Weapons of mass destruction: Why would bosses blow up planet?

Original article, Weapons of mass destruction: Why would bosses blow up planet?, via socialistworker.org.uk:

At 8.15am on 6 August 1945, in the last days of the Second World War, the US dropped a nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later it dropped another on Nagasaki.

The bombs immediately wiped out more than 100,000 people. At least the same number again died in the years that followed from burns and cancers. To this day another quarter of a million live with the effects of mass radiation poisoning.

The horrific nature of the attacks fuelled anti-nuclear movements that continue today.

For many, the bombings seemed nonsensical. Those at the top of society benefit from capitalism. Why would they develop weapons that could destroy it?

But the development of weapons of mass destruction is the terrifying, and logical, conclusion of capitalism.

Capitalism is based on companies and states competing to grab the most resources and make the most money. The drive to accumulate profit pushes aside all other considerations.

Frenzied economic competition leads to imperialist plunder and all-out war as states fight to maintain, or extend, their power.

The First and Second World Wars were imperialist wars. The great capitalist powers used whatever they could to beat the other side.

So Britain used mustard gas in the First World War. Mustard gas caused internal and external bleeding, blistered skin and attacked bronchial tubes.

Spectacular

And the massacre of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was no accident. It was the culmination of the three-year Manhattan Project, which had brought together the world’s finest physicists to produce a working atomic bomb.

The US’s Target Committee, which decided where to drop the bombs, wrote that Hiroshima was about “making the initial use sufficiently spectacular for the importance of the weapon to be internationally recognised”.

The US ruling class wanted to use its weapons to stamp its authority on the world.

It isn’t the only country to develop weapons to shore up its power. The Cold War, which followed the Second World War, saw a conflict between the US and its allies on the one hand, and Russia and the eastern bloc on the other.

The fact that each side possessed terrifying weapons, and the constant threat that they could be used, was a key part of the conflict.

In the same way that companies compete to make products, imperialist states compete to show their dominance by accumulating more weapons. The clearest example of this was the arms race between the US and Russia during the Cold War.

The globe is still littered with weapons of mass destruction—enough to destroy the world many times over. And as capitalism develops, the logic of competition produces ever deadlier weapons.

For example, when the US was the only state to have an atom bomb, it used that to try and dominate states that didn’t have one. But as soon as other states caught up, the US tried to develop more powerful weapons to win the advantage back.

The years following the Second World War saw a raft of new lethal weapons—including the hydrogen bomb, but also Agent Orange, napalm, white phosphorous, cluster bombs and depleted uranium.

We often read in the press that “rogue states” like Iran and North Korea are trying to get their hands on nuclear weapons, and that this is a risk to “global security”.

The fewer weapons there are in the world, the better. But there are blatant double standards at play.

The US remains the only state in the world that has used nuclear weapons in war. It has by far the biggest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction anywhere—more than 10,000 nuclear warheads and more than 30,000 tons of chemical weapons. It has even built and tested anthrax bombs.

Yet we don’t hear constant talk of the threat that the West poses to the world. Powerful states play up the “threat” of lesser states in order to keep their monopoly on weapons.

That is the way capitalism works, so we need to destroy capitalism—before it destroys us.


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Banking on hunger

Original article, Banking on hunger, subtitled Goldman Sachs and the rest of Wall Street gambled on food. Their bets paid off big time--at the cost of igniting a food crisis that pushed hundreds of millions into the ranks of the hungry. Alan Maass, author of The Case for Socialism, looks at their crimes, via socialistworker.org:

LAST YEAR, Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi wrote a damning exposé of mega-bank Goldman Sachs that began by describing the Wall Street giant as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."

If you've ever wondered just how sick Capitalism can be, read the article.

It's one thing to subject various industries to 'market forces.' After all, not everyone needs a car, or a flat screen TV or even a toaster. Everybody needs food. Every on of the Six billion plus individuals on the face of the Earth needs to eat. It's not optional.

Goldman Sachs and their bankster fraud buddies subject food to 'market forces.' What's worse, everyday investors act as suckers and play along. Many do so unwittingly, thinking that they're helping the world by funding the banksters speculation.

