a second Spanish treble a first German treble a first Italian treble a first English domestic treble three French domestic trebles in four years a first Champions League three-in-a-row in 42 years the first ever 100-point season in Spain, Italy and England ‘Invincible’ seasons in Italy, Portugal, Scotland and seven other European leagues 13 of Europe’s 54 leagues currently seeing their longest run of titles by a single club or longest period of domination. Needless to say, they have all been achieved by the wealthiest clubs in those competitions.

Javier Tebas, president of La Liga, speaks in even graver terms. “If we don’t fix that problem, in a few years our industry will collapse.”



It is teetering on the brink because this core problem loads up so many other ongoing issues: the precarious financial health of clubs outside the elite; the tension between the super-clubs and the rest; the tension between leagues; the tension between Uefa and Fifa; the tension between self-interest and the collective that represents the inherent contradiction of professional sport.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), has been hit with a union-busting $93.6 million dollar court-imposed fine for a secondary boycott deemed illegal under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act. The plaintiff, International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), owned by the third richest man in the Philippines, billionaire Enrique Razon Jr., operates in 27 ports worldwide, mainly in poor, developing countries. On February 14 in Portland, this capital vs labor battle may be decided by a federal court judge.



Known as the slave labor act by the organized labor movement, the Taft-Hartley Act bans solidarity actions or secondary boycotts as the government’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) refers to an action not directed against the primary employer. In 1947, the Taft-Hartley Act, was passed with support from both Democratic and Republican parties at the beginning of the McCarthy witch hunts. It banned all manner of class struggle: solidarity strikes, mass picketing, closed shops, including union hiring halls, and communists from holding union office.



But it was solidarity actions that built the labor movement. ILWU’s history shows that labor’s strength lies in union solidarity actions. West Coast maritime workers have long been in the forefront of U.S. labor struggles. 



Razon’s modus operandi for ICTSI is raw, aggressive neo-liberal capitalism, buying up public-owned ports in developing countries, busting unions, suing competitors or government agencies and making billions in the process. If ICTSI’s owner billionaire Enrique Razon is successful in his court suit, it would be a body blow to labor’s solidarity actions. 



The old IWW motto must prevail, “An injury to one is an injury to all!”



 Full article at

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/12/the-survival-of-the-ilwu-at-stake/

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’” asks Alice.

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” says the Cheshire Cat.



In capitalist society there are only two decisive class forces: the capitalists and the workers. The historic mission of one is to maintain the capitalist system, that of the other is to overthrow it. The working class are the ’grave-diggers of capitalism’ and the emancipation of the working class is the act of the working class itself. The working class is not the gravedigger of capitalism by virtue of any intrinsic merit it possesses as a class qualifying it for that role, but because of the objective role it plays in the production process of capitalism. Thus it can be, and indeed has always been, that the very class which alone is capable of destroying capitalism and with it all class society, is itself deeply imbued with the ideology of the ruling class it is historically destined to overthrow. The contradiction between the objective role of the working class as an agent of social revolution, and its own lack of consciousness of that role, makes necessary the education of the workers to be class conscious and aware of their role as the agent of social revolution. The revolution must be a process of mass self-emancipation. This guiding principle underlies all socialist principles. For sure, socialism from ‘above’ always has an appeal as long as we live under a system of domination, hierarchy and exploitation. When struggles are defeated or when workers are beaten back, the loss of confidence that ensues allows for organisations or individuals step in claiming to liberate the masses ‘from above’. Ideologies that tell people that they are unqualified, that others are best equipped and hold the right way, the best way — the only way — can keep people from trying to change things. If self-emancipation is the goal, it must be the means as well. To paraphrase Eugene Debs, if a saviour can lead you into the promised land, he can lead you back out again too. 



Despite all the obvious failures of capitalism, workers still hold doubt that socialism offers them anything better. Can we blame them. Movements purporting to be socialist have brought authoritarian state-capitalism or liberal welfare statism. Building another socialist movement now requires once more re-envisaging a future that articulates and incorporates those once held socialist ideals which were distorted. The Socialist Party’s mission is the the extension of democracy to the whole of society, the socialisation of private productive property and replacement of the anarchy of the market by a rational planning.



Well-supported arguments for these conclusions exist, other than these measures will lead to bureaucratic domination, general poverty and ecological disaster.



Socialism signifies a “society of free and associated producers” based on the “associated mode of production” as Marx said. He also explained that this “union of free individuals” was the crowning point of the producers’ act of self-emancipation where individuals are subject neither to personal dependence – as in pre-capitalism – nor to material dependence – as in commodity (capitalist) society – excludes, by definition, private property in the means of production, commodity form of the product of labour, wage labour and state. Here the freely associated “social individuals” are the masters of their own social movement, subjecting their social relations to their own control. Human society, when we get it, will be a free association of social individuals. It will not be a one-party workers’ state.



