Is there a “deep state” that’s conspiring against Trump? Retired three-star Army Gen. Michael Flynn seems to think so.

The brass hat posted a video on Twitter in July using slogans from the ultraright QAnon movement. This cult believes satan-worshiping members of a “deep state” inside the government are trying to overthrow Trump. 

But who is more “deep state” than Flynn, Trump’s first national security advisor? Flynn was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014. 

The DIA is just one of at least 17 spy agencies within the U.S. government. Whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed how the National Security Agency snoops on everybody’s social media using its PRISM program. 

These spy agencies spend $85 billion plus per year to spread misery and violence all over the earth. The CIA overthrew the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, on Sept. 11, 1973. More people were killed in this bloody military coup than died in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001 (9/11!). 

It was the CIA and Pentagon that conducted regime change in Dallas in 1963 by killing President John F. Kennedy. 

In 1968, the deep state had the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated. At the time, Dr. King was supporting a strike of Memphis, Tenn., sanitation workers, who were government employees.

Millions of federal, state and local workers teach children, clean streets, work inside hospitals and perform many other necessary tasks. All of them are considered roadkill by the billionaire class.

This was shown during the U.S. government shutdown in 2013 that lasted 16 days. Hundreds of thousands of workers, many of them Black, were laid off.

Mothers who wanted to apply for the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) nutrition program couldn’t do so. Dow Chemical wasn’t sorry that 90% of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board employees were let go.

But none of the concentration camps that incarcerated migrant children were closed. The U.S. Air Force kept bombing Afghanistan. The real state never even slowed down.

Organized violence

The capitalist state isn’t about helping people with Social Security or food programs. It’s cops, jails, brutality and death.  

Frederick Engels ― who with his friend Karl Marx founded scientific socialism ― described this real state as “bodies of armed men.” Every regime of rich exploiters needs organized violence to suppress the poor and working majority.

That wasn’t the case with Indigenous peoples like the Iroquois whose lands were stolen by European invaders. There were no rich or poor in these communities. Armed goons with badges weren’t required to keep a small, wealthy minority in power.

The deep state is just an extension of the police who kill an average of three people every day in the U.S.

Trump ordered U.S. Marshals belonging to the deep state to assassinate the anti-racist activist Michael Reinoehl on Sept. 3. Trump bragged at a rally: “They knew who he was. They didn’t want to arrest him. Fifteen minutes, that ended.” 

Thirty-seven shots were fired at Reinoehl. That’s the tyranny of a police state. It’s applauded by the QAnon followers. 

Yes, there is a deep state with its members worshiping the dollar, not Satan. Michael Flynn is part of it.

On Dec 1, Flynn tweeted his support for the fascist group We The People. They’re calling for martial law to be imposed, the Constitution suspended and a new presidential election held, to be conducted by the military. 

Trump wanted to call out the troops on June 1 to crush the Black Lives Matter movement. Generals in the deep state hesitated to follow Trump because they feared that rank-and-file GIs wouldn’t follow the police state orders.

Trump is now trying to organize a more successful coup to overturn the election. He wants the deep state to organize it and five Supreme Court justices to bless it. The fools in QAnon and We The People are just extras in this plot, like on a movie set.

Eighty-one million people voted against racism and Trump. The power of the people needs to be ready to stop the real deep state and evict Trump from the White House.

Struggle-La Lucha newspaper and the Socialist Unity Party mourn the passing of Indigenous leader and activist Roland (Moonanum) James. We extend our sympathy and solidarity to his family, friends and community.

“Moonanum James died last night at age 70. Proud Aquinnah Wampanoag man, co-leader of United American Indians of New England, a powerful speaker, talented musician, anti-war Navy vet, sworn enemy of the pilgrims, fighter for justice, and father of Ben, Kisha and Womsikuk. Thank you to VA hospital staff who were very kind and took good care of him,” wrote UAINE co-leader Mahtowin Munro on Dec. 5.

James was well known and respected as an organizer of the annual National Day of Mourning observance and march in Plymouth, Mass., on the U.S. “Thanksgiving” holiday, begun by his father Wamsutta Frank James more than five decades ago. NDOM honors the survival and continuing struggle of Indigenous peoples in the Americas and worldwide against colonialism and capitalism. 

