QSJ: Chapter 2. Existential issues.

a fact-based critical analysis and guide to effective action.

CHAPTER 2. EXISTENTIAL ISSUES.

§ 1. POVERTY & PRIVATION DESPITE ABUNDANCE & WASTE. The contemporary global capitalist social order is rife with poverty and privation despite great abundance and waste. The following issues and facts are illustrative.

1^st. Inequality. Throughout most of the world, inequality is increasing. Whereas the rich spend extravagantly, most of the world’s people endure life-long poverty.

♦ Income. In 1960, the fifth of the world’s people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the fifth in the poorest countries; in 1997, 74 times as much. By 1997, the fifth in the richest countries had 86% of world GDP whereas the fifth in the poorest countries had 1%. ^[1]

♦ Wealth. The wealth of the rich continues to grow while that of the poorest 50% stagnates. Credit Suisse reports that (worldwide as of 2015) the richest 1% own more wealth than the remaining 99%. 62 individuals own as much as the bottom 50% of all humans. ^[2]

♦ Consumption. Consumption spending per capita (as of 2005) in the US, Canada, Australia, and 10 countries in Western Europe ranges between $43/day in the US and $33/day in France ^[3]. While pet owners in the US report (2017) spending over $4.24/day and over $2.70/day respectively upon their dogs and their cats ^[4]; the United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] reports (based upon data from 2000 to 2012) that nearly half of the world’s people live on less than $2.50/day, and 2 of every 9 (22%) on less than $1.25/day ^[5].

♦ Progress? Limited improvements occur when economic conditions are favorable, but are subject to reversal. For examples: poverty reductions to 11% in Indonesia shot up to 37% during the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s; and the ILO [International Labor Organization] estimates that there were 50 million more working poor in 2011 than prior to the world financial crisis of 2008. ^[5]

2^nd. Clean water & sanitation. Millions of people suffer adverse health effects because of their lack of access to clean water and proper sanitation.

♦ Clean water. WHO [World Health Organization] reports that, as of 2015, some 2.1 billion people (2 of 7) obtain their drinking water from contaminated sources which result in an estimated 500,000 diarrhoeal deaths annually. ^[6]

♦ Sanitation. WHO reports that 2.3 billion people (nearly 1 of 3) lack access to basic sanitation, a lack which causes an estimated 280,000 deaths annually. Moreover, in urban areas the number of people lacking access to proper sanitation is actually increasing. ^[6]

3^rd. Nutrition. The world produces more than enough food to meet everyone’s nutritional needs, but vast multitudes do not get enough to eat. The principal cause of undernourishment is poverty.

♦ Starvation. As of 2015, 795 million people (1 of 9) suffer from chronic undernourishment ^[7].

♦ Stunting. 1/4 of all children under five were underweight or stunted in 2013 ^[7].

♦ Excess & waste. While 2 of every 5 adults are overweight with 1 of 8 being obese ^[8], and while vast quantities of food are wasted in rich countries (some 30 to 40% of the food supply in the US) ^[9]; an estimated 3.1 million children die each year because of hunger and malnutrition ^[7].

♦ Rich countries. Even in the developed countries, there are some 11 million people who are undernourished, generally because they lack the wherewithal to buy enough nutritious food ^[7].

4^th. Healthcare services. Throughout the world, wealthy families have ready access to quality health care. Meanwhile, vast multitudes of poor people have little or no such access and consequently suffer: preventable illnesses, physical debilitation, and premature deaths.

♦ Access. WHO reports that (as of 2013): 27% of live births occur in the absence of a skilled birth attendant, 24% of women lack access to modern methods of contraception, 63% of HIV-infected individuals do not receive needed anti-retroviral therapy, and 45% of new TB [tuberculosis] cases do not receive diagnosis and successful treatment ^[10]. WHO reports indicate that (in 2015) more than 52% of all deaths in poor countries were due to “Group 1” diseases (which include communicable diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and those involving pregnancy and childbirth), diseases which are usually preventable or curable when the affected people have access to modern healthcare. Meanwhile, only 7% of deaths in rich countries were due to those same diseases ^[11]. In most countries (both wealthy and impoverished): wealthy individuals consume more health services than do the poor, and public spending upon health services usually benefits the rich more than the poor ^[12].

♦ Affordability. The richest countries, with the exception of the US, purport to make quality healthcare readily available to all of their population; and these countries do have much better health outcomes than the rest of the world. According to WHO: 32% of healthcare spending (as of 2013) was an out-of-pocket expense; and 41% of people in the poorest fifth spent nothing upon healthcare, mostly because they could not afford it ^[10]. WHO reports that out-of-pocket healthcare expenses annually push 100 million people into extreme poverty ^[13].

♦ Resource priorities. Healthcare resources go mostly to costly and more profitable curative care, whereas less costly and less profitable preventive care is greatly neglected. WHO estimates that “better use of existing preventive measures could reduce the burden of disease by as much as 70%”. ^[12]

♦ Immunizations. Deaths, which could be prevented by mostly very low-cost vaccinations, exceed 1.5 million/year of which at least half are children. WHO noted that (as of 2016) the Global Vaccine Action Plan had “stalled” (meaning it was making no numerical gains) for the past few years. ^[14]

♦ Brain drain. In most poor countries, the number of healthcare workers is very small in proportion to population; and, in the rural areas, many people have little or no access to modern healthcare. Meanwhile, those poor countries (which educate some of their natives as physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals) lose many of these service providers to the rich countries (which, in addition to offering higher pay and other natural advantages, often actively recruit poor-country healthcare professionals who would not otherwise emigrate) ^[15].

♦ Privatization. Structural adjustment programs, enforced by the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and World Bank to ensure repayment of debt to rich countries, have generally required austerity and privatization of public services thereby impeding and reducing the capability of poor countries to provide healthcare services for their populations. Privatization of healthcare services in Russia and other former Soviet republics has resulted in: reduced access to healthcare services, much increased incidence and mortality from tuberculosis, and an overall deterioration of health outcomes. 30 years of tremendous progress in China were followed in the 1980’s by adverse effects upon healthcare for the poor as China dismantled much of its public provision of healthcare (while transitioning toward private-enterprise capitalism). ^[16]

5^th. Pharmaceuticals & medical devices. The development, production, and distribution of needed medicines and medical devices are mostly controlled by several big for-profit transnational corporations which prioritize profit over human needs.

♦ Medical research. Drug companies spend: more on marketing than on research, more on lifestyle drugs than on life-saving drugs, and almost nothing on diseases affecting only poor countries. Debilitating and/or deadly neglected-tropical-diseases [NTDs] afflict more than one billion humans (1/7 of world population). Said NTDs mostly affect people living in poverty, and the economic cost to developing countries is billions of dollars annually. Transnational pharmaceutical firms neglect the diseases of the tropics, not because of technical obstacles, but because the poverty of the afflicted populations presents a lack of profit potential. ^[17]

♦ Patent abuse. Even though much of the basic science and foundational research is publicly funded by universities and governmental institutions; pharmaceutical companies, which largely rely upon that research to develop their proprietary medicines, demand strict enforcement of patent privileges with respect to those same medicines. They then price those medicines above what millions of people in need can pay ^[17] [examples below in chapter 4, § 3, 6^th].

♦ Deceptive marketing. Big pharmaceutical firms have commonly used deceptive marketing ploys to induce people to buy drugs which often are not appropriate for their healthcare needs. They also misuse research and trial findings, which are tainted by biasing financial ties between the company and the researchers, in order to get their proprietary drugs onto the market; and this has sometimes resulted in deaths and other injuries to unsuspecting patients. Example. GlaxoSmithKline, based upon work by 11 researchers all of whom received money from the company, touted Avandia (in 2006) as a superior treatment for diabetes; but said researchers had overlooked warning signs in the data, and “a Food and Drug Administration scientist later estimated that the drug had been associated with 83,000 heart attacks and deaths” ^[18].

6^th. Housing. Whereas the rich live in spacious homes; millions of people: subsist in primitive huts or rented apartments unfit for human habitation, or are altogether homeless.

♦ Housing deficiency. Investment in housing construction goes disproportionately to more-profitable high-priced housing for the affluent while the housing needs of the poor are neglected, because housing which they can afford is much less profitable. According to the UN OHCHR, more than one billion people (1 of 7) are not adequately housed. ^[19]

♦ Homelessness. An estimated 100 million humans are homeless worldwide (as of 2017). Even in the richest countries, there are millions of homeless, for examples: 141,000 in France (2012); 284,000 in Germany (2012); 163,000 in Britain (2011—13); 27,000 in Netherlands (2012); 34,000 in Sweden (2011); 105,000 in Australia (2009); and an estimated 1.6 to 3.5 million in the US (2009) with 2.4 million US children experiencing homelessness within the year (2013). ^[20]

♦ Slums. 1/7 of the world’s people live in urban slums. ^[19]

7^th. Education. Whereas the children of the rich are educated in the finest schools and universities, many tens of millions of poor children are schooled in the most primitive and inadequate conditions or not at all. UNICEF reports as follows.

♦ Access. 124 million children and adolescents are denied the opportunity to enter and complete school. 59 million children of primary school age are not in school. Many children never enter a classroom. Poor girls living in rural areas have the least access to education. Since 2011, the global number of children who are not in school has been increasing. If the current trajectory persists, more than 60 million children of primary school age will still be not in school in 2030. ^[21]

♦ Disparities. As of 2013, 72% of the poorest fifth had never entered primary school. 17% of boys and 29% of girls (of school age) never entered primary school. ^[21]

♦ Educational proficiency. In poor countries, schools are often: overcrowded; lacking needed materials; and/or staffed by teachers who are ill-trained, badly paid, and ineffective. 38% of children leave primary school without having learned to read, write, and do simple arithmetic. ^[21]

♦ Developed countries. Even in some developed countries, millions of school-age children are not being adequately educated. This is especially so in the US where: rightwing politicians push privatization schemes (to be funded from tax dollars diverted from public schools), and most public schools are largely funded by their local school districts thereby leaving schools in poor districts with inadequate resources including staff ^[22]. As for Europe, when Sweden responded to neoliberal urging by introducing a market-driven privatization of much of its school system in the 1990s, outcomes for Swedish students declined significantly in both public and private schools ^[23].

8^th. Debt. Throughout the capitalist world, the poorest people: have the most difficulty obtaining loans, are required to pay far higher rates of interest than the more affluent, and are frequently victimized by predatory lending practices which target primarily the most vulnerable people.

♦ Sharecropper & tenant farmer debt. Whenever smallholding peasant farmers are beset with personal misfortune and a consequent urgent need for money, they often have no option but to borrow from the local moneylender at a usurious rate of interest. This typically leads to ever increasing indebtedness and the loss of what little land and other property the borrower had owned. Meanwhile, landless peasant farmers, if they remain on the land, eke out an impoverished livelihood working land owned by absentee owners who require the former to pay often-exorbitant rents so that the latter can profit without doing any of the actual work. ^[24]

♦ Microcredit. Since the 1970s, philanthropic microcredit schemes (notably Grameen Bank) have been promoted as a panacea for uplifting the poor in impoverished countries by providing small loans to enable them to start small businesses. Seeing opportunity for profit, commercial banks (Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, among others) and finance companies have taken over much of the business. These loans carry usurious annualized interest rates, up to 200% (in comparison with 20% at Grameen). Borrowers often struggle to repay the loans; and burgeoning debt loads, combined with aggressive collection practices, drive some to desperate measures which include: forcing children from school and into child labor, sexual prostitution, or suicide. ^[25]

♦ Mortgage loans. Mortgage lenders often exploit vulnerable borrowers (those who are unfamiliar with the complexities of mortgage loans) thru nondisclosure of: terms, conditions, and cost-saving alternatives. Commonplace loan abuses include: inappropriate and unaffordable loans (including rising-rate mortgages), hidden and/or excessive fees, mandatory arbitration clauses, prepayment penalties, refinance prohibitions, balloon loans. Servicing-agent abuses include: failures to forward loan payments to the lender resulting in foreclosures upon innocent full-paid-up borrowers, and failure to provide notice when foreclosure proceedings begin thereby depriving borrowers of opportunity to present timely defense. During the 1997—2008 housing bubble in the US, major mortgage lenders preyed upon vulnerable home-buyers with fraudulent and unaffordable home loans (often using forged documents, falsified appraisals, and fabrications of income in order to qualify naïve borrowers for loans which they could not afford). Those practices then led to a massive wave of foreclosures. ^[26]

♦ Other lending abuses. Exorbitant interest charges are a commonplace lending practice (widespread in the US). Examples include: credit-card late fees, bank overdraft fees, payday loans, car-title loans, rent-to-own contracts, pawn-shop loans, refund-anticipation loans, and installment-purchase loans. Annualized interest with respect to such loans is reported to be at rates in excess of: 18%, 300%, and sometimes even 3,000%. ^[26]

♦! Consequence. With the poorest people needing to spend the whole of their meager incomes upon subsistence and sometimes desperate for loans in order to deal with unanticipated expenses, lenders require them to pay the most for the least thereby perpetuating their poverty.

