Joe the Plumber The Eighteenth Brumaire of
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Workers of the World Unite!
Vol. 7, No. 1 w FALL 2009 wLABOR DONATEDw $2 ($3 SOLIDARITY)
The Eighteenth Brumaire of
Joe the Plumber
1 The MICHIGAN SOCIALISTcontents
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Joe the Plumber: U.S.
Editor: Nicol Partida Financial Meltdown Conjures Resurgent Specters of
Political Farce...........................................................p. 3
Editorial Collective: Matt Erard
Matt Erard
Skipper Hammond
Sara McClean
Mike Treacy A Case Study of Power and Media: The Washington
SPMI member Adam Adrianson also greatly
Post............................................................................p. 5
contributed to producing the lay-out for this issue. Max Kantar
The Michigan Socialist (TMS) is the magazine of
the Socialist Party of Michigan (SPMI), affiliate of the
Socialist Party USA. P.O. Box 844, Marquette MI Barnes and Noble Sucks..........................................p. 6
49855; email: spmi@spmichigan.org; WWW: Richard Monroe
http://www.spmichigan.org
All submissions to the Michigan Socialist can be
sent by email or snail mail. Submissions sent by email
should be sent to: editor@spmichigan.org. Hardcopy Socialist Party of Michigan Statement: U.S. Financial
submissions should be sent to: SPMI P.O. Box 844, Meltdown Spotlights Profit System’s Failure and the
Marquette, MI 49855. Need for Economic Democracy...............................p. 7
Signed articles do not necessarily reflect the
viewpoint of the Socialist Party of Michigan, which
are expressed in editorial statements, or of the Socialist
Party USA. The Editorial Collective of the Michigan Socialist Party of Michigan 2008 Election
Socialist reserves the right to edit all articles for
typography, spelling, and grammar without Results.......................................................................p. 8
consultation. On all author matters of editing, the
Editorial Collective with attempt to collaborate with
authors as much as possible.
No Car Czar’s, No Capitalists, No Bailouts, No Bosses!
Socialist Party USA - Outline of Principles:
THE SOCIALIST PARTY strives to establish a radical Socialist Party of Michigan Statement on the U.S.
democracy that places peoples’ lives under their own Automotive Industry Bailout....................................p. 10
control; a non-racist, classless, feminist, non-
heterosexist socialist society...where working people
own and control the means of production and
distribution, through democratically-controlled Remember Stonewall? Do we even know what Stonewall
committees and assemblies; where full employment is meant? Socialist Party Statement on the 40th Anniversary
realized for everyone who wants to work; where
workers have the right to form unions freely, and to of the Stonewall Rebellion.......................................p. 11
strike and engage in other forms of job actions; and Amber R. Clifford-Napoleone
where the production of society is used for the benefit
of all humanity, not for the private profit of a few. We
believe socialism and democracy are one and
Arts Review : Sex Pistols Rockumentary The Filth and
indivisible. The working class is in a key and central the Fury and Detroit Hip-Hop Artist 'Invincible'.......p. 12
position to fight back against the ruling capitalist class Sayan Bhattacharyya
and its power. The working class is the major force
worldwide that can lead the way to a socialist future – Socialist Party of Michigan Condemns Corporate Parties'
to a real radical democracy from below.
The Socialist Party fights for progressive changes Stratified Assault on State Budget............p. 16
compatible with a socialist future. We support militant
working class struggles and electoral action, Socialist Party Condemns Post-Election Racist
independent of the capitalist-controlled two-party
system, to present socialist alternatives. We strive for Attacks.......................................................................p. 23
democratic social revolutions — radical and
fundamental changes in the structure and nature of Proletarian Poetry.....................................................p. 24
economic, political and social relations — to abolish
the power now exercised by the few who control the Nicol Partida
economy and the government. The Socialist Party is a
democratic, multi-tendency organization, with
structure and practices visible and accessible to all
members.
2 The
TheMICHIGAN
MICHIGANSOCIALIST
SOCIALISTcover article
The Eighteenth Brumaire of
Joe the Plumber
U.S. Financial Meltdown Conjures Resurgent Specters of Political Farce
second time as farce." Marx wrote unprecedented assaults on U.S.
By MATT ERARD this, still often quoted, but seldom citizens’ most fundamental
The Michigan Socialist contextually attributed line in his Constitutional protections by both
Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis corporate parties, the U.S. military
W hen the leading Bonaparte; an essay principally establishment has now embarked upon
commentators of the U.S. focused upon the French state’s increasingly vigilant preparations to
capitalist establishment superficial orientation to the middle counter the rising threat of
began their exclamations of victory class, as an essential means to quell revolutionary upsurge against the
following the Soviet Union’s 1991 the threat of volatile class present social order’s now universally
dissolution, few would have antagonisms. conspicuous decline. Having already
entertained the possibility that the Within 'The Eighteenth successfully established
term "socialism" might re-emerge at Brumaire,' Marx directly goes on to unprecedented curtailments of the
the center of American political observe that, rights of personal privacy, association,
discourse less than two decades later. "The tradition of all dead and habeas corpus, the recent wave of
But following Merriam-Webster’s generations weighs like a nightmare economic crisis, now enshrouding the
announcement of its "words of the on the brains of the living. And just as global capitalist order, has led the
year" at the very close of 2008, the they seem to be occupied with 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, restricting
unanticipated return of the word revolutionizing themselves and things, the military from domestic law
"socialism" to everyday household creating something that did not exist enforcement, to become the most
usage could hardly have been more before, precisely in such epochs of recent of such targets.