Read Moonanum James’ talk at the 50th National Day of Mourning in 2019, ‘The Thanksgiving myth celebrates genocide.’ Please consider making a contribution to UAINE’s 2020-2021 Fundraiser.

Moonanum James, ¡presente!

Friday, December 11, 2020 at 12:00 AM – 11:45 PM CST

Online Event

All day, we’re asking supporters to post on Twitter and other social media to demand that charges be dropped against all those arrested during the Nov 4 mass arrests.

1. Tweet #646DropTheCharges all day, but target 11 to 2pm for maximum impact!

2. Sample tweets and content will be coming soon to tcc4j.net.

3. Amplify on your other social media too – #646DropTheCharges everywhere!

Join us this Saturday, December 12th 4-6 PM PT for our “Uniting Beyond 2020” event! This program is organized by a number of organizations in Los Angeles representing various people’s movements for liberation. Join us to learn about the work that our organizations are doing and to discuss the importance of joint struggle and continuing to build our movements beyond 2020.

Dear Readers,

Dec. 9, 2020, will mark the two-year anniversary of our publication, Struggle-La Lucha (SLL). We are proud that it has continued to bring news and revolutionary socialist analysis of critical developments in this past year.

As soon as the Black Lives Matter uprising took to the streets, we were able to publish hard copies of our newspaper and distribute papers from Los Angeles to New York City, from Baltimore and Washington, D.C., to San Diego and Atlanta, and at many other protests during the critical summer months despite the pandemic. We also expanded our online subscriptions by 75% in the past year.

Struggle-La Lucha analyzed the U.S. elections, the COVID and capitalist economic crises and published the popular series “Socialism and Dignity.” We continued with our international coverage of global developments and U.S. imperialism’s relentless war drive.

Struggle-La Lucha is dedicated to strengthening the movement and building unity. We publish daily news links and include a section for events, for What is Marxism? and on how to join the Socialist Unity Party.

We’ve been able to do this because of your support. 

Please  DONATE HERE 

Despite these difficult times for the working class, we are optimistic about a socialist future and our role in it. We have plans to amplify the voice of socialism. This includes:

• Expanding our print schedule in preparation for distributions
• Special national ad campaign to increase readership 
• Free subscriptions to prisoners and low-wage, front-line workers
• Expanding our YouTube channel and updating our technical infrastructure

Your donation, regardless of size, will be deeply appreciated. 

DONATE HERE 

Follow the reporters you’ve learned to know and trust from the front lines in the struggle for socialism: John Parker, Sharon Black, Lizz Toledo, Cheryl LaBash, Gloria Verdieu, Gary Wilson, Zola Fish, Steve Millies, Bayani, Scott Scheffer, Greg Butterfield and many others.

If you haven’t already, subscribe now. 

Looking forward to a socialist future.

Students, Parents & Teachers Speak Out!

Saturday, December 12 – 1:00 p.m.

125th St. & Adam Clayton Powell Blvd., Manhattan

Saturday in Harlem! Tell Mayor de Blasio: Stop endangering teachers, students and families during the COVID-19 pandemic to cater to rich white parents and Wall Street. Invest in improving remote education and making the necessary changes to keep school buildings safe in the future.

Friday, December 11, 2020 at 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM EST

Online Event
http://afroyaquimusiccollective.com/free-maroon

Russell Maroon Shoatz is a US-Held political prisoner and community organizer who has spent 23 years in solitary confinement. Now Maroon is suffering from Stage 4 Cancer and COVID-19, but the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections will not release him. Please join us for a teach-in where we can show solidarity to our elderly brother who deserves compassionate release.

The new National Assembly in Venezuela will have a Chavista majority. According to the preliminary numbers, 31% of the electoral roll voted, in a context marked by economic crisis, calls for non-participation, and an international deployment to sabotage the election.

Chavismo won a majority in the National Assembly in the 6D elections (December 6). The results were long awaited, until the early hours of the morning, when the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Indira Alfonzo, announced the numbers, with 82.35% of the votes counted.

