Dear Friend,
Equality Labs unravels caste in United States
Australia’s very disasters prove the urgency! Instead of appealing to a parliamentary process that exists solely to protect capital, let’s take the reins. Organise for the nationalisation of energy under worker, Indigenous and community control. Make the fossil fuel culprits pay for the full restoration of the communities, lands and ecosystems they’ve destroyed. And it’s time big business pays back their long-excused taxes. Reversing climate warming will bring the change we so desperately need.
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Equality Labs Chases The Mother Of Inequality (Brahminism) In America | Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd
by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd
Equality Labs unravels caste in United States
To the utter shock of American Brahminism an unusual organization called Equality Labs came into being in New York. IT was established by second generation, American born, Dalit women activists to chase it in America in every sphere of life, including in the digital media. Thenmozhi Soundararajan and few other US born citizens with amazing talents and were told by their parents that they belong to Dalits who suffered untouchability, caste brutality and poverty in their native land. Sharp young educated Dalit women and men were shocked that the caste discrimination operates in several subtle ways even in America in every sphere where brahminic people work.
These women and men are intelligent enough to understand the trauma of their parental history and identity when they were in their under-graduate and post-graduate courses in their respective universities. For example, Thenmozhi was a University of California Berkeley student who realized that their Brahminic teacher’s attitude changed towards her once she revealed her caste identity. Now she is dead bent on chasing Brahmnism in America along with others by establishing the Equality Labs.
The founding fathers of America declared that “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness….”. But the Indian Brahminic forces carried their God’s principle of unequal creation of human beings—the Brahmins from his head, Ksatriyas from shoulders, Vaishyas from thighs and the Shudras from feet. The untouchables according to their spiritual theory were born without their God’s sanction hence need to be treated barbarically even in America. The Indian Dalits/Shudras/Adivasis never knew what is life, liberty and happiness till today. A few of them came to America in pursuit of them. But there too the brahminism is haunting them.
The agents of brahminism in that country hardly acquired any civilizational change with all their modern English education and American life where there is a strong Christian ethic. Some of them are liberals but that liberalism does not go against caste and untouchability in a serious way. Brahhmism is quite safe in the garb of liberalism, a sad story indeed.
The brahminic forces are spreading into every structure of the American society. They do not have any respect to their Christian ethic of compassion, grace and humanness. They also do not have any historical sense of shame and guilt. If their ancestors committed sins of practicing human untouchability and graded inequality like the White Christians who felt shame for slavery and segregation of blacks and native Americans in earlier decades. The whites tried to fight it out, the evidence which could be seen in African American museum of Washington D.C
In spite of number of Brahmin female and male writers emerging from that land no one wrote like Harriet Beecher Stowe did in her Uncle Tom’s Cabin about the life and trauma of blacks in the US. When there are so many Brahmin women academics and writers doing a lot of writing on India from American land why they too did not write a single book about caste and untouchability, is million dollar question? The worst part is the caste and untouchability menace is spreading in America and it worries conscientious whites too.
They spread brahminism of food, bed and everyday life inequality as their cultural character. Worst, they are spreading anti-Christian idol worship which the ancient slave Moses fought against and brought them into monotheism of high civilization. America is a direct beneficiary of the progressive Protestant ethic. If idol worship with brahminism of caste purity spreads and persists the capitalist-democratic structure of America will come in conflict with the ideals of its founding fathers’ philosophy who inscribed it on every major Government building —including on the building of the Supreme Court that –All Men Are Created Equal. It was this principle that gave enormous scope to blacks to liberate themselves from slavery and white racism. Many white women and men were collaborators in the fight against racism, including Abraham Lincoln. It was in this background that Martin Luther King emerged as young hero of liberation with whites giving him Nobel Peace Price before he died at the age of 39. That is grace.
The Indians spread brahminism into that progressive ethic not only in high end offices, white house portals, Capitol Hill corridors and also into all channels of digital media. They appear to be obedient to the whites, while cracking their civilization of equality from inside and want to see that the Dalits/Shudras do not enter those structures as their prejudices against them are spiritually ordained and unreformable. The Shudras do not confront them but the Dalits, though small in number, are fighting them with the weapon of Ambedkarism.
