Lougheed Spanks Klein

Klein's lack of planning leaves oil development in 'a mess'
Former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed has sharply criticized the government of departing Premier Ralph Klein for failing to properly plan oilsands growth, creating a "mess" that is depriving the province of royalty revenues. The Klein government's strategy to encourage unparalleled investment in the oilsands sparked an overheated economy due to several concurrent projects in the Fort McMurray area, Lougheed said during an interview with The Herald.

Planning was never Ralphs strong suit. Flying by the seat of his pants was.

Klein's legacy: for richer, for poorer
For a politician who many credit with building the most successful economy on the continent, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein is spending his final days in office looking glum. His speeches, once powerful, have been defensive. He is under attack for creating so much of a good thing the province is reeling from labour shortages, inflation and a lack of infrastructure. Even Ralphbucks, a $1.4-billion giveaway to Albertans last year that was supposed to bolster his legacy, was derided in the province as irresponsible.

Klein had only one plan ever, to cut budgets, cut public services etc. in order to slay the momentary fiscal dragon of debt and deficit. A creation of his own government which he inherited from Don Getty.

It was a moment in history that saw provincial governments and the federal government face the same downturn in the economy. Between 1993-1995 the temporary down turn allowed the Neo-Cons to gain strength as 'the new' political ideology of capitalist governments and the ruling parties in Canada. Nowhere moreso than in Alberta under Ralph. It even got coined the Ralph Revolution, though it was more a Reformation.

Ironic since the Lougheed Progressive Conservatives actually were progressive in their day. They saw the Socreds as incapable of dealing with Alberta's need to expand and take advantage of its petro wealth. Thus the Lougheed Party was a creation of classical liberals, Calgary Liberals, Edmonton Liberals, economic liberals, liberals liberals liberals everywhere. The self destruction of the Socreds was hastened with the departure of Prestons daddy; Ernest and his annointment of Lougheed in the backrooms of Calgary.

Lougheed, Edgar Peter from TCE Standard

Lougheed, Edgar Peter, businessman, lawyer, premier of Alberta (b at Calgary 26 July 1928). Born to power, Lougheed came from the fourth generation of Lougheeds in Alberta. Sir James LOUGHEED, his grandfather, was the only Albertan to be knighted and the first Conservative to serve in a federal cabinet. He was instrumental in the creation of Alberta as a province in 1905. His grandson, who would be credited with lifting the province out of political and economic obscurity, shared his passionate concern over provincial control of natural resources and made it a touchstone of his policies when he became premier. Lougheed studied at the University of Alberta, receiving a BA (1951) and LLB (1952). A noted athlete, he played football at university for the Golden Bears and briefly for the Edmonton Eskimos. In 1954 he earned an MBA from Harvard University and was called to the bar the following year. He practised law in Calgary before joining the Mannix Corporation (1956), one of Canada's largest construction firms, rising swiftly up the ranks to vice-president (1959) and then director (1962).

State Capitalism has always been the economic engine of growth in Alberta. Despite all the rhetoric about free trade and free markets. The Socreds were state capitalists and so were the Lougheed PC's. The Wheat Board was founded here in Socred Alberta in cooperation with CCF Saskatchewan. The Socreds and CCF shared a common belief in the economics of distributism and the ideals of a producers cooperative economy.

But they were in power for 35 years and by the end they were stale, old, cranky, incapable of dealing with the boom that was emerging in Alberta in 1971. And so like the Ralph regime, which also is now 35 years old, they were turfed by the young turks around Peter Lougheed.

The Lougheed government saw the growth in government services, expanding the public services, infrastructure, creating State Capitalist enterprizes for Tar Sands development. The Alberta Government eliminated small airlines, buying them up to create their own airline- Pacific Western Airlines, expanding airfields across the province to provide a base for PWA, all needed to get folks up north to the Tar Sands.

Hosptials, schools, universities, seniors homes, subsidies to farmers, cash for cities, roads, etc. all were provided by the paternalistic party of Lougheed. Construction boomed. Diversification was its hope, and its downfall. As the state attempted to fund secondary and tertiary businesses, the economy went into a tail spin. The golden days of Peter Lougheed ended and the province was put on auto-pilot durning the economic crash under lame duck Premier Don Getty.

