Why Barack Obama is more likely to be hit by a meteor than an assassin’s bullet

I heard it on the street when I was in downtown Duluth interviewing people for a newspaper article: “Mark my words–if Obama gets elected, they’ll assassinate him.”

I heard it again in the classroom where I teach 13 and 14 year olds how to be human beings: “If Obama gets elected, he gonna get shot.”

And elsewhere. There seems to be a rumor going around that those who dislike Barack Obama from the right are numerous enough, bitter enough, powerful enough and have reason enough to have him whacked. But nothing could be further from the minds of the real powers that be in this country and those who ensure the president-elect’s security. Indeed, Obama is in many ways their perfect candidate.

While certain members of the ruling elite undoubtedly still buy into some backwards bigotries, any instinctual racism on their part is far outweighed by the usefulness of having a well-articulated person of color put a fresh face on the rotten corpse of U.S. Imperialism. Obama’s resonant voice and progressive-sounding catchphrases are ear candy to disaffected voters after decades of candidates whose true interests–those of the ruling rich–have been too obvious. He has been able to bring the righteously alienated back into the fold of the two-party election game in a way no other candidate has. He has, in a word, created major buy-in.

But what system are Obama voters buying into? It is a system that would stymie even the best intentions of the most altruistic and virtuous candidate, nevermind a product of the Daly machine. Obama is certainly the latter, not the former. He has honestly said as much, although he has said it in a way that makes the opiate-seeking masses want to believe he’ll lead them all like the pied piper to peace, love and harmony.

Harmony isn’t where an Obama administration is going. With Obama, the ruling class will be able to perpetuate more endless war for U.S. hegemony. The new pres plans to ramp up troop levels in Afghanistan, where every other day it seems a U.S. helicopter or drone visits fresh terror on civilians who are cultivating their fields or celebrating a wedding. “Antiwar” Barack will leave enough troops stationed in Iraq to continue to prop up the U.S. client Malaki regime–enough to make sure Iraqis don’t get any more real democracy than we have. The new Administration has four letters for the Iraqis–SOFA.

Nor will Obama stop the war on the poor at home. He will enshrine private corporations’ profit-making in the health “care” system rather than dismantling it and simply taking care of everyone. His is a brilliant scheme to shrug off the responsibility of the capitalist class to pay for the care of those who can’t afford it. Make them pay for their own! the companies cry, and Obama gracefully obliges with the promise of a huge taxpayer bailout for automakers who raise fuel standards (which they should be mandated to do anyway!).

Obama may be black, but he’s not going to let nonviolent drug offenders out of jail. He won’t put good jobs in black neighborhoods (although he may put more cops there). He won’t ethnically mix up neighborhoods or give inner city poor people the equity they need to move to the suburbs, or change the funding formula for public schools to be fair and equal, or deepen affirmative action, or strongly protect a woman’s right to choose.

This isn’t to say his administration will be the same as that of Bush II. No doubt, even the capitalists are looking for someone who can give them the tough love they need to survive these tough times. He may pass laws to reign in the worst cowboy-style speculation; he may even distribute a portion of bailout money to refinance (not forgive) bad mortgages. But such steps are always and evermore geared toward saving capitalism, and if that means saving the hides of some folks lower down on the food chain, this is looked at by the ruling class as a necessary evil to avoid the “s-word” cropping up.

If there’s anyone right for the job, Obama’s their man. He can continue the attacks on working people here and abroad while those getting sucker-punched bask in the glow of “history being made” and line up to throw him roses. And he won’t need to betray a single vague, sugar-coated campaign promise to do so.

The only thing that could make the ruling class happier than the election’s outcome would be if their delusional fantasies about the bailout turning the economy around came true.

Grand Theft Economy!

Below is a talk I wrote for a public forum on the current economic crisis. It explains the real origins of the crisis in capitalist production, what’s happening now, and what we can do about it.

All great imperial societies at one time or another appear invincible, irremovable, permanent. So it was with many a Chinese dynasty; so it was with ancient Greece and Rome. And so it has been the past half-century with the American-dominated world capitalist system. Merely a year ago, even as some economists were warning of the eventual consequences of the mortgage investment frenzy, most were either silent or openly predicted that capitalism could never again suffer a setback as severe as the depression of the 1930’s. Go further back to the early 1990’s, after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the expansion of capitalism at the time was being called the “end of history” by economist Francis Fukuyama, a system so great it represented the ultimate and final achievement of humanity.

How delusional we find these fantasies looking back on them from the autumn of 2008, as the world’s markets come crashing down around us like the giant house of cards they have been built upon. Today capitalism faces a worldwide economic crisis the scope of which has never before been experienced, and the severity of which is approaching and could greatly surpass the wreckage of the 1930’s. The main victims of the crisis will be the working class, who face massive unemployment, dispossession of their homes, and massive cuts in the already-pitiful social safety net.

How did capitalism get us here? And what can we do about it? The first question requires a little bit of economic theory and a review of history to answer. A Marxist assessment of the nature of the capitalist beast leads into the solution for working people, which includes building a just, sustainable world free of massive inequality and periodic, devastating economic crises.

Economic crises are nothing new—they are almost as old as the capitalist system itself. Capitalism was formally “invented” by the philosopher Adam Smith in 1776, the same year America’s British colonies declared their independence. The United States had its first major recession in 1807, and the first worldwide depression occurred between 1873 and 1897.

The systematic nature of the periodic boom and bust cycles in capitalism was first explained by Karl Marx in his masterwork Capital ten years before this Long Depression. Since the industrial revolution, capitalist markets have experienced small boom-bust cycles on the order of every 5-7 years. These occur within longer cycles of growth and decline, which can occur over several decades. It is these longer periods of decline that end with the great cataclysms and reorganization of markets before growth can be renewed.

Why do these cycles occur? It is competition for resources and markets that drive this cycling. Profit is the ultimate motive of capitalism, and competition for profit leads to constant economic expansion. Producers need to grow, making more and more and more goods or services, to keep from being undersold by their competitors. Likewise, capitalists need to continually open up new markets for their products and services, creating new consumption to match the increased level of production. If they can’t do this, the system falls into recession.

From a capitalist perspective, growth is good—it provides jobs for workers (nevermind job quality for now) and makes factory owners rich. A higher GDP equals greater overall wealth, although it also means greater inequality, as workers are pressed to produce more value for less pay, and that value is transferred to the owning class of society.

The trouble for the system comes as production eventually and inevitably outstrips the available markets. Economist Walden Bello places the nature of the current financial crisis in these terms:

“[W]hat we are seeing is the intensification of one of the central crises or contradictions of global capitalism which is the crisis of overproduction, also known as overaccumulation or overcapacity. This is the tendency for capitalism to build up tremendous productive capacity that outruns the population’s capacity to consume owing to social inequalities that limit popular purchasing power, thus eroding profitability.”

In other words, capitalism makes too much, too fast, and people can’t afford to consume enough to keep up with it.

Bello outlines three “escape routes” that capitalism has used to delay the oncoming meltdown: “neoliberal restructuring, globalization, and financialization.” These mirror the processes described by Marxists, including Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. Lenin termed this kind of capitalism “Imperialism,” which he called the “highest stage of capitalism.”

Lenin and others demonstrated that the epoch of Imperialism began in the early years of the 20^th Century. World War I represented a final conquest and division of the colonial world among the great capitalist powers of the day. The period immediately following the war was one of growth, for as Lenin wrote:

“It would be a mistake to believe that this tendency to decay precludes the rapid growth of capitalism. It does not. On the whole, capitalism is growing far more rapidly than before; but this growth is not only becoming more and more uneven in general, its unevenness also manifests itself, in particular, in the decay of the countries which are richest in capital.”

Ultimately, the financialization of these “richest” countries led to the global collapse and depression of the 1930’s, as market speculation could not for long hide the real crises of overproduction and underconsumption.

About such crises, Karl Marx wrote in the Communist Manifesto:

“In these crises there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would have seemed an absurdity—the epidemic of over-production. Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state of momentary barbarism; it appears as if a famine, a universal war of devastation, had cut off the supply of every means of subsistence; industry and commerce seem to be destroyed; and why? Because there is too much civilization, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce…. And how does the bourgeoisie get over these crises? On the one hand by enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the other, by the conquest of new markets and by the more thorough exploitation of the old ones. That is to say, by paving the way for more extensive and more destructive crises and by diminishing the means whereby crises are prevented.”

And thus capitalism ultimately dealt with the worldwide crisis of the 1930’s by the massive annihilation of productive capacity that was World War II. After the war, the great industrial centers of Europe lay in shambles; the only industrialized economy left standing, and left standing in improved condition at that, was the United States.

