Economics 101

Today, the people of the world face numerous seemingly unsolvable problems.  There is widespread poverty, destruction of the environment as well as war and discrimination. 

Many people have opinions as to the causes of these problems.  Some argue that greedy people are the cause of many of the problems we face.  Clearly, when we look at the gross disparity of wealth in the world, greed clearly plays a factor.

There are two basic problems with this point of view.  First, some would argue that, if only the people who have power were less greedy, we would be better off.  Then, they argue that greed is a part of the human condition and this means that the problems of the world are inevitable.

A more realistic explanation to the cause of the problems we face comes from the political economic system known as capitalism.  We will not find this point of view in the pro-capitalist news media or on the university campuses.  This is because corporations fund news media as well as universities and they do not hold kindly to criticism.

So, this column will look at the history of capitalism to show how the natural functioning of this system created the enormous problems we face today.  Understanding this history will enable us to point to an alternative to capitalist property relations.

The history of capitalism

Before capitalism existed, there were feudal kingdoms.  During these times, serfs lived on manors and farmed the land.  The serf lived their entire life on the manor and wasn’t allowed to leave. 

Artisans produced the items the royal families wanted.  This was small-scale production that didn’t attempt to fulfill the needs of society as a whole.

Out of this atmosphere a new capitalist class emerged.  Doctors, journalists, bankers, and small business owners gradually came into conflict with the royal families.  Eventually, revolutions erupted and the capitalist class came to power.

The new rulers forced the serfs off the land and they moved to the cities.  In these cities the former serfs became workers where they toiled under horrendous conditions.  Under these conditions, a new working class emerged that demanded improved working conditions.  This new class will learn that working people produce all of the wealth of the world. 

As capitalism developed, the small companies competed with one another and used machinery in a way to cut costs.  This machinery allowed the capitalists to eliminate jobs.  However, in order to pay for the machinery and produce a profit the capitalist needed to be obsessed with cutting costs.  This process meant that only a few large corporations would dominate the economy of entire nations.

Here we see one of the fundamental problems with capitalism.  As the capitalist hires fewer and fewer production workers their percent of profit on investment declines.  This means that corporations will always be obsessed with cutting costs.  Corporations will also need to grow in order to obtain a smaller and smaller percent of profit.

Because corporations have become so large they have relied more and more on banks for their funding.  Today banks and other investment companies dominate capitalist economies.  Whenever we hear a corporation claim that it isn’t making money, we need to ask the question: How much money is that corporation paying in interest to a bank?  Corporations view payments to banks as “expenses” but these so-called expenses are part of the surplus value derived from human labor.

Because of the need for corporations to continually grow, capitalists from all over the world compete with each other for domination of the world markets.  The first and second world wars decided that the United States would be the world’s superpower.

However, even with the economic domination of the world in the hands of just a few capitalist corporations, the decline in the rate of profit continues to be the cause of economic crisis. 

Investment capitalists used a scheme called “junk bonds” in an attempt to stabilize the market.  These junk bonds were regulated and when the bond traders violated these regulations, some went to prison. 

Then, investors invented a new scheme called “derivates.”  These derivatives have no government regulation and traders can sell them with little fear of going to prison.  The inventors of these derivatives funds received Nobel Prizes for their efforts.  Today there is about one thousand trillion dollars, or one quadrillion dollars invested in derivatives.  These funds are merely extremely complicated bets on how the market will perform in the future.  We might consider that while all this money is sitting in these useless funds, about forty percent of the world’s population lives on two dollars per day or less.           

What are small businesses?

Many supporters of capitalism argue that one way of “getting ahead” is to start a small business.  However, when we think of all the commodities we purchase, most of those commodities come from large corporations.  Our food comes from supermarkets.  Transportation usually comes from the auto companies.  Clothing comes from department stores.  Occasionally we might eat out, and the restaurant might, or might not, be a small business.

The government claims to regulate these corporations.  However, these so-called government regulations merely allow the large companies to continue to dominate the economy.  Corporations, as we have seen, are extremely skilled at deflecting any meaningful government regulations.

What is the alternative to capitalism?

Today, there is only one conclusion to this history.  While there were some progressive aspects to the emergence of capitalism, this system no longer represents anything progressive.  In fact, capitalism even in its earliest days, was a system of brutal repression.

The goal of the capitalist is to have economic stability.  In the long term, history has shown that this is virtually an impossible dream.  Since the earliest days of capitalism, the decline in the rate of profit has caused one crisis after another.  During the depression of the 1930’s the banks simply closed their doors and millions of working people lost all their savings.  Capitalists, on the other hand, managed to stay in business and received indispensable government support.  

