PATRICE GREANVILLE
IMPERIALISM IS ONLY THE DEGENERATE, MONOPOLY PHASE OF CAPITALISM
We have said it many times, that Bernie Sanders has always been nothing but a shameless sheepdog to corral the progressive instinct still beating in some people's hearts, and bury it deep in the treacherous soil of the Democrat party, whose mission it is to be the grave for all such movements.
As demonstrated on many occasions, Sanders is a charlatan and a coward, easily beaten back by even the most pathetic establishment blowhards. He is of course a liberal, the "socialist" label a case of gross misapropriation. Some say that Sanders is to be credited for "normalising" the word "socialist" in a society long poisoned with vicious anti-communism. But this can be read in a different way. Without denying Sanders' role in this process, long overdue, it is also true that the system is showing such level of dysfunction and internal turmoil, that it is probable that some cagey mind managers thought it beneficial to co-opt a left challenge invested in socialism with someone who could be trusted to keep such notions safely within capitalist margins. For all its undeniable rottenness, the capitalist liberal state is after all still quite capable of effective mass manipulation. It was therefore logical that a Democrat long posturing as "an independent" would get the job.
As professional liberals, the Democrats and their ilk specialise in substituting empty symbols for substance, identity politics for class struggle, it's a hugely successful switcheroo worthy of the most cynical mountebank. That's why after generations of supposedly anti-racist struggles, most blacks are still mired in horrendous poverty; why most working women still don't have a decent income or basic protections; why the union movement continues to languish and degenerate, and why the National Security State continues its assault on the Constitution, using ever expanding powers of surveillance and now censorship, soon probably to be enforced by outright criminalization of the First Amendment. Meanwhile the rapaciousness and wars never stop. And the impoverishment of most Americans outside the privileged upper 10% not only continues, too, but accelerates.
Against this backdrop, like a loyal boy scout, it was inevitable that Sanders would join the mawkish, sanctimonious Ukraine crusade, a disinformation shitstorm without precedent in modern history, unleashed by the Deep State on the scandalously brainwashed publics of the West, by circulating his own piece of dishonest garbage.
Dishonest because, like all members of the morally repugnant Western establishment, "Bernie" does not dare mention what the historical context really is behind the current tragedy in Ukraine. Minor details like who made this crisis inevitable, or how much milder threats on America's borders would have resulted decades ago in probably a horrific military retaliation by the Pentagon are conveniently left out. For his chief purpose is to obfuscate what this enormously important historical juncture is all about: (1) the assault by the united, hypocritical West on Russia to effect regime change in Moscow, part of the US empire's war on Russia, China, Iran and other sovereign emerging powers; (2) Russia's existential struggle requiring the neutralisation and denazification of Ukraine; and (3) the concurrent birth of a new peaceful, multilaterist order likely to replace the rapacious, unfixable, and incurably war-thirsty US hegemon.
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There must be no ambiguity in acknowledging that what the whole world is seeing from Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is nothing less than a blatant violation of international law and human decency. This war, in which a large powerful nation invades a smaller neighbor, has already killed thousands of innocent people, including many children. A large number of cities throughout the country are being leveled by long-range Russian missiles while others are under siege as people are running low on food, water and much-needed medical supplies. In the first week of the war alone, more than a million refugees crossed borders into neighboring countries. Some estimates now put the number of refugees at more than 3 million while many more have been displaced from their homes within Ukraine. This has been a humanitarian disaster for the people of Ukraine, but it is much more than that. The Russian invasion threatens global energy and food supplies, is contributing to greater economic instability and the rising prices we see everywhere. And oh, by the way, this is all happening at a time when the world is already struggling with a global pandemic that has killed millions and the devastating impacts of climate change which threaten the very existence of the planet. That is the bad news. And it cannot be sugar-coated. It is very bad. But, in the midst of all this horror, there is some reason for optimism. All across the world, people are waking up to the fact that there is a global struggle taking place between autocracy and democracy, between oligarchy and an economy that works for all, between authoritarianism and the right of people to freely express their views. There is also the beginnings of a new progressive global order that recognizes every person on this planet shares a common humanity and that all of us, no matter where we live or the language we speak, want our children to grow up healthy, have a good education, and live in peace. We not only see this vision from people in the allied countries who are defending Ukraine and are speaking out against Putin's war, but from people within Russia as well. It is extraordinary that in the autocracy that is Russia today, many thousands of incredibly courageous people have been out on the streets demanding an end to the war and speaking out against Vladimir Putin, knowing that it’s illegal to do so and that they will likely be arrested and punished. Putin recently referred to them as "traitors," a frightening term coming from a dictator. Here in America, rising gas prices are waking people up to something we have long known, and that is that moving quickly to renewable energy is not just an environmental issue. It is a matter of national security. Yes. Our reliance on fossil fuels will continue to mean more drought, more crop failures, scarcer drinking water, rising seas, extreme weather events, climate refugees, and more disease. In fact, climate change threatens the very wellbeing of the entire planet. But equally important, we must break our dependence on fossil fuel not only to save the planet, but to end the hold that billionaire dictators like Putin and the autocrats in the Middle East have over the entire global economy. This is a profound national security issue. Sisters and brothers, we have long said that we are in the midst of a global struggle with nothing less than the future of the planet at stake. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made that more clear than ever. It is a global struggle between those who believe in democracy and the rule of law versus those who believe government exists to rob the people they purport to serve in order to make the billionaire rulers even richer. It is a struggle between those who believe information should be open and accessible to all versus those who believe the flow of information should be controlled by the government and a small number of oligarchs. It is a struggle between those who believe we should choose peace and international cooperation versus those who support xenophobia and massive amounts of military spending. It is a struggle between a progressive movement that mobilizes behind a shared vision of prosperity, security and dignity for all people, against one that defends massive global income and wealth inequality. And, in the midst of these difficult times, our job going forward is to build upon this global awakening and do everything we can to oppose all of the forces, whether unaccountable government power or unaccountable corporate power, who try to divide us up and set us against each other in order to advance their own power and financial gain. We know that those forces have long worked together across borders. We must do the same. In solidarity, Bernie Sanders |
RECOMMENDED ARTICLE: Open Letter to Sandernistas / Bruce Lerro
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Indeed, one of my ‘intelligent’ liberal friends posted this on his FB page, inducing a mix of contempt and disgust that he could actually buy into this nonsense. Here’s Bernie, who was cheated out of the nomination for president, not once but twice by the Uber corrupt Democratic Party, talking about democracy and rule of law. He always ends up capitulating to the military industrial complex, so he’s on the take as well. As Patrice points out, no context: —Biden’s coup in 2014. using the same people who killed hundreds of thousands of Jews –Bernie’s relatives–during WWII —8 years of… Read more »
The Democrats and Republicans want the 99 percent to take yet another spin on the reformist misery-go-round. Sanders has voted with the Democrats 98 percent of the time. Let us put his qualified support for $15/hour into context: 1865: ‘Instead of the conservative motto, A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work, we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, Abolition of the wage system’ (Marx, Value, Price, and Profit). 1928: ‘Earning a wage is a prison occupation’ (Wages, DH Lawrence). 1965: Workers still ‘don’t realise that they can abolish the wages system’ (Socialist Standard). 2019: $15/hour by… Read more »