And though Getty was an oil man, he was the ultimate back room boy. More akin to former lame duck Socred Premier Harry Strom than Lougheed. And he was from Edmonton, though his favorite watering hole was the Petroleum Club in Calgary. His was a remote regime, and though the PC's had no real opposition in the house, his lack of attention and gaffs made the media, the fourth estate, the new opposition. He became a joke.

When in doubt or facing crticism the Getty government tried and true method of gaining votes was to build another hospital, school or seniors home in rural Alberta. And the party reacted, especially those in Calgary, who feard that like the Socreds before them their scandal ridden regime would fall. Enter Ralph Klein.

The Klein government transformed Lougheeds paternalistic state capitalism for the good of the province to a state capitalism that was good for business, in particular the Petro Gang in Calgary. It sold off all its investments in business and ended Lougheeds tradition of diversification . Ideologically it adopted the neo con agenda of the influential University of Calgary Reform Party Think Tank, the NCC and the Fraser Institute.

It was as night and day to the Lougheed utilitarian liberal party. The social and economic conservatives took over under Klein and his role was to mediate between them.

They never had a plan for the province, they had an ideology, and while they share with Lougheed an interest in Free Trade that was as far as it went. Because Lougheed viewed free trade as an issue between states, much like Mulroney did.
The Klein reformists viewed free trade as privatization of the state. Thus any form of state planning or state capitalism was anathema.

It is this reason, this divide between Lougheed the Harvard trained lawyer scion of the Mannix Family corporation, and Klein the media creation, former weatherman and drunk.

In a sense this critique of Klein is personal as much as it a warning to the party whose choices for Leadership post Klein are very much right wing neo-con social conservatives. Not Lougheeds kind of folks.

His view of Klein is also coloured by the fact he is a life long teetotaler. Much to his shame his father lost the family estate, as a drunk. Klein has done the same.


Also See:

Ralph Klein

Alberta

Social Credit

Manning

Lougheed



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Brison Kennedy Debate On QP

Liberal Leadership candidates Scott Brsion and Gerard Kennedy went at it tooth and tongs on CTV's Question Period today. Unfortunately this exciting debate between two Liberal Leadership Candidates is not posted on the CTV website.

So allow me to paraphrase the debate for you.

Kennedy: We should not be in Afghanistan


Brison: I agree






Stunning, enlightening, pithy, edge of your seat debate.

Can't wait till they do it in French.

Oh yes Brison spoke a sentence in broken French, Kennedy was smart enough not to.


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How Not To Deal With The Homeless

File this under 'out of sight out of mind'

Montreal bans sleeping in public places

Effective Friday, Montreal will fine people who sleep in public places overnight

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Whose We?

The screaming mimi of the right whing in Canada; Michael Coren writes in his Sun column this weekend; We should nuke Iran

Whose we? We, as in Canada, do not have nuclear weapons. Of course Mikey means the US. He seems to confuse which side of the border he is living on. What a nutbar. But it just goes to show if you are a right wing columnist in the right wing media that dominates this country, you can say anything.

He stoops to the lowest levels when he uses the appeasement arguement, trying to be a mini Rumsfeld I guess..... The usual suspects will complain. The post-Christian churches, the Marxists, the fellow travelers and fifth columnists. But then, the same sort of people moaned and condemned in 1938. They were clearly wrong then. They would be just as wrong now.

What the heck is post-Christian churches. Huh? All churches are post-christ. And in fact are not Christ based but Pauline.

As for 1938 I am glad he brought that up. For the very allies who could have halted Fascism did not. Not by appeasement but by their blockading aid to the people of Spain during the Spainish Civil War 1936-1939. Which this year is the seventieth anniversary of.

Of course that was because Republican Spain was made up of the masses who were communists, anarchists and socialists. Mikey's pals were of course on the other side they were the Catholic Church and the Fascists.

Germany and Italy had no problem avoiding the allies blockade, and Germany developed the tactics of airwar and Blitzkrieg in Spain, later to be used on the rest of Europe. The blockade was set up not against Germany and Italy but against Canadian and other International voluteers who went to fight in Spain with the International Brigades. It was there to stop guns and material getting to Republican Spain. That was real appeasement in action.

Of course Mickey won't agree. Cause like Jason Kenney he would prefer fascism to communism.




A tip o' the blog to buckdog for this




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Deconstructing International Relations

I found this very interesting article on International Relations. Which at least one blogger has an interest in, and bemoans the lack of political blogs dealing with IR.

