Rail and air travel were paralysed and most domestic and international flights were cancelled. Much of the railway network came to a halt as did the Paris metro system and bus service. Schools and universities were closed as teachers and students walked out in protest at the plans, post offices were forced to shut and mail was left undelivered. Striking workers filled the streets of every major French city and town and large demonstrations against the cuts proved an impressive show of strength and an indication to the high level of support that the strikes were to enjoy in the days ahead.
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MICHAEL PARENTI— Having never understood the role that existing communist powers played in tempering the worst impulses of Western capitalism, and having perceived communism as nothing but an unmitigated evil, the left anticommunists did not anticipate the losses that were to come. Some of them still don’t get it.
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We are more than pleased to introduce our audience to the important work of Lanny Cotler and Paul Edwards, two revolutionary audiovisual artists who simply excel at communicating the truths and ideas usually negated by the capitalist propaganda machine. Using a technique which reminds us of Ken Burns’ classic documentary The Civil War, the team has produced a series that, in its didactic power, can effectively guide would-be activists in future struggles. If you ever dreamed of seeing Howard Zinn’s People’s History on the screen, wait no more because this series by ClassWarFilms brings that much to the table and then some. This video, Political Fraud, is the second piece in the collection.
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PATRICE GREANVILLE—As previously said, measuring all economic and societal “success” by a corporate yardstick of constant indiscriminate growth, capitalism suffers from a compulsion to expand infinitely in what is clearly a very finite and ailing world, thereby betraying in its dynamic something akin to systemic madness. Expansion at all costs is fueled by a well-developed culture of ‘short-termers”—the notion of a true capitalist statesman is an oxymoron—and a self-perpetuating, self-selecting, macho executive sociology according to which career advancement is only possible on the basis of–again–constant growth, plus aggressive competition in the boardroom jungle.
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PATRICE LUMUMBA—Neither brutality, nor cruelty nor torture will ever bring me to ask for mercy, for I prefer to die with my head unbowed, my faith unshakable and with profound trust in the destiny of my country, rather than live under subjection and disregarding sacred principles. History will one day have its say, but it will not be the history that is taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington or in the United Nations, but the history which will be taught in the countries freed from imperialism and its puppets. Africa will write its own history, and to the north and south of the Sahara, it will be a glorious and dignified history.
