Greeks to Kill on Behalf of Israel?

Greece has been blocking a flotilla of boats from leaving its port to deliver aid to Gaza, which has been strangled by an Israeli blockade. The Greek government is citing security concerns, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, in light of the deadly Israeli assault on a similar flotilla last year. However, the Greek government also warned that lives could be lost if the mission goes forward, implying that the Greeks themselves might kill activists before the Israelis ever get the chance, drawing into question the claim that they are merely trying to saving lives and bolstering the claim that they are merely serving as Israeli mercenaries in their war against the Palestinians.

Yesterday, the Tahrir was boarded by armed Greek soldiers and commandeered back to port against the will of its crew, the Guardian reported. Smaller activist crews in canoes and kayaks tried to block the Greek coastguard, but failed to impede the faster coastguard boat. Such confrontations could easily provoke violence by the Greek authorities, who are perhaps trying to distract the Greek public from the severe austerity measures they have imposed on them on behalf of international capital.

One ship remains poised to succeed in leaving Greek waters, a Dutch-Italian vessel commanded by  Stefano Chiarini and docked at Corfu, whose provincial official Spiros Spirou supports the flotilla’s cause. Spirou said he would make no attempt to stop the boat from leaving harbor, the Guardian reported.

Meanwhile, Hilary Clinton has given the green light for Israel to attack the flotilla with military force, threatening the lives of American citizens, including author Alice Walker, as well as hundreds of international activists. According to IndyMedia.org, Clinton said, “. . . we think that it’s not helpful for there to be flotillas that try to provoke actions by entering into Israeli waters and creating a situation in which the Israelis have the right to defend themselves.”

Aside from the fact that the U.S. secretary of state is telling a foreign government it has the right to kill U.S. citizens, her statement is inaccurate. No countries recognize Gaza as a part or sovereign Israel. Either the region is independent, as Israel would like to have the world believe, or it is still illegally occupied by Israel. In either case, waters of the coast of Gaza are not legitimately Israeli and, therefore, Israel would be illegally entering Gazan waters to attack the flotilla. It should also be pointed out that last year when Israel attacked another Gaza flotilla, it did so in international waters (see Electronic Intifada), as the boats sailed away from Israel, refuting the idea that Israel is defending its own territory.

The U.S. state department is also declaring that any attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza would be aiding the terrorist organization Hamas, which currently dominates the political landscape there. Thus, unarmed activists delivering humanitarian aid to a people under siege, with the highest unemployment rate in the world, living in prison-like conditions, are now justifiably murdered as terrorist sympathizers. Under this logic, the mass imprisonment of communist sympathizers under McCarthy would seem restrained.

CTA’s State of Emergency Misses the Mark, But Come Anyway, The Occupation Will Be Fun

Even after California shaved $13 billion off its deficit by slashing Community College, CSU and UC budgets, as well as services for the poor, elderly and disabled, the state is still $12 billion in the hole and is now threatening to cut K-12 education by $4 billion and fire up to 20,000 more teachers. In response, the California Teachers Association’s (CTA) State Council has declared a “State of Emergency” for the week of May 9-13, approving a series of actions including a limited one-week sit-in at the state Capitol, in Sacramento, and local rallies in various cities. Their short-term goal is to pressure lawmakers to approve tax extensions to protect schools, colleges, and essential public services from further cuts, while their long-term goal is to implement a “fair” tax structure that ensures “stable” education funding.

While some delegates proposed increasing taxes on the rich and corporations during the planning stages, neither the rich nor corporations are mentioned in the union’s literature for the May actions. Furthermore, their nebulous long-term goal of tax “fairness” is not even being promoted as a goal of the May actions. Even if it was, a week of sit-ins and rallies would not be sufficient to force legislators to increase taxes on anyone, especially not the rich (and themselves). On the other hand, while the short-term objective stands a better chance of succeeding, it is a terrible goal, as the tax extensions are regressive and will force poor and working class people to bail out the state, while letting the rich off the hook. Ironically, around the same time that the CTA came out with their State of Emergency plan, the CFT released a poll showing that 52% of California voters blamed the rich and corporations for the budget crisis (while only 32% blamed public employee compensation), suggesting the time is right for going after the wealthy.

