"Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave."

Unfit To Be a Slave

by C. A. Matthews

For being the shortest month of the year, February certainly packs a lot of punches.

Most of them are gut punches, too. I received some great news this week from a friend who has been given a second chance to prove himself, but that good news was almost instantly nullified by some heartbreaking news from another friend that made the tears flow freely. Life is a series of ups and downs. No doubt about it.

The news cycle—the real news cycle, not the pretend mainstream media one—hasn’t been all that joyful, either. What to write about this week? Hmm…

The US is still funding a horrific genocide in Palestine and helping Israel to steal all the land in both Gaza and the West Bank. The US is openly starving Cuba into submission for God-knows-what reason. Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife are still prisoners, and the US government is giving their oil to Israel, of course. The Department of Homeland Security and ICE are purchasing hundreds of empty warehouses to imprison immigrants and perhaps citizens as well. And the latest Epstein files dump tells us that our “ruling class” is into cannibalism besides child rape, torture, and murder. So many wonderful topics to choose from!

I decided finally to ignore the gut punches and think about better things happening in February, such as Black History Month. It’s a good time of the year to sit back and reflect on how the United States became the complete and utter shithole it is today by honoring those who fought hard to rise above its racist-fascist shittiness.

The inspiration came from the meme at the top. It popped up on my UpScrolled feed. (Join today—UpScrolled doesn’t shadow-ban.) Frederick Douglass definitely knew what he was talking about. Once you know something—you really know all there is to know about it—you can’t let go of that knowledge. It changes you. It becomes a part of you, for better or worse...

 

To gain more knowledge that will make you unfit to be a slave of the corrupt system, please copy or click on the following link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

There you'll be able to read the entire article, find related links, see all the graphics, and be able to leave comments. You can also become a free or paid subscriber and receive weekly posts in your email, along with occasional special articles just for paid subscribers, too.

Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today. Power to the people!   

This article is the 558th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another eleven years. Thanks!

You can also make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi. Every little bit helps. Thank you. 

The Benefits of World Hunger

 

Rise, like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number!
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you:
Ye are many—they are few!

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

 

“The Paradise of the Rich is made out of the Hell of the Poor.” --Victor Hugo

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

--Matthew 25:35

The Benefits of World Hunger

by C.A. Matthews

There have been so many upsetting stories in the news lately that it's difficult to know what to write about and what hasn't been written into the ground already. But one article I encountered in my readings this past week hit me out of the blue, and I couldn't shake it. I decided to borrow its title and explore some of the aspects of what those five words mean.

The title? The Benefits of World Hunger.

You can learn more about how this intriguing article came about from this article:

United Nations Scrubbed Article Heralding Benefits of World Hunger from Website After It Went Viral   https://www.globalresearch.ca/united-nations-scrubbed-article-heralding-benefits-world-hunger-from-website-after-it-went-viral/5786053

The original article written by George Kent is now archived here:  https://archive.ph/zKzzH

To give you a flavor of what the thesis of Professor Kent's article is, here's an extended quote:

The non-governmental organization Free the Slaves defines slaves as people who are not allowed to walk away from their jobs. It estimates that there are about 27 million slaves in the world, including those who are literally locked into workrooms and held as bonded laborers in South Asia. However, they do not include people who might be described as slaves to hunger, that is, those who are free to walk away from their jobs but have nothing better to go to. Maybe most people who work are slaves to hunger?

For those of us at the high end of the social ladder, ending hunger globally would be a disaster. If there were no hunger in the world, who would plow the fields? Who would harvest our vegetables? Who would work in the rendering plants? Who would clean our toilets? We would have to produce our own food and clean our own toilets. No wonder people at the high end are not rushing to solve the hunger problem. For many of us, hunger is not a problem, but an asset.

The last two sentences really grabbed me. No wonder people at the high end are not rushing to solve the hunger problem. For many of us, hunger is not a problem, but an asset.

Hunger… an asset? When you put it that way, I guess it is. Those who have everything necessary for a healthy and comfortable lifestyle--such as a lovely home, easy transportation, an excellent education, a satisfying career, plentiful food, adequate medicine/healthcare, travel opportunities, entertaining hobbies, etc.--don't have to worry about the little details in life. They just happen. They happen because those with material wealth believe they deserve the wonderful things that happen to them, too.

Why are designer vegetables so cheap and abundant in the upscale supermarkets? How do posh meeting haunts magically keep themselves so sparkling clean? The answers are simple. These things are the way they are because those who have wealth typically don't share much of it with those who have little to none. The threat of starvation is enough to get the Haves what they want from the “slaves to hunger.” The threat of starvation forces the Have-Nots to do all the grunt work/dirty work the Haves never have to do for themselves.

The threat of starvation--The Benefits of World Hunger--is what makes capitalism go 'round--and 'round and 'round and 'round!

