Review of Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia: The Origin and Direction of the FARC-EP

“Morality only consists in making the relationship between the smallest action and the greatest good…”

Antonio Gramsci
Cocaine
Published in Sotto la Mole, 1916-1920

***

Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia by James J. Brittain provides a comprehensive account of the conflict between the FARC and the Colombian government from the perspective of the now demobilized quasi Marxist-Leninst narco-insurgents. Based on five years of field research and extensive archival analysis of primary and secondary documents – the strength of the work is sapped by numerous inclusions of half-baked opinions and poorly informed analysis. Brittain, for instance, is fundamentally cynical about U.S. military aid to Colombia – as if the profound effects wrought by incredibly violent and ruthless transnational drug trafficking networks on society and governance in the Americas did not even exist!

An external example of such ideological prejudice can be seen in a review of the book was posted shortly after publication on Fight Back News – a Freedom Road Socialist Organization front masquerading as an authentic media organization. On their website, the book is described as such:

“For Colombia solidarity activists, Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia is a tool. In the battle of ideas against all of the U.S. ruling class justifications for continuing to give billions of dollars to the Uribe regime through Plan Colombia, or in opposition to the U.S. escalation in Colombia through its seven newly acquired military bases, this book is a weapon. For anyone doing anti-intervention organizing, whether around Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, the Philippines or any place where the U.S. is oppressing the people of the world and where the people are resisting by any means necessary, this book provides a valuable case-study.”

While the author’s clear biases mean that some of the arguments and analysis by Brittain is intellectually facile or, at times, absurd, it is in fact because of this that it is an important work for those seeking to understand the concepts and terms of how the FARC and those who sympathize with it think. Because the author uses Marxist philosophy to present the FARC as an innovative and “more democratic” alternative to globalization than neoliberalism rather than a narco-terrorist organization was, in fact, why I wanted to read it.

Neoliberalism and it’s Discontents: FARC’s Rise

Like other books I’ve read covering conflict in Colombia – such as The FARC: The Longest Insurgency by Gary Leech; The Para-State: An Ethnography of Colombia’s Death Squads by Alvo Civico; and Law in a Lawless Land: Diary of a Limpieza in Colombia by Michael Taussig – this books starts with La Violencia as the founding moment for the FARC.

Birthed in the Tolima region, which is the department immediately to the south of where I now write this (Antioquia) a number of self-defense groups were formed in order to protect land that was seized from large-property owners or areas administered by the Colombian state. They became enclaves for those wishing to escape the violence elsewhere and farm. While not first conceived of as an “alternative” form of socio-economic development defining itself in contrast to globalization – coca production and illegal commodity extraction soon became their economic basis of what was, essentially, a colonial project.

By mid-1964 the PCC/guerrilla leader Manuel Marulanda Vélez (Tiro Fijo) had accumulated such a significant amount of dual-power that Operation Marquetalia was launched to retake occupied areas. 20,000 Colombian troops, as well as U.S. advisors and U.S. Iroquois attack helicopters.

While the operation as a whole was successful this lead to the spreading of the number of fronts of those connected to the FARC. This put the organization into more conflict with Colombia’s large-land owners, who were extorted, had their lands forcibly broken up and were kidnapped or killed for money or to send a message.

The South and West Blocks specifically became areas that were associated with coca production and provided the organization with funds to fight the intensifying violent backlash by the political and economic elites.

Given that the publisher of this book (PM Press) is committed to disseminating Anarchists and Marxist literature it’s not surprising that the author’s singular focus on the origin and activities of the FARC  doesn’t give a broader contextualization of events.

As a result of this myopia that I mentioned in the introduction, there are a number of endorsements of the FARC political/historical line without a broader view of how events transpiring outside of Colombia affected the country.

Recounting the rapid rise of membership in the 1970’s, for instance, the author claims that rising inflation, declining capital for small agricultural operations and the dispossession of subsistence farmers leading are solely the U.S.’s fault. Brittain conflates the national Colombian economic elite with that of the US, as if the former were mere pawns/proxies of U.S. power, and gives no mention to the the global restructuring of supply chains and capital investment portfolios wrought by the rise Europe and Asia as well as other nations intensifying their agricultural export industries – all trends described in Pivotal Decade: How the United States Traded Factories for Finance in the 1970s.

Movement of Movements and the Composition of the FARC

No organization is ever an island unto itself, and the FARC is no exception. Brittain explicates how there are numerous Colombian organizations, such as the PPC and the MNBC, that assist and amplify the effects of their war of position as well as international organizations – be they transnational criminal enterprises involved in the distribution of cocaine and even Special Committees of the United Nations.

A term emerging from the Italian Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci, war of position refers to the specific manner in which the FARC conceives of their historical mission. Their relationships to outside organizations are based on the intention to create a dual power system within Colombia they become an instrument of state power. Even though these organizations may not be fully committed guerrillas like the FARC, because they view socialism revolution as “a continuous process of formation and superseding of unstable equilibria” their actions are conceived of as aligned with their goals.

Quoting several SouthCom and Colombian government reports Brittain states that in the early 1990s it was thought possible – given the FARC’s embeddedness within urban collectives in Bogota – for them to have taken over Bogota. Rather than pursuing this policy and thus, to use a Game of Thrones metaphor, ruling over a “city of ashes” they did not engage in direct confrontation in the urban center in order to reinforce their support-bases in the periphery, the coca-growing regions. It was believed that by the building of class consciousness (really their own particular vision of ideological orthodoxy) a social revolution could be achieved rather than a merely political one. This view, as the recent history of the peace accords shows, was incorrect. Because of Brittain’s sympathies, it’s worth pointing out another consideration less likely to be voiced by the FARC Secretariat – the problems created by actually administering a large and complex economy connected to multi-national corporations rather than merely interacting with coca-producing farmers, and small-scale illegal loggers and miners.

While such an admission would likely never leave the lips of someone whose committed their lives to guerilla combat, surely because of this the urban center, which inevitably complicates the Bolivarian-Marxian vision they’ve been acculturated into, doesn’t allow for simple solutions. Reading Marx, after all, doesn’t prepare one to appropriately understand modern national macro-economic policies.

FARC as Narco-Settler-Colonialism

Given that the campesinos that the FARC acts as a government for those that are involved in the narco-trafficking industry and that they are setting up their operations in a colonial manner – i.e. setting up operations in areas without infrastructure (roads, sewage, medical or educational facilities) – there’s an deep irony in the author’s frequent endorsement of the settlers claims that it is the lack of the farmers ability to obtain credit from banks or services from the government as a justifying cause for their operations.

Juntas de Acción Comunal

Brittain presents the Colombian-government sponsored Juntas de Acción Comunal, for instance, as being started to helping to serve up national sovereignty to American capital rather than helping develop new business relationships for the export of legal agricultural goods and other commodities. This is, after all, what the FARC’s help facilitate – though of illicit materials.

Organized along military lines, the FARC uses military tactics to gain recruits and expands it’s operation not though a greater division of labor but by geographical expansion. More illicit farms mean more money and arms for their operation. Because of this it highly ironic – Orwellian Irony even – that Brittain describes this dual-power organization as the target of “fascist” attacks when the actual government seeks to halt their recruitment efforts on college campuses in Colombia – something that Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia describes.  This Manichean worldview means government-sponsored informer networks are, to Brittain, quadi-totalitarian while the FARC’s are expression of “organic” identification with the organization – even after describing punishments for breaking the FARC’s laws.

FARC, Social Change & Kultural Marxism


The author, giving a first person account of the

 

“Upon visiting areas controlled by the FARC-EP I observed educational facilities in both public spaces and guerrilla camps that loosely resembled small makeshift schoolhouses. The encampment schools were plastered with pictures of Che Guevara and past comandantes of the FARC-EP, and were referred to as “cultural centers.” They were heavily used and resembled a jungle-like revolutionary museum; filled with pamphlets, books, music, and information related to Marxism, Colombia’s political economy, and Latin American society.”

Venezuela, TeleSUR & Kultural Marxism

Well not discussed within the book it’s interesting to note that Hugo Chavez, the former president of TeleSUR, has long cited the FARC-EP as a historical and ideological inspiration.

No surprise then that the entrance to TeleSUR’s offices in Quito, Ecuador is akin to the cultural centers described by the James J. Brittain – filled with the portrait art of Latin America’s many revolutionaries.

The relationship between Sergio Marin, the head of the propaganda office for the FARC, however, would certainly approve of their operations. They, like Nicolas Maduro Moros, use Gramsci as a framework to inform their model of social and political change.

Though describing a Colombian context, the connection to The Resistance in America (as conceived by those connected to the Left Forum) is obviously apparent.

