TUNIS CONFERENCE ENDORSES SYRIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL AS " LEGITIMATE REPRESENTATIVE" OF SYRIAN PEOPLE
English.news.cn 2012-02-25 05:37:12
TUNIS, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Participants from 60 countries and regions gathering at the Friends of Syria Conference in Tunisia's capital Tunis on Friday endorsed the Syrian National Council (SNC) as the "legitimate representative" of the Syrian people, the Arab League (AL) Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi said.
In spite of the divisions revealed, a large consensus has been reached on avoiding a militarization of the conflict, moving instead towards a political solution, as advocated by the host country Tunisia's President Moncef Marzouki.
One of the main decisions adopted by the conference was to call on the UN to call for an immediate ceasefire in order to enable humanitarian aid to enter the country.
Other decisions include applying more sanctions on the Syrian regime, reducing diplomatic ties and adding pressure on the Syrian government.
It was also agreed to set up an Arab peacekeeping force to ensure stability during Syria's democratic transition.
Efforts to open up corridors of humanitarian aid for civilians will also be stepped up, Arabi said.
As the conference began on Friday, some 200 pro-Syrian protestors waving Tunisian and Syrian flags tried to force their way into the hotel where the conference was held. They were stopped by the police from entering the hotel.
Related:
SYRIAN PRESIDENT "CAN STILL SAVE HIS COUNTRY": HILLARY CLINTON
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/25/c_131430486.htm
TUNIS, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- In a statement delivered at a press conference following the Friends of Syria Conference in Tunis on Friday evening, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can still "choose to save his country and his people from falling into ruins." Full story
Clinton admitted that the conference witnessed divergences, but a consensus also emerged among delegates to open up humanitarian corridors for civilians in Syria.
She did not openly broach on Saudi Arabia's decision to leave the conference in protest of the conference's "inaction."
The Gulf countries, including Qatar, favor a military solution to the conflict in Syria, calling for arming the Syrian rebels or sending in Arab forces to fight against Syrian government forces.
Clinton ruled out any military action against the Syrian regime, saying that the conference had agreed to step up pressure on the Syrian government, as well as imposing further sanctions on the country to put an end to the bloodshed.
The U.S. Secretary of State was confident that the Syrian regime would collapse from within as a result of a "military coup, " noting that over the past year military leaders have stepped in to remove unpopular leaders in the region, as happened in Tunisia and Egypt.
In the next days, various groups making up the Syrian opposition "will get together and make their voices heard," Clinton added.
Representatives from some 70 countries took part in the meeting which was organized by the Arab League.
------------------------------
OBAMA VOWS TO USE "EVERY TOOL AVAILABLE" TO STOP KILLINGS IN SYRIA
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/25/c_131430467.htm
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama vowed on Friday that he would use "every tool available" to stop the killings in Syria as delegates at the Friends of Syria Conference called for an immediate ceasefire to allow access to humanitarian aid in the Middle East country. Full story
After meeting with Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt at the White House, Obama said he was encouraged by the " international unity" that was developing and would continue to keep the pressure up and "look for every tool available to prevent the slaughter of innocents in Syria."
"All of us who have been seeing the terrible pictures coming out of Syria and Homs recently recognize it is absolutely imperative for the international community to rally and send a clear message to President (Bashar) Assad that it is time for a transition," Obama told reporters.
"It is time for that regime to move on and it is time to stop the killing of Syrian citizens by their own government," he added.
Participants from 60 countries and regions gathered at the first Friends of Syria Conference in Tunisia's capital Tunis on Friday, calling for an immediate ceasefire in order to allow humanitarian aid into the country.
The group reached consensus on avoiding a militarization of the conflict and moving instead towards a political solution by recognizing the Syrian National Council (SNC) as the "legitimate representative" for the Syrian people.
The group also agreed on applying more sanctions on the Assad regime, reducing diplomatic ties and adding pressure on the Syrian government.
At the conference, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on the group to take "concrete action" to "provide emergency humanitarian relief, ratchet up pressure on the regime, and prepare for a democratic transition."
She warned that the Assad regime would pay a "heavy cost" for " ignoring the will of the international community and violating the human rights of your people."
Clinton also announced that the United States was providing 10 million dollars to "quickly scale up humanitarian efforts, including support for refugees" in Syria.
=======================
SYRIA SAYS ARMED GROUPS HINDERS DELIVERANCE OF SLAIN FOREIGN JOURNALISTS' BODIES
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/25/c_131430486.htm
DAMASCUS, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Syria's Foreign Ministry said Friday that armed groups in central Homs province rejected to hand over the bodies of two slain foreign journalists to the authorities. Full story
---------------------------------
NEWS ANALYSIS: OBSERVERS SAY FRIENDS OF SYRIA CONFERENCE TO FURTHER FUEL VIOLENCE
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/25/c_131430449.htm
DAMASCUS, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Syrian observers and analysts slammed the Friends of Syria conference currently underway in Tunis, pointing out that "it would further inflame the violence in Syria under the pretext of building humanitarian corridors." Full story
-------------------------------
viernes, 24 de febrero de 2012
SYRIA EN EL MAPA DE OTRA GUERRA IMPERIAL
SYRIA EN EL MAPA DE OTRA GUERRA IMPERIAL
Hugo Adan, February 24, 2012
1. El propósito del envío de mercenarios a Syria fue desestabilizar un régimen electo que transitaba a una real democracia. Assad perteneció a una dinastía similar a la Saudi; aquí el Rey no llama elecciones porque esta monarquia sirve a los imperios de occidente, los enemigos jurados de pueblos musulmanes. Pero el pueblo Sirio si abandono la Monarquia y eligió como Pdte a un miembro de esas elites adineradas del país, de la misma forma como las democracias de occidente eligen entre sus más adinerados a los suyos. Occidente no tiene ningún derecho a decir que Assad es menos democrático que alguno de sus electos. De hecho no les importa la democracia, prefieren hipócritamente hablar de DH (patético pero cierto, los criminales de guerra mas avezados de la historia contemporánea hablando de DR en Syria y lo mas hipócrita, no lo hacen directamente, usan para ello la ONU. Sería ridículo, un asme-reir, que Alemania, EU, UK, Francia e Israel hablen de defender los DH después de haber asesinado a pueblos musulmanes enteros). Lo que si importa a ellos son los intereses económicos que están juego en esa región (control del mercado mundial y sus transacciones en dólar o Euro y el control de recursos estratégicos como petróleo) y de esto se trata, no de DH ni de democracia.
Si fuera lo último, estarían invirtiendo en el Referéndum que se avecina en Siria, ese que ha convocado Assad para facilitar la transferencia de poder a un nuevo electo. A Occidente lo que les importa es destruir 1ro Syria para avanzar luego sobre Iran y quebrar así no solo el avance de China y Rusia en esta región, sino destruirlos como posibles imperios emergentes. Si China y Rusia responden hoy en Syria, se genera una crisis de guerra nuclear similar a la de Cuba el siglo pasado. Solo que esta vez si podría haber intercambio rápido de bombas y quienes jamás probaron en carne propia lo ocurrido en Hiroshima y Nagasaki tendrían esta vez que sufrir esa horrenda experiencia.
2. Los “amigos de Syria” que llaman a la unidad de la oposición en Tunes, son en realidad los ENEMIGOS DE SYRIA. Si fueran amigos de Syria se estarían reuniendo para pedir la no intervención de Occidente en asuntos internos de pueblos musulmanes o, a los mas, para facilitar la participación pacifica de sectores de oposición en el Referéndum que se avecina. Pero es Occidente quien financia el mitin, establece la agenda y quien decide quien participa y quien no. Ningun país soberano debiera participar en un mitin que busca violar la soberanía de otro país. Tampoco ninguna potencia mundial de occidente, ni China ni Rusia, debieran participar en este reunión. Saludamos la honestidad del régimen Chino de no participar en este teatro de mal gusto. Estamos frente a una manipulación asquerosa de clientes árabes contra pueblos hermanos. Es la división entre musulmanes lo que facilita el avance imperial y sus genocidios de pueblos enteros en estas regiones. Y las argumentos que usan las potencias de Occidente no son solo repetitivas y rupestres, esto ya linda en la idiotez, me refiero a la forma como se miente a la comunidad internacional.
a. Dos grupos de oposición, el Comité de Coordinacion por el Cambio Democratico (CCD) y el Comité de Sirios en el Exilio (CSE) tuvo rivalidades entre ellos pero ambos están a favor de derrocar al gobierno de Assad mediante la violencia armada. El mitin busca cancelar esas rivalidades. Son ellos los que han organizado y facilitado el ingreso de milicias mercenarias para desestabilizar el país con métodos terroristas. Assad les esta respondiendo de la misma manera y solo a él la prensa occidental acusa de cometer abusos de DH. Un tercer grupo de oposición a Assad, el Frente Popular por el Cambio y la Liberacion, ha decidido no participar en el mitin de Tunes. Indicaron que el mitin en Tunes no busca solucionar los problemas de Syria en forma pacífica, lo que busca es facilitar la guerra intervencionista que lidera Estados Unidos.
b. El mitin de Tunes tiene dos objetivos mayores y concretos: a. asegurar zona de acceso para “ayuda humanitaria” y, b. presionar de la ONU una Resolución a favor del embargo de armas hacia Syria. Lo primero significa legitimar una "zona liberad" para los ataques contra el régimen de Assad por los rebeldes o mercenarios y asi facilitarles no solo el ingreso de mas armas a los mercenarios, sino tambien el ingreso del ejército invasor de NATO que se encargara no solo de destruir al ejército de Assad sino también de eliminar a los mercenarios musulmanes ya no necesarios a NATO. Lo segundo es otro equivalente del “no fly zone” que aplicaron en Libia pero esta vez a la inversa : no se permitirá ningún avión volando en ayuda del régimen de Assad y esto va contra Iran, Rusia y China. Aislar a Syria para destruirlo mejor, es el proposito.
De forma que los mercenarios primero se encapuchan para arrojar bombas y quemar casas de simpatizantes del régimen o la de cualquier inocente musulman y ahora se visten de blanco para decir a la prensa mundial que quieren el inmediato cese del incendio y encima piden se les facilite un corredor especial para llevar “ayuda humanitaria” a los afectados.
Cuando una reportera de la prensa China les pregunto si van a participar en el Referendum que se avecina, el líder de la oposición armada indico "We will neither participate in the referendum nor in the upcoming elections,". Ni referéndum, ni elecciones dijo Hasan Abdul-Azim, a Xinhua News el dia 15 de Febrero (ver: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/15/c_122707420.htm).
Queda entonces claro que se trata de mercenarios a quienes se les paga para asesinar a civiles simpatizantes con Assad. A ellos no interesa la paz en Syria, aunque de palabra indiquen que su prioridad es hoy parar la violencia y asegurar transito humanitario para sus heridos y la libertad de sus detenidos. "The priority is for halting violence as well as releasing detainees”. Lobos disfrazados de corderos. Mientras Assad organiza el transito democrático hacia un nuevo régimen, los mercenarios preparan un intervencionismo más de Occidente , un nuevo genocidio contra otro pueblo musulmán. Luego vendrá Irán.
======================
SOURCES:
OPPOSITIONS DIVIDED ON "FRIENDS OF SYRIA" MEETING day 24
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/video/2012-02/24/c_131429805.htm
English.news.cn 2012-02-24
BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- A "Friends of Syria" meeting is expected to gather representatives from more than 70 nations and international groups in Tunis on Friday. The gathering of Western and Arab nations plans to challenge Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to implement an immediate ceasefire and provide humanitarian access to civilians under assault.
However, the three main opposition groups are still far from unified.
The exile Syrian National Committee (SNC) and the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change (NCCDC or NCC) both accepted the invitation to go to Friends of Syria (FS) in Tunis. Last November, the two parties fought outside the Arab League headquarters, where they were visiting at the invitation of Secretary-General Nabil El-araby.