First, the participation rate was 31%, with a total of 5,264,104 votes from the 20.7 million voter register. Of that total, the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP) alliance, headed by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), reached 67.95% with 3,558,320 votes.

The opposition lists, on the other hand, reached low percentages. The alliance formed by the parties Acción Democrática, Copei, Cambiemos, Avanzada Progresista, and El Cambio obtained 17.95% with 944,665 votes, and the alliance of the forces Venezuela Unida, Primero Venezuela, and Voluntad Popular Activistas obtained 4.19% with 220,502 votes. The Communist Party of Venezuela obtained 2.73% with 143,917 votes.

Once the numbers were known, a televised communication took place between the Dario Viva Campaign Command, with the presence of the PSUV leadership, including Diosdado Cabello and Jorge Rodriguez, with President Nicolas Maduro, together with his wife Cilia Flores and his son Nicolas Maduro Guerras, both elected for the new NA.

“We have a new National Assembly elected by the vote of the people, a great victory for democracy, for the Constitution,” Maduro affirmed, congratulating participants for an electoral day without incidents, in a complex context, due to economic and political factors, both national and international.

What does Juan Guaidó say?

Since the afternoon, the right wing, which had called for a boycott of the elections, announced that abstention had been over 80%, an unsubstantiated statement. The objective was to install the message in the media and then, once the results were known, to denounce a fraud on the part of the CNE.

The same U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, tweeted during the afternoon of the elections that there had been fraud, ratifying the position repeated by the U.S. government which, from zero hour, carried out a deployment of operations to sabotage the legislative contest.

Guaidó’s objective was to affirm that the election had no support as a result of his call for abstention and that, consequently, both the government and the opposition that participated were defeated. Thus, according to this message, he and those who remain within this strategy were strengthened.

However, there was neither an 80% abstention, nor was the abstention the result of a call from Guaidó and Pompeo, but rather the result of a series of variables, such as, for example, the situation of prolonged economic difficulties in the framework of an economic blockade that, during 2020, took on even greater dimensions within the “maximum pressure” deployed from the United States.

The economic variable, with its consequent impact on discontent and exhaustion, was not the only explanation for the participation rate. Another reason can be found in a complex political conflict that generated erosion among the population, where some sectors no longer feel represented in any of the existing political options.

What can be concluded?

One thing is certain: as of January 5th there will be a new National Assembly with a Chavismo majority, which represents a victory for the forces united in the GPP, and in particular for the PSUV.

Obtaining that majority means that the legislative defeat of 2015 has been reversed, the year in which the majority was obtained by the opposition, which translated into an escalation of the attempts to overthrow the government, centrally deployed from the NA.

The existence of a new Legislative Power, with a Chavista majority and opposing parliamentary fractions, will be a new reality in national politics as of 2021, a year that will again be marked by elections, this time for mayors and governors.

Another conclusion is undeniable: Guaidó and the forces that continue within this strategy will remain outside of the Legislative Power. What will those who recognize his interim presidency do at the international level? Will they maintain that he continues to be president in charge? In this respect, the former president of Spain, José Luis Zapatero (2004-2011), who came to Venezuela during the elections, called for reflection by the European Union.

“The diplomacy of the European Union is based on the peaceful solution of conflicts, on the respect for procedures, and I wish that the European Union makes a reflection after these elections, to evaluate what the policy of sanctions or the policy of non-recognition has given us, which may lead us to the greatest absurdity that the history of international law has known”, said the former Spanish leader.

National legitimacy

Guaidó’s formula for seeking legitimacy to continue leading the “interim presidency” despite no longer being in the NA will be the so-called “popular consultation,” which is to be conducted through a telephone application until December 12, when, according to Guaidó, there will be a face-to-face vote.

The objective of the consultation is to be able to affirm later, particularly at the international level, that he was supported in order to remain at the head of the imaginary Presidency, now completely reduced to the realm of the virtual. Capriles Radonski, who was first going to participate in the legislative elections, and who finally backed down on the basis of the European Union’s decision, described the initiative of the “consultation” as a “call for a mobilization without tangible solutions”.

A central question remains to be answered: what will the new Administration of future U.S. President Joe Biden do? Will it modify tactics in its attempt to change the government in Venezuela? Will it maintain the blockade or be willing to relax it within the framework of dialogue and negotiation?

