Paul Craig Roberts

If political conventions are ranked on a one to ten scale for intelligence, I give the Republican Convention zero and the Democrats one.

How can the United States be a superpower when both political parties are unaware [or indifferent to] of everything that is happening at home and abroad?

The Republicans are relying for victory on four years of anti-Obama propaganda and their propriety programed electronic voting machines. For nearly four years Republican operatives have flooded the Internet with portraits of Obama as a non-US citizen, as a Muslim (even while Obama was murdering Muslims in seven countries), and as a Marxist (put in power by the Israel Lobby, Wall Street, and the military/security complex).

Most Republican voters will vote against Obama based on these charges despite the curious fact that no committee in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives held a hearing to determine if Obama is a citizen. If Obama were not a citizen, why would the very aggressive House Republicans not capitalize on it.  It would be easy for a Congressional committee to determine if Obama were a citizen. Despite the propaganda, the Republicans in office have shown no interest in the propaganda charges spread by Republican operatives over the Internet.

Either Republicans have no confidence in the charges and do not want to end up proving with Congressional hearings that Obama is a citizen, or the Republicans, having destroyed every other aspect of the US Constitution, reducing it to “a scrap of paper,” feel that making an issue of the last remaining Constitutional provision other than the Second Amendment would be the height of hypocrisy and don’t want to risk opening the constitutional issues that Republicans have run roughshod over.

If the Republicans can destroy habeas corpus, due process, violate both US statutory and international law, ignore the separation of powers, and create a Caesar, why can’t the Democrats run a non-citizen?

Why didn’t the Republican convention raise the issue about the Obama regime’s claim that the executive branch has the power to assassinate US citizens without due process of law? No such power exists in the US Constitution or in US statutory law. This gestapo police state claim exists only as an assertion. Republicans ignored this most important of all issues, because they support it.

Why didn’t the Democrat convention raise the issue that the Republicans took us to wars based on 9/11 assertions without ever conducting an investigation of 9/11? No qualified high-rise architect, structural engineer, physicist, chemist, or national security expert believes a word of the US government’s 9/11 story.  Neither do the first responders who were on the scene and witnessed and experienced the event.

Many experts keep their opinions to themselves, because otherwise the federal grants to their universities are over and done with or their architectural and engineering businesses are boycotted by patriotic former clients.

Regardless of these risks, there are 1,700 architects and engineers who have sent a petition to Congress that they do not believe one word of the official explanation and who demand a real investigation.

Why did not either party raise the question of how can the US economy recover when corporations have offshored millions of US middle class jobs, both manufacturing jobs and professional service jobs. For at least a decade, the US economy has been able to create only lowly paid domestic non-tradable (not exportable) service jobs, such as waitresses, bartenders, and hospital orderlies.

Both parties talk total nonsense about jobs. The Republicans say they can create jobs by not taxing the rich. The Democrats say they can create jobs by financing jobs programs. The Republicans say that the Democrats’ jobs programs simply take money from business investments and give it to those who patronize bars and the drug trade. The Democrats say that the low taxes of the Republicans just subsidize yachts, exotic cars, private aircraft, and $800,000 wrist watches for the one percent, most of which is produced abroad.

Neither political party will admit that when US corporations offshore their production for US markets, Americans are removed from the incomes associated with the production of the goods and services that they consume. Offshoring is defended by both moronic political parties as “free trade.” In fact, offshoring is the gift of what was US GDP to China, India, and the other countries to which US corporations locate their production that they sell to Americans. US GDP goes down, the GDP of the countries who make the American goods sold to Americans goes up. The idiot free market economists call the de-industrializing of America “free trade.”

As an intelligent economist–an oxymoron– would know, destroying consumer incomes by moving their jobs to other countries, leaves consumers without incomes to purchase the imported offshored goods.

Neither American political party recognizes this disconnect. Neither party can afford to recognize it, as both parties are dependent on corporate campaign financing, and offshoring boosts executive bonuses and share prices. A political party that opposes offshoring of US jobs simply does not get financed.

So, the great “superpower,” the “indispensable nation,” the world hegemon, is going into an election, and no one knows what are the stakes.

Why did not either political party ask: if Washington has demonized Iran, why did the 120 countries that comprise the non-aligned movement convene in Iran last week?