I wrote about this history to say that there is an alternative to capitalism.  Working people produce all wealth in the world, yet we have no control over this wealth.  Capitalists use this wealth to continue to profit, while being obsessed with cutting costs.

A workers government would use the wealth we produce to guarantee that everyone would have the food, clothing, housing, education, and health care we all need to live.  Working people could work fewer hours with a much higher standard of living.

Instead of sitting in traffic jams after a long day’s work, we could ride on trains going 200 miles per hour while reading a news paper.  With the extra time on our hands we would be able to figure out the answers to the real problems we face.  These being the depletion of natural resources, the destruction of the environment, the cures for disease, and the best way to free humanity from ignorance and alienation.

When we listen to news annalists talk endlessly about the problem we face, we might consider that there is an elephant in the room that these annalists are determined not to see.  This elephant is the fact that the natural workings of the capitalist system, that they all support, is the root cause of our problems.  Working people have been organizing in unions to support our interests since the first years of capitalism.  When we see that we can control the wealth we produce, then, the world can begin to be constructed on completely new foundations.

 

                 

What is the significance of the Forth of July?

Every year the forth of July is a national holiday in the United States.  On this day we see people displaying flags of this country in every possible area.  We might consider that this day is a celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in the year 1776.  This declaration is a list of grievances given by representatives of the thirteen colonies against the British crowned government.  These grievances explained why the thirteen colonies decided to carry out a political revolution against the British.  At the time, the British government was the most powerful in the world.  These are the reasons the colonists gave for carrying out this revolution:

The Declaration of Independence

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.  But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

History doesn’t always give us a clear explanation of how or why events unfolded.  On the one hand, the Declaration of Independence promoted “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  The British rule of the thirteen colonies was, indeed, tyrannical.  The class of people called “gentleman” were the only people who had full rights in the thirteen colonies.  Someone could only become a gentleman through birth.  These so-called gentlemen could sentence everyday people to horrendous punishments whenever they chose to.  Today, no one argues that this country would be better off if it were ruled by the British crown.

On the other hand, the Declaration of Independence used the racist word savage, when it referred to the first inhabitants of this part of the world.  The government that came into existence with the Declaration of Independence continued the genocidal war against Native Americans for over 100 years.

Other views on the Declaration of Independence

Many of those who supported the revolution owned slaves and supported the continuation of this savage institution.  One of those slaves was Frederick Bailey.  Bailey escaped from slavery at the age of 19 and changed his name to Frederick Douglass.  Douglass changed his name because escaping from slavery was against the law and this made him a criminal in the eyes of the government.  

Recently a statue was unveiled in Washington D.C. of Frederick Douglass.  Eventually he became a leader of the movement to abolish slavery.  On July 5, 1852, Douglass gave a speech where he was asked to talk about the meaning of the Forth of July holiday.  The quotation below is an excerpt from that speech:

“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?  I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.  To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons of thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy – a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.  There is not a nation on earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

“Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reins without rival….”

In 1967 Martin Luther King echoed the words of Douglass when he spoke out in opposition to the war against Vietnam.  King argued that the United States government was the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world.”

Malcolm X also spoke to this issue.  He argued that Black people in the United States were part of an international struggle for freedom and human dignity.  He argued that the Vietnamese had a common struggle with Black people in the United States.  He proposed that the World Court place the United States government on trial for the human rights abuses against Black people.  He also said, that the rights of Black people need to be defended, “by any means necessary.”

Why does the government spy in citizens?

Recently, the newspapers have reported that the National Security Agency is spying on the phone records and personal internet information of citizens in this country.  They say they will only uncover these records of people who are under suspicion.  In the past, the government has spied on both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.  The U.S. government, at one time viewed Nelson Mandela as a terrorist.

The immediate question to be asked is: Why is this happening?  While the answer to this question is clear, the pro-capitalist media doesn’t even consider giving a rational answer to this question.  There is a reason for this.

The capitalist system defies all rationalizations that attempt to defend it.  We are talking about a political economic system where a tiny minority of the population lives in opulence.  Working people routinely toil in horrendous conditions and have no control of their working environments.  Poverty is a fact of life in all capitalist nations and it is increasing.  Women, Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, and gays routinely experience discrimination.  War and the destruction of the environment are necessary for capitalism. 

All of these horrors are routine facts of life for one and only one reason.  This is to maximize profits on investments for capitalists.

This is why the government has always needed to spy on the people of this country.  The system of capitalism doesn’t make any sense at all.  Because the government chooses to defend this system they spy on anyone who opposes their rule.  This is why they spied on Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Nelson Mandela.

Conclusion

The Forth of July signifies that the United States was born because of a political revolution.  The Civil War was another revolution that removed slave owners from the positions of power they held.  The labor, civil rights, woman’s, and anti-war movements all erupted to challenge the routine practices of corporations and their supporters in the U.S. government.

