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How to Become a Web Services Provider
- Searching for Practical Examples
- Web Service Availability
- Finding Web Services Applications
- Different Web Service Providers
- Preparing for the Future
- Summary
In this chapter
- Searching for Practical Examples
- Web Service Availability
- Finding Web Services Applications
- Different Web Service Providers
- Preparing for the Future
This chapter addresses an aspect of Web services that is still evolving rapidly. Admittedly, the technologies surrounding Web services are not standing still. Far from it! They are being actively developed and they evolve almost daily. Still, the technical road is well mapped out.
In other words, we have a reasonably clear picture of what to expect on that front. For example, there is no doubt that XML and SOAP are the two cornerstones of Web services. However, the vision is less clear for the business model supporting Web services, and this chapter is partly about the said business model.
You see, the problem is that the technology is so new that the industry that benefits from it is still in its infancy. We lack proven examples of working business models.
The business model behind Web services is not a secondary issue, though. In fact, it is my strong belief that developers (that's you) will play a very important role in shaping that market.
Although, as I've just explained, this chapter is more tentative than the technical ones, I hope you will find food for thought as you read it. Read it, criticize it, but, most importantly, do not ignore the issues it covers.
Searching for Practical Examples
Developers have a very important role to play in the adoption of new technologies. Not only do we support the technology, but we also have to educate our organizations in how to best benefit from new developments. The business models supporting Web services are still being written as you read, and you have an important role to play in writing those business models.
Lacking a reliable crystal ball to predict the future, I will turn to past experience to help me shed some light on the future of Web service providers. I know of two markets that are close to what Web services may turn into: EDI (supported by Value-Added Networks) and ISPs (Internet Service Providers). The discussion of ISPs focuses on hosting providers, sometimes also referred to as ASPs (Application Service Providers).
A Look Down Memory Lane: EDI
If you are reading this book, I can safely assume you are familiar with ISPs and Web hosting, but you might not be so familiar with the EDI market. In Chapter 2, "The Internet and Web Services: Changing Business," you were introduced to EDI and how it compares and contrasts to XML as a messaging system. Let me take a moment to further describe the EDI market to you and to explain why it's relevant to Web providers.
EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange. It was originally introduced more than 20 years ago, and it aimed to provide an early form of e-commerce. The exact meaning of e-commerce is lost in hype.
When thinking of e-commerce, most people think of Amazon.com or other online shops. There are more popular and older forms of e-commerce, however. Online shops cater primarily for the business-to-consumer (B2C) side of e-commerce.
The other side is business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, or the buying, selling, and other commercial transactions that take place between businesses. B2B commerce is less well known than the consumer-oriented side, mainly because it is less visible, more abstract: We shop in various stores (online and offline) every day, but few of us really care where the stores are buying their goods.
Stores (businesses) buying goods from their suppliers (other businesses) is B2B commerce. And the surprise is that it accounts for a very large volume of activity, because behind the supplier there is another supplier, and another, and another.
Let's take an example. You have bought Java Web Services Unleashed at a bookstore. The bookstore bought the same book from a distributor. The distributor bought it from Sams. Sams had the book manufactured by a printer. To manufacture the book, the printer bought paper and ink. You get the idea.
So, for a single, consumer-orientated transaction (you buying the book), there have been several business-to-business transactions. This multiplying effect means that B2B commerceand consequently, B2B e-commerceis destined to outnumber consumer activity by a wide margin.
Electronic Data Interchange Concepts
Probably the oldest form of e-commerce is EDI, which is solely concerned with B2B e-commerce. The idea behind EDI is very simple: To do business, companies have to exchange enormous amounts of paperwork. Let's replace the paperwork with electronic files.
For example, if my company decides to buy goods from yours, we'll issue a purchase order. We also expect the goods to come with an invoice. To pay the invoice, we might cut a check.
Do we write these documents with a pen and paper? Unlikelymost companies use some sort of accounting software (anything from QuickBooks to SAP) that tracks orders, invoices, and payments.
Take the following test: Go to the mail department and watch as the clerks shift through the morning mail. You will find that most documents are printed by a computer (and incidentally, you'll understand why Intuit makes so much money selling checkbooks), most of them by the sender's ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). Follow the paper trail and you'll find the same documents are being routed to...your own ERP!
So the process is to print commercial documents, send them by postal mail and key them in at the receiving end. The paperwork and all the manual processing it requires is a small annoyance for small corporations like mine, but it's a major cost for larger organizations.
More than 20 years ago, some companies realized they could simplify things by building a more direct link between the two accounting software systems. Instead of spitting out a paper purchase order, my computer produces a file. I can e-mail you the file and you can feed it straight into your accounting package. No paper or postal mail is involved, and it's better than regular e-mail because the commercial documents are automatically imported.
Some of the benefits of EDI include:
Electronic documents take less time to exchange and process.
Typing and re-typing the same document is a major cause of errors (for example, it's easy to type 10,000 instead of 100,000). Electronic documents eliminate the retyping and associated errors.
Processing electronic documents requires less human resources.
How big is EDI? According to Forrester Research, B2B e-commerce (comprising EDI and Internet transactions) is valued at $671 billion in 1998. Why don't we hear more about it? One of the reasons may be that most transactions take place on private networks, not the Internet. In fact, Internet transactions represented only $92 billion.
Most transactions taking place on private networks are not based on XML. Instead they use the EDI specific-formats, such as UN/EDIFACT and ANSI X12.
EDI and Web Services Compared
Do you see the similarities between EDI and Web services? Beyond the obvious technical differences (private networks as opposed to the Internet, obscure file formats as opposed to XML), both intend to automate and improve the flow of information between corporations.
Lacking a better frame of reference, Web service providers can learn a lot from more than 20 years of EDI experience. You'll read about some of these issues in a moment, but I also want to highlight two features that distinguish EDI from Web services:
EDI is capital-intensive.
EDI focuses on cost savings.
Setting up an EDI infrastructure is pricey, which partly explains why it is not more popular. EDI really was designed for large corporations doing business frequently. It lacks the agility of e-commerce on the Internet. In contrast, Web-based solutions, such as Web services, are more affordable and can be deployed more quickly.
EDI focuses exclusively on cost savings; its aim is to reduce the amount of paperwork so that business can be done more efficiently. However, reducing costs is only one half of its impact. It also enables new ways of doing business. For example, because an electronic order is sent and processed in minutes instead of days for its paper counterpart, it is possible to keep less inventory and re-order more frequently. This in turn frees financial resources.
Keep these differences in mind as you review the EDI experience. Despite the differences, there are two important lessons to learn from EDI:
It is crucial to document the application and, more specifically, its APIs properly. Documentation is important in any software project, but it is even more important when the project involves the IT departments of two or more companies.
This is a very important topic but, fortunately, one that is well addressed by Web services standards. Turn to Chapter 11, "WSDL," for coverage of this all-important topic.
The more partners that can join the exchangein other words, the larger the community surrounding a Web servicethe more valuable it becomes. In practice, it means that Web services should be cheap to implement and cheap to deploy. Although that may not be the case yet, past Internet experiences show that we can expect a lowering of the entry costs.


