THE NATURE OF CIA IN VENEZUELA - PHILLIP AGEE

Philip Agee is interviewed by Jonah Gindin – Venezuelanalysis.com

CIA PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS IN GUERRILLA WARFARE (PDF, MANUAL)


Philip Agee is a former CIA operative who left the agency in 1967
The book, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, was an instant best-seller
In 1978
began publishing the Covert Operations Information Bulletin (now Covert Action Quarterly), as part of a strategy of “guerilla journalism” aimed at destabilizing the CIA and exposing their operations.
Agee sees a more cynical US strategy in Venezuela
Building on the work of scholar William I. Robinson on US intervention in Nicaragua throughout the 1980s
CIA’s strategy of “democracy promotion” is in full-force in Venezuela
a series of foundations
funding
private consulting firm
by the
(USAID)
Roger Noriega recently reaffirmed
goal the unification of Venezuela’s splintered opposition
these techniques, through the CIA, through AID, through the State Department
the National Endowment for Democracy, all follow a certain pattern
uniting the opposition
creating a civic movement
penetration and manipulation of political parties, trade unions, youth and student movements

I F STONE

The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins. In order for somebody to win an important, major fight 100 years hence, a lot of other people have got to be willing – for the sheer fun and joy of it – to go right ahead and fight, knowing you’re going to lose. You mustn’t feel like a martyr. You’ve got to enjoy it.

–I. F. Stone

NORMAN FINKLESTEIN REJECTS HOLOCAUST CARD

QUESTIONS OF VENEZUELA

Venezuelan government
US is pursuing
war of attrition
Nicaragua in the 1980s
Chile under Allende
destabilization
political warfare
counterrevolutionary strategy
military threats
with psychological operations, disinformation campaigns, black propaganda, economic sabotage, diplomatic pressures, the mobilization of political opposition forces inside the country, carrying out provocations and sparking violent confrontations in the cities, manipulation of disaffected sectors and the exploitation of legitimate grievances among the population.
deft at taking
mistakes and limitations, such as corruption, clientalism, and opportunism
deft at aggravating and manipulating material problems, such as shortages, price inflation
to destroy
by making it unworkable
exhausting the population's will to
forge a new society
undermine the revolution's mass social base
collapse it in on itself
by undermining the remarkable hegemony
provoke
a crackdown
transform
democratic socialist process
into an authoritarian one
Chavez
removed

by constant war of attribution
through elections, a military putsch from within, an uprising, mass defections from the revolutionary camp, or a combination
military bases in Colombia
crucial platform for intelligence and reconnaissance operations
infiltration of counterrevolutionary military, economic sabotage, and terrorist groups
to harass
to provoke reactions
to synchronize armed provocation
mere threat
bases represent
powerful US psychological operatio
heighten tensions
force
extremist positions
"crying wolf,"
to embolden internal anti-Chavista and counterrevolutionary forces.
the military bases
part of the larger U.S. strategy
all of Latin America
a counteroffensive to
the
"Pink Tide."
Venezuela is the epicenter of an emergent counter-hegemonic bloc
Bolivia and Ecuador
region's burgeoning social movements
left political forces are
targets
coup in Honduras
provided impetus
Colombia
epicenter
bastion of 21st century fascism

THERE IS NO 'THEORY' IN CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY

Since the term has a derogatory slant, few conspiracy theorists self-identify as such. The term is mostly used to suggest that a particular theory is false, or that the person proposing it is unreliable. A reliable means of discrediting a story, it's often used unfairly.

As Uri Dowbenko, who runs several popular conspiracy sites, including Conspiracy Planet, says: "There's no 'theory' in criminal conspiracy."

Mark Fenster, a law professor at the University of Florida and the author of Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture. "You see a lot of people who have received high levels of institutional education. For this reason, conspiracy theorists may well be of somewhat higher than average income level and wealth."

Fenster says the Internet is simply speeding up a process that would normally happen.