9^th. Taxes. Lower-income people are commonly made to pay a greater percentage of their income in taxes than are higher-income people.

♦ Taxes to pay foreign loans. Many hundreds of millions of working people in poor countries are both taxed and deprived of public services so that their governments can make payments on burgeoning debt contracted as “development” loans (from the World Bank, the IMF, and the big commercial banks) at interest rates which the affected countries cannot pay. ^[27]

♦ Regressive taxation. Throughout the capitalist world, lower-income people generally pay a greater percentage of their income in taxes than do higher-income people. The regressive taxes and tax exemptions which produce this effect include: flat-rate payroll taxes (even more regressive when capped above a certain income level); value added taxes on production; excise taxes on consumption (especially when applied to necessities which include food, medicine, fuel, electricity, transportation, and lodging); flat-rate income taxes; income-tax deductions usable only by higher-income individuals; income-tax exclusions for businesses; tax holidays for big businesses; corporate tax avoidance on foreign earnings; foreign tax havens (used only by large businesses and wealthy individuals); and so forth. ^[28]

♦ Tax evasion. An estimated $7.6 trillion (more than the combined GDP of Britain and Germany) is shielded from taxation in offshore accounts. ^[29]

10^th. Livelihood. Vast multitudes of workers lack the wherewithal to meet basic needs.

♦ Unemployment. Part of the working class is left: to serve as an unemployed labor reserve to satisfy the fluctuating needs of capital, as well as to maintain downward pressure upon wages. This surplus labor-power is consequently wasted rather than utilized to satisfy unmet human and social needs.

♦ Working conditions and compensation. Capitalist employers are driven by competition to seek out the cheapest available labor force so that most low-skill jobs (especially, but not exclusively, in developing countries) are beset with: hazardous and/or debilitating (and sometimes lethal) working conditions, low pay, no collective bargaining rights, no job security, no sickness or retirement benefits, and so forth. ^[30]

♦ Displacement. In poor countries, many people, unable to earn a livelihood as farmers, take often-hazardous and minimally-compensated jobs: in mines, on plantations, or in urban sweatshops. ^[31]

♦ Unmet needs. A great many of the migrants to the cities are unable to find even subsistence employment and are reduced to: scavenging, begging, sexual prostitution, drug-dealing, stealing, and/or starvation. They are also subjected to various hazards: disease, crime victimization, overcrowding, unlivable housing, et cetera. Even in the developed countries, millions of people are denied the wherewithal to meet basic minimum needs (for food, housing, healthcare, transportation, and so forth) because of circumstances which include: disability, employee compensation below subsistence level, or no employment availability at all. ^[32]

Ω. Finding. UN agencies, international development banks, and international aid organizations routinely boast of progress achieved and/or anticipated in overcoming specific ravages of global poverty. All the while, they habitually evade the fact that private-enterprise capitalism: naturally concentrates wealth and power in the possession of a privileged few; leaves vast multitudes struggling to obtain a mere subsistence; and also leaves many to die for want of food, medical care, safe drinking water, basic sanitation, and/or other necessities for life. Whereas the children of the wealthy enjoy lives of privilege; the children of the poor have far fewer, often no, opportunities to improve upon their impoverished condition. As for progress, the reality is that, alongside progress with respect to some problems, there is either stagnation or actual worsening with respect to other issues. In fact, progress has sometimes been followed by major reversals. Although modern industry and agriculture are capable of producing an abundance of the goods and services with which to satisfy human needs throughout the world, they are mostly operated instead to produce profit and ever greater accumulations of wealth for the owners of capital. Under such conditions, the persistence of widespread poverty with attendant human suffering is necessarily to be expected.

Noted sources:

[dated on or before 2018 Apr]

[1] UNDP: Human Development Report (1999) ~ Overview (p 3) @ http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/260/hdr_1999_en_nostats.pdf .

[2] Oxfam International: An Economy for the 1% (2016 Jan 18) ~ p 2 @ https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/file_attachments/bp210-economy-one-percent-tax-havens-180116-en_0.pdf .

[3] computed from Worldsalaries.org: Personal Consumption Expenditure – International Comparison (2005) @ www.worldsalaries.org/personal-consumption-expenditure.shtml .

[4] computed from American Pet Products Association: U.S. Pet Industry Spending Figures & Future Outlook (2017) @ http://www.americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp .

[5] UNDP: Human Development Report (2014) ~ pp 19—20 @ http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr14-report-en-1.pdf .

[6] WHO: drinking water (2018 Mar) @ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs391/en/ ;

sanitation (2017 Jul) @ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs392/en/ ; water-related diseases (2017) @ http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/diseases-risks/diseases/diarrhoea/en/ .

[7] Hunger Notes: 2016 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics (2016 Dec 28) @ http://www.worldhunger.org/2015-world-hunger-and-poverty-facts-and-statistics/ .

[8] WHO: obesity (2018 Feb) @ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/ .

[9] USDA: U.S. Food Waste Challenge (2015 Sep 16) @ https://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/faqs.htm .

[10] WHO & World Bank: Tracking Universal Health Coverage (2015) ~ Executive Summary @ http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/174536/1/9789241564977_eng.pdf?ua=1 .

[11] WHO: The top 10 causes of death (2017 Jan) ~ p 2 @ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/ .

[12] WHO: World Health Report (2008) ~ box 1 @ http://www.who.int/whr/2008/whr08_en.pdf .

[13] WHO: Universal health coverage (2017 Dec) @ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs395/en/ .

[14] WHO: Immunization coverage (2018 Jan) @ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs378/en/ .

[15] Kissick⸰ Kasey: The “Brain Drain”: Migration of Healthcare Workers out of Sub-Saharan Africa (School Health Evaluation and Research, Stanford University, 2012 Jun 06) @ http://med.stanford.edu/schoolhealtheval/files/KissickBrainDrainFactSheetFinal.pdf .

[16] Wikipedia: Healthcare in Russia (2018 Apr 04) ~ § 1 History; Healthcare in Georgia (country) (2018 Mar 22) ~ § 1 Historical Introduction, § 5 Criticisms; Healthcare reform in China (2018 Mar 28) ~ § 2 Medical Insurance Reforms.

[17] WHO: Neglected tropical diseases (2017) @ www.who.int/neglected_diseases/diseases/en/ .

Till⸰ Brian: How Drug Companies Keep Medicine Out of Reach (The Atlantic, 2013 May 15) @ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/05/how-drug-companies-keep-medicine-out-of-reach/275853/ .

Rother⸰ John: Abusive specialty drug pricing threatens healthcare system (The Hill, 2014 Jun 03) @ http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/207929-abusive-specialty-drug-pricing-threatens-healthcare-system .

[18] Whoriskey⸰ Peter: As drug industry’s influence over research grows, so does the potential for bias (Washington Post, 2012 Nov 24) @ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-drug-industrys-influence-over-research-grows-so-does-the-potential-for-bias/2012/11/24/bb64d596-1264-11e2-be82-c3411b7680a9_story.html .

[19] UN OHCHR: Fact Sheet 21 – The Right to Adequate Housing (2014 May) ~ § Introduction, § II.C. Slum-dwellers @ http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FS21_rev_1_Housing_en.pdf .

[20] Homeless World Cup: Global Homeless Statistics (2017) @ www.homelessworldcup.org/content/homelessness-statistics .

[21] UNICEF, State of the World’s Children (2016) ~ Chapter 2 (pp 42—46, 48) @ https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/UNICEF_SOWC_2016.pdf .

[22] Michelman⸰ Barbara: Vouchers, School Privatization, and the Threat to Public Education (ASCD Vol 23 Nr 3, 2017 Fall) @ http://www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/policy-priorities/vol23/num03/Vouchers,-School-Privatization,-and-the-Threat-to-Public-Education.aspx .

[23] Fisman⸰ Ray: Sweden’s School Choice Disaster (Slate, 2014 Jul 15) @ http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_dismal_science/2014/07/sweden_school_choice_the_country_s_disastrous_experiment_with_milton_friedman.html .

[24] Barraclough⸰ Solon L: Land Reform in Developing Countries: The Role of the State and Other Actors (UNRISD, 1999) ~ Introduction (especially pp 2 & 8) @ http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/(httpAuxPages)/9B503BAF4856E96980256B66003E0622/$file/dp101.pdf .

Pillai⸰ S Ramachandran: Certain Aspects of the Agrarian Situation and Alternative Policies (The Marxist, 2003 Oct-Dec) @ www.cpim.org/marxist/200304_marxist_agrarian.htm .

[25] Godoy⸰ Julio: Banksters Hijack Microfinance (Inter Press Service, 2012 Jul 27) @ www.globalissues.org/news/2012/07/27/14351 .

[26] Wikipedia: Predatory lending (2017 May 08); Alternative financial services (2017 Mar 29); and related articles.

Bruce⸰ Laura: FDIC study: outrageous overdraft fees (Bankrate, 2009 Jan 07) @ www.bankrate.com/finance/investing/fdic-study-outrageous-overdraft-fees-1.aspx .

[27] FAO: Beating the debt burden (1994) @ http://www.fao.org/docrep/u8480e/U8480E0p.htm .

[28] Wikipedia: articles on specific taxes.

[29] Oxfam International: An Economy for the 1% (2016 Jan 18) ~ p 3 @ https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/file_attachments/bp210-economy-one-percent-tax-havens-180116-en_0.pdf .

[30] Globalization 101: Rethinking NAFTA’s Environment and Labor Agreements (The Levin Institute, SUNY, 2008 Apr 21) ~ NAFTA and Labor @ http://www.globalization101.org/rethinking-naftas-environment-and-labor-agreements-2/ .

Fields⸰ Gary S: Poverty and Low Earnings in the Developing World (Cornell University ILR School, 2011 Jul) ~ sections I & II @ http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1151&context=workingpapers .

[31] Fitzgerald⸰ Helen: What Are the Causes of Urbanization in Poor Countries? (bizfluent, 2017 Sep 26) @ https://bizfluent.com/info-8643337-causes-urbanization-poor-countries.html .

[32] Wikipedia: Slum (2017 May 26) ~ especially § 4 Characteristics of slums, § 5 Risks.

§ 2. PLUNDERING & POISONING IN PURSUIT OF PROFIT. Capitalist enterprises, in their drive to maximize profits, routinely and wantonly plunder the world’s natural resources and poison the natural environment. The effects are largely to the current and future detriment of most of humankind and of vast numbers of other living species. The following issues and facts are illustrative.

1^st. Greenhouse-gas pollution. The burning of carbon-based fuels (coal, oil, natural gas, bio-mass, ethanol) emits most of the greenhouse gases (primarily carbon dioxide [CO₂]) going into the atmosphere. Other industrial operations emit significant additional amounts of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse-gas pollution has put the world onto a trajectory to climate catastrophe.

♦ Warming effects ^[1]. The overwhelming consensus of environmental scientists is that carbon pollution is causing global warming, with an expected global temperature-rise of 1.4 to 5.6 °C (2.5 to 10 °F) by 2100. Global warming causes:

the melting of the polar ice sheets and resulting sea level rise (which will inundate low-lying land thereby displacing many millions of people and wreaking havoc with the lives of those and of many more);
increased severity of droughts and wildfires in some areas and of flooding in other areas;
increasing frequency and intensity of destructive and often-lethal heat waves; and
more intensity and destructiveness of hurricanes, typhoons, and equivalent cyclones.

♦ Acidification effects ^[2]. Much of the increased carbon dioxide is absorbed by surface water thereby causing ocean acidification which then reduces the availability of the calcium carbonate which many marine species need in order to grow their skeletons or shells. Ocean acidification causes:

the destruction of the pteropods and other aquatic organisms (which are the essential food sources for fish and other sea creatures upon which many tens of millions of humans rely as a major source for their dietary protein);
the mass die-off of those sea creatures which depend upon calcium carbonate and of those (such as many fish species) whose physiology does not function effectively in a more acidic ocean;
the destruction by acidification (along with warming) of the coral reefs (which provide the essential habitat for 1/4 of the ocean’s species); and
the increasing non-viability of enterprises engaged in the harvesting of adversely affected sea creatures (oysters, clams, mussels, shrimp, crabs, lobsters, and fish).

♦ Extinctions. Global warming and ocean acidification are expected to result in the extinctions of many hundreds of thousands of species of plants and animals. ^[2]

♦ Obstruction. Under pressure from for-profit companies which produce or consume carbon-based fuels, governments have resisted mandating the expeditious transition to climate-friendly energy sources.