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GOT cast call THAT final season remake petition a "hate campaign"
Well, we most likely still aren't quite over season eight of Game of Thrones.
For the most part, the writing was beyond ridiculous, and fans were so frustrated that some of them even began a petition to remake the final season.
Some of the cast-members showed up to a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con yesterday, and addressed the furious fan reaction to the series finale, which…bombed.
It's only been two months since the HBO hit show ended, but the wounds haven't quite healed yet, it would seem. We're trying to desperately forget that the season ever even happened.
The cast got back together on Friday to talk all things GOT, and referenced the Change.org petition to 'Remake Game of Thrones Season eight with competent writers' that got 1.6 million signatures.
Nikolaj Coster–Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm), Conleth Hill (Varys), and Liam Cunningham (Ser Davos) showed up to the panel.
They got candid about the hugely negative reaction to the final season, with Nikolaj mainly addressing the "level of absurdity of the online petition";
"Every season, we had huge controversies. From Ned Stark being killed, 'I'm never going to watch that piece of shit show again!' And then there was the Red Wedding. And obviously, the end," he continued.
"I feel so lucky to have met so may fans of the show, and to realise this show has brought so many people together. Watching it, loving it. So obviously, It comes to an end, it's going to piss you off no matter what."
The Danish actor, who portrayed Jaime Lannister, added;
"It's the end! But at the end of the day, it's absolutely fine. If you hated the ending if you loved it, that's great. Just don't call people names."
Conleth (the Master of Whisperers) joined in, saying;
"You look at the amount of people who are here. We are here to thank you for watching us all those years. This is the reality rather than a media-led hate campaign."
When Nikolaj was queried on his death scene, he said; "I thought it was perfect for him to end in the arms of Cersei."
Variety reported that some fans in the audience disagreed, and even booed the actor. "It made sense to me – that's just my opinion," he said.
His co-star Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) previously said she was "gutted" about how her character died under the pile of bricks, and even revealed further disappointment over a crucial Cersei scene being edited out of the show.
Feature image: Instagram/@isaachwright

subset: commoncrawl


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Incredible Military Photos Pt.1 [54 Pics]
Apr 24 2012
Feast your eyes on one of the most amazing military photo compilations on the internet. Each photo represents a very unique event, so make sure you read all the image captions.
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Incredible Military Photos Pt.2 [30 Pics]
Jun 18 2012
An amazing roundup of the best military photos we came across since our last military photo compilation.


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Series 61 Photoelectric Sensors enable machine builders to benefit from the powerful optical performance without the cost traditionally associated with high optical power. These UL and cUL listed sensors are available in DC models with 4-in-1ô output and AC/DC models with SPDT relay output, for an all-in-one solution that satisfies any number of application needs. Accessible controls simplify set-up and adjustments, and color-coded labels make it easy to identify a given sensorís sensing mode. AC/DC versions with SPDT relay output are capable of switching up to 3 Amps. For harsh applications, the sensors are also available in fiber optic versions where the sensing range is dependent on the fiber cable. The fiber optic fitting is suitable for use with all ìuniversalî glass fiber optic cables.
Pepperl+Fuchs, www.pepperl-fuchs.us


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AJ and Tim discuss The Outsiders #12 from 1986, "Nothin Left To Lose", signs of trust, science of radiation, and fireflies. Website: https://www.thehuntresspodcast.com/ Email: [email protected] Twitter: @BatOutcasters @HuntressPodcast @timprice17 Bluesky: @HueStone44 @timprice17 Threads: @wright_on_work @timprice17 Closing music: Nothing Left to Lose - The Alan Parsons Project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LMJyK0lj1U
info_outline #118 The Huntress Podcast: All Star Squadron 14WRIGHT ON NETWORK!
The Huntress Podcast is back to talk about the Crises happening on multiple earths, caused by the facscist time traveler, Per Degaton. A team up match made in the phantom zone, Per Degaton and The Crime Syndicate, comes to an end rather quickly because of course it wouldn't work. We also get some good story time action with the All-Star Squadron. We would love to hear from you at X @HuntressPodcast Bluesky: huestone44.bsky.social
info_outline #229 Feathers & Foes: Birds of Prey 11 Worlds Without End (3 of 5)WRIGHT ON NETWORK!
Feathers and Foes are back to talk about the ongoning adventrues of the Birds of Prey, who are currently fighting battles in a pocket dimension. Batgirl is isolated from the group, Constantine, Zealot and Meridian are on the outside looking in and Team A of the Birds of Prey are being Spectacular in the face of danger...and Dinosaurs! Let us know your thoughts at Bluesky: huestone44.bsky.social X @HuntressPodcast Sogallifrey_44 on Instagram
info_outline #141 The Cassandra Cain Podcast: Batman & Robin 16 - 18WRIGHT ON NETWORK!
The Cassandra Cain Podcast is discussing Cassandra Cain in the ongoings of what is happening in the pages of Batman & Robin Eternal 16 - 18. Things are really turning up to 11 with the Mother character, Batman is absolved of any narrative line crossing and the Bat Family is a little messy yet coming together. Let us know if you are reading or read any new52 comics. What do you think about Cassandra Cain in this messy story? Contact us at the following places: X @HuntressPodcast Bluesky: huestone44.bsky.social Instagram @gallifrey_44
info_outline #228 Feathers & Foes: New52 Birds of PreyWRIGHT ON NETWORK!
On this episode of Feathers and Foes we are talking about issues 22 & 23 of Birds of Prey in the New52 world! Black Canary and Company are dealing with a new Headquarters, some romance? a return of a spouse? and dealing with some new Foes! Join the conversation at X @HuntressPodcast Instagram @sogallifrey44 Bluesky: Huestone44.bsky.social
info_outline Outcasters Episode 53WRIGHT ON NETWORK!
AJ and Tim discuss The Outsiders #11 from 1986, "No Escape", cold war politics, swag bags, and tiny trees. Website: https://www.thehuntresspodcast.com/ Email: [email protected] Twitter: @BatOutcasters @HuntressPodcast @timprice17 Bluesky: @HueStone44 @timprice17 Threads: @wright_on_work @timprice17 Closing music: Seremedy - No Escape https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbTAMzgC7uU
info_outline #117 The Huntress Podcast: Detective Comics 1054WRIGHT ON NETWORK!
The Huntress Podcast again is in love with Mariko Tamaki's script for Detective Comics 1054. The Batfamily are together, under fire, trying to scale the conflict going on in the Tower! Shadows of the Bat is ramped up and ready to get on with the beginnining of the end. Tell us your thoughts about this story at Bluesky: Huestone44.bsky.social Instagram: Huestone_44
info_outline #227 Feathers & Foes: Birds of Prey 10WRIGHT ON NETWORK!
Feathers and Foes are talking about Volume 5 Birds of Prey, where the Birds are trapped in a bubble universe with someone who may be a Friend or Foe. Barbara Gordon is separated from the group, Big Barda is attacking the group and the outfits are spectacular. Let us know your thoughts at X @HuntressPodcast Contact Laurel on any social media at MtnFlwr1 Bluesky: @huestone44.bsky.social Instagram: Huestone44
info_outline #140 The Cassandra Cain Podcast: Batman & Robin Eternal 14 & 15WRIGHT ON NETWORK!
