2012: The Year of Revolution

2012 will be the last year for many: 56,597,034 people to be exact (according to the CIA World Factbook).

What with the end of the Mayan Calender, the coming collision with a giant meteor, nuclear war, Global Warming, and a predicted upsurge in violence... We can expect 2012 to be a banner year for Death... The 'Grim Reaper', who tirelessly toils without respite.

Whether or not you will be among the dead at the end of the year depends on your fate. And, who knows, maybe those who 'pass on' will be among the lucky ones. At least they won't have to deal with the coming crisis... And, mark my words, the coming crisis is not speculation - it is a mathematical certainty!

Prepare For the Worst Case Scenario

"Dig tunnels deep - store grain everywhere!" Whatever is your 'Divine revelation' - the direction you think the crisis will come from - follow your instincts and prepare for it... Obtain the weapons and tools that you will need to survive. It's too late to lose weight, get in shape, or learn survival skills. When the crisis comes you'll have to make do with what you have... Forget about cash money, credit cards, electronic gadgets, gasoline, etc. Reliance on technology only makes you weak. And, the weak will be the first to go in any crisis...

You need to rely on your wits and mobility... a good pair of hiking boots... because the roads will be full of abandoned vehicles and people trying to reach 'higher ground'. Warm clothes, a good pocket knife, a backpack, a poncho...

If you prepare to the best of your ability you will have one less thing to worry about.

You Won't Be Welcome At Newt's House

Less government means less help when the crisis comes... Corporate Capitalism doesn't care about you anyway. All you have is your own private network: your family, friends, and associates. The 'soup kitchens' will be swamped... You will have only your own form of 'commune-ism' to rely on. When you are cold and hungry your complaints about 'socialism' will vanish, and all you will see is that warm bed and a crust of bread... maybe a small bowl of soup... and, it serves you right - you wanted a world where it was 'every man for himself'. As you sow, so shall ye reap...

The mob will be rioting. The police will be out in force. They will call out the National Guard, and the Army... to make sure you don't steal any food from the wealthy. You wanted to kiss their fat asses - now you will learn to live with their 'charity'. Don't get sick, or you will wind up among the departed. And, don't expect to have a job, a place to live, or a full belly. Those things were products of a different era. This is the age of selfishness.

What Will Happen to the 'Average American'?

The average American is obese, uneducated, brainwashed by the media, and totally unsuited for survival in a time of crisis. He (or she) has been born and bred to be a consumer and a wage slave for Corporate Capitalism. That means that his (or her) chance for survival is extremely limited. The average American is too unsophisticated to even make use of public transportation... Without the amenities of modern civilization he (or she) is incapable of survival... Not only that, but a very high percentage of Americans are taking medication to alleviate their sense of helplessness... Young men are even resorting to the use of Viagra to get an erection! While this is good for the profits of the Pharmaceutical Corporations it is not so good for our society as a whole... In other words, the 'average American' is on his (or her) way out...

Jesus Has Done All He Can

If one reads the Book of Matthew, he will get a picture of 'Christian Communism' as a way the 'Lord' wanted his disciples to live. Of course the 'Christians' reject this, and, like the Jews, choose to worship the 'Golden Calf'... Thus, rejecting everything that Jesus stood for - except, of course, tithing (giving 10% of one's income to the Church)... So much for the 'Doctrine of Christ'.

No doubt, when the crisis comes countless 'prayers' will be winging their way to 'Heaven'... But, the Kingdom of Heaven is within. You had your chance to be One with Jesus and you blew it... Now you must reap what you have sown! That is the 'Revelation'... instead of creating the Kingdom of Heaven on earth you have created Hell... the joke's on you!

Happy New Year!

Big or Small: Government Must Serve the People

The defining political issue of 2012 won’t be the government’s size. It will be who government is for.

Americans have never much liked government. After all, the nation was conceived in a revolution against government.

But the surge of cynicism now engulfing America isn’t about government’s size. The cynicism comes from a growing perception that government isn’t working for average people. It’s for big business, Wall Street, and the very rich instead.

In a recent Pew Foundation poll, 77 percent of respondents said too much power is in the hands of a few rich people and corporations.

That’s understandable. To take a few examples:

Wall Street got bailed out but homeowners caught in the fierce downdraft caused by the Street’s excesses have got almost nothing.

Big agribusiness continues to rake in hundreds of billions in price supports and ethanol subsidies. Big pharma gets extended patent protection that drives up everyone’s drug prices. Big oil gets its own federal subsidy. But small businesses on the Main Streets of America are barely making it.

American Airlines uses bankruptcy to ward off debtors and renegotiate labor contracts. Donald Trump’s businesses go bankrupt without impinging on Trump’s own personal fortune. But the law won’t allow you to use personal bankruptcy to renegotiate your home mortgage.

If you run a giant bank that defrauds millions of small investors of their life savings, the bank might pay a small fine but you won’t go to prison. Not a single top Wall Street executive has been prosecuted for Wall Street’s mega-fraud. But if you sell an ounce of marijuana you could be put away for a long time.

Not a day goes by without Republicans decrying the budget deficit. But the biggest single reason for the yawning deficit is big money’s corruption of Washington. 

One of the deficit’s biggest drivers — Medicare – would be lower if Medicare could use its bargaining leverage to get drug companies to reduce their prices. Why hasn’t it happened? Big Pharma won’t allow it.

Medicare’s administrative costs are only 3 percent, far below the 10 percent average administrative costs of private insurers. So why not tame rising healthcare costs for all Americans by allowing any family to opt in? That was the idea behind the “public option.” Health insurers stopped it in its tracks.

The other big budgetary expense is national defense. America spends more on our military than do China, Russia, Britain, France, Japan, and Germany combined. The basic defense budget (the portion unrelated to the costs of fighting wars) keeps growing, now about 25 percent higher than it was a decade ago, adjusted for inflation.

That’s because defense contractors have cultivated sponsors on Capitol Hill and located their plants and facilities in politically important congressional districts.

So we keep spending billions on Cold War weapons systems like nuclear attack submarines, aircraft carriers, and manned combat fighters that pump up the bottom lines of Bechtel, Martin-Marietta, and their ilk, but have nothing to do with 21st-century combat.

Declining tax receipts are also driving the deficit. That’s partly because most Americans have less income to tax these days.

Yet the richest Americans are taking home a bigger share of total income than at any time since the 1920s. Their tax payments are down because the Bush tax cuts reduced their top rates to the lowest level in more than half a century, and cut capital gains taxes to 15 percent.