So to make up for it a teensy weensy bit read this:

An Immanent Critique of International Relations “It’s the end of the world as we knew it”

International Relations (IR) is a discipline that was originally created to investigate the
scourge of war in terms of its causes, and also possible cures of what was then seen –
and indeed still is – as the malady of the body politic. (Lord Davies, 1919) More
recently, IR has been charged with the investigation of who gets what and under which
conditions. (Ken Booth, 1995) The normative aims are still the same in that the
corollary of the ‘who gets what argument’ is to suggest that iniquitous distribution may
cause conflict, the purpose of the discipline being to suggest ways to avoid it.2
The materialist/utilitarian emphasis present in both normative goals outlined above are
inherently conflictual and this point has been hammered home by realists and
neorealists ad infinatum. More progressive theories in IR, interdependency theory,
world systems, Marxist, neoliberal and so forth are also wedded to the materialist
commitment, and whilst the ‘difference’ of the arguments usually revolves around the
explanatory, the progressive remedial aspect of the theories become bogged down by
an implicit or explicit commitment to the ethic of progress, the state and the market.

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Safe Injection Site Unsafe From Tories

Late Friday afternoon, the begining of the long weekend and Health Minister Tony Clement announces an eleventh hour reprieve for Vancouvers successful Safe Injection Site. An underwhelming announcement given the timing.

A site applauded and reported on at the International AIDS conference in Toronto earlier this month. A conference Clement attended, but he probably missed this workshop.

But the funding for the site only continues until the last day of December 2007, like many other Harpocrite government announcements which end in 2007. Or when they win a majority. When they will shut the site down.

The reason for the limited funding? Well good old Tony gave it in his press release; "Given the need for more facts, I am unable to approve the current request to extend the Vancouver site for another three and a-half years," said Clement.

The need for more facts? Huh? What facts could those be?

Harper has said he would wait for the RCMP report's findings before deciding whether to allow the site to continue with federal approval.Safe injection site should continue, BC criminologists report

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in June 2006 showed drug users who frequented the clinic were more likely to go into detox and other rehabilitation facilities.

Numerous studies have been conducted both by outside researchers and within the Vancouver clinic itself, including a report released last week conducted by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, which found that "three-quarters of Insite users report the facility has positively changed their injecting behaviour."

According to the peer-reviewed studies on the site, drug users complete an average of 600 injections per day at SIS, staff have treated 453 overdoses with no fatalities, more than 4,000 referrals were made to counselling and other support services, and addicts who inject there are more likely to seek detoxification. The facility has also reduced the number of syringes discarded on the street and curbed needle sharing, which puts a user at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis C. Business groups support safe-injection site

Promise made promise not kept.

Why is Clement fudging on full funding for Insite? Well because the facts are that the Conservatives drug policy is the same as that south of the border; just say no to drugs.

Another priority is youth crime prevention. We are working with Minister Day to keep youth at risk from succumbing to the culture of guns, gangs and drugs.Speech for the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada ...

You see its a conflict between what is good for the health of drug victims, and what is good for victims of crime. The Tories look to making policy for the latter not the former. Despite the facts.

Health Minister Tony Clement said he is delaying a decision on whether Vancouver's controversial safe injection site should remain open, as the Canadian Police Association took a strong stance against the program.

And of course the inherent Tory belief in facts like these.....Debate on "reefer madness" resurfaces

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Private Cops Protect Flaherty

So explain this why is the Finance Department paying out over $1 million dollars to private cops to protect Jim Flaherty the Minister of Finance? What happened to the RCMP who already protect MPs? And what were they protecting? The Budget?

2006-04-01	INITIAL SECURITY	PROTECTION SERVICES	$284,406.00
2006-04-01	INITIAL SECURITY	PROTECTION SERVICES	$320,438.46
2006-04-01	INITIAL SECURITY	PROTECTION SERVICES	$489,342.68

A tip o' the blog to Harper Bizarro and MyBlagh

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Voltaire Would Be Ashamed

Over this:

Jew hater sentenced
In a precedent-setting case, a Two Hills engineer was sent to jail for 16 months for showing what the judge called an "appalling" level of hatred toward Jews on his website. Crown prosecutor Steven Bilodeau said the case will be a "benchmark" for future cases because it's the first hate-crime conviction in Canada involving Internet postings.

