DAWN OF THE SENSES:
Selected
Poems
Bowles, Paul.
Bowles, Paul.
Blackshirts-and-Reds-by-Michael-Parenti
ANYTHING BUT CLASS: AVOIDING THE C-WORD 155
d'e^tre, is to convert nature into commodities and commodities into capital, transforming the living earth into inanimate wealth. This capital accumulation process wreaks havoc upon the global ecologi- cal system. It treats the planet's life-sustaining resources (arable land, groundwater, wetlands, forests, fisheries, ocean beds, rivers, air qual- ity) as dispensable ingredients of limitless supply, to be consumed or toxified at will. Consequently, the support systems of the entire ecos- phere--the planet's thin skin of fresh air, water, and top soil--are at risk, threatened by such things as global warming, massive erosion, and ozone depletion.
Global warming is caused by tropical deforestation, motor vehicle exhaust, and other fossil fuel emissions that create a "greenhouse effect," trapping heat close to the earth s surface. This massed heat is altering the atmospheric chemistry and climatic patterns across the planet, causing record droughts, floods, tidal waves, snow storms, hurricanes, heat waves, and great losses in soil moisture. We now know that the planet does not have a limitless ability to absorb heat caused by energy consumption.
Another potential catastrophe is the shrinkage of the ozone layer that shields us from the sun's deadliest rays. Over 2. 5 billion pounds of ozone-depleting chemicals are emitted into the earth's atmosphere every year, resulting in excessive ultraviolet radiation that is causing an alarming rise in skin cancer and other diseases. Increased radia- tion is damaging trees, crops, and coral reefs, and destroying the ocean s phytoplankton--source of about half of the planet's oxygen. If the oceans die, so do we.
At the same time, the rise in pollution and population has given us acid rain, soil erosion, silting of waterways, shrinking grasslands, disappearing water supplies and wetlands, and the obliteration of thousands of species, with hundreds more on the endangered list. 10
10 Putting an end to the population explosion will not of itself save the ecosphere but not ending it will add greatly to the dangers the planet faces. The environ- ment can sustain a quality life for just so many people.
? 156 ? LACKS? JRTS AND REDS
In 1970, on what was called "Environment Day," President Richard Nixon intoned: "What a strange creature is man that he fouls his own nest. " With that utterance, Nixon was helping to prop- agate the myth that the ecological crisis we face is a matter of irra- tional individual behavior rather than being of a social magnitude. In truth, the problem is not individual choice but the system that imposes itself on individuals and prefigures their choice. Behind the ecological crisis is the reality of class interest and power.
An ever-expanding capitalism and a fragile, finite ecology are on a calamitous collision course. It is not true that the ruling politico- economic interests are in a state of denial about this. Far worse than denial, they are in a state of utter antagonism toward those who think the planet is more important than corporate profits. So they defame environmentalists as "eco-terrorists," "EPA gestapo," "Earth Day alarmists," "tree huggers," and purveyors of "Green hysteria" and "liberal claptrap. "
Some environmental activists in this country have been the object of terrorist assaults conducted by unknown assailants, with the implicit tolerance of law enforcement authorities. 11 Autocrats in countries like Nigeria, in bed with the polluting oil companies, have waged brutal war upon environmentalists, going so far as to hang popular leader Ken Saro Wiwa.
In recent years, conservatives within and without Congress, fueled by corporate lobbyists, have supported measures that would (1) pre- vent the Environmental Protection Agency from keeping toxic fill out of lakes and harbors, (2) eliminate most of the wetland acreage that was to be set aside for a reserve, (3) completely deregulate the
11 To offer one example: the FBI was quick to make arrests when environmentalists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were seriously injured by a car bomb in 1990. They arrested Bari and Cherney, calling them "radical activists,3" charging that the bomb must have belonged to them. Both have long been outspoken advocates of nonviolence. The charges were eventually dropped for lack of evidence. (The bomb had been planted under the driver's seat. ) The FBI named no other suspects and did no real investigation of the attack.
? ANYTHING BUT CLASS: AVOIDING THE C-WORD 157
production of chlorofluorocarbons that deplete the ozone layer, (4) virtually eliminate clean water and clean air standards, (5) open the unspoiled Arctic wildlife refuge in Alaska to oil and gas drilling, (6) defund efforts to keep raw sewage out of rivers and away from beaches, (7) privatize and open national parks to commercial devel- opment, (8) give the few remaining ancient forests over to unre- strained logging, and (9) repeal the Endangered Species Act. In sum, their openly professed intent has been to eviscerate all our environ- mental protections, however inadequate these are.
Conservatives maintain that there is no environmental crisis. Technological advances will continue to make life better for more and more people. 12 One might wonder why rich and powerful inter- ests take this seemingly suicidal anti-environmental route. They can destroy welfare, public housing, public education, public transporta- tion, social security, Medicare, and Medicaid with impunity, for they and their children will not thereby be deprived, having more than sufficient means to procure private services for themselves. But the environment is a different story. Wealthy conservatives and their cor- porate lobbyists inhabit the same polluted planet as everyone else, eat the same chemicalized food, and breathe the same toxified air.
In fact, they do not live exactly as everyone else. They experience a different class reality, residing in places where the air is somewhat bet- ter than in low and middle income areas. They have access to food that is organically raised and specially prepared. The nations toxic dumps and freeways usually are not situated in or near their swanky neigh- borhoods. The pesticide sprays are not poured over their trees and gardens. Clearcutting does not desolate their ranches, estates, and vacation spots. Even when they or their children succumb to a dread
12 A cover story in Forbes (8/14/95) derides the "health scare industry" and reassures readers that highly chemicalized and fat-ridden junk foods are perfectly safe for one s health. The magazine's owners and corporate advertisers are aware that if people begin to question the products offered by the corporate system, they may end up questioning the system itself. Not without good cause does Forbes describe itself as "a capitalist tool. "
? 158 ? LACKS? JRTS AND REDS
disease like cancer, they do not link the tragedy to environmental fac- tors--though scientists now believe that most cancers stem from human-made causes. They deny there is a larger problem because they themselves create that problem and owe much of their wealth to it.
But how can they deny the threat of an ecological apocalypse brought on by ozone depletion, global warming, disappearing top soil, and dying oceans? Do the dominant elites want to see life on earth, including their own, destroyed? In the long run they indeed will be victims of their own policies, along with everyone else. However, like us all, they live not in the long run but in the here and now. For the ruling interests, what is at stake is something of more immediate and greater concern than global ecology: It is global cap- ital accumulation. The fate of the biosphere is an abstraction com- pared to the fate of one's own investments.
Furthermore, pollution pays, while ecology costs. Every dollar a company must spend on environmental protections is one less dollar in earnings. It is more profitable to treat the environment like a septic tank, pouring thousands of new harmful chemicals into the atmos- phere each year, dumping raw industrial effluent into the river or bay, turning waterways into open sewers. The longterm benefit of preserv- ing a river that runs alongside a community (where the corporate pol- luters do not live anyway) does not weigh as heavily as the immediate gain that comes from ecologically costly modes of production.
Solar, wind, and tidal energy systems could help avert ecological disaster, but they would bring disaster to the rich oil cartels. Six of the world's ten top industrial corporations are involved primarily in the production of oil, gasoline, and motor vehicles. Fossil fuel pollu- tion means billions in profits. Ecologically sustainable forms of pro- duction threaten those profits.
Immense and imminent gain for oneself is a far more compelling consideration than a diffuse loss shared by the general public. The cost of turning a forest into a wasteland weighs little against the prof- its that come from harvesting the timber.
? ANYTHING BUT CLASS: AVOIDING THE C-WORD 159
This conflict between immediate private gain on the one hand and remote public benefit on the other operates even at the individ- ual consumer level. Thus, it is in one's longterm interest not to oper- ate a motor vehicle, which contributes more to environmental devastation than any other single consumer item. But we have an immediate need for transportation in order to get to work, or do whatever else needs doing, so most of us have no choice except to own and use automobiles.
