-----Original Message-----
From: Miriam Vieni
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2020 9:49 PM
To: 'Roger Loran Bailey' <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: [blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy] Anatomy of Bernie Sanders’
socialism
You are a very literal person. But many people have a different view. Remember
when Sylvie said something similar? You have a right to your opinion, and I
understand it. But it's your view, not shared by everyone else, and it's OK if
you privately think that everyone else is wrong.
Miriam.
-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Loran Bailey
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2020 8:47 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [blind-democracy] RE: [blind-democracy] Anatomy of Bernie Sanders’
socialism
Nevertheless, if you defend and promote capitalism you are not a socialist and
if you defend and promote capitalism and call yourself a socialist you are
contributing to making the word meaningless. That is also what Carl is doing
when he calls every government program socialism. When you let a word mean
everything it means nothing.
___
Sam Harris
“ I know of no society in human history that ever suffered because its people
became too desirous of evidence in support of their core beliefs. ”
― Sam Harris,
On 1/15/2020 3:15 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
Clearly, most Americans who are talking about socialism, are not talking
about communism. They're not talking about socialism as defined in Marxist
theory. Their definitions vary. Of course, among the Marxists, definitions
also vary which is why there are Leninists, Trotskyites, and God knows what
other groups. At this point, given the military power of the US empire, the
dangers of nuclear war and environmental destruction due to global warming,
it seems imprudent to be worried about all of the theoretical distinctions.
We may never get to the point when it becomes necessary to sort them out. We
need to stop war, save the planet, and find some way of feeding everyone. We
need to stop countries from competing with each other for financial dominance
in the world, and we need to find a way of controlling big tech companies. If
we keep arguing with each other about which is the proper method for doing
all this, rather than working together and using all of the tools at our
disposal, we won't achieve any of our goals.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2020 1:57 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Anatomy of Bernie Sanders’ socialism
https://socialistaction.org/2020/01/14/anatomy-of-bernie-sanders-socialism/
Anatomy of Bernie Sanders’ socialism
Socialist Action
/
24 hours ago
By NICK BAKER
A 2019 Pew Research Center poll of Americans’ political views found that
42 percent support socialism, up from 31 percent found by Pew in 2010.
Fully half
of youth under 30 indicated their “positive or very positive impression”
of socialism. The biggest change that the new poll registered was among those
30–49 years old, where 47 percent supported socialism today – up from 37
percent in 2010. Reporting the new figures with a bit of obfuscation in mind,
the Washington Post headline read “New Poll: Capitalism More Popular than
Socialism.” No doubt the Post editors, not to mention the corporate elite,
were a bit concerned!
Over the past decade we have seen the effects of modern capitalism operating
with full force, including its inability to provide decent, stable jobs, the
crushing debt it imposes on students and the broader population, lack of
health care, apocalyptic threat of climate change-induced destruction of the
planet and endless imperialist wars. Fully aware that sending already
radicalizing American youth to fight in unpopular wars around the world, the
U.S. warmakers increasingly resort to “quiet” wars, to drone wars, secret CIA
wars, privatized/mercenary army wars, proxy army wars, as well as sanction
and trade embargo wars. These are accompanied by record levels of corporate
profit at the expense of workers everywhere.
It’s no surprise that socialism is gaining in popularity in the face of this
blatant expression of capitalism’s inherent evils. But what exactly does
“socialism”
mean to people who are now turning their eyes to it? They often aren’t sure
exactly what socialism is, and the ruling class would like to keep it that
way. Last month, Pew published a follow-up report about the reasons given by
the 42 percent who said they support socialism. The most popular reasons:
31 percent said socialism creates a fairer, more just society while 20
percent said that it “builds on and improves capitalism,” with some
indicating their belief that the U.S. already had “some socialism” in the
form of social welfare programs. Others pointed to European “socialist”
countries.
This kind of support for socialism, mixed with uncertainty about what exactly
socialism is beyond better and broader social programs, will no doubt be
exploited by the Democrats and Republicans, the two main parties of
capitalism, in the 2020 presidential campaign. Democrats like Bernie Sanders
and Elizabeth Warren have already gotten the message. At a time when
socialist ideas are gaining prominence, the Democratic Party, the historic
“graveyard of social movements,” will once again aim to round up the
disillusioned and disaffected with pledges of fealty to justice and fair
play. While never neglecting to assert that their personal candidacy is the
only surefire alternative to their incomparably evil Republican opponent, the
corporate admission price exacted from all players in this “lesser evil”
charade is an unconditional pledge in advance to support whichever Democrat
emerges on top of the heap at the end of the primary process. Returning or
delivering the disillusioned back into the fold of capitalist politics—a dead
end for the working class that promises nothing but continued suffering—is
the prime objective of the $8-9 billion election time operation underway
today.