Why do so many people put up with capitalism and its constant threat of starvation? Commentator Caitlin Johnstone paints the picture perfectly:

Things are getting worse and worse because the systems that are in place are designed to exploit and oppress rather than to uplift and help thrive. Those systems will protect their own ability to continue to exploit and oppress until the people use their numbers to replace them with something healthy. The people will never use their numbers to replace abusive systems with something healthy as long as they are successfully propagandized away from doing so.

 This is why our political and media institutions act the way they act and why our systems are set up in the way that they are: to keep us from realizing how easy it would be to shrug off the old mechanisms of oppression like a heavy coat on a warm day and build something new that works for all of us.

Things will keep getting worse until we find a way to cut through the propaganda brain fog and rise like lions.  -- Our Entire Civilization Is Structured Around Keeping Us From Realizing We Can Do This

So, hunger is a great motivator to keep the vast majority of us working for meager wages, a.k.a. slave wages. Constantly toiling, we laborers never have the time or strength to come to the realization that we as a group might actually be able to end this oppressive system. We've been brainwashed by our “superiors” to think that we can't do anything, and that's the way it is. We've been made to feel inferior by those who have it all and can't be bothered to share any of their wealth with us.

The Benefits of World Hunger… It explains so much. We The People are controlled by our stomachs and our minds, through the threat of starvation and through an insipid indoctrination into an economic system that can only exist by keeping those who labor constantly worried about the threat of starvation.

How do we escape this threat? How do we take away the benefits that the well-to-do, a.k.a. the bourgeoisie, expect from this corrupt, exploitative system? How do we keep them from threatening us with hunger by buying up all the arable farmland, such as billionaire Bill Gates is currently doing?

First, we the workers must learn to feed ourselves without outside interference. Feed ourselves with food grown in our backyard gardens and community gardens. We need to food bank together with our neighbors. Food co-ops and other organizations that take care of the nutritional needs of the working people are essential. Mutual aid groups are a necessity.

Secondly, we must feed our minds and our souls with uplifting, nourishing praise and rhetoric that teaches us that we are indeed capable of creating a fair and just society. We can create a society where none are made to starve or live in fear because of the threat of hunger.

We must free ourselves from the bondage of The Benefits of World Hunger and all who believe the threat of starvation must continue.

 “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion,” said Albert Camus. We must become rebels. We must become free to act and to think for ourselves. We need to feed each other with the confidence that no one will ever be able to use a essential element such as food against us ever again.

In a moral and just world, hunger should never be thought of as a benefit to any person, place, or thing. We need to resist any government or leadership that insists that it is.

The mayor of L.A. getting rid of homeless people.

Related articles:

Corporate Billionaires Are Wrecking the Supply Chain https://popularresistance.org/corporate-billionaires-are-wrecking-the-supply-chain-just-look-at-the-railroads/ 

Mutual Aid Groups That Arose During COVID Gather to Build Power Regionally https://truthout.org/articles/mutual-aid-groups-that-arose-during-covid-gather-to-build-power-regionally

Our Entire Civilization Is Structured Around Keeping Us From Realizing We Can Do This  https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/our-entire-civilization-is-structured

Stagflation and Global Hunger Are On the Horizon. Neoliberalism Needs To End https://truthout.org/articles/stagflation-and-global-hunger-are-on-the-horizon-neoliberalism-needs-to-end/

Dutch Farmer Protests Inspire More Actions Amid Food Shortages https://popularresistance.org/dutch-farmer-protests-inspire-more-actions-amid-food-shortages/

Pushed To The Brink https://jesseventura.substack.com/p/pushed-to-the-brink

Why Capitalism Loves Disasters (video) https://youtu.be/v2ZVx8QiEUg 

The People RISE UP! (video of Sri Lanka uprising) https://youtu.be/SnXGnQVHdIc

The Benefits of World Hunger by George Kent: https://archive.ph/zKzzH

United Nations Scrubbed Article Heralding Benefits of World Hunger from Website After It Went Viral https://www.globalresearch.ca/united-nations-scrubbed-article-heralding-benefits-world-hunger-from-website-after-it-went-viral/5786053

Seen on Twitter:

WTF?

ANOTHER $400 million to #Ukraine?

Billions upon billions of dollars have magically materialized for war, but nothing for the children living on the streets of our country, nothing for people without healthcare, nothing for the hungry and impoverished.

— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) July 9, 2022

The rest of the world’s poor are rising up against their oppressors. Americans should be taking notes.

— Robert (Durden) (@realrobdurden) July 9, 2022

Imagine cheering for millionaire politicians that are pushing starvation wages of $15 an hour in 2022. It isn't 2015. Seriously out of touch. And the sad thing is the "progressives" in Congress will be calling for $15 for another decade, at least.

