A white couple was confronted by angry shoppers inside a Walmart in Marshall, Minnesota, on Saturday after they were seen wearing matching Nazi Swastika face masks.
“You’re sick,” an angry Walmart customer can be heard telling the woman wearing the swastika mask. “Yeah, you’re sick.”
The woman responds by flipping off the man recording her.
“You have an illness. You can’t be American and wear that mask,” the man filming says as the woman’s husband, who is also seen wearing a swastika mask, throws his hands up in the air. “You cannot. We literally had a war about this.”
“I kill Nazis. My grandfather killed Nazis,” another shopper can be heard telling the woman.
“I’m not a Nazi. I’m trying to tell people what’s going to happen in America,” the woman claims.
“You’re wearing a swastika,” a shopper fires back at her.
“If you vote for Biden, you are going to be in Nazi Germany,” she says. “That’s what it is going to be like.”
“You’re sick,” a shopper says. “You’re literally wearing a Nazi flag right now,” another shopper tells the woman.
“Yeah, because socialism is going to happen here in America,” the woman says.
“You’re sick. We literally had a f*cking war about this. The Nazis lost. Please don’t wear those masks,” the man filming tells the woman. “You’re sick. Turn off the Fox News and wake up.”
“Take off the mask right now,” another customer demands.
In the midst of a pandemic, when mail-in voting will be more important than ever, this move to corrupt and politicize the postal service could prove catastrophic to the validity of the 2020 election.
This is Louis DeJoy He.donated millions to the Trump administration and has hosted Trump campaign events in his home. Why is this important?
Because Donald Trump just recently appointed DeJoy as the new Postmaster General.
Since Trump couldn’t put an end to mail-in ballots, his appointment of DeJoy gives him the opportunity to have a strongly biased head of the USPS.
In the midst of a pandemic, when mail in voting will probably be more important than ever, this move to corrupt and politicize the postal service could prove catastrophic to the validity of the 2020 election.
Buckle in, kids. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Anyone who was paying attention recognizes the STICKY KOCH FINGERS! Let's stop ignoring KOCH!
THE POSTAL SERVICE!
Interesting article...and how come SUSAN COLLINS is always opposing the best interests of her constituents?
[KOCH golfs at Mar-A-Lago]
EXCERPTS:
Big Trump donor—surprise—Louis DeJoy
What we discovered in our research was that Charles Koch, who's one of the richest billionaires in the world, and who leads one of the biggest privately held corporations in the world, Koch Industries, has been staking efforts by people who have been working to privatize the Postal Service for more than five decades, basically. So we traced the early funding of Charles Koch of the Reason Magazine and Reason Foundation, as it was working to popularize the term “privatization,” and specifically target the Postal Service for privatization. Also, after Charles Koch became the biggest funder of the Libertarian Party, its platform included direct abolition of the Postal Service.
Then in the ’80s, his right-hand man went on a commission, set up by Reagan, that also called for the privatization of the Postal Service. His group then brought on board the Reagan administration official who was behind that, a guy named James Miller, who continued to push for postal privatization through the ’90s.
He was rewarded with a position on the Postal Board of Governors during the George W. Bush administration, pushed through in part by Susan Collins of Maine,
It’s no surprise that first prize, or the blue ribbon, for exceeding 2°C above baseline goes to the Arctic with permafrost that covers 25% of the Northern Hemisphere. Recognition is long overdue, as it’s been totally neglected far too long by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
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It’s no surprise that first prize, or the blue ribbon, for exceeding 2°C above
baseline goes to the Arctic with permafrost that covers 25% of the Northern Hemisphere. Recognition is long overdue, as it’s been totally neglected far too long by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
It’s no surprise that first prize, or the blue ribbon, for exceeding 2°C above baseline goes to the Arctic with permafrost that covers 25% of the Northern Hemisphere. Recognition is long overdue, as it’s been totally neglected far too long by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
This crucial nugget of knowledge comes by way of a recent virtual science session (1:27 in length) sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences and can be watched in its entirety on YouTube at:
The webcast is entitled: Thawing Arctic Permafrost: Regional and Global Impacts, hosted by John P. Holdren, Teresa & John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
The timing couldn’t be better. The Arctic Circle has been very newsworthy. As such, people must be wondering what to make of the disturbing news that’s unsettling, to an extreme.