Tim and A.J. are hear to talk about Cassandra Cain joining a family of Robins or Batfamily, escaping the abuse of her father, Orphan/David Cain, and Mother. Will she and her chosen family be able to make it out alive? Listen in and find out as A.J. and Tim give their takes on this 2016 release. Did you read these stories back in the day or now? Give us your thoughts at Blue Sky: huestone44.bsky.social X @HuntressPodcast
info_outline #116 The Huntress Podcast: Justice Society of America 9 & Justice League of America 207WRIGHT ON NETWORK!
The Huntress Podcast is talking about Helena Wayne in Justice Society of America #9 and Justice League of America #207. Two different eras where The Huntress is working within a team. In the Justice Society of America Geoff Johns is still setting up his new vision for the characters, collecting new people to the roster and facing a new cosmic threat or potential team mate. In Justice League of America #207 we are embarking on a huge crossover with The Justice Society of America, Justice League of America and the ALL-STAR SQUADRON! Let us know your thoughts at ...
info_outlineLaurel and Ashford discuss that although the Wright On Network only have DC centric podcasts, we love Marvel as well.


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The Western media have proved for all to see that the Western media comprises either a collection of ignorant and incompetent fools or a whorehouse that sells war for money.
The Western media fell in step with Washington and blamed the downed Malaysian airliner on Russia. No evidence was provided. It its place the media used constant repetition. Washington withheld the evidence that proved that Kiev was responsible. The media's purpose was not to tell the truth, but to demonize Russia.
Now we have the media story of the armored Russian column that allegedly crossed into Ukraine and was destroyed by Ukraine's rag-tag forces that ISIS would eliminate in a few minutes. British reporters fabricated this story or were handed it by a CIA operative working to build a war narrative. The disreputable BBC hyped the story without investigating. The German media, including Die Welt, blared the story throughout Germany without concern at the absence of any evidence. Reuters news agency, also with no investigation, spread the story. Readers tell me that CNN has been broadcasting the fake story 24/7. Although I cannot stand to watch it, I suspect Fox "news" has also been riding this lame horse hard. Readers tell me that my former newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, which has fallen so low as to be unreadable, also spread the false story. I hope they are wrong. One hates to see the complete despoliation of one's former habitat.
The media story is preposterous for a number of reasons that should be obvious to a normal person.
The first reason is that the Russian government has made it completely clear that its purpose is to de-escalate the situation. When other former Russian territories that are part of present day Ukraine followed Crimea, voted their independence and requested reunification with Russia, President Putin refused. To underline his de-escalation, President Putin asked the Russian Duma to rescind his authority to intervene militarily in Ukraine in behalf of the former Russian provinces. As the Russian government, unlike Washington or EU governments, stresses legality and the rule of law, Russian military forces would not be sent into Ukraine prior to the Duma renewing Putin's authority so to do.
The second reason the story is obviously false is that if the Russian government decides to invade Ukraine, Russia would not send in one small armored group unprotected by air cover or other forces. If Russia invades Ukraine, it will be with a force capable of rolling up the rag-tag Ukrainian forces, most of which are semi-private militias organized by nazis. The "war" would last a few hours, after which Ukraine would be in Russia's hands where it resided for hundreds of years prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Washington's successful efforts in 1991 to take advantage of Russian weakness to break apart the constituent provinces of Russia herself.
The third reason that the story is obviously false is that not a single Western news organization hyping the story has presented a shred of evidence in its behalf.
What we witness in this fabricated story is the total lack of integrity in the entirety ofthe Western media.
A story totally devoid of any evidence to support it has been broadcast world wide. The White House has issued a statement saying that it cannot confirm the story, but nevertheless the White House continues to issue accusations against Russia for which the White House can supply no evidence. Consequently, Western repetition of bald-faced lies has become truth for huge numbers of peoples. As I have emphasized in my columns, these Western lies are dangerous, because they provoke war.
The same group in Washington and the same Western "media" are telling the same kind of lies that were used to justify Washington's wars in Iraq (weapons of mass destruction), Afghanistan (Taliban = al Qaeda), Syria (use of chemical weapons), Libya (an assortment of ridiculous charges), and the ongoing US military murders in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia.
The city upon the hill, the light unto the world, the home of the exceptional, indispensable people is the home of Satan's lies where truth is prohibited and war is the end game.
Update: After pretending that the Russian humanitarian truck convoy contained a hidden invasion force, the stooge Kiev government was forced by facts on the ground to officially acknowledge that the trucks only contained aid for those that the Kiev stooge government has been bombing and attacking with artillery.


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The Wolf Among Us Chapter 5
Videos, screens and info from Cry Wolf, the season finale
Following a bloody trail of murder and corruption, Bigby Wolf confronts a powerful enemy: a dark force that has been feeding on the desperation of Fabletown's seedy underbelly. But when hidden truths are revealed, you must decide exactly what justice means in the gripping season finale of The Wolf Among Us.
The fifth episode of The Wolf Among Us – Cry Wolf will be available starting Tuesday July 8th on PC/Mac and on PlayStation®Network for PlayStation 3 in North America (SCEA).
On Wednesday July 9th, the episode will be available on PlayStation®Network for PlayStation 3 in Europe (SCEE) and on Xbox 360.
For iOS (iPhone and iPad), the episode will be available starting Thursday July 10th.
The Wolf Among Us: Episode Five – Cry Wolf is rated 'M' (Mature) for Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, and Use of Tobacco by the ESRB.


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"Thirty years of counter-revolution": An interview with Clyde Young
Spencer A. Leonard
Platypus Review 43 | February 2012
Last summer, Spencer A. Leonard interviewed Clyde Young, a veteran member of the Revolutionary Communist Party. The interview was broadcast on June 31, 2011 on the radio show Radical Minds on WHPK–FM Chicago. What follows is an edited transcript of their conversation. A shorter version of this interview ran in our broadsheet edition of Platypus Review 43.
Spencer Leonard: Everyone hears a lot about the 1960s, the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, as well as the Students for a Democratic Society, the worldwide political upheavals of 1968, and the new social movements that gained strength in the late 1960s and 70s. But there is a sort of embarrassed silence when it comes to the question of the New Left's turn towards Marxism in the 1970s, one example of which is your party, the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). Tell us about your experience of the 1970s and that of your party, and how you understand both today.
Clyde Young: I was a prisoner for most of the late 1960s. When I went in, I wasn't political, much less a radical. I was convicted of robbery and was sentenced to 20 years. Prison at that time was hell, though today it is even worse. While in prison, I was provoked by what was going on in the world outside, by the demonstration against the Vietnam War at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, by the murder of the students at Kent State and Jackson State, and the many other events of those times. By the late 1960s, the Black Panther Party (BPP) had emerged on the scene; the BPP put revolution on the map in a way that it hadn't been before. They turned me on to the Red Book and Mao. It was around then that I began to read Marx, Lenin, and Mao. Revolution was surging throughout the third world, and the Cultural Revolution in China was having a profound impact across the globe. It was in this context that I became a revolutionary and a communist, while serving time in prison. I could not then closely follow the debates taking place in the early years of the anti-revisionist communist movement, but I knew they were happening. I knew of the effort to build a new communist party, sharing the view held by many that the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) had ceased to be revolutionary, if in fact it ever was.