Such is the success of the propaganda of the Capitalists. Everything should be subject to the vagaries of the market, even the most important commodities of all. Food and water are nothing more to the banksters and their unwashed lackeys.

It makes you proud to have that 401k, doesn't it? It makes you feel good that the bankster frauds are in charge of our economy, doesn't it? It makes you proud that Obama appointed the bankster frauds to be in charge of the economy, doesn't it?

No?

No!

Read the article. Let it sink in. Let your mind's pores soak it up. Then consider if you want to be part of crimes against the human race.

As Maass points out at the end:

As Johann Hari concluded in the Independent: "The world's wealthiest speculators set up a casino where the chips were the stomachs of hundreds of millions of innocent people. They gambled on increasing starvation and won...What does it say about our political and economic system that we can so casually inflict so much pain?"

What, indeed?

The betrayal of Haiti

Original article, The betrayal of Haiti , by Ashley Smith via socialistworker.org:

SIX MONTHS after Haiti's catastrophic earthquake, the promises of the world's most powerful governments to provide billions in aid to one of the world's poorest and weakest governments have been betrayed.

Is there any real surprise here? Billions upon billions upon billions of dollars (euros, francs, etc.) for war and it's vast procurement complex. Trillions upon trillions upon trillions for the bankster frauds and bosses. A pittance for the desperate masses. That's the capitalist way!

There was an immediate outpouring of solidarity after the quake struck Haiti on January 12--people from the U.S. to Palestine and beyond gave to NGOs and charities, even when they couldn't afford much themselves.

People are, in times of crisis, quite giving. 'There but for the grace of God go I' is a popular refrain. Politicians, on the other hand....

At the end of March, the United Nations held an international conference for donors to fund the rebuilding of Haiti, where dozens of countries promised almost $10 billion over the next few years and more than $5 billion for the first 18 months of emergency reconstruction.

But the record of the world powers is a stark contrast to the generosity of their citizens. The U.S., France, Canada and the UN--not to mention a range of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with connections in high places--have done next to nothing to provide alternative shelter to refugees. They have failed to remove the rubble, let alone begin reconstruction, and they reneged on their pledges to deliver aid.

I'll let you read the rest of the article. Haiti is in desperate straits. The neo-liberal cabal has sunk their claws even deeper into it, and Haiti is suffering as a result. Needless to say, the Obama administration doesn't have Haiti on it's radar (after all, who runs on giving aid to Haiti?). It's time the national government reflect the good aims of (many, if not most) of it's people.

Half of India’s population lives below the poverty line

Half of India’s population lives below the poverty line

According to a new Oxford University study, 55 percent of India’s population of 1.1 billion, or 645 million people, are living in poverty. Using a newly-developed index, the study found that about one-third of the world’s poor live in India.

Talk about your economic miracles. As per usual in the world economy, the rich get richer and the masses of people get shafted. Paul Krugman points toward the same happening in the US. You'll be too scared if you have a job to even consider helping those in economic distress, which is exactly what the bosses want.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) has been developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as a more precise and comprehensive means of estimating poverty levels. It will replace the Human Poverty Index that has been used in the UNDP’s annual Human Development Report since 1997.

Any index worth it's salt will show that the failure of Capitalism is designed to enrich the already rich. Globalization is aimed at doing this, while impoverishing the workers. That's the point of the Neo-liberal consensus. You, unless you are part of the super-rich caste, don't matter. You're well being is of little concern to the bottom line. You are to be exploited, and you aren't to do anything about it.

Sharply rising food prices, including an average 83 percent increase since 2008, have been devastating for the country’s poor. Their situation has been further aggravated by recent fuel price hikes announced by the Indian government. The United Nations World Food Program (UNWFP) recently painted an alarming picture, reporting that nearly 350 million people—roughly 35 percent of India’s population —was food insecure and consumed less than 80 percent of their total energy requirements.

I'll let you read the rest of the article. Keep in mind that Capitalism has only failed in relationship to the vast majority of the population of the world. It is working just fine for the rich and the power elite, and they will fight to keep the system in place forever. You and I will have to ask ourselves if this is best for the vast majority of the population on Earth. The bosses and the super-rich have decided that it is.