Ventura is merely the latest in a long line

One of these is George Noory. In 2003, he succeeded the legendary Art Bell as the host of the most successful overnight radio program, "Coast to Coast AM."

Another media figure is Alex Jones, also a popular nationally syndicated radio host and the founder of high-trafficking conspiracy sites such as Infowars and Prison Planet. Jones resolutely rejects the conspiracy theorist designation for himself. Unlike Noory, he refuses to engage "fantasy" conspiracies such as Big Foot and does not consider himself an entertainer.

Noory says he grew passionate about the theories he discusses on his show after the Bush administration's claim of WMD in Iraq turned out to be false. That made him question government actions more than he had before.

driven to do what they do because they are distrustful of the powers that be. The fear of a government that ignores your constitutional rights or of too-powerful interests controlling the economy is a perfectly legitimate concern. This manifests itself across the political spectrum in the United States. When a Republican is in the White House, conspiracy theories veer to the left; when a Democrat is in power, they veer to the right, says Fenster, the conspiracy theory scholar.

Mike Ruppert, a self-described investigative journalist who is often labeled a conspiracy theorist, and author of Confronting Collapse, which details connections between money and energy, told me that conspiracy theories not only indicate distrust of power, they also remind you that "this 'system' has no real means to hold bad people accountable.

conspiracy theories are so popular "because people leave lots of room for doubt."

That doubt stems from not knowing what happens behind closed doors in government and in the board rooms of the largest, most powerful companies in the country. What we have little doubt about is that power in the United States -- and everywhere, for that matter -- is monopolized by small, associated groups that do not represent the interests of the great majority. That's why there is at least a grain of truth in every bit of conspiracy theory, even the most delusional ones.

The fear of concentrated power is valid and brings up important questions that mainstream culture is often unwilling to ask. Conspiracy theorists ask those questions, though their answers may lead some astray.

THE BARCELONA COMMUNE

Orwell served as both a private and a corporal in Catalonia and Aragon from December 1936 until June 1937. The political party whose militia he served with (the POUM, an anti-Stalinist communist party) was declared an illegal organization and Orwell was subsequently forced to flee or face imprisonment.

By his own admission, Orwell joined the POUM rather than the Communist-run International Brigades by chance—but his experiences, in particular his and his wife's narrow escape from the Communist purges in Barcelona in June 1937, ^[1] greatly increased his sympathy for POUM and, while not challenging his moral and political adhesion to the cause of Socialism and Marxism, made him a lifelong anti-Stalinist.

Because of the book's criticism of the Communists in Spain, it was rejected by Gollancz, who had previously published all Orwell's books, and Orwell finally found a sympathetic publisher in Frederic Warburg. Warburg was willing to publish books by the dissident left, that is, by socialists hostile to Communism.<sup>[1]

To read the book, go here.</sup>

or here

ZINN, CHOMSKY AND ZIONISM

dan e said on January 29th, 2010 at 12:04pm #

Zinn does deserve high praise for his work and is definitely worth reading. However.
Long before Zinn came to prominence I’d encountered most of the history he reports in the works of earlier writers like WEB Dubois, Herbert Aptheker, Philip and Eric Foner, Charles & Mary Beard and others. Also I notice Zinn associated himself closely with the “semi-progressive” strain in recent US “left” politics, people like Amy Goodman & the “Z” publishing empire.
In my mind, there’s a parallel between the Great Man roles of Zinn and Noam Chomsky. Both are undoubtedly great writers, persons of great achievement, major figures on the US Left. But in Chomsky’s case also, before he came along I’d encountered the main facts about the “Isreal” problem in works by other writers such as Ralph Schoenman, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, Rabbi Elmer Berger, Israel Shahak, Lenni Brenner, Rashid Khalidi, Jeff Blankfort, Livia Rokach, Hilton Obenzinger, just to name a few.

Now if some Historian would come along and provide us with a comprehensive true history of the emergence of the Jewish Zionist power network as a major force in US politics and warmaking…


#

Deadbeat said on January 29th, 2010 at 12:53pm #

I have to second DanE commentary. Zinn stood for a lot of the right things as does Chomsky but on the question of Zionism there was silence and/or that ethnocentrism that limits both these men from confronting this problem.

