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# Crash Course Socialism
## Contents
<!-- toc -->
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<!-- tocstop -->
# Crash Course Socialism
## Surplus Value
[Socialism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism) is an economic and social system defined by **social ownership of the means of production**. (Workers democratically own and operate the places in which they work, as opposed to private control of production aka [capitalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism)).
The [means of production](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Means_of_production) are non-human inputs that help create economic value, such as **factories, industrial machinery, workplaces, large tracts of land**, etc. The means of production are the means of life. Socialists refer to the means of production as *capital*, or [private property](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_ownership), IE, the things which give the people who own them power over those who don't. Private property in the socialist context shouldn't be confused with [personal property](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_property#Personal_versus_private_property), such as your home, car, computer, and other possessions, which would be protected. Private property is in actuality another word for *absentee property*, whose ownership is claimed through title only (and not use), for the purpose of extracting rent from the *actual* users, occupants, or workers.
@ -51,97 +48,57 @@ A 1983 report by England national income and expenditures found that on average,
Capitalists use the surplus to [push out competitors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-competitive_practices) and gain market share, leading to the destruction of most small businesses, with [just a few companies](http://imgur.com/a/xgnEp) controlling our food, media, energy, transportation, and finances.
In the table below, both capital and surplus value are controlled by a company's owners, who usually appoint a board of directors. This owning class (called Capitalists, or the [Bourgeoisie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourgeoisie)) make up a **tiny minority** of the population.
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th colspan="5">Capitalist firm / Economy</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td rowspan="9">Total Value</td>
<td rowspan="6">Worker value added</td>
<td rowspan="5">Surplus Value / Profit</td>
<td>Other payments</td>
<td>Owners, Shareholders, Board of Directors, Managers, Clerks</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Capital Accumulation</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Armed Enforcement</td>
<td>Police, Military</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Political Bribery</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Advertising</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Wages</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td rowspan="3">Capital</td>
<td>Physical assets</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Intellectual assets</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Money / Finance capital</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
[Wage workers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oztdRo9GLLk) are **completely dependent** on selling their labor power to those in control of production in order to gain access to the necessities of life (money for food, shelter, clothing, etc). Its similarities to chattel slavery has lead many to term wage work as [wage slavery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery), with voluntary employment being simply a false choice between **one exploiter or another**.
@ -155,7 +112,6 @@ Technological advancements, instead of benefiting workers, result in decreased o
*The difference between these two lines is a measure of the surplus.*
## History, and Human Nature
**Capitalism has nothing to do with human nature**. People can be greedy, or cooperative, depending on the incentive structure and ideology of the socioeconomic system they live in, which is usually out of their control. For the vast majority of human history, small groups of people survived by foraging, growing, or hunting for food **as a community**, in a mode of life termed [primitive communism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_communism). Communal sharing was essential to the survival of the group. Markets likewise were rare, since communities tended to be self-sufficient. Rituals, harvest festivals, a group of elders deciding fair distribution, or communal decision-making accomplished what markets do today. Private property (and male-dominated societies) came into existence with the growth of large-scale agriculture and animal domestication (A historically male-dominated activity). These tended to be passed on to male descendants (which in turn required strict female sexual control, isolation, and increasing objectification), aggregating into fewer and fewer land-owners, and creating class antagonisms between an owning, and a working class.
In the modern day, there is the **communism of the family**, in which family members share freely with one another. There are community welfare organizations, food banks, as well as thousands of undocumented and unpublicized acts of kindness which show that cooperation endures even in spite of the individualism of the current dominant economic system. Popular phrases like, "Money is the root of all evil", hint at our societal dislike of selfishness, and persist alongside the capitalist myths of the "self-made man", and, "pulling yourself up by the bootstraps" (which shows the power of capitalist indoctrination; in a nonsensical world, *the impossible becomes possible*).
@ -167,23 +123,18 @@ Socialism as a diverse philosophy arose out of a criticism after the French revo
Marxism is a socialist tradition, which places emphasis on the means of production, your relation to them, and the inherent class struggles involved between **those who control the productive forces and those who don't**, as the primary force driving economic and social relations.
## Value
Economic systems, such as Capitalism, don't invent, *create* or *build* anything. Workers do (See [Soviet Space Program](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_program)). The "isms" just determine who gets compensated. Nor does [capitalism spur innovation](https://www.reddit.com/r/DebateCommunism/comments/9c9qj6/in_a_communist_society_what_are_people_motivated/); the pursuit of new ideas is fundamental to humanity, and takes place regardless of the economic system in place. Inventions like rocketry, the internet, space travel, GPS, mobile phones, vaccines, [were all developed under public funding](https://gowans.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/do-publicly-owned-planned-economies-work/).
[The labor theory of value](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_theory_of_value) recognizes that our most valuable resource is time, specifically **socially useful** labor time. There is after all only a **finite number of hours of work humanity can perform in a given day**; and at least half of that value is going to a few absentee owners. The labor theory of value [has been proven empirically correct in recent decades](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emnYMfjYh1Q), by comparing the amount of labor required in given industries, and the money output of of those industries. For nearly every country with sufficient economic data, **the correlation is > 95%**.
Under capitalism, [the subjective theory of value](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_theory_of_value) is based almost entirely on the supply and demand curve model which is unscientific since it presupposes more unknowns than knowns, and as such is useless at making any predictions. Its greatest use is to allow the mega-rich to justify owning [thousands of lifetimes](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/4wxdnb/how_many_lifetimes_of_labor_has_bill_gates_stolen/?ref=search_posts) of stolen labor.
[The planned economies](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/capitalism_doesnt_work.md) such as that of the USSR, while imperfect, often provided [better social outcomes](https://gowans.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/do-publicly-owned-planned-economies-work/) than its Western equivalents. Its publicly owned, planned economy brought it from feudalism to a world superpower, with the [fastest growing economy of the 20th century](https://artir.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/captura-de-pantalla-de-2016-05-26-10-15-23.png), despite starting out at the same level of economic development as Brazil in 1920.
[The planned economies](capitalism_doesnt_work.md) such as that of the USSR, while imperfect, often provided [better social outcomes](https://gowans.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/do-publicly-owned-planned-economies-work/) than its Western equivalents. Its publicly owned, planned economy brought it from feudalism to a world superpower, with the [fastest growing economy of the 20th century](https://artir.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/captura-de-pantalla-de-2016-05-26-10-15-23.png), despite starting out at the same level of economic development as Brazil in 1920.
This video by [Paul Cockshott - Going beyond Money](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI01-5zhwdA), illustrates how it is currently possible to go beyond money, and to build a democratically planned, labor-time based economy **for human needs, rather than private profit.**
## Conformity
[Socialism has nothing to do with conformity](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/mar/11.htm), restriction of artistic expression, or equality in abilities. It instead proposes *economic and political equality* through the abolition of classes, placing all citizens on an equal footing *with regard to the means of production*. It is Capitalism, with its inherent authoritarian hierarchies, that imposes conformity on society through [vapid consumerism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_fetishism), and through the authoritarian nature of capitalist firms themselves. A [chain of command](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_hierarchy) ensures that orders from capitalists drop like a rock, to dominate the actions of every worker.
## Democracy
Socialists view democracy under capitalism to be an unrealistic utopia, better labeled as [Bourgeois Democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Marxism), Capitalist Dictatorship, or democracy for the rich, which socialists contrast with proletarian democracy. Under capitalism, political parties, representatives, infrastructure, and the media **are controlled by capitalists**, who place restrictions and limitations on the ability and choices of the working class. [Bourgeois democracies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy#Dictatorship_of_the_bourgeoisie) are in reality [Capitalist Dictatorships](https://i.imgur.com/8vDYw17.jpg), resulting in legislation favorable to the wealthy, [regardless of the population's actual preferences.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig) Examples of restrictions include stacking the candidates before an election, the [First Past the Post](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo) voting system (which enforces capitalist two party domination), [gerrymandering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering), long term limits with no way to recall unpopular representatives, restrictions crafted to disenfranchise poor and minority voters, bills directly crafted by lobbyists and bourgeois lawmakers, voter suppression, electoral fraud, unverifiable closed source electronic voting systems, capitalist campaign financing, low voter to representative ratios, inconvenient voting locations and times, and most pervasive, candidate stacking. **Most elections are performed before we ever get to the polling booth**. In short, political democracy can't exist without economic democracy.
The impossibility of Capitalist democracy to make a transition to working-class democracy is best shown by the phrase: Capitalists **will not allow** you to vote away their wealth. Pacifism, and elections have [never been an effective means of disenfranchising the ruling class.](https://theredphoenixapl.org/2011/08/11/pacifism-how-to-do-the-enemys-job-for-them/)
@ -205,7 +156,6 @@ Communists propose building alternatives alongside of bourgeois democracy, with
- Public officials are paid workmen’s wages.
## Late Stage Capitalism
During Capitalism's growth period (early Capitalism), when there are new markets and labor forces to expand to, capitalism can appear stable for the richer consumers whose products *are actually being produced* by exploited, poorer workforces. Likewise, in a labor shortage, as existed in the newly industrializing US, capitalists *have no choice* but to keep wages high (and the rate of exploitation low) in order to bring in workers from other countries, and keep them from becoming subsistence farmers. In the southern US, **African slavery was used to solve the labor shortage**, and keep exploitation high (since no wages were paid), and consumer products such as tobacco and cotton cheap. In order to take advantage of cheap labor, capitalists usually build production far away from where those products are actually bought and consumed, meaning that most consumer goods are shipped by ocean-freight, wasting energy and **polluting the environment**.
Since the 1960s, there has been a [labor surplus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Productivity_and_Real_Median_Family_Income_Growth_in_the_United_States.png), due to a decreased demand for workers due to computers and automation, and an increased supply of workers (women, and low-paid manufacturing and agriculture in less-developed countries). The extra, unemployed workers make up a [reserve army of labor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_army_of_labour), keeping wages low, and desperation high. Increased worker productivity (due to computers and automation) mean that the surplus (the difference between worker productivity and wage paid), is historically higher than ever. This trend will only continue, and workers will naturally become more class conscious, as they see their exploitation increase, and their livelihood decrease.
@ -219,13 +169,10 @@ In actuality, **capitalism is highly unstable**, made up of a series of crises,
Both feudalism and slavery were thought to be highly stable systems, and even they lasted hundreds of years until their eventual overthrow.
## Defending the Status Quo
The reason why most people are reticent to read anti-capitalist literature, and discouraged from participating in the class struggle through unionism and political movements, is due to **capitalist indoctrination**, capitalist media concentration, and police repression. In Marxist philosophy, [cultural hegemony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony) is the domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class, who manipulate the culture of that society (the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores) so that their imposed, ruling-class world view becomes the accepted cultural norm; the universally valid dominant ideology, which justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural and inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.
The police in Western bourgeois democracies are the **domestic enforcement arm of the capitalists**, much like the military is the external imperialist enforcement arm. They are the hired goons of the elite interests of their given city, protecting their factories and workplaces from unionization and worker control, oppressing the poor and homeless, and keeping them separated from other workers by intentional impoverishment via legal means. Cops have [a long history of killing workers and crushing unions](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md#workers-and-the-poor).
The police in Western bourgeois democracies are the **domestic enforcement arm of the capitalists**, much like the military is the external imperialist enforcement arm. They are the hired goons of the elite interests of their given city, protecting their factories and workplaces from unionization and worker control, oppressing the poor and homeless, and keeping them separated from other workers by intentional impoverishment via legal means. Cops have [a long history of killing workers and crushing unions](us_atrocities.md#workers-and-the-poor).
## The State, and Revolution
Private ownership of the means of production was established through force and [private tyranny](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVt7U2YIgZs), and is only upheld through force. The state is a **special organization of force used for the suppression of one class by another** which (in capitalist society) exercises a monopoly on violence to forcibly maintain the right to private property. The modern state developed alongside the emergent capitalist system as the bourgeoisie seized political and economic control. It arises from the irreconcilable class antagonisms that exist in society.
The State, under capitalist society, which protects private property and upholds the capitalist mode of production, is an instrument wielded by the bourgeoisie to *suppress the proletariat*. **So long as there are classes in society, a State (or any organization that uses force in the interests of a class) must exist.**
@ -235,14 +182,12 @@ Marxists aim to replace the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, with a transitional
Socialism as an economic system is distinct from [neoliberalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism), as well as [social democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy)/Welfare [state capitalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism), which aims to band-aid the ills of capitalism while leaving the exploitation inherent in [wage slavery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery) intact. Social services provided by the capitalist-controlled state have nothing to do with socialism.
## The Communist Legacy
Some Marxists call the regimes typically called socialist, as more correctly defined as [State Capitalist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism), since production was controlled by state bureaucracies who also distributed the surplus, rather than through the democratic input of workers. Other Marxists call them *siege socialist*, contrasting it with *pure socialism*, stating that siege socialism is a natural reaction to the external pressures of capitalist encirclement, and that *pure socialism* is an ideal which is [ahistorical and nonfalsifiable.](http://www.greanvillepost.com/2015/05/23/left-anticommunism-the-unkindest-cut/) The US for example, has been involved in [militarily crushing nearly every socialist attempt](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md) for the last 80 years, and installing right-wing fascist dictatorships (friendly to US interests) in their place. Needless to say, **capitalist encirclement has a profoundly distorting affect** on the building of socialism; very few attempts have survived US interventionism. [This talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7WmYEoNtPY&feature=youtu.be) by Micheal Parenti is a good reflection and criticism on the soviet experiment.
Some Marxists call the regimes typically called socialist, as more correctly defined as [State Capitalist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism), since production was controlled by state bureaucracies who also distributed the surplus, rather than through the democratic input of workers. Other Marxists call them *siege socialist*, contrasting it with *pure socialism*, stating that siege socialism is a natural reaction to the external pressures of capitalist encirclement, and that *pure socialism* is an ideal which is [ahistorical and nonfalsifiable.](http://www.greanvillepost.com/2015/05/23/left-anticommunism-the-unkindest-cut/) The US for example, has been involved in [militarily crushing nearly every socialist attempt](us_atrocities.md) for the last 80 years, and installing right-wing fascist dictatorships (friendly to US interests) in their place. Needless to say, **capitalist encirclement has a profoundly distorting affect** on the building of socialism; very few attempts have survived US interventionism. [This talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7WmYEoNtPY&feature=youtu.be) by Micheal Parenti is a good reflection and criticism on the soviet experiment.
The early stages of the [1917 Russian Revolution](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution) were far more progressive than is typically portrayed; Divorce was legalized, **Homosexuality was decriminalized**, land was distributed to the peasantry, banks were nationalized, control of factories was given to worker's councils, **the workday was shortened**, wages were fixed at a higher rate, all elected officials could now be immediately recalled; it created mass literacy drives, free nurseries, communal kitchens, and laundries. 14 Western nations (including the US) [sent troops to Russia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_intervention_in_the_Russian_Civil_War) to fight against the gains of the revolution.
Contrary to the popular phrase, [Communism did work](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/capitalism_doesnt_work.md): within a few short years, the **Soviet Union doubled its life expectancy**, became a world super-power, and the second fastest growing economy of the 1900s. Other achievements include: near-zero unemployment, continuous economic growth for 70+ years (*excluding WW2*), near-zero homelessness, higher caloric intake than the US, 99% literacy, free education, free health-care (most doctors per capita in the world), free childcare, low poverty, and low levels of sex and racial inequality, not to mention the soviet space program's achievements. <sup>[1](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/86tqdd/but_socialism_doesnt_work_s/dw7qco0/)</sup>
Contrary to the popular phrase, [Communism did work](capitalism_doesnt_work.md): within a few short years, the **Soviet Union doubled its life expectancy**, became a world super-power, and the second fastest growing economy of the 1900s. Other achievements include: near-zero unemployment, continuous economic growth for 70+ years (*excluding WW2*), near-zero homelessness, higher caloric intake than the US, 99% literacy, free education, free health-care (most doctors per capita in the world), free childcare, low poverty, and low levels of sex and racial inequality, not to mention the soviet space program's achievements. <sup>[1](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/86tqdd/but_socialism_doesnt_work_s/dw7qco0/)</sup>
These achievements were possible due to efficient use of resources resulting from the lack of a parasitic capitalist class expropriating the majority of the nation's wealth. Similar outcomes in other socialist countries prove that [socialism did indeed work](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/capitalism_doesnt_work.md), and provided an alternative to the private property system. This is why it was *intentionally and systematically* attacked by Western capitalist nations.