The Equality Labs has taken that fight to a higher level of modern operation in all sectors of life. Thenmozhi and Maari Zwick Maitreyi(a co-founder of the Lab) match them in all spheres of their operation. The power of their American education and realization of their ancestral oppression forced them to focus on casteism in that country and take them on in Twitter, Facebook campaigns , Wikipedia editing and so on.
The brahminic false nationalism of standing against the development of any other person of Indian ethnicity except the Brahmins is brought out in graphic details in a recent report that the Equality Lab brought out called Caste in the United State.
Equality Labs along with Ambedkar Association of North America, The Ambedkar International Mission, Ambedkar-King Study Circle, Boston Study Circle, Ambedkar-Periyar Association have started an impressive work of countering the spread of brahminism in America. The Shudras are still to wake up, as they are back in India. But they too will realize soon that their ancient productive and universally validated spiritual and food culture— meat, chicken, fish and so on—is being humiliated there too. Look at what a Shudra woman said:
“We are a Shudra Caste family. At Diwali and other festival potluck parties, I am really nervous about what I cook. The “upper” Caste folks may ostracize me for bringing nonvegetarian dishes on their “auspicious” day. One time, I cooked a chicken curry and they set my dish aside, all the way on the other side of the table, in a corner and labeled it “NONVEGETARIAN” in large letters. No one ate my curry and avoided me the whole night. I go to the parties for my kids so they won’t be isolated from their friends but I’d really rather not go altogether and I am considering that option more and more.
It is this pure vegetarian brahminism that is destroying India ever since the BJP/RSS came to power at Delhi in 1999 and 2014. Dalits and Muslims are being lynched for eating beef or for possessing cows as their property. The BJP/RSS use the Shudra muscle power for such inhuman acts without even granting them spiritual equality in the religion that they run as its custodians—Hinduism. No Shudra can become priest in Hindu temple even now. Once the Shudra self rebels against this ‘ vegetarian eating great’ culture as all Shudras are historically meat and fruit eaters foregrounding their multi- cuisine culture and civilization from the days of Harappan city civilization brahminism will be buried once for all. However, they still follow brahminism as God’s dictum.
But the Dalits world over are fighting brahminism in all its manifestations. The Equality Labs report recorded the statements of many Dalits living in America. It tells the world what strategies they adopt to discriminate them and practice new forms of untouchability in foreign lands too.
See the kind of school and college level caste humiliation that brahminic caste youth practice with their college or school mates. One college going boy told:
“Friends who came over to our house did not eat when they saw books on Dr. Ambedkar at my home and guessed my Caste”
Another person narrated
“Most Indians in my school were upper Caste Hindus and Brahmin families, so I never felt connected to them through “Indian culture”. They would make fun of the fact that I ate meat and was Christian. In that way, my religion and family history sort of alienated me from them. I did not know it at the time but they were Brahmin… and my parents hid from me that I was Dalit. But if I had known I could have called out their Caste bullying for what it was.”
Bullying a school child in America is a big crime. It is strange that the American brahminic mothers teach their children to bully the meat and chicken eating children. All American children, apart from the Dalit/Shudra American children, whether white or black are also meat, chicken and beef eaters. The Chinese and all Middle Eastern settlers are meat eaters. If all these children begin to bully the Brahmin/Bania children of Indian origin they will face a miserable life there. But they are gracious as that principle is taught to them as part of their Christian/liberal upbringing.
The Brhamin/ Banias of India once used to think that crossing the sea is a sinful act. Even learning English was thought to be sinful. But they overcame these hurdles but not casteism and pure vegetarianism which are not at all common human characteristic. Pure vegetarianism or pure meatarianism is an animal characteristic. For example, cow, buffalo, sheep, goat and so on eat only grass/leaves. But lion, tiger, jackal and so on eat only meat. But all humans eat both. Pure vegetarians should have understood this globally practiced food culture, at least while living in Euro-American soils. Constructing anything pure in food culture leads to cultural conflicts . If a counter bullying, based on universal food culture starts against them their life becomes miserable both in India and abroad.