Is Washington’s propaganda failing? Can Washington no longer convince the world that the countries that Washington wants to destroy are evil and must be destroyed?

If Washington’s propaganda is failing, the world rule of the hegemonic power will not succeed. As world rule is Washington’s goal in keeping with the neoconservative ideology, then Washington is failing and is not the superpower it pretends to be.

Most credible foreign policy experts, none of which either political party has, believe that Washington has thrown away US “soft power” by its obvious lies and unjustified military attacks on seven Muslim countries, its encirclement of Russia with missile bases, and its encirclement of China with air, naval, and troop bases.

In other words, Washington’s moral force no longer exists. All that exists is financial and military force, and both will fail as they are insufficient.

Neither party asked why the US is at wars with Muslims for Israel. Why should Americans be losing lives and limbs for Israel while going broke and running up enormous war debts for our children and grandchildren? The answer from both parties is to blame the country’s bankruptcy on what Washington does for its own economically disenfranchised citizens. America’s financial problems are all the fault of Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, housing subsidies, Pell grants–any and every thing that gives a leg up to the non-one percent.

In short, the attitude of both parties is: if you are not the one percent, you are disposable.

Both Obamacare and the alternative Republican voucher program dispose of ill Americans who confront potentially terminal diseases. The American people and the ill no longer count; only the budget counts. Letting the elderly die sooner is cheaper. We can therefore afford more wars for hegemony and more tax cuts for the one percent.

Have any peoples in human history ever been less represented by their government and political parties than Americans?

The US government represents Israel and the one to ten percent. Everyone else is disposable. Regardless of the political party whose lever is pulled in November, every American who votes will be voting for Israel and for their own demise.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Improbably, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is the father of Reaganomics and the former head of policy at the Department of Treasury. He is a columnist and was previously the editor of the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, “How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds,” details why America is disintegrating.

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Eric Schechter, EricSchechter.org
In Summary

The commons has been privatized, plundered, and poisoned; the ecosystem is dying. Global warming is accelerating, because some of its results — dying plants, melting icecaps, etc. — are also causes. Floods, droughts, and food prices are increasing, and that’s not a “new normal” — it will keep getting worse. To survive, we must shift to carbon-negative technologies; but that won’t make the rich richer, so it won’t happen while profit rules.

Information is growing, making each of us more powerful for good or ill. Soon every suicidal madman will have his own germ warfare lab, and won’t be stopped by bullies with drones. We will only be made safe by a culture of caring that heals madmen and bullies. But private property creates a culture of separate­ness: Your loss is not my loss, and might even be my gain.

Capitalism never lived up to its claims. Workplaces are undemocratic and alienating. Rising productivity brings rising unemployment. The market favors those in a better bargaining position, so it concentrates wealth into few hands. Wealth is power, and power corrupts. Theft, deceit, prisons, and wars are all profitable. Money buys government and erodes its way through any regulations. You can’t harness the devil; the only way to avoid rule by money is to abolish money.

Rising food prices will bring revolution; what kind depends on what ideas we spread now. The plutocracy will fall without a shot when its workers awaken and walk out, but to prevent a new plutocracy we must change our culture fundamentally. We’ve hoarded for 10,000 years, but for 100,000 years before that we shared with our tribe; now we must embrace a global tribe. No smaller change can save us from extinction; none larger is needed to guide us to utopia. Join the conversation; tell people we’re all on the planning committee.

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AMPLIFIED ARGUMENTS

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We’re in big trouble. Apathy and cynicism paralyze us, wars and sweatshops torment us, the economy is heading toward another plunge, and now ecocide has come to finish us off. Already floods, droughts, and food prices are increasing, and they’ll continue to do so. To survive, we need enormous changes, and we need to discuss them before the collapse — but eventually the discussion must lead to action.

We must get more people into the global conversation, to grow ideas and raise awareness. We must uncover the truth about economics, human nature, and the power of the people. I’ll start with economics.