According to Euronews, as of July 14th:
“The extreme north and beyond the Arctic Circle has this year registered record temperatures. On June 20, the meteorological service of Russia recorded a peak of 38°C in Verkhoyansk, the highest recorded temperature since records began in the late nineteenth century.”
“This is contributing to the rapid melting of permafrost, the region’s frozen ground, on which are built many industrial construction sites and buildings, many for mining hydrocarbons,” Ibid.
“The melting of the poles that act as temperature controls for atmospheric currents has consequences for the entire climate,” Ibid.
Decidedly, what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic.
According to Professor Holdren: “Temperatures across the Arctic are increasing 2 to 3 times faster than the global average… The Arctic will continue to be the leading edge of climate change.”
The first speaker on the virtual webcast was Dr. Susan M. Natali, Associate Scientist and Arctic Program Director, Woods Hole Research Center, an Arctic ecologist focusing on the ecosystem and carbon cycling consequences of permafrost thaw.
According to Dr. Natali, the Arctic temperature anomaly is already 2°C warmer than the long-term average. The consequences include sea ice loss, melting of Greenland ice sheets, and permafrost thaw.
Permafrost thaw is monitored by boreholes drilled at depths of 20 meters (66 feet) throughout the Arctic. Thus, measured temperature changes avoid seasonal dynamics. These deep permafrost temperatures, in some instances, have been measured for up to 40 years. Results: Permafrost temps are markedly warming across the board, regardless of season.
Of note, Northern Hemisphere permafrost contains 1100-1500 billion tonnes of carbon in the form of ancient organic matter. For comparison purposes, this is twice the amount of carbon already in the atmosphere, and it is three times as much carbon as in the world’s forest biomass.
An obvious implication of Dr. Natali’s statements is humanity is playing with fire in a very big way by allowing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (cars, planes, and trains, etc.) to run wild, increasing by the month, by the year, by the decade with absolutely no end in sight, none whatsoever. At some point in time all of those billions of tonnes of carbon stored in frozen permafrost will start breaking lose beyond normal background rates and humanity will find its goose cooked, maybe well done.
According to Natali, permafrost carbon emissions are not included in the IPCC’s global carbon budget that targets 2°C or below, preferably below 1.5°C. Well, maybe a suddenly overheated Arctic will bring on an eventual recalculation of how the IPCC looks at and calculates the carbon budget. Better late than never.
And, here’s the distressing part (one of many): Fieldwork by scientists proved that permafrost is already a “net emitter of CO2,” this after thousands of years as a “carbon sink,” but no longer! As such, thousands of years of one of the largest carbon sinks on Earth erased by recklessness of human-generated over-heating ecosystems.
Not only that, according to Natali, permafrost thaw alone is equivalent to ~25% of the IPCC’s allowable emissions to stay below 1.5°C. Yet, the IPCC does not include permafrost in its carbon budget, meaning there’s a very nasty surprise down the line for the rah-rah climate mitigation crowd.
The second virtual speaker was Katey Walter Anthony, Aquatic Ecosystem Ecologist and Professor, Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska/Fairbanks.
Dr. Anthony has done fieldwork throughout Russia with a lot of work in Siberia (a hothouse nowadays). Her research focuses on thermokarst, lake formation, and greenhouse gas methane. Per Dr. Anthony, current climate models in the world do not include carbon emissions from thermokarst lakes. Yet, they’re plentiful with millions of thermokarst lakes expanding and releasing methane all across the Arctic.
Not only that but permafrost soils contain 1500 gigatons of carbon, which according to Dr. Anthony, equates to 150 years of fossil fuel emissions under present conditions. Imagine turning lose a sizeable fraction of that carbon. Once again, nation/states’ carbon emission mitigation plans are dead certain to come up real short of professed goals.