The Equality Labs report tells several stories of Dalit discrimination of women and men in America. Such discriminatory practices are not uncommon in Canada, UK and other places. The question therefore is how to overcome this inhuman behavior of casteists and pure vegetarians who do not live a normal life. Brahminism seems to be an unreformable cultural construct. To understand why brahminism is behaving the way it does worldwide we need to examine how it reshaped itself up in nationalist English education period in India.
North America is a dream land of English educated Indian Brahmins ever since Lord Macaulay, whom they hate in home land, structurally instituted English medium education in India in the nineteenth century. Ever since the first English medium school was started in 1817 in Calcutta they only admitted their children in that school. They left their Sanskrit to their gods/goddesses and priests. This was sheer hypocrisy! Their children, youth, men and women should get easy wealth without soiling their hands in agrarian sector, which involves hard physical work. Avoiding labour as life and living leisure as life was/is their spiritual design. That forced them to play all kinds of tricks possible. But that process of life endangers any productive culture and civilization. That is what they are experimenting in America whose philosophy is labour is life. They do not believe in a God who tells people to live by the ‘sweat of their brow’.
The first unofficial initiation of teaching English to Indians was made by William Carey, an English cobbler turned Christian missionary, only to be hated by the English educated Bengali Brahmin pundits later. However, they adopted Rajarammohan Roy as the father figure of brahminic renaissance who co-operated with Carey and learnt English in the process in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries .
Roy was too eager to lift his own Sanskrit insulated Brahmin community to learn the so called colonial language and cross the seas to become modern and become global flying squads to spread birth based inequality in theory and practice in the world. He himself died in England only to be made the father of Brahminic nationalism after his death in 1833. They never recognized Mahatma Jotiorao Phule and his wife Savitribai Phule who initiated English education among the productive communities in Bombay province.
As I said Roy learnt English with the help of William Carey. This led to many Brahmins going to England and learning English not to give up Brahminism but to control the Dalit/Shudra/Adivasis masses of India at home and earn Pounds/Dollars from the West. But a parallel educational revolution was initiated by Dr.B.R.Ambedkar by studying in America and rose to write the Indian constitution and also many books to liberate the oppressed castes of India. The Equality lab is working with his banner in America.
By the time the Bharatiya Janatha Party came to power with full support of national and global money of Bania/Brahmin forces in 2014 they spread the poison of caste in the West—USA,UK,Canada—to create a crisis in the transformed culture of human equality. The Western intellectuals so far have not seen that danger to their civilization. The Dalits, however, are letting the world know what kind of poison of inequality can be spread in the Western civilization that taught the notion of equality and grace to the world that it would face.
Brahminism in the post-colonial India adopted a double edged strategy to see that the oppressed castes do not get English education and compete with them in the national and global markets. It kept English medium in private sector and saw to it that all the Government schools teach only regional languages to the working caste/class children.
The RSS/BJP recruited most Shudra youth into the muscle power squads, not to learn English in schools, but to persecute minorities in India. Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizenship (NRC) are best examples of that process.
In the urban areas the very Brahmin/Bania children studied in the best Christian schools and best institutes of India and went abroad settled in America and UK. They themselves were/ are in touch with Western liberal/left educationalists. The West hardly had any knowledge of the other side of India.
According the report of the Equality Labs the first man who took American citizenship in late nineteenth century was A.K.Mozumdar, who obviously was an Indian Brahmin by claiming that he was an Indian Aryan born in a high caste blood pool, which according to him was very close to the European Caucasian blood. The then racist Americans agreed to give him citizenship on that ground. Since then they began to move there with their temples and priests and caste system with them.
The white racism has now changed so much that many whites fought for liberation of the blacks from slavery and segregation. But hardly any major Brahmin/Bania intellectual worked for abolition of caste. They have not shown that grace. William Wilberforce, a British white parliamentarian turned against the barbaric slave trade by using the same Bible and became the harbinger of ‘Amazing Grace’ in the Christian civilization. Why not a single Brahmin used their own spiritual texts against human untouchability and caste based slavery in India? Why for three millennia the Brahminic men and women never showed such grace?
