the multi-year campaign waged in support of unionized Coca-Cola workers at bottling plants in Colombia. These workers face the near constant threat of violence from paramilitary forces contracted by Coke’s Latin American bottler, Coca-Cola Femsa, who have murdered several leaders of the SINALTRAINAL union. As a result of this repression, a genuinely transnational coalition composed of SINALTRAINAL, professional activist campaigner Ray Rogers and North American labor attorneys is formed around the “Killer Coke” campaign.

The union attempts to maintain its position inside of the bottling plants while shuttling between street campaigning in Colombia and speaking tours across North America. Ray Rogers develops an effective public relations campaign that proves capable of mobilizing activists on college campuses throughout the United States in support of the Colombian trade unionists. Simultaneously, the attorneys, backed by the financial muscle of the United Steel Workers and the International Human Rights Fund, attempt to exploit an obscure US tort law that allows foreign nationals to pursue claims against US-based companies.

The strength of the film lies in its ability to present the subtle tensions that exist within this tenuous coalition. Rogers seems to be waging a one-man war against Coca-Cola in the boardrooms and university lecture halls of the US and Canada. The lawyers are plowing along with the legal cases always looking for the opportunity to secure a negotiated settlement that offers even an incremental victory. The SINALTRAINAL have other ideas. They are not, chief negotiator Edgar Paez relates, just negotiating against Coca-Cola, but, instead, “We are negotiating against US politics. We are fighting the neoliberal model.”

Things come to a head in a scene in a hotel room somewhere in the US where the Colombian trade unionists warn Rogers that they “will not accept that people make money on us as victims.” Meanwhile, human rights attorney Dave Kovalik has created a legal opportunity for the campaign. Through painstaking negotiations, Kovalik has secured an offer from Coca-Cola to compensate the murdered Colombian workers. However, Coke demands that the current workers who are bringing the suit leave the plant and that the company does not have to issue an admission of guilt. Representatives from SINALTRAINAL ultimately reject this offer, demanding that Coke publicly admit its complicity in the murders. The film ends with a despondent Kovalik roaming the streets of Bogotá searching for some kernel of utility in his multi-year crusade.

There are some truly masterful moments in the “Coca-Cola Case.” The footage from Latin America, including an inspiring short piece from Guatemala, provide the most compelling moments of the film. Interviews with two young Coke distributors in Colombia that compare their conditions to those of the company’s CEO in the US, brings home the stark inequalities produced by capitalist globalization. This puts a human face on the suffering created in the name of increased profitability.

The North American segments are far weaker. Most revolve around court strategies being developed Kovalik and other attorneys. His personal struggles are offered to viewers, but it is difficult to make a connection similar to the one available with trade unionists operating under threat of death in Colombia . Equally distant is the campaign being waged by Rogers . Early segments of the film feel like an infomercial for his company Corporate Campaign Inc. and do not do real justice to a university campus campaign that claimed some significant victories. The later, above-mentioned, critical comments from the trade union leaders stand as a necessary corrective.

How can regular people tame the corporate beasts laying waste to global living standards? The “Coca-Cola Case” certainly has something to offer viewers who are interested in such questions. Overall, this documentary stands as both an excellent primer on globalization and, for some viewers, a first-look into the violence and bravery that typifies trade-union struggles in the Global South.

***
Billy Wharton is a writer, activist and editor of the Socialist WebZine whose articles have appeared in the Washington Post, the NYC Indypendent, Spectrezine and the Monthly Review Zine. He can be contacted at whartonbilly(at)gmail.com

Left Alternatives In and Out of Crisis

Our world is in the grips of the most calamitous economic crisis since the Great Depression – and its epicenter is the imperial United States, where hallowed investment banks have disappeared overnight, giants of industry have gone bankrupt, and the financial order has been shaken to the core.

While many around the globe are increasingly wondering if another world is indeed possible, few are mapping out potential avenues – and flagging wrong turns – en route to a post-capitalist future. In this groundbreaking analysis of the meltdown, renowned radical political economists Albo, Gindin and Panitch lay bare the roots of the crisis, which they locate in the dynamic expansion of capital on a global scale over the last quarter century – and in the inner logic of capitalism itself.