2^nd. Deforestation. Forest removal is extremely detrimental to humankind and to a vast multitude of other living species.

♦ Global warming. Deforestation contributes about 15% of the greenhouse gases which are causing global warming and ocean acidification. ^[3]

♦ Extinctions. Deforestation destroys wildlife habitat thereby portending the extinctions annually of an estimated 23,000 plant and animal species. Some of these would otherwise yield substances from which lifesaving medications and other beneficial products would be produced. ^[4]

♦ Other destructive effects. The absence of tropical forest canopy and retentive vegetation exposes the land to: intense solar radiation, wind, and rapid water runoff. These forces then cause: flooding, soil erosion, silting of lakes and streams, degradation of water quality, loss of aquatic food resources, and desertification of the land with loss of soil nutrients. ^{[3, 4]}

♦ Disappearance. The world’s forests are rapidly disappearing with an area the size of Panamá being cut down every year. At the current rate, all of the world’s rainforests will be gone within 100 years. More than 60% of all forests and more than half of the tropical forests have already been lost. Most deforestation is in service to commercial interests. ^{[3, 4]}

Agribusinesses remove forest to obtain land for cash crops and cattle ranching.
- Loggers employed by forest products companies destroy the forest in order to cheaply obtain timber for lumber and paper products.
- Land developers remove forest to make space for urban development.

3^rd. Wetland destruction.

♦ Benefits. Removal of wetlands eliminates important benefits. Wetlands filter and clean water thereby preventing degradation of water quality. They collect and hold flood waters thereby reducing erosion of seashores and stream banks. Wetlands constitute barriers which absorb and mitigate destructive wind and tidal forces. ^{[5, 6]}

♦ Extinctions. Wetlands provide habitat for a great diversity of wildlife. Consequently, their removal results in the extinctions of many endangered wildlife species which depend upon wetlands for survival. ^{[5, 6]}

♦ Global warming. Drainage of wetlands accelerates global warming by releasing greenhouse gases (CO₂ and methane) into the atmosphere. ^[5]

♦ Disappearance. During the past 100 years, 60% of the world’s wetlands have been destroyed mostly for projects to benefit commercial enterprise: agriculture, dams and canals, urban development, and peat mining. ^{[5, 6]}

4^th. Freshwater depletion. Loss of freshwater is another catastrophic event now happening.

♦ Groundwater. Over-pumping of groundwater in North America, China, India, southwest Asia, and other regions (to satisfy the demands of agribusiness and some other industries as well as the needs of urban areas) persists. It is: lowering water tables, depleting this limited resource far faster than Nature can replenish it, and causing permanent ground surface subsidence (by more than 3 meters [10 feet] in some places). Groundwater depletion in coastal and various other areas causes contamination of well water with non-potable saline and/or polluted water. ^[7]

♦ Surface water. Meanwhile, diversion of surface water for commercial and public use depletes and pollutes this invaluable resource. Many lakes and rivers are so damaged that they no longer support aquatic life. So much water is taken from the once-mighty Colorado River that no water at all flows out at its mouth. Much of this water is used wastefully and frivolously by affluent consumers. Even more is used unsustainably by commercial enterprises concerned only with near-term profit. ^{[8, 9]}

♦ Freshwater scarcity is increasing such that the share of world population affected by severe water-stress is expected to double from 1/3 to 2/3 from 2012 to 2025. Consequently, in the not-too-distant future, vital groundwater and surface water resources will be entirely inadequate to meet the basic needs of billions of people. ^[8]

5^th. Species depletions & extinctions. Human activities are causing the Holocene extinction crisis whereby species are going extinct at around 1,000 times the rate which would otherwise be expected.

♦ 99% of currently threatened species are at risk due to human activities: habitat destruction, global warming, and introduced species. For-profit industrial and commercial endeavors, with minimal attention to the environmental impact, have intensified the crisis. ^[10]

♦ In addition, there is overexploitation ^[11]. Commercial fishing has depleted fish populations. Trophy hunters, abetted by commercial safari outfitters, have brought various large animal species to the brink of extinction. Meanwhile, poachers obtain billions of dollars in profits from illicit trade:

in wild animals for the pet trade; and
in animal parts (elephant ivory, rhino horn, tiger bones, shark fins, bird plumage, reptile skins) for superstitious medicinal and virility treatments, food delicacies, fashion statements, and so on. Past over-hunting has already driven dozens of fauna species (notably including the mammal and bird species listed in the table below) to absolute extinction.

SOME NOTABLE EXTINCTIONS CAUSED BY HUMAN OVEREXPLOITATION
SPECIES	LOCATION	BODY MASS	EXTINCTION CAUSE & DATE
thylacine a.k.a. “Tasmanian wolf”	Australia	20—30 kg	hunted to extinction by farmers & bounty hunters (1930).
warrah a.k.a. “Falkland Islands wolf”	Falkland Islands	circa 8 kg	hunted to extinction by settlers (1870).
steller’s sea cow	Bering Sea	8—10 tons (size of 3 elephants)	overhunted by sailors, hunters, & fur traders (1768).
moa (flightless ratite bird)	New Zealand	up to 230 kg	overhunted by Maori (1440).
dodo (flightless pigeon)	Mauritius	11.6—17.5 kg	overhunted by settlers (1700)
great auk (flightless puffin-relative)	coastal north Atlantic	5 kg	overhunted for its down (1850).
passenger pigeon	North America	260—340 g	overhunted by inhabitants (1914).
carolina parakeet	temperate N America	1.6 kg	overhunted for feathers (1918).

6^th. Building practices. Because of their subservience to capitalist interest groups (land investors, developers, financiers, real estate brokers, and mortgage lenders); governments permit the construction of homes and businesses on land which is vulnerable to flooding, landslides, wildfires, or other such natural cataclysm. The subsequent and predictable destruction of many such homes and other buildings could be prevented if only rational zoning restrictions were applied.

7^th. Antimicrobial medicine. When first developed, antibiotics were wonder-drugs with which healthcare providers effectively treated infectious diseases which had previously killed many of their patients. Now, because of overuse and misuse, many of the causative pathogens have evolved strains which are increasingly resistant to the once-effective antibiotics.

♦ Overuse by patients. Drug companies heavily promote the use and over-use of their antimicrobial products thru incentives to healthcare professionals. Moreover, many healthcare providers, especially in countries where heavy drug-company advertising creates patient expectations that nearly every disease should be treated with some kind of drug, have catered to such misinformed patient expectations by overprescribing various medications. Further, patients often demand antibiotics for common viral illnesses which do not respond to antibiotics. ^[12]

♦ Misuse in agribusiness. Commercial agribusiness has widely and massively misused antibiotics as dietary supplements to promote fast growth in food animals. ^[12]

♦ Drug company priorities. Scores of infectious diseases (including: staphylococcus, enterococcus, streptococcus, E coli, salmonella, gonorrhea, tuberculosis, malaria), which were previously treatable, have become increasingly antimicrobial-resistant. Nevertheless, pharmaceutical companies choose not to invest their research and development funds into the search for badly-needed new antibiotics because they find other pursuits to be more lucrative. ^[12]

♦ Consequences. Tuberculosis and other infectious pathogens, which are becoming increasingly drug-resistant, already kill hundreds of thousands of people every year. WHO [World Health Organization] estimates 240,000 deaths in 2016 from multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. If current practice persists: physicians and patients will be increasingly deprived of effective treatments for such often-lethal infectious diseases, and the death toll will rise. ^[12]

8^th. Mining & drilling. Mining and oil-drilling companies naturally seek to maximize profit by minimizing their production costs. The methods, with which they achieve this objective, poison the natural environment and deplete freshwater sources.

♦ Mine tailings. Mine waste material, typically laced with poisons, is left exposed or inadequately covered so that it then pollutes the soil, the groundwater, and the nearby surface water. ^[13]

♦ Surface alteration. Mountaintop-removal coal mining and other surface-mining operations: pollute the air with poisonous dust; and dump rock and soil containing poisonous byproducts into valleys and/or otherwise expose it (so that it poisons surface water, destroys wildlife habitat, and also often adversely impacts human health). ^[13]

♦ Oil spills. Inadequate safeguards and cost-cutting negligence in oil drilling and oil transport operations have resulted in accidents (examples: Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, 2010; Exxon-Valdez, offshore Alaska, 1989) involving massive and highly destructive oil spills. ^[13]

♦ “Fracking”. Massive hydraulic fracturing to obtain oil and natural gas sometimes results in: depletion of fresh water, contamination of ground-water aquifers, pollution of surface water, methane emissions, degradation of air quality, noise pollution, and seismic shocks. ^[13]

9^th. Agribusiness. Commercial farming has become heavily reliant upon methods which are environmentally destructive and ultimately unsustainable.

♦ Erosion. Tillage methods, which leave soil exposed, result in erosion and depletion of the soil by wind and rain. Disturbance of soil also reduces its nutrient content by releasing carbon into the atmosphere. Fertile soil is being depleted far faster than Nature can replace it. If this trajectory continues, soil erosion will present a huge threat to global food security within the next 100 years. ^[14]

♦ Chemicals. Routine use of chemical pesticides and chemical fertilizers provides billions of dollars of revenue to the firms which produce and sell this material, but it poisons the soil and the proximate water sources and then kills off the natural aquatic life. ^[15]

♦ Animal waste. Concentrated animal feeding operations [CAFOs] (which produce meat, eggs, and dairy): inhumanely house the animals in confined spaces; feed them with unnatural diets often infused with antibiotics; and generate animal waste which often pollutes the soil, water, and air. Excessive disposal of said waste on land poisons the soil with harmful chemical components while run-off pollutes surface water and destroys the indigenous aquatic life. Stored waste containments often leak and/or overflow thereby poisoning proximate water sources (including water used for human consumption) with toxins and infectious disease organisms. CAFOs also generate noxious fumes which are detrimental to quality of life in nearby communities and sometimes harmful to human health. ^[16]

♦ Water depletion. Globally, agriculture accounts for some 70% of freshwater use. Pumping of groundwater to irrigate crops unsustainably depletes this limited resource and washes pollutants into streams and lakes. Much of this pumping occurs in areas of arid climate where it damages the soil by increasing its salinity. ^[17]

10^th. Industrial waste. Unless stopped, manufactories, refineries, power generators, and other industrial operations minimize production costs by dumping their waste byproducts into the soil, water, and air. These industrial operations are the major source of pollution.

♦ Climate change. Industrial operations are a major emitter of the greenhouse gases which are causing climate change. ^{[18, 19, 20]}

♦ Air. The toxic gases, which industries emit into the air, include nitrogen and sulfur gases which combine with water vapor to create acid rain which then destroys: forests, aquatic life, and many stone markers and historic edifices ^[21]. Toxic emissions (gases and particulates) from industrial smoke stacks and from commercial and personal motor vehicles create so much air pollution that many cities are choked with severe smog ^[21]. Airborne pollutants: exacerbate asthma, cause serious respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, shorten the lives of those who must breathe it, and cause premature deaths of more than two million humans every year ^[19]. According to WHO, air pollution contributes to one of every eight deaths worldwide ^[19].

♦ Surface water. Discharge of heated water from industrial facilities destroys much of the aquatic life in affected rivers ^[19]. Meanwhile, in the developing world, around 70% of industrial waste, including toxic chemicals, is dumped into bodies of water thereby rendering the natural water supply lethal for much wildlife and unsafe for human use ^[21].

♦ Soil and ground water. Industrial facilities spill toxic chemicals onto the ground and/or pour them into (often leaky) dumps, where they: poison the soil, leach into aquifers thereby poisoning the ground water, and/or are carried by rain run-off into nearby streams thereby poisoning surface water ^{[18, 19]}. Generators of radioactive waste accumulate it in (also often leaky) dumps which likewise poison ground and surface water. With respect to polluted aquifers, because of the irregularity of their nooks and spaces, it is virtually impossible to remove more than a fraction of the contamination after it has occurred.

♦ Culpability. Those business firms, which generate large amounts of toxic waste, have generally chosen to avoid the expense which would be required in order to institute appropriate processes for the safe and responsible disposal of their toxic byproducts (chemical poisons, radioactive waste, et cetera). ^{[18, 19, 20, 21]}

11^th. Wastewater (a.k.a. sewage). In much of the world, municipal governments, under pressure from business interests to minimize taxes and near-term costs, dump much or all of their wastewater, untreated or incompletely treated, into streams, lakes, or seas (where it becomes a hazardous pollutant). The UNDP [United Nations Development Programme] estimates that globally 90% of sewage is released untreated into the environment. There, it pollutes the freshwater upon which people depend as their water source. In 2015, some 2.1 billion people lacked ready access to safe drinking water. Consumption of polluted water causes 500,000 deaths annually from deadly diseases including: cholera, typhoid, and dysentery. Nearly 1,000 children die of diarrhoea every day, mostly due to use of contaminated water. Under the current trajectory, half of the world population will be living in water-stressed areas by 2025. ^{[22, 23]}

12^th. Consumer waste. Producers and vendors of consumer goods increase their profits by promoting a consumer culture which induces people to spend and overspend in order to acquire things, many of which are designed to be soon discarded. Consequently, those consumer-culture humans with sufficient funds (including borrowed funds) generate massive amounts of waste, while the producers and vendors give almost no concern regarding the need for its eventual disposal. Meanwhile, most municipal governments yield to pressure for cost-cutting and low taxes by permitting much or all of this waste to be disposed in ways which pollute soil, air, and water.

