Freedom Is Not Class-Neutral

Freedom in all lands is captive to class interests. It’s historically impossible for freedom – freedom of will and of action – to get free from the clutch of its class content as freedom is not class-neutral. Economic content of freedom, moored in class interests, makes it biased, distorts its imagined universal appearance – a concept materialized only in utopia – and creates the need to anchor the concept in the solid base of science instead of a superfluous sand beach of imagination.

Evaluating state of freedom without considering its historical perspective, and to be specific, without considering the dominating class interests in a society, its historical limitations, and its antagonism with contending classes, leads to nowhere but to a circle of confusion, to chattering, inactions or actions without aims or actions without identifying class leadership. The confusing analysis is embraced by dominating interests with a convulsive laughter.

No society was there in human history, where dominating interests had no freedom bridled and compelled to compromise by contending interests only. Dominated interests’ freedom was always curtailed, denied, ignored, and muzzled. State of dominated interests’ freedom has always depended on the state of the interests’ awareness, organization and struggle.

Thus, a polluter has all the freedom to pollute water bodies, ground water, air and soil, a foodster has all the freedom to put toxic substance in food marketed among the masses of people, an ideologue has all the freedom to propagate anti-people ideas, concepts, values, dreams and practices, an educator has all the freedom to instruct with counter-scientific ideas, a publicist has all the freedom to bring out whatever publication the gentle-person likes, an image builder has all the freedom to build up image hollow in essence, a bankster has all the freedom to flog inconsistent ideas, a profiteer has all the freedom to swim in a pool of profit, a section of politicians has all the freedom to deceive public and have a nice life without accountability, and they all have all the freedoms – economic, political, spiritual, etc. – to pool all the resources required to fulfill all their passion. So, there is their near-absolute freedom as absolute freedom is a void in nature and society, an imagination in a society unstable with antagonistic class interests. This process of near-absolute freedom of these interests denies freedom of the interests that stand opposed to them.

Dominated interests have no freedom or limited freedom or theoretically have all the freedom but essentially, practically and functionally have no capacity and mean to meaningfully engage with types of freedom – of expression, speech, etc., economic, political, etc. This reality quashes overwhelmingly propagated universal freedom. Dominated interests can have all their freedom of expression, etc. codified but may not own the time to rest and reflect that can allow the interests access required information, analyze those, identify impediments to freedoms and tasks to realize those. It’s not that always there will be a law banning freedom of expression. A reality bombarded with sort of ideas can keep dominated interests inactive in reflecting and formulating ideas upholding self-interests.

Dominated interests – the poor, the tormented, the working people, the under classes – have all the freedom to live in and live with poverty, ignorance, corruption and deceit for generations, have all the freedom to pass all their “blissful” days without information essential for analysis and survival, have all the freedom to sale their body organ – kidney – for a little cash to those wealthy buyers having all the freedom to fly into Bangladesh from some other country as Monir Moniruzzaman, assistant professor of anthropology at Michigan State University, found in his study “‘Living Cadavers’ in Bangladesh: Bioviolence in the Human Organ Bazaar” (Medical Anthropology Quarterly, vol. XXVI, issue 1). In a corner in this strange world, as Reuters reported on March 19, 2012, girls have all the freedom to sale their honor and consume steroids to have a lot of male consumers. Yes, the girls like the girls from erstwhile Soviet Union and eastern Europe are free to earn in a free market, in capitaldom, not in“serfdom”. It’s a freedom “bestowed” upon the daughters of destitution. In a place in this world, employers have “the power to deny prescribed birth control pills to any female employee unless she provides proof she’s not using it for […] birth control.” It’s the freedom of authority and employer and non-freedom of a section of female employees!