Thus, despite the books many weaknesses, it is an important work for those trying to understand the perspective of the FARC and their allies in Venezuela, Ecuador and elsewhere.

Presentation on Colombia by James J Brittain

Occupy Unmasked: Steve Bannon, Andrew Breitbart & Evidence of CastroChavismo

I decided to start watching the films produced by Citizen United Films and the first one that I decided to watch, given the connection to my research on CastroChavismo, was Occupy Unmasked.

A project of Steve Bannon and Andrew Breitbart’s – I found the film to be compelling in its depiction of the covert goals of the Occupiers; the disingenuous methods used to try to obtain positive media coverage and the generally intellectually bankrupt character of the personalities involved despite whatever “good intentions” they claimed. This was, in fact, why I paid so little attention to what was going on after the first encampment was created in Zuccotti Park.

While I was living in Barcelona, Spain at the time that the occupation started, the supposedly “spontaneous” event was being planned when I was living in New York City and attending New York University. In fact in my Contemporary Marxist Theory class, taught by Vivek Chibber, there were several students from the New School for Social Research – the educational institution associated with the Frankfurt School that sought people to become involved in this “spontaneous” uprising against the 1%.

Before that, even, at an academic conference at SUNY Binghamton, I debated with Micah White (one of the “founders” of the movements) over the merits of the actions to come. My experience at this conference of self-proclaimed radicals was so cringy I even wrote a poem about it.

Occupy Unmasked: A Critical Appraisal

My one criticism of the film, which is half-heartedly given the closeness of the film’s release to the events described, is that it doesn’t delve deep enough into the details on the personalities driving occupy.

The section on Brandon Darby and Common Grounds Collective, for instance, covers a very significant point – the infiltration by communists and anarchists into “solidarity” and assistance organizations in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina for the purpose of base-building for the purpose of creating Dual Power.

The various organizations and their connections to international organizations, international political parties, and the intelligence services operations of foreign states – however – are not explored in the film. Furthermore the connection of various domestic educational institutions – such as NYU’s Hemispheric Institute and the New School for Social Research, who in their own literature describes themselves as the heirs of the Frankfurt School – is not covered.

Given that the focus of the film is on showing the anti-Consitutional, anti-capitalist, illegalist, and insurrectionary nature of OWS political activists as well as it’s connections to unions – this is just additional erudition related to points made in the film.

Occupy Wall Street, Rape and “Alternative Justice” 

One of the most compelling moments of Occupy Unmasked is when Andrew Breitbart yells repeatedly into the Zuccoti Park encampment: “Stop raping people.” after rapes were reported to the police and news media. While this film focuses on New York, it’s important to note that there were a number of other sexual assaults at Occupy Wall Street camps – including that of minors.

Breitbart, immediately thereafter records someone on film stating that they have their own set of “means” for dealing with such crimes.

As someone that has read the accounts of sexual assaults by now-former members of various American Socialist Parties, it’s worth noting that there are a number of instances described by members criminal charges are not brought against anyone (as it would damage the prestige of the organization and thus the likelihood of revolution) and instead, like the practices of the Catholic Church and pedophile priests, organizers are instead sent to other cities and those that bring it up publicly are ostracized.

Occupy Unmasked and CastroChavismo

Watching Steve Bannon’s film I noticed a number of indicators that are connected to my own documentary/data science project.

The below photo collection further provides further evidence to my own Movement of Movements Thesis, as well as reinforces the claims made by Bannon and Breitbart in Occupy Unmasked.

Why I Write: To Avoid Criminal Charges

As my reader can see from this quotation from the U.S. Code’s subsection on Treason, Sedition and Subversive Activities as listed on the Cornell Law School Website:

“Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States and having knowledge of the commission of any treason against them, conceals and does not, as soon as may be, disclose and make known the same to the President or to some judge of the United States, or to the governor or to some judge or justice of a particular State, is guilty of misprision of treason and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than seven years, or both.”

Defining Treason in Relation to Venezuela’s U.S. Political Influence Network

Since becoming informed as to part of the scope and scale of the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela’s financial support and assistance of radical political activity in the United States, I’ve been publishing online about it in part to avoid being charged with misprision of treason.

Why do I define the behavior of most of the people associated with Venezuela’s state media as being treasonous? Simple! Their behavior categorically fits the definition of treason.

While those on my list are likely to try to use the Free Speech clause of the Constitution as an aegis for their activities, if one reads the original documents of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela it is clear that the Government views their investments in American media and political personalities as being part of a war.

Debunking Richard Wolff’s Debunking of Jordan Peterson’s “Cultural Marxism”

This article contextualizes an exchange between Dr. Richard Wolff and Abby Martin about Jordan Peterson that was uploaded to Empire Files’s YouTube channel.

It then debunks some of the critical analysis and positions made by Wolff, and places his work within the context of Kultural Marxism.

Jordan Peterson and Slavoj Žižek Discuss “Happiness: Capitalism vs. Marxism”

I know a lot about Marxism.

Slavoj Žižek was one of my professors during my M.A. research at New York University and in his lectures, he frequently explicated on the works of Karl Marx and G. W. F. Hegel.

Vivek Chibber and Bertell Ollman, experts in the fields of historical and dialectical materialism – sub-fields in History and Political Sciences based on the writings of Marx – were also my professors while at NYU.

While not that familiar with the work of Jordan Peterson (my familiarity with his work consists of watching another of his other debates) I was curious to see him speak given his rise to fame and my own psychological investigations under my father’s guidance while attending FICAM.

Grading the Debate

Watching Jordan Peterson explain Marxist thought was thorougly cringy.

When I first heard him say something askew from what Marxists actually describe in their works I thought of writing – as I did with the Steve Bannon vs. David Frum Munk Debate – a sort of ongoing commentary, this time correcting him.

I quickly realized that to do so would consume more time than I was willing to commit, so was heartened to see that Harrison Fluss, a former colleague from mine from FAU, went into specifics in Jacobin Magazine. Though I don’t agree with a number of his conclusions there or in his other commentary on Peterson, his assessments related to Marx are valid and insightful.

This, however, doesn’t mean that Slavoj Žižek won the debate.

There was no real overarching conflict affirming or negating a resolution. It was more like a mutual clarification of perspectives, a charting of concepts histories and a series of clarifications and jokes.

Though Žižek states in his rebuttal that Peterson’s reading of The Communist Manifesto was overly-simplified, he also recognizes that what Peterson means by “Cultural Marxism” doesn’t actually emerge from Marxist thought and even agrees with Peterson that some of the critical points he makes about it are nevertheless correct.

More importantly, as it relates to Capitalism vs. Marxism and it’s relationship to Happiness, is that Žižek agrees with Peterson’s description of post-modernist/identity politics protests and other ideas it the replacement of Marx’s idea of class conflict– defined as being between the working class, proletariat and the bourgeoisie – with those of the terms used within identity politics discourse.

Thus even though Dr. Peterson can’t name a single of these “post-modern Marxists”  – they both share that they’ve had experiences on campus of those embodying this value system.

This is important, as it allows the Žižek and Peterson to come to a mutually agreed-upon understanding of what is meant by Cultural Marxism and to agree that what they understand by it is socially harmful.

Debunking the Debunking of Jordan Peterson’s “Cultural Marxism” with Richard Wolff


In his interview with Abby Martin on Empire Files Dr. Richard D. Wolff similarly recognized Peterson’s unfamiliarity with Marxist literature and inability to name a single person that would fall under the rubric of a “Cultural Marxist”.

But, rather than being a magnanimous interlocutor he claims that Dr. Peterson’s used of the term Cultural Marxism is merely a revival of an old Nazi trope that has no connection whatsoever to Marxism (it does, and I describe it in brief here) and then denigrates him for not understanding what “exploitation” means to Marxists. That whole subsequent dialogue between Dr. Peterson and Dr. Žižek which finds them clarifying the terms used and then agreeing to the? Completely ignored.

The extent to Dr. Wolff’s unfairness to Jordan Peterson goes beyond making red herrings and being condescensing to someone speaking outside their area of specialization.

In his closing comments, Dr. Wolff equates the perspective of Dr. Peterson (a view, incidentally, shared by Marx [₁]) – that social hierarchies will always exist in some form to the justification of chattel slavery in the Americans.

Let me state this again as it is important.

Whereas Dr. Jordan Peterson limits his discussion on hierarchies to endogenous personal capabilities (such as physical attractiveness and other such mundane and widely recognized categories) and says equality of ends is offensive to the human condition but equality of opportunity is a necessary value to strive for – Dr. Wolff twists this and Dr. Peterson’s otherwise mundane argument (“People can be judged based on different qualities” – a position adjacent to his claim that history can be judged on qualities other than class struggle) to mean that he is justifying slavery.