♦ Incineration and landfills. Although nearly all consumer waste could be recycled, most of it is incinerated or buried in landfills. Incineration emits toxic fumes into the air and produces toxic ash which generally has no place to go except to the landfill. Landfills take up valuable space and leak poisons into the groundwater. ^[24]

♦ Litter. A lot of trash becomes litter disfiguring the landscape.

♦ Ocean pollution. Much trash, including large amounts of non-biodegradable plastic, ends up in the oceans where it kills a great many animals as well as constituting an eyesore. Cruise ships dump thousands of tons of raw sewage into the oceans. Ships of all kinds routinely spill bilge water, often contaminated with oil and other toxins, into the seas and waterways. Much of this pollutes coastal waters where it poisons and kills wildlife and pollutes beaches. ^[25]

♦ E-waste. Globally, 20 to 50 million metric tons of outmoded and/or worn-out electronic devices (computers, televisions, mobile phones, batteries, et cetera) are discarded annually. Most of this e-waste (which contains lead, cadmium, mercury, and other toxic substances) goes into landfills. In the US, less than 30% was recycled in 2012. Although recycling is increasing, the faster increase of sales of consumer-electronics is continuing to grow the amount of e-waste pollution. ^[26]

13^th. Unused waste-remedies. The amount of waste (toxic and other) generated by industrial and other human activity could be reduced to a small fraction of the current volume thru readily available means which include application of: technical improvements in production processes, utilization of environmentally friendly alternatives, and comprehensive recycling.

♦ One salient example. There is massive accumulation of non-biodegradable single-use plastic items (packaging, containers, utensils) which are discarded in trash or as litter and then persist harmfully in the environment for centuries. Those petroleum-derived plastics could be replaced by currently-existing environmentally-friendly alternatives (biodegradable plastics [BDPs]) which are made from substances which include cellulose and starch. However, profit-obsessed product makers and vendors persist in using non-biodegradable petroleum-derived plastics because of the current cost differentials, differentials which would be much reduced or eliminated with scaled-up BDP production and utilization. ^[27].

14^th. Industrial injuries. In order to cut their costs, for-profit businesses commonly neglect safety concerns. The predictable result is avoidable work-related injuries and fatalities.

♦ Causes. Workers commonly incur injuries on account of: health-impairing exposure to airborne pollutants and/or toxic substances, distraction by oppressive heat or cold, unsafe equipment, unsafe work procedures, inadequate safety training, ergonomic and/or other excessive physical stress. ^[28]

♦ Cases. Toxic airborne particulates and fumes injure and kill workers silently and over extended periods of time. Mechanical accidents injure workers at an instant. Most mechanical accidents affect only one or a few workers; but some injure and kill scores, hundreds, sometimes even thousands of workers and/or bystanders. Such major accidents include: mine disasters, dust-related explosions, manufactory fires, toxic chemical releases, transportation accidents, and so on. Some notable examples ^[29].

+ Grain-elevator dust explosion (1977, in Westwego, Louisiana) killed 36 workers and injured 13.

+ Garment-manufactory fire (2012, in Karachi, Pakistan) killed at least 258 workers, mostly women and children. Their pay was $52—104/month. Victims were unable to escape because of locked doors and iron bars on the windows.

+ Garment-manufactory fire (2012, in Dhaka, Bangladesh) killed 117 and injured more than 200 workers. The fire started on the ground floor thereby blocking exit from upper floors via interior staircases, and there were no exterior fire escapes. The owners had blocked addition of safety improvements as “too costly”.

+ Savar building-collapse (2013, in Dhaka, Bangladesh) killed 1,134 and injured circa 2,500 majority-women garment workers. The building had violated safety requirements during its construction; and, when cracks appeared, the building was evacuated. The owners of the garment manufactories, which occupied space on the upper floors, disregarded warnings and ordered their workers to return to work the next day whereupon the building collapsed crushing the victims trapped inside.

+ An accidental release (1984) of toxic gas from the Union Carbide pesticide plant (in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India) killed and/or injured more than 500,000 people in the neighborhoods around the plant. Over the preceding four years, multiple gas leaks and other accidents within the plant had injured scores of workers. Multiple safety hazards included: underinvestment in safety equipment, existing safety systems turned off to save money, inoperable gas scrubbers and malfunctioning pressure gauges, employees having been punished for refusing to deviate from safety regulations, among others. Estimates of deaths resulting from exposure to the toxic gas run as high as 16,000.

+ Industrial accidents also include incidents at nuclear power generators with unsafe designs and/or careless operators which have produced nuclear fuel melt-downs. Two of those, Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima Daiichi in 2011, killed or injured thousands of people and turned large land areas into uninhabitable radioactive zones.

♦ Toll. According to ILO [International Labor Organization], there are 860,000 injury-causing workplace accidents worldwide every day (313 million per year). Such accidents plus occupational illnesses kill 2.3 million people worldwide each year. ^[30]

15^th. Overpopulation. Obviously, the global stock of natural resources is finite. It necessarily follows that, at some level of world population, the available resources will be inadequate to satisfy the basic needs and reasonable wants of all of humankind. The human footprint has already wreaked great devastation upon a great many other living species and caused many thousands of extinctions. Although various groups push notions of denial that it is a problem, overpopulation is a real threat to the well-being of both humankind and many of the plant, animal, and other higher life forms on planet Earth. Moreover, many of these purveyors of denial, especially patriarchal religious societies and allied politicians, misuse their power and influence to prevent the neediest and most prolific human populations from obtaining access to family planning aids, information, and encouragement. Some population experts have concluded that, in order to achieve a sustainable economy and avert disaster, the world population is already much too large and would have to be reduced by at least 2/3. ^[31]

Ω. Finding. The air, water, soil, and other natural resources are a gift of Nature to all of humankind and to all of the other living creatures which populate our planet. We all have a natural right to expect this gift to be used for the general benefit of all of humankind and with due consideration for the wellbeing of other valued species. However, because the capitalist imperative is to maximize near-term profit, for-profit enterprises routinely cut costs by using the cheapest (and generally most destructive) means allowed in extraction of basic materials from the natural environment. They also over-exploit and waste finite resources to the detriment of future generations. Moreover, unless stopped, capitalist production facilities dump their poisonous waste into the soil, water, and air, where it becomes destructive to wildlife, neighboring communities, and even the habitability of planet Earth. Meanwhile, governments routinely yield to pressure from capital to make environmental protective regulation too weak to meet the need and its enforcement too lax to be effective.

Noted sources:

[dated on or before 2018 Apr]

[1] NASA: Global Climate Change (2018 Apr 17) ~ Facts @ https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ .

[2] McAuliffe⸰ Kathleen: Ocean Acidification: A Global Case of Osteoporosis (Discover, 2008 Jul 16) @ http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jul/16-ocean-acidification-a-global-case-of-osteoporosis .

NOAA: What Is Ocean Acidification? (accessed 2017 Jun) @ www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/What+is+Ocean+Acidification%3F .

[3] TheWorldCounts: Deforestation Facts and Statistics (2014 Apr 15) @ http://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/deforestation-facts-and-statistics .

[4] Bradford⸰ Alina: Deforestation – Facts, Causes & Effects (Live Science, 2018 Apr 03) @ https://livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html .

Wikipedia: Deforestation (2018 Apr 16) ~ intro, § 1 Causes, § 2 Environmental effects, § 3 Economic Impact.

[5] Romm⸰ Joe: Wetlands destruction – another climate feedback (ThinkProgress, 2008 Jul 23) @ https://thinkprogress.org/wetlands-destruction-another-climate-feedback-5011ec695440/ .

[6] Defenders of Wildlife: Basic Facts About Wetlands (accessed 2018 Apr) @ https://defenders.org/wetlands/basic-facts .

[7] National Geographic: Groundwater (accessed 2018 Apr) @ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/groundwater/ .

USGS: Ground-water depletion across the nation [Fact Sheet 103-03] (updated 2016 Nov 29) @ pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-103-03/#pdf ; Goundwater depletion (2016 Dec 09) @ https://water.usgs.gov/edu/gwdepletion.html .

[8] Powers⸰ Madison: Water Scarcity (FEW Resources, 2018 Mar 11) @ httpw://www.fewresources.org/water-scarcity-issues-were-running-out-of-water.html .

[9] Smith⸰ Linn: The Depletion of the Colorado River Basin (Planet Earth Weekly, 2015 Jun 22) @ https://planetearth5.com/2015/06/22/the-depletion-of-the-colorado-river-basin-2/ .

[10] Center for Biological Diversity: The Extinction Crisis (accessed 2017 Jun) @ http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/elements_of_biodiversity/extinction_crisis/ .

Wikipedia: Holocene extinction (2017 Jun 01); articles on the specific species (listed in table).

[11] NWF: Overexploitation (accessed 2018 Apr) @ https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Threats-to-Wildlife/Overexploitation .

Lehnardt⸰ Karin: 60 Tragic Facts about Poaching (FactRetriever, 2017 Aug 16) @ https://www.factretriever.com/poaching-facts .

[12] WHO: Antimicrobial resistance (2018 Jan) @ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs194/en/ ; Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) (2017 update) @ http://www.who.int/tb/challenges/mdr/MDR-RR_TB_factsheet_2017.pdf?ua=1 .

Spellman⸰ Brad et al: The Epidemic of Antibiotic-Resistant Infections (IDSA, 2008 Jan 15) @ www.cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/46/2/155.long .

Bbosa⸰ Godfrey S et al: Antibiotic/antibacterial drug use, their marketing and promotion during the post-antibiotic golden age and their role in emergence of bacterial resistance (Scientific Research, 2014 Feb) ~ Abstract @ https://www.scirp.org/Journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=43142 .

[13] Wikipedia: Environmental impact of mining (2018 Apr 11); Environmental impact of the petroleum industry (2018 Apr 13); Environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing (2018 Apr 12); and related articles.

[14] Yang⸰ Sarah: Human security at risk as depletion of soil accelerates, scientists warn (Berkeley News, UC Berkeley, 2015 May 07) @ http://news.berkeley.edu/2015/05/07/soil-depletion-human-security/ .

WWF: Farming – soil erosion and degradation (accessed 2017 Jun) @ http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/impacts/soil_erosion/ .

[15] WWF: Farming – pollution (accessed 2018 Apr) @ http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/impacts/pollution/ .

[16] Hribar⸰ Carrie: Understanding Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and Their Impact on Communities (© 2010, National Association of Local Boards of Health) ~ pp 1—11 @ https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/docs/understanding_cafos_nalboh.pdf .

Wikipedia: Intensive animal farming (2018 Apr 18) ~ § 5 Controversies and criticisms.

[17] WWF: Farming: Wasteful water use (accessed 2018 Mar) @ http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/impacts/water_use/ .

[18] Environmental Pollution: Industrial Pollution – Types, Effects and Control of Industrial Pollution (accessed 2018 Apr) @ http://www.environmentalpollution.in/industrial-pollution/industrial-pollution-types-effects-and-control-of-industrial-pollution/299 .

[19] Bradford⸰ Alina: Pollution Facts & Types of Pollution (Live Science, 2018 Feb 27) @ http://www.livescience.com/22728-pollution-facts.html .

[20] EarthEclipse: Primary Causes of Industrial Pollution (2018) @ http://www.eartheclipse.com/pollution/primary-causes-of-industrial-pollution.html .

[21] History.com: Water and Air Pollution (accessed 2018 Apr) @ http://www.history.com/topics/water-and-air-pollution .

[22] Wikipedia: Sewage (2018 Mar 20).

[23] WHO: Drinking-water (2018 Mar) @ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs391/en/ .

Wikipedia: Municipal solid waste (2018 Apr 12).

[25] Wikipedia: Marine debris (2018 Apr 01); Environmental impact of shipping (2018 Apr 05).

[26] Electronics Takeback Coalition: Facts and Figures on E-Waste and Recycling (2014 Jun 25) ~ p 3 @ www.electronicstakeback.com/wp-content/uploads/Facts_and_Figures_on_EWaste_and_Recycling.pdf .