Most people are clamoring for huge reforms, to make capitalism work properly; they say that we’ve strayed far from our society’s fundamental principles. But my view is considerably more radical. As I see it, our terrible problems are consequences of our fundamental principles; those principles are part of what we need to change! I’ll explain that capitalism itself is toxic, both materially and spiritually, even when it is honest, and it can’t be kept honest, and ultimately it is the root of all our problems. Walmart, Mon­santo, and Fukushima are merely symptoms of a cultural wrong turn that our whole society took long ago. Correcting it is an enormous task that we can’t put off any longer.

— — — — — —

Some people won’t hear me, because they’ve been taught to equate capitalism with democracy. But actually those are opposites. Most folks don’t get to vote on how their workplaces are run; they have to do as they’re told. Jobs are structured to suit the bosses and owners. Consequently, most jobs are unfulfilling, and people would quit in a minute if they didn’t need the paycheck.

Some people credit progress to capitalism, but again those are opposites: Experimental research consistently shows that monetary rewards motivate menial work but demotivate inventiveness. And progress ought to mean a shorter workweek, but under capitalism it just means fewer workers are needed. Then, with more unemployed competing for fewer jobs, wages sink. Thus, the so-called “jobs problem” is really a capitalism problem.

People have been trained to believe in the efficiency of market pricing, but I don’t see it. Planned obsolescence is tremendously wasteful. And natural resources are priced at extraction cost, rather than replacement and cleanup cost. We’re turning a garden planet into a toxic dump. The commons has been privatized, plundered, and poisoned, so the ecosystem is dying. Runaway global warming is now accelerating, due to several feedback loops. Carbon-neutral is not enough; we must implement carbon-negative technologies widely in this decade or we won’t survive this century.

Also accelerating is the growth of information, which makes each of us more powerful, for good or ill, and all too often it is for ill: Destruction is easier than preservation. Weapons are becoming cheaper and easier to obtain. Soon every suicidal madman will have his own germ warfare lab, and will not be deterred by military bullies. There is nowhere to hide. Our species will only survive if we develop a global culture of friendship and love that heals madmen and bullies.

But private property creates a culture of separateness that is spiritually poisonous. It says

“you keep your stuff in your house and I keep my stuff in my house; your loss is not my loss, and might even be my gain; and keep the homeless where we won’t have to see them.”

And so our lives are separate. We train in competition, not cooperation. Lacking community, we seek meaning in our material possessions, but we don’t find it there, so we numb ourselves with antidepressants and other drugs. Empathy is replaced with apathy and cynicism, generating madmen, bullies, and greedy pigs. War and other cruelties are ignited by lies, chiefly “those people are not like us.”

The gap between the rich and everyone else widens with every transaction in the so-called “free market.” That’s because the rich can afford to decline any offer that doesn’t make them richer. In contrast, the poor get few offers, and must accept whatever they can get, even a shitty deal like migrant farmworker or the so-called “volunteer army.” Trickle-down doesn’t work, because the market — growing more efficient — permits ever fewer crumbs to fall. Small businesses get crushed and swallowed by big ones. Our debts, like our workplaces, are owned and exploited by the rich.

— — — — — —

Thus, even under honest capitalism, even before people start cheating, wealth and power become concentrated into few hands. It’s like the board game Monopoly, which ends with all players but one destitute. The social stratification destroys any sense of shared purpose; the resulting distrust is stressful, painful, and medically harmful. Admittedly, a concentration of power can develop from any socioeconomic system — but that’s more likely in capitalism, where it’s an explicitly stated goal.

— — — — — —

And once power becomes concentrated, you can say goodbye to democracy and freedom. Power corrupts; that old proverb has been verified by the Stanford Prison Experiment and other modern research. Thus some of the wealthy turn greedy, and honest capitalism turns dishonest. And that’s hardly surprising: You can’t harness the devil, and bargaining with him always ends badly.

Small businesses may behave honorably, but they can’t be separated from big businesses. Big businesses are psychopaths, compelled by competition and by their legal charters to maximize profit by any means available, disregarding or even concealing harm to workers, consumers, and the rest of the world.

The wealthy buy government, which brings a huge return on investment. They rule, not so much by brute force or by secret cabals, but rather by owning the media, framing the issues, and focusing the public’s attention on distractions. Problems like poverty or global warming are swept under the rug and never addressed at all, because addressing them would not make the rich richer. Instead, the psychopaths in power produce bombs and prisons for profit. Reforms can’t be effective for long, because money erodes its way through any regulations. There’s not much point in asking the incredibly rich to promise, on their “honor,” to not influence politics in their own favor. The only way to avoid rule by the wealthy class is to not have a wealthy class.

