-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


Boy, is A.N.S.W.E.R. ever thorough!



- ----- Forwarded message from "A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition"
<ANSWER@...> -----

From: "A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition" <ANSWER@...>
Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2005 18:36:13 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Sept. 24 bus drop off, parking, maps, tabling, contingents, housing &
more!


10 PIECES OF ESSENTIAL INFORMATION
ABOUT THE SEPTEMBER 24 RALLY AND MARCH

Be sure to read this email if you're coming to DC on Sept. 24!
~ please circulate widely ~

1) What is the plan for September 24?
2) Bus drop off at the rally site
3) Bus parking & pick up after the rally
4) DC public transportation (metro) system
5) Car and van parking
6) Main rally & mass march
7) Tabling
8) Contingent assembly
9) Housing in DC
10) Donations urgently needed!

If you are organizing a bus, riding a bus, or coming by van,
car, train, plane or metro to the September 24 rally and
march, this email contains essential information for your
trip to DC. If, after reading this email and checking out
the links to the A.N.S.W.E.R. website, you have additional
questions, please review the A.N.S.W.E.R. Logistics Page at
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=rGguv02LRoj8PmA_qpzggQ..
or call the National Office at 202-544-3389. This email
includes links to several maps that you can print to carry
with you on the 24th and to hand out to bus drivers and
riders.

1) WHAT IS THE PLAN FOR SEPTEMBER 24?

A permit has been obtained for a mass rally on the Ellipse
in front of the White House on Saturday, September 24.

The White House/Ellipse rally site opens at 7:00 am. Buses
will begin arriving and contingents will begin assembling
early in the morining. Groups will be setting up literature
and informational tables. This will be a great opportunity
to learn more about different social justice groups who are
all coming together for the joint activities at the White
House. Come early to the White House/Ellipse to visit the
exhibits and tents! (See below for more information on
tabling and contingents.)

Starting at 10:00 am at the Ellipse we will have music and
spoken word. At 11:30 am there is a scheduled joint rally.
After the joint rally, we will march.

The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has secured a permit from the
Metropolitan Police Department for the mass march on
September 24 that will take the demonstration directly in
front of the White House on Pennsylvania Ave. This is the
first time in many years that a march permit has been
secured for a mass assembly march and protest on
Pennsylvania Ave. right at the doorstep of the White House.
(See below for the full march route.)

2) BUS DROP OFF AT THE RALLY SITE

Buses can drop off passengers on Pennsylvania Ave. between
13th and 14th Sts. NW - just two blocks from the rally and
march site. This is the south side of "Freedom Plaza",
located just two blocks from the northeast corner of the
Ellipse (the main assembly area). There will be bus greeters
and directors here to help everyone find their way directly
to the rally and march step off location. We have a written
agreement with the Metropolitan Police Department for the
buses to drop off at this location.

Map of bus drop off location:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=uf6a4XYzJPlOpkkwN9qihQ..

We strongly recommend that all buses utilize this drop off
point. This will ensure that everyone arrives on time and
does not miss the rally and the start of the march. Buses
have dropped off in downtown DC for all of the massive
anti-war rallies involving hundreds of thousands of people.
Because buses arrive over a period of several hours, there
will not be a heavy back-up of buses. Though there will be
some street closures due to the IMF and World Bank meetings,
these are on the other side of the White House and will not
impact the bus drop off area.

Those whose buses drop off at the outlying metro stations
may not arrive on time for the rally and the march step off.
It will take a minimum of 45 minutes to ride the metro to
the White House area, you may have to transfer metro lines,
and it will cost over $2 per person. It is only a few minute
walk from the Pennsylvania Ave. bus drop off point to the
rally site.

3) BUS PARKING & PICK UP *AFTER* THE RALLY

After buses drop off passengers, they should proceed to the
designated parking locations for the buses.

Bus organizers should designate a bus pick up location at
the most convenient outlying metro station. Please see the
map below for recommendations based on where you are driving
from. You should give slips of paper to each of the bus
riders so they remember which station to take the metro to
at the end of the day (see below for PDFs of these slips
customized for each station).

Map of metro system and parking areas:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=Xca2f6ZkFTvpHUAg-ppypg..

Printable directions for bus drivers & riders

Please select one of these scenarios in advance. You can
print out information sheets for drivers and riders. Please
note that these information sheets refer to the map that
includes the location of metro stations.

If you are traveling from the north/west on 70 East / 270
South, park at the Shady Grove station. Printable 8.5x11
inch PDFs:
Bus drivers:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=Z3luOjx3Zs-EE57Phm7kgg..
Bus riders:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=5PJ4xcMZKFTX4w1TPlfdbw..

If you are traveling from the north/east on 95 South, park
at the Greenbelt station. Printable 8.5x11 inch PDFs:
Bus drivers:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=8qODDjs4ek8TKdtC-E1iqw..
Bus riders:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=m5MptMDWiw45_iaQlJFpTA..

If you are traveling from the south/west on 66 East, park at
the Vienna station. Printable 8.5x11 inch PDFs:
Bus drivers:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=XXL4sCFnWV6HKXXU_1AfRA..
Bus riders:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=RCp3DnomyFZUJv964YqlrQ..

If you are traveling from the south/east on 95 North, park
at the Branch Ave station. Printable 8.5x11 inch PDFs:
Bus drivers:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=dbUdliE-ouIM8U4OjwvpdA..
Bus riders:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=m36qIfxNzDLuQ4pVP424JQ..

4) DC PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION (METRO) SYSTEM

Below are PDFs of an 8.5x11 map of the DC metro system. You
can print these and give them to the bus driver and bus
riders.

Please see above for a map of the rally area that shows the
closest metro stations.

multi-color PDF:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=2zmNRlPS8mBojNZ5T04kYg..

black & white PDF:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=c1yCxYKF7D5MMGcJAk5xbA..

5) CAR AND VAN PARKING

There are many, many parking lots in the White House area.
Below are just a portion of them. All listed below are open
on Saturday - addresses, hours and cost is listed below.
Those lots that accept vans are noted. If you arrive early,
you may find street parking. Please check first to make sure
the space has not been designated as "no parking" for the
day. Most meters do not have to be paid on Saturdays!

Central Parking System
1773 I St NW (btwn 17 & 18th St)
Open 10am -3am. cost is $7. Only cars

Central Parking System
1609 I St NW (btwn 16 & 17th St)
Open 24 hours. Cost is $16. Only cars

MCM Parking
1618 I St NW (btwn 16 & 17th St)
Open 8am 5pm. Cost is $8. Only cars

Colonial Parking
607 14th St. NW.
Open 8am 1am. Cost is $10.
Only Cars max height 6'8"

PMI
1220 E St NW (btwn 12 & 13th St)
Open 7am 12 midnight. Cost is $11.
Only cars max height 6'2"

Central Parking System
1530 L St NW
Open 8am -10pm.
Cars $15 / Vans $20

Monument Parking
1828 L St NW
Open 7am-7pm
Cars & Vans - $3

Intern Parking
1455 F St NW (btwn 14 & 15th St)
Open 12 noon 12 midnight. Cost is $15 all day.
Only cars max height 6'8"

QuikPark
504 13th St NW (btwn E & F St)
Open 10am midnight. Cost is $9.
Only cars max height 5'6"

National Place Parking
580 13th St NW (btwn E & F St)
Open all day. Cost is $9 flat rate. Cars only

Inter Park
730 13th St NW (btwn G & H St)
Open 10am 8pm. Cost is $7.
Cars only max height 6'8"

PMI
1401 H St NW (btwn 14 & 15th St)
Open 7am 10pm. Cost is $6.
Only Cars max height 6'7"

PMI
1820 L St NW
Open 7am-6pm. Cars $4

MidTown Parking
1750 K St NW (btwn 18 & Conn.)
Open 8am-4pm. Cost is $5. Only Cars

6) MAIN RALLY AND MASS MARCH

Below are PDFs of an 8.5x11 inch flyer that includes a map
of the rally site, bus drop off and metro stations. You can
print these and give them to the bus driver and bus riders,
and bring one for yourself.

multi-color PDF of the rally site, bus drop off and metro
stations:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=4NWT5F2UrxmeLrwaoiMUwQ..

black & white PDF of the rally site, bus drop off and metro
stations:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=rEyTzYHpvIkpntzyoajYPg..

Following the main rally with major speakers and music, the
mass march will take place. The march will assemble at and
leave out of the Ellipse. The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has
obtained a permit for the march which will proceed from the
Ellipse and then North on 15th St. to Pennsylvania Ave.,
West on Pennsylvania Ave. (directly in front of the White
House) to 17th St., North on 17th St. to H St., East on H
St. to 14th St., South on 14th St. to Pennsylvania Ave.,
East on Pennsylvania Ave. to 9th St. (directly in front of
the FBI Building and the Justice Department), South on 9th
St. to Constitution Ave., and West on Constitution Ave. to
15th St.

Below are PDFs of an 8.5x11 flyer that includes a map of the
march route. You can print these and give them to bus
riders.

multi-color PDF of the march route:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=QSxEWrQaP9gILdx-_qlO5g..

black & white PDF of the march route:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=bNRFGvCsRlPYZVqm2Kf1iA..

7) TABLING

We have arranged plenty of space at the Ellipse for all
groups that want to set up informational tables. We are
providing tabling space for free. It is available on a first
come, first serve basis in the designated tabling area.
Please review the map of the tabling area. If you are
planning to set up a table, please email your group name and
a contact name and number to
tabling@....

Please bring your own table. If you have other structures
associated with your table set up, please call 202-544-3389
before you bring them to confirm whether or not these will
be allowed on the Ellipse.

You can begin your table set up at 8:00 am on the Ellipse at
September 24 and stay for the entire day.

Printable 8.5x11 inch PDF with the tabling map and policy:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=KL9QvuXmpVungM6VMwVaDA..

8) CONTINGENT ASSEMBLY

The A.N.S.W.E.R. National Office is helping to coordinate
contingent assemblies on different areas of the Ellipse at
the White House (the main assembly area for the massive
rally and march). We recommend that contingents assemble in
this area in order not to miss the main rally or the march
step off. You can designate a particular banner, flag,
balloon, or other marker as something for people joining you
to look for, and make sure to bring extra high poles to
elevate it above the crowd. This way, everyone coming to
your contingent can follow the crowd from the bus drop off
location to the main assembly area and then find you -
rather than having to find another part of Washington DC.

Please contact the A.N.S.W.E.R. office to let us know about
your contingent and to coordinate your assembly point.
Please email contingents@... with your
group name, a contact name and phone number, and the plan
for your contingent.

Below is a map showing recommended areas (in yellow) for
contingent meeting points. Please note that two of the side
panels on the east side of the Ellipse are closed for
construction - the sidewalks and roadways are open to enter,
but the grassy areas are inaccessible. There are side panels
on the south and west sides, and if you have a high banner,
flag or balloon you can assemble right in the Ellipse on the
south side.

Map for contingent assembly:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=QDP_Fx5ExM2PSHQ2qXqjGw..

Printable template flyer for your group to use to advertise
your contingent to your constituents:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=xoCe-n2Lbi790YiMPJPEmw..

9) HOUSING IN DC

DC area hotels:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=2THdEYrSEloStyV9VoDzMQ..

The hotels that accept buses for parking are noted. If your
bus driver is going to a hotel to rest and the hotel does
not have bus parking, he/she can park at the designated
metro station and then take the metro to the hotel.

10) DONATIONS URGENTLY NEEDED

The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition is the organization that has the
full responsibility for the costs of the stage, sound, and
set-up at the joint rally where all the major anti-war
groups are coming together beginning at the White House
(Ellipse) at 11:30 am on September 24. The costs are in the
many tens of thousands of dollars, and we urgently need your
help for this massive joint rally and march.

Volunteers are working around the clock to make the day a
huge success, but we can't do it without your help. Please
donate today:
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=HVCAnPwCc0Wa8kVdxNMboA..

- -----------------------
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
www.ANSWERcoalition.org/
info@...
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
For media inquiries, call 202-544-3389.

Sign up for email updates
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=rRQmfv3nITrPID8rC8EXxQ..




- ----- End forwarded message -----

- --
*** FULL-SPECTRUM DOMINANCE! ***************************************
*          Boycott the Bourgeois Economy: BUY PROGRESSIVE          *
****** Critical endorsement only ***** Gift-giving Year-round ******
* http://gxonlinestore.org            Global Exchange online store *
* http://gxonlinestore.org/strongroots.html MST Brasíl online store*
* http://takingaim.info/vp.html             Taking Aim books & CDs *
* https://www.peacecoffee.com            Peace Coffee (fair trade) *
* http://thenewpress.com                             The New Press *
* http://www.chickenhawkcards.com  Deck of Republican Chickenhawks *
* http://www.deckofbush.com                           Deck of Bush *
* http://www.nationbooks.org                          Nation Books *
*******  Where the barricades end -- real democracy begins  ********
GPG fingerprint = 2830 CEE8 4B63 72A0 F86E  622D 6245 9357 A705 91FA
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFDLKerYkWTV6cFkfoRAjhjAKCS/iN4+k+tKD3QSMqwJEHjKbkbEwCgyZVi
xryoBp7oGVVB1MAhB7ATWqU=
=v2H8
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

<http://mostlywater.org/node/3282>

KATRINA RELIEF: NEWS AND QUOTES FROM ALGIERS FOR SEPT. 14


From: Naomi (arche [at] riseup.net)

REAL REPORTS OF KATRINA RELIEF

Eyewitness, politically charged, on-the-ground
truth telling from New Orleans
http://www.realreports.blogspot.com/

Updated: September 14th
Location: The Algiers community adjacent to
downtown New Orleans, Louisiana


A MODEL FOR GETTING IT TOGETHER

The locally-led, mutually based community relief effort in
Algiers is now being called Common Ground Algiers.
Currently, more than 40 volunteer medics, doctors, cooks,
communications technicians, community organizers and
concerned people are directly involved in the Common Ground
collective effort. Emergency services that have been created
include a community garbage pick-up program; mobile kitchens
to provide free hot meals to anyone in the area; a first aid
clinic in a local mosque and a mobile first aid station
staffed by doctors, nurses and emergency medical
technicians; and bicycles for volunteers and residents to
transport aid around the area; and the development of a free
school for children.

These efforts could serve as a community-based model for
creating both emergency response and long-term
infrastructure for people affected by the hurricane and who
are in need of these kind of vital services. Donations can
be sent to Common Ground, PO Box 3216, Gretna, LA 70054.
Please pace your donations. Please no clothes or food.


MILITARY ROLE REVERSAL

In Algiers, the military has finally put down most of their
M16 machine guns and are now helping with pick-up and debris
collection. Keen observers noticed this community clean-up
begun in advance of a visit to the Common Ground Emergency
Wellness Center by Cindy Sheehan and following a blistering
report by Amy Goodman and Democracy Now on the dead bodies
that were still on the streets (they have been removed).
Airborne from Ft. Bragg continued the clean-up today around
town.


CRACKER SQUADS

Cracker squads are groups of white supremacists who are
using the slanderous media coverage and storm chaos to
terrorize communities of color in Louisiana and Mississippi.
One young woman in a Mississippi town relayed to us that a
cracker squad had shot black men in the woods and threatened
retaliation for those going public with the story.

Similar stories have come in from Algiers, downtown New
Orleans, and the outlying parishes of Louisiana.

A related threat are the armed mercenaries of Black Water
and other contractors who are patrolling downtown New
Orleans. Internet reports indicate they have been
particularly brutal in the handling of storm survivors.


THEY SAID IT: COMMON GROUND WELLNESS CENTER

"You can't start a clinic here [the 9th Ward].  That would
give people hope. My job is to make their lives as hopeless
as possible so they will leave."
-New Orleans Police Dept. officer berating relief workers
in the 9th Ward

"The Administration of this country needs to be put on trial
for human rights violations and treason against the people
of the gulf coast region; as well as negligent homicide for
every person left in this region to die."
-Noah, Emergency Medical Technician-B with the Common Ground
Wellness Center, Algiers, New Orleans

"Neighborhood folks find it alot more friendly to get their
health care and healing from a community clinic with
friendly faces rather than a militarized zone with soldiers
toting M-16s. If the government got off their high chair,
and worked with us grassroots relief people, we'd have
health clinics all over the city. Believe me, we have the
know-how to really help and we have the spirit of true
compassion flowing here."
-Michael Kozart, a doctor from San Francisco, CA
volunteering in the Common Ground Wellness Center, Algiers,
NOLA

"Our number one national priority right now should be to
clean up New Orleans and rebuild vulnerable areas in a safe
and environmentally sound way. Then, every single evacuee
must be offered the opportunity and the resources to return
to rebuild their neighborhoods in exactly the same way. We
cannot allow evacuees to be forced into becoming refugees."
-Roger Benham, Emergency Medical Technician-B with the
Common Ground Wellness Center, Algiers, New Orleans

"I'm a community organizer and medic who drove all the way
here to Algiers/New Orleans from San Francisco with a
caravan of people. On the way here a few of us questioned if
we'll be useful and why we're using resources to come all
this way. But after checking in with the locals and
assessing the situation, volunteering in the clinic and
such, I can see people from all over [the neighborhoods]
will be healed for a very long time to come."
-Dixie Block, an organizer/medic from San Francisco, CA
volunteering in the Common Ground Wellness Center, Algiers,
NOLA

"It's not so much that the government is not responding
[with storm relief], they are obstructing the response. They
are telling us we can't bring people the basic necessities
of life because that would give them hope. It is a question
of oppression vs. mutual aid. That is the revolution."
-Jesse, an organizer from DC volunteering in the Common
Ground Wellness Center, Algiers, NOLA

------------

Naomi Archer is a global justice organizer and spiritual
activist from Asheville, NC working for the Common Ground
relief effort in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans.
She can be reached at 828.230.1404 or arche@....