In America there are extreme right wing brahminic intellectual forces like Rajiv Malhotra and other members of extreme right wing supremacists working from American Hindu Foundation , Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh and other spiritual institutional structures. They are spreading the poison of caste, untouchability pure castesist vegetarianism into the Western world with a clear long term design. The Equality Lab and other Dalit organizations are chasing them but the brahminism’s future in the West depends on how and when the Westerners realize the real danger to their civilization itself with the spread of caste, untouchability and pure vegetarianism.
Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is a political theorist, social activist and author of many books, the latest being From Shepherd Boy to an Intellectual—My Memoirs
Why BJP’s Subjugation of Gandhi’s Legacy Hit a Roadblock at Shaheen Bagh
by Subhash Gatade
Why it is that millions of Indians — young and old from different sections, regions and strata of society — suddenly rose up to defend the Constitution, rejecting the anti-constitutional move to make religion a criteria of citizenship. Why it is that the Preamble of the Constitution, which was drafted when Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister of India, a man which the saffrons have demonised umpteen times, could suddenly
become a rallying point of this upsurge of the masses? Why is that Shaheen Bagh –the historic protest by women discriminated since centuries on the basis of religion and gender – has emerged as a new symbol of non-violent resistance, and is inspiring similar such protests the country over?
GASS condemns arrest of a teacher and parent of a school in Karnataka on ‘sedition’
Press Release
Ganatantirk adhikar suraksha sangathan, (GASS) Odisha here has the opinion that the drama performed by children between nine and twelve years of a Private school, Bidar, Karnataka as reported in various newspapers no way invites sedition. So, arrest of teacher and mother of a child of that school is highly condemnable
The Zionists Shall Be Defeated No Matter What They Do!
by Dr Salim Nazzal
Despite the current dark picture, we remember the crusaders again. After 200 years they were defeated. This will be the fate of Zionists no matter what they do. The struggle against Zionism must continue stronger than before. It is a long struggle that shall end with defeating Zionists.
During the crusades time in Palestine, which, lasted about 200 years, there was a wise crusade prince who knew that the only possibility to stay in the region is to reconcile with the area. He got it right. He knows that crusaders are a minority in an Arab sea; he knew there is no way to win the war in the long run.
In modern times some white elite in South Africa came to that same conclusion.One of them a white lady I met in the early nineties who told me that they knew they fight a hopeless war against the majority. And it won’t work to their favour no matter how much they suppress the black majority.
But it seems that Zionists are unable to come to that conclusion. The reason is that they see that their policy of suppression and land theft work very well. They are strong using deception, in addition to investing fairytales about eternal suffering, to get support from the western world, the US in particular.
In the time being the reality is that the picture has become darker for Palestinians.
The Zionists reached goals that they never dreamt of achieving, Arab states are talking openly with them, many African nations opened to them, India, the country which historically was on the Palestinian side, has shifted its position towards the Israeli side.
We are in the Zionist era; a Palestinian intellectual told me the other day. What he said to reflect the feeling of millions of Palestinians who feel they are left alone facing the Us and Zionists.
However, despite the current dark picture, we remember the crusaders again. After 200 years they were defeated. This will be the fate of Zionists no matter what they do. The struggle against Zionism must continue stronger than before. It is a long struggle that shall end with defeating Zionists.
Dr. Salim Nazzal, a Palestinian-Norwegian historian on the Middle East, He has written extensively on social and political issues in the region.
AI and Predictive Justice in our Courts: Paying heed to exigencies of the responsibilities and the risks
by Dr Jaspal Kaur Sadhu Singh
The use of AI in all facets of life is expected and steps taken to introduce it in the administration of justice is commendable. However, on the backfoot of the challenges of predictive justice, we cannot defend to the hilt its efficiency and shrug our responsibilities without a tenable assessment of the risks.
The Art of the Deal,
Pentagon-Style: Wars Without Victories, Weapons Without End
by William J Astore
“Dopes and babies,” Mister President? No, just men who are genuinely skilled in the art of the deal. Small wonder America’s leader is upset. For when it comes to the military-industrial complex and its power and prerogatives, even Trump has met his match. He’s been out-conned. And if the rest of us remain silent on the subject, then so have we.
