Capitalism – Page 12

Good news from Argentina

Published on April 29, 2003

Pedantry has good news from Argentina

The Argentine economy has been devastated, but the real sign that capitalism can sometimes be the most completely insane system of economic governance imaginable is that Argentina has ample available labour, amply fertile land and plenty of productive factories, but the masses are unemployed, the farmers can’t afford to bring food to market and the factories are closed. Argentina’s real capital – its factories, its infrastructure and its labour – have not been harmed. No war has devasted their land. Everything that supported them before is still there now. Only then they were rich and now they’re poor.

That such a situation could arise in the first place is lunatic, yet there it is. Well, it seems the ridiculousness of it has not been lost on the people of Argentina, where the workers are taking control of the factories and operating them themselves, meeting community needs and paying wages.

Naturally, the authorities are taking a dim view of this development. Wherever workers manage to demonstrate that they don’t need the bosses, sooner or later somebody calls in the police. The owners would, as usual, prefer the people starve rather than question the nature of the system.

If all that sounds rather like orthodox Marxism, so be it. It’s certainly more orthodox class revolution than my usual fare but this is about as traditional a class struggle as you can get. When there are actual proletarians – none of this ambiguity about labour classes and the service industries – struggling to take control of the means of production from repressive owners, that’s a good day for Marxism. It’s enough to make me want to sing L’Internationale. Debout les damn?s de la terre, debout les for?ats de la faim…

Untitled

Published on April 29, 2003

Ethel the Blog

PUBLIC POWER, PRIVATE GAIN

The Institute for Justice has released a
report documenting thousands of eminent domain abuses across the U.S. I have a special interest in such
things seeing how there’s a group in Ohio with big plans to expand the former Rickenbacker Air Force Base.
The plan as published in the local papers about five years ago “featured” a new runway going right through
the entirety of my very small home town, which of course would have to be “relocated” for their wet dreams
to come true.

The neoliberal consensus

Published on March 31, 2003

Alas, a Blog on the political arena and the
room for discussions therein:

The American media largely limits its view of politics to questions that are at issue between the big two parties. Abortion is a major issue of contention between the two parties, therefore it is discussed. Monica Lewinsky was a major issue of contention between the two parties, therefore it is discussed.

Where the parties agree, there is no discussion in major media. The benevolence of so-called “free trade” is agreed on by the two parties, so is not discussed. The idea that “social security is in crisis” is agreed on by the two parties, so the alternative (that social security is in pretty good shape) is not discussed. Real election reform is opposed by both major parties, so cannot be discussed in the mainstream press; only faux-reforms like the ridiculous McCain-Fiengold bill can be discussed.

Bill Frist, the pharmas’ friend

Published on March 26, 2003

Remember when, back in January, Senator Frist tried to tack on a rider to the Homeland Security Bill, indemnifying Eli Lilly and other pharmaceutical campaign contributors from lawsuits about their use of mercury-based vaccine preservative Thimerosal, which may be one of the causes of autism? Well, he’s up to his old tricks again, as Wampum details:

But what would motivate Frist to be so cruel? His cat-killing history aside, he is still a doctor, and supposedly sympathetic to the injured and ill. I suspect that his motivations on vaccine liability legislation correlate to those on medical malpractice tort reform. Its not the injured who are the targets: They are just collateral damage. The real target is Democratic campaign funding, and a big chunk of that comes from trial lawyers. Limit attorney fees, either by capping payouts or by restricting who can actually file. Thirty million children were injected with dangerous amounts of Thimerosal from 1990 onward alone. Even if only a small fraction of those children file claims, there are attorney fees to be paid by the NVICP. If those children’s claims are accepted, but then later denied by the court, they can still be pursued in civil court, and may be deemed valid by a jury. More, and possibly larger, attorney fees.

But secondly, I think Senator Frist’s final provision of his bill, now resurrected in its entirety in S15, tells of an additional motive.

Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines shall report to the Secretary regarding the status of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund, and shall make recommendations to the Secretary regarding the allocation of funds from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund.

The Republicans want to raid the billions in the Trust Fund. But if you allow thousands of new claims, the fund will dry up.