officially pronounced. Socialism had revolutionary crisis they anxiously As of last October, the
not just appeared on the list Merriam- conjure up the spirits of the past to Pentagon has established the first ever
Webster’s list of words of the year, it their service, borrowing from them permanent deployment of an active-
had taken the place of number three! names, battle slogans, and costumes duty military brigade within the
Now looking back to the in order to present this new scene in borders of the United States. As
preceding decade, when American world history in time-honored reported by Army Times, the first unit
capitalism’s ideological engineers disguise and borrowed language." to be deployed is the 3rd Infantry
proclaimed "the end of history," from Division’s 1st Brigade Combat team,
the apparent failure of the ‘workers of Although the present economic composed of approximately 4,700
crisis has yet to confront the world’s troops who have spent 35 of the
the world to unite’ by the 20th
ruling classes with a period of preceding 60 months patrolling in
Century’s close, one is pressed in
"revolutionary crisis," at no point "full battle rattle" in Iraq. Under
hindsight to question what
since the post-War "Red Scare," have presently established plans, the
consideration they may have given to
conditions led them to so "anxiously permanent domestic deployment is set
another one of Marx’s most well
conjure up the spirits of the past to to include over 20,000 troops by 2011.
known aphorisms; regarding the same
their service." Throughout the rein of Among the functions listed in its
human political history they claimed
the Bush regime, the U.S. government officially assigned mission are,
then to have just concluded.
began to undertake exceedingly "surveillance activities," and
Only four years after the
drastic measures to expand the providing "support for civilian law-
publication of the 'Communist
suppressive capabilities of the enforcement branches like local police
Manifesto,' Marx observed that, "all
executive branch toward prospective and rescue personnel, and situations
great world-historic facts and
future threats of political upheaval. involving civil unrest, crowd control,
personages appear, so to speak,
Following the past near-decade of or catastrophes."
twice… the first time as tragedy, the
3 TheMICHIGAN
The MICHIGANSOCIALIST
SOCIALISTThe American Civil Liberties address rapidly expanding human came from the architect of the recent
Union notes that, "The deployment of insecurity at home...Under the most bailout of the U.S. financial sector
an active unit within the United States extreme circumstances, this might himself – then U.S. Treasury
is also troubling given recent include use of military force against Secretary, and former Goldman-Sachs
evidence of the Defense Department’s hostile groups inside the United CEO, Henry Paulson. According to
involvement in warrantless States. Further, DoD would be, by both U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-
surveillance." Such evidence stems necessity, an essential hub for the OK) and U.S. Congressman Brad
from the Pentagon Threat and Local continuity of political authority in a Sherman (D-CA), Paulson asserted to
Observation Notices obtained by multi-state or nationwide civil members of Congress that its failure
ACLU Freedom of Information Act conflict or disturbance" (i.e. the to authorize the financial sector’s
requests, which have named such outbreak of social revolution across $700 billion+ looting of the U.S.
political organizations as the Catholic the United States). treasury may lead to conditions
Worker, United for Peace and Justice, Among the circumstances, requiring for the imposition of
Americans Friends Service speculated in the report, that may "martial law."
Committee, Iraq Veterans Against the necessitate such a reorientation of Taken together, such measures
War, Veterans for Peace, and the military priorities to the homeland and pronouncements by the U.S.
Socialist Party USA. are, "unforeseen economic collapse, ruling establishment demonstrate a
In concurrence with this loss of functioning political and legal starkly rising concern over its
unprecedented permanent deployment order, [and] purposeful domestic capacity to re-impose the tragic fate
of an active-duty brigade on U.S. soil, resistance or insurgency" [emphasis of the past century’s many crushed
a new report released through the added]. The report later goes on to and thwarted revolutions, should the
U.S. Army War College’s Strategic quote an earlier 2008 report from the presently deepening economic crisis
Studies Institute explicitly War College’s Strategic Studies lead to similar stage of the class
recommends an evaluation of the Institute, asserting that, "In a sense, struggle. To no greater an extent than
Pentagon’s capabilities to reorient the states are being overwhelmed by any national ruling class of the past
focus of its engagements from complexity, fragmentation, and century, however, does the U.S.
imperialist occupation abroad to demands they simply are unable to ruling class optimally seek to further
domestic counterinsurgency. meet. They are experiencing offset its own positional stability or
As asserted within the report, unsettling diminution in their capacity diminish its directly instrumental
"Widespread civil violence inside the to manage political, social, and political control by relinquishing the
United States would force the defense economic problems that are pretenses of democratic governance
establishment to reorient priorities in increasingly interconnected, to fascistic or military command.
extremis to defend basic domestic intractable, and volatile." To an extent that remains
order and human security...An The most ominous of unparalleled within any other
American government and defense speculations from within the U.S. capitalist republic, such instrumental
establishment lulled into policy establishment, on the need for political control by the U.S. ruling
complacency by a long-secure domestic military suppression in class is by no means limited to the
domestic order would be forced to response to the economic crisis, state itself. As linguist and political
theorist Noam Chomsky has
observed,
"The smart way to keep people
Socialist Party of Michigan passive and obedient is to strictly
limit the spectrum of acceptable
2009 State Convention opinion, but allow very lively debate
within that spectrum - even
10am-6pm, Saturday, November 7th, 2009 encourage the more critical and
dissident views. That gives people the
The Leland Hotel - Main Lobby w sense that there's free thinking going
400 Bagley St. Detroit, MI 48226. on, while all the time the
The public is invited to attend. For more information, presuppositions of the system are
call (906) 362-6342 or email spmi@spmichigan.org being reinforced by the limits put on
the range of the debate."
Continued on Page 20
4rapidly divest some or most external however, came not from within the The MICHIGAN
The SOCIALIST
MICHIGAN SOCIALIST
4security commitments in order to Defense Department, but directlyMedia:
A Case The Washington
Study of Power Post
and the
Media: The Washington Post
attack are as follows: reasonable, within their rights, and
1) The attack was orchestrated and unchallenged in their assertions and
By MAX KANTAR intended to "send a warning to the cause.