More than that, he places this position within a wider, conspiratorial framework wherein Peterson is an expression of the economic elite which feels the “status quo is in danger” and thus the “dominant classes” revert to using the language of “natural law” to justify their rule.

Beyond merely making the false claim that Peterson’s position is to justify slavery, Wolff states that in situations wherein people use the language of natural law – that physical violence is an appropriate response.

His exact words are: “The minute you hear that [justification of hierarchies] you should reach for your gun.”

Given that Dr. Peterson’s last words are to praise the human capacity to engage with and learn from others that hold different world views and that Žižek’s last words are to warn Leftists from falling into “the political correctness trap” and to be intrepid in their thinking, this line of commentary by Dr. Wolff’s seems highly suspect [2].

Orwellian Irony: Why Kultural Marxists Seek to Debunk Cultural Marxism 

“Loyalty Forever, Traitors Never” – In this Facebook Live video Nicolas Maduro expresses the view that good citizens don’t question the Revolutionary Process or speak bad about Hugo Chavez. In the comments section on the right, Venezuelans ask Maduro for financial assitance.

Dr. Peterson and Dr. Žižek both reject the Marxist framework that subsumes individual liberty under the collective.

The above image provides a brief indicator as to why that is so – being forced to rely upon the attention and benevolence of a Party or Dear Leader for the means by which to self-reproduce or better one’s socio-economic standing is degrading and has lead, historically, to a wide variety of crimes great and small.

In contrast to Dr. Richard Wolff, who views Dr. Peterson as an avatar for the anxieties of an economic elite that fears a shift towards Socialism in America (Idealism), I view Dr. Richard Wolff along with a number of intellectuals, artists and political activists as being associated with Venezuela’s state media, state intelligence apparatus and the PSUV (Historicism).

What is the basis for my claim, besides being on a show funded by Venezuela?

In addition to appearing on a number of media outlets connected to or associated with Venezuelan state media, Richard D. Wolff was also involved with Occupy Wall Street (along with many other Venezuela-aligned Marxist-inspired organizations such as the Workers World Party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the Revolutionary Communist Party); is also an instructor at the People’s Forum and and is on the board of the Left Forum –  organizations which hosts a number of Kultural Marxist personalities; frequently appears on The Real News Network– which has numerous former Venezuelan government officials working for it; and is involved with a Democracy at Work, a non-profit with an anti-capitalist orientation akin to other political activism projects that have received funding from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

In fact, Dr. Wolff’s closing comments – misrepresenting the position of a perceived enemy and then threatening violence – are roughly commensurate with the political climate fostered by Nicolas Maduro: Discouraging criticism under threat of neglect (access to government goods and services) and violence (via SEBIN and colectivos). Given the role that academic editors and peer-review plays in academic publications

I imagine that Dr. Wolff’s written corpus isn’t as distortive and crass as this “debunking,” but I’ll have to rely on other’s assessments as after having watched his exchange with Abby Martin I’m disinterested in potentially encountering other falsifications done for the sake of demonstrating ideological purity and superiority.

Footnote

[1] This is a very strange claim for Wolff to make as the notion that “hierarchy” disappears under a socialist regime is quickly disproved via historical analysis or reference to seminal Marxist texts. In Critique of the Gotha Program, Karl Marx writes:

“In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life’s prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly—only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!”

While one can certainly make the claim that conflating Marx and Lenin is intellectually problematic, it’s also worth citing Lenin to disprove Wolff’s claim that all hierarchies are flattened in a Socialist societty. In Lenin’s own words, from , “The State and Revolution”:

“We are not utopians, we do not ‘dream’ of dispensing at once with all administration, with all subordination. These anarchist dreams, based upon incomprehension of the tasks of the proletarian dictatorship, are totally alien to Marxism, and, as a matter of fact, serve only to postpone the socialist revolution until people are different. No, we want the socialist revolution with people as they are now, with people who cannot dispense with subordination, control, and ‘foremen and accountants’.”

One could also look to the history of the Soviet Union, with Joseph Stalin’s policy enactment of “primitive socialist accumulation” to demonstrate that exploitation still existed via the provision of surplus value being provided to political cadres loyal to the current leader of the Communist Party and not workers.

[2] In what is essentially a criticism of The Resistance, which is intimately connected to the Left Forum, Slavoj Žižek also claimes in his closing statement that “People labeling others fascist is lazy thinking, and Trump is not a fascist.”

English Translation of “Local y Global: La gestión de las ciudades en la era de la información”

LOCAL AND GLOBAL:
THE MANAGEMENT OF CITIES IN THE ERA OF THE INFORMATION

from The Multicultural City

Jordi Borja and Manuel Castells

Our world is ethnically and culturally diverse and cities concentrate and express this diversity. Faced with the homogeneity affirmed and imposed by the State throughout history, most civil societies have historically constituted from a multiplicity of ethnicities and cultures that have generally resisted bureaucratic pressures towards normalization cultural and ethnic cleansing. Even in societies such as the Japanese or the Spanish, ethnically very homogeneous, regional cultural differences (or nationals, in the Spanish case), territorially marked traditions and forms of specific lives, are reflected in diverse behavior patterns and, sometimes, in intercultural tensions and conflicts (1). The management of these tensions, the construction of coexistence in respecting differences, are some of the most important challenges that all societies have had and now face. The concentrated expression of that cultural diversity, with it’s resulting tensions and the wealth of possibilities that diversity also contains preferably in cities, receptacle and melting pot of cultures, are combined via the construction of a common citizen project.

In the last years of the twentieth century, the globalization of the economy and acceleration of the urbanization process have increased the ethnic and cultural plurality of cities, through migration processes, national to international, that lead to the interpenetration of disparate populations and ways of life in the space of the main metropolitan areas of the world. The global is local, in a socially segmented and spatially segregated way, by human displacement caused by the destruction of old ways and the creation of new productive activity centers. The territorial differentiation of the two processes, that of creation and destruction, increases the uneven development between regions and between countries, and introduces a diversity growing in the urban social structure. In this article, we will analyze the process of formation of ethnic-cultural diversity in its new manifestations and the consequences of such diversity for the management of cities.

Globalization, migration and urbanization

The acceleration of the urbanization process in the world is largely due to the increase in rural-urban migrations, frequently due to the expulsion of labor from agriculture due to sectoral modernization, is also the consequence of the processes of industrialization and of growth of the informal economy in the metropolitan areas of the countries undergoing development (2). Although statistics vary by country, estimates offended for a number of developing countries indicate that, on average, while in 1960-70, the contribution of rural-urban emigration turban growth was 36.6%, in 1975-90, it increased to 40% of the new urban population. The contribution to metropolitan growth, in both cases, was even greater (3). In almost all countries, the incorporation into the cities of emigrants from rural areas significantly accentuates cultural diversity and, in ethnically diverse countries, such as the United States or Brazil, ethnic diversity.

Africa

Globalization has also caused significant population displacements between countries, although international migration presents a pattern complex that does not follow stereotyped visions of public opinion. So, almost half of the 80 million internationals around the world are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East (4). About 35 million migrants are in sub-Saharan Africa, representing 8% of their total population. These migratory movements in Africa are of two types: on the one hand, migrations of workers, aimed at the countries of greatest economic dynamism, particularly to South Africa, Ivory Coast, Gambia and Nigeria. On the other hand, large displacements of hunger refugees, the war and genocide, in the Sahel, in the horn of Africa, in Mozambique, in Rwanda and Burundi, among other areas: in 1987 alone they were estimated at 12.6 million people displaced by wars or catastrophes in Africa (5). In Asia, Malaysia is the country with the highest immigration, with almost one million foreign workers, generally from Indonesia. Japan counts also with close to a million foreigners and several thousand illegal workers whose number is increasing rapidly, although the most foreigners are Koreans living in Japan for several generations. Singapore has about 300,000 immigrants, which represents high proportion of its population, and Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan, with Quotas below 100,000 each. However, to the extent that that the development of these countries be accentuated and the demographic pressure increase in China, India and Indonesia, an increase in migration is expected international, in addition to the increase in rural-urban migration throughout Asia. Thus, Japan in 1975 had an annual immigration of about 10,000 foreigners, while in 1990, that figure had increased to about 170,000 per year, mostly from Korea (6).

Latin America
Latin America, land of immigration during the twentieth century, has become a place of emigration. During the 1950-64 period the region as a whole had a net balance of migrations of + 1.8 million people, while in 1976-85, the balance was negative: – 1.6 million. The most significant changes were the drastic reduction of immigration in Argentina and the sharp increase of emigration in Mexico and Central America, particularly to the United States. Latin American immigration movements at the end of the century come generally from other Latin American countries. Thus, in Uruguay in 1991, of total of resident foreigners, 40% were from Argentina, 29% from Brazil and the11% of Chile. The highest proportion of foreign population occurs in Venezuela (7.2%), followed by Argentina (6.8%).