The "car culture" demonstrates how the ecological crisis is not primarily an individual matter of man soiling his own nest. In most instances, the "choice" of using a car is no choice at all. Ecologically efficient and less costly electric-car mass transportation has been deliberately destroyed since the 1930s in campaigns waged across the country by the automotive, oil, and tire industries. Corporations involved in transportation put "America on wheels," in order to max- imize consumption costs for the public and profits for themselves, and to hell with the environment or anything else.
The enormous interests of giant multinational corporations out- weigh doomsayer predictions about an ecological crisis. Sober busi- ness heads refuse to get caught up in the "hysteria" about the environment, preferring to quietly augment their fortunes. Besides, there can always be found a few experts who will go against all the evidence and say that the jury is still out, that there is no conclusive proof to support the alarmists. Conclusive proof in this case would come only when we reach the point of no return.
Ecology is profoundly subversive of capitalism. It needs planned, environmentally sustainable production rather than the rapacious unregulated kind. It requires economical consumption rather than an artificially stimulated, ever-expanding consumerism. It calls for natural, low-cost energy systems rather than profitable, high-cost, polluting ones. Ecology's implications for capitalism are too horren- dous for the capitalist to contemplate.
Those in the higher circles, who once hired Blackshirts to destroy
? 160 ? LACKS? JRTS AND REDS
democracy out of fear that their class interests were threatened, have no trouble doing the same against "eco-terrorists. " Those who have waged merciless war against the Reds have no trouble making war against the Greens. Those who have brought us poverty wages, exploitation, unemployment, homelessness, urban decay, and other oppressive economic conditions are not too troubled about bringing us ecological crisis. The plutocrats are more wedded to their wealth than to the Earth upon which they live, more concerned with the fate of their fortunes than with the fate of the planet. 13
The struggle over environmentalism is part of the class struggle itself, a fact that seems to have escaped many environmentalists. The impending eco-apocalypse is a class act. It has been created by and for the benefit of the few, at the expense of the many. The trouble is, this time the class act may take all of us down, once and forever.
In the relationship between wealth and power, what is at stake is not only economic justice, but democracy itself and the survival of the biosphere. Unfortunately, the struggle for democracy and eco- logical sanity is not likely to be advanced by trendy, jargonized, ABC theorists who treat class as an outmoded concept and who seem ready to consider anything but the realities of capitalist power. In this they are little different from the dominant ideology they profess to oppose. They are the ones who need to get back on this planet.
The only countervailing force that might eventually turn things in a better direction is an informed and mobilized citizenry. Whatever their shortcomings, the people are our best hope. Indeed, we are they. Whether or not the ruling circles still wear blackshirts, and whether or not their opponents are Reds, la lutta continua, the strug- gle continues, today, tomorrow, and through all history.
13 In June 1996, speaking at a U. N. conference in Istanbul, Turkey, Fidel Castro noted: "Those who have almost destroyed the planet and poisoned the air, the seas, the rivers and the earth are those who are least interested in saving humanity. "
? Index
Czech and Slovak republics, 83, 97-99, 101, 106; in Macedonia, 102; in
Mongolia, 85, 107-108; myth of U. S. superiority, 67, 69-71; in Poland, 71- 72, 77, 88, 95, 101, 110, 112, 118; restoration in Eastern Europe, 57, 72- 74, 76, 87-88, 106-107; in USSR, 71- 74, 76, 88-91, 96, 104, 106, 108, 116; in Vietnam, 66, 87, 106, 109
Castro, Fidel, 39, 53, 67,160 Castro, Raul, 63
Ceausescu, Nicolae, 77 Chamberlain, Neville, 18 Chase National Bank, 19 Cherney, Darryl, 156
Child labor, 7, 36-37, 109, 124, 137-138 Children, 25, 84-85, 99,108-109,114-
116
Chernobyl, 39
China, 18, 23-26, 29, 33, 57, 66, 84-85,
87, 92, 106, 109, 128
Chinese Revolution, 36 Chomsky, Avi, 109
Chomsky, Noam, 17, 42, 46, 120 Churchill, Winston, 78, 80
CIA, 20, 24, 28, 76, 82-83, 93, 119 Class; and anticlass ideology, 141-144;
and ecology, 154-160; rejection by
Left, 144-149
Class struggle, 149-152
Clinton, Bill, 129
Codevilla, Angelo, 8
Cohen, Stephen, 55, 77-78
Colby, William, 24
Cold war, 20, 31, 41, 43, 76, 85, 99, 104 Communism; accomplishments of, 26,
45, 67, 84-85; economic deficiencies of, 59-65; economic democracy, 26; resurgence of, 118-120
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), 43
Corporate welfarism, 1, 3-4, 6-8, 10-11 Cossacks, 78
Crimean Tarters, 78
Cuba, 23,26-27,34, 36, 38-39, 45-46, 50,
63,67, 81-82,85,87,98,109,128; social and economic conditions in, 23, 27, 34, 36, 38-40, 67; U. S. blockade of, 67
Cuban Revolution, 36, 38-39, 67 Czechoslovakia, 73, 97-100, 119
A
Abeywickrama, K. L. , 108
Abs, Hermann, 19
Afghanistan, 25, 35, 93
AFL-CIO, 76, 93
African National Congress (ANC), 33,45 African-Americans, 42
Agribusiness, 3-4, 7
Agriculture, 25, 61, 63, 101-103 Aidzerdzis, Andrei, 90
Al-Kurdi, Husayn, 17, 47
Albania, 85, 94
Algerian revolution, 36
Almirante, Giorgio, 20
Americans for Democratic Action
(ADA), 43
Anarchism, 54
Andropov, Yuri, 49 Anti-Semitism, 6, 16, 95-96 Aronowitz, Stanley, 144-145 Aronson, Ronald, 145 Auschwitz, 19
?