In the anti-revisionist communist movement we were setting out like peasants, going off to war, and forging weapons from the tools we had at hand. We picked up Marxism and tried to apply it to the conditions that we found ourselves in. This is what the Revolutionary Union (RU) did, like many other organizations at that time. But, certainly, the 1960s were themselves a very profound upsurge, one that Bob Avakian and our party has repeatedly gone back to, to try to analyze whether or not a revolutionary situation could have developed in the 1960s. The conclusion is that a revolutionary situation could have developed, and if certain things had come together, and if a party had been formed at that time, then it is possible that if a revolutionary situation had emerged, a revolution could have been made.
There was a very powerful movement at that time, driven forward by the national question. There were profound changes taking place in this country and throughout the world, with people in this country, black people, being uprooted from the South and going to the North, like my family and millions of others after World War II. This was a tremendous transformation. There was a push off of the land with the mechanization of agriculture and a strong pull into the cities. Of course, there was not a one-to-one relationship between those changes and what subsequently happened. But there did develop a revolutionary struggle in this country, the engine of which was the struggle of black people, and this was in unity with national liberation struggles throughout the world.
This is the context in which the RU and many others took up revolution and communism. At the time, millions of people were sympathetic to revolution. The RU, the predecessor of the RCP, did a tremendous amount of theoretical work. A lot of questions needed sorting out. There was a need for a deeper understanding of the reversal of the revolution in the Soviet Union. What was the path to liberation for black people, Puerto Ricans and other oppressed people in this country? These were not just academic issues.
SL: Addressing the revolutionary potential at the time of its formation, and how we think about that potential today, in the autumn of 1981, the chairman of the RCP, Bob Avakian, wrote in "Conquer the World": "One of the things about which there is a great deal of confusion and therefore is a cause of demoralization to many revolutionaries—more than is objectively necessary—is the question of why the '60s movement receded into an ebb in the '70s, speaking in broad terms, and why and how the upsurge that characterized the '60s generally in the world and particularly in the "Third World" turned into its opposite not just in particular countries, but in many aspects internationally."[1] Avakian then adds that it is important, indeed crucial, to make a "scientific summation of that [experience]." In this spirit, then, how does the RCP view the decade that gave it birth? How best to think about what now seems like the decline of political possibility in the 1970s, given the turn to Marxism, to the party question, and to more serious thinking, generally? What did it mean to organize and channel discontent in a revolutionary direction in such circumstances?
CY: It became very clear at a certain point that the movement was ebbing. When we talk about the 1960s, we are talking about the late 1960s into the early 1970s, when it reached its high point. As things moved further into the 1970s, particularly by 1973 or 1974, contradictions on a world level began to shift and change. What began to come to the fore was the conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union which in the 1980s took a very pronounced shape as things headed towards, as we analyzed, a third world war. This change began, as I have said, probably as early as 1973 and 1974. And there was a recognition on the part of the RU that if anything of importance was going to come out of that period, it was very important to form a vanguard organization, a vanguard party.
When I speak of a vanguard party, it is a matter of taking responsibility for the movement as a whole, it's not an ego thing or anything of that sort. A hallmark of the RCP (and the RU before it) has been to always proceed from the question: "How do you make revolution in a country like this one as part of the world wide revolutionary struggle?" That has been our point of reference from the beginning. Seeking out ways and means, and looking for the openings in which a revolution could be made and, at the same time, another hallmark of our organization has been to approach every question scientifically. So, again, what was going on at the beginning of 1970s—and we made a lot of analysis of this in "Conquer the World" and in America in Decline[2]—was that the contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed nations was receding as the main factor in the world. And what was emerging in the mid-1970s was a world characterized by contention between the Soviet social-imperialists and the U.S.; this contradiction began to define the world situation much more than the contradiction between imperialism and oppressed nations.
SL: Tell me a bit about the significance of forming a party in those years. What motivated the constitution of a vanguard party at that time and what was hoped it might allow for? What kind of action, what kind of consciousness did it facilitate?
CY: The revolutionary forces emerging out of the 1960s had developed a deep understanding of Marxism. As I said earlier, in the beginning, we were like peasants marching off to war, taking up the tools that we had at hand. There were some things that could be drawn from the international communist movement, but the CPUSA had become a revisionist party; it had changed colors in essence from red to white. So there was a certain amount of re-learning to be done, a clarification of issues in terms of what was a revolutionary line and what was not. This was not an abstract process, but turned on vitally important questions, like the emancipation of black people. How do black people get free, what is the correct analysis of their condition. If there is to be a revolution, if you are serious about that, there needs to be a vanguard party. We learned that from Lenin and from Lenin's What is to be Done? We knew that we needed not just a party of average workers, but a party of professional revolutionaries. And as the movement ebbed in the 1970s there was a recognition that if the party was not formed, a lot of what came out of the 1960s might be lost. I think this was the motivation behind the RU reaching out to various new communist forces, to try to pull them into a much more organized expression. In 1974, in particular, Bob Avakian and the RU led a nation-wide, party-building tour uniting Marxist-Leninist and Maoist forces into a single vanguard party.
SL: One of the buzz phrases that we have very much as a legacy of the 1960s is "the movement." That word really does not convey any distinct form of organization, and certainly not a "party." How does "party" as opposed to "movement" allow for the kind of activity you hoped for?
CY: Well, if I understand your question, you cannot just go about the business of forming a party cut off from everything else going on in the world, though some people attempted to do that. Some people simply cut themselves off from the movement to engage in reading and study, and then tried to form a party. But such things have to be done in close unity with one another. There were major things going on in the world at that time that could not be ignored. If you look at the RU as it was coming into being, there was work it was doing in relationship to the strike in Richmond, California; May Day; and International Women's Day. And, of course, there was actually a movement where people were against the war, against the oppression of black people. Youth were in the streets. There was a movement of youth in the suburbs turning against their parents. Taken together this was a very combustible mix. Today, the party is building a movement for revolution and that movement must have leadership, the leadership of a vanguard party.
SL: By the 1970s radicals were getting more serious about what it meant to really transform society from within. That meant an orientation towards the people who are at the heart of the reproduction of this society, the working class. How did this reorientation to the working class manifest itself in the precursor to the RCP and then in the RCP in the 1970s? Did people in the RU and later in the RCP get factory jobs and join unions?
CY: Again, I think it is important to reassert what I said earlier: The focus was to make a revolution, and people felt that if you were going to make a revolution, then you had to have a base among the working class. And, in fact, what we had inherited from the international communist movement was that basically you needed to have a base in large industry, among industrialized, unionized workers. So, we went among that section of the people, in auto, steel, electronics, etc. But the problem is that when you get into that situation, do you maintain your revolutionary orientation? Do you maintain the orientation that what you are about is actually making revolution and taking revolution, socialism, and communism to the working class? Or is it about the shop floor issues that you deteriorate into? What becomes the central focus is an economist view of whatever is on the workers' minds.