The Michigan Socialist Syrian government." If the Washington Post had
2) The attack was intended to kill an any commitment to serious
T he United States’ recent "insurgent" who is allegedly journalism, the justifications given by
unilateral attack on Syria, and responsible for the presence of the US State department spokesmen
the subsequent coverage of the "hundreds of foreign fighters" for the attack on Syria would have
events by the mainstream US media, stationed in Iraq, who have killed been treated with ridicule, assuming
present an impeccable illustration of "thousands of Iraqis." that readers have a basic respect for
the prevailing ideologies that dictate 3) The attack was intended to pressure human rights and international law.
how news is received, composed, and Syrian officials to "clean up the global To apply the respective justifications
understood by "respectable" threat in [their] backyard," and if they for the attack within a universal
journalists and reporters. do not "clean up" their "backyard" to context; we should judge the situation
Considering the variables the satisfaction of the US, then the US using official US laws and standards
surrounding the US attack, this will "be left with no choice but to take of conduct. According to Section
instance could not be a more perfect these matters into [its] own hands." 2331 under Title 18 of the US Code,
example to gain a clear understanding 4) The attack, according to US "Violent acts or acts dangerous to
of the rationale behind US foreign officials, has the advantage and human life that…appear to be
policy and the ideological constraints purpose of "goading such countries intended…to influence the policy of a
that shackle our "free" press. into action." US military analyst, government by intimidation or
As most of the mainstream Anthony Cordesman, added that such coercion, or by [using force] or
and establishment newspapers follow strikes and "operations" like the US violence to intimidate or coerce a
a reasonably similar framework of killings in Syria are "the only way civilian population" constitute
news reporting, there is no need to use you can deal with" countries like "international terrorism."[iv]
excessive space critiquing all of them. Syria. Because the US military
In this brief examination, I will use 5) The attack was also hinted at strike, as proclaimed by its
the report and coverage put forth by potentially falling under the recent US orchestrators, was explicitly intended
the Washington Post on Tuesday, claims of "self-defense" in its to "goad" or "coerce" Syria's
October 28, 2008 entitled, "U.S. Calls unprovoked military strikes in government into "action," and serve
Raid a Warning to Syria."[i] Pakistan which have killed many as a "warning" to "intimidate" the
On October 26th, four US children and other civilians.[ii] government and population, the US
helicopters flew from US-occupied All of these justifications assault was a textbook case of
Iraq into Syria. Upon landing, US were given to Washington Post "international terrorism" by its own
ground troops attacked a civilian journalists and were simply restated standards. The violent US action,
center, which was under construction, for the readership without a hint of clearly not only "dangerous to human
killing at least seven civilians and criticism. The report in the life," but indeed, intended to destroy
wounding several more. According to Washington Post for all intents and human life, was by definition a
multiple sources, such as Syrian purposes served most literally as a terrorist attack.
Foreign Minister, Walid al-Moualem, government statement issued by the We might pause to ask: Had the
all those killed were civilians, "Ministry of Truth."[iii] If the reasons attackers been an part of an occupying
including "a father, his three children, for the attack, as noted above, truly army in Mexico, and the target had
and wife." deserved any further investigation, been a civilian center in California,
The reasons provided for the commentary, or thought, the whether the Washington Post and its
US military strike in Syria were very Washington Post report presumably friends in the State Department would
explicit. As told to the Washington would have covered it. Therefore, the have then called it a "terrorist attack."
Post by several official US military proper conclusion readers are
sources, the justifications cited for the supposed to reach is that the talking Continued on Page 18
heads of the State department are
5 The MICHIGAN SOCIALISTReferences to great movies aside, I
By RICHARD MONROE really don't blame this one individual,
The Michigan Socialist though I realize personality is at work
in the overall capitalist dynamic.
I 'm laid off. I started a job at Barnes When I first went in to apply
& Noble last fall. I worked an for work, I turned in an application,
orientation, a training shift, and two unexpectedly got an interview, and
more shifts, and that was it. It really is then, upon calling back to check on my
quite something to get used the idea of post-interview status, was told that I
working again, only to have the rug had done well and should call back Barnes & Noble's surveillance
pulled out from under your feet so later. I did call back and the next time cameras are only there to help ensure
suddenly. I'm laid off but I'm was told (second-hand) that I could, yet your safety and privacy, of course.
appreciative at the same time. again, call back later, or fill out another
Rest assured, I'm not trying to application next month. Finally, a day just plain evil. In this world of market
sugarcoat the everyday tragedies of the later on a Sunday afternoon, I was and commodities, bosses do tell others
market. My supervisor told me that called and asked if I was still interested bosses to let employees go and cut
books weren’t selling and the store was and told that there would be an costs, no matter what the human cost,
unable to cover the owners’ costs. So orientation in three weeks. I’m sure I because, to some extent, even the most
he had to reduce hours, yet again. I was don't need to belabor how an employee paid off upper-management hack, or
told the same thing the week before. could easily find him/herself frustrated wealthiest CEO, is a slave to the
The result was that I had only one four with the bungling of a disorganized market. When profit alone dictates your
and a half hour shift that week. This employer. However, I was sure that this business practices, individual
afternoon, as I rolled off of my air job was the turn of my luck, and that, employees' needs and concerns are
mattress, still more than a little leaden eventually, as Christmas approached, I made irrelevant, in spite of any personal
with sleeping pills, I got a phone call would get more hours, save up some reservations or pangs of conscience a
from this pleasant, impersonal master of money, have another job to put on my neurotic business executive may have.