Freedom turns a confusing concept as interests interpret in respective ways. “The first is”, Franklin D. Roosevelt said in his message to the US Congress in January 6, 1941, “freedom of speech and expression […] The second is freedom […] to worship […] The third is freedom from want […] The fourth is freedom from fear […]”. Thomas Jefferson in his first inaugural address in 1801 mentioned “freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of persons under the protection of the habeas corpus, […]”. The Truman Doctrine mentioned “freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.” “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men” was a slogan of the Free Soil Party, antecedent of Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party. To a section in society, cars are synonymous to freedom. To some, types of freedom are the physical freedom, the political freedom, and the mental and spiritual freedom. A section finds two types of freedom: negative and positive freedom. Another section identifies four types of freedom: “Freedom from” or “negative freedom”, “Freedom to” or “positive freedom”, “Autonomy”, and “Freedom from domination”. William D. Gairdner classified freedom as Internal Freedom, Self-Freedom, External Freedom (“freedom from...”, “negative freedom”) Political Freedom (“freedom to...”), Collective or "Higher" Freedom (“positive freedom” or “freedom for”) and Spiritual Freedom. (“Six Kinds of Freedom”, July 4, 2006) A classification finds three types of freedom: Freedom 1: freedom from external impediments (essentially a political concept), Freedom 2: freedom from internal impediments (usually part of discourse on issues of psychology, personal morality and religion), and Freedom 3: autonomy and democracy (interpreted in a political sense). Economic freedom is sometimes defined as: “Secure rights to property (legally acquired); Freedom to engage in voluntary transactions, inside and outside a nation's borders; Freedom from governmental control of the terms on which individuals transact; and Freedom from governmental expropriation of property (e.g., by confiscatory taxation or unanticipated inflation).” (Steve H. Hanke and Stephen J. K. Walters, “Economic Freedom, Prosperity, and Equality: A Survey”, The Cato Journal, vol. XVII, no. 2) A section in society perceives freedom as freedom of capital and its kin. Freedom of capital is the essential message Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom and Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom carry. Assassinating or planning to assassinate statesmen and politicians including Lumumba, Nasser and Castro, as BBC reported on March 17, 2012 (“Licence to Kill: When governments choose to assassinate”), is exercised by a section of dominating interests including Anthony Eden, once a British prime minister, which is part of a political fight waged by the interests, and this political fight is part of the interests’ political freedom. The interests don’t expect and shall not allow exercising the same political freedom by its contending classes. Freedom of “corporate personhood”, of MNCs, and their power to manipulate, encroach and subjugate all public freedoms just wipe out all types of freedom of all, not only of the dominated section of society. A real world tells: Freedom, political, economic, etc. is not universal.

Now-a-days, indicators on freedom are abounding: “Freedom in the World” of the Freedom House, “Democracy Index” of The Economist, “Index of Economic Freedom” of The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation, indices of Reporters Sans Frontiers and the Canadian Frasier Institute, the Polity data series, claimed to be indirectly of the CIA. Each of these uses varying measures and weight: It’s probably not surprising that The Heritage Foundation and WSJ emphasize on investment and financial freedom in their index. (Lockerz, “A New Use for Freedom Indicators?”, Democracy & Society, Sep 27, 2011) Indicators measuring capitalism and political freedom assess degree of capitalism; economic, trade, investment, business, and financial freedom; private investment; competition in domestic banking; competitive markets; lack of interest rate regulation; legally protected private ownership of the means of production; legal enforcement of contracts; price controls; collective bargaining at central level; etc.

Labor shackled to wage, poor mortgaged to misery, common people fettered to destitution, masses sold to servitude are denied entry in freedom. This makes freedom an unspecified, confused concept. Without specifying class character and content of freedom a mere mention of freedom turns into a pretension and prattle only as “something” like universal freedom conceals class freedom and dominant autocracy in all its forms – ideological, political, economic. Exercise of freedom by the masses is completely different from the terms of freedom determined by dominating interests that ignore the fundamental question of class freedom and freedom of humanity.

A flaw will command an analysis of the state of freedom in a society if the analysis completely concentrates on freedom-space granted by dominant interests to the dominated. It is the dominated interests’ awareness, organization, maturity and struggle that ensure its freedom. Yearning for freedom of dominated interests and simultaneously looking up for freedom-space grants by dominant interests is a foolish, childish, impractical and ineffective aspiration carrying no weight and meaning in political, economic, social and cultural life.