— — — — — —

We’ve been taught that we’re powerless, but in fact change is possible. As Victor Hugo said, no army can stand against an idea whose time has come. When people finally realize how money is destroying us all inside and out, billions will rise against it. And the police, despite all their training, are still human; when they awaken and join our side, the bureaucracy of brutality will fall without a shot. But a fairer redistribution of wealth will not last if we continue in separate lives; we must change our culture too.

“Imagine no possessions — I wonder if you can,” John Lennon sang. And I, too, wonder if you can visualize a life so very different from our present one. We’ve hoarded for 10,000 years, and that’s deeply ingrained in our culture. But before that we shared with our tribe for 100,000 years, and that’s still coded in our viscera. We can and must return to sharing, but now with a global tribe. That will be a change bigger than revolution — it’s a move to a higher spiritual plane — but nothing less will restore the commons and save our species from extinction.

What can you and I do about it? Join the conversation. Help spread ideas, information, and inspiration. Tell people that we’re all on the planning committee. And, of course, if you like this essay, recommend it.

— — — — — —

Above are version 2 of the video, and version 6.06 of the essay which is the transcript for the video. Underlined blue phrases are links to related materials by other people. The PDF version of the essay is formatted to fit on two sides of one letter-size page. 25 August 2012.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR (in his own words)

http://www.okcupid.com/profile/HeartOnTheLeft. 

http://LeftyMathProf.wordpress.com/

http://www.NashvillePeaceCoalition.com/honk/

http://NashvilleProgressiveCalendar.com/

5 Sept 2012, version 1.09. The PDF version fits on two sides of ⅓ of a page.

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In this segment, curmudgeon extraordinaire Dr. John (“Woody NinetyNiner”) Konopak urges the perennially low-info, denialist types in the centroid liberal legions to face a few facts about their two-faced favorite politicians. 

In the hot seat: Bill Clinton.

Bill Clinton to take the stage at the DNC. A consummate con man, Slick Willie never disappoints.

“Who Sold the Farm?”

Summary

Maybe by the time you read/hear this, Former President Bill Clinton will have already had prominent role in the unfolding DNC procedings, in Charlotte. His participation will have inevitably been attended by references to the successes of his regime: Lilies gilded to within one tenth of a gram of their carrying capacity, Clinton will bask in acclaim and adulation.

So, if you are going to subject yourself to the festivities, if you suffer from some irony deficiency, perhaps, and need to stock-pile against some future shortage, I want to focus on just ONE aspect of the Clinton regime which seems to me to be highly glossed-over and will have been carefully avoided in the clamor: His connection and indeed, complicity in the devastating banking crisis of 2007-and onward, the effects of which have not substantially dissipated for average Americans even five years later.

It is worth remembering that it was Bill “Clenis” Clinton who sold the farm on financial deregulation.

At the behest of his crack team of economic superstars, Robert (Citibank) Rubin, Harvard’s misogynist Larry Summers, Allen (I call him “Ayn”) Greenspan and their towel-boy, Timmeh Geithner at the NYC Fed, Clenis at LEAST turned a blind eye on–if they didn’t actually collude with–the plans of Phil Gram and the rest of the  corpoRat-owned Neo-libs in the GOP to repeal Glass-Steagall and reverse significant Depression-era reforms; reforms that were keeping retail and investment “banking” separate, and had mostly kept the psycopathic greed-heads from refucking the Economy, as they had in ’29.

SO: Cui Bono? Who profits, the wise old Roman cynic Cicero always asked with his plangent double dative!

Obviously: The bankstas, who are genetically averse to risking their OWN money, but who are pathologically eager to risk OTHER PEOPLE’S money and skim the take.

Heretofore, Glass-Steagal had forbidden bankstas from looting commercial assets for extra investment capital. That was what the Glass-Steagall did. But it was stricken, and replaced by Gram-Leach-Bliley which, with a subsequent measure that enabled the credit default swap garbage (the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, 2000; enacted by Clenis on his way out the door toward untold riches)…sowed the seeds for the coming crises.