small talk at work, the human resume, and be in a slightly better I'm grateful that I'm not
resources/scheduling supervisor. In the position to approach the next stage of ignorant enough to blame other wage-
same chipper, insincere way he would my life. slaves, individual fat-cats, or even
ask you if you wanted to purchase a I don't know exactly what went overpriced bookstore chains. Lastly, I'm
Barnes & Noble membership for $25, wrong. It's very possible that I made grateful that I can take some comfort in
he informed me, "We’re going to have myself a less profitable human reminding myself that I'm not socially
to let you go." commodity. My final shift didn't see me useless just because I proved an
If I would have called him out, looking quite as sharp as I had before, unmarketable commodity in this
and his corporation, out on what I I'd forgotten a lot about working a cash instance. My education and my
consider to be a poor business practice, register in the week I had off, and experiences aren't useless. I have faith
I'm sure his response would've been waiting for my ride after the final shift, that a better, organized economy could
something about being the messenger, perhaps a manager heard me talking to put me, as a working person, to use
rather than the one making the decision, a friend on my cell-phone about the fulfilling the needs of a society, rather
and "only doing his job." It's hard not to impersonal reference policy of Barnes than raising the profits of a few. I know
make an allusion to the scene in the & Noble and how that might be an that in a better society, working
cinematic classic Cool Hand Luke, advantage at my next job depending on wouldn't be a matter of figuring out
where a guard, who knows he's carrying my overall success and hours worked. how to ingratiate one’s self to
out an injustice by confining Luke into There’s no doubt individual behavior individuals who can hire or fire, or
an inhumanely small confinement, tries has some role in how well a working conniving to somehow make it through
to rationalize what he’s doing by telling person does in a competitive market. yet another week so as to secure another
him something along the lines of, "Now I could be bitter, but I'm grateful. I'm vital paycheck. Instead, the focus would
Luke, I'm sorry about this, but you got grateful that I have read and thought be on how I could best integrate my
to understand, I'm only doing my job." enough to realize that, in one sense, own needs into a need-based economy,
In one of the greatest lines of film there are no individual players in this in which the well being of workers is a
dialogue ever, Luke replies, "Ah callin’ situation who are morally responsible or central concern, rather than an
it your job don’t make it right, Boss." incidental one. ■
6 The MICHIGAN SOCIALISTU.S. Financial Meltdown Spotlights Profit System’s
Failure and the Need for Economic Democracy
"come together as Americans" and take ruling class
Adopted by the State "collective responsibility" for their power, the
Convention of the Socialist boundless greed and ultimate financial concretely
Party of Michigan October 4, failure under the very standards they divided
themselves imposed. mechanisms
2008
Congressional Democrats, through through which
T
continuous pledges to reach a surplus value
he collapse of the financial sector
"bipartisan" solution to the financial was extracted
shows the failure of the capitalist
meltdown, have predictably fallen over in the past,
economy. The inherent need of
themselves to reaffirm their reliable role have been
capitalist firms to expand their market
as one of the two great parties of capital. replaced with a
shares and acquire new outlets for
As Democratic House Speaker Nancy central vacuum.
exploitation has reached a point at which
Pelosi proclaimed on September 26th, Through such a
capital concentration has created a
"We will not leave until legislation is process of agglomeration, it has become
roadblock to satisfying the system's own
passed that will be signed by the largely indiscriminate to either the
expansionary needs. In seeking to
president. The markets need a message means or source, from which it is is
prevent any reduction in their
from us that we're acting." Barack accumulated, and heedless to
extraordinary profit margins, the
Obama, whose $25 million dollars in the consequences that its unmitigated
capitalist firms have sought to drastically
campaign contributions from the depletion presents to its own future
increase their rate of exploitation of
financial industry in this election has needs.
labor, natural resources, and public
Following this exposure of
assets. They have come to rely on the The need of the largest capitalist decades of ruling class lies, workers
sheer market manipulation of financial firms to wipe out competition has should reject the irrationality of the "free
assets, which must ultimately rely on already led to a centralization of market" and turn to the rational
investment in new sources of economic power, but in the form of alternative, economic democracy. The
exploitation or public resource private ownership by an increasingly need of the largest capitalist firms to
dispossession, in order to represent any reckless and completely
unaccountable ruling class of
wipe out competition has already led to a
genuine value of their own. In the most
professional speculators. Now that centralization of economic power, but in
recent development along this trajectory,
they have failed, what earthly the form of private ownership by an
the nation's top financial firms now seek
justification can be given for bailing increasingly reckless and completely
a return on their enormous campaign
them out and handing the economy unaccountable ruling class of
contributions to federal politicians, back to them? professional speculators. Now that they
through a taxpayer bailout of hundreds
have failed, what earthly justification
of billions of dollars. exceeded the amount received by John can be given for bailing them out and
For thirty years the leading McCain, has likewise urged bipartisan handing the economy back to them?
recipients of the proposed bailout have passage of the bailout package, "in the Ultimately, working people will have to
attempted to justify their "Washington spirit of cooperation on behalf of the decide whether we wish to maintain the
Consensus" on decimation of social American people." system of production and finance with
safety nets, massive cuts to wages and The capitalists are trying to catastrophic consequences for ourselves
benefits, and privatization of public accumulate greater portions of the tax and our families, or whether the time has
services, in the name of mercilessly revenues paid by working people come for us to take over the economy
strict adherence to the "tough love" and through bail-outs, corporate welfare, and democratically run it ourselves.
"sacrifice" of the "free market." But now social-service cut-backs, privatization, During the recent housing boom,
that their ruthless exploitation has and imperialist war. They are engaging speculators offered deceptively low
reached an impasse, American workers in debt entrapment, predatory lending, interest rate loans on mortgages. As a
are being called upon to forget the and loan-sharking impoverished nations. result, millions bought houses they could
principles that they so callously imposed They are gouging profits at the point of not actually afford. Much of the funding
since the Reagan/Thatcher era. These production through for these loans came from some of the
same Wall Street powerbrokers who wage/benefit/pension cuts, attacks on largest and most powerful financial
demanded the near complete de- unions, and race-to-the-bottom capital institutions in the United States , and the
regulation of the financial sector under flight. As banking capital has developed world. For a brief moment, lending
"free market" principles, are now calling from a mere medium between industrial institutions and banks made huge
upon all tax-paying U.S. workers to capitalists, to the sovereign base of profits,but then, as usual, the bubble
7 The MICHIGAN SOCIALISTburst, leaving the housing market, The federal government would also ethnically and across income levels.