But, yes, there was a movement among most of the organizations in the anti-revisionist communist movement to go to the working class. When I came into the RCP, people were working in large scale industry, in steel and auto plants, and in other kinds of factories. We thought that, if you were going to make a revolution, you had to have a base among that section of the people as the backbone of the revolution. But, over time, there was a recognition of a couple of things. For one, large sections of the working class were bourgeoisified. We came to recognize, through returning to Lenin's analysis, that, with the development of imperialism, one had to go lower and deeper down to the real proletariat. After the split in our party with what we called "the Mensheviks," who were seeking to submerge it in the working class, cutting the revolutionary heart out of the Party, we recognized that the focus on the large scale industrial working class was not correct. Again, we had to go down lower and deeper to what Lenin referred to as "the real proletariat."
SL: So these that you refer to as Mensheviks who split from the party were people who are high up in union bureaucracy today? These are people who were deeply engaged in trade union work?
CY: In 1977, after the reversal of the revolution in China, there emerged a struggle in the party which mainly centered on whether or not the revolution in China had indeed been reversed after Mao's death in 1976. How to sum up what had happened in China was the central focus of a struggle that took place within our party. But a secondary aspect of that struggle was over trade unionism and workerism and, ultimately, what we referred to as "economism," where you just sort of submerge yourself in the day-to-day needs and struggles of the working class. In 1976, Bob Avakian put out a piece called "Revolutionary Work in a Non-revolutionary Situation." This was a speech to the central committee in which he expressed his recognition that the upsurge of the 1960s had ebbed and we would have to persevere in a situation in which a revolutionary situation was not on the horizon.
One cannot predict with certainty when a revolutionary situation will arise; this is why a party needs to be preparing actively for the emergence of a revolutionary situation. If a party does not prepare in this way, a revolutionary opportunity can be thrown away. This is a profound lesson that we learned from Lenin.
SL: The death of Mao and the jailing of the Gang of Four provoked widespread demoralization in the RCP and the wider New Communist Movement. This compounded the disorientation caused by events in Angola some years before. At the same time, the mid-1970s were a time of significant labor militancy, especially as compared to now. There existed then much higher rates of unionization, so that workers were in a stronger position to face the kind of assaults and austerity impositions that we are now all too familiar with. So how did the RCP's early party building efforts develop in such a complex environment?
CY: That is a very big question, and I think you captured some things there, when you were saying how do you not throw away the lessons learned from the 1960s. Avakian led the party in recognizing that just basing itself among the large-scale industrial workers was not the way to make a revolution. We had to go lower and deeper. This is a party (and the RU before it) that participated in a lot of different struggles, including among the working class—the miners, struggles in the auto industry, etc. The party did not stand aloof from those struggles; it participated in those struggles and it tried to bring a revolutionary understanding to them. But, at a certain point, after the split with the "Mensheviks," we set out to apply the understanding that our work needed to be focused on the lower and deeper sections of the proletariat. There was also a recognition, in returning to What is to be Done?, of the role and importance of a communist newspaper in preparing for revolution. The role of the newspaper is to train the masses in a communist understanding of all major events. Lenin put a tremendous stress the importance of the communist press in What is to be Done? We began publishing a national newspaper on a weekly basis in 1979 or 1980. And after the split with the Mensheviks, we launched major revolutionary initiatives: a national speaking tour of Bob Avakian in 1979 and May Day 1980, an effort to put May 1 back on the political landscape in a way that it had not been before. These were part of the initiatives that the party took as part of putting straight-up revolutionary politics on the map.
Since then, we have identified the two mainstays of our work as the newspaper and spreading the contributions and works of Bob Avakian, the qualitative contributions that he has made to communist theory, and spreading those contributions as a crucial part of bringing forward a new wave of communist revolution. Even when you are doing revolutionary work in a non-revolutionary situation, you are not just waiting; that would be a serious mistake, to just be waiting for the emergence of a revolutionary situation. You're doing everything you can to hasten the development of a revolutionary situation, you're raising the level of the resistance of the people, and you are engaging in other kinds of work that is actually heightening, as much as possible, the consciousness of the people and their fighting capacity, in anticipation of a revolutionary situation. The imperialist system itself, again and again, creates horrors, whether it is the killing of a 7-year old kid, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, or whether it is the environment. There are all kinds of things that give rise to jolts and crises, but the question is what are you doing, during those crises, and all along the way—in an active way, not just waiting—to actually accelerate the process, to hasten, while awaiting the development of a revolutionary situation. A lot of this is discussed in a new book by Bob Avakian. There is a piece in that book called, "On the Strategy for Revolution," and that piece discusses the strategy for making revolution in an advanced imperialist country like this one. This understanding did not exist in the 1960s; the development of this strategy by Avakian and the RCP is something that involved painstaking theoretical work, in order to arrive at a deepened understanding of how to make revolution in a country like this one. I would recommend that book; it's called Basics: From the Writings and Quotations of Bob Avakian.[3]
SL: In 2008, your party published a manifesto entitled Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage,[4] which states the following on the significance of the defeat of the Chinese Revolution in the wake of the death of Chairman Mao: "We should not underestimate this defeat in China, and everything it has brought forth, everything the imperialists have done on that basis, and have built on that. China, and everything it represented for the international proletariat and the world proletarian revolution—to lose that after the Cultural Revolution [in China], after millions and millions of people went through that upheaval, and yes, a significant process of remolding their world outlook—this is something we're still coming to terms with, both in objective reality and in our own thinking."[5] Explain the significance of the Chinese Revolution for the RCP and your party's understanding of what transpired in the 1970s and how that shapes our situation today.
CY: In the 1960s and 1970s, China was a beacon of revolution. This was the period of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR), a revolution within the revolution to prevent the restoration of capitalism and to further advance on the socialist road to communism. It was an unprecedented struggle that advanced revolution to the highest point yet in the whole history of the international communist movement. There had been the Paris Commune, and there had been the revolution in the Soviet Union. Learning from those experiences, through the GPCR, Mao led the revolution to the highest pinnacle that has been achieved.
And then in 1976, when Mao died, that revolution was reversed. There's a lot that we can get into about that, and, in fact, I'd refer people to the document that you referenced, Communism: the Beginning of a New Stage, A Manifesto from the RCP. The loss of China was devastating! I came to political life because of the Black Panther Party, and what they did to spread Mao's Red Book. I studied the Red Book and subsequently read many things by Marx, Lenin, and Mao, and I became a Maoist. And a lot of people in this country, and all over the world, became Maoists in the 1960s, not because somehow this was part of a Third World revolution (though some may have viewed it that way), but because this was a communist revolution in motion. This was a laboratory of communism, a socialist society in transition to communism. This was extraordinarily important. And the reversal of that revolution was a devastating blow.