These achievements were possible due to efficient use of resources resulting from the lack of a parasitic capitalist class expropriating the majority of the nation's wealth. Similar outcomes in other socialist countries prove that [socialism did indeed work](capitalism_doesnt_work.md), and provided an alternative to the private property system. This is why it was *intentionally and systematically* attacked by Western capitalist nations.
The famines and economic hardship typically associated with communism in Russia and China, were partially a result of the painful process of [industrialization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrialisation), and the transition from agriculture to industry. It would be the case whether capitalists, communists, or enlightened rulers were in power. During England's rapid industrialization, life expectancy in some cities was less than 30 years. This is the case with every country in the process of industrialization. [Lysenkoism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism), and [a period of droughts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chinese_Famine) made the problem worse. The scale of famines were also exaggerated by capitalist historians, whose brinkmanship in quoting higher death counts is contradicted by the **massive population growth** of those countries. Even in spite of this, a look at a [drastic increase in the life expectancy in the USSR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Soviet_Union#Life_expectancy_and_infant_mortality) should put to rest the notion of socialism as contributing to starvation.
@ -251,7 +196,6 @@ Exaggerated death counts blamed on *communism* and usually attributed to Stalin
Even if we were to fully accept the Western propaganda that socialist regimes have killed 100 million people, then within 10 years, **capitalism kills more children under the age of 5 than socialism did in 150 years**.
## The Communist Future
Communism is the highest developed stage of socialism wherein there is no state, no money, no class system. The means of production are owned by all and provide for everyone's needs. There are also presumably high levels of automation so [most do not have to work](http://imgur.com/yQpzb).
Many socialists point to [directly democratic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_democracy) [worker’s councils](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers'_council) as an ideal way to organize production, with [gift economies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy) for abundant goods, and [labor voucher](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_voucher) economies for scarce/luxury goods. Here is an example of a [moneyless, Cyber-Communist system.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI01-5zhwdA)
@ -261,15 +205,11 @@ Past and present socialist/anarchist societies include - [Revolutionary Cataloni
[Revolutionary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_socialism) vs [Evolutionary (Reformist)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformism) socialism, [Economic planning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_economy) with [labor vouchers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_voucher) vs. [Market socialism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_socialism), are a few debated topics within socialism.
## FAQ
- [Socialism FAQ](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/socialism_faq.md)
- [Glossary of Socialist Terms](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/glossary_of_socialist_terms.md)
- [Does Capitalism work?](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/capitalism_doesnt_work.md)
- [Socialism FAQ](socialism_faq.md)
- [Glossary of Socialist Terms](glossary_of_socialist_terms.md)
- [Does Capitalism work?](capitalism_doesnt_work.md)
# Media
## Videos
- [Introduction to Marxism by Professor Richard D. Wolff](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Whccunka4)
- [Socialism for Dummies by Professor Richard D. Wolff](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysZC0JOYYWw)
- [Michael Parenti - Reflections on the overthrow of the Soviet Union](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7WmYEoNtPY)
@ -285,11 +225,8 @@ Past and present socialist/anarchist societies include - [Revolutionary Cataloni
- [10 minute intro to Capitalism by Professor Richard D. Wolff](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMdIgGOYKhs)
- [Introduction to Anarchism by Noam Chomsky](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Bv2MKY7uI), [#1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUzquEya6Lw), [#2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FHNMZbnvYU)
- [Chomsky on american or right-libertarianism](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVt7U2YIgZs)
## Literature
### Modern introductory books
- [Socialist books starter pack (torrent)](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:6980fde654f217ec9c81b30eab1ca3a13bbbca1e&dn=Socialist+books+starter+pack&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fzer0day.ch%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.demonii.com%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fexodus.desync.com%3A6969)
- <pre>magnet:?xt=urn:btih:6980fde654f217ec9c81b30eab1ca3a13bbbca1e&dn=Socialist+books+starter+pack&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fzer0day.ch%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.demonii.com%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fexodus.desync.com%3A6969</pre>
- [Paul D’Amatto - the meaning of Marxism](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:24c9a942f97f99c1816a344292b7baff5f289986&dn=The+Meaning+of+Marxism+-+Paul+D%27Amato.epub&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fzer0day.ch%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.demonii.com%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fexodus.desync.com%3A6969)
@ -298,17 +235,13 @@ Past and present socialist/anarchist societies include - [Revolutionary Cataloni
- <pre>magnet:?xt=urn:btih:1565682421ff7082fdad461266ab9e403fb50cfc&dn=Socialism Seriously A Brief Guide to Human Liberation Danny Katch (2015) epub&tr=http://tracker.opentrackr.org/announce&tr=http://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce&tr=udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce&tr=udp://tracker.leechers-paradise.org:6969/announce&tr=udp://tracker.zer0day.to:1337/announce</pre>
- [Jacobin - The ABCs of Socialism](https://s3.jacobinmag.com/issues/jacobin-abcs.pdf)
- [Peter Gelderloos - How Nonviolence Protects the State](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-how-nonviolence-protects-the-state)
### Essays/Introductions
- [Albert Einstein - Why Socialism?](http://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/)
- [Engels - Principles of Communism](https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm) (A great glossary of socialist terms)
- [Lenin - The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/mar/x01.htm)
- [Lenin - A liberal professor on Equality](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/mar/11.htm)
- [Eugene Debs - Capitalism and Socialism](https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1912/1912-capsoc.htm)
### Marxist literature
- [Engels - Socialism: Utopian and Scientific](http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm)
- [Marx/Engels - The Communist Manifesto](http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/)
- [Marx - Wage Labour and Capital](https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/)
@ -319,13 +252,9 @@ Past and present socialist/anarchist societies include - [Revolutionary Cataloni
- [Kropotkin - The Conquest of Bread](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-the-conquest-of-bread)
- [Trotsky - Fascism: What it is and how to Fight it](https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1944/1944-fas.htm)
- [Trotsky - In Defense of October](https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1932/11/oct.htm)
### Marxian economics
- [Cockshott and Cottrell - Towards a New Socialism (pdf)](http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/socialism_book/new_socialism.pdf) [epub](http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/socialism_book/TNS.epub) [audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjHCPWs5sl4&list=PL0-IkmzWbjoZNiItBbuVvKQBdE80tsyhx)
### History books
- [Howard Zinn - A Peoples History of the United States](http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html)
- [CLR James - The Black Jacobins](http://www.ouleft.org/wp-content/uploads/CLR_James_The_Black_Jacobins.pdf)
- [John Reid - The Ten Days that Shook the World](https://www.marxists.org/archive/reed/1919/10days/10days/)
@ -335,19 +264,13 @@ Past and present socialist/anarchist societies include - [Revolutionary Cataloni
- [George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage_to_Catalonia)
- [Trotsky - History of the Russian Revolution](https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/hrr/)
- [Joshua Bloom - Black Against Empire](https://www.amazon.com/Black-against-Empire-Politics-Foundation/dp/0520293282/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485894343&sr=8-1&keywords=black+against+empire)
### Psychology
- [Robert Cialdini - The Psychology of persuasion](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:bad0ad6cca5c00ba8d1f8e8c4e5962f6d611f381&dn=Influence_%20The%20Psychology%20of%20Persuasion%20by%20Robert%20Cialdini&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fzer0day.ch%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.demonii.com%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fexodus.desync.com%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Feddie4.nl%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.pirateparty.gr%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopentrackr.org%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.zer0day.to%3A1337) (not explicitly Marxist, but a great breakdown of the main psychological tactics used by exploiters to manipulate us)
- <pre>magnet:?xt=urn:btih:bad0ad6cca5c00ba8d1f8e8c4e5962f6d611f381&dn=Influence_%20The%20Psychology%20of%20Persuasion%20by%20Robert%20Cialdini&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fzer0day.ch%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.demonii.com%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fexodus.desync.com%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Feddie4.nl%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.pirateparty.gr%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopentrackr.org%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.zer0day.to%3A1337</pre>
## Audiobooks
- [Dessalines List of Audiobooks](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/audiobooks.md)
- [Dessalines List of Audiobooks](audiobooks.md)
- [Dessalines Youtube Channel w/ Audiobooks](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HJWIFGGeMiJi2h3k18CrQ)
## Films
- [Pride (2014)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3169706/?ref_=nv_sr_4)
- [Reds (1981)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082979/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)
- [Salt of the Earth (1954)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047443/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)
@ -374,9 +297,7 @@ Past and present socialist/anarchist societies include - [Revolutionary Cataloni
- [The Organizer (1963)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056945/?ref_=ttls_li_tt)
- [Lulu the tool (1971)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066919/?ref_=ttls_li_tt)
- [Rebellion in Patagonia (1974)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071976/?ref_=ttls_li_tt)
## Documentaries
- [Seeing Red](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhmGVnHxtf0)
- [Tsar to Lenin](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:02a5f8e618049ddcc8885360abeffd1db562d6d8&dn=Tsar.To.Lenin.720p.x264.MP3.MVGroup.Forum.org.avi)
- [Fidel - The untold story (Cuban Revolution)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2Obp6YS4SY)
@ -394,20 +315,16 @@ Past and present socialist/anarchist societies include - [Revolutionary Cataloni
- [The Murder of Fred Hampton](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6-JVliecLo)
- [The Revolution will not be televised (Chavez and Venezuela)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id--ZFtjR5c)
- [A place called Chiapas (EZLN)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145394/?ref_=ttls_li_tt)
# Organizations
## Parties / Groups
- [List of Anticapitalist Organizations](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/anticapitalist_orgs.md#organizations)
- [List of Anticapitalist Organizations](anticapitalist_orgs.md#organizations)
## Online Communities
- [/r/LateStageCapitalism](https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/)
- [/r/socialistRA](https://reddit.com/r/socialistRA)
- [/r/capitalism_in_decay](https://www.reddit.com/r/capitalism_in_decay/)
- [/r/socialism](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/)
- [/r/communism](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/)
- [/r/anarchism](https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchism/)
- [/r/socialistRA](https://reddit.com/r/socialistRA)
- [/r/redneckrevolt](https://www.reddit.com/r/redneckrevolt/)
- [/r/socialistprogrammers](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialistprogrammers/)
- [/r/militant](https://www.reddit.com/r/militant/)
- 101s
@ -416,7 +333,6 @@ Past and present socialist/anarchist societies include - [Revolutionary Cataloni
- [/r/anarchy101](https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchy101/)
- Memes
- [/r/FULLCOMMUNISM](https://www.reddit.com/r/FULLCOMMUNISM/)
- [/r/COMPLETEANARCHY](https://www.reddit.com/r/COMPLETEANARCHY/)
- [/r/ShitLiberalsSay](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitLiberalsSay/)
- [/r/COMPLETEANARCHY](https://www.reddit.com/r/COMPLETEANARCHY/)
*Credit to [/u/gab91](https://www.reddit.com/u/gab91), [/r/socialism](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/), [/r/socialism_101](https://www.reddit.com/r/Socialism_101/), [/r/communism101](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/)*

17
favorite_apps_and_services.md
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@ -10,13 +10,14 @@
- Use [AirVPN](https://airvpn.org/), [Mullvad](https://mullvad.net/), [NordVPN](https://nordvpn.com/), [ProtonVPN](https://protonvpn.com/)
- Use [qbittorrent](https://www.qbittorrent.org/), [deluge](https://www.deluge-torrent.org/), or [transmission](https://transmissionbt.com/) for a torrent client.
- Use [MPV](https://mpv.io/) or [VLC](https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html), open source media players to play media.
- Use [jellyfin](https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin) or sftp for streaming to other devices.
- Use [jellyfin](https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin) or SFtp for streaming to other devices.
- Instead of centralized, hosted youtube alternatives with upload limits, use torrents, and find a platform to post and comment on the magnet links.
## Documents and Coding
- Write all documents and notes in markdown.
- Use [typora](https://typora.io/), [Mark Text](https://marktext.github.io/website/), or vim as markdown editors / notes.
- Use vim with [vimrc](https://github.com/amix/vimrc) and [Youcompleteme](https://github.com/Valloric/YouCompleteMe) for code.
- Use [Typora](https://typora.io/), [Mark Text](https://marktext.github.io/website/), or vim as markdown editors / notes.
- Use vim with [vimrc](https://github.com/amix/vimrc) and [Youcompleteme](https://github.com/Valloric/YouCompleteMe) for code.
- Do not use vscode, it's [difficult to impossible to turn off keylogging.](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40451596/visual-studio-code-still-accessing-internet-after-update-and-telemetry-was-disab). If you must, use [VSCodium](https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium#why-does-this-exist), which removes the built-in telemetry.
- Spreadsheets in [Libreoffice](https://www.libreoffice.org/).
- Install [Syncthing](https://syncthing.net/), and put all your documents in a synced folder.
@ -33,17 +34,17 @@
- Use Firefox or Tor Browser, with the addons:
- [uBlock Origin](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/)
- [Privacy Badger](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-badger17)
- [Facebook Container](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-container) - As suggested, this keeps all Facebook stuff in it's own Firefox container.
- [Google Container](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-container/) - The above, but for Google.
- [Facebook Container](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-container) - Keeps all Facebook stuff in it's own container.
- [Google Container](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-container/)
- [Startpage](https://www.startpage.com/), [Searx](https://searx.me/) ([onion service](http://searchb5a7tmimez.onion/)), as a search engine
- If using Tor, use onion services if possible instead of clearnet.
- If using Tor, use onion services if possible.
## Passwords
- Use [KeePassXC](https://keepassxc.org/).
- Install the Firefox KeePassXC plugin.
- Use a long master pass phrase, with at least 10 words.
- Sync your password file everywhere you need using syncthing.
- Sync your password file everywhere you need using Syncthing.
## Chat
- Use Matrix / [Riot](https://about.riot.im/), or [Signal](https://www.signal.org/).

99
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@ -1,9 +1,6 @@
# Socialism FAQ
[The Bullshit asymmetry principle, or Brandolini's law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit#Bullshit_asymmetry_principle):
> The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.