and, with it, the entire economy, in assume responsibility or forgiveness These housing units should be
complete disarray. With many of the for defaulting mortgages while constructed by a unionized and
largest banks and financial institutions imposing a universal five year ethnically and gender integrated
on the brink of collapse, the proposed moratorium on all home foreclosures. workforce, designed to be energy
gigantic bail-out could very well cost In the short-run, the costs of efficient, and located near mass
taxpayers upwards of a half a trillion this debacle should be borne by those transit. These projects should be
dollars. This staggering giveaway will who benefited from the scam, both owned by the government, but should
bring higher taxes and further cuts in through a steeply graduated income be operated by resident councils with
essential social services, no matter tax and an estate tax levied at a rate of the authority to set policy and to elect,
which of the corporate candidates 90% for inheritances worth more than re-call, and supervise managers.
becomes president. Once again, a million dollars. Such a tax structure, We need to advance from
working people are being coerced into in conjunction with an immediate end capitalism to a socialist society, one in
rescuing the wealthy few from the to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and which housing is provided to all as a
disastrous consequences of their own a drastic cut in military spending, basic right, the financial sector and
insatiable rapaciousness. would provide the funds to prevent a commanding heights of the economy
The Socialist Party of financial collapse while also ensuring are made publicly accountable
Michigan rejects the bail-out plan. the needed expansion of vital social through social ownership and worker
Instead, we propose that the services. control of the economy, and
government take over the financial Such a program to counter the production is oriented toward the
sector, and then delegate the immediate crisis is not enough. needs of working people, rather than
distribution of home loans to a Housing is too important to be left in maximizing the profits of a parasitic
decentralized network of non-profit the hands of avaricious speculators ruling class of multi-millionaires and
_________________________________________________________________________________________
credit unions. These institutions are and developers. The federal billionaires. We, the majority who
far less likely to push bogus loans government should begin building work for a living, must take control of
than the financial institutions millions of units of low-density, high- our own destiny! ■
controlled by our corporate rulers. quality low-cost housing, integrated
Socialist Party of Michigan 2008 Election
Results
across all sections of the state's two election guides, and state government
peninsulas. and non-profit voter information
As in past elections, the SPMI candidate inks. Although the SPMI
faced the task in 2008 of running was able to qualify the 2004 Socialist
Socialist candidates while still being Party presidential ticket for the
denied its own state ballot line due to Michigan ballot through the defunct
Michigan's highly antidemocratic NLP ballot line, it was forced to settle
ballot access laws. Despite this for official Michigan write-in status
T
obstacle, however, the SPMI has run for the SP's presidential ticket in
he final results of the Socialist Michigan candidates on the ballot in 2008... SPMI candidate Matt Erard
Party of Michigan's each state election since 2002, ran for a second time in a row for
participation in the 2008 through either independent qualifying State Representative in the 53rd
elections demonstrated a considerable petitions or the ballot line of the District, which covers nearly all of
step forward in its electoral outreach Green Party of Michigan, with which Ann Arbor. In addition to a relatively
capability and a confluence of, still the SPMI maintains an amiable significant amount of press coverage,
modest, but nonetheless record relationship. This year all three of Erard participated in a live, televised
breaking gains on Election Day. the SPMI's nominated candidates two-candidate debate with his
While running three candidates for qualified through the dual nomination incumbent Democratic opponent and
state and federal office this year, in of the Green Party and therefore was also featured as a live in-studio
addition to the Socialist Party's 2008 dually campaigned and identified as guest on Frank Beckm ann's WJR
presidential campaign, the SPMI was Socialist Party/Green Party morning radio show.
able to present and provide a Socialist candidates and were generally On Election Day, Erard received
alternative to Michigan workers identified accordingly by the media,
8 The MICHIGAN SOCIALISTof increased voter turn-out in the 2008
election. With only 1.26% more votes
cast for the office in 2008 than when
the prior record was set in 2004, such
an increase can only reflect the
outpouring of support Reynolds
received for the Socialist public
education platform he introduced to
students and workers across the state. 2008 SPMI State Board of Education
SPMI candidate Jean Treacy candidate Dwain Reynolds (left)
and 2008 SPMI congressional
brought a Socialist alternative directly candidate Jean Treacy (right)
to northern Michigan's no less
SPMI candidate Matt Erard struggling working class by running for qualify for official presidential write-in
following his televised debate with U.S. Congress in the 1st district, which status in Michigan since the 2000
Democratic State Representative covers both the entirety of Michigan's
Rebekah Warren. election.
Upper Peninsula and the northernmost While the vast majority of
counties of Michigan's Lower presidential write-in votes go illegally
Peninsula. While more sparsely uncounted in most states, regardless of
2,200 votes; more than doubling his
populated than most other districts, a presidential candidate's state-certified
vote total from the prior election and
Michigan's 1st Congressional district is write-in status, Michigan, this year, was
receiving approximately five percent of
the second largest district in land unfortunately no exception to that
the total vote cast for Ann Arbor's State
among any districts located east of the tendency. The Michigan Department of
House seat. As a result, the sole
Mississippi River, while containing State reported only 41 tallied write-in
Socialist State House candidate running
over 30 Michigan counties and votes for SP presidential candidate
in Michigan this year received the
approximately 44% of the state's land. Brian Moore statewide. Following the
highest vote total of any minor party
Despite the overwhelmingly release of this tally, accounting for
candidate challenging the two corporate
vast territory Jean faced in working to fewer votes than even 2/3rds of the
parties for a state legislative seat and
spread her campaign's message to SPMI's own number of dues-paying
the highest vote percentage of any
northern Michigan workers, she members in good standing at the time,
minor party candidate contesting the
succeeded in spreading it widely the SPMI subsequently received
two corporate parties for any state level
enough to win 2,669 votes; coming in numerous complaints from both
office in Michigan. SPMI
third place after her two corporate party members and non-members who could
candidate Dwain Reynolds ensured that
opponents and beating her other two clearly discern that their votes had not
every Michigan voter would have a
opponents of the Libertarian and U.S. been counted because their counties
Socialist alternative on their ballot by
Taxpayers' Parties. Like the other two failed to tally or report even a single
running for the State Board of
SPMI candidates this year, Jean also vote for the campaign. Among such
Education. Earlier in the campaign
broke a new record by exceeding the counties reporting zero votes for the SP
season, Reynolds spent nearly four
vote totals of the SPMI's last U.S. presidential candidate was the county
months touring across the state of
Congressional candidate in 2004 by of Marquette, where the SPMI's own
Michigan with Grand Rapids-based
nearly 500 votes. Marquette County local is centered!