The demand for U.S. products, combined with the massive injection of government funds through military spending and financing for rebuilding Europe and Japan, let to boom times. The United States quickly became the world’s foremost creditor nation. For the next few decades, jobs were plentiful, and the capitalist owners were able to provide a generally decent standard of living to their workers. Most companies found it more tolerable at this time to make peaceful deals with labor unions than to wage open class war.

By the early 1970’s, however, the other imperialist powers of Western Europe and Japan had recovered from the war, and inter-imperialist competition once again began heating up. At the same time, according to Marxist economist Ernest Mandel, the boom had led to increased monetary inflation, which made further investments in new industrial projects unappetizing to capitalist financiers.

Thus, the American financial system, now the capitalist world’s dominant financial system, began again to turn in on itself. In order to recoup the value of their investments, capitalists began looking for ways to cut production costs and boost falling profit margins.

Returning to the responses to this long-cycle downturn outlined by Walden Bello, the first response was what Bello terms neoliberal restructuring or neoliberalism. This process entailed gutting government regulation that limited and stabilized growth, privatization and cutbacks of government services, and measures to redistribute wealth upward to the capitalist class. The neoliberalism pioneered by economist Milton Friedman and enacted by the Reagan and Thatcher administrations was designed to boost investment and profit margins. But while “Reaganism” worked to increase the buying power of the rich, it also resulted in the stagnation and decline of real wages for the working class, which form the backbone of the economy.

To provide opportunities for investment, neoliberalism was combined with economic globalization. Bello defines globalization as “the rapid integration of semi-capitalist, non-capitalist, or precapitalist areas into the global market economy.” Especially from the 1990s on, there has been a race to force so-called “underdeveloped” nations, the suppliers of cheap labor and raw material for capitalism, to reduce tariffs that keep production local, and thus open themselves to the world market. This is done in the false name of “free trade.” In fact agreements such as NAFTA are very one-sided, designed to benefit Western-based multinational capitalists. Their ultimate purpose is to provide access to new markets for multinationals to both sell their products and buy cheaper labor to decrease costs and shore up their profit margins.

Because of the nature of capitalist competition, the bottom-line advantage companies derive from moving their production to cut costs lasts a very short time. To compete with each other, companies must maximize production. Since products can now be made cheaper, production capacity grows, exacerbating the crisis of overproduction.

This leads to the third “escape route,” the ultimate symptom of runaway Imperialism, financialization. But as we see with the current crisis, this is really no escape route at all—it is a speeding train headed for a great big cliff.

On one level, because the real wages of the working class are in decline, personal debt is encouraged and utilized to a greater and greater extent to keep consumption rising. The average American now holds $9,200 of credit card debt; factor in home, school and car loans, and total personal debt averages $79,000. At these levels, most working people will never be able to pay off their debt. As the financial crisis leads to credit becoming less available, the decent standard of living American workers rely on credit to provide will rapidly evaporate.

This mirrors the situation of the national debt. Over the past 30 years, the U.S. has exported much of its industrial capacity, the “real economy” on which value rests. The Treasury has had to rely on increasing levels of debt to continue growth under neoliberalism, going from the world’s foremost creditor to the world’s foremost debtor. The U.S. Government now owes roughly $10 trillion, with dozens of trillions more in unsecured financial obligations.

Up to this time, foreign banks have been happy to buy U.S. debt on the basis of the strength of the dollar. Thus what is essentially an American-made financial crisis has turned into a world crisis. As Americans default on loans owed to banks worldwide, the financial solvency of foreign banks, as well as domestic ones, is under threat.

At the same time, financial speculation in monopoly corporations runs rampant. Easy fake money has become more appealing as companies have become less able to further increase the real production value on which their wealth is based. In the words of Lenin:

“The development of capitalism has arrived at a stage when, although commodity production still “reigns” and continues to be regarded as the basis of economic life, it has in reality been undermined and the bulk of the profits go to the “geniuses” of financial manipulation. At the basis of these manipulations and swindles lies socialized production; but the immense progress of mankind, which achieved this socialization, goes to benefit… the speculators.”

The increase in market speculation takes the form of various investment “bubbles.” A bubble exists when speculation in a certain type of commodity causes the price of that commodity to artificially inflate, causing more speculation, etc. Speculation snowballs until the reality comes to bear that the real value being produced is nowhere near what the price would suggest, and the market for that commodity collapses. Thus it was with the tech stock mania of the late 1990s which resulted in the dot-com collapse of 2000.

Most recently, speculation has run rampant in the housing market. The median price of a house rose from $141,500 in 1995 to $267,000 in 2005. This is the most insidious kind of bubble because it involves a basic necessity of life, housing, and thus has drawn in millions of ordinary working people in a much greater way that any highfalutin stock trading could.

Many working families were convinced by banking spinsters that that they could live the “American Dream” of owning a home and ride the housing market to financial high times. Homebuyers were given the impression that their initial mortgage would be more than paid back by the increase in the value of their house over the life of the mortgage. Those living in homes without mortgages were offered substantial lines of credit, the ability to put their house in hoc to the bank in exchange for basically free money; the interest would be cancelled out by the gain in the home’s value over the same period of time.

The most vulnerable, those who couldn’t close to afford the inflated housing prices with their incomes, were given the “special treatment” of so-called sub-prime or adjustable-rate mortgages. The interest rate on these loans starts low but ramps up over time. The justification for this is that homebuyers were borrowing on their future incomes and the future value of their house, both of which it was assumed would grow faster than the interest rate.

But in the reality of a decaying capitalist economy, the opposite scenario proved all too true. Under the weight of a housing glut, the market began to buckle and then collapse. With little or no growth in prices after 2005, it became all too apparent that many working people would not be able to afford to make the increasing payments on their home loans. As adjustable interest rates began to ramp up in earnest, so did foreclosures. Now these “toxic” mortgages have snowballed into a crisis for bankers who are panicked about being able to recoup their outlays.

When a bank gives a loan, the unspoken assumption is that the money they lend is backed up by something real. This is simply not the case. Banks don’t keep gold or precious metals lying around in vaults to sell every time they give a loan. The ratio of debt to amount of cash kept on hand by investment banks used to be about 12 to 1 (12 dollars of debt for every 1 dollar of cash on hand); it increased to 30 to 1 after the SEC loosened its regulations on lending four years ago. Thus, if the loans banks give out cannot be recouped, the bank has two options: borrow more to prop itself up, or fold.

As banks’ bond ratings plummet due to faulty mortgages, financial speculation has erupted on the scene like a bad acne zit. At least $45 trillion of fake money has been created by the unregulated market in derivatives. An example of a derivatives are credit default swaps, which are essentially insurance policies traded on a company bond. Because they are unregulated, anyone with some financial capital can claim to back up the value of a bond, then sell their security to someone else at a profit. The security gets sold and resold in what amounts to a giant pyramid scheme, to the point that there is no way to know what the total “value” of securities are on even a single bond of a single company, let alone the tens of thousands of bonds that exist. If the original company goes belly-up and its bonds become worthless, the whole paper tower comes crashing down, taking investors such as AIG with it.

Several economists have pointed toward banking deregulation under former president Bill Clinton and former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan as culprits for the crisis. In particular, Clinton repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which had curtailed the ability of commercial banks to invest in speculation. While deregulation allowed for greater concentration of wealth in the banking sector and greater levels of speculation, it was part and parcel of the neoliberal policies of the Clinton era. Deregulation was thus merely a symptom of the onrushing crisis of capitalism, designed to create artificial growth in the banking sector to shore up falling profit margins.

The “free market” banking industry has responded to the collapse of their artificial wealth by running to the government for rescue. Elected officials, bought and paid for by the capitalist ruling class, have swiftly obliged—first with the Bear Stearns bailout, then with AIG and the so-called nationalizations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both deeply imbedded in the home loan industry.

These “nationalizations” really entail the giveaway to banks with little real oversight of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. This giveaway is, of course, not in the form of hard cash, but rather as added government debt on top of the existing $10 trillion. The justification provided by ruling class spokesmen is that federal money is needed to prevent a freeze in lending by injecting “liquidity” (like you would inject sagging eyelids with botox). Bankers have made the most of the government’s free monopoly money, saddling departing executives with $40 million + bonuses as retribution for their reckless greed.

The most transparent money grab came in late September, when Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson demanded an initial $700 billion in government bailout money, its use dictated by and only by him. The money would be used to buy worthless securities from investors at or near pre-crash prices.

Faced with the threat of a failing finance system, how quickly the illusion of political partisanship falls away! The rulers were shocked when a majority of their lower-order elected employees—more Republicans than Democrats, it should be noted—balked at the first Paulson plan under fear of reprisal from voters. The plebian masses put the lie to the notion of their ignorance and apathy by crashing the Congressional phone and e-mail systems with universal howls of protest. The rebellion was short-lived, however, as the rulers’ more senior servants from both parties lined up to browbeat their underlings and teach them what to do when the lords of capital say “jump.”