With an unparalleled understanding of the inner workings of capitalism, the authors of In and Out of Crisis provocatively challenge the call by much of the Left for a return to a largely mythical Golden Age of economic regulation as a check on finance capital unbound. They deftly illuminate how the era of neoliberal free markets has been, in practice, undergirded by state intervention on a massive scale. With clarity and erudition, they argue persuasively that given the current balance of social forces – as bank bailouts around the globe make evident – regulation is not a means of fundamentally reordering power in society, but rather a way of preserving markets.

Contrary to those who believe US hegemony is on the wane, Albo, Gindin and Panitch contend that the meltdown has, in fact, reinforced the centrality of the American state as the dominant force within global capitalism, while simultaneously increasing the difficulties entailed in managing its imperial role.

In conclusion, the authors argue that it’s time to start thinking about genuinely transformative alternatives to capitalism – and how to build the collective capacity to get us there. We should be thinking bigger and preparing to go further. In and Out of Crisis stands to be the enduring critique of the crisis and an indispensable springboard for a renewed Left.

from In and Out of Crisis


Listen to Doug Henwood's radio show with the In and Out of Crisis authors:

Behind the News with Doug Henwood - May 15, 2010 at 10:00am

Click to listen (or download)

Watch the author's panel at the Historical Materialism Conference:

The Productivity Squeeze

by Doug Henwood
from LBO Notes

Ok, onto the mundanities of the dismal science. On Thursday morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that productivity rose 3.6% in the first quarter of the year. Productivity is a measure of how much output—measured in the form of inflation-adjusted money—workers can create in an hour of labor. Growth in productivity is what makes possible a rising standard of living over time—though it’s no guarantee of that. That depends on how the gains of productivity are distributed. During the troubled years of the 1970s, productivity growth slowed to a crawl in the U.S., which contributed to the stagflation of the time. Then, sometime around 1996, productivity growth accelerated dramatically, and it’s kept growing at a fairly rapid clip ever since. But aside from a few years in the late 1990s, when there were broadly distributed gains in real wages, most of the gains of that productivity acceleration have gone to the upper orders—CEOs, stockholders, venture capitalists, and the like, and not the workers who actually make and do stuff.

Moreover, the productivity acceleration of the late 1990s was driven by high levels of corporate investment in high-tech capital goods. After the dot.com bubble burst in 2000, however, corporations really cut back on their investment. Since then, productivity gains have mainly come from squeezing the workforce harder while keeping a lid on pay. Normally, productivity growth falls in a recession, as output falls faster than employment. Not this time. Productivity stayed strong in the recession and initially accelerated with the economy’s weak recovery. In fact, productivity growth in the second half of 2009 was some of the strongest on record—but employment was falling, and real wages were stagnant. As a consequence of all this, profits held up remarkably well in the recession and have recovered nicely with only a modest upturn in growth.

Can this continue? Corporations remain very tight-fisted about investing in equipment. You can only increase the rate of explotiation so much before you run out of room to squeeze. The whole profit-maximizing strategy of U.S. capital—of starving the public sector, underspending on education, letting the infrastructure rot—doesn’t have the look of long-term sustainability about it. But it must be conceded that this approach has worked pretty well for the U.S. ruling class over the decades. As long as things don’t start flying apart, and as long as the population continues to play along with the game instead of breaking into open rebellion, they have no incentive to change their approach. Maybe the sense that the approach will turn and bite them in the butt someday is just a form of wish-fulfillment. But it does seem like it’s going to bite them in the butt someday. Too bad it will take more than a few pounds of nonelite flesh, too.

Picture the Homeless Banner Drop Highlights Housing Problems

by Billy Wharton

Picture the Homeless marked the anniversary of Malcolm X’s birthday with simulatenous banner drops at locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The banners protested the city’s policy regarding housing for the homeless and are part of an ongoing campaign being waged by the activist organization. Reading “Let Housing Bloom…berg” and “Homes Not Shelters,” the action created a strong visual demonstration against an increasingly evident housing problems in the city.

