The Greanville Post —Vol. VII- 2013

Something to think about—(put cursor over scroller to stop it)

We're engaged in a protracted mass communications battle, a contest of propagandas, Their object is to prop up the system's legitimacy; ours precisely the opposite. The core of a system's illegitimacy is nothing more nor less than its easily demonstrable Orwellian nature. If it claims to be a democracy it must be a plutocracy; if it proclaims to defend the safety of its population, it actively endangers it; if it struts around loudly shouting its allegiance to freedom and the rule of law, it is in actuality a cynical hidden dictatorship; If it brags about its "free press", then you know for sure that it is an abject, servile tool of the power elites. Of course the most infamous contradiction is that when this hypocritical scum kneel before the altar of peace they are actively engaged in making war. On and on. Always the opposite of what it claims. In America, especially, anyone awake can see that readily. But unfortunately the majority are still asleep.—Sean Lenihan •••The cowardice and duplicity of Congress, above all, the Democrats, and the subservience of the media, exhibited in their response to the exposure of the NSA spying programs, encourage the military and intelligence agencies to go even further in their drive toward dictatorship. Mark Udall, the Democratic senator presented as the most “outspoken” critic of the spying programs, began his interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” program by pledging his support to the “war on terror” and denouncing leaks of classified information.—Barry Grey••••From Athens to Paris to Brazil, there is growing realization that politics as usual just won’t cut it anymore. We will always lose if we play by their rules rather than invent new forms of struggle, new social movements, and new sensibilities. The defense of the earth requires immediate and decisive action: logging roads need to be blocked, driftnets need to be cut, and cages need to be emptied. But these are piecemeal and reactive measures, and in addition to these tactics, radical movements and alliances must be built that unites struggles on behalf of humanity, nonhuman animals, and the earth in a politics of total liberation. Resistance is the oxygen of the future. Live to resist, resist to live.—Steve Best••••For over a century now US ambassadors have acted as fifth columns in the nations they are embedded in, their role chiefly to foster corporate and plutocratic power and coordinate machinations against any truly pro-democratic government.

No paid vacation? You must be an American

AMERICAN STUDIES, GREAT HYPOCRISY, INDECENT SLIMEBALLS, INEQUALITY, INTERNATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL REPORTAGE, MEDIA CRITICISM, MEDIA TURDS, PLUTOCRATIC POWER, THE LABOR FRONT 1 Response »

May 282013

Morales: Simply ignorant or a careerist boot licker?

Morales: To vacate or not to vacate, that is the question.

Note: We were surprised—almost shocked—to see this report on a GE-controlled media channel, NBC Today. It’s a bit superficial, typical of American TV, but at least it makes an important point. Of the FOUR presenters, Matt Lauer gave the story the fairest slant, commenting admiringly on the foreign models with generous paid vacation, while Natalie Morales, army brat and tv vixen, was a bit equivocal, remarking that Europe, well, suffered from high unemployment (!). Apparently Morales, in her celebrity tower, has not heard yet how hard unemployment is hitting the American population. In any case, we’ll let her explain how unemployment levels relate to what this story is presenting.—PG

The U.S. is the only country CEPR (Center for Economic and Policy Research) examined that doesn’t mandate paid vacation time. Continue reading »

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Death toll in Bangladesh factory collapse reaches 950

ABOMINATIONS, BOUGHT POLITICIANS & PHONIES, BOURGEOIS VALUES, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, CULTURE & CRITICISM, EXTREME WEALTH, GLOBAL NEOLIBERALISM, IDIOTIZED PUBLICS, IMPERIALISM, INEQUALITY, INTERNATIONAL REPORTAGE, LIBERAL BETRAYALS, MEDIA SCUM, PLUTOCRATIC POWER, SICK SOCIETY, THE LABOR FRONT Comments Off

May 102013

By Sarath Kumara and Wimal Perera , wsws.org
UPDATE: Rescuers now put the figure at 1127 victims.

The Rana Plaza tragedy: totally avoidable in a compassionate and well governed world. The site of the garment factory building collapse is in Savar, Bangladesh.