With Presidential candidates Obama and McCain literally sharing a microphone to urge acceptance of the largest one-time transfer of wealth in history, there was little resistance the second go-around. The plan was tinkered with slightly to make it as saleable as possible to the population. The changes amounted to a liberal cap on executive salaries, an increase in deposit insurance limits, and the government taking an ownership stake in the banks it bails out. The essential nature of the bailout—a humongous tax giveaway to private corporations—did not change.

Faced with similar scenarios the world over, the world capitalist class has been united in their response. Following emergency meetings of financial leaders from dozens of countries, nearly identical bailout plans have been instituted by virtually all countries with significant banking sectors. With the world’s capitalists lining up to feed at the trough of socialism for the rich only, economists are now flatly informing naieve free-market buffs that “Reaganomics is dead.”

But this is hardly a progressive death, nor will it likely be able to save capitalism from itself. It does nothing to address the real problem, the crisis of overproduction. The initial $700 billion is likely to balloon into the trillions. However, the amount of bad debt in the system is so exponentially vast that nothing the governments of the world could provide will plug the hole. The idea that the government will somehow eventually recoup taxpayers’ money or even make a profit for taxpayers is pure fantasy. The disappearance of government funds down the rabbit hole of worthless mortgages and securities on this scale will likely mean a falling value for the dollar for years to come, reducing the position of the U.S. in the world economy and driving up domestic prices.

How do the two major-party candidates, vying for the position of supreme caretaker of U.S. Imperialism for the ruling class, propose to deal with the crisis? Each has indicated their complete willingness to go along with whatever policy is deemed appropriate by the ruling class, but there are subtle differences in their public rhetoric. John McCain has chosen to simply deny reality by claiming to oppose any and all regulation. He supports maximum privatization and tax breaks for the wealthy, and absurdly suggests that Obama’s positions are somehow “socialist.”

Far from a socialist, Barack Obama has likewise declared his preference for laissez-faire policies. Declaring that, “the market is the best mechanism ever invented for efficiently allocating resources to maximize production,” he supports “incremental, market-based solutions.” An example is his proposal to replace employer-provided pensions with automatic paycheck withdrawals to 401k accounts. While the majority of home foreclosures are now precipitated by unaffordable medical bills, Obama proposes tweaking regulation of private health insurance and a tax credit as solutions to the health care crisis. His plan would ultimately strengthen predatory insurance companies, not provide affordable health care for all.

Similarly, Obama’s tax philosophy entails increasing corporate welfare to companies with any U.S.-based workforce, and tax rebates that would only benefit those in a middle-class or higher tax bracket. He also promises to “fight to open up foreign markets to support good American jobs,” more of the neoliberalism that has already created so much misery in the underdeveloped world and helped precipitate the crisis of overproduction.

One good thing must be said for Obama: he has been honest in admitting over the past few weeks that the new and increasing bank bailouts mean that the money for even the paltry social spending he has proposed probably won’t be there, and he’d likely end up cutting federal spending on social programs if elected to office.

Absent from either candidate’s plan is major investment in the country’s crumbling infrastructure or domestic reindustrialization to build the base of the economy. As homelessness and unemployment rise, neither candidate proposes a moratorium on home foreclosures, medical debt relief, an increased social safety net, or any measure to guarantee employment at living wages.

In contrast to the capitalist parties, Socialist Action calls for immediate action to transform the economy to a worker-run, equitable, sustainable system.

We say, not one cent to bail out the bankers! Nationalize the banks and merge them into one central bank without compensation to the banking elite for their worthless investments. The Federal Reserve should be abolished and replaced with a workers’ council to oversee the central bank. All banking records should be rendered 100% transparent and public.

We demand an immediate moratorium on evictions and home foreclosures! Tens of thousands of houses sit unoccupied; we could end homelessness in a day by redistributing them to be used by the now-homeless. All sub-prime mortgages should be renegotiated at 0% interest, and payments set according to debtors’ ability to pay.

We call for full employment at union wages! This can be accomplished by a massive public works program to rebuild our industrial and energy infrastructure employing the most advanced environmental and carbon-reduction technologies. We need a Marshall Plan to tackle global warming. We can revitalize mass transit, and reinvigorate the crumbling inner cities. Reducing the work week to 30 hours with no cut in pay and cutting the retirement age to 55 would help provide jobs for all. All pensions should be guaranteed and Social Security improved to pay pensions at union wages.

Workers should take control of basic industries such as manufacturing, mining, energy and transportation, and run them based on elected workers’ councils. These should be nationalized and any profits turned back into creating more jobs and higher wages. Redundancy and energy waste must be curtailed as steps to save the Earth’s climate.

Agribusiness should be nationalized and farmers paid a fair price for their products. Provide interest-free credit for seeds and machinery, and donate excess produce to feed the world’s hungry through a non-market ration system.

We must eliminate all spending on making war to control foreign resources and prop up the military industry. Bring all U.S. troops home from overseas now!

We need free, universal, public health care for all. Private medical insurance should be eliminated and a fully-socialized medical system established.

The government should organize bottom-up committees in every workplace and community to address the effects of the crisis locally and determine what transformative steps must be taken in the short, middle and long terms.

These measures are what a new, socialist society could look like. We are not under any illusions that any of these measures will be willingly granted by the capitalist ruling class. The bipartisan consensus for using workers’ money to bail out the ruling rich demonstrates that there are no good alternatives within the framework of the capitalist two-party system. This is why we place no confidence in Barack Obama or the Democratic Party as any kind of a progressive force. They are just as committed as the Republicans to maintaining the status quo and deepening attacks on working people’s standard of living.

Instead, we call for the formation of a labor party based on a fighting union movement. Unions must be reshaped so they are not controlled by privileged bureaucrats but by the oppressed and exploited workforce. We need to step up our discussions with neighbors and co-workers, educate ourselves about the roots of the economic crisis, organize our co-workers and communities, and agitate for radical labor action.

This is not a question of who has a better plan for maintaining capitalism. It is a question of capitalism or survival, and at this time the ruling class is incapable of choosing the latter. Only the working class has the power to end the cyclical crises of capitalism once and for all.

Selected Resources

Bello, Walden. “A Primer on the Wall Street Meltdown.” September 25, 2008. Transnational Institute. Online <http://www.tni.org/detail_page.phtml?&&act_id=18716>

Mandel, Ernest. “World Monetary Crisis.” International. Vol. 7, No. 6, Nov-Dec 1982. Published online by Marxist Internet Archive. <http://www.marxists.org/archive/mandel/1982/xx/moncrisis.html>

Myers, Allen, ed. Marxist Economics: A Handbook of Basic Definitions. Chippendale, UK: Resistance Books, 1998. Online: <http://links.org.au/files/Marxist%20Economics.pdf>

“Glass-Steagall Act.” Wikipedia. Accessed October 26, 2008. Online <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass-Steagall_Act#First_Glass-Steagall_Act>

Wolff, Rick. “Capitalist Crisis, Marx’s Shadow.” Monthly Review, September 26, 2008. Online <http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/wolff260908.html>

Blumberg, Alex and Adam Davidson. “Another Frightening Show About the Economy.” This American Life, Show 365. October 3, 2008. Online audio <http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1263>

Pollack, Andrew. “U.S. to prop up Wall St. with billions of workers’ dollars.” Socialist Action, Vol. 26, No. 10. October 2008. Online: <http://www.socialistaction.org/pollack45.htm>

Pollack, Andrew. “Obama prefers ‘market-based’ solutions for U.S. economic woes.” Socialist Action, Vol. 26, No. 10. October 2008. Online: <http://www.socialistaction.org/pollack49.htm>

Mackler, Jeff. “A ruling-class affair.” Socialist Action, Vol. 26, No. 10. October 2008. Online: <http://www.socialistaction.org/mackler28.htm>

Pollack, Andrew. “A Workers’ Action Program to Meet the Economic Crisis. Socialist Action. September 2008. Online <http://www.socialistaction.org/pollack43.htm>

Lenin, V.I. “Did Vladimir Lenin Predict the Banking Disaster of 2008?” Excerpts from Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. LCW Vol. 22. Posted on Information Clearinghouse. <http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20946.htm>

Murphy Oil: Global Warming Ground Zero

Murphy Oil has been back in the news of late with the “debates” (read: friendly conversations without much difference of opinion) between local Democratic Party candidates for State Assembly. In case you were wondering, all four candidates support Murphy’s expansion, with minor qualifiers about “protecting the environment.” I thought I would re-post this article that I wrote a few months back, which was in fact my second feature article for the Zenith City Newspaper. And, for a little extra self-promotion, here’s what Clean Wisconsin had to say about it. 