In more developed countries, in Western Europe and in the United States, there is a feeling among the population of an unprecedented arrival of immigrants in the last decade, of an authentic invasion in the terminology of some media outlets. However, the data shows a reality different, variable according to countries and historical moments (7).

Uneven development worldwide, economic and cultural globalization, and transport systems favor an intense transfer of populations. Then add the exoduses caused by wars and catastrophes, as well as, in Europe, the pressure of populations of the countries of the East that now enjoy freedom of traveling while suffering the impact of the economic crisis. But the immigration controls, strengthening borders between the countries of “them” and the rest of the world, the reduced creation of jobs in European leads to growing xenophobia in all societies. They represent obstacles formidable for population transfer that could result from trends alluded to. Let’s see, then, what is the real profile of recent migrations from the South and East to North and West.

U.S
In the United States, a society formed by successive waves of immigration, has effectively produced a significant increase in immigrants in absolute numbers since the immigration law reform in 1965, authorizing immigration by family reunification. But still, the current immigration levels are well behind the historical point reached between 1905 and 1914 (year when 1.2 million immigrants arrived in the United States). Moreover, in terms of proportion of the population, in 1914 those 1.2 million were equivalent to 1.5% of the population, while the total of 1992 immigrants represented only 0.3% of the population. Now what has changed substantially is the ethnic composition of immigration, which instead of coming from Europe and Canada, it now comes, for the most part, from Mexico, the Caribbean and other Latin American countries and Asia.

A similar phenomenon has taken place in the other two countries that are characterized, together with the United States, for having the highest proportion of foreign immigrants in its population, Canada and Australia. In Canada, in1992, more than 40% came from Asia, in particular from Hong Kong, and only a2.8% of the United Kingdom. Vancouver, the third largest Canadian city, has been transformed in the last decade by the arrival of 110,000 Chinese from Hong Kong, raising the proportion of Chinese population to 27% of residents of the city. Incidentally, such immigration has meant an influx of $4,000,000 per year in the local economy. As for Australia, in the 1990s, 21% of the population was born abroad and 40% have at least one parent was born abroad. Of the new immigrants arrived in Australia in1992, 51% came from Asia.

Europe
Western Europe presents a diversified picture in terms of migration movements. Using the percentage of population as an indicator foreign resident over the total population and observing its evolution between 1950 and 1990, we can verify, for example, that France and England had smaller proportion of the foreign population in 1990 than in 1982, while that Belgium and Spain had hardly varied (from 9.0 to 9.1%, and from 1.1 to 1.1%). Except the anomalous case of Luxembourg, the only European country whose foreign population exceeds 10% is Switzerland – also a special case because of the high degree of internationalization of its economy. And the average for the total of the European population is only 4.5% of foreigners. Increases significant during the eighties were mainly in Germany, Austria, Holland and Sweden, mainly due to the influence of Eastern European refugees. But also this influence seems to be much more limited from what Western European countries feared. So, for example, a European Commission report in 1991 estimated that 25 million citizens of Russia and the Soviet republics could emigrate to Western Europe before the year 2000. And yet, in the mid-1990s, it estimates that Russian emigration oscillates around 200,000 people per year, despite the horrific economic crisis that Russia is experiencing. The reason, for those they know the mechanisms of emigration, its simple: emigrants move through previously established contact networks. That’s why it’s the colonial metropolis that receives waves of immigrants from their former colonies (France and the Maghreb); or countries that deliberately recruited handoff cheap work in selected countries (Germany in Turkey and Yugoslavia) that continue to be the destination of emigrants from those countries. Instead, the Russians and ex-Soviets, having been banned from traveling for seven decades, lack support networks in emigration countries, with the exception of Jewish minority – which is precisely the one that emigrates. So, leaving family and country and launching into a hostile world without a support network is something that is only decided on a massive scale when a catastrophe forces it (famine, war, Nazism).

Now, if the data indicate that immigration in Western Europe does not reaches proportions as massive as those perceived in public opinion, why then that feeling? And why the social alarm? What really is happening is the increasing transformation of the ethnic composition of European societies, from imported immigrants during the period of high economic growth in the sixties. Indeed, the rates of fertility of foreigners are far higher than those of their European countries of residence (except, significantly, in Luxembourg and Switzerland, where the most foreigners are of European origin). For demographic reasons the fertility differential will continue to increase over time. This is the true source of social tension: the growing ethnic diversity of a Europe that has not yet assumed such diversity and is still talking about immigrants when, more and more, they are actually nationals of non-European ethnic origin. The population increase in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1990 was only 1% for whites, while it was 23% for ethnic minorities. Even so, whites are 51,847 million, while minorities only represent 2,614 million. But there exists a clear awareness of the inevitable process of setting up a society with important ethnic minorities, like the American model. Something similar happens in other European countries. Two thirds of foreigners from France and three quarters of those from Germany and Holland are of non-European origin. To this we must add, in the case of France, the growing proportion of population of non-European origin born in France that have the right to nationality upon reaching 18 years. It can also happen, as is the case in Germany, that the law denies the right to nationality to those born in the national territory of foreign parents, a situation in which hundreds of thousands of young Turks find themselves They never knew a land other than Germany. But the cost of such defense of notions of native nationality is the creation of a permanent caste of not-citizens, which can be used an infernal mechanism of social hostility. An additional factor is important in the perception of an ethnic diversity that goes far beyond the direct impact of immigration: the spatial concentration space of ethnic minorities in cities, particularly in large cities and in specific neighborhoods of large cities, where they reach constitute even the majority of the population. The spatial segregation of the city based on ethnic and cultural characteristics of the population, is not inheritance of a discriminatory past, but a feature of increasing importance, characteristic of our societies: the era of global information is also that of local segregation.

Ethnic diversity, social discrimination and urban segregation
In all societies, ethnic minorities suffer economic, institutional and cultural discrimination, which usually results in segregation in the city space. Income inequality and discriminatory practices in the housing market leads to the disproportionate concentration of ethnic minorities in certain urban areas within metropolitan areas. On the other hand, defensive reaction and cultural specificity reinforce the spatial segregation pattern, to the extent that each group ethnic tends to use its concentration in neighborhoods as a form of protection, mutual help and affirmation of its specificity. There is thus a double process of urban segregation: on the one hand, of ethnic minorities with respect to the group dominant ethnic; on the other hand, of the different ethnic minorities among them. Naturally, this spatial differentiation must be understood in terms statistical and symbolic, that is, as a disproportionate concentration of certain ethnic groups in certain spaces, rather than as residence exclusive to each group in each neighborhood. Even in borderline situations of urban racial segregation, as was the apartheid regime in South Africa, we can observe a strong socio-spatial differentiation, in terms of class, to from the moment the mandatory segregation is dismantled Institutionally imposed.

The best known and most studied urban ethnic segregation model is that of the American cities, which persists throughout the history of the United States and that has been reinforced in the last two decades, with the location of new immigrants in their corresponding segregated minority ethnic spaces, constituting true ethnic enclaves in the main areas metropolitan and thus denying in historical practice the famous myth of melting pot that is only applicable (and with limitations) to the populations of European origin (8). For example, in Los Angeles County, 70 of the 78 existing municipalities in 1970 had less than 10% of residents belonging to ethnic minorities. In contrast, in 1990 the 88 municipalities that by then made up the county had more than 10% ethnic minorities, but 42 municipalities had more than 50% ethnic minorities in their population (9).

Spatial concentration
The complete study by Massey and Denton (1993) on racial segregation urban in North American cities shows high levels of segregation between blacks and whites in all the big cities. Out of an index of absolute segregation of 100, the average is 68.3, which rises to an average of 80.1 for the northern metropolitan areas. The three main areas are they are also among the most segregated: New York, with an index of 82; Los Angeles, with 81.1; and Chicago with 87.8. Also the insulation index of blacks, which measures the interaction between blacks and other black groups (100 being the level of absolute isolation) reflects high values, with an average of 63.5, which rises to 66.1 in the northern areas and arrives to register in Chicago a 82.8 index.