In addition, Zinn on the “moving train” in 2004 decided to back the “Anybody But Bush” / support Democratic candidate “John Kerry” / diffuse the anti-war movement anti-Nadar tactic (ABB). This “strategy” was supported by the Z-Mag crowd primarily due to the fact that other members in the anti-war movement started to shine a light on the influence of Zionism on the War on Iraq. The Z-Mag crew preferred the “War for Oil” canard which has been completely discredited and only shows that the Z-Mag crew chose deception and lies over confronting the truth.

The consequence of Zinn’s support for the ABB strategy helped not only to weaken the anti-war movement but placed the Left in an extremely weaken position for the 2008 election cycle which opened the door for Obama. In addition, the weak and divided condition of the Left creates a vacuum that is now being filled by right-wing populism. The Left today is too divided and does not have a coherent strategy to offer a real challenge to the Capitalist crisis and the political domination of Zionism.

Dan mentions WEB DuBios, now here’s a man who didn’t compromise his principles on the moving train.

antonio gramsci, schooling and education

The Notebooks did not find a publisher until the 1970s. The central and guiding theme of the Notebooks was the development of a new Marxist theory applicable to the conditions of advanced capitalism.

Turin has been described as the red capital of Italy at the time Gramsci arrived there. It was home to the most advanced industry in the country and above all to FIAT

By the end of the First World War, 30% of Turin’s population were industrial workers. in 1919, there began a movement for the occupation of the factories and the setting up of factory councils to run them

Gramsci became the first

• to work with the problems of revolutionary change in 20th century Western European society and the first

• to identify the importance of the struggle against bourgeois values ie an ideological-cultural struggle.

Gramsci’s significance for informal education lies in three realms

• First, his exposition of the notion of hegemony provides us with a way of coming to understand the context in which informal educators function and the possibility of critique and transformation.

• Second, his concern with the role of organic intellectuals deepens our understanding of the place of informal educators.

• Last, his interest in schooling and more traditional forms of education points to the need not to dismiss more traditional forms. We will look at each of these in turn.

Ideological Hegemony

What he found unacceptable was the traditional Marxist view of how the ruling class ruled. "ideology" is closely tied to the concept of power, which Giddens defines "shared ideas or beliefs which serve to justify the interests of dominant groups"

Its relationship to power is that it legitimises the differential power that groups hold and as such it distorts the real situation that people find themselves in.

The traditional Marxist theory of power, force and coercion.

Gramsci felt subtle but pervasive forms of ideological control and manipulation that served to perpetuate all repressive structures

There are two forms of political control:

• domination, direct physical coercion

• hegemony, both ideological control and consent

In the long run, it had to have popular support and legitimacy in order to maintain stability

Hegemony is an entire system of values, attitudes, beliefs and morality that has the effect of supporting the status quo in power relations. An 'organising principle', diffused by the process of socialisation into every area of daily life

To the extent that this prevailing consciousness is internalised by the population it becomes part of what is generally called 'common sense' so that the philosophy, culture and morality of the ruling elite comes to appear as the natural order of things

Marx’s basic division

• a base represented by the economic structure

• a superstructure represented by the institutions and beliefs prevalent in society

Gramsci divided the superstructure into those institutions that were overtly coercive and those that were not

• The coercive, government, police, armed forces and the legal system are state or political society

• The non-coercive, churches, the schools, trade unions, political parties, cultural associations, clubs, the family, civil society

schools could fit into both categories

• coercive (compulsory education, the national curriculum, national standards and qualifications

• and the others are not (the hidden curriculum)

Gramsci's division then is
relations of production (capital v labour)
state or political society (coercive institutions) and
civil society (all other non-coercive institutions)

