We should have known: the Left can no longer rely on the courts
How Socialists Can Flood the Zone in DC's Local Politics
Socialist Song of the Month – The Ballad of Gilligan’s Isle
“The Ballad of Gilligan’s Isle” – Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle
This stretches the concept of socialist song of the month way beyond the breaking point, but what the hell, it’s the beginning of summer, so let’s relax a little. For those of you don’t know, Gilligan’s Island was a sitcom that originally aired from 1964 to 1967. The premise of the show is pretty well described by the lyrics of the theme song. Five people board a small tour boat, run by the boat’s owner, called the Skipper, and his one man crew, Gilligan, and they take what was to be a three hour cruise around the Hawaiian islands. A storm blows the boat onto an uncharted tropical island, and its communication devices are lost in the process. The show essentially revolves around the coming together of the seven people to ensure their mutual survival and their attempts to find a way off the island. The five passengers consist of Ginger, a film actor, Mary Ann, a young woman from Kansan farming stock, a professor of the physical sciences, always called the Professor, and a businessman/investor and his wife, Thurston and Lovey Howell. Thurston Howell will be our focus here, or more precisely, his relationship to the rest of the castaways will be our focus, and the collapse of the social relationship they all lived under prior to the ship wreck.
When you think about a prison, you think about two classes of people: guards and prisoners. They only exist in relationship to each other. You can’t have prisoners without guards, and guards only exist to control prisoners. In other words, a prison is a social relationship. The relationship is forced on the prisoners by the guards because the guards control the means of imprisonment, namely, the building we call a prison, plus the control protocols, weapons, etc. In a similar way, capitalism is a social relationship between owners and workers. It’s a relationship forced on workers by owners, through the owners’ control of the means of production, i.e, the production facilities, the machinery within them, etc. The only way for workers to survive is to sell their labor power on a daily basis, and use their pay to create the conditions that allow them to reproduce that labor power the next day and the next day and the next, and to create and train the next generation of workers to prepare them to do the same (this, in simplified terms, is called social reproduction). The owners, in turn, sell the product of labor for more than they pay out. That is, they make a profit (this is also a simplification, but it will suit our purposes).
Now, let’s consider the condition the castaways find themselves in. Their first order of business is survival. Most of the castaways have skills that can help in this effort. The Skipper was a WW2 naval veteran, and has extensive knowledge of all things related to the sea, including fishing, shipping routes, weather patterns, etc. The Professor has knowledge that can help the group develop technology from the resources available on the island. Mary Ann has agricultural skills that can be put to use to create reliable food production. While Gilligan has no specific skills, he does make himself available for general labor. Ginger, at first blush, doesn’t have much of value for the group, but over the course of the series, she has the opportunity to use her acting skills a couple times, but more importantly, she has sexual charisma, an asset which was important for her line of work (this is a can of worms I won’t be dumping over here), but which she also used to help the group in a number of crises (occasionally, some outside individual would show up on the island, threaten the survival of the group, and Ginger would seduce (within the confines of family programming standards of the era) the individual to distract or manipulate them). This leaves only the Howells. In the rest of the world, Thurston Howell is one of the owners of the means of production. As such, he forced the capitalist social relationship upon others. On the island, like everyone else, he owns nothing. He cannot force the others to work for him due to his control of private property. The capitalist social relationship has collapsed. At this point, the Howells are exposed for what they are, parasites. They have no skills that are of any use in the new social relationship the group finds itself in. Years and generations of wealth have instilled an attitude of entitlement which makes them feel they should be exempted from participating in that relationship.
