[MCN] An exception to my once-weekly posts on climate and related trends

[Lance Olsen]

1st 2 paragraphs

School and university students all over the world are planning to take school strikes one step further and occupy our campuses to demand the end of the fossil economy. Taking a lesson from student activists in the 1960s, the climate justice movement’s youth will shut down business as usual. Not because we don’t like learning, but because what we’ve learned already makes it clear that, without a dramatic break from this system, we cannot ensure a livable planet for our presents and futures.

Why occupy? Because we’ve marched. We’ve launched petitions. We’ve written open letters. We’ve had meetings with governments, boards and commissions. We’ve struck. We’ve filled squares, streets and avenues with thousands and, all together, millions of people in continents across this Earth. We’ve screamed with all our lungs. Some of us have even participated in blockades, sit-ins and die-ins. And just as it seemed the seed for deep and radical social transformation was taking root in the midst of the massive 2019 climate mobilizations, Covid-19 came, and our momentum drastically decreased. What didn’t decrease, however, was the greenhouse gas emissions, the exploitation of the global south and the unimaginable profits hoarded by the fossil fuel industry.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/26/school-strikes-climate-protests-activists <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/26/school-strikes-climate-protests-activists>



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==     Who gains most from the “socialism” name-calling game?    ===

Fascisti. n.plural. A body of Italian nationalists, organized March 1919, to oppose Bolshevism in Italy. Under the leadership of Benito Mussolini, it assumed control of the government in October 1922. Fascism. n. The policy and practices of the fascisti. The doctrine imposes centralized authority, national registration, paternalism for industry and commerce, and press censorship; it opposes feminism, parliamentary government and democratic institutions.
Fascist. n. One of the fascisti.

Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary of the English Language. 1938

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“The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself,” Roosevelt said in 1938. “That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.”

To FDR and Wallace, the domestic fascist threat in the United States was a grave concern and it came primarily from “monopolists” and “cartelists,” who to protect their privileges “would sacrifice democracy itself.” “If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States,” Wallace wrote. 

He explained that “the American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information.” In the view of FDR and Wallace, a fascist power grab would not require a violent rupture so much as a quiet takeover orchestrated by elements of the capitalist class. The United States would experience its own home-grown All-American fascism. 

“They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the constitution,” Wallace wrote. “Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.”

<<https://catholicclimatemovement.global/summary-highlights-from-people-get-ready-by-robert-w-mcchesney-and-john-nichols/ <https://catholicclimatemovement.global/summary-highlights-from-people-get-ready-by-robert-w-mcchesney-and-john-nichols/>>>

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It Can't Happen Here - Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Can%27t_Happen_Here>
It Can't Happen Here is a semi-satirical 1935 political novel by American author Sinclair Lewis and a 1936 play by Lewis and John C. Moffitt adapted from the novel. The novel was published during the heyday of fascism in Europe, which was reported on by Dorothy Thompson, Lewis' wife.
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › It_Can't_Happen_Here <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Can%27t_Happen_Here>
 <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/books/review/classic-novel-that-predicted-trump-sinclar-lewis-it-cant-happen-here.html>
Reading the Classic Novel That Predicted Trump - The New ... <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/books/review/classic-novel-that-predicted-trump-sinclar-lewis-it-cant-happen-here.html>
Jan 17, 2017 - The protagonist of Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel “It Can't Happen Here” sees something dark brewing in American politics.
www.nytimes.com › 2017/01/17 › books › review › classic-novel-that... <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/books/review/classic-novel-that-predicted-trump-sinclar-lewis-it-cant-happen-here.html>
 <https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/getting-close-to-fascism-with-sinclair-lewiss-it-cant-happen-here>
Getting Close to Fascism with Sinclair Lewis's “It Can't Happen ... <https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/getting-close-to-fascism-with-sinclair-lewiss-it-cant-happen-here>
Oct 19, 2016 - Alexander Nazaryan writes about a stage adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's “It Can't Happen Here” in the context of Donald Trump's Presidential ...
www.newyorker.com › culture › culture-desk › getting-close-to-fascis... <https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/getting-close-to-fascism-with-sinclair-lewiss-it-cant-happen-here>
 <https://www.amazon.com/Cant-Happen-Here-Signet-Classics/dp/0451465644>
It Can't Happen Here (Signet Classics): Sinclair Lewis ... <https://www.amazon.com/Cant-Happen-Here-Signet-Classics/dp/0451465644>
It Can't Happen Here is the only one of Sinclair Lewis's later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith.  A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America.

Written during the Great Depression, when the country was largely oblivious to Hitler’s aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a president who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, sex, crime, and a liberal press.
www.amazon.com › Cant-Happen-Here-Signet-Classics <https://www.amazon.com/Cant-Happen-Here-Signet-Classics/dp/0451465644>


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