“No!” to Corrupt Voting System, “Yes!”to Taking It to The Streets

The official stance of Sparking The Left is that voting in so-called democratic elections is useless. It is taking part in a corrupt system.

This opinion is based upon the fact that I would never waste my vote for either of the two dominating political parties out of respect for my own personal dignity.

You probably miss it in the media because it is so common that the media does not report it: Candidates host fundraisers at places like Goldman Sachs and/or JP Morgan Chase all of the time for campaign contributions. They also raise money from special lobbying groups, too, like the pharmaceutical industry and automaker groups. This is every presidential candidate, every leader in Congress, and both the Democratic and Republican party in whole. It’s just the nature of the corrupt beast. They get ridiculous amounts of cash from Wall St so they remain too big to fail. Pharmaceutical prices remain sky high. The auto industry makes cars in the cheapest way by doing the bare minimum to keep cars safe and reduce the amount of pollution they omit. And deregulation is at the center of it all.

Wall St. and special interest groups are not concerned with the well-being of the country. Don’t get that wrong. They are capitalists. They are insuring their financial and/or cultural interests. This is a way of keeping the working class under control. You may think that you are first in the minds of our leaders, but you’re not. This system puts in politicians who are funded and lobbied by individuals and business groups so as to keep their interests first and foremost.

And remember this: One party doesn’t care about the poor; the other party pretends to care about the poor. Don’t think candidates of either party has not sold their soul to Wall St. They hold huge debts to big business and use it as a trade-off: they rule in the interest of those donating large campaign fund amounts.

Therefore, the official stance of STL is to abstain from voting.

If you consider voting a good vehicle for change, go ahead. I’m not here to force my opinion on you. But STL believes in protests, occupations, direct action, mass actions, strikes, and general strikes. The effectiveness of street politics through solidarity is more powerful than participating in our voting system when such a radical change is needed. Voting is just crumbs thrown to us by the rich and powerful to keep us calm and obedient so we don’t threaten the real decision holders: the elite rich.

Kill Credit Suisse!

leadIn a great op-ed in The Atlantic by James Kwak, Kwak argues that Credit Suisse, a Swiss bank that plead guilty to helping rich Americans evade income taxes for years in terms of billions of dollars, should be punished by revoking it’s license rather than getting the slap on the wrist it is currently receiving.

He argues that this is not a “too big to fail” situation for Credit Suisse for it is a solvent entity.

This is his three step plan to accomplish such an end:

First, Credit Suisse could simply be allowed to operate for, say, three years—enough time to sell off its assets and close its positions without having to take “fire sale” prices. Second, the bank could create a new, licensed subsidiary. That subsidiary could take over all of Credit Suisse’s current positions that can’t be closed easily, and then authorized to operate solely in runoff mode. Third, the government could create a new entity (roughly like the Resolution Trust Corporation) that would buy Credit Suisse’s more complicated assets and positions and then unwind them over as long a period as necessary, eliminating the pressure to sell quickly at a loss.

After 2008, we cannot allow big financial institutions operate with impunity when they are breaking the law with so much on the line. This insightful argument by Kwak could lead to a new blueprint for dealing with the corruption of Wall Street.

Read Here.



China’s Elite Banks Off-Shore

800px-Flag_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China.svgA good article in The Guardian from Jan. 21st reports that the members of the inner circle of power in China are grossing large sums of money through corruption and then investing it overseas (mainly in the British Virgin Islands [BVI]) to avoid local discovery and taxation.

Rampant corruption is the main problem with communism in large nations, which excludes countries such as Cuba and Vietnam. They’re, in my opinion, are small enough to allow the good guys to keep and eye on everybody and the population seems more loyal to the ideology.

Also, the article has some nifty graphs to take a look at.

Read Here.


Oppostion Leader in Russia Convicted of Trumped Up Charges

19navalny-articleLargeAleksei A. Navalny, an opposition anti-corruption blogger and leader of street protests running for Mayor of Moscow, was tried on trumped up embezzlement charges today receiving a five year sentence and $15,000 fine. Both the EU and the United States have criticized the verdict harshly.

This case, along with recent others, have shown that in Russia, with Vladimir Putin’s “soft”-dictatorship active, that the legal system may be used to silence  popular opposition leaders there.

Read Here. 

Indifferent Indian Police Address Sex Crimes Against Women

indexA good article in the NYT on how the Indian police forces are poorly equipped and even less motivated to address sex crimes against women. And what is even more woeful is none of the discussed problems are easily or quickly solved.

Read here.