Blog at http://www.realreports.blogspot.com/.
Website at http://www.intuitivepath.org/



--
*** FULL-SPECTRUM DOMINANCE! ***************************************
* In advance of the Revolution:   *      Get facts & get organized *
* Fight the Man!                  *   thru these sites & movements *
***** Critical endorsement only **** Most sites need donations *****
* http://www.nion.us                               NOT IN OUR NAME *
* http://www.abolish-nsl.org      Abolish South Korea Security Law *
* http://www.mapinc.org                    Media Awareness Project *
* http://cryptome.org                   Cryptome (forbidden files) *
* http://www.downhillbattle.org     Downhill Battle Music Activism *
* http://www.colombiaactionnetwork.org     Colombia Action Network *
* http://www.prometheusradio.org          Prometheus Radio Project *
******  U.S. Imperialism:  The World's Greatest Ponzi Scheme  ******
GPG fingerprint = 2830 CEE8 4B63 72A0 F86E  622D 6245 9357 A705 91FA

> On the other hand, I am wondering if a combination of
> low technologies, including things like rock dust soil
> supplementation, might allow faster conversion to organic.
>
> Alan
>
> _____________________________________________________________________

I think the key is getting information to the people who will be
farming and coordinating. A couple of links here: www.acresusa.com
www.newfarm.org  www.localharvest.org

Some key issues are the loss of topsoil from chemical farming, putting
organic matter into soils, reinnoculating with bioorganisms, and
avoiding using manure from the cows that have been on grain without
composting it thoroughly. Simply spreading out what we have onto small
farms would spread some pretty large quantities of pathogens without
any natural balances.

Infrastructure needs to be built through information networks, mostly
to keep good-intentioned people from doing some really dumb things.

Reconnecting neighborhoods might have prevented some of the racial
animosity which has only begun to surface from New Orleans by getting
people out of the segregation denial which pervades the U.S.. An
economic collapse would affect most large cities in the same way,
flood or not, and every city says "We aren't like THAT!"

Roving food gangs, reactionary politicians and plentiful weapons will
make the 'Great Depression' look like a freakin' humanists tea party.

Dan

> Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 12:19:36 -0000
> From: "Dan Conine" <dconine@...>
> Subject: Re:debunking debunkers
>
> --- In peaklabor@yahoogroups.com, aelewis@p... wrote:
> > Friends: thanks to Murray Duffin on the ER list, I just became
> > aware of a most interesting and challenging new page/blog:
> > http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.com. This guy is worth reading,
> > IMO. He is not your typical cornucopian debunker.
>
> Timing is the issue. I am a 'Peak Oiler' of the dieoff beliefs. I will
> admit that freely, as I have always been a pessimist. I am optimistic
> that there will be pockets of survival, and I am hoping that the
> financiers who have brought us to this point of energy dependence have
> a plan, but I am not convinced of that.
>
> The debunkers always make the same mistakes, whether they are the oil
> economist ones or the food source ones. It is all in the time
> restraints of the changes. Yes, people may stop using so much oil and
> switch cars or stay home, and yes, organic production is more
> productive. However, we merely have to lose the PERCEPTION of constant
> growth for the economy to crash, and that will happen overnight, not
> over time for anyone to compensate for it.

I agree. The economy is going to collapse, and likely pretty fast
when it finally does blow. I see this as inevitable, even without
peak oil. I also see this as GOOD, even if (at the time, of
course) mixed. The economy is far too big and important. The
economy, and the cash nexus, should be a relatively small part of
our lives, rather than the rhinocerous that it is. One of the
reasons I am becoming less doomy about peak oil is that, when the
economy does crash, the demand for oil will be cut in half, or
less, virtually overnight. Furthermore, most of this demand
destruction can come to pass with very little if any loss of that
which is essential. Whether or not it DOES so come to pass, of
course, remains to be seen.

> When people don't have
> jobs, they can't buy Priuses, but they also use less energy.
> It takes a good 10 YEARS to convert a farm from standard production
> practices to organic/biodynamic production, and probably longer to get
> production at the levels of the farms in the tests that were cited.
> We have spent almost 100 years taking people OFF of farms, and they
> don't exactly have the skills to go back immediately, and farmers
> don't have the knowledge to manage as a labor-intensive farm anymore.

Yep. Lots of rocky road ahead. The conversion will NOT be
perfectly comfortable. (To say the least.)

On the other hand, I am wondering if a combination of
low technologies, including things like rock dust soil
supplementation, might allow faster conversion to organic.

Alan

_____________________________________________________________________

> Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 18:44:14 -0600
> From: "Perry Arnett" <pjarnett9939@...>
> Subject: Re: http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.com
>
> [Pimental is] "without doubt convinced that peak oil is not only
> real but imminent. We are driving right off a cliff.
> He does NOT see a gradual, relatively event free meandering down
> the other side of the curve. [Nor do I]

Nor do I. It will be full of surprising events and discontinuities.

> Although no explicitly apocalyptic statements were made, a few
> leading ones from me to see what he would say were not brushed off
> or dismissed.
> He made explicit reference to how hard it will be to provide food
> for the overpopulated globe"...

Hard indeed. But one hopeful development is the information that
has been coming out about the efficacy of organic farming. We may
now be "eating oil", but we don't HAVE to. Below is an item that
was just posted over on ROE2. Note that Pimentel is mentioned as
having "now reviewed data from long-term field investigations and
confirmed that organic yields are no different from conventional
under normal growing conditions, but that they are far ahead
during drought years [3]". That isn't good news, that's GREAT
news! One of the Dieoff Articles of Faith, to which I subscribed
until recently, was that the current human population is sustained
entirely by virtue of massive petro-subsidy of agriculture. But
that Article is looking more and more questionable. (Not only on
the basis of the item below; other stuff, too.)

Here is my favorite oil-related quotation of all time. For
some years it has proven incisive, true and prescient, and the
more so with time, especially the first two lines:

"[Oil is] a Faustian spectacle of illusion and deceit... Oil is a
resource that anesthetizes thought, blurs vision, corrupts... Oil
fills us with such arrogance that we begin believing we can easily
overcome such unyielding obstacles as time... Oil creates the
illusion of a completely changed life, life without work, life for
free... Oil kindles extraordinary emotions and hopes, since oil is
above all a great temptation. It is the temptation of ease,
wealth, fortune, power." -- Michael Watts, in Petro-Violence: Some
Thoughts on Community, Extraction, and Political Ecology
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/EnvirPol/WP/01-Watts.pdf
[NOT a good article, except for that quotation, IMO!]

Interesting world.

Alan

------------------------------------------------------------------

The Institute of Science in Society: Science Society
Sustainability  http://www.i-sis.org.uk

This article can be found on the I-SIS website at
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/OBCA.php

ISIS Press Release 12/09/05

Organic Agriculture Enters Mainstream

Organic Yields on Par with Conventional and Ahead During
Drought Years

But by far the greatest gains are due to savings on damages
to public health and the environment estimated at more than
US$59 billion a year Dr. Mae-Wan Ho puts the nail on the
coffin on industrial agriculture

A fully referenced version of this article is posted on ISIS
members' website http://www.i-sis.org.uk/full/OBCAFull.php.
Details here http://www.i-sis.org.uk/membership.php

Myths die hard

Scientists who should know better - if only they had kept up with
the literature - continue to tell the world that organic
agriculture invariably means lower yields, especially compared to
industrial high input agriculture, even when this has long been
proven false (see for example,
"Organic agriculture fights back" SiS 16 [1];
    http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews/sis16.php
"Organic production works", SiS 25 [2]).
    http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews/sis25.php

Researchers led by David Pimentel, ecologist and agricultural
scientist at Cornell University, New York, have now reviewed data
from long-term field investigations and confirmed that organic
yields are no different from conventional under normal growing
conditions, but that they are far ahead during drought years [3].
The reasons are well known: organic soils have greater capacity to
retain water as well as nutrients such as nitrogen.

Organic soils are also more efficient carbon sinks, and organic
management saves on fossil fuel, both of which are important for
mitigating global warming.

But by far the greatest gains are in savings on externalised costs
associated with conventional industrial farming, which are
estimated to exceed 25 percent of the total market value of United
States' agricultural output.

Long-term field trials at Rodale Institute

  From 1981 through 2002, field investigations were conducted at
Rodale Institute in Kutztown, Pennsylvania on 6.1 ha. Three
different cropping systems: conventional, animal manure and
legume-based organic, and legume-based organic. Plots (18 x 92 m)
were split into three (6 x 92 m) subplots, which are large enough
for farm-scale equipment to be used for operations and harvesting.
The main plots were separated with a 1.5 m grass strip to minimize
cross movement of soil, fertilizers, and pesticides. Each of the
three cropping systems was replicated eight times.

The conventional system based on synthetic fertilizer and
herbicide use, represented a typical cash-grain 5-year crop
rotation (corn, corn, soybeans, corn, soybeans) that reflects
commercial conventional operations in the region and throughout
the Midwest. According to USDA 2003 data, there are more than 40
million ha in this production system in North America. Crop
residues were left on the surface of the land to conserve soil and
water; but no cover crops were used during the non-growing season.

The organic animal-based cropping represented a typical livestock
operation in which grain crops were grown for animal feed, not
cash sale. This rotation was more complex: corn, soybeans, corn
silage, wheat, and red clover-alfalfa hay, as well as a rye cover
crop before corn silage and soybeans. Aged cattle manure served as
the nitrogen source and applied at 5.6 tonnes per ha (dry), 2
years out of every 5 immediately before ploughing the soil for
corn. Additional nitrogen was supplied by the plough-down of
legume-hay crops. The total nitrogen applied per ha was about 40
kilograms per year or 198 kg per ha for any given year with a corn
crop. Weed control relied on mechanical cultivation,
weed-suppressing crop rotations, and relay cropping, in which one
crop acted as living mulch for another.

The organic legume-based cropping represented a cash grain
operation without livestock. The rotation system included hairy
vetch (winter cover crop used as green manure), corn, rye (winter
cover crop), soybeans, and winter wheat. The total nitrogen added
to this system per ha per year averaged 49 kg (or 140 kg per ha)
per year with a corn crop). Both organic systems included a small
grain, such as wheat, grown alone or inter-seeded with a legume.
Weed control was similar in both organic systems.

Yields no different except under drought conditions

For the first five years of the experiment (1981-1985), the yields
of corn grain averaged

4 222, 4 743 and 5 903kg per ha for organic-animal, organic-
legume, and conventional systems. After this transition period,
corn grain yields were similar for all systems: 6 431,

6 368, and 6 553 kg per ha. Overall, soybean yields from 1981
through 2001 were 2 461,

2 235 and 2 546 kg per ha; the lower yield of organic legume
system is attributed to the failure of the soybean crop in 1988,
when climate conditions were too dry to support relay
intercropping of barley and soybeans. If 1988 is taken out of the
analysis, soybean yields are similar for all systems.

The 10-year period from 1988-1998 included 5 years in which the
total rainfall from April to August was less than 350 mm (compared
with 500mm in average years). Average corn yields in those dry
years were significantly higher (28 percent to 34 percent) in the
two organic systems: 6938 and 7235kg per ha in organic-animal and
organic-legume systems compared with 5333 kg per ha in the
conventional system.

During the extreme drought of 1999 (total rainfall between April
and August only 224mm), the organic animals system had
significantly higher corn yields (1511 kg per ha) than either the
organic legume (421 kgper ha) or the conventional (1100kg per ha).
Crop yield in the organic legume were much lower in 1999 because
the high biomass of the hairy vetch winter cover crop used up a
large amount of the soil water. During the 1999 drought soybean
yields were 1400, 1800 and 900 kg per ha for organic animal,
organic-legume and conventional.

Other advantages of organic systems

Over a 12-year period, water volumes percolating through each
system were 20 percent and 15 percent higher in the organic-animal
and organic legume systems than in conventional. During the
growing season in 1995, 1996, 1998 and 1999, soil water content
was significantly higher in the soil farmed using the organic
legume system than in the conventional system, accounting for the
much higher soybean yields in the organic legume system in 1999.

About 5.2 million kilocalories of energy per ha were invested in
the production of corn in the conventional system. Energy inputs
for the organic animal and organic legume systems were 28 percent
and 32 percent less. The energy inputs for soybean production in
the organic-animal, organic legume and conventional systems were
similar at 2.3 mkcal, 2.3 mkcal, and 2.1 mkcal respectively.

Economic comparison of the organic corn-soybean rotation with
conventional corn-soybean systems from 1991-2000 showed that
without price premiums for the organic rotation, the annual net
returns for both were similar:$184 per ha for conventional, $176
per ha for organic legume (Table 1).

[Plain text versions of this press release do not contain table 1,
please see http://www.i-sis.org.uk/OBCA.php for this information]

Soil carbon at start (1981) was not different between the three
systems. In 2002, however, soil carbon levels in the organic
animal and organic legume systems were 2.5 percent and 2.4 percent
versus 2.0 percent in the conventional. The annual net aboveground
carbon input (based on plant biomass and manure) was the same in
organic legume system and conventional system (~9 000kg per ha),
but about 10 000 kg per ha in organic animal system. However, the
two organic systems sequester more of that carbon in the soil,
resulting in an annual soil carbon increase of 981 and 574 kg in
the organic animal and organic legume systems, compared with only
293 kg per ha in the conventional systems (calculated on the basis
of about 4 million kg per ha of soil in the top 30cm.). Total soil
carbon increase after 22 years was: 27.9 percent, 15.1 percent and
8.6 percent in organic animal, organic legume and conventional
systems.

Soil nitrogen levels started at 0.31 percent in 1981. By 2002, the
conventional system remained unchanged, while organic animal had
increased to 0.35 percent and organic legume system to 0.33
percent. Using 15N to measure retention of N in soil it was
estimated that 47 percent, 38 percent and 17 percent respectively
of the nitrogen from organic animal, organic legume and
conventional was retained in the soil each year after application.
This matched the decreased amount leached from the organic soils.

Four herbicides were applied in the conventional system: atrazine
(to corn), pendimethalin (corn), metolachlor (corn and soybeans)
and metribuzin (soybeans). From 2001 to 2003, only atrazine and
metolachlor were detected in water leachates collected from
conventional systems at levels in excess of 3 parts per billion,
exceeding maximum contaminant level set by US EPA for atrazine (no
level has been set for metolachlor).

Soils farmed with the two organic systems had greater populations
of spores of the beneficial Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, shown to
enhance disease resistance, improve water relations and increase
soil aggregation.

Large amounts of biomass (soil organic matter) are expected to
significantly increase soil biodiversity. Microarthropods and
earthworms were reported to be twice as abundant in organic versus
conventional agricultural systems in Denmark. Earthworms and
insects create holes in the soil that increase the percolation of
water into the soil and decrease runoff.

Labour requirements

Each system was allowed 250 "free" family labour per month; while
the cost of hired labour was $13 per hour. With organic farming
system, the farmer was busy throughout the summer with the wheat
crop, hairy vetch cover crop, and mechanical week control but
worked less than 250 hours per month). In contrast, the
conventional farmer had large labour requirements in the spring
and fall, plating and harvesting, but little in the summer months.

Increase in labour input may range from 7 percent to a high of 75
percent in organic compared to conventional systems. But in
situations where human labour is not in short supply, this too can
be an advantage of organic agriculture in creating employment.

The externalised costs of conventional agriculture not taken into
account

By far the biggest gains from organic agriculture arise from the
savings on the damages to public health and the environment due to
the use of agrochemicals in conventional agriculture.

The National Organic Standards Program in the United States
prohibits the use of synthetic chemicals, GMOs and sewage sludge
in organically certified production.

As Pimentel points out [3], the estimated environmental and
healthcare costs of pesticide use at recommended levels in the US
is about 12 billion every year. According to the National Research
Council [3], the cost of excessive fertilizer use is $2.5 billion
per year, while the estimated annual costs of public and
environmental health losses related to soil erosion greater than
$45 billion [5].

The total externalised cost of conventional agriculture per year
is $59.5 billion. This represents 27.4 percent of the entire
agricultural output ($217.2 billion in 2002 [6]).

_____________________________________________________________________

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


> While stressing a desire to negotiate, Mr Prentis and Mr
> Serwotka both said they foresaw no problems in obtaining
> strike ballot authority for strikes, whether one-day or
> indefinite.
>
> He said: "13 unions were united last night at the fringe
> [meeting]. We are united. There will be no divide and
> rule.
>
> "The fire, health and public sectors will all be affected.
> If the government impose a higher age [of retirement], in
> my view a strike is inevitable."
>
> The 13 unions agreeing to act in concert are the NUT, AUT,
> Prospect, NATFHE, GMB, FBU, ATL, FDA, Amicus, Unison,
> NASUWT, POA and the T&G.
>
> The Royal College of Nursing, traditionally less militant
> than some of the other unions, has also expressed support.

So what this really means -- this being the TUC after all
("Mother of all strikes", my hairy behind) -- is that
they're talking tuff because they're hoping New Labour will
come around. And then everyone will 'come around'. And then
some squalid little compromise will be made at the expense
of the public workers.

But then the workers themselves could always get different
ideas... Sh!t happens, eh?





- --
*** FULL-SPECTRUM DOMINANCE! ***************************************
* BOYCOTT BOURGEOIS MASS-MEDIA    *  RSS/XML newsfeeds from around *
* Use these links in RSS readers  * the planet: Who needs CNN/Fox? *
****  Critical endorsement only **** Most sites need donations  ****
* http://rss.newstandardnews.net/liberty_1.xml Civil Lib & Security*
* http://www.plenglish.com/rss/north/   Prensa       North America *
* http://www.plenglish.com/rss/europe/  Latina              Europa *
* http://www.plenglish.com/rss/asia/    (Cuba)                Asia *
* http://www.plenglish.com/rss/africa/        Afrika & Middle East *
* http://www.plenglish.com/rss/arts/                          Arts *
* http://www.plenglish.com/rss/health/            Health & Science *
** A properly-chosen slogan cuts thru bullsh!t like a sharp knife **
GPG fingerprint = 2830 CEE8 4B63 72A0 F86E  622D 6245 9357 A705 91FA
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFDKipqYkWTV6cFkfoRAkrAAJwMD/8TzT3axfKXeKaIz52R+/A9nACfY5lV
5owysKvBiSjwwFK1khGHTms=
=vX1W
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--- In peaklabor@yahoogroups.com, aelewis@p... wrote:
>
> Friends: thanks to Murray Duffin on the ER list, I just became
> aware of a most interesting and challenging new page/blog:
> http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.com. This guy is worth reading,
> IMO. He is not your typical cornucopian debunker.