Our Bangladesh is a bright example. The glorious days of language movement in 1952, of 1969 mass upsurge, the December-days of 1990 are only a few of many examples as ordinary Baangaalees compelled hostile forces to bow down, and the common persons enjoyed freedom to the level they could achieve through their organization and struggle. They had not waited for amplitude of those dominating interests. A despised field marshal and a despised general, Ayub and Yahya, knew it best. Our glorious days of 1971, the period We the People of Bangladesh organized and waged our Great War of Liberation is an undeniable example of achieving freedom. Noble and crimson bright those days were. People’s pain, supreme sacrifice and valor glorified all the freedom-minutes of that long period.

During those valiant periods the dominated section waging struggle and war did not beg freedom, did not appeal to any autocrat, to any donor, did not seek advice from any foreign diplomat, did not hand over the task of defining agenda for freedom to donor driven NGOs, did not mortgage consciences to any group of persons posing wise and claiming civil society. During those days of the glorious war under classes even challenged property relation to some extent in some parts of the country. During those days red with people’s blood the masses repudiated retrogressive, sectarian ideas, politics and politicians, and embraced broader, advanced vision.

Only pointing fingers of accusation to this political party or to that party for infringement of freedom-space will carry no practical message if freedom related elementary information are not disseminated among the masses, if people are kept unaware, if imitating and showmanship replaces spade work for organizing people, if the entire task is handed over to non-political appearing political NGOs implementing donor agenda, if soul-searching is replaced by tailing NGOs.

A brief comparison will help assess the state of yearning for freedom of speech, expression, etc.: extent of propaganda by MNCs, and the total number of circulated copies and the number of publications of the political entities standing for freedom of expression, etc.; number of round table, etc. of “non”-political and political entities. Doesn’t MNC-propaganda infringe people’s freedom of expression, etc.? Aren’t issues concerning ecology and climate related to issues concerning freedom and people? Isn’t dignity part of freedom? And, hasn’t that been demolished by a section of employees of some other country? Similar questions shall confirm nothing but inertia in a significant section of society that tasks itself with the duty of sentinel of freedom.

With this reality isn’t it better to have a soul-search before blaming this or that political party, before denouncing this or that part of state machine? This sincere exercise shall carry a message: at spes non fracta, but hope is not yet crushed.

News From Syria And France

News on Syria is being disseminated in a charged style. A news tilted as part of disinformation signifies preparation for deeper and more forceful involvement by external actors in the Middle Eastern country. At the same time, Turkey’s plan for a buffer zone inside Syria, the war game in the region, and incidents in France, far away from Syria, are no less annoying. Are not these preludes to a gathering storm in the Middle East?

ABC News said on March 19, 2012: An “anti-terror squad” from the Russian Marines and two Russian ships have arrived in Syria. ABC and a section of media headlined the news in their preferred manner – Russian troops in Syria.

ABC cited Russian news reports and Al Arabiya, and Al Arabiya referred to an Israel-based open-source military intelligence website. However, ABC pointed out that Russia’s Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov denied the reports.

On the other hand, citing Russian officials The New York Times reported with a restrained tone: The “Russian officials denied an ABC News report that one of their warships had docked in the Syrian port of Tartus with a squad of Russian antiterror marines; the report fed speculation that Russia was actively helping Mr. Assad by supplying military experts. A spokesman for the Defense Ministry was quoted by the Interfax news service as saying he was perplexed by the report, which he said might have referred to […] a Russian tanker that had docked in Tartus 10 days earlier. He said security guards were aboard the [tanker] because it supplies fuel to Russian ships participating in international anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden.”

Associated Press also reported the same. It said the tanker is carrying a civilian crew and a team of servicemen protecting it.

A comparison of the three news-reports, of ABC, and of NYT and AP, expose a style of a section of media to fan up tension by presenting news in tilted and confusing manner.