[27] Song⸰ J H et al: Biodegradable and compostable alternatives to conventional plastics (NCBI, 2009 Jul 27) @ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2873018/ .

[28] Wikipedia: Occupational injury (2018 Apr 08) ~ introduction.

[29] Wikipedia: Mining accident (2018 Apr 03); Dust explosions (2018 Apr 04); Nuclear and radiation accidents and incidents (2018 Apr 15).

Wikipedia: 2012 Pakistan factory fires (2018 Apr 06) ~ § 1 Background; 2012 Dhaka fire (2018 Apr 03); Savar building collapse (2018 Apr 24) ~ intro & §§ 1—4; Bhopal disaster (2018 Apr 12) ~ intro & §§ 1—4.

[30] ILO: A world without fatal work accidents is possible (2014 Aug 25) @ http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_301233/lang–en/index.htm .

Wikipedia: Human overpopulation (last edited 2018 Apr 16) ~ (especially) § 6 Carrying capacity.

§ 3. UNREALIZED POSSIBILITIES. Human ingenuity has produced scientific discoveries and technological wonders which were barely, if at all, conceivable in the not-so-distant past. Vast human and technological resources exist. Clearly, there is no lack of the requisite knowledge and resources to eliminate the current plethora of systemic social evils; yet, the powers-that-be permit, and often cause, them to persist. Why? Because the utilization of resources under the global capitalist social order is determined by its imperatives and priorities. The over-riding imperative and priority is the selfish pursuit of private profit and the accumulation of private wealth. Powerful privileged groups profit from callous exploitation of both natural and human resources. Few resources (just enough: to credit the powers-that-be with the appearance of benevolence, and to prevent popular discontent from turning to social revolution) are devoted to correcting social ills. Why? Because there is little or no profit in such endeavors while other applications of the resources can and do yield significant profits. Conclusion: the systemic social evils, which afflict the people of the world, can only be eradicated by abolishing the capitalist social order and replacing it with one (namely socialism) in which the societal imperatives and priorities are to satisfy human and social needs. This then must become the objective for the social-justice movements.

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QSJ: Chapter 1. Introduction.

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The quest for social justice,

a fact-based critical analysis and guide to effective action.

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION.

§ 1. OVERVIEW. Is comprehensive social justice a worthwhile pursuit? Is it achievable? If so, how? What are the relevant issues and pertinent questions?

1^st. Systemic injustices. Systemic social ills and injustices have been, and remain, ubiquitous throughout the world.

♦ There is ever widening inequality of wealth and income whereas mass poverty and privation afflict most of the world’s population and inflict preventable disease and death upon vast multitudes.

♦ For-profit enterprises persist:

in wasteful plundering of forests, wetlands, freshwater sources, and other natural resources; and
in wanton poisoning of the soil, water, and air, to the detriment of most of humankind, while obstinately resisting demands to end global-warming activities which have already locked the world onto a trajectory to future environmental catastrophe.

♦ Dehumanizing (often murderous) persecutions (misogynist, racial, sectarian religious, and other) persist widely.

♦ Governmental abuses persist as routine. These include: subservience to the rapacious demands of capital, neocolonial subjugation and impoverishment of many countries and peoples, imperial interventions to oust insubordinate foreign governments, wasteful militarism and unjust wars, repression of legitimate dissent (even in liberal “democracies”), and so on).

♦! The foregoing evils exist and persist because of deliberate choices made by the controlling groups who have possessed, and continue to possess, power over civil society.

2^nd. Response. Victims and their allies respond to these evils with movements seeking social justice. Reform movements win occasional limited, and often temporary, concessions from the ruling powers; but they remain far from the verge of overcoming the systemic abuses and injustices of the contemporary world. In fact, many past gains have been reversed. This circumstance evokes the crucial question: what must the social-justice movements do in order to finally eradicate the systemic social evils which pervade the contemporary world?

3^rd. Obstruction. Within the social-justice movements, there is a widespread recognition that progress has been, and continues to be, obstructed by the power:

of capitalists acting upon their obsessions to maximize profits and accumulate ever more private wealth; and
of capitalist factions using opportunist politicians (who pander to popular fears and bigotries in order to divide the people and to divert attention from class antagonisms) so that the capitalists and their politicians can retain their capacity to dominate and rule.

Many “progressives” correctly perceive capitalism:

as a principal cause of the aforementioned systemic social ills and injustices, and
as an obstacle to the implementation of the needed remedies.

4^th. Socialism? Such progressives generally self-identify as “socialists” and perceive “socialism” as the solution to the systemic social evils of capitalism. However, although such socialists regard socialism as the alternative to capitalism, they hold very divergent and often vague conceptions as to how a sustainable socialist order would have to be structured.

♦ Some envision a social order which would retain private enterprise (perhaps limited to small-scale, consumer-owned, and/or worker-owned firms): with enhanced public-interest regulation of commerce, and with an expansion of social welfare programs. In effect, this would be a reformed kind of capitalism (although some would call it “socialism”).

♦ Others perceive that private enterprise and production for profit are both: the cause of the systemic social evils; and the force continually pressing for, and often achieving, reversals of such limited reforms as have been previously conceded. These socialists then would replace private enterprise with public ownership and direction of the means of production.

♦ Divergent conceptions as to how the civic political system should function give rise to still other differences among avowed “socialists”.

♦! So then, if socialism is to be a social order designed to eliminate systemic social injustices and to satisfy human and social needs, what must be its essential features?

5^th. Marxism? Then there is the issue of how socialism is to be achieved. When facing this issue, socialists generally find it necessary to decide what to do with Marxism: to fully embrace, to partially embrace, or to reject it. It is a fact that Marxism, having been persistently attacked and defamed by capitalists and their ideologues, is widely misunderstood. Even among many of those who call themselves “Marxists”, there is much confusion. Self-identified adherents propound diverse conceptions of Marxism. These confusions and differences involve essential Marxist precepts such as those concerning: the nature of the state, the role of the people in revolution and in socialist construction, how to make democracy real, the role of the organized socialist party, the necessary preconditions for socialist construction, the abolition or retention of private enterprise, how to respond to liberal reformism, and so on. So then, what is the real Marxism; and what, if anything, does that Marxism have to offer in the quest for socialism?

6^th. Communist states. Finally, there are historical questions regarding the USSR and other Communist-ruled states. Were they really socialist? Where and why did they go wrong, and why did they collapse and/or embrace global private-enterprise capitalism? How much of anti-Communist propaganda was valid? What are the lessons to be learned from that history?

7^th. Answers. The purpose of this treatise is to provide reasonable answers to the foregoing questions and related issues and thereby to serve as a guide to social-justice political action.

§ 2. VALIDATION. The validity of any analysis, and of its conclusions, rests upon factual evidence and sound reasoning. [This section is for the benefit of those readers who will want to be informed as to: the sources, their selection, and their reliability for the factual assertions herein.]

1^st. Assumptions. The notion that any analyst-author writing about controversial issues of considerable complexity can be absolutely impartial is false; and this author makes no pretense to any such absolute impartiality. In fact, every analyst-author dealing with controversial issues must necessarily approach the matter with some initial assumptions; and these will often differ from those of some other analysts. However, initial assumptions may, or may not, be reasonable; it all depends upon whether or not the assumption is based upon sound analysis of accurate factual evidence. Consequently, analysts with different initial assumptions and related biases will naturally tend to come often to differing conclusions; and these will often differ as to validity. Examples.

♦ Different people embrace different explanations for how the world came to exist. Heated disputation has long existed over whether the answer lies with creationism or with evolution. Those dogmatic Christians (and Judaists), who assume and insist that their religious origin myths must be accepted as literally factual (with the Bible as source which they assume to be unquestionably true), opt for creationist explanations such as the Christian “fundamentalist” notion that both the Universe and humankind were created by an omnipotent God some several thousand years ago. Contrarywise, those who respect science (including those religious people who understand that scripture was written, not to serve as textbook on cosmology and biology, but to be interpreted metaphorically as a guide to personal morality and spirituality) recognize that factual evidence obtained thru careful observation is the source of correct knowledge. These latter recognize that scientific observation and test supports evolutionary explanations, namely: that the existing Cosmos began some 13.8 billion years ago with the “Big Bang”, and that existing biological species (including humans) evolved thru natural selection from primitive organisms formed by natural chemical processes.

♦ Analysts, who assume that human social behavior (as it is in the contemporary world) is immutable, naturally conclude that the socialist vision of a harmonious classless society is an impossible ideal. Contrarywise, analysts, who consider the fact that human social behavior was very different in the very differently organized civil societies of some earlier historical epochs, may reject that assumption and replace the related conclusion with the not-unreasonable expectation that a social order organized to operate upon different incentives and societal imperatives could mostly eliminate the predatory and antagonistic social behaviors of capitalism without creating perfectly unselfish humans or changing what is actually immutable in human nature (which includes both selfish and altruistic impulses).

2^nd. Evidence. Many published presentations concerning controversial issues are erroneous with respect to some of their: factual assertions, analyses, and/or conclusions. This is true, not only of many of those by authors whose values and goals are contrary those embraced herein, but also of many presentations by authors whose values and goals are in sympathy with those of this treatise. In fact, regardless of viewpoint, the credibility of an author’s conclusions depends in large part upon the sufficiency and accuracy of the factual evidence provided as well as upon the logical validity of the reasoning upon which the analyses and said conclusions are based.

♦ Evidential sufficiency. Although this treatise, as a guide to analysis and action, cannot be limited to presentation of facts; it does need to provide a sufficiency of factual evidence in support of its analyses. Accordingly, insofar as deemed necessary, its author provides facts and examples to support its conclusions.

♦ Evidential credibility. It is a known fact that people, including published authors, can and sometimes do make factual assertions which are contrary to actuality. So, in order to bolster the credibility of its evidential assertions, this treatise, where deemed necessary, provides endnotes which identify the source or sources which support its factual assertions. This practice enhances credibility in two ways:

it compels the analyst-author to avoid unintentional factual errors by requiring a credible source to support any factual assertion which may reasonably be subject to challenge; and
it enables the reader to review the cited source and to satisfy her/himself as to its credibility or lack thereof.

To facilitate access to its cited sources, this treatise, when feasible, selects sources which are readily accessible on the internet.

♦ When sources are cited. In this treatise, sources are cited as deemed useful and/or appropriate, especially where factual assertions could reasonably be challenged by skeptical readers. Citation of source is deemed to be unnecessary and often not provided: for peripheral details, for factual info which is generally known and not reasonably in dispute or can be easily verified thru internet search, and for the author’s analysis and conclusions (the source being obvious).

♦ Bibliography. The noted sources listed herein often contain vastly more information and detail than can be included within this treatise. Therefore, said listed sources may serve as a limited bibliography. No other bibliography will be included.

♦ Selection of sources. All other considerations being equal, when alternatives are readily available (which is often not the case), this treatise generally selects sources with the following qualities in preference to those which lack those qualities.

The source appears well-researched and lists its sources.
The source is a recognized and respected authority with respect to the subject.
The source is impartial or hostile toward the viewpoint of this treatise and thereby lends credibility as to the factual reporting upon which this treatise has relied.
The source provides the relevant factual info more concisely.

Moreover, where a single usable source seems insufficient, two of more sources may be cited in support of the same factual assertions.

♦ Credibility of sources. Given that the authors of readily available source-works are often influenced by their biases and sometimes careless with their factual assertions; these factors may, and often do, result in problems with said factual assertions: overstatement, understatement, misconstrual, out-of-context misleading, repetition of falsehood, et cetera. Commonplace problems, which manifest in the most-used sources cited herein, follow.

+ Wikipedia. Its reporting varies from very good to deplorable. Most Wikipedia articles draw from multiple sources and often make conflicting factual assertions. Moreover, with respect to some issues they are very one-sided, as when their sources and/or authors wholly or overwhelmingly take the establishment view with respect to a controversial issue.

+ Philanthropic UN agencies. These agencies often provide useful well-researched reliable factual info. However, their presentations with respect to the world’s social ills are typically deficient in that they: avoid any recognition or acknowledgment that those social ills are largely caused by the natural operation of capitalist incentives and societal imperatives, and often omit facts relevant to that causation. This is to be expected given that their funding comes overwhelmingly from powerful states ruled by transnational capital.

+ US government agencies. Some of these agencies report some factually accurate data in reports based upon solid research. However, much agency reporting is deficient due to: institutional biases, and/or mission defensiveness, and/or political pressures to suppress inconvenient research findings. Examples.