If we look at the Forth of July from this point of view, I believe we can gain the perspective we will need to make this a nation where there will be human dignity for all.  We can also gain insight by looking at the struggles that took place in the past.

Thomas Paine was one the supporters of the first American Revolution.  Pain wrote a pamphlet titled Common Sense that was the most popular piece of literature in the thirteen colonies.  This pamphlet influenced the writing of the Declaration of Independence.

During the revolution the forces supporting independence had suffered several defeats.  The revolutionary army took refuge in a cold winter in Valley Forge and they were short of supplies.  They needed to figure out how they would continue the fight to defeat the most powerful army in the world.

During that period, this is what Thomas Paine had to say:

“These are the times that try men’s souls.  The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” 

I will close with another quotation from Frederick Douglass:

“Power concedes nothing without a demand.  It never did and it never will.  Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.”                   

In the Valley of Elah - A review

Written and directed by Paul Haggis, 2007

Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, and Susan Sarandon

This past Memorial Day, I was flipping through the channels on the television and decided to watch a film titled, In the Valley of Elah.  The film at first appeared to be a fairly typical mystery involving a missing soldier who had recently returned from Iraq.  As the film unfolded, it became clear that this movie was much more than a typical mystery that happened to be based on a true story.  This also became a good way to spend Memorial Day.

The Story Outline

Tommy Lee Jones played the leading role of Hank Deerfield.  Deerfield was a veteran who had been a military police officer.  While he saw that there were many problems with the military, he identified with that lifestyle.  He shined his shoes and pressed his pants every day.  He was proud of his time in the military and felt he had served his country.

When he received news that his son was missing, he felt that something was profoundly wrong.  He knew his son, and thought that he would never abandon his post.  So, Deerfield traveled to the military base where his son was stationed and decided to carry out his own investigation.

After retiring from the military, Deerfield became a truck driver who transported gravel.  He also studied military history and knew how to be a meticulous investigator.  Eventually he learned that his son had been murdered and his body was mutilated.  The immediate question was: Who would have done such a horrendous crime?

Two stories

This film is about the development of principal two stories.  One story is about Deerfield’s son and his friends in the military.  We only see his son through flashbacks.  Deerfield spoke of his son as a decent person who wanted to pursue a military life. 

Then, we see his son driving a humvee in Iraq.  The son has orders never to stop the vehicle because stopping for any reason might expose the troops to an ambush.  We see this soldier murder a child playing in the road because he would not stop his vehicle.

After this incident, the son calls the father at home, apparently having a breakdown because of the guilt he felt from murdering a child.  The father understands the horrors of war.  Although he doesn’t know what his son has done, he suggests that he tough it out.

Then, we see the son toughing it out by adapting to his environment.  This would mean that he sadistically tortured a prisoner.  He, or one of his friends desecrated the corpse of someone they murdered.  In the course of the film, we see that most of the soldiers who saw these acts felt that they were a big joke and a source of humor.

Then, we see the other story.  This is of Hank Deerfield the veteran who identified with the military.  As we see this story develop, we see Deerfield change his views of the military.  As he sees the transformation that took place with his son, he begins to question the essence of what the military is all about.                    

The final scene of the film brings together the entire story.  Deerfield does something that might be seen as a prank from a high school student.  However, Deerfield was someone who supported the military throughout his life.  The final scene makes it clear that he felt that there was something profoundly wrong, not just with the military, but also with the government that sent his son to Iraq.

Heaven & Earth

While the film, In the Valley of Elah was highly effective in its opposition to the U.S. war machine, there was an important story that this film didn’t attempt to portray.  This is how U.S. sponsored wars effect the very individuals they claim to protect. 

We see this story in Oliver Stone’s 1993 movie Heaven & Earth.  Tommy Lee Jones also has a role in this film.  This is the true story portrayed in the book by Le Ly Hayslip titled: When Heaven & Earth Changed Places.

In this story we see how Hayslip’s family was virtually destroyed because of the war against the people of Vietnam.  While Hayslip’s family had a difficult life before the war, things became impossible in the so-called U.S. effort to “defend democracy.”  Her family farm became a demilitarized zone.  Her sister became a prostitute for the U.S. military.

These two films effectively destroy all the arguments the U.S. government has made to support their wars.  These two films make us raise the questions: Why did the government order thousands of soldiers to give their lives in these wars?  Why did the government spend trillions of dollars on these wars?  How did the destruction of entire nations benefit anyone?

These are the kinds of questions we need to ask when the government continues to ask us to support their wars.  This is especially relevant on Memorial Day as well as the Forth of July.     

