As COP26 drags on in Glasgow, the major nations and the banks and corporations have largely failed to produce any “progress” in solving the climate emergency. They have been unable to reach any significant agreement, other than half measures. It has been more hot air than success at COP26 or as Greta Thunberg so eloquently put it, “Blah, Blah, Blah.”

One very important issue being ignored at COP26 is the neglected connection between militarism and climate change. The commentator Jonathan Cook in an article has tried to redress that omission with this article on his website.  It is well worth reading.

Its perspective is that “…armed forces are the most polluting on the planet – and the goal at COP26 is to keep that fact a closely guarded secret…Unlike the farming and logging industries, or the manufacturing industries, or the fossil fuel industries, efforts to curb the growth in military spending – let alone reverse it – are off the table at the COP26 summit… The military’s rationale is neither to be sustainable nor to be kind to the planet…Consumption and competition are at the heart of the military mission, whether armies are waging war or marketing their activities as purely “defensive”…”

“The US military alone is estimated to have a larger carbon footprint than most countries. It is widely assumed to be the world’s largest institutional consumer of crude oil…military emissions figures are disguised – lumped in with emissions from other sectors, such as transport.  And emissions from overseas operations – in the case of the US, 70 percent of its military activity – are excluded from the balance sheet entirely…France, with the continent’s most active military, reports none of its emissions… the UK’s military emissions were three times larger than those it reported – even after supply chains, as well as weapons and equipment production, were excluded. The military was responsible for the overwhelming majority of British government emissions…the total emissions by the Norwegian military over the next decade will rise by 30 percent as a result of its F-35 [the latest fighter jet] purchases alone…As well as discounting the environmental harm caused by military equipment procurement and supply chains, countries are also excluding the significant impacts of conflicts and wars… “

“…All this means that, while western politicians promise to cut emissions at COP26, they are actually busy preparing to increase those emissions out of view. Ultimately, the problem is that little can be done to green our militaries, either substantively or through a greenwashing makeover…”

“…[National] “Security”, premised on a fear of neighbours and rivals, can never be satiated. There is always another tank, plane or anti-missile system that can be purchased to create greater “deterrence”, to protect borders more effectively, to intimidate an enemy…”

Adding to what Cook stated is this website which pointed out that “…Britain has two brand new aircraft carriers, each with three runways and space for dozens of fighter jets. These floating airports have largely escaped criticism from climate campaigners who have focused on blocking a third runway at Heathrow…”

Military pollution is the skeleton in the West’s climate closet (jonathan-cook.net)

 As COP26 drags on in Glasgow, the major nations and the banks and corporations have largely failed to produce any “progress” in solving the climate emergency. They have been unable to reach any significant agreement, other than half measures. It has been more hot air than success at COP26 or as Greta Thunberg so eloquently put it, “Blah, Blah, Blah.”

One very important issue being ignored at COP26 is the neglected connection between militarism and climate change. The commentator Jonathan Cook in an article has tried to redress that omission with this article on his website.  It is well worth reading.

Its perspective is that “…armed forces are the most polluting on the planet – and the goal at COP26 is to keep that fact a closely guarded secret…Unlike the farming and logging industries, or the manufacturing industries, or the fossil fuel industries, efforts to curb the growth in military spending – let alone reverse it – are off the table at the COP26 summit… The military’s rationale is neither to be sustainable nor to be kind to the planet…Consumption and competition are at the heart of the military mission, whether armies are waging war or marketing their activities as purely “defensive”…”

“The US military alone is estimated to have a larger carbon footprint than most countries. It is widely assumed to be the world’s largest institutional consumer of crude oil…military emissions figures are disguised – lumped in with emissions from other sectors, such as transport.  And emissions from overseas operations – in the case of the US, 70 percent of its military activity – are excluded from the balance sheet entirely…France, with the continent’s most active military, reports none of its emissions… the UK’s military emissions were three times larger than those it reported – even after supply chains, as well as weapons and equipment production, were excluded. The military was responsible for the overwhelming majority of British government emissions…the total emissions by the Norwegian military over the next decade will rise by 30 percent as a result of its F-35 [the latest fighter jet] purchases alone…As well as discounting the environmental harm caused by military equipment procurement and supply chains, countries are also excluding the significant impacts of conflicts and wars… “