— citizen uprising (@cit_uprising) July 11, 2022

I don't know what Biden would have done with all that money if it wasn't for Ukraine but I know what he wouldn't have done with it. End homelessness or enact universal healthcare.

— Janus Tiresias🕊🍀🇵🇸 (@JanusTiresias) July 10, 2022

I know there’s a lot of examples of our country being cruel for cruelty’s sake but I just can’t get over how we had a policy that reduced childhood poverty by 30% and our Senators measured it, saw that it worked, and then decided “hmmm I guess I’m happier WITH the child poverty”

— Brendel (@Brendelbored) July 10, 2022

Reminder: Joe Biden and his Democratic Majority just sent enough money to Ukraine to fix all the pipes in Flint, give Americans free community college for a year, and end homelessness permanently.

— Robert (Durden) (@realrobdurden) July 10, 2022

*** 

In a near-future dystopian world, hope blossoms where mutual aid and democracy begins...

Zonta’s world is turned upside down when Jake arrives at their village's community garden to investigate the disappearance of agents of the Authority. Can she persuade him to switch sides before the Protectors (antifascist fighters) take action?

Available now: https://www.extasybooks.com/Where-the-Bodies-Lie 

Please buy direct from the small publisher and not via Amazon. Why? Amazon takes a huge percentage of the book's price and leaves very little for the publisher and author to share. Thanks.

 

Uncomfortable Truths: Critical Race Theory

Uncomfortable Truths: Critical Race Theory

by C. A. Matthews

This is the third and last article in this series highlighting Black History Month. (You can read the first article here and the second here.) I decided to save the most controversial topic for last.

What is Critical Race Theory exactly? Here's a definition from Britannica.com:

Critical Race Theory (CRT), intellectual and social movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of colour. Critical race theorists hold that racism is inherent in the law and legal institutions of the United States insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans. Critical race theorists are generally dedicated to applying their understanding of the institutional or structural nature of racism to the concrete (if distant) goal of eliminating all race-based and other unjust hierarchies.

Why is Critical Race Theory controversial at all? I suppose most persons currently in power (i.e., wealthy white males) consider reparations a non-issue because they know they'll never utter a word for it, and they assume no legislation will ever be passed concerning it. But the very idea of discussing how our white-dominated society continues to treats people from various racial, ethnic, gender identities, and religious groups in an abhorrent fashion makes the powerful feel uncomfortable. And they can't allow others to make them uncomfortable--that's for them to do to the rest of us and how we're supposed to feel.

For example, what if teachers started conversations with grade school children on the topic of the horrors of slavery for enslaved Africans? Speaking frankly on the subject could open the white status quo up to criticism and blame. No longer would the kindly, white grandfather stereotype be seen as benign or  generous. No, quite the opposite. He'd be painted in an entirely different light, a much more sinister and selfish light.

Those in power can't stand having their image tarnished. They long to be seen as Santa Claus, not Captain Hook. But once the whole sordid truth of American history is revealed, there's no way to get that cat back into the bag. Children will cast a critical eye at every action powerful whites make from now on and will become sensitive to the consequences of these actions. Are the people in power acting fairly? Are they hurting others? What group(s) do those being hurt belong to? What benefits do the wealthy whites gain from hurting others unlike themselves?

Encouraging empathy, a sense of fairness, and a love for the rule of law aren't the kinds of traits white employers would like instilled in their potential wage slaves. The next thing you know, these enlightened youth will grow up to start their own unions and protest for human rights, such as the right to health care and due process in a court of law. 

Think about it from the oligarchs' point of view. Black, white, brown, red, yellow, and purple people shouldn't be able to organize and work together toward common goals of equality and justice. They'll get ideas… Ideas that all human beings are created equal. And what would happen to the status quo then? 

Hierarchies are created to keep those in power on top of the heap and those stuck below subjected to the whims of the upper classes. Equality and justice only muddy the waters and allow the classes to mingle. There's no more cheap prison labor if you can't lock up African American males on petty drug misdemeanor charges. The top tier hates anything cutting into their profits.

Let's be honest. The only people who are against teaching unvarnished and uncensored American history are those who fear they'll lose their ancestors' ill-gotten gains when the ugly truth is revealed. And outright racists. And those who fall into both categories.

The only true controversy I see brewing here is why we've allowed these racist oligarchs to rule over us for this long and what method is best to put them away for the good of all humankind.