Bao Dai, 36
Bari, Judi, 156
Batista, Ruben Fulgencio, 38
Bay of Pigs, 34
Berlusconi, Silvio, 21
Bilenkin, Vladimir, 106, 110 Blackshirts, 2-3, 10, 18, 159-160 Bolshevik revolution, 8, 17,47, 55 Blum, William, 94
Bookchin, Murray, 45
Borsage, Robert, 81
Boxer Rebellion, 23
Brezhnev, Leonid, 49, 116
British Petroleum, 111
Brooks, David, 69
Brown shirts, 4, 14
Bulgaria, 45, 85, 94, 102, 107, 110, 118 Bu? rbach, Roger, 56
Bush, George, 20, 25, 34, 71, 98, 129 Buthelezi, Mangosutho, 33
C
Capitalism; in Albania, 94-95; in
Bulgaria, 94, 102, 107, 110, 118; in
161
? 162 INDEX
D
de Kock, Eugene, 33
Deane, Hugh, 18
Democratic party and anticommunism,
48-49
Derrida, Jacques, 145 Diem, Ngo Dinh, 36 Domenico, Roy Palmer, 18 Dominican Republic, 23 Dowd, Doug, 140
DuPont, 19
Dutt, R. Palme, 2-3
E
Eastern Europe, socialism in, 49-52,65, 85, 115, 118-120
Ebenstein, William, 17
Ecology, and capitalism, 154-160 Ehrenberg, John, 48
Endangered Species Act, 157
Engels, Frederick, 54
Environmental Protection Agency, 156 Estonia, 93, 115, 118
European Union, 95
F
Family values, 16
Farben, I. G. , 9, 19
Fasci di combattimento, 2
Fascism (in Italy); collaboration with
U. S. businesses, 10, 19; cooperation with the West, 17-22; ideology of, 11-
12; labor unions in, 3; popular opposition, 6, 9; taxes, 7; unemploy- ment, 7; working conditions in, 6
Fascism (in Nazi Germany); collabora- tion with capitalism, 4, 8-10, 19; collaboration with the West, 17-22; collaboration with U. S. businesses, 10,
19; homophobia, 14-16; ideology of, 11-17; monist values, 12; popular opposition, 6, 9; racial supremacy, 14-16; taxes, 7; unemployment, 7;
working conditions in, 6 Faulkner, Mike, 38
F. B. I, 48, 156
Febbo, Tony, 52
Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) [West Germany], 19-20, 66, 82-83,
96, 103
Federazione Industriale, 4
Fertig, Howard, 2 Feurerprinzip, 11 Fiske, Klaus, 83
Ford Foundation, 76 Ford, Henry, 10, 19, 76 Forza Italia, 21
Foster, John Bellamy, 35, 146
Franco, Francisco, 1, 8, 48
Free Congress Foundation, 93-94 Free market, 22, 28, 31, 33, 37, 58, 72,
88, 102-103, 106, 118, 138 Free-market reforms; and the arts, 113;
and books, 113; and corruption, 111; and education, 113; employment, 108- 111; and media, 114; and women and children, 114
G
Gamsakhurdia, Zviad, 93
GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade), 37, 144
Gelb, Bruce, 105
Gemeinschaft, 124
General Motors, 19
Genovese, Eugene, 8
German Democratic Republic (GDR)
[East Germany], 19, 45, 49, 64-67, 82- 83, 93, 96, 101, 103-104, 107, 112-113, 117-118;
Germany and socialism, 49-50 Gervasi, Sean, 93
Getty, J. Arch, 79
Giannini, A. P. , 10
Gingrich, Newt, 22 GLADIO, 20
Global warming, 155, 158 Glasnost, 72-73
Gorbachev, Mikhail, 60, 88-89 Goring, Hermann, 11, 19 Gramsci, Antonio, 147, 149 Green, Mark, 44, 58, 156 Greens, 160
Gregor, A. James, 15-16 Guatemala, 25, 33, 50 Guerin, Daniel, 2 Gulag, 78-83
Gulf War, 98
H
Havel, Vaclav, 83, 97-99 Hearst, William Randolph, 11
? Heilbroner, Robert, 37, 126 Heritage Foundation, 39 Heymann, Helene, 83 Higham, Charles, 10, 19 Himmler, Heinrich, 15 Hiroshima, 48
Kuznets, Simon, 8
Ky, Nguyen Cao, 35-36
L
Labor, conditions of, 6-7
Labor unions, Left purges, 43
Laclau, Ernesto, 146
Lane, Mark, 24
Latvia, 93, 107
Lebed, Aleksandr, 96
Lenin, Vladimir, 46-48, 53-55, 121, 147 Levins, Richard, 58
Libya, 27
Lichtman, Richard, 57
Licio Gelli, 20
Lithuania, 6, 85, 93, 95, 118
Lodge, Henry Cabot, 20, 35
Lottman, Herbert, 18
Lourie, Richard, 77
Lukashenko, Alexander, 97
M
MacColl, Gail, 44
MacDonald, Theodore, 39 Maikovskis, Boleslavs, 20 Mandela, Nelson, 34, 45
March on Rome, 4
March, Joan, 8
Mariam, Mengitsu Haile, 93 Martemyanov, Valentin, 90
Marx, Karl, and Capital, 128-129,
136-140, 145-150, 154
Marxism, as holistic science, 132-140;
postulates of, 122-124; and prediction, 125-129
McChesney, Robert, 145
Mclntyre, Robert, 103
McKinley, William, 23
Medvedev, Roy, 77
Michel, Louise, 54
Miller, Robert Carl, 19
Minh, Ho Chi, 53
Mongolia, 50, 85, 107-108
Mosse, George, 13
Mouffe, Chantal, 146
Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI), 19-21 Mugabe, Robert, 53
Muller, Ingo, 18
Multinational corporations, 27, 100,
137-138, 159
Mussolini, Benito, 1-4, 6-7, 9-12
Hitler, Adolph, 1-2, 4-12, 14, 16, 18-19, 21,83, 97
Hobsbawm, Eric, 8
Hochschild, Adam, 43, 80
Holocaust, 18, 25, 130
Homophobia, 14-16, 151
Honecker, Erich, 82
Hoover Institute, 8
Howe, Irving, 122
Hugo, Victor (Les Mise? rables), ix Hungary, 6, 72, 85, 95-96, 102, 106-107,
110, 112, 118 Huntington, Samuel P. , 33
I
India, 30, 50
Indonesia, 25, 33, 50, 70, 77, 98, 120,
137-138
Industrial Revolution, 37 International Monetary Fund (IMF),
31,39,91,101-102
Iraq, 25, 34, 39, 120
Israel, 104
Italian Communist Party, 4, 21, 147-148 ;ITT, 19
Jackson, T. J. , 147
Jankowski, Father Henryk, 95 Jorst, Hans (Schlageter), 12 Judis, John, 146
?
Kagarlitsky, Boris, 89
Kattau, Thomas, 116
Kennan, George, 32
Kerala (India), 30
Kessler, Heinz, 118
Kholodov, Dmitri, 90
King, Jr. , Martin Luther, 34, 54, 98 Kirkpatrick, Jean, 33
Kissinger, Henry, 19 Koestler, Arthur, 77 Kozyrev, Andrey, 70 Krupp, Adolph, 9 Kuomintang, 25, 84
INDEX 163
? 164 INDEX
? R
National Alliance (Italy), 21
National Endowment for Democracy,
76, 93-94
National Liberation Front, 34
National Socialist party (Nazi party), 4,
9, 16, 19 (see also Nazism, Fascism in
Nazi Germany)
NATO, 20
Navarro, Vicente, 8
Nazism, 2, 5, 10, 14-15, 95 (see also
National Socialist party, Fascism in
Nazi Germany)
Neo-fascism in Italy, 20-22 Neumann, Franz, 2
Nicaragua, 23, 25-26, 53, 57, 94, 128 Nigeria, 156
NKVD Archives, 80
Nixon, Richard, 20, 156
North Korea, 27, 39, 85, 87 Nuremberg, 18, 82
?
Oilman, Berteli, 147 Omon troops, 90
Ordine Nuovo, 20
Ortega, Daniel, 53
Orth, Maureen, 117 Orwell, George, 44
Ozone depletion, 155, 158
?
Panama, 25, 34,120
Perestroika, 74
Perm 35, 81
Pew Charitable Trusts, 76
Phelps, Christopher, 147
Philippines, 18, 23, 98
Phoenix Program, 24
Piccone, Paul, 147
Pinochet, Gen. Augusto, 33, 70, 96,98 Poland, 64-65, 71-72, 77, 83, 85, 88, 95,
101, 108, 110, 112, 118; solidarity, 71,
77, 96
Pollution, 106, 118, 155, 158
Pool, James and Suzanne, 2, 10, 49 Pope John Paul II, 20
Pope, Generoso, 10
Prieto, Alberto, 81
Radio Free Europe, 99
Radio Liberty, 99
Radosh, Ronald, 43
Ramachandran, V. K. , 30
Randolph, Eleanor, 11, 107
Reactionism, 68-72
Reagan, Ronald, 20,25,44,69, 71,81,129 Red Cross, 117
Red Menace, 6, 25
Red-baiting, 44
Reder, Walter, 20
Refusniks, 81
Reston, James, 35
Revolution and decentralization, 53 Rittersporn, Gabor, 79
Rockefeller Brothers Fund, 76 Rockefeller, David, 19 Roehm, Ernst, 14-15 Rohatyn, Felix, 151 Rosemont, Jr. , Henry, 84 Rosenberg, Alfred, 11 Rosenthal, A. M. , 151
Rubies, Alfreds, 93
Rumania, 6, 77, 85, 95, 101, 107-108 Rusher, William, 77
Russia, 23, 26, 29, 37, 44,53-54, 56, 58,
84-85, 88-89, 91-93, 95, 100-101, 106- 107, 109-116, 118, 120, 128; and Yeltsin coup of 1993, 106; crime in, 111-112; healthcare in, 107; homeless- ness in, 108; poverty in, 110-120
SA (Sturmabteilung); storm troopers, 4-5, 14-16
Sabato, Larry, 91
Sakharov, Andrei, 69-70, 81 Salvemini, Gaetano, 2 Schwarzwaeller, Wulf, 9
Scott, John, 56
Selassie, Haile, 93
Shames, Carl, 52
Shatunovskaia, Olga, 77
Shell Oil, 111
Smith Act, 48
Socialism; pure socialism, vs. siege
socialism, 49, 53, 56, 59, 74-75 Socialist Union of Youth, 99 Socialist Workers Party (SWP), 48
S
? Sokal, Alan, 145
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr, 81
South African Inkatha Freedom Party, 33 South Korea, 18, 50,128
South Vietnam, 24, 34-35
Spain, 6, 8, 54
Squadristi, 44
SS, 4,9 15-16, 19, 80
Stalin, Joseph, 44-46, 55-57, 60, 76-81,
83-85, 116
Stent, Angela, 116
Stephan, Miroslav, 83
Stone, I. F. , 70
Storm troopers (see SA, Sturmabteilung) Strasser, Gregor, 15
Suharot, 70
Sweden, 74
?