The spatial concentration of disadvantaged ethnic minorities leads to creating true black holes of the urban social structure, which mutually reinforces poverty, deterioration of housing and services urban, low occupancy levels, lack of professional opportunities and criminality. In his study on segregation and crime in urban America, Massey (1995) concludes that the coincidence of high levels of poverty among blacks and high spatial segregation rates create ecological niches in that there are high rates of crime, violence and risk of being a victim of such crimes… Unless there is a movement towards desegregation, the cycle of violence will continue; however, the perpetuation of violence paradoxically it makes desegregation more difficult because it makes it beneficial for whites to have isolation from blacks. Specifically, by isolating blacks in segregated neighborhoods, the rest of society is isolated in relation to the crime and others social problems resulting from the high poverty rate among blacks. So in the 90s have declined, in general terms, crime rates in the North American main cities. Between 1980 and 1992, the proportion of number of American households that have suffered some form of crime has reduced by more than a third, but at the same time, the probability for Blacks of being victims of a crime have increased extraordinarily. Black teenagers are nine times more likely than boy’s targets of being killed: in 1960 they died violently 45 / 100,000, while that in 1990 the rate had gone to 140 / 100,000. In his study on the relationship between segregation of blacks and homicide of blacks in 125 cities, Peterson and Kirov found that spatial segregation between whites and blacks was the statistically most explanatory factor of the homicide rate of all the variables analyzed, much more important than poverty, education or age (10). Whoever is nearby is killed, and when a society, breaking with its liberal traditions and with its laws of racial integration, adopts the attitude cynical of locking up their impoverished racial minorities in more and more deteriorated ghettos, it exacerbates the violence in these areas. But from that moment the ethnic majority is doomed to live entrenched under the protection of the police and must allocate a large budget to police and prisons instead of education, as is the case in the state of California.

Racism and segregation:
While racism and urban segregation exist in all societies, not always are their profiles as marked nor their consequences as violent as those that occur in American cities. Likewise, Brazil is a multiracial society, in which blacks and mulattos occupy the lowest levels of the social scale (11). But, although ethnic minorities are also spatially segregated, both between the regions of the country and within the areas metropolitan, the dissimilarity index, which measures urban segregation, is far inferior to that of the North American metropolitan areas. Thus though economic inequality is influenced by ethnicity, institutional and social barriers and prejudices are much less entrenched than in U.S. Thus, two societies with an equally slave-like past evolved towards different patterns of spatial segregation and racial discrimination, based on cultural, institutional and economic factors that they favored the mixing of races and social integration in Brazil and made it difficult in the United States: a comparison that invites analysis of historical variation of a human nature that is not immutable.

Now, what seems to be established is the tendency to segregate ethnic minorities in all cities and in particular in the cities of the world more developed. Thus, as European societies receive new groups of immigrants and see their ethnic minorities grow from groups established in the last three decades, the segregation pattern is accentuated urban ethnicity. In the United Kingdom, although London only accounts for 4.7% of the population, it’d concentrated with 42% of the ethnic minorities population. These minorities, particularly concentrated in some districts, are characterized by a lower level of education, higher unemployment rate and an economic activity rate of only 58% compared to 80% of whites (12). At London’s Wands worth district, with about 260,000 inhabitants, about 150 different languages are spoken. To that ethnic-cultural diversity is joined by the doubtful privilege of being one of the English districts with the highest rate of social deficiencies. In Goteborg (Sweden), 16% of the population is of foreign origin and its residence is concentrated in the northeast of the city and on the island of Hisingen Zurich, which has seen its population of foreigners increase (especially Turks and Yugoslavs) from 18% in 1980 to 25% in 1990, 44% of this population is concentrated in the industrial areas of the urban periphery. In Holland, the foreigners are only 5% of the total population, but in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht said proportion ranges between 15% and 20%, while in the old neighborhoods of these cities it goes up to 50%. In Belgium the proportion of foreigners is 9%, but in the city of Anderlecht reaches 26% and in the neighborhood of La Rose, the most deteriorated, foreigners they represent 76% of its 2,300 inhabitants (13). In sum, European cities they are following, to a large extent, the urban segregation path of ethnic minorities characteristic of American metropolises, although the spatial form of urban segregation is more diverse in Europe. While the French banliues configure peripheral metropolitan ghettos, Central European and British people tend to concentrate minorities in the city center, in a space model similar to the North American, which can contribute to the decline of urban centers if the living conditions of ethnic minorities in Europe. Moreover, the importance of gangs and the flourishing of criminal activities is less accentuated in Europe than in North America. But if the tendencies of social exclusion continue to worsen, it seems reasonable to assume that situations similar will lead to similar consequences, except for the cultural and institutional differences. The multicultural city is a city enriched by its diversity, as Daniel Cohn Bandit pointed out in his introductory intervention to the Frankfurt Colloquium sponsored by the Council of Europe on multiculturalism in the city (14). But, as it also remained manifest in this colloquium, the segregated city is the city of rupture of social solidarity and, eventually, of the empire of urban violence.

Floating populations in cities:
The variable geometry of the new world economy and the intensification of migratory phenomenon, both rural-urban and international, have generated a new category of population, between rural, urban and metropolitan: population floating that moves with economic flows and according to the permissiveness of institutions, in search of their survival, with temporalities and spatial variables, depending on the countries and circumstances.

Although by its very nature the phenomenon is difficult to measure, more and more current extensive research provides data on its importance and on the consequences it has for the operation and management of cities (15). Perhaps the society in which the floating population reaches largest dimensions is China during the last decade. For a long time, the control of population movements regulated in 1958 in which each citizen Chinese was registered as a member of a hook (household) and classified on the base of said residence. Under said regulation a change of rural residence to urban was extremely difficult. The trips required prior permission and the rationing system forced one to present in stores or restaurants coupons assigned to the place of residence and work. Thus, the hook system was effective method of controlling space mobility and reducing rural-urban migration (16). However, with China’s economic liberalization during the eighties immobility became dysfunctional for the allocation of resources humans according to a dynamic partially governed by market laws. Furthermore, the privatization and modernization of agriculture increased productivity and then expelled tens of millions of peasants from the land who turned out to be surplus labor (17). Unable to meet the needs of this economically displaced rural population, the Chinese government chose to raise restrictions on population movements and / or apply them less strictly, according to the regions and the moments of the political situation. The result was the generation of massive rural-urban migrations in the last decade, especially towards the big cities and towards the industrial centers and South China exporters. But those cities and regions, despite their extraordinary economic dynamism (in fact, the centers with the highest rate of economic growth of the world in the last decade) could not absorb stable workers by the millions, nor provide them with urban housing and services, so many urban immigrants lived without a fixed residence or in the rural periphery of the metropolis, while many others adapted a pattern of seasonal migrations, coming and going between their villages of origin and metropolitan centers (18). So Guangzhou (Canton), a city of about six million inhabitants, accounted in 1992 a total of 1.34 million temporary residents to which 260,000 were added daily. In the whole of Guangdong province they were estimated at minus 6 million the number of temporary migrants. In Shanghai, at the end of the 80s, they had 1.83 million floating, while in 1993, after development from the industrial district of Pudding, it was estimated that one million more were floating. They had arrived in Shanghai in that year. The only reliable migration survey of the last decade, carried out in 1986, estimated that on that date 3.6% of the population of the 74 cities surveyed were temporary residents. Other National estimate, evaluates the number of floats in 1988, between 50 and 70 millions of people. What seems undoubted is that the phenomenon has increased Beijing Central Railway Station, built for 50,000 daily passengers, go through it currently between 170,000 and 250,000,according to the periods. The Beijing municipal government estimates that each increase of 100,000 daily visitors to the city consume 50,000 kilos of grain, 50,000 kilos of vegetables, 100,000 kilowatts of electricity, 24,000 liters of water and uses 730 public buses. This number of visitors causes 100,000 kilos of garbage and generates 2,300 kilos of sewage waste. The living conditions of this floating population are much lower than those of the permanent population (19) and are, at the same time, easy prey for crime and shelter for criminals, which increases prejudices against them among the population resident. Although smaller than in China, the phenomenon of a floating population is characteristic of most of the developing world and particularly from Asia (20). So in Bangkok, of the emigrants arrived in the city between 1975 and 1985, 25% had already lived in three different cities and 77% of the respondents did not plan to stay in Bangkok for more than a year, while that only 12% of migrants had registered regularly in their Bangkok residence, indicating an existence on horseback between its areas of origin and the different urban labor markets. In Java, the World Bank estimated that in 1984 25% of rural households had at least one member of the family working in an urban center for part of the year, which it was equivalent to 50% of the urban active population. Similar trends have been observed in the Philippines and Malaysia (21). The extent of the phenomenon, and its diffusion in other areas of the world, it makes the distinction between rural more and more inoperative and urban, to the extent that what is truly significant is the plot of relations that are established between the dynamism of the big cities and the population flows that are located at different times at different times and with different intensities, according to the rhythms of articulation between global and local economy.