rock band La Dispute and opening each
The SPMI successfully Although numerous reports
of their shows with campaign speeches
qualified the 2008 Socialist Party ticket have been received of write-in votes
to hundreds of young Michigan
of Brian Moore for President and cast simply for "Brian Moore" that still
working and student voters in each
Stewart Alexander for Vice President went un-tallied, the Michigan
audience, and to roaring eruptions of
for official Michigan write-in status by Department of State Bureau of
cheers each time he conveyed how
completing Elections officials silently decided this
Socialists would address the state's
the filing requirements by Michigan's year, in direct contradiction to their
failing educational system.
September 5th deadline. Among the own published filing instructions, that
Following the mass support
required documents filed was a slate of vice presidential candidates, whether
base Reynolds formed throughout the
Michigan presidential electors certified or not, are irrelevant to
state from this exhaustive campaign
composed of an SPMI member who presidential write-in votes.
tour, he received a record-breaking
registered to vote in each of Michigan's Consequently the MI BOE officials
94,663 votes; exceeding the past
15 Congressional districts, plus an didn't bother to include SP vice
highest vote total that any Socialist or
additional two state-at-large electors. presidential candidate Stewart
Green candidate for the State Board of
The Moore-Alexander ticket and Alexander on the list of qualified
Education had ever received by nearly
rightist presidential candidate Alan
10,000 votes. Such an immense
Keyes were the only two campaigns to Continued on Page 16
increase was no mere spurious product
9 The MICHIGAN SOCIALISTNo Car Czar's, No Capitalists, No Bailouts,
No Bosses!
Socialist Party of Michigan Statement on the U.S. Automotive Industry Bailout
catalyst not only to the vast Senators were keenly aware of their
financialization of advanced own states’ corporate linchpins’
capitalism, but also the increasing commonly held interest in
detachment and predation of its vanquishing the model gains
commanding speculators... automotive workers have collectively
Such realities are no less achieved and sustained, and casting
evident in the markedly divergent them into forgotten history. In the
responses the owners of the U.S. objective of such Senators, a bailout
automotive and banking industries of such an increasingly informidable
Note: Since the passage of this received from U.S. federal manufacturing industry could only be
statement, the Obama administration government to their requests for tolerated if accompanied by a
replaced the appointment of a car bailouts of fourteen and seven- sweeping assault in the class struggle.
czar with the appointment of a car hundred billion taxpayer dollars, Reflecting the consensus on
fiefdom predominately composed of respectively. While ultimately the such a sentiment, among all interested
Wall Street investment bankers and
financial sector directly received parties, in so far as it pertains to
equity traders. The extraordinary
assault on the economic and virtually the whole looting it automotive workers alone, the Bush
democratic rights of autoworkers demanded with approval from both regime, with full support from
contained within the terms of the loan corporate parties in Congress, as well Obama, attached the auto bailout
nevertheless remained the same. as massive added bonuses from the agreement to the appointment of a
Fed, the comparative clout of the "Car Czar" whose function is to
T he tenuously averted collapse leading U.S. auto executives was dictatorially impose the forms of
of the U.S. automotive sufficient for access to the federal "restructuring" necessary to ensure the
industry directly follows the purse only upon a protracted solvency of the industry in accordance
arrant exposure of sheer parasitism allocation by the White House with the White House’s established
and insolvency that now characterizes following the Senate’s purportedly "guidelines." In addition to massive
the hegemonic financial sector of resistant deference. operations cuts, estimated to result in
advanced capitalism. While No such political the rapidly forthcoming elimination of
coinciding with news of Toyota’s 1.7 figures, however, were any more tens of thousands of more Michigan
billion dollar financial setback and inclined to examine the automotive jobs, both inside and outside the
first operating loss in seventy years, industry through class-neutral lenses. automotive industry, the guidelines
the American automotive industry’s Instead, both opponents and reluctant established for the Car Czar’s
looming threat of extinction is no supporters of the auto bailout in the implementation and enforcement
mere consequence of the Senate, many of whom had been most include further drastic cuts to
reverberating effects of the financial vehement about passing the preceding automotive workers’ wages and
crisis, but every bit as much a financial bailout as a "clean bill" free supplemental unemployment benefits,
contributing cause. of any executive pay caps, feigned the the ability of GM to pay half of its
Despite compounding efforts most fervent of moral indignation already reduced "VEBA" health care
in recent years, to uproot its organized against UAW workers’ audacity in obligations in company stock rather
workforce’s most hard-won historic their decades of struggle to ultimately than currency, and the declaration that
gains, today’s highly mechanized; retain just under 1/4th of the value UAW compensation arrangements
overproductive, and globally that their labor alone contributes to must be made competitive with non-
competitive automotive industry can automobile production revenues. union ‘transplants’ of Asian and
no longer encapsulate the same labor Although, in contrast to the European auto manufactures
value within each individual vehicle it financial sector, the political reach of operating in the United States.