Timing is the issue. I am a 'Peak Oiler' of the dieoff beliefs. I will
admit that freely, as I have always been a pessimist. I am optimistic
that there will be pockets of survival, and I am hoping that the
financiers who have brought us to this point of energy dependence have
a plan, but I am not convinced of that.

The debunkers always make the same mistakes, whether they are the oil
economist ones or the food source ones. It is all in the time
restraints of the changes. Yes, people may stop using so much oil and
switch cars or stay home, and yes, organic production is more
productive. However, we merely have to lose the PERCEPTION of constant
growth for the economy to crash, and that will happen overnight, not
over time for anyone to compensate for it. When people don't have
jobs, they can't buy Priuses, but they also use less energy.
It takes a good 10 YEARS to convert a farm from standard production
practices to organic/biodynamic production, and probably longer to get
production at the levels of the farms in the tests that were cited.
We have spent almost 100 years taking people OFF of farms, and they
don't exactly have the skills to go back immediately, and farmers
don't have the knowledge to manage as a labor-intensive farm anymore.

We can make a soft landing or a hard one, but either way, it is going
to be a landing, since whether we look at things long term or short
term, our environment will not tolerate our wastefulness and clutter
indefinitely, and our economy can't continue to absorb catastrophes
that are exacerbated by concentrated populations. What happens when
Miami is under water? New York?
The carbon in the atmosphere is already there. The oceans' absorption
abilities have dampened the effects for the time being, but we have no
way to predict how much change, nor how fast it will be. We have
already done the deed.

Dan
Wi

Going from the quotes he doesn't appear to be
debunking Peak Oil, but the Big Dieoff part of the
Peak Oil discussion.

On that level I agree with him. The Big Dieoff
should be regarded only as one of the worst case
potentialities and prepared for appropriately. His
argument that we have most of the technology,
strategy, and resources we need to prevent that
outcome rings entirely true, and coincides closely
with my own conclusions. The only thing lacking so
far is the political, and social will to carry
those projects (such as rebuilding the small farm
infrastructure) to completion.

We also have to bear in mind that the current
Administration's behavior could be explained by
assuming that they believe in the Big Dieoff and
are moving to secure foreign supplies militarily,
while consolidating control at home with the
construction of a ruthless police state.

So there is no question that we can save
ourselves.

The only real question is...will we?

Ray Barnes

Friends: thanks to Murray Duffin on the ER list, I just became
aware of a most interesting and challenging new page/blog:
http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.com. This guy is worth reading,
IMO. He is not your typical cornucopian debunker. I don't think he
is being paid by the Heritage Foundation or some other corporate
"think tank" (he says too many things that would be inconsistent
with their agenda). He appears to have done his own thinking, and
some of it is pretty good. For example, he thinks that the
automobile is a colassal waste and ought to be abandoned (a man
after my heart!). He also thinks that peak oil has been much
overblown. He seems to have been greatly influenced by the peak
oil extremists -- the "fast crash" crowd. In other words, he takes
that extreme view as THE "peak oil" view, and proceeds to debunk
it. So, he is not really debunking peak oil; he is debunking a
particular view of it that holds that it will cause rapid and
complete economic and social disintegration, mass starvation,
die-off, etc. And I agree that the idea that that outcome is
INEVITABLE (what I call HansoNihilism) does need to be debunked,
even if it is true that such an outcome is POSSIBLE. As he points
out, when people are faced with that kind of scenario, "they
don't...respond by thinking: 'Oh, hey, I better buy a Prius' or
'Maybe I'll take the bus to work.' In fact, they respond to it
with panic, and look for solutions not in conservation and
environmentalism, but rather in survivalism, hoarding,
profiteering, fascism, racism, eugenics and murder." Yo.

Anyway, in the process he goes pretty far overboard in the
optimism department ("optimism" meaning the idea that there will
be enough energy to maintain everything pretty much as-is). He
makes a bunch of mistakes in his assumptions, IMO. The whole thing
is a very mixed bag... but damn good reading. I found myself
snipping and saving quite a few of his numbered entries (each of
his posts has a number). I am attaching below a couple of items so
you can get the flavor of it.

It is always fun to read stuff you disagree with. Don't you
think? :-)

Alan se mi

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.com/

74. ISN'T DEBUNKING BAD FOR PEAK OIL AWARENESS?

I think this is the #1 question my readers ask me. As Avo put it:
"If you want people to make profound changes in their lives, you
must first convince them that there IS A PROBLEM. Yet the overall
theme of your blog/group postings is, don't worry, things are not
nearly as bad as those nasty racist peak-oilers would have you
believe."

The main concern of the well-intentioned peak oilers is that our
current culture is unsustainable. We are drowning in a sea of
waste, consumerism, cynical commerce, greenhouse gas, toxic waste,
pesticides etc. etc... We've got to get a grip on ourselves: stop
eating so much meat, grow organic food grown closer to home, drive
more efficient cars, conserve, compost, develop human-scale
walkable communities, hold hands and sing "Kumbaya". This is where
"peak oil awareness" comes in. If we can just get "the message"
out to people, they will understand and start taking steps in the
right direction.

Unfortunately, experience shows that this is exactly the opposite
of what happens. After all, what is the peak oil "message"?
Briefly, it is that the human population has ballooned together
with oil production, overshooting the earth's carrying capacity,
and most of the world population will soon perish in a peak oil
die-off because food production/distribution is totally dependent
on oil. Four or five billion people will have to die in order to
bring humanity back into balance with the earth. We're talking
about rivers of blood up to the horse bridles, folks.

This is the peak oil message:

DIE OFF

People don't respond to that apocalyptic message by thinking: "Oh,
hey, I better buy a Prius" or "Maybe I'll take the bus to work."
In fact, they respond to it with panic, and look for solutions not
in conservation and environmentalism, but rather in survivalism,
hoarding, profiteering, fascism, racism, eugenics and murder. This
is the crux of the problem, which the well-intentioned peak oilers
do not understand. Spreading the "peak oil message" has an effect
exactly the opposite of that intended. It leads to social
disintegration, not community. To illustrate this I will be
showcasing a series of "Doomer Types", beginning in the following
article (#75).

posted by JD @ 3:16 AM

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.com/

84. MORE ON THE GREEN REVOLUTION

As I've noted before, the "Green Revolution" is the linchpin in
the peak oil die-off argument. In short, the idea is this: Humans
discovered oil, and by using oil in agriculture (fertilizers,
pesticides, mechanization, transport) were able to boost food
production above what is possible without oil. This allowed people
to, in a sense, "eat oil" -- which in turn caused the population
to bloom and overshoot the carrying capacity of the earth.
Therefore, when oil gets scarce after peak oil, 4 or 5 billion
people will have to die to bring the system back into balance.

This argument is as full of holes as a piece of swiss cheese (as I
have pointed out in earlier articles -- see #15, #22, #28, #46,
#48, #55, #72, #76), but here I would like to point out one more
error: the claim that Green Revolution-style mechanized,
monocropped agriculture produces the most food per acre. This
claim is demonstrably false, and is in fact a myth propagated by
the PR departments of multinational agriculture companies like
Monsanto.

Numerous studies show that chemical inputs do not increase crop
yields. Here are two examples:

One of the longest running agricultural trials on record (more
than 150 years) is the Broadbalk experiment at the Rothamsted
Experimental Station in the United Kingdom. The trials compare a
manure based fertilizer farming system (but not certified organic)
to a synthetic chemical fertilizer farming system. Wheat yields
are shown to be on average slightly higher in the organically
fertilized plots (3.45 tones/hectare) than the plots receiving
chemical fertilizers (3.40 tones/hectare) --
http://www.energybulletin.net/1469.html

---------

A comprehensive review of a large number of comparison studies of
grain and soybean production conduct by six Midwestern
universities since 1978 found that in all of these studies organic
production was equivalent to, and in many cases better than,
conventional (Welsh, 1999). Organic systems had higher yields than
conventional systems which featured continuous crop production (no
rotations) and equal or lower yields in conventional systems that
included crop rotations. In the drier climates such as the Great
Plains, organic systems had higher yields, as they tend to be
better during droughts than conventional systems. In one such
study in South Dakota for the period 1986-1992, the average yields
of soybeans were 29.6 bushels/acre and 28.6 bushels/acre in the
organic and conventional systems respectively. In the same study,
average spring wheat yields were 41.5 bushels/acre and 39.5
bushels/acre in the organic and conventional systems
respectively. (Source: same as above)

More data on such experiments can be found here:

Moving Towards Eco-Farming
http://www.sunsonline.org/trade/areas/agricult/03260296.htm

What is efficient agriculture?
http://www.veganorganic.net/agri.htm

The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture: Myth Four --
Industrial Agriculture is Efficient
http://www.alternet.org/story/13905/

*****

Another myth is that Monsanto/Cargill-style monster farms produce
the most food per acre:

The emphasis on small-scale family farms has the potential to
revitalize rural areas and their economies. Counter to the widely
held belief that industrial agriculture is more efficient and
productive, small farms produce far more per acre than large
farms. Industrial agriculture relies heavily on monocultures, the
planting of a single crop throughout the farm, because they
simplify management and allow the use of heavy machinery. Larger
farms in the third world also tend to grow export luxury crops
instead of providing staple foods to their growing population.
Small farmers, especially in the Third World have integrated
farming systems where they plant a variety of crops maximizing the
use of their land.

They are also more likely to have livestock on their farm, which
provides a variety of animal products to the local economy and
manure for improving soil fertility. In such farms, though the
yield per acre of a single crop might be lower than a large farm,
total production per acre of all the crops and various animal
products is much higher than large conventional farms (Rosset,
1999). Figure 1 shows the relationship between total production
per unit area to farm size in 15 countries. In all cases, the
smaller farms are much more productive per unit area- 200 to 1000
percent higher - than larger ones (Rosset, 1999).(Source: same as
above)

------

Government studies underscore this "inverse relationship."
According to a 1992 U.S. Agricultural Census report, relatively
smaller farm sizes are 2 to 10 times more productive per unit acre
than larger ones. The smallest farms surveyed in the study, those
of 27 acres or less, are more than ten times as productive (in
dollar output per acre) than large farms (6,000 acres or more),
and extremely small farms (4 acres or less) can be over a hundred
times as productive. -- http://www.alternet.org/story/13905/

The data shows that farm size is the critical factor. Man-hour
intensive farming can compensate for the loss of fossil inputs,
and increase food output beyond what it is now. Extremely small
farms (4 acres are less) are 2 to 100 times more productive than
large farms. Thus it is clear we can massively increase carrying
capacity and total food production simply by decreasing farm size.

The above facts make me wonder if the mechanized/chemical farming
industry is similar to the automobile industry. We don't really
need the machines/chemicals, and that's why the makers push them
with such an aggressive hard sell. It's a lot like cars; you don't
actually need them, but the big automakers help rig the system to
make you need them, and then they spend millions of dollars on PR
to pump out the message: "Can't live without a car." Similarly,
you don't need the chemicals, so the chemical manufacturers have
really robust PR departments, and employ sophisticated media
shills to pump out the message "Without chemicals, we'll all die."
The peak-oil doomers have (as usual) bought into this corporate
brainwashing.

--------

*) Thanks to oiless for the links.

posted by JD @ 1:07 AM

------------------------------------------------------------------

90. CORN AND FERTILIZER

Let's recall the "die-off" scenario, as concisely described by
Wikipedia: Some envisage a Malthusian catastrophe occurring as oil
becomes increasingly inefficient to produce. Since the 1940s,
agriculture has dramatically increased its productivity, due
largely to the use of chemical pesticides, fertilizers, and
increased mechanisation. This process has been called the Green
Revolution. The increase in food production has allowed world
population to grow dramatically over the last 50 years. Pesticides
rely upon oil as a critical ingredient, and fertilizers require
both oil and natural gas. Farm machinery also requires oil.
Arguing that in today's world every joule one eats requires 5-15
joules to produce and deliver, some have speculated that a
decreasing supply of oil will cause modern industrial agriculture
to collapse, leading to a drastic decline in food production, food
shortages and possibly even mass starvation.Source

This is complete bollocks, as we have seen from numerous previous
articles (see #15, #22, #28, #46, #48, #55, #72, #76, #84 and
#87), but fertilizers are a key factor, so let's look at them once
again, and see where they actually go.

In 1999, corn (maize) accounted for about 41% of all fertilizer
consumption in the U.S. The exact breakdown by fertilizer type
was:

N (Nitrogen): 40.58%
P2O5 (Phosphate): 39.45%
K2O (Potash): 41.89% (Source: U.S. Fertilizer Application Rates,
    The Fertilizer Institute)

Where does all that corn go? You can see in the following chart:

Source

Most U.S. corn is used to feed livestock (dark blue); another
large chunk is used for ethanol (purple); another large chunk is
exported (yellow); and another large chunk goes into stocks
(green). The part consumed by humans, directly as food, is a
subset of the orange band, which represents FSI (Food, Seed and
Industrial). This category also includes high fructose corn syrup
(HFCS) which is a component of soft drinks, juices and ice cream,
and a major cause of obesity. The USDA notes: "Food and starch,
other segments of FSI use, are mature markets and projected gains
largely reflect population growth."

This is further evidence that human beings aren't even close to
the point of die-off due to the inability to produce enough food
from the earth.

Here's another interesting data point from the Fertilizer
Institute (click on the image for a clearer picture):

  From the report:

Since 1980, corn production has increased by 57.8 percent.
Interestingly, that increase was achieved using less nitrogen
fertilizer. Notably, in 1980, nearly 6.395 billion bushels of corn
were produced using 5.245 million tons of nitrogen. However by
2003, U.S. corn production soared to 10.089 billion bushels, even
as the amount of nitrogen fertilizer used dropped to 5.14 million
tons. Source

So, as we've seen earlier (#84), growth in the food supply is not
dependent on growth in production of nitrogen fertilizer, and thus
is not dependent on growth in the supply of oil or natural gas.

posted by JD @ 1:34 AM

_____________________________________________________________________

SNIPPETS (from two items):

"I went up to Nick Griffin [of the British Nationalist Party],
confirmed his identity and then asked why he was here amongst all
these left-wingers. His measured answer was that though Peak Oil
received minimal coverage in their manifesto, they see it as a
long-term issue which may well make its way up to the top of their
policy list. What an irony, I thought to myself. Not even the
Green Party in Britain has put Peak Oil on their election agenda,
but the far right BNP may beat them to it. Is not Peak Oil full of
surprises?"

"The Middle Class Leftists, the capitalist lackeys, the Marxist
enviornmentalists, the international socialists and liberals and
the bogus reactionary rightists will all be swept away by Peak
Oil. And thank the Gods for that."

----------------------

http://newerainvestor.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_newerainvestor_archive.html
http://newerainvestor.blogspot.com/2005/04/politics-of-peak-oil-and-fascism.html

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

The Politics of Peak Oil and Fascism

Though attended by a large number, the "Peak Oil UK" conference
organised by Depletion Scotland on the 25th April had a familiar
look to it. On view were representatives from the media,
environmental groups and oil-related academia as well as concerned
individuals such as myself. Also, the sight of Colin Campbell and
Matt Simmons as speakers and even Mike Ruppert in the audience
gave it all a kind of kindred feel to it all.

However, one individual stood out a mile and in complete contrast
to these groups and that was Nick Griffin, chairman of the British
National Party. For non-British readers, a description of the BNP
is in order. Being a far right wing party, they are somewhat
similar to Jean Marie Le Pen's National Front party of France
which has enjoyed recent electoral successes. However, since
immigration is not such a hot issue in Britain as it is in France,
the BNP's electoral successes are confined to local government
elections. No BNP member sits as an MP in the House of Commons and
this is unlikely to in the current political-economic climate.

Their distinctive theme is "Britishness" with the emphasis on
"whiteness". One could imagine they desire a Britain that existed
before the mass immigrations of our post-war period and they plan
to reclaim that by a policy of repatriation of "non-native"
British people (i.e. mainly those of African and Asian descent).
The only historical change to this repatration policy has been the
change from forced to optional repatriation with financial
inducements. How this can be peaceably achieved with the
cooperation of the destination countries is beyond my
understanding.

But back to Peak Oil and the BNP particularly. Since Peak Oil is a
genre generally associated with those left of the political
spectrum, their presence can be regarded as all the more
surprising. After all, their less right wing counterparts such as
the Neocons of America and the Christian Right do not generally
regard Peak Oil as a big issue. What is going on?

If in doubt, ask. So, I went up to Nick Griffin, confirmed his
identity and then asked why he was here amongst all these
left-wingers. His measured answer was that though Peak Oil
received minimal coverage in their manifesto, they see it as a
long-term issue which may well make its way up to the top of their
policy list.

What an irony, I thought to myself. Not even the Green Party in
Britain has put Peak Oil on their election agenda, but the far
right BNP may beat them to it. Is not Peak Oil full of surprises?
Then again, maybe not. Let me explain.

Peak Oil is a paradigm shift. People will be forced to look at
their lifestyles and the way they conduct their day to day living.
Indeed, as many predict, this shift may well be from that of
somewhere above abundance to that of somewhere above subsistence.
I personally do not think that is such a bad thing if it weans us
off materialism but still provides us with a living where
legitimate needs are still adequately met.