“…All this means that, while western politicians promise to cut emissions at COP26, they are actually busy preparing to increase those emissions out of view. Ultimately, the problem is that little can be done to green our militaries, either substantively or through a greenwashing makeover…”

“…[National] “Security”, premised on a fear of neighbours and rivals, can never be satiated. There is always another tank, plane or anti-missile system that can be purchased to create greater “deterrence”, to protect borders more effectively, to intimidate an enemy…”

Adding to what Cook stated is this website which pointed out that “…Britain has two brand new aircraft carriers, each with three runways and space for dozens of fighter jets. These floating airports have largely escaped criticism from climate campaigners who have focused on blocking a third runway at Heathrow…”

Military pollution is the skeleton in the West’s climate closet (jonathan-cook.net)

 As we look around COP26 we notice some popular signs, ‘system change, not climate change’, ‘people not profit’, ‘Our world is not for sale’ and many other similar anti-capitalist slogans. We would like to believe that the socialist message is getting through to green campaigners.

Alas, delve a little deeper and there is often serious misunderstandings about what capitalism actually is.  We can appreciate that many are turning their backs on mainstream politics, questioning their traditional party allegiances and addressing their previous assumptions.

The World Socialist Movement risks isolating itself from wider support by sometimes offering harsh criticisms of our fellow workers.

Socialism is needed so that both humanity and nature can co-exist. Technology should be usable and controllable to local and regional bodies. nowhere has it been demonstrated that the earth’s present riches would not be sufficient to reasonably feed, clothe, house, educate and nurture every citizen of the world, and enable them to develop their potential.

Nowhere has it ever been demonstrated that if production for the sake of profit were abolished and the fruits of labour are made accessible to all, would humanity not have enough material resources to adapt technology to the furtherance of society’s well-being.

As for ‘over-population’ all past experiences show that it is a social phenomenon, not a biological inevitability and by ensuring the liberation of the population out of backward ignorance, misery, illiteracy and superstition, then population growth will decrease, as it has decreased in all industrialised countries.

There are those who advocate ’de-growth’ which inevitably means an enormous increase of suffering and hunger and would quickly result in hundreds of millions of deaths and it is clearly an inhuman choice. Our preferred option is to decide as quickly as possible for controlled and planned growth until the world’s poor have been lifted out of poverty and then society can transform itself into a zero-growth steady-state economy and begin a process of reducing levels of production, in what Marx described as ‘simple reproduction’. 

The dilemma of ‘socialism or barbarism’ is once again extremely relevant. In the absence of a planned global economy, the foundations of human civilisation could in the near future collapse. It is capitalistic anarchic uncontrolled capitalist growth, which disregards people’s most fundamental interests and our respect for nature, which poses the threat to humanity. Our struggle for a class-free society, a rational society without nations or governments has become a struggle for the survival of the human civilisation. The private ownership of the means of production, the commodity economy and the nation-state – these three appalling anachronisms must be abolished. 

Freed from the profit-system, with hundreds of millions of people, liberated from socially wasteful and unnecessary labour, applying their creativity elsewhere in the economy, there is no reason to suppose that the standard of living of working people across the whole world cannot rise by leaps and bounds when the quality of life is given priority.

It’s ironic that environmentalists often accuse those of us seeking socialist solutions as being unrealistic and not advocating practical policies. Yet they continue to place their faith in capitalists collaborating with politicians to come up with solutions. We remind those sceptics that people have changed economic systems before such as when they found slavery to be inhumane. And people continue to develop technologies that were once thought impossible. Things are only impossible until they’re not. We can’t let those who are stuck in the past, unable to imagine a better future, hold us back from creating a just world.

Capitalism is the barrier to reducing global warming. capitalism is the greatest threat to the planet’s well–being, and the greatest obstacle to attempts to save it.

Scientists have been warning about deadly levels of heat and humidity for some years.

A billion people will be affected by extreme heat stress if the climate crisis raises the global temperature by just 2C, according to the UK Met Office.

The Met Office assessed wet-bulb temperature, which combines both heat and humidity. Once this measure reaches 35C, the human body cannot cool itself by sweating and even healthy people sitting in the shade will die within six hours. The Met Office analysis used a wet-bulb temperature limit of 32C, at which workers must rest regularly to avoid heat exhaustion, for at least 10 days a year.

If efforts to end the climate emergency fail and temperatures rise by 4C, half of the world’s population will suffer from this extreme heat stress.