## Contents
<!-- toc -->
@ -56,15 +53,15 @@
+ [Did the atom bombs really end WW2?](#did-the-atom-bombs-really-end-ww2)
+ [What's wrong with Bernie Sanders?](#whats-wrong-with-bernie-sanders)
+ [What's wrong with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?](#whats-wrong-with-alexandria-ocasio-cortez)
+ [What's wrong with Elizabeth Warren?](#whats-wrong-with-elizabeth-warren)
+ [Kamala Harris](#kamala-harris)
+ [Why don't socialists support a UBI / Universal Basic income?](#why-dont-socialists-support-a-ubi--universal-basic-income)
+ [Others](#others)
<!-- tocstop -->
# Socialism FAQ
## Didn't communism fail? It works in theory but not in practice.
- [Did Socialism work in the USSR, and didn't the fall of the USSR bring more prosperity to Russia?](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/86tqdd/but_socialism_doesnt_work_s/dw7qco0/)
- [Do Publicly Owned, Planned Economies Work?](http://gowans.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/do-publicly-owned-planned-economies-work), [audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYf3gZZFa0k&list=PL0-IkmzWbjobDdDbSC_YgZfV94BQiRIB8)
- [[Honestly not trolling] Why, in your opinion, have most attempts to form countries based economically on communism and socialism (USSR, Cuba, China) fail?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1f8obt/honestly_not_trolling_why_in_your_opinion_have/)
@ -75,15 +72,11 @@
- [What about Stalin, the purges, the holodomor, etc? A revleft podcast.](https://revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/joseph-mother-fucking-stain)
- [Why are there no modern revolutions, in the past 40 years?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/9y34ea/why_are_there_no_revolutions/)
- [Didn't Capitalism bring people out of poverty? The UN says poverty has halved in the last few years.](https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/9kdz7p/world_population_living_in_extreme_poverty/e6ypvus/) [Another article refuting decreasing global poverty](https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2019/2/3/pinker-and-global-poverty)
## What about human nature?
- [History and human nature.](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/crash_course_socialism.md#history-and-human-nature)
- [What about human nature?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2yk3xl/what_about_human_nature_answer_but_add_yours_too/)
- [Doesn't socialism go against human nature?](http://newdemocracyworld.org/culture/human_nature.html)
## Schools of thought
* [Glossary of Socialism Terms.](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/glossary_of_socialist_terms.md)
* [What are the different forms of Marxism and what are their differences?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/206xtz/what_are_the_different_forms_of_marxism_and_what/)
* [What are the differences between Marxism, Marxism-Leninism, Trotskyism, MLM, and Stalinism?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchy101/comments/87apl4/differences_between_marxism_lenninism_trotskyism/dwbj3so/)
@ -99,37 +92,27 @@
* [Did Karl Marx use "socialism" and "communism" interchangeably?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2msa39/did_karl_marx_use_socialism_and_communism/)
* [Is the revolutionary DotP a separate material stage apart from lower phased communism?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2mrkkj/is_the_revolutionary_dotp_a_separate_material/)
* [Is socialism the lowest stage of communism or is it the transition to communism, in between capitalism and communism?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2rijno/is_socialism_the_lowest_stage_of_communism_or_is/)
## Did economic planning work?
- [Did Socialism work, in the USSR?](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/capitalism_doesnt_work.md)
- [Do Publicly Owned, Planned Economies Work?](http://gowans.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/do-publicly-owned-planned-economies-work) [audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYf3gZZFa0k&list=PL0-IkmzWbjobDdDbSC_YgZfV94BQiRIB8)
- [My economics teacher said that the planned economies communist countries had are proven failures. Is this true?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/3e68nf/my_economics_teacher_said_that_the_planned/)
- [Towards a new socialism - Cockshott and Cottrell](http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/socialism_book/) [audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjHCPWs5sl4&list=PL0-IkmzWbjoZNiItBbuVvKQBdE80tsyhx)
- [Why are communists against markets?](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/market_socialism.md)
## Who would sweep the floors under communism?
* [How can people be expected to work hard if they don't get payed more FOR working harder? (I know nothing about communism)](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/21u7jo/how_can_people_be_expected_to_work_hard_if_they/)
* [What prevents cultural, technological or scientific stagnation in a communist society? Also what motivation do people have to work at their Jobs?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/27ia0t/what_prevents_cultural_technological_or/)
* [What about automation / robotics? Why do some communists say innovation has stopped?](https://youtu.be/QGBQwZsp3T0)
* [Would people innovate under Communism? Doesn't capitalism create innovation?](https://www.reddit.com/r/DebateCommunism/comments/9c9qj6/in_a_communist_society_what_are_people_motivated/)
* [How does communism deal with lazy people?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/25r9hh/how_does_communism_deal_with_lazy_people/)
* [How does communism/socialism deal with human laziness?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1g235j/how_does_communismsocialism_deal_with_human/)
## What about cooperatives?
* [Can cooperatives bring about socialism?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/336mz4/can_cooperatives_bring_about_socialism/)
## Pacifism and Violence
- [What about Pacifism / pacifist socialism? Is violence necessary to acheive socialism? What about Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi?](https://theredphoenixapl.org/2011/08/11/pacifism-how-to-do-the-enemys-job-for-them/) [audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxrO7p-6w_k&list=PL0-IkmzWbjoZ5IIhnzFBOImzySh827FyK)
- [An Overview of Leninism](https://theimmortalscience.wordpress.com/2017/02/27/the-state-and-revolution-an-overview/), [Lenin - State and Revolution](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/) , [audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GrP0EVJkVE&list=PL0-IkmzWbjoatUez9-2vaAvB78afoKNRC)
- [Luxemburg - Reform or Revolution](https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1900/reform-revolution/), [audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhzmaUofLS8&list=PL0-IkmzWbjoYqO_Yec4sWzPeeFXMOkPWs)
- [Trotsky - Fascism - What it is and how to fight it](https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1944/1944-fas.htm), [audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S39lCH8PnZ8&list=PL0-IkmzWbjoa-4fIC4TbpTJgRM77It6LC)
## What would [X] be like under communism?
* [How would a record company/label work in a communist society?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1a0htc/how_would_a_record_companylabel_work_in_a/)
* [Music tours and traveling in a socialist state?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2bs0yb/music_tours_and_traveling_in_a_socialist_state/)
* [How would airlines work for the workers and the customers in a communist world?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1exz0n/how_would_airlines_work_for_the_workers_and_the/)
@ -145,9 +128,7 @@
* [How would residentials be fairly distributed under full communism?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2hnmxx/how_would_residentials_be_fairly_distributed/)
* [How do police / cops differ in socialism?](https://www.reddit.com/r/DebateCommunism/comments/9hsoll/suppose_police_all_go_away_tomorrow_and_are/e6eguff/)
* [What if some people don't wanna be communist?](https://www.reddit.com/r/DebateCommunism/comments/9mtnyt/what_if_some_people_dont_wanna_be_communist/e7hc63u/)
## On Economics and Sociology
- [Can someone ELI 5 the Labor Theory of Value?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2otlcz/can_someone_eli_5_the_labor_theory_of_value/)
- [Is the Labor theory of value (LTV) scientifically correct? What about academic economists and the subjective theory of value (STV)?](https://www.reddit.com/r/DebateCommunism/comments/9xo7l7/questions_about_ltv_and_stv/e9ts0k1/)
- [Is human labor the source of value because human beings do not normally work for free?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1hjpgk/is_human_labor_the_source_of_value_because_human/)
@ -159,46 +140,36 @@
- [In Marxian economics, is 'value' distinct from 'price'? What does 'value' indicate, exactly?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/139g19/in_marxian_economics_is_value_distinct_from_price/)
- [can you explain the theory of alienation to me in a "explain like I'm five" manner?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2jeyaj/can_you_explain_the_theory_of_alienation_to_me_in/)
- [If private property is abolished, does this mean anyone can enter "one's home" (or where one lives) and cannot be expelled?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/19nx3l/if_private_property_is_abolished_does_this_mean/)
## On Nationalism and Internationalism
- [Nationalism and internationalism, where do leftists stand?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/298jfb/nationalism_as_applied_internationalism/)
- [Nationalism and Communism?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/146x30/nationalism_and_communism/)
- [Why is patriotism bad?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1nb7ke/whyis_patriotism_bad/)
## On Women's Liberation
- [Is it necessary to be a feminist to be a communist?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/17cn2z/is_it_necessary_to_be_a_feminist_to_be_a_communist/)
- [What real solutions does socialism have for women, LGBTQ, etc.?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1jprtn/what_real_solutions_does_socialism_have_for_women/)
- [On Feminism](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1hyu6n/on_feminism/)
- [What is proletarian/marxian feminism?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/18dfco/what_is_proletarianmarxian_feminism/)
- [Hello comrades! can anyone explain the idea of marxist-feminism?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2i1hlp/hello_comrades_can_anyone_explain_the_idea_of/)
- [What about the history of Marxist Feminism?](https://isreview.org/issue/93/womens-liberation-marxist-tradition)
- [Thomas Sankara - Women’s liberation and African freedom struggle](http://www.themilitant.com/2011/7502/750249.html)
- [Clara Zetkin - Lenin and the Women's Question](https://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1920/lenin/zetkin1.htm)
## On Guns / Firearms / Violence
- [What is the socialist stance on guns?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/7xz4w7/does_anybody_know_what_karl_marxs_views_on_gun/)
- [Is it true that gun ownership correlates to increased murders and violence?](http://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/83wax3/-/dvlkxil)
- [Do Marxists oppose individual terrorism? (Trotsky)](https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1911/11/tia09.htm)
- [Where do socialists stand on gun violence and acts of terrorism?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/73tqcn/where_should_marxists_stand_on_gun_violence/)
- [Will the revolution necessarily be violent?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Socialism_101/comments/9vvq6k/will_the_revolution_be_necessarily_violent/e9fer95/)
## On Capitalism
- [Crash Course socialism](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/crash_course_socialism.md).
- [What exactly is capitalism?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/a0mwut/what_exactly_is_capitalism/eaj3b4a/)
- [Glossary of Socialist terms.](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/glossary_of_socialist_terms.md)
## On Liberalism
- [Why do communists dislike liberals?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/4uaxjf/whats_the_deal_with_communists_hating_liberals/)
- [What is liberalism? (Olly from Philosophy Tube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlLgvSduugI)
- [What about free speech? What about Antifa / Anti-Fascism?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgwS_FMZ3nQ&t=2398s)
- [Why do leftists think that FDR co-opted the left to "save" capitalism?](https://www.hoover.org/research/how-fdr-saved-capitalism)
- What's wrong with democrats? [Why not vote for the lesser of two evils (Lesser-evilism)?](https://socialistworker.org/2003-2/465/465_11_LesserEvil.php) [Can't we change the democrats from within?](https://socialistworker.org/2005-1/533/533_13_TwoParties.php) [What about "moderates" like Jimmy Carter?](https://socialistworker.org/2006-1/572/572_09_Carter.php)
## On Leninism
- [An overview of Leninism.](https://theimmortalscience.wordpress.com/2017/02/27/the-state-and-revolution-an-overview/)
- [What is the vanguard party? Is one necessary?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/142p1b/what_is_the_vanguard_party_is_one_necessary/)
- [Why is a vanguard party necessary in Leninism?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2n5xx3/why_is_a_vanguard_party_necessary_in_leninism/)
@ -211,15 +182,11 @@
- Why do many socialist attempts end up in an one-party state? Watch this [brilliant talk by Micheal Parenti](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7WmYEoNtPY&feature=youtu.be), or read his article, [Left anticommunism, the unkindest cut](http://www.greanvillepost.com/2015/05/23/left-anticommunism-the-unkindest-cut/), [audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51KSe96VCuI)
- [What did Lenin say about socialism in one country?](https://espressostalinist.com/2012/03/11/lenin-on-socialism-in-one-country-2/)
- [Is Chomsky right about Marxist-Leninists being evil?](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/4394rt/how_do_you_guys_feel_about_chomskys_views_on/czgj95w/)
### Further reading
- [*The Leninist Theory of Organisation*](http://www.marxists.org/archive/mandel/196x/leninism/index.htm) by Ernest Mandel
- [*Lenin: A Study on the Unity of his Thought*](http://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/1924/lenin/) by Georg Lukacs
- [*Socialism: Utopian and Scientific*](https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/) by Friedrich Engels
## On Trotskyism
- [Primarily to the trotskyists: Can you explain the theories of the degenerated workers state, the deformed workers state and state capitalism and can these theories co-exist in the same country?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2x5m39/primarily_to_the_trotskyists_can_you_explain_the/)
- [A critique of Trotsky?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2gpuoo/a_critique_of_trotsky/)
- [Regarding Trotsky's ‘‘Permanent revolution’’ and the two-stage theory](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/21izu4/regarding_trotskys_permanent_revolution_and_the/)
@ -227,9 +194,7 @@
- [What are the main Marxist analyses of fascism? and a question regarding Trotsky's](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2p7ozi/what_are_the_main_marxist_analyses_of_fascism_and/)
- [Did Stalin 'betray' the revolution? (repost of deleted question)](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1dp6qw/did_stalin_betray_the_revolution_repost_of/)
- [Why was "Lenin's testament" suppressed by the Party after Lenin's death?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2lfc5f/why_was_lenins_testament_suppressed_by_the_party/)
## On the USSR
* [Did socialism achieve anything in the USSR?](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/86tqdd/but_socialism_doesnt_work_s/dw7qco0/)
* [What is Stalinism?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/15g4xo/what_is_stalinism/)
* [What about Stalin? Didn't he kill millions? (Revleft podcast on Stalin)](https://revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/joseph-mother-fucking-stain)
@ -264,9 +229,7 @@
* [*Natural Disaster and Human Actions in the Soviet Famine of 1931–1933*](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-eTgjCs2lzpNExnSEVhMjBLRlE/view?usp=sharing) by Mark Tauger
* [*The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931–1933*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=32DAA2871728468189A57E0233492A3A) by Davies and Wheatcroft
* [*Lies Concerning the History of the Soviet Union*](http://www.northstarcompass.org/nsc9912/lies.htm) by Mario Sousa
### [Did the Soviet Union repress and kill millions of people?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/wiki/debunk#wiki_anti-communist_myth_number_2.3A_the_soviet_union_repressed_and_killed_millions_of_people)
- [*The Triumph of Evil*](http://redscans.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil.pdf) by Austin Murphy
- [*Human Rights in the Soviet Union*](http://archive.org/details/HumanRightsInTheSovietUnion) by Albert Syzmanski
- [*Another View of Stalin*](http://www.scribd.com/doc/36425175/Ludo-Martens-Another-View-of-Stalin) by Ludo Martens
@ -278,9 +241,7 @@
- [*Khrushchev Lied*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=e6bc9593a1787378b671944f51b393a9) by Grover Furr
- [*Blackshirts and Reds*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=2A465EA2A003644077523F690545F113) by Michael Parenti
- [*Blood Lies: The Evidence that Every Accusation against Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union in Timothy Snyder's 'Bloodlands' Is False*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=4f13589002a3dfa4b0139b332fef54ad) by Grover Furr
### [Did the Soviet Union and the Warsaw pact nations have functioning democracies?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/wiki/debunk#wiki_anti-communist_myth_number_3.3A_the_soviet_union_and_the_eastern_bloc_had_no_democracy)
- [*Soviet Communism: A New Civilization*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=ed2ba2da9895bf1653a04e6555b5246f) by Sydney and Beatrice Webb
- [*Is the Red Flag Flying?*](http://archive.org/details/IsTheRedFlagFlying) by Albert Syzmanski
- [*Socialism Betrayed*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=3043d96567ceab152a0992313bcf82b9) by Keeran and Kenny
@ -289,17 +250,13 @@
- [*The Russians are Coming: The Politics of Anti-Sovietism*](http://archive.org/details/TheRussiansAreComing) by V.L. Allen
- [*The 1936 Soviet Constitution*](http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/1936toc.html)
- [*Soviet Democracy*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=c22e40075143d321a449a15690f82720) by Pat Sloan
### [Was Soviet Socialism an economic failure?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/wiki/debunk#wiki_anti-communist_myth_number_4.3A_socialism_is_an_economic_failure)
- [*Do Publicly Owned, Planned Economies Work?*](http://gowans.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/do-publicly-owned-planned-economies-work/) by Stephen Gowans, [Audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYf3gZZFa0k&list=PL0-IkmzWbjobDdDbSC_YgZfV94BQiRIB8)
- [*From Farm to Factory*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=fa5b6de5135f49269cd2b35b727236f7) by Robert Allen
- [*The Rise of Socialism*](http://www.marxists.org/archive/foster/1932/toward/03.htm) by William Foster
- [*We Lived Better Then*](http://gowans.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/we-lived-better-then/) by Stephen Gowans
- [*The Need for Planning*](http://clogic.eserver.org/2010/Ball.pdf) by Joseph Ball
### [Did the citizens of the Soviet Union dislike their government?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/wiki/debunk#wiki_anti-communist_myth_number_5.3A_everybody_hated_socialism)
- [*Homesick for a Dictatorship*](http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/homesick-for-a-dictatorship-majority-of-eastern-germans-feel-life-better-under-communism-a-634122.html)
- [*60% of Russians Want Communism Back*](https://web.archive.org/web/20140223044330/http://www.systemiccapital.com/60-percent-of-russians-want-communism-back/)
- [*Former Soviet Countries See More Harm from Breakup*](http://www.gallup.com/poll/166538/former-soviet-countries-harm-breakup.aspx)
@ -312,14 +269,10 @@
- [*Seven Myths about the USSR*](https://gowans.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/seven-myths-about-the-ussr/) by Stephen Gowans
- [*An experiment in living socialism: Bulgaria then and now*](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-eTgjCs2lzpMl92U3JzQ0pIa3c/view?usp=sharing) by F.S.