There is no way for the Howells to establish private property and re-create the capitalist social relationship. They would have to resort to some version of what Marx referred to as original accumulation (we covered this two months ago in the socialist song of the month, Charlie Don’t Surf). Basically, they would have to take the island by force, and, having a monopoly on the island’s resources, the foundation for survival, allow the other castaways access to it only by entering into a relationship whereby they work the resources into a commodity in exchange for a wage. The castaways would then have to use their wages to purchase the commodity, which they would immediately consume so they could survive and revitalize themselves to work the next day. The Howells would also keep some of the product for their own use, on the grounds that they deserved a return on their “investment”. Of course, the Howells by themselves have no force behind them, no legal system to establish and enforce property rights, no army or police force, no philosophical grounding to offer legitimacy for their claims to ownership, nor a theoretical or ethical support for this social relationship they’re trying to impose to induce the others to acquiesce to it. All of these things are necessary for a stable capitalist social relationship. They have to be maintained, and they have to adapt to local and global circumstances, on an ongoing basis to keep us getting up and going to work day after day, just as a prison building has to be maintained, the weapons kept cleaned and stocked, etc., to maintain prisoners’ sense of futility. The relationship is a process, not an end state.
Let’s look at the new social relationship the castaways developed with each other once they reached the island. As I stated, the castaways have two mutually agreed upon goals, survival and escape. The group is mostly interested in expending labor power on things with use value, things which are useful in achieving their goals. On occasion, individuals may swap labor for labor for help on individual projects that might make life more pleasant. For example, Mary Ann knows how to make coconut cream pie from ingredients freely available on the island. Gilligan is fond of that, so Mary Ann would sometimes ply Gilligan with a coconut cream pie in exchange for some work on his part. There is never any coercion in these exchanges. While they all have their own shelters, and everyone respects each others’ privacy, the shelters aren’t private property. They can abandon them if they want a better shelter, but they can’t sell them. They have the beginnings of a socialist democracy. It has some serious challenges and couldn’t just be “sized up” for a larger community, but the fundamentals are there. Unfortunately, it took a complete disaster, the equivalent of an apocalypse, to achieve it.
What we are all doing here, in DSA, whether we realize it or not, is trying to end a social relationship, and replace it with a different one, hopefully before there is a complete disaster that forces a new social relationship on us. And hopefully it’s one where we don’t live in bamboo shelters. And has more than a coconut based diet. And can produce better entertainment than Gilligan’s Island.
Lyrics
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.
The mate was a mighty sailing man,
The skipper, brave and sure.
Five passengers set sail that day
For a three hour tour, a three hour tour.
The weather started getting rough,
The tiny ship was tossed,
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The Minnow would be lost, the Minnow would be lost.
The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle
With Gilligan
The Skipper too,
The millionaire and his wife,
The movie star
The Professor and Mary Ann,*
Here on Gilligan’s Isle.
Now this is the tale of our castaways,
They’re here for a long, long time,
They’ll have to make the best of things,
It’s an uphill climb.
The first mate and his Skipper too,
Will do their very best,
To make the others comfortable,
In their tropic island nest.
No phone, no lights, no motor car,
Not a single luxury,
Like Robinson Crusoe,
It’s primitive as can be.
So join us here each week my friend,
You’re sure to get a smile,
From seven stranded castaways,
Here on “Gilligan’s Isle.”
A Green New York with Vanessa Agudelo
On June 2, the legislative session will end in New York State and elected officials will head home for the summer. And in typical Albany fashion, the fight to pass the most transformational bills is coming down to the wire. Tonight, we continue our series of interviews with the DSA for the Many slate of candidates with Vanessa Agudelo, who is joining us live on RPM from Peekskill, New York. Vanessa is running for Assembly District 95 in the Lower Hudson Valley. We'll talk to her about why Peekskill and the other communities she’s running to represent need a Green New Deal, the status of the Build Public Renewables Act with one week left to pass the bill, and much more.