Heat is the most obvious impact of global heating and extreme heat in cities across the world has tripled in recent decades, according to a recent study. In the summer of 2020, more than a quarter of the US population suffered from the effects of extreme heat, with symptoms including nausea and cramps.

Andy Wiltshire, at the Met Office, said: “Any one of the climate impacts presents a scary vision of the future. But, of course, severe climate change will drive many impacts, and our maps show that some regions will be affected by multiple factors.”

Tropical countries including Brazil, Ethiopia and India are hardest hit by extreme heat stress, with some parts being pushed towards the limit of human livability. 

A 2015 study showing the Gulf in the Middle East, the heartland of the global oil industry, set to suffer heatwaves beyond the limit of human survival if climate change is unchecked.

The deadliest place on the planet for extreme future heatwaves will be the north China plain, one of the most densely populated regions in the world and the most important food-producing area in the huge nation, according to 2018 research.

But Prof Albert Klein Tank, director of the Met Office Hadley Centre, said: “These maps reveal areas of the world where the gravest impacts are projected to occur. However, all regions of the world – including the UK and Europe – are expected to suffer continued impacts from climate change.”

1bn people will suffer extreme heat at just 2C heating, say scientists | Climate crisis | The Guardian

The World Socialist Party of the United States has issued an appeal of solidarity for one of its incarcerated members. 

Joe R. Hopkins, who is serving a life sentence in Florida, joined the World Socialist Party of the US in 2009 after seeing one of our ads in a magazine. Despite the difficulty of communication, he has always been keen to participate in party discussions and has written many articles for our website and publications (some are listed below). Also of interest: Joe’s poems and his account of two years spent in a mental hospital as a young child.

Joe is now 67 (almost 68) and gravely sick with cirrhosis of the liver. He is stuck in a prison where he is at risk of assault and not getting the care he needs – Calhoun Correctional Institution (Blountstown, FL). 

Let me explain how he has ended up in this prison. For many years he was at Union Correctional Institution (Raiford, FL). This January, following a hernia operation, he was not sent back to UCI but taken to Columbia Correctional Institution Annex (Lake City, FL). While there he applied for ‘elderly transfer’ to Zephyrhills Correctional Institution, a facility designed for elderly and sick men. The transfer was approved but has still not taken place. At the end of May he was moved instead to Calhoun. Even now no date has been set for his transfer to Zephyrhills.  

I have launched an online petition addressed to Mark S. Inch, director of the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC), asking him to transfer Joe to Zephyrhills without further delay. Please consider signing the petition. If you follow this link, you will be able to read and sign it and also publicize it on Facebook and Twitter. 

Joe was discovered to have hepatitis C in 1991, but for 27 years he received no treatment for the disease. He finally received a course of treatment in 2018 after District Judge Mark Walker ordered the Florida Department of Corrections to treat prisoners with hepatitis. The hepatitis was eliminated, but it had already caused serious damage to his liver. According reports of test results issued by BioReference Laboratories in 2018 and 2020, fibrosis of the liver had reached Stage F4, indicating the onset of cirrhosis.

Cirrhosis can cause many different physical and psychological symptoms. Let me reproduce Joe’s list of his symptoms. None of them started to occur earlier than a year ago. Joe has not been permitted to give a full description of his symptoms to prison medical staff. They refuse to accept written documents from him and tell him to shut up if he talks ‘too much.’  

I am in constant and severe pain from bursitis – inflammation of the fluid-filled sacs in my shoulder joints. I often feel weak, tired, drowsy, or lethargic.Often I cannot breathe smoothly and gasp for breath.I have a tremendously heightened sensitivity to high temperatures; in summer I feel as though I am experiencing transient and sequential fevers. My liver causes me constant discomfort. I have bouts of dizziness. I feel a constant and overwhelming urge to defecate, urinate, and pass intestinal gases while being unable to do so, leaving me feeling bloated. I lack appetite. My skin itches. Blood vessels make spiderlike patterns on the skin. I have redness on the palms of my hands. I suffer from a general loss of memory. Quite often I am unable to recognize well known faces until prompted. I cannot think clearly. Sequential operations confuse me.I am often overcome by depression, free-floating anxiety that sometimes escalates to panic, sorrow, and regret. I lack interest in my surroundings. My speech is slurred. I am almost completely unable to pay attention for even short periods of time, making it impossible for me to read and understand a book and difficult to watch a movie or even participate in a conversation.