Three months on, people still wonder whether they can put aside their differences to form a joint front. The chairman of the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change hopes they can.
So far, the National Coordination Committee (NCC) has broader support among the Syrian public, while the exile Syrian National Committee (SNC) is more favored by the US and Western countries. Along with their other differences, this makes a joint front not that easy.
Besides these two main parties, the Popular Front for Change and Liberation (PFCL) is a moderate Syrian opposition. It said it would not to attend the meeting, because it doubts the intent of the organizers. Qadri Jamil, chairman of Popular Front for Change and Liberation, said, "The meeting is not aimed at solving the Syrian problem. It is being used by the countries headed by the US as a publicity stunt, to find ways for outside interventions. "
The (PFCL) group believes the Syrian crisis can not be solved through military means, such as violence, or offering weapons to the opposition. But despite these divisions, the international community is still clinging to hope that it can work with the opposition on implementing a pragmatic, practical transition plan that will end the violence in Syria.
(Source: CNTV.cn)
===================
RELATED NEWS day 24
ARMING SYRIAN OPPOSITION MAY LEAD TO BLOODY CIVIL WAR. (Feb 24)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2012-02/24/c_131428412.htm
by Yu Zhixiao. English.news.cn 2012-02-24
“It should be reiterated rashly arming the Syrian opposition or forcing a so-called regime change is a risky and heavily costly option, which may drag Syria into a full-blown bloody civil war”.
BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The two-day Friends of Syria Conference, aimed at rallying support for the Syrian opposition, starts in Tunis on Friday, and outsiders will be watching closely whether it will grant essential backing such as arms to rebels in unrest-stricken Syria.
At this point, it should be reiterated that rashly arming the Syrian opposition or forcing a so-called regime change is a risky and heavily costly option, which may drag the Middle East country into a full-blown bloody civil war.
The meeting, attended by senior diplomats from the Arab League, Europe and the US, certainly will ratchet up pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has vowed to fight anti-government forces to the bitter end.
Western powers have vehemently demanded al-Assad's departure, but stopped announcing military intervention at this stage. However, they insist all options are still on the table.
The expect seek concrete measures, such as calling for access for humanitarian aid to Syria's violence-hit regions and an arms embargo to add more pressure to Damascus.
But Syrian rebels have asked Western countries to arm them, and it is still uncertain whether Friday's conference will satisfy their appetite.
It should be pointed out: reckless supply of weapons to the rebels is sure to bring a more violent reaction from Syria's government troops and plunge the country into a full and devastating civil war, which is not at all in the interests of Syrian civilians.
Before all hopes vanish, the international community should give dialogue a chance.
Pdt al-Assad is substantively responding to demands for domestic reforms. A referendum on a draft constitution on Sunday will allow Syrian citizens to opt for new freedoms, ending the monopoly on power of al-Assad's Baath Party and set a timetable for multiparty elections.
Under the new constitution, President al-Assad will end his two seven-year terms in 2014 at the latest and, with it, his family's 40-odd years of control over the country.
At any time, military methods should be the last option.
-----------------------
PREVIOUS NEWS:
A SYRIAN OPPOSITION BODY REJECTS PARTICIPATION IN CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM (Feb 15)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/15/c_122707420.htm
DAMASCUS, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The head of the opposing National Coordination Body has rejected to take part in the referendum for the new draft constitution, stressing that "the priority is for halting the violence first." [=defeat of Assad first= more violence first= total destruction of one more Muslim country by the US & NATO allies] "We will neither participate in the referendum nor in the upcoming elections," Hasan Abdul-Azim, told Xinhua Wednesday.
"The priority is for halting violence as well as releasing detainees," [more war] he said, stressing that " most of the opposition figures would reject to participate in the referendum."
--------------------------
MORE SOURCES:
China not to attend Friends of Syria conference. (Feb 23)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-02/23/c_131428139.htm
Russia welcomes UN envoy's planned trip to Syria. (Feb 23)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/23/c_131428129.htm
-----------------------------
• SYRIAN Pdt SETS FEB. 26 for CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM. (Feb 15)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/15/c_131412351.htm
---------------------
• SYRIA REJECTS UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL REPORT. (Feb 14)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/14/c_122701641.htm
DAMASCUS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Syria's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday totally rejected the report by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), regarding it as "new allegations."
"The HRC has turned into a tool in the hands of the countries that are targeting Syria and ignoring the terrorist acts carried out by the armed groups," the ministry said in a statement carried by state-run SANA news agency.
----------------------------
• ARAB-UN PEACE-KEEP proposal for Syria draws mixed response. (Feb 14)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/14/c_131409868.htm
DAMASCUS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- An Arab League (AL) proposal to send a joint UN-AL peacekeeping force to Syria has drawn a mixed response from the international community, with some countries warning that the move could backfire and further stoke the violence
MORE RELATED PREVIOUS NEWS
UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTS RESOLUTION ON SYRIA (Feb 17)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2012-02/17/c_131415243.htm
-------------------------
China's vote against Syria resolution shows responsibility: (Feb 18)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2012-02/18/c_131418235.htm
-------------------------------
New UN resolution symbolic, but adds pressure to Damascus (Feb 17)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2012-02/17/c_131415088.htm
----------------------
China not to attend Friends of Syria conference (Feb 23)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-02/23/c_131428139.htm
Russia welcomes UN envoy's planned trip to Syria (Feb 23)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/23/c_131428129.htm
-----------------------------------------
Hugo Adan, February 24, 2012
1. El propósito del envío de mercenarios a Syria fue desestabilizar un régimen electo que transitaba a una real democracia. Assad perteneció a una dinastía similar a la Saudi; aquí el Rey no llama elecciones porque esta monarquia sirve a los imperios de occidente, los enemigos jurados de pueblos musulmanes. Pero el pueblo Sirio si abandono la Monarquia y eligió como Pdte a un miembro de esas elites adineradas del país, de la misma forma como las democracias de occidente eligen entre sus más adinerados a los suyos. Occidente no tiene ningún derecho a decir que Assad es menos democrático que alguno de sus electos. De hecho no les importa la democracia, prefieren hipócritamente hablar de DH (patético pero cierto, los criminales de guerra mas avezados de la historia contemporánea hablando de DR en Syria y lo mas hipócrita, no lo hacen directamente, usan para ello la ONU. Sería ridículo, un asme-reir, que Alemania, EU, UK, Francia e Israel hablen de defender los DH después de haber asesinado a pueblos musulmanes enteros). Lo que si importa a ellos son los intereses económicos que están juego en esa región (control del mercado mundial y sus transacciones en dólar o Euro y el control de recursos estratégicos como petróleo) y de esto se trata, no de DH ni de democracia.
Si fuera lo último, estarían invirtiendo en el Referéndum que se avecina en Siria, ese que ha convocado Assad para facilitar la transferencia de poder a un nuevo electo. A Occidente lo que les importa es destruir 1ro Syria para avanzar luego sobre Iran y quebrar así no solo el avance de China y Rusia en esta región, sino destruirlos como posibles imperios emergentes. Si China y Rusia responden hoy en Syria, se genera una crisis de guerra nuclear similar a la de Cuba el siglo pasado. Solo que esta vez si podría haber intercambio rápido de bombas y quienes jamás probaron en carne propia lo ocurrido en Hiroshima y Nagasaki tendrían esta vez que sufrir esa horrenda experiencia.
2. Los “amigos de Syria” que llaman a la unidad de la oposición en Tunes, son en realidad los ENEMIGOS DE SYRIA. Si fueran amigos de Syria se estarían reuniendo para pedir la no intervención de Occidente en asuntos internos de pueblos musulmanes o, a los mas, para facilitar la participación pacifica de sectores de oposición en el Referéndum que se avecina. Pero es Occidente quien financia el mitin, establece la agenda y quien decide quien participa y quien no. Ningun país soberano debiera participar en un mitin que busca violar la soberanía de otro país. Tampoco ninguna potencia mundial de occidente, ni China ni Rusia, debieran participar en este reunión. Saludamos la honestidad del régimen Chino de no participar en este teatro de mal gusto. Estamos frente a una manipulación asquerosa de clientes árabes contra pueblos hermanos. Es la división entre musulmanes lo que facilita el avance imperial y sus genocidios de pueblos enteros en estas regiones. Y las argumentos que usan las potencias de Occidente no son solo repetitivas y rupestres, esto ya linda en la idiotez, me refiero a la forma como se miente a la comunidad internacional.
a. Dos grupos de oposición, el Comité de Coordinacion por el Cambio Democratico (CCD) y el Comité de Sirios en el Exilio (CSE) tuvo rivalidades entre ellos pero ambos están a favor de derrocar al gobierno de Assad mediante la violencia armada. El mitin busca cancelar esas rivalidades. Son ellos los que han organizado y facilitado el ingreso de milicias mercenarias para desestabilizar el país con métodos terroristas. Assad les esta respondiendo de la misma manera y solo a él la prensa occidental acusa de cometer abusos de DH. Un tercer grupo de oposición a Assad, el Frente Popular por el Cambio y la Liberacion, ha decidido no participar en el mitin de Tunes. Indicaron que el mitin en Tunes no busca solucionar los problemas de Syria en forma pacífica, lo que busca es facilitar la guerra intervencionista que lidera Estados Unidos.
b. El mitin de Tunes tiene dos objetivos mayores y concretos: a. asegurar zona de acceso para “ayuda humanitaria” y, b. presionar de la ONU una Resolución a favor del embargo de armas hacia Syria. Lo primero significa legitimar una "zona liberad" para los ataques contra el régimen de Assad por los rebeldes o mercenarios y asi facilitarles no solo el ingreso de mas armas a los mercenarios, sino tambien el ingreso del ejército invasor de NATO que se encargara no solo de destruir al ejército de Assad sino también de eliminar a los mercenarios musulmanes ya no necesarios a NATO. Lo segundo es otro equivalente del “no fly zone” que aplicaron en Libia pero esta vez a la inversa : no se permitirá ningún avión volando en ayuda del régimen de Assad y esto va contra Iran, Rusia y China. Aislar a Syria para destruirlo mejor, es el proposito.
De forma que los mercenarios primero se encapuchan para arrojar bombas y quemar casas de simpatizantes del régimen o la de cualquier inocente musulman y ahora se visten de blanco para decir a la prensa mundial que quieren el inmediato cese del incendio y encima piden se les facilite un corredor especial para llevar “ayuda humanitaria” a los afectados.
Cuando una reportera de la prensa China les pregunto si van a participar en el Referendum que se avecina, el líder de la oposición armada indico "We will neither participate in the referendum nor in the upcoming elections,". Ni referéndum, ni elecciones dijo Hasan Abdul-Azim, a Xinhua News el dia 15 de Febrero (ver: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/15/c_122707420.htm).
Queda entonces claro que se trata de mercenarios a quienes se les paga para asesinar a civiles simpatizantes con Assad. A ellos no interesa la paz en Syria, aunque de palabra indiquen que su prioridad es hoy parar la violencia y asegurar transito humanitario para sus heridos y la libertad de sus detenidos. "The priority is for halting violence as well as releasing detainees”. Lobos disfrazados de corderos. Mientras Assad organiza el transito democrático hacia un nuevo régimen, los mercenarios preparan un intervencionismo más de Occidente , un nuevo genocidio contra otro pueblo musulmán. Luego vendrá Irán.
======================
SOURCES:
OPPOSITIONS DIVIDED ON "FRIENDS OF SYRIA" MEETING day 24
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/video/2012-02/24/c_131429805.htm
English.news.cn 2012-02-24
BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- A "Friends of Syria" meeting is expected to gather representatives from more than 70 nations and international groups in Tunis on Friday. The gathering of Western and Arab nations plans to challenge Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to implement an immediate ceasefire and provide humanitarian access to civilians under assault.