The death toll of the Savar building collapse reached 950 by Thursday evening, refuting earlier claims of the Bangladesh government and business organisations, which put the number of deaths at a lower figure. Continue reading »

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Big Labor’s Tool of Empire

AMERICAN STUDIES, american way of life, ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTI-NEOLIBERALISM, ANTIWAR, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, THE LABOR FRONT, THE PENTAGON-MEDIA COMPLEX Comments Off

May 102013

The Reprehensible Meddling of the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center

by ALBERTO C. RUIZ

For over a century now US ambassadors have acted as fifth columns in the nations they are embedded in, their role chiefly to foster corporate and plutocratic power and coordinate machinations against any pro-democratic government.

Amb. William Brownfield: “Career diplomat.” Beware of such highfalutin terms. For over a century now US ambassadors have acted as fifth columns in the nations they are embedded in, their role chiefly to foster corporate and plutocratic power and coordinate machinations against any truly pro-democratic government.

Just before the April 14 Presidential elections in Venezuela, RT News reported on a Wikileaks Cable from 2006 in which, in the words of RT, then “ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield, outlines a comprehensive plan to infiltrate and destabilize former President Hugo Chavez’ government,” including through programs of the USAID and its Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI). On May Day, Bolivian President Evo Morales informed the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia that he wanted USAID to leave Bolivia because he (quite reasonably) suspected USAID of trying to subvert his own government as well. Continue reading »

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Class tensions in Europe at the breaking point

ANNOTATED NEWS, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, GREAT HYPOCRISY, IMPERIALISM, INEQUALITY, SOCIAL CHANGE, SOCIAL DEMOCRACY, THE LABOR FRONT Comments Off

Feb 112013

Peter Schwarz, wsws.org

As usual, it is a social democrat, the ideal Trojan Horse against the masses, that carries out the most brutal “readjustments” for the sake of capitalist viability.

Class tensions in Europe are rapidly intensifying. The ruling class will not rest until it has imposed the full burden of the international financial crisis on the working class. Its aim is to destroy the social gains of the post-war period and slash wages in Europe to a level comparable with those in China and India. Continue reading »

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Target vs. Wal-Mart

AMERICAN STUDIES, ANTI-CORPORATISM, THE LABOR FRONT Comments Off

Nov 232012

Is Target Corporation Any Better for Workers?

By Chris Serres
(First published in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in 2005)

It was the fall of 2001, and a chorus of boos erupted at Target’s annual sales meeting when a senior executive at the company flashed Wal-Mart’s name and logo on an enlarged screen.

“This,” he said, pointing at the logo, “is the evil empire.” For years, Target has cultivated an image of itself as the “anti-Wal-Mart,” a retailer that refuses to sacrifice workplace standards in the pursuit of higher sales and stock prices. Continue reading »

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Five Easy Post-Election Predictions (No Matter Who Wins)

AMERICAN STUDIES, ANTI-COMMUNISM, ANTI-CORPORATISM, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, ROTTEN CULTURE, THE LABOR FRONT Comments Off

Nov 092012

By Shamus Cooke

It’s true that Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have many political differences. But they also agree on many essential policies; enough to make the next four years easily predictable, no matter who wins. Here are five predictions based on the most important shared beliefs of the two candidates:

1. The war on unions will continue. The Republicans are explicitly anti-union, while the Democrats are pro-union in words, but anti-union in practice. Obama’s much touted Race to the Top national education policy directly targets the heart of the teacher’s unions — the most powerful union in the country — by attacking seniority rights and restricting wages and benefits. Also, Democratic and Republican governors on a state by state basis aim to either carve giant concessions from public employees, or take away their rights as unionists altogether — the lesser evil policy of demanding concessions (Democrats) is but one step from ending collective bargaining (Republicans). As the recession grinds on, this bi-partisan anti-union policy will intensify, no matter who is president. The aim of this anti-union policy is to lower wages for all workers, since unions artificially skew the labor market to the benefit of workers in general; attacking the unions is thus an attack on all workers, organized or not, so that corporations can regain “profitability” by having their labor costs lowered. Continue reading »

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WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

ACTIVISTS & HEROES, AMERICAN STUDIES, BETTER HUMANITY, CITIZEN TOOLS, CLASS STRUGGLE, THE LABOR FRONT Comments Off

Oct 282012

AFL-CIO’s head Richard Trumka: does he have it in him to lead labor out of the Democratic Party illusion?