In the cities of developed countries there is also an increase in floating population of a different type. So, Guido Marinetti, in an interesting study (22) has insisted on the importance of visitor populations that use the city and its services without residing in it. Not only coming from others localities of the metropolitan area, but of other regions and other countries. Tourists, business travelers and urban consumers form on a given day in the main European cities, (but also North American and South American) a considerable proportion of urban users who, however, do not appear in the statistics nor are they accounted for in the tax base and institutional of urban services that, however, they use intensively. There are three main problems caused by floating populations in urban management. In the first place, its existence provokes a pressure on the urban services greater than the city can assume, unless received special assistance from the higher levels of administration, in line with its real population and the effective use made of its infrastructure. In second, the lack of adequate statistical accounting of said population floating, as well as the irregularity of its movements, prevent a planning adequate urban services. Third, a distortion is created between people present in the city, and citizens capable of causing various problems and the city government. This is negative for the floaters, devoid of rights and, sometimes, outlawed, as for residents who they see broken the solidarity of the citizenship by the existence of differences of status legal and community belonging within the real population of the city. Thus the development of floating populations, directly related to the globalization of economic and communication flows, constitutes a new urban reality for which cities still have no answer.

Multiculturalism and urban social crisis:
In May 1991 there was a meeting in Frankfurt, under the auspices of the Council of Europe. Representatives of different European municipal governments converged to deal with the municipal policies for the multicultural integration of Europe. In the statement published at the end of that meeting (23) it was found that the European countries, as a result of decades of immigration and emigration, had twisted, multicultural societies. Also, to the extent that immigrants and the resulting ethnic minorities concentrated on large cities, immigration treatment policies and respect for multiculturalism constituted an essential component of the new municipal policies. They concluded by stating that only a genuinely democratic Europe was able to carry out a policy of multiculturalism that can make stability a factor in the world and can effectively combat economic imbalances between north and south, east and west, which lead to disorderly emigration (p.167). A similar finding can be made in American society and in relation to the world in general. And yet xenophobic reactions in all countries and the increase in racism and religious fanaticism around the world does not seem to augur an easy treatment of the new urban reality. Immigrants and ethnic minorities appear as scapegoats for economic crises and social uncertainties, according to an old, historically established reflex, regularly exploited by irresponsible political demagogues. Even so, the stubborn new reality of interdependent global economy, socio-economic imbalances and there production of ethnic minorities already residing in more developed countries they make multiculturalism and multiethnicity inevitable almost everywhere in the world. Even Japan, one of the most culturally homogeneous societies in the world, is experiencing a rapid increase in its foreign population, while the growth of the Yoba (casual workers without employment or fixed residence) and its temporary spatial location in ghettos urban, like Amagasaki in Osaka. There are those who think, including authors of this book, that multiculturalism and multiculturalism are sources of economic and cultural wealth for urban societies (24). But even who are alarmed by the disappearance of social homogeneity and social tensions that this causes must accept the new reality: our societies, in all latitudes, are and will be multicultural, and cities (and especially large cities) concentrate the highest level of diversity. Learn to live in that situation, know how to manage cultural exchange to starting from the ethnic difference and remedying the inequalities arising from the discrimination are essential dimensions of the new local policy in the conditions arising from the new global interdependence.

(1). Carlos Alonso Saldivar and Manuel Castells (1992) “Spain, End of the century”, Madrid: Editorial Alliance 1992.
(2). G. Papadimitriou and P. Martín (ends) (1991) “The Unsettled Relationship: Labor Migration and Economic Development “, Westport: Greenwood Press.
UNDIESA (United Nations Department for International Economic and Social
Affairs) (1991) “World Urbanization Prospects: Estimates and Projections or urban and rural populations and of urban agglomerations “, New York: United Nations.
John Kasarda and Allan Parnell (eds) (1993) “Third World Cities: Problems, Policies and Prospects “, London: Sage Publications.
(3). Findley, 1993. In Kasarda and Parnell, op. cit.
(4). Duncan Campbell “Foreign investment, labor immobility and the quality of employment “, International Labor Review, 2, 1994.
(5). Sharon Stanton Rusell and others “International Migration and Development in Subsaharan Africa “, World Bank Discussion Papers 101-102, Washington DC: World Bank, 1990.
(6) Peter Stalker (1994) “The work of strangers. A survey of international labormigration “, Geneva: International Labor Office.
(7). Peter Stalker, op. cit.
(8). Ed Blakely and William Goldsmith (1992) “Separate societies”, Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
(9). Robert Bullard, Eugene Gribsby and Charles Lee (1994) “Residential apartheid: the American Legacy “, Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Afro-American Studies ..
(10) Ruth Peterson and Lauren Kirov (1993) “Racial Segregation and black urban
homicide “, in” Social Forces “, 71. (eleven). Neuma Aguiar “Rio de Janeiro plural: um guide for social policies by genro e raça “, Rio de Janeiro: IUPERJ, 1994.
(12). Trevor Jones (1993) “Britain’s Ethnic Minorities”, London: Policy Studies
Institute
(13). Council of Europe (1993) “Europe 1990-2000: Multiculturalism in the city, the integration of immigrants “Strasbourg, Studies and Texts, n 25, Council of
Europe, 1993.
(14.) Council of Europe, op. cit.
(15.) Sidney Goldstein (1993), in Kasarda and Parnell, op. cit. Linda Wong (1994) “China’s urban migranst-the public policy challenge”, in”Pacific Affairs”, v. 67. n3, autumn.
(16). Cute Wong, op. cit.
(17). Richard Kirkby (1985) “Urbanization in China”, London: Oxford University Press
(18). Lincoln Day and Ma Xia (eds,) “Migration and Urbanization in China”, Armonk, New York: ME Sharpe, 1994.
(19). Sidney Goldstein (1993), in Kasarda and Parnell, op. cit. (twenty). Lincoln Day and Ma Xia, op. cit. (twenty-one). Corner, 1994.
(22). Marinetti, G. “Metropoli. La nuova morfologia sociale della citt”. Il Mulino, Bologna, 1993.
(23) Council of Europe, op. cit.
(24). Aleksandra Alund and Carl-Ulrik Schierup (1991) “Paradoxes of multiculturalism “, Aldershot: Avebury.

Review of The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century

One of the suggested texts for my Geopolitics of Innovation class at UPB was Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century. I found it to be a very valuable book in simply describing how it is that the world economy has changed over the past 30 years as a result of digital communications hardware and software. These technologies along with a number of changes in legislation that facilitated increased the ability of US companies to invest and develop workforces in foreign have radically altered the way in which globalization has manifested itself. The flatness to which Friedman refers has, of course, nothing to do with the peculiar Flat Earth movement but with the lowering of barriers that previously prevented innovative collaborations occurring across borders. Friedman intersperses his own analysis with that of a number of subject area experts within the business, academic and governmental sphere to support his “brief history”.

The book uses two dates 11/9, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and 9/11, the date of the hijacked plane attacks on America that launched the War on Terror as bookends by which to frame the flattening of the world and, in the final chapter, as examples of potential directions that the new global economy can head. Either there will be increased openness, collaboration, innovation and free trade or there will be a closure of borders, ideas and exchange of goods, services and capital such that the pace of the economy slows and growth shrinks.

Friedman sees this responsibility to adapt to new conditions as being primarily borne by the individual and their family, with the government facilitating to a limited extent the development of new skill sets and abilities. While not blind that a number of people can get left behind in such situations, as a technological determinist and a student of history he states that there is little that can be done other than adapt – personally, culturally, and economically – to the “flattening of the world”.

The ten historic flatteners Friedman cites are as follows:

#1: 11/9/89, When the Walls Came Down and Windows Hit the Tornado
#2: 8/9/95, When Netscape Went Public
#3: Work Flow Software
#4: Open-Sourcing & Self-Organizing Collaborative Communities
#5: Outsourcing & Y2K
#6: Offshoring
#7: Supply-Chaining
#8: Insourcing
#9: In-forming
#10: The Steroids, Digital, Mobile, Personal, and Virtual”

Each of the ten flatteners show how it was that information and communications technologies radically altered the business landscape in ways that goes far beyond railroads and electrification. While embracing technological determinism, Friedman shows through a number of examples that the sort of retail economic reforms needed to exploit these flatteners are insufficient as indicators unless connected to wider changes in social norms. I found the  comparative analysis of different countries business environments and cultural norms to be especially informative. Put simply, societies must rapidly adapt to these new environments or they will rapidly see their GDPs start to slow, stop or decline. Because of this the capacity to learn – be it via market vigilance, improvement of customer relations and business processes, etc.  – is the most important quality to be able to demonstrate in the workplace.

 

With the caveat that the book is not intended to be included within the general rubric of business strategy literature, Friedman also shares a number of the insights he’s gained from analyzing the flatting of competition. I won’t include them all, but Friedman’s analysis on the rules seeks to allay fears that all is lost for the average American worker.