Field tests on thermokarst lakes are conducted by lowering a bubble trap into the water to trap microbial methane seeps as the methane bubbles year round. Bubble traps exist in over 300 lakes throughout the Arctic.
It was 14,000 years ago, as the climate warmed, when permafrost thermokarst lakes flared up on the landscape, bringing 4°C warming over a period of 8,000 years. Nowadays, according to Dr. Anthony, a similar 4°C warming will likely occur over only 80 years in sharp contrast to 8,000 years in the paleoclimate record. Obviously, without her stating as such, it implies a climate system that’s on turbo charger training-wheels, real big ones.
“We are standing at the threshold of abrupt change in permafrost carbon emissions.” (Anthony)
Mercy! And, all of those mitigation plans by 195 nations, but did they ever really get off the ground? The truth is emissions relentlessly climb upwards, ad nauseam. Thus, questioning who’s seriously watching the store?
John Holdren wrapped up the virtual session: We’re probably looking at 80 to 100 gigatons of carbon released from permafrost over this century. In turn, this takes a big bite out of the global carbon budget. According to Dr. Holdren, that prospect is in addition to a global temperature increase, to date, of 1.1°C to 1.2°C above baseline.
Permafrost, which is not included in the global carbon budget by the IPCC, could add 25% to 40%. That’s an enormous problem that lends itself to big trouble down the line. What’s a nation in the throes of carbon emission mitigation plans to do?
Nevertheless, Dr. Holdren, who co-chaired Obama’s President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, says it is still possible to mitigate enough to hold temps to 2°C. But at a cost of ~3% of world GDP. Ahem! He further nearly apologetically suggested that the hit to civilization for failure to mitigate would far exceed that cost, which happens to be 3% of $85T or a whopping $2.55T (that’s trillions). Hello, anybody still out there?
Meanwhile, after years of handwringing and gushing teardrops of green sympathizers, the world is still 80% dependent upon fossil fuels, a fact revealed by Dr. Holdren at the close of his presentation. That’s very troubling.
That’s the same 80% as 50 years ago and a clear signal of absolute failure by governments around the world and a resounding failure by the IPCC to fully implement/organize/promote its heavenly Paris ’15 plans to save the planet. It’s disgraceful!
As for final questions/thoughts via the virtual webcast:
According to Dr. Anthony: The East Siberian Arctic Sea is a place where “we’ve seen really large numbers of CH4 release.”
The following was not discussed in the webcast: Temperatures were recently 30-34C (86-93F) in the East Siberian Arctic Sea (ESAS) region, which region is equivalent in size to Germany France Gr Br Italy and Japan combined and with 75% of the area in 50-80m, shallow waters, allowing quick and easy CH4 release from the subsea permafrost without oxidation. Drilling by other scientists has discovered enormous quantities of frozen methane, and noticeable thinning of the subsea permafrost. Trusted sources that closely follow CH4 emissions in the ESAS region are of the opinion: “It may be out of control.” But, it’s important to note that’s anecdotal information.
Also, disconcertingly, the heaviest season for methane release into the atmosphere has only just begun.
Making matters even worse, at the Top of the World, Arctic Ocean sea surface temperatures, which this time of year are typically 0.3°C (32°F) were recently 12°C (54°F). That’s downright spooky!
Postscript: Scientists have identified the first active methane gas leak in Antarctica, announced July 22nd, discovered by researchers led by Andrew Thurber/Oregon State University, who commented: “I find it incredibly concerning.” (Source: Andrew R. Thurber, et al, Riddles in the Cold: Antarctic Endemism and Microbial Succession Impact Methane Cycling in the Southern Ocean, The Royal Society, July 22, 2020).
Speechless!
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.
Senior activist Medha Patkar launched a youth led, Towards A Better World campaign, in an online session where several youth leaders of Fridays For Future (a global movement led by Greta Thunberg) and other youth activists took part. We must change our life, lifestyle and sources of livelihood for a sustainable and just development, said Medha Patkar.