However, it is the transition to this more simple lifestyle that
worries me. It is how human nature reacts to his fellow man when
resources become scarcer and the blame game begins. The BNP are no
doubt familiar with Adolf Hitler. Indeed, many in their ranks
idolise him and regard the Holocaust as a lie. What the BNP are
aware of is that economic paradigm shifts lead to political
paradigm shifts. Thanks to the short-sightedness of the Versailles
Treaty after the First World War, Germany was put under such
duress for reparations that hyperinflation and economic collapse
ensued and drove desperate people to desperate measures. They had
a choice between the two extremes of socialism - the Communists or
the Nazis (National Socialists). Hitler won and rose to power as
the paradigm shift of hyperinflation had its devastating way.

Hitler blamed the Jewish Bankers for Germany's predicament and
also preached a gospel of Aryan supremacy over other races. Why
did the German people swallow this and vote the Nazis into power?
Because as history has shown over and over again, hardship brings
out the worst in us as well as the best. When resources become
scarce, certain numbers of people psychologically withdraw into
their perceived peer groups and automatically distance other
groups. In such circumstances, if they think they lack life's
necessities at the expense of another group, prejudice and bias
will ensue. The instinct to survive as an individual and a group
predominates. It becomes survival of the fittest and if the
majority group regards itself as the fittest then bloody
persecution arises.

The key question is, how much has the multicultural influences of
the past forty years embedded itself into the psyche of the
majority? Are minorities welcomed or merely tolerated while there
is an abundance of oil generated goods? When everyone's belly is
full, there is acceptance. When bellies are empty, the fight is on
for what matters most.

If those who welcome and tolerate are outnumbered by those who do
not welcome or tolerate those groupings they class as competition,
then multiculturalism is dead on the other side of the oil divide.
Peak Oil will have initiated the worst form of paradigm shifts,
the politics of racial survivalism.

I propose that the BNP see this coming paradigm shift and are
preparing. They know the history of the rise of the Nazi party,
they see an opportunity to rise themselves. Given the darker side
of human nature, they could well be right. No doubt, their
counterparts in the USA and other countries are also debriefed on
what Peak Oil could mean to them and will prepare and wait
accordingly.

Political parties which are small before seismic shifts become the
major parties on the other side. Just ask the incumbent Labour
Party in Britain. They first came to power after the privations of
World War II with an agenda of social and economic restructuring.

How will the current political parties react? Those who have risen
on and adapted to the wave of abundance, will they ban the BNP or
in their greedy desire for power, assimilate their policies?

Only time will tell, but if history is anything to go by, it is in
the balance.

posted by New Era Investor at 8:38 AM

------------------------------------------------------------------

PLUS: an unsigned essay, apparently by a member of the BNP:

http://www.peakoil.com/post136342.html

The idea that Peak Oil can be solved through liberal fantasising
that we all hold hands and sing ' all you need is love ' whilst
wearing daisy chains around our necks is the last resort of the
liberal nostalgic.

The New Dark Age that we are entering is an age of Nationalism not
internationalism. The idea that Britain can solve the Peak Oil
crash through more internationalisation is like saying you can
prevent heroin addiction by injecting the addict with more and
more heroin.

The time comes when Bio-Regionalism, Closed Borders, Steady State
Eco-Economics and a Directed Economy aimd at preventing the
collapse of social complexity has to be adopted. The Middle Class
Leftists, the capitalist lackeys, the Marxist enviornmentalists,
the international socialists and liberals and the bogus
reactionary rightists will all be swept away by Peak Oil. And
thank the Gods for that.

If any leftist on this site can put forard a vaild idea how sixty
seventy million people in Britain grow enough food without oil
based pesticides and intensive agricultural techniques based on
oil - and still argue for open borders and more mass immigration
into Britain - then lets hear it.

The fact is you havent got a clue. Your day, and the ideology
that you held, is dead. The New Age of Eco-Nationalism has begun.

Here is our warning to you now. Those criminals, traitors, fools
and fantasists that delay our rise to power will be treated as
criminals when we take power. This Peak Oil situation will destroy
our entire Nation and Western Civilisation unless the BNP are
allowed to take power. The left and the liberals, the socialists
and the environmentalists and the capitalists are all guilty of
the same crime - of opposing the one part that can solve this
crisis, the one party that has the Will and Vision to fight for
our future.

The Steady State Eco-Economics Model of the BNP based on
Bio-Regionalism and national environmental autarchy under the
control of a Ministry of Finance and a central British National
Bank that will direct and control the scial evolutionary changes
that are requred in order for our nationa and people to survive
this nightmare are the sole solution.

We will no longer listen to the mouse squeaks of the left and the
liberals as they try and prevent our national revolution - they
along with the capitalists led us to this Gehenna.

You now have a clear choice - either join us or get out of our
way. Our path to power is now clear before us, and you laid the
foundations to our victory with our complicity, duplicity,
criminality, corruption, arrogance and greed.

When Judgement Day begins then the guilty will pay for their
crimes against our people. Capitalist wil stand bsie communist,
liberal and maxis green in the Peoples Courts.

You have one chance and one chance only.

If you join us now we can forgive you.

Fight us and you will pay the price in the future.

When the lights begin to flicker and the electricity begins to
fail our power will grow.

Further debate is not required. You know we are right and that you
have no answers other than ours.

The left, the reactionary right, and the liberals and the
socialists hav neither the vision or the stength to evole this
nation to the point where it can survive.

The old left/right political model is dead - now we are united in
pursuit of a new higher national goal, to survive this crisis.

Identity politics is the future of British politics - the
programme of the BNP is the future.

We will not let ieological dinosaurs using their faile and asinine
langage of ' Hitler this and that ' divert us from our mission.

The era of laxity and apathy is over - the Era of Eco-Nationalism
has begun.

Repent your past and join with us or suffer punishment when the
time comes for yor crimes.

____________________________________________________________________

Tompaine.com - Print Page
"Bring Home The Davis-Bacon
Beth Shulman
September 14, 2005

Beth Shulman is the author of The Betrayal of
Work: How Low Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans
(The New Press, 2003) and works with the Russell
Sage Foundation’s Future of Work and Social
Inequality Projects.

Dear President Bush:

Have you no shame? By suspending the Davis-Bacon
laws in the areas devastated by the hurricane you
are taking advantage of those already suffering.
Davis-Bacon laws require federal contractors to
pay laborers and mechanics at least the
prevailing-wage rates (and fringe benefits) that
other similar workers in the area receive. Once
again, wealthy contractors, who are being awarded
contracts without competitive bidding that
guarantee them a certain profit regardless of how
much they spend, will reap millions from this
disaster. At the same time, the Americans doing
the hard work of restoring these ravaged cities
are forced to live without even a basic living
wage.

Mr. President, America watched in shock as
victims cried for help and bodies floated
alongside the survivors. In the gut-wrenching
wake of Hurricane Katrina we saw a stark portrait
of those left behind. We live in the world's
richest country, yet in New Orleans, thousands
lost their lives due to a lack of money,
transportation, a safe destination or the
know-how to get out.

New Orleans is just the most horrific example of
what our society has become: a neglectful place,
indifferent to Americans with the least income.
In the name of freedom, your administration has
starved our government of funds for programs that
support average Americans and opened the door for
death by a thousand little cuts. In New Orleans,
cuts eliminated money for shoring up the levees
that could have saved the city and thousands of
its residents. Nationwide, cuts have strip-mined
child care, pre-school and public schools, which
undermines our country's future by guaranteeing
that another generation will be poor.

While championing tax breaks for the rich,
Congress, urged on by you, continues to cut
programs that help send poor children to college,
provide housing vouchers and support job training
programs. Some 45 million Americans are still
without health care, including many of the New
Orleans evacuees. The basic needs of human beings
in America are more and more available only to
those who can afford to buy them. Survival, in
short, has become a commodity of the rich.

And now, in the cruelest irony, you are saying
that in New Orleans—where a quarter of the city
is poor, 40 percent of its children live in
families below the poverty level and the
prevailing wage for construction labor is less
than $10.00 per hour—that working families should
have a pay cut as they rebuild their destroyed
communities. By suspending Davis-Bacon, you are
forcing more people into the poverty we have so
dramatically witnessed in the past week and
undercutting the economic recovery of these
ravaged areas.

Even before Hurricane Katrina wrought its havoc,
the Census Bureau reported the nation's poverty
rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last
year, the fourth consecutive annual increase. The
official poverty level of $19,157 for a family of
four does not even begin to cover what it really
takes for that family to make ends meet. In most
parts of the country, about twice as much is
needed to simply provide shelter, food,
transportation and clothing. It's no wonder that
despite strong overall economic growth, the
average American income has stagnated—failing to
grow for the fifth consecutive year for the first
time in our history.

Previously, we might have claimed ignorance of
the unacceptable price of grinding poverty.  We
can no longer make that claim.  Destruction on a
scale unknown to our nation offers us the rare
second chance to get it right this time around.

We can make different choices .We could ensure
that every child has adequate preparation to
succeed at school and can afford to go on to
college, whether or not their parents can pay for
it. We could determine that health insurance is
the right of every American, not just a special
privilege for a wealthy few. We could declare it
unacceptable for Americans to work and still live
in poverty; or to labor without time off to be
with their families; or to retire without
adequate security.

Instead, you have chosen to dishonor the poor,
the survivors and those who have put their faith
in you.  Shame on you."
http://www.tompaine.com/print/bring_home_the_davisbacon.php



__________________________________
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
http://mail.yahoo.com

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

Some news from the UK that ought to be of interest:

Original:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/unions/story/0,12189,1569881,00.html

Unions threaten 'biggest strike since 1926'

Matthew Tempest, political correspondent, in Brighton
Wednesday September 14, 2005

Union leaders today warned the government that pushing through a rise
in the public sector retirement age to 65 could provoke the biggest
industrial action since the General Strike of 1926.

Industrial action by eight unions protesting to the plan was only
narrowly averted before the general election by the promise of talks.
Alan Johnson today apologised to unions at the TUC conference in
Brighton for the failure to consult them on that occasion.

Dave Prentis, the leader of Britain's biggest union, Unison, and Mark
Serwotka, the leader of the public and commercial services union, said
they now had a further five unions, 13 in all, prepared to ballot for
strike action if the government forced through a mandatory higher
retirement age.

With talks due to resume on reforming public sector pension provision
in September, the row could flare up again embarrassingly at the
Labour party conference in two weeks' time.

In a seemingly conciliatory conference speech this morning, Mr Johnson
told delegates that attempting to force a change on the public sector
this spring was a mistake.

He said: "I fully accept that our approach was wrong," before going on
to insist that further changes would be "discussed and negotiated"
with the trade unions.

Mr Johnson mooted a "change in the retirement at 60 ethos", "giving
individuals a choice about when they retire - be it 60 or 65, or
later", but warned the whole scheme must be "capable of withstanding
the demographic changes that are bound to have a radical effect on
pension provision."

But a senior Whitehall source insisted that "the status quo was not an
option" and that it was "unsustainable, both fiscally and in the eyes
of the taxpayers, for the public sector not to do the same" as private
sector workers, who retire at 65.

Union leaders reacted with fury. Mr Prentis warned that 13 public
sector union bosses had last night agreed a united front and would
"take industrial action to protect pensions".

He pointed out that the successful ballots in March for industrial
action would have brought out around 1.5 million public sector
workers, making it the biggest stoppage since the 1926 General Strike.
With 13 unions now agreed, he said, 3m public sector workers could strike.

Mr Prentis said: "I have never known such anger in 30 years of union
negotiating life. The government's policy in chaos."

The government has suggested phasing in a new retirement date between
2013 and 2018. But Mr Prentis said categorically: "A shift in date of
when it kicks in is not sufficient."

There were also signs that while the unions put on a united front,
they were attempting to play up apparent divisions between government
ministers.

Two dates - of September 18 and September 21 - have been suggested for
a resumption of talks, but Mr Prentis said: "Alan [Johnson] has played
for time today. There's no commitment beyond a commitment to negotiate.

"[But] John Prescott is making it clear that Alan Johnson's talks
won't apply to local council workers."

Mr Prentis asked who was in control of the talks - Mr Johnson, a
former union leader; Mr Prescott, who looks after local authority
affairs; or David Blunkett, the actual work and pensions secretary.

Mr Serwotka, who represents job centre staff already angry at plans to
privatise some of their functions, said the unions were in favour of a
"choice" of retirement dates, but warned the government would be
"frankly mad" to take on 13 unions with more than 3 million members
across the public sector, including the NHS and fire services.

While stressing a desire to negotiate, Mr Prentis and Mr Serwotka both
said they foresaw no problems in obtaining strike ballot authority for
strikes, whether one-day or indefinite.

He said: "13 unions were united last night at the fringe [meeting]. We
are united. There will be no divide and rule.

"The fire, health and public sectors will all be affected. If the
government impose a higher age [of retirement], in my view a strike is
inevitable."

The 13 unions agreeing to act in concert are the NUT, AUT, Prospect,
NATFHE, GMB, FBU, ATL, FDA, Amicus, Unison, NASUWT, POA and the T&G.

The Royal College of Nursing, traditionally less militant than some of
the other unions, has also expressed support.

Separately from the specific issue of the public sector retirement
age, the whole issue of pension reform is under review, with a report
by Adair Turner due in November.

This morning he told the TUC that there were many problems with the
TUC position of making private pension provision mandatory on
employers, not least that studies showed it would reduce cash wages
over time.

He also revealed that an entire chapter of his review would be devoted
to investigating a phased retirement window, allowing people to work
part-time on a partial state pension while deferring full retirement.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


aelewis@... <aelewis@...> rose in the dock,
chains clanging, and declared:

> > What I want to know is: how do we go about organizing to
> > meet our class enemy on the field of battle it is
> > preparing?
>
> That is indeed the $64K question.

For starters: I find too much of the discussion here about
food, while well and necessarily cautionary and pointed, and
valid in many points, still a tad too defeatist. This stuff
about needing to go back to the land -- or at least the
backyard -- I find to be actually reactionary. Sorry guys! I
loved the `60's too -- but I also drew lessons about
utopianism from them as well. Socialist organization will
IMO at least be able to handle any ecological crisis without
the need for malthusean hand-wringing and dire 'Sophie's'
choices.

Wobblies and anarchists and xian mystix can all fit in this
scenario too, I'm sure -- as long as we all agree that we
want to get rid of capitalism and the capitalists.

And regarding the 'transportation of food' issue: it is also
an *opportunity* for us that the capitalists have created
this JIT "Just In Time" system, which has been designed to
'break up' workplace concentration of workers. It's really a
*very vulnerable* system...

So this issue can very likely be a 'glass
half-empty/half-full' thing if we put our minds to it.




> > So far there has been a mix of tactical and strategic
> > discussion here, which is good; but I think things have
> > already bogged down in the details a bit. However, the
> > dialectic of discussion practically requires that these
> > things happen...  ;>
>
> I continued posting on that "race" thread for the sake of
> continuity-of-thread, not because I think it is of great
> absolute importance.

Understood.



> The class war WILL, to some extent, in at least some
> places, be played-out AS a race war. Sorry to say.

And our job will be to attenuate that as much as possible.

For instance: here, the secret and local police and
vigilantes are working a plan to divide white activists such
as myself from black people who should know better than to
work with the police state (but they don't, obviously. Same
with too many indians). This nefarious plan we have to nip
in the bud.

It _is_ the new COINTELPRO. And it _will_ be expressed thru
the pigs using whatever crax they can find to split us wide
open. Race is just one of the bigger cards they _are_
playing -- right now. It's not a hypothetical. I live it.

So by all means we must discuss race (and gender, and even
confessionality) -- but in its proper context: in terms of
"The Plan" for a general strike and what comes of it, is
what I am saying. And so discussion of "The Plan" is
paramount or primary. So we shouldn't now be spending 90% of
our time on race issues, is all I am saying.

But it's hard to break new ground, isn't it? And like I
said, I understood that this is a thread that was just
playing out.


- -- grok.




- --
*** FULL-SPECTRUM DOMINANCE! ***************************************
* BOYCOTT BOURGEOIS MASS-MEDIA    *  RSS/XML newsfeeds from around *
* Use these links in RSS readers  * the planet: Who needs CNN/Fox? *
****  Critical endorsement only **** Most sites need donations  ****
* http://www.enemycombatantradio.net/rss.php Enemy Combatant Radio *
* http://www.monbiot.com/feed/rss2/                 George Monbiot *
* http://www.labourstart.org/rss         LabourStart RSS Main list *
* http://www.labourstart.org/rss/labourstart.xml       LabourStart *
* http://www.labourstart.org/rss/labourstart.ca.xml         Canada *
* http://www.labourstart.org/rss/labourstart.au.xml             Oz *
***  Just Say NO to Police States: Keep an eye on Citizen Corps  ***
GPG fingerprint = 2830 CEE8 4B63 72A0 F86E  622D 6245 9357 A705 91FA
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFDJhWUYkWTV6cFkfoRApIbAKDLjm9A4CCkSy797UaXXT0/zywVowCgljAj
qm0xPsJwMKw4eZkenqBWnis=
=k7cY
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

>  Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 20:39:49 -0700
>  From: grok@...
> Subject: General Strike
>
> Remember: Class trumps race. Every time. And for very good
> objective reasons. Which is not in the least ignoring that
> the capitalist-class uses race to divide the working-class.
> And identity politix is indeed poison. Just look at the WBAI
> fiasco...

I whole-heartedly agree. Frankly, the race issue bores me. The
only reason I take an interest is when it becomes clear that there
are a bunch of people who think race is terribly important. That's
the only reason the issue is worth paying attention to -- to
counterbalance those types.

> What I want to know is: how do we go about organizing to
> meet our class enemy on the field of battle it is preparing?

That is indeed the $64K question.

> So far there has been a mix of tactical and strategic
> discussion here, which is good; but I think things have already
> bogged down in the details a bit. However, the dialectic
> of discussion practically requires that these things
> happen...
> ;>

I continued posting on that "race" thread for the sake of
continuity-of-thread, not because I think it is of great absolute
importance.