“Rule #6: The best companies outsource to win, not to shrink. They outsource to innovate faster and more cheaply in order to grow larger, gain market share, and hire more and different specialists-not to save money by firing more people.”

These rules and their analysis show how globalization – done ideally – leads to a race to the top rather than a race to the bottom. While citing a number of examples within business history that provides the rationales for these new rules to this effect, the book did leave me wanting for a more detailed analysis of the American economy. While increased economic exchanges between the BRIC countries and the US certainly have a number of positives, I think to better make this case as more comprehensive overview of globalizations impact is necessary. While certainly allowing higher-skilled workers and the companies that employ them to do more for their money – there are a number of social and economic ills connected the transition away from an economy with large portions of the work force in manufacturing to those engaged in the service economy that Friedman doesn’t cover.

One of the sections that I found rather interesting given my academic background and that I participated in several anti-globalization demonstrations – such as the FTAA protests in Miami– is a brief engagement with the writings of of Karl Marx. It’s happens via a professor interlocutor that praised his thought as reflective of the realities of capitalism. I cite these passage below at length in order to close the review with a reflection.


I bring this up as Friedman describes class conflict without calling it such and as it relates to the crux of the book’s unspoken argument – “globalization is good for everyone”. While certainly not as naïve as the political pronouncements made by Fukuyama in his book The End of History and the Last Man, there is a growing body of critical voices from the right on shareholder value being the goal of businesses as opposed to stakeholder value. Many contemporary political commentators have mentioned this, with some citing it as one of the reasons that Donald Trump was elected. While I think that Friedman’s optimism is for the most part deserved, I also feel that the destabilizing effects of it make the work at certain points hallucinatory in its choices of coverage.

For example, Friedman cites the antiglobalization movement, which emerged in 1999 at the World Trade Organization conference in Seattle, to highlight this conflict. According to Friedman:

“From its origins, the movement that emerged in Seattle was a primarily Western-driven phenomenon, which was why you saw so few people of color in the crowds. It was driven by five disparate forces.

One was upper-middle-class American liberal guilt at the incredible wealth and power that America had amassed in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dot-com boom. At the peak of the stock market boom, lots of pampered American college kids, wearing their branded clothing, began to get interested in sweatshops as a way of expiating their guilt.

The second force driving it was a rear-guard push by the Old Left-socialists, anarchists, and Trotskyites-in alliance with protectionist trade unions.

The third force was a more amorphous group. It was made up of many people who gave passive support to the antiglobalization movement from many countries, because they saw in it some kind of protest against the speed at which the old world was disappearing and becoming flat.

The fourth force driving the movement, which was particularly strong in Europe and in the Islamic world, was anti-Americanism. The disparity between American economic and political power and everybody else’s had grown so wide after the fall of the Soviet Empire that America began to-or was perceived to-touch people’s lives around the planet, directly or indirectly, more than their own governments did.

Finally, the fifth force in this movement was a coalition of very serious, well-meaning, and constructive groups-from environmentalists to trade activists to NGOs concerned with governance-who became part of the populist antiglobalization movement in the 1990s in the hopes that they could catalyze a global discussion about how we globalize. I had a lot of respect and sympathy for this latter group. But in the end, they got drowned out by the whether-we-globalize crowd, which began to turn the movement more violent…”

While this aligns with my own readings and experience – a growing body of literature connects the business practices described in the book to the opioid epidemic, increased rates of depression, alcoholism and other nasty ills. Management of the economy and the workplace according to the new rules of globalization have certainly allowed corporations to extract more value and thereby be in a better position to compete globally, but with so many struggling to adapt and with the new social intelligence capacities created by information and communication technologies that there is a growing distrust and animosity to existent leadership such that populism is increasing – I think it’s worth examining not just “how we got here” but also “how can we make this work in a way that’s managed even better.”

English Translation of “Salvadoran Pride”

I came across the below poem while researching about MS-13’s origins. It was written by a member and the events described below are purportedly those that lead to their founding in Los Angeles.

Worth noting in the below translation is the word Guanaco. Here in Colombia – and in other parts of Latin America – it means someone that is of low intelligence that lives in an undeveloped, rustic area. “Country bumpkin” is probably the best rendition into English. In Central America this refers to Salvadoreans. Whether or not it has the same connation there as here, I am not sure.

 

War and misery forced them
to leave their land,
And they departed motivated by their dreams and illusions,
But on their way in search of happiness,
They found sadness and disappointments …
Through suffering they had to discover
That in a far country they had to cling to brotherhood to survive …
Tired of discrimination and humiliation,
One night a great legend emerged,
After a shootout where three people died,
Some young people hearing the sirens of the police,
Between alleys and avenues disappeared …
At the scene of the crime written in blood,
A graffiti that said: love overcomes fear.
It was the beginning of a struggle, the birth of the
Mara Salvatrucha.

Avowal of the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics

The Society of Professional Journalists has an ethics code that they’ve published on their website.

Over the next several months I will be publishing content under a category that is new to my website: Journalism.

Given that I self-publish a wide variety of content on my website – from reflections on technology, marketing, satire, poetry, etc. – I thought it appropriate to publicly avow that all of the content that I publish under this label will be within the ethical code described below.

~

PREAMBLE

Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity.

The Society declares these four principles as the foundation of ethical journalism and encourages their use in its practice by all people in all media.

SEEK TRUTH AND REPORT IT

Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.

Journalists should:

Take responsibility for the accuracy of their work. Verify information before releasing it. Use original sources whenever possible.

Remember that neither speed nor format excuses inaccuracy.
Provide context. Take special care not to misrepresent or oversimplify in promoting, previewing or summarizing a story.

Gather, update and correct information throughout the life of a news story.

Be cautious when making promises, but keep the promises they make.

Identify sources clearly. The public is entitled to as much information as possible to judge the reliability and motivations of sources.

Consider sources’ motives before promising anonymity. Reserve anonymity for sources who may face danger, retribution or other harm, and have information that cannot be obtained elsewhere. Explain why anonymity was granted.

Diligently seek subjects of news coverage to allow them to respond to criticism or allegations of wrongdoing.

Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information unless traditional, open methods will not yield information vital to the public.

Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable. Give voice to the voiceless.

Support the open and civil exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.

Recognize a special obligation to serve as watchdogs over public affairs and government. Seek to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in the open, and that public records are open to all.

Provide access to source material when it is relevant and appropriate.
Boldly tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience.

Seek sources whose voices we seldom hear.

Avoid stereotyping. Journalists should examine the ways their values and experiences may shape their reporting.

Label advocacy and commentary.
Never deliberately distort facts or context, including visual information.

Clearly label illustrations and re-enactments.

Never plagiarize. Always attribute.

MINIMIZE HARM

Ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of the public as human beings deserving of respect.

Journalists should:

Balance the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort. Pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance or undue intrusiveness.

Show compassion for those who may be affected by news coverage. Use heightened sensitivity when dealing with juveniles, victims of sex crimes, and sources or subjects who are inexperienced or unable to give consent. Consider cultural differences in approach and treatment.

Recognize that legal access to information differs from an ethical justification to publish or broadcast.

Realize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than public figures and others who seek power, influence or attention. Weigh the consequences of publishing or broadcasting personal information.

Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity, even if others do.
Balance a suspect’s right to a fair trial with the public’s right to know. Consider the implications of identifying criminal suspects before they face legal charges.

Consider the long-term implications of the extended reach and permanence of publication. Provide updated and more complete information as appropriate.

ACT INDEPENDENTLY

The highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism is to serve the public.

Journalists should:

Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts.

Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid politi- cal and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.

Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money; do not pay for access to news. Identify content provided by outside sources, whether paid or not.

Deny favored treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special interests, and resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage.

Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two. Prominently label sponsored content.

BE ACCOUNTABLE AND TRANSPARENT

Ethical journalism means taking responsibility for one’s work and explaining one’s decisions to the public.

Journalists should:

Explain ethical choices and processes to audiences. Encourage a civil dialogue with the public about journalistic practices, coverage and news content.

Respond quickly to questions about accuracy, clarity and fairness.
Acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently. Explain corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly.

Expose unethical conduct in journalism, including within their organizations.

Abide by the same high standards they expect of others.

Interview Data from “Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street”

Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street by Mark Bray is a first person account of the author’s experiences at the Zuccotti Park iteration Occupy Wall Street. In addition to description of events that he himself witnessed, he also includes selections from interviews he did with many of the people there.