Senior activist Medha Patkar launched a youth led, Towards A Better World campaign, in an online session where several youth leaders of Fridays For Future (a global movement led by Greta Thunberg) and other youth activists took part. We must change our life, lifestyle and sources of livelihood for a sustainable and just development, said Medha Patkar. “People should commit to at least one thing they will do to make this world a better place” appealed Dr Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay Awardee and Vice President of Socialist Party (India). Dr Pandey is also a key inspiration that has motivated the young people to step forward and launch this campaign.
This newly launched campaign is aimed to encourage everyone to take individual actions to “Be The Change” and make this world a better place. “If you want to make a positive impact on the world and make the world a better place, we urge you to take positive steps that you find worthwhile. Kindly consider committing to Be The Change that you want to incorporate in yourself or have already incorporated. This will help to concretize your personal journey and inspire similar changes in others” said Abhay Jain, who is a graduate of Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India and aspiring fair-trade entrepreneur.
Founder-editor of The Public and noted socialist, Anand Vardhan Singh, said that although COVID-19 pandemic is perceived as a threat, but environment is not. Environment crisis has been brewing since long – but even then climate emergency is not getting the due attention it warrants to save our planet. He shared a quote from Mahatma Gandhi: “Nature works unceasingly according to her own laws, but man violates them constantly.”
Ariadne Papatheodorou, 16 years old climate activist from Fridays For Future movement in Greece said “We as teenagers have to act because global leaders are ignoring the call for urgency over and over again – and because we want to have a future which includes gender equality, human rights and climate change.” She also raised the concern for immigrants and refugees.
Ayesha Imtiaz, a 16 years old climate activist from Fridays for Future in Pakistan shared how the plight of indigenous peoples impacted by pollution had motivated her to step forward and act upon climate crisis. “Pollution also contributes to climate change and spread of diseases. We all need to unite – rather than thinking as a country we need to think as a planet – we are the ones who are causing the problem for our mother Earth and it is our responsibility to change it. Every individual has a power to bring in a change. We should fight climate change together” said Ayesha.
Kingsley Odogwu from Fridays For Future in Nigeria shared how the government had initially used a terror law to shut down the website of Fridays For Future but later revoked the order. “It is the step in right direction as it was an attack against our future.”
Zeno from Youth For Climate in France called for restarting the economy with climate measures in it. “We [rich nations] are in large part responsible for it [climate crisis] and our leaders refuse to see that. That is why we need to work and that is what motivates us.”
Shelani Palihawadana, Sri Lanka’s youth activist on disability and gender rights, said that the island nation is among the top ocean polluters in terms of releasing plastic.
Among the most respected development justice activists, Medha Patkar, said that even though everyone agrees “climate change is a big issue internationally” but our governments are not acting on the climate emergency. “Governments are supposed to be fulfilling their duty towards the environment, socio-cultural diversity, as well as unity, equity and justice (as per our constitution). These values form the framework for not just our lives but also the governance in this country” reminded Medha Patkar.
There can never be any dichotomy between environment and development. “A present leader said in the parliament that people have to choose between environment or development” said Medha Patkar. “Environment is not just ozone or coal – as it really consists of all sources of livelihood as well as is also the life support.” As it is the humanity which owns the land, water, forests, minerals, air, and other natural resources, so the people must protect them too – as we cannot just depend on the governments alone to protect it, said Medha.
“The youth has to fight against killing, destruction and exploitation of nature, as same cannot be compensated, and losses are such that these are not necessarily quantifiable – as they are qualitative, and damage is irreversible. This happens when the rivers are polluted, groundwater is extracted to an extent that aquifers are also emptied, when glaciers are coming down, and even the agriculture land is being diverted and food security is lost” she added.
Production by masses and not mass production
Medha Patkar reminded the young people about Gandhiji’s message “my life is my message.” She said: “Gandhiji showed us a path of simplicity that would give us a different kind of prosperity which is essential for just and sustainable development. Gandhian economy is the real socialist, sustainable, and equity-based economy. When we want to address the problem of employment, we realize that it could only be through production by masses and not mass production. So, the change must be in everything – in life, lifestyle, and sources of livelihood. If we follow the Gandhian path then the lifestyle changes will again be based upon his conclusions, that the Earth has enough to fulfil every one’s need but no one’s greed. And hence our lifestyle needs to be based on as minimum resources as possible.”