Congress hasn’t even closed a loophole that allows mutual-fund and private-equity managers to treat their incomes as capital gains.

So the four hundred richest Americans, whose total wealth exceeds the combined wealth of the bottom 150 million Americans put together, pay an average of 17 percent of their income in taxes. That’s lower than the tax rates of most day laborers and child-care workers.

Meanwhile, Social Security payroll taxes continue to climb as a share of total tax revenues. Yet the payroll tax is regressive, applying only to yearly income under $106,800.

And the share of revenues coming from corporations has been dropping. The biggest, like GE, find ways to pay no federal taxes at all. Many shelter their income abroad, and every few years Congress grants them a tax amnesty to bring the money home.

**

Get it? “Big government” isn’t the problem. The problem is big money is taking over government.

Government is doing less of the things most of us want it to do — providing good public schools and affordable access to college, improving our roads and bridges and water systems, and maintaining safety nets to catch average people who fall — and more of the things big corporations, Wall Street, and the wealthy want it to do.

Some conservatives argue we wouldn’t have to worry about big money taking over government if we had a smaller government to begin with.

Here’s what Congressman Paul Ryan said on ABC’s “This Week”:

"If the power and money are going to be here in Washington, that’s where the influence is going to go … that’s where the powerful are going to go to influence it."

Ryan has it upside down. A smaller government that’s still dominated by money would continue to do the bidding of Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry, oil companies, big agribusiness, big insurance, military contractors, and rich individuals.

It just wouldn’t do anything else.

If we want to get our democracy back we’ve got to get big money out of politics.

We need real campaign finance reform.

And a constitutional amendment reversing the Supreme Court’s bizarre rulings that under the First Amendment money is speech and corporations are people.

And, that's the Truth!

The Next Move

How do we organize to achieve political power? That is the big question. As of yet, no one has found the answer. Obviously, since no one has achieved political power. Again, a wealth of theory. But, no results in actual practice. Blah, blah, blah... "We are going to do such and such..." Blah, blah, blah... Nothing ever happens... Intellectual dreams. Mental masturbation. The vehicle hasn't been designed yet that will take us to where we want to go.

Talk tough. Be adamant about nothing. Make lots of enemies. Get mad when the world laughs at you. Let your ego run wild. After all, you are just so 'special'. You KNOW all the answers. And, yet nobody listens to what you have to say, and when they do they just get angry. Their anger creates resistance. You say, "Well, I tried to do it the legal way but it didn't work." Next stop: a shoot-out with the Federales - resulting in your death or imprisonment!

Failure is a sure sign of poor leadership. You haven't done your homework. You don't grasp the basic principles of politics. You have to win the hearts and minds of the broad masses. You have to neutralize potential enemies - not make more enemies! You have to know what the people want and try to get it for them. (Or, at least make them think you are trying to get it for them.) Nobody cares what you want. That 'spoiled brat' type mentality might have worked in a former monarchy but it won't work in a Corporate Capitalist society. Hitler could never take over here.

You like to call yourself a National Socialist. But you don't give a damn about the nation, and you don't even understand what socialism is. You want to live in your dream world, and pretend that you are the superior Aryan type in a world of Jews and subhumans. Which begs the question: Just what makes you so superior?

Are you stronger, tougher, braver, smarter, more wealthy, better looking, more pleasant, or more skilled than those you consider 'inferior'?

What exactly is your contribution to so-called Western Civilization? To Christianity? To the United States? To the World?

If you disappeared tonight would the world miss you tomorrow? Will your ideas and beliefs live on without you? Just what is your legacy to the Future?

How much power do you really have? Why do you say 'we' - do you have a mouse in your pocket?

Can you answer these questions honestly? Can you approach politics with an 'open mind'.

Let's keep it real: Alone a man is a zilch - a big zero - united with others he gains both power and stature. NOBODY ever accomplished anything by himself. (All that Ayn Rand twaddle notwithstanding.) The only way you can influence the world by yourself is to fly your bomb laden plane into an aircraft carrier, Kamikaze style, and blow yourself to bits. (Or become a suicide bomber.) Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people and didn't make a dent in the System... Leopold II of Belgium killed 15 million, Adolf Hitler killed 17 million, Josef Stalin killed 23 million, Mao Zedong killed 78 million... and, Belgium, Germany, Russia, and China are still Belgium, Germany, Russia, and China... The world keeps turning... 

So, what do you think you can do? To change things? Or, to win a place in history?

Apparently, Hitler and Stalin combined killed less people that Mao Zedong. During his rule in China, Mao killed 78 million people. It’s the size of entire population of Germany... I mention this because you like so much to talk about violence. Do you really have any idea what war and violence is like?

Better start reading the works of Chairman Mao... Maybe get a copy of his little red book... He's the guy to beat. He's got more kills than anybody.

But, before we jump to the Revolutionary Phase of politics, we need to examine an overlooked facet of the revolutionary diamond: namely, political legitimacy.

The root cause of revolution is the existence  of  real or perceived inequities within a society which a significant segment of the population believes negates the established order's legitimate right to govern.  As  Bard  O~Neill points  out in his work  "The Analysis of Insurgency", insurgency is  essentially a  question of political legitimacy: that  is, whether or not there is a perception within the general population that the ruling regime has lost its moral right to govern under the existing conditions.

The first objective of a revolution is the undermining of the established regime's legitimacy: the notion that it can rule and should rule. Revolutionary movements, however, must be very careful not to lose their own legitimacy by a premature and indiscriminate  use  of  violence to  accomplish  their  political agenda. As Che Guevara pointed out, the employment of violence should only be resorted to in those instances where the illegitimacy of the government is clearly evident and the population believes that the injustices existing  within the society cannot be redressed by civil means. Guevara cautioned:

          "Where a government has come into power through

     some  form  of  popular vote, fraudulent or  not,  and

     maintains  at  least an appearance  of  constitutional

     legality,  the  guerrilla outbreak cannot be  promoted

     since  the possibilities of peaceful struggle have not

     yet been exhausted."

Whether its aim is the liberation of its society from control by a foreign power, the deposition of a corrupt and tyrannical government, or the protection of existing institutions and values against forces advocating their transformation or demise, a revolutionary movement pursuing revolutionary goals must first exhaust all peaceful remedies to redress the inequities existing within its  society before resorting to violence. Otherwise, it risks the danger  of negating its own legitimacy: without which it cannot claim  the moral ascendancy of its cause nor generate substantial support within the general population. As history has shown, popular support for war is essential for its  success. According  to  Mao Zedong, "the richest source of power to wage war lies in the masses of people."  Men will fight wars for causes they believe in but oppose those which they find morally repugnant.