Venus and Serena – The film – A review

Directors:

Maiken Baird

Michelle Major

Written by:

Michelle Major

My father had a lifelong passion for tennis and introduced me to the game at an early age.  I consider myself fortunate to have an appreciation for this game and to have lived at a time when Venus and Serena Williams competed.  In my opinion, their story is one of the most compelling in the history of all sports.   

I first saw Venus Williams compete at the U.S. Open before she became a champion.  At the time, I had never seen a woman play tennis who had that kind of power.  I knew that if she could control her power she would dominate the game.  She certainly did that.

The background to this story

The film Venus and Serena gives the background to their lives and begins to explain why they became so successful in this sport.  While I’ve never met the Williams sisters, this review will look at some issues that the film didn’t cover.

Venus and Serena’s father is Richard Williams.  Richard Williams was born and raised in Louisiana, and in the film he spoke about how he had been brutalized during those years.  Eventually he lived in the inner city of Compton, California, where he taught the Williams sisters to play tennis.   

In Isabel Wilkerson’s book, The Warmth of Other Suns – the epic story of America’s Great Migration, she wrote about Dr. Robert Foster who also was born and raised in Louisiana, and then migrated to California.  She wrote about how Dr. Foster wasn’t able to make many stops on his way to California in 1953, because there were few hotels that would allow him to stay due to the color of his skin.  Dr. Foster’s experience was similar to immigrants from all over the world.  He left a place where he didn’t want to be, and went to a place where he wasn’t wanted.

Wilkerson also wrote about how there was an entire African American community that had migrated from Louisiana to California.  One family that migrated was the basketball star Bill Russell’s parents.  Another migrant was Geronimo Pratt.  Pratt became a leader of the Black Panthers.  He served about 29 years in prison for a murder the courts eventually argued that he did not commit.

Understanding that this was the environment Richard Williams needed to deal with, his story becomes much more compelling.  Certainly, Mr. Williams didn’t learn the finer points of tennis during his childhood in Louisiana.  Eventually he learned how tennis was a game that young Black women could excel in.  Armed with this knowledge, as well as his history of brutalization in Louisiana, he trained two of his daughters to excel in the game.   Mr. Williams also taught his children to be proud of the fact that they are Black.

Richard Williams wasn’t the only parent who raised his children to succeed.  Certainly, Oracene Price, the Williams sister’s mother was a big part of their story. 

Other parents of star performers

Andre Agassi’s father was also a taskmaster to his son.  Agassi also became one of the dominant tennis players of his day. 

I listened to an interview with Agassi when he talked about his autobiography, Open.  He said that he hated the pressure cooker atmosphere of competitive tennis.  He also admitted to using methamphetamine to relieve the stress he felt.

A better person to compare Richard Williams to would be Joe Jackson who was the father of Michael Jackson.  Both Williams and Jackson raised their children to go right to the top of their avocations.  Both Williams and Jackson were taskmasters who required their children to focus on their talent and to avoid the day-to-day activities children normally participate in.  Both the Williams and Jackson families were, or continue to be, Jehovah’s Witnesses. 

While Richard Williams was born in Louisiana, Joe Jackson was raised in Arkansas and migrated to Gary, Indiana.  In Gary, Joe Jackson became a steel worker and did everything in his power to make sure his children didn’t endure a similar fate.  Unlike the story of Richard Williams, Joe Jackson admits to having beaten Michael Jackson.  In the film Venus and Serena, there was no allegation made that Richard Williams beat his children.

Clearly there have been problems between the Williams sisters and their father.  Oracene Price also has a few unkind words to say about her former husband.  In no way am I attempting to say that these views were not legitimate.  All I’m attempting to say is that Richard Williams’ effort to make his daughters into world champions was a truly compelling story.

Why is the Williams sisters story so compelling? 

While others have been burnt out after a few years of competition, both Williams sisters have remained champions for over a decade.  They have done this through serious injuries or illnesses.  They have done this while being booed because of the color of their skin.  They have done this while enduring the murder of a sister.  They have done this in a sport that attracts the affluent, while being raised in the inner city of Compton, California.

My favorite match of the many wonderful matches I’ve seen of the Williams sisters was one between Justine Henin and Serena Williams at the French Open.  Justine Henin may have been one of the best players in woman’s tennis during the time the Williams sisters competed.  Henin was thin, fast, and she could hit the ball hard.  Henin was also cool under pressure and a player needed to play a better game to defeat her, because she would not beat herself.

This was a wonderful match that was only decided by the last few points.  During the match some of the French fans, in all their stupidity, booed Serena.  These French fans must have forgotten that French colonial armies had been defeated by armies of people who were not Caucasian in places like Algeria, Haiti, and Vietnam.