Let us repeat the sacred oath of Liberty as attributed to the French Philosopher Voltaire;

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it

Where is the outrage.Have we forgotten that the basis of liberty is free speech.

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." (George Orwell)

Oh yeah this is Canada and we have limits on free speech. Unlike our American counterparts.

Both the Charter and the Criminal Code do not allow for unfettered free speech in Canada and now it is being applied to the internet.

So this kind of crap happens to people who wear tinfoil hats. No literally his wife wears a tinfoil hat. She thinks aliens talk to her.

Sentana-Ries, who changed his name from Reinhard Mueller, was found guilty by a jury in December of wilfully promoting hatred for anti-Semitic writings he posted on his website, Federation of Free Planets.

On the site, he blamed Jews for everything from lying about the Holocaust to engineering the AIDS virus to kill scores of people and make the population easier to control.

During often-bizarre sentencing arguments Thursday, Sentana-Ries, who acted as his own lawyer, informed court that he held the title of "Lion of the Tribe of Judah" and as such was the guardian and protector of Jewish people. He also said he and his wife, Seila Sentana-Ries, had been persecuted for nearly a decade by various spy agencies because of their secret powers and knowledge.

His website is called the Federation of Free Planets and he claims to be the Lion of Juadeh. By now we have figured out this guy is a nut bar. So would anyone reading his ramblings. So they institutionalize him by putting him in jail. Cause in Alberta we closed all the mental institutes.Which is where he should probably be.

If his site is so scary and offesnsive how come it's so hard to find? I did a Google search could not find it I kept getting Star Trek sites. I finally found it by Googling his psuedonymn but only because it was refered to in a message board. This guy is a real danger you know cause you really, really, have to look for his page.

Of course dweebs like this guy will be applauding this attack on free speech. Though he too is guilty of hate speech.

"While we are on the subject of leftist anti-Jewish hate, why does Ted, whose blog does such pioneering work, link to an anti-Semite like Robert "F*** the Jews" McClelland? Not for the same reasons that someone else regularly does, I expect. So why, Ted, why? That bigot and the hater calling himself "Dawg" don't belong on your site."

The irony is this occured in Conservative Republican lite Alberta. Supposedly the home of right wing libertarians like Monte Solberg, Stephen Harper, the NCC etc. etc. You know the guys that claim to hate the Nanny State.

Imagine how terrible it would be to live in Canada if it weren’t for a government that suckles, guides, and watches over us for our entire lives, no matter where we go or what we do, just like a gigantic, doting, dependent, mildly abusive mother (sure, mom has her faults but who doesn’t?). Welcome to Canadaby Monte Solberg

And lets not forget self professed libertarian Rona Ambrose.

Rona Ambrose, self-described as a libertarian and avid reader of Ayn Rand, gained a cabinet post as Environment Minister ahead of many other more experienced Alberta MPs. She has previously worked on intergovernmental affairs for the Alberta government.

Will she speak out on this attack on free speech. Doubtful. She is MIA as environment minister, so coming out of her gopher hole to speak out over this anti-libertarian statist censorship is unlikely.

And freedom of course is a contradiction to this mishmash ideology of so called conservatives, they want a free market but support a statist Christian interpretation of morality.

There are free market-oriented social conservatives who have some paleo instincts, including Alliance M.P.s Jason Kenney and Monte Solberg.

But in reality it is a sop to the Zionist lobby in Canada who would deny us free speech claiming any opposition to Israel is anti-semitism, To praphrase GB Shaw "accusations of anti-semitism are the the last refuge of the scoundral".

This sop to the Zionists by the Conservatives is ironic indeed. The Reform/Alliance/Conservatives are awash in real neo-nazis and anti-semites as their base, and those wierdo evangelical Christians who see Israel as the coming of the Apocalypse and the Rapture.

Our so called Canadian Conservatives who claim to be economic libertarians are just as Statist as the Liberals.

This idiot had a web page, he is isolated in Two Hills, even if he published on the WWW and Internet. He does not hold a position of influence like of a noted Historian and Fascist like David Irving. And his site is far less scary than this guy.
Or these guys.

Who may be next? Why not the Western Standard of course, since they published anti-Mulsim hate articles. Will Ezra Levant speak out for free speech on the internet? Even if is is anti-semitic. Unlikely.