A Radical Call To Action
by Robert Hunziker
A radical call to action has never been more vital than today, as the abomination of capitalism known as neoliberalism tears apart society from stem to stern, continuing the grand experiment that originated under the watchful eyes and vision of aristocratic plantation-owners like Washington and Jefferson as wealthy patriots.
A radical call to action has never been more vital than today, as the abomination of capitalism known as neoliberalism tears apart society from stem to stern, continuing the grand experiment that originated under the watchful eyes and vision of aristocratic plantation-owners like Washington and Jefferson as wealthy patriots.
In honor of their hard fought war to avoid taxation as much as possible, Trump retroactively honored them with a gigantic tax cut for their distant namesakes, the wealthy.
Lo and behold,he has hardened the battle lines between them (1%) versus us (99%). Will the lines be crossed and how so?
The Trump tax cut for corporations and rich individuals drops a trillion and a half ($1.5T) out of the hands of federal tax collectors, helping to sustain a $1 trillion unsustainable deficit that makes Democrat deficits look like small potatoes. “Instead of trickling down to workers, the 2017 tax cuts have largely served to line the pockets of already wealthy investors—further increasing inequality—with little to show for it.” (Trump’s Corporate Tax Cut Is Not Trickling Down, Center for American Progress, Sept. 26, 2019)
Meanwhile, assuming Trump gets away scot-free with his impeachment proceedings, he’ll likely use that miscarriage of justice to enhance his standing among easily swayed impressionable voters as well as solidifying his overt ownership of dumbed-down members of Congress. It’s mind numbing and would be comical if not for the tragedy that’s unfolding.
Forthwith, it’s time to sharpen swords, as the onset of full-dress authoritarianism by the least qualified president in history is sure to ensue, aka: fascism in full living color. The previews are over.
A radical call to action, similar to the 60s, may be the country’s only salvation. In that regard, a guidebook to what ails society is a requirement so that radical fighters thoroughly understand why, who, and what they’re fighting.
Fortunately, there is a good radical textbook already in publication. It explains what eco warriors encounter during the late stages of capitalism, like today. It just so happens that’s the underlying footnote on almost every page of The Big Heat (AK Press, 2018)
It’s a wonderful to me filled with eyewitness events,brass tacks explanations of rampant ecological damage, and it explains how humanity and the planet have become incompatible largely because of wrong politics and upside down economics that wreak havoc for the great majority of people that purportedly live in a democracy, as a rank odor drifts by.
Meanwhile and of utmost importance, the prescient words of Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank, co-authors of The Big Heat: “The world may be changing faster than humans can properly grasp which only means we must alter our perspective and change our tactics to defend it. In short, it’s time to get radical.” (pg.2)
The Big Heat comprehensively, very comprehensively, covers the anthropogenic footprint, from loss of wolf habitat – stupid humans trampling landscape – oceans without fish – and lots more but most importantly it’s a Full Monty exposure of America’s insanity politics. As for one example of one among many: “Pesticides, Neoliberalism and the Politics of Acceptable Death.” (pg. 183)
Really? “Acceptable Death”
But, first to start at the start, the initial article, “The Wolf at Trout Creek” finds co-author Jeffrey St. Clair on a field trip in Yellowstone National Park, or thereabouts, to observe bison and wolves. Along the way, he accidentally (of course it’s accidental)plunges down a mossy cliff at “a waterfall in the Absaroka Mountains, ripping the nail off my big toe.” (pg. 8)
That article includes the fate of one of the most important animals (the wolf) for maintaining healthy ecosystems. And, sorrowfully, it includes mention of the state of Idaho granting 6,000 hunting licenses to gun down, in cold blood,“an allotment” of 220 wolves. How could they miss?
Not only that, but with so many trigger-happy guys/gals out and about, it’s a wonder they don’t shoot and kill each other (shades of Dick Cheney) They probably do kill somebody but we’ll never, tongue in cheek, hear about it, Evidently, wolf eradication is a big political draw in the great state of Idaho.