Revolutionaries must also be cautious of the fact that their association with a foreign power can also weaken their claim of legitimacy by projecting an impression that they are dominated and manipulated by that power, especially when the values and beliefs of that power are antithetical to those prevalent within the revolutionary's own society.

Therefore, in order to first exhaust all peaceful remedies to redress the inequities existing within our society before resorting to violence, we must create an ABOVE GROUND ORGANIZATION and work to become a POPULAR MOVEMENT.

As distasteful as it might be to compromise - to achieve a UNITED FRONT - it has to be done in order that the revolutionary forces can achieve legitimacy. Because without legitimacy they have no chance of winning the struggle for political power.

And, that's the Truth!

The Cult of Che

I read an article recently, by some Marxist pencil-neck, criticizing Ernesto "Che" Guevara. He said, "Che wasn't really a communist because he hadn't mastered Marxist theory."

Who was Che, anyway?

Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous counter-cultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.

As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout Latin America and was radically transformed by the endemic poverty and alienation he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained economic inequalities were an intrinsic result of capitalism, monopolism, neocolonialism, and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution. This belief prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Arbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow solidified Guevara's political ideology. Later, while living in Mexico City, he met Raúl and Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement, and sailed to Cuba aboard the yacht, 'Granma', with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second-in-command, and played a pivotal role in the victorious two year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.

Following the Cuban Revolution, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals,  instituting agrarian reform as minister of industries, helping spearhead a successful nationwide literacy campaign, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba’s armed forces, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism. Such positions also allowed him to play a central role in training the militia forces who repelled the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing the Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles to Cuba which precipitated the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Additionally, he was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare, along with a best-selling memoir about his youthful motorcycle journey across South America. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and executed.

Guevara remains both a revered and reviled historical figure, polarized in the collective imagination in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, essays, documentaries, songs, and films. As a result of his perceived martyrdom, poetic invocations for class struggle, and desire to create the consciousness of a "new man" driven by moral rather than material incentives; he has evolved into a quintessential icon of various leftist-inspired movements. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, while an Alberto Korda photograph of him entitled Guerrillero Heroico (shown), was declared "the most famous photograph in the world".

The Soviet Union and the legion of pro-Moscow communists who dominated the Castro regime saw Che as a radical Maoist who sought to stir revolutions throughout the world without the 'benefit' of party leadership.

THEORY VS PRACTICE

Of course Karl Marx was right. But he wasn't the last person who ever walked the earth. Since the 1800s there have been quite a few thinkers who also figured out the answers to a myriad of problems... It would take a book to name them all... We only recently have developed the Internet as a knowledge base, and a place to exchange ideas... But, it is plain for all to see that millions of people are thinking and coming up with new ideas everyday.

We must take advantage of the latest and best ideas and make them our own, rather than constantly rehash old ideas and ineffective solutions. Otherwise we will become obsolete. And a laughingstock among the working people of this country.

Which brings us to the arm-chair theorist: Who wastes his time worrying about what might have been. Who thinks and talks and writes - but never manages to actually do anything! He will advocate violence but never puts his 'ass in the grass'... He wants respect for his 'mind' but never does anything tangible to earn it. 

What good are thoughts without action? What good is a critique of the work of others without positive solutions?

Show us how to get what we want or shut the fuck up! 

My position is now and has always been that intellectuals are superfluous. Negative thinking is always a brake on human progress. It is those who are bold enough to ACT that make history and effect change. The critics usually wind up in front of a firing squad or locked away in prison for their troubles.

Practice what you preach or go back to sleep! DO IT - don't just go on and on about it!

WHY DID CHE HAVE TO DIE?

I think what happened to Che is that he decided to commit suicide... The logic is inescapable: politics is a dirty business, there is no place in it for romantics and dreamers. They are often exploited to be sure. But, in the end, it is always the bureaucrats that triumph. Someone has to 'manage' affairs; build the roads , schools and factories... Someone has to do the dirty work, to sweep and take out the trash, to clean the toilets... We can't all be noble knights on a quest to save the world... Revolution isn't about fighting - it's about building the New Society and creating the New Man!

OF WHAT VALUE IS CHE TO US?

Che represents the Spirit of Revolution. 'Saint Ernesto' is the patron saint of hopeless causes. The Indomitable Spirit of Humanity. That refuses to give way before tyranny. That resists the Enemy to the bitter end. And, in the end, triumphs over all adversity - even in death and defeat - because, after all, you cannot kill an idea! You can kill the man, and make him a martyr - thus giving the idea more power - but, you cannot stop the force of human history. You can fall under the wheels of human progress and be ground to mincemeat, if that is your choice or fate - but you can't stop what is destined to be!

And, that's the Truth!

Socialist X-mas Greetings

From Home to home, and heart to heart,

From one place to another.

The warmth and joy of Christmas,

Brings us closer to each other.

Merry Christmas!

'Invented' People

It is hard to believe that anyone who defends Israel's legitimacy as a state would buy into former Speaker 'limp dick' Newt Gingrich's argument that Palestine is an "invented nation".

The singular triumph of the Zionist movement is that it invented a state and a people - Israel and the Israelis - from scratch. The first Hebrew-speaking child in 1900 years, Ittamar Ben-Avi, was not born until 1882. His father, the brilliant linguist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, created a modern language for him to speak by improvising from the language of the Bible.

The founder of the Israeli state was Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), an assimilated Viennese writer who was convinced by the Dreyfus trial in France - and the horrendous right-wing anti-Semitism that resulted from it - that Jews had to get out of Europe.

In 1897, he wrote the book that would essentially inaugurate the Zionist movement. It was called Der Judenstaat (meaning "the Jews' state" or "the Jewish State"), which was his proposal for moving the Jews out of Europe and into their own country.

He didn't specify where the Jewish homeland should be. He was more concerned about quickly obtaining territory anywhere for Jews to seek refuge.

Later, he decided that Palestine made the most sense because that was where the Jewish people both began and exercised self-determination in ancient times, and where there already was a small minority of Jews. But he also spoke of finding a place in Africa or the Americas if Palestine was unavailable.

The reaction to Herzl's idea was primarily that he was a bit crazy. Jews committed to assimilation insisted that Jews were not a nation, but a religious faith. Their nationalities were French, German, Polish, Iraqi or American - not some imaginary Jewish nationality that had not existed for 1900 years.