Terrorism, 24, 28, 82-83, 93; and the CIA, 20
Thaelmann, Ernst, 5
Third World, 22, 27-28, 30-32, 37-39,
46, 48, 57, 70, 84, 100, 113, 119-120, 127, 131, 135
and the gulag, 77-81; multinational corporations and, 100
y
Vietnam, 24, 26, 29, 34, 48, 66,69, 87,
106,109, 128; North Vietnam, 34;
South Vietnam, 24, 34
Vietnam War, 24-25, 48, 69
Von Hindenburg, Field Marshall, 5, 9
W
Walsea, Lech, 71, 77, 95 Weimar Republic, 4
White Guard, 78, 80
Windsor, Duke 8c Duchess, 10 Wiwa, Ken Saro, 156
Wolf, Leon, 23
Women, 25, 33, 36, 40, 43, 69, 71, 73-
74, 76, 87-89, 91, 93-95, 97-99, 101- 109, 111-113, 114-119, 131, 138; in Afghanastan, 35-36; in Cuba, 35-36;
in South Yemen, 35-36; under
fascism, 15
Wood, Ellen Meiksins, 146
World Bank, 91
World War 1,2-3
World War II, 18-19, 24, 44, 79-80, 83-
85, 95, 107, 129 Worsley, Peter, 128 Wrzodak, Zygmunt, 71
y
Yemen, 35, 93, 96 Yugoslavia, 96-97, 102
?
Zaire, 25, 33, 50, 77,120, 132 Zemskov, Victor, 79
ZiL; privatization of, 101-102 Zyuganov, Gennadi, 91
Thomas, Edith, 54, 116 Togliatti, Palmiro, 2 Trotsky, Leon, 55 Turkey, 25, 33, 120, 160
U
Ukraine, 95, 107
Union of South Africa, 25, 33-34, 45, 128 U. S. Agency for International
Development, 101
United Nations, 25, 82
United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization, 25
United States; anticommunism, 25, 41,
43-47; counterrevolutionary activities, 23-35; foreign policy, 23, 25, 27, 31- 34; national security state, 31-34; Nazi-war criminals, 20; poverty, 130- 131, torture, 37, 81
United States Information Agency, 105 U. S. S. R. ; Great Purges of 1939, 79; and socialism, 42, 49-58, 72-75, 85, 93;
German invasion of, 56; suppression of the Left, 87-94; free-market reforms, 94-97; Nazi invasion of, 56; overthrow of Communism, 76-77;
INDEX 165
? ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MICHAEL PARENTI is considered one of the nations leading progressive thinkers. He received his Ph. D. in political science from Yale University in 1962, and has taught at a number of colleges and universities. His writings have been featured in scholarly journals, popular periodicals, and newspapers, and have been translated into Spanish, Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Turkish.
Dr. Parenti lectures around the country on college campuses and before religious, labor, community, peace, and public interest groups. He has appeared on radio and television talk shows to dis- cuss current issues or ideas from his published works. Tapes of his talks have played on numerous radio stations to enthusiastic audi- ences. Audio and video tapes of his talks are sold on a not-for-profit basis; for a listing, contact People s Video, P. O. Box 99514, Seattle WA 98199; tel. 206 789-5371. Dr. Parenti lives in Berkeley, California.
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Breton, Andre? . ANTHOLOGY OF BLACK HUMOR
Bramly, Serge. MACUMBA: The Teachings of Maria-Jose? , Mother of the Gods Brook, James & Iain A. Boal. RESISTING THE VIRTUAL LIFE:
Culture and Politics of Information
Broughton, James. COMING UNBUTTONED
Broughton, James. MAKING LIGHT OF IT
Brown, Rebecca. ANNIE OAKLEY'S GIRL
Brown, Rebecca. THE TERRIBLE GIRLS
Bukowski, Charles. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN TOWN Bukowski, Charles. NOTES OF A DIRTY OLD MAN
Bukowski, Charles. TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS
Burroughs, William S. THE BURROUGHS FILE
Burroughs, William S. THE YAGE LETTERS
Cassady, Neal. THE FIRST THIRD
Churchill, Ward. A LITTLE MATTER OF GENOCIDE
CITY LIGHTS REVIEW #3: Media and Propaganda
CITY LIGHTS REVIEW #4: Literature / Politics / Ecology
Cocteau, Jean. THE WHITE BOOK (LE LIVRE BLANC)
Cornford, Adam. ANIMATIONS
Corso, Gregory. GASOLINE
Cuadros, Gil. CITY OF GOD
Daumal, Rene? . THE POWERS OF THE WORD
David-Neel, Alexandra. SECRET ORAL TEACHINGS IN TIBETAN
BUDDHIST SECTS
Deleuze, Gilles. SPINOZA: Practical Philosophy
Dick, Leslie. KICKING
Dick, Leslie. WITHOUT FALLING
di Prima, Diane. PIECES OF A SONG: Selected Poems Doolittle, Hilda (H. D. ). NOTES ON THOUGHT & VISION Ducornet, Rikki. ENTERING FIRE
Eberhardt, Isabelle. DEPARTURES: Selected Writings
? Eberhardt, Isabelle. THE OBLIVION SEEKERS
Eidus, Janice. VITO LOVES GERALDINE
Fenollosa, Ernest. CHINESE WRITTEN CHARACTER AS A MEDIUM
FOR POETRY
Ferlinghetti, L. ed. CITY LIGHTS POCKET POETS ANTHOLOGY Ferlinghetti, L. , ed. ENDS & BEGINNINGS (City Lights Review #6) Ferlinghetti, L. PICTURES OF THE GONE WORLD
Finley, Karen. SHOCK TREATMENT
Ford, Charles Henri. OUT OF THE LABYRINTH: Selected Poems
Franzen, Cola, transi. POEMS OF ARAB ANDALUSIA
Garcia Lorca, Federico. BARBAROUS NIGHTS: Legends & Plays
Garcia Lorca, Federico. ODE TO WALT WHITMAN 8c OTHER POEMS
Garcia Lorca, Federico. POEM OF THE DEEP SONG
Garon, Paul. BLUES & THE POETIC SPIRIT
Gil de Biedma, Jaime. LONGING: SELECTED POEMS
Ginsberg, Allen. THE FALL OF AMERICA
Ginsberg, Allen. HOWL & OTHER POEMS
Ginsberg, Allen. KADDISH & OTHER POEMS
Ginsberg, Allen. MIND BREATHS
Ginsberg, Allen. PLANET NEWS
Ginsberg, Allen. PLUTONIAN ODE
Ginsberg, Allen. REALITY SANDWICHES
Goethe, J. W. von. TALES FOR TRANSFORMATION
Go? mez-Pena, Guillermo. THE NEW WORLD BORDER
Harryman, Carla. THERE NEVER WAS A ROSE WITHOUT A THORN Heider, Ulrike. ANARCHISM: Left Right & Green
Herron, Don. THE DASHIELL HAMMETT TOUR: A Guidebook
Higman, Perry, tr. LOVE POEMS FROM SPAIN AND SPANISH AMERICA Jaffe, Harold. EROS: ANTI-EROS
Jenkins, Edith. AGAINST A FIELD SINISTER
Katzenberger, Elaine, ed. FIRST WORLD, HA HA HAI: The Zapatista Challenge
Kerouac, Jack. BOOK OF DREAMS
Kerouac, Jack. POMES ALL SIZES
KerouacJack. SCATTERED POEMS
Kerouac, Jack. SCRIPTURE OF THE GOLDEN ETERNITY Lacarrie`re, Jacques. THE GNOSTICS
La Duke, Betty. COMPARERAS
La Loca. ADVENTURES ON THE ISLE OF ADOLESCENCE Lamantia, Philip. BED OF SPHINXES: SELECTED POEMS Lamantia, Philip. MEADOWLARK WEST
Laughlin, James. SELECTED POEMS: 1935-1985
Laure. THE COLLECTED WRITINGS
Le Brun, Annie. SADE: On the Brink of the Abyss
Mackey, Nathaniel. SCHOOL OF UDHRA
Masereel, Frans. PASSIONATE JOURNEY
Mayakovsky, Vladimir. LISTEN! EARLY POEMS
Morgan, William. BEAT GENERATION IN NEW YORK Mrabet, Mohammed. THE BOY WHO SET THE FIRE Mrabet, Mohammed. THE LEMON
Mrabet, Mohammed. LOVE WITH A FEW HAIRS
Mrabet, Mohammed. M'HASHISH
? Murguia, ? . & ? . Paschke, eds. VOLCAN: Poems from Central America Murillo, Rosario. ANGEL IN THE DELUGE
