Red November, Black November

Red November, black November, bleak November, black or red,

Hallowed month of labor’s martyrs, labor’s heroes, labor’s dead.

Labor’s wrath and hope and sorrow, red the promise, black the threat.

Who are we not to remember? Who are we to dare forget?

Red and black the colors blended, red and black the pledge we made:

Black until the fight is ended, red until the debt is paid!

August Spies and Albert Parsons, with Joe Hill and all the rest.

Who are we not to remember? Who are we to dare forget?

Red the flag and black the mask, red our hearts that beat as one,

Spur us to this better task, as the rays of the fall sun.

Red November, black November, red the promise, black the threat.

Who are we not to remember? Who are we to dare forget?

- Ralph Chaplin

George Engel, Adolf Fischer, Albert Parsons, and August Spies were murdered by the American state on November 11th, 1887. Joe Hill was murdered by the American state on November 19th, 1915. Frank Little was murdered by the Anaconda Copper Company on August 1st, 1917.

In response to Six Arguments for the Elimination of Capitalism

In response to http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/08/six-arguments-for-the-elimination-of-capitalism/ and cross-posted from tumblr.

Amorality – increase of individual and corporate wealth is the only core principle of capitalism. Recognition of any social concern or relationship to the natural world that transcends the goal of increasing capital accumulation is extrinsic to the system.
Dependence on growth – capitalism relies on limitless growth, but the natural resources essential to wealth production are finite. Super-exploitation is exhausting those resources and destroying the ecosystems of which they are a part, jeopardizing human survival as well as that of other species.
Propensity to war – since the only goal is to accumulate rather than distribute wealth, resources that produce wealth must be controlled; therefore war is inevitable.
Intrinsic inequity – without any constraining outside force or internalized principle of social equity, capital accumulation leads almost exclusively to more accumulation, and capital is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.
Anti-democratic – democracies are corruptible: wealth can purchase most of the representation it needs to get the laws necessary for further accumulation and concentration of wealth. This means that as the concentration of wealth increases, democracy is degraded and ultimately destroyed.
Unproductive of real happiness – human happiness and wellbeing are demonstrably tied to other factors besides capital accumulation. Extreme poverty is clearly unproductive of happiness, but so is wealth, past a relatively modest level. Happiness is most widespread where there are guarantees that basic needs will be met for all, wealth is more equitably distributed, and bonds between people and the natural environment are still stronger than the desire to accumulate wealth.

Interesting but problematic. Amorality seems to criticize the capitalist system for lacking any goal. Propensity for war criticizes it for having the goal of concentrating capital, and control, in as few hands as possible.

If we consider it in the abstract, actually-existing capitalism does concentrate wealth, and does tend to punish a lot of constructive action while rewarding a lot of destructive action. It does seem to reward ecocide.

If we consider it in context, those who have economic power tend to be those who have political power tend to be those who have economic power. And they shape the markets to protect their interests and expand their power, subsidizing the arms industry, creating the intellectual property [as in robbery] industry, and so on. Add in class insularity, and those who have power share the concerns and respect the opinions of others who have power, and can’t understand the concerns and actively disrespect the opinions of the rest of us. And everything gets filtered.

I don’t know what forms of economic organization are best at promoting human happiness and protecting the environment. I do know that concentrations of economic/political power/wealth are absolutely destructive of these ends.