Issued by the Emergency Labor Network (ELN)
emergencylabor@aol.com

With the four 2012 presidential and vice presidential debates now history, what is particularly striking is that no questions were asked or answers given with regard to labor’s rights. The irony is that the Democratic Party is heavily dependent on trade unionists to do the heavy lifting in order to win the election: organizing millions of home calls, staffing the phone lines, contributing a fortune, etc.

What has labor received in return?

We got no support for the Employee Free Choice Act (card check), nothing in relation to labor reform legislation, imposition of the “Free Trade” agreements over labor’s vehement opposition, cuts in federal workers’ pensions to pay for the payroll tax holiday, and the list goes on. Continue reading »

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Capitulation in Chicago?

ANNOTATED NEWS, ANTI-CORPORATISM, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA, TACTICS & STRATEGIES, THE LABOR FRONT Comments Off

Sep 152012

By Stephen Lendman

Francisco Perez receives a heart from a student as hundreds of CPS teachers, students and their supporters rally for teachers at the Logan Square monument Friday, Sept. 14, 2012.

By the time this article circulates, it may be all over but the shouting, finger-pointing, and bitterness among rank-and-file loyalists over another union sellout. As this is written, it looks that way. It won’t surprise. Across America, union bosses keep prioritizing their own positions and welfare over workers they represent. Instead of fighting for rights they deserve, they capitulate to corporate and government scoundrels. Wisconsin public workers learned the hard way. The state was ground zero to save public worker rights.

During February and March 2011, they waged an epic struggle. It captured international attention. It ended with a whimper, not a bang. When the dust settled, they lost jobs, wages, benefits, and bargaining rights. Continue reading »

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OpEds: Strike Is the Best Lesson Chicago Teachers Union Could Have Planned

ACTIVISTS & HEROES, ANNOTATED NEWS, CLASS STRUGGLE, POLEMICS, THE LABOR FRONT Comments Off

Sep 102012

By Staff, Occupied Chicago Tribune

A Chicago teacher and her two young sons on the picket line in front of the Board of Education on Monday, September 10. (Photo: Micah Uetricht)

When a teachers’ strike started to look like a realistic possibility earlier this spring, CPS Chief Communications Officer Becky Carroll warned the readers of Catalyst, “Any talk of a strike is the wrong message to send our schools, students and taxpayers.” For her, and the rest of the privatization evangelists at CPS, the “right” message is simple—shut up and do what you’re told.

Of course, Carroll, who makes $165,000 per year, isn’t paid that kind of money to tell the truth. Luckily for us, neither Chicago teachers nor the larger education community are giving much credence to CPS talking points.

The corporate education “reformers” have been experimenting on Chicago’s most underserved students and schools for more than two decades, trying any quick-fix makeovers so long as such schemes keep the public out of the discussion on how best to educate our city’s children. The so-called innovations taking place in charter and turnaround schools are making chaos of students’ formative years and relegating the art of teaching to rote instruction. Continue reading »

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ARCHIVES: A portrait of America in decline

ANNOTATED NEWS, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA, THE LABOR FRONT Comments Off

Apr 272012

Reposted due to reader request.

By Patrick Martin, WSWS.ORG, a socialist organization.
Thank you, WSWS.ORG.

Originally published 31 October 2011

A series of reports over the past ten days—on poverty, wages, income inequality and social mobility—have painted a portrait of America starkly at odds with the official mythology of the United States as the land of unlimited economic opportunity, the country with the world’s highest standard of living.

The World Socialist Web Site has naturally drawn attention to these reports, but Marxist critics and opponents of American capitalism did not collect this data. On the contrary, the figures come from US government agencies like the General Accounting Office, the Congressional Budget Office, the Social Security Administration, the Bureau of the Census and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Continue reading »

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Older Entries

Many topics to choose from

There’s violence and there’s violence

Revolutionary Violence vs Institutionalized Violence

"There were two 'Reigns of Terror,' if we could but remember and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passions, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon a thousand persons, the other upon a hundred million; but our shudders are all for the "horrors" of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty and heartbreak? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief terror that we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror - that unspeakable bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves..." —Mark Twain, writing about the French Revolution.