On this day, Henin won the few points that enabled her to win the match.  However, Serena Williams never gave up, and played hard until the end.  Serena would be a champion for a much longer period of time than Justine Hardin, and win more championships. 

In the film, Venus and Serena, Serena Williams talked about why she has been so competitive on the tennis court.  She said that she didn’t want to be another statistic.  In other words, her background was a clear factor in her outstanding success.   

This is a story of how two young sisters managed to overcome nearly insurmountable odds to become world champions for over a decade.  This is a story of how they have done this while remaining proud of who they are. 

Certainly, the world’s problems will not be solved by world champion tennis players.  However, this story is about how it was indeed possible for two young talented Black women from an inner city of this country to gain the discipline to achieve their goals.  While there have been many others who have achieved other momentous goals, certainly Venus and Serena Williams deserve their place in history.                                

One Day in December – A review

One Day in December – Celia Sánchez and the Cuban Revolution

By Nancy Stout, 2013

Monthly Review Press

For many years, I’ve been inspired to read about the lives of revolutionaries.  These are people who had been raised in a more or less typical environment, and transformed themselves into leaders of political movements.  These political movements didn’t merely attempt to reform one or another aspect of society.  No, these leaders attempted to form a new kind of government that would have completely different priorities.  The list of some of these leaders would include, Spartacus, Thomas Paine, Tecumseh, Frederick Douglass, Jose Martí, Ida Wells, Mother Jones, Vladimir Illyich Lenin, Eugene Debs, Malcolm X, Ernesto Che Guevara, and Nelson Mandela.

Looking at this list we see that most of these leaders were men.  Nancy Stout spent ten years researching her biography of Celia Sánchez.  Reading Stout’s book, we can see why the name Celia Sánchez clearly needs to be added to this list.  In this biography we see a woman who overcomes unbelievable odds to put in place a government that transformed the lives of the Cuban people.

Celia Sánchez’ early life

Celia Sánchez was one of eight children.  Her mother died when Celia was a child.  Celia’s father, Manuel Sánchez was a medical doctor who was born into a prominent Cuban family.  Manuel Sanchez decided that he didn’t want to pursue a lucrative medical career in Havana. 

Instead, he set up a practice in a small town called Pilón, on the southeastern part of Cuba in the province of Oriente.  Pilón also happened to be in close proximity to the Sierra Maestra mountain range.  The Sánchez home was located next to the sugar mill that dominated the life of the town.  While this home was the most prominent in the community, it only had access to electricity for a few hours per day.

Manuel Sánchez’ decided that he would not charge his patients who could not afford his services.  Many of those patients never had access to medical care and could barely afford to survive.

Celia Sánchez decided not to pursue a formal education.  Instead she pursued a different kind of education as a medical assistant to her father.  She talked to all of her father’s patients and assisted in their treatment.  At times, Celia and her father would make house calls where they visited their patients on horseback.

Manuel Sánchez also taught his daughter about the long and revolutionary history of Cuba.  He introduced her to the rugged forest of the Sierra Maestre and taught her to appreciate its beauty.  He also took her deep-sea fishing, and this became one of Celia’s passions.  After a day of fishing, Celia and her friends would eat their catch of the day on the beach and under the stars.

Celia also liked to wear makeup with bright red lipstick.  She read the fashion magazines and oftentimes visited Miami where she purchased goods for her side business.  Even after the revolution, when she usually wore military fatigues, she also liked to wear high-heel shoes.

Celia also became intimately aware of the grinding poverty that surrounded her.  Many, if not most people were illiterate.  Workers who did the backbreaking work of cutting sugar cane only had an income for about three months per year.

The rural guards operated as a despotic and tyrannical dictatorship.  They took whatever they wanted from the campesinos who lived in the area.  The rape of women by the rural guards was a common occurrence.  Those who resisted the will of the rural guards routinely faced torture and or death.

Celia and her father supported two political leaders who attempted to put in place a rational government in Cuba.  Both these efforts failed.

Then, a new organization was formed called the July 26 movement.  Celia joined and had a new hope of transforming Cuba.

The revolution

Joining the July 26 movement meant that Celia would have challenges she never had before.  She would need to transform herself from a relatively independent woman, into someone who took strict orders from Frank País, who was, along with Fidel Castro, one of the two central leaders.  Failure to carry out these orders could mean disaster.

País had a discussion with Celia where they talked about how Fidel Castro would be landing on a ship from Mexico.  This ship would be carrying a rebel army that would carry out a guerrilla war in Cuba.  Celia’s job would be to use her contacts in the Sierra Maestra to aid the liberation army when they landed.  This job was ideally suited for Celia since she not only knew everyone in the region, she also knew those people who would be willing to give everything for a chance to change the Cuban reality.