There is glee in this report from the Canadian Jewish News, that free speech is restricted in Canada.

Len Rudner, director of community relations for Canadian Jewish Congress, said, “to the best of my knowledge, this is the first time there’s been a successful conviction under [hate crime laws] for contents on an Internet website.”

He said it was significant that an existing piece of legislation was applied to a new medium. “But there was never anything in Section 319 [of the Criminal Code regarding hate crimes] that would act as a bar to it applying to the Internet,” he added.

Ottawa human rights lawyer Richard Warman said the charge and conviction of Mueller “just shows how on top of things the Edmonton [Police] hate crime unit is. They really have become the poster child of what a hate crimes unit can do.”

Warman said a second Edmonton man, Glenn Bahr, has also been charged under the Criminal Code for material he allegedly posted on two websites.

Beware you could be next!






I wrote this after having presented a workshop on Godwin, Proudhon and Benjamin Tucker on Anarchism at this weekends Edmonton Anarchist Bookfair.




Also See:

Censorship

Zionism


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Haiti Atrocities

The Bablyon Project reports on this story; Lancet: 8,000 Murdered 35,000 Raped in Haiti - Almost Half by Canadian Trained and Backed Authorities which they claim has not been covered in the Canadian Media. Actually it is getting major coverage....

Rape victims march for justice in Haitian capital
International Herald Tribune, France - 1 Sep 2006
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti Wearing white dresses and black masks, 150 rape victims marched through Haiti's capital Friday to demand justice and an end to ...
Rape victim march to demand justice in Haiti Westmeath Independent
Haitian Rape Victims Risk Their Lives to Demand Their Rights U.S. Newswire (press release)
Haiti: Rape Victims To March Through Capital Hardbeatnews.com
all 14 news articles »

Open season on Haiti's poor, study finds Montreal Gazette, Canada - 1 Sep 2006 ... study by US social workers confirms what the Canadian and Quebec governments have always denied: a massive campaign of repression against Haiti's poor under ... Human rights abuses frequent in Haiti's capital News-Medical.net Shocking Lancet Study: 8,000 Murders, 35,000 Rapes & Sexual ... Caribbean PressReleases.com (press release) UN Troops To Boost Patrols Near Haiti-Dominican Border Easy Bourse (Communiqués de presse) all 6 news articles »

Invisible Violence: Ignoring Murder In Post-coup Haiti
Center for Research on Globalization, Canada - 31 Aug 2006
... NPR report interviewed two members of the UN force, one US police trainer, one Haitian police official and Gérard Latortue, the head of Haiti’s unelected ...
Post-Aristide Haiti still violent StarPhoenix
all 3 news articles »

Canadian troops accused of making rape, death threats
Regina Leader-Post, Canada - 2 Sep 2006
MONTREAL -- Canadian troops and police with the United Nations in Haiti made death threats during house raids and made sexual threats against women while drunk ...
Canadian troops accused of rape threats Vancouver Sun (subscription)
Canadians threatened us Montreal Gazette
all 8 news articles »

• Eyewitnesses Account: UN Forces Open Fire on Poor Haitian Neighborhood
• Women Recount Gang Rape, Abuse at Hearing Against Haitian Death Squad Leader Emmanuel Constant

The response to this news from the Governments of Canada and Quebec,and the oppostion parties will be interesting. Will our Haitian born Govenor General speak out or whimp out?

Why? Because Haiti is our colony, and our source of sweatshop labour for Quebec and Canadian companies like Gilden.

This is a another case of needing to Bring Our Troops and Cops Home.....


Also See:

Haiti

Gothic Capitalism

Canadian Imperialism


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Canada
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Haiti
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Voltaire On The War In Iraq and WMD

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."



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Voltaire on Canada

"You know that these two nations are at war over a few acres of snow near Canada, and that they are spending on this little war more than all of Canada is worth."

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Contradictions

No civil war in Iraq, says Bush

Ok so Bush says there is 'no' civil war currently in Iraq, and the Pentagon agrees sort of....

Pentagon: Country ripe for civil war

So the question we all have to ask is...will there be a civil war in time for the U.S. elections in November. Place your wagers.