Nadir, Shams. THE ASTROLABE OF THE SEA
Parenti, Michael. AGAINST EMPIRE
Parenti, Michael. BLACKSHIRTS & REDS
Parenti, Michael DIRTY TRUTHS
Pasolini, Pier Paolo. ROMAN POEMS
Pessoa, Fernando. ALWAYS ASTONISHED
Peters, Nancy J? ed. WAR AFTER WAR (City Lights Review #5) Poe, Edgar Allan. THE UNKNOWN POE
Porta, Antonio. KISSES FROM ANOTHER DREAM Pre? vert, Jacques. PAROLES
Purdy, James. THE CANDLES OF YOUR EYES Purdy, James. GARMENTS THE LIVING WEAR Purdy, James. IN A SHALLOW GRAVE
Purdy, James. OUT WITH THE STARS
Rachlin, Nahid. THE HEART'S DESIRE
Rachlin, Nahid. MARRIED TO A STRANGER
Rachlin, Nahid. VEILS: SHORT STORIES
Reed, Jeremy. DELIRIUM: An Interpretation of Arthur Rimbaud Reed, Jeremy. RED-HAIRED ANDROID
Rey Rosa, Rodrigo. THE BEGGAR'S KNIFE
Rey Rosa, Rodrigo. DUST ON HER TONGUE
Rigaud, Milo. SECRETS OF VOODOO
Ross, Dorien. RETURNING TO A
Ruy Sanchez, Alberto. MOGADOR
Saadawi, Nawal El. MEMOIRS OF A WOMAN DOCTOR
Sawyer-Lauc? anno, Christopher, transi. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE JAGUAR Scholder, Amy, ed. CRITICAL CONDITION: Women on the Edge of Violence Sclauzero, Mariarosa. MARLENE
Serge, Victor. RESISTANCE
Shepard, Sam. MOTEL CHRONICLES
Shepard, Sam. FOOL FOR LOVE & THE SAD LAMENT OF PECOS BILL Smith, Michael. IT A COME
Snyder, Gary. THE OLD WAYS
Solnit, Rebecca. SECRET EXHIBITION: Six California Artists
Sussler, Betsy, ed. BOMB: INTERVIEWS
Takahashi, Mutsuo. SLEEPING SINNING FALLING
Turyn, Anne, ed. TOP TOP STORIES
Tutuola, Amos. SIMBI & THE SATYR OF THE DARK JUNGLE
Valaoritis, Nanos. MY AFTERLIFE GUARANTEED VandenBroeck, Andre? . BREAKING THROUGH Vega, Janine Pommy. TRACKING THE SERPENT Veltri, George. NICE BOY
Waldman, Anne. FAST SPEAKING WOMAN
Wilson, Colin. POETRY AND MYSTICISM
Wilson, Peter Lamborn. PLOUGHING THE CLOUDS Wilson, Peter Lamborn. SACRED DRIFT
Wynne, John. THE OTHER WORLD
Zamora, Daisy.
d'e^tre, is to convert nature into commodities and commodities into capital, transforming the living earth into inanimate wealth. This capital accumulation process wreaks havoc upon the global ecologi- cal system. It treats the planet's life-sustaining resources (arable land, groundwater, wetlands, forests, fisheries, ocean beds, rivers, air qual- ity) as dispensable ingredients of limitless supply, to be consumed or toxified at will. Consequently, the support systems of the entire ecos- phere--the planet's thin skin of fresh air, water, and top soil--are at risk, threatened by such things as global warming, massive erosion, and ozone depletion.
Global warming is caused by tropical deforestation, motor vehicle exhaust, and other fossil fuel emissions that create a "greenhouse effect," trapping heat close to the earth s surface. This massed heat is altering the atmospheric chemistry and climatic patterns across the planet, causing record droughts, floods, tidal waves, snow storms, hurricanes, heat waves, and great losses in soil moisture. We now know that the planet does not have a limitless ability to absorb heat caused by energy consumption.
Another potential catastrophe is the shrinkage of the ozone layer that shields us from the sun's deadliest rays. Over 2. 5 billion pounds of ozone-depleting chemicals are emitted into the earth's atmosphere every year, resulting in excessive ultraviolet radiation that is causing an alarming rise in skin cancer and other diseases. Increased radia- tion is damaging trees, crops, and coral reefs, and destroying the ocean s phytoplankton--source of about half of the planet's oxygen. If the oceans die, so do we.
At the same time, the rise in pollution and population has given us acid rain, soil erosion, silting of waterways, shrinking grasslands, disappearing water supplies and wetlands, and the obliteration of thousands of species, with hundreds more on the endangered list. 10
10 Putting an end to the population explosion will not of itself save the ecosphere but not ending it will add greatly to the dangers the planet faces. The environ- ment can sustain a quality life for just so many people.
? 156 ? LACKS? JRTS AND REDS
In 1970, on what was called "Environment Day," President Richard Nixon intoned: "What a strange creature is man that he fouls his own nest. " With that utterance, Nixon was helping to prop- agate the myth that the ecological crisis we face is a matter of irra- tional individual behavior rather than being of a social magnitude. In truth, the problem is not individual choice but the system that imposes itself on individuals and prefigures their choice. Behind the ecological crisis is the reality of class interest and power.
An ever-expanding capitalism and a fragile, finite ecology are on a calamitous collision course. It is not true that the ruling politico- economic interests are in a state of denial about this. Far worse than denial, they are in a state of utter antagonism toward those who think the planet is more important than corporate profits. So they defame environmentalists as "eco-terrorists," "EPA gestapo," "Earth Day alarmists," "tree huggers," and purveyors of "Green hysteria" and "liberal claptrap. "
Some environmental activists in this country have been the object of terrorist assaults conducted by unknown assailants, with the implicit tolerance of law enforcement authorities. 11 Autocrats in countries like Nigeria, in bed with the polluting oil companies, have waged brutal war upon environmentalists, going so far as to hang popular leader Ken Saro Wiwa.
In recent years, conservatives within and without Congress, fueled by corporate lobbyists, have supported measures that would (1) pre- vent the Environmental Protection Agency from keeping toxic fill out of lakes and harbors, (2) eliminate most of the wetland acreage that was to be set aside for a reserve, (3) completely deregulate the
11 To offer one example: the FBI was quick to make arrests when environmentalists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were seriously injured by a car bomb in 1990. They arrested Bari and Cherney, calling them "radical activists,3" charging that the bomb must have belonged to them. Both have long been outspoken advocates of nonviolence. The charges were eventually dropped for lack of evidence. (The bomb had been planted under the driver's seat. ) The FBI named no other suspects and did no real investigation of the attack.