However, the three main opposition groups are still far from unified.
The exile Syrian National Committee (SNC) and the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change (NCCDC or NCC) both accepted the invitation to go to Friends of Syria (FS) in Tunis. Last November, the two parties fought outside the Arab League headquarters, where they were visiting at the invitation of Secretary-General Nabil El-araby.
Three months on, people still wonder whether they can put aside their differences to form a joint front. The chairman of the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change hopes they can.
So far, the National Coordination Committee (NCC) has broader support among the Syrian public, while the exile Syrian National Committee (SNC) is more favored by the US and Western countries. Along with their other differences, this makes a joint front not that easy.
Besides these two main parties, the Popular Front for Change and Liberation (PFCL) is a moderate Syrian opposition. It said it would not to attend the meeting, because it doubts the intent of the organizers. Qadri Jamil, chairman of Popular Front for Change and Liberation, said, "The meeting is not aimed at solving the Syrian problem. It is being used by the countries headed by the US as a publicity stunt, to find ways for outside interventions. "
The (PFCL) group believes the Syrian crisis can not be solved through military means, such as violence, or offering weapons to the opposition. But despite these divisions, the international community is still clinging to hope that it can work with the opposition on implementing a pragmatic, practical transition plan that will end the violence in Syria.
(Source: CNTV.cn)
===================
RELATED NEWS day 24
ARMING SYRIAN OPPOSITION MAY LEAD TO BLOODY CIVIL WAR. (Feb 24)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2012-02/24/c_131428412.htm
by Yu Zhixiao. English.news.cn 2012-02-24
“It should be reiterated rashly arming the Syrian opposition or forcing a so-called regime change is a risky and heavily costly option, which may drag Syria into a full-blown bloody civil war”.
BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The two-day Friends of Syria Conference, aimed at rallying support for the Syrian opposition, starts in Tunis on Friday, and outsiders will be watching closely whether it will grant essential backing such as arms to rebels in unrest-stricken Syria.
At this point, it should be reiterated that rashly arming the Syrian opposition or forcing a so-called regime change is a risky and heavily costly option, which may drag the Middle East country into a full-blown bloody civil war.
The meeting, attended by senior diplomats from the Arab League, Europe and the US, certainly will ratchet up pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has vowed to fight anti-government forces to the bitter end.
Western powers have vehemently demanded al-Assad's departure, but stopped announcing military intervention at this stage. However, they insist all options are still on the table.
The expect seek concrete measures, such as calling for access for humanitarian aid to Syria's violence-hit regions and an arms embargo to add more pressure to Damascus.
But Syrian rebels have asked Western countries to arm them, and it is still uncertain whether Friday's conference will satisfy their appetite.
It should be pointed out: reckless supply of weapons to the rebels is sure to bring a more violent reaction from Syria's government troops and plunge the country into a full and devastating civil war, which is not at all in the interests of Syrian civilians.
Before all hopes vanish, the international community should give dialogue a chance.
Pdt al-Assad is substantively responding to demands for domestic reforms. A referendum on a draft constitution on Sunday will allow Syrian citizens to opt for new freedoms, ending the monopoly on power of al-Assad's Baath Party and set a timetable for multiparty elections.
Under the new constitution, President al-Assad will end his two seven-year terms in 2014 at the latest and, with it, his family's 40-odd years of control over the country.
At any time, military methods should be the last option.
-----------------------
PREVIOUS NEWS:
A SYRIAN OPPOSITION BODY REJECTS PARTICIPATION IN CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM (Feb 15)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/15/c_122707420.htm
DAMASCUS, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The head of the opposing National Coordination Body has rejected to take part in the referendum for the new draft constitution, stressing that "the priority is for halting the violence first." [=defeat of Assad first= more violence first= total destruction of one more Muslim country by the US & NATO allies] "We will neither participate in the referendum nor in the upcoming elections," Hasan Abdul-Azim, told Xinhua Wednesday.
"The priority is for halting violence as well as releasing detainees," [more war] he said, stressing that " most of the opposition figures would reject to participate in the referendum."
--------------------------
MORE SOURCES:
China not to attend Friends of Syria conference. (Feb 23)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-02/23/c_131428139.htm
Russia welcomes UN envoy's planned trip to Syria. (Feb 23)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/23/c_131428129.htm
-----------------------------
• SYRIAN Pdt SETS FEB. 26 for CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM. (Feb 15)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/15/c_131412351.htm
---------------------
• SYRIA REJECTS UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL REPORT. (Feb 14)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/14/c_122701641.htm
DAMASCUS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Syria's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday totally rejected the report by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), regarding it as "new allegations."
"The HRC has turned into a tool in the hands of the countries that are targeting Syria and ignoring the terrorist acts carried out by the armed groups," the ministry said in a statement carried by state-run SANA news agency.
----------------------------
• ARAB-UN PEACE-KEEP proposal for Syria draws mixed response. (Feb 14)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/14/c_131409868.htm
DAMASCUS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- An Arab League (AL) proposal to send a joint UN-AL peacekeeping force to Syria has drawn a mixed response from the international community, with some countries warning that the move could backfire and further stoke the violence
MORE RELATED PREVIOUS NEWS
UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTS RESOLUTION ON SYRIA (Feb 17)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2012-02/17/c_131415243.htm
-------------------------
China's vote against Syria resolution shows responsibility: (Feb 18)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2012-02/18/c_131418235.htm
-------------------------------
New UN resolution symbolic, but adds pressure to Damascus (Feb 17)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2012-02/17/c_131415088.htm
----------------------
China not to attend Friends of Syria conference (Feb 23)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-02/23/c_131428139.htm
Russia welcomes UN envoy's planned trip to Syria (Feb 23)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/23/c_131428129.htm
-----------------------------------------
MAINSTREAM: US MEDIA IRAN HYSTERIA
MAINSTREAM: US MEDIA IRAN HYSTERIA
http://rt.com/news/us-mass-media-iran-095/
Published: 24 February, 2012
Americans perceive Iran as Evil #1 on the planet, the latest Gallup poll shows. Since neither the US military nor intelligence believes Iran could strike America, why do the US media whip up hysteria about Iran, some 10,000 kilometers away?
¬
According to a new Gallup World Affairs poll released Monday, 32 per cent of those surveyed rank Iran as America’s greatest enemy – compared to just 25 per cent a year ago.
Many more – 87 per cent – gave the Islamic Republic a negative rating, making the country the worst in the survey.
No wonder the impact of fierce anti-Iranian rhetoric is so huge. What should an average American think about an alien Muslim country on the other continent, being told on a daily basis that Persians dream to launch an attack on America?
“Iran could attack the United States in a much more fearsome way,” claims CNN. “We have to assume that Hezbollah would be the proxy for Iran and could well carry out the attack,” it specifies.
A hypothetical national security threat is growing more dangerous by the day, making American citizens believe that Iran’s next target could well be on American soil.
In New York, America’s capital of media and messages, the particular story of the Iranian threat keeps doing the rounds.
“Some believe that New York could eventually be on Iran's hit list,” Fox News scares.
New York Senator Chuck Schumer has written a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton http://rt.com/news/terror-new-york-iran-439/ in mid-February, stating that the Big Apple is teeming with Iranian agents.
Also this month, the New York Police Department’s director for intelligence analysis Michael Silber published an article in the Wall Street Journal headlined “The Iranian Threat to New York City”.
Last week Tel Aviv put the blame for attempted attacks on Israeli diplomats in Bangkok, New Dehli and Tbilisi on Tehran, though Iran denied its involvement.
However, the New York City Police Department followed the advice of Israeli colleagues and increased security around Israeli government facilities and synagogues, adding more sense of tension and anxiety to NY citizens.
The American media might be exaggerating the Iranian threat as the US military officials say the contrary.
US intelligence, personified by Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Ronald Burgess, officially states that Iranian attack on America is unlikely, saying “The agency assesses that Iran is unlikely to initiate or intentionally provoke a conflict” – unless the US attacks first, the general adds.
Actually, the US has had a political quarrel with Israel over Iran. http://rt.com/usa/news/us-israel-iran-nuclear-773/ Tel Aviv openly demands Washington support and participate in a military attack on Iranian nuclear objects, while the Obama administration has been reluctant on any military action against Iran, hoping sanctions and strong wording will do the same job.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey called the idea of an air strike on Iran “foolish”, “destabilizing” and “not prudent.”
For his intractability the general was ostracized by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who accused Dempsey of “serving the Iranians.” http://rt.com/usa/news/netanyahu-dempsey-iran-israel-883/
However fantastic it might sound, two US Senators, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, sided with Netanyahu http://rt.com/usa/news/mccain-dempsey-netanyahu-iran-063/ against the top brass of their own army.
The layout appears to be intriguing. The US government at the moment does not support a military operation against Iran. The US Army intelligence dissuades from harsh actions against the Islamic Republic.
But the US mass media and some agenda-driven lawmakers apparently know better what is good for America, and are actively sculpting an enemy image of the Tehran regime.
While the American government and American military serve the American people, the question is whom the US mass media and committed politicians serve by dragging the country into a new war.
Looking back at how the military campaigns in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya began and the role of mass media hype in these conflicts, the picture gains a new perspective.
The question arises as to whether in the case of Iran the “Strike them before they strike us” hysteria may make the US government turn the scales for the Islamic Republic.
Let us not forget that to make a donkey move one needs a carrot, but to send an elephant into a breakneck run a tiny mouse will do. Today, it seems, some mice speak Farsi from TV screens in America.
http://rt.com/news/us-mass-media-iran-095/
Published: 24 February, 2012
Americans perceive Iran as Evil #1 on the planet, the latest Gallup poll shows. Since neither the US military nor intelligence believes Iran could strike America, why do the US media whip up hysteria about Iran, some 10,000 kilometers away?
¬
According to a new Gallup World Affairs poll released Monday, 32 per cent of those surveyed rank Iran as America’s greatest enemy – compared to just 25 per cent a year ago.
Many more – 87 per cent – gave the Islamic Republic a negative rating, making the country the worst in the survey.
No wonder the impact of fierce anti-Iranian rhetoric is so huge. What should an average American think about an alien Muslim country on the other continent, being told on a daily basis that Persians dream to launch an attack on America?
“Iran could attack the United States in a much more fearsome way,” claims CNN. “We have to assume that Hezbollah would be the proxy for Iran and could well carry out the attack,” it specifies.
A hypothetical national security threat is growing more dangerous by the day, making American citizens believe that Iran’s next target could well be on American soil.
In New York, America’s capital of media and messages, the particular story of the Iranian threat keeps doing the rounds.
“Some believe that New York could eventually be on Iran's hit list,” Fox News scares.
New York Senator Chuck Schumer has written a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton http://rt.com/news/terror-new-york-iran-439/ in mid-February, stating that the Big Apple is teeming with Iranian agents.
Also this month, the New York Police Department’s director for intelligence analysis Michael Silber published an article in the Wall Street Journal headlined “The Iranian Threat to New York City”.
Last week Tel Aviv put the blame for attempted attacks on Israeli diplomats in Bangkok, New Dehli and Tbilisi on Tehran, though Iran denied its involvement.
However, the New York City Police Department followed the advice of Israeli colleagues and increased security around Israeli government facilities and synagogues, adding more sense of tension and anxiety to NY citizens.
The American media might be exaggerating the Iranian threat as the US military officials say the contrary.
US intelligence, personified by Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Ronald Burgess, officially states that Iranian attack on America is unlikely, saying “The agency assesses that Iran is unlikely to initiate or intentionally provoke a conflict” – unless the US attacks first, the general adds.
Actually, the US has had a political quarrel with Israel over Iran. http://rt.com/usa/news/us-israel-iran-nuclear-773/ Tel Aviv openly demands Washington support and participate in a military attack on Iranian nuclear objects, while the Obama administration has been reluctant on any military action against Iran, hoping sanctions and strong wording will do the same job.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey called the idea of an air strike on Iran “foolish”, “destabilizing” and “not prudent.”