markets, as once was the case. Such the automotive industry is not far Moreover, the Car Czar has final say
endemic losses in the real economy of enough to constitute a compelling on any renegotiated labor agreements,
good and service production present a force in each such, disproportionately holds the power to nullify new and
southern, Senator’s state, all such existing contracts by sentencing the
10 The MICHIGAN SOCIALISTcompanies into bankruptcy, while the collectively bargain, or maintain the democratically determined macro-
UAW, by the same threat under the benefits they had long before already economic planning, and workers self-
agreement, is prohibited from going successfully achieved. management at the point of
on strike! The Socialist Party of Michigan production. Such a socialization
The provisions to the automotive calls upon all Big Three automotive process should not be limited to
bailout and despotic powers granted to workers to militantly organize against automobiles themselves, but should be
the wholly unaccountable "Car Czar" this agreement and to strike, occupy incorporated into a massive nationally
are an unprecedented assault on the plants, and take whatever other action coordinated and community-based
most fundamental labor protections may be necessary to resist any such transportation utilities program. Such
and civil liberties of all workers in attack by corporate capitalists or the a program would maintain and re-hire
every industry. Not even did the 1947 capitalist state on the most irrevocable the entirety of the existing and laid-off
Taft Hartley Act present such a danger rights of every person who works for a automotive plant and engineering
to the right of working people to living. We further call upon all workforce for ecologically attentive
organize and struggle collectively at working people outside of the auto projects aimed at the development of
the point of production as this industry to walk off the job at any electric and renewable-fueled
_________________________________________________________________________________________
agreement, to which the most point automotive workers at any of the automobiles, major improvements to
numerous and affected grouping Big Three find the need to do the same the efficiency, range, and
involved had no say in its ratification. in defiance of the same capitalist state sustainability of existing public
While the former allows for the that asserts its rule over all of us – transportation systems, the widespread
President to temporarily order striking officially throughout the U.S. and in development of foot and bicycle paths,
workers back to work, this agreement practice throughout the planet. and the development of nationwide
establishes an arrangement and future As with the entire financial high-speed railway systems ultimately
precedent in which the U.S. President, sector, the Socialist Party of Michigan connecting all major cities throughout
in collusion with union workers’ further calls for the immediate the United States. ■
_______________________________________________________________________________________
corporate bosses, can indefinitely socialization of the automotive
eliminate workers’ right to strike, industry under public ownership,
Remember Stonewall? Do we even know what Stonewall
meant?
Socialist Party USA Statement on the 40th Anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion
fateful day, however, the Stonewall’s the rebellion
By AMBER R. CLIFFORD- patrons had enough. Nobody knows that lasted
NAPOLEONE who threw the first bottle that day. It five days in
Chair, SPUSA Queer Commission may have been Sylvia Rivera, a New York
transgendered activist and later a
T
began to
he Stonewall Inn, a gay and founding mother of political
spread across
lesbian neighborhood bar with movements on behalf of
transgendered and transsexual the country.
a large number of African
Americans. It may have been a still Gay, lesbian,
American and Latino patrons, was
also well-known as a safe space for unidentified butch lesbian arrested in trans and
those who did not conform to gender the bar. Over 2000 GLBTQ other queer
norms: butch lesbians, effeminate gay Americans clashed with 400 police Americans
men, and transsexual and officers on June 28. Arrests and took to the
transgendered persons before the beatings were concentrated among streets to
terms were in popular use. All of Stonewall’s African American, protest their continued oppression,
these factors brought the police to Latino, butch and trans patrons. What objectification, and
Stonewall in 1969 for the purpose of ensued was known in the New York criminalization. This singular
illegally raiding the bar, and arresting press and among the police as the
event, the Stonewall Rebellion,
its occupants -- an action not Stonewall riots. For gay, lesbian,
bisexual, transgendered, transsexual marked the beginning of the
unknown in New York in the 1960s.
and queer Americans, and later the modern GLBTQ liberation
In the early morning hours of June
28, 1969, the New York City police world, that fateful day marked the movement, and brought GLBTQ
raided The Stonewall Inn. On that beginning of the Stonewall Rebellion. political and social struggles out of
With shouts of "Gay Power," Continued on Page 15
11 The MICHIGAN SOCIALISTArts Review : Sex Pistols Rockumentary The Filth
and the Fury and Detroit Hip-Hop Artist 'Invincible'
nationalism." bassist Sid Vicious, not on the basis of
By SAYAN BHATTACHARYYA The critic their musical ability, but on the basis
The Michigan Socialist Ken Tucker of whether they possessed a "punk
of The New attitude" to a sufficient degree! In fact,
I
it turns out that Sid Vicious never
t turns out that I attended two York Times
even learned to play bass properly, in
music-related events last August, has remarked, spite of being the band's bassist, so
both of which had to do with "The stage that, at live performances, his bass
musicians who purport to challenge performances was never mic’d.
authority and see their music as the
in The Filth What the band lacked in musical
expression of anti-Establishment
and the Fury talent, however, they made up for in
protest. The first of the two was the
showcase one attitude, which they possessed
performance by the Detroit-based
plentifully. What they also seemed to
underground hip-hop emcee Ilana of the most
possess in equal profusion was an
Weaver (a.k.a. Invincible) and other charismatic appetite for self-destructive behavior,
underground Detroit rappers at the figures in rock history. Mr. Lydon's especially in the case of Sid Vicious.
Blind Pig in Ann Arbor. The second slicing vocals have the sharpness of a With an over-the-top style, and for the
of these "protest music" events was
buccaneer's sword, and he holds the most part a fast, jagged pace with a
the screening of the 2000 film, The
stage like a pop-music Captain Ahab." good deal of abrupt cutting, the film
Filth and the Fury, about the British
I did not know much about the stylistically reflects quite well the
punk rock group from the 70s, the Sex
Sex Pistols before seeing this film, giddy, outrageous and maniacal antics
Pistols. Ever since attending these two
and I went to see the film with the of the band, which were widely
events, I have been thinking about the
expectation that they might be as reported in the British tabloid press
role of musical protest and resistance
profound as other political punk- Esther Leslie and Ben Watson
in the anti-capitalist movement.
rockers like the Clash and the Manic have remarked in their Militant
The approach of the Sex
Street Preachers. On the basis of this Esthetix article, 'Comic Marxism:
Pistols is very different from that of
film, though, the Sex Pistols, with the Punk Rock and the Bash Street Kids,'
the underground hip-hop emcees.