? ANYTHING BUT CLASS: AVOIDING THE C-WORD 157
production of chlorofluorocarbons that deplete the ozone layer, (4) virtually eliminate clean water and clean air standards, (5) open the unspoiled Arctic wildlife refuge in Alaska to oil and gas drilling, (6) defund efforts to keep raw sewage out of rivers and away from beaches, (7) privatize and open national parks to commercial devel- opment, (8) give the few remaining ancient forests over to unre- strained logging, and (9) repeal the Endangered Species Act. In sum, their openly professed intent has been to eviscerate all our environ- mental protections, however inadequate these are.
Conservatives maintain that there is no environmental crisis. Technological advances will continue to make life better for more and more people. 12 One might wonder why rich and powerful inter- ests take this seemingly suicidal anti-environmental route. They can destroy welfare, public housing, public education, public transporta- tion, social security, Medicare, and Medicaid with impunity, for they and their children will not thereby be deprived, having more than sufficient means to procure private services for themselves. But the environment is a different story. Wealthy conservatives and their cor- porate lobbyists inhabit the same polluted planet as everyone else, eat the same chemicalized food, and breathe the same toxified air.
In fact, they do not live exactly as everyone else. They experience a different class reality, residing in places where the air is somewhat bet- ter than in low and middle income areas. They have access to food that is organically raised and specially prepared. The nations toxic dumps and freeways usually are not situated in or near their swanky neigh- borhoods. The pesticide sprays are not poured over their trees and gardens. Clearcutting does not desolate their ranches, estates, and vacation spots. Even when they or their children succumb to a dread
12 A cover story in Forbes (8/14/95) derides the "health scare industry" and reassures readers that highly chemicalized and fat-ridden junk foods are perfectly safe for one s health. The magazine's owners and corporate advertisers are aware that if people begin to question the products offered by the corporate system, they may end up questioning the system itself. Not without good cause does Forbes describe itself as "a capitalist tool. "
? 158 ? LACKS? JRTS AND REDS
disease like cancer, they do not link the tragedy to environmental fac- tors--though scientists now believe that most cancers stem from human-made causes. They deny there is a larger problem because they themselves create that problem and owe much of their wealth to it.
But how can they deny the threat of an ecological apocalypse brought on by ozone depletion, global warming, disappearing top soil, and dying oceans? Do the dominant elites want to see life on earth, including their own, destroyed? In the long run they indeed will be victims of their own policies, along with everyone else. However, like us all, they live not in the long run but in the here and now. For the ruling interests, what is at stake is something of more immediate and greater concern than global ecology: It is global cap- ital accumulation. The fate of the biosphere is an abstraction com- pared to the fate of one's own investments.
Furthermore, pollution pays, while ecology costs. Every dollar a company must spend on environmental protections is one less dollar in earnings. It is more profitable to treat the environment like a septic tank, pouring thousands of new harmful chemicals into the atmos- phere each year, dumping raw industrial effluent into the river or bay, turning waterways into open sewers. The longterm benefit of preserv- ing a river that runs alongside a community (where the corporate pol- luters do not live anyway) does not weigh as heavily as the immediate gain that comes from ecologically costly modes of production.
Solar, wind, and tidal energy systems could help avert ecological disaster, but they would bring disaster to the rich oil cartels. Six of the world's ten top industrial corporations are involved primarily in the production of oil, gasoline, and motor vehicles. Fossil fuel pollu- tion means billions in profits. Ecologically sustainable forms of pro- duction threaten those profits.
Immense and imminent gain for oneself is a far more compelling consideration than a diffuse loss shared by the general public. The cost of turning a forest into a wasteland weighs little against the prof- its that come from harvesting the timber.
? ANYTHING BUT CLASS: AVOIDING THE C-WORD 159
This conflict between immediate private gain on the one hand and remote public benefit on the other operates even at the individ- ual consumer level. Thus, it is in one's longterm interest not to oper- ate a motor vehicle, which contributes more to environmental devastation than any other single consumer item. But we have an immediate need for transportation in order to get to work, or do whatever else needs doing, so most of us have no choice except to own and use automobiles.
The "car culture" demonstrates how the ecological crisis is not primarily an individual matter of man soiling his own nest. In most instances, the "choice" of using a car is no choice at all. Ecologically efficient and less costly electric-car mass transportation has been deliberately destroyed since the 1930s in campaigns waged across the country by the automotive, oil, and tire industries. Corporations involved in transportation put "America on wheels," in order to max- imize consumption costs for the public and profits for themselves, and to hell with the environment or anything else.
The enormous interests of giant multinational corporations out- weigh doomsayer predictions about an ecological crisis. Sober busi- ness heads refuse to get caught up in the "hysteria" about the environment, preferring to quietly augment their fortunes. Besides, there can always be found a few experts who will go against all the evidence and say that the jury is still out, that there is no conclusive proof to support the alarmists. Conclusive proof in this case would come only when we reach the point of no return.
Ecology is profoundly subversive of capitalism. It needs planned, environmentally sustainable production rather than the rapacious unregulated kind. It requires economical consumption rather than an artificially stimulated, ever-expanding consumerism. It calls for natural, low-cost energy systems rather than profitable, high-cost, polluting ones. Ecology's implications for capitalism are too horren- dous for the capitalist to contemplate.
Those in the higher circles, who once hired Blackshirts to destroy
? 160 ? LACKS? JRTS AND REDS
democracy out of fear that their class interests were threatened, have no trouble doing the same against "eco-terrorists. " Those who have waged merciless war against the Reds have no trouble making war against the Greens. Those who have brought us poverty wages, exploitation, unemployment, homelessness, urban decay, and other oppressive economic conditions are not too troubled about bringing us ecological crisis. The plutocrats are more wedded to their wealth than to the Earth upon which they live, more concerned with the fate of their fortunes than with the fate of the planet. 13
The struggle over environmentalism is part of the class struggle itself, a fact that seems to have escaped many environmentalists. The impending eco-apocalypse is a class act. It has been created by and for the benefit of the few, at the expense of the many. The trouble is, this time the class act may take all of us down, once and forever.
In the relationship between wealth and power, what is at stake is not only economic justice, but democracy itself and the survival of the biosphere. Unfortunately, the struggle for democracy and eco- logical sanity is not likely to be advanced by trendy, jargonized, ABC theorists who treat class as an outmoded concept and who seem ready to consider anything but the realities of capitalist power. In this they are little different from the dominant ideology they profess to oppose. They are the ones who need to get back on this planet.
The only countervailing force that might eventually turn things in a better direction is an informed and mobilized citizenry. Whatever their shortcomings, the people are our best hope. Indeed, we are they. Whether or not the ruling circles still wear blackshirts, and whether or not their opponents are Reds, la lutta continua, the strug- gle continues, today, tomorrow, and through all history.