Below is the List of OWS Organizers Interviewed

Aaron Black
Aaron Bornstein
Alexander Penley
Alexandre Carvalho
Amelia
Amelia Dunbar
Amin Husain
Amy
Andrew
Anthony!
Anthony Robledo
Ari Cowan
Ashley
Atiq Zabinski
Audrea Lim
Austin Guest
Axle
Bear Wisdom
Becky
Beka Economopoulos
Ben Reynoso
Beth Bogart
Betsy Catlin
Bill Dobbs
Bill Livsey
Bootz
Bre
Brendan Burke
Brett G.
Brittany Robinson
Camille Raneem
Cara
Cari Machet
Caroline Lewis
Cecily McMillan
Chris
Chris Longenecker
Christhian Diaz
Christine Crowther
Christopher Brown
CJ Holm
Colby Hopkins
Cory Thompson
Dana Balicki
Dave Haack
David Graeber
David Korn
Debra Thimmesch
Dennis Flores
Diego Ibañez
Doug Ferrari
Drew Hornbein
Dylan
Ed Mortimer
Edward Needham
Elizabeth Arce
Eric
Eric Carter
Ethan
Evan Wagner
Fanshen
Felix Riveria-Pitre
George Machado
Georgia
Goldi
Greg Horwitch
Guy Steward
Harrison ‘Tesoura’ Schultz,
Henry Harris (“Hambone”),
Ingrid Burrington
Isham Christie
Jack Boyle
Jackie Disalvo
Jake DeGroot
Jason Ahmadi
Jay
Jeff Smith
Jen Waller
Jerry Goralnick
Jez
Jillian Buckley
Jo Robin
Jonathan G.
Jonathan Smucker
José Martín (“Chepe”)
José Whelan
Josh Ehrenberg
Josh Lucy
Julien Harrison
Julieta Salgado
Justin Stone-Diaz
Justin Strekal
Justin Wedes
Justine Tunney
Kanene
Karanja Wa Gaçuça
Katie Davidson
Kira Annika
Kobi
Laura Durkay
Laura Gottesdiener
Lauren Digioia
Leina Bocar
Liesbeth Rapp
Linnea M. Palmer Paton
Lisa Fithian
Lorenzo Serna
Louis Jargow
Luke Richardson
Madeline Nelson
Malcolm Nokizaru
Malory Butler
Manissa Maharawal
Maria Porto “Sarge”
Mariano Muñoz-Elias
Marina Sitrin
Marisa Holmes
Mark Adams
Matt Presto
Max Berger
Megan Hayes
Michael Fix
Michael Levitin
Michael Premo
Mike Andrews
Moira Meltzer-Cohen
Moses
Nastaran Mohit
Negesti
Nelini Stamp
Nicholas “OWS Tea”
Nick Mirzoeff
Nicole Carty
Nina Mehta
Olivia
Pablo Benson
Pam Brown
Patricia González-Ramirez
Patrick Bruner
Pete Dutro
Priscilla Grim
Rami Shamir
Ravi Ahmad
Ray
Rebecca Manski
Richard Machado
Ronny Nuñez
Rose Bookbinder
Rowland Miller
S.
Sam Corbin
Sam Wood (“Captain”)
Sandra Nurse
Sara Zainab Bokhari
Sean McAlpin
Senia Barragan
Sergio Jimenez
Shane Gill
Shawn Carrié
Sofía Gallisa
Sonny Singh
Sparro Kennedy
Sparrow Ingersoll
Stacey Hessler
Stan
Stefan Fink
Stina Soderling
Sully Ross
Sumumba Sobukwe
Suzahn Ebrahimian
Tashy Endres
Terry
Tess Cohen
Thorin Caristo
Tim Fitzgerald
Timothy Eastman
Tom Hintze
Vanessa Zettler
Victoria Sobel
Will Gusakov
William Haywood Carey
William Jesse
William Scott
Winnie Wong
Winter
Yates McKee
Yoni Miller
Yotam Marom
Zak
Zak Soloman
Zoltán Glück
Zu Solanas

Dan Kovalik, Alliance for Global Justice and Venezuela’s Ministero del Poder Popular para la Cultura

Dan Kovalik with Daniel Ortega

Dan Kovalik is one of the intellectuals and activists that I’ve identified as being associated with Venezuela’s Kultural Marxism network as well as the Nicaragua Network founded by Daniel Ortega.

When I noticed that he was going to be giving what was described as a “Talk and Exchange” via a live video chat, I set a notification for myself in order to watch and ask some questions.

Verifying Authenticity and Logging On to the Network

The first thing that I do in order to access live feed described in this brief essay designed to enlighten the minds of its readers on the connections between Venezuela’s Intelligence Services and intellectuals and political activists in America was by logging on to Facebook.

One logs on by first pulling up their website on an internet browser or smartphone app. After I logged in to my account, the use of which is predicated upon Facebook’s terms and conditions, I pulled up the Alliance for Global Justice Facebook page and began to watch Dan Kovalik speak.

The preliminary speech was aligned with other not-very-insightful commentary that I’ve seen Abby Martin and other Venezuela-hands provide. I’d be curious to learn if they receive these talking points – which don’t seem to vary much – from their Venezuelan handlers or if they come up with them themselves. Anyway, after a while, he started to wind down and open for questions.

Questioning Dan Kovalik

It makes sense that those associated with Venezuela’s Intelligence Agencies would want to watch Dan Kovalik, after all, they need to make sure he doesn’t go off script.

My first question related to whether or not there was any sort of conflict of interest in Dan’s reporting – specifically if he had even been given money by the Venezuelan government or their associates. He never answered this question.

The second question, shown above, was a question related to discerning whether or not there was anything that could cause Kovalik to lose support for Maduro. As numerous charges have been brought up against Venezuelan government officials for narco-trafficking, corruption, political oppression and assassination – this seemed pretty relevant. He never answered this question.

The last question – hidden in the above so that I could provide evidence that a former member of Venezuela’s Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Cultura was watching the Facebook Live video – was in regards the limits of acceptable behavior for those in America who wanted to ensure that Nicolas Maduro’s grip on the Venezuelan state apparatus continued. As the Embassy Protection Collectives in Washington D.C. and New York were engaged in an illegal occupation; as there is a history of Venezuela’s political associates harassing American politicians; as Venezuela assists in the publication of content promoting the idea that violence against American police officers and assassination of American politicians is justifiable – I wondered what sort of behavior was considered “off limits”. He never answered this question.

 Grand Jury Investigation Using Only Publicly Available Evidence

I’m not terribly surprised that Dan Kovalik refused to answer any of these questions – on his public Facebook profile it is very evident that he identifies as a Nicaraguan revolutionary that would sooner face physical assault or incarceration than snitch on his comrades.

To me this seems yet another example of Orwellian Irony.

Why so? In The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx claims that true “communists disdain to conceal their views and aims”. And yet here we clearly see that when it comes to avowing who it is that funds and organizes the speaking engagements wherein those views are shared  – a state which identifies itself with the Marxian tradition –  deception and disavowal is the actual behavior practiced.

Alliance for Global Justice is Funded by Venezuelan Government and their Political Associates

Alliance for Global Justice admitting by silence that they are funded by Venezuela.

Blocking my profile and ignoring my questions have been a typical tactic of those involved with Venezuela’s network of artists, activists and intellectuals living and operating in the United States.

To my surprise, one of the operators of Alliance for Global Justice Facebook account responded to one of my comments after the talk had ended. I can’t say I’m terribly surprised, as I prefaced my inquiry with purposefully provocative comments.

Not to my surprise, the Alliance for Global Justice account operator responding to my prior inquiry did not answer the question as to the relationship between Venezuela and their organization. Nevertheless  the existence of this thread allows me now to say definitively that the Alliance for Global Justice is funded in part by Nicolas Maduro and his network of associates.

How can I legitimately this claim despite the fact that they didn’t answer? Two reasons.

First, there is the fact that the political history of the organization and the activities it supports are aligned with Hugo Chavez’s Gramscian phantasy of Latin America united under Venezuela’s rule.

Secondly is the ancient legal precept Qui tacet consentire videtur, which translated in English to “He who is silent is taken to agree”.

Cultural Marxism as a Worldview Propounded by the Directors of Kultural Marxism 

Understanding the origins of the Alliance for Global Justice’s funding of politically polarizing socialist views and events is important as it relates to destroying the anti-Semitic mythos of Cultural Marxism and verifying my claims of the existence of Venezuela’s Kultural Marxism operations.

Given the many anti-Semitic/anti-Israel views expressed and actions taken by the Venezuelan government along with the Cultural Marxist claim that George Soros uses the Alliance for Global Justice as part of some amorphous international Jewish conspiracy I would hypothesize that they are in part responsible for some of the content or promotion on the matter.  Considering that this narrative also deflects from the much more sensible explanation that this is part of Venezuela’s effort to create a multi-polar world, it seems all the more true.