Joe has asked to be admitted to the infirmary, but was told that he does not satisfy the requirements. 

Joe has asked for a special medical diet but the request has been ignored. Prisoners are usually granted only five or six minutes to eat their meals in the chow hall, which is hardly long enough to get half way through. In order to satisfy his hunger and maintain his weight Joe has to supplement those part-meals with snacks bought at the commissary, but the commissary charges high prices and visits there are allowed only at irregular and unpredictable intervals. ‘If I do not eat enough of the right kind of food,’ Joe reports, ‘I get sick and my whole digestive system goes out of wack. I fart and get cramps.’

Joe may have an urgent need to go to the toilet at any time of day or night. However, prisoners are not allowed to go to the toilet during count time, which on some days occupies a considerable period. Joe was once sent to disciplinary confinement for three days merely for getting off his bed during count time and asking for permission to go to the toilet.

Joe has now been at Calhoun for over five months. It is a violent place. There are knifings and gang members make threatening remarks. Very few if any of the other prisoners at Calhoun are as old or as sick as Joe. He is too weak to stand up for himself. He has no means of protection and would not survive an assault.  

To conclude, a man as old and sick as Joe should not remain any longer at a prison like Calhoun Correctional Institution. He should not have to wait an indefinitely long time for his already approved transfer to Zephyrhills Correctional Institution. I appeal to the Florida Department of Corrections to arrange the transfer without further delay.

Besides signing and publicizing the online petition, you may like to mail a polite letter to: 

Mark S. Inch, Secretary

Florida Department of Corrections

501 South Calhoun Street

Tallahassee

FL 32399-2500

Articles by Joe Hopkins

How I became a socialist — http://www.wspus.org/2020/03/how-i-became-a-socialist/



http://www.wspus.org/2020/01/enough-is-enough-joe-the-dolphin-speaks-out/



http://www.wspus.org/2019/11/the-black-death-stalks-the-usa/



http://www.wspus.org/2019/06/american-democracy-and-the-electoral-college/

http://stephenshenfield.net/archives/the-libertarian-communist (articles by Joe Hopkins in issues Nos. 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, and 28)

Personal reflections

There is a pervasive institutional culture within the prison system that stigmatizes prisoners as inferior beings. One practice that typifies this culture is that of addressing and referring to prisoners as ‘inmates’: Joe, for instance, is always called ‘Inmate Hopkins’ – never ‘Mr. Hopkins.’ I used to assume that – as in the outside world — special consideration would be given to the sick and the elderly, and it came as something of a shock to me to discover that they are treated with the same rigor and harshness as everyone else. 

The individuals who work in the system are not to be blamed overmuch. It is very difficult to defy an institutional culture. Moreover, doing so may well put a person’s job and livelihood in jeopardy. The pressure that comes from above is to prevent escapes, cut costs, and hush up any scandals. Pressure from outside the system is capable of improving the situation, but it is a very slow process. 

But don’t criminals deserve to be treated harshly? Does Joe not deserve harsh treatment?

Quite apart from the scientifically proven fact that quite a few prisoners are innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted, there are often mitigating circumstances that should have been taken into account but were not. 

The abuse that fills some, even while still children, with bitter hatred and a thirst for revenge, like Joe after his release from the mental hospital. 

The craving that drives an addict like Joe to take part in robbing a house, just to get the money for his next fix.  

The ambivalence that led Joe first to tie up a victim of the robbery and then to protect him from injury at the hand of his confederate. 

And it was so long ago. Over thirty years have passed. Years in which Joe has changed so deeply that he can barely recognize himself in his former self.

This all demands consideration at much greater length. But two final questions.

‘Rehabilitation’ is coming back into fashion as a goal of the prison system. Does an institutional culture of harshness and contempt assist rehabilitation or hinder it?

And what harm does such an institutional culture do to the people who operate and administer the system?

Cobalt is one of the world’s most sought-after minerals because it is a key ingredient in the batteries that power most electric vehicles (EVs).  Global sales of passenger EVs – excluding hybrids – are expected to soar from 3.3m in 2021 to 66m in 2040. The volume of sales of cobalt into the sector will rise four or fivefold over the coming decade. The World Bank estimates that demand for cobalt production will increase 585% by 2050.