100 years ago: 'just an idea'

As late as 1943, during the worst days of the Holocaust, the American Jewish Committee - which adhered to the assimilationist view - resigned from the body created by American Jews to respond to the Nazi catastrophe over its "demand for the eventual establishment of a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine".

Seventy-plus years later, it is impossible to argue that the Israeli nation is not as authentic and worthy of recognition as any in the world (more authentic than some, in fact).

The Hebrew language is spoken by millions of Jews and Palestinians. The Israeli culture is unique: Bearing little resemblance to any other in the world. In fact, diaspora Jews have as little in common with Israelis as African-Americans have with Africans.

Israelis are not just Jews who happen to live in Palestine, even though the concept of Israel-ness started just over a hundred years ago as nothing but an idea. They are Israelis, entitled to self-determination, peace and security in their own land.

And the Palestinians are every bit as much a nation. If the ultimate definition of authentic nationhood is continuous residence in a land for thousands of years, the Palestinian claim to nationhood is ironclad. They never left Palestine (except for those who either emigrated or became refugees after the establishment of Israel).

Those who deny that Palestinians have a nation base their case on two arguments, both of which are logically incoherent. The first is that Palestinians never exercised self-determination in Palestine; they were always governed by others from ancient times to the present day.

The answer to this is: So what?

What makes a people real?

Most nations in the world lacked self-determination for long periods of their history. The Polish nation existed between 1790 and 1918 even though the state was erased from the map - divided between Russia and Austro-Hungary. It achieved independence in 1918 only to again lose it to the Nazis, and then the Soviets from 1939 until 1989. Would anyone today argue that the Polish nation was invented?

The idea of it is ridiculous, especially when offered by Israelis or Americans (or Canadians, New Zealanders, Australians... ) whose national existence would have been unimaginable a few centuries ago.

The second argument is that Palestinians never thought of themselves as Palestinians until Jews started moving into their territory, that Palestinian nationalism is a response to Zionism.

Again, so what?

When European Jews docked in Jaffa, Palestine in the early immigration waves of the late 19th century, there were Arabs waiting at the port. When the Jews purchased land, it was Arabs who had to move out.

And if those Arabs didn't call themselves Palestinians until the Zionist movement began, neither did the Jews call themselves Israelis. Until 1948, they were just Jews. But each of the two peoples knew who they were and who the other was.

The bottom line is that today, the Palestinian nation is as authentic as the Israeli nation - and vice versa. Those who think either is going away are blinded by hatred.

To put it simply, the first part of the phrase self-determination is the word self. Both nations have the absolute right to define themselves as two nations which, hopefully, will evolve into two states. The alternative is national catastrophe not for one nation, but for two.

But why would 'limp dick' Newt Gingrich care about that?

Better take some more Viagra Newt....

Militancy

A movement has no reason to exist if it doesn't fight!

The Corporate Capitalist System needs to be overthrown; Right thinking people must prepare for that necessity at all points along the way. Our movement must be contending for power, planning how to contend for power, or recovering from setbacks in contending for power. Certainly, every movement must learn to fight correctly, sometimes retreating, sometimes advancing. But, fighting the Enemy must be the reason for its being. We are building a fighting movement.

Militancy stirs the imagination and raises the vision of victory. Militancy in a street demonstration, in a courtroom, at a rally, in a prison takeover, is recognized and respected as an uncompromising statement. It is a confrontation with the opposing system. Involving people in militant action trains and teaches. It is both an example and a strategy. Militant action is related to the understanding that the struggle is not merely for separate issues but is ultimately for power - necessarily including violence to defeat the oppressive forces of Corporate Capitalism. To leave people unprepared to fight the Enemy is to seriously mislead about the true nature of what lies ahead.

Some people try to dissociate mass struggle from revolutionary violence and condemn any act of public militancy or violence as wrong. This is because they believe that violence is a question of abstract principle, and the illusion is fostered that the System will decay peacefully. "Violence turns people off," "It's too early," "Violence only brings down repression."

- The movement should argue for and explain self-defense, develop parallel strategies, openly support direct action, claim and spread the message of struggle, help create the conditions for the destruction of Corporate Capitalism and the transfer of power to the people. Don't talk to the authorities. Resist probes into the movement. Laying the basis for victory is also the responsibility of mass organizers.

- From the very beginning the potential for violent confrontation develops. Its spontaneity will be slowly transformed into the energy of a popular front.

- Many levels of clandestine propaganda action can be carried out which spread the consciousness of action and give people a way to learn.

- A successful movement needs to keep part of its organization away from the prying eyes of the System. This should be part of the practice of every activist. Survival depends on having networks and resources not exposed to computer patterns, electronic surveillance and infiltration by the repressive apparatus.

- Building a capacity to survive over time is no substitute for militancy now in our daily work. A fanatical and uncompromising, confrontational approach to political work is the best way to inspire the people, build the organization, and learn to fight.

And, that's the Truth!

Korean People Mourn the Death of Kim Jong Il

We express condolences on the passing away of top DPRK leader Kim Jong Il.

Condolences to Kim Jong Un from Former U.S. President

Pyongyang, December 21 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Un, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, received a message of condolences from Jimmy Carter, ex-president of the U.S. on Dec. 19.

In the message Jimmy Carter extended condolences to Kim Jong Un and the Korean people over the demise of leader Kim Jong Il.

He wished Kim Jong Un every success as he assumes his new responsibility of leadership, looking forward to another visit to the DPRK in the future.

Kim Jong Il Will Always Be with Us

Pyongyang, December 21 (KCNA) -- Portraits of smiling Kim Jong Il set up in plazas in Pyongyang are being visited by an endless stream of mourners. 

The grief-stricken people look up to the portraits of leader Kim Jong Il in his ordinary field jacket.

His picture makes everyone feel pangs of compunction as he made long journey of field guidance, going in his field jacket all his life. 

He had inconvenient naps and simple rice-balls in cars or on trains while making the journey of field guidance for the country's prosperity and people's happy life, not even taking a day off.

Mourners cried in chocking voices, "General, you have had pain only for people all your life", "How can you, General, pass away so early leaving us behind?", "We have not fulfilled our obligation".

Kim Jong Il found himself among the people and shared joys and sorrows with them all his life and the Korean people can not live even a moment without him.

People were always in his mind and he was always in their minds. 