Reuters reported: Syria’s arms imports surged nearly 6-fold between 2007 and 2011.

However, El Pais noted that “despite the increase, total arms imports in Syria were not much greater than those to Jordan – a country of 6 million people compared to Syria’s population of 20 million.”

Obviously, size of population does not always provide rational for quantity of arms import and production. Despite the fact – a larger Syrian population compared to Jordan – the information provided by El Pais presents a yardstick for comparison in presenting news. A country’s situation due to external intervention is a major logic regarding quantity of arms being imported/produced.

The tilted Russian antiterror marines and surge in arms import news accompany news on a planned move by Turkey.

Turkey is planning to establish a buffer zone inside Syria. It’s a dangerously significant plan to cripple and dismember a country. The materialization of the plan would involve Turkish troops into Syria. The move if implemented carries possibility of escalation of conflict between armies of the two countries. The Turkish government’s call to its nationals to leave Syria reflects a step to initiate the move.

A major development happened in Moscow. Russia and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have called for a daily two-hour humanitarian ceasefire in Syria without delay – “a daily humanitarian pause” that would allow convoys to provide medical care and evacuation for the wounded. The ICRC head Kellenberger’s Moscow travel to discuss a Syria-ceasefire clearly shows the need to consider Moscow’s geostrategic position in Syria.

Russia’s geostrategic position regarding Syria is the outcome of its present internal and external world position and Libya-experience. Russia’s choice is to abide by existing contracts to deliver weapons to Syria, and as Russian Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov said, Russia finds “no reason […] to reconsider it.” The Russian minister dismissed allegations that Russia has sent special forces officers to assist Syrian government forces: “There are no (Russian) special forces with rifles and grenade launchers running around”, he said. “The Syrian people should determine who will lead their country and so the opinion of some of our foreign partners will hardly foster a solution”, Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian deputy foreign minister told a news conference.

But, ultimately, the external players will not allow the Syrian people to determine their path in their own peaceful manner. The world masters’ external intervention is perfectly accomplishing a number of tasks of crisis-ridden world masters.

“Internal Look,” the two-week war game was not assuring for peace. Rather it scares all peace-loving people. Consequences of any confrontation or war in the Middle East will be dire for all.

The killings in France are annoying also. In France, a number of paratroopers not during combat duty were killed a few days ago. The incidents were followed by killing of four persons including three children aged 3, 6, and 8.

The act of killing cannot be considered part of political fight. An environment of hatred and fear distorts and hinders political fight, and strengthens forces of reaction. Targeting children cannot be considered part of political fight. Rather, it weakens the moral standing of political fight.

With further escalation of external financed and armed intervention in Syria, the first victim will be people’s democratic struggle in the region, in Syria, in Turkey, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon. Imperialist intervention and war effort under guise of democratic movement will push back democratic movement. A further escalation of killing spree in France will charge an environment with hatred, suspicion, will push back urgent questions related to working people’s suffering due to financial crisis.

Capital Doesn’t Spare The Disabled

Capital doesn’t even spare disabled labor from its appropriation “adventure”. The business goes on in all lands, from the metropolis to the poor periphery in the world system.

In the UK, Guardian reports: “Some long-term sick and disabled people face being forced to work unpaid for an unlimited amount of time or have their benefits cut under plans being drawn up by the Department for Work and Pensions.” (Feb. 16, 2012) Experts fear this could further harm the sick and disabled persons. The policy could mean that those diagnosed with terminal cancer but have more than six months to live; accident and stroke victims; and those with mental health issues could be compelled to undertake work experience for charities, public bodies and retailers. There will be provision for sanction in case of failure by the disabled “beneficiaries” as “Ministers feel sanctions are an incentive for people to comply with their responsibility.” Already 8,440 disabled persons have faced sanctions during the period Sept. 2010-Aug. 2011 “for offences like missing interview with advisers ‘without good cause’”.