> So, developing a proper sense of proportion here wouldn't be
> a bad idea at all. i.e.: how much must we be stuck to the
> tar-baby of race -- since the primary issue is one of
> class-war?

INTERNALLY, not at all; i.e. amongst ourselves, it may be no issue
it all. Like I say, I would just as soon forget about it
completely. It is only externally, in consideration of fault-lines
that may (indeed WILL) develop as this crisis intensifies, that it
is worth attending to.

The class war WILL, to some extent, in at least some places, be
played-out AS a race war. Sorry to say.

> - -- grok.

Grok!

Alan

_____________________________________________________________________

Mussolini defined fascism as the marriage of
corporations and the state, (and he should know.)

That is what we face now in the United States, a
monolithic conspiracy among corporations to
capture control of the functions of the military
and government for their own use. The program has
already made considerable headway and is moving
ruthlessly to consolidate their control for the
foreseeable future. The corporations, of course,
serve the Oligarchy.

Rebuilding a democratic society will require the
complete restructuring of this system, an outcome
implied in your five demands. Corporations must
lose the legal standing they currently enjoy as
Immortal Individuals, and return to the strictly
controlled and limited forms that were extant at
the time of the writing of the constitution. The
nexus of the Military and Industry that exists
today must be thoroughly dispersed.

There is no hope that the Military and Industrial
Complex will submit to this restructuring
peacefully and we may expect them to use the
considerable means, both subtle and violent, at
their command to prevent it.

For this reason, to be successful, any mass
movement must seek to build social structures and
an economic base that functions below the radar
and out of the control of the oligarchy.

Though no utopia, I see a mass return to a society
of yeoman farmers as a much better choice than
corporate tyranny and eternal resource wars.

Incidentally, if you want to see an example of a
society that has done just that, google "Cuban
agriculture."

It ain't perfect by a long shot, but it does prove
that it can be done.

UncaRay
smokytopia.com

I was just thinking along similar lines, Ray.
Any centralization of a 'movement' creates a target for the
corporations/government/oligarchy to 'target' with sanctions, layoffs,
or (HEAVEN FORBID!) 'terrorist' attacks.

When doing the math for population concentrations in this country vs.
resources and energy required, we have to consider that the vast
majority of our world will not survive the next few decades. The only
universal commodity which could possibly influence politics is food,
which requires workers to produce, but a large part of that is
produced by the oligarchic planned system of corporatized farms and
farmers who have 'succeeded' in the competitive environment of
centralized processing and price manipulation.It is not to their
self-interest to strike, any more than it is for a CEO to go on
strike. The "CEO" farmer's 'employees' are now animals and machines.

Local food movements are a 'subsistence' movement, capable of
supporting a subsistence society. Our current society is a
'waste/consumption' machine, developed around the high volume movement
of resources flowing from harvest/mining through 'processes' to
landfills. The populations of this society will not have any place in
a subsistence world which is the inevitable future caused by scarcity.

What are people FOR?

Dan
auntiegrav.blogspot.com

--- In peaklabor@yahoogroups.com, Unca Ray <UncaRay@a...> wrote:

> Pardon me, but it seems naive to me to just stand
> up and shout out your strategy and expect people
> to all "Get it" at the same time. No matter how
> obvious the need. Lenin's cry, "All power to the
> Soviets!" worked because the Soviets were already
> a vital and growing mass movement.
>
> It was different in his time as well. A general
> strike could work because the production of basic
> necessities like food and electricity were not
> firmly under the control of the oligarchy, as they
> are today. Peasants grew their own produce and
> livestock. Today's markets have no more than 2
> days supply, if the trucks stop for any reason
> people will be hungry in a week.
>
>
> I can't imagine any general strike working when
> the oligarchy has the power to shut off the flow
> of food and power to our communities at any time.
> (Witness New Orleans where vital supplies were
> turned away) Plus that flow is already in danger
> from natural disaster and energy shortages.
>
> If we all adamantly refuse to "shop", and grow our
> own or give the money we spend on produce to
> neighbors who want to grow we can regrow our food
> infrastructure, and when the general strike comes,
> we can be confident that we will be able to feed
> our families.
>
> It will take time, which is why we must all begin
> now.
>
> How big is YOUR garden?
>
> UncaRay
> smokytopia.com

From the IWW site;

"Pfeiffer is not been given sanction to speak on
the IWW's behalf.  Until such time as the IWW
takes an official stance on the issue of "Peak
Oil", and unless the IWW takes a position that
matches Pfeiffer's, his statement that goals of
the "Peak Oil" (movement) and the IWW
(organization) "agree perfectly" is at best
premature and at worst dishonest."

It doesn't look like the IWW is quite ready to
jump and run at this time.

Sorry Dale, but I've clothes lined by my own team
enough times to recognize that they resent being
prodded into ANYTHING, even a winning strategy.

But all is not lost. There is a growing movement
within the IWW to take the lead in the Peak Oil
crisis. That can be aided by us joining their
ranks and supporting those who champion our view.

Pardon me, but it seems naive to me to just stand
up and shout out your strategy and expect people
to all "Get it" at the same time. No matter how
obvious the need. Lenin's cry, "All power to the
Soviets!" worked because the Soviets were already
a vital and growing mass movement.

It was different in his time as well. A general
strike could work because the production of basic
necessities like food and electricity were not
firmly under the control of the oligarchy, as they
are today. Peasants grew their own produce and
livestock. Today's markets have no more than 2
days supply, if the trucks stop for any reason
people will be hungry in a week.

The implications of Peak Oil, and Global Warming,
and species extinction, and the dying oceans is
clear.

The most wasteful part of the world population
(Mostly Americans) must voluntarily reduce their
consumption of petrochemicals across the board.

There are already dozens of such movements
springing up around the world and the United
States. They are completely invisible to the
established press because to even report their
existence is to challenge the corporate world
view.

They call themselves "Local Food", or "Voluntary
Simplicity", or "Sustainable Agriculture," but
what they are really about is seizing back control
of our own lives by no longer feeding the beast.

I can't imagine any general strike working when
the oligarchy has the power to shut off the flow
of food and power to our communities at any time.
(Witness New Orleans where vital supplies were
turned away) Plus that flow is already in danger
from natural disaster and energy shortages.

If we all adamantly refuse to "shop", and grow our
own or give the money we spend on produce to
neighbors who want to grow we can regrow our food
infrastructure, and when the general strike comes,
we can be confident that we will be able to feed
our families.

It will take time, which is why we must all begin
now.

How big is YOUR garden?

UncaRay
smokytopia.com

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


intexile@... <intexile@...> rose in the dock,
chains clanging, and declared:

> >My quibbles are minor: Where do I sign up?
> >I was ready Yesterday.
> >
> >- -- grok.
>
> Y'all can sign up here:  http://www.iww.org/en/join
>
> However, please read this:  http://www.iww.org/en/node/1347

Uh, I meant sign up for the General Strike/Revolution.

As a marxist, I don't ascribe completely to the Wobbly
worldview -- but that means we just work together in a
United Front. And hopefully compete for influence in
future councils of workers' power.
;>


- -- grok.


- --
*** FULL-SPECTRUM DOMINANCE! ***************************************
*      NO ONE LEFT BEHIND: Free all U.S. political prisoners!      *
*      Question authority -- before authority questions you!       *
********************************************************************
* http://www.mohamedcherfi.org                      Mohamed Cherfi *
* http://www.geocities.com/libertadparapacho2003       Pacho Cortes*
* http://www.caedefensefund.org                  CAE / Steve Kurtz *
* http://www.nlg.org                        National Lawyers Guild *
* http://www.ccr-ny.org           Center For Constitutional Rights *
* sjfriendsofMOVE@...                    Friends of MOVE 9 *
* http://www.shac7.com                           Friends of SHAC 7 *
**************  THE WAR ON DRUGS:  WAR ON THE PEOPLE  **************
GPG fingerprint = 2830 CEE8 4B63 72A0 F86E  622D 6245 9357 A705 91FA
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFDJGwYYkWTV6cFkfoRAjMVAKCzuqXLhjXVO+ZYAimPUIgJMicxrwCeO9Ja
sXhhydkvFg5hsopVOwLX/wk=
=3FBa
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


Remember: Class trumps race. Every time. And for very good
objective reasons. Which is not in the least ignoring that
the capitalist-class uses race to divide the working-class.
And identity politix is indeed poison. Just look at the WBAI
fiasco...

What I want to know is: how do we go about organizing to
meet our class enemy on the field of battle it is preparing?

So far there has been a mix of tactical and strategic
discussion here, which is good; but I think things have already
bogged down in the details a bit. However, the dialectic
of discussion practically requires that these things
happen...
;>

So, developing a proper sense of proportion here wouldn't be
a bad idea at all. i.e.: how much must we be stuck to the
tar-baby of race -- since the primary issue is one of
class-war?


- -- grok.

- --
** FULL-SPECTRUM DOMINANCE! ****************************************
*    BOYCOTT BOURGEOIS            *       Get your news & analysis *
*          MASS-MEDIA:            *       from the Best on the Web *
****  Critical endorsement only **** Most sites need donations  ****
* http://www.venezuelanalysis.com             Venezuelanalysis.com *
* http://electronicintifada.net                Electronic Intifada *
* http://www.motherjones.com                 Mother Jones magazine *
* http://www.utne.com                                  Utne Reader *
* http://www.truthout.org                             Truthout.org *
* http://www.bilderberg.org                       Bilderberg Watch *
* http://www.thenation.com                     The Nation magazine *
************  Weak governments take strong measures  ***************
GPG fingerprint = 2830 CEE8 4B63 72A0 F86E  622D 6245 9357 A705 91FA
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFDI6cEYkWTV6cFkfoRAiTbAKCMx8zc5/aA1t9vz0RzpxoZ8P5SOACeOv+f
76u+1Pa37RirRF+qjbhLHZw=
=eC2C
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--- In peaklabor@yahoogroups.com, aelewis@p... wrote:
>
> > Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 14:14:56 -0700
> > From: Francisco González <franjagonzalez@g...>
> > Subject: Re: Re: Dr. Virginia D. Abernethy and CCC
>
> > I used to believe, in my innocence, that racism in the US (by
> > which I *always* mean racism of whites against other groups --
> > the alleged reverse kinds of racism being nothing but putrid
> > red herrings)
>
> Close, but not quite. See stuff by Wilcox, below.
>
>Indeed, there is an anti-racist industry entrenched in the United
>States that has attracted bullying, moralizing fanatics, whose
>identity and livelihood depend upon growth and expansion of their
>particular kind of victimization. In certain respects the
>anti-racist movement has become a massive extortion racket, as
>lawyers have used every nuance of civil rights and equal
>opportunity laws to extract massive judgments for objectively
>lesser offenses, and anti-racist street fanatics have attacked and
>vilified individuals for their values, opinions and beliefs. This
>is not what the civil rights movement was originally about.
> Wilcox


Ah yes, the "Cause Caucasian Coalition".

One question, which you can find the answer to at www.dieoff.org under
Schroedinger (yes, the guy with the cat):

"What Are People For?"

(It is also the title of a book by Wendell Berry)

Talk about racism, leadership, basic future needs, etc., all depend on
how we each answer this question. With a little leadership and
education, we might come to a derived answer which everyone can agree
upon. Part of the problem is to also determine this question, "What
Are People?"

If you cannot mentally step outside of the historic (hysteric) human
condition to answer this question, you will never be able to explain
where we need to go. Racism/anti-racism is just a symptom of the
larger problem, which is that humanity doesn't know what Nature thinks
it is, and therefore, individuals cannot stop fighting over 'other
people's' differences. If we can't find an undisputed commonality
which gives us purpose in our universe, then any shyster and marketing
guru (profit or 'non'-profit) will continue to create reasons for us
to fight over the images they sell us.

Finding a common human identity (planetary) will take a long time. We
don't have a long time. The best I'm hoping for is to make connections
with the neighbors I have (of several races)to create a pocket with
the answer, so that we can work as a community to defend and support
each other, and hopefully, survive to continue the human race.

We will either be better neighbors, or better shots. Both are useful
skills as things fall apart.

Dan

GDoutch spotted this on the Guardian Unlimited site and thought you should see
it.

To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site, go to
http://www.guardian.co.uk

Oil prices rise again after US warning
Mark Tran
Friday September 09 2005
The Guardian


Oil prices rose for the second day running today after the US department of
energy said fuel costs in America over the coming winter would be the highest in
a decade.

Crude oil prices jumped above $65 a barrel following the warning. The department
forecast that this winter petrol would cost 34% more than a year ago. It added
that natural gas would be 52% more expensive and electricity would cost US
consumers 11% more than in 2004.

The higher costs are expected to result in a 24% annual rise in total energy
spending in the US, accounting for about 8.7% of GDP.

Five US refineries in the Gulf coast area producing a total of 1.1 million
barrels a day, or 5% of the US total, remain closed after the devastation of
Hurricane Katrina. The US energy secretary, Sam Bodman, said they would be out
of action for months.

Meanwhile, EU finance ministers are preparing to meet in Manchester to discuss
the economic consequences of higher oil prices amid fears that the eurozone's
tentative economic recovery could be affected.

The EU will outline its strategy for saving power in Europe, possibly by using
more renewable energy sources. Similar discussion were taking place in South
Korea at a meeting of finance ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (Apec) countries, which include the US, Japan, Canada and China.

Oil prices were already soaring before the shock from Katrina. High demand from
China and the US have pushed prices 50% higher so far this year. Katrina has not
only hit production of crude oil, but refining capacity as well.

In the UK, petrol price protestors have threatened renewed blockades at
refineries unless the government cuts duty and taxes on fuel.

Five years ago, blockades lasting a week caused shortages and panic buying. With
the effects of Katrina pushing up prices, a group called Fuel Lobby is
threatening to start blockades next Wednesday.

They want a reduction in the taxes which account for two thirds of the cost of
petrol. In some parts of Britain unleaded petrol has reached £1 a litre -
an increase of 87% in the last 10 years.

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited

> Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 14:14:56 -0700
> From: Francisco González <franjagonzalez@...>
> Subject: Re: Re: Dr. Virginia D. Abernethy and CCC

> I used to believe, in my innocence, that racism in the US (by
> which I *always* mean racism of whites against other groups --
> the alleged reverse kinds of racism being nothing but putrid
> red herrings)

Close, but not quite. See stuff by Wilcox, below.

> had been reduced to irrelevant levels in
> folkloric organizations wearing white hoods and dancing around
> burning crosses. I have now become convinced that very little
> in the *idea* that most whites have of blacks seems to have
> changed since the days of segregation, or even since the times
> of slavery.

Don't be convinced too quickly. That's true of SOME, without
doubt. And that crowd is, I admit, scary as hell. But I doubt
that they are in the majority. They may be a rather small
minority. I don't know. Hard to say.

>  How an act of criminal neglect regarding both the evacuation
> before the storm hit, and then the basic needs of those
> corralled into a stadium, without supplies of any kind being
> brought in for days, as if they were in some remote
> inaccessible corner of the underworld, instead of bing in the
> world's wealthiest country -- how all this is turned around so
> that the whole disgraceful thing is blamed on the victims, on
> the presumed *inherent* ineptness and irrationality of black
> people, is quite astonishing. And yet it is accomplished
> countless times every day, as if by pure magic. Short of
> blaming them directly for the path and the force of the storm,
> I've heard about everything. And I would not be surprised if
> religious preachers began suggesting that this is simply a
> case of God directing his wrath at those who deserved it most
> for the unredeemable darkness of their souls. That's what you
> see clearly in the quotes from "Altura," presented by Alan
> Lewis in a recent post
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/energyresources/message/80946
>
> And that's what transpires from the news selected over and
> over by racist maggots about the *fear* of poor white
> tourists, and the "heroes" that saved them from being eaten
> alive by the black hordes. A representative quote from the
> post titled "Australians escaped superdome . . . terrible "
> reads as follows: "Ninety-eight per cent of the people around
> the world are good. In that place, 98 per cent of the people
> were bad."
>
> Which pretty much tells it all. They were bad by nature. Once
> you assimilate this, you can understand the statements made by
> this Altura eminence (in the above mentioned post by Alan
> Lewis) to the effect that "bad" blacks need to be "cordoned,"
> and the ensuing "I don't care" anaphoric intonations. Well,
> the ones in the Superdome were indeed cordoned, surrounded by
> guards with machine guns. Obviously this was never a place
> intended for white tourists to end up, hence the outrage at
> the terrifying "fears" experience by white people's ultimate
> nightmare.
>
> And of course blacks *are* pretty much cordoned off in this
> society. Take a look at the mind boggling prison statistics.
> The fact that blacks constitute an overwhelmingly
> disproportionate percentage of the prison population is
> sometimes offered as a perfectly satisfactory explanation of
> the fact that the rate of imprisonment for the *general
> population* in the US is about 7 times higher than the rest of
> the western world. The reasoning being that if you discount
> blacks and other minorities, rates of imprisonment would still
> be the highest, but not by so much. It is worth mentioning
> that the current rate of imprisonment among the US *general*
> population is higher than the rate of imprisonment of
> *blacks* in South Africa at the peak of apartheid. If you consider
> the current incarceration rates of blacks alone in the US, and the
> fact that a black male has a 33% chance of doing time in prison,
> you have to conclude this country is a racial penal colony, and
> that nothing remotely similar to it exists anywhere else on earth.
> For people like Altura, it is not enough. Too many of them remain
> unlocked. They all need to be "cordoned" somehow.
>
> And in the middle of all this we have to deal with the
> persistent, monumental, mealy-mouthed bullshit of people
> trying to convince us that that there is nothing especially
> abominable or different about modern white racism, as Alypius
> and Richard and Virginia keep saying; that "the hatred is the
> same on both sides" (as Ron Patterson spouts from his purple
> pulpit) with the preposterous implication that blacks exercise
> comparable levels of oppression over whites! You need to
> possess an unlimited supply of blind hypocrisy, a kind of
> hypertrophied special gland for the massive secretion of
> drivel, to believe any of that in view of the evidence. And
> yet bringing attention to the obvious, outrageously unfair
> disparities, and to the fact that they are clearly based on
> the initial condition of blacks as *serfs* of whites (with all
> that it implies), a condition that has by no means
> disappeared, without piously acknowledging that "the other
> side" is "just the same," is referred to by the likes of
> Patterson as "political correctness," a fix-all phrase that
> demagogues bring up by reptilian reflex, to suggest
> "scientific" incorrectness, in the same manner as
> neo-darwinian fundamentalists bring up the word "creationism"
> to counter any criticism from the outset.