That's why people weep so bitterly, crying "General has not left us, He is always with us."

Now would be an ideal time for the United States to repair its relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The Coming Crisis

If there isn't one damned Senator in the United States Congress that has the courage to speak out against what is going on in Washington DC then we'll have to do it for them. They are taking our rights away and trampling on the Constitution!

A majority of Congress is just about to put the finishing touches on an amendment to the military budget authorization legislation that will finish off some critical American rights under our Constitution.

Here is how two retired 4-star Marine generals, Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar, described in the New York Times the strip mining of your freedom to resist tyranny in urging a veto by President Obama:

"One provision would authorize the military to indefinitely detain without charge people suspected of involvement with terrorism, including United States citizens apprehended on American soil. Due process would be a thing of the past....

"A second provision would mandate military custody for most terrorism suspects. It would force on the military responsibilities it hasn't sought"..."for domestic law enforcement...."

"A third provision would further extend a ban on transfers from Guantanamo, ensuring that this morally and financially expensive symbol of detainee abuse will remain open well into the future."

All of Obama's leading military and security officials oppose this codification of the ultimate Big Brother power. Imagine allowing the government to deny people accused of involvement with terrorism (undefined), including U.S. citizens arrested within the United States, the right to a trial by jury. Imagine allowing indefinite imprisonment for those accused without even proffering charges against them. Goodbye 5th and 6th Amendments.

On some government agency's unbridled order: just pick them up, arrest them without charges and throw them into the military brig indefinitely. This atrocity deserves to be repeatedly condemned loudly throughout the land by Americans who believe in the rights of due process, habeas corpus, right to confront your accusers, right to a jury trial--in short, liberty and the just rule of law.

Some stalwart lawyers are speaking out soundly: They include Georgetown Law Professor, David Cole, George Washington University Law Professor, Jonathan Turley, Republican lawyer, Bruce Fein, former American Bar Association (2005-2006) president, Michael Greco, and the always alert lawyers at the civil liberties groups. Their well-grounded outcries are not awakening the citizenry. 

Where are the one million lawyers? Where are the thousands of law professors? Where are the scores of law school deans? Are they not supposed to be our first constitutional responders?

Where is the Tea Party and its haughty rhetoric about the sanctity of constitutional liberty? Most of the Tea caucus voted for tyranny. Presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul has been an outspoken critic of this attack on our civil liberties. 

The majority also voted to ratify a dictatorial procedure in the Congress, as well. This indefinite, arbitrary, open-ended dictatorial White House mandate was never subjected to even a House or Senate Committee hearing, and was not explained with any rationale known as legislative "findings." It was rammed through by the House and Senate Armed Services Committees without the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees invoking their concurrent jurisdiction for public hearings.

So ignorant are these majority Congressional extremists, composed of both Republicans and renegade Democrats, the latter led by Senator Carl Levin, that the Obama Administration has to lecture them about the fundamental American principle that "our military does not patrol our streets."

It is not as if the imperial presidencies of Bush and Obama need any more encouragement and legitimization to continue on their lawless paths to criminal wars of aggression, unlawful surveillance, arbitrary slayings of innocents, wrongful imprisonments, and unauthorized spending. Instead of Congress using its constitutional authority regarding the war, appropriations and investigative powers, it formalizes its impotence by handing the "go for it" power to the Executive branch with the vaguest of language boundaries. 

Usually there are a few Senators whose upfront defense of our Constitution would lead them to stand tall against the "Senate Club" and put a "hold" on this pernicious amendment. Civil libertarians hope that, before the final Senate vote in the rush to get home for the Holidays, Senators Rand Paul, Tom Harkin, Al Franken, Richard Blumenthal, Ron Wyden, Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley, Tom Coburn or Mike Lee would step forth. A "hold" could spark the demand for public hearings and floor debate to give the American people the time and information to react and ask themselves "how dare Congress take away our most fundamental rights?"

President Obama initially threatened to veto the entire bill and make Congress drop these pernicious dictates that so insult the memory and vision of our founding fathers. He is already signaling that he doesn't have the backbone to reject the false choice "between our safety and our ideals," that he asserted in his Inaugural Address.

You had better wake up America - before it is too late - or you will be the 'terrorist' that needs to be locked away. The FEMA concentration camps, the militarization of the police, the strange rulings by the Supreme Court... The future is beginning to take shape... We are heading for a Corporate Capitalist police state and World War III. The pieces of the puzzle are fitting together to reveal the ultimate Holocaust - Nuclear War!

Is death, destruction and slavery the legacy that you want to leave your children?

Then join with me to fight against tyranny....

Newt Puts Israel First

Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House who faded into obscurity after resigning in 1998 amid a sex scandal, is back and seemingly ready to say anything to become the next president of the United States - even if it means making sycophantic statements that pander to the pro-Israel lobby but that oppose US policy and the best interests of the American people.

Gingrich apparently revised history when he told Jewish reporter Steven Weiss recently that the Palestinians are an "invented" people. He willfully obfuscated the fact that Palestinians' roots in the Holy Land go back thousands of years. He ignored that Palestinians and Palestine are mentioned in the Torah and the Bible; that they are referred to in many historical documents, including the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which gave British support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". 

The potential GOP frontrunner is far from alone in his pandering to the pro-Israel lobby. Mitt Romney, running a close second to Gingrich, Rick Perry and Michelle Bachman, also have made concerted efforts to undermine President Barack Obama's Middle East policy while emphasising their own loyalty to Israel in attempts to gain the votes of Tea Partiers and Christian evangelicals, who are strongly pro-Israel. During the GOP debate in Des Moines, it appeared as if it were an open season on Palestinians.

That Gingrich would intentionally contradict stated and long-standing US policy, which recognises the Palestinian people and their right for a state of their own, for his own self-interest is extremely troubling. But even more problematic is the fact that Gingrich told Weiss he would consider granting clemency to one of the most notorious spies ever to infiltrate our national security agencies: Johathon Pollard.

Pollard's release

Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 1986 after he confessed to spying for the state of Israel. Pollard, who was a civilian research analyst with high security clearance for the US Navy, had agreed to spy for Israel for 10 years in exchange for more than $500,000.

According to a January 1999 article in the New Yorker by Seymour Hersh, Pollard "betrayed elements of four major American intelligence systems". He caused extensive damage to US intelligence and US national security because of the nature of the highly sensitive documents he sold to Israel. According to Hersh, Pollard gave up data dealing with specific American intelligence systems and how they worked, a "most sensitive area of intelligence". The espionage was so great that successive presidents have rejected Israel's pleas for Pollard's release.