For his intractability the general was ostracized by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who accused Dempsey of “serving the Iranians.” http://rt.com/usa/news/netanyahu-dempsey-iran-israel-883/
However fantastic it might sound, two US Senators, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, sided with Netanyahu http://rt.com/usa/news/mccain-dempsey-netanyahu-iran-063/ against the top brass of their own army.
The layout appears to be intriguing. The US government at the moment does not support a military operation against Iran. The US Army intelligence dissuades from harsh actions against the Islamic Republic.
But the US mass media and some agenda-driven lawmakers apparently know better what is good for America, and are actively sculpting an enemy image of the Tehran regime.
While the American government and American military serve the American people, the question is whom the US mass media and committed politicians serve by dragging the country into a new war.
Looking back at how the military campaigns in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya began and the role of mass media hype in these conflicts, the picture gains a new perspective.
The question arises as to whether in the case of Iran the “Strike them before they strike us” hysteria may make the US government turn the scales for the Islamic Republic.
Let us not forget that to make a donkey move one needs a carrot, but to send an elephant into a breakneck run a tiny mouse will do. Today, it seems, some mice speak Farsi from TV screens in America.
martes, 21 de febrero de 2012
THE WAR PROPAGANDA CORPORATE MEDIA STEERS THE WORLD TOWARD DISASTER
THE WAR PROPAGANDA CORPORATE MEDIA STEERS THE WORLD TOWARD DISASTER
Kurt Nimmo | Sunday, February 19, 2012
http://www.infowars.com/war-propaganda-corporate-media-steers-world-toward-disaster/
http://www.4thmedia.org/2012/02/19/war-propaganda-corporate-media-steers-world-toward-disaster/
The establishment media has slipped into overdrive. It is determined to fan the flames of hysteria and set the stage for a devastating attack on Iran.
On Thursday, CNN’s Erin Burnet interviewed New York’s Rep. Peter King who said Iran will unleash Hezbollah in America and the result will be worse than an attack with ballistic missiles.
King and Burnet threw around a slew of lies and fabrications in order to fan the flames of hysteria – from the cartoonish plot by a failed Iranian used car salesman to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador cooked up by the DEA and the FBI to highly suspect and largely inept attacks on Israeli diplomats in India, Georgia and Thailand.
Law enforcement officials in New York and Los Angeles “are keeping an eye out for potential Iranian operatives or anyone with links to the country’s proxy terrorist group, Hezbollah,” reports Fox News. The public can now expect more cops dressed in black with automatic weapons at airports, subways and bus terminals.
Following attacks in India, Georgia and Thailand attributed to Iran and Hezbollah by Israel, the United States and the corporate media, the NYPD’s intelligence boss said Iran is the number one threat to the Big Apple.
In Los Angeles, a city with one of the largest Iranian communities outside Iran, the hysterical and unlikely prospect of an Iranian attack has overshadowed intelligence briefings for weeks.
Israel is barraging a complaisant corporate media with all sorts of dire predictions, especially in regard to the safety of Jews around the world. “Iran and Hezbollah are continuing to try to carry out other attacks on targets abroad,” an Israeli counterterrorism official said Friday, without offering specific details or bothering to provide evidence. “That means asking Israelis abroad to be vigilant.”
In Britain, foreign secretary William Hague said Iran’s drive to obtain nuclear weapons – an assertion that remains unsubstantiated – will result in a new and uncontrollable Cold War.
The Mirror – no slouch when it comes to producing sensationalized pablum of the most lurid sort – posted a story today claiming Iran is training “Al-Qaeda terrorists in advanced explosives with a view to new 9/11-style attacks,” according to nameless experts, and the “2012 London Olympics is believed to be a prime target.”
An absurd case of lies and fantastic conjecture passed off as truth is now rolling full-steam down hill at record speed and will soon result in a disastrous collision that will deal a coup de grâce to the global economy and result in the implementation of a police state.
It’s not that we didn’t learn from the propaganda campaign and invasion of Iraq almost a decade ago. Most Americans now realize that the war was cooked up under false pretense, but there is little they can do because the political system is so corrupted and captured by the military-intelligence-bankster complex.
Kurt Nimmo, Infowars.com
http://www.infowars.com/war-propaganda-corporate-media-steers-world-toward-
Kurt Nimmo | Sunday, February 19, 2012
http://www.infowars.com/war-propaganda-corporate-media-steers-world-toward-disaster/
http://www.4thmedia.org/2012/02/19/war-propaganda-corporate-media-steers-world-toward-disaster/
The establishment media has slipped into overdrive. It is determined to fan the flames of hysteria and set the stage for a devastating attack on Iran.
On Thursday, CNN’s Erin Burnet interviewed New York’s Rep. Peter King who said Iran will unleash Hezbollah in America and the result will be worse than an attack with ballistic missiles.
King and Burnet threw around a slew of lies and fabrications in order to fan the flames of hysteria – from the cartoonish plot by a failed Iranian used car salesman to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador cooked up by the DEA and the FBI to highly suspect and largely inept attacks on Israeli diplomats in India, Georgia and Thailand.
Law enforcement officials in New York and Los Angeles “are keeping an eye out for potential Iranian operatives or anyone with links to the country’s proxy terrorist group, Hezbollah,” reports Fox News. The public can now expect more cops dressed in black with automatic weapons at airports, subways and bus terminals.
Following attacks in India, Georgia and Thailand attributed to Iran and Hezbollah by Israel, the United States and the corporate media, the NYPD’s intelligence boss said Iran is the number one threat to the Big Apple.
In Los Angeles, a city with one of the largest Iranian communities outside Iran, the hysterical and unlikely prospect of an Iranian attack has overshadowed intelligence briefings for weeks.
Israel is barraging a complaisant corporate media with all sorts of dire predictions, especially in regard to the safety of Jews around the world. “Iran and Hezbollah are continuing to try to carry out other attacks on targets abroad,” an Israeli counterterrorism official said Friday, without offering specific details or bothering to provide evidence. “That means asking Israelis abroad to be vigilant.”
In Britain, foreign secretary William Hague said Iran’s drive to obtain nuclear weapons – an assertion that remains unsubstantiated – will result in a new and uncontrollable Cold War.
The Mirror – no slouch when it comes to producing sensationalized pablum of the most lurid sort – posted a story today claiming Iran is training “Al-Qaeda terrorists in advanced explosives with a view to new 9/11-style attacks,” according to nameless experts, and the “2012 London Olympics is believed to be a prime target.”
An absurd case of lies and fantastic conjecture passed off as truth is now rolling full-steam down hill at record speed and will soon result in a disastrous collision that will deal a coup de grâce to the global economy and result in the implementation of a police state.
It’s not that we didn’t learn from the propaganda campaign and invasion of Iraq almost a decade ago. Most Americans now realize that the war was cooked up under false pretense, but there is little they can do because the political system is so corrupted and captured by the military-intelligence-bankster complex.
Kurt Nimmo, Infowars.com
http://www.infowars.com/war-propaganda-corporate-media-steers-world-toward-
THE “GLOBAL CRISES OF CAPITALISM”?, WHOSE CRISES, WHO PROFITS?
THE “GLOBAL CRISES OF CAPITALISM”?, WHOSE CRISES, WHO PROFITS?
Prof. James Petras | Monday, February 20, 2012
http://www.4thmedia.org/2012/02/20/the-%E2%80%9Cglobal-crises-of-capitalism%E2%80%9D-whose-crises-who-profits/
INTRODUCTION
From the Financial Times to the far left, tons of ink has been spilt writing about some variant of the “Crises of Global Capitalism”. While writers differ in the causes, consequences and cures, according to their ideological lights, there is a common agreement that “the crises” threatens to end the capitalist system as we know it.
There is no doubt that, between 2008-2009, the capitalist system in Europe and the United States suffered a severe shock that shook the foundations of its financial system and threatened to bankrupt its ‘leading sectors’.
However, I will argue the ‘crises of capitalism’ was turned into a ‘crises of labor’. Finance capital, the principle detonator of the crash and crises, recovered, the capitalist class as a whole was strengthened, and most important of all, it utilized the political, social, ideological conditions created as a result of “the crises” to further consolidate their dominance and exploitation over the rest of society.
In other words, the ‘crises of capital’ has been converted into a strategic advantage for furthering the most fundamental interests of capital: the enlargement of profits, the consolidation of capitalist rule, the greater concentration of ownership, the deepening of inequalities between capital and labor and the creation of huge reserves of labor to further augment their profits.
Furthermore, the notion of a homogeneous global crisis of capitalism overlooks profound differences in performance and conditions, between countries, classes, and age cohorts.
THE GLOBAL CRISES THESIS:THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ARGUMENT
The advocates of global crises argue that beginning in 2007 and continuing to the present, the world capitalist system has collapsed and recovery is a mirage. They cite stagnation and continuing recession in North America and the Eurozone. They offer GDP data hovering between negative to zero growth. Their argument is backed by data citing double digit unemployment in both regions. They frequently correct the official data which understates the percentage unemployed by excluding part-time, long-term unemployed workers and others. The ‘crises’ argument is strengthened by citing the millions of homeowners who have been evicted by the banks, the sharp increase in poverty and destitution accompanying job loses, wage reductions and the elimination or reduction of social services. “”Crises” is also associated with the massive increase in bankruptcies of mostly small and medium size businesses and regional banks.
THE GLOBAL CRISES: THE LOSS OF LEGITIMACY
Critics, especially in the financial press, write of a “legitimacy crises of capitalism” citing polls showing substantial majorities questioning the in justice s of the capitalist system, the vast and growing inequalities and the rigged rules by which banks exploit their size (“too big to fail”) to raid the Treasury at the expense of social programs.
In summary the advocates of the thesis of a “Global Crises of Capitalism” make a strong case, demonstrating the profound and pervasive destructive effects of the capitalist system on the lives of the great majority of humanity.
The problem is that a ‘crises of humanity’ (more specifically of salary ad wage workers) is not the same as a crisis of the capitalist system. In fact as we shall argue below growing social adversity, declining income and employment has been a major factor facilitating the rapid and massive recovery of the profit margins of most large scale corporations.
Moreover, the thesis of a‘global’ crises of capitalism amalgamates disparate economies, countries, classes and age cohorts with sharply divergent performances at different historical moments.
GLOBAL CRISES OR UNEVEN AND UNEQUAL DEVELOPMENT?
It is utterly foolish to argue for a “global crises” when several of the major economies in the world economy did not suffer a major downturn and others recovered and expanded rapidly. China and India did not suffer even a recession. Even during the worst years of the Euro-US decline,the asian giants grew on average about 8%. Latin America’s economies especially the major agro-mineral export countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, ) with diversified markets, especially in Asia, paused briefly (in 2009) before assuming moderate to rapid growth (between 3% to 7%) from 2010-2012.
By aggregating economic data from the Euro-zone as a whole the advocates of global crises, overlooked the enormous disparities in performance within the zone. While Southern Europe wallows in a deep sustained depression,by any measure, from 2008 to the foreseeable future, German exports, in 2011, set a record of a trillion euros; its trade surplus reached 158 billion euros, after a155 billion euro surpluses in 2010. (BBC News, Feb. 8 2012).
While aggregate Eurozone unemployment reaches 10.4%, the internal differences defy any notion of a “general crises”. Unemployment in Holland is 4.9%, Austria 4.1% and Germany 5.5% with employer claims of widespread skilled labor shortages in key growth sectors. On the other hand in exploited southern Europe unemployment runs to depression levels, Greece 21%, Spain 22.9%, Ireland 14.5%, and Portugal 13.6% (FT 1/19/12, p.7). In other words, “the crises” does not adversely affect some economies, that in fact profit from their market dominance and techno-financial strength over dependent, debtor and backward economies. To speak of a ‘global crises’ obscures the fundamental dominant and exploitative relations that facilitate ‘recovery’ and growth of the elite economies over and against their competitors and client states. In addition global crises theorists wrongly amalgamated crises ridden, financial-speculative economies (US, England ) with dynamic productive export economies ( Germany , China ).
