ANTI-CORPORATISM

RAINER SHEA—By applying his familiar dishonest framing tactics to demonize militant anti-capitalist strains in modern America, Hedges is trying to undermine the strains of our society that seek to carry out practical steps towards revolution. The overthrow of the bourgeoisie, especially in the highly militarized United States, will require some amount of violent struggle. As Lenin concluded while he was participating in an actual anti-capitalist revolution, “The replacement of the bourgeois by the proletarian state is impossible without a violent revolution.” But Hedges attacks both those who acknowledge the necessity of violence, and those who seek to apply Lenin’s other lessons for building proletarian power.

KOLLIBRI T SONNENBLUM—The Seattle Indymedia website had been set up by anarcho-techies (using open-source code originated in Australia) with the intention of just providing a tool for reporting the WTO protests. But when the on-the-ground, from-the-people, non-corporate coverage proved so popular, they gladly and graciously helped it spread. The worldwide network that emerged was based on the anarchist principles of mutual aid and individual liberty. Local sites ran things their own way and network-wide decisions were made by consensus. Though Indymedia was popularized in the US, it was animated by the spirit of the worldwide anti-globalization movement whose rallying cry was Otro Mundo Es Possible—”Another World Is Possible.”

JOHN PILGER—When asked about Assange recently, the current Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, said, “He should face the music”. This kind of thuggery, bereft of any respect for truth and rights and the principles and law, is why the mostly Murdoch controlled press in Australia is now worried about its own future, as The Guardian is worried, and The New York Times is worried. Their concern has a name: “the Assange precedent.”

RENEE PARSONS—Not surprising it has been Tulsi Gabbard as the Only Democrat who understands the need to cease the fragmentation of American society. While not prone to hyperbolic overstatement, she suggests a more rational strategy, encouraging voters to do their job in November. The party’s hierarchy, and apparently much of its base, however, prefer to follow its Reptilian instincts strewing divisiveness and animosity far and wide.

ERIC ZUESSE—Pete Buttigieg is one of the candidates who proposes a public option, such as Barack Obama did but promptly abandoned it as soon as he won the election in November 2008. Obama knew that offering a public option wouldn’t be corrupt enough to suit his preferences (or his major funders), so he just dropped it stone-cold on election-day, and assigned to the conservative Max Baucus in the U.S. Senate the design of what would become Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act.