- [*Growing Up Under Communism Was The Happiest Time Of My Life*](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1221064/Oppressive-grey-No-growing-communism-happiest-time-life.html) by Zsuzsanna Clark
### Further reading
* [A collection of Soviet history books on Stalin and Stalinism.](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/1hzwl3/a_collection_of_soviet_history_books_on_stalin/)
* [*The Triumph of Evil, Chapter 1: The Documented Facts About Eastern Europe and Communism*](http://redscans.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil.pdf) by A. Murphy
## On Mao, Maoism, and Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, and the PRC
* [What is Maoism?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/139sid/what_is_maoism/)
* [How many peopled really died during the Great Leap Forward?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/39w9w0/how_many_peopled_really_died_during_the_great/)
* [Did Mao really kill millions of people in the great leap forward?](https://monthlyreview.org/commentary/did-mao-really-kill-millions-in-the-great-leap-forward#.T5wbUSfm_x8.reddit)
@ -330,29 +283,21 @@
* [Where should I start with Mao?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1dmxcl/where_should_i_start_with_mao/)
* [Debastardising Mao.](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1ecf32/debastardising_mao/)
* [Is modern day china communist? Is it staying true to communist values?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/91liw2/how_is_china_staying_true_to_communist_values/e2z3kzu/)
### [Did Mao kill millions of people?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/wiki/debunk#wiki_anti-communist_myth_number_1.3A_mao_killed_millions_of_people)
- [*Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?*](http://monthlyreview.org/commentary/did-mao-really-kill-millions-in-the-great-leap-forward/) by Joseph Ball
- [*Monster or Liberator?*](http://www.invent-the-future.org/2013/12/monster-liberator-legacy-mao-zedong/) by Carlos Martinez
- [*The Battle for China's Past*]( http://www.strongwindpress.com/pdfs/EBook/The_Battle_for_Chinas_Past.pdf) by Mobo Gao
- [*Was Mao Really a Monster? The Academic Response to Chang and Halliday's "Mao: The Unknown Story"*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=b83ac8a7e6c2d8ce3f809842521965f1) by Benton and Chun
- [*How did Mao manage to kill ~78 million people?*](https://www.quora.com/How-did-Mao-manage-to-kill-78-million-people/answer/Godfree-Roberts) by Godfree Roberts
### [Was the PRC a totalitarian dictatorship?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/wiki/debunk#wiki_anti-communist_myth_number_2.3A_china_was_a_totalitarian_dictatorship)
- [*The Rise of the Chinese People's Communes*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=58B399C3CA70411186D2AD96230D649A) by Anna Louise Strong
- [*The Chinese Road to Socialism: Economics of the Cultural Revolution*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=5ba75f3113b0e1e4f36fc587ddfe2826) by E. L. Wheelwright
- [*Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=c02e1f533d33ecea7d9946f55a097bd0) by William Hinton
- [*Shenfan: The Continuing Revolution in a Chinese Village*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=69633412b4947eb197779d652ba6e331) by William Hinton
- [*Turning Point in China: An Essay on the Cultural Revolution*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=FF14AB76713984526357FE8829DEAD3C) by William Hinton
### Further reading
* [Suggested reading for an aspiring MLM?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/18hgw2/suggested_reading_for_an_aspiring_mlm/c8fod6n)
## On Cuba
* [Just how socialist was/is Cuba?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2n372o/just_how_socialist_wasis_cuba/)
* [[Honestly not trolling] Why, in your opinion, have most attempts to form countries based economically on communism and socialism (USSR, Cuba, China) fail?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1f8obt/honestly_not_trolling_why_in_your_opinion_have/)
* [In defence of (and questions about) Cuba](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/x3qtw/in_defence_of_and_questions_about_cuba/)
@ -360,14 +305,10 @@
* [Did the US really think Castro was a dictator? Answer: No.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitLiberalsSay/comments/87tto3/i_submitted_a_til_about_fidel_castros_hatred_for/dwgpg7d/)
* [Why did people flee Cuba / Did Cuba have a famine in the 1990s?](https://www.reddit.com/r/DebateCommunism/comments/8yc2ak/if_cuba_is_a_decenthighquality_state_why_werent/e29so7h/)
* [Did Fidel Castro persecute gay / LGBT people? What about the UMAP prisons?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchy101/comments/8kxgul/what_do_anarchists_think_of_the_castro_regime/dzc2wp8/)
### [Was Che a murderer and/or a racist?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/wiki/debunk#wiki_anti-communist_myth_number_1.3A_che_was_a_bloodthirsty_butcher)
- [*Che: A Revolutionary Life*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=3E3E1D3A68BF27293A12BC1076076C7B) by Jon Lee Anderson
- [*Debunking the 'Che Guevara Was Racist!' Lie*](http://anti-imperialism.org/2014/02/05/debunking-the-che-guevara-was-racist-lie/) by Cuervo Rojo
### [Is Cuba a functioning democracy or a terrible place to live?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/wiki/debunk#wiki_anti-communist_myth_number_2.3A_cuba_has_no_democracy_and_is_a_horrible_place_to_live)
- [*20 Reasons to Support Cuba*](http://www.invent-the-future.org/2013/07/20-reasons-to-support-cuba/)
- [*Cuba: A Revolution in Motion*](http://www.amazon.com/Cuba-Revolution-Motion-Isaac-Saney/dp/1842773631) by Isaac Saney
- [*Cuba and Its Neighbours: Democracy in Motion*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=79273783e814b6a8747ea24710d15f0c) by Arnold August + http://www.democracyintheus.com/
@ -376,11 +317,8 @@
- [*The Elected Delegate and the Dissident in Cuba's Municipal Elections*](http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/05/the-elected-delegate-and-the-dissident-in-cuba%E2%80%99s-municipal-elections/) by Arnold August
- [*2002 Cuban Constitution*](http://www.walterlippmann.com/cubanconstitution.html)
- [*Work and Democracy in Socialist Cuba*](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=fdfc7aee98499baaae696d5b1e04c065) by Linda Fuller
### [Did the cuban people like Fidel Castro?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2Obp6YS4SY)
## On North Korea
- [Is north korea a totalitarian dictatorship? Are they all really required to get the same haircut? A short documentary.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BO83Ig-E8E)
- [Are north korean defectors really paid to lie by the south? A short documentary.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktE_3PrJZO0&feature=youtu.be)
- [What is everyday life like? A conversation with a North Korean Citizen.](https://cym.ie/2018/05/28/a-conversation-with-a-north-korean-citizen/)
@ -391,16 +329,12 @@
- [Human rights and the DPRK](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/1tb5ho/human_rights_and_the_dprk/)
- [What evidence is there than DPRK is not engaged in gross violations of human rights?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2mfq2m/what_evidence_is_there_than_dprk_is_not_engaged/)
- [Can someone explain Songbun (Caste system) of the DPRK to me?](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2dqtn3/can_someone_explain_songbun_caste_system_of_the/)
### [Do North Koreans believe in unicorns and think Kim Jong-Un is immortal?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/wiki/debunk#wiki_anti-communist_myth_number_1.3A_north_koreans_believe_in_unicorns_and_they_think_kim_jong-un_is_immortal)
- [Do communists defend the nationalistic (juche) aspects of the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of North Korea)? short answer: no.](https://www.reddit.com/r/FULLDISCOURSE/comments/60voir/lets_talk_about_the_dprk/)
- [*Western DPRK Propaganda: The Worst, Occasionally Hilarious, and Often Racist, Lies*]( http://anti-imperialism.org/2014/08/14/western-dprk-propaganda-the-worst-occasionally-hilarious-and-often-racist-lies/) by Alyx Mayer
- [*Anti-DPRK Propaganda War – a Cavalcade of Comedy*](http://redyouthuk.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/dprk-propaganda-war-a-cavalcade-of-comedy/) by Red Youth
- [*Tourist who took camera inside North Korea shocked by 'ordinary' lives of citizens*](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2638213/Tourist-took-camera-inside-North-Korea-expected-really-really-sad-people-shocked-seemingly-ordinary-lives-citizens.html)
### [Is the DPRK a Fascist Monarchy?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/wiki/debunk#wiki_anti-communist_myth_number_2.3A_the_dprk_is_a_fascist_monarchy)
- [*Korea Resilient! Socialism in Democratic Korea*](http://return2source.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/korea-resilient-socialism-in-democratic-korea/) by Vince Sherman
- [*How to Think about Socialism in Korea*](https://mltoday.com/article/1302-how-to-think-about-socialism-in-korea/)
- [*Understanding North Korea*](http://www.globalresearch.ca/understanding-north-korea/3818) by Stephen Gowans
@ -410,14 +344,10 @@
- [*Interview: Understanding and Defending North Korea*](http://www.invent-the-future.org/2013/11/understanding-north-korea/)
- [*Democracy: US vs DPRK – Towards the Annihilation of a Narrative*](https://vngiapaganda.wordpress.com/2015/09/05/democracy-us-vs-dprk-towards-the-annihilation-of-a-narrative/)
- [*The secret genocide in South Korea you’ve probably never heard of*](https://medium.com/@wolf.aldrich/the-50-s-in-south-korea-what-happened-60f629ac3272)
### Further reading
- [Essential readings on the Juche idea and the Korean revolution](http://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/2pil0z/what_are_some_essential_readings_on_the_juche_idea/)
- [E-Library on the DPRK](http://www.korea-dpr.com/e_library.html)
## On Venezuela
- [What's going on with venezuela? Rebuttal to John Oliver's venezuela show, and overview of the situation in Venezeula](https://www.bitchute.com/video/HmgCqjDblLP0/). [Censored youtube link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fV-C1Ag5sI).
- [Who's crashing Venezuelas economy?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqHzDLSl8U4)
- [Capitalist sabotage in Venezuela](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk1qlKu_RJo).
@ -430,14 +360,10 @@
- [The U.S. Has Venezuela in Its Crosshairs](https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-u-s-has-venezuela-in-its-crosshairs/)
- The Venezuelan government [invited the UN](https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-plea-un-send-observers-election-211445340.html) to send observers to monitor the 2018 elections, but the opposition [opposed](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-un/venezuela-opposition-asks-u-n-not-to-send-observers-to-may-vote-idUSKCN1GO2J0) this move and [directly petitioned](https://twitter.com/ADemocratica/status/973345076490457088) the UN not to accept the invitation. [Maduro's May 2018 Election were declared fair by over 1500 international observers](http://journalcontent.mediatheoryjournal.org/index.php/mt/article/view/65/56).
- [On the 2019 Venezeulan coup attempt.](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/aj46d1/breaking_trump_recognizes_venezuelan_opposition/eesnkhm/) [The Trump administration discussed Coup plans with the plotters shortly before.](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/08/world/americas/donald-trump-venezuela-military-coup.html)[The US pushing regime change.](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/18/venezuela-protests-us-support-regime-change-mistake) [Venezuelans march to oppose regime change](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/ajd64i/maduro_supporters_enraged_about_the_current/). The hand-picked right wing successor, is a [US puppet.](https://grayzoneproject.com/2019/01/29/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuelas-coup-leader/amp/)
## Other Topics
### Why are socialists against bitcoin mining?
- [A single bitcoin transaction wastes as much energy as your house uses in a week.](https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ywbbpm/bitcoin-mining-electricity-consumption-ethereum-energy-climate-change)
- [Bitcoin mining consumes more electricity per year than all of Ireland.](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/27/bitcoin-mining-consumes-electricity-ireland)
### Whats so bad about Elon Musk?
- [Crushes unionization attempts at tesla factories, promising free frozen yogurt in return.](https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolineodonovan/musk-slams-union-drive-in-email-to-employees)
- [Employees at Tesla suffer twice as many serious workplace injuries than the industry average.](http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-injuries-rates-higher-industry-average-worksafe-2017-5)
@ -452,9 +378,7 @@
- [Despite being hailed as a leader in the fight against climate change, he donates 7x more money to Republicans.](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elon-musk-donations-republicans_us_5b4e4bd8e4b0b15aba897481) “Is it any surprise that a union-busting capitalist donated heavily to the Republican Party? No,” said Sydney Ghazarian, of the Democratic Socialists of America’s environmental justice working group.
- [Fired his assistance of 12 years for asking for a raise. Divorced his wife after telling her that his life "operated quite smoothly" in her absence.](https://jalopnik.com/elon-musk-is-a-jerk-that-once-fired-his-assistant-of-12-1797699824)
- [Rocket jesus broken promises #1](https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/73eh4m/tracking_elon_musks_visions_promises_and/), [#2](https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/7spkqa/happy_2018_everybody_lets_take_a_moment_to_recall/)
### Whats so bad about Bill Gates?
- [He's a philanthro-capitalist imperialist: using the bill and melinda gates foundation charity as a bargaining chip to work in the interests of billionaire elites.](https://www.liberationnews.org/real-agenda-gates-foundation/) [Youtube Audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0-IkmzWbjoZsjovp13f1xCA-4ewzOdqd)
- The Gates foundation tests pharmaceutical products on humans for profit, usually in poorer countries without regulatory bodies. [One such mass test, on behalf of Merck and Pfizer, of a harmful HPV vaccine on 23,000 girls in india kills 7 girls, sterilizes hundreds more, and leads to public outrage.](https://m.economictimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/healthcare/controversial-vaccine-studies-why-is-bill-melinda-gates-foundation-under-fire-from-critics-in-india/amp_articleshow/41280050.cms)
- The Gates foundation helps big pharma find new markets for drugs deemed unfit for westerners, selling them in the global south. This includes harmful drugs such as Gardasil, Norplant, Cervarix. A South African newspaper declared: “We are guinea pigs for the drugmakers.” In the case of Gardasil, the drug-pushing was cloaked in the language of environmentalism, popular empowerment, and feminism. Melinda Gates evoked “choice” in support of her family planning initiatives, but in reality was not poor women, but a handful of the world’s wealthiest people who have presumed to choose which methods of contraception will be delivered, and to whom.
@ -467,9 +391,7 @@
- [Microsoft crimes masterpost.](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/microsoft.md)
- [His charities promote corporate interests above health care](http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/sites/default/files/files/resources/gjn_gates_report_june_2016_web_final_version_2.pdf).
- [Book about the golden handcuffs of the philanthro-capitalism of Bill Gates.](https://www.versobooks.com/books/2344-no-such-thing-as-a-free-gift)
### What's so bad about George Orwell?
- He's antisemitic, homophobic, and racist. Specifically, [he snitched out Jews, Black people, Homosexuals, and communists to British Intelligence.](https://bennorton.com/george-orwell-list-leftists-snitch-british-government/) His list includes him writing:
- 8 variations of “Jewish?” (Charlie Chaplin), “Polish Jew, (Tom Driberg)” “English Jew,” or “Jewess.”