Once that was done, what followed in ’07-09 was fucking inevitable, and they fucking KNEW it…

How do I know they knew? The logical process is called “abductive,” also “adductive,” not to be confused with the silver tape–though they have surprisingly similar properties, with which I won’t trouble you now. The question is “How do I know they knew?”

Ask yourself: Why ELSE would Rubin have so swiftly resigned from the cabinet and scurried, rat-like, over to Citibank, to cash in.” Did any of ’em LOSE money? As another Roman said: “Ipso facto! Q.E.D.

(This article first appeared as a video on World-Wide Hippies—  http://www.worldwidehippies.com/2012/09/05/wwhcje-the-soapbox-who-sold-the-farm/)

John Konopak, Ph.D., is a retired former professor (of education), journalism/writing instructor, journeyman Class-A carpenter, school teacher, writer/editor/critic, radio announcer and cold-calling Kirby salesman who now resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his two dogs (Budreaux, the Pink-nozed Pitbull, and Hanna-Stella, the terpsichordian hound-mix.)
He claims to have been stoned since 1968.

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In collaboration with World Wide Hippies

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Bonus feature

Below Bill Clinton DNC speech preview item on The Washington Post.  As is so typical of the corporate media, with no sense of irony whatsoever this material is served up by the WaPo after force-feeding the public some bullshit from some ultra corrupt multinational, including spots from Goldman Sachs, etc.. Well, you have been forewarned. —Eds

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BY MICHELLE OBAMA
FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES
Special dispatch from The Onion

Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for being here with us. I speak to you tonight as a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister, and, of course, a proud American.

But most of all, I’m happy to stand before you as a meticulously calculated communication tool whose every action, from the color of my dress down to each wave of my hand, has been premeditated and painstakingly devised by a set of experienced political handlers working to re-elect my husband this November.

Honestly, I’m thrilled to see all of you here tonight, knowing that my presence has been consciously engineered to soften my husband’s image and give his poll numbers a quick boost. There is really no greater pleasure in the world than getting up on this stage and talking to millions of Americans not only as a first lady, but also as a cynical ploy to add warmth, humanity, and relatability to an otherwise cold, detached three-day display of political gamesmanship.

It is also an honor to tell you, in words that were written out for me by a speechwriter and then carefully reviewed and edited by dozens of ruthlessly single-minded campaign advisers, all about how my husband is a caring husband and loving father, and how, in spite of his incredibly busy schedule, he is still so devoted to our family. A moment like this is such a great chance to reveal painstakingly scripted anecdotes about how he still picks up the girls from soccer practice and how I’m always nagging him to take the trash out so that you will believe he is an everyday person like you and your friends and not a massively powerful world leader with a superhuman degree of ambition and political savvy.

After all, there are very real issues facing our country, and I’m proud to be forced to repeat some hackneyed political rhetoric that will go down much easier because it is coming out of my mouth, and to tell you about how much my husband loves these great United States and how he has met a series of challenges that you will indeed believe he has met because I seem trustworthy and not like some Washington insider who is just trying to get your vote, even though that is precisely what I am.

It’s also a true honor to have my gender exploited in order to gain support among the key demographic of female voters, who I am forced to pander to by talking about my own relatable experiences as a woman. I’m honored to have my motherhood put on full display as a tug on the heartstrings of other moms around the country, and to talk about how difficult it is to raise a family and how I understand all the struggles that working mothers face in this day and age, as though that has even the slightest relation to my husband’s ability to lead this country out of an insecure economic landscape and tackle complex debates over health care, Social Security, tax reform, and foreign policy, among other things.

And furthermore, it feels wonderful to be paraded out here, mascotlike, as an African-American woman, allowing my husband to appeal to both minority voters and women simultaneously, a rare feat which no other person in this campaign is able to carry out with such efficacy and which, again, I am so, so happy to do.

Lest we forget, I hasten to add what a privilege it is to be objectified by all of you here and the millions of people watching at home, as I’m forced to use my charming smile and physical attractiveness to distract an entire nation from what is, by most accounts, a generally disappointing presidency. I can’t begin to convey what a dream it is to be used as a puppet by the hordes of political playmakers who direct my husband’s campaign, and to stand here in a shameless attempt to appeal to voters who like how I carry myself as a strong, independent-minded woman and love the picturesque image of our seemingly ideal American family.