Socialism’s basic conceptions of universal human emancipation and of the free association of individuals are not complex. A world without private property or money is not complicated to comprehend. But it is the socialists’ unfinished task.



The wage system, in spite of all the refinements of sophistication, is the same in all ages, in all lands, and in all climes. Its victims work, propagate their species, bear all the burdens, and perish. The shackles of the slave and the scourge of the master symbolise the reign of King Capital. Not until slave and master have both disappeared forever, and the equal freedom of all has been established, can we lay any proper claim to civilisation.

Air pollution from burning fossil fuels is responsible for more than 4m premature deaths around the world each year.

The other author, Margaret Poydock, a policy associate at the think tank, pointed out that “the resurgence in recent strike activity has occurred despite current policy that makes it difficult for many workers to effectively engage in their fundamental right to strike.” She also praised the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which passed the Democrat-majority U.S. House last week but is unlikely to be approved by the GOP-controlled Senate and Trump. “Corporate influence has eroded labor law and allowed worker protections to stagnate,” said Poydock. “We need fundamental labor law reforms like the PRO Act in order to bring worker protections into the 21st century.”



Along with the PRO Act, the EPI report promoted “additional solutions under discussion that would strengthen the right to strike, including extending unemployment benefits to striking workers, creating tax-deductible strike funds to make it easier for unions to sustain long-term strikes, and forming digital picket lines to inform consumers of real-life collective actions during online interactions with the workers’ employer.”



The Dow is at a record high and unemployment rates are lower than they have been in decades – but 140 million people are also poor or low wealth.  Sixty per cent of African Americans are poor or low-income, as are 64% of Hispanics, but the largest single racial group among America’s poor and low-income – 66 million Americans – are white.

“Yes, the Dow is at a record high and official unemployment rates are lower than they have been in decades. But measuring the health of the economy by these stats is like measuring the 19th-century’s plantation economy by the price of cotton. However much the slaveholders profited, enslaved people and the poor white farmers whose wages were stifled by free labor did not see the benefits of the boom.”

Workers know solidarity is the best way to fight back.



https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/11/were-just-getting-started-says-union-leader-worker-strike-activity-hits-35-year-high

Ours is a class society. The handful of capitalists who are in control of the factories, the banks, the natural resources and the government, are steadily reducing the living standards of working people and eroding our environment. Those who protest against the capitalists are still under the influence of reformism. Reformism thinks only of how to solve problems within the framework allowed by capital. Reformists are concerned for the health of capitalism. Goods are not produced to meet the needs of the people but to make profits for the bosses. If it is profitable to pollute the streams and the sea that will happen. If it is profitable to destroy food crops in a starving world to keep prices up, they will certainly be destroyed. For working people the future is less and less certain. Wages fall or remain stagnant while hours increase and working conditions deteriorate. People are homeless or living in overcrowded homes. People live in squalor so a small clique of very wealthy individuals can live in luxury.



Capitalism is a system of exploitation. The capitalist class seek to maintain its wealth and power. Profits can be made only by fiercer exploitation, cutting down the living standards, of the masses, taking away even such concessions as were previously made. A handful of capitalists control our world and make vast profits off the sweat and toil of the working people and the natural resources of the land. All the major means of production – the factories, forests, farms, fisheries and mines are in the hands of a relative few capitalists. The people at the centre of the corporations extract huge fortunes accumulated from the backs of the working class. This anarchic system wastes a great deal of social wealth. Capitalism is an obstacle to the further advancement of the material well-being of society. It is unjust, wasteful and irrational. Under capitalism, the only way to get rich is to trample over somebody else. There is only room for a few capitalists. Capitalism today means the possible collapse of civilisation.



If all the natural wealth of our planet were being utilised to provide for the needs of its people, there wouldn’t be any problem. But that’s not what’s happening. Everything is produced in order to make a profit. When the profit system goes bust, the World’s population is left helpless. But we don’t have to be helpless. We’re the majority. If we get together, we can be tremendously powerful.



The material and technical resources for a socialist society unquestionably exist today. No competent researcher would doubt that insofar as it depends upon natural resources and the means of production and distribution, everybody could have a comfortable home, abundant nutritious food, ample opportunity for recreation and education, security against accident, sickness, and old age; and the sense of independence and self-respect that goes with these things. What we actually have, however, is mass misery and widespread poverty. This appalling contrast between what might be and what is arises from the nature of the economic system – capitalism. That system acts as a brake upon production so that, as the phrase goes, you have “want in the midst of plenty.” It should be added that socialism envisages planning on a world scale. National boundaries are as artificial and restrictive and socialism is in essence a global economy. Every effort to establish “planned” production under private capitalism breaks down, since the warfare between rival capitalists, in a nation and capitalist groups in different nations disrupts such efforts. 