And the question was, were you going to understand why that happened, or were you just going to turn away from it in one form or another? So it has had a big impact, it has had an impact in lowering sights, it has had an impact in lowering ambitions in terms of what's possible. Is it possible anymore to make a revolution in the world or in a country like this one? Yes, it is! So the loss of China was devastating and continues to be devastating. And not only that, what has come behind it has been an attack on communism, thirty years of counter-revolution against communism. So this is the atmosphere in which we have been working. But what we are doing is far from being demoralized and defeated. These are some of the things that we fought out in the Cultural Revolution in our party, where some people were not only feeling the effects of the loss of China, but also feeling the ebbing of the movement of the 1960s, and they had given up on revolution, settling into an alternative life style. The Cultural Revolution was a struggle between two fundamentally antagonistic lines: the developing body of work, method, and approach of Bob Avakian in contrast to the "official" line of the party, published in documents and publications on the one hand, and a "revisionist package" on the other, as discussed in Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage.
SL: One of the things that struck me in "Conquer the World" was Avakian's claim that both Mao's later views, as well as Lin Biao's influential 1965 work, "Long Live the Victory of the People's War," mistakenly view the prospects for revolution as existing in the Third World. Avakian charges both with underestimating the possibilities for revolution in advanced imperialist countries, and he points toward revisionist tendencies in the Chinese Revolution well before the death of Mao.
He also speaks there about what he takes to be the heightened possibilities for revolution in imperialist countries in the time he is writing, the early 1980s. It seems to me that the RCP has moved away from that view now, away from its earlier assessment of the revolutionary opportunities of the early 1980s, and has instead adopted the view that the 1970s were the end of an entire phase in the history of communism, so that now the first phase of communism is over. How might we think about that sense of opportunity that Avakian expressed in the early 1980s, versus now, where it seems like we have experienced simply a long transition of reaction? Is that something that the RCP views differently today than it did in 1981, the potentials at that time? Or are both true? Were there potentials there in the transition from the late 1970s and early 1980s that somehow passed unrealized, but whose presence we need to recognize to understand that history?
CY: Well, there's a lot involved in that question. If I could take my time, I'd like to walk through some of it. We feel that revolution is necessary and possible. And not only do we think that revolution is both necessary and possible, but we are actually building a movement for revolution. We are not waiting until a revolutionary situation emerges. We are building a movement for revolution now, and there are different aspects of our work that are focused on hastening, while awaiting, the development of a revolutionary situation. There's building resistance to the outrages of the system. We have an orientation: "Fight the power, and transform the people, for revolution." If people don't fight back against things that are going on right now, they won't have the ability to fight when it's time to fight. So they have to be standing up against the outrages that are coming down now. There is far too little of that now. At the same time, there is the question of a newspaper which reaches far beyond what it does now but can actually have the potential to be a scaffolding for the movement for revolution. These are the things we are doing. And we are looking at, and being poised for, a situation that is ripe for revolution. We are no less oriented that way today than we were in the 1980s. But things were actually sharper in a different way back then, in that what was before us was the possibility of an inter-imperialist war, a nuclear war. Our orientation was to make revolution in order to prevent a world war or to take advantage of world war in order to make revolution, which would have been very difficult. And today the situation is what it is, but it can be transformed, and we have the necessity to break out of thirty years of counter-revolution, speaking politically. But we are making every effort to be prepared should a revolutionary situation emerge. Building the party and accumulating forces that will be necessary when such a situation does arise is extremely important now. You need a core of thousands and tens of thousands in order to be able to lead millions. The hallmark of our organization, from the RU all the way up to now, has been that we are about the business of making revolution. We have not given up on that because the conditions changed from the 1960s to the 1970s to the 1980s to now. It is necessary and possible to do what we are setting out to do.
SL: The RCP is the only organization I know of actively grappling with the issue of the continuity and discontinuity in the tradition, going back to Marx and Engels, and beyond them, to the rise of the workers' movement and the still earlier struggle for human emancipation of the 17th and 18th centuries. It is very difficult for many people to imagine revolutionary emancipation today. No doubt that is related to the incomprehensibility of history.
CY: That is a very good point. This is one of the things that we talk about in terms of the contributions that Avakian has made to communist theory, which need to be promoted right now. People need to know what he has been bringing forward as a source of hope on a scientific basis.[6] His work is both a continuation, and a rupture with, communist theory up to now, with the continuation being the main aspect. If you look at "Conquer the World," Avakian himself has said that "Conquer the World" was an initial epistemological break with certain aspects of weaknesses in the international communist movement. In particular, the question, "Do you go for the truth or not?" Or do you just go for "political truth?" This is a rupture with what has been a tendency in terms of going for political truth and not dealing with the truth of things.[7]
Just to speak to the Lin Biao issues: "Long Live the Victory of the People's War" was a piece that was written by Lin Biao. There was a certain notion he had that revolution was only possible in "third world" countries. This was not Mao's point of view.
On the Three Worlds Theory: There were certain tendencies toward that in Mao, but it never became a consolidated theory. There were some tendencies in Mao's thinking that were connected to ruptures not having been made with some of the mistakes that Stalin had made in terms of forming a united front against fascism in WWII. This was a serious mistake. If you look at what Bob Avakian wrote in "Dictatorship and Democracy, and the Socialist Transition to Communism"[8], he discusses this at great length, arguing that Mao did not rupture with some of those kinds of notions. In the 1970s, China was beginning to face threats from the Soviet Union—there were a million Soviet troops on the border, it was a real threat—but how was that handled? Some mistakes were made, for example, in terms of the opening to the West, as part of dealing with the threat from the Soviet Union.
SL: The RCP understands the 1970s as a moment of ebb in the revolution, but also, potentially, as a moment of summation of the first century of Marxist revolution. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries within the key Marxist parties of the Second International—the German and Russian Social Democratic parties—there occurred what is known as "the revisionist debate" in which revolutionary Marxists such as Kautsky, Luxemburg, and Lenin debated Bernstein and other reformists who emphasized the achievement possible within the prevailing social order. They argued for ongoing reform to accumulate gains for the working class, a view Bernstein summarized with the phrase, "the movement is everything, the goal [of socialism] is nothing." Does Avakian have this precedent in mind when he talks about the prevailing revisionism on the Left today? What sort of battle does he think he is fighting after the end of "the first phase of communism"?
CY: That is a very important question. The theoretical battles that you mentioned did not occur in the abstract. They were life and death struggles, and that is why they were fought so fiercely.
I would again direct people's attention to Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage – A Manifesto from the RCP, USA. There, the crossroads facing the communist movement at this point in history are bluntly posed: "vanguard of the future, or residue of the past?" These are the stakes in which people take up and grapple with Bob Avakian's new synthesis of communism, which is the theoretical framework for the advance to a new stage of communist revolution. |P
Transcribed by Pac Pobric
[1]. Bob Avakian, "Conquer the World? The International Proletariat Must and Will," <http://revcom.us/bob_avakian/conquerworld/>.
[2]. Raymond Lotta, America in Decline: An Analysis of the Developments Toward War and Revolution, in the U.S. and Worldwide, in the 1980s (Chicago: Banner Press, 1984).
[3]. Bob Avakian, Basics: From the Talks and Writings of Bob Avakian (Chicago: RCP Publications,2011), 103–112.
[4]. Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage: A Manifesto from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (Chicago: RCP Publications, 2009).