Whereas the CDC [Centers for Disease Control], using a comprehensive research method, estimated the number of rapes in the US in 2010 at 1.3 million; the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation], using a narrower definition and apparently relying upon incomplete info from local police, reported that number at only 86,000 (barely 1/15 as many). ^[1]
NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration], in its factsheet Global Climate Change (dated 2018 Apr 17), makes numerous statements acknowledging human-caused climate change such as that “Humans have increased atmospheric CO₂ [which is causing the] forcing of climate change.” But then, in apparent concession to higher-level political pressure, wherever possible they equivocated (at least until recently) with respect to the consensus conclusion of the science with statements such as “the relative contributions of human and natural causes to these increases are still unknown”. ^[2]

+ Philanthropic NGOs. Where political conflicts are involved, NGOs often fail to avoid bias toward or against one or the other party to the conflict. Examples.

With respect to the 2011—22 Syrian civil war, humanitarian NGOs such as Syria Civil Defense [SCD] a.k.a. “White helmets” and Syrian Observatory for Human Rights [SOHR], both of which operate only within rebel-held territory, often: report inherently imprecise shelling and bombing by Syrian state forces as alleged war crimes, and repeat (as fact) unsubstantiated rebel allegations of atrocities. Those two NGOs are funded by western imperial states (especially US, France, and Britain), which have a decades-long history of exploiting every opportunity to promote regime change against the Ba’athist regime and naturally put their funding where it helps to vilify that regime by markedly overstating its actual repressive excesses. Amnesty International [AI] has relied upon those tainted sources as it: one-sidedly joins in the vilification of the Syrian state, effectively sympathizes with the western-backed rebel forces notwithstanding their sectarian persecutions and atrocities, and violates its own stated principles by implicitly endorsing the objective of regime change for Syria. ^[3]
AI, more recently (2019), has also joined the US government in vilifying the democratically-elected government of Venezuela by blaming it for the country’s dire economic conditions and political violence while completely ignoring the principal cause, which is the economic strangulation perpetrated against the Venezuelan populace by the US and its allies in pursuit of regime change. ^[4]

+ Academics, investigative journalists, and other writers are likewise not without biases and/or careless practices which often enough affect the reliability of their reporting.

! The author of this treatise has striven (probably not always successfully) to avoid misleading portrayals of events while necessarily interpreting available reports according to his understanding: of the relevant forces, and of the reporters and their motives.

♦ Judgements. Factual assertions from reliable sources are obviously more worthy of trust than those from unreliable sources. Nevertheless, even very reliable sources sometimes miss the mark. Moreover, given that first-rate sources are not always available, the author of this treatise has made do with what was available to him. Further, despite the author’s best efforts to be factually fair, his judgments in selecting from among conflicting assertions are unlikely to have absolutely always produced the most perfect result. For these reasons, it must be anticipated that faulty factual assertions, so-far-unrecognized by the author, may exist herein in rare isolated instances. [Also, it must be acknowledged that, having been frequently faced with sources providing widely divergent numerical estimates of atrocities and other harms, the mediated quantitative judgments made herein are probably too conservative in some cases and over-estimated in others.] Nevertheless, the cumulation of evidence presented herein should establish the reasonableness of the conclusions, notwithstanding any isolated factual faults with respect to details.

3^rd. Conclusions. This treatise uses its sources primarily for factual data. The citation of a source should not be construed as necessarily constituting this treatise being in agreement with said source’s conclusions, especially not when said conclusions depend upon unshared assumptions and/or viewpoint. In fact, few of the sources cited herein agree more than partially with the (Bolshevist) viewpoint of this treatise.

4^th. Format for noted sources. Where source notes are deemed appropriate:

sources are noted following applicable text by numbers within brackets, for example ^[4] or ^[31];
cited sources are then listed at the end of each affected chapter section (§); and
the following format, with omissions and modifications as appropriate, is used for all cited works (books, essays, factsheets, news reports, interviews, et cetera).

{ [n] Author: title of work (publication/publisher, date) ~ location within the work @ URL / ♦ ISBN …. }

Noted sources.

[dated on or before 2020 Jan]

[1] Wikipedia: Rape statistics (2020 Jan 06) ~ § 3.55 United States.

[2] NASA: Global Climate Change (2018 Apr 17) ~ Facts @ https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ .

[3] Hayward⸰ Tim: How We Were Misled About Syria: Amnesty International (wordpress, 2018 Jan 23) @ https://timhayward.wordpress.com/2017/01/23/amnesty-internationals-war-crimes-in-syria/ .

[4] Harris⸰ Roger: Venezuela: Amnesty International in Service of Empire (CounterPunch, 2019 May 21) @ https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/21/venezuela-amnesty-international-in-service-of-empire/ .

§ 3. SCOPE. This treatise speaks to a huge number of specific issues, and it necessarily does so with greater brevity than is ideal; nevertheless, it (hopefully) provides the requisite factual information to prove the applicable points of analysis. Chapters 2 thru 5 provide factual info concerning: many (but not all) of the social evils which persist throughout the present-day world, and how said persistence relates to the existing capitalist social order. Chapters 6 thru 9 offer analyses and guidance as to what to do, and not do, in order to eliminate the systemic social evils of the existing capitalist social order. Chapter 10 provides some context and major conclusions.

**************************************************************************’

CP2.0. The quest for social justice [QSJ]: title, contents, abbreviations.

**************************************************************************’

The quest for social justice,

a fact-based critical analysis

and guide to effective action.

by Charylz Pierss

**************************************************************************’

CONTENTS.

CONTENTS (LIST). [11 pp. 1452 words.]

ABBREVIATIONS. [5 pp. 980 words.]

§ 1. word abbreviations (used only in index).

§ 2. acronyms & initialisms.

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION. [7 pp. 3,001 words.]

§ 1. overview.

1^st. systemic injustices.

2^nd. response.

3^rd. obstruction.

4^th. socialism?

5^th. Marxism?

6^th. Communist states.

7^th. answers.

§ 2. validation.

1^st. assumptions.

2^nd. evidence.

3^rd. conclusions.

4^th. format for noted sources.

Noted sources.

§ 3. scope.

CHAPTER 2. EXISTENTIAL ISSUES. [20 pp. 8,546 words.]

§ 1. poverty & privation despite abundance & waste.

1^st. inequality.

2^nd. clean water & sanitation.

3^rd. nutrition.

4^th. healthcare services.

5^th. pharmaceuticals & medical devices.

6^th. housing.

7^th. education.

8^th. debt.

9^th. taxes.

10^th. livelihood.

Ω. finding.

noted sources.

§ 2. plundering & poisoning in pursuit of profit.

1^st. greenhouse-gas pollution.

2^nd. deforestation.

3^rd. wetland destruction.

4^th. freshwater depletion.

5^th. species depletions & extinctions.

6^th. building practices.

7^th. antimicrobial medicine.

8^th. mining & drilling.

9^th. agribusiness.

10^th. industrial waste.

11^th. wastewater (a.k.a. sewage).

12^th. commercial waste.

13^th. unused waste-remedies.

14^th. industrial injuries.

15^th. overpopulation.

Ω. finding.

noted sources.

§ 3. unrealized possibilities.

CHAPTER 3. HUMAN-RIGHTS. [70 pp. 33,748 words.] 11,082

§ 1. gender issues. 12,888

1^st. honor murders. 9,778

2^nd. female genital mutilation.

3^rd. seclusion of women.

4^th. reproductive bondage.

5^th. gender-based exclusion.

6^th. persecution of gender-nonconformity.

7^th. intimate-partner exploitation.

8^th. intimate-partner violence.

9^th. intimate harassment.

10^th. rape & sexual assault.

11^th. commercial sex-trade slavery.

12^th. domestic sex slavery.

13^th. dowry extortion.

Ω. causation & consequences.

noted sources.

§ 2. racial antagonisms.

1^st. colonial subjugation.

2^nd. slave trade.

3^rd. labor bondage.

4^th. racial supremacy & segregation.

5^th. lynching.

6^th. pogroms.

7^th. ethnic cleansings.

8^th. war crimes.

9^th. national chauvinism & imperialism.

10^th. xenophobia.

11^th. language chauvinism.

12^th. cultural appropriation & abuse.

13^th. racial targeting.

14^th. denials of equal opportunity.

Ω. finding.

noted sources.

§ 2e. addendum: ethnic cleansing in the United States.

1^st. land cessions.

2^nd. land speculators.

3^rd. purchasers.

4^th. interracial relations.

noted sources.

§ 2z. addendum: Zionism & Palestine.

1^st. doctrine.

2^nd. colonialism.

3^rd. imperialism.

4^th. anti-Arab racism.

5^th. collusion with anti-Jewish persecutors.

6^th. obstruction of Jewish refugee emigration.

7^th. exploitation of the genocide.

8^th. censorship of critics.

9^th. majority rule denied.

10^th. rebellions.

11^th. partition.

12^th. conquest & ethnic cleansing.

13^th. nakba.

14^th. later conquests.

15^th. occupation regime.

16^th. peace negotiations?

noted sources.

§ 3. religious impositions & persecutions.

1^st. corrupted religion.

2^nd. “holy war” against the infidel.

3^rd. persecution of contra-faith dissent.

4^th. sectarian moral strictures.

5^th. sectarian establishments & impositions.

6^th. witch-hunt.

7^th. defamations.

Ω. finding.

noted sources.

§ 4. abuses against the vulnerable.

1^st. child abuse & neglect.

2^nd. disability neglect & abuse.

3^rd. abuse of injured workers.

4^th. disability discrimination in employment.

Ω. finding.

noted sources.

§ 5. abuses on account of other distinctions.

1^st. workplace age discrimination.

2^nd. workplace favoritism.

noted sources.

§ 6. causation of dehumanizing persecutions.

1^st. genesis of antagonisms.

2^nd. abetting of persecutions.

§ 7. progress?

CHAPTER 4. OPERANT CAPITALISM. [46 pp. 21,100 words.]

§ 1. features.

1^st. class division.

2^nd. imperative.

3^rd. labor exploitation.

4^th. predation.

5^th. domination.

referenced sources.

§ 2. liberalism.

1^st. principles.

2^nd. inconsistencies.

3^rd. inherent faults.

4^th. divisions.

5^th. preservation.

6^th. obstruction.

noted source.

§ 3. perverse priorities.

1^st. neglect.

2^nd. urban sprawl & gentrification.

3^rd. abandoned communities.

4^th. wasteful consumption.

5^th. parasitic capitalism.

6^th. biopiracy.

7^th. crony capitalism.

8^th. wage theft.

9^th. other illegalities.

10^th. deregulation.

11^th. environmental catastrophe.

12^th. neoliberal conversions.

noted sources.

§ 4. economic instability.

1^st. cyclicality.

2^nd. monetary instability.

3^rd. unemployment.

4^th. interventions.

referenced source.

§ 5. monopolies.

§ 6. colonialism.

1^st. colonization.

2^nd. colonial legacy.

3^rd. investment.

4^th. trade.

5^th. aid.

6^th. other abuses.

Ω. effects.

noted sources.

§ 7. imperialism.

1^st. client states.

2^nd. regime change interventions.

3^rd. imperial confrontations.

4^th. militarism.

5^th. domestic acquiescence.

noted sources.

§ 8. popular embrace.

referenced source.

CHAPTER 5. CIVIC INSTITUTIONS. [27 pp. 12,368 words.]

§ 1. the state.

1^st. who rules?

2^nd. function.

3^rd. components.

4^th. alternative political regimes.

5^th. repression.

6^th. precursors to repression.

7^th. absolutist states.

8^th. semi-absolutist states.

9^th. class privilege.

noted sources.

§ 2. public-service agencies.

§ 3. philanthropic enterprises.

§ 4. agents of indoctrination.

1^st. schooling.

2^nd. media.

3^rd. whitewashed history.

Ω. finding.

noted sources.

§ 5. policy organizations.

§ 6. electoral parties.

1^st. factions.

2^nd. funding.

noted source.

§ 7. constituent associations.

1^st. community-based antagonisms.

2^nd. labor-capital confrontation.

3^rd. stakes.

CHAPTER 6. POLITICAL ACTION. [38 pp. 17,435 words.]

§ 1. alternative visions.

1^st. thru evolution?

2^nd. thru technology?

3^rd. thru serial ameliorative reforms?

4^th. thru social revolution?

noted source.

§ 2. can capitalism be sustainably reformed?

1^st. concessions.

2^nd. nullifications.

3^rd. phony reforms.

4^th. unnatural & unsustainable.

5^th. findings.

noted sources.

§ 3. social revolution.

1^st. why revolution?

2^nd. examples.

3^rd. definitions & distinctions.

4^th. socialist objectives.

noted sources.

§ 4. executor.

1^st. doctrines.

2^nd. the revolutionary class.

3^rd. fitness.

referenced source.

§ 5. requisites.

1^st. conditions for revolution.

2^nd. theory.

3^rd. practice.

4^th. indivisibility.

5^th. genuine democracy.

referenced sources.