- [Paul Robeson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Robeson) - "ROBESON, Paul (US Negro) ...Very anti-white. [Henry] Wallace supporter."
@ -480,26 +402,18 @@
- His books Animal Farm and 1984 are used widely as anti-communist propaganda in schools in the US and UK. So much so that [his animated animal farm film was funded by the CIA.](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/how-cia-brought-animal-farm-to-the-screen/). There's a reason they teach George Orwell in schools and not Franz Fanon, Che, Huey P Newton, Malcolm X, Lenin, CLR James, etc.
- [Orwell worked as a British imperial cop in Burma for 5 years](http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Myanmar/sub5_5e/entry-3083.html). His short story, [Shooting an Elephant](http://www.denisedrespling.com/review-shooting-elephant-george-orwell/), uses ethnic slurs and denigrates burmese people.
- [A reddit thread on George Orwell](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/797lnl/as_a_communist_how_do_you_feel_the_works_of/), [Thread #2](https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/7dhx99/for_those_on_the_right_who_think_orwell_wrote/dpy4zik/).
### John McCain
- [War Criminal, who pushed for US military intervention in Syria, Libya, Serbia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam.](https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/29/john-mccain-war-criminal-not-war-hero/) [Imperialism 2](https://www.cpgb-ml.org/2018/10/15/news/john-mccain-a-life-in-the-service-of-blood-soaked-imperialism/).
- [Despite giving lip-service to progressive causes, never actually voted for any of them. The "maverick" label was a false construct.](https://theintercept.com/2017/07/27/john-mccain-fake-maverick-horrible-record/)
- Voted against Martin Luther King day, and women's reproductive rights for his entire political career.
### What about the new atheists? (Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens)
- Hidden beneath a superficial rationalism, they provide a seemingly intellectual [defense of imperialism](https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/12/new-atheism-old-empire/), push islamophobia, and use it to create a smokescreen for the injustices of global capitalism. [2](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/03/sam-harris-muslim-animus),[3](https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/04/20134210413618256.html)
### Gandhi
- [Was Gandhi really a racist? What about Gandhi's legacy? A great lecture by Arundati Roy.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrN8PgZzc6k)
- [Gandhi - The jews should've killed themselves instead.](https://izquotes.com/quote/mahatma-gandhi/hitler-killed-five-million-jews-it-is-the-greatest-crime-of-our-time-but-the-jews-should-have-231149)
- [Red Phoenix - Pacifism - How to do the enemy's job for them](https://theredphoenixapl.org/2011/08/11/pacifism-how-to-do-the-enemys-job-for-them/). [Youtube Audiobook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxrO7p-6w_k&list=PL0-IkmzWbjoZ5IIhnzFBOImzySh827FyK)
### Did the atom bombs really end WW2?
- [No, the entrance of the USSR into the war against Japan was the cause of Japan's surrender, which the US fully knew about since they were intercepting Japan's communications. The Atom bombing of Japanese civilians was in reality a display of military power against the USSR, and the first act of the cold war.](http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/05/30/the-bomb-didnt-beat-japan-stalin-did/)
### What's wrong with Bernie Sanders?
- [Supports US imperialism](https://leftistcritic.wordpress.com/2017/01/31/bernie-sanders-an-imperialist-worth-despising/). [2](https://www.alternet.org/election-2016/bernie-sanders-troubling-history-supporting-us-military-violence-abroad)
- [Voted for US intervention](https://i.imgur.com/HCvaDLp.jpg) in the following nations: Afghanistan, Lebanon, Libya, [Somalia](http://votesmart.org/bill/2732/7934/27110/bernie-sanders-voted-yea-passage-with-amendment-s-j-res-45-authorization-for-use-of-%20us-armed-forces-in-somalia#7934), Syria, Yemen, [Yugoslavia](http://www.libertyunionparty.org/?page_id=363),[2](http://votesmart.org/bill/2808/7948/27110/bosnia-troop-deployment-resolution#.Ve5QZkvJyhG), Bosnia, Haiti, Congo, Liberia, Sudan, and Ukraine.
@ -513,7 +427,6 @@
- [Believes that Russians are to blame for the failure of US democracy. "Protecting american democracy from foreign invasion."](https://i.imgur.com/GkSXsZY.jpg)
- [Shills for democrats, campaigned for Hillary Clinton.](https://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/bernie-sanderss-hard-fight-for-hillary-clinton)
- [Thanked Jeff Bezos for deigning to raise amazon wages](https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iqM9uBoBvLLw/v1/600x-1.jpg), Bezos [responds with "you're welcome"](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DohNI5GUUAAin6q.jpg).
### What's wrong with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
- [She's a social democrat, not a socialist, fronting for the Democratic party](https://blackagendareport.com/open-letter-socialists-who-might-be-fronting-democratic-party).
- [AOC asks all supporters to vote for democrats, including Andrew Cuomo.](https://youtu.be/iaLpyJI0ltg?t=647)
@ -526,16 +439,13 @@
- [AOC wants abolish ICE, only to replace it with a resurrected INS, yet another agency whose goal was breaking up families. ](https://i.imgur.com/ficPkrO.jpg)
- [She supports Israel, and its genocide of Palestineans .](https://i.imgur.com/K6QsYZo.jpg)
- [Claims that socialist theory is only for priviledged few with college educated parents, and that working class people aren't capable of understanding theory. Is unaware of the Spanish-speaking socialist tradition. ](https://medium.com/@marko_v_kobak/sharpening-the-mind-a-response-to-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-24babecac9c5?fbclid=IwAR2I8uYX9ZUvPyd5MZxKiIEeXgbgnfzulR4qjzOGF1hxK6SEX7oqkFmyBIc)
### What's wrong with Elizabeth Warren?
- [She supports Capitalism. ](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/23/elizabeth-warren-i-am-a-capitalist-but-markets-need-rules.html)
- [Defends Israel's continued bombing of Gaza Hospitals and schools.](https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5733164)
- [Supports US troops in South Korea.](https://mobile.twitter.com/senwarren/status/979457592975134720?lang=en) [2](https://i.imgur.com/k6Qx3v3.jpg)
### Kamala Harris
- https://twitter.com/WillisJermane/status/1090261366789656578
- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/31/kamala-harris-laughed-jailing-parents-truancy
### Why don't socialists support a UBI / Universal Basic income?
- [Would basic income fix our problems?](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/8p097l/i_just_realized_that_monopoly_has_integrated/)
- [A Marxist critique of Basic income.](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/8wizh9/marxist_critiques_on_the_universal_basic_income/)
@ -544,7 +454,6 @@
- [Could Basic income "save" Capitalism?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Socialism_101/comments/92qgzn/realistically_could_universal_basic_income_save/)
- [Its supported by, and benefits, silicon valley billionaires.](https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-rushkoff-universal-basic-income-silicon-valley-20170721-story.html)
- [Its used to allay elite fears of revolution.](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/87es0k/mrw_i_cite_to_my_libertarian_friend_a_nobel/)
### Others
- [What's so bad about Winston Churchill?](http://www.reddit.com/r/ShitLiberalsSay/comments/80sxhj/-/duy08zm) , [2](https://crimesofbritain.com/2016/09/13/the-trial-of-winston-churchill/)
- [What about Jordan Peterson?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Socialism_101/comments/85cuay/thoughts_on_jordan_petersons_criticism_of_marxism/dvwnd25/)

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us_atrocities.md
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@ -1,9 +1,6 @@
# List of Atrocities committed by US authorities
*Definition: An extremely wicked or cruel act, typically one involving physical violence or injury.*
> "If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America. They don't care for human beings." - Nelson Mandela
## Contents
<!-- toc -->
@ -30,17 +27,13 @@
<!-- tocstop -->
Notes :
- Try to convey a sense of moral outrage.
- This is a living document, it will be updated as new atrocities pour in.
- Feel free to make pull requests (changes), or fork it if you'd like to make your own versions.
- Name the specific source and recipient of the atrocity, and provide a source for the claim.
- Try to do chronologically from recent to past; it should seem like a running log.
## Imperialism
### Middle East
- On April 14, 2018, the US, UK, and France [launched 100 more missiles](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/14/syria-air-strikes-us-uk-and-france-launch-attack-on-assad-regime) at 3 different targets in Syria, again claiming that the Syrian government used chemical attacks against its own citizens in douma as justification. On 10 April, the Syrian government again invited the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to send a team to investigate the sites of the alleged attacks. Trump, Macron, and May have all issued statements saying that this is not an intervention in the Syrian civil war. <sup>[1](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/14/syria-air-strikes-us-uk-and-france-launch-attack-on-assad-regime)</sup>
- Starting in June 2017, photos and videos from Syrian civilians in Raqqa showed that the US-backed coalition in Syria was illegally using [white phosphorus](https://www.opendemocracy.net/north-africa-west-asia/josepha-ivanka-wessels/white-phosphorus-over-raqqa) in civilian areas. White phosphorus can burn human flesh down to the bone, and wounds can reignite up to days later. “No matter how white phosphorus is used, it poses a high risk of horrific and long-lasting harm in crowded cities like Raqqa and Mosul and any other areas with concentrations of civilians,” said [Steve Goose](https://www.hrw.org/about/people/stephen-goose), arms director at Human Rights Watch. One attack on an internet cafe killed at least 20 civilians, while other deaths are still being confirmed. One of those civilians killed was in the process of sending a report to Humans Rights Watch, when the cafe was struck. The US killed 273 syrian civilians in April, slightly more than the number killed by ISIS. A US attack in July killed another 50 civilians. In August, the US killed another 60+ civilians. <sup>[1](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/world/middleeast/raqqa-syria-white-phosphorus.html),[2](https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/06/14/iraq/syria-danger-us-white-phosphorus),[3](https://www.opendemocracy.net/north-africa-west-asia/josepha-ivanka-wessels/white-phosphorus-over-raqqa)</sup>
- On April 4th, 2017, following the [Khan Shaykhun chemical attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Shaykhun_chemical_attack), Trump ordered an airstrike of 59 tomahawk cruise missiles (worth $70 million) fired at the Shayrat air base in Syria (one that Trump claims is the source of the chemical attack) in the [2017 Shayrat Missile Strike](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Shayrat_missile_strike). This is the first attack by the US directly targeting [Ba'athist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Socialist_Ba%27ath_Party_%E2%80%93_Syria_Region) [Syrian government](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_government) forces, who are closely allied with Russia. Russian Prime Minister [Dimitry Medvedev](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimitry_Medvedev) said the attack brought the U.S. "within an inch" of clashing with the Russian military, and could've sparked a nuclear war. The attack was praised by US politicians on both sides of the aisle, as well >30 countries. Over 700 children have been killed US coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since August 2014. The US conducted another airstrike against Syria on June 7th, 2017.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Shayrat_missile_strike)</sup>
@ -84,9 +77,7 @@ Notes :
- In 1958, [Eisenhower](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower) authorized Operation Blue Bat, an invasion of 14,000 US troops in the [ongoing civil war in Lebanon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Lebanon_crisis). This was the first application of the [Eisenhower Doctrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower_Doctrine) under which the U.S. announced that it would intervene to protect regimes it considered threatened by international [communism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism). The goal of the operation was to bolster the pro-Western Lebanese government of President Camille Chamoun against internal opposition and threats from Syria and Egypt. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Lebanon_crisis)</sup>
- In 1953, the CIA in Iran overthrows the democratically elected [Mohammed Mossadegh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Mosaddegh) in a [military coup](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat), after he threatened to nationalize British oil. The CIA replaces him with a dictator, the Shah of Iran, whose secret police, [SAVAK](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAVAK), is as brutal as the Gestapo. After the initial coup failed and the Shah and his family fled to Italy, the CIA payed millions of dollars to bribe military officers and pay gangsters to unleash violence in the streets of Tehran. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat)</sup>
- In 1949, the [US aided a Syrian coup d'état](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1949_Syrian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat). The democratically elected government of [Shukri al-Quwatli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shukri_al-Quwatli) was overthrown by a junta led by the Syrian Army chief of staff at the time, [Husni al-Za'im](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husni_al-Za%27im),who became President of Syria on 11 April 1949. The exact nature of US involvement in that coup is still highly controversial. However, it is well documented that the construction of the [Trans-Arabian Pipeline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Arabian_Pipeline), which had been held up in the Syrian parliament, was approved by Za'im just over a month after the coup.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1949_Syrian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat)<sup>
### Western hemisphere
- In 2017, [Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Maria#Puerto_Rico), leaving 3.4 million without electricity and fuel, and causing an estimated $50 Billion in damage. 55% of Puerto Ricans have no potable water, in one of the worst humanitarian crises in decades. In marked contrast to the initial relief efforts for [Hurricane Katrina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina) and the [2010 Haiti earthquake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake), on September 22 the only signs of relief efforts were beleaguered Puerto Rican government employees. The US response has been dismal, leading many to believe that the US prefers a decapitalized Puerto Rico. On September 29, San Juan Mayor Cruz held a press conference to plead for aid and to highlight failures by FEMA, saying, "This is what we got last night. Four pallets of water, three pallets of meals, and 12 pallets of infant food — which, I gave them to the people of [Comerío](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comer%C3%ADo,_Puerto_Rico), where people are drinking off a creek. So I am done being polite. I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell." Cruz continued. "So I am asking the members of the press, to send a mayday call all over the world. We are dying here... And if it doesn't stop, and if we don't get the food and the water into people's hands, what we are going to see is something close to a [genocide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide)." In response [President Donald Trump](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Donald_Trump) wrote on [Twitter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter): "Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help." <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Maria#Puerto_Rico)</sup>
- Following a series of terrorist attacks against Cuba (such as the bombing of [Cuban commercial flight 455](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubana_Flight_455), that originated from anti-Castro Cuban exile groups in the US, such as [Alpha 66](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_66), the [F4 Commandos](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=F4_Commandos&action=edit&redlink=1), the [Cuban American National Foundation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_American_National_Foundation), and [Brothers to the Rescue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_to_the_Rescue)), the Cuban government sent spies to infiltrate these insurgent groups operating in Miami. Afterwards, the Cuban government then provided 175 pages of documents to FBI agents investigating [Posada Carriles's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Posada_Carriles) (a former CIA operative) role in the [1997 terrorist bombings in Havana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Cuba_hotel_bombings), but the FBI failed to use the evidence to follow up on Posada. Instead, they used it to uncover and imprison the Cuban spies, known as the [Cuban Five](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Five). [[18\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Five#cite_note-18)[[19\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Five#cite_note-19). The Cuban Five said they were spying on Miami's Cuban exile community, not the US government. They were imprisoned from 1998, until their eventual release via a prisoner swap in 2014. The terrorist bomber Posada Carriles (who admitted to planning 6 bombings of Havana Hotels and Restaurants) is currently being safeguarded by the US government, and resides in Miami. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Five)</sup>