For more info on Vanessa follow @VanessaBAgudelo on twitter and visit her website www.vanessaforny.com
SOCIALISTAS DEMOCRÁTICOS DE AMERICA DEL TRIANGULO EN NC PRESENTA A DELEGACIÓN FEMINISTA VENEZOLANA
MUJERES VENEZOLANAS VIAJAN A DURHAM, NC PARA EXPLICAR CÓMO LAS SANCIONES DE ESTADOS UNIDOS A VENEZUELA ESTÁN MATANDO A MUJERES Y NIÑOS
DURHAM, NC — [24 MAYO 2022] —La sección del Triángulo de Carolina del Norte de los Socialistas Democráticos de América, una organización de base enfocada en construir solidaridad internacional en el área del Triángulo, anunciaron hoy que organizará un panel de mujeres venezolanas que discutirán los efectos paralizantes de las sanciones estadounidenses sobre las mujeres y los niños que viven en Venezuela. El evento se llevará a cabo en People's Solidarity Hub, ubicado en 1805 Chapel Hill Rd., Durham, NC el sábado 4 de junio de 12:00 p. m. a 2:00 p. m. El evento es gratuito, abierto al público y se llevará a cabo en inglés y español.
El anuncio se produce mientras el Departamento de Estado de EE. UU. reconsidera sus sanciones contra Venezuela y explora un acuerdo con el país socialista por petróleo en medio del aumento de los precios de la energía. Venezuela tiene las mayores reservas de petróleo del mundo, y la Administración Biden está abriendo relaciones con el país para que los estadounidenses paguen menos por la gasolina. Sin embargo, solo hacer cambios en las sanciones relacionadas con el petróleo no ayudaría a los venezolanos comunes y solo beneficiaría a las grandes petroleras como Chevron. Esto también afianzará aún más la infraestructura de combustibles fósiles en todo el mundo e intensificará el cambio climático
Miembros de DSA facilitarán un panel de discusión con la delegación venezolana para entregar un mensaje de tres puntos: Primero, para mostrar cómo las sanciones de EE. UU. dañan desproporcionadamente a los más vulnerables, especialmente a las mujeres y los niños de Venezuela; segundo, cómo las mujeres venezolanas están construyendo un movimiento solidario de base para organizarse y poner fin a estas sanciones, y, por último, cómo el pueblo de Carolina del Norte puede unirse al esfuerzo por poner fin a las sanciones de EE. UU. contra el pueblo de Venezuela.
El copresidente de DSA en el Triangulo, Tristan Bavol, viajó a Caracas el mes pasado para presenciar de primera mano cómo las sanciones estadounidenses están afectando a las mujeres y los niños de Venezuela. “El país está en un lugar mucho mejor que hace un par de años; sin embargo, estas sanciones estadounidenses son brutales y hacen que sea extremadamente difícil para las madres obtener las necesidades diarias que necesitan para sus hijos.,” dijo Bavol. “La salud y el bienestar del pueblo venezolano es de gran importancia. Los Estados Unidos debe eliminar las sanciones que causan directamente que las personas más vulnerables en Venezuela mueran de hambre y mueran de enfermedades prevenibles.” Expertos independientes de derechos humanos de la ONU han pedido a Estados Unidos que ponga fin a sus sanciones unilaterales contra Venezuela.
Bavol se reunió con la delegación de mujeres venezolanas en Caracas y dice que siguen firmes, a pesar de las sanciones. “La resiliencia de estas mujeres, a pesar de las sanciones estadounidenses, es una historia que todos deberían escuchar. Estamos emocionados de que vengan a Durham y compartan sus historias con la comunidad.”
Pedimos a los asistentes, incluidos los medios de comunicación y los funcionarios electos, que confirmen su asistencia en este enlace.
Los medios de comunicación están invitados a llegar a las 11 am, una hora antes del evento, para entrevistar a la delegación venezolana. La hora límite para las entrevistas será a las 11:45 a.m. Se invita a los medios a quedarse para el panel y también para las preguntas y respuestas.
COVID protocolos: Comprobante de vacunación, ya sea carné físico o una imagen de carné. Se deben usar máscaras en todo momento dentro del lugar.
La próxima semana se publicará un aviso a los medios para el evento del 4 de junio.