[5]. Continuing this statement, Avakian makes a very important point: "If you add to this the whole 'death of communism' phenomenon, and the constant barrage of anti-communism and abuse and slander heaped from all directions and in all forms on this GPCR (The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China), on the Chinese Revolution and socialism there, and in fact on all of the experience of socialist society and the dictatorship of the proletariat; if you think about the effect of all that, and you are a materialist and you apply dialectics, it is very difficult to think that we are immune from the effects of all that and that it only influences people outside the Party. Even in our thinking and our souls, if you want to use that term, in our heart of hearts, don't we have questions about whether we were wrong about all this: Why did we lose? If we were so right, and if what we're for is so correct, why did it end up this way? I don't think there are very many comrades who can say they haven't had those questions agonizing within them, probably more than once. We have an answer to those things, but you have to dig for that answer and you have to keep on digging–and you have to be scientific. You have to go to materialism and dialectics." (Emphasis added). Fulfilling a great need, this is precisely the kind of digging that Avakian did after the reversal of the revolution in China.
[6]. "This new synthesis, in its many dimensions . . . has put revolution and communism on a more solid scientific foundation. As Avakian himself has emphasized: '[I]t is very important not to underestimate the significance and potential positive force of this new synthesis: criticizing and rupturing with significant errors and shortcomings while bringing forward and recasting what has been positive from the historical experience of the international communist movements and the socialist countries that have so far existed; in a real sense reviving—on a new, more advanced basis—the viability and, yes, the desirability of a whole new and radically different world, and placing this on an ever firmer foundation of materialism and dialectics. . . . So, we should not underestimate the potential of this as a source of hope and of daring on a solid scientific foundation'" (Communism: The Beginning of A New State, p.29).
[7]. "'Class truth' refers to the view, which has had considerable currency in the international communist movement, that truth—especially in the realm of the social sciences—is not objective, but rather specific and relative to different classes, i.e., the bourgeoisie has its truth and the proletariat has its truth. But what is true is objectively true: It either corresponds to, or does not correspond to, reality in this motion and development. 'Class truth' overlaps with the erroneous idea that people of proletarian background have a special purchase on the truth by virtue of their social position. But truth is truth no matter who articulates it; and getting at the truth, for proletarians, as well as for people of other social and class origins, requires the grasp and application of a scientific approach to society and the world." Raymond Lotta, Nayi Duniya and K.J.A., "Alain Badiou's 'Politics of Emancipation': A Communism Locked Within the Confines of the Bourgeois World," <www.demarcations-journal.org/issue01/demarcations_badiou.html#footnoteref1>.
[8]. Bob Avakian, "Dictatorship and Democracy, and the Socialist Transition to Communism," <http://bobavakian.net/articles/dictatorship_democracy.html>.


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How to Schedule Sending Text Messages from iPhone
The ability to schedule the sending of text messages and iMessages on iPhone has long been desired but up until recently it was not really possible. Fortunately now there are several options available to schedule text messages from iPhone so that the messages are sent at a particular time, and with the help of the free Shortcuts app you can have time delayed messages being scheduled in no time on the iPhone.
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Romney's mission is to first improve the business climate—with lower corporate taxes, increased labor flexibility, and emphasis on energy production—with the belief that jobs will naturally follow. Romney has also championed nixing several Obama-era regulations that act as "red tape," which he claims burden the economy and halt job creation. Many in the restaurant industry have supported Romney in these endeavors.
"As anyone with business experience intuitively understands, the cumulative cost of [these regulations]—recently estimated by the federal government at more than $10,000 per employee for small firms—far outweighs the benefits. The result is a significantly lower appetite for hiring on the part of most employers," writes CKE Restaurants CEO Andy Puzder on Romney's campaign website. "Ultimately, government must choose between getting in the way and getting out of the way."
Though many Republicans and businessmen like Puzder say that the president's administration is regulation-friendly, Obama and his team spent less on regulations in their first two years in office than George Bush did in 2007 and 2008. And in January, the president signed an executive order to reduce regulatory costs and save as much as $10 billion over the next five years.
The Obama regime is also quick to point out its jobs track record over the last four years—namely that, as of June, the private sector has experienced job growth for 28 straight months, resulting in an addition of 4.4 million payroll jobs during that period.
Scott DeFife, executive vice president of policy and government affairs for the National Restaurant Association (NRA), says policy makers should understand that restaurants are generating their fair share of jobs, too—jobs that aren't exported, but remain in the backyards of communities across the country.
"People don't understand the full breadth of the restaurant industry's economic impact and the number of jobs we have," he says, adding that the industry employs 13 million workers. To reward the industry for its contributions to the economy, DeFife says the future administration must provide operators a positive business climate, strong consumer confidence, and an energized economy.
Perhaps Romney's extensive experience in the private sector is what spurred the candidate to recommend cutting the federal corporate tax rate to 25 percent, a major decrease from the current 35 percent rate (which, combined with state rates, makes it the highest corporate tax rate of any nation in the world).
Romney's tax plan also involves strengthening and making permanent the R&D Tax Credit, as well as allowing companies to write off technological research like the development of new product flavors. In addition, he wants to switch to a territorial tax system, in which only income earned in America is taxed by the U.S. government, and repeal the corporate Alternative Minimum Tax, a tax originally designed to prevent wealthier Americans from using loopholes to avoid paying taxes.
President Obama's tax proposal, meanwhile, focuses on keeping rates low for individuals and small businesses by rolling back the Bush-era tax cuts on individuals making more than $200,000 and households (including small businesses) earning more than $250,000. Obama says he wants to return to tax rates last seen during the Clinton administration (raising the top marginal rate from 36 to 39.6 percent), an era during which the nation created more than 22 million jobs.
No matter which candidate secures the presidency in November, the restaurant industry desperately requires a simpler tax code with a broader base and less uncertainty, says Rob Green, executive director of the National Council of Chain Restaurants (NCCR).
The NRA's DeFife reiterates this need for certainty. "If there was more of a permanent fix, restaurant operators could plan with more certainty about their investment decisions and make more long-term hiring decisions," he says. He also adds that a lower corporate rate will spur job creation, while higher tax rates will ultimately hinder business expansion.
Green says a focus on near-term priorities like the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) and depreciation schedules is imperative for the industry. Both issues—the former incentivizes restaurants to hire individuals who have greater challenges entering the workforce, and the latter allows for a faster improvement and deduction schedule for renovation and construction—have expired, and foodservice industry advocates are pushing to renew them.
Jamie Richardson, vice president of government, shareholder, and community relations at White Castle, says both individual and corporate tax reforms need to be considered in the debate. He says bad tax policy on the individual level causes more concern over income and spending, resulting in fewer restaurant visits.
One other tax Richardson says White Castle hopes to see repealed is the Estate Tax, a tax on one's right to transfer property at his or her death.
For family-owned businesses like White Castle, repealing the Estate Tax is essential "so it isn't something where the day the founder dies, the family's left with a huge tax liability that doesn't allow them to keep the founder's dream alive," he says. "It doesn't seem congruent with the American dream."
Health Care
If there's one issue that's single-handedly shaped the election, it's health care. After the Supreme Court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the health-care reform signed into law by President Obama in 2010 that aims to provide health insurance for all Americans, a sweeping majority of operators flooded the airwaves with distressed responses. Many brand owners claimed the mandatory coverage required by the PPACA for businesses with more than 50 full-time-equivalent employees—along with the penalties levied if operators fail to comply with the new rules—could hamper revenue, at best, or completely put them out of business, at worst.
