Biden is President
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A very long article by Time but very informative.
How easy it was for the institutions to ensure their candidate won. It certainly gives an insight into how the Establishment (Trumpers would say the ‘deep state’) ensured a Biden victory but, of course, that was not the intent of the article.
I wonder if they would have mobilised for Sanders in the same way?
From the Socialist Party of Canada’s February Newsletter:
Most of you who read this will have seen Joe Biden’s swearing in after he won most of the electoral college votes in America’s sham-democracy. Lady Gaga did a fine job singing the anthem, but what an anthem, the very lyrics speak of violence, which is symptomatic of America’s violent history. JLo sang, “This Land is Your Land,” by Woodie Guthrie. The incongruity being Guthrie, as a member of the so-called Communist Party, was an advocate of state capitalism and his song was banned from being sung in concerts in the 1950’s and early 60’s.
Though none of the above is a big deal, what is big, down and dirty deal is that in his first day in office Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline, much to Trudeau’s dismay. This will mean job losses for Canadian workers, though, however, much workers may suffer, it’s the way of the world under capitalism.
Biden’s decision to cancel the XL pipeline, which was designed to carry 830,000 barrels of crude oil, from Alberta to Nebraska, brought fierce reaction in Canada. TC Energy Corp. is going to eliminate 1,000 construction jobs. Alberta Premier, Jason Kenney, called Biden’s decision, “A gut punch and an insult,” and suggested that if Biden doesn’t change his mind, the federal government should impose trade sanctions. On the same day Biden was talking of “Buy American” – implying there will be less trade with Canada – which would cause more lay-offs in Canada. Under capitalism, if workers do well at all in one area they will do badly in another, and as a class, workers will always be worse off.
Until I read that SPC piece I hadn’t realised that Biden is trying to out-Trump on this issue, probably in a bid to win over his voters. But then this was a point on which even Sanders agreed with Trump.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trade/Biden-tightens-Buy-American-rules-with-executive-order
I’m not sure what to make of the SPC comment.
It makes no mention of the long-standing protests against the Keystone XL pipeline from the Alberta Tar Fields. Nor to the environmental damage of this fossil-fuel source.
Our blog has a number of critical posts on the Alberta Tar Fields
https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/search?q=alberta+tar+fieldsAnd of the pipeline
https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/search?q=xl+pipelineBiden is being consistent with his many executive orders to return to what the situation was under Obama.
Of the job losses, more details here:
https://factcheck.afp.com/posts-inflate-job-losses-bidens-keystone-pipeline-reversal
I think our Canadian comrades were only making the point that this was another example of workers losing their jobs which of course they are dependent on to have a regular above poverty line income. I don’t think that they were supporting the project.
But this shows why eco-campaigners have a problem when they are in effect campaigning that workers should lose their jobs. Understandably the workers involved are unsympathetic and their employers use this as an argument for keeping their project going even though their real reason is to make profits not provide jobs.
The real lesson is that it shows how under capitalism workers are dependent on finding a buyer for their mental and physical energies to live. The only alternatives are stealing, begging or minimal state handouts.
It has always been the case for the fossil fuel employers that ending CO2 pollution will end jobs. Oil in the soil. Coal in the hole. And sadly that is the case when alternative occupations and training is rarely offered to compensate.
Socialists are anti-war and in effect are calling for redundancies within the military and armament industries for the common good.
As anti-capitalists we are happy to call for an end to many occupations dependent upon the exchange economy.
But unlike the reformers we do not impose punitive consequences for losing ones job.
Workers are in the position of dog-eat-dog competition. Workers often put sectional interests before social and community interests. We are wage-slaves chained to the job, both physically and mentally.
There will be many anti-social industries shut down in socialism but the skills and technologies won’t be wasted.
I am minded that at the beginning of the pandemic, Ineos, an oil-related company, retooled a factory in a matter of days to manufacture ventilators for hospitals.
Nor should we forget how the unions back in the 1970s developed a plan to transform armament technology into socially useful production
https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-lucas-aerospace-plan.html
The natives Americans are always Invisibles in most reports and newspapers including the papers of the socialists. They were the ones who provided the victory to the Democratic Party in several USA states, and on both sides of the border of the North, they were opposed to the petroleum pipelines because it was producing ecological disasters in their reservations and it was polluting their rivers and it was killing the salmon, and peoples were getting sick and they were dying. They were several natives who were elected to the USA Congress. The shutdown of the pipeline will eliminate hundreds of jobs but it will also eliminate the death of thousands of American natives, that is the reason why they spent several years protesting and many of them were taking to jail
I think there is a danger here of mixing up the situation under capitalism and in socialism. Of course there are many jobs that will disappear in socialism but we don’t call for their abolition today. For instance, there will be no banks in socialism but we don’t call for banks to be closed and so for bank workers to lose their jobs.
Nor have we any illusions about swords being changed into ploughshares under capitalism. In fact near where I am living is the site of an aircraft factory that is now a housing estate. At one time a prominent shop steward there was a party member and also served on our executive committee. I don’t think he was campaigning for the factory to be closed because it was producing warplanes.
If he had he wouldn’t have been a shop steward for long. The old Communist Party faced this problem in 1932 when it tried to force one of its leading members who was a shop steward in a munitions factory in Sheffield to popularise the slogan “Stop the Transport of Munitions”. He refused and was expelled. The incident is recorded here.
The Jehovah witness cancelled the membership of most of their members who were working for the war industry because they do not support wars
We draw the line at voluntarily joining the armed forces. Anyone who does that is ineligible for membership.
First it was reneging on the $2000 pandemic relief, now reduced to $1400 and now expected to be means-tested.
Now Biden backtracks on the $15 an hour minimum wage, despite the fact that the staunchly pro-Trump Florida voted in a referendum for it.
And still the lesser evil progressives are giving Biden excuses in exchange for the political theatre of another impeachment
The rightwing invented the ‘deep state’ who were conspiring to foil Trump’s presidency. Now it seems clear that Biden is falling victim to ICE, who have been accused of going rogue.
US Chamber of Commerce switches allegiance to Biden.
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