Making those who have so little pay even more in taxes is cruel and stupid, especially considering that poverty is the number one cause of poor academic achievement (see here, here and here), and especially considering that millionaires and billionaires can afford to pay a little more without suffering a decline in their living standards. Furthermore, even if the tax extensions pass it will merely be a bandage over a gushing wound. They will not recoup the $18 billion that has been slashed from K-12 education over the past three years, nor will they prevent continuing huge budget deficits in the future.

If the CTA really wants to protect teachers’ interests and help improve academic achievement, they need to demand increased progressive taxes, with the wealthy paying most or all of the increase. Furthermore, anything short of a state-wide work stoppage is unlikely to make lawmakers feel any need to change their stance. A rich guy who spends his life insulated from (and exacerbating) poverty will not be swayed by signs and chanting.

Despite these criticisms, these baby steps by the union could be seen as a hopeful sign. The fact that they have even started talking about the greed of the wealthy is a positive change for an organization that has spent most of its existence bending over backward to comply with the demands of the ruling elite. On a more practical level, the May actions are an opportunity for students, teachers and public sector workers to take the lead and, instead of accepting the CTA’s weak demand to impose regressive tax increases on themselves, reset the agenda and demand the rich bail themselves out. At the very least, it is an opportunity to change the terms of the debate and radicalize participants.

Therefore, following in the tradition of the Wobblies or IWW, it is time to call on all labor radicals, students, activists, wages slaves, and hobos to “ride the rails” to sunny California and join the class struggle.

Bank Occupation & Growing Worker Militancy

Protesters from the National People’s Action occupied the office of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in Washington, D.C., this week, forcing staffers to flee. They did the same to House Leader John Boehner. Many carried signs saying “We Do Not Have a Budget Crisis, but a Revenue Crisis” referring to their desire to make Wall Street pay for the deficit, rather than squeezing it out of poor and working folks. Several hundred protesters surrounded the Georgetown home of Charles Rossitti, a Bank of America board member, while 600 protesters occupied a local D.C. branch of Bank of America shutting it down for over an hour (see video above).

                                              

National People’s Action is a coalition of community, faith-based, youth and labor groups. They held a recent conference and direct action training session in Washington, hence the string of direct actions in the Washington D.C. area. The actions were part of the Make Wall Street Pay campaign.

While it is refreshing and exciting to see such militancy, it will take considerably more than this for the activists to achieve their goals. They will need many more people participating in similarly militant acts of civil disobedience and direct action and will need to sustain the actions over a considerable length of time. Therefore, the movement will also need to organize and mobilize people from outside the usual activist circles, large numbers of participants, particularly regular folks who have never participated in direct actions and who would otherwise be offended or frightened by such confrontational acts. And they need to be able to persevere in the face of state violence and the threat of prison. After all, their goal is to make the rich suffer inconvenience, disruption, and most of all, a loss of profits, something the rich cannot tolerate in the least.

There should also be a more careful analysis of the goals and tactics of this movement. For example, what if it was possible to get the rich to pay more taxes? People would still be stuck with low wages, poor benefits and often dangerous working conditions. Poverty would persist, as would homelessness, hunger, pollution and war. There would continue to be gated communities and ghettos, Cadillac health care and Medicare, foie gras and food stamps. The bosses and the rich would continue to maintain all the power, while the rest of us would continue to be dependent on them for jobs just so we can eat. The attacks on unions would not disappear since the bosses who hate the unions would still be in control.

However, what if their tactics were sufficient to get the rich to buckle and agree to higher taxes? That would be an indication that our power was effective, so why stop there? Why not go for it all? How about an end to wealth and poverty? They want to abolish unions. Why don’t we abolish bosses and wage slavery itself?

For a world without bosses!