A simple truth is told by the news: A civilized face on a barbaric heart, and that heart is owned by capital. The question of morality or immorality doesn’t arise as capital manufactures its morality or immorality, and it doesn’t matter whether those are acceptable to humanity or not. Appropriation is the standard of its morality.

Observations have been made by responsible British citizens on the issue. One among those is: “The idea that disabled people should work but receive no financial recognition for contributing is perhaps a level of abuse in and of itself.” (Neil Coyle, director, Disability Rights UK, ibid.)

Spare-not-even-the-disabled attitude is not a new phenomenon. Philip Davies, Conservative backbench MP suggested last year disabled persons should work for less than the national minimum wage. It’s a reflection of attitude, and a reflection of a situation: dead thirst for profit – at any cost, and from any one.

Without appropriating labor-power capital can’t survive, and it takes all opportunities in this “venture”, a thievery or robbery. In the UK, Guardian reports, “[u]npaid jobseekers have been forced to clean private homes and offices for more than a month at a time under government employment schemes […]”A government contractor compelled jobseekers to work as unpaid cleaners in houses, flats, offices and council premises under the scheme. One of the biggest providers of the scheme compelled jobseekers to work unpaid in its own offices. Employers were using unpaid schemes to fill seasonal vacancies. At the same time, there is “mounting evidence that the controversial policy is reducing the overall availability of paid work by replacing temporary jobs and overtime for other staff.” (Feb. 24 and 29, 2012)

Is it – unpaid labor for unlimited amount of time of the disabled, unpaid labor of jobseekers – a civilized way to maximize profit? It’s not only the case of jobseekers. Capital doesn’t spare children. The issue of child labor is the burning fact in all most all lands.

Even, the beggars, the persons playing musical instruments on street corners, the child pushing crippled mother or father sitting in hand made cart in a Third World anarchic city, the blind begging for hours are not spared. All of them are to work for long, undefined period of time, for simply having a few bucks for day-to-day living, and this goes on and on in countries and countries. Even, labor power is appropriated from these near-demolished souls.

It’s an old, much old hard fact although there are learned persons, scholars in essence, trying to ignore this bitter fact of capital. Citing Daily Telegraph, January 17, 1860 Marx quoted county magistrate Broughton Charlton: “Children of nine or ten years are dragged from their squalid beds at two, three, or four o’clock in the morning and compelled to work for a bare subsistence until ten, eleven, or twelve at night, their limbs wearing away, their frames dwindling, their faces whitening, and their humanity absolutely sinking into a stone-like torpor, utterly horrible to contemplate ….” He quoted the Children’s Employment Commission First Report (1863): “William Wood, 9 years old, was 7 years and 10 months when he began to work. He ‘ran moulds’ […] He came every day in the week at 6 a.m. and left off about 9 p.m. […] J. Murray, 12 years of age, says: “[…] I come at 6. Sometimes I come at 4. I worked all night last night, till 6 o’clock in the morning. I have not been in bed since the night before last. There were eight or nine other boys working last night. […] Fernyhough, a boy of ten: ‘I have not always an hour (for dinner). I have only half an hour sometimes […].’”

Has this reality changed? This has persisted. This has been expanded, this has been spread to neo-colonies named “offshoring”, this has been spread from blue collar employees to white collar ones, this has been modified with so-called flexible work hours, this has been spread with the concept of work at home.

And, “some more” have been added: The issue has been taken away from the table, the issue is being presented in a distorted way – definitions have been changed so that there is confusion. Now, ostaads or pundits in the service of capital don’t call a spade a spade. They innovate tricky terms that hide stark truth. The question of rights is wiped away from people’s “mind”. Casting away all shrouds, state is taking the role of appropriator. So called civil society, a group of persons trusted by status quo, is defining agenda – political, social, economic, class. So, labor power can be robbed for indefinite period of time, so, labor power can be appropriated without any payment, so, as a Guardian reader made comment, the “enslavement of the sick and disabled” goes on.