By the way, I’m now writing for every issue of the Zenith with a regular column entitled Mayday!, basically an op-ed column on local news from a radical left perspective. I’m also doing feature articles every other month or so. You can read it all on the newspaper’s website, www.zenithcitynews.com.

Now for the article:

Refining An Oily Debate:

Superior’s Murphy Oil expansion faces off with local environmentalists

Carl Sack
Zenith City Weekly

The white tanks seem to float on the urban periphery as you descend from the Blatnik Bridge into Superior. Those tanks and a maze of pipes belong to Murphy Oil Corporation’s Superior refinery. As the only oil refinery in Wisconsin, it plays a key role in the region’s economic and energy infrastructure—and could soon start to play a much bigger one.

Originally built in 1951, the Superior refinery is considered quite small by modern industry standards. It processes 35,000 barrels a day of crude oil from North Dakota and northern Alberta, Canada, where thick, sticky tar sands are pre-processed so the refinery can handle them. Facing stiff competition from larger facilities, Arkansas-based Murphy has wrestled for some time with the question of whether it’s worth continuing to operate the Superior plant.

Expanding the facility would make it more financially viable. Last year, Murphy unveiled a proposal for a $6.2 billion overhaul. To put this in perspective, that’s about 26 Red Plans, 164 DECC expansions, or 2,500 of those wind turbines off-loaded at Duluth’s port last summer.

The expanded oil refinery would be able to turn a slurry of oil-rich dirt into gas for cars and other petroleum-based products. The plant would double in size to over 400 acres and increase its capacity to over 200,000 barrels a day—a seven-fold jump.

It would also supply around 400 new jobs, according to refinery manager Dave Podratz. The prospect of so many high-paying industrial jobs (and the peripheral growth they offer) is tantalizing in this economically depressed community.

Plans for the expansion are still very preliminary and no permit applications have been submitted yet. First, says Podratz, the company needs to find a partner in Alberta that can assure them a continuous supply of feedstock. This could happen at any time or not at all. But he is confident that sooner or later, a supplier will come knocking, propelled by an oil boom currently taking place there.

“Oil coming out of that region is being refined somewhere. They’re going to have to find new places to refine it as new projects are developed,” says Podratz. Being the terminus of an existing 1,200-mile pipeline from the region makes Superior a logical candidate.

However, local environmentalists are concerned about the expansion’s ecological impact. Clean Wisconsin, a pollution watchdog group, estimates that the expansion would increase the refinery’s energy use twelve-fold. It would withdraw 5 million gallons of water from Lake Superior daily, about half of which would evaporate. There would be increased air and water pollution from the facility and a greater likelihood of accidental spills. About 400 acres of wetlands (mainly alder thickets) would be destroyed – the largest wetland fill in the state since the passage of the Clean Water Act.

Podratz agrees, “There would be a lot of [wetlands] mitigation involved,” referring to a state law requiring that, for every acre of wetlands destroyed, a greater amount must be developed elsewhere. However, these man-made wetlands are often inferior in terms of habitat.

Podratz says he envisions developing “creative projects” to enhance existing coastal wetlands elsewhere. As for effluent, he says that the current discharge from Murphy’s wastewater treatment plant is “cleaner than the municipal plant.”

Under the strict environmental permitting process, they would be required to use the “best available control technology” for any expansion. While Murphy Oil would comply with such regulations, says Podratz, “you shouldn’t be asked to do more than what the rules require you to.”

But Clean Wisconsin is skeptical of Murphy’s commitment to following the rules. The company has been prosecuted within the past decade for violating the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Acts, as well as workplace safety violations and withholding information from government oversight agencies.

In 2002, Murphy was forced to pay $12 million to clean up its act and assessed a $5.5 million civil penalty – the largest ever for an environmental enforcement case in Wisconsin. “I don’t call that the track record of a good corporate citizen,” says Melissa Malott, Clean Wisconsin’s water program director.

In a meeting last October between environmentalists and local residents, Podratz would not pledge to hold the refinery’s air emissions to the current level, according to Jan Conley, coordinator of the Lake Superior Greens.

Conley says pollution from the refinery already affects the local community and would only get worse with expansion. Present air emissions include sulfur dioxide and particulates, which are known to exacerbate heart and lung conditions, such as asthma. Residents have expressed concern about odor from the plant. The expansion could increase the affected area and the pollutants, including mercury, which end up in Lake Superior.

To environmentalists, an expansion of the Superior refinery wouldn’t just mean increasing fossil fuel use, but increasing one of the worst kinds of fossil fuels. “It’s an international issue,” says Conley, because of the increasingly evident global implications of burning fossil fuels.

The oil processed by the Superior facility began its existence millions of years ago as plant and animal life. Dead and buried under what’s now northern Canada, it was subjected to heat and pressure inside the earth that turned it into “black gold.” But unlike “Texas Tea,” sitting in a bathtub in the bedrock, this crude is more like mud cake, mixed with sand and clay to form a solid, crumbly layer of soil just below the surface. Rather than being drilled, it’s mined, laying waste to vast areas of boreal forest and tainting river systems with petroleum-laced runoff. Deeper deposits are injected with steam to remove tar-like bitumen, evaporating one barrel of water for every barrel of oil produced.

Distilling this oil requires much more energy than traditional drilling. Until very recently, the cost of extracting such deposits was prohibitive, but, with petroleum selling at over $100 a barrel and with improved technology for accessing the Alberta oil, there’s now a prospecting boom in Canada that harkens back to the Alaskan gold rush.

Up to 300 billion barrels worth of oil are estimated to be recoverable from the region using current technology—a little less than half the oil that’s lying under the entire Middle East. The total deposits are believed to outstrip the amount of traditional oil left underground on the entire planet.

Though the technology continues to become more efficient, mining and processing tar sands currently releases five times more carbon dioxide than refining light crude. Every barrel of oil produced releases 176 pounds of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Environmentalists worry that, with more petroleum available, people may not be as motivated to change their gas-guzzling habits, despite the climate cost.

The consequences may hurt the local economy, says Malott. “If we let Murphy expand and increase global warming pollution and mercury, we’re threatening the sources of thousands of jobs in Wisconsin” in forestry, agriculture, fishing, and tourism, she says. Rather than expand, Clean Wisconsin would like to see Murphy take on projects to offset its impact, such as purchasing electricity from 100 percent renewable sources to run its internal operations, sponsoring programs to increase energy efficiency and the use of renewables in homes, and making synthetic oil from waste biomass (i.e. garbage).

Podratz says Murphy and other area businesses have been looking into using biomass to produce oil. But despite the possibility for change, Podratz sees the tar sands boom as a fact of life driven by our energy needs, one that could benefit Superior economically. He points to a major advantage of Canadian oil as an energy source for U.S. consumers—it comes from a stable U.S. ally, unlike much of the world’s supply.

“It’s going to be refined somewhere,” he says. “Better to do it [in Wisconsin], where environmental standards are high” than in Western states or overseas, both of which could be possibilities if the price is right for Canadians.

But Conley questions this logic. “Even if you have to pick a refinery, with the track record of Murphy, this one might not be the best choice [from an environmental standpoint],” she says.

“We’re right on the shores of Lake Superior. [It] seems like a horrible place to have a refinery in the first place, let alone a refinery expansion…If we invested [the same amount] in clean, renewable energy, Wisconsin could be a leader in providing good-paying, non-polluting jobs.”

Carl Sack is a local educator and an activist for peace and social justice.

Imperialism’s Chess Board: War in the Caucuses and the Fall of Pax Americana

I just got back from a week long family vacation, and caught up with about two dozen articles on the Georgia conflict that had collected in my e-mail inbox. It’s a much more complex situation than a mere tit-for-tat, with major geopolitical fallout and serious future repercussions. Here are some points I gleaned, in summary form:

Georgia’s History

One of the nations in the Russian Tzar’s prison house, Georgia was granted autonomy by the early Soviet Union. It had a Menshivik-led government friendly to Britain and Germany until that government was overthrown by a Bolshevik-supported uprising in 1921. Ultimately it was re-subsumed by the Soviet Union. Stalin, himself a Georgian but hostile to Georgian nationalism, attempted to thin out ethnic Ossetians by encouraging Russians to move into the territory.

Georgia regained independence in 1990, a year before the Soviet Union fell, and claimed Ossetia as part of its territory. The Ossetians fought this attempted subjugation, and South Ossetia became semi-autonomous in 1992 after the pro-Western Georgian government fell and Russia stepped in. Russian peacekeepers have been present in the region since then. Many if not most South Ossetians have Russian passports and consider themselves Russian citizens. In a 2006 referendum with 95% voter turnout, 99% of South Ossetians voted for full independence from Georgia.