Sobre DSA NC TRIÁNGULO
Somos una sección de los Socialistas Democráticos de América, un 501c4 que tiene casi 1000 miembros y se organiza para fomentar el poder de los trabajadores en el área del Triángulo de Carolina del Norte. El capítulo se compone de tres ramas: Raleigh, Durham y Chapel Hill/Carrboro. El grupo trabaja en temas de vivienda y trabajo, cambio climático, ayuda mutua y solidaridad internacional con socialistas de todo el mundo. Sigue al grupo en Twitter y en Facebook.
Contacto - Tristan Bavol - copresidente de DSA en el Triangulo - ncpdsa@gmail.com
ENLACES A ACtivos De Medios
DSA NC TRIANGLE TO HOST VENEZUELAN FEMINIST DELEGATION
VENEZUELAN WOMEN WILL TRAVEL TO DURHAM, NC TO DISCLOSE HOW U.S. SANCTIONS ARE KILLING WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN VENEZUELA
DURHAM, NC — [MAY 24, 2022] —The Democratic Socialists of America NC Triangle Chapter, a grassroots organization focused on building international solidarity in the Triangle area, today announced they will host a panel of Venezuelan women who will discuss the crippling effects of U.S. sanctions on women and children living in Venezuela. The event will be held at the People’s Solidarity Hub, located at 1805 Chapel Hill Rd., Durham, NC on Saturday, June 4th from 12pm to 2pm. The event is free, open to the public and will be conducted in both English and Spanish.
The announcement comes as the U.S. State Department reconsiders its sanctions on Venezuela and explores a deal with the socialist country for oil amid soaring energy prices. Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves, and the Biden Administration is opening relations with the country so that Americans can pay less at the pump. However, only making changes to oil-related sanctions would fail to help ordinary Venezuelans, and only benefit large oil companies like Chevron. This would also further entrench fossil fuel infrastructure around the globe and intensify climate change.
Members of the DSA chapter will facilitate a panel discussion with the Venezuelan delegation to deliver a three-point message: first, to show how U.S. sanctions disproportionately harm the most vulnerable, especially the women and children of Venezuela; second, to illustrate how Venezuelan women are building a grassroots solidarity movement to organize to end these sanctions, and lastly, to discuss how the people of North Carolina can join in the effort to end U.S. sanctions against the people of Venezuela.
DSA chapter co-chair, Tristan Bavol, traveled to Caracas last month to witness first-hand how U.S. sanctions are affecting the women and children of Venezuela. “The country is in a much better place than it was a couple of years ago; however, these U.S. sanctions are brutal and make it extremely difficult for mothers to get the day-to-day necessities they need for their children,” said Bavol. “The health and well-being of the Venezuelan people is the bottom line. The United States should remove sanctions that directly cause the most vulnerable people in Venezuela to starve to death and die of preventable diseases.” Independent UN rights experts have called on the United States to end its unilateral sanctions on Venezuela.
Bavol met with the delegation of Venezuelan women in Caracas and says that they are standing strong, despite the sanctions. “The resiliency of these women, despite US sanctions, is a story everyone should hear. We are excited to have them come to Durham and share their stories with the community.”
All attendees, including media and elected officials are asked to RSVP and register at this link.
Media outlets are invited to arrive at 11am, one hour prior to the event, for interviews with the Venezuelan delegation. The cutoff time for interviews will be 11:45am. Media is invited to also stay for the panel and Q&A.
COVID protocols: Proof of vaccination, either physical cards or picture of cards. Masks are to be worn at all times inside the venue.
A media advisory for the June 4th event will follow next week.
Contacts: Tristan Bavol - Chapter Co-Chair - ncpdsa@gmail.com
Links to media Assets:
Image: Venezuela Feminist Tour Promotional Image, June 4th 12-2pm, Durham, NC
Massive police presence on BC campus Saturday night.
BC students left in the dark during emergency response.
Dozens of police from Newton and Boston descended onto BC’s campus last night in response to an emergency call. Now students and members of the BC community are looking for answers as to what was going on and questioning why an emergency alert was not sent out to the community.