After the unexpected 2016 election defeat of Hillary Clinton, the Democrats
have the Bernie Sanders campaign once again taking the temperature of the
masses while providing an outlet to express their frustrations with the
Democratic Party and the Obama administration for presiding over the jailing
and torture of immigrants, the ongoing Afghanistan war of 18 years and the
suffering during the Great Recession where the bankers, insurance companies
and major corporation were bailed out to the tune of $32 trillion while
mortgage foreclosures reached modern time highs. Former Republican and
corporate attorney Elizabeth Warren has joined the field being posed as a
progressive technocrat, while Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg are assigned the
role of safe centrist stalking horses.
The Sanders campaign has a clear message: the barrier to “socialism” is the
“Democratic Party establishment,” not the capitalist class. Working people
can “take back” the Democratic Party, according to Sanders – as if it were
ever ours – and make it a vehicle for socialism that fights for the
interests of the working class!
But this can never be. The Democratic Party is the institutional expression
of a wing of the capitalist class, and is inherently opposed to the interests
of working people. Its only “base” is that section of the capitalist class
whose method for disciplining and controlling the workers is, at this time,
to tell them that their concerns are valid and need to be addressed, all the
while ensuring that these concerns are channeled away from independent mass
protests in the streets and away from the formation of independent working
class-controlled organizations and parties.
Sanders’ campaign proposals
Bernie Sanders’ supporters write articles with socialist-sounding titles like
“Bernie Wants You to Own More of the Means of Production.” Real workers’
direct ownership and control of the means of production is at the core of
revolutionary socialism—that is, Marxism. Its achievement requires the
abolition of the capitalist system of private ownership and its associated
exploitation of workers to ensure capitalist profit. Headlines like Sanders’
supporters employ are no accident. Offered as an “electoral road to
socialism” and perhaps as a Marxist-oriented government, like his “political
revolution,” they are aimed directly at people interested in socialism. But
when it comes to “owning more of the means of production,” what does Sanders
mean?
That headline referred to what Sanders calls his “Corporate Accountability
and Democracy” plan, which he says will shift society’s wealth “back into the
hands of the workers who create it.” In this plan, companies that record more
than $100 million in revenue a year or are publicly traded would gradually
transfer 20 percent of their stock into a trust held for the workers that
pays dividends and provides voting rights at shareholder meetings.
According
to Sanders’ campaign estimate, this would provide an average dividend to all
workers of $5000 per year. Not nothing for workers whose wages have been
declining for decades, but a far cry from owning the means of production.
In the same plan, Sanders promotes limiting executive pay to merely 150 times
that of the average worker. CEO’s currently make 278 times what the average
worker earns, so 150 is certainly less—but it’s also a far cry from
socialism. In 1965, CEOs made 20 times the average worker’s salary!
Sanders’ figure
of 150 times would be a return to mid-1990’s levels of CEO pay. In other
words, the workers create the wealth and the CEOs should benefit 150 times
more—only a modest amount.
The way Sanders proposes to promote this policy is telling as well – by
penalizing companies that pay executives above that level by disfavoring them
in the provisioning of federal contracts. That is, he poses his plan as a
market-based reform, to be contested in the arena of the market, where the
capitalist reigns supreme.
This isn’t socialism. It’s a light reform of the most obnoxious excesses of
modern capitalism in the past few decades, totally acceptable to the boss
class and especially so when it allows for the pretense of restricting them
without disturbing in any way their right to lord over the workers.
Sanders’ plan for the military
Sanders, who voted for the largest military budgets in history during the
Obama administration, today says he will ask Congress to “take a hard look at
the military budget” and “try to pare it down.” He frequently says that the
U.S. should not spend more on its military than the next 10 countries
combined but declines to say anything more concrete about the military budget.
These days asserting that the U.S. military budget should be cut at all
sounds radical – but only because the preposterous profit-fueling growth of
military spending has reached such incredible levels.
U.S. military spending has grown over 75 percent in the last 20 years –
nearly doubling. And indeed it is more than the next ten countries combined.
Including the hundreds of billions each year in the secret “black budget” and
the CIA’s largely secret expenditures, total annual U.S. military
expenditures exceed
$1 trillion. After a 20 percent cut, the U.S. would spend more on the
military than the next seven countries combined. Even after a 50 percent cut
the figure would be far more than any other country in the world—and would
only be slightly less than the war budgets of the Clinton administration.