This provided an understanding of why European working class had failed to develop revolutionary consciousness after the First World War and had instead moved towards reformism which meant tinkering with the system rather than
overthrowing it

more subtle. to explain how the ruling class ruled. if Gramsci was correct
ruling class maintained by the consent of the the people and used its coercive
as a last resort

To break this an ideological bond between the rulers and the ruled. The answer
to build up a ‘counter hegemony’. structural change and ideological change as part of the same struggle, labour process was at the core of the class struggle, but ideological struggle had to be addressed and to develop a consciousness that allowed them to question their political and economic masters right to rule

It was popular consensus in civil society that had to be challenged. This was not easy. Ideological hegemony meant that the population accepted as ‘common sense’. They may have complaints about the way things were run or have ideas of improvements or reforms

but the basic beliefs and value system underpinning society were seen as either neutral or of general applicability in relation to the class structure of society. Marxists would have seen people constantly asking for a bigger slice of the cake when the real issue was ownership of the bakery.

Organic Intellectuals

intellectual as a crucial, creating a counter hegemony, required mass participation. It had to be the work of the majority of the population conscious of what they were doing. Lenin was not the model suitable, mass consciousness was essential and the role of the intellectual was crucial.

not all are intellectuals by social function. There are two types of intellectuals

Traditional do regard themselves as autonomous and independent of the dominant social group and are regarded as such by the population at large, such as clergy, men of letters, the philosophers and professors. They are conservative, allied to and assisting the ruling group in society.

Organic intellectual, grows organically with the dominant social group, the ruling class, and is their thinking and organising element. It is through this group that the ruling class maintains its hegemony.

The question is how to produce a counter hegemony, upsetting the consensus
countering the ‘common sense’ view of society

Working class movement should produce its own organic intellectuals. All men were intellectuals

people have the capability and the capacity to think. The problem was how to harness those capabilities and capacities.

Gramsci assisting in the creation of organic intellectuals from the working class and winning traditional intellectuals. L’Ordine Nuovo (New Order), subtitled "a weekly review of Socialist culture". This journal came out at the same time huge spontaneous outbreak of industrial and political militancy that swept Turin in 1919 mirrored events throughout the industrial world that shook the very foundations of capitalist society

Of fundamental importance, ideological struggle, consciousness raising but must aim at consciousness transformation, socialist consciousness. It must arise from working lives. grounded in everyday life, active participation in practical life, as constructor, organiser, "permanent persuader" and not just a simple orator…"

working class intellectuals, counter hegemony. link theory with practice. This was a direct counter to fascism and Stalinism, open and non-sectarian

A belief in the innate capacity of human to understand their world and to change it. "is it better to "think", without having a critical awareness, … or, on the other hand, is it better to work out consciously and critically one’s own conception of the world?". He wanted revolutionaries to be critical and made it clear that "the starting point of critical elaboration is the consciousness of what one really is …".

informal educators, neighbourhood, local community, has a commitment to that neighbourhood, they develop relationships, part of the community

"They can strive to sustain people’s critical commitment to the social groups with whom they share fundamental interests. Their purpose is not necessarily individual advancement, but human well-being as a whole"
Gramsci on Schooling and Education

HEBEMONY MODELED

I developed this model of hegemony and counterhegemony from the writings of Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci and subsequent theorists such as Raymond Williams and Todd Gitlin. Starting in the middle and working clockwise, the model indicates that coercion is the least important component of hegemony, which is primarily a transparent process, as indicated by the boxes with dashed outlines. The dashed arrows indicate that outsiders who do not negotiate are marginalized, and those who still do not conform become part of the counterculture, which may launch a counterhegemonic effort to regain power. The counterhegemonic process is represented by the shaded boxes that flow counterclockwise from the counterculture box.