Slave owners had to provide food, etc. to slaves, factory owners are to pay for necessary labor. But here, unshackled rule of appropriations goes on. For long, it is going on in Third and Fourth World countries. In many of these countries, lumpens have usurped labor leadership, the bribed First World labor leadership defines perimeters of trade union activities and employs persons for that purpose. Now, it is going on in the First World also. Is it a decline in class awareness? Is it power of cooption? Whatever the answer is, the fact of unbridled appropriation confirms the old antagonism, the antagonism between appropriator and appropriated.

Deny Global Warming, Intimidate A Scientist, And Pocket Some Money

Denying the fact of global warming is “not” a sin. Intimidating a scientist providing facts on global warming is “not” an offence. These are in the interest of a bigger interest: an economy warming up and periling the world, and in eternal wish of perpetuating status quo. A section of the world masters clutch this pattern of praxis.

Michael E. Mann, a scientist at Penn State University , experienced this “sweet” fact. His research confirmed the fact of global warming. The results of his study were published in Nature in 1998. His finding showed a recent unprecedented alarming global temperature increase, and the increase in temperature is linked to human induced activities, to cars, factories, etc. Many other later studies have confirmed the finding. But the scientist was persecuted by conservative forces for telling the truth.

The data Mann got appeared the shape of a hockey stick as these were put as a graph, and the name, Hockey stick graph , and a confusion were brought to the Earth. His finding was used prominently by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Hockey stick graph angered global warming deniers, and Mann was made “a target of right-wing denial campaigners.” A section of scientists tied to status quo and a section of politicians of the same feather vigorously opposed it and created confusion. The opposition ultimately appeared in true color – status quo politics. Conservatives and capital joined hands in denying the fact.

While seeds of confusion were being sown Mann had to bear “the full brunt of attacks by climate change deniers, including death threats and accusations of misappropriating funds,” as The Guardian said. (“Death threats, intimidation and abuse: climate change scientist Michael E. Mann counts the cost of honesty”, March 3, 2012 ) “Among the tactics used against Mann were the theft and publication, in 2009, of emails he had exchanged with climate scientist Professor Phil Jones of East Anglia University . Selected, distorted versions of these emails were then published […] in order to undermine UN climate talks due to begin in Copenhagen a few weeks later”. Using those emails to kill off the climate negotiation was “a crime against humanity, a crime against the planet,” Mann said. (ibid.)

A number of policy foundations threw a barrage of intimidation to Mann. These “were set up by privately-funded groups that included Koch Industries and Scaife Foundations and bore names such as the Cato Institute, Americans for Prosperity and the Heartland Institute. These groups bombarded Mann with freedom of information requests […]” He was served with a subpoena by a Republican congressman to provide access to his correspondence. The aim was to intimidate the scientist. He was “attacked by Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican attorney general of Virginia who has campaigned to have the scientist stripped of academic credentials. Several committees of inquiry have investigated Mann's work. All have exonerated him. Thousands of emails have been sent to Mann, many deeply unpleasant. ‘You and your colleagues… ought to be shot, quartered and fed to the pigs along with your whole damn families', said one. ‘I was hopin [sic] I would see the news and you commited [sic] suicide', ran another.” “‘On one occasion, I had to call the FBI after I was sent an envelope with a powder in it', Mann adds. ‘It turned out to be cornmeal but again the aim was intimidation. I ended up with police security tape all over my office doors and windows. That is the life of a climate scientist today in the US .'” (ibid.)

Mann's book The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars is coming out in April. “The book details the ‘disingenuous and cynical' methods used by those who have tried to disprove his findings.” (ibid.)

Intimidating Mann is not an isolated act. This type of activities has connection to bigger money. But, ultimately this comes to public view. Intimidators and global warming deniers are exposed. One such story is Chicago-based Heartland Institute's.

The institute's documents related to its donors, spending and anti-science strategy were leaked recently. The institute is one of the leading deniers in the US that strains to create confusion in the public “mind” by saying that “climate change is a controversial, unproven theory.”