The second problem with the thesis of a “global crises” is that it overlooks profound internal differences between age cohorts. In several European countries youth unemployment (16-25) runs between 30 to 50% (Spain 48.7%, Greece 47.2%, Slovakia 35.6%, Italy 31%, Portugal 30.8% and Ireland 29%) while in Germany, Austria and Holland youth unemployment runs to Germany 7.8%, Austria 8.2% and Netherlands 8.6% (Financial Times (FT) 2/1/12, p2). These differences underlie the reason why there is not a ‘global youth movement’ of “indignant” and “occupiers” .
Five-fold differences between unemployed youth is not conducive to ‘international’ solidarity. The concentration of high youth unemployment figures explains the uneven development of mass- street protests especially centered in Southern Europe . It also explains why the northern Euro-American “anti-globalization” movement is largely a lifeless forum which attracts academic pontification on the “global capitalist crises” and the impotence of the “Social Forums” are unable to attract millions of unemployed youth from Southern Europe .They are more attracted to direct action. Globalist theorists overlook the specific way in which the mass of unemployed young workers are exploited in their dependent debt ridden countries. They ignore the specific way they are ruled and repressed by center-left and rightist capitalist parties. The contrast is most evident in the winter of 2012. Greek workers are pressured to accept a 20% cut in minimum wages while in Germany workers are demanding a 6% increase.
If the ‘crises’ of capitalism is manifested in specific regions, so too does it affect different age/racial sectors of the wage and salaries classes. The unemployment rates of youth to older workers varies enormously: in Italy it is 3.5/1, Greece 2.5/1, Portugal 2.3/1, Spain 2.1/1 and Belgium 2.9/1. In Germany it is 1.5/1 (FT 2/1/12). In other words because of the higher levels of unemployment among youth they have a greater propensity for direct action ‘against the system’; while older workers with higher levels of employment (and unemployment benefits) have shown a greater propensity to rely on the ballot box and engage in limited strikes over job and pay related issues. The vast concentration of unemployed among young workers means they form the ‘available core’ for sustained action; but it also means that they can only achieve limited unity of action with the older working class experiencing single digit unemployment.
However, it is also true that the great mass of unemployment youth provides a formidable weapon, in the hands of employers to threaten to replace employed older workers. Today, capitalists constantly resort to using the unemployed to lower wages and benefits and to intensify exploitation(dubbed to “increase productivity”) to increase profit margins. Far from being simply an indicater of ‘capitalist crises’, high levels of unemployment have served along with other factors’ to increase the rate of profit, accumulate income, widen income inequalities which augments the consumption of luxury goods for the capitalist class:the sales of luxury cars and watches is booming.
CLASS CRISES: THE COUNTER-THESIS
Contrary to the “global capitalist crises” theorists, a substantial amount of data has surfaced which refutes its assumptions. A recent study reports “US corporate profits are higher as a share of gross domestic product than at any time since 1950” (FT 1/30/12). US companies cash balances have never been greater, thanks to intensified exploitation of workers, and a multi-tiered wage systems in which new hires work for a fraction of what older workers receive (thanks to agreements signed by ‘door mat’ labor bosses).
The “crises of capitalism” ideologues have ignored the financial reports of the major US corporations.According to General Motors 2011 report to its stockholders,they celebrated the greatest profit ever,turning a profit of $7.6 billion, surpassing the previous record of $6.7 billion in 1997.A large part of these profits results from the freezing of its underfunded US pension funds and extracting greater productivity from fewer workers-in other words intensified exploitation-and cutting hourly wages of new hires by half.(Earthlink News 2/16/12)
Moreover the increased importance of imperialist exploitation is evident as the share of US corporate profits extracted overseas keeps rising at the expense of employee income growth.In 2011, the US economy grew by 1.7%,but median wages fell by 2.7%.Accordingto the financial press”the profit margens of the S and P 500 leapt from 6% to 9% of the GDP in the past three years,a share last achieved three generations ago.At roughly a third, the foreign share of these profits has more than doubled since 2000”(FT 2/13/12 P9.If this is a “capitalist crises”then who needs a capitalist boom ?
Surveys of top corporations reveal that US companies are holding 1.73 trillion in cash, “the fruits of record high profit margins” (FT 1/30/12 p.6). These record profit margins result from mass firings which have led to intensifying exploitation of the remaining workers. Also negligible federal interest rates and easy access to credit allow capitalists to exploit vast differentials between borrowing and lending and investing. Lower taxes and cuts in social programs result in a growing cash pile for corporations. Within the corporate structure, income goes to the top where senior executives pay themselves huge bonuses. Among the leading S and P 500 corporations the proportion of income that goes to dividends for stockholders is the lowest since 1900 (FT 1/30/12, p.6).
A real capitalist crisis would adversely affect profit margins, gross earnings and the accumulation of “cash piles”. Rising profits are being horded because as capitalists profit from intense exploitation , mass consumption stagnates.
Crises theorists confuse what is clearly the degrading of labor, the savaging of living and working conditions and even the stagnation of the economy, with a ‘crises’ of capital: when the capitalist class increases its profit margins, hoards trillions, it is not in crises. The key point is that the ‘crises of labor’ is a major stimulus for the recovery of capitalist profits. We cannot generalize from one to the other. No doubt there was a moment of capitalist crises (2008-2009) but thanks to the capitalist state’s unprecedented massive transfer of wealth from the public treasury to the capitalist class – Wall Street banks in the first instance – the corporate sector recovered, while the workers and the rest of the economy remained in crises, went bankrupt and out of work.
FROM CRISES TO RECOVERY OF PROFITS: 2008/9 TO 2012
The key to the ‘recovery’ of corporate profits had little to do with the business cycle and all to do with Wall Street’s large scale takeover and pillage of the US Treasury. Between 2009-2012 hundreds of former Wall Street executives, managers and investment advisers seized all the major decision-making positions in the Treasury Department and channeled trillions of dollars into leading financial and corporate coffers. They intervened financially troubled corporations,like General Motors, imposing major wage cuts and dismissals of thousands of workers.
Wall Streeters in Treasury elaborated the doctrine of “Too Big to Fail” to justify the massive transfer of wealth. The entire speculative edifice built in part by a 234 fold rise in foreign exchange trading volume between 1977-2010 was restored (FT 1/10/12, p.7). The new doctrine argued that the state’s first and principle priority is to return the financial system to profitability at any and all cost to society, citizens, taxpayers and workers. “Too Big to Fail” is a complete repudiation of the most basic principle of the “free market” capitalist system: the idea that those capitalists who lose bear the consequences; that each investor or CEO, is responsible for their action. Financial capitalists no longer needed to justify their activity in terms of any contribution to the growth of the economy or “social utility”. According to the current rulers Wall Street must be saved because it is Wall Street, even if the rest of the economy and people sink (FT 1/20/12, p.11). State bailouts and financing are complemented by hundreds of billions in tax concessions, leading to unprecedented fiscal deficits and the growth of massive social inequalities. The pay of CEO’s as a multiple of the average worker went from 24 to 1 in 1965 to 325 in 2010 (FT 1/9/12, p.5).
The ruling class flaunts their wealth and power aided and abetted by the White House and Treasury. In the face of popular hostility to Wall Street pillage of Treasury, Obama went through the sham of asking Treasury to impose a cap on the multi-million dollar bonuses that the CEO’s running bailed out banks awarded themselves. Wall Streeters in Treasury refused to enforce the executive order, the CEO’s got billions in bonuses in 2011 . President Obama went along, thinking he conned the US public with his phony gesture,while he reaped millions in campaign funds from Wall Street!
The reason Treasury has been taken over by Wall Street is that in the 1990’s and 2000’s, banks became a leading force in Western economies. Their share of the GDP rose sharply (from 2% in the 1950’s to 8% in 2010” (FT 1/10/12, p.7).
Today it is “normal operating procedure” for President’s to appoint Wall Streeter’s to all key economic positions; and it is ‘normal’ for these same officials to pursue policies that maximize Wall Street profits and eliminate any risk of failure no matter how risky and corrupt their practioners.
THE REVOLVING DOOR: FROM WALL STREET TO TREASURY AND RETURN
Effectively the relation between Wall Street and Treasury has become a “revolving door”: from Wall Street to the Treasury Department to Wall Street. Private bankers take appointments in Treasury (or are recruited) to ensure that all resources and policies Wall Street needs are granted with maximum effort, with the least hindrance from citizens, workers or taxpayers. Wall Streeters in Treasury give highest priority to Wall Street survival, recovery and expansion of profits. They block any regulations or restrictions on bonuses or a repeat of past swindles.
Wall Streeters ‘make a reputation’ in Treasury and then return to the private sector in higher positions, as senior advisers and partners. A Treasury appointment is a ladder up the Wall Street hierarchy. Treasury is a filling station to the Wall Street Limousine: ex Wall Streeters fill up the tank, check the oil and then jump in the front seat and zoom to a lucrative job and let the filling station (public) pay the bill.
Approximately 774 officials (and counting) departed from Treasury between January 2009 and August 2011 (FT 2/6/12, p. 7). All provided lucrative “services” to their future Wall Street bosses finding it a great way to re-enter private finance at a higher more lucrative position.
A report in the Financial Times Feb. 6, 2012 (p. 7) entitled appropriately Manhattan Transfer” provides typical illustrations of the Treasury-Wall Street “revolving door”.
Ron Bloom went from a junior banker at Lazard to Treasury, helping to engineer the trillion dollar bailout of Wall Street and returned to Lazard as a senior adviser. Jake Siewert went from Wall Street to becoming a top aide to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and then graduated to Goldman Sachs, having served to undercut any cap on Wall Street bonuses.
Michael Mundaca, the most senior tax official in the Obama regime came from the Street and then went on to a highly lucrative post in Ernst and Young a corporate accounting firm, having help write down corporate taxes during his stint in “public office”.
Eric Solomon, a senior tax official in the infamous corporate tax free Bush Administration made the same switch. Jeffrey Goldstein who Obama put in charge of financial regulation and succeeded in undercutting popular demands, returned to his previous employer Hellman and Friedman with the appropriate promotion for services rendered.
Stuart Levey who ran AIPAC sanctions against Iran policies out if Treasury’s so-called “anti- terrorist agency” was hired as general counsel by HSBC to defend it from investigations for money laundering (FT 2/6/12, p. 7). In this case Levey moved from promoting Israels ’ war aims to defending an international bank accused of laundering billions in Mexican cartel money. Levey, by the way spent so much time pursuing Israels ’ Iran agenda that he totally ignored the Mexican drug cartels’ billion dollar money laundering cross-border operations for the better part of a decade.
Lew Alexander a senior advisor to Geithner in designing the trillion dollar bail out is now a senior official in Nomura, the Japanese bank. Lee Sachs went from Treasury to Bank Alliance, (his own “lending platform”). James Millstein went from Lazard to Treasury bailed out AIG insurance run into the ground by Greenberg and then established his own private investment firm taking a cluster of well-connected Treasury officials with him.
The Goldman-Sachs-Treasury “revolving door” continues today. In addition to past and current Treasury heads Paulson and Geithner, former Goldman partner Mark Patterson was recently appointed Geithner’s “chief of staff”. Tim Bowler former Goldman managing director was appointed by Obama to head up the capital markets division.
It should be abundantly clear that elections, parties and the billion dollar electoral campaigns have little to do with “democracy” and more to do with selecting the President and legislators who will appoint non-elected Wall Streeters to make all the strategic economic decisions for the 99% of Americans. The policy results of the Wall Street-Treasury revolving door are clear and provide us with a framework for understanding why the “profit crises” has vanished and the crises of labor has deepened.