U.S. Influence and NATO

The U.S. has been courting Georgia as an ally since 2003, when the CIA played a large part in orchestrating the so-called “Rose Revolution” which overthrew the Stalinist government of Edward Shevardnadze. The U.S. backed the election of Saakashvili in 2004. Since then, the Georgian president has been very friendly with Bush. Last summer joint war games were held in Georgia with U.S. troops from the state of Georgia. Georgia has sent 2,500 troops to Iraq, the third-largest contingent behind the U.S. and Britain. When Georgia invaded South Ossetia, the U.S. immediately provided planes to fly the Georgian troops stationed in Iraq home. Additionally, the U.S. has about 1,000 military instructors in Georgia, who directly command 2,500-3,000 mercenaries, according to Russia. Israel has also sent military advisers and material to Georgia.

The U.S. has been grooming Georgia to enter NATO, which fits with their post-Soviet policy of encircling and isolating Russia to prevent its resurgence as a competing superpower. The U.S. tried the NATO trick with the Ukraine two years ago, and almost started a civil war there. Now the policy has thoroughly backfired in Georgia. Russia sees NATO as a direct threat to its interests, and its addition of Georgia would be a major stab by the U.S. into what they consider their sphere of influence (in the same way the U.S. considers Central America its sphere). Russia’s overwhelming show of force was at least partly designed to warn any lesser powers in the region away from joining NATO. It has been a catastrophy for U.S. imperialism in the region.

The Invasion

Pursuing an aggressive nationalist policy to reintegrate South Ossetia, Georgia’s president Saakashvili launched a surprise invasion of South Ossetia in the middle of the night before the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, when Vladimir Putin was in Beijing. Apparently Saakashvili’s brash hope was to catch Russia off guard and draw in U.S./NATO forces to militarily aid Georgia. Georgian missile launchers and warplanes attacked Russian peacekeepers, Ossetian forces and civilians, completely destroying the capital Tskhinvali, a city of 100,000. 2,000 people were killed on August 7-8th, and over 40,000 fled to North Ossetia.

Russia responded with overwhelming force, attacking Georgian military targets in South Ossetia and two Georgian cities, destroying military bases which had been recently upgrated to NATO standards. With his forces quickly routed and substantial U.S. aid failing to materialize (for obvious reasons – the U.S. isn’t ready for a full-scale war with Russia), Saakashvili cried uncle. Russia also took the opportunity to sever Georgia’s control of Abkahzia, another autonomy-seeking province with its own ethnic identity. Though how these territories will be defined, whether independent pro-Moscow states or a part of Russia, is formally up in the air, Russia holds all the cards in determining that status. They will certainly not go back under Georgian control.

More critical for Russia than the capture of piddly Caucasian territories is that Russia’s first full show of military strength since the Soviet disintegration has totally changed the dynamics of the region, smashing U.S. aspirations to control its natural resources and reinstalling Russia as a major imperial force. Other countries in the region will be much more hesitant to court U.S. favor, now that there is once again a second superpower much closer to home.

It wouldn’t be a U.S.-backed war without…

Oil. And gas. Lots of it. Russia controls huge reserves of oil and natural gas in central Asia, strategic resources for in the post-Peak Oil world. The only pipeline routes from the Caspian Sea oil fields not under Russia’s control run through Georgia to Black Sea ports in Turkey. Another pipeline to Western Europe was in the works to be built by BP and Chevron, but now it is unlikely to go forward because of the “investment risk” from Russia.

Turkey

Turkey is at the shipping end of the BP/Chevron pipeline, and is a key U.S. ally and NATO member in the region. But it’s big and diverse, and most of its people do not buy into Western propaganda. In the runup to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Turkish parlaiment voted overwhelmingly to prevent the U.S. from using Turkish bases to launch airstrikes on Iraq. Turkey’s main military concern right now is preventing the PKK from gaining independence for Kurdistan (northern Iraq and southeast Turkey).

Though not entirely happy with U.S. actions in Iraq, Turkey has played a key part in towing the line of U.S. imperialism in the region. The country has given large amounts of military aid to Georgia. It has troops in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Lebanon. A political change of climate in the region could pit Turkey against Russia in a major, messy war or series of wars.

Poland: a Nuclear War Flashpoint

U.S. foreign policy strategists are bitter and enraged over losing their chess piece in Georgia, and that doesn’t bode well for rational thinking amongst imperialists. The State Department’s immediate response to Georgia’s routing was to sign a deal with Poland on which it had previously been stalling, to put in place a missile shield by 2012. The deal includes 10 interceptor missiles and a battery of long-range Patriot missiles, operated by 100 U.S. troops. While the State Department claims the measures are to defend against “future adversaries such as Iran,” this is a pretty preposterous scenario, given that all the missiles are pointed at Russia.

Russia is obviously not happy, and is firing back with words, and maybe eventually with missiles of its own. The Russian military deputy chief of staff, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said that “by deploying, Poland is exposing itself to a strike – 100%” from Russia. In the form of nuclear warheads. No, this is not the ’60s, and yes, Russia is threatening nuclear war, while Poland and the U.S. seem perfectly willing to risk provoking one.

Speaking of Iran

After a week of war games with Britain and France in the Atlantic, the U.S. just dispatched a massive carrier group to the Persian Gulf, to be augmented by a British carrier group and French nuclear sub. This is the largest buildup of naval power in the Gulf since 1991, obvious preparations for the threatened war with Iran. Kuwait is anticipating a war, having activated a state of preparedness for war. I won’t reiterate all the reasons an attack on Iran would be stupid, stupid, stupid for the U.S. and its allies. But as I said, enraged imperialists don’t always see the likely consequences of their actions.

Some have speculated that the Georgia invasion was a “shot across the bow” to warn Russia off interfering with an attack on Iran. Whether or not this is true, Russia’s newfound greater influence over Caspian oil has underlined for U.S. imperial strategists the importance of maintaining control over the Middle East’s natural resources.

The End of Pax Americana and World War III

With the dollar falling and the world economy on shaky ground, U.S. capitalism is struggling to hold onto its world empire against competition from the more dynamic burgeoning capitalist powers of Asia. The arrogant and short-sighted maneuvers of the Bush Administration have certainly hastened the strain on the American position (which I think is the reason the ruling class and the media are mainly backing Obama this election–he’s smart and might be able to turn around the recent failures of U.S. imperialism). There is tension building between faltering American economic power on the one hand and the ability of the U.S. to still force the world to play on its terms at the point of a gun–or think that it can–on the other. At some point, the pressure will be too much for the capitalist competitors of the U.S., and there will have to be a major shakeup. The last two such shakeups were world wars, which came as the result of inter-imperialist rivalries of similar complexity and form to what we are seeing today. We may be hearing the first rumbles of the coming storm.

If this storm comes, the victims will be in the untold millions or even billions, possibly life on Earth itself. Ultimately, the only way to avoid the scourge of war is to dump capitalism and transform society to one worldwide democracy with a socialist economic structure. We need a world based on love and human compassion, not greed, competition and unconscionable inequality. We need respect for the vast diversity of cultures and lifestyles, and respect for all humanity as equally valuable. We need socialism, or we will have barbarism.

Sources

Flounders, Sara. “U.S. Hidden Hand Pushes Ossetia War.” Workers World. August 13, 2008. http://www.workers.org/2008/world/south_ossetia_0821/

Levine, Steve. “Georgia: A Blow to U.S. Energy.” Business Week. August 13, 2008. http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_34/b4097000700662.htm

Savran, Sungar. “Huge Stakes in War in the Caucuses.” MRZine (Monthly Review online). August 8, 2008. http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/savran120808.html

Schoenfelder, Patrick. “Marching Through Georgia.” Progressive Action e-mail listserv (Duluth, MN). August 12, 2008. http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2008/08/i-spent-good-deal-of-yesterday.html

Shanker, Thom and Nicholas Kulish. “Russia Lashes Out on Missile Deal.” New York Times. August 15, 2008.

Sustar, Lee. “How Imperial Rivalries Stoked War in Georgia.” Socialistworker.org. August 12, 2008. http://socialistworker.org/2008/08/12/stoked-war-in-georgia

Traynor, Ian, Luke Harding and Helen Womack. “Georgia and Russia Declare Ceasefire.” The Guardian (UK). August 16, 2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/16/georgia.russia2

“U.S. Military Instructors Command Hirelings in Georgia.” Kommersant (Russia). August 11, 2008. http://www.kommersant.com/

Watson, Paul Joseph. “Largest Naval Deployment Since 1991 Heads For Persian Gulf.” Alex Jones’ Prison Planet. August 12, 2001. http://www.prisonplanet.com/largest-naval-deployment-since-1991-heads-for-persian-gulf.html

Whitney, Mike. “Master Plan or Screw Up? Georgia and U.S. Strategy.” Counterpunch. August 14, 2008. http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney08142008.html

A New Bloginning

The trip is over. The summer is reaching its twilight. And yet the world spins, and life spins along with it. The chess pieces are moving; momentous events are afoot that may define the coming months and years as critical to the fate of humanity and the planet. And yet, the small joys of home, the loves to be savored, must not be neglected. For love and struggle accompany one another in the dance of the ages–laughter with tears, romance with heartache, fighting with gentleness, the whole world with a small flower illuminated by a ray of sunlight. I may not write continuously, but my goal is to produce dispatches from the front lines of life, whether it be my own or events in others’ that will ultimately affect my own. Starting with this.

