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Ben Norton Profile picture
@BenjaminNorton
Feb 6, 2022 • 15 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X
The trucker convoy in Canada is so obviously a rightwing operation astroturfed by conservative billionaires. It's absurd seeing some "leftists" pretend otherwise

This is Texas' far-right attorney general, a corrupt Tea Party pet project who tried to help Trump steal the election
It's clear as day that the Canada trucker convoy is astroturfed by rightwing oligarchs. Trump is promoting it, and single rich donors were giving them $215,000, which is how it got $10 million in 2 weeks

It's similar to a billionaire-funded rally Bolsonaro recently did in Brazil Image
In September, Brazil's far-right leader Bolsonaro and ultra-rich allies organized an astroturfed rally, which they marketed as "grassroots"

Corporate oligarchs paid to send many buses to the rally. Trump aide Jason Miller was in Brazil helping organize it
brasilwire.com/september-7th-…
Very informative thread here. The far-right is international, and Steve Bannon-adjacent networks are very active both North and South America, sharing tactics - and distributing lots of money
I can't believe how many people are falling for this. It's like Tea Party 2.0
The main organizers of the so-called "trucker" convoy are Canadian far-right extremists. It's not led by workers but petit-bourgeois owner-operators, financially backed by rich right-wingers — not exploited trucking workers, c. 90% of whom are vaccinated
readpassage.com/p/the-trucker-…
Excellent thread showing 20+ examples of how the "trucker" convoy in Canada is a rightwing bosses' rally of petit-bourgeois capitalists who exploit actual working-class truckers

Ironically many received Canadian gov't Covid-19 funding for their businesses
First Nations Leadership Council Strongly Condemns “Freedom Convoy” Movement Across Canada and its Spread of Misinformation, Racism, and Violence
First Nations Leadership Council: "First Nations have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic... In addition to dangerous public health and safety misinformation, the convoy is also amplifying hate speech and dangerous racist sentiments"
ubcic.bc.ca/fnlc_strongly_…
"The racist double-standard in policing in this country is on full display -- had these protesters been Indigenous, the police would have cleared them out in a heartbeat."
-First Nations Leadership Council
ubcic.bc.ca/fnlc_strongly_…
I've seen enough right-wing, foreign-funded, astroturfed "protests" in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Belarus, Hong Kong, etc. to immediately recognize one in Canada

Yes the neoliberal Trudeau gov't is awful, but allying with even more reactionary right-wingers against it is stupid
The largest trucker union in Canada, Teamsters, has openly condemned the convoy as a "despicable display of hate lead by the political Right" that "has served to delegitimize the real concerns of most truck drivers today"

90% of its workers are vaccinated teamsters.ca/en/blog/2022/0… Image
One of Canada's largest unions, PSAC, condemned the convoy as right-wing and anti-worker:

"These protestors do not represent the majority of truck drivers and do not have the right to bully, intimidate and physically harass residents, openly promote hate speech and racism" Image
In addition to the biggest truckers union condemning the convoy, the Canadian Trucking Alliance said it "does not support and strongly disapproves of" the right-wing protests.

It added, "The vast majority of the Canadian trucking industry is vaccinated"
cantruck.ca/canadian-truck… Image

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More from @BenjaminNorton

Ben Norton Profile picture
Jul 23
Crucial point by prominent Palestinian scholar Joseph Massad:
"The claim that the Israel lobby controls US policy in the Middle East amounts to absolving the US of responsibility for its imperialist policies".

Israel is an extension of US imperialism.
middleeasteye.net/big-story/why-…
The US empire has always violently opposed anti-colonial struggles.

The US gov't has been an "implacable enemy of all national liberation groups".

"Why the US would then support Palestinian national liberation absent the Israel lobby is something this argument fails to address" Image
Blaming the Israel lobby for the Iraq War is absurd

The invasion of Iraq follows a consistent US imperial policy since WWII of overthrowing Third World states that control their national resources, land, oil, minerals

See: Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Venezuela & Iran today

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Read 4 tweets
Ben Norton Profile picture
Jul 16
Trump's VP pick JD Vance was created in a political petri dish by billionaire oligarch Peter Thiel.

"PayPal Mafia Don" Thiel founded CIA/Pentagon-backed mass surveillance corporation Palantir.

He was an FBI informant and got his start at CIA-linked law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.
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Far-right billionaire oligarch Peter Thiel, a CIA-linked FBI informant who has funded Donald Trump and his "MAGA" allies, also funded a spy company that hacked WhatsApp.
forbes.com/sites/thomasbr…
Libertarianism nearly always turns into fascism, because libertarians and fascists value private property and capital above human life.

Libertarians eventually realize that, to save capitalism, democracy must be destroyed. Pinochet is the textbook example
Read 4 tweets
Ben Norton Profile picture
Jul 14
US "democracy" is nothing but political violence!

All US presidents for decades (both Republicans & Democrats) have waged nonstop war, in Korea, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc.

The US has killed MILLIONS. But I guess foreign lives don't matter.



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"There is absolutely no place for political violence in oUr deMoCrAcy" Image
Every single US president is an imperialist sociopath with zero concern for lives outside of the US (and little for people in the US too). They are all guilty of war crimes, and have killed MILLIONS of people in recent decades.

Seeing them condemn "political violence" is surreal
Read 4 tweets
Ben Norton Profile picture
Jun 30
In this important speech, the director of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University notes:
-US-China "competition" is "ideological"
-The US wants to subordinate China
-"The socialist path led by the CPC is the unchangeable path for China"
eastisread.com/p/yao-yang-on-…
This influential Chinese economist explains how the Reform and Opening Up started by Deng was pivotal to develop the productive forces, after a time of destructive ultra-leftism. But China went too far to the right by the 2000s, so it's shifting left again
eastisread.com/p/yao-yang-on-…
"Excessive financialization hollows out real industries". China is countering this by using state-owned bank lending to "prioritize manufacturing and high-tech industries".

"The goal of [China's] new era is high-level socialism", better income distribution, and common prosperity
Read 4 tweets
Ben Norton Profile picture
Jun 17
China's economy is bigger than official GDP statistics indicate, because it uses a measurement system based on manufacturing production, under-counting services.

US GDP data, meanwhile, is distorted by expensive "services" like imputed rent and legal fees
asiatimes.com/2024/06/whats-…
"The affordability crisis in Western economies, the US in particular, is largely driven by inflation of necessary services – rent, healthcare, education, childcare – not by manufactured goods"

When those costs go up, US GDP goes up.

This is why "number go up" is not always good
This point is so crucial: Costs of healthcare, education, housing, and childcare have skyrocketed in the US, which makes GDP go up, but it also makes average people's standard of living worse, especially because real wages have not caught up.

So that GDP growth benefits the rich Image
Read 5 tweets
Ben Norton Profile picture
May 23
This chart shows why it's nonsense to talk about "inter-imperialist rivalry" in the 21st century. Monopoly finance capital is concentrated to an unprecedented degree.

There is one imperialist system, centered in the USA. Its heart is Wall Street. Its blood is the US dollar. Image
Capitalists from all over the world store their wealth largely in US dollar-dominated assets. The US hosts 60.5% of the total value of global stock markets. 40+% is owned by foreign investors.

The US government is dedicated to protecting the wealth of the global capitalist class Image
Imperialism is a system, not a mere set of policies. The US created the global financial system, based on its currency, centered in its capital markets

The most important mission of the 21st century is to replace it with a New International Economic Order
Read 4 tweets

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