THE “POLICY ACHIEVEMENTS” OF THE REVOLVING DOOR
The Wall Street-Treasury conundrum (WSTC) has performed herculean and audacious labor for finance and corporate capital. In the face of universal condemnation of Wall Street by the vast majority of the public for its swindles, bankruptcies, job losses and mortgage foreclosures, the WSTC publically backed the swindlers with a trillion dollar bailout. A daring move on the face of it; that is if majorities and elections counted for anything. Equally important the WSTC dumped the entire “free market” ideology that justified capitalist profits based on its “risks”, by imposing the new dogma of “too big to fail” in which the state treasury guarantees profits even when capitalists face bankruptcy, providing they are billion dollar firms.
The WSTC dumped the capitalist principle of “fiscal responsibility” in favor of hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts for the corporate-financial ruling class, running up record peace time budget deficits and then having the audacity to blame the social programs supported by popular majorities. (Is it any wonder these ex-Treasury officials get such lucrative offers in the private sector when they leave public office?)
THIRDLY, Treasury and the Central Bank (Federal Reserve) provide near zero interest loans that guarantees big profits to private financial institution which borrow low from the Fed and lend high, (including back to the Government!) especially in purchasing overseas Government and corporate bonds. They receive anywhere from four to ten times the interest rates they pay. In other words the taxpayers provide a monstrous subsidy for Wall Street speculation. With the added proviso, that today these speculative activities are now insured by the Federal government, under the “Too Big to Fail” doctrine.
Under the ideology of “regaining competitiveness” the Obama economic team (from Treasury, the Federal Reserve, Commerce, Labor) has encouraged employers to engage in the most aggressive shedding of workers in modern history. Increased productivity and profitability is not the result of “innovation” as Obama, Geithner and Bernache claim; it is a product of a state labor policy which deepens inequality by holding down wages and raising profit margins. Fewer workers producing more commodities. Cheap credit and bailouts for the billion dollar banks and no refinancing for households and small and medium size firms leading to bankruptcies, buyouts and ‘consolidation’ namely, greater concentration of ownership. As a result the mass market stagnates but corporate and bank profits reach record levels.
According to financial experts under the WSTC “new order” “bankers are a protected class who enjoy bonuses regardless of performance, while relying on the taxpayer to socialize their losses” (FT 1/9/12, p.5). In contrast labor, under Obama’s economic team, faces the greatest insecurity and most threatening situation in recent history: “in what is unquestionably novel is the ferocity with which US business sheds labor now that executive pay and incentive schemes are linked to short term performance targets” (FT 1/9/2012, p. 5).
ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF STATE POLICIES
Because of the Wall Street “ takeover” of strategic economic policy positions in Government we can now understand the paradox of record profit margins in the midst of economic stagnation. We can comprehend why the capitalist crises has, at least temporarily, been replaced by a profound crises of labor. Within the power matrix of Wall Street-Treasury Dept. all the old corrupt and exploitative practices that led up to the 2008-2009 crash have returned: multi-billion dollar bonuses for investment bankers who led the economy into the crash; banks “snapping up billions of dollars of bundled mortgage products that resemble the sliced and diced debt some (sic) blame for the financial crises” (FT 2/8/12, p.1). The difference today is that these speculative instruments are now backed by the taxpayer (Treasury). The supremacy of the financial structure of the pre-crises US economy is in place and thriving … “only” the US labor force has sunk into greater unemployment, declining living standards, widespread insecurity and profound discontent.
CONCLUSION: THE CASE AGAINST CAPITALISM AND FOR SOCIALISM
The profound crises of 2008-2009 provoked a spate of questioning of the capitalist system, even among many of its most ardent advocates (FT 1/8/12 to 1/30/12) criticism abounded. ‘Reform, regulation and redistribution’ were the fare of financial columnists. Yet the ruling economic and governing class took no heed. The workers are controlled by door mat union leaders and lack a political instrument. The rightwing pseudo populists embrace an even more virulent pro capitalist agenda, calling for across the board elimination of social programs and corporate taxes. Inside the state a major transformation has taken place which effectively smashed any link between capitalism and social welfare, between government decision-making and the electorate. Democracy has been relaced by a corporate state, founded on the revolving door between Treasury and Wall Street, which funnels public wealth to private financial coffers. The breach between the welfare of society and the operations of the financial architecture is definitive.
The activity of Wall Street has no social utility, its practioners enrich themselves with no redeeming activity. Capitalism has demonstrated conclusively, that it thrives through the degradation of tens of millions of workers and rejects the endless pleas for reform and regulation. Real existing capitalism cannot be harnessed to raising living standards or ensuring employment free of fear of large scale, sudden and brutal firings. Capitalism, as we experience it over the past decade and for the foreseeable future, is in polar opposition to social equality, democratic decision-making and collective welfare.
Record capitalist profits are accrued by pillaging the public treasury, denying pensions and prolonging ‘work till you die’, bankrupting most families with exorbitant private corporate medical and educational costs.
More than ever in recent history, record majorities reject the rule by and for the bankers and the corporate ruling class (FT 2/6/12, p. 6). Inequalities between the top 1% and the bottom 99% have reached record proportions. CEO’s earn 325 times that of an average worker (FT 1/9/12, p.5). Since the state has become the ‘foundation’ of the economy of the Wall Street predators, and since ‘reform’ and regulation has dismally failed , it is time to consider a fundamental systemic transformation that begins via a political revolution which forcibly ousts the non-elected financial and corporate elites running the state for their own exclusive interests. The entire political process,including elections, are profoundly corrupt: each level of office has its own inflated price tag.The current Presidential contest will cost $2 to $3 billion dollars to determine which of the servants of Wall Street will preside over the revolving door.
Socialism is no longer the scare word of the past. Socialism involves the large-scale reorganization of the economy, the transfer of trillions from the coffers of predator classes’ of no social utility to the public welfare. This change can finance a productive and innovative economy based on work and leisure, study and sport. Socialism replaces the everyday terror of dismissal with the security that brings confidence, assurance and respect to the workplace. Workplace democracy is at the heart of the vision of 21st century socialism. We begin by nationalizing the banks and eliminating Wall Street. Financial institutions are redesigned to create productive employment, to serve social welfare and to preserve the environment. Socialism would begin the transition, from a capitalist economy directed by predators and swindlers and a state at their command, toward an economy of public ownership under democratic control
James Petras’ most recent book is The Arab Revolt and the Imperialist Counter Attack (Clarity Press 2012) 2nd edition.
James Petras is a frequent voice for The 4th Media.
Prof. James Petras | Monday, February 20, 2012
http://www.4thmedia.org/2012/02/20/the-%E2%80%9Cglobal-crises-of-capitalism%E2%80%9D-whose-crises-who-profits/
INTRODUCTION
From the Financial Times to the far left, tons of ink has been spilt writing about some variant of the “Crises of Global Capitalism”. While writers differ in the causes, consequences and cures, according to their ideological lights, there is a common agreement that “the crises” threatens to end the capitalist system as we know it.
There is no doubt that, between 2008-2009, the capitalist system in Europe and the United States suffered a severe shock that shook the foundations of its financial system and threatened to bankrupt its ‘leading sectors’.
However, I will argue the ‘crises of capitalism’ was turned into a ‘crises of labor’. Finance capital, the principle detonator of the crash and crises, recovered, the capitalist class as a whole was strengthened, and most important of all, it utilized the political, social, ideological conditions created as a result of “the crises” to further consolidate their dominance and exploitation over the rest of society.
In other words, the ‘crises of capital’ has been converted into a strategic advantage for furthering the most fundamental interests of capital: the enlargement of profits, the consolidation of capitalist rule, the greater concentration of ownership, the deepening of inequalities between capital and labor and the creation of huge reserves of labor to further augment their profits.
Furthermore, the notion of a homogeneous global crisis of capitalism overlooks profound differences in performance and conditions, between countries, classes, and age cohorts.
THE GLOBAL CRISES THESIS:THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ARGUMENT
The advocates of global crises argue that beginning in 2007 and continuing to the present, the world capitalist system has collapsed and recovery is a mirage. They cite stagnation and continuing recession in North America and the Eurozone. They offer GDP data hovering between negative to zero growth. Their argument is backed by data citing double digit unemployment in both regions. They frequently correct the official data which understates the percentage unemployed by excluding part-time, long-term unemployed workers and others. The ‘crises’ argument is strengthened by citing the millions of homeowners who have been evicted by the banks, the sharp increase in poverty and destitution accompanying job loses, wage reductions and the elimination or reduction of social services. “”Crises” is also associated with the massive increase in bankruptcies of mostly small and medium size businesses and regional banks.
THE GLOBAL CRISES: THE LOSS OF LEGITIMACY
Critics, especially in the financial press, write of a “legitimacy crises of capitalism” citing polls showing substantial majorities questioning the in justice s of the capitalist system, the vast and growing inequalities and the rigged rules by which banks exploit their size (“too big to fail”) to raid the Treasury at the expense of social programs.
In summary the advocates of the thesis of a “Global Crises of Capitalism” make a strong case, demonstrating the profound and pervasive destructive effects of the capitalist system on the lives of the great majority of humanity.
The problem is that a ‘crises of humanity’ (more specifically of salary ad wage workers) is not the same as a crisis of the capitalist system. In fact as we shall argue below growing social adversity, declining income and employment has been a major factor facilitating the rapid and massive recovery of the profit margins of most large scale corporations.
Moreover, the thesis of a‘global’ crises of capitalism amalgamates disparate economies, countries, classes and age cohorts with sharply divergent performances at different historical moments.
GLOBAL CRISES OR UNEVEN AND UNEQUAL DEVELOPMENT?
It is utterly foolish to argue for a “global crises” when several of the major economies in the world economy did not suffer a major downturn and others recovered and expanded rapidly. China and India did not suffer even a recession. Even during the worst years of the Euro-US decline,the asian giants grew on average about 8%. Latin America’s economies especially the major agro-mineral export countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, ) with diversified markets, especially in Asia, paused briefly (in 2009) before assuming moderate to rapid growth (between 3% to 7%) from 2010-2012.
By aggregating economic data from the Euro-zone as a whole the advocates of global crises, overlooked the enormous disparities in performance within the zone. While Southern Europe wallows in a deep sustained depression,by any measure, from 2008 to the foreseeable future, German exports, in 2011, set a record of a trillion euros; its trade surplus reached 158 billion euros, after a155 billion euro surpluses in 2010. (BBC News, Feb. 8 2012).
While aggregate Eurozone unemployment reaches 10.4%, the internal differences defy any notion of a “general crises”. Unemployment in Holland is 4.9%, Austria 4.1% and Germany 5.5% with employer claims of widespread skilled labor shortages in key growth sectors. On the other hand in exploited southern Europe unemployment runs to depression levels, Greece 21%, Spain 22.9%, Ireland 14.5%, and Portugal 13.6% (FT 1/19/12, p.7). In other words, “the crises” does not adversely affect some economies, that in fact profit from their market dominance and techno-financial strength over dependent, debtor and backward economies. To speak of a ‘global crises’ obscures the fundamental dominant and exploitative relations that facilitate ‘recovery’ and growth of the elite economies over and against their competitors and client states. In addition global crises theorists wrongly amalgamated crises ridden, financial-speculative economies (US, England ) with dynamic productive export economies ( Germany , China ).
The second problem with the thesis of a “global crises” is that it overlooks profound internal differences between age cohorts. In several European countries youth unemployment (16-25) runs between 30 to 50% (Spain 48.7%, Greece 47.2%, Slovakia 35.6%, Italy 31%, Portugal 30.8% and Ireland 29%) while in Germany, Austria and Holland youth unemployment runs to Germany 7.8%, Austria 8.2% and Netherlands 8.6% (Financial Times (FT) 2/1/12, p2). These differences underlie the reason why there is not a ‘global youth movement’ of “indignant” and “occupiers” .
