ANTI-COMMUNISM

ED CURTIN—With the rise of alternate media and a wide array of dissenting voices on the internet, the establishment felt threatened and went on the defensive.  It therefore should come as no surprise that those same elite corporate media are now leading the charge for increased censorship and the denial of free speech to those they deem dangerous, whether that involves wars, rigged elections, foreign coups, COVID-19, vaccinations, or the lies of the corporate media themselves. Having already banned critics from writing in their pages and or talking on their screens, these media giants want to make the quieting of dissenting voices complete.

Now, under conditions of unprecedented crisis, the ruling class is escalating its censorship campaign. It is significant that the IYSSE page and SEP leaders first targeted by Facebook are in Michigan, where the SEP and WSWS have a significant influence in the working class. Last March, as the pandemic was beginning its massive spread in the US, autoworkers in Michigan launched wildcat walkouts against being forced to continue working under unsafe conditions.

The cumulative weight of enormous anticommunist propaganda—unrelenting, ubiquitous, cynical, devious, and profoundly dishonest—makes it extremely hard for anti-capitalist activists to maintain their course and in some cases even confidence in their beliefs. It is meant to be that way. 

JONATHAN COOK—Biden isn’t over the finishing line quite yet, and there are likely to be recounts, court challenges and possibly violence over the result, but he seems all but certain to be crowned the next U.S. president. Not that that should provoke any kind of celebration. The rest of the world’s population, future generations, the planet itself – none of us had a vote – were always going to be the losers whichever candidate won. The incumbent, Donald Trump, miscalculated, it seems, if he thought dismissing his opponent as “Sleepy Joe” would be enough to damage Biden’s electoral fortunes. True, Trump was referring to the fact that Biden is a dried-out husk of the machine politician he once was. But after four years of Trump and in the midst of a pandemic, the idea of sleeping through the next presidential term probably sounded pretty appealing to liberals. Most of them have spent their whole political lives asleep.

CALEB MAUPIN—IN THIS EPISODE, ON THE EVE OF THE GREAT SHAM ELECTION OF 2020, CALEB DISCUSSES:
Lessons from history: Capitalism’s rise fueled the Protestant Reformation, pits the Catholic Church (invested in feudalism) against much of the world • Spain with a weak capitalist class chooses to defend Catholicism and the Pope • Rise of the Spanish Inquisition • Persecution of heretics at home and abroad • The US in the 20th century replicates feudal Spain, fighting the “heresy” of socialism across the globe • The rise of McCarthyism “to defend the American Way” •   The real Trump’s “thugs”, according to Biden • Sit this one out, folks. Despite all the noise and hysterics, you have no dog in this fight • There is no Lesser Evil in 2020, only a Different Evil.