The Big Heat, inclusive of 387 pages and 50 stand alone articles, is an exposé of the detrimental impact of the neoliberal brand of capitalism, as, time and again, it feasts upon ruination of federal rules and regulations which impede corporate profits, even if only by a slight margin.
Indeed, the book brings to surface, for all to see,some behind scenes maneuvers initiated by powerful lobbyists to upend safeguards for all of the citizenry, which, one would think, could also impact their own families (the lobbyists).But, then again,when playing in the big rough andtumble playground of payoff politics, money talks, people get hurt, who cares?
For example, in the article: “Pesticides, Neoliberalism, and the Politics of Acceptable Death” (Pg. 183-188) the food and chemical industries lobbied hard for decades to remove the Delaney Clause, which served to block carcinogens in processed foods ever since the 1950s, but that blockade was removed by Congress in 1996, signed by President Clinton.
“With the Delaney Clause dead on the floor of Congress, some 80 pesticides that were about to be outlawed as carcinogens now remain in use.” (Pg. 184) The shock value of that one simple sentence speaks volumes.
It should be noted The Big Heat isn’t the only one to take note of harmful alterations to federal regulations, especially regarding food safety. According to the irrepressibly brilliant Donella Meadows (The Limits to Growth – a classic): “It’s probably just as well that the clear, brave language of Delaney no longer stands to deceive us into thinking that our food supply is risk-free. How much risk there really is, no one knows.” (Donella Meadows, Farewell to the Delaney Amendment, Sustainability Institute, 1996)
Really! “How much risk there really is, no one knows.” Hmm.
Meanwhile, back to St. Clair/Frank for more on toxic stuff: According to Dr. Joseph Weissman, professor of medicine at UCLA, cancer killed 3 out of every 100 Americans in 1900 but nowadays it’s 33 out of every 100. “Weissman reckons that a fair slice of this explosion in cancer mortality can be laid at the door of petro-chemicals, particularly those used by the food industry.” (Pg. 183)
Then, does that mean that Americans are consuming cancer-causing foods, which, over time, alter or destroy human cells? Well, for starters: “The average apple and peach has eight different pesticides embedded in it. Grapes have six and celery five. Children get as much as 35 percent of their likely lifetime dose of such toxins by the time they are five.” (Pg. 185)
After all, toxins cumulate in the body over time before striking hard at tissues, and such, otherwise known as human organs, blood, and bone. Along those lines, here’s proof that something is horribly wrong: According to a Rand Corporation 2017 study (Chronic Conditions in America: Price and Prevalence) nearly 150 million Americans are living with at least one chronic condition of which 100 million have two or more chronic conditions.
Meaning, nearly fifty percent (50%) of Americans (whew!) live with at least one chronic condition, like diabetes, high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s, high cholesterol, arthritis, Parkinson’s, and heart disease. Sound familiar? Almost every family in America has at least one family member with a chronic condition.
Is that normal, to be expected, or is something somewhere somehow horribly wrong?
Rand calculates that, over time, it’ll translate into more than $1 trillion per year in overall health care costs. Then, what of universal health care? It’ll soon become an absolute necessity. Alternatively, millions will suffer and then, of course, they’ll die while suffering even more.
The Big Heat is an important book. It exposes disasters that ricochet straight out of neoliberalism dicta like bolts of lightning.And, it humanizes the importance of fighting back. It brings to light individual heroes who sacrifice their own safety to benefit society at large, yet mainstream news and governmental officials inevitably label these real American heroes as terrorists or criminals. That’s one more sign that something is horribly wrong.
“On the Front Lines of the Climate Change Movement: Mike Roselle Draws a Line”brings to light society’s stupid treatment ofeco heroes. (pg. 295) Roselle, a co-founder of Earth First, stood up to mountain top coal removal. After all, somebody had to stand up to sucha deadly, putrid business that was responsible in December 2008 for a major spill of more than 500 million gallons of highly toxic coal ash into the Tennessee River, 40 times larger than the Exxon Valdez in Alaska. The total costs for toxic water of downstream cities and assorted environmental costs are still not known to this day.