Dear Francisco:

How true, how true, how true. (And, as usual, well said.)

Any yet, and yet, and yet.

It would be so wonderful if this were a white hat versus black hat
thing -- all of us good anti-racists hating the thoroughly-
detestable racist maggots. But it isn't.

----------------------

FIRST PROBLEM:

The embrace of anti-racism as a primary political goal, and
the promulgation of superficially anti-racist policy, was
responsible, roughly speaking, for the destruction of the
Democratic Party and the left in general as vehicles for broad
class-based reform; see the "PS" in this message:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EnergyResources/message/81078
[And indeed see the Edsall's book, generally]

The left's fixation on race, or "blood", (along with sex:
feminism and anti-heterosexism), has had disastrous
consequences, cogently described in this dated but still
excellent article which, Francisco, should be STUDIED:

http://www.drsusanblock.com/blood.htm
Images of Blood: Ethnic Identity and the Destruction of the
Left in Europe and America, 1972-1992
Arthur H. Williamson, PH.D.
SNIPPET:
"To identify the underprivileged on the basis of any kind of
blood imagery is at once reactionary and disastrously
divisive. It cannot lead to sustained reform. It cannot lead
to serious change. It can only lead to catastrophe. It
shatters class solidarity (per the Marxist). It promotes
partial interests at the expense of the public interest (per
the liberal). Most of all it fractures almost any sense of
community, however imagined. There must be minimum standards
for all the members of this society: a minimum standard of
education and opportunity for all our people. We must insist
upon universal right, not the cheap option of special
preferences, of particularist privilege, of self-indulgent
sensitivities. The "culture of dependence" derives not from
the Welfare State. Irremediable dependence derives directly
and inescapably from our crippling obsessions, from social
definitions founded on blood. It is time and past time that we
build again. It is time and past time that we have done with
the burden of blood." [end quote]

More along the same lines: see this book review:

http://www.umich.edu/~mjps/22/bookreview.html
Michigan Journal of Political Science Book Reviews
Left For Dead
Michael Tomasky
The Free Press: New York 1996, 226 pages.
SNIPPET:
"Tomasky establishes [that]... the left is inherently
reactionary, in that 'solidarity based on race or ethnicity or
any other such category always produces war, factionalism,
fundamentalism' .... Tomasky's most interesting (and probably
most accurate) indictment of the left involves its utilization
of what he refers to as identity politics. Tomasky defines
identity politics as 'politics based on personal identity, as
opposed to doctrine or philosophical worldview'.... Tomasky
posits that while the original intent of the left was to bring
about radical change in favor of labor and other universal
political and socioeconomic causes, the current left is made
up of groups of people who base their politics more on
personal identity such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender,
sexual preference, etc. Tomasky rightly assesses that such
politics, which illustrate only differences among people, can
do nothing but alienate those who wish to be part of the
movement, but who, through no fault of their own, lack a
superficial prerequisite to membership." [end quote]

Still more along the same lines:

http://mtprof.msun.edu/Win1996/HgonRev.html
The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America Is Wracked by Culture
Wars, by Todd Gitlin
New York: Metropolitan Books, 1995
SNIPPET:
"The central problem facing America today, Gitlin contends,
isn't race, gender, or sexual orientation (relevant as all
those issues are), but class. The grimmest feature of
contemporary American life, he maintains, is our nation's gap
between rich and poor, rapidly widening into an abyss as a
result of current Republican economic policies... Yet, while
economic injustice blights the land, the academic left
obsesses over multicultural dogma. The solution, Gitlin
concludes, is a revival of the old-fashioned, now discredited
universalism that has driven liberalism since the days of
Voltaire and Tom Paine, through an alliance of all those
'have-nots' currently being crushed by the 'Republican
Revolution.' .... Why, Gitlin asks, were community leaders
wasting time and energy on [a] pointless witch hunt, while
ignoring a genuine, indeed appalling threat to Oakland's
schools: namely, the state and federal budget cuts that have
gutted funding for public education? Because, he replies,
having lost a belief in the possibility of sweeping social
change that inspired earlier generations of left-wing
activists, the agitators in Oakland had opted, instead, for
the gratification provided by fighting battles they felt
confident of winning, however purely symbolic the victory. For
Gitlin, the Oakland dispute encapsulates all that's wrong with
'identity politics' and 'multiculturalism'--that is, the way
these ideologies have splintered the left into insulated,
squabbling, self-marginalized ghettos. As Gitlin sums it up in
a memorable chapter, liberals have been busy 'Marching on the
English Department While the Right Took the White House.'"
[end quote]

Does any of this mean that PRO-racism would be better? No, of
course not. What it means is that this problem is more complex
and difficult than a simple division between "pro" and "anti".
What it means is that the piss-poor handling of the race
problem BY THE LEFT has pretty much abolished -- as of this
moment -- any prospect for a broad coalition against
corporatism, capitalistic excess, empire, imperialism,
neoconservatism, ETCETERA. Our last chance for energy/resource
sanity sufficient to avert disaster (if not catastrophe) went
down the drain in 1980, with the election of Reagan -- and
that piss-poor handling of the race problem had EVERYTHING to
do with it. Get the picture, Francisco? This is big. Very big.
You might even say (stretching things a bit) that the
possibility of averting dieoff may have been sacrificed on the
alter of a feel-good liberal-establishment "anti-racism".
Though of course that remains to be seen.

----------------------

SECOND PROBLEM:

There also exist specific anti-racist maggots of a sort. I
mentioned "self-appointed anti-racist 'watchdogs' like the
PRA, SPLC and ADL" -- a bunch of left-wing fascists -- here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EnergyResources/message/80231
[please read this message carefully, go to the links
suggested, and think it over]

That guy who showed up on ER a couple weeks ago with an agenda
of character assassination and insult-yelling -- Matt -- would
be an example of the genre. He might even be on the payroll of
one of these maggoty orgs, for all I know. God knows they've
got plenty of money, as you will see.

The anti-racist maggots ("watchdogs") are one aspect of the
broad left gatekeeper establishment (leftgatekeepers.com; see,
again, ER #80231). Their political role is to support the
corporate "left" and to keep all left-leaning people in The
Matrix, reactively voting for Democrats (or rather voting
AGAINST Republicans; who votes FOR anyone anymore?), even
though the Democrats are hopelessly corrupt and in many
respects worse than the Republicans. At any rate, the
gatekeepers and the corporate "left" are a vital part of the
establishment's defence against that "broad coalition against
corporatism, capitalistic excess, empire, imperialism,
neoconservatism, ETCETERA." The more they can keep the focus
on identity-politics "issues" like racism and anti-semitism,
the less possibility there is of development of broad
resistance.

Returning to the "specific anti-racist maggots": In message
80231 I mentioned Laird Wilcox' excellent report "The
Watchdogs: A Close Look at Anti-Racist 'Watchdog' Groups".
I reproduce the Foreward, below.

A snippet from the Foreward: "[T]here is an anti-racist
industry entrenched in the United States that has attracted
bullying, moralizing fanatics, whose identity and livelihood
depend upon growth and expansion of their particular kind of
victimization. In certain respects the anti-racist movement
has become a massive extortion racket, as lawyers have used
every nuance of civil rights and equal opportunity laws to
extract massive judgments for objectively lesser offenses, and
anti-racist street fanatics have attacked and vilified
individuals for their values, opinions and beliefs. This is
not what the civil rights movement was originally about." No,
it sure isn't!

Read what Wilcox has to say. Remember that Wilcox is no
right-wing crank. He is actually a left-leaning guy who
specializes in researching political EXTREMES -- both left and
right. Go to lairdwilcox.com for details.

PLEASE NOTE: What Wilcox has to say will, no doubt, be used by
racist maggots as "proof" that "reverse racism" is a force as
big and fearsome as racism ever was -- ridiculous though that
is. It can't be helped. Maggots will believe what they are
going to believe, regardless of the evidence. The problem, you
see, is not racism or anti-racism, it is maggotivity, so to
say -- the quality or state of being maggot-like. Haha. What
we're really talking about is reptilian reaction, as per Paul
MacLean's Triune Brain thesis (a topic for another day, but
google for the words if it interests you). Both sides of the
current debate (and most debates) display reptilian reaction.

PLEASE NOTE: I am not calling any individual in this
discussion a maggot. It's an if-the-shoe-fits kind of deal.
Besides, maggotivity always waxes and wanes; seldom is it
fixed. And, for the record, I've spent a good deal of time
being a maggot, myself.  ;-)

----------------------

SO, that, in a nutshell, is why hating the racist maggots, *a
la carte*, will not do. Something deeper is called for. IMO, a
deep critique and renunciation of capitalism and empire, and
an envisioning of real alternatives (not corporate
alternatives), is called for. There should be room in said
critique for racial and ethnic separation, a la Peter Lamborn
Wilson's "cross-culturalism", here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EnergyResources/message/81063
In other words, the critique must not be a conventional left
one, mired in the identity politics that have destroyed the
left side of populism. The critique must truly transcend left
and right, if there is to be any hope.

Alan se mi

----------------------

Here goes:

THE WATCHDOGS

A CLOSE LOOK AT ANTI-RACIST "WATCHDOG" GROUPS

Second Edition

Part 1

By Laird Wilcox

Copyright 1998, 1999 by Laird Wilcox
All Rights Reserved
ISBN 0-993592-96-5
Editorial Research Service
PO Box 2047
Olathe, KS 66051
==============
Phone/FAX: (913) 829-0609
Email: lwilcox3@...
Web Page: lairdwilcox.com

FOREWORD

Any criticism of so-called anti-racist "Watchdog"1 organizations
and activists is not without its perils. In the "either/or" and
"good guys versus bad guys" mentality that characterizes the moral
absolutism of the anti-racist milieu it's easy to be
misunderstood. Most people, unaware of the ideological roots of
many anti-racist activists or their general disdain for the civil
liberties of their critics, regard them as reasonable response to
legitimate grievances - which in certain cases they may be.

Watchdog groups do some laudable things, particularly in the area
of promoting bona fide inter-group harmony. We all have to get
along together, regardless of race, religion or anything else.
Unjustified hatred based on racial, ethnic, religious or other
differences is demeaning to both the perpetrator and the subject.
It places burdens on our ability to govern ourselves, to remain a
free people, and to provide the stability and civil liberties of a
genuinely democratic republic.

To the extent that Watchdog groups help that, they are a valuable
and important part of our society. This report is not a criticism
of genuine efforts to improve relationships between people.

"Anti-racism" as used here generally refers to the complex network
of assumptions, prejudices, modus operandi, rhetorical style and
ideological biases that tends to characterize the militant
anti-racist movement, including the Watchdog organizations
mentioned. It does not refer to the practice of or belief in
opposing genuine racism per se, which I applaud.

Like most liberals of my era, I have always had a strong sympathy
for the underdog. I first joined the NAACP when I was 17, in
Baltimore, MD. At the University of Kansas I was active in the
Civil Rights Council, an official student organization, and served
a term as vice-chair of the Lawrence, KS, chapter of the Congress
of Racial Equality (CORE). I marched in the picket lines during
the early civil rights movement and was on the board of the local
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) chapter. I have remained an
ACLU member for almost 40 years. I am a member of Amnesty
International and work with them against capital punishment, which
I oppose. I come from a large multicultural family and we make no
distinctions with respect to race, ethnicity or religion.

What I objected to about racism was the treatment of individual
members of a class (in this case racial minorities) as if they
were responsible for all other members of that class, that because
they were alike in some respects they were alike in all respects,
and that race or ethnic identity was a basis for the granting or
denying of rights and privileges. For me the central issue in the
civil rights movement was freedom - freedom in the sense of
non-constraint, of having choices, and of being able to speak
one's mind.

There is a humanist anti-racism that focuses on reconciliation and
healing, that works to bring people together, that functions
openly and honestly....this I support and always have.

What I did not realize at that time was the peculiar attraction of
"anti-racism" as an ideology that could be adapted to explain all
things and justify almost any course of action. 1 The term
"Watchdog" as used herein refers to private agenda-driven
organizations who, as a primary function, watch, observe, surveil,
spy upon or "stalk" a particular class of individuals and/or
organizations for the purpose of gathering intelligence and
reporting upon their values, opinions, beliefs or actions with
reference to a particular issue for the purpose of exposing,
defaming, degrading or otherwise impeding the furtherance of their
objectives. This does not include bona fide journalistic reporting
for the purpose of disinterested news coverage.

Simply said, there are careers, status, jobs, and influence to be
had as long as racism exists. There is also the peculiar utility
of anti-racism to function as a carrier for extreme ideologies,
which without such cover would be instantly exposed. As specific
problems are solved new problems are defined and created to keep
the movement alive.

Indeed, there is an anti-racist industry entrenched in the United
States that has attracted bullying, moralizing fanatics, whose
identity and livelihood depend upon growth and expansion of their
particular kind of victimization. In certain respects the
anti-racist movement has become a massive extortion racket, as
lawyers have used every nuance of civil rights and equal
opportunity laws to extract massive judgments for objectively
lesser offenses, and anti-racist street fanatics have attacked and
vilified individuals for their values, opinions and beliefs. This
is not what the civil rights movement was originally about.

The simple fact is there are money and careers to be made. The
classic case of this is Morris Dees' Southern Poverty Law Center,
which now (1998) has reserves approaching 100 million dollars
acquired from donors. Even smaller anti-racist groups often find
themselves awash in donations, government and private grants. In
June 1998, for example, Leonard Zeskind, President of his
self-created "Institute for Research and Education on Human
Rights" was the recipient of a $295,000 award from the
Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation 2

Anti-racism can be molded and shaped to serve other interests.
Activists with a hidden radical agenda find anti-racist
organizations very amenable to manipulation. Almost no one buys
into traditional class struggle Marxism anymore. Democratic
capitalism has produced the highest standard of living and most
individual freedom the world has ever seen. In rational terms,
class struggle Marxism is a hard sell. However, when it's reframed
as anti-racism and anti-fascism, much of the onus is gone.

There is a humanist anti-racism that focuses on reconciliation and
healing, that works to bring people together, that functions
openly and honestly without the use of dossiers, spies, specious
lawsuits, disinformation, and that recognizes the rights of
individuals whether they agree with one another or not. This is
the anti-racism of good neighbors, of people helping people, of
community goodwill, and of the realization that we are all human
beings. This I support and always have.

On the other hand there is a vindictive and corrupt anti-racism
that focuses on paybacks and punishment, that demonizes and
degrades its critics, that attempts to carve out special rights
for its constituency, that opposes free and open discussion of
ideas, that attempts to silence, censor and stifle its opposition
through intimidation and harassment, and encourages law
enforcement scrutiny of opponents because of their alleged values,
opinions and beliefs.

This kind of anti-racism is more dangerous than the problem it
purports to remedy, and this is the anti-racism that tends to
characterize the Watchdog organizations. This is doctrinal and
ideological anti-racism, a mindless fanaticism and extremism, more
akin to a cult than a brotherhood and sisterhood of people
accepting one another, freely and honestly, as the fallible
imperfect human beings that we all are.

Extremist behavior is characterized by a "style" that transcends
content. Even a good cause may be compromised by a shrill,
intolerant and vindictive advocacy. There is a great deal at stake
in how we handle society's rebels and discontents that bodes good
or ill depending on the way the issue is addressed. The old saying
about "burning down the barn to catch the rat" is very appropriate
to this issue. Unless even the most unpopular and outcast members
of society, including those who dissent on racial, ethnic,
religious or historical issues, receive the same protections and
consideration as the rest of us, we are all in serious trouble.

2 "29 Are Chosen For The MacArthur Foundation's Fellowships," New
York Times (2 June 1998); John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation (www.macfdn.org), Chicago, IL. 1998.

Organizing for or against specific causes is an American
tradition, and the right to organize, agitate, and propagandize is
part of our constitutional heritage. Watchdog groups, of course,
should enjoy these protections, too. Virtually all political
organizations have some kind of "watchdog" function. The right of
Watchdog organizations to investigate, publish, make public policy
proposals, and so on is not an issue here. It would be nice if
they would recognize the same rights of their opponents and
critics. Rather, the issue is the abominable record of these
organizations with respect to individual rights and civil
liberties, their misrepresentations and lies, their exploitation
of normal human sympathy for the underdog, their flagrant double
standards, their hidden agendas, their unprincipled methods, and
their unconscionable use of law enforcement to advance their own
ends. These are serious issues that need careful examination.

A couple of points need to be made here. My criticisms of the
Anti-Defamation League have nothing to do with the fact that it is
a Jewish organization. The ADL behavior that I document in this
report would be equally susceptible to criticism if they were
Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or any other religion or, for that
matter, if they were not identified by religion. Throughout this
report it is behaviors and not ethnic, racial, or religious
identity that I am addressing. In point of fact, many of the
greatest civil libertarians have been Jewish, including a number
of my personal heroes.

This report on the "dark side" of the Watchdog organizations is
intended to focus on these abuses and to make a case for
correction. It is also a plea for journalists to take their
self-imposed blinders off and give these organizations the same
scrutiny they would from any other agenda-driven special interest
group.