The leaked documents prove that the oil-rich Koch brothers donated $200,000 to HI in 2011and before. The Koch brothers' involvement makes HI a shill for oil companies. The brothers have backed climate-denier Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign.

One of the documents reveal HI's plans to spend $100,000 to build an anti-climate change curriculum for schools that “shows that the topic of climate change is controversial and uncertain — two key points that are effective at dissuading teachers from teaching science.”

Recently, David Suzuki writes, someone sent documents from the HI's board of directors' Jan. 17 meeting to persons and organizations including DeSmogBlog, a website devoted to exposing the climate change denial. “The documents confirm much of what we already knew about Heartland […]” Suzuki says: HI doesn't publicly reveal its funding source and expenditure. “These documents indicate that Heartland has offered U.S. weatherman blogger and climate change denier Anthony Watts close to $90,000 for a new project. They also reveal that Heartland funds other prominent deniers, including ‘Craig Idso ($11,600 per month), Fred Singer ($5,000 per month, plus expenses), Robert Carter ($1,667 per month), and a number of other individuals' […] And even though it has received funding from wealthy individuals and corporations in the fossil fuel and tobacco industries, including the Koch brothers and RJR Tobacco, it gets most of its money from a single anonymous donor”: $4.6 million in 2008. “The papers also confirm that the institute's primary mission is to discredit the established science of human-caused climate change.” (“It's time that climate-change deniers were exposed”, Feb. 21, 2012 )

Citing leaked documents Josh Israel and Brad Johnson expose 19 major corporations backing the HI. The documents reveal “the think tank's plans to teach students that climate change is a hoax […]” ( ThinkProgress Green ) The institute, however, “ deemed at least one of the documents fake and some tampered with.” The think tank's 2010-2011 “corporate backers included Altria Client Services Inc. : $90,000, Amgen , USA : $25,000, Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. : $5,000, AT&T : $100,000, BB&T : $16,105, Comcast Corporation : $35,000, General Motors Foundation : $30,000, GlaxoSmithKline : $50,000, Microsoft Corporation : $59,908, Nucor Corporation : $502,000, PepsiCo, Inc. : $5,000, Pfizer : $130,000, Reynolds American Inc. : $110,000, Time Warner Cable : $20,000.” (Jaeah Lee, “Which Major Corporations Are Backing a Climate-Denier Think Tank?”, Mother Jones , Feb. 18, 2012 ) Other companies included Diageo: $10,000, Eli Lilly & Company: $25,000, KCI: $115,000, LKQ Corporation: $24,500, XL Group: $35,000. Combined contributions of the companies exceeded $1.3 million for an array of projects. The AP independently verified their contents. ( ThinkProgress Green ) HI also collects money from Philip Morris parent company Altria and the tobacco giant Reynolds American. (Cory Doctorow, “Leaked climate-change denial lobby docs came from water scientist”, Feb. 21)

However, a number of companies have issued statements about their contributions, but none have committed to ending their support for the HI. A Diageo spokesperson said: “Diageo provided a small contribution (nearly two years ago) […] related to an excise tax issue. We vigorously oppose climate skepticism and our actions are proof of this. We will be reviewing any further association with this organization.” A GlaxoSmithKline spokesperson said: “GSK absolutely does not endorse or support the [HI]'s views on the environment and climate change. We have in the past provided a small amount of funding to support the Institute's healthcare newsletter and a meeting.” While disavowing climate denial, Microsoft has indicated no intention to stop its in-kind tax-deductible contributions to the think tank. General Motors defended the HI as “careful and considerate.” Forecast The Facts has established a petition to GM asking them to stop funding climate denial. ( ThinkProgress Green ) It's only part of a story. There are also other parts of the denial story.

