Burdens Creek Bluff and surrounding landscape, trashed





Looking down into the floodplain in late March. The buckeyes are leafing out and the trout lilies are about done blooming ©.

About a mile north of the pinxterflower azaleas threatened by Duke Energy there is another area with unusually diverse and abundant wildflowers for this part of the Triangle, but marred by rampant trash dumping and there are other problems nearby (for the pinxterflower article, posted September 8^th, see: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2018/09/pinxterflowers-duke-energy-and-federal.html ). From the pinxterflowers, we go north along the edge of RTP, crossing TW Alexander Drive at the light, quickly coming to the top of a hill, stopping before the bridge over Burdens Creek. On the east a relatively young forest, hiding some brickwork and a former farm pond (visited by the occasional great blue heron and bordered by buttonbushes, a very good flower for butterflies and other pollinators, if I remember correctly), was levelled and the pond filled in around 2009 to build what is now a Duke Health office building surrounded by a large treeless parking lot (where the pond was). I think the builder was required to build a mulched trail along the sewer easement paralleling Burdens Creek, but floods washed it away and it was never replaced. As I started writing this article the site was owned by Phoenix, Arizona-based Cole Real Estate Investments, but maybe two weeks later the name changed to Cole HC Durham NC LLC and the mail is directed to The RMR Group in Newton, Massachusetts (see Durham's interactive GIS maps at durhamnc.gov/1455/Interactive-Maps ). There are a lot of wildflowers in the surrounding woods, though English ivy, multiflora roses, and other non-native plants grow in the swampy woods north of the parking lot and the population of native Indian grass on a utility easement along Alston seems to have been destroyed by utility or road work. South of this site there is a brick building long housing an American Legion post, now apparently used as a church. Some native and introduced flowers grow along Alston, and old-fashioned pink and dark red roses bloom (or once bloomed) in May at a secluded spot closer to the Social Security Administration facility. To clarify some details in the earlier article, property records say that the SSA's building was built around 2008 on land last sold May 1, 2007 and is owned by Winston-Salem-based JDL-RTP LLC.



Swampy forest left between Burdens Creek and the Duke Health building, visible on the right. Amphibians breed in these seasonal pools and there are many wildflowers, but this young forest also has more non-native plants than the forest on the west side of Alston, for example the Japanese honeysuckle visible here ©.

On the west side of Alston there were a few small houses, but today only one is left, overlooking the bridge at Burdens Creek. At the crest of the hill a house surrounded by woods was used as a daycare for a long time, but was replaced by a complex with three brick buildings (5310 South Alston Avenue) in about 2002. It apparently won a 2003 Merit Award in the North Carolina Architectural Competition, sponsored by the Brick Association of NC (but I can only find one reference: www.loopnet.com/Listing/14218503/5310-South-Alston-Avenue-Building-100-Durham-NC/ ; other photos at: www.loopnet.com/Listing/19797681/5310-S-Alston-Avenue-Durham-NC/ ). I think I read once that the office complex was designed by Durham's Freelon Group, Inc., and it houses their office, merged with Perkins+Will in 2014. The complex had been listed as belonging to The Dilweg Companies, LLC ( www.dilweg.com/ ), with offices in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, and a focus on office buildings, but in recent years the owner has been listed as I-LOFT RTP LLC, based in Suite 210, the same address as Dilweg's Corporate Office. I was thrown out of this complex once, which I attribute to white collar bias. Parts of the complex are listed as belonging to the Life Community Church of RTP NC INC (with an RTP address; I haven't seen any activity at building 100, on the south end, but it is apparently Life International's Global Leaders Center). John S Carbone LLC (in nearby Morrisville) and CCR Durham Land Holdings (in Santa Monica, California) are also listed as owners, and other companies lease office space. There are few wildflowers in the remaining young, piney woods surrounding the complex, but the property lines extend down the slope behind the buildings and across the floodplain where there is older deciduous forest with more floral diversity.
 

There is a lot of privately-owned open space in Durham, even in the urban core, often owned by companies far from North Carolina. In urban areas there is the similar issue of public spaces that are increasingly privately-owned, so people can be deprived of rights more easily than in truly public city squares and parks. There is also the issue that volunteers can freely pick up trash in a park, but could be barred by private owners, even if the owners refuse to take responsibility themselves. There are a few more or less working farms in Durham (and more in nearby Orange County), but the non-built up parts of Durham are mostly long abandoned farmland now returned to forest, probably because farming so close to an urban center became cost prohibitive. Over the decades a lot of “development” in Durham has been on this former farmland at the periphery. Durham had two malls, to which was added Southpoint Mall at the south end of the County, so Durham briefly had three malls, and at least two more close by in neighboring counties, but then older South Square Mall closed and that site still hasn't been completely re-developed, so Durham is back to having only two malls. Supposedly sprawl wasn't going to spread from Southpoint, but that is what seems to be happening, even before the General Assembly forced Durham to accept 751 South few years ago. It has only been relatively recently, maybe in the last 10 to 20 years, that there has been much building downtown, in the abandoned ruins of the tobacco industry and open spaces.
        