“Pierre” works in Fungurume, in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s southern mining belt. His basic wage is the equivalent of £2.60 ($3.50) a day, but if he works through lunch and puts in hours of overtime, he can make up to about £3.70. Not that lunch is worth waiting for: he claims he is given just two small bread rolls and a carton of juice. If he takes a day off, money is deducted from his wages. If he is sick and misses more than two days in a month, more money is cut. “You can’t even argue. If you do, you’ll be fired,”

Pierre explains, “The mine makes so much and we make so little,” he says. “The relationship between us and the mine is like a slave and a master.”

The harsh and dangerous working conditions endured by miners in the DRC’s informal, or artisanal, cobalt mines – of child labour and miners being buried alive as tunnels cave in – have provoked an international outcry in recent years, forcing the western technology and automotive brands that rely on the mineral to look for ways to source “clean” cobalt, free from human rights abuses. Some companies in the cobalt supply chain have promised to stop sourcing from artisanal mines and instead get the mineral from large-scale industrial mines, which are seen as a safer option both for workers and corporate reputations. 

Pierre is not working at an artisanal mine, however. He is employed, via a subcontractor, at Tenke Fungurume mine (TFM), one of the country’s biggest industrial mines, which is 80% owned by the Chinese company China Molybdenum(CMOC).

Some workers are often employed through subcontractors, allege they are victims of severe exploitation, including wages as low as 30p an hour, precarious employment with no contracts, and paltry food rations. In a number of mines run by Chinese companies, workers made allegations of discrimination and racism reminiscent of the colonial era.

Kolwezi is the DRC’s cobalt capital, a city so defined by mining that some communities sit on the rim of the giant craters that have been excavated in search of copper and cobalt. It is mining on a massive scale, highly mechanised and dependent on cutting-edge technology but powered by thousands of workers – more than 10,000 at TFM – who, like Pierre, are employed as mineral processors, drivers, mechanics, welders, security guards and general workers.In the last 15 years, Chinese companies have begun to enter the mining business, buying out North American and European companies so that they now control the majority of the cobalt and copper mines in southern DRC. And with this change, Congolese workers say, has come abuse, discrimination and racism. They say they are insulted, in some cases beaten, and claim they are paid less than Chinese workers who do the same job. They allege that Chinese supervisors disregard their experience and put production before safety. One Congolese worker at TFM described sitting through a two-hour meeting in Chinese, only to be given a two-minute translation at the end. Almost 70% at TFM, for example – are hired through sub-contractors. The use of subcontractors can leave workers in an extremely precarious position: often hired on short-term contracts, or no contract at all, with limited benefits, low pay and the threat of termination always hanging over them.

Josué Kashal, a lawyer for Centre d’Aide Juridico-Judiciaire, a local organisation that represents miners, says the use of subcontractors can lead to the big mines being able to avoid accountability. Kashal claims are more than 50 subcontractors that have been used by the Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) mine, which is owned by the Swiss commodities and mining giant Glencore.

“Glencore is using many subcontracted workers, so employees depend on the subcontractor, not Glencore. This way they don’t have responsibility and can end a contract at any time,” says Kashal. While some workers said they hoped to get hired directly by KCC, saying it offered better wages than other mines, 44% of KCC’s workers are employed through sub-contractors. 

Congo Dongfang International Mining (CDM) mine and refinery workers say they are employed for as little as £88 a month. “Payslips” seen by the Guardian were written only in Chinese on a pencil-thin strip of paper. CDM is wholly owned by Huayou Cobalt, a Chinese conglomerate with interests in every step of the cobalt supply chain, from mining to cathode production. Renault and Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, name CDM among their suppliers.

A report launched today by UK-based corporate watchdog Raid and Congolese lawyers from the Centre d’Aide Juridico-Judiciaire, says many multinational mining companies – and the subcontractors they hire – create poorly paid jobs that keep workers in poverty. Workers said they deeply resented the way they were treated, but felt powerless to protest. “It’s a shocking situation, but I can’t leave the job because there is no other choice,” says one. “Where can I get another job?”