Also See:

War

Iraq

US Imperialism

US Economy


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Negotiations with the Taliban

The Terrorist State of Pakistan is making deals with the Taliban while executing competing warlords for their favour. So all ya pro-war dweebs whose the appeasers now?

The Lost Territories

North Waziristan and Quetta: Pakistani Tribal regions continue to slide into the hands of the Taliban and al-Qaeda

The Taliban have fought the Pakistani Army to a standstill, and forced them to largely remain in barracks in the North Waziristan agency capital of Miranshah. Beheadings of suspected U.S. spies are now commonplace; the bodies of the two latest victims "were dumped at separate places near Miranshah." Despite this, the Pakistani government is openly negotiating with the Taliban. This is the second time the Pakistani government has negotiated a settlement with the Taliban since the Pakistani Army was largely defeated in 2004.

The Taliban are not only negotiating a settlement which will allow them to remain in control of North Waziristan, but one which would require the Pakistani government to pay ‘huge compensation’ for fighting in the region. The Daily Times reports on the haggling over the tribute to be paid to the Taliban.

And for those of you who dismiss Jack Laytons call for negotiations well lookee who is in the Kabul Government and who Karzai is planning to make deals with.
Yep time to get out NOW!

Remember This War?
Abdul Salaam Rocketi, a former frontline Mujahedin commander in Afghanistan, earned a surname that reflects his prowess with rocket-propelled grenades and spent eight months in detention after U.S.-led forces drove out the Taliban in 2001. Now, as a member of the Afghan parliament, he encourages his former Taliban comrades to reconcile with the government of President Hamid Karzai. It's widely agreed that Afghanistan's national army and police, despite some improvements, are far too small and weak to take on powerful narco-traffickers, local warlords and increasingly audaciousKarzai's recent proposal to recruit tribal militias to become a sort of police auxiliary, which he figures will just encourage them to greater lawlessness and corruption. "These militias destroyed our country," he says, referring to the devastating civil war that shattered Afghanistan following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. "The nation was fed up with them, so the Afghan people welcomed the Taliban. And now the government wants to bring them back? This is madness.

Also See:

Afghanistan

War


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Another Free Online Book

The Class of the New by Richard Barbrook

Netizens, elancers, cognitarians, swarm-capitalists, hackers, produsumers, knowledge workers, pro-ams... these are just a few of the monikers that have been applied to the new social class emerging from the networked workplace.

In this short book, Richard Barbrook presents a collection of quotations from authors who in different ways attempt to identify an innovative element within society: ‘the class of the new’. Announcing a new economic and social paradigm, this class constitutes a ‘social prophecy’ of the shape of work to come. From Adam Smith's ‘Philosophers’ of the late 18th century, down to the ‘Creative Class’ celebrated by sociologist Richard Florida today, the class of the new represents the future of production within and beyond capitalism.


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US War On Capitalism In Iran

The sabre rattling will increase since Iran has rightly stood up to the US over the issue of its development of a nuclear energy infrastructure. While the Americans have put the issue in the context of nuclear weapons the reality is that Iran views the American efforts as an attempt to end its domestic nuclear energy program. Which of course it is. The use of the chimera of WMD is an excuse to continue the American led sanctions on Irans development as a major capitalist state in the region.

The sanctions have been in place since the fall of the Shah of Iran's regime. This left Iran isolated and the economy reliant on state capitalism. The failure of the sanctions can be seen in Irans successful development of a Fordist economy. It is the only industrialized nation in the region, and one that has car manufacturing.

All other regimes in the region rely upon guest workers for their proletariat, including Lebanon. Outside of Iraq, Iran is the only Arab country with a developed traditional industrial capitalist economy and consequently a developed proletariat.

Economy of Iran
The Iranian government is attempting to diversify by investing revenues in other areas, including, car manufacturing, aerospace industries, consumer electronics, petrochemicals and nuclear technology. Iran is also hoping to attract billions of dollars worth of foreign investment by creating a more favorable investment climate, such as reduced restrictions and duties on imports and the creation of free-trade zones like in Chabahar and the Island of Kish. Modern Iran has a solid middle class and a growing economy but continues to be plagued with high inflation and unemployment.

What US sanctions did was to maintain Irans state capitalist regime. Even when it tried to privatize, that resulted not in greater production and productivity, that is development of its existing manufacturing ability, but distorted the marketplace by the introduction of imported goods, displacing home grown manufacturing.