No self-respecting Democrat would ever propose any kind of substantial cut to
the most profitable business on the planet Earth. Anyone who even thought
such a thing would be laughed out of the Democratic Party. Here again,
Sanders only proposes to mildly pare back the absurdities of the last couple
decades, to put American imperialist capitalism on a stronger footing by
making it appear able to fix itself—without any fix involved.
Green New Deal
Not even under his Green New Deal plan does Sanders say anything about
cutting the military, even though the U.S. military is the world’s largest
polluter.
Any plan that does not begin with eliminating the world’s largest polluter is
a farce. Sanders talks a lot about “taking on” the fossil fuel companies.
His Green New Deal plan says repeatedly that he will “end the fossil fuel
industry’s greed.” How does he plan to do it? By nationalizing the energy
industry and removing the profit motive? Of course not. The main thrust of
Sanders’ plan is the introduction of strong regulations and market-based
reforms that will supposedly force the fossil fuel industry to convert itself
to green energy.
But the real con in Sanders’ rhetoric is the idea that the Democratic Party,
a party of the ruling class capitalist elites, has any interest in ending the
use of fossil fuels. There are 1.73 trillion barrels of proven oil reserves
in the world today, and capitalism is incapable of doing anything but using
its already existing rigs and drills to get it out of the ground and turn it
into profit.
The U.S. is the world’s largest oil producer (17.94 million barrels per day,
18 percent of the world’s total production) and largest oil consumer (19.69
million barrels per day, 20 percent of total consumption—more than the next
two, China and India, combined). The U.S. is the world’s largest natural gas
producer and also has the largest oil refining capacity of any country.
All of these facts led the head of the International Energy Agency in
2018 to project
that the U.S. will be the “undisputed global gas and oil leader” for decades.
Readers will forgive our irony in noting that this top official declined to
add that a Sanders election victory in 2020 would render his estimates
inaccurate. In truth, Sanders’ much touted Green New Deal pledge to allocate
$16.3 trillion over the course of ten years to save the U.S., not to mention
the earth itself, from climate Armageddon, is sheer bluster and bluff,
unless, of course, he contemplates the abolition of capitalism itself, a
proposition as absurd as the rest of his “socialist” hoopla.
Much of U.S. warfare and trade policy is dedicated to securing control of oil
in the countries with the largest proven reserves, such as Venezuela, Iraq,
Iran, and Libya. Both Democrats and Republicans have dutifully refused to
commit to any binding climate goals that might present even the smallest
threat to the mega-profits of the fossil-fuel companies. The Obama
administration ensured that the Paris Climate Agreement was non-binding and
therefore meaningless, while overseeing the largest growth of fracking in
U.S. history, making the U.S. the world’s greatest fracker. Since the Paris
Climate Accords in 2015,
30 major banks have invested $1.9 trillion in fossil fuel companies, knowing
that their investment was more than safe.
Working-class politics: the only way
Millions of people in the United States are recognizing that capitalism is at
the heart of the problems that they face every day and see around the world.
They believe that socialism would make things better, but they aren’t exactly
sure what makes socialism different from capitalism. Some think of it as just
a nicer form of capitalism.
The purpose of the Sanders campaign is to bring the confused and disaffected
back into the embrace of the Democratic Party. Sanders is no socialist. He’s
for keeping the ruling class in power through the Democratic Party and
maintaining the means of production safely in the hands of the capitalists –
while fostering illusions of real change to make the workers feel a little
better about the whole thing in the hopes that they won’t cause any trouble.
In sharp contrast to Bernie Sanders and the whole range of today’s posturing
Democratic Party contenders, the goals of socialists and the means to achieve
them are fundamentally at odds with the rapacious capitalist system itself –
a system of war, racism, sexism, LGBTQI discrimination, environmental
destruction, and the ceaseless exploitation of human beings for the profit of
the few.
That is why socialists fight for working-class opposition to and independence
from all the institutional forms of ruling class rule, beginning with their
twin parties. The only way forward to a just society – a truly socialist
society – is to win ownership and control of society’s wealth by the
revolutionary action of the working class itself. The prerequisite to
achieving this is the construction of a mass revolutionary socialist party
fully inclusive of the best fighters who have won the respect and confidence
of the vast working-class majority.
If working people who consider themselves socialists are convinced to support
Sanders based on the words he utters rather than the class interests of the
party he represents, they will inevitably be disappointed with the end result
– yet another capitalist politician in power regardless of party,
personality, and populist-sounding rhetoric. On the other hand, if the
present broad interest in socialist ideas finds expression in serious
fighters for a better world, they will in time find their way to Socialist
Action. Join us!
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