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Lech Walesa, the man who helped bring down communism in eastern Europe, accused Polands government for breaching the constitution and backsliding on democracy and vowed to confront ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski in a protest next week.

A day before U.S. President Donald Trump visits Warsaw, Walesaand Wladyslaw Frasyniuk, a fellow leader of the Solidarity movement that helped topple the Iron Curtain, published a letter on the front page of newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. They said they needed to uphold democratic values that were being taken away by Kaczynskis Law & Justice Party.

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The former Solidarity leaders said they would join a July 10 protest along the route of a monthly procession led by Kaczynski to commemorate the 2010 plane crash in Smolensk, Russia that killed his brother, Lech, who was then president. The sit-in demonstration, led by a group called Citizens of the Republic of Poland, usually attracts several dozen people and has led to scuffles, with Frasyniuk carried away by police during the last march on June 10.

Were standing for basic civic freedoms and the right to assembly being taken away from us, Walesa and Frasyniuk wrote. On July 10, we the citizens will stand and face Jaroslaw Kaczynski to protect our rights.

The protest began after parliament passed a law that privileges recurring assemblies, a classification that includes the monthly procession Kaczynski leads. The measure bans other gatherings that may conflict with those that are protected.

The law is one of a string of measures enacted by the Law & Justice government led by Beata Szydlo that opposition leaders and some European Union countries have criticized as suppressing democratic rights. The EUs executive commission launched a probe last year into whether Poland is upholding the blocs values, its first-ever such inquiry.

Kaczynski, who wields the power behind Szydlos cabinet despite holding no government position, was once a close ally of Walesa. The two fell out in 1991when Walesa, who was serving as president, fired Kaczynski as his chief of staff, sending him into opposition for a decade.

Earlier this year, a national institute investigating communist files said Walesa was a paid, secret informant of Polands communist-era secret services. Walesa denied the claims as absurd.

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Walesa Vows to Confront Polish Ruling Party Chief Over Democracy ... - Bloomberg

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Im Amy Goodman. As we continue to look at how the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is embracing renewable energy, we turn to Scott Wallace and Ellen Dorsey of the Wallace Global Fund. The fund recently honored the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe with the inaugural Henry Wallace Award and a million-dollar investment in renewable energy projects, solar and wind, led by the tribe.

The award is named after Scott Wallaces grandfather, Henry Wallace, who served as vice president under Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1941 to 1945. Scott Wallace recently wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times recalling his grandfathers piece back over 70 years ago. In 1944, Henry Wallace published an iconic op-ed in The New York Times headlined "The Danger of American Fascism." Henry Wallace wrote, quote, "American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact," unquote.

I began by asking Scott Wallace about his grandfathers comments in 1944.

SCOTT WALLACE: He described a breed of self-interested megalomaniac whothe notion of corporatism is what he described as a breed of fascism, which is the marriage of corporate power and government. And they pretend to be interested in democracy and the common people, but they are really only interested in preserving their own wealth and privilege.

And as you mentioned at the beginning, a defining characteristic of them that differentiates them from fascists that were then abroad in Germany and Italy was that they dont need violence. They dont kill people. They find that lying to the people is so much easier. So they use propaganda. They use the newspapers to spread lies and self-serving, what he called, snide suspicions without foundation in factas you mentioned, you know, birtherism, hugest inaugural crowd ever, 5 million people voted illegally, Obama wiretapped me. That is how they preserve their own power and ask for more.

And they alsohe defined it as using their position to obtain more money through the merger of corporate and government power. And Obama isI mean, sorry, Trump is that merger of corporate and government power. He uses it not only to pervert government policy toward personal ends, but he is now getting in trouble with the Emoluments Clause and receiving money from foreign governments, that the Founding Fathers said was an impeachable offense.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you feel that were moving toward fascism in this country? What do you think your grandfather would say?

SCOTT WALLACE: I think he would say, in retrospect, that were not talking about fascism in the way that is alarmist these days, that its not Hitler or Mussolini. Mussolini preferred the definition of corporatism, which is the merger of corporate and governmental power. Using that definition of fascism, yes, that is what my grandfather predicted. And I think the only thing that would shock him right now is that his prediction has come true.

AMY GOODMAN: When he ran for president in 1948, one of the barriers he broke is he traveled with African Americans through the South. Can you talk about the significance of this?