Needless to say, I am also overjoyed to have our two young daughters repeatedly roped into participating in this sick little dog and pony show.

If all goes to plan, after I walk off this stage, you will see my husband not only as a strong political leader, but also as an everyday man who is trustworthy, honest, compassionate, and all the other bullshit you’d expect to hear from someone being used exclusively as a totem for some uplifting and calculatedly inspiring political message. And you have no idea how proud that makes me.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

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Diatribes and Curious Silences
Democrats and U.S. Labor Delusional About Latin America

by ALBERTO C. RUIZ
The Democrats just put out their platform on Latin America, and it demonstrates only the loosest connection to reality.   Thus, while praising the “vibrant democracies in countries from Mexico to Brazil and Costa Rica to Chile,” as well as “historic peaceful transfers of power in places like El Salvador and Uruguay,” the Democrats continue to point to Cuba and Venezuela as outliers in the region in which the Democrats plan “to press for more transparent and accountable governance” and for “greater freedom.”   Of course, it is their Platform’s deafening silence on critical developments in the region which says the most about their position vis a vis the Region.

Not surprising, the Democrats say nothing about the recent coups in Honduras and Paraguay (both taking place during Obama’s first term) which unseated popular and progressive governments.   They also say nothing about the fact that President Obama, against the tide of the other democratic countries in Latin America, quickly recognized the coup governments in both of these countries.   Also omitted from the platform is any discussion of the horrendous human rights situation in post-coup Honduras where journalists, human rights advocates and labor leaders have been threatened, harassed and even killed at alarming rates.

As Reporters Without Borders (RWR) explained on August 16, 25 journalists have been murdered in Honduras since the 2009 coup, making Honduras the journalist murder capital of the world.   In this same story, RWR mentions Honduras in the same breath as Mexico (a country the Democrats hold out as one of the “vibrant democracies” in the region) when speaking of the oppression of journalists and social activists, as well as the general climate of violence which plagues both countries.   As RWR stated, “Like their Mexican colleagues, Honduran journalists – along with human rights workers, civil society representatives, lawyers and academics who provide information – will not break free of the spiral of violent crime and censorship until the way the police and judicial apparatus functions is completely overhauled.”   And indeed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 38 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 1992, and it has been confirmed in 27 of these cases that the journalists were killed precisely because they were journalists.   Meanwhile, in Mexico, over 40,000 individuals have been killed due to the U.S.-sponsored drug war – hardly a laudable figure.

Of course, in the case of Honduras, and Paraguay as well, things are going fine for U.S. interests post-coup, with Honduras maintaining the U.S. military base which President Manuel Zelaya, overthrown in the coup, had threatened to close.  Similarly, in Paraguay, one of the first acts of the new coup government was agreeing to open a new U.S. military base – a base opposed by Porfirio Lobos, the President (and former liberation Bishop) overthrown in the coup.   The other act of the new coup government in Paraguay was its agreement to allow Rio Tinto to open a new mine in that country, again in contravention of the deposed President’s position.   The Democrats simply do not speak of either Honduras or Paraguay in their Platform.

Instead, the Democrats mostly focus on their alleged desire to bring freedom to Cuba, saying nothing about the strides already made by Cuba itself where, according to a January 27, 2012 story in the Financial Times, entitled, “Freedom comes slowly to Cuba,” “there are currently no prisoners of conscience.”  This is to be contrasted with Colombia, the chief U.S. ally in the region, which houses around 10,000 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.   The Democrats, shy about such unpleasant facts, simply say nothing about Colombia – this despite the fact that Colombia just announced historic peace talks with the guerillas which have been engaged in a 50-year insurgency in that country.   Apparently, this does not deserve a mention amongst the Democrats’ anti-Cuba diatribe.