Five-fold differences between unemployed youth is not conducive to ‘international’ solidarity. The concentration of high youth unemployment figures explains the uneven development of mass- street protests especially centered in Southern Europe . It also explains why the northern Euro-American “anti-globalization” movement is largely a lifeless forum which attracts academic pontification on the “global capitalist crises” and the impotence of the “Social Forums” are unable to attract millions of unemployed youth from Southern Europe .They are more attracted to direct action. Globalist theorists overlook the specific way in which the mass of unemployed young workers are exploited in their dependent debt ridden countries. They ignore the specific way they are ruled and repressed by center-left and rightist capitalist parties. The contrast is most evident in the winter of 2012. Greek workers are pressured to accept a 20% cut in minimum wages while in Germany workers are demanding a 6% increase.
If the ‘crises’ of capitalism is manifested in specific regions, so too does it affect different age/racial sectors of the wage and salaries classes. The unemployment rates of youth to older workers varies enormously: in Italy it is 3.5/1, Greece 2.5/1, Portugal 2.3/1, Spain 2.1/1 and Belgium 2.9/1. In Germany it is 1.5/1 (FT 2/1/12). In other words because of the higher levels of unemployment among youth they have a greater propensity for direct action ‘against the system’; while older workers with higher levels of employment (and unemployment benefits) have shown a greater propensity to rely on the ballot box and engage in limited strikes over job and pay related issues. The vast concentration of unemployed among young workers means they form the ‘available core’ for sustained action; but it also means that they can only achieve limited unity of action with the older working class experiencing single digit unemployment.
However, it is also true that the great mass of unemployment youth provides a formidable weapon, in the hands of employers to threaten to replace employed older workers. Today, capitalists constantly resort to using the unemployed to lower wages and benefits and to intensify exploitation(dubbed to “increase productivity”) to increase profit margins. Far from being simply an indicater of ‘capitalist crises’, high levels of unemployment have served along with other factors’ to increase the rate of profit, accumulate income, widen income inequalities which augments the consumption of luxury goods for the capitalist class:the sales of luxury cars and watches is booming.
CLASS CRISES: THE COUNTER-THESIS
Contrary to the “global capitalist crises” theorists, a substantial amount of data has surfaced which refutes its assumptions. A recent study reports “US corporate profits are higher as a share of gross domestic product than at any time since 1950” (FT 1/30/12). US companies cash balances have never been greater, thanks to intensified exploitation of workers, and a multi-tiered wage systems in which new hires work for a fraction of what older workers receive (thanks to agreements signed by ‘door mat’ labor bosses).
The “crises of capitalism” ideologues have ignored the financial reports of the major US corporations.According to General Motors 2011 report to its stockholders,they celebrated the greatest profit ever,turning a profit of $7.6 billion, surpassing the previous record of $6.7 billion in 1997.A large part of these profits results from the freezing of its underfunded US pension funds and extracting greater productivity from fewer workers-in other words intensified exploitation-and cutting hourly wages of new hires by half.(Earthlink News 2/16/12)
Moreover the increased importance of imperialist exploitation is evident as the share of US corporate profits extracted overseas keeps rising at the expense of employee income growth.In 2011, the US economy grew by 1.7%,but median wages fell by 2.7%.Accordingto the financial press”the profit margens of the S and P 500 leapt from 6% to 9% of the GDP in the past three years,a share last achieved three generations ago.At roughly a third, the foreign share of these profits has more than doubled since 2000”(FT 2/13/12 P9.If this is a “capitalist crises”then who needs a capitalist boom ?
Surveys of top corporations reveal that US companies are holding 1.73 trillion in cash, “the fruits of record high profit margins” (FT 1/30/12 p.6). These record profit margins result from mass firings which have led to intensifying exploitation of the remaining workers. Also negligible federal interest rates and easy access to credit allow capitalists to exploit vast differentials between borrowing and lending and investing. Lower taxes and cuts in social programs result in a growing cash pile for corporations. Within the corporate structure, income goes to the top where senior executives pay themselves huge bonuses. Among the leading S and P 500 corporations the proportion of income that goes to dividends for stockholders is the lowest since 1900 (FT 1/30/12, p.6).
A real capitalist crisis would adversely affect profit margins, gross earnings and the accumulation of “cash piles”. Rising profits are being horded because as capitalists profit from intense exploitation , mass consumption stagnates.
Crises theorists confuse what is clearly the degrading of labor, the savaging of living and working conditions and even the stagnation of the economy, with a ‘crises’ of capital: when the capitalist class increases its profit margins, hoards trillions, it is not in crises. The key point is that the ‘crises of labor’ is a major stimulus for the recovery of capitalist profits. We cannot generalize from one to the other. No doubt there was a moment of capitalist crises (2008-2009) but thanks to the capitalist state’s unprecedented massive transfer of wealth from the public treasury to the capitalist class – Wall Street banks in the first instance – the corporate sector recovered, while the workers and the rest of the economy remained in crises, went bankrupt and out of work.
FROM CRISES TO RECOVERY OF PROFITS: 2008/9 TO 2012
The key to the ‘recovery’ of corporate profits had little to do with the business cycle and all to do with Wall Street’s large scale takeover and pillage of the US Treasury. Between 2009-2012 hundreds of former Wall Street executives, managers and investment advisers seized all the major decision-making positions in the Treasury Department and channeled trillions of dollars into leading financial and corporate coffers. They intervened financially troubled corporations,like General Motors, imposing major wage cuts and dismissals of thousands of workers.
Wall Streeters in Treasury elaborated the doctrine of “Too Big to Fail” to justify the massive transfer of wealth. The entire speculative edifice built in part by a 234 fold rise in foreign exchange trading volume between 1977-2010 was restored (FT 1/10/12, p.7). The new doctrine argued that the state’s first and principle priority is to return the financial system to profitability at any and all cost to society, citizens, taxpayers and workers. “Too Big to Fail” is a complete repudiation of the most basic principle of the “free market” capitalist system: the idea that those capitalists who lose bear the consequences; that each investor or CEO, is responsible for their action. Financial capitalists no longer needed to justify their activity in terms of any contribution to the growth of the economy or “social utility”. According to the current rulers Wall Street must be saved because it is Wall Street, even if the rest of the economy and people sink (FT 1/20/12, p.11). State bailouts and financing are complemented by hundreds of billions in tax concessions, leading to unprecedented fiscal deficits and the growth of massive social inequalities. The pay of CEO’s as a multiple of the average worker went from 24 to 1 in 1965 to 325 in 2010 (FT 1/9/12, p.5).
The ruling class flaunts their wealth and power aided and abetted by the White House and Treasury. In the face of popular hostility to Wall Street pillage of Treasury, Obama went through the sham of asking Treasury to impose a cap on the multi-million dollar bonuses that the CEO’s running bailed out banks awarded themselves. Wall Streeters in Treasury refused to enforce the executive order, the CEO’s got billions in bonuses in 2011 . President Obama went along, thinking he conned the US public with his phony gesture,while he reaped millions in campaign funds from Wall Street!
The reason Treasury has been taken over by Wall Street is that in the 1990’s and 2000’s, banks became a leading force in Western economies. Their share of the GDP rose sharply (from 2% in the 1950’s to 8% in 2010” (FT 1/10/12, p.7).
Today it is “normal operating procedure” for President’s to appoint Wall Streeter’s to all key economic positions; and it is ‘normal’ for these same officials to pursue policies that maximize Wall Street profits and eliminate any risk of failure no matter how risky and corrupt their practioners.
THE REVOLVING DOOR: FROM WALL STREET TO TREASURY AND RETURN
Effectively the relation between Wall Street and Treasury has become a “revolving door”: from Wall Street to the Treasury Department to Wall Street. Private bankers take appointments in Treasury (or are recruited) to ensure that all resources and policies Wall Street needs are granted with maximum effort, with the least hindrance from citizens, workers or taxpayers. Wall Streeters in Treasury give highest priority to Wall Street survival, recovery and expansion of profits. They block any regulations or restrictions on bonuses or a repeat of past swindles.
Wall Streeters ‘make a reputation’ in Treasury and then return to the private sector in higher positions, as senior advisers and partners. A Treasury appointment is a ladder up the Wall Street hierarchy. Treasury is a filling station to the Wall Street Limousine: ex Wall Streeters fill up the tank, check the oil and then jump in the front seat and zoom to a lucrative job and let the filling station (public) pay the bill.
Approximately 774 officials (and counting) departed from Treasury between January 2009 and August 2011 (FT 2/6/12, p. 7). All provided lucrative “services” to their future Wall Street bosses finding it a great way to re-enter private finance at a higher more lucrative position.
A report in the Financial Times Feb. 6, 2012 (p. 7) entitled appropriately Manhattan Transfer” provides typical illustrations of the Treasury-Wall Street “revolving door”.
Ron Bloom went from a junior banker at Lazard to Treasury, helping to engineer the trillion dollar bailout of Wall Street and returned to Lazard as a senior adviser. Jake Siewert went from Wall Street to becoming a top aide to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and then graduated to Goldman Sachs, having served to undercut any cap on Wall Street bonuses.
Michael Mundaca, the most senior tax official in the Obama regime came from the Street and then went on to a highly lucrative post in Ernst and Young a corporate accounting firm, having help write down corporate taxes during his stint in “public office”.
Eric Solomon, a senior tax official in the infamous corporate tax free Bush Administration made the same switch. Jeffrey Goldstein who Obama put in charge of financial regulation and succeeded in undercutting popular demands, returned to his previous employer Hellman and Friedman with the appropriate promotion for services rendered.
Stuart Levey who ran AIPAC sanctions against Iran policies out if Treasury’s so-called “anti- terrorist agency” was hired as general counsel by HSBC to defend it from investigations for money laundering (FT 2/6/12, p. 7). In this case Levey moved from promoting Israels ’ war aims to defending an international bank accused of laundering billions in Mexican cartel money. Levey, by the way spent so much time pursuing Israels ’ Iran agenda that he totally ignored the Mexican drug cartels’ billion dollar money laundering cross-border operations for the better part of a decade.
Lew Alexander a senior advisor to Geithner in designing the trillion dollar bail out is now a senior official in Nomura, the Japanese bank. Lee Sachs went from Treasury to Bank Alliance, (his own “lending platform”). James Millstein went from Lazard to Treasury bailed out AIG insurance run into the ground by Greenberg and then established his own private investment firm taking a cluster of well-connected Treasury officials with him.
The Goldman-Sachs-Treasury “revolving door” continues today. In addition to past and current Treasury heads Paulson and Geithner, former Goldman partner Mark Patterson was recently appointed Geithner’s “chief of staff”. Tim Bowler former Goldman managing director was appointed by Obama to head up the capital markets division.
It should be abundantly clear that elections, parties and the billion dollar electoral campaigns have little to do with “democracy” and more to do with selecting the President and legislators who will appoint non-elected Wall Streeters to make all the strategic economic decisions for the 99% of Americans. The policy results of the Wall Street-Treasury revolving door are clear and provide us with a framework for understanding why the “profit crises” has vanished and the crises of labor has deepened.
THE “POLICY ACHIEVEMENTS” OF THE REVOLVING DOOR
The Wall Street-Treasury conundrum (WSTC) has performed herculean and audacious labor for finance and corporate capital. In the face of universal condemnation of Wall Street by the vast majority of the public for its swindles, bankruptcies, job losses and mortgage foreclosures, the WSTC publically backed the swindlers with a trillion dollar bailout. A daring move on the face of it; that is if majorities and elections counted for anything. Equally important the WSTC dumped the entire “free market” ideology that justified capitalist profits based on its “risks”, by imposing the new dogma of “too big to fail” in which the state treasury guarantees profits even when capitalists face bankruptcy, providing they are billion dollar firms.