- In 2009, [a coup in Honduras](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat) has led to severe repression and death squad murders of political opponents, union organizers and journalists. At the time of the coup, U.S. officials denied any role in the coup and used semantics to avoid cutting off U.S. military aid as required under U.S. law. But two Wikileaks cables revealed that the U.S. Embassy, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was the main power broker in managing the aftermath of the coup and forming a government that is now repressing and murdering its people, including popular leader Berta Cáceres. The two men who killed [Berta Cáceres](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berta_C%C3%A1ceres) were trained in the US. A former soldier with the US-trained special forces units of the Honduran military asserted that Caceres' name was included on a hitlist distributed to them months before her assassination.[[66\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berta_C%C3%A1ceres#cite_note-66) According to a February 2017 investigation by *The Guardian*, court papers purport to show that three of the eight people arrested in connection with the assassination are linked to the US-trained elite troops. Two of them, Maj Mariano Díaz and Lt Douglas Giovanny Bustillo, received military training in the US.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berta_C%C3%A1ceres#cite_note-67),[2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat)</sup>
@ -128,9 +119,7 @@ Notes :
- From 1895-1917, the [Banana Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Wars) refers to the military intervention on behalf of US business interests in Central America and the Caribbean (8 countries in total) after the Spanish American War. In Honduras, for example, the [United Fruit Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company) and [Standard Fruit Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Fruit_Company) dominated the country's key banana export sector and associated land holdings and railways, and saw insertion of American troops in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924 and 1925. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Wars)</sup>
- In 1896, the US fought the [Spanish-American War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%E2%80%93American_War) largely over economic interests in the Caribbean, primarily Cuba. Historian Eric Foner writes: "Even before the Spanish flag was down in Cuba, U.S. business interests set out to make their influence felt. Merchants, real estate agents, stock speculators, reckless adventurers, and promoters of all kinds of get-rich schemes flocked to Cuba by the thousands. Seven syndicates battled each other for control of the franchises for the Havana Street Railway, which were finally won by Percival Farquhar, representing the Wall Street interests of New York. Thus, simultaneously with the military occupation began . . . commercial occupation." <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%E2%80%93American_War)</sup>
- In 1846, the US sent a small force into Mexico with the aim of bringing about a war, and started the [Mexican-American War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican%E2%80%93American_War). The US prevailed, expanding its territory far into Mexico, and killed ~25,000 mexicans in the process, as part of an ideological goal of white supremacy in north america called [manifest destiny](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny). The shift in the Mexico-U.S. border left many Mexican citizens separated from their national government. For the indigenous peoples who had never accepted Mexican rule, the change in border meant conflicts with a new outside power.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican%E2%80%93American_War)</sup>
### Africa
- In early 2017, the US began conducting drone strikes in Somalia against [Al Shabab](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shabaab_(militant_group)) militants. An [attack on July 16th](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33550390) killed 8 people. <sup>[1](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33550390)</sup>
- In 1998, the US bombed the [Al Shifa pharmaceutical factory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shifa_pharmaceutical_factory) in Sudan, killing one employee and wounding 11. It was the largest pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, producing medicine both for human and veterinary use. The US had acted on false evidence of a VX nerve agent from a single soil sample, and later used a false witness to cover for the attack. It was the only pharmaceutical factory in Africa not under US control. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shifa_pharmaceutical_factory)</sup>
- In June 1982, with the help of CIA money and arms, [Hissene Habre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiss%C3%A8ne_Habr%C3%A9#Support_of_the_U.S._and_France) , dubbed Africa's Pinochet, takes power in Chad. His secret police, use methods of torture including the burning the body of the detainee with incandescent objects, spraying gas into their eyes, ears and nose, forced swallowing of water, and forcing the mouths of detainees around the exhaust pipes of running cars. Habré's government also periodically engaged in ethnic cleansing against groups such as the Sara, Hadjerai and the Zaghawa, killing and arresting group members en masse when it was perceived that their leaders posed a threat to the regime. In May 2016 he was found guilty of human-rights abuses, including rape, sexual slavery and ordering the killing of 40,000 people, and sentenced to life in prison. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiss%C3%A8ne_Habr%C3%A9#Support_of_the_U.S._and_France)</sup>
@ -139,9 +128,7 @@ Notes :
- In 1966, a CIA-backed [military coup](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Liberation_Council#1966_coup) overthrows he widely popular Pan-Africanist and Marxist leader [Kwame Nkrumah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwame_Nkrumah) in Ghana, inviting the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to take a lead role in managing the economy. With this reversal, accentuated by the expulsion of immigrants and a new willingness to negotiate with apartheid South Africa, Ghana lost a good deal of its stature in the eyes of African nationalists.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwame_Nkrumah)</sup>
- In 1965, a CIA-backed military coup installs [Mobutu Sese Seko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko), described as the "archetypal African dictator" in Congo. The hated and repressive Mobutu exploits his desperately poor country for billions.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko)</sup>
- In 1961, the CIA assists in the assassination of the democratically elected congolese leader [Patrice Lumumba](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba), throwing the country into years of turmoil. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba)</sup>
### Asia
- Between 1996-2006, The US has given money and weapons to royalist forces against the nepalese communists in the [Nepalese civil war](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepalese_Civil_War). ~18,000 people have died in the conflict. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepalese_Civil_War)</sup>
- In 1996, after receiving incredibly low approval ratings, the US helped elect [Boris Yeltsin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Yeltsin), an incompetent pro-capitalist independent, by giving him a \$10 Billion dollar loan to [finance a winning election](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/05/americans-spot-election-meddling-doing-years-vladimir-putin-donald-trump). Rather than creating new enterprises, Yeltsin's democratization led to international monopolies hijacking the former Soviet markets, arbitraging the huge difference between old domestic prices for Russian commodities and the prices prevailing on the world market. Much of the Yeltsin era was marked by widespread corruption, and as a result of persistent low oil and commodity prices during the 1990s, Russia suffered inflation, economic collapse and enormous political and social problems that affected Russia and the other former states of the USSR. Under Yeltsin, Between 1990 and 1994, [life expectancy for Russian men and women fell from 64 and 74 years respectively to 58 and 71 years](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/05/americans-spot-election-meddling-doing-years-vladimir-putin-donald-trump). The surge in mortality was “beyond the peacetime experience of industrialised countries”. While it was boom time for the new oligarchs, poverty and unemployment surged; prices were hiked dramatically; communities were devastated by deindustrialisation; and social protections were stripped away.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Yeltsin),[2](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/05/americans-spot-election-meddling-doing-years-vladimir-putin-donald-trump)</sup>
- In [1975 Australian Constitutional Crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Australian_constitutional_crisis), the CIA helped topple the democratically elected, left-leaning government of Prime Minister [Gough Whitlam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gough_Whitlam), by telling Governor-General, [John Kerr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kerr_(governor-general)), a longtime CIA collaborator, to dissolve the Whitlam government.
@ -171,9 +158,7 @@ Notes :
- In 1900 in China, the US was part of an [Eight-Nation Alliance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-Nation_Alliance) that brought 20,000 armed troops to China, to defeat the Imperial Chinese Army, in the the [Boxer Rebellion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion), an anti-imperialist uprising. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion)</sup>
- In 1899, after a [popular revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Revolution) in the Philippines to oust the Spanish imperialists, the US invaded and began the [Phillipine-American war](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine–American_War). The US military committed countless atrocities, leaving 200,000 Filipinos dead. [Jacob H Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_H._Smith) killed between 2,500 to 50,000 civilians, His orders included, "kill everyone over the age of ten" and make the island "a howling wilderness."<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine–American_War),[2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_H._Smith)</sup>
- In 1883, the US engineered the overthrow of Hawaii's native monarch, Queen [Lili'uokalani](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liliuokalani) . Due to the Queen's desire "to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life" for her subjects and after some deliberation, at the urging of advisers and friends, the Queen ordered her forces to surrender. Hawaii was initially reconstituted as an independent [republic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic), but the ultimate goal of the revolutionaries was the annexation of the islands to the United States, which was finally accomplished in 1898.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overthrow_of_the_Kingdom_of_Hawaii)</sup>
### Europe
- From March to June of 1999, After Serbs refused to acquiesce in the break-up of their republic, the US and NATO began [bombing Yugoslavia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia) killing ~500 civilians, leaving thousands homeless, destroying bridges, industrial plants, public buildings, private businesses, as well as barracks and military installations. <sup>[1](https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/18/breaking-yugoslavia-how-the-us-used-nato-as-its-battering-ram/), [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia)</sup>
- In 1995, the US conducted a campaign of airstrikes called [Operation Deliberate Force](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Deliberate_Force), as part of an intervention in the [Bosnian civil war](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_War). <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Deliberate_Force)</sup>
- Throughout the 1980-90s, the US, with the aid of the IMF and NATO, [actively destabilized and aided](https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/18/breaking-yugoslavia-how-the-us-used-nato-as-its-battering-ram/) in the [breakup of Yugoslavia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_Yugoslavia), with the goal of weakening and destroying the last surviving socialist bloc in Europe. These include stirring up ethnic tensions between the member countries, economic warfare, and military intervention. The Reagan administration in a 1982 secret memo, advocated "expanded efforts to promote a 'quiet revolution' to overthrow Communist governments and parties," while reintegrating the countries of Eastern Europe into a market-oriented economy. In November 1990, the Bush administration pressured Congress into passing the [1991 Foreign Operations Appropriations Act](https://archive.org/details/TheUSLawThatPushedTheBreakUpOfYugoslaviaPublicLaw101513Nov51990MultilateralEconomicAssistance), which provided that any part of Yugoslavia failing to declare independence within six months would lose U.S. financial support, demanded separate elections in each of the six Yugoslav republics, and mandated U.S. State Department approval of both election procedures and results as a condition for any future aid. In 1991, Yugoslav Army chief [Veljko Kadijević](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veljko_Kadijevi%C4%87) stated: "An insidious plan has been drawn up to destroy Yugoslavia. Stage one is civil war. Stage two is foreign intervention. Then puppet regimes will be set up throughout Yugoslavia." <sup>[1](https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/18/breaking-yugoslavia-how-the-us-used-nato-as-its-battering-ram/), [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_Yugoslavia), [3](https://archive.org/details/TheUSLawThatPushedTheBreakUpOfYugoslaviaPublicLaw101513Nov51990MultilateralEconomicAssistance)</sup>
@ -191,11 +176,8 @@ Notes :
- In the summer of 1942, the US turned away a [series of ships of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/us-government-turned-away-thousands-jewish-refugees-fearing-they-were-nazi-spies-180957324/) Most notoriously, in June 1939, the German ocean liner St. Louis and its 937 passengers, almost all Jewish, were turned away from the port of Miami, forcing the ship to return to Europe; more than a quarter died in the Holocaust. <sup>[1](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/us-government-turned-away-thousands-jewish-refugees-fearing-they-were-nazi-spies-180957324/)</sup>
- The US maintained [a policy of neutrality during the rise of Hitler and Mussolini](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrality_Acts_of_1930s), discounting the rise of anti-semitism and European fascism. It was not Hitler's attacks on the Jews that brought the United States into World War II, any more than the enslavement of 4 million blacks brought Civil War in 1861. Italy's attack on Ethiopia, Hitler's invasion of Austria, his takeover of Czechoslovakia, his attack on Poland-none of those events caused the United States to enter the war, although Roosevelt did begin to give important aid to England. What brought the United States fully into the war was the Japanese attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrality_Acts_of_1930s)</sup>
- In the 1936-39 [Spanish civil war](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War), the Roosevelt administration sponsored a neutrality act that had the effect of shutting off help to the Spanish government while Hitler and Mussolini gave critical aid to Franco, aiding yet another fascist victory in Europe. American President [Richard Nixon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon) later toasted Franco's "firmness and fairness",[[41\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain%E2%80%93United_States_relations#cite_note-41) and, after Franco's death, he stated: "General Franco was a loyal friend and ally of the United States.[[42\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain%E2%80%93United_States_relations#cite_note-42)".
## Internal Repression
### Native Americans
- In 2016, the US army corp of engineers approved a [Energy Transfer Partners](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Transfer_Partners)' proposal to build an oil pipeline near the [Standing Rock Indian Reservation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_Rock_Indian_Reservation), sparking the [Dakota Access Pipeline Protests](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_Access_Pipeline_protests), evoking a brutal response from North Dakota police aided by the [National Guard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Guard_of_the_United_States), private security firms, and other law enforcement agencies from surrounding states. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe believes that the pipeline would put the Missouri River, the water source for the reservation, at risk, pointing out two recent spills, [a 2010 pipeline spill into the Kalamazoo River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalamazoo_River_oil_spill) in Michigan, which cost over billion to clean up with significant contamination remaining, and a 2015 [Bakken crude oil spill into the Yellowstone River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Yellowstone_River_oil_spill) in Montana. Police repression has included dogs attacking protesters, spraying water cannons on protesters in sub-freezing temperatures, >700 arrests of Native Americans and ~200 injuries, a highly militarized police force using armored personnel carriers, concussion grenades, mace, Tasers, batons, rubber bullets, and tear gas. In November 2017, the keystone XL pipeline burst, [spilling 210,000 gallons of oil](http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/us/keystone-pipeline-leak/) in Amherst, South Dakota. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_Access_Pipeline_protests), [2](http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/us/keystone-pipeline-leak/)</sup>
- In 1975, FBI agents attacked AIM activists on the [Pine Ridge Reservation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Ridge_Indian_Reservation#The_Pine_Ridge_Shootout), in the 'Pine Ridge Shootout'.[[37\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Ridge_Indian_Reservation#cite_note-TimeShootout-37) Two FBI agents, and an AIM activist were killed. In two separate trials, the U.S. prosecuted participants in the firefight for the deaths of the agents. AIM members [Robert Robideau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Robideau) and Dino Butler were acquitted after asserting that they had acted in self–defense. [Leonard Peltier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Peltier) was extradited from Canada and tried separately because of the delay. He was convicted on two counts of first–degree murder for the deaths of the FBI agents[[38\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Ridge_Indian_Reservation#cite_note-LeonardPeltierTrial-38) and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life in prison, after a trial which is still contentious. He remains in prison.