When the boat called the Granma finally was supposed to land there was an unavoidable delay.  When the Granma finally landed there was a near total catastrophe.  The government announced that Fidel Castro, as well as most of the soldiers from the rebel army were dead. 

Celia might have wondered if all of her efforts throughout her life to bring about change in Cuba were over.  Then, one of her friends found her and gave her the news that Fidel and the remnants of his army were safe in the Sierra.

Now Celia’s job would be to aid Frank País to recruit soldiers for the rebel army and to secure supplies.  Celia had the ingenious idea of setting up a training center in the middle of a forest of a weed-like plant that grows wild in Cuba.  The training center was on a rice plantation in the town of Manzanillo, located in close proximity to the headquarters of the rural guards.

The owner of the rice plantation made an unexpected visit to his property.  At the time Celia was a known and wanted fugitive.  The plantation owner discovered Celia’s whereabouts and demanded that she leave his property.

Celia responded that: “I’m not leaving.  You are leaving.”  This is an example of how Celia understood how to quickly and decisively deal with a potentially disastrous situation.  Had this plantation owner reported Celia to the authorities, this would have compromised both Celia and all the soldiers in her training center.  This might have also, in effect, sentenced the Cuban people to more years of despotic tyranny.

The government of Fulgencio Batista became obsessed with wiping out the rebel army.  Life became increasingly difficult in the cities for Celia and Frank País.  Eventually the government captured País and murdered him without a trial.  Sixty-thousand Cubans in Santiago came out for his funeral and literally closed down the city.

Eventually life became too dangerous for Celia in the city and she joined Fidel in the Sierra Maestra.  Here she would have a new life.  This meant marching for ten to twelve miles every day to avoid discovery by Batista’s armed forces.  At the end of these marches the rebel army might enter a town where they demonstrated how these soldiers were completely different from the rural guards.

In these rural towns conditions existed that were similar to conditions of rural towns in much of the underdeveloped world.  The United Nations estimated that every day about 30,000 children under the age of five die of preventable diseases.  One of the problems affecting these children is the lack of shoes.  Parasites enter the feet of children, who sustain bloated stomachs, and might die of dehydration caused by diarrhea.

Celia knew many of the people in these villages.  When she saw a child who needed medical attention she spoke with the parents and asked if a rebel doctor could treat their children.  She also asked if they wanted a rebel priest to preside over a wedding or a baptism.  We should keep in mind that many of the rebels were not religious.  She also participated in setting up schools, that, for the first time would teach the people of these towns how to read.

Here we see the core values of the revolutionary movement.  After the revolution, the government developed a health care system where there are more doctors per capita in Cuba than in any other nation in the world.  There are also probably more teachers per capita in Cuba than any other nation in the world.  Thousands of these doctors and teachers travel throughout the world to aid people who live lives that are similar to the lives of the Cuban campesinos before the revolution.

We might also compare this attitude to the reality in the United States.  Here patients need to have an insurance card just to receive care and the care patients receive is based on the kind of insurance they have.  This means that there is an epidemic of treatable and curable diseases in the U.S. because the health care system is based on profit.  In fact, the U.S. pays more for health care per person than any other nation in the world.  Yet, many working people go into astronomical debt just to obtain the medical treatment they need.

Eventually the Batista government used the support it received from the United States to launch an offensive of thousands of soldiers against the rebels in the mountains.  Celia was charged with making the area controlled by the July 26 movement self sustaining for an indefinite period of time.

She organized the building of a small town in the mountains that was covered by a canopy of trees that hid the town from enemy aircraft.  In this town there was a headquarters for Fidel, a hospital, as well as an administration center.  Celia also had flowers planted to add to the beauty of this town.

She also organized farmers to plant vegetables that would sustain the people living in the area.  She organized a mule train to transport needed supplies up the mountain that would not be detected by Batista’s army.    

The morale as well as the persistence of the revolutionary movement became too powerful for the Batista government.  Batista left the country and the July 26 movement took control of the government.

Celia Sánchez and the revolutionaries take power

One of Celia’s first acts as a government leader was to organize a plane to fly over the Sierra Maestra and drop toys for the children of the region.  Before the revolution, Celia organized to give toys to hundreds of children on the holidays.  As a leader of the government, she made sure that this tradition would be continued.                

The accomplishments of Celia Sánchez after the revolution are too numerous to mention in this review.  Nancy Stout reported that when Fidel Castro mentioned an idea that might benefit people, it was Celia who organized to make that idea a reality.

One of her accomplishments was organizing to make the Zapata Swamp an ecological and tourist center.  She organized the construction of the Coppelia Ice Cream Parlor that serves about 35,000 people every day.  She organized the building of the huge Lenin Park on the outskirts of Havana.  Even during the most difficult moments of the revolution, Celia organized an archives which gives documentation to the events of the Cuban revolution.   Celia and Fidel also took personal responsibility for several children who had been orphaned during the revolution.  Typically Celia worked 16 hour days to accomplish these and many other goals.