PTH is a grassroots organization that seeks to organize around issues such as police violence, housing and what they call “the shelter industrial complex.” The Bronx based group uses the slogan “Don’t talk about us; talk with us,” as a means to highlight their desire to break through the silence that normally surrounds homelessness. Since its formation by two homeless men in 1999, the group has organized direct actions to demand that City officials open up vacant housing for homeless individuals and families.

PTH claims that the housing problems are growing. Their website states that:
There are currently nearly 40,000 people in the New York City shelter system, including over 9,000 families with over 18,000 children. These numbers do not include street-dwelling homeless people, or the hundreds of families waiting for placement in a shelter, or the estimated 350,000 doubled-up households throughout the city.

What makes this organization unique within the sea of non-profits “representating” the issues of the homeless, is that the group is composed of homeless activists. As a result, their demands are not restricted to the immediate need for essentials, but include a larger criticism of a sheltering system in the city that encourages wharehousing, family break-ups and feeds long-term cycles of homelessness.

Today’s banner drops represent a first-strike in what is sure to be an ongoing campaign to demand fair housing policies in the city. As the vacancy rate climbs and the homeless population increases, the sheer inhumanity of current practices will be evident.

PTH has announced a community today in conjunction with the banner drops to be held from 12pm until 3pm at Brook Park (141st at Brook Ave.) in the Bronx.

NYC Socialists in May Day March

The Socialist Party USA took part in the Immigrants Rights Rally in Union Square this year to celebrate May Day 2010. Here are some photos. You can find a report on the event here.

Repeal Arizona's Anti-Immigrant Law

from People of Color Commission Socialist Party USA

April 29, 2010 - The Socialist Party USA calls for the immediate repeal of the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act” (SB 1070) in Arizona. This law sanctions racial profiling and gives cover to the repressive actions of officials such as the racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Further, we call for an immediate moratorium on all police raids of immigrant communities, we demand the closure of the immigrant detention camps and an end to the militarization of the US-Mexico border.

Arizona has become the epicenter of struggle for the rights of immigrants. The state offers the clearest example of the abject failure of the current immigration policies in the United States. These policies rely on the use of force – ICE raids and the border police – backed up by an equally brutal labor discipline that traps the undocumented in low-wage dead-end jobs. The results are well known – the splitting up of families, the death and criminalization of migrants and a race-to-the-bottom for work conditions and wages. A 2009 mass march in Phoenix, Arizona led by young people who had been separated from their undocumented parents and families highlighted the terrible human costs of these systematic attacks on immigrants. SB 1070 seeks to take this process a step further by transforming Arizona into the equivalent of a police state where anyone with brown skin becomes a suspect. In response, immigrant communities and their allies, all across the country, are mobilizing to demand an end to the repression.

Such fervor has not, however, made it to Washington, where Democrats are preparing reform legislation that amounts to more of the same. Much like the recent healthcare reform, immigration reform has been watered down to suit the needs of Republicans and employers. This is no surprise since, as a candidate, now President Barack Obama never fully distanced himself from the Republican's positions on immigration: the border wall, more military presence on the border, and building more detention camps. Despite this, he still gained the support of mainstream immigration reform groups who slowed down a vibrant May 1st Immigrant Rights movement. The now disarmed movement was left without any commitments from Democratic candidates and with no plans to mobilize after the elections.

The current legislation under consideration will do little to address the problem. Bills such as “The Dream Act” of 2009, which would provide conditional permanent residency to a few immigrants who entered the country as minors or have “good moral character,” will not break the crisis in Arizona. Instead, such reforms attempt to paper-over the demands from immigrant communities in order to continue the cycle of militarization, repression and wage slavery.

Socialists have something significant to offer to the immigration reform discussion. We call for an unconditional amnesty program for all undocumented people. This demand is based on our desire to create a world in which everyone will be able to move freely across borders, to visit, to work and to live wherever they choose. Amnesty will also allow workers, documented and undocumented, to begin to advance serious demands for wages and benefits. Amnesty will move us out of the current immigration crisis and towards a society based on freedom.

Defeating SB 1070 is an urgent first step in this direction and the Socialist Party USA encourages our members and allies to join in this struggle.

¡No somos criminales, somos trabajadores internacionales!
¡Que viva la justicia y la dignidad de los migrantes unidos sin fronteras!"