- In 1973, 200 [Oglala Lakota](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oglala_Lakota) and AIM activists occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, called the [Wounded knee incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_incident). They were protesting the reservation's corrupt US-backed tribal chairman, [Dick Wilson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Wilson_(tribal_chairman)), who controlled a private militia, called [Guardians of the Oglala Nation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardians_of_the_Oglala_Nation) (GOONs), funded by the government. FBI, US marshals, and other law enforcement cordoned off the area and attacked the activists with armored vehicles, automatic rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, and gas shells, resulting in two killed and 13 wounded. [Ray Robinson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Ray_Robinson), a [civil rights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_rights) activist who joined the protesters, disappeared during the events and is believed to have been murdered. As food supplies became short, three planes dropped 1,200 pounds of food, but as people scrambled to gather it up, a government helicopter appeared overhead and fired down on them while groundfire came from all sides. After the siege ended in a truce, 120 occupiers were arrested. Wilson stayed in office and in 1974 was re-elected amid charges of intimidation, [voter fraud](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_fraud), and other abuses. The rate of violence climbed on the reservation as conflict opened between political factions in the following three years; residents accused Wilson's private militia of much of it. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_incident)</sup>
@ -218,11 +200,8 @@ Notes :
- The [Texan-Indian Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas%E2%80%93Indian_wars) were a series of 19th-century conflicts between settlers in Texas and the Southern [Plains Indians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plains_Indians). Its hard to approximate the number of deaths from the conflicts, but the Indian population in Texas decreased from 20,000 to 8,000 by 1875. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas%E2%80%93Indian_wars)</sup>
- The [Indian Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Wars) is a name given to the collection of over 40 conflicts and wars between Native Americans and US settlers. The US census bureau reports that they have cost the lives of about 19,000 white men, women and children, including those killed in individual combats, and the lives of about 30,000 Indians. The actual number of killed and wounded Indians must be very much higher than the number given... Fifty percent additional would be a safe estimate..<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Wars)</sup>
- From 1500-1900s, European and later US colonists and authorities displaced and [committed genocide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide_of_indigenous_peoples#The_question_of_colonization_and_genocide_in_the_Americas) on the Native American Population. Ward Churchill characterizes the reduction of the North American Indian population from an estimated 12 million in 1500 to barely 237,000 in 1900 as a "vast genocide.. the most sustained on record. Some of the atrocities will be listed above. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide_of_indigenous_peoples#The_question_of_colonization_and_genocide_in_the_Americas), [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history#Americas)</sup>
### Black people
- On September 27th, 2018, a Dallas TX police officer getting off work entered the apartment of 26 year old Botham Jean (thinking it was her own), and [shot and killed him](https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7202254/dallas-cop-enters-wrong-house-kills-man-thought-burglar/). The officer, Amber Guyger, at first was placed on administrative leave, and eventually was charged with manslaughter. Jeans family accused the Dallas Police Department of using Jean's marijuana use in news articles as a justification for his murder. <sup>[1](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/botham-jean-family-wants-to-put-one-rumor-to-rest-dallas-shooting-amber-guyger/),[2](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/botham-jean-family-wants-to-put-one-rumor-to-rest-dallas-shooting-amber-guyger/),[3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Police_Department#Killing_of_Botham_Jean)</sup>
- On June 20th 2018, a Pittsburgh PA cop shot 17-year old [Antwon Rose in the back while he was running away](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/06/20/police-fatally-shoot-17-year-old-antwon-rose-fleeing-traffic-stop-east-pittsburgh/719334002/) and killed him. Luckily a cell phone video caught the incident, showing officers handcuffing his corpse. "He was just a really lovely, gentle kid," Gisele Fetterman told the newspaper at a World Refugee Day event in Market Square on Wednesday. "His mom is amazing. All the kids loved him. Just a fine person. Bubbly. Funny. Goofy. Just really special."<sup>[1](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/06/20/police-fatally-shoot-17-year-old-antwon-rose-fleeing-traffic-stop-east-pittsburgh/719334002/)</sup>
- On July 19th, 2017, Cincinatti OH prosecutors decided not to pursue a third murder trial for police officer Ray Tensing, who shot [Samuel DuBose in the head](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Samuel_DuBose) on July 19th 2015, killing him, after pulling him over for a missing front license plate. The prosecutor told the mother, "since there are more racists in Hamilton county than not, its pointless to pursue another trial because you won't get a conviction." Tensing was wearing a confederate battle flag T-shirt when he murdered DuBose. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Samuel_DuBose)</sup>
- On June 18th, 2017, Seattle [police murdered a 30 year old pregnant woman](https://www.thenation.com/article/charleena-lyles-was-killed-by-a-police-department-under-a-consent-decree/) suffering from mental health issues, Charleena Lyles, while her 3 of her 4 children slept in the next room. No charges have been brought against the police officers. <sup>[1](https://www.thenation.com/article/charleena-lyles-was-killed-by-a-police-department-under-a-consent-decree/)</sup>
@ -279,7 +258,6 @@ Notes :
- In the summer of 1800, [Gabriel Prosser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Prosser) planned a large slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia. Information regarding the revolt was leaked prior to its execution, and he and twenty-five followers were taken captive and [hanged](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging) in punishment. In reaction, Virginia and other state legislatures passed restrictions on [free blacks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_people_of_color), as well as prohibiting the education, assembly, and hiring out of slaves, to restrict their chances to learn and to plan similar rebellions. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Prosser)</sup>
- In 1787, the [Three-Fifths Compromise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Fifths_Compromise), was a compromise between southern and northern states for how slaves should be counted for representation and taxation purposes, and determining how many seats a state would have in the house of representatives. Black slaves were counted as 3/5ths of a white person. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Fifths_Compromise)</sup>
- In the 18th and 19th centuries, US plantation owners benefitted from [African Slavery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States), which eventually became the dominant mode of production in the south. Words cannot do justice to the inhumanity of slavery as practiced by the US, but specific examples above will attempt to highlight its brutality. The total slave population in the South eventually reached 4 million before liberation. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States)</sup>
### Latinos
- On January 29th, 2019, Tempe Arizona police [shot and killed a 14 year old, Antonio Arce.](https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2019/01/30/family-tempe-teen-antonio-arce-killed-police-speaks/2702186002/) He was shot in the back between his shoulder blades while running away. Police at first delayed, then released a [small section of the bodycam footage, intentionally cut right before seeing the body, 3 days after the shooting.](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tempe-police-shooting-antonio-arce-bodycam-footage-in-fatal-shooting-of-boy-with-airsoft-gun/) After backlash over the shortened video, they held a *private showing* to select reporters, barring any cameras or recording devices, seemingly showing Arce with the orange-tipped airsoft gun found near his body. They've refused to release that video to the public, leading many to believe it to be doctored, with police planting an airsoft gun on him after the killing as a justification. The original video has no such airsoft gun. The officer who murdered him is currently on administrative leave.
- On Nov 25, 2018, US customs and border agents [fired tear gas at hundreds of Central American migrants on the US border](https://www.apnews.com/72efa4f1822241c2817a2fb6aa191fb4). “We ran, but when you run, the gas asphyxiates you more,” Honduran migrant Ana Zuniga, 23, told the Associated Press while cradling daughter Valery, 3, in her arms. The use of tear gas [is banned in warfare](https://jacobinmag.com/2018/05/tear-gas-protests-riot-control-police), while its use for riot control is internationally accepted. Protesters and amnesty seekers would have *more* rights and protections if they simply declared war on the US government.
@ -298,9 +276,7 @@ Notes :
- In 1983, a mostly latino workforce lead the 3-year long [Arizona Copper Mine Strike of 1983](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_copper_mine_strike_of_1983), in which the police, national guard, and Arizona governor assisted in one of the largest strikebreaking incidents of the 1980s, ending with the [Phelps Dodge Corporation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phelps_Dodge_Corporation) replacing most of the workers and decertifying the unions. Miners were subject to [undercover surveillance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance) by the Arizona Criminal Intelligence Systems Agency, to identify strikers engaged in violence, with the governor sending 325 National Guard soldiers to Morenci, and increasing the number of state policemen there to 425. Meanwhile, the local government passed [injunctions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injunction) limiting both picketing and demonstrations at the mine. The Arizona copper mine strike would later become a symbol of defeat for American unions. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_copper_mine_strike_of_1983)</sup>
- In 1954, the US implemented [Operation Wetback](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback), a US law enforcement initiative under Eisenhower to curb Mexican immigration, in which over 1 Million Mexicans were arrested. After implementation, Operation Wetback gave rise to arrests and deportations by the [U.S. Border Patrol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Border_Patrol) that were civil rights violations, which resulted in several hundred United States citizens being illegally deported without being given a chance to prove their citizenship. A total of 750 immigration and border patrol officers and investigators; 300 jeeps, cars and buses; and seven airplanes were allocated for the operation.[[28\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback#cite_note-28) Teams were focused on quick processing, as planes were able to coordinate with ground efforts and quickly deport people into Mexico.[[29\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback#cite_note-ngai156-29) While the operation included the cities of [Los Angeles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles), [San Francisco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco), and [Chicago](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago), its main targets were border areas in [Texas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas) and [California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California).[[29\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback#cite_note-ngai156-29) Overall, there were 1,078,168 apprehensions made in the first year of Operation Wetback, with 170,000 being rounded up from May to July 1954. In addition, many illegal immigrants fled to Mexico fearing arrest; over half a million from Texas alone. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback)</sup>
- In 1951, the Los Angeles Police Department severely beat up 5 latino and 2 white men, in an event called [Bloody Christmas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Christmas_(1951)), leaving them with broken bones and ruptured organs, and covered it up. After pressure from the Mexican-American community, the LAPD opened up an internal inquiry, resulting in eight [police officers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_officers) being indicted for the assaults, 54 being transferred, and 39 suspended.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Christmas_(1951))</sup>
### Asians
- Between 1956-65, the [Chinese Confession Program](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Confession_Program) sought confessions of illegal entry from US citizens and residents of Chinese origin, with the (misleading) offer of legalization of status in exchange. The program resulted in 13,895 confessions,[[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Confession_Program#cite_note-ng-interview-1)[[4\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Confession_Program#cite_note-moca-4) with about 10,000 in the [San Francisco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco) region (where the bulk of the illegally entering Chinese population was concentrated.[[2\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Confession_Program#cite_note-hing-aiisf-2) This was far less than the number of people suspected of having entered illegally, and the less than complete usage of the program was attributed to lack of trust in the United States immigration enforcement agencies among the Chinese population, the lack of clear benefits from confessing, and the risk of deportation faced by the confessor as well as his or her (blood and paper) family.[[2\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Confession_Program#cite_note-hing-aiisf-2) Since confessions by neighbors could implicate a person and cause him or her to be deported, the program created fear and distrust in many Chinese-American communities. Anybody who had illegally entered and came in contact with the FBI before he or she had confessed was subject to immediate deportation.[[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Confession_Program#cite_note-ng-interview-1) The confessions had a significant impact on the Chinese-American community: as a result of the confessions, 22,083 people were exposed and 11,294 paper son slots were closed.[[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Confession_Program#cite_note-ng-interview-1)[[5\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Confession_Program#cite_note-americanancestors-5) For comparison, the 1950 Census listed 117,629 Chinese in America (excluding [Hawaii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii)).[[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Confession_Program#cite_note-ng-interview-1) <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Confession_Program)</sup>
- From 1942-46, FDR [imprisoned ~120,000 Japanese Americans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans) in concentration camps after the attack on pearl harbor. The conditions of the camps were notoriously horrible, and most were forced to make "loyalty oaths", or risk deportation and separation from their families. It was later admitted that government actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership". Most lost their homes and jobs, as whites took over vacated homes. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans)</sup>
- The repression faced by Chinese Americans in the 19th and 20th century are found in the articles, [History of Chinese Americans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chinese_Americans), and [Anti-Chinese Sentiment in the US](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Chinese_sentiment_in_the_United_States).
@ -312,28 +288,21 @@ Notes :
- The [Chinese Massacre of 1871](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_massacre_of_1871) was a [racially motivated](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_crime) riot which occurred on October 24, 1871 in [Los Angeles, California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles,_California), when a mob of around 500 white men entered [Chinatown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_Los_Angeles) to attack, rob, and murder [Chinese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese) residents of the city.[[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_massacre_of_1871#cite_note-usc-1)[[2\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_massacre_of_1871#cite_note-laweekly-2) An estimated 17 to 20 [Chinese immigrants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_immigrants) were systematically tortured and then [hanged](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanged) by the mob, making the event the largest mass [lynching](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching) in American history.[[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_massacre_of_1871#cite_note-usc-1)[[2\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_massacre_of_1871#cite_note-laweekly-2)[[3\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_massacre_of_1871#cite_note-erika-3)<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_massacre_of_1871)</sup>
- The [Pigtail Ordinance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigtail_Ordinance) was a racist law passed in 1873 intended to force [prisoners](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison) in [San Francisco, California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco,_California) to have their hair cut within an inch of the scalp. It affected [Han Chinese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese) prisoners in particular, as it meant they would have their [queue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queue_%28hairstyle%29), a waist-long, braided [pigtail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigtail), cut off. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigtail_Ordinance)</sup>
- The [Anti-Coolie Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Coolie_Act) of 1862 was passed by the California legislature in an attempt to appease rising anger among white laborers about salary competition created by the influx of [Chinese immigrants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_American_history) at the height of the [California gold rush](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gold_rush).The act sought to protect white laborers by imposing a monthly tax on Chinese immigrants seeking to do business in the state of [California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California). <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Coolie_Act)</sup>
### LGBTQ People
- In 1969, LGBT activists began the [Stonewall riots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots) in response to a police raid in Greenwich Village, which highlighted a pattern of discrimination against gay people in the legal system. The Stonewall Inn It catered to an assortment of patrons and was known to be popular among the poorest and most marginalized people in the gay community: [drag queens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_queen), [transgender](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender) people, effeminate young men, [butch lesbians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_and_femme), [male prostitutes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_prostitution), and homeless youth. Police raids on gay bars were routine in the 1960s. The riot began an extended confrontation with the [New York City police](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Police_Department), and within weeks, Village residents quickly organized into activist groups to concentrate efforts on establishing places for gays and lesbians to be open about their [sexual orientation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_orientation) without fear of being arrested. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots)</sup>
- In the 2nd [Red and Lavendar Scare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender_scare) of 1947-56, Joseph McCarthy framed homosexuality as a dangerous, contagious social disease that posed a potential threat to state security.[[59\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism#cite_note-Patrizia_Gentile_2010._pg_65-59) Hundreds of suspected homosexuals were imprisoned or fired.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism#Victims_of_McCarthy)</sup>
### Women
- In the period following WWII, the US capitalist-controlled media, advertising, and consumer products industries propagandized and glorified the ideal of the housewife-consumer, in order to sell products, make labor space for returning soldiers, take advantage of women's unpaid labor in the home, and to help build a new workforce and potential army to combat the soviet union. This sparked an era of regression with respect to the feminist victories of the previous 50 years, and caused psychological damage and demoralization to an uncountable number of women. Women who remained in the labor force were primarily only allowed in subordinate positions such as secretaries, cleaning women, elementary school teachers, saleswomen, waitresses, and nurses. This is chronicled in the [Feminine Mystique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feminine_Mystique).
- From the 1880s onward, many US states (27 + Puerto Rico in 1956) operated a system of [forced sterilization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization#United_States) of women, rooted in white supremacy. The principle targets were the mentally ill, Native Americans, and blacks. For example, in [Sunflower County Mississippi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_County,_Mississippi), 60% of black women living there were sterilized without their permission. An estimated 3,406 Indian women were sterilized.[[63\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics_in_the_United_States#cite_note-Lawrence-63) California eugenicists in 1933 began sending their literature overseas to german scientists and medical workers, sparking the beginnings of Nazi Eugenics. In the end, over 65,000 individuals were sterilized in 33 states, in all likelihood without the perspectives of ethnic minorities. 148 female prisoners in two California institutions were sterilized between 2006 and 2010 in a supposedly voluntary program, but it was determined that the prisoners did not give consent to the procedures. In [Madrigal vs. Quilligan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrigal_v._Quilligan), many unsuspecting women were coerced to sign paperwork to perform sterilization, while others were told that the process could be reversed. None of the women were fluent in English. 10 latina women were sterilized, and the doctor was found innocent. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization#United_States),[2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization#cite_note-71),[3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrigal_v._Quilligan)</sup>
- In the 1830s, The [Lowell Mill Girls](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell_Mill_Girls) were female workers who came to work in industrial factories in [Lowell, Massachusetts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell,_Massachusetts), during the [Industrial Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution), and who despite living in cramped boarding houses and working from 5am-7pm every day, developed a culture of defiance against the factory owners, and created reform associations, and began strikes in 1834 and 1836. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell_Mill_Girls)</sup>
- US elites in the 18th and 19th centuries pushed a narrative of *domestic purity*, or the *cult of true womanhood*, for women as a way of pacifying her with a doctrine of "separate but equal"-giving her work equally as important as the man's, but separate and different. Inside that "equality" there was the fact that the woman did not choose her mate, and once her marriage took place, her life was determined. One girl wrote in 1791: "The die is about to be cast which will probably determine the future happiness or misery of my life.... I have always anticipated the event with a degree of solemnity almost equal to that which will terminate my present existence." Marriage enchained, and children doubled the chains. One woman, writing in 1813: "The idea of soon giving birth to my third child and the consequent duties I shall he called to discharge distresses me so I feel as if I should sink."
### Workers and the Poor
- An analysis of 2016 data showed that [8 men control as much wealth as half of the world's population](http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/15/news/economy/oxfam-income-inequality-men/). Those 8 men are Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Carlos Slim, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Amancio Ortega, Larry Ellison and Michael Bloomberg, and are collectively worth $426 billion. <sup>[1](http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/15/news/economy/oxfam-income-inequality-men/)</sup>
- US authorities have a [long history of murdering striking workers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_United_States_labor_disputes) fighting for better conditions, dating back to the 1800s, up to the present day. According to a study in 1969, the United States has had the bloodiest and most violent labor history of any industrial nation in the world, and there have been few industries which have been immune.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_United_States_labor_disputes#cite_note-1)</sup> A long list of these deaths and disputes can be found [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worker_deaths_in_United_States_labor_disputes), and [this article on the Labor History of the US](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#Organized_labor_1929.E2.80.931955).