The issue is central to projecting the evolution of the conflict and, in particular, the economic situation. The main point of Chavism’s demands in a dialogue is the lifting of economic measures that asphyxiate the macro economy and violently impact on daily life.

During the debates between candidates to the National Assembly, one of the participants, Javier Bertucci, affirmed that, from the Legislative Power, possible agreements could be made to undertake a process of dialogue with Washington, with consensual demands to address the necessary lifting of the blockade, which does not have support within Venezuela.

Advancing in resolutions of the economic situation will be one of the main and urgent points to be addressed by the National Assembly, both, for example, in the order of salaries, as well as public services, such as water, light, gas, as well as gasoline. What will the Legislative be able to do? What will it do? These are some of the questions that will be answered in the coming months.

Venezuela managed to conduct an election day in a context of sabotage by a sector of the opposition, foreign governments, large media, an economic blockade, which in itself is a victory for the democratic future of the country.

Source: Sputnik News, translation Internationalist 360°

24 HOUR GLOBAL VIRTUAL PICKET DEMANDING:
>> END TO THE U.S. BLOCKADE ON CUBA!
>> AWARD CUBA’S INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL BRIGADE THE NOBEL PRIZE!

~ Participate in any language! ~

24-hour program featuring speakers, video, music & greetings from around the world as we demand an end to the unjust U.S. blockade on Cuba!

THURSDAY DECEMBER 17, 2020
From Midnight to Midnight Havana time
Log in for local programing from 6-8pm your local time

REGISTER ONLINE HERE:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/4015953148213/WN_0Kc5FNsmQMy79bkoO8vPTg

HOW CAN YOU GET INVOLVED?
1) Make sure to register: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/4015953148213/WN_0Kc5FNsmQMy79bkoO8vPTg

2) Send your own 1-3 minute solidarity video messages speaking out against the blockade. These could be in any language. These can be sent over whatsapp to +1-778-882-5223 or over email to webmaster@canadiannetworkoncuba.ca (with Wetransfer or other file transfer services).

3) Share our social media posts with your supporters, help get the word out!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CanadianNetworkOnCuba
Twitter: @cdnntwrkoncuba
Instagram: @cdnntwrkoncuba

4) Everyone is encouraged to share photos and videos on social media platforms on December 17, such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook throughout the day. We will feature them during the 24-hour picket program. #UnBlockCuba2021 #Cubavsbloqueo #UnBlockCuba #Nobel4CubanDoctors #NobelCuba ***

WHY A 24 HOUR VIRTUAL PICKET?
On December 17, 2014 ALL of the Cuban 5 Heroes returned victoriously to Cuba! After spending over 16 years held unjustly in U.S. prisons for defending Cuba against U.S.-backed terrorism, the freedom of all of the Cuban 5 was a historic victory for the people of Cuba and the world! It was also on that same day the U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban president Raul Castro announced a new era pointing towards the normalization of U.S. – Cuba relations.

On December 17, 2020 we will mark the 6th anniversary of the freedom of the Cuban 5 and the promises made to Cuba regarding U.S.- Cuba relations. Specifically, we will join together to demand an end to the unjust U.S. blockade on Cuba!

Despite the global pandemic, the U.S. government and Trump administration has made 2020 the most cruel and costly year of the over 60-year blockade against Cuba. President Trump’s vicious tightening of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade in the last four years caused Cuba over $5 billion in damages against the island’s economy. Now, with the election of Joe Biden and a new U.S. Administration, our work as Cuba solidarity activists from around the world must continue with increasing effort and actions to end this over 60-year old policy once and for all!

In the face of the ongoing challenges imposed by U.S. blockade, Cuba continues to lead the way in the struggle against the Covid-19 pandemic. Currently there are more than 3,700 Cuban medical workers serving in 39 countries and territories with the ‘Henry Reeve’ International Medical Brigades. At the same time, Cuban medicines and treatments are being used around the world and Cuba has also been one of the most successful countries at fighting Covid-19 within its own borders.

This 24 hour virtual event will also be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) who have been organizing and promoting Cuba solidarity from across the Island and around the world for 60 years!