Meanwhile, the Democrats also single out Venezuela as a country in which it is hoping to free from its alleged chains.   What the Democrats fail to note is that Venezuela already has a popular, democratically President in Hugo Chavez who is making life better for the vast majority of Venezuelans, and who appears poised to receive the majority of the votes of the Venezuelan people in the upcoming October elections as a consequence.  Thus, according to Oxfam, “Venezuela certainly seems to be getting something right on inequality. According to the highly reputable UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, it now has the most equal distribution of income in the region, and has improved rapidly since 1990.”  Again, contrast this with the U.S.’s chief ally Colombia and with Mexico, the two countries with the worst problems of inequality in the region.  As the Council on Hemispheric Affairs noted earlier this year, “both Colombia and Mexico suffer from some of the world’s most unequal distributions of wealth. In 1995, Colombia was ranked the fifth most unequal country (of those with available statistics), with a Gini coefficient of 0.57, while Mexico was ranked the eighth worst with a Gini coefficient of 0.52.  Between 2006 and 2010, Colombia’s inequality ranked 0.58, while Mexico’s coefficient was 0.52, qualifying them as two of the lowest ranked countries in the world.”   The Democrats, uninterested in such trivialities as social equality, simply ignore such inconvenient data.

For its part, U.S. labor, as represented (albeit very poorly) by the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, continue to march in step with the U.S. government and the Democrats in their imperial delusions about the Region.  Thus, while for some time simply hiding the fact that it has been working in Venezuela at all, the Solidarity Center, in response to pressure about this issue, has recently admitted on its website that it has been continuously working in Venezuela these past 13 years – i.e., to and through the coup in 2002 which the Solidarity Center aided and abetted by funneling monies from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to the anti-Chavez CTV union which was a major player in the coup.

Stinging from the just criticism over this, the Solidarity Center now claims — reminiscent of George W. Bush who fancied himself a “uniter” as opposed to a “divider” – claims that it is in Venezuela to unite the divided labor movement.    Thus, the Solidarity Center states:  “[g]iven the political fragmentation and divisions between unions in Venezuela, Solidarity Center activities work to help unions from all political tendencies overcome their divisions in order to jointly advocate for and defend policies for increased protection of fundamental rights at the workplace and industry levels. The Solidarity Center currently supports efforts to unite unions from diverse political orientations (including chavista and non-chavista, left and center) to promote fundamental labor rights in the face of anti-labor actions that threaten both pro-government unions and traditionally independent unions.”    In its statement, the Solidarity Center says nothing about the progressive labor law which President Chavez just recently signed into law without any help from U.S. labor.   This law, among other things, outlaws outsourcing and subcontracting, shortens the work week, increases minimum vacation time, increases maternity leave and requires employers to provide retirement benefits.

The Solidarity Center statement about Venezuela is laden with irony as well as hubris.  The U.S. labor movement is itself greatly fragmented, with two competing houses of labor (the AFL-CIO and Change to Win) as well as divisions even within these two confederations.   That the Solidarity Center would presume to be able to unite any union movement outside its borders is laughable.   Indeed, only imagine the reception from the labor movement in this country if China’s labor confederation purported to intervene in the U.S. to help unite the labor movement here.  Aside from wondering how exactly the Chinese unionists planned to do this, many would wonder about the ends to which such unity, once miraculously created, would be applied.    And, one must wonder the very same about this in regard to the Solidarity Center’s role in Venezuela.   First of all, the so-called “chavista” unions want nothing to do with the Solidarity Center, funded as it is by the NED and U.S.-AID, especially after the 2002 coup.    Again, they would have to question what the Solidarity Center, which just received a massive grant of $3 million for its work in Venezuela and Colombia, would want to “unify” the Venezuelan union movement to do.   The question appears to answer itself, and it is not a pretty one.

A modest proposal for the AFL-CIO and its Solidarity Center is to focus on uniting the labor movement at home in the U.S. to challenge the power that capital has on our political system; pressing for better U.S. labor law (on this score it could learn a lot from Venezuela and its labor movement); abandoning its labor paternalism (if not imperialism) and leaving it to the Venezuelans to unite their own labor movement.    Similarly, the Democrats, instead of worrying about ostensibly bringing U.S.-style democracy (more like social inequality and militarism) to other countries in the Region, should spend more time trying to make this country less beholden to corporate and monied interests, and thereby more democratic in the process.  But again, this is not what the Democrats are about.   What the AFL-CIO is about, aside from blindly supporting the Democrats, is anyone’s guess.

Alberto C. Ruiz is a long-time labor and peace activist.

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