“Cobalt is an essential mineral for the green transition, but we must not turn away from the abusive labour conditions that taint the lithium-ion batteries needed for millions of electric vehicles,” said Raid director Anneke Van Woudenberg

‘Like slave and master’: DRC miners toil for 30p an hour to fuel electric cars | Africa | The Guardian

At the current level of greenhouse gas emissions, the Middle East and North Africa region will suffer scorching heatwaves and impossible living conditions. The Middle East and North Africa is already the hottest and driest region on the planet but climate change could make some areas uninhabitable in the coming decades with temperatures potentially reaching 60 degrees Celsius or higher.

The repercussions throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region would be devastating including chronic water shortages, the inability to grow food because of extreme weather and resulting drought, and a surge in heat-related deaths and health problems.

By 2100 about 600 million inhabitants, or 50 percent of the population of the region, may be exposed to “super-extreme” weather events if current greenhouse gas projections hold, one recent study in the journal Nature noted.

Lasting weeks or even months, the scorching heat would be “potentially life-threatening for humans”, it said. “We anticipate that the maximum temperature during … heatwaves in some urban centres and megacities in the MENA could reach or even exceed 60 °C, which would be tremendously disruptive for society,” the scientists wrote.

George Zittis, lead author of the study, explained, “Heat stress during summers will reach or exceed the thresholds of human survivability, at least in some parts of the region and for the warmest months.”

“Cities will feel an increasing heat island effect and most capital cities in the Middle East could face four months of exceedingly hot days every year,” according to the World Bank.

More than 12 million people in Syria and Iraq are losing access to water, food and electricity because of rising temperatures, record low levels of rainfall, and drought, which are depriving people across the region of drinking and agricultural water. Syria is currently facing its worst drought in 70 years. Aid groups described the situation as an “unprecedented catastrophe”.

Water scarcity will also be a financial burden with estimates suggesting MENA will suffer the most of any region around the world, costing governments 7-14 percent of their gross domestic product by 2050. The agricultural sector, which provides the most jobs in the Middle East and North Africa, could be devastated with water availability declining by as much as 45 percent. Food production is expected to suffer severely as a result with about one-third of the arable land scorched by extreme heat.

THE HYPOCRISY OF PHILANTHROPY

Elon Musk’s wealth has surpassed $200 billion. It would take the median U.S. worker over 4 million years to make that much.

During the first 19 months of the pandemic, U.S. billionaires added $2.1 trillion dollars to their collective wealth and that number continues to rise. 

Jeff Bezos paid no federal income taxes in 2007 or in 2011.

 By 2018, the 400 richest Americans paid a lower overall tax rate than almost anyone else. 

The Trump tax cut enabled individuals to exclude $11.18 million from their estate taxes. That means one couple can pass on more than $22 million to their kids tax-free. Not to mention the very rich often find ways around this tax entirely. As Trump’s former White House National Economic Council director Gary Cohn put it, “only morons pay the estate tax.”

What about capital gains on the soaring values of wealthy people’s stocks, bonds, mansions, and works of art? Here, the biggest loophole is something called the “stepped-up basis.” If the wealthy hold on to these assets until they die, their heirs inherit them without paying any capital gains taxes whatsoever. All the increased value of those assets is simply erased, for tax purposes. This loophole saves heirs an estimated $40 billion a year.

This means that huge accumulations of wealth in the hands of a relatively few households can be passed from generation to generation untaxed—growing along the way—generating comfortable incomes for rich descendants who will never have to work a day of their lives. That’s the dynastic class we’re creating right now.

Wealth inequality in America is far larger than income inequality. 

Income is what you earn each week or month or year. Wealth refers to the sum total of your assets—your car, your stocks and bonds, your home, art—anything else you own that’s valuable. Valuable not only because there’s a market for it—a price other people are willing to pay to buy it—but because wealth itself grows. Wealth compounds over time.

 Personal wealth comes from two sources. The first source is the income you earn but don’t spend. That’s your savings. When you invest those savings in stocks, bonds, or real property or other assets, you create your personal wealth— which, as we’ve seen, grows over time. 

The second source of personal wealth is whatever is handed down to you from your parents, grandparents, and maybe even generations before them—in other words, what you inherit. The Waltons—the family behind the Walmart empire— has seven heirs on the Forbes billionaires list. Their children, and other rich millennials, will soon consolidate even more of the nation’s wealth. America is now on the cusp of the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history.