possible exception of their vocalist, "When, at the height of the punk
While there undoubtedly exists a
Johnny Rotten, came across as a rather furor, the manager of the Sex Pistols,
genealogy that links punk rock to hip-
self-oriented band; more interested in Malcolm McLaren was accused of
hop via post-punk, the Sex Pistols, provoking violence and destruction at
striking a rebellious pose and sporting
as depicted in this film at least, punk gigs, he replied 'you've got to be
an attitude than about anything else.
seemed to be more about nihilism and able to destroy to create' ...The Sex
Their rebelliousness seemed to be
chaos than offering a coherent social Pistols deliberately produced music
little deeper than, say, the thickness of
critique on a basis from which any that was violent, nihilistic and
a t-shirt.
meaningful program of social change politically unsafe... In 1977, the
Such a sartorial metaphor is
could be constructed. The Wikipedia listener had either to refuse the music,
actually rather apt in the case of a
article on the Sex Pistols states that or become a punk in active opposition
band like the Sex Pistols, since it turns
the "Sex Pistols emerged as a response to humdrum existence. There was no
out that the "concept" of the band had
to the increasingly safe and bloated possibility of using the music […] as
been fashioned (pun unintended) in a
progressive rock, disco and an ornamental addition to a regular
second-hand clothes store in Chelsea,
manufactured pop music of the mid- life-style."
London, owned by one Malcolm
1970s. The band created controversies As the film depicts, the Sex
McLaren. (Below, for example, is a
which captivated Britain, but often Pistols did pay a price for their
shirt that McLaren handcrafted to
eclipsed their music. Their shows and attitude, as they were dropped by
celebrate the band's Anarchy in the
tours repeatedly faced difficulties with several record companies in rapid
U.K album).
organizers and authorities, and public succession. Yet, this seemed to not
McLaren even recruited
appearances often ended in mayhem. have translated into any financial
potential band members, including
Their 1977 single "God Save the hardship for them since, as the film
Johnny Rotten (whose real name was
Queen" was regarded as an attack on gleefully highlights with a festoon
John Lydon) and, later, the band's
the British monarchy and British
12 The MICHIGAN SOCIALISTshowing of British pounds, the ever- fellow underground Detroit hip-hop
increasing sums of money successive musicians are articulating is both
record companies paid to sign them, far more effective, and far more
they seemed to have made quite a authentic, than the commodified
killing by turning their scandalous protest purveyed by artists like the Sex
reputation into a bankable and Pistols. Granted, the Sex Pistols may
profitable brand. What was at work, have served a purpose by shocking
in other words, was the well-known people out of their complacency and
way in which protest itself tends to torpor; forcing their listeners out of the
get packaged, commodified, and vapid easy-listening rut into which pop
sold for consumption in a market music had fallen by the mid-seventies.
society. Where the band really paid the Nevertheless, they seemed to have had
price -- as the film depicts quite little to offer beyond a purely negative
poignantly, even if matter-of-factly -- critique. They did not offer a positive,
A mishmash of rebellious imagery:
was in the personal lives of individual meaningful alternative, and this is why McClaren's handcrafted 'Anarchy in the
their music ultimately pointed only to U.K.' shirt emblematizes anarchism,
the void of pure anarchy, rather than Karl Marx, and "chaos," all combined.
towards a coherent basis for the
construction of a different kind of socialist vision – in this day and age,
society. in today’s circumstances. Weaver was
born in Israel and moved with her
"God Save the Queen" was parents to Ann Arbor in 1988 as a
regarded as an attack on the seven-year-old, and is a graduate of
Ann Arbor’s Community High School.
British monarchy and British
For a while, Weaver lived in New
nationalism." York City and worked with the all-
woman hip-hop group, 'Anomolies',
It is not that punk rock by itself has before moving back to Detroit in
sold out. Dave Hamell, a 2002.
band members and their associates, A native speaker of Hebrew, she
contemporary punk rock musician who
especially that of Sid Vicious, who taught herself English as a child by
played in Ann Arbor at the Ark some
after having become suspected of listening to hip-hop after moving to the
time ago, points the way, for instance,
stabbing to death his groupie-turned- USA. She has been working as a hip-
to how punk rock can be a weapon for
partner Nancy Spungen, died himself hop musician since the age of fifteen,
positive, even compassionate critique,
in circumstances that strongly and also works as an "artist mentor"
and not just an instrument for wanton
suggested suicide, while out on bail for Michigan prisoners through the
nihilism. It is to the work of Hamell
and awaiting his trial. Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP)
Nevertheless, the film stands and other meaningful punk and
program. Tej Nagaraja, the music
testimony to the fact that, as the band’s post-punk musicians, such as The
critic for the Indypendent, a New
Wikipedia article states, "While many Clash and the Manic Street York City alternative newspaper,
of the Sex Pistols' outrages were Preachers, as well as to musicians wrote in his review of the album:
plotted, the most famous were and bands like Rage against the "She's a visionary in the literal sense."
evidently not." There indeed was a Machine, Patti Smith, and many of Weaver lists among her cultural
core of genuine and passionate outrage Detroit's own native artists, that we and literary influences: Gil Scott
at the hypocrisy of society and must turn for a satisfying Heron (of "The Revolution Will Not
inequities of capitalism, animating this contribution made by the musical be Televised" fame), Nina Simone,
band -- especially its most charismatic The Coup, James Baldwin, Audre
genre of punk towards creating the
member, Johnny Rotten,who much vision that another, better world is Lorde, Paulo Freire, Edward Said,
later observed in 1999 that, "If we had possible. Suheir Hammad!, The Young Lords,
an aim, it was to force our own, Twenty-seven year old Ilana and the long-time Detroit activists and
working-class opinions into the Weaver (who works under the stage socialists Jimmy & Grace Lee Boggs.
mainstream, which was unheard of in name of DJ Invincible), living and (The latter had been, along with the
pop music at the time.” working in Detroit, exemplifies how great Trinidadian socialist C.L.R.
At the end of the day, though, the artists can create such a vision – a James, a member of the Johnson-
protest music that Weaver and her Forest tendency within the United
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