She was speaking from the Narmada valley and said: “I have seen how Adiwasi lifestyle has tried to save the forest, river, and land in the valley of Narmada and they have saved the living beings as well. So, when they fought this battle it was not just for themselves (not only for getting rehabilitated) but also to save the river valley resources because without forest the river cannot flow. And without the river flowing the sea cannot be stopped from coming in. The sea ingress has come into the Narmada up to 50-80 km in past years. We must realize that how badly these development projects are damaging the natural resources. People’s struggle is also a constructive work and a positive statement of what they value.”
Swayam Nirbhar Gaon is must for Atma Nirbhar Bharat
“If we have to go for Atma Nirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) it cannot just be a slogan as we have to have a Swayam Nirbhar Gaon (self-reliant village). Urban communities have already polluted the air – it is not the poor as they pollute the least, but it is the urban rich or elites who pollute it and then shift urban poor into slums in these areas” rightly said Medha Patkar.
Noted ecologist Dr Lubna Sarwath who is also the Telangana General Secretary of Socialist Party (India) said that “young people want their world leaders to see the crisis as a crisis. But leaders are failing to see the crisis as a crisis.” She called upon the young to act upon to save the right to water which is the elixir of life. “We must ensure that every water body is not polluted in our vicinity. Ground aquifers should not be polluted.”
A discussion led by Mallika Bhanot and moderated by Gurumoorthy Mathrubootham was held on environmentally destructive Char Dham highways project in Himalayas connecting Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath on which Chairman of a High Powered Committee appointed by Supreme Court, Ravi Chopra, has given a report with which majority of the members of committee, presumably under the influence of BJP government, do not agree, was also held.
Amin locates Cuba within the Latin American context, and therefrom, it acquires much of its
specificity to him – but not all. While Cuba is the only country to challenge the Monroe Doctrine in Latin America, or at least was, until Venezuela and Nicaragua came onto the scene; it is not only anti-imperialist, but also Communist.
Samir Amin was one of the great anti-imperialist Marxist intellectuals of the 20th century. I have elsewhere called him a ‘global organic intellectual’ because he drew his conclusions from a wealth of primary data little considered by mainstream academe; namely, the sincere theoretical/political reflections of ‘third-world’ radical intellectuals, with whom he engaged in constant discussions, on seven continents, for over five decades (Theodra 2019). It thus becomes apposite on the eve of the 67th anniversary of the Cuban revolution to go over Amin’s comments on Cuba. I hope this will stimulate discussion among comrades with an anti-imperialist and creative (‘shoreless’) Marxist vocation, on crucial questions regarding Cuba today; namely, (1) whether or not there exists a Cuban ‘model’ and the utility of ‘models’ as such (especially in relation to broader postcolonial attacks against universalism generally), (2) what the current political contestation within Cuba looks like, and how we should read the developments of that country’s economic reforms, and (3) lessons to be learned from revolutionary personalities like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.
Amin locates Cuba within the Latin American context, and therefrom, it acquires much of its specificity to him – but not all. While Cuba is the only country to challenge the Monroe Doctrine in Latin America, or at least was, until Venezuela and Nicaragua came onto the scene; it is not only anti-imperialist, but also Communist. Amin finds it remarkable that Cuba displays an internationalism, embodied by it’s people and elite alike, that stands in direct contrast to the Eurocentric pretenses of the rest of the Latin American continent (Amin 2020, 382). That Eurocentrism, Amin stresses, stems from the political revolutions that gained the region independence earlier than Afro-Asia, but simultaneously stained it with imperial aspirations and European pretense (Amin 2014). Cuba traces its revolutions to the revolutions of Jose Marti, of the Mexican peasants who gathered under Zapata, of the Haitian slaves who fought for Toussaint Louverture (Amin 2020, 383). It’s revolution was a social one, and therefore, implemented a model of development wholly distinct from the ‘lumpen development’ that characterizes the rest of the region (Amin 1994, 29). While other Latin American countries implemented ‘import substitution industrialization’ under the Prebischite doctrine of ‘desarrollismo’, Cuba undertook socialist transition, severing the hand of unequal exchange that robbed the island of it’s sugar surpluses for so many years, while simultaneously placing social objectives at the forefront of planning criterion. Social prerogatives guaranteed that growth figures were not pursued by means that produced and re-produced slums, as is being done elsewhere on the continent (Amin 2020, 278; 26). A model of development that does not impoverish the broad mass, is shared by only a few other countries like China and Vietnam (also progenies of socialist revolutions) and together, this vanguard bloc of countries represents a major threat to US hegemony.