As wealthy boomers pass on, somewhere between $30 to $70 trillion will go to their children over the next three decades. These children will be able to live off of this wealth, and then leave the bulk of it—which will continue growing—to their own children – tax-free. After a few generations of this, almost all of America’s wealth could be in the hands of a few thousand families.  Dynastic wealth continues to grow. Dynastic wealth creates a self-perpetuating aristocracy.

In the 1970s, the wealthiest 1 percent owned about 20 percent of the nation’s total household wealth.

 Now, they own over 35 percent. 

Much of their gains over the last 40 years have come from a dramatic increase in the value of shares of stock. 

For example, if someone invested $1,000 in 1978 in a broad index of stocks—say, the S&P 500 — they would have $31,823 today, adjusted for inflation. 

Who has benefited from this surge? The richest 1 percent, who now own half of the entire stock market. 

But the typical worker’s wages have barely grown. 

Most Americans haven’t earned enough to save anything. 

Before the pandemic, when the economy appeared to be doing well, almost 80 percent were living paycheck to paycheck

Most Americans don’t make enough to save money and build wealth.

 Wealth concentration magnifies gender and race disparities because women and people of color tend to make less, save less, and inherit less.

The typical single woman owns only 32 cents of wealth for every dollar of wealth owned by a man. The pandemic likely increased this gap. 

The racial wealth gap is even starker. The typical Black household owns just 13 cents of wealth for every dollar of wealth owned by the typical white household. The pandemic likely increased this gap, too. 

Opinion | The Cruelest Form of Capitalism in the World | Robert Reich (commondreams.org)

There are more delegates at COP26 associated with the fossil fuel industry than from any single country. Lobbyists are pushing the climate to dangerous extremes by blocking or diluting policies that would reduce the burning of fossil fuels.  Lobbying has come into the spotlight as world leaders  seek compromise on the fate of the planet. 

 One major obstacle to global sustainability is the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system.

This gives transnational corporations the power to sue governments over actions—including policies to address climate change—that reduce the value of their foreign investments. Allowing corporations to continue to wield this power could undermine whatever agreements might be reached at Glasgow’s COP26.

Clauses in more than 2,600 Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) allow foreign investors to bypass domestic courts and sue sovereign states in international tribunals for millions—and even billions—of dollars.

The World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) is the most commonly used of these arbitration tribunals, followed by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Made up of highly paid, three-person panels of corporate lawyers, these tribunals should not be mistaken for courts of law. This privatized system has little regard for precedent, truth, or justice.

In their lawsuits, corporations most often cite protections in FTAs and BITs against “indirect expropriation.” This is interpreted to mean regulations and other government actions that reduce the value of an investment. Hence, corporations can sue governments over the enforcement of environmental, health, and other public interest laws or measures arising from democratic or judicial processes. While investment tribunals cannot force a government to repeal laws and regulations, time-consuming, costly litigation and the threat of massive awards for damages often put a “chilling effect” on responsible policy-making.

The growth of legal actions brought by extractive industries has been exponential. Since 1995, when an extractive industry brought their first case under an international agreement, they have brought claims demanding at least $195 billion and won awards totaling at least $73.2 billion. Extractives corporations not only use the ISDS system the most, they also receive the largest monetary awards. Out of the 14 known awards for more than $1 billion, 11 pertain to oil, gas and mining.

There are at least 82 known pending ISDS cases brought by extractive industries. Of the 42 where information is available, the companies are demanding a total of $99.1 billion ($71.1 billion by mining companies and $28.1 billion by oil and gas companies).

Notably, there are 40 pending cases where the amounts being claimed are not available, so the figures above are only partial. But from the information available there are at least 14 pending cases for more than $1 billion, with ludicrous suits against Congo for $27 billion and Colombia for $16.5 billion topping the list. Another case in which a corporation is demanding $16 billion, TC v. USA, for the cancellation of the controversial Keystone pipeline by the Biden´s administration, is not included in the table below because it has not yet been registered at ICSID. 

The Institute for Policy Studies report Extraction Casino notes that for transnational extractive industries that pollute the planet and contribute to climate change, ISDS is “yet another opportunity to strike it rich through reckless, casino-style gambling, given the recourse they have to bring suits within a system in which the deck is heavily stacked in their favor, and produce a chilling effect on regulations and policies that address climate change.”

Opinion | Missing From the Climate Talks: Corporate Powers to Sue Governments That Limit Pollution | Manuel Pérez Rocha (commondreams.org)