Hegemony Online
The Quiet Convergence of Power, Culture and Computers

A graphical summary of a Ph.D. dissertation by
Michael D. Dorsher

Awarded First Place at the University of Maryland's Graduate Research Interaction Day
April 22, 1999

Abstract Questions and Definitions Hegemony Modeled Hypotheses The Survey Form The Rating Scale Criteria for Coding Web Pages Examples of Hegemony Online Tally of Online Destinations Chosen

Graph of Hegemony Online Usage Graph of Usage, by Race Graph of Usage, by Sex Graph of Usage, by Gender Regression Graph of Usage, by Alienation Results of Multiple Regression Conclusions References

HEGEMONY

Hegemony (from Williams [1976]): dominance in relations between social classes; not limited to direct political and economic control, but involves worldview, culture, and consciousness; expresses interests of the dominant political class and yet is accepted as common sense and normal reality by those subordinated to it; every hegemonic system contains the seeds of a counter-hegemony; cf. Marx's false consciousness; elaborated by Gramsci

Upon the different forms of property, upon the social conditions of existence, rises an entire superstructure of distinct and peculiarly formed sentiments, illusions, habits of thought, and outlooks on life in general. The class as a whole creates and shapes them out of its material foundation, and out of the corresponding social relationships. The individual in whom they arise through tradition and education, may fancy them to be the true determinant, the real origin, of his activities.

THE STRAW THAT BREAKS THE PLUTOCRACY'S BACK

the straw that breaks the plutocracy’s back

Pro-democracy groups, business leaders, and elected representatives are proposing mechanism. The outrage ignited by the Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission extends to President Obama, who has promised that repairing the damage will be a priority for his administration

• Amend the U.S. Constitution to declare that corporations are not persons and do not have the rights of human beings.

The push for the 28th Amendment is coming from the grassroots, where a prairie fire is catching on from groups such as Public Citizen, Voter Action, and the Campaign to Legalize Democracy.

• Require shareholders to approve political spending by their corporations.

Public Citizen and the Brennan Center for Justice
Britain has required such shareholder approval since 2000

• Pass the Fair Elections Now Act, which provides federal financing for Congressional elections.

Moveon.org, the NAACP, the Service Employees International Union, and the League of Young Voters, Ben & Jerry’s, Hasbro, Crate & Barrel, and the former head of Delta Airlines

• Give qualified candidates equal amounts of free broadcast air time for political messages.

Ban political advertising by corporations that receive government money, hire lobbyists, or collect most of their revenue abroad.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland)

• Impose a 500 percent excise tax on corporate contributions to political committees and on corporate expenditures on political advocacy campaigns.

Representative Alan Grayson (D-Florida)

• Prohibit companies from trading their stock on national exchanges if they make political contributions and expenditures.

Another one from Grayson

• Require publicly traded companies to disclose in SEC filings money used for the purpose of influencing public opinion, rather than for promoting their products.

Grayson

• Require the corporate CEO to appear as sponsor of commercials that his or her company pays for,

another possibility from the Schumer-Van Hollen team

• Publicize the reform options, inform the public of who is making contributions to whom, and activate the citizenry.

media must inform

GLENN BECK CRIES

HUMANISM

• outspoken atheist Kurt Vonnegut to give the prestigious annual Ware Lecture at the General Assembly of 1984

• Unitarians were largely responsible for the first Humanist Manifesto

• William Schulz claimed, in 2000, that there were more Humanists in UU churches than in the AHA.

• About a hundred UU ministers—a significant fraction of the entire UU clergy—marched with Martin Luther King in Selma in 1965, and the murder of one of them (James Reeb)

• UU (James Barrett) was murdered in 2003 while trying to protect an abortionist from religious-right violence

• Linus Pauling co-founded the International League of Humanists) was a UU.

• People for the American Way founder Norman Lear was another Ware lecturer in 1994

• Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), a Unitarian Universalist, was the first member of the U.S. Congress to announce in public that he did not believe in God.

1920 Unitarian minister Curtis Reese could announce to his colleagues that God was "philosophically possible, scientifically unproved, and religiously unnecessary."

Reese-style Unitarian Humanism, by the time of the merger with the Universalists in 1961, it was the majority point of view in most UU churches.