Gingrich told Weiss he'd consider granting clemency if Pollard were no longer a security threat and also had served time within the range of people with "similar problems". To be sure, seasoned politicians often have to compromise goals - sometimes even ideals - to achieve their own. But when a potential presidential candidate so easily panders to the interests of a foreign country and its lobby here, in the United States, over the interests of his fellow countrymen, he is clearly not fit to hold public office.

And that is only one of the ways in which Gingrich is forwarding a Zionist agenda at the expense of Americans, which is readily seen in his "Class of Civilisations" narrative that became prominent in 2010 during the controversy surrounding the Park 51 mosque project. During the controversy, the country's favourable attitude towards Muslims fell 10 points (from 40 per cent to 30 per cent), according to a study co-authored by the Centre for Race and Gender at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Council on American Islamic Relations.

Islamophobic rhetoric

That same report says Gingrich was one of those at the forefront of fuelling mistrust and hatred of Muslims. In other words, a former Speaker of the House was working against American unity by bringing divisive Islamophobic rhetoric into mainstream discourse.

"He's inflamed tensions in the Middle East where the neutrality and integrity of the United States already is viewed with suspicion and  hostility."

The Constitution founded the United States as a pluralistic society; the First Amendment grants the free expression of religion. Yet Gingrich behaves as if allowing Muslims that right would lead to the loss of American values and liberty. 

Other credible reports - "The Great Isamophobic Crusade", by Max Blumenthal and "The Roots of the Islamophobic Network in America", by the Centre for American Progress - have exposed the link between Islamophobia and the pro-Israel entities behind it. Millions of dollars are funnelled into organisations bent on helping Israel maintain its occupation of Palestine.

One way they accomplish this is by smearing anyone trying to raise awareness about Israel's continued violations of international law. Another way is to demonise Islam in the United States by planting outrageous and false innuendos of a "stealth jihad" here. Or they insinuate that there is a connection between American Muslims and overseas groups on the State Department's list of designated foreign terrorist organisations. These fallacies are then taken up and trumpeted about by unprincipled people like Gingrich.

Gingrich seems to have no qualms allying himself to pro-Israel element and selling the values and safety of the US for his shot in the Oval Office. But based upon published reports, he's failed to impress the pro-Israel Jewish voters he was  trying to court. Instead, he's inflamed tensions in the Middle East where the neutrality and integrity of the US already is viewed with suspicion and in some cases hostility, and he's proven he does not care about the people who, if he were elected president, he'd be sworn to protect.

In trying to "out-Romney" Romney, Gingrich may have passed Israel's litmus test, but he hopelessly failed to show his loyalty to the US or the American people.

Newt Gingrich is a traitor to the American people!

And, that's the Truth!

Wake-up America!

The Corporate Capitalist System doesn't give a flying fuck about you.

When a country works reasonably well - when the schools teach reading, writing, arithmetic and not "political correctness", when the police are few and far between and courteous, when government is remote and minds its business and works more for the benefit of the people than for crooks and special interests, then pledging to it a degree of allegiance isn't foolish. Years ago, America was such a country, imperfect as all nations are, but good enough to cherish.

As decline begins, and government becomes oppressive, self-righteous, and ruthless yet incompetent, as official spying flourishes, as corruption sets in hard, and institutions rot, it is time to disengage. Loyalty to a country is a choice, not an obligation. In other times people have loved family, friends, common decency, tribe, regiment, or church instead of country. In an age of national collapse, this is wise.

A fruitful field of disengagement might be called domestic expatriation - the recognition that living in a country makes you a resident, not a subscriber. It is one thing to be loyal to a government that is loyal to you, another thing entirely to continue that loyalty when the black uniformed security forces of Corporate Capitalism deprive citizens of their rights and the government rejects everything that you believe in. While the phrase has become unbearably pretentious, it is possible to regard oneself as a citizen of the world rather than of the Empire.

Disengagement from the consumerist zeitgeist is essential. Yes, I know. Distaste for a life dedicated to buying the unnecessary can seem a pose: “I am of such lofty character that I do not dirty my philosophical hands with mere... things.”

No. It is not a pose. In a time of economic retrogression, rejection of consumerism is utterly practical. And almost treasonous.

One might ask oneself, “What do I really need, and what things really matter to me? How much money do I really need, and how much am I willing to pay to get it?” Remember, you pay more for money than for anything else...

Here is where the seven points of our American Socialist economic policy come into play:

1.- Tax heavily and hold profits down.

2.- Fix ceilings on prices and rents.

3.- Stabilize wages.

4.- Stabilize farm prices.

5.- Save more; buy less.

6.- Ration all essential commodities that are scarce.

7.- Discourage installment buying, and encourage paying off debts.

The Median Household Income in the United States is $50,221. So, let's say any income over $1,000,000 should be taxed at the rate of 90.5 percent. There should also be a tax on capital gains of 10%. Society at large should profit and not the individual investor.

Prices and rents should be fixed. The average house payment should be around $1154, and the average apartment $575 per month.

The average wage should be $20 per hour.

The farmer should be paid a fair price for his produce, and food from abroad should be taxed heavily. It is the height of stupidity to ship a can of green beans all the way from China and sell it cheaper than green beans grown and packaged here in the United States...

Advertising amounts to 'brainwashing'. It should be banned from the media. Instead, saving money and buying less should be promoted.

Luxury items should be heavily taxed. Essential commodities that are scarce should be rationed. There is too much waste in our society. Everyday three billion dollars worth of food is thrown away. All those frozen foods you leave around Walmart are tossed in the trash!

Credit cards are the scourge of modern society. The consumer debt is burying us. Therefore, we must discourage installment buying and promote paying off debts. You don't need all that shit, and when you buy food on credit you are already bankrupt.

If you can’t pay for it, don’t buy it; and if you don’t need it, don’t buy it. Therein lie the seeds of the utter destruction of Corporate America, but I’m not Wall Street’s mother.

Another step toward independence is to disengage to the extent possible from the maintenance cycle. You are much better off in bad times if you can do the kind of plumbing, wiring, and auto maintenance that used to be commonly understood.

Again, circumstances differ and details vary. The principle remains: Disengage, cut your expenses, seek the interstices, and don’t believe in anything unless you are sure it was your idea to believe in it. What is coming looks to be ugly. If so, it will be every man for himself, his family, his friends, and what principles he believes. 