Laird Wilcox

_____________________________________________________________________

> Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2005 23:04:03 -0000
> From: "pinlighter" <pinlighter@...>
> Subject: Re: Racial Reality And The New Orleans Nightmare
>
> It is impolite of me to bring up race.
>
> Race isn't mentioned in polite society.  If someone does
> mention it, polite people have a licence to be impolite - this
> is how social norms are enforced, after all.  And indeed you
> with your brothels and Crowell with his arses are attempting
> to impose that social rule.

Yes, this is part of the problem. "Race isn't mentioned in
polite society". But "polite society" is about to become
IMpolite society. Get ready.

> Race isn't directly relevant to Peak Oil.
> So why is it being so freely discussed here??
> I suggest the answer is that you instinctively know race is
> going to be very relevant to life after Peak Oil, and that you
> instinctively know that the first thing that will happen in
> the US when people really get hungry will be a fracture along
> racial lines.
> The only thing that stops multitracial societies breaking into
> war is enormous wealth and the tolerance that brings.  Remove
> that wealth the fiction that race does not count will be
> abandoned.

Thank you.

Why not discuss it now, however unpleasant -- before the
shooting starts?

----------------------

> Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2005 18:47:16 -0000
> From: "Eric Thurston" <enthurston@...>
> Subject: More important issues (was Re: Race)
>
> It seems obvious that a debate on race will go nowhere and
> convince  nobody to move from their positions. Like Peter Hill
> says, 'taxanomic funk.'

Go nowhere? Where do you want it to go?

"Convincing people to move from their positions" cannot possibly
happen before views are aired. Airing of views is of course no
guarantee of anything, but at least it is a start.

> Since we slid into the race issue from the immigration issue,
> I  could compile a rough list of issues I consider more
> important than  immigration. I do consider immigration an
> issue worthy of attention,  but it is not at the top of my
> list by any means.
>
> Not necessarily in order of importance and merely the short list:
>
>    Anthropogenic Global Warming
>    End of Fossil Fuels
>    Overpopulation
>    Corporatism
>    Loss of Civil Liberties in the USA and Continuing slide toward
>    authoritarian government
>    Health care and education in crisis (because of right-wing politics)

Each of those are important. And each will devolve, in
practice, to the level of class and (finally) race. Class and
race will be the actual battlefields on which each of those
things (or the key sequelae of each of those things) will be
resolved in the real world.

We could place a *cordon sanitaire* around the ER group, and
discuss all things fine and intellectual and pristine, without
ever dipping into the muck of those battlefields. That's one
option.

> We are in dire need of leaders who foster a spirit of cooperation
> and egalitarianism in the country and the politics expressed in
> documents such as referenced in msg #80816 are the antithesis of
> this, as is the current US administration.

Yes, we are in dire need of such leaders -- and in still more
dire need of undertaking a candid public conversation that
might result in the emergence of said leaders. (Or, failing that,
show us why we do not deserve such leaders.)

----------------------

> Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 13:00:55 -0600
> From: "L. B. Crowell" <lcrowell@...>
> Subject: Re: Re: Dr. Virginia D. Abernethy and CCC
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Abernethy, Virginia Deane <virginia.abernethy@...>
> To: <energyresources@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 9:23 AM
> Subject: RE: [energyresources] Re: Dr. Virginia D. Abernethy and CCC
>
> I must say I find some of what is being said on this forum
> rather embarrassing.

Me, too. That's part of the process. You WILL be embarassed
by the views of many of your fellow citizens. Bank on it.

> It is dissillusioning to see that these
> attitudes appear to be so pervasive.

Disillusioning, shocking, and mind-blowing. Reality sandwich
with double mayo, on burnt toast.

>  This sort of nonsense
> appears within the context of this forum to be a load of
> ideological horse billiards meant to justify future
> neo-segregationist policies to keep the energy flow going to
> the "right people."

That's part of it, but not all of it.

> I really don't like politicians much, but I really dispise
> Republican politicians.  To my mind the ultimate form of a
> human waste case is someone who spends their time concocting
> racial stereotypes.  Don't you people have anything else
> better to do?

Racial stereotype concoction is the ugly flipside of racial
archetype concoction. Good impulse; terrible execution.

----------------------

> Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 13:23:14 -0600
> From: "L. B. Crowell" <lcrowell@...>
> Subject: Re: immigration deepens U.S. poverty
>
> > http://vdare.com/rubenstein/050901_nd.htm
>
> I checked out this website.  My general assessment is that
> these people suffer from an array of personality disorders,
> I'd say mostly of a paranoid nature (It's them who are gonna
> get us!) or a psychopathic nature.  If these people were
> around in Germany in the 1930s they would have worn swastikas.
>
> Come on!  This is the same old lie that has been told over and
> over again. This lie tells us that our problems are all due to
> the poor sot crossing the Rio Grande or cleaning toilets in
> corporate high rises, when in fact it is the wealthy ones in
> suits who inhabit those corporate suites during the day who
> are more likely the source of these problems.  The problem is
> that this lie works well, and the liars who tell this lie are
> crafty at getting it said and believed.

Yep. Class trumps race by far, but the "racialists" tend to be
defenders of class privelege. There are exceptions. See the
article I just cited from Peter Lamborn Wilson.

The racialists would be vastly more credible if they were to
combine their racial tendencies with a deep structural
critique: anti-capitalism, anti-empire.

Alan

_____________________________________________________________________

I suspect you are right about the neo-fascists coming out of the
woodwork, but don't forget that other definition of fascism, which is
"corporatism". When cheap labor was profitable to corporations, it was
to their benefit to encourage high population densities in cities and
strife among urban citizens. Now that labor has been replaced with
automation (a.k.a. 'oil'), the city itself becomes a net consumer of
resources. When resources become scarce enough that the need for
resources becomes more important than profits, the entire city will be
at risk, especially the poor. Statistically, this means a racial
divide, but I think we need to consider it as a labor issue vs.
fascism (corporatism).

As long as people in cities still have jobs, the city is a 'resource'
for corporations to sell products. When energy costs drive out the
jobs, there will be no intrinsic value to high populations in
countries with protected 'rights' of humans. Today's slaves are
chained via globalization agreements and the 'free' market, and those
chains are made with oil and advertising.

Dan C.

--- In peaklabor@yahoogroups.com, aelewis@p... wrote:
>
>
> FYI, here is a recent post touching on issues very relevant
> to this list (I think).
>
> Cheers!
>
> Alan
>
> It should be needless to say that for Americans in the 21st
> century this is unacceptable. It SHOULD be needless to say
> that, but judging by the way things are going, it isn't. I
> suspect that many if not most of the denizens of this board
> are not far at all from Sir Altura. As soon as things start
> falling apart, and as soon as (predictably) there are a few
> riots or looting incidents in the inner city, the neo-fascist
> Altura types will suddenly spring from out of the woodwork,
> *en masse*, clamoring for concentration camps for the poor.
> And of course there will be plenty of political demogogues
> eager to use that ambient hate and reaction as their
> stepping-stones to power. The whole thing is all too dismally
> predictable.
>
> Alan
>
> _____________________________________________________________________

pellarius@... wrote:
> Of course, there are many other factors in play in the real world.
> One of the most powerful is crime.  The pseudonymous and very
> politically incorrect statistician La Griffe du Lion shows how
> differences in crime rates result in the probability of criminal
> victimization of whites in working class neighborhoods increasing in
> proportion to the rise in the black share of the neighborhood's
> population until finally the probability of victimization approaches
> 100%:  http://www.lagriffedulion.f2s.com/hood.htm

Interesting. La Griffe du Lion sure makes a solid case. But he did
omit some empirical data, such as how the probability of criminal
victimization of blacks in some neighborhoods increases in
proportion to the rise in the white share of the neighborhood's
population -- even when that white share of the population is
still vanishingly-small. I refer (for one example) to the mass
murder of African blacks by the good King Leopold's troops, a
century ago. The range of deaths most often quoted is 4-8 million.
That's quite a few people, don't you think, Alypius? I wonder how
many American whites are killed by blacks each year -- perhaps
0.1% of that? I gather that in some areas, the probability of
black victimization by whites approached 100%! Can you believe it?

Further, the survivors were often mutilated, tortured, put to work
as slaves under impossible conditions; many died of hunger,
disease, etc. The savagery of that era was quite unbelievable.
This will give you an idea:

. [A] missionary, E J Glave, wrote in his diary that the natives
. must be treated "with the utmost severity... they cannot be
. handled by coaxing but must be ruled by force." In 1895, Glave
. returned to the Congo and came across scenes of revolting
. brutality. Here is an example: "The chicotte (whip) of raw hippo
. hide, trimmed like a corkscrew and with edges like knife blades is
. a terrible weapon. A few blows bring our blood. We persuade
. ourselves that an African's skin is very tough. At the first blow,
. the victim yells horribly; then quietens down into a groaning.
. After 25 or 30 blows, the victim loses his senses. This punishment
. is far worse when inflicted on women and children. Small boys of
. 10 or 12 working for hot tempered masters are often most harshly
. treated."
.
. In 1885, King Leopold II declared the Congo Free State (as large
. as the whole of Europe) to be his personal fiefdom and set about
. enriching himself and Belgium in earnest. In 1887, Scottish
. surgeon J B Dunlop used rubber for constructing inflatable tubes
. for bicycles and the demand for rubber grew sharply. The motor car
. was also becoming popular and Leopold sought to provide the rubber
. for the tyres. Leopold issued a decree in 1891 giving himself the
. monopoly on the trade in rubber and ivory. The same decree obliged
. natives to supply these products without payment. Those who
. refused or failed to supply enough had their villages burned down,
. their children murdered and their hands cut off, . [See photo of
. natives holding severed hands]

So, I wonder what La Griffe du Lion would have to say about all
this, Alypius. Do you think he would have a good hypothesis as to
why whites are so incredibly murderous, cruel, and criminal toward
blacks? Perhaps he would posit it to be genetic. Or maybe some
sort of collective predisposition that goes back to the dark,
tribal past of the whites.

I don't know. But I will tell you this: I am FED UP with all this
liberal-ass, PC whining and molly-coddling. I am tired of the
pointy-headed EXCUSES offered-up by egalitarian crypto-Marxists.
It's time to lock up this criminal element, and throw away the
keys! I say let's GET TOUGH with the murderous white middle class
and upper class! We just cannot tolerate this kind of rampant,
savage crime anymore!

Alan se mi

PS: Having thus got my licks in, it is worthy of mention that the
"victimization of whites in working class neighborhoods" IS a real
problem, and I don't belittle it. And by "victimization" I do not
mean only or principally crime. One great paradox was that this
problem was greatly exacerbated by, of all people, the *Democrats*.
This quotation explains:

.  "The costs and burdens of Democratic-endorsed policies seeking to
.  distribute economic and citizenship rights more equitably to
.  blacks and to other minorities fell primarily on working and
.  lower-middle-class whites who frequently competed with blacks for
.  jobs and status, who lived in neighborhoods adjoining black
.  ghettos, and whose children attended schools most likely to fall
.  under busing orders. The class-tilt of the costs of integration
.  and racial equality -- a disproportionate share of which was borne
.  by low and lower-middle-income whites -- turned the resentment of
.  those white working-class voters into a powerful mobilizing force.
.  That resentment was increasingly amplified and channeled  by the
.  Republican Party in the wake of the civil rights movement, not
.  just toward blacks, but toward Wallace's original target: the
.  affluent, largely white, universe of liberal "experts" who were
.  pressing the claims of blacks and other minorities -- experts
.  often sheltered, in their private lives, and largely immune to the
.  costs of implementing minority claims." -- Edsall and Edsall,
.  Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights and Taxes on American
.  Politics, 1992, pg 12  [whole book is well worthwhile]

..... hence we have (had) the massive shift to the right of the
white working class -- "Reagan Democrats" -- followed by the
destruction of the unions, the ascendence of the neocons, and
generally the (accelerated) march into the abyss.

_____________________________________________________________________

And a followup post:


Date: Wed, 07 Sep 2005 11:20:40 -0700
From: aelewis@...
To: foo@..., runningonempty2@yahoogroups.com
CC: energyresources@yahoogroups.com, alasbabylon@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Race, Class and the Unfolding Crisis

Thanks for your reply, Chris.

I should say that I have a fairly high tolerance for "soft"
racism, or some forms of the "tribalism" that you mention. I
really don't think there is anything wrong with people
segregating themselves along racial or ethnic lines IF THEY SO
CHOOSE. In fact, most humans tend to do just that. Most people
want to live with "people like me", and identity usually has
an element of race or ethnicity. That's not my concern. My
concern is with the ethnic-cleansing crowd -- that
bloodthirsty crowd that not only hates, but is actually
willing to put that hate into violent action. It is ugly as
sin. And I swear to God if it comes to it, I will take up arms
against them. The strange thing is that it is so unnecessary.
There would be no need to take up arms against them if they
could just leave well enough alone. They can be separatists,
they can even entertain their supremacist notions, etc., if
ONLY they would leave well enough alone.

I MIGHT HAVE liked "multiculturalism", had it not been co-opted
and turned into a corporate fake. An important read along these
lines is:
Multiculturalism and the Ruling Elite, By Daniel Brandt
http://radiobergen.org/powergame/multi-1.html
http://radiobergen.org/powergame/multi-2.html
[Brandt is a left activist and power elite researcher from
way way back]

Conventional left (and post-mod) anti-racism and multiculturalism
will not do. They impose on people, same as the old racism and
monoculturalism. (Actually, NOT the same; different, but
potentially equally as onerous.) What is needed is something new
-- a third way, an enlightened way that accounts for people's
natural segregatory tendencies, that preserves ethnic diversity
(which indeed would be threatened by the fake, corporate
melting-pot multiculturalism of the left), and that focusses on
REAL OUTRAGES (racial violence, oppression, etc.) rather than
trying to force everyone into a "designer multiculturalism" mold
(complements of Disney Studios, Inc.).

Another important read along these lines is by the sometimes
brilliant radical anarchist Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka "Hakim Bey"
- a pen-name). He sees ethnic particularism (ethnocentrism, or
what I called "soft racism") as potentially an important aspect of
resistance to capitalism and the corporate machine -- "The
Totality", as he says. He lambastes left/academic-post-mod
"multiculturalism", identifying it (correctly, I think) as a
corporate counterfeit, and speaks of a non-hegemonic (and indeed
anti-hegemonic) particularism as an aspect of resistance to the
machine, resistance to empire. Here's a couple tidbits:

.  http://www.hermetic.com/bey/pw-multicul.html
.
.  Against Multiculturalism
.
.  Let there be no mistake: multiculturalism is a strategy designed
.  to save "America" as an idea, and as a system of social control.
.  Each of the many cultures that make up the nation are now to be
.  allowed a little measure of self-identity and a few simulacra of
.  autonomy. School textbooks now reflect this strategy, with 1950s
.  illustrations of happy historical whites retouched to include a
.  few blacks, Asians and even Natives. A dozen or so departments of
.  multiculturalism spring up at university level. Each minority must
.  now be treated with "dignity" in the curriculum. Conservatives
.  raise a stink: the Canonical Shibboleths of Western Civilization
.  are in danger! Our children will be forced to study ... black
.  history! This babble on the Right lends multiculturalism an aura
.  of "radical" righteousness and political correctitude, and the
.  Left leaps forward to defend the new paradigm. In the middle --
.  according to theory -- balance will be restored, and the consensus
.  will function again. The trouble is that the theory itself
.  emanates neither from the Right nor Left nor Center. It emanates
.  from the top. It's a theory of control.
.
.  [.....]
.
.  Against this hegemonic particularism, we might propose a more
.  conscious and socially just form of anti-hegemonic particularism.
.  It's difficult to envision the precise shape such a force might
.  assume, but it grows easier to identify as it actually emerges. A
.  miraculous revival of Native-American culture steals the fire of
.  the Columbus celebrations in 1992, and sharpens the debate over
.  cultural appropriation. In Mexico the Zapatista uprising,
.  according to the New York Times, the first "post-modern
.  rebellion", constitutes the first armed action against the New
.  Globalism -- in the particularise but antihegemonic cause of the
.  Mayans and peasants of Chiapas. I regard this as a struggle for
.  "empirical freedoms" rather than "ideology." In a positive sense
.  one might say that all cultural and/or social forms of
.  particularism deserve support as long as they remain
.  anti-hegemonic, and precisely to the extent that they remain so.

Best to read the whole essay.

Aside from the ethnic-cleansing crowd, my concern is with the way
in which what I call HansoNihilism -- the idea, embraced by some
intellectuals, that vicious racism, classism, mass murder, etc.,
are BUILT-IN, UNALTERABLY, to who we are -- could synergize with
actual violent racist tendencies (which of course do exist, I
don't deny) to make for atrocities barely imaginable. When the
*intellectuals* start writing-off genocide as "in the genes"
(unavoidable), then one of the last bulwarks against unspeakable
atrocity will have been abolished. This is the world-destroying,
armageddon-hastening nihilism that Nietzsche predicted over a
century ago; it has now nearly overtaken us! This is something
that the HansoNihilists do not seem to appreciate. Or if they do
appreciate it, they ain't talking.

Thanks again for writing.