- US conservatives and authorities have systematically dismantled labor unions over the past few decades, and by 2011 fewer than 7% of employees in the private sector belong to unions. The number of major work stoppages fell by 97% from 381 in 1970 to 187 in 1980 to only 11 in 2010.<sup>[129](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-129), [130](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-130)</sup> The accumulating weaknesses were exposed when President Ronald Reagan—a former union president—broke the [Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_%281968%29) strike in 1981, dealing a major blow to unions.<sup>[131](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-round-131)</sup> Union membership among workers in private industry shrank dramatically, though after 1970 there was growth in employees unions of federal, state and local governments.<sup>[132](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-132),[133](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-133)</sup> The intellectual mood in the 1970s and 1980s favored deregulation and free competition.<sup>[134](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-Derthick218-134)</sup> Numerous industries were deregulated, including airlines, trucking, railroads and telephones, over the objections of the unions involved.<sup>[135](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-135)</sup> Republicans, using conservative [think tanks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_tank) as idea farms, began to push through legislative blueprints to curb the power of public employee unions as well as eliminate business regulations.<sup>[128](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-Carter_A._Wilson_2013_256.E2.80.9357-128),[136](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-136)</sup> Union weakness in the [Southern United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_United_States) undermined unionization and social reform throughout the nation, and such weakness is largely responsible for the anaemic U.S. [welfare state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_state).<sup>[137](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#cite_note-137),[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States#Unions_since_1955)</sup>
- In addition to artificial housing crises, the US has high numbers of homeless, despite the fact that there are, [~6 houses for every homeless person](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-skip-bronson/post_733_b_692546.html). Instead of human planning and intelligent distribution of resources, the US ruling class upholds the market as the "the most efficient way of allocating resources".
- Although the US economy produces more than enough food to feed those in poverty, [UNICEF](http://www.unicef.org/sowc06/pdfs/sowc06_chap1.pdf), [RESULTS](https://web.archive.org/web/20080527011602/http://www.results.org/website/article.asp?id=241), and [Bread for the World](http://www.bread.org/hunger/global/facts.html) estimate that **15 million** people die **each year** from preventable poverty, of whom 11 million are **children under the age of five**. In addition, The US has a comparatively terrible social support system to fight poverty and prevent deaths: "approximately 245,000 deaths in the United States in the year 2000 were attributable to low levels of education, 176,000 to racial segregation, 162,000 to low social support, 133,000 to individual-level poverty, 119,000 to income inequality, and 39,000 to area-level poverty" ([sources](https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/how-many-us-deaths-are-caused-poverty-lack-education-and-other-social-factors)). That is 2 million people every 10 years in the US alone.<sup>[1](http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/08/crimes-against-humanity-01-poverty-murder-over-400-million-people-since-1995-more-than-all-wars-in-recorded-history.html)</sup>
- In the modern day, [20,000 to 40,000 people die every year](http://obamacarefacts.com/facts-on-deaths-due-to-lack-of-health-insurance-in-us/) because of lack of universal health care or health insurance. On average, that's 300,000 over the last decade. <sup>[1](http://obamacarefacts.com/facts-on-deaths-due-to-lack-of-health-insurance-in-us/)</sup>
---
- In January 2018 in Camden New Jersey, [a 33 year old police Detective Rafael Martinez Jr raped and impregnated a 15-year old girl.](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5645553/Former-New-Jersey-police-officer-33-given-five-years-probation.html). He negotiated a plea deal in which he only serves 5 months of probation, with no prison time. <sup>[1](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5645553/Former-New-Jersey-police-officer-33-given-five-years-probation.html)</sup>
- On December 28th, 2017, Police in Wichita Kansas [murdered an innocent man, 28-year-old Andrew Finch](http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article193294019.html) who was the recipient of "swatting" (where someone falsely reports an emergency to draw police to an address). The [bodycam footage](http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article193294019.html) shows that the killing was entirely unjustified. The "swatter", [Tyler Rai Bariss](http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-tyler-barriss-swatting-20180106-story.html), has a long history of such pranks, <sup>[1](http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article193294019.html),[2](http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-tyler-barriss-swatting-20180106-story.html)</sup>
@ -386,9 +355,7 @@ Notes :
- In 1787, [James Madison](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Madison) in the [Federalist Paper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Federalist_Papers) #10, outlined the primary role of the US constitution, arguing that representative government was needed to maintain peace in a society ridden by factional disputes. These disputes came from "**the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society.**" The problem, he said, was how to control the factional struggles that came from inequalities in wealth. Minority factions could be controlled, he said, by the principle that decisions would be by vote of the majority. So the real problem, according to Madison, was a majority faction, and here the solution was offered by the Constitution, to have "an extensive republic," that is, a large nation ranging over thirteen states, for then "it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength,and to act in unison with each other.... The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States." Madison's argument can be seen as a sensible argument for having a government which can maintain peace and avoid continuous disorder. But is it the aim of government simply to maintain order, as a referee, between two equally matched fighters? Or is it that government has some special interest in maintaining a certain kind of order, a certain distribution of power and wealth, a distribution in which government officials are not neutral referees but participants? In that case, the disorder they might worry about is the disorder of popular rebellion against those monopolizing the society's wealth. This interpretation makes sense when one looks at the economic interests, the social backgrounds, of the makers of the Constitution. Charles Beard warned us that **governments-including the government of the United States-are not neutral, that they represent the dominant economic interests, and that their constitutions are intended to serve these interests.**
- The 1787 [US Constitution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution) is falsely portrayed as a document representing an ideal of social and political equality, despite **every framer being a rich white propertied man**. Historian [Charles Beard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_A._Beard) found that a majority of the framers were lawyers by profession, that most of them were **men of wealth, in land, slaves, manufacturing, or shipping**, that half of them had money loaned out at interest, and that forty of the fifty-five held government bonds, according to the records of the Treasury Department. Thus, Beard found that most of the makers of the Constitution had some direct economic interest in establishing a strong federal government: the manufacturers needed protective tariffs; the money lenders wanted to stop the use of paper money to pay off debts; the land speculators wanted protection as they invaded Indian lands; slave-owners needed federal security against slave revolts and runaways; bondholders wanted a government able to raise money by nationwide taxation, to pay off those bonds. Four groups, Beard noted, were not represented in the Constitutional Convention: **slaves, indentured servants, women, men without property**. And so the Constitution did not reflect the interests of those groups. He later wrote: "Inasmuch as the primary object of a government, beyond the mere repression of physical violence, is the making of the rules which *determine the property relations of members of society*, the dominant classes whose rights are thus to be determined must perforce obtain from the government such rules as are consonant with the larger interests necessary to the continuance of their economic processes, or they must themselves control the organs of government."
- The [American Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_revolution) is falsely portrayed as being a social revolution. [Carl Degler](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Neumann_Degler) says (*Out of Our Past*): "**No new social class came to power through the door of the American revolution.** The men who engineered the revolt were largely members of the colonial ruling class." **George Washington was the richest man in America**. John Hancock was a prosperous Boston merchant. Benjamin Franklin was a wealthy printer. [Edmund Morgan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Morgan_(historian)) sums up the class nature of the Revolution this way: "The fact that the lower ranks were involved in the contest should not obscure the fact that the contest itself was generally a struggle for office and power between members of an upper class: the new against the established." Looking at the situation after the Revolution, Richard Morris comments: "Everywhere one finds inequality." He finds "the people" of "We the people of the United States" (a phrase coined by the very rich governor Morris) did not mean Indians or blacks or women or white servants. In fact, there were more indentured servants than ever, and the Revolution "did nothing to end and little to ameliorate white bondage."
### Prisoners
- The US **currently** operates a system of slave labor camps, including at least [54 prison farms involved in agricultural slave labor.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_farm#In_the_United_States_.28partial_list.29) Outside of agricultural slavery, [Federal Prison Industries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Prison_Industries) operates a multi-billion dollar industry with ~ 52 prison factories, where prisoners produce furniture, clothing, circuit boards, products for the military, computer aided design services, call center support for private companies. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_farm#In_the_United_States_.28partial_list.29), [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Prison_Industries), [3](https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/20/mass-incarceration-prison-labor-in-the-united-states/)</sup>
- Ramping up since the 1980s, the term [prison–industrial complex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_complex) is used to attribute the [rapid expansion of the US inmate population](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate#Growth) to the political influence of [private prison](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison) companies and businesses that supply goods and services to government prison agencies. Such groups include corporations that contract [prison labor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_labor), construction companies, [surveillance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance) technology vendors, companies that operate prison food services and medical facilities, [private probation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_probation) companies, lawyers, and [lobby groups](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobby_groups) that represent them. Activist groups such as the [National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Organization_for_the_Reform_of_Marijuana_Laws) (NORML) have argued that the prison-industrial complex is perpetuating a flawed belief that imprisonment is an effective solution to social problems such as [homelessness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness), [unemployment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment), [drug addiction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_addiction), [mental illness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_illness), and [illiteracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illiteracy). <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_complex)</sup>
- The [War On Drugs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs), a policy of arrest and imprisonment targeting minorities, first initiated by Nixon, has over the years created a monstrous system of mass incarceration, resulting in the imprisonment of 1.5 million people each year, with the US having the most prisoners per capita of any nation. One in five black Americans will spend time behind bars due to drug laws. The war has created a permanent underclass of impoverished people who have few educational or job opportunities as a result of being punished for drug offenses, in a vicious cycle of oppression. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs#cite_note-59), [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs)</sup>
@ -403,13 +370,9 @@ Notes :
- In the 1978 case [Houchins v. KQED, Inc.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houchins_v._KQED,_Inc.) the supreme court ruled that the news media do not have guaranteed rights of access to jails and prisons. It ruled also that prison authorities could forbid inmates to speak to one another, assemble, or spread literature about the formation of a prisoners' union.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houchins_v._KQED,_Inc.)</sup>
- In September, 1971, prison guards [killed George Jackson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Jackson_(activist)#Death), a black Marxist and member of the Black Panthers in San Quentin prison (who had served 10 years of an indeterminate prison sentence for a $70 robbery), after he attempted to free himself and other inmates. Outrage over this, terrible prison conditions, and mistreatment by white prison guards, caused the [Attica Prison Riot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attica_Prison_riot), in which 33 inmates and 10 prison guards were killed, and sparked dozens of prison riots across the country. In Attica, 100 percent of the guards were white, prisoners spent fourteen to sixteen hours a day in their cells, their mail was read, their reading material restricted, their visits from families conducted through a mesh screen, their medical care disgraceful, 75% were there as a result of plea bargaining, and their parole system inequitable.
- Many companies in the 1800s were guilty of using prison laborers, such as the [Tennesee Coal Iron and Railroad company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Coal,_Iron_and_Railroad_Company#From_forced_labor_to_paternalism). In 1891, the prison workers struck, overpowered the guards, and other neighboring unions came to their aid.
### Religious minorities
- From February to April of 1994, ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) and FBI forces besieged a religious [compound in Waco, Texas,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege) after a botched raid and arrest attempt of the leader of the branch davidians, David Koresh, for sexual abuse and weapons charges. After a failed negotiation, tanks were used to rip apart the building, while highly flammable tear gas was shot into the building. 76 people, including pregnant women and children, were burned alive in the firestorm. The event is chronicled in the documentary, [Waco: Rules of Engagement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco:_The_Rules_of_Engagement).<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege)</sup>
### Pervasive
- Police repression against minorities and the poor have been increasing in the last few years, leading to the establishing of several online databases, such as [this one by the washington post documenting shooting-deaths by police](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/), and [killedbypolice.net](http://www.killedbypolice.net/). US police shot and killed 952 people in 2017, 963 people in 2016, and 991 in 2015.
- The [Paradise papers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Papers), first made public on November 5th, 2017, are a leak of 1.4 TB of electronic documents relating to offshore investments, detailing the secrets of the world's elites hidden wealth. The leaks implicated hundreds of the wealthiest people and companies on the planet in financial schemes. According to the papers, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Disney, Uber, Nike, Walmart, Allianz, Siemens, McDonald's, and Yahoo! are among the corporations that own offshore companies, as well as Allergan, the manufacturer of Botox. Some people implicated in tax avoidance schemes are Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II, President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Rex Tillerson, Paul Allen (Microsoft), Bono, Carl Icahn, Sheldon Adelson, George Soros, and 3 former canadian prime ministers.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Papers), [2](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/paradise-papers-leak-reveals-secrets-of-world-elites-hidden-wealth?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_New_Post)</sup>
- On July 23rd, 2017, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Washington DC police, after [police sexually abused protestors](https://www.democracynow.org/2017/6/23/headlines/aclu_lawsuit_claims_dc_police_sexually_abused_anti_trump_protesters) arrested during Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, when hundreds were arrested. A complaint by four plaintiffs charges officers stripped them, grabbed their genitalia and inserted fingers into their anuses while other officers laughed. One of the plaintiffs, photojournalist Shay Horse, said, "I felt like they were using molestation and rape as punishment. They used those tactics to inflict pain and misery on people who are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty." In a statement, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department promised an investigation but defended its officers' actions, saying all arrests on January 20 were proper. In December, 2017, all the charges against the J20 protesters were dropped. <sup>[1](https://www.democracynow.org/2017/6/23/headlines/aclu_lawsuit_claims_dc_police_sexually_abused_anti_trump_protesters)</sup>
@ -433,9 +396,7 @@ Notes :
- The [Immigration Act of 1924](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924) was a [United States federal law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_law) that limited the annual number of [immigrants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_the_United_States) who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the [United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States) as of the [1890 census](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Census,_1890), down from the 3% cap set by the [Emergency Quota Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Quota_Act) of 1921, which used the [Census of 1910](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Census,_1910). The law was primarily aimed at further restricting immigration of [Southern Europeans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Europe) and [Eastern Europeans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Europe), especially [Italians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_people) and [Eastern European Jews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_European_Jews). In addition, it severely restricted the immigration of [Africans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans) and outright banned the immigration of [Arabs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Americans) and [Asians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Americans). According to the U.S. Department of State [Office of the Historian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_the_Historian) the purpose of the act was "to preserve the ideal of American homogeneity". The new quotas for immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe were so restrictive that in 1924 there were more Italians, Czechs, Yugoslavs, Greeks, Lithuanians, Hungarians, Portuguese, Romanians, Spaniards, Jews, Chinese, and Japanese that left the [United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States) than those who arrived as immigrants.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924)</sup>
- The [Alien and Sedition Acts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_and_Sedition_Acts), signed into law in 1798, originally made it harder for an immigrant to become a citizen, but was later used during WWII by [President Franklin Delano Roosevelt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt) to imprison [Japanese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_people), [German](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_people), and [Italian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_people) aliens during [World War II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II), with continued use after the war by Truman to imprison and deport people. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_and_Sedition_Acts)</sup>
- The [Naturalization Act of 1790](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalization_Act_of_1790) limited [naturalization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalization) to immigrants who were "free white persons of good character." It thus excluded American Indians, [indentured servants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servant), [slaves](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery), free blacks, and later Asians. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalization_Act_of_1790)</sup>
## Sources / Starting points
- [x] Skim through [peoples history of the US](http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html)
- [ ] Killing hope
- [ ] Skim through untold history of the united states
@ -455,4 +416,4 @@ Notes :
- [x] http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/4/14/1201622/-Death-by-capitalism
- [x] Smedly Butler
- [x] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change
- [ ]
- [ ]