Now, Amin considers Cuba an inspiration to countries like Haiti in the region (Amin 2020, 306), but should we call upon a Cuban ‘model’ and invoke policy transposition across borders? Some rightly point to the dangers of negating country-specificity, but Amin considers it a greater danger to neglect our duty to lend ‘every support’ to Cuba against Euro-American sanctions, which, regional parties protest only quietly under the guise of skepticism over the applicability of Cuba’s ‘model’. It is this apotheosization of difference, which Amin has elsewhere pointed to as a pillar of the ‘liberal virus’ (the ideological mode of the neoliberal model), that is a danger (Amin 2004, 56). Why re-invent the wheel when aspects of Cuba’s economy and political structure might save similar countries from disaster? What springs to mind here is the North Korean comparison and what Amin says about the greater ability of Cuba’s democratic management system in handling acute supply shocks of both loans, and logistically crucial materials (Amin 2020, 271). Both Cuba and North Korea faced such shocks in the wake of the Soviet collapse, but in North Korea these shocks cost up to three million lives (Kim et al 2011, 29), while in Cuba they were unable to keep life expectancy from rising (Yaffe 2020, 59). The Cuban model is truly specific, as Amin insists. If we want to protect its specificity, we should not negate the universal elements it carries but hone in on the modifications it made to the Soviet design. Che, among others, Amin notes always had a place – as critics of the Soviet model – within the system itself (Amin 2020, 385). And as such, factors like democratic management and social prerogatives were taken further in Cuba than elsewhere.
What then, can we make of the responses to post-Soviet reality and the contemporary evolution of Cuban economics and politics? Amin notes the analogy between Cuba and other ‘transitional’ economies like China and Vietnam: the ‘partied’ bureaucratic class, constitutes the potential locust of a new bourgeoisie (Amin 2020, 381). That they are primitively accumulating capital by privatizing state assets under their command is uncontroversial, and that they are wrestling with countervailing elements of the Cuban elite (not to mention the broad masses) to secure policy space to privatize and dollarize more, is also undoubted. Amin does not claim to know the proportion of Cuba’s political class committed to socialist-internationalism like one, comrade Risquet, whom Amin had long discussions with and of whose principles he was impressed (Amin 2020, 382). However, he considers it known among significant portions of the higher echelon that the ‘tourism-free trade zones-reliance on foreign capital-dollarization’ complex is not sustainable, in that it produces a disarticulated economic structure which blocks tourist-export sector earnings from being reinvested into the rest of the economy, forcing capital flight and forging new inequalities with a politically destabilizing dimension (Amin 2020, 380-381). An alternative response Amin sketched elsewhere, incorporating autocentric construction on the basis of mobilizing rural demand (or, in the case of small countries like Cuba, demand sourced from regional allies) and incorporating politically-motivated foreign investment from China, which, unlike the profit-driven investment of the West, is open to negotiation and demands for technology transfer, sectoral specificities, and domestic procurement (Amin 2020, 188).
