ANTI-IMPERIALISM FIGHTERS

BARBARA MACLEAN—Even before I became a socialist, I never bought that the US went into other countries to bring them the fruits of civilization. But I didn’t understand how US foreign policy was connected to the workings of capitalism. When capitalists have a unionized working class and they must compete with other capitalists for land, both of these conditions limit the rate of profit for capitalists. Capitalists are also constrained by the natural resources in their home territory. All three of these limitations are overcome when capitalists become imperialists, seizing cheap land and non-unionized cheap labor abroad.

GARETH PORTER—In 2015, the Cypriot government prosecuted Canadian-Lebanese Hussein Bassam Abdallah for allegedly being part of a Hezbollah ammonium nitrate terrorist plot, after police found 420 boxes of the fertilizer in the house where he was staying. Yet virtually no details about the case were ever released, because the entire legal process took place behind closed doors. What’s more, Abdallah’s defense was never made public. 

FRANK SCOTT—As we stagger towards the ultimate expression of our fake democracy in November it’s important to acknowledge what won’t be changing a bit whichever of the two parties of capital come out ahead with a minority of the American electorate’s support. The richest people in the nation, an ever-smaller group as inequality, showing massive growth of poverty, disease and the profits of warfare, will not only maintain their historic control but also exercise more of it than ever in the past. The capitalist pandemic and economic collapse will get worse before things get better and they won’t get better until we stop swallowing the republican-democratic party line about what high ideals this nation stands for in contradiction to the low reality of what it is.

Caleb’s chats are the ideal tool for those who wish to acquire a solid understanding of contemporary history in an easy, accessible manner. In this episode Caleb tackles one of the oldest lies about socialism/communism—their supposed inability to literally deliver the goods. This and much more.

PATRICE GREANVILLE—My colleague Peter Man is much too kind in classifying Dianne Feinstein’s lifelong tenure in the US Congress as “public service”. Only recently she was among the senior US political figures pushing to strengthen “national security laws” —the “Patriot Act” and NDAA multitude of vague clauses—a clear judicial abuse—at the expense of citizens’ freedom, especially citizens who disagree with the US government official narratives. Like all Wall Street Democrats, Feinstein is also strongly opposed to universal healthcare, supporting instead the notoriously fraudulent Obamacare, a rehash of a libertarian approach to medical services once tried (and quickly dropped) by Republicans.