§ 6. organization.

1^st. the need.

2^nd. vanguard.

3^rd. coalition.

4^th. popular organizations.

referenced source.

§ 7. strategy & policy.

1^st. specific objectives.

2^nd. strategic orientation.

3^rd. current demands.

4^th. political education.

5^th. reform struggles.

6^th. tactics.

7^th. defensive precautions.

8^th. alliance policy.

noted sources.

§ 8. electoral activity.

1^st. uses.

2^nd. political regime.

3^rd. centrist duplicity.

4^th. false choice.

5^th. member politicians.

6^th. concerted action.

noted sources.

CHAPTER 7. CORRUPTED “SOCIALISMS”. [20 pp. 9,482 words.]

§ 1. petit bourgeois “socialisms”.

referenced source.

§ 2. utopian “socialism”.

§ 3. moralistic missions.

1^st. social pacifism.

2^nd. ultra-leftism.

Ω. the crucial error.

§ 4. quixotic revolutionism.

1^st. putschism.

2^nd. adventurism.

Ω. commonality.

§ 5. bureaucratic “socialism”.

1^st. gaga passivity.

2^nd. careerism & bureaucratism.

Ω. commonality.

§ 6. social liberalism.

1^st. reformism.

2^nd. social patriotism.

noted sources.

§ 7. reflexive leftism.

1^st. campism.

2^nd. blindered antiwar-ism.

noted sources.

§ 8. libertarian “socialism”.

1^st. pure anarchism.

2^nd. ultra-democracy.

3^rd. syndicalism.

Ω. defects.

referenced source.

§ 9. doctrinairism.

1^st. revelation.

2^nd. presumption.

3^rd. determinism.

4^th. voluntarism.

Ω. consequence.

referenced source.

§ 10. falsified “marxism”.

1^st. fabrications.

2^nd. falsifications.

3^rd. evasion of crucial contradictions.

Ω. result.

§ 11. fictitious unity.

referenced source.

CHAPTER 8. STRUCTURAL ISSUES. [18 pp. 8,056 words]

§ 1. questions.

§ 2. progression.

1^st. human dependence upon economic interaction.

2^nd. stages.

3^rd. base & superstructure.

4^th. being & social consciousness.

5^th. fetters.

6^th. social revolution.

7^th. conditions.

8^th. elimination of class antagonisms.

noted sources.

§ 3. epochs.

1^st. foraging.

2^nd. harvesting.

3^rd. tributary.

4^th. capitalist.

5^th. socialist.

noted sources.

§ 4. societal imperatives.

§ 5. property ownership.

§ 6. expropriations.

1^st. gifts of nature.

2^nd. persisting robbery.

3^rd. appropriation of surplus,

4^th. finding.

noted sources.

§ 7. the socialist order.

CHAPTER 9. PAST ATTEMPTS. [61 pp. 31,349 words.] 15,984

§ 1. importance. 15,365

§ 2. the October revolution.

1^st. dissolution of the provisional government.

2^nd. consolidation of soviet government.

3^rd. adversity.

4^th. early policy errors.

5^th. misplaced hopes & fears.

noted sources.

§ 3. political errors.

1^st. inaction against bureaucracy.

2^nd. subjugation of civic organizations.

3^rd. merger of state & Party.

4^th. nullification of civil liberties.

5^th. personality cult.

6^th. whose Party?

7^th. replications.

noted sources.

§ 4. later errors in economic policy.

1^st. deficiencies in central planning.

2^nd. disregard for the law of value.

3^rd. private enterprise.

Ω. findings.

noted sources.

§ 5. Comintern.

1^st. response to SI opportunism.

2^nd. subordination.

3^rd. domination.

4^th. bureaucratic centralism.

5^th. perception.

6^th. findings.

noted sources.

§ 6. Trotskyism.

1^st. Trotsky independent.

2^nd. Trotsky Bolshevist.

3^rd. the succession?

4^th. fighting bureaucracy.

5^th. “left opposition”.

6^th. “united opposition”.

7^th. Comintern.

8^th. from critic to counterrevolutionary.

noted sources.

§ 7. Sino-Soviet conflict.

1^st. Stalin.

2^nd. cult of personality.

3^rd. achieving socialism.

4^th. peaceful coexistence.

5^th. economic policy.

6^th. rivalry.

7^th. border conflict.

8^th. unprincipled alliances.

9^th. socialist or capitalist?

Ω. findings.

noted sources.

§ 8. Cold War.

1^st. origin.

2^nd. interwar period.

3^rd. appeasement.

4^th. wartime containment.

5^th. Greece.

6^th. central Europe.

7^th. Germany.

8^th. rollback.

9^th. overt confrontations.

Ω. findings.

noted sources.

§ 9. reversals.

1^st. USSR & Central Europe.

2^nd. China.

3^rd. other Communist states.

noted sources.

§ 10. achievements.

§ 11. lessons.

1^st. need for revolution.

2^nd. deciding policy.

3^rd. controls.

4^th. democracy.

5^th. revolutionary state.

6^th. socialist construction.

CHAPTER 10. CONCLUSIONS. [3 pp. 1,072 words.]

§ 1. resistance.

§ 2. basic analysis.

1^st. the problem.

2^nd. the need.

3^rd. what must be done.

4^th. liberation.

§ 3. specter.

INDEX. [43 pp. 7,084 words]

§ 1. introduction

§ 2. named sources with reported facts.

§ 3. events & associated subjects.

**************************************************************************’

ABBREVIATIONS

§ 1. WORD ABBREVIATIONS (used only in index; does not include contractions).

ag against

ajt adjustment

assn association

bur- bureaucratic

cmsar commissar

cmte committee

cmun communist

cncl council

cvntn convention

co company

cfrnt confrontation

cv covert

dem democratic

dept department

econ economic

gvt government

hum human

mbr member

mtg meeting

mvmt movement

ofc office

ogzt organization

op operation

pop popular

ppl people

prpg propaganda

pty party

re regarding

rts rights

rvlt revolution

rvlty revolutionary

sj social justice

soc social

stats statistics

terr territory

unn union

v. versus

w-c working-class

welf welfare

wep weapons

wrkpl workplace

xcl excluding

§ 2. ACRONYMS & INITIALISMS (occurring in text and/or index).

ABM Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

ABN Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations

ACC Allied Control Council

ACLU American Civil Liberties Union

AFL-CIO American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations

AI Amnesty International

AIM American Indian Movement

ANZUS Australia New-Zealand United-States Alliance

AP Associated Press

Aramco Arabian-American Oil Company

AUKUS Australia United-Kingdom United-States Alliance

AUM animal units per month

BBC British Broadcasting Corporation

BDP biodegradable plastics

BJP Bharatiya Janat Party [Indian People’s Party]

BLS (US) Bureau of Labor Statistics

BPP Black Panther Party

BRD Bundesrepublik Deutschland [Federal Republic of Germany]

CAFO concentrated animal feeding operation

CDC (US) Centers for Disease Control

CE capitalist enterprise

CENTO Central Treaty Organization

CFPB (US) Consumer Finance Protection Board

CIA (US) Central Intelligence Agency

Cmun Communist

CO₂carbon dioxide

COINTELPRO (US FBI) Counterintelligence program

CORE Congress of Racial Equality

CP Communist Party

CPC Communist Party of China

CPP Cambodian People’s Party

CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union

CPUSA Communist Party of the United States

CSTO Collective Security Treaty Organization

CW Cold War

DACA Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy

DDR Deutsche Demokratische Republik [German Democratic Republic]

DGICD (EU) Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development

DGSE (France) Directorate-General for External Security

DoD (US) Department of Defense

DoJ (US) Department of Justice

DPRK Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

DRA Democratic Republic of Afghanistan

DRE Democratic Army of Greece

DRV Democratic Republic of Vietnam

EAM National Liberation Front (Greece)

EEOC (US) Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

ELAS Greek People’s Liberation Army

EPA (US) Environmental Protection Agency

EU European Union

FAO (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization

FBI (US) Federal Bureau of Investigation

FDA (US) Food and Drug Administration

FGM female genital mutilation

FI Fourth International

FLSA Fair Labor Standards Act

FMF (US) Foreign Military Financing program

FPDA Five Powers Defense Arrangement

FTAA Free Trade Area of the Americas

FTC (US) Federal Trade Commission

FVEY Five Eyes

G A (UN) General Assembly

GDP gross domestic product

GFI Global Financial Integrity

GWoT “global war on terrorism”

HLF Holy Land Foundation

IC industrial catastrophe

ICC International Criminal Court

ICCPR International Convention for Civil and Political Rights

ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross

IED improvised explosive device

IFI International Financial Institutions

IGLHR Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights

ILO (UN) International Labor Organization

IMF International Monetary Fund

INC Indian National Congress

INF Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty

IPCC (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IPV intimate partner violence

IS Islamic State

ISDS Investor-State Dispute Settlement

ITT International Telephone & Telegraph

ITUC International Trade Union Confederation

KgU Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit [Combat group against Inhumanity]

KKE Communist Party of Greece

KPD Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands [Communist Party of Germany]

LSI Labor and Socialist International

MICT (US) Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program

MSNM Mainstream News Media

NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement

NASA (US) National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NED (US) National Endowment for Democracy

NEP New Economic Policy (Russia)

NIOSH (US) National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health

NLRA National Labor Relations Act

NOAA (US) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NPR National Public Radio

NPT Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty

NSA (US) National Security Agency

NTD neglected tropical disease

NWF National Wildlife Federation

NZO New Zionist Organization

OAS Organization of American States

OHCHR (UN) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

OSHA (US) Occupational Safety and Health Administration

OSS (US) Office of Strategic Services

OUN Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists

PEEA Political Committee of National Liberation (Greece)

PG Provisional Government (Russia)

PLSR Party of Left Socialist Revolutionaries (Russia)

POUM Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (Spain)

POWs prisoners of war

PRC People’s Republic of China

PRK People’s Republic of Korea

PSR Party of Socialist Revolutionaries (Russia)

QSD Quadrilateral Security Dialogue

RDA Rassemblement Démocratique Africain [African Democratic Rally]

RFE Radio Free Europe

RIAS Radio in the American Sector

RMSJ revolutionary movement for social justice

ROK Republic of Korea

RSDRP Russian Social Democratic Workers Party

RSS Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [National Volunteer Organization] (India)

Rus Russia

SBA (US) Small Business Administration

SCD Syrian Civil defense

SCLC Southern Christian Leadership Council

SDECE (France) Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage

[External Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service]

SDF Syrian Democratic Forces

SEATO Southeast Asia Treaty organization

SI Socialist International

SIS/MI5 (Britain) Secret Intelligence Service / Military Intelligence Dept 5

SJSB social justice solidarity bloc

SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

SOHR Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands [Social-democratic Party of Germany]

UDHR Universal Declaration Of Human Rights

UMHK Union Minière du Haut Katanga [Mining Union of Upper Katanga]

UN United Nations

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

UNISPAL United Nations Information System for Palestine

UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

UNPF United Nations Population Fund

UNRISD United Nations Research Institute for Social Development

UNRWA United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine

UPC Union of the Peoples of Cameroon

UPI United Press International

US United States

USAID United States Agency for International Development

USAMGIK United States Army Military Government in Korea

USDA United States Department of Agriculture

USGS United States Geological Survey

USSF United States Space Force

USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

WHO (UN) World Health Organization

WMD weapons of mass destruction

WTO World Trade Organization

WWF World Wildlife Federation

ZO Zionist Organization

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CP2. The fight for social justice [FSJ]

CP13. The Trump-impeachment spectacle.

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The Trump-impeachment spectacle.

Introduction.

In the rancorous and contested impeachment of President Donald Trump, leaders in both parties are exhibiting the unprincipled career-politician cowardice and evasions of inconvenient facts which are standard operating procedure in Congress and the Oval Office. Moreover, the Democrats predictably are wasting their fire on dubious and smaller offenses as they give no thought to prosecuting Trump for his actual and most egregious crimes. Further, they are actively promoting the imperialistic new cold war against Russia in order to justify this impeachment spectacle.

Certainly, there is an abundance of good reasons for progressives to detest Trump, but it does not follow that every Trump opponent is their savior or that every attack on him is both fair and consistent with social justice.

First article.

Content. The Democrats’ first article of impeachment alleges a corrupt abuse of office, specifically: (1) that Trump attempted to coerce Ukrainian President Zelensky to announce two investigations by Ukraine, (2) that his sole purpose was to use said announcement to help his 2020 reelection; and (3) that Trump’s means, namely withholding of Congressionally-appropriated military aid, harmed US national security. One of the two investigations was to be into Joe Biden and his son Hunter in reference to possible corruption probes into a Ukrainian gas-production company, Burisma, which had recruited Hunter Biden to serve on its Board. The other was into the allegation that Ukrainian government officials interfered in the 2016 US Presidential election to hurt Trump’s chances of winning.