Celia also set up an office in Havana for people from the Sierra Maestra who were having difficulties.  This office gave these campesinos medical care.  The women received hairdos, facials, and manicures.  This office would also help people find jobs.  Some would be assigned to assist craft people who taught their crafts to those who carried on the trade.  This kind of treatment gave the people from the countryside a new outlook on life.

Celia Sánchez passed away in 1980.  Millions of Cubans paid their respects at her funeral.  Armando Hart, who is a leader of the Cuban government gave the speech commemorating her memory.  He called Celia Cuba’s most authentic wild flower.  He also said that she was Fidel Castro’s “alter ego”­­—his trusted compañera, his second self.                  

Celia Sánchez’ place in history

Today media pundits like to fantasize about how woman who are politicians like Hillary Clinton represent the ideals of woman’s liberation.  They also imagine that woman who are corporate officers advance the goals of all women.  However, the capitalist system requires low paid workers to sustain it’s profits.  Capitalist politicians and corporate officers who might be millionaires seek to maintain this system.  As a result, women typically receive wages that are about 75% of the wages of men.

Celia Sánchez dedicated her life to doing away with the system that exploits women.  When the United States invaded Cuba at the Playa Girón or Bay of Pigs, Celia Sanchez was the first government leader to go to the sight of combat.  While Celia organized the fight to defend the Cuban people, Washington organized to put in place the old style government.  This would have been a government of theft, rape, torture, and murder.

Understanding this story, told by Nancy Stout and others, gives us a sense of why the Cuban people loved Celia Sánchez.  Her life also demonstrates that there will be more women who are capable of carrying out similar struggles throughout the world.         

Lenin Understood What Is To Be Done

He was born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov

and raised in the town of Simbirsk, Russia.

His father was an educator

and Vladimir Ilyich became a diligent student.

At that time, Russia was

an extremely repressive place to live.  

Peasants, who were treated miserably,

needed a passport just to travel in the land of their birth.

People could be arrested

merely for attending meetings to discuss politics.

Jews were restricted to living in certain areas

and experienced the horrors of pogroms.

Under these conditions many people

developed a hatred for the monarch known as the Czar.

Vladimir Ilyich’s brother Alexander

understood that hatred.

He attempted to assassinate the Czar,

in an effort that would have benefited no one, but failed.

His life would have been spared,

if he cooperated with the authorities,

But he refused,

and Alexander Ulyanov

who dedicated his life to the liberation of his people

was executed.

Vladimir Ilyich learned several lessons

from the example of his brother. 

He learned not be afraid to

stand alone defending a point of view.

He also learned that only a realistic

program for action would have a chance of success,

and for the rest of his life he would dedicate

himself to bringing about this realistic program for action.

However, being a political activist in Czarist Russia

was not an easy task.

Vladimir Illyich needed to change his name

and became Lenin.

He was arrested for participating in a discussion group,

sent to prison, and exiled to Siberia.

This experience and many others led Lenin

to advocate for a new kind of political organization.

He wrote, What is to be done?

where he argued that Russia needed

a national organization with a newspaper,

and a national leadership that would coordinate activities.

Many were repulsed by this approach

arguing that Russia was already

a tightly controlled society

that needed to be freed from oppression.

  

However, workers understood how unions

were organized by a leadership

where everyone had a say,

but when decisions were reached, all worked to achieve common goals.

Lenin also argued that a national leadership

would help workers develop a class consciousness

where they would begin to understand

how their interests were completely opposed to capitalism.

While Lenin understood that

economic demands were necessary,

he also understood that economic concessions

were the easiest thing for the capitalists to part with.

The Bolshevik party also made political demands

supporting the rights of peasants,

opposing censorship,

and defending the right of workers to demonstrate.

In the year 1905 a revolution erupted in Russia.

The workers were not properly organized,

and the Czar drowned

the uprising in blood.

During this revolution a workers organization

called the Soviets was organized.

The Soviets were confederations of workers

designed to politically defend workers in any way necessary.

Lenin learned many things from this revolution

and wrote his pamphlet,

Two Tactics of Social Democracy

in the Democratic Revolution.

Lenin argued that the bourgeoisie

which controls most corporations

will not advance a democratic course

when a revolution erupts.

 

On the other hand,

workers have a distinct interest in breaking

from the past and advancing

along genuinely democratic lines.

Lenin also understood how Czarist Russia

was a prison-house of many nations,

which experienced profound discrimination,

so the Czar and the affluent could remain in power.

