REDEYE 11/8/17

Capitalist world crisis: bosses’ profits up, workers’ wages down
NYT, 10/8 —In many major countries, including the United States, Britain and Japan,…workers are still waiting for…fatter paychecks….
…weak wages [are] an indicator of an…economic order in which working people are at the mercy of their employers. Unions have lost clout. Companies are relying on temporary and part-time workers while deploying robots…and automation…that allow them to produce more without paying extra to human beings….
In Britain….wages…[are]…below the rate of inflation, meaning workers’ costs were rising faster than their pay. In Japan, weak wage growth is…a force that could keep the future lean, depriving workers of spending power….
Last year, only 10.7 percent of American workers were represented by a union, down from 20.1 percent in 1983….a key to why employers can pay lower wages….In short, 44 years passed with a typical American worker absorbing roughly [a] 2 percent wage cut….
[In] Elyria [Ohio]…Lindsay Martin worked at Janesville Acoustics….earning $14 an hourThen…the plant was shutting down….
She took a job at a gas station…for $9 an hour, less than two-thirds of what she had previously earned….Japanese…corporate profits are at record highs….
Companies have…sat on their increased profits rather than share them with employees….
Almost half of Japanese workers under 25 are in part-time or temporary positions, up from 20 percent in 1990. And women, who typically earn 30 percent less than men, have filled a disproportionate number of jobs
As the global crisis unfolded in 2008,….mass unemployment tore across Italy, Portugal and Spain, depressing wages across the continent…Norwegian wages….in 2016…declined in real terms by more than 1 percent….
In Arendal [Norway], Bandak…, a series of layoffs commenced. Workers…agreed to a 5 percent wage cut….The company soon descended into bankruptcy. And that was that for the…remaining workers. Per Harald Torjussen…. “feels a lot less secure….We may be approaching what it’s like in the U.S. and the U.K.”
Study proves racism prevalent in ordinary every-day inter-actions
NYT, 10/8 — A team of economists has uncovered persuasive evidence that local government officials throughout the United States are less responsive to African-Americans than…to whites.
The researchers sent roughly 20,000 emails to local government[s]…[and] posed commonplace questions, like “Could you please tell me what your opening hours are?”….
Emails with black-sounding names [DeShawn Jackson or Tyrone Washington] were 13 percent more likely to go unanswered than those with white-sounding names [Greg Walsh or Jake Mueller]….
The findings appeared to be a striking indication of racial discrimination in mundane interactions. The tendency to ignore emails sent by African-Americans was pronounced in sheriffs’ offices, but…also evident in school districts and libraries….
The new research…appears to have documented straightforward discrimination….[and] provide further indication of the many ways in which discrimination shapes the lives of African-Americans….
Racial discrimination in America….occurs not only in the labor market and the criminal justice system, but also in countless small frictions every day.
 ‘Testilying’: Racist cops lie routinely
NYT, 10/10 — …Police perjury and half-truths remain a persistent problem for the New York Police Department….False or mis-leading statements by the police has, on a national level, been intertwined with the issue of…whether officers are too quick to shoot people, particularly black men….
…In New York, the practice of routinely making up facts to justify a dubious arrest…got its own nickname…”testilying….”
…The Civilian Complaint Review Board…has documented an increase in cases in which police…give false statements.
“There is lying going on on a regular basis,” said…the chairman of the review board.
U.S. rulers backed 1965 Indonesian anti-communist mass murders
NYT, 10/18 — It was an anti-communist blood bath of at least half a million Indonesians. [Ed. Note: actually one million] And American officials…applaud[ed] the forces behind the killings, according to a newly declassified State Department files…An American political affairs counselor describes how….“Many provinces appear to be…executing their P.K.I [Indonesian Communist Party] prisoners, or by killing them before they are captured”….
“The U.S. was following what was happening…and if it wasn’t for its support…the army would never have felt the confidence to take power.”
The Indonesian slaughter took place at a time when Southeast Asia…was energized by socialist ideology.
The United States already had boots on the ground in Vietnam. Indonesia, then led by President Sukarno and home to one of the world’s largest Communist parties, was seen by Washington as the next domino that could fall.
…The extrajudicial killings spread beyond suspected Communists to target ethnic Chinese, students [and] union members….
President Sukarno, with his anti-American talk and socialist sympathies, was replaced by Suharto, a general who held power for 32 years….
…The American Embassy in Jakarta made clear that any aid from the United States was contingent on Sukarno’s being removed from power. Upon Suharto’s ascension in March 1966, the American aid began to flow….
…The United States…military and financial support…included providing lists of possible leftist sympathizers to the Indonesian government….
…An international people’s tribunal on the killings at The Hague….held the Indonesian government responsible for crimes against humanity and accused the United States, Britain and Australia of complicity.