Because Mike Roselle stood up to the coal interests, a Fox TV affiliate aired a story about him, labeling Roselle: “An eco terrorist… tomorrow night don’t miss the ‘Roselle Report’ when we’ll take a closer look at how this man’s radical methods of protest may put lives at stake in West Virginia.” (pg. 295)
In Fox News’ view: The man standing nose-to-nose to stop a caterpillar tractor from razing a mountaintop is a dangerous terrorist.
The Big Heat is a treasure trove built upon blood, sweat, and tears, compiling years of hard work and astute research to help people better understand a bastardized psycho-socio-politico-economic system, i.e. neoliberalism, which is kinda like an outer space soulless alien devoid of humanity taking control over the planet.
The most critical portion of The Big Heat is found on pages 373-377, the Epilogue, The End of Illusion. It nails down the overriding issue, exposing the illusion of “hope… hope is the enemy. The antidote is action.”
After all“hope” and “groupie protests” are dead-enders to nowhere.
Then, what is a radical call to action?
Here’s what it’s not: It is not marching a couple of times a year; it is not typing your name on a Move On petition; it is not a selfie with a celebrity protesting fracking in front of the governor’s mansion.
“Action is standing arm-in-arm before water cannons and government snipers on the frozen plains of North Dakota… hanging from a fragile perch 150-feet up in Douglas fir tree in an ancient forest grove slated for clear-cutting…chaining yourself to a fracking rig… or camping out in the blast zone at a Mountain Top Removal site in the hills of West Virgina…Action is stopping bad shit from going down.” (pg. 374)
The time for one-off protests is over.They don’t work.And, most likely none of them work, one-off or not.
If they did work, especially when consideration is given to the number of global climate change rallies and demonstrations worldwide these past few years, then CO2 would not be continuing at ever-faster rates (setting new record levels in 2019) blanketing the atmosphere, where it stays for at least 100 years. That’s the problem.
Earth’s sister planet Venus’ atmosphere is 96.5% CO2 by volume. Its temperature is 864F.
Carbon counts!
Robert Hunziker, MA, economic history DePaul University, awarded membership in Pi Gamma Mu International Academic Honor Society in Social Sciences is a freelance writer and environmental journalist who has over 200 articles published, including several translated into foreign languages, appearing in over 50 journals, magazines, and sites worldwide. He has been interviewed on numerous FM radio programs, as well as television.
The
fires in Australia: Climate-warming crisis leads to outrage and solidarity
by Debbie Brennan
Australia’s very disasters prove the urgency! Instead of appealing to a parliamentary process that exists solely to protect capital, let’s take the reins. Organise for the nationalisation of energy under worker, Indigenous and community control. Make the fossil fuel culprits pay for the full restoration of the communities, lands and ecosystems they’ve destroyed. And it’s time big business pays back their long-excused taxes. Reversing climate warming will bring the change we so desperately need.
Intense foreboding hung over Australia in September. Spring was the driest on record and summer, the dreaded fire season, was months away. Already, huge fires were raging in Queensland and New South Wales (NSW) — 130 in all, including an ancient rainforest! We knew this summer would be hell on Earth, and it is.
By mid-January, 28 people had been killed, nearly 11 million hectares (more than 27 million acres) burned, 2,000 homes destroyed, whole towns gone, communities displaced and First Nations people dislocated from their traditional lands. Over a billion animals perished, including 30 percent of Australia’s iconic koalas. Toxic smoke penetrated towns and cities, pushing air quality to extremely dangerous levels. And more fires broke out in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.
A young firefighter was killed in December when a “fire tornado” flipped his truck. This freak event taught shocked Australians that, under certain conditions, a fire can create its own deadly weather system.
Climate denying PM goes AWOL. As the magnitude of the tragedy unfolded, Prime Minister Scott Morrison secretively escaped to Hawaii for a vacation. But the white-hot anger of those back home forced him to return. He came out of hiding, acknowledged public “anxiety,” but insisted these “natural disasters” are a normal part of Australian life.
Science says otherwise. In early September, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) reported an unprecedented warming of the Antarctic, which would affect much of eastern Australia in the coming months. The north-south movement of westerly winds, responsible for the rain-bearing cold fronts across southern Australia, would change direction and bypass the continent.
