Does the gilet jaune movement signal the start of a resistance movement against capitalism?
Respect my existence or expect my resistance, http://bit.ly/2Gkjqya
[Martin Luther] King correctly judged, however, that real and lasting equality required the reform of capitalism – a change in the system itself. http://bit.ly/2rzzEJi
Isaac Asimov Came up with the Three Laws of Robotics in his 1942 short story “Runaround”, as a safety feature for the terrifying idea of autonomous robots, or today’s ideas of autonomous drones and weapons platforms. However, there are many of us that fear capitalism as much as we fear intelligent drones.
I have therefore, adapted Asimov Laws of Robotics as the Four Laws of Capitalism;
1. A corporation may not injure human beings physically, mentally or economically or, through inaction, allow human beings to come to harm.
2. A corporation may obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A corporation may protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
4. A corporation is not and can never be deemed to have personhood.
The essence of capitalism is to turn nature into commodities and commodities into capital. The live green earth is transformed into dead gold bricks, with luxury items for the few and toxic slag heaps for the many. The glittering mansion overlooks a vast sprawl of shanty towns, wherein a desperate, demoralized humanity is kept in line with drugs, television, and armed force. Michael Parenti – Against Empire
Capitalism was once viewed by workers as a system to be fought. But capitalism is no longer challenged. Capitalist bosses, men such as Warren Buffett, George Soros, and Donald Trump, are treated as sages, celebrities and populists. The liberal class functions as their cheerleaders. Such misguided loyalty, illustrated by environmental groups that refuse to excoriate the Obama White House over the ecological catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, ignores the fact that the divide in America is not between Republican and Democrat. It is a divide between the corporate state and the citizen. It is a divide between capitalists and workers. And, for all the failings of the communists, they got it. Chris Hedges – Journalist
Americans have been taught — indoctrinated, perhaps — to think of the economy as capitalism. Quite literally: if capital returns are high — which is what all the above really measure — then Americans suppose the economy is booming. But capital returns — profits, dividends, stock markets, GDP (or their opposites, deficits) — are not the economy at all. They are just the success of capitalists, at increasing their capital. Hence, the average American — who isn’t a capitalist, since the true capitalists, Bezos, Brin, Buffett, are tiny in number — is cheering on capitalists increasing their capital, but not his own income, savings, living standards, health, longevity, or happiness. Victory for capitalism, comrades!! http://bit.ly/2QB5yEa
Decapitalism by Yellow Vest – Albert Bates
A funny thing happened on the way to the UN climate conference in Katowice, Poland. They started rioting in Paris. At first the two events seemed unrelated. The Yellow Vest protests (Mouvement des Gilets Jaunes) were started by a change.org petition and a Facebook event posting calling to protest a new fuel tax in Paris because, the protesters claimed, it was really just paying for tax cuts for the 1%. The protests snowballed into riots when President Emmanuel Macron said the goal of the administration’s economic reform program is to increase France’s competitiveness in the global economy, and that the fuel tax is intended to discourage fossil-fuel use. He later agreed to roll back the tax, but it was too late. The vests were out of the trunks.
Katowice is host, in the heart of Polish coal country, to the UN’s annual effort to fly 20,000 people to some city to make it look like something is being done about climate change. Eighty percent of the heat and power for the Polish conference was supplied by coal.
As the Yellow Vest riots grew larger and pulled in more of the French and Belgian population, delegates in Katowice started wondering if maybe events happening in the two places were connected. What if this is what it looks like when a government tries to curb greenhouse emissions by raising the price of fossil fuels?
15-year-old savant and minor star of this year’s COP Greta Thunberg explained in a press conference that raising fuel prices is a dumb move, if fighting climate change is what French President Macron was doing it for, because it hurts those on the bottom rungs of the ladder more, and people with money would be able to buy what they needed at any price. Read More
Democracy & Good Governance 