Afterword

Dear Friends,

First of all, thank you to everyone who has read and commented on my blog! My original reason for creating is was to provide a firsthand account for my close friends and family who had mentioned wanting a way to follow my trip, or at least to be assured that I was safe and happy along the way. I recognize that traveling by unconventional means (in this case bicycle) can raise concerns among people who care about you, and that concern is gratifying even if I think it is mostly unfounded (while bike accidents do happen, far more people are killed every year in cars traveling at high speeds). I had hopes that chronicling my trip would not only allay fears for my safety, but would also provide some entertaining reading, and maybe even inspiration to others to take similar trips, or even just to trade hopping in a car for hopping on a bicycle for that run to the corner store.

This page will now stand as a finished product, and will not change much except for any comments folks want to add. However, I probably will create a new blog page, which I may update from time to time with journal entries from the field of real life. Also, I am going to be starting a regular political column in Duluth’s Zenith City Newspaper, available at many locations throughout the Twin Ports region and online at the linked website (I have already written three feature stories for the Zenith, and I’ll be doing more of those as well).

Again, thank you for being there. You all are the points of brilliance in my universe.

-Carl

Day 23

July 25

Getting close to home

Today was the final episode of my 2008 bicycle Tour de Wisconsin. It began with packing up camp and heading back out on State Highway 35 around seven A.M. I rode north through gray morning fog with a light breeze at my back and very few cars passing. I had forty-nine miles to cover, most of them in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I passed by a couple small unincorporated clusters of houses with such names as “Cozy Corner” and “Moose Junction,” but stayed on my bike except for one brief stop at a wayside, all the way to Pattison State Park.

Big Manitou Falls

The most prominent feature of Pattison Park is Big Manitou Falls, the highest waterfall in the state. I took a break to stretch a bit with a brief hike to the waterfall viewing platform, which sticks out into space over the deep canyon of the Black River. Then it was back to the bike for the remaining fifteen downhill miles into town.

The Black River canyon

Approaching Superior from the south, you go through a progression of municipality types graded by population. First is the very rural Town(ship) of Superior, which begins just down the hill from the state park. Ten miles further is the small suburb Village of Superior. Then newer subdivisions give way to more formal neighborhoods as you enter the City of Superior. But this urban area is just the shadow of the Real Deal. South Superior is about two miles wide, then there is a gap with vacant fields, the fairgrounds and the airport–sort of like starting over back out in the rural countryside. Past the airport, the urban sprawl zone begins with Menards and Wal-Mart, then businesses become more dense as you pass the hospital, Target, Dairy-Queen and several little strip malls. Finally, around 28th Street, the central core of Superior begins, with working-class neighborhoods and apartment buildings.

Coming home

I arrived home at exactly 10:30 A.M. My final trip mileage was 1,087. Here my official journal account of the trip ends, and I won’t bother with the details of unpacking and cleaning up, except to mention two more bicycle-related episodes that happened to me later in the day.

As it is the last Friday of the month, there was a Critical Mass bike ride taking place in Duluth at 5:30, which I had planned to go there. Of course, I had to bike over, which entails riding the Bong Bridge (US 2) walkway. I left for the event around 4:30, and by this time it had turned quite windy, blowing out of the west. I struggled westward to reach the Bong walkway and started the climb up the bridge.

About halfway to the level apex, I came across an injured cyclist who had just been in an accident. He looked to be in his late 50’s and was wearing pro riding gear and had a nice Trek road bike, which was now lying across the walkway, its handlebars twisted out of alignment with the front wheel. He had a nasty gash on one arm which was bleeding freely, and he was standing and obviously shaken up. I stopped and tried to calm him down and do what I could to offer assistance, though having offloaded all my gear, I didn’t have anything on me with which to clean and dress the wound. He explained that he had been riding down the walkway with the wind, probably a bit too fast, at the same time another cyclist was riding up against it; the other guy was riding on the left side and had his head down against the wind, and apparently didn’t hear the numerous shouts the man gave to warn him to move out of his lane. They collided, and the younger man, apparently uninjured, said something cursory and took off up the bridge. It was a bicycle hit-and-run. Fortunately, the injured man lived only a mile or so away, and his injury was not bad enough to keep him from continuing to ride the rest of the way home after he had calmed down some. I saw him off, then continued the ride toward downtown.

The second episode happened while I was riding with the other Critical Mass folks (one of whom, Greg, runs the bike cave and helped me put my bike in order before I left). We rode down Superior Street into downtown, and looped around on other streets through downtown and Canal Park, in the presence of lots of tourists and festival-goers (this weekend is Finn Fest in Duluth). Several people honked or waved in support, and a few honked in frustration. During the ride down brick-paved Superior Street, my bike computer–which I’ve had no problems with at all for about 1,500 miles that I’ve had it–decided it was time to pop off its base. Of course I didn’t notice until a few blocks later, and I decided to stick with the group instead of turning around to go looking for it. I did have everyone keep an eye out for it as we rode back the other direction, but to no avail. Much later, after the ride had finished and we had been fed a Food Not Bombs-style dinner, I retraced the route along Superior Street and finally found it–smashed. Well, there’s $30 down the drain. Worse things have happened; at least it performed well while I had it.

All in all, my bicycle journey was an unqualified, extreme success. I would venture to call it one of the best trips I have ever taken–certainly the best I’ve ever done on my own accord. I accomplished every goal I set out to accomplish, and the whole thing couldn’t have worked out any more ideally. I had valuable solo time; I traveled and saw many new and interesting and beautiful sights using next-to-no fossil fuels; I experienced the history and cultures of Wisconsin, both urban and rural; I took part in special events and festivals; I engaged in political discussion with people I met along the way; I met people and made new friends and contacts in other parts of the state; I enjoyed the company of previously-existing good friends who live in faraway places; I camped; I enjoyed beautiful weather; I found shelter for bad weather; I succeeded in performing my own repairs; I utilized my resourcefulness and creativity; I experienced the good will and assistance of strangers; I carried out my general plan but remained flexible in the details, and was greatly rewarded for it. The personal rewards and sources of validation I found on this trip were numerous, the kindness of people along the way free-flowing, and the sights both interesting and stupendous. Though I have no way to predict what the future holds, I feel confident that this will be far from the last bicycle tour I take.

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door…. You step into the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.” –JRR Tolkien.

Day 22

July 24

There is an old saying that no man (sic) is an island. There are times, though, when I feel like an island with a bottom, a boat adrift in the sea of life. These are my alone times, when I wonder where the people are in whom I can confide and seek solace. I imagine everyone feels this way at times. One thing this trip has helped me to realize, though, is that ultimately there are ports I can steer to when I need to feel more valued as a part of the great human community.

I have been traveling between friendly ports of call for the past week of my trip–some familiar, some new and exotic. All have had people who have welcomed me into their lives. I have so many friends in the world, so many people who are special to me, that I cannot possibly spend the time with each of them that I’d like to. On this trip, I have expanded that list of friends, but I know for many of them I will have to accept knowing they are out there as our only ongoing link. We may well meet again on the sea of life, and those are the times I look forward to.

Today I weighed anchor for the last time and steered for home. I rose around seven, packed up my gear and headed downhill to the kitchen. The only others up when I got there were Grumbles and Leah, though Steph and Lilah joined us soon after. Today was their day off, so breakfast was brunch instead. With nothing much else to do, I got on the computer for a while, but kicked myself off when I thought it was late enough that more people would be up and around. I didn’t want to miss a minute of potential social time before I departed from the group.

I arrived back at the kitchen just as others were arriving on the scene, including Annie. She, Sean (I think) and I helped Grumbles make French toast (well, really the other two helped with that; I mostly cut bananas, then hung around and nibbled on bread. Hey, I was hungry).

Brunch was ready at ten. While eating, I got into a wide-ranging discussion about capitalism, unions and working people in general. The gist of the discussion boiled down to a difference in orientation between reforming unions and building a stronger labor movement versus focusing efforts on individuals to get people involved in sustainable subsistence efforts, as two different paths to change. I was more of the former persuasion, as was Bryn, who works as an organizer for UNITE-HERE. She had some great things to say that supported and clarified the need to organize workers for their own benefit and to affect broader social change. On the other hand, Charles, a gruff and seasoned anarchist, sought to downplay the potential for organizing workers. He saw workers as too desperate and alienated; I argued that workers could be inspired to rise above their alienation and apathy. Charles argued for “leading by example”–the example being practicing organic subsistence agriculture–as a revolutionary solution. Toby added some points on both sides.