Since then things have drifted in a different direction. Particularly among the ministry, there is a trend to view traditional religion not as an encrustation to be shaken off, but as a resource to be mined

Finally, UU congregations are tolerant to a fault. Literally anyone can show up at a UU church, believing any kind of craziness, and will not be told to go away.

• But if you want to be accepted for the Humanist you are

• If you want allies in the struggle to make the world a better place

• If you are stimulated by diverse points of view and enjoy engaging people who frame the world differently

POLITICAL BELIEFS

Whatever rewards hard work and condemns exploitation.

ZINN, KONOPACKI, MORTENSEN

Empire or Humanity?
What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me about the American Empire
by Howard Zinn
Narrated by Viggo Mortensen
Art by Mike Konopacki
Video editing by Eric Wold

To read more from Howard Zinn visit www.TomDispatch.com.

VIDEO

ROOSEVELT AND TRICKLE DOWN

Here is Franklin Roosevelt’s, Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and in it I found this quote:

There are two ways of viewing the Government's duty in matters affecting economic and social life. The first sees to it that a favored few are helped and hopes that some of their prosperity will leak through, sift through, to labor, to the farmer, to the small business man. That theory belongs to the party of Toryism, and I had hoped that most of the Tories left this country in 1776

I did not know that Roosevelt had made such a direct criticism of what we now are used to hearing as trickle down economics

What Roosevelt did was to overthrow an economic system.

That same system of Neoliberalism, lasses faire, Reaganism, predator capitalism, RICO capitalism that began to be re implemented during the Carter Administration with that administrations various deregulation schemes and the appointment of Paul Volcker and continues, unabated, to this very day.

It is not a new idea. In the US, in the 1890's, according to John Kenneth Galbraith, it was called the Horse and Sparrow theory: "if you feed enough oats to a horse some will pass through to feed the sparrows". Comedian Will Rogers quipped that if you put gold at the top of the economy it will float there.

We are now at a very similar time in history. We will either get a Roosevelt or a Hoover. As long as Obama is reappointing the likes of Berneke, Gaithner and Summers, he is not Roosevelt.

HERE'S WHAT FDR WOULD DO

1. Pass the House's $154 billion job creation bill.
2. Pass Obama's proposed bank tax.
3. Order the Department of Justice to investigate the financial manipulations and inept regulation
4. Publicize the hearings and findings of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and develop legislative proposals to rein in Wall Street
5. Make the federal foreclosure agency work to reform mortgages
6. Pass the Consumer Protection Agency and blame every politician
7. Fire Tim Geithner and Larry Summers. Replace them with Joe Stiglitz and Elizabeth Warren.
8. Pass healthcare reform with a public option and the surtax on the wealthy and no excise tax through reconciliation.
9. Announce that the Democratic Party will stop accepting donations from the banking and insurance industries and demand that the Republican Party do the same.

LAKOFF

Freedom vs. The Public Option
Why has it worked to rally conservative populists against their interests?
conservatives really believe that the issue is freedom
All politics is moral
Conservatives know a morality tale when they see it: Greedy Wall Street bankers,
Obama administration made a 180-degree turn, trading Obama's 2008 moral principles for the deal-making of Rahm Emanuel and Tim Geithner, assuming it would be 'pragmatic' to court corporations
that made ordinary folks feel they were being bamboozled. And in many cases, they were
Say "public option" and the conservative hears "government bureaucracy."
The results of deal-making in the name of pragmatism have been considerably immoral, as documented thoroughly by progressives like Drew Westen, Matt Taibbi, Robert Kuttner,
Advice is all over the blogs. Guy Saperstein is an excellent example
But we have been dealt a triple blow. A year of failed deal-making by our side, the Tea Party win in Massachusetts, and worst of all,

the 5-4 Supreme Court decision to turn our democracy into a corporate plutocracy.
"Where's the movement?"

the movement must already have:

* a popular base;
* organizing tools;
* a generally accepted morally-based conceptual framing;
* an overall narrative, with heroes, victims, and villains;
* a readily recognizable, well-understood language;
* funding sources;
* and a national communication system set up for both leaders and ordinary citizens to use.