Iran - Economic analysis of government's policies, investment ...
At the conclusion of the '89 war between Iran and Iraq, a movement of 'Economic Adjustment' took place. This was to transfer large productive units of economy to the entrepreneur of the private sector or restore the confiscated property to its owners, which partially did take place on the confiscated properties. Some business owners, rather than improving the quality of goods and services, crossed the lines and joined the growing number of businesses importing the same foreign goods. This resulted in closure of factories and massive layoffs. The factories that went into production, facing stiff competition form the importers, adopted other measures to be able to sustain a profitable business. Reducing the cost was the ultimate goal. To be able to achieve this, internal costs had to be trimmed to a minimum to turn a profit. Workers were layedoff as redundant; more disciplinary regulations were put in place which enhanced severity. The remaining workers were hired on contracts rather than permanent positions which reduced or eliminated the fringe benefits. These changes exerted more pressure on the workers and let to intensification of exploitation. These conditions lowered the standard and style of living of the workers. The workers were put under direct pressure. One way was to increase the speed of production not by means of modern and efficient machinery, but by tampering with the existing equipment and increasing its speed. With self-imposed regulations, manipulations and increased work hours they further endangered the workers safety and well being. Statistics have shown that these acts in fact did result in accidents. According to a local newspaper, Kar-o Kargar, 3000 fingers were cut off within a period of four months.

The current threat of increased sanctions means a continuation of America's economic war against Iran becoming a developed Industrial capitalist country, a major competitor to America and its client states like Saudi Arabia.

The use of domestic nuclear power is seen by Iran as crucial for both home use, domestic electricity, and for electrical power for manufacturing. Key to increasing Irans transformation into an industrialized economy. When Iran signed on to the IAEA Non Proliferation Declaration its economy boomed.

The current discussion of sanctions, is laughable. The American sanctions in place since 1979 have had negligble effect on Irans economic development, except to create a Stalinist State contrary to the ideology of free trade and free markets. Ironic that. Any further attempt to impose sanctions will not work either. What they will do is hurt the Gulf Emirates and other Persian Gulf Oil exporting economies, America's client states

Sanctions just one danger for Iran's economy
"Economic sanctions create problems, but the Iranian economy has learned to circumvent them, especially through third countries," said the chairman of the Atieh Group consultants, Bijan Khajehpour.

Laylaz said that under the worst-case scenario, with sanctions touching oil exports, the magnitude of such a decision would not only hurt Iran, currently producing 4.08 mln barrels per day of oil.

"Iran's military maneuvers in the Strait of Hormoz hold this message that the country is capable of blocking oil traffic. This could then affect the oil producers in the region," he said after Iran's recent war games in Persaian Gulf waters.

Why is the US declaring economic war on Iran over an issue which would seem ridiculous anywhere else. For instance if the US told Ontario to end its expansion of nuclear energy for domestic purposes. And identifying the enrichment of uranium for those purposes as being used for production of nuclear weapons.

The reality is that US Imperialism needs and wants an underdeveloped capitalism in the region. That region is not just the Middle East but the area's surrounding Iran, the 'Stans. It's occupation of Afghanistan allowed it a geopolitical expansion into the areas once controled by the old Soviet Union.
This Caspian basin region is rich in oil.Washington encourages multiple pipelines from Central Asia

If Iran was to become a major industrial power in the region, exporting cars, technology, consumer goods, it would be a competitor with India, Pakistan, Israel, as well as now becoming a supplier to the oil emirates. All American clients.

Regardless of the regime in power, Iran is America's major economic competitor in the region. With the destruction of the State Capitalist economy in Iraq, Iran remains the only developing industrialized country in the region. While a country like Dubai is booming, its boom is based on transportation and real estate developement. It is a place to invest capital not to produce capital. And it too relies upon guest workers.

Suadi Arabia and Kuwait remain underdeveloped resource economies, reliant on imported guest workers. There is a population of 4 million in Kuwait, three million are guest workers. Jordan, which is really Palestine, is an under-developed economy, one that also relies upon guest workers, the majority of those being Palestinians.

Only Iran is developing an industrialized fordist economy in the region. As such it is America's biggest competitor.

This is the real reason America is declaring war on Iran at this time. It used Iraq as its client state to attack Iran, thus encouraging an internecine battle between the only two developed industrialized countries in the region.