SCOTT WALLACE: Well, theres a wonderful story that was videotaped of Pete Seeger and Studs Terkel, who were with him on this tour, describing what animates this award that we gave yesterday to Standing Rock: courage. I mean, he refused to speak in front of a segregated audience in the Deep South. And Pete Seeger describes this scenario of the police coming to him and saying, "Mr. Wallace, you may not live through this week. There are threats against you." And my grandfather said, "Thats not important. Its important that I continue this tour."

And that standing up for what is right in the face of grave personal risk, thats what we saw in Standing Rock. Thats whatwhen we were thinking about how to honor my grandfather, how to incentivize that kind of courageous behavior and activism against overwhelming corporate and governmental power, thats why, oh, my god, Standing Rock is it.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, explain what youve done, because this is unusual in philanthropy today in the United States.

SCOTT WALLACE: Well, we created this award, the Henry A. Wallace Award, to honor that type of courageous activism against the merger of corporate and state power. We put a cash award with it. And this year, we decided, because they are also in search of a solution, a clean energy solution, which is very viable, wind and solar projectswe decided to not only give them a grant, an unrestricted prize for their activism and their resistance, but to invest with our assets, the 95 percent of our money that we dont give away every year but we invest to grow. We decided to put some of that into clean solar and wind projects, specifically run by and for the Standing Rock Tribe, to make an example that this is not only good for the planet, but its a way to make a decent return, too, which we find just shockingly ironic today as President Trump has withdrawn from the hugest global agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions, again, based on snide suspicions without foundation in fact, that, oh, my god, climate change is a Chinese hoax and fabrication. So, it all came together very nicely. And we want to also make the point that, no, renewable energy is the future, and you can make a nice return on it.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, this grant is both an outright grant of what? Like $250,000. But then, explain the rest of it.

SCOTT WALLACE: Well, we made a commitment of up to a million-dollar investment in the solar and wind projects that Standing Rock is developing with experienced project developers in the wind and solar space and that will empower the community, the tribe, and can provide a model for the rest of the country and the rest of the world.

Link:
Grandson of Former VP Henry A. Wallace on Standing Rock's Fossil-Free Future & American Fascism - Democracy Now!

You are here: Home Monthly Review Press OrganizeNorthCarolina.org reviews Michael Leibowitzs The Contradictions of Real Socialism

The Contradictions of Real Socialism: The Conductor and the Conducted 192 pp, $15.95 pbk, ISBN 9781583672563 By Michael A. Lebowitz

Reviewed by Russell Herman

The leaders of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, 1922-1991) used the terms real socialism and actually existing socialism to distinguish their real experience from merely theoretical socialist ideas. Lebowitz asks how that system actually functioned, how it reproduced itself, and why it yield[ed] to capitalism without resistance from the working classes who were presumably its beneficiaries. (p. 7) Interesting questions. Especially to those of us who want to construct a more humane system than the capitalism that defeated the USSR.

Read the review at OrganizeNorthCarolina.org

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OrganizeNorthCarolina.org reviews Michael Leibowitz's The Contradictions of Real Socialism - Monthly Review

Business While the government can justify various anti-profiteering measures based on socialist principles, the rules and methodology need to be clearly stated.

Indias rules on anti-profiteering arent clearly identified. Credit: Reuters

Nearly 70years after B.R. Ambedkar and K.T. Shahdebated overwhether the Indian constitution should include the word socialist the former was in favour of a society being organised by the people of India, according to the time and circumstances anti-profiteering provisions present in the countrys plan to overhaul a broken tax system remind us of this very debate.

The primary objective of the goods and services tax (GST) is to remove the cascading effect of existing taxes, that is tax on tax. The core principle of the GST is based on the fact that the tax on any input or input service utilised during the process of developing a product or a service would have to be offset against the subsequent output tax paid. The seamless credit system has been formulated keeping the consumer in mind and removes inefficiencies in the supply chain.

However, what if an entity in the supply chain, for instance, a wholesaler, decides to take benefit of a reduced tax rate courtesy the GST and not pass on such benefit to a consumer by hiking up his profit?

To counter such undue benefit, the government inserted Section 171 into the Central Goods and Services Tax Act (CGST). Section 171 of the CGST specifies that any benefit availed through extra input tax credit (as against earlier) or a reduction in rate of tax on any supply of goods or services has to be passed on to the consumer commensurately.

India Incs primary objectionto anti-profiteering lies around the fact that it adds an additional compliance burden, and that more importantly, a reduction in rate of taxes of inputs or input services need not necessarily result in a proportionate reduction in the final price of a product or service.

While industry concerns are certainly legitimate especially after taking into account the Modi governments minimum government, maximum governance motto is there any mechanism to ensure that the consumer does become a beneficiary of GST?