The base is there, waiting for something worth getting behind. The organizing tools are there. The rest is not there.
What is needed is an organized activist public with a positive understanding of what our values are and how to links them to every issue.
An effective movement must be positive, organized, and long-term, where an overall positive understanding defines the isolated negatives. And it must have all of the above.
The California Democracy Movement
Conservatives
believe
government should be privatized and shrunk to fit in a bathtub

as if governing would disappear with government
governing doesn't disappear
instead corporations come to govern your life - like HMO's, oil companies, drug companies, agribusiness, and so on, with accountability only to maximizing profit, not to public needs
Californians
believe that government should serve public needs
Democracy is The Issue
Democracy
is based on empathy
on citizens caring about one another
freedom and fairness, for everybody, not just for the rich and powerful
responsibility, not just for oneself, but also for others
empathy demands an ethic of excellence
Government has two sacred moral missions: protection and empowerment

Protection goes well beyond police and the military and the fire department to consumer protection, environmental protection, worker protection, health care, investor protection, social security, and other safety nets.
Empowerment is what the stimulus package was about: building and maintaining roads, bridges, public transportation, and public buildings;

systems for communication, electricity, water; education, from pre-school through graduate and professional schools; scientific research and technological development; a banking system that works; a stock market that works; and a judicial system that works
the more you make from what the government gives you, the more you should contribute to keeping it going
tax cuts for corporations last year led to cuts in the support for public universities
led to 32% higher tuition
That 32% constituted a tax on those students
the tax of a lost education lasts all one's life
cost in human potential
cost to employers
to society
The Movement
the richest one percent owns more assets than the bottom 95 per cent
The principles are simple
Democracy is about empathy - caring about your fellow citizens, which leads to the principles of freedom and fairness for all. Empathy requires both personal and social responsibility. The ethic of excellence means making the world better by making yourself better

your family better, your community better, and your nation better. Government has two moral missions: protection and empowerment for all. To carry them out, government must be by, for, and of the people.
The principles apply to all issues
Movements are based on principles
The framing of moral principles comes first and the policies elaborate on the principles
The time is now
We have a triple disaster on our hands: the administration's failure at deal-making in the name of pragmatism and bipartisanship; the Tea Party victory in Massachusetts fueling and propelling ultra-conservatism; and the anti-democratic 5-4 ruling of the Roberts Court
We can no longer sit on our hands

VIVA PALESTINA

The recent actions of people from around the world in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza have arguably represented the closest manifestation of international solidarity since the International Brigades against fascism during the Spanish Civil War. A bold assertion?

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), when various European powers were turning blind eye to the atrocities committed in Spain, almost 40,000 men and women, representing 52 countries, made the decision to fight fascism. The global consciousness culminating in such a direct, unprecedented action was absolutely baffling considering the lack of powerful communication technology available at the time.
rom Cairo, El Arish and Gaza "The 2,800 American volunteers included a black man — Canute Frankson — who was a member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. He wrote to a friend from Madrid in 1937:
Because we are no longer an isolated minority group fighting hopelessly against an immense giant. Because ... we have joined with,



and become an active part of, a great progressive force, on whose shoulders rest the responsibility of saving human civilization from the planned destruction of a small group of degenerates ... Because if we crush fascism here we’ll save our people in America, and in other parts
The Gaza Freedom March, a coalition of several groups, consisted of 1,362 activists from more than 40 countries who were on a mission to cross to Gaza and, along with Israeli, Palestinian and international peace activists,
These are not Palestinians, but internationals. From Malaysia to South Africa, from the UK to the U.S., men, women, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, people of different cultural and political backgrounds showed themselves as unified in their belief in justice and human rights.
The Gaza Freedom March, Viva Palestina, the Free Gaza Movement, and others are redefining the conventional discourse
Civil society is not a group of NGOs to be strategically funded and manipulated by Western governments

The activists’ ability to overcome the shameful silence of the mainstream media also highlights the importance of alternative media