When Iraq was becoming an economic threat the U.S. attacked it on the pretext of its invasion of Kuwait. The reality of the 1991 war was that it could have been settled diplomatically by allowing Iraq access to the Persian Gulf. While the Americans and their UN allies attacked Iraq the ruling class in Kuwait left to party in discos in Egypt.

The Iraq sanctions like their Iranian counter part, were counter productive. They did little to halt the state capitalist development of Iraq. Thus in order to crush a competitive capitalist state in the region the Bush regime did Israel a favour, and bombed Iraq back to the stone age in 2003.

Israel did America a favour in return, bombing its neighbour Lebanon into the stone age, in order to make sure the region has no Arab capitalist economies that could compete with Israel or America.

Imperialism demands a region that is empty, that can be filled by a particular national capitalism, in this case American capitalism. Its corporations which are rebuilding Iraq, like Haliburton and Bechtel. Corporations which are competitors with Arab capitalists like Bin Laden Inc.

Iran uses irregular military operations to destablize its competitors as well. Funding Hezbollah, supporting and giving succour to Afghanistan mujahdin as well as succour to Mujahdin and Shia rebels in Pakistan. The result has been an increase in opium addiction amongst the poor and the unemployed in Iran. An irony that. The fact is that the Mujihadin relied upon opium production in Afghanistan and Pakistan to pay for weapons supplied to it by the CIA for its war against the Soviet Union. Thanks to the creation of narco terrorism in the region the chickens have come home to roost in Iran which supports these irregular armies.

However if the world really wants Iran to change, it would forgo the Americans demand that Iran give up its domestic nuclear progam, and actually aid Iran in developing as a capitalist economy.

Then the working classes would continue to revolt as they have before, leading to the collapse of the US puppet regime of the Shah and continue to under the mullahs. The only real change that can occur in Iran is if it is allowed to become a major capitalist economy in the region. Thus the proletariat will be able to launch a real reform campaign from a position of real power.

America's sanctions and threats of war will not do that. And of course that is not what they are intended to do.

Also See:

Iran

US Imperialism



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War Is Good Business

How you can profit from the coming Middle East war.
And after all we do want to make them big bucks.
Capitalism has no morality. It's only moral is how to make a profit.


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The Cost of War

As George Bernard Shaw once said, if you put all the economists in the world end to end they would still not reach a conclusion.

Guns, butter and the Fed: Rethinking Iraq's economic impact ...
So what exactly is the war's impact?

The U.S. is spending $6 billion a month on Iraq under current appropriations. To date, expenditures have totaled an estimated $320 billion, a supplemental bill now working its way through Congress, according to a report by Steven Kosiak, a budget analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

A study by the Congressional Budget Office forecast an additional $225 billion in spending over the next 10 years, assuming troop levels fall to 50,000 in a few years.

"Taken together, it is quite possible that the United States will ultimately spend more on U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan than it did on the Korean War ($455 billion) or the Vietnam War ($650 billion)," Kosiak wrote.

But a study by Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, war critic, and former Clinton administration official, estimated the total cost of the war in the range of $750 billion to $1.2 trillion. A big part of that, he says, is the continuing cost of health-care for the more than 17,000 soldiers wounded in the Iraq conflict.

Economists say it's very difficult to document the war's economic fallout. Bob Parker, a former chief statistician for the Bureau of Economic Analysis, said the most complicating factor is that the military is spending much of the money overseas, which doesn't directly benefit the economy on the home front.

Smith said the war impact is "highly concentrated in a few industries and few locations," especially near the military's major staging areas like Fayetteville, N.C., Jacksonville Fla., and Norfolk Va.Companies like Halliburton Co. and Bechtel Group Inc. have benefited, Smith said.

Some economists, who oppose the war, believe it is hurting the economy in insidious ways.

"The problem of the war was it was so easy to finance, if that is a problem," said Robert Brusca, chief economist at FAO Economics.

On a political level, the war has pushed back Social Security reform and longer-term fixes to so-called structural aspects of the federal budget deficit.

At the end of the day, economists are growing increasingly worried as the war begins its fourth year on the ground.

"We've got this sort of house of cards," said Swonk. "It is either a strong house of cards or the whole thing could implode on us. It could go either way."

Also See:

War

Iraq

Afghanistan

US Imperialism

US Economy

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