In many ways this is the alternative Che was already articulating as minister of industry. Che opposed the unequal specialization of COMECON and argued for moral rather than material incentives, as well as stronger centralization of the economy. He saw the whole of Soviet society as ‘pre-monopoly capital’ since it combined private property with primitive socialist accumulation; a kind of Frankenstein NEP (Yaffe 2009, 237). Amin reached the same political conclusion through a slightly different economic analysis, seeing the Soviet economy as essentially a carbon copy of the third world nationalist regimes he encountered first hand working in Nasser’s bureaucracy and that of ‘socialist’ Mali. Surpluses were extracted from the countryside to finance industry, rather than rural demand spurring industry, resulting in declining agricultural output, shrinking primary export surpluses, and, finally, total non-investment of surpluses and their use purely to sustain a patrimonial layer of support before the final collapse of the regime (Amin 2016. 33-35). Amin rightly emphasizes that Che was a complex man, whose subtle opinions cannot be reduced to the caricatures often attributed to him (not least because of the paucity of his actual written works). In particular, Amin notes that Che ‘was not unaware’ that the revolutionary struggle in it’s armed stage was only the last stage in the long struggle that starts with mass mobilization. However, according to Amin, Che overestimated the ripeness of ‘third-world’ countries for that final, armed stage (Amin 2020, 282). Perhaps he would have been a better revolutionary today, when COVID and the climate crisis have rapidly accelerated trends and deepened contradictions, bringing on the final stage before the mobilization period has petered out.
Similarly, Amin insists that Fidel was not unaware of the dangers of personality cults. He insists that Fidel did not have one, having seen Fidel ‘tapped on the shoulder by his ministers and told not to repeat himself’ (Amin 2020, 383). Skjerka affirms this sentiment by pointing out that ‘no streets parks or schools’ bear the names of living leaders in Cuba (2004, 336; 373). Compare this to the North Korean case, where the Kim cult is so complete that virtually all other characters have been cut out of the revolutionary roster! (French 2007, 50). Fidel is a special leader – speaking on the South China sea issue, Amin noted that his interlocutors bore facial expressions that said “this man is a dreamer, he is totally unrealistic”: to which he replied, “Yes, people in positions of power, everywhere, even now, think they are realists, but their realpolitik is not realistic. Realism is being revolutionary, acting to change things and not make day-by-day adjustments” (Amin 2020, 379). Fidel is the kind of leader who is revolutionary because is trying to change things. Rare they are, and deserved is the ‘aura’ enjoyed by these leaders (Amin 2020, 380). Neither North Korea nor communist Cuba fell after the deaths of their respective ‘great leaders’. However, internal shifts in their political constellation have been afoot ever since. Insofar as social forces with an interest in continuing Fidel’s prerogative to ‘change things’ and not simply make ‘day-to-day adjustments’ prevail, Cuba will continue to be a vanguard for the entire world in its socio-economic and political relations.
References
Amin, S. (2020). The Long Revolution of the Global South: Towards a New Anti-Imperialist International. Monthly Review Press.
Amin, S. (2014). Latin America Confronts the Challenge of Globalization: A Burdensome Inheritance. Monthly Review. 66(7). 29-34.
Amin, S. (2004). The Liberal Virus: Permanent War and the Americanization of the World. Monthly Review Press.
Amin, S. (1994). Re-reading the Postwar Period: An Intellectual Itinerary. Monthly Review Press.
Kim, S.H. et al (2011). The Survival of North Korea: Essays on Strategy, Economics and International Relations. McFarland and Company.
Theodra, J. (2019). Audacity and Acuity: The Life and Work of Samir Amin. International Critical Thought. 9(4). 617-633.
Yaffe, H. (2009). Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution. Palgrave.
Yaffe, H. (2020). We Are Cuba: How a Revolutionary People Survived In A Post-Soviet World. Yale University Press.
Justin Theodra is a doctoral student in political theory and international relations at the University of Connecticut. He is interested in Samir Amin, Maoism, and Anti-imperialism.
According to one of the social workers in Kashmir, “the government has realization of the fact that there was only one Subhan Hajam in the Dogra era that did not care about his life or livelihood to stop prostitution business in the Valley. There are more than ten million Hajams ready now to lay their life to thwart the conspiracy of Hindutva rulers for robbing Kashmir of its identity, institutions and moral dignity”.