The WSTC dumped the capitalist principle of “fiscal responsibility” in favor of hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts for the corporate-financial ruling class, running up record peace time budget deficits and then having the audacity to blame the social programs supported by popular majorities. (Is it any wonder these ex-Treasury officials get such lucrative offers in the private sector when they leave public office?)
THIRDLY, Treasury and the Central Bank (Federal Reserve) provide near zero interest loans that guarantees big profits to private financial institution which borrow low from the Fed and lend high, (including back to the Government!) especially in purchasing overseas Government and corporate bonds. They receive anywhere from four to ten times the interest rates they pay. In other words the taxpayers provide a monstrous subsidy for Wall Street speculation. With the added proviso, that today these speculative activities are now insured by the Federal government, under the “Too Big to Fail” doctrine.
Under the ideology of “regaining competitiveness” the Obama economic team (from Treasury, the Federal Reserve, Commerce, Labor) has encouraged employers to engage in the most aggressive shedding of workers in modern history. Increased productivity and profitability is not the result of “innovation” as Obama, Geithner and Bernache claim; it is a product of a state labor policy which deepens inequality by holding down wages and raising profit margins. Fewer workers producing more commodities. Cheap credit and bailouts for the billion dollar banks and no refinancing for households and small and medium size firms leading to bankruptcies, buyouts and ‘consolidation’ namely, greater concentration of ownership. As a result the mass market stagnates but corporate and bank profits reach record levels.
According to financial experts under the WSTC “new order” “bankers are a protected class who enjoy bonuses regardless of performance, while relying on the taxpayer to socialize their losses” (FT 1/9/12, p.5). In contrast labor, under Obama’s economic team, faces the greatest insecurity and most threatening situation in recent history: “in what is unquestionably novel is the ferocity with which US business sheds labor now that executive pay and incentive schemes are linked to short term performance targets” (FT 1/9/2012, p. 5).
ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF STATE POLICIES
Because of the Wall Street “ takeover” of strategic economic policy positions in Government we can now understand the paradox of record profit margins in the midst of economic stagnation. We can comprehend why the capitalist crises has, at least temporarily, been replaced by a profound crises of labor. Within the power matrix of Wall Street-Treasury Dept. all the old corrupt and exploitative practices that led up to the 2008-2009 crash have returned: multi-billion dollar bonuses for investment bankers who led the economy into the crash; banks “snapping up billions of dollars of bundled mortgage products that resemble the sliced and diced debt some (sic) blame for the financial crises” (FT 2/8/12, p.1). The difference today is that these speculative instruments are now backed by the taxpayer (Treasury). The supremacy of the financial structure of the pre-crises US economy is in place and thriving … “only” the US labor force has sunk into greater unemployment, declining living standards, widespread insecurity and profound discontent.
CONCLUSION: THE CASE AGAINST CAPITALISM AND FOR SOCIALISM
The profound crises of 2008-2009 provoked a spate of questioning of the capitalist system, even among many of its most ardent advocates (FT 1/8/12 to 1/30/12) criticism abounded. ‘Reform, regulation and redistribution’ were the fare of financial columnists. Yet the ruling economic and governing class took no heed. The workers are controlled by door mat union leaders and lack a political instrument. The rightwing pseudo populists embrace an even more virulent pro capitalist agenda, calling for across the board elimination of social programs and corporate taxes. Inside the state a major transformation has taken place which effectively smashed any link between capitalism and social welfare, between government decision-making and the electorate. Democracy has been relaced by a corporate state, founded on the revolving door between Treasury and Wall Street, which funnels public wealth to private financial coffers. The breach between the welfare of society and the operations of the financial architecture is definitive.
The activity of Wall Street has no social utility, its practioners enrich themselves with no redeeming activity. Capitalism has demonstrated conclusively, that it thrives through the degradation of tens of millions of workers and rejects the endless pleas for reform and regulation. Real existing capitalism cannot be harnessed to raising living standards or ensuring employment free of fear of large scale, sudden and brutal firings. Capitalism, as we experience it over the past decade and for the foreseeable future, is in polar opposition to social equality, democratic decision-making and collective welfare.
Record capitalist profits are accrued by pillaging the public treasury, denying pensions and prolonging ‘work till you die’, bankrupting most families with exorbitant private corporate medical and educational costs.
More than ever in recent history, record majorities reject the rule by and for the bankers and the corporate ruling class (FT 2/6/12, p. 6). Inequalities between the top 1% and the bottom 99% have reached record proportions. CEO’s earn 325 times that of an average worker (FT 1/9/12, p.5). Since the state has become the ‘foundation’ of the economy of the Wall Street predators, and since ‘reform’ and regulation has dismally failed , it is time to consider a fundamental systemic transformation that begins via a political revolution which forcibly ousts the non-elected financial and corporate elites running the state for their own exclusive interests. The entire political process,including elections, are profoundly corrupt: each level of office has its own inflated price tag.The current Presidential contest will cost $2 to $3 billion dollars to determine which of the servants of Wall Street will preside over the revolving door.
Socialism is no longer the scare word of the past. Socialism involves the large-scale reorganization of the economy, the transfer of trillions from the coffers of predator classes’ of no social utility to the public welfare. This change can finance a productive and innovative economy based on work and leisure, study and sport. Socialism replaces the everyday terror of dismissal with the security that brings confidence, assurance and respect to the workplace. Workplace democracy is at the heart of the vision of 21st century socialism. We begin by nationalizing the banks and eliminating Wall Street. Financial institutions are redesigned to create productive employment, to serve social welfare and to preserve the environment. Socialism would begin the transition, from a capitalist economy directed by predators and swindlers and a state at their command, toward an economy of public ownership under democratic control
James Petras’ most recent book is The Arab Revolt and the Imperialist Counter Attack (Clarity Press 2012) 2nd edition.
James Petras is a frequent voice for The 4th Media.
PAT BUCHANAN: 300 NUKES IN ISRAEL YET IRAN A THREAT?
PAT BUCHANAN: 300 NUKES IN ISRAEL YET IRAN A THREAT?
Video By RT
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30610.htm
Al QAEDA INVOLVEMENT IN SYRIA SHOULD MAKE US WARRY
Pat Buchanan
Islamic wars have brought questionable benefit to the US over the last 20 years, former US presidential advisor Pat Buchanan, author of Suicide of a Superpower, shared with RT. ¬A new war in the Middle East will be a disaster for the US and for the world economy, he says. "I opposed the Desert Storm operation in 1991 cleaning Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait because, I said, 'This would only be the first Arab-American war.'" Looking at the number of conflicts in the Islam world that America is taking part in now, one cannot but admit that Buchanan was right 20 years ago. "You cannot replicate the Middle West in the Middle East," Pat Buchanan concluded.
From the time of the Cold War the US has military bases all over the world. Today, running a budget deficit of 10 per cent of its GDP, America simply cannot afford to continue "to carry this enormous burden, defending 40 or 50 countries around the world," Buchanan says, "We have to bring troops home." Getting rid of these bases essentially means dismantling the American Empire to help the US survive beyond 2025. America's crusade under the banner of ending tyranny in the world is "utterly utopian".
Video By RT
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30610.htm
Al QAEDA INVOLVEMENT IN SYRIA SHOULD MAKE US WARRY
Pat Buchanan
Islamic wars have brought questionable benefit to the US over the last 20 years, former US presidential advisor Pat Buchanan, author of Suicide of a Superpower, shared with RT. ¬A new war in the Middle East will be a disaster for the US and for the world economy, he says. "I opposed the Desert Storm operation in 1991 cleaning Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait because, I said, 'This would only be the first Arab-American war.'" Looking at the number of conflicts in the Islam world that America is taking part in now, one cannot but admit that Buchanan was right 20 years ago. "You cannot replicate the Middle West in the Middle East," Pat Buchanan concluded.
From the time of the Cold War the US has military bases all over the world. Today, running a budget deficit of 10 per cent of its GDP, America simply cannot afford to continue "to carry this enormous burden, defending 40 or 50 countries around the world," Buchanan says, "We have to bring troops home." Getting rid of these bases essentially means dismantling the American Empire to help the US survive beyond 2025. America's crusade under the banner of ending tyranny in the world is "utterly utopian".
lunes, 20 de febrero de 2012
RON PAUL: U.S. "SLIPPING INTO A FASCIST SYSTEM"
RON PAUL: U.S. "SLIPPING INTO A FASCIST SYSTEM" - (21/2/12)
By CBS http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57380947/paul-u.s--slipping-into-a-fascist-system/
Reproduced in : http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/319933
Tuesday, 21 February 2012 09:41
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul warned the U.S. is "slipping into a fascist system" dominated by government and businesses as he held a fiery rally Saturday night upstaging established Republican Party banquets a short distance away.
The Texas congressman drew a couple thousand standing and chanting people to Kansas City's Union Station as the party's establishment dined on steak across the street at the Missouri GOP's annual conference. Kansas Republicans were holding a similar convention in a suburb across the state line.
Paul staged his rally near the nation's World War I museum, asserting that the U.S. got off track about 100 years ago during the era of President Woodrow Wilson, who led the nation through World War I and unsuccessfully advocated for the nation's involvement in a forerunner of the United Nations.
"We've slipped away from a true Republic," Paul said. "Now we're slipping into a fascist system where it's a combination of government and big business and authoritarian rule and the suppression of the individual rights of each and every American citizen."
Although campaign aides were aware, Paul told reporters after his speech that he did not know his rally was coinciding with long-established Missouri and Kansas Republican Party events, where Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell — a vice presidential prospect — was the keynote speaker.
Several Republicans slipped away from the banquets to join the Paul rally. Among them was Ralph Munyan, a Republican committeeman in Kansas City's home county, who said he agreed with Paul's warnings of a "fascist system" and his pledge to the end nation's involvement in wars overseas and against drugs.
"His foreign policy is one of peace," Munyan said.
Paul repeatedly denounced President Barack Obama's recent enactment of a law requiring military custody of anyone suspected to be associated with al Qaeda and involved in planning an attack on the U.S. Obama said when he signed the legislation that his administration would not authorize the indefinite military detention of American citizens without a trial.
By CBS http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57380947/paul-u.s--slipping-into-a-fascist-system/
Reproduced in : http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/319933
Tuesday, 21 February 2012 09:41
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul warned the U.S. is "slipping into a fascist system" dominated by government and businesses as he held a fiery rally Saturday night upstaging established Republican Party banquets a short distance away.
The Texas congressman drew a couple thousand standing and chanting people to Kansas City's Union Station as the party's establishment dined on steak across the street at the Missouri GOP's annual conference. Kansas Republicans were holding a similar convention in a suburb across the state line.
Paul staged his rally near the nation's World War I museum, asserting that the U.S. got off track about 100 years ago during the era of President Woodrow Wilson, who led the nation through World War I and unsuccessfully advocated for the nation's involvement in a forerunner of the United Nations.
"We've slipped away from a true Republic," Paul said. "Now we're slipping into a fascist system where it's a combination of government and big business and authoritarian rule and the suppression of the individual rights of each and every American citizen."
Although campaign aides were aware, Paul told reporters after his speech that he did not know his rally was coinciding with long-established Missouri and Kansas Republican Party events, where Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell — a vice presidential prospect — was the keynote speaker.
Several Republicans slipped away from the banquets to join the Paul rally. Among them was Ralph Munyan, a Republican committeeman in Kansas City's home county, who said he agreed with Paul's warnings of a "fascist system" and his pledge to the end nation's involvement in wars overseas and against drugs.
"His foreign policy is one of peace," Munyan said.
Paul repeatedly denounced President Barack Obama's recent enactment of a law requiring military custody of anyone suspected to be associated with al Qaeda and involved in planning an attack on the U.S. Obama said when he signed the legislation that his administration would not authorize the indefinite military detention of American citizens without a trial.
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