Please join the Canadian Network on Cuba and our allies in Cuba and around the globe on December 17 for our 8th monthly virtual protest action, and first ever 24-hour action, against the blockade on Cuba! It will be a continuation of coordinated monthly protests against the U.S. blockade which have been taking place in Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal, Canada and Kiev, Ukraine on the 17th of each month since 2015.

REGISTER ONLINE HERE:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/4015953148213/WN_0Kc5FNsmQMy79bkoO8vPTg

Please circulate this information to your friends and contacts.

Organized by the Canadian Network on Cuba (CNC), a network of Cuba solidarity organizations across Canada promoting friendship and solidarity with Cuba and the Cuban people.
http://www.canadiannetworkoncuba.ca

This action is being organized with the full support of many individuals and organizations including:
Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos (ICAP), El Movimiento Colombiano de Solidaridad con Cuba (MCSC), The Ukrainian Committee “Stop the blockade of Cuba”, The U.S.-Cuba Normalization Conference Organizing Committee, Australia-Cuba Friendship Society WA, Table de concertation et de solidarité Québec – Cuba, Associazione Nazionale di Amicizia Italia-Cuba, & The National Network on Cuba (NNOC) – U.S.

“Stimulus bill and checks not likely to arrive before Biden takes office,” Newsweek reported on Dec. 5. 

On Dec. 2, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that they had offered Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a $908 billion coronavirus stimulus plan. Under the Pelosi-Schumer plan, there will be no stimulus checks at all, only a new $300-per-week unemployment benefit that is not retroactive for those whose $600-per-week benefits have ended. McConnell says he’ll accept something that’s a little more than half that amount, $550 billion.

Pelosi and Schumer had rejected an offer from President Trump two months ago, on Oct. 1, for $400 per week in retroactive unemployment benefits for those whose $600-per-week benefit had ended, plus a stimulus check, because it “wasn’t enough.”  

Of course, Trump’s election campaign might have benefited from checks going out then — which is why he offered it — but why put forward something that’s much, much less now? Are they even trying?

There’s a puzzle here. At first glance, it might appear that the capitalist class favors the stimulus since the stock market rises whenever passage appears more likely. Is there a common interest between Wall Street and the workers, who certainly need the extended unemployment benefits and stimulus checks? 

The stimulus checks are newly printed money from the U.S. Treasury and some say that the new money is what is raising stock prices. That’s the New Deal Democrats’ approach, which is also given as the reason that reactionary Republicans are opposed to the stimulus.

Why would Mitch McConnell — who more openly than most speaks for big capitalist interests — oppose the proposal to put extra money into the hands of the workers if it is so good for the stock market? Is McConnell turning against the interests of business? 

From the standpoint of the capitalists, the mass unemployment created by the COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity for employers to lower wages and increase the rate of surplus value gained from the exploitation of workers. Don’t ignore the reports that say that in this pandemic, the billionaires are winning. While many have suffered, the richest among us kept getting richer, reported Farhad Manjoo in the New York Times, Nov. 25.

To the extent that the government feels obliged to put money into the hands of workers, if only to subdue unrest, the opportunity to raise the rate of surplus value — the ratio of unpaid to paid labor — is lost if the workers aren’t desperate and are able to in any way resist wage cuts.

Why does the stock market rise when the passage of the stimulus appears more likely? The stock market looks only at the short term. What is going to happen in the next quarter? If money is put into the hands of workers now, the pace of business will increase. Seeing the prospect of more business activity, the stock market rises.

But any reduction in the rate of surplus value will reduce the rate of profit in the long run. While the stimulus can improve business activity, it also reduces the rate of profit — more business at a lower rate of profit.

So Sen. McConnell is right from the viewpoint of the capitalist class. And the working class has the exact opposite interest. McConnell and his capitalist patrons sense that without the stimulus there will be a higher rate of surplus value — gained by cuts in wages and benefits — even if this means less business activity in the next few quarters. Therefore, in the long run, the less stimulus put out by the government, the higher the rate of profit will be. 

The interest of the capitalist class in the stimulus is thus diametrically opposed to the interest of the working class.