Retrenchment, Attack and Arrest of Journalists during COVID 19
46 journalists and cameramen from the India Today have also faced the same fate. The Indian Express was the first national daily went for pay-cut of their employees. It is also reported that more than 500 journalists from various local odia dailies have also lost their jobs. Though the journalists and columnists are pillars of the mass media, no discussion is happening at anywhere. Nor even any meaningful protest against this authoritarian approach of the media houses is being initiated.
The most stringent nationwide lockdown was imposed during the start of covid19 pandemic. This caused widespread retrenchment and job cuts throughout the country. The journalists of mass media have not also been spared from this. This has been an all India phenomenon. The corporatisation of mass media, like any other business, is always looking for its investment of capital and the profit thereof. As result, in this media business, the fourth pillar of democracy, the security and social safety of the journalists have no value or place. Despite the widespread retrenchment in the media sector, not a single national level newspaper/TV channels takes up the issue. There are “Industrial Dispute Act 1947”, “Working Journalist Act 1955″and “Journalist Labour Board”in the country and there are so many rules and directions also. But the media houses are going on with the retrenchments regularly during the pandemic.
As per the report published in the News click recently, the Times of India has retrenched 18 journalists. Similarly, more than 100 journalists from the Hindu and Hindustan Times have also been retrenched. 46 journalists and cameramen from the India Today have also faced the same fate. The Indian Express was the first national daily went for pay-cut of their employees. It is also reported that more than 500 journalists from various local odia dailies have also lost their jobs. Though the journalists and columnists are pillars of the mass media, no discussion is happening at anywhere. Nor even any meaningful protest against this authoritarian approach of the media houses is being initiated.
The commercial news houses claim as independent one but in practice, it is observed that almost all the media houses, except one or two newspaper/web portals, are the brand wagon of the government. They are engaged in propaganda for the ruler and are influencing the public opinion. They are doing all these in the very interest of their business. Despite of this type of role model of the mainstream media, some of the honest journalists along with a few small news portals are trying their best to speak the truth to the people.
A total failure of handling the covid19 pandemic by the Union as well as the provincial governments is quite clear. The public health is a past now and the reasons of its dilapidated condition is overlooked. The government has failed to provide necessary kits to the doctors, health workers and other associated workers in the country. Almost non-existence of any viable and recognizable research in health sector is overlooked. The government is frequently changing its stand and directions without heeding to any meaningful conclusion. There is a scarcity of medical kits and equipment also.
Besides, there are a lot of instances of corruption in purchasing of various health related equipments which are widely exposed by a number of journalists who are facing the wrath of the employers. Daewel Patel, a web based journalist from Gujrat, reported various aspects of failure of the government of Gujrat for which he was arrested under the sedition act (124A). Similarly, more than 55 journalists including Mr Pawan Choudhury of Bihar and other states like UP, J&K, HP Maharashtra, and Tamilnadu etc. have been ruthlessly arrested on various false charges. So far 22 FIRs have been registered against these journalists in various states.
The leaders and activists from the ruling parties have threatened to kill and rape some of the honest journalists such as Dibya Krista, Rana Ayub and Prasant Kabochia. Recently, the police of Delhi, Hariyana and UP are regularly arresting the leaders and activists of anti-CAA movements in implicating them with certain false and fabricated charges but all these important developments are completely avoided to cover by the mainstream media houses except one or two.
We, the Ganatantrik Adhikar Suraskha Sangathan, Odisha have the view that during lockdown and shutdown the viewers are largely dependent on mainstream media, most likely the TV channels, to adjust their daily schedule with frequently and suddenly changing guidelines of the government in name of checking virus. The TV channels are taking advantage of it and are making more business out of it rather than being a pillar of the democracy. They are becoming propaganda machine of the government and are hiding so many other things from us and choose not to question the government. A social pressure is essential to monitor this sector and alternative medium should be propagated more for a check and balance of their apparent monopoly.
Write your comments to : The President, GASS, Odisha,
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