13 In June 1996, speaking at a U. N. conference in Istanbul, Turkey, Fidel Castro noted: "Those who have almost destroyed the planet and poisoned the air, the seas, the rivers and the earth are those who are least interested in saving humanity. "
? Index
Czech and Slovak republics, 83, 97-99, 101, 106; in Macedonia, 102; in
Mongolia, 85, 107-108; myth of U. S. superiority, 67, 69-71; in Poland, 71- 72, 77, 88, 95, 101, 110, 112, 118; restoration in Eastern Europe, 57, 72- 74, 76, 87-88, 106-107; in USSR, 71- 74, 76, 88-91, 96, 104, 106, 108, 116; in Vietnam, 66, 87, 106, 109
Castro, Fidel, 39, 53, 67,160 Castro, Raul, 63
Ceausescu, Nicolae, 77 Chamberlain, Neville, 18 Chase National Bank, 19 Cherney, Darryl, 156
Child labor, 7, 36-37, 109, 124, 137-138 Children, 25, 84-85, 99,108-109,114-
116
Chernobyl, 39
China, 18, 23-26, 29, 33, 57, 66, 84-85,
87, 92, 106, 109, 128
Chinese Revolution, 36 Chomsky, Avi, 109
Chomsky, Noam, 17, 42, 46, 120 Churchill, Winston, 78, 80
CIA, 20, 24, 28, 76, 82-83, 93, 119 Class; and anticlass ideology, 141-144;
and ecology, 154-160; rejection by
Left, 144-149
Class struggle, 149-152
Clinton, Bill, 129
Codevilla, Angelo, 8
Cohen, Stephen, 55, 77-78
Colby, William, 24
Cold war, 20, 31, 41, 43, 76, 85, 99, 104 Communism; accomplishments of, 26,
45, 67, 84-85; economic deficiencies of, 59-65; economic democracy, 26; resurgence of, 118-120
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), 43
Corporate welfarism, 1, 3-4, 6-8, 10-11 Cossacks, 78
Crimean Tarters, 78
Cuba, 23,26-27,34, 36, 38-39, 45-46, 50,
63,67, 81-82,85,87,98,109,128; social and economic conditions in, 23, 27, 34, 36, 38-40, 67; U. S. blockade of, 67
Cuban Revolution, 36, 38-39, 67 Czechoslovakia, 73, 97-100, 119
A
Abeywickrama, K. L. , 108
Abs, Hermann, 19
Afghanistan, 25, 35, 93
AFL-CIO, 76, 93
African National Congress (ANC), 33,45 African-Americans, 42
Agribusiness, 3-4, 7
Agriculture, 25, 61, 63, 101-103 Aidzerdzis, Andrei, 90
Al-Kurdi, Husayn, 17, 47
Albania, 85, 94
Algerian revolution, 36
Almirante, Giorgio, 20
Americans for Democratic Action
(ADA), 43
Anarchism, 54
Andropov, Yuri, 49 Anti-Semitism, 6, 16, 95-96 Aronowitz, Stanley, 144-145 Aronson, Ronald, 145 Auschwitz, 19
?
Bao Dai, 36
Bari, Judi, 156
Batista, Ruben Fulgencio, 38
Bay of Pigs, 34
Berlusconi, Silvio, 21
Bilenkin, Vladimir, 106, 110 Blackshirts, 2-3, 10, 18, 159-160 Bolshevik revolution, 8, 17,47, 55 Blum, William, 94
Bookchin, Murray, 45
Borsage, Robert, 81
Boxer Rebellion, 23
Brezhnev, Leonid, 49, 116
British Petroleum, 111
Brooks, David, 69
Brown shirts, 4, 14
Bulgaria, 45, 85, 94, 102, 107, 110, 118 Bu? rbach, Roger, 56
Bush, George, 20, 25, 34, 71, 98, 129 Buthelezi, Mangosutho, 33
C
Capitalism; in Albania, 94-95; in
Bulgaria, 94, 102, 107, 110, 118; in
161
? 162 INDEX
D
de Kock, Eugene, 33
Deane, Hugh, 18
Democratic party and anticommunism,
48-49
Derrida, Jacques, 145 Diem, Ngo Dinh, 36 Domenico, Roy Palmer, 18 Dominican Republic, 23 Dowd, Doug, 140
DuPont, 19
Dutt, R. Palme, 2-3
E
Eastern Europe, socialism in, 49-52,65, 85, 115, 118-120
Ebenstein, William, 17
Ecology, and capitalism, 154-160 Ehrenberg, John, 48
Endangered Species Act, 157
Engels, Frederick, 54
Environmental Protection Agency, 156 Estonia, 93, 115, 118
European Union, 95
F
Family values, 16
Farben, I. G. , 9, 19
Fasci di combattimento, 2
Fascism (in Italy); collaboration with
U. S. businesses, 10, 19; cooperation with the West, 17-22; ideology of, 11-
12; labor unions in, 3; popular opposition, 6, 9; taxes, 7; unemploy- ment, 7; working conditions in, 6
Fascism (in Nazi Germany); collabora- tion with capitalism, 4, 8-10, 19; collaboration with the West, 17-22; collaboration with U. S. businesses, 10,
19; homophobia, 14-16; ideology of, 11-17; monist values, 12; popular opposition, 6, 9; racial supremacy, 14-16; taxes, 7; unemployment, 7;
working conditions in, 6 Faulkner, Mike, 38
F. B. I, 48, 156
Febbo, Tony, 52
Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) [West Germany], 19-20, 66, 82-83,
96, 103
Federazione Industriale, 4
Fertig, Howard, 2 Feurerprinzip, 11 Fiske, Klaus, 83
Ford Foundation, 76 Ford, Henry, 10, 19, 76 Forza Italia, 21
Foster, John Bellamy, 35, 146
Franco, Francisco, 1, 8, 48
Free Congress Foundation, 93-94 Free market, 22, 28, 31, 33, 37, 58, 72,
88, 102-103, 106, 118, 138 Free-market reforms; and the arts, 113;
and books, 113; and corruption, 111; and education, 113; employment, 108- 111; and media, 114; and women and children, 114
G
Gamsakhurdia, Zviad, 93
GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade), 37, 144
Gelb, Bruce, 105
Gemeinschaft, 124
General Motors, 19
Genovese, Eugene, 8
German Democratic Republic (GDR)
[East Germany], 19, 45, 49, 64-67, 82- 83, 93, 96, 101, 103-104, 107, 112-113, 117-118;
Germany and socialism, 49-50 Gervasi, Sean, 93
Getty, J. Arch, 79
Giannini, A. P. , 10
Gingrich, Newt, 22 GLADIO, 20
Global warming, 155, 158 Glasnost, 72-73
Gorbachev, Mikhail, 60, 88-89 Goring, Hermann, 11, 19 Gramsci, Antonio, 147, 149 Green, Mark, 44, 58, 156 Greens, 160
Gregor, A. James, 15-16 Guatemala, 25, 33, 50 Guerin, Daniel, 2 Gulag, 78-83
Gulf War, 98
H
Havel, Vaclav, 83, 97-99 Hearst, William Randolph, 11
? Heilbroner, Robert, 37, 126 Heritage Foundation, 39 Heymann, Helene, 83 Higham, Charles, 10, 19 Himmler, Heinrich, 15 Hiroshima, 48
Kuznets, Simon, 8
Ky, Nguyen Cao, 35-36
L
Labor, conditions of, 6-7
Labor unions, Left purges, 43
Laclau, Ernesto, 146
Lane, Mark, 24
Latvia, 93, 107
Lebed, Aleksandr, 96
Lenin, Vladimir, 46-48, 53-55, 121, 147 Levins, Richard, 58
Libya, 27
Lichtman, Richard, 57
Licio Gelli, 20
Lithuania, 6, 85, 93, 95, 118
Lodge, Henry Cabot, 20, 35
Lottman, Herbert, 18
Lourie, Richard, 77
Lukashenko, Alexander, 97
M
MacColl, Gail, 44
MacDonald, Theodore, 39 Maikovskis, Boleslavs, 20 Mandela, Nelson, 34, 45
March on Rome, 4
March, Joan, 8
Mariam, Mengitsu Haile, 93 Martemyanov, Valentin, 90
Marx, Karl, and Capital, 128-129,
136-140, 145-150, 154
Marxism, as holistic science, 132-140;
postulates of, 122-124; and prediction, 125-129
McChesney, Robert, 145
Mclntyre, Robert, 103
McKinley, William, 23
Medvedev, Roy, 77
Michel, Louise, 54
Miller, Robert Carl, 19
Minh, Ho Chi, 53
Mongolia, 50, 85, 107-108
Mosse, George, 13
Mouffe, Chantal, 146
Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI), 19-21 Mugabe, Robert, 53
Muller, Ingo, 18
Multinational corporations, 27, 100,
137-138, 159
Mussolini, Benito, 1-4, 6-7, 9-12
Hitler, Adolph, 1-2, 4-12, 14, 16, 18-19, 21,83, 97
Hobsbawm, Eric, 8
Hochschild, Adam, 43, 80
Holocaust, 18, 25, 130
Homophobia, 14-16, 151
Honecker, Erich, 82
Hoover Institute, 8
Howe, Irving, 122
Hugo, Victor (Les Mise? rables), ix Hungary, 6, 72, 85, 95-96, 102, 106-107,
110, 112, 118 Huntington, Samuel P. , 33
I
India, 30, 50
Indonesia, 25, 33, 50, 70, 77, 98, 120,
137-138
Industrial Revolution, 37 International Monetary Fund (IMF),
31,39,91,101-102
Iraq, 25, 34, 39, 120
Israel, 104
Italian Communist Party, 4, 21, 147-148 ;ITT, 19
Jackson, T. J. , 147
Jankowski, Father Henryk, 95 Jorst, Hans (Schlageter), 12 Judis, John, 146
?