American Socialism or bust!

And, that's the Truth! 

Worker's Rights

Structural Adjustment programs (Austerity programs) of the IMF and World Bank have led to a race to the bottom, where standards of living are continuously reduced. Labor, as one example of this, gets cheaper and cheaper which benefits the multinational companies, but not the workers themselves. Various international trade agreements that large corporations are able to strongly lobby favorable conditions in, are often designed in part to make resources (including work forces) cheaper.

As some corporations and industries become increasingly globalized, they effect more and more people. Take for example the situation in Massachusetts - they were trying to put laws in place to prevent or restrict corporations doing business with regimes that violate certain rights of people in some way — they were pressured by a coalition of 600 major corporations in that State, saying that this is unconstitutional. The judges agreed.

Famous brands like Nike, the Coca-Cola Company, and many others all do this. In some respect it is a cycle of competition driving each other to such measures to keep up and to maximize profits. Nike, for example use cheap labor in South East Asia, where they can get away from the tighter enforcement and regulations of USA and Europe. In fact, they have been exposed for using child labor, as well. Coca Cola for example, have been accused of intimidating workers around the world, even hiring (often indirectly, through intermediaries) paramilitaries to intimidate or kill union leaders.

The apparel industry has often been strongly criticized for the use of sweat shop-like conditions  in its east Asian factories. In May 1998, for example, a panel of experts on international law condemned the violation of workers rights in the garments and sportswear industries;  twelve witnesses from ten developing countries had testified on actual working conditions in the industry, pointing out seven leading transnationals: sportswear manufacturers Nike and Addidas, clothing traders H&M, Levi Strauss, C&A and Walt Disney, and the world’s biggest mail order company, Otto-Verstand.

Harsh labor conditions in the toy industry for people in third world countries such as China have also led to much criticism, showing “hidden costs” to popular toys such as those based on Harry Potter, Star Wars, Pokemon, Barbie, etc.

It is interesting to note that while globalization has led to the opening up of borders for increased trade the same is not true for people. Yet, people all over the world seem be losing their national identitydue to the current model of globalization. The introduction of “flexibility”, while good for businesses, can hurt workers, as the International Labor Organization (ILO) has shown.

The famous McLibel action against McDonald’s came about because of various abuses of its power and threats of legal action for any criticism about them. While individuals have tried to present some facts about various aspects of the way McDonald’s do business, some media companies have been prevented them doing so. These media corporations themselves are worried about publishing and broadcasting certain information that could lead to threats of legal action and other forms of corporate punishment even when the claims are fair and justified.

Human Rights Watch have criticized the labor situation in the United States. In general, the USA provides a better standard of living, opportunities etc. than most countries. However, that does not mean that it is free from problems as well. The following quote summarizes it quite well:

"Without diminishing the seriousness of the obstacles and violations confronted by workers in the United States, a balanced perspective must be maintained. U.S. workers generally do not confront gross human rights violations where death squads assassinate trade union organizers or collective bargaining and strikes are outlawed. But the absence of systematic government repression does not mean that workers in the United States have effective exercise of the right to freedom of association. On the contrary, workers' freedom of association is under sustained attack in the United States, and the government is often failing its responsibility under international human rights standards to deter such attacks and protect workers' rights."

~ Human Rights Watch

They go on to say that while the US has many provisions in its laws to protect workers, there are many aspects of the laws which undermine such rights and that there is often very little done to uphold fundamental rights to the freedom of associations etc.

So, the next time some jerk-off tells you that Corporate Capitalism is good for worker's rights - tell them to go fuck themselves!

End the 'Drone War'

Stop the murder of innocent people!

The killing of individuals whose names are unknown, against whom no evidence has been provided, and who are able neither to surrender nor identify themselves as friendly to unmanned aerial robots is surely a hideous manifestation of the increasing depravity of the ever-expanding "Global War on Terror". While the ongoing atrocities in Waziristan are a gross moral failure for the United States, they are also an abdication of the basic duty of the Pakistani government to protect its citizenry and its sovereignty.

Over the past three years, the steady buzzing of Predator drones overhead has become a grim and terrifying fact of life for many residents of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (KP). So pervasive is the sense of fear that doctors there report a huge upsurge in the usage of tranquilisers and sleeping pills among the civilian population. Drone strikes are believed to have been responsible for the deaths of a conservatively estimated 2,283 individuals over this period, and the injuries of thousands more.

The CIA-administered drone programme has operated largely in the shadows, and has led to what can only be described as a culture of impunity and wantonness with regards to the use of deadly force. A recent Wall Street Journal report on the programme revealed that the majority of drone strikes are "signature strikes", described as those in which the targets are large groups of people whose identities are not known. In effect, the CIA is killing large numbers of people by aerial remote control in Pakistan without knowing who they are, and it is in this context in which reports have surfaced detailing heavy civilian casualties among the population of the KP.

The Pakistani government, while publicly denouncing the strikes, in fact both acquiesces to and assists in the facilitation of them, while US counter-terrorism chief John Brennan has stated that in his view there "hasn't been a single collateral death" as a result of the programme. These words and actions from both US and Pakistani officials are indicative of an utter disregard for the observably innocent victims of the drone war. Against this background, a campaign for legal redress and a halt to the bombing has begun.

By the CIA's own admission, drone strikes are often carried out without having any knowledge as to who is being killed. So low is the standard of care and so little is the respect for the lives of the people of Waziristan that simply being an individual travelling at night or standing in a large group is enough warrant to be killed by a Hellfire missile fired by an operator sitting thousands of miles away in suburban Nevada. In a reflection of the attitude with which American drone operators view the people in their target sights, the term for human beings, often apparently innocent, who have been killed on their computer monitors is "bugsplat".

The people living in Pakistan's tribal areas are real people, not faceless, nameless, evil abstractions who can be killed wantonly and forgotten the next day. The KP is one the most isolated and economically neglected corners of the Pakistani state. As such, both the Pakistani and American governments have taken an extremely cavalier attitude towards the deaths of its residents. Casually murdered by remote control planes piloted from across the world, without even a pretense of legal justification, the civilians of Waziristan have little recourse to defend themselves and their families from the industrial-scale carnage which has been unleashed on their region.

It is often said that terrorists have a disregard for the sanctity of human life. By this standard, the actions of the CIA and its Pakistani government enablers certainly fit the description of terrorism. The extrajudicial murder of large numbers of innocent people is not an acceptable by-product of the war in Afghanistan - which itself is largely an elective enterprise today.