Alan se mi

> Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 22:52:45 -0700
> From: "Chris de Morsella" <cdemorsella@...>
> Subject: Re: Race, Class and the Unfolding Crisis
>
> Alan,
>
> Well said. We need to face up to this issue square in its face.
> Avoidance of the unpleasantness only plays into the hands of the
> extremists and if we abdicate the arena to the hatred they spew we
> will find ourselves living in a future of their design. And that
> will not be a pretty place. Our collective future will be
> characterized by the horror of ethnic cleansing, fascism and
> concentration camp final solutions unless those of us who abhor
> this bleak racist prison planet distopia can find a way to
> pro-actively network and challenge the racist ideologues wherever
> they rear spread their disease.
>
> Unfortunately those who seek to imprison all humanity in
> ethnic/racial/religious enclaves of "pure" this or "pure" that and
> ignite race wars and pogroms and final solutions have a much
> easier job than those who seek a future based on the promoting the
> value and potential of each human regardless. It is easy for the
> neo-tribalists to foster the idea that inevitably we will be
> forced to seek shelter in some tribe -- always seems to be run by
> them and their henchmen ain't that funny how that works out. It is
> easy to play upon racial and ethnic stereotypes and promote
> irrational fear and feed hatred.
>
> It is unfortunately all too easy to do this evil work. It is all
> too easy to destroy.
>
> It is so much harder to build bridges of understanding and
> friendship. It is harder to wash away the psychic stain of racism
> from someone whose mind has been polluted with this disease than
> it is to infect another victim with the poison that one must seek
> to escape to some homogenous enclave of "pureness" and that
> "others" -- whomever they may be -- are sub-human and evil.
>
> Our job is so much more difficult. It is so much easier to dismiss
> us as wooly headed idealist with no grasp of reality than it is
> for us to convince others of the profound merits of tolerance and
> live and let live.
>
> Multiculturalism has been turned into a dirty word by these racial
> "purists" -- who even though they may sanitize their language and
> deny the charge are following an ideology of racism.
>
> I personally love multiculturalism -- having many cultures adding
> richness and texture to my life. I love jumping from cuisine to
> cuisine and experiencing the different tastes of things besides
> food. Each culture has unique viewpoints and different poetry that
> it brings to life. And the sharing of this greatly enriches us
> all. It works for the greater good of us all.
>
> Multiculturalism is a dance and as all dances one must learn how
> to move. Multiculturalism does not seek to wipe out any culture
> nor is it an apologia for an anything goes attitude. Every culture
> also harbors its unique shame and disgrace and ugliness.
>
> The greatest flowerings of human culture and art and science have
> been in societies that were open to new ideas and intrigued by
> others.
>
> Closed insular societies have given very little to humanity and
> are mostly forgotten dead branches that have been lost in the
> dustbin of history.
>
> So even if our job may be much harder than the racist or
> neo-tribalist; the rewards we can offer are also so much greater
> than the bleak prisons of purity that is all they have on their
> plate.
>
> We must choose. Will we stand up and oppose the disease in the
> here and the now or will we vacate and abdicate and allow this
> plague to sweep across the earth and destroy everything.
>
> Chris, PA
>
>
>   ----- Original Message -----
> From: aelewis@...
>   To: foo@... ; energyresources@yahoogroups.com
>   Cc: alasbabylon@yahoogroups.com ; runningonempty2@yahoogroups.com
>   Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 2:22 PM
>   Subject: [RunningOnEmpty2] Race, Class and the Unfolding Crisis

_____________________________________________________________________

FYI, here is a recent post touching on issues very relevant
to this list (I think).

Cheers!

Alan


Date: Mon, 05 Sep 2005 14:22:45 -0700
From: aelewis@...
To: foo@..., energyresources@yahoogroups.com
CC: alasbabylon@yahoogroups.com, runningonempty2@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Race, Class and the Unfolding Crisis

> Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 12:21:43 -0400
> From: "Tom Robertson" <t1r@...>
> Subject: Race and rumors of race
>
> Folks:
>
> Perhaps the most interesting thing about the discussion of
> immigration etc. was how unproductive it was.

How do you gauge productivity?

What you mean, I'll bet, is that it was not a *pleasant*
discussion -- and indeed it wasn't.  But there are plenty of
very unpleasant discussions in the offing, as this crisis
deepens. Unpleasant and *necessary*.

> This was particularly true as race became the focal issue instead
> of (relevant to the EnergyResources Group) the capacity of places
> to support their people in times of increasingly less available
> concentrated resources.

It would be nice to think that the discussion about "the
capacity of places to support their people" can be perfectly
"clean": conducted without any reference to race, class, or
any other hot button. But also unrealistic.

> Pay attention to what is going on in New Orleans.

I did, I did! And especially to the sometimes-shocking
sentiments that came out in the wake of it.

As this crisis unfolds (e.g. NOLA, but of course there will be
much more), all kinds of racist and classist ugliness will
come out of the woodwork. I've been witnessing this up close
and personal, just the last couple days, on the
www.timebomb2000.com board. These are ordinary folks, mostly
Bushite/Republican types, who are worried about (and are
preparing to survive) numerous threats. But this whole NOLA
disaster has really unmasked a spectrum of reptilian reaction:
"crazy blacks, rampaging, raping and murdering", etc., etc.,
*ad nauseum*. And many of these people *look forward* to the
unravelling, as it will be a good excuse for the ethnic
cleansing (racial genocide) that they believe to be necessary.

For example, here's what "ravekid" writes:

.  "An ethnic cleansing is coming...it is not going to be pretty.
.  It is why many of us have fleed to the most rural areas where
.  we can live and still bring an in income. While it is not
.  right, the ethnic cleansing of the poor culture would get rid
.  of vast amounts of people who are 100% consumers. The only
.  producing these folks do is making more and more mouths to feed."

Get the picture? In other words: "Poor blacks are useless
eaters, and they're going to die -- which is really just as
well."

Another choice quotation, from "altura":

.  "I am beginning to believe that black people, no matter where
.  in the world they are, are cursed with a genetic predisposition
.  to steal, murder, and create mayhem."

Uh-huh. THAT is the kind of thing we can expect to hear, Tom,
as the situation deteriorates.

IMO, there is no point pretending that race and class are
irrelevant to ER. They are VERY relevant, as will become
crystal-clear after a couple more NOLAs (if it is not
crystal-clear already). When people are scared -- as they WILL
BE, episodically, and maybe even continuously, as this crisis
unfolds -- they tend to turn into reactionary cranks. Or maybe
I should say when *Americans* are scared they tend to turn
into reactionary cranks; it might be different elsewhere.

I fear that there are many millions of people out there just
like "ravekid" and "altura". The timebomb2000 board just gives
an advance cross-section of the genre. Some of these people
are so terrifying that I am tempted to throw in my lot with
bigotted PC idiots like Matt. The devil or the deep blue sea.

Further synergizing with this witless racist/classist
contingent will be those of the HansoNihilist persuasion, who
believe that racism, classism, violence, etc., will
**inevitably** prevail, because it reflects **who we are**,
fundamentally. As Jay would say: "How else could it be?" The
more people who buy-in to the HansoNihilist religion, the more
effective support there will be for whatever outrages are
being actively promoted by the "altura" types. "Hey, it's what
humans are genetically programmed to do, anyway! Ya can't
change people's genes!"  It is not difficult to imagine a new
Holocaust -- with half the intellectuals explaining it away as
selfish-genes-in-action (so don't bother raising a voice
against it). Just imagine what Himmler could have done with a
few Hansons and Dawkins' on the NSDAP team; he might have had
most of the intellectuals of the West sieg-heiling to the beat
of the band. As Jay himself says: "HITLER is nature's way --
not Bambi!" There you have it, folks. Concentration-Camps-R-
Us, and we can't help it! It's hardwired! In our genes!

Believe it or not, I was asked why I thought "altura" was a
racist. Below is my reply, from a potpourri of verbatim
"altura" quotes. But first, the punchline: "As soon as things
start falling apart, and as soon as (predictably) there are a
few riots or looting incidents in the inner city, the
neo-fascist Altura types will suddenly spring from out of the
woodwork, *en masse*, clamoring for concentration camps for
the poor. And of course there will be plenty of political
demogogues eager to use that ambient hate and reaction as
their stepping-stones to power. The whole thing is all too
dismally predictable."

Too dismally predictable -- UNLESS, of course, UNLESS...
(starting, perhaps, with frank and candid -- if uncomfortable
-- discussions on ER, ROE2, etc....)

Alan se mi

----------------------

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1521307

ALTURA:

"I am beginning to believe that black people, no matter where
in the world they are, are cursed with a genetic
predisposition to steal, murder, and create mayhem."

ALAN:

Well all-RIGHTY then. That's pretty clear-cut. And on what
extensive scholarly and research work do you base this
conclusion, Dr. Altura?

ALTURA:

"There IS a certain element of blacks who are
disproportionately prone to violence, looting and rioting.
This is not new and we have seen it and similar scenes
replayed many times.  There are blacks who are good and whites
who are bad but I will no longer allow my family to be put in
harms way to sooth somebody elses conscience and I will not
pretend or be polite about any more. This portion of blacks
need to be cordoned or dealt with accordingly."

ALAN:

Interesting. "Cordoned"? Would that mean herded into
concentration camps? Surrounded by armed guards and tanks? How
is "this portion" to be "cordoned"? Who decides who "this
portion" is? Or does "this portion" mean ALL blacks?

Either "cordoned" or "dealt with accordingly". Again: Who
decides who "this portion" is? What is the suggested
punishment ("dealt with accordingly") for being among "this
portion"?

ALTURA:

"I don't care what kind of sociological label you put on it. I
don't care that they have no father. I don't care that they
are drug addicts. I don't care that they are uneducated. I
don't care they are poor. I don't care that thier ancestors
were slaves. I - DON'T - CARE."

ALAN:

Right. "I DON'T CARE" about any of the factors that might
rationally EXPLAIN the disparities that may exist. "I DON'T
CARE anymore! I WANT THE DAMNED BLACKS TO BE LOCKED-UP,
PERIOD, AND DON'T TRY TO TALK ME OUT OF IT WITH YOUR FANCY
PINHEAD SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES!"

Here's the background: A hundred years ago, it was thought
that there was a "criminal temperament" -- that criminals were
born, not made. Criminality was "in the blood", or in the
constitution; some were simply prone to it, and this could not
be changed. Today, that view has been rejected, and serious
criminology researchers have identified what they call "risk
factors" -- conditions which predispose to criminality. Such
factors include poverty, gross wealth disparity (regardless of
absolute wealth), family structure, school quality, etc. Also,
in the past couple decades a great deal of research has been
done on the role of diet and toxins (environmental pollutants)
in predisposing to criminality. These factors can often
explain criminal behavior 100%; i.e. when they are
adjusted-for, the disparities between populations vanish. And
indeed in the "real world", when these factors are changed,
the disparities vanish. Middle-class black kids from
two-parent families, going to decent schools, eating decent
food, not lead intoxicated (as are the kids down in the
ghetto), etc., etc., are not any more prone to violence or
crime than anyone else. They also do as well in school and
life in general as anyone else.

NOW, consider that the preceeding paragraph mentions all the
factors about which Altura says "I DON'T CARE". In other
words, NO rational explanation of things, no matter how
complete or compelling, can penetrate Altura. Altura has a
fixed point of view, based on his pre-rational (reptilian)
prejudice, and NOTHING is going to get in the way of it.
Clear?

ALTURA:

"I just don't care anymore weather it is culture or race. It
has to stop NOW! and I don't give a shit anymore of the fine
distinctions or reasons of what it is or how it is"

ALAN:

Right! Like I said: NO rational explanation of things, no
matter how complete or compelling, can penetrate Altura.

And when someone disagrees, Altura says: "you and people like
you are a danger to my family."  Oh? How in the heck could
that be? Sounds like fighting words, to me. Sounds like Altura
is getting ready not only to start gunning-down the blacks,
but even gunning down the people who are not whole-heartedly
in agreement with him that the blacks should be gunned down!

......

NOW, having said all THAT...

It is important to note that there is rarely if ever any
excuse for violent and criminal behavior. In other words, if
Altura (or anyone) is actually the subject of some such
behavior, then he has every right to defend himself -- OF
COURSE, I would say. At such a moment, none of the "risk
factors" that I mentioned matter. If you have to pull out a
gun and shoot someone to keep them from perpetrating some
heinous action, then THAT IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO. That has
nothing to do with the sociologic risk factors.

Individuals are moral agents, responsible for their behavior
regardless of their upbringing, social conditions, etc. None
of the environmental factors that I mentioned is an *excuse*
for inexcusable, anti-social behavior. Those factors are not
excuses, but they are explanations, and very important ones,
else we get reactionary cranks like Altura who want to
pre-emptively "lock up the criminal element" -- by which he
means take all the people who have had crummy lives (the
people who are more predisposed to crime) and lock them up
("cordon them off") before they do anything bad. Well, that IS
one way to deal with crime -- the kind of policy favored by
fascists or totalitarian assholes. "Lock up all the poor
people!" There's an enlightened policy for you!

It should be needless to say that for Americans in the 21st
century this is unacceptable. It SHOULD be needless to say
that, but judging by the way things are going, it isn't. I
suspect that many if not most of the denizens of this board
are not far at all from Sir Altura. As soon as things start
falling apart, and as soon as (predictably) there are a few
riots or looting incidents in the inner city, the neo-fascist
Altura types will suddenly spring from out of the woodwork,
*en masse*, clamoring for concentration camps for the poor.
And of course there will be plenty of political demogogues
eager to use that ambient hate and reaction as their
stepping-stones to power. The whole thing is all too dismally
predictable.

Alan

_____________________________________________________________________

Thanks, Ray. I was going to say the same thing. The way I put it to
people, "We have spent the last 100 years replacing the people on
farms with oil, now we have to put them back." (I'm sure there should
be some references to Wendell Berry and others here for credit) We
have a cooperative group of CSA's in my area that work together to
educate consumers and enhance each other's skills.

As for labor demands:

There are a couple of suggestions I would like to make for the list of
demands;

First, we need population plans. As long as everyone is allowed to
reproduce like rabbits, the corporations can treat us like a
commodity. They have always wanted overpopulated cities so they can
force labor to compete with one another. Some form of
education/control/housing incentives must be implemented to reduce the
competiton between humans. Our current food system is also
overproducing the land, and the soils are deteriorating because of it.
We cannot feed the world we have now, let alone a growing one. The
more modernized a society, the fewer people it needs (keeping in mind
  local food production by local labor with sustainable technology
enhancement).

Second, I suggest that in order to put the burden of transportation
onto the system which benefits from it, we only need a simple law: All
corporations with more than 10 employees must provide transportation
for those employees to work.

Third, instead of a 4-hour workday (twice as many people driving to
work every day), a 3-day workweek should be used (same number of
shifts per day, twice as many people per company -based on a 6 day
workweek for the facility) This puts less burden on each worker for
transport time and daycare.

Fourth: Please emphasize health CARE over health INSURANCE when
speaking of what people need, and ALWAYS tie health to the foods that
people eat. If we end up with everyone eating McDonald's fries cooked
in synthetic motor oil, we don't gain anything. This ties directly
into local foods, teaching people to eat seasonally, and teaching
people to store and preserve foods either as a family, or as a
community. (back to Ray's suggestion for CSAs as a starting point)

Fifth; Put people in connection with their food and neighbors through
infrastructure reorganization (extension offices, social services, law
enforcement should all be working together to help people join
together, not separate them as competitors for services or the bottom
of the price ladder). Incentives for cooperatives and sustainable
communities should be tied to transportation incentives for
corporations. (If people live in groups, they can be encouraged to
provide for each other, rather than producing massive quantities of
products that aren't needed.)CSA food deliveries should be made to
workplaces, by company truck or at company cost (the quid pro quo is
that the company gets healthier employees, better attendance, and a
more alert, safer workplace, not to mention respect).

Somehow, we need to determine what people are FOR.  My simplest answer
is that all wisdom from all religions and histories and natural
philosophy shows us that we exist to be Creators. Our purpose is to
create more resources for the universe than we use to stay alive. The
simplest example is a singer, who creates the resource of rythm with
only one's thought and breath. We need to apply this philosophy to
every human being. Some create great works for their community by
using a little 'energy' or materials from each community member's
creative wealth 'bank'. Some humans simply live with less footprint on
the earth. By combining these methods, we can create a sustainable,
useful world in the universe. Our experience with peak oil has shown
us what happens when we use more than we create.  It's time to spread
this lesson to the ignorant and make the exploitative system fall into
line to pay for it.


Dan Conine
Nature Creek Farm
Belgium,WI, USA


--- In peaklabor@yahoogroups.com, "Ray Barnes" <UncaRay@a...> wrote:
> As Mr Pfeiffer suggests, a key step is to rebuild, on a mass scale,
> our local food production and transportation infrastructure. So long
> as we are dependent on the corporations for food they will hold the
> winning hand.
>
> There are currently thousands of growing CSAs (Community Supported
> Agriculture), organic truck farms, and Farmer's Markets that can not
> only serve as the seeds of an alternative food production sysytem,
> but provide educational opportunities unavailble through present
> institutions. The ability to provide our own food is the first
> tactical move in any general strike. It is out of a local foods
> movement that a general strike can arise. We simply stop buying their
> chemically laced foods shipped in from thousands of miles away in
> diesel trucks.
>
> Allow me to suggest that while the IWW possesses the desired
> organizational form and commitment, that it is the growing, virulent,
> local foods movement that can provide the mass base necessary for
> victory.
>
> Support for, and participation in organizations like Local Harvest
> http://www.localharvest.org/ are key steps in the battle for
> workerplace democracy.
>
> How big is your garden?
>
> UncaRay
> smokytopia.com

As Mr Pfeiffer suggests, a key step is to rebuild, on a mass scale,
our local food production and transportation infrastructure. So long
as we are dependent on the corporations for food they will hold the
winning hand.

There are currently thousands of growing CSAs (Community Supported
Agriculture), organic truck farms, and Farmer's Markets that can not
only serve as the seeds of an alternative food production sysytem,
but provide educational opportunities unavailble through present
institutions. The ability to provide our own food is the first
tactical move in any general strike. It is out of a local foods
movement that a general strike can arise. We simply stop buying their
chemically laced foods shipped in from thousands of miles away in
diesel trucks.

Allow me to suggest that while the IWW possesses the desired
organizational form and commitment, that it is the growing, virulent,
local foods movement that can provide the mass base necessary for
victory.

Support for, and participation in organizations like Local Harvest
http://www.localharvest.org/ are key steps in the battle for
workerplace democracy.

How big is your garden?

UncaRay
smokytopia.com