On Saturday evening just before eleven o’clock a tweet from an account that monitors police band radios alerted members of the public that Boston Police were responding to reports of an armed individual on BC’s campus. The account monitors police radio frequencies and reports on police, fire, and EMS incidents in Boston and the surrounding area.
Obviously this is alarming information to discover on social media. Without verification it’s hard to know in the moment what is true or not, but with the prevalence of mass shootings in the United States people cannot afford to take alerts like this lightly. The author then posted that Newton police were en-route to the campus to assist with the response.
Regardless of what the eventual outcome of the incident was, and we don’t know what happened because neither BC nor BCPD has released any information at this point, the fact is there was a massive deployment of police in response to the threat of an armed individual on BC’s campus. If the individual wasn’t armed, or wasn’t even on campus, or if the entire thing turned out to be a prank, it doesn’t matter. If it was a serious enough threat that Boston and Newton police mobilized that many officers to respond, it was a serious enough threat that members of the BC community should have been alerted and advised what to do. The eventual outcome doesn’t validate the actions that were not taken while incident was taking place.
While the initial twee indicated the individual claimed to have a gun, a member of a local news team on the sight last night across from 66 informed us he heard reports it was a knife.
Over forty minutes after the initial tweet about the armed individual police still had residents of the dormitory gathered outside on the lawn. Witnesses that crossed the street to talk to us let us know that at least one student wanted to leave and was not allowed. At around 11:40 pm we witnessed officers patting down several male students among the group of people gathered on the lawn, so it appeared even at that late time officers were still looking for something or someone.
Video of the police presence outside BC can be seen here. Video of the students gathered outside with police can be seen here and here. Just before midnight, almost an hour after the initial tweet was posted, police began to depart and allowed students to return to the dormitory, video of which can be seen here.
Around midnight the account that monitors the police frequencies posted that the situation was all clear and the call may have been a prank. Without confirmation from BC, Boston, or Newton police it is impossible to know what really happened.
One interesting thing to note here is that we assume the person or people who run the account monitoring police radios heard the calls about the incident on Boston or Newton’s radio frequency and not BC’s. That is because as far as we know Boston College police use an encrypted radio frequency that cannot be heard on police scanners that members of the public use to listen to radio traffic. This is not common among police departments or university police from what we can gather. Members of the public can use police scanners, radio scanner apps on mobile devices, or websites to listen to first responders’ frequencies including the Boston and Newton police and fire departments. It is unclear why a college police department would need encrypted radios.
A forum on a site dedicated to radio topics from a decade ago discussed BCPD’s use of encrypted radios. Another poster on the site shared the same information. Several years ago NPR published a piece on encryption and police radios and reported the vast majority of real police departments do not use encrypted frequencies. Lindsay Blanton, the CEO of Broadcastify.com, a site dedicated to providing access to police frequencies, said only ten to fifteen percent of police communications are hidden by encryption. He explained that encryption can inhibit a departments ability to communicate with surrounding departments.
“Encryption costs money, especially when it means buying new radios, which can cost thousands of dollars per unit. There’s also a technical challenge in figuring out ‘interoperability’ — how to stay in touch with other departments and agencies, especially if they’re using different systems.”
Former police chief and former head of the National Police Foundation Jim Bueermann spoke in support of publicly accessible police communications. He said “he almost never encountered a situation in which open radio communications put him in danger or compromised the work during his three decades as a police officer. He says officers already have more secure ways of sharing sensitive information — cellphones and group texts — and he thinks there’s value in keeping a police department’s broader communications out in the open.”
