GVConsulting

A dogmatic refusal to see reality and failure, along with an obdurate insistence on condemnation of those who may choose to take up self-defence (thereby framing anything other than “their way” as unacceptable in the eyes of the public) does nothing but further displace ongoing violence and bone-grinding poverty onto the billions of citizens and species already marginalized and suffering. This is not to say that everyone is expected to participate in self-defence. Rather it is to say that one’s decision must be base upon real facts – not on the doctrinaire delusion that pacifism is a moral virtue.

Prior to, during, and after the sentencing of Tim DeChristopher, what pitifully stands for a climate movement today did one thing in response. It commodified Tim DeChristopher, morphing him into nothing more than a cheerleader for various parades in front of the White House in DC; a fundraising campaign for those that seek to exploit the passion of those that care about the state of the world; a symbol for the cautious and weak approach to civil disobedience that always allows for a pat on the back, but never makes a dent in the system.

This is not new.

What are the underlying motivations and loyalties of the social and political forces involved in the Tar Sands Action campaign, and, indeed, the bourgeois environmental movement as a whole? In our inability to avert an oncoming ecological collapse, coupled with what appears to be an insurmountable climate genocide, we must understand how the forces we seek to resist constantly absorb opposition, through compromised NGOs and other means. Never underestimate the strategies and mechanisms of the global elites for retaining their power, control, and domination of Earth and her inhabitants.

Live video of the attempted occupation of Wall Street in New York City.

Where is California Labor? Is anyone home?

At the same time that workers are under attack nationally, the California Democratic governor and the Democratic controlled legislature have passed a budget with massive cutbacks in education and social services. Marty Hittleman, the past president of the California Federation of Teachers, has said that, as a direct result of these fee increases at California Community Colleges, 200,000 working class and poor students will be pushed out of the schools.

In order to address this attack that threatens public education, Professor Peter Mathews at Cypress College in Orange County and his colleagues and students are seeking support for an Oil Extraction Tax ballot initiative that would tax oil in California and raise $3 billion for education at Community Colleges, the State Colleges, the UC system and K-12.