The reform, most of which doesn't go into effect until 2014, will charge businesses $2,000 a year for each full-time employee if the company fails to provide health-care coverage. It can also fine up to $3,000 per employee if a company offers unaffordable health-care plans. The NRA's DeFife says that because the restaurant industry is low-margin and highly dependent on a large workforce, this could spell disaster for many brands.
NCCR's Green echoes this sentiment, but notes that his organization has had "a very positive conversation" with the Obama Administration about the challenges the new health-care bill presents for the lion's share of the restaurant sector. "I think they're trying to work in good faith," Green says, "but the law itself prevents a lot of progress from being made."
Although Romney, too, aspires for universal health care, his plan follows a smaller-government mindset. Romney's proposition involves turning over power to states by developing free-market systems. He says competition will result in producing higher-quality goods at cheaper prices.
White Castle's Richardson says this type of market-based solution is what his company seeks. He adds that, in the short term, the brand would like to see provisions to the law that provide more flexibility for restaurants, "so we can at least have a chance to implement it in a way that allows us to survive."
Arguably one of the issues that bites hardest at fast-food companies, immigration policy and reforms can have a huge influence on the workforce backbone of the industry, both in terms of who restaurants hire and how they hire them.
While both Obama's and Romney's view of the issue and subsequent reform proposals have several common threads—welcoming legal immigrants and enforcing tougher policies for employers when hiring and verifying the legality of their workers, for example—they differ in execution. This is especially true when it comes to the sticky situation of how to handle immigrants already living in the U.S. illegally.
Romney's solution involves securing the borders with a high-tech fence, placing officers on the ground to gain control of the border, and developing a system of exit verification to ensure immigrants don't overstay their visas. While he wants to simplify the system for bringing in temporary agricultural and other seasonal workers, Romney has been outspoken in his opposition to providing amnesty to current illegal immigrants.
President Obama, on the other hand, signed the DREAM Act into law in June, which clears the way for young illegal immigrants who meet a certain set of requirements to remain in the U.S. for a minimum of two years. Obama says this law could benefit at least 800,000 young people—young people who could potentially make up a large share of the restaurant workforce.
At White Castle, Richardson says the 91-year-old company would like to see a path to citizenship for those immigrants who are already in the U.S. "We've seen firsthand the incredible resource that people bring to our community and that immigrants can be the lifeblood of a very vibrant economy," he says. The company calls for dialogue about how to "allow people that are willing and wanting to contribute to have the chance to do that."
NCCR's Green says the most effective immigration policy for the restaurant industry combines efforts to tighten security and regulation while also instating a system "that reflects what's going to be a very tremendous demand for employees from the restaurant industry" in the future.
Where Do They Stand?
A glance at each candidate's stance on the issues.
Romney: As recently as February, Romney offered his support for raising the minimum wage with inflation. After backlash from conservatives, however, he changed his tune and told CNBC's Lawrence Kudlow in March, "Right now, there's probably not a need to raise the minimum wage."
Obama: During his 2008 campaign, Obama promised to increase the minimum wage to $9.50 by the end of 2011. But with Republicans in Congress set against the increases, a proposal never actualized. Since then, Obama has kept mum on his plans for further wage increases, despite calls from liberals.
Organized Labor–
Romney: The former governor is against the Employee Free Choice Act, a law that eases the path for unions to organize. "On day one, I will end the government's favoritism toward unions," Romney told the Associated Builders and Contractors organization during a speech in February. "I'm also going to make sure that workers in America have a right to a secret ballot, and I will fight for right-to-work laws."
Obama: Though Romney says the president "takes his marching orders from union bosses," several union officials have chastised Obama for not supporting organized labor strongly enough. During Obama's first term, labor union membership dropped 3.3 percent, but many major unions continue to back him in his re-election bid.
Capital Expenditures–
Romney: Romney proposes extending for one year the full expensing of capital expenditures. He believes this will induce businesses to spend more, causing other companies to hire additional staff and, in turn, create jobs.
Obama: In 2010, the president put forward a deal that would allow companies to immediately write off 100 percent of their capital expenditures. In addition, February's budget proposal called for businesses to fully deduct capital expenditures for all of 2012.


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By 2020, individuals aged 60 and older will be greater in number than children younger than five. By 2050, the world's older adult population will have doubledto 2 billion. These numbers are striking. Cognitive decline, strained pension schemes, and burgeoning healthcare costs: are we prepared for tomorrow's complex longevity challenges?
These challenges provide unique opportunities and considerable threats if we fail to act soon. Governments and insurers monetize health and have a direct interest in actively promoting longevity. But they are not alone. All sectors and stakeholders have a role to play in enabling progress toward the creation of healthy and vibrant older societies.
Financial services organizations – particularly banks and insurers – have a fiduciary duty to uphold for their customers. Financial protection is needed for preventing financial abuse of the elderly. Technologies predicted by the Fourth Industrial Revolution – ranging from wearables and in-home sensors to artificial intelligence and advanced algorithms – can support the health and wealth of older adults. Regulations and policies must accompany these technological advancements.
As global citizens advocating for and leading positive change, how can we spur action to proactively address the impacts of ageing on human and financial wellbeing? Here are five recommendations:
Create "whealthcare"
A growing number of academics and businesses are examining the impacts of health and wealth together. Skills in financial reasoning are among the first to erode with cognitive changes to the brain. Training professionals in cognitive impairment and ageing are needed to support better communication across a majority of institutions. Physicians should be trained and encouraged to discuss financial and personal affairs with their patients.
Life-course approach
The value of activities undertaken to promote health and wealth in early life become increasingly apparent in later life. Financial planners must work with their clients to develop financial plans that address the effects of cognitive decline across the life course. Urban planners must build housing, transport, and entire cities for an ageing global population.
Collaborative research
Research is needed to better bridge the divide between health and wealth. For healthy ageing, additional research is needed on the determinants of longevity and its most effective interventions. For wealth, predictors and patterns of financial abuse and fraud is required. Academic researchers and financial institutions must collaborate to generate cross-cutting research on healthy ageing and financial wellbeing.
Develop innovative technologies
Personalized technologies with the potential to facilitate healthy ageing and the prevention of financial fraud among older adults are gradually emerging. These technologies must be developed for ease-of-use and functionality, while maintaining appropriate safeguards on data protection and privacy. Artificial intelligence and robotics will be enablers of enhanced function and protection, though they will require collective action to ensure their widespread benefits.
Age-friendly policies
The regulatory and policy environment needs to be adapted for ageing populations. This may include modifications to caregiver oversight and power of attorney statutes that serve to prevent financial fraud and abuse. Granting access to third-parties, including caregivers, must become the new norm in a world of ageing populations.
These recommendations are inspirational and ambitious. They cannot be fulfilled by one individual or organization acting alone. It will demand the deliberate foresight and collaboration among diverse stakeholders to facilitate the creation of sustained health and wealth for older adults. They will take cooperation and dedication, though the results are worth the investment.