Related links:

Confronting Right Wing Attacks on Racial Justice Teaching https://popularresistance.org/confronting-right-wing-attacks-on-racial-justice-teaching/

Real CRT: The Whiteness of Organizations (podcast) https://open.spotify.com/episode/2zOcsy5yc8bITg2BQP5sbk

Whitewashing 101: How To Rewrite Black History  (video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3uvcydrxYk&t=1s  

College Faculty Are Fighting Back Against State Bills on Critical Race Theory  https://www.rsn.org/001/college-faculty-are-fighting-back-against-state-bills-on-critical-race-theory.html 

A Century Ago Mississippi's Senate Voted to Send All the State's Black People Back to Africa https://www.rsn.org/001/a-century-ago-mississippis-senate-voted-to-send-all-the-states-black-people-to-africa.html 

A Persecuted Father Deported to Haiti Fights to Reunite with His Family in US   https://truthout.org/articles/a-persecuted-father-deported-to-haiti-fights-to-reunite-with-his-family-in-us/

Seen on Twitter:

So Kim potter only gets 2 years in prison, I seen black people who sold an ounce of drugs get 10 or 15 years and they didn't kill anyone but she gets 2, you really think justice was really served here?

— Marc. (@MARCANDERSONNWO) February 19, 2022

 

Marvin Guy has been in jail for 7 years without even being convicted of anything. During a No knock warrant he shot back trying to defend himself. Charges need to be dropped. Get involved here: https://t.co/1wBzWkBXbA

— Pepper Oceanna Lewis (@PepperOceanna) February 15, 2022

*** 

The reports are sickening: Black migrants tortured by U.S. immigration officers and forced to sign their own deportation orders. Some were beaten, others choked.

This is not an isolated incident. The U.S. immigration system is incredibly racist. Black immigrants are six times more likely to experience being in solitary confinement than immigrants in general, and are disproportionately more likely to be detained and deported.

Especially sad is that so many Black immigrants are eligible to be freed from this cruelty simply by paying a bond. But many can’t afford it, and that’s where we can help. 

Donate to the Black Immigrants Bail Fund to help pay bonds, hire lawyers, and help them reach their goal of $200,000 to get people to safety TODAY.

DoNate NOW

The Black Immigrants Bail Fund was created in July of 2021 by the Haitian Bridge Alliance and the African Bureau for Immigration and Social Affairs as a way to combat these unjust circumstances. 

So far, they have aided over 173 detainees and given over $2.6 million in bond requests to free Black migrants.

This Black History Month, your donation can help supercharge the work of the Black Immigrants Bail Fund and get Black migrants out of horrific conditions.

Your donation will pay bonds that keep loved ones locked up and hire lawyers to represent their cases in immigration court. will you give in any amount right now to help families stuck in detention centers?

DoNate NOW

What our immigration system has done to Black families seeking safety is gut-wrenching and wrong. Our fight isn’t over until we can welcome every family with dignity and compassion in the U.S.

 

In Solidarity,

Erin Mazursky | Organizing Director
Families Belong Together

 ***

The number of people seeking safety and left to suffer in detention has skyrocketed to *20,000* since Biden took office.

It gets worse: the government is expanding programs that criminalize families through hyper-surveillance tactics like home curfews and ankle monitors.

These cruel and unnecessary Trump-era policies are issues the Biden administration should be ending, not expanding, if they’re going to live up to their promise of treating families with dignity and respect – and there is a crystal clear alternative to cruelty.

Instead of spending millions on keeping detention centers open, launching house arrest programs, and even robot border patrol dogs, the Biden administration can choose Communities over Cages by investing in caseworkers, lawyers, and community programs that actually help people fleeing danger. 

Let’s make it unequivocal that our community completely rejects any Trump-era immigration policies, and urge President Biden to choose Communities Not Cages in order to welcome people with dignity and respect now?

take action

The Biden administration promised on their campaign trail to immediately end the detention of families, stop the expansion of programs that criminalize families seeking safety, and create *real* solutions to welcoming people with dignity. It’s time for them to keep that promise.

We cannot be a country that meets families seeking safety with handcuffs and ankle monitors. We have to make the choice to welcome women, children, and families with efficient and timely processing, care, and most importantly, compassion.

Let’s make sure that Biden keeps his promise to reform the system with caseworkers, lawyers, and community-based solutions, not expanding detention, by flooding his team with calls from across the country in support of Community Not Cages.

Add your name to pressure the Biden administration to stop detaining families and welcome people seeking safety with dignity and compassion instead.

take action

We need the government to end the inhumanity of detention centers and the criminalization of families seeking safety. Doing this would get us so much closer to opening up legal pathways for people seeking safety rather than completely shutting them down. It’s time we live up to who we can be as a country. 

 

Thanks for all you do,

Erin Mazursky, Organizing Director
Families Belong Together

 *** 

In a near-future dystopian world, hope blossoms where mutual aid and democracy begins...

Zonta’s world is turned upside down when Jake arrives at the commune to investigate the disappearance of agents of the Authority. Can she persuade him to switch sides before the Protectors (antifascist fighters) take action?

Available now: https://www.extasybooks.com/Where-the-Bodies-Lie

A great tale of how love, cooperation, and socialism will ultimately save us all. -- Redd Phlagg