So Lenin wrote another pamphlet called

The Right of Nations to Self-Determination

where he argued that the Bolsheviks

needed to be the staunchest opponents of oppression.

But Lenin didn’t just write pamphlets.

While he was forced to live outside Russia

he did everything in his power to organize

the Bolsheviks and publish their newspaper.

He then attempted to explain why

the first world war was unfolding

in his pamphlet, Imperialism,

the Highest State of Capitalism.

He showed how the so called

free enterprise system

evolved into a system where

monopolies controlled industrial production.

Cartels controlled the

distribution of commodities.

Finance capital controlled

the economies of nations with loans.

This state of affairs led several

nations to go to war with one another

in order to decide which one

would control the world.

While the capitalists advocated war.

Lenin advocated support for workers and farmers

in underdeveloped nations, and immigrant workers

who seek employment where they can find it.  

The first world war cost the lives

of millions in Russia,

and the economy of that nation

was destroyed.

Revolution erupted and

a provisional government took power.

After several months,

Lenin was able to return to his homeland.

But the Provisional Government

made no real change in the lives of the people,

and continued the war

which was tearing the nation apart.

Lenin argued that the war

needed to be ended immediately

and advanced the demand

Peace, Bread, and Land.

Lenin also showed how capitalists

were reaping huge profits from the war,

and the task was not just to argue for socialism,

but to expose the plunder of the state.

Someone who didn’t like Lenin said

“A man who talks this

kind of stupidity is not dangerous.”

Working people in Russia were learning that Lenin in no way was stupid.

The Provisional Government responded

by charging Lenin with treason

and ordered his arrest

for advocating and end to the holocaust.

But the workers and farmers also

wanted peace, bread, and land,

so another revolution erupted

and the Bolsheviks took power.

On the day of the Revolution

Lenin was still in hiding disguised

as a woman wearing a wig.

After the revolution they said he could take the wig off.

That was a long day,

but in the end Lenin had one more thing to do.

He wrote a proclamation giving land

to the peasants whose families worked that land for centuries. 

Lenin understood that when the Bolsheviks

adopted this proclamation

there would be no force on earth

which would remove them from power.

He then wrote, The State and Revolution

where Lenin showed how the state

was created by the capitalist system

and used as an instrument of repression against workers.

When workers take power the state will continue to exist,

but now the state will be used to repress the old order

just as the American revolutionary government

repressed British interests after that revolution.

Czarist Russia became the Union of

Soviet Socialist Republics

where each republic had its own government

working in union with all others.

At this time, Germany demanded a huge area

of the Soviet Union

and most of the Bolsheviks were unwilling

to grant this concession.

Lenin understood than a continuation of the war

could only mean disaster,

and said he would resign from the government

if the war was not ended.

Once the Bolsheviks delivered on the demands

Peace and land, they then had to deliver the bread.

Here there was another problem.

The Soviet economy was in shambles.

Russia had experienced a world war,

two revolutions, a civil war would erupt,

and fourteen nations would invade

the Soviet Union.

The entire infrastructure of the economy was destroyed.

In this vast agricultural nation

the people experienced hunger

and the Bolsheviks did everything the could to give the people food.

Some factory owners refused to pay workers their Christmas bonus.

The Bolsheviks declared that if they

did not come up with one-million rubles in twenty-four hours,

they would be sent to mine coal.  The owners came up with the money. 

During this period Lenin was shot by an assassin

and survived but was debilitated.

Yakov M. Sverdlov was the secretary to the party,

but died as a result of an epidemic that killed millions throughout the world.

Joseph Stalin replaced Sverdlov

and placed his personal advancement

before the revolution

and the needs of workers and farmers.

Many people of the middle classes

lost their possessions in the course of the revolution.

Stalin gave these people economic incentives

if they joined the Communist Party and did what they were told.

After everything the Soviet Union had been through,

the people were not able to overcome

this last challenge

and Stalin managed to betray the Revolution.

Even though Lenin was debilitated,

he managed to criticize

Stalin’s political course.

Only death prevented him from continuing the struggle.

But a transformation had taken place

in the Soviet Union.

The large enterprises had been confiscated

by the state.

Corporate interests no longer had power.

This change meant that

many aspects of poverty could be eliminated,

but capitalists would never cease in their attempts to regain that property. 

The Soviet Union lost 27 million human beings

defending itself against fascist Germany,

which was the most powerful military nation

of its times.

But the Stalinist regime eventually collapsed

and many capitalist corporations emerged,

but most enterprises continued to be controlled

by the government.

Today the world is on the eve of another capitalist crisis.

The ideas of Lenin have never been more relevant.

Workers and farmers all over the world

can learn many invaluable lessons by studying the life of Lenin.