I am convinced that solutions aimed only at getting individuals together to create alternative systems, while valuable in the short term for those people’s lives, do not constitute efforts that have the potential to drastically transform all of society in the way it needs to be transformed. I have run into this argument a lot, from both anarchists and idealist liberals, and my problem with it is that it always falls short of acknowledging objective reality. There is simply no possibly way that the over 300 million people living in this country could simply abandon the urban lifestyle, move out to the country and start farming it to support themselves. First of all, there would be no more country–without proper planning, there would be ecological catastrophe. Secondly, all of the trends of capitalism point in the opposite direction; while I am not a determinist, I am of the conviction that you can’t make collective society swim against the laws of history. The revolution has to happen first, and it has to be made by a force of history–namely, the working class. Then you can have some conscious planning and reorganization of society along more sane and sustainable lines.

As people began cleaning up and preparing for farmwork and day trips, I decided it was time to take my leave. I made my final preparations, then went around to give everyone hugs goodbye. Annie I will hopefully see again before she leaves for home. As for the rest, I anticipate running into some at the RNC protests in St. Paul, and others at random points along life’s journey.

I finally rode out the driveway and turned west on Round Lake Road. The day was overcast and a good temperature. I took a wrong turn on my way to the highway, which brought me past yesterday’s swimming spot, adding a total of about four miles to my trip. I didn’t mind too much; it was a pretty ride. Heading west on State Highway 48, I was passed by a carload of day-trippers from the farm, which included Annie, so I got to have one last fun wave goodbye.

Just east of Luck, I turned right on 140th Street and headed due north to the town of Frederick. I had a glorious tail wind, which stuck with me for the rest of the day and made the ride quite pleasant. At Frederick, I stopped in an auto parts store for a better wrench to use to remove my freewheel in case I should need to change another rear spoke. Then I continued north on State Highway 35, which will take me the rest of the way to Superior. I could have hopped on the Gandy Dancer Trail, which parallels 35, and with the tailwind and relatively level terrain, I decided the highway’s asphalt would be a faster, smoother ride despite car traffic. I have about had it with limestone trail surfaces.

The reconstructed Anishinaabe village at Forts Folle Avoine

I turned off Highway 35 a few miles beyond the town of Webster and headed west on County U to Forts Folle Avoine Historic Park (pronounced “fort fohl-eh-vohn,” which is French for wild rice; it literally translates to “crazy oats”). I had tried to visit this reconstructed fur trade post last year, but I came on the wrong day, and they were closed. This time, not only were they open, but they were getting ready for the annual Rendez-vous. The Rendez-vous is a big gathering of fur-trade reenactors, based on week-long events that historically took place at all the fur posts, when Native people, Voyageurs and company clerks would all meet at the post to bargain and socialize. Today, practically every historic fur trade site has its own annual Rendez-vous of reenactors, much like Renaissance fairs only more regional in scope (and I daresay more historically accurate).

An Anishinaabe interpreter explains a traditional fish trap

I hopped on the last site tour of the day, which included a great presentation by an elderly Ojibwe employee on traditional Native lifeways. The curator who presented is directing the reconstruction of the site’s model village, which is about half-done. Apparently, it was there before, but smaller and historically inaccurate due to its curator being White and not well versed in traditional pre-steel building methods, and also not well cared for. The current curator has taken on the task of restoring it.

Jacques at the reconstructed stockade

I also tagged along with a family as we were shown the stockade and buildings by a comedic first person interpreter who called himself Jacques, and referred to fur trade researchers as “hystarians.” Many of the Rendez-vous traders were already set up, so after the tour I took a stroll through Trader’s Row. It was after four by the time I left.

Trader's Row

The amazing weather rock!

Back on the bike, I headed north on woodsy Bass Lake Road. At this point I had entered the sand belt that runs northeast-southwest from Bayfield to Hinckley, and I passed through some great examples of jack pine and oak savanna. I took County Road F and State Highway 77 east to Danbury, the last substantial town on Highway 35 before Superior.

About nine miles north on Highway 35 was the bridge over the St. Croix River, a National Scenic Riverway. Here the National Park Service maintains a free wayside/primitive campground, and this is where I am now camped. A large group of Boy Scouts is also camped here. My site is well away from the Scouts and right along the river, but also close to the highway. Traffic isn’t too heavy, though. Tomorrow I will head out good and early so as to get home by lunch time.

The St. Croix River

Day 21

July 25

Sunrise over Anathoth Farm

There is nothing better than getting to know a group of truly excellent people. This is what I have found, here in the midst of rural Wisconsin. In the day and a half I have been at Anathoth Farm, I already feel a part of the group, and it will be a little sad to leave for home tomorrow.

I got up around six and headed down the hill to the kitchen to help prepare breakfast. Today was the big test day for the WFR students, and I wanted to help them out by helping with the morning food duties. Under the direction of Grumbles, I helped cook blueberry pancakes and strawberry sauce as the rest of the group straggled in. After a relaxed breakfast, I did most of the dishes myself while the students disappeared to take their written exam. I even got in some time to journal and relax a bit.

By 11:00, everyone was done with the test, and people obviously were feeling pretty good about it. There was a movement afoot to go swimming, and I piled into Cody’s five-person car–the “Party Car”–with six other people, including Annie. Music bumpin’, we drove out to a boat launch on a very pretty little lake, where the fifteen or so of us stripped off our clothes and jumped in. The water was phenomenal. We didn’t stay out too long, just splashed around for a while before heading back to the farm for lunch.

After lunch was the big disaster simulation. I had a role as a victim, though I didn’t know of what until we got out to the “accident site.” Eight or so of us to-be-injured persons marched out into the buggy woods, stinking of citronella oil. The scenario was that Greenpeace activists (this was a bit of a joke–Earth First!ers apparently would never be this dumb) had been manning a roadblock on a logging road when a severe storm hit and caught them off guard. Broken bones, lacerations, evicerations, and general mayhem ensued. My role was to be a diabetic with low blood glucose who had gone to get help, only to get lost and stumble around the forest disoriented.

After an hour and a half of setup, the scenario finally began. I stayed out of sight as best I could while I listened to the screaming and hollering and sounds of rescue out on the trail. About fifteen minutes into the scenario, I heard searchers calling for me, so I decided it was time to start moving. I moved in a direction that took me onto the main scene a bit more quickly than I had intended, so while my searchers were nowhere to be found, other teams were too busy dealing with serious patients to pay attention to me. Feeling kind of dumb for going so early, I kept wandering off the trail to find another out-of-the-way place to wait. Another trail ran parallel to the first down the hill a hundred yards or so, and I spent a good while hanging out there, until once again I heard searchers. Finally I was spotted.

Annie had told me before the scenario that dealing with me might be traumatic for her, so I was hoping that whoever my finders were, she was not among them. But of course, she was. Her team member Jesse and her, I found out later, had just come from dealing with an “eviscerated” patient who had died, so they were already shook up. Annie began asking me questions and taking my vitals, and I did my best to act spacey and disoriented. They thought I had a head injury. D’oh. After fifteen minutes or so, they hadn’t reached any accurate conclusions yet, and decided to try to walk me out. I decided it was a good time to faint, just to try and get the point across. Of course this added to the anxiety level, but they did an excellent job of carrying me out in a two-person carry to the field–a much longer distance than I had thought it would be. Finally, someone else came and decided I might be a diabetic, and rubbed chocolate on my gums. That “brought me around,” and I walked out.

The whole experience wasn’t just emotionally exhausting for the students; I was much more shaken up by it than I had thought I would be. I felt like I didn’t make my rescuers’ job very easy, and maybe I could have been a bit more realistic as a patient if I had had previous experience with diabetic attacks. On the whole, I left the arena feeling pretty low, and walked out to the kitchen to read the paper for a while.

Around 4:30, I got tired of reading alone, and decided that I really needed to get back to the scene and find out what the final outcome was to find personal closure. When I arrived, the final patient was emerging on a litter, and the scenario was wrapping up. People were exhausted and emotionally drained, and it actually buoyed my spirits a tad knowing I was not alone in this respect; other “victims” were just as downbeat. Conversation about the experience helped to lift everyone’s spirits, though. I helped carry equipment back to the classroom tent, where everyone (including victims) sat for a group debrief. By the time that was over, the atmosphere was decisively more cheery.