The relevant facts.

(1) Contrary to frequent Republican denials, Trump did attempt to coerce Zelensky to make the demanded announcement, by temporarily withholding Congressionally-approved military aid to Ukraine.

(2) Hunter Biden had accepted the highly-paid position on the Burisma Board of Directors, knowing that he had no qualifications for it. Notwithstanding Democrat evasions, he also knew (or should have): that his recruitment was solely because he was the son of the then-VP Joe Biden, and that his selection was intended to shield a notorious bribe-giving company in a country with an extremely corrupted government.

(3) Joe Biden, who should have recognized the conflict of interest and corrupt purpose, evidently made no effort to prevent or discourage his son from serving on said company’s Board.

(4) Although Ukrainian government intervention in the 2016 US Presidential election is a falsehood; Trump, in his paranoia, apparently chose to believe it to be fact.

Analysis.

(1) Did he do it? While Democrats attempt to make their case by marshalling actual facts; Trump’s Congressional Republican loyalists, taking their cue from the President, evade and misrepresent the facts in an attempt to exonerate Trump with false assertions that he did not do what he clearly did.

(2) Did he act with criminal intent? The Democrats, with their obsession to find justification for impeachment, have certainly chosen to interpret Trump’s intent as criminally corrupt; but they are willfully blind to alternative and potentially innocent interpretations as to his intent. In fact, there is nothing in the record to indicate that Trump condoned or abetted any Ukrainian crimes; and the fact that Trump mentioned only the two examples of alleged impropriety which were salient in his mind does prove that he cared nothing about other issues involving corruption in the government of Ukraine. The Democrats’ contention, that Trump’s demand of Zelensky was solely for partisan gain, remains an unproven assumption based upon what they choose to believe, but cannot prove, was in Trump’s mind. Thus, his pressure tactic cannot be conclusively determined to constitute a purely corrupt and self-serving criminal act.

(3) Was scrutiny of the Bidens’ behaviors warranted? Although no evidence has thus far been brought to light that either Biden committed an overt criminal act; Joe Biden, in condoning his son’s employment by the Ukrainian gas company, acquiesced to a corrupt relationship. Their Burisma actions and inactions were certainly a legitimate target for investigation. The very announcement thereof would virtually guarantee some very appropriate scrutiny of the matter. Who, but blindly partisan Democrats would object to such scrutiny? Nevertheless, the Democrats persist in evading the inconvenient fact of the impropriety of what the Bidens did.

(4) Does partisan benefit make investigation illicit? Although the requested Ukrainian announcement would bring public attention to Biden’s negligent inaction on his son’s involvement with Burisma and may possibly have been of some partisan benefit to Trump; it can be argued that any such personal benefit was coincidental to Trump’s legitimate effort to expose and combat corruption and malfeasance in the government of a recipient of hundreds of millions of dollars in US foreign aid. Moreover, even if Trump were motivated solely by self-serving partisan concerns; that would not render this, or any other investigation of suspected corruption, illicit.

(5) Was it a crime? Notwithstanding the dubious and conflicting assertions by Trump loyalists, Trump’s temporary withholding of the military aid in order to obtain Ukrainian action, with respect to events which Trump believed involved corruption in Ukrainian politics or election meddling against the US, does not clearly qualify as a crime. If Trump’s suspension of military assistance was technically a violation of the Impoundment Control Act (of which Trump was likely ignorant), that would hardly constitute a “high crime” justifying impeachment. Joe Biden, as VP, had similarly withheld appropriated aid in order to coerce Ukraine to fire the corrupt Ukrainian then-Prosecutor-General; and no Democrat calls that a crime.

(6) Judgment? Given Trump’s atrocious record, it is clearly difficult for either Democrats or progressives to be dispassionate in judging his actions. Nevertheless, with a dispassionate evaluation of the factual evidence in this case, one must conclude: that the Democrats have, at best, a very weak case; and that their evidence does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump is guilty of this specific alleged abuse of power.

Second article.

The second article of impeachment alleges obstruction of Congress with respect to its investigation of Trump’s actions vis-à-vis the appropriated military aid to Ukraine.

The relevant facts.

(1) Trump ordered potential witnesses to defy Congressional subpoenas for eye-witness testimony and ordered blanket refusals to provide subpoenaed documents.

(2) Republicans argue: that legitimate objections such as executive privilege and attorney-client privilege justify the President’s actions, and that the Democrats’ remedy was to contest the matter in the courts.

Analysis. The Republicans’ defense is untenable, because Trump’s obstruction was to everything requested by the Congress, while Trump’s principal response was to denounce the impeachment investigation as an illegitimate witch-hunt. Trump’s defiance is clearly an obstruction of Congress in the exercise of its oversight responsibility. The evidence proves beyond any reasonable doubt that Trump is guilty on this article.

Betrayal of US national security?

The Democrats build their case against Trump based upon claims that his withholding of military assistance to Ukraine was a betrayal of US national security.

Relevant facts.

(1) The US government under Obama, with bipartisan support, incited and abetted the 2014 coup which ousted the democratically-elected President of Ukraine, not because of his corruption, but because of his refusal to abandon neutrality and align Ukraine with the EU and NATO.

(2) Rightwing (including outright fascist) Ukrainian chauvinists, having seized control in Kyiv, abrogated a law providing for language rights for Russian and other minorities. These and other policies of the Ukrainian coup regime provoked the majority ethnic-Russian populace in Crimea to rebel and seek reunification with Russia of which Crimea had been part until Khrushchev transferred it to Ukraine in 1954 without the consent of its populace. Russia responded to Crimea’s 2014 request by re-incorporating it into Russia. The chauvinistic anti-Russian stance of the coup regime also provoked the revolt of the mostly ethnic Russian populace in the Donbass region thereby beginning the current civil war.

(3) The US and NATO hypocritically argue that separation of Crimea from Ukraine without the latter’s consent is a violation of international law. They evade the fact that the US and its allies bombed Serbia in 1999 to compel its acquiescence to the separation, against Serbia’s will, of its predominantly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province.

(4) The West responded to Crimea’s self-determination by commencing a new cold war against Russia with sanctions and military exercises in former Soviet republics on the borders of Russia. These hostile Western actions, as well as the expansion (from 1999) of NATO into former Warsaw Pact countries (including former Soviet republics), were in violation of promises made by the US and NATO in order to obtain the needed Russian agreement to the reunification of Germany.

(5) Russia apparently provides sufficient material assistance to the Donbass rebels in order to have the leverage to incentivize Ukraine to make a reasonable peace settlement which will respect Russia’s national security interest as well as respect the human rights of the ethnic Russian minority in Ukraine.

Analysis.

(1) Forcing Crimea to return under control of Ukraine (as the US and NATO and their client government in Kyiv demand) would be a violation of its people’s right of self-determination and thereby constitute an injustice.

(2) While the Putin regime in Russia certainly has grievous faults (especially in its domestic policies), the Democrats’ allegation of Trump’s betrayal of US national security rests wholly upon the false assumptions: 1^st, that Russian actions vis-à-vis Ukraine are a threat to the West rather than a defense of its own national security; and 2^nd, that Trump’s withholding of military assistance to Ukraine facilitated Russian aggression (while it is the US and NATO which are the actual aggressors).

(3) It is against the interest of the people of Ukraine, of Russia, of the US, and of western Europe to continue this new cold war (which was commenced by the Western alliance under Obama).

(4) Those who benefit from this new cold war are only: the war profiteers, the pandering and jingoist politicians, and the foreign-policy experts and operatives (in DoD, DoS, NSC, and the intelligence agencies) whose careers rest upon perpetuating the notion of foreign threats (most of them spurious) to the national security of the US and its allies. In fact, it is the Democrats who, in this instance, are betraying the real US national interest (which is for peaceful international relations) as well as basic social justice principles.

Election meddling.

Congressional Democrats never miss any opportunity to vilify Russia for allegedly attacking “our democracy” by assisting the Trump campaign in the 2016 US Presidential election. Completely absent from the discourse is any acknowledgement of the long history (beginning with the 1948 Italian election) of US interventions in the national elections of numerous foreign countries (including the stealing of the 1996 Russian election for US favorite Boris Yeltsin). Russian intervention in the 2016 US election pales in comparison with many of the US interferences in other countries’ elections. Moreover, the Russian effort to sway the 2016 US Presidential election outcome was the least significant factor in the outcome, far eclipsed by: the flawed Democrat candidate and her mismanaged election campaign, abstentions on account of Democrat failure to deliver for their base constituencies, and the electoral college system as well as other anti-democratic features of US elections. In fact, US elections are rife with anti-democratic features: political discourse dominated by capitalist funding, gerrymanders, voter suppression, party leaders rigging the nomination process to favor the establishment candidate, convention superdelegates, etc. Moreover, the system is rigged in most states to maintain the 2-party duopoly which excludes and/or marginalizes all other parties. In actual effect, voters usually choose between candidates who are selected, not by the people, but by big-money interest groups and allied establishment political insiders.

Trump’s real crimes.

The real reasons that Trump should be prosecuted and removed include: (1) his murderous economic sieges which oppress millions and kill many thousands in Iran, Venezuela, and other countries targeted by Western imperialism; (2) his abetting mass murder in Yemen; (3) his violations of international human rights conventions, including the rights of asylum seekers; (4) his child cruelty crimes (family separations and other abuses perpetrated against immigrant children); (5) his incitements of white supremacist racial hatred resulting in murderous acts of domestic terrorism; (6) his bigoted attacks (via executive orders as well as his judicial and executive branch appointments) on the rights of women and of racial and religious minorities; and (7) his abetting the perpetrators of future climate catastrophe.

Relevant facts.

(1) These crimes are not unique to Trump. Many of the same and/or related crimes were perpetrated under previous Presidents (including Democrats Obama, Clinton, Carter, Johnson, and Kennedy) going back to Harry Truman. A few illustrative examples, far from a complete list. It was “deporter-in-chief” Obama: who first imposed sanctions on Venezuela, who backed extremely destructive rebellions against anti-imperialist governments in Libya and Syria causing massive suffering to the peoples of those countries, who first abetted the Saudi war on the people of Yemen, and who backed actual and attempted coups against popularly-elected governments in Honduras and Ecuador. “New Democrat” Clinton imposed a murderous sanctions regime on Iraq which caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands, mostly children. It was Carter who initiated the US-sponsored reigns of death and destruction in Nicaragua and Afghanistan by beginning the US arming and funding of the Nicaraguan Contras, and of the Islamist Mujahidin in Afghanistan. Kennedy and Johnson: incited and/or abetted numerous coups mostly against popularly-elected social-reformist governments, violated chemical weapons and other human rights conventions as they waged war against the people of Vietnam, and sponsored rightwing Cuban-exile gangs committing murder and sabotage in Cuba and elsewhere. Many more such crimes of the US government could be cited.

(2) Both Parties in Congress embrace (on the pretense of national security or of support for “democracy” and “human rights”) the bipartisan notion that the US should arrogate to itself the privilege of trying to decide for every vulnerable country throughout the world which political actors are to govern its people.

(3) Nearly every politician in Congress, regardless of Party, votes: for new cold war resolutions; for abetting the gross human rights violations and ethnic cleaning crimes of the Zionist state; for economic sieges which violate international human rights conventions; for grossly excessive military budgets; and so forth.

Analysis. Career-politician Congressional Democrats will generally not even broach the real crimes of Trump (as listed above). Why not? Because, they, along with previous Presidents of both Parties, have been deeply complicit in such crimes.

Conclusions.

Neither Party in Congress is making its decision based upon a fair evaluation of the evidence. The Democrats, under pressure from much of their base, are voting to impeach and remove on relatively trivial issues and based upon a prejudged interpretation of ambiguous factual evidence. Meanwhile, the Republicans, under pressure from their pro-Trump base, are voting against, regardless of the evidence.

Progressives must break with the Congressional Democrats and actively oppose the continuation of the unjustified new cold wars (against Russia and China), lest the existential threat of climate catastrophe be joined by the existential threat of nuclear Armageddon. Moreover, as activists for social justice, progressives must oppose the rampant bipartisan militarism and imperial interventionism which is at the root of US foreign policy. Trump’s impeachment and trial has been achieved thru new-cold-war Russia-bashing and embrace of US imperial interventionism; and, insofar as that is the means to bash Trump, it is absolutely obstructive to the pursuit of progress and social justice.

Author: Charles Pierce Date: 2019 Dec 18, updated 2020 Jan 27.

Charles Pierce is: a working-class retiree, a past union steward and local union officer, and currently a researcher and writer on history and politics. Other articles by Charles Pierce can be accessed by google search at https://specter-cp.home.blog.

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