Australia, Malaysia examples

Chapter XIX of the CGST, which deals with Offences and Penalties, does not provide for a mechanism to ensure a commensurate reduction in the final price of a product. Australia and Malaysia are closest international examples when it comes to understanding anti-profiteering measures. The Australian anti-profiteering measure was based on the net dollar margin rule method that is, if taxes and costs fell by $1, then prices should also fall by at least $1. The Malaysian example is formula-based and uses a net profit margin which considers the effect of net profit on a comparative basis with a base rate net profit. For instance, the net profit margin from April 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016 (excluding GST taxes) should not exceed the net profit margin as on April 1, 2016 (base rate).

On June 20, the GST council notified the Anti Profiteering Rules, 2017 (rules). The rules currently do not contain the methodology and procedure for determining whether commensurate benefit has been passed on to consumers. However, the language used mostly mirrors the Australian model. The rules contain the bare essentials of a statute with a three tier structure for determination of alleged anti profiteering with the apex body being the Anti-Profiteering Authority. Penal action under the rules can even entail cancellation of GST registration.

It should be noted that a substantial chunk of the basket of items in the consumer price index have been exempted from payment of GST. Stemming from experience in other countries, the inflationary effects of GST could be high in the initial years of its implementation.

To what extent is this justified? On the face of it, the government can certainly rely on the concept of a welfare state based on socialist principles to justify various anti-profiteering measures. The Supreme Court has also time and again upheld the concept of securing and protecting a social order which comprises of economic justice as well. When examined from the pointed perspectives of a consumer and from a tangible benefit to the economy, the anti-profiteering authority may well be justified.

Industry issues are focused around feasibility of the measures and its implementation, and potential harassment at the hands of the taxman. What could have been done perhaps is have the Competition Commission, which examines pricing in detail, study how the passing of commensurate benefit could be ensured.

However, from a legislative standpoint, the argument against anti-profiteering rewinds back to the debate on socialism, and importantly on an ideal which India arguably believes in as a legacy. Importantly, the rules have been worded from the perspective of a need-based manner, which mostly would be required in the case of oligopolistic markets. Given the vogue nature of the GST and the risk and accountability that the government has towards the second largest consumer base in the world, the government cannot be entirely blamed for introducing an anti-profiteering measure.

Taxation statutes are most susceptible to the slightest change in an economic environment a close case in point being the negative list of services in service tax wherein the government, in a single stroke, changed 18 years of grappling with an arduous memory recall exercise of adding services on a year-on-year basis to a catch-all means to cover all taxation services.

As a parting thought, had the wording of the statute been Input Tax Credit-Commensurate Benefit Rules, would industry reaction have been different?

Shubhang Setlur is a Senior Associate at Crestlaw Partners, a full service law firm engaged in corporate and commercial advisory, dispute resolution, real estate and taxation.

Categories: Business, Economy, Featured, Government

Tagged as: Ambedkar, anti-profiteering, anti-profiteering authority, Goods and Services Tax, GST, industry concerns, Socialism, tax discretion, tax terrorism

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Behind GST's Anti-Profiteering Provisions, a Legacy of Indian Socialism - The Wire

left-wing activists from around the country are expected to gather in Chicago from July 6-9

Planning strategies to take on Republicans and President Trump will be a focus, of course.

Campus Reform reported:

Profs gather to fight the right at Socialism 2017 conference

Marxist professors, including some of recent notoriety, are preparing for the upcoming Socialism 2017 conference, where they will strategize to build the left and fight the right.

More than 1,500 professors, students, and left-wing activists from around the country are expected to gather in Chicago from July 6-9 in hopes of fighting injustice and oppression while resisting the political system that spawned Trump.

The four-day event will feature more than 100 meetings addressing topics such as misogyny, Islamophobia, immigration, racism, and much more from a socialist perspective.

A workshop called How Capitalism Works and How It Doesnt, for instance, will make the case that because capitalism is a system based on incessant accumulation based upon the exploitation of wage labor, it also therefore contains within it the seeds of its own demise.

Other offerings include Mapping the Enemy: What Is the Alt-Right?, Marxism and Cultural Appropriation, Strategies for Anti-Capitalists, and Shut it Down? How to Fight the Right.

Many of the lectures, including the opening plenary, will be delivered by university professors, some of whom have become the subject of recent controversies related to inflammatory political remarks.

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Marxist Profs Gear up for Socialism 2017 Conference in Chicago - legal Insurrection (blog)