After the debrief, the WFR class was officially over, and it was time to celebrate. For the second time today, most of the group piled into cars, this time to go into town for ice cream. We went to a great little ice cream shop, the kind that gives you several heaping gobs of ice cream as “one scoop,” and melted the afternoon’s stress with sugar. As the sun sunk toward the horizon, we headed back to the farm once again to eat a real dinner, and I didn’t leave the kitchen yard for hours afterwards. I got into a light political conversation with Toby, and that led into starting a campfire, which led later on into a big group singalong.

Toby is a very interesting person. Only 18 years old, (s)he has been living on his own for a year, and plans to join the Renaissance Fair circuit at the end of the summer. He is in the process of getting chest surgery and is taking testosterone.

The presence of several transgendered people in the group has made me frustrated at the lack of generally-accepted gender-neutral pronouns in the English language. I want to call a transgendered person by the pronoun they identify with, but it is somehow disconcerting when the pronoun you’d assume fits just by looking at someone can be wrong. I think this language barrier does affect the way transgendered people are viewed by society, and they face perhaps even more hostility than gays or lesbians partly for this reason. It’s such a “different” form of being that we don’t even have words for it, and in this society “different” is still suspect.

I also struggle at times with my own assumptions about transgendered people. I love these people for who they are as people–often some of the deepest and most caring–and I respect them for their willingness to assert their identity. But at the same time, there is a contradictory voice in my head that wants to say, “get over yourself.” To wit: I am an individual, and very different in my sexual experiences than most of society. Perhaps I could try and change myself artificially somehow to make my body conform better to my mental self-image. But so much of our society is geared around cosmetic dissatisfaction that I don’t want any part of it. To try to change myself would be to accept the dominant paradigm of a pervasive commercial voice that says I am sexually inadequate. I would rather accept myself for who I am and accept my body for what it is, complete with all its foibles and discomforts.

I have to remind myself that while I can appy this idea to myself, it is not my place to apply it to others. Everyone must make their own decisions regarding their own bodies, and I have no right whatsoever to dictate what others’ practices should and should not be in this regard. I need to gain a better understanding of what motivates the decision to make surgical and hormonal changes, and I’d love to have those conversations with this group, but there won’t be time.

As daylight faded, more and more people joined our little circle around the campfire. Somebody busted out a guitar, and Sonja, who has a really pretty voice, led us off in a group sing of various and sundry folk songs. The guitar was passed around to anyone who could play, and the requests for songs flowed freely. I felt like I played my part; even though I can’t play guitar, I know many old folk songs by heart (and I learned some new ones this evening). Several people commented along the lines that they had really been missing and looking forward to campfire music, as it hadn’t happened previously the past week. It was a great way to wrap up an intense day.

(Note: there are so few photos of my time at Anathoth because I was specifically asked not to take pictures of the WFR participants. Though I personally think such anarchist paranoia is unnecessary, of course I respected their wishes. Thus I am just left with my scintillating memories.)

Day 20

July 22

This has been a truly splendid bike trip so far. I feel like one of the best things about it is the way the timing of everything has fallen into place perfectly–from spending July 4th in Ashland, to arriving in Madison for the art fair, and now to this last part of the trip. I really have managed to save the best gems of the trip for last.

An update on the old slogan "eat here, get gas" reflects Americans' changing gastrointestinal status. (Richardson)

I left the Land School at 7 this morning amidst a chilly temperature and a cloudless sky. Riding the county roads, I soon left the Driftless Area behind and was cruising through gently-rolling country. I took County Q west to County P north. A few miles up to County P, a wave of excitement passed over me as I caught a whiff of white birch. The smell and the sight of birch and aspen trees co-mingling along the highway were undeniable signs of my impending re-entry into the great North Woods.

Magnor Lake

That territory drew ever nearer as I traveled north, first on P, then, after a brief jog up US Highway 63, up County Roads D, G and E. Somewhere along County G, though, another spoke gave out on my rear wheel, and I had to pull over for a repair. This in itself wasn’t too frustrating, but it became much more so as I tried to remove the sprockets with the freewheel tool and pair of vice grips I brought along. I pulled. And hauled. And grunted and swore. It wouldn’t budge; my vice grips–my shitty, shitty, cheap-ass vice grips–just kept slipping down on the freewheel tool, shaving metal off its edges. To make matters worse, I stupidly tried to use my $40 air pump to stabilize the wheel, and bent the pump (it still works, just not as smoothly). After over a half-hour of wrestling with it, I gave up and decided to find help.

Luckily, even in the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin, it’s usually not too far to an occupied house, and in this case I just had to walk a few hundred yards down the road, wheel in hand. At a house with a messy backyard, I knocked on the door and was answered by a teenage boy. When I explained my situation, he pulled a pair of locking vice-grips off his bike, and offered me their use. Those did the job; I thanked him profusely and hiked back to my bike, where I completed the repair and was back on the road by 10. Nevertheless, it was incredibly frustrating and embarrassing not to have the right tools for a fairly simple repair, and to have to rely on outside help if I get stuck. This will have to be remedied, and soon.

The Seeds of Peace bus/kitchen

Early on I had estimated the distance between the Land School and Anathoth as about 45 miles. According to my odometer when I arrived just after 11:00, it was only 36. The first thing I noticed was the huge Seeds of Peace bus parked by the garden, with a large outdoor kitchen set up in front of it. This traveling group of radicals was here to provide food for two big events, a “Free Action Camp” that happened earlier in the month and a Wilderness First Responder training going on now. I had been anticipating seeing people who were taking the WFR course, especially my really close friend Annie, who came up from New Orleans for it. Class was in session when I arrived, so rather than disturb them, I introduced myself to the Seeds folks who were lounging around the yard by the bus, then went to find my friend Mike Miles, who was in his house right across the drive.

It was good to see Mike. We chatted for a while about my trip and his recent adventures driving (and trying to fix) the Wheels of Justice bus, then I helped him hook up a hay cutter to his tractor so he could cut hay while the weather is nice. During our conversation, he espoused how great he thought the Seeds of Peace folks were and how much he liked having them around, and really encouraged me to get to know them. So, once he was off to the hay field, I volunteered my services in the kitchen helping to prepare lunch for the WFR students (and, I figured, If I’m going to join them for meals, I oughta earn my keep).

The WFR classroom

Around 1:30, the WFR folks came down the drive from their outdoor tent classroom. Annie was one of the last in the group. I hid behind the work shed, then jumped out and surprised her to great dramatic effect. After many hugs, lunch was spent catching up and enjoying each other’s company. I also got to meet a bunch of the students–a real motley crew of a couple dozen radicals, all of friendly and free-spirited persuasion.

I won’t take the leap to label them all as anarchists, but the majority almost certainly are. Anarchists usually take the lead in these sorts of events, and Seeds certainly is of that political persuasion. Sometimes I reflect on the different social milieus I find myself inhabiting, and this is definitely one I can feel comfortable in. Of course I have my own core beliefs and principles, which can be labeled socialist, Trotskyist, what have you. But while I disagree on some political and many tactical matters with this stripe of revolutionary, I have nonetheless always found anarchists to be the most fun grouping to hang out with socially. I feel an attraction to the sort of free-spritedness and naturalism that characterizes the typical anarchist lifestyle.

In another realm of my life, I find myself just as at-home in work relationships with many in the liberal milieu, though I am just as un-enamored and at times even repulsed by the politics of liberalism. As well, while I don’t have many friends who are completely apathetic or don’t fit somewhere on the left in their personal views, I do have a few, and good ones at that.

Sometimes I wonder whether my gregariousness is too great in this respect, whether I am too willing to be socially accommodating and wind up compromising my principles in the process. At times I worry about giving the impression of “playing for multiple (opposing?) teams.” But in my heart, I know where my allegiances lie come the revolution. I’ve always believed, though, that until that critical juncture, all who want to see greater justice in the world must do our best to work together as allies despite our differences in viewpoint. For that reason, I am proud of my ability to blend in with multiple factions. I think the key is always being willing to discuss and debate ideas, and to take exception to those that compromise core principles even if it means taking exception to friends and allies and standing alone. Nothing advances if there is no dialogue.

Our encampment

After lunch, I tagged along with Annie and the WFR group to watch a slightly grizzly slide show of cases of frostbite, bites, stings and burns. Back outside, I left the group and got in some quality reading time on the hill overlooking the classroom tent while the class continued its seminar. Late in the afternoon, the group took a break, then I sat in on their meeting to plan the coordinated response to tomorrow’s big disaster scenario, in which I will get to play a victim. The meeting went long–way long–but it was a great way for me to get to know a bunch of people’s names. To my surprise, I found that afterwards I remembered most of the names.

Dinner wasn’t ready until 8, so I hung out and goofed off with folks around a beanbag toss that had been set up. It was great to be with so many really cool people all at once. I am looking forward to staying all day tomorrow, the final day of the WFR course, and I’m sure I will be sad to leave on Thursday. But home beckons. In the mean time, I am enjoying the brightest gems of my vacation.