Money business with the global warming issue is quite old. In 2010, after analyzing publicly available campaign finance records the Climate Action Network (CAN) stated that “a number of European companies are supporting climate legislation blockers in the U.S. by funding the campaigns of republican candidates to the U.S. Senate.” The CAN finding was that a number of big European industrial companies including Arcelor Mittal, GDF Suez, BP, BASF, Bayer and Lafarge already spent a total of 171.000 Euro on candidates. “They are funding almost exclusively Senate candidates who have been outspoken in their opposition to comprehensive climate policy in the U.S. , and candidates who actively deny the scientific consensus that climate change is happening and is caused by people. These companies are simultaneously lobbying against aggressive emissions reductions in Europe – and are arguing that such reductions should not be pursued until the United States takes action”, it said.

Indicating the climate change deniers Bryan Walsh writes: “[T]hey refuse even to believe that a problem exists — despite an overwhelming scientific consensus that says it does. One of America 's major political parties has, in effect, adopted denial as policy.” (“Who's Bankrolling the Climate-Change Deniers?”, Time , Oct. 4, 2011 )

Citing sociologists Riley Dunlap of Oklahoma State University and Aaron McCright of Michigan State University Bryan writes: “[C]limate denialism exists in part because there has been a long-term, well-financed effort on the part of conservative groups and corporations to distort global-warming science. That's the conclusion of a chapter the two researchers recently wrote for The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society . ‘Contrarian scientists, fossil-fuel corporations, conservative think tanks and various front groups have assaulted mainstream climate science and scientists for over two decades,' Dunlap and McCright write. ‘The blows have been struck by a well-funded, highly complex and relatively coordinated denial machine.'” (ibid.)

“Fossil-fuel companies like Exxon and Peabody Energy — which obviously have a business interest in slowing any attempt to reduce carbon emissions — have combined with traditionally conservative corporate groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and conservative foundations like the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity, to raise doubts about the basic validity of what is, essentially, a settled scientific truth. That message gets amplified by conservative think tanks — like the Cato Institute and the American Enterprise Institute — and then picked up by conservative media outlets […] and cable TV.

“For both Big Oil and Big Smoke, that playbook is lethally simple: don't straight-up refute the science, just raise skepticism and insist that the findings are ‘unsettled' and that ‘more research' is necessary. Repeat that again and again regardless of the latest research, and you help block the formation of the solid majority needed to create any real political change. (ibid.)

Climate crisis denial is well organized. Claims have been made that lobbyists including the Western Fuels Association funded efforts to undermine the scientific basis of climate crisis explanation. In 1998, the American Petroleum Institute organized discussions between oil companies, trade associations and conservative think tanks. The API provided fund for research critical of the Hockey stick graph. In June 2002, the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists published a paper arguing against the IPCC findings and the Kyoto Protocol.

Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway's Merchants of Doubt (2010) cites collusion between private corporations, conservative think tanks and conservative scientists to create confusion so that scientific consensus on current burning issues are not questioned as the burning issues have been blazed by the present economic world order.

Since long, climate crisis issue has turned into a political issue. A section of capital is fully in politics with the issue. Sections of conservatives deny the fact of climate crisis while the rest of the human society is concerned with the facts. Contradictory activities and interests have made it also a class issue. Interests opposed to people, especially the poor are well aware of it. All their activities, in economy, politics, diplomacy, propaganda, in bargaining conclaves, in education, in scientific pursuits, reflect this. All their efforts are to keep people unaware, uninformed, misinformed, demobilized. It's not only labor's, entire people's interests also stand opposed to the status quo interests in the global warmsphere.

However, there is effort and hope as “Mann insists he will not give up. ‘I have a six-year-old daughter and she reminds me what we are fighting for.' […C]limate change deniers and their oil and coal industry backers have overstepped the mark and goaded scientists to take action. He points to a recent letter, signed by 250 members of the US National Academy of Science, including 11 Nobel laureates, and published in Science . The letter warns about the dangers of the current attacks on climate scientists and calls ‘for an end to McCarthy-like threats of criminal prosecution against our colleagues based on innuendo and guilt by association, the harassment of scientists by politicians seeking distractions to avoid taking action, and the outright lies being spread about them.' ‘Words like those give me hope', says Mann.” ( The Guardian , op. cit.) The more people get mobilized the more there will be hope.