Regardless of whether BCPD uses encrypted radios or not the issue at hand is as of late Sunday afternoon members of the BC community still have no official account of what happened last night. Information about an armed individual being on BC’s campus was apparently relayed to a crisis or support line, and the threat was serious enough that a large number of Boston and Newton police were dispatched to BC’s campus. It’s hard to understand how an emergency alert or some sort of information was not sent out to BC students. If it eventually turned out that police discovered the individual was not armed or the call was fake and there was no threat everyone should be relieved. But before that was confirmed and the possibility of an armed individual was real, how could BC not send out an alert? In the future if there were an active threat are people confidant that BC or BCPD would handle it correctly and do everything possible to keep the BC community safe?
A number of questions need to be answered. Students and members of the community need to know exactly what happened over the course of the hour in question and need to know why as of late Sunday afternoon there still has been know official communication informing everyone what happened.
For more of our reporting, including a 5 part series on BC’s police chief, check out our blog here!
Statement from DSA Long Beach on the recent troubles with the initial decertification of the national BDS-Palestine Solidarity Working Group.
Like many members and chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) nationally we have been disturbed and disappointed with the recent decision by the National Political Committee (NPC) to... Read more »
The post Statement from DSA Long Beach on the recent troubles with the initial decertification of the national BDS-Palestine Solidarity Working Group. appeared first on DSA-LB.
Statement on Israel's Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh
May 20, 2022
Ithaca Democratic Socialists of America strongly condemns the horrific recent killing of legendary Palestinian-American journalist and Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh by an Israeli military sniper. In what can only be described as an execution, the sniper appeared to target Abu Akleh, a highly recognizable TV correspondent, as she stood alongside a group of journalists while covering Israeli raids on Palestine’s occupied West Bank. Abu Akleh was clearly identified as press when the fatal bullet struck. Her cowardly murder should deepen the resolve of people of conscience worldwide to oppose Israel and its brutal occupation of the Palestinian people.
Abu Akleh was a beloved voice of truth whose accurate coverage of crimes against humanity spanned more than 20 years. Her iconic work highlighted the dignity of the Palestinian people and their determination to resist colonialism and oppression. While the targeting of a journalist is both shameful and illegal, Abu Akleh’s killing is merely another example of the systemic violence of the Israeli state. Her murder and the subsequent Israeli assault on mourners at her funeral reflect the routine brutality of an occupation designed to degrade, terrorize and displace Palestinians. Though Western media often portray Israel as a democratic actor, Israel respects none of the principles of decency and justice that are essential to democracy. Indeed, it is the moral shelter and military aid provided by the United States that enable Israel to continue expanding illegal settlements while violating the human rights of Palestinians.
Abu Akleh’s tragic death further exposes the lie that Israel seeks only to defend itself. In fact, the Israeli regime relies on military aggression, collective punishment, and the silencing of peace activists and other principled opponents. Now is the time for people of goodwill to reject the historical and contemporary whitewashing of Israel’s crimes, and to condemn the passive voice (“Journalist is killed during clashes”) and other tactics adopted by the mainstream media to conceal Israeli aggression. Americans have a particular responsibility to condemn Israeli apartheid, given that our taxpayer dollars provide Israel with more than $3 billion in annual aid.
While all people should denounce Abu Akleh’s killing and the systemic violence of Israeli occupation, progressives and leftists have a special duty to speak out. Only by taking an unambiguous stand against apartheid, colonialism and racism at home and abroad can U.S. leftists show that Palestinian dignity lies at the heart of human liberation. There can be no compromise or retreat on the question of Palestine. We call on conscientious people to pressure politicians to condemn and defund Israeli apartheid and to launch a full investigation into Abu Akleh’s death. Even more importantly, civilians must join the global BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement and become lifelong participants in Palestinian solidarity efforts, taking part in rallies, direct action and other forms of agitation until Palestine is free. We also demand:
Disclosure of the identity of AbuAkleh’s killer.
Release of Omar Abu Khdair, one of the beaten pallbearers, who has been jailed without charge or conviction.
Recognition of the BDS movement as protected free speech.
An end to all U.S. participation in Israeli “security” trainings, which expand the militarization of domestic policing and the racist targeting of black people and other people of color.
Ithaca DSA Steering Committee