Worst affected, warned BOM, would be southern Queensland and NSW, where rainfall had decreased 11 percent since the 1990s while temperatures, heat waves and fire risk increased. The region has also been in drought since 2017, and this conjuncture of trends is a first.
There is nothing normal about these fires. Bigger, more frequent and fierce, they are the product of human-caused climate warming.
Fossil fuel champion. Australia is the world’s largest coal and gas exporter, and these industries have willing servants in the nation’s top politicians — regardless of what party dominates. In 2017, Morrison brought a lump of coal into Parliament and touted its environmental and economic virtues. He continues to prove his value to the fossil barons. Against massive popular protest and scientific warnings, he supported the energy conglomerate Adani to mine central Queensland’s Galilee Basin, one of the largest untouched coal reserves in the world. Just last November, after Victoria Police violently cracked down on protesters outside the International Mining and Resources Conference in Melbourne, Morrison announced plans to protect the mining sector from “environmental anarchists.” His government criminalises protest, including “secondary boycotts,” that disrupts business, potentially or actually — laws similar to those used against unions.
His government has just cut $451 million in disaster recovery funding. Then, shamed into appearing to do something, Morrison announced a new bushfire relief fund of $2 billion — minuscule against its $42 billion annual subsidies to fossil fuel.
Global reaction. World horror and help has been breathtaking. Facebook was inundated with posts seeking how to support the fire victims. People opened their homes to the suddenly homeless. Rescue centres, so overwhelmed by the volumes of donated food and clothing, called out for money instead. Victoria Trades Hall Council mobilised unionists to do everything from handling hazardous materials to cooking and serving food. Firefighters came from as far away as the United States and Canada, and as near as Aotearoa (New Zealand). Third graders in Boston held a bake sale to “Help Save Animals in Australia!” Crafters around the world sent parcels for wildlife victims, from joey pouches and koala mittens to knitted bird nests.
Turning outrage into united resistance. On January 10, rage and action fused across our fire-ravaged country. This sharp crescendo of climate militancy — building on the youth-led global movement that brought Australian cities to a standstill just months earlier — is what Morrison wants to crush.
Fearful of massive climate demonstrations, Victoria Police and the state government intimidated protest organisers to cancel Melbourne’s rally. But the bullying backfired. Up to 30,000 people came out, even angrier and undeterred by the torrential rain. Sydney’s 30,000-plus and the tens of thousands in other cities aroused up to 100,000 protesters across the country.
However, this powerful anger and energy is being derailed into parliamentary business as usual. The central demand raised by rally organisers to “Sack ScoMo” (Prime Minister Scott Morrison) does not address the problem — profit. Equally misleading are Green Party Members of Parliament who peddle the illusion that an environmentally friendly form of capitalism is possible.
Those in the path of climate change destruction have to look elsewhere for leadership in this resistance struggle — ourselves. First Nations have an affinity with the natural world. They, along with workers, have a high stake in making the environment safe. We have the know-how and the need to protect our habitation. Our survival depends on it. First Nations people have thousands of years of experience in managing the land, including the use of fire. Workers have centuries of expertise in running scientific, medical, agricultural and service industries. The union movement needs to return to its rank-and-file roots so that the workforce can organise itself democratically, and fiercely protect our earth.
Australia’s very disasters prove the urgency! Instead of appealing to a parliamentary process that exists solely to protect capital, let’s take the reins. Organise for the nationalisation of energy under worker, Indigenous and community control. Make the fossil fuel culprits pay for the full restoration of the communities, lands and ecosystems they’ve destroyed. And it’s time big business pays back their long-excused taxes. Reversing climate warming will bring the change we so desperately need.
Send feedback to the author at debbie.brennan@optusnet.com.au
Violence Against Dalits And Women On The Rise In Uttar Pradesh
by Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Let us hope the media find time to look into the social crisis in Uttar Pradesh and the
nature of violence without any specific attempt made by the chief minister. You cant fight against all forms of social evils through administrative high handedness. Uttar Pradesh need social cohesion, equality and fraternity
Goodbye!
by Sonali Chanda
Though a new world ,a new child will born,
from my ashes,like a Phynix,
The child will roar,but I’ll not be there to hear!!
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