Kagarlitsky, Boris, 89
Kattau, Thomas, 116
Kennan, George, 32
Kerala (India), 30
Kessler, Heinz, 118
Kholodov, Dmitri, 90
King, Jr. , Martin Luther, 34, 54, 98 Kirkpatrick, Jean, 33
Kissinger, Henry, 19 Koestler, Arthur, 77 Kozyrev, Andrey, 70 Krupp, Adolph, 9 Kuomintang, 25, 84
INDEX 163
? 164 INDEX
? R
National Alliance (Italy), 21
National Endowment for Democracy,
76, 93-94
National Liberation Front, 34
National Socialist party (Nazi party), 4,
9, 16, 19 (see also Nazism, Fascism in
Nazi Germany)
NATO, 20
Navarro, Vicente, 8
Nazism, 2, 5, 10, 14-15, 95 (see also
National Socialist party, Fascism in
Nazi Germany)
Neo-fascism in Italy, 20-22 Neumann, Franz, 2
Nicaragua, 23, 25-26, 53, 57, 94, 128 Nigeria, 156
NKVD Archives, 80
Nixon, Richard, 20, 156
North Korea, 27, 39, 85, 87 Nuremberg, 18, 82
?
Oilman, Berteli, 147 Omon troops, 90
Ordine Nuovo, 20
Ortega, Daniel, 53
Orth, Maureen, 117 Orwell, George, 44
Ozone depletion, 155, 158
?
Panama, 25, 34,120
Perestroika, 74
Perm 35, 81
Pew Charitable Trusts, 76
Phelps, Christopher, 147
Philippines, 18, 23, 98
Phoenix Program, 24
Piccone, Paul, 147
Pinochet, Gen. Augusto, 33, 70, 96,98 Poland, 64-65, 71-72, 77, 83, 85, 88, 95,
101, 108, 110, 112, 118; solidarity, 71,
77, 96
Pollution, 106, 118, 155, 158
Pool, James and Suzanne, 2, 10, 49 Pope John Paul II, 20
Pope, Generoso, 10
Prieto, Alberto, 81
Radio Free Europe, 99
Radio Liberty, 99
Radosh, Ronald, 43
Ramachandran, V. K. , 30
Randolph, Eleanor, 11, 107
Reactionism, 68-72
Reagan, Ronald, 20,25,44,69, 71,81,129 Red Cross, 117
Red Menace, 6, 25
Red-baiting, 44
Reder, Walter, 20
Refusniks, 81
Reston, James, 35
Revolution and decentralization, 53 Rittersporn, Gabor, 79
Rockefeller Brothers Fund, 76 Rockefeller, David, 19 Roehm, Ernst, 14-15 Rohatyn, Felix, 151 Rosemont, Jr. , Henry, 84 Rosenberg, Alfred, 11 Rosenthal, A. M. , 151
Rubies, Alfreds, 93
Rumania, 6, 77, 85, 95, 101, 107-108 Rusher, William, 77
Russia, 23, 26, 29, 37, 44,53-54, 56, 58,
84-85, 88-89, 91-93, 95, 100-101, 106- 107, 109-116, 118, 120, 128; and Yeltsin coup of 1993, 106; crime in, 111-112; healthcare in, 107; homeless- ness in, 108; poverty in, 110-120
SA (Sturmabteilung); storm troopers, 4-5, 14-16
Sabato, Larry, 91
Sakharov, Andrei, 69-70, 81 Salvemini, Gaetano, 2 Schwarzwaeller, Wulf, 9
Scott, John, 56
Selassie, Haile, 93
Shames, Carl, 52
Shatunovskaia, Olga, 77
Shell Oil, 111
Smith Act, 48
Socialism; pure socialism, vs. siege
socialism, 49, 53, 56, 59, 74-75 Socialist Union of Youth, 99 Socialist Workers Party (SWP), 48
S
? Sokal, Alan, 145
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr, 81
South African Inkatha Freedom Party, 33 South Korea, 18, 50,128
South Vietnam, 24, 34-35
Spain, 6, 8, 54
Squadristi, 44
SS, 4,9 15-16, 19, 80
Stalin, Joseph, 44-46, 55-57, 60, 76-81,
83-85, 116
Stent, Angela, 116
Stephan, Miroslav, 83
Stone, I. F. , 70
Storm troopers (see SA, Sturmabteilung) Strasser, Gregor, 15
Suharot, 70
Sweden, 74
?
Terrorism, 24, 28, 82-83, 93; and the CIA, 20
Thaelmann, Ernst, 5
Third World, 22, 27-28, 30-32, 37-39,
46, 48, 57, 70, 84, 100, 113, 119-120, 127, 131, 135
and the gulag, 77-81; multinational corporations and, 100
y
Vietnam, 24, 26, 29, 34, 48, 66,69, 87,
106,109, 128; North Vietnam, 34;
South Vietnam, 24, 34
Vietnam War, 24-25, 48, 69
Von Hindenburg, Field Marshall, 5, 9
W
Walsea, Lech, 71, 77, 95 Weimar Republic, 4
White Guard, 78, 80
Windsor, Duke 8c Duchess, 10 Wiwa, Ken Saro, 156
Wolf, Leon, 23
Women, 25, 33, 36, 40, 43, 69, 71, 73-
74, 76, 87-89, 91, 93-95, 97-99, 101- 109, 111-113, 114-119, 131, 138; in Afghanastan, 35-36; in Cuba, 35-36;
in South Yemen, 35-36; under
fascism, 15
Wood, Ellen Meiksins, 146
World Bank, 91
World War 1,2-3
World War II, 18-19, 24, 44, 79-80, 83-
85, 95, 107, 129 Worsley, Peter, 128 Wrzodak, Zygmunt, 71
y
Yemen, 35, 93, 96 Yugoslavia, 96-97, 102
?
Zaire, 25, 33, 50, 77,120, 132 Zemskov, Victor, 79
ZiL; privatization of, 101-102 Zyuganov, Gennadi, 91
Thomas, Edith, 54, 116 Togliatti, Palmiro, 2 Trotsky, Leon, 55 Turkey, 25, 33, 120, 160
U
Ukraine, 95, 107
Union of South Africa, 25, 33-34, 45, 128 U. S. Agency for International
Development, 101
United Nations, 25, 82
United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization, 25
United States; anticommunism, 25, 41,
43-47; counterrevolutionary activities, 23-35; foreign policy, 23, 25, 27, 31- 34; national security state, 31-34; Nazi-war criminals, 20; poverty, 130- 131, torture, 37, 81
United States Information Agency, 105 U. S. S. R. ; Great Purges of 1939, 79; and socialism, 42, 49-58, 72-75, 85, 93;
German invasion of, 56; suppression of the Left, 87-94; free-market reforms, 94-97; Nazi invasion of, 56; overthrow of Communism, 76-77;
INDEX 165
? ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MICHAEL PARENTI is considered one of the nations leading progressive thinkers. He received his Ph. D. in political science from Yale University in 1962, and has taught at a number of colleges and universities. His writings have been featured in scholarly journals, popular periodicals, and newspapers, and have been translated into Spanish, Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Turkish.
Dr. Parenti lectures around the country on college campuses and before religious, labor, community, peace, and public interest groups. He has appeared on radio and television talk shows to dis- cuss current issues or ideas from his published works. Tapes of his talks have played on numerous radio stations to enthusiastic audi- ences. Audio and video tapes of his talks are sold on a not-for-profit basis; for a listing, contact People s Video, P. O. Box 99514, Seattle WA 98199; tel. 206 789-5371. Dr. Parenti lives in Berkeley, California.
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