This seems so obvious it hardly needs explanation: the cause of impending climate collapse is capitalism. As I said in my blog last week, one step we can take is transforming the public schools to educate the next generation in combatting climate collapse. But beyond that, we need to advocate vigorously for our governments to do what it takes to curtail the continued spewing of greenhouse gasses by the fossil fuel and energy sectors of the economy, which most likely will ultimately require nationalization of those sectors. We need to plan for a post-capitalist society. The term “Socialism” has such a […]

Like Leonard Cohen says, everybody knows. Everybody knows that the climate is on the verge of collapse and the public school system is failing students spectacularly. We have an immodest proposal that can bring these crises toward a joint resolution.  We propose to reorient the entire school system so that its main focus for everyone — students, teachers, and parents alike — is to study the earth and the climate crisis for the purpose of developing solutions.  We’ll start with one school, appropriately named Brookfield in Oakland, California. A few of us got the idea when the school board voted […]

I’m reprinting this article from Susan Watkins of the New Left Review because, while it’s long, it is by far the best analysis of the Ukraine war that I’ve read. NEW LEFT REVIEW #137 September/October 2022 Editorial FIVE WARS IN ONE The Battle for Ukraine SUSAN WATKINS A classic analysis of the Second World War defines it as the outcome of five different types of conflict.footnote1 First, war between the top imperialist powers—Germany, Japan, the us, Britain—competing for the position of world hegemon. For this, the challenger powers had both to assert control over a key region—for Japan, China and […]

The deafening silence on the left regarding Gorbachev – at least of my FB friends and facebook groups –is almost funny, considering what a pivotal figure old Gorbie was. It would behoove the left IMHO to understand just what happened in the 1989 collapse of the Soviet Union, the single biggest global political tragedy since World War II.  The left has a self-defeating tendency to be too ruthless or not ruthless enough, a Stalin-Gorbie counterpoint I suppose. On the one hand Gorbachev oversaw the disintegration of the union of socialist republics. This was an enormous defeat for the socialist movement. […]

I just finished The 1619 Project. As an old white guy, I consider myself woke when it comes to Black history. Woke, which means aware, btw. I’ve read DuBois, Foner, Marable, Coates, Critical Race Theory. I’ve long held that the “American Revolution” was in essence a slaveholders revolt: slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1831. But Nikole Hannah-Jones’ masterpiece blew me away.  The compilation of essays is so comprehensive. Each essay covers a critical aspect of racial oppression and resistance. Democracy. Race. Sugar. Fear. Dispossession. Capitalism. Politics. Citizenship. Self-Defense. Punishment. Inheritance. Medicine. Justice. And so on. Even Traffic, how the […]

Maybe an economic depression can be avoided (not likely), but the depression of the people’s spirit is sweeping the USA. COVID may have been the trigger, not just that the virus itself made us feel powerless, but also the specter of the capitalists enriching themselves off our pain. Disaster capitalism fuels disasters.  Looking for hope in this period is challenging. Discouragement emanates from every corner – war, hyperinflation, the likelihood of a Republican takeover, the result of our tolerating a racist form of “democracy.” And rising racism, the darkest cloud in the future, pun intended.  Here is one hopeful fact. […]

I am alarmed that people on the left (and others) are not alarmed what appears to me to be a trajectory toward wider and catastrophic war. To be nice I’ll call it a “World-like” War. While friends of mine are waving Ukrainian flags, the Biden Obama Democrats are realizing that the only way not to lose the House and the Senate later this year is to have Ukraine to declare a no fly zone. The US will then start intervening directly by shooting down Russian planes. Yes, this is Wag the Dog, but that wasn’t exactly fiction. It’s a perfect […]

The US left, such as it is, is all over the map regarding the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. Too many are buying the US imperialist propaganda that Putin (unlike our own cabal of billionaires) is a power-hungry oligarch. Too many believe that the attack was provoked by the US/NATO backed coup in 2014 against a pro-Russian government in the Ukraine. Me? I’ll be honest: I don’t know. I do know, that even if it was provoked, the invasion is wrong. I support the Russian protesters against the war. At the same time, the Ukraine is no Denmark. The fascist […]

The struggle against closing school in Oakland is the fight for the soul of a city. Oakland. Home of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, an early progressive union led by Ron Dellum’s father. Home of the 1946 General Strike. Home of the Black Panther Party. Home of Boots Riley and the Coup. The Pointer Sisters. MC Hammer. The third largest port in Califonia controlled by the ILWU, by far and away the most progressive union in the country.   As most people know by now, the Oakland school board is being forced by the state of California to close 12 schools, […]

I just finished The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. I don’t read much nonfiction, and when I do, I generally read the first third and figure the rest will give examples supporting the thesis. In this case, I read every fascinating page, full of descriptions of the wide array of Neolithic societies. The book challenges the basic assumption of history, archeology, and anthropology for the past couple hundred years: that egalitarian hunter-gathering societies inevitably “evolved” toward hierarchical and exploitative models as they developed agriculture and became more populous and complex.  Graeber and Wengrow argue that the evidence indicates […]