The residents of Waziristan are disenfranchised, isolated and neglected by their federal government. Every day the CIA drone war in the KP continues as a travesty and an affront to the basic human right to live free of the threat of murder. Militant activity is the natural by-product of the elective war still being fought in Afghanistan. Punishing and terrorising the civilians of Waziristan for this is a crime, as well as a tactic which will inevitably fuel further conflict.

The time has come to reign in the drone war, wind down the campaign across the border, and to bring to a close this ugly, painful chapter in history.

And, that's the Truth!

My Honor is Loyalty

Loyalty to what?

I have no parents; The Source is my father; the Earth is my mother.

I have no home; The Community is my home.

I have no divine power; Purity is my Divine Power - "My strength is more than that of ten, because my heart is pure."

I have no means; I make being Humble my means: Wealth is not a measure of how much money you have, but whether or not you can live within your means. If you cannot then you are, obviously, poor. Being humble is: Near the ground; not high or lofty; not pretentious or magnificent; unpretending; unassuming; as, a "humble cottage ."

I have no magic power; I make personality my Magic Power: A good personality gives one power over others that even a "magician" must envy.

I have neither life nor death; I make Awareness my Life and Death: Live in the Now. If you are dead, that means all brain functions have ceased, so you'll never really know it. If you are alive than be aware and savor every moment of it.

I have no body; I make American Socialism my Body.

I have no eyes; I make The Flash of Lightning my eyes: In the forest, in the blackness of night, the split-second illumination of the lightning can reveal the path to the discerning eye. Especially where the memory of the illumination can be held in the mind.

I have no ears; I make Sensibility - the ability to feel and react to existing conditions - my Ears.

I have no limbs; I make Promptitude - quickness of decision and action - my Limbs.

I have no laws; I make self-protection my Law.

I have no strategy; I make survival and continued evolution my Strategy.

I have no designs; I make Seizing the Opportunity of the Moment my Design.

I have no miracles; I make doing the right thing my Miracle.

I have no principles; I make Adaptability to all circumstances my Principle.

I have no tactics; I make Dynamic Action my Tactics.

I have no talent; I make Ready Wit my Talent.

I have no friends; I make my Mind my Friend.

I have no enemy; I make Incautiousness - forgetting or ignoring possible danger - my Enemy.

I have no armor; I make Benevolence (good will) my Armor.

I have no castle; I make Immovable Mind (fanaticism) my Castle. 

I have no sword; I make Spirit my Sword.

"To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity." 

~ Friedrich Nietzsche 

What an odd thing it is to realize that true Honor is nothing more than Loyalty to one's World Outlook (Weltanschauung). We are the nucleus of THE AMERICAN WORKERS PARTY. Our purpose is to create a New Society, dedicated to Freedom, Democracy and Social Justice; and a New Man representing the Perfection of Humanity and Man living in Harmony with the Universe.

The New Society, and the New Man, do not exist in the present moment. If they do it is only as seeds that must be planted and nurtured. Therefore, our loyalty is to the Future! Our purpose is to CAPTURE THE FUTURE!

From whence does the American Socialist concept of Honor arise?

Obviously, from the belief that we shall be VICTORIOUS, and that our world outlook will dominate the world of the Future. Nothing else is of any real importance or value. Honorable means: Noble, high-minded, magnanimous, that we agree in adhering to lofty principles and loftiness of mind or spirit. Noble implies a loftiness of character or spirit that scorns the petty, mean, base, or dishonorable: a noble deed. High-minded  implies having elevated principles and consistently adhering to them.

There is no principle as elevated as VICTORY! No Honor higher than LOYALTY!

And, that's the Truth!

American Workers World's Most Productive

American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year.

They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, according to a U.N. report, which said the United States "leads the world in labor productivity."

Each U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries, the International Labor Organization said in its report. Ireland comes in second at $55,986, ahead of Luxembourg, $55,641; Belgium, $55,235; and France, $54,609.

The productivity figure is found by dividing the country's gross domestic product by the number of people employed. The U.N. report is based on 2006 figures for many countries, or the most recent available.

Only part of the U.S. productivity growth, which has outpaced that of many other developed economies, can be explained by the longer hours Americans are putting in, the ILO said.

The U.S., according to the report, also beats all 27 nations in the European Union, Japan and Switzerland in the amount of wealth created per hour of work - a second key measure of productivity.

Norway, which is not an EU member, generates the most output per working hour, $37.99, a figure inflated by the country's billions of dollars in oil exports and high prices for goods at home. The U.S. is second at $35.63, about a half-dollar ahead of third-placed France.

Seven years ago, French workers produced over a dollar more on average than their American counterparts. The country led the U.S. in hourly productivity from 1994 to 2003.

The U.S. employee put in an average 1,804 hours of work in 2006, the report said. That compared with 1,407.1 hours for the Norwegian worker, and 1,564.4 for the French.

It pales, however, in comparison with the annual hours worked per person in Asia, where seven economies - South Korea, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and Thailand - surpassed 2,200 average hours per worker. But those countries had lower productivity rates.

America's increased productivity "has to do with the ICT (information and communication technologies) revolution, with the way the U.S. organizes companies, with the high level of competition in the country, with the extension of trade and investment abroad," said Jose Manuel Salazar, the ILO's head of employment.

The ILO report warned that the widening of the gap between leaders such as the U.S. and poorer nations has been even more dramatic.

Laborers from regions such as southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have the potential to create more wealth, but are being held back by a lack of investment in training, equipment and technology, the agency said.

In sub-Saharan Africa, workers are only about a twelfth as productive as those in developed countries, the report said.

"The huge gap in productivity and wealth is cause for great concern," ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said, adding that it was important to raise productivity levels of the lowest-paid workers in the world's poorest countries.

China and other East Asian countries are catching up quickest with Western countries. Productivity in the region has doubled in the past decade and is accelerating faster than anywhere else, the report said.

But they still have a long way to go: workers in East Asia are still only about a fifth as productive as laborers in industrialized countries.

The vast differences among China's sectors tell part of the story. Whereas a Chinese industrial worker produces $12,642 worth of output - almost eight times more than in 1980 - a laborer in the farm and fisheries sector contributes a paltry $910 to gross domestic product.

The difference is much less pronounced in the United States, where a manufacturing employee produced an unprecedented $104,606 of value in 2005. An American farm laborer, meanwhile, created $52,585 worth of output, down 10 percent from seven years ago, when U.S. agricultural productivity peaked.