World socialism can set free the scientists and technicians to work with adequate resources to plan for still greater efficiency in the use of our resources and thus for greater abundance of leisure as well as goods. The spectre of insecurity will be removed. The undemocratic economic domination of the few over the many will be at an end. No one can predict the cultural advances which may follow this release of the human spirit. The one way to security, to peace, to freedom, to cultural advancement is the path of socialist revolution. This is your choice – capitalist chaos or a world of civilisation and culture.



YOU CHOOSE HOW WE USE TECHNOLOGY

The Socialist Party is a political party, which means that its concern is the struggle of the working class as a whole for political power. Whereas the primary concern of trade unions is the economic struggle for better conditions, the Socialist Party concerns itself with unifying our fellow-workers, giving them direction, filling them with the spirit of the class struggle, orientating them towards the overthrow of the capitalist system. Its aim is to effect the capture of the state-machine to acquire political power by the workers.



The Socialist Party participates in the election campaigns as a separate and distinct independent political party. It is anxious to have its representatives in all the legislative bodies. But its election campaigns and its activities are fundamentally different from those of the left-wing. We socialists are not here to help the masters to govern the masses. We are here to help the people press their masters, get from the capitalists and their government a maximum of concessions. We do not spread the false notion that there can be cooperation between the exploited and their exploiters. In other words, we conduct our election campaigns in the spirit of the class struggle. We use the platform of Parliament, from which our voice can be heard better than the voice of private citizens, to help organize the workers and help them conduct all their daily struggles. We do so, not by pretty speeches, not by telling the law-makers, who are servants of the Big Business, how fine and noble they are, but by heading great movements of the masses which would make those gentlemen sit up and take notice. In other words, while the Left solicit votes in order to reform the State and thereby to make it more effective for the capitalists, we socialists practice revolutionary parliamentarianism, by which is meant strengthening the working class and weakening its enemies. We go to the law-making institutions, not to tinker them up for the benefit of the capitalists, but to be a monkey wrench in their machinery, preventing them from working smoothly on behalf of the masters. We use, while there, every step of those agents of the capitalists to expose them before the people, to show what these so-called representatives of the people and what all these so-called democratic institutions actually are. The workers no longer look to the benevolent action of the Labour Party for help in attaining the workers’ objective – the emancipation from wage slavery. The Socialist Party is the political organisation of the working class



The aim of the Socialist Party is to replace the world capitalist system with world socialism which will mark the end of classes and private property. We aim at ending the present capitalist system to its very foundation, such as its various institutions, organisations, even its traditions, science and art. which all are accessories to the capitalist system. we intend to realise a society that has neither rich nor poor, without classes, a society whose members can all secure their food, clothes and dwelling. Exploitation, oppression, and degradation will not exist in socialist society. Commodity production, that is, production for sale or exchange on the market, will not exist. The system of wage labour will be abolished and the guiding principle of labour will be “from each according to ability, to each according to need.” The means of production will be held communally and private property will be eliminated.



With the abolition of classes and class distinctions, all social and political inequality arising from them will disappear. The conflicts of interest between workers and farmers, town and country, manual and intellectual labour will disappear. As classes will not exist, the State will not be necessary as an instrument of class rule and will gradually have withered away. The social relationships between people will be above-board and principled. Labour will be conscious and enthusiastic as the way of life rather than only as a means of survival. The forces of production will be unleashed and there will be high standards of social wealth. There will be broad and profound advances made in the fields of education, art, culture and science, as the masses of people are free to pursue these endeavours. There will no longer be the struggle between opposing classes. The debates and discussions between old and new, humanity and nature, what is correct and incorrect, will propel the development of human society forward. 



Real power in this class struggle lies with the workers themselves, the Socialist Party shall strive for their awakening and organisation.

The UN’s top official in Lebanon has warned of a potential new migrant crisis is unfolding. Jan Kubis, a former Slovakian foreign minister, has told Sky News that Lebanon faces a new level of social unrest and chaos without the implementation of reforms to address a deepening economic crisis.  Kubis’ previous UN postings were in Iraq and Afghanistan. He knows what failed states look like, and he warned of the dangers of Lebanon becoming another.



“Without reforms, the crisis will turn into a security crisis. Then of course we will have not only those Syrians that are still in droves as refugees here but many others, starting with the Lebanese, that simply try to example this kind of social strife.” Kubis’ assessment of the state of the country is bleak. “Some are saying that it’s an existential crisis for Lebanon…”



“Lebanon is on the shores of the Mediterranean. Just look at what is happening now. Look at the waves of migration being generated by many other countries. And what is the destination? It’s Europe.”

Today, the newly formed government’s vote of confidence will take place amid a continued crackdown on protesters.

https://news.sky.com/story/europe-faces-new-wave-of-migrants-unless-lebanon-acts-un-official-warns-11931077

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/09/how-poverty-has-become-the-scourge-of-those-in-work