The main concern is next to the offices, at the Falls Pointe at the Park Apartments (100 Cascade Falls Lane, www.fallspointeattheparkapartments.com/ , formerly fallspointeapartments.com/ ). I thought they were built after the office complex, but property records say Falls Pointe was built around 2001. For several years if not from the beginning Falls Pointe belonged to The NRP Group, LLC ( www.nrpgroup.com/ ), based in Cleveland, Ohio and having 16 offices, all in the East, including one office in NC (4515 Falls of Neuse Road Suite 100 Raleigh, NC 27609). According to property records, the complex was sold (by subsidiaries NRP Alston Village, LLC and NRP Alston Management, LLC) April 25, 2018 to Fairfield Residential ( http://www.fairfieldresidential.com/ ), based in San Diego, California (5510 Morehouse Drive Suite 200 San Diego, California 92121), although the actual owner is a subsidiary called Fairfield Falls Pointe LLC, with the same San Diego address. NRP still owns a large area of floodplain that surely cannot be built on, perhaps as mitigation for construction elsewhere (last sold December 27, 2000, presumably the date when they originally acquired the land). This article mainly covers the period under NRP management, and it is possible things will improve, but there was still plenty of trash in the woods in the fall. Before the apartments were built there were about two small houses near the road, with a large field of tawny broomsedge and lawn in between, and young lobolly pines, red cedars, and maybe a thicket of sumac or blackberries towards the back, but this mostly flat area drops off steeply to the edge of the swampy floodplain west and northwest, forming what can be called Burdens Creek Bluff. Older deciduous hardwoods grow on the slope and in the floodplain. A slough, probably a former course of Burdens Creek, runs along the base of the Bluff, which slopes more or less steeply down from the apartments, with some natural terraces.
 

Behind Falls Pointe the hillside has a lot of plant diversity, and is literally covered with flowers in early spring, probably because of atypical soil weathered from igneous rocks that intruded into the surrounding sedimentary rocks millions of years ago; the long time the forest was left mostly undisturbed; and the cool, moist microclimate formed by the steep, generally northwest-facing hillside. Some flowers can bloom as early as December, but definitely by March yellow trout lilies densely cover the slope, especially at the top, while lower down there are numerous grasslike spring beauties with white flowers that open when it is sunny. Relatively rare toothworts, another white to pinkish flower, are common on a moist terrace and there are rare pennyworts. Other spring flowers include rue anemone (also known as windflower, a forb with white flowers that nod in the wind), purple-colored violets, saxifrage, and possibly relatively rare white star chickweed, related to the rare firepinks once found down the road. The blue or lavender to white flowers of Hepatica, formed by sepals rather than petals, can appear as early as December or January. Hepatica and evergreen wild ginger have leathery leaves with interesting marbled patterns as if for camouflage. Trout lilies also have striking leaves, finely dappled like the sides of a native brook trout, only visible in spring. Trout lilies are also known as dogtooth violets, but are lilies. Many of these native wildflowers are relatively rare in the Triangle and are very abundant here. Being flowers of older woodlands and early blooming (several are spring ephemerals, perennials that only appear aboveground for a short time, before the trees leaf out), they are probably unknown to most people today.
 

Five hundred years ago these flowers and species now entirely absent might have grown all over what is now Durham, but agriculture and overharvesting are probably the reasons they are now restricted to older woodlands near waterways. Overgrazing by deer might be another factor, and the scarcity of predators (due to human persecution and habitat loss, but some remain) or areas where deer can be hunted allowed their population to boom. Catesby's trilliums, if not other species of trillium, are supposed to grow in the Triangle, but I have never seen any, except for a dark red species growing along woodland trails at the NC Botanical Garden, presumably planted. Further west, Randolph County must be full of them, if they can allow acres of trilliums to be drowned under recently impounded Lake Randelman, on the Deep River south of Greensboro and north of the town of Randleman ( ptrwa.org/index.htm ), from what I have heard.

 

Trout lilies and some spring beauty leaves in late February ©.

 

A few toothworts and spring beauties still blooming in late March and there are many trout lilies not blooming and a sprig of strawberry bush ©.



Spring beauties in bloom and trout lily foliage ©.



Toothwort, rue anemone, and spring beauty flowers ©.

The forest floor in April is carpeted with blooming spring beauties along with many other wildflowers, not blooming, such as pink wood sorrel ©.

Later in the spring pink wood sorrel, mayapples, alumroot, and Solomon's seal (or a relative) bloom, while at the foot of the hill there seem to be Atamasco or Easter lilies. I have heard that these large white lilies used to be abundant at what is now the Greenwood Commons shopping center nearby. There is a huge patch of dwarf crested irises, though they might be too shaded to flower. There could be some Carolina blue bluets around, a relatively common spring flower, though I haven't noticed many in recent years. Cranefly orchids have leaves that are dark green on top and bright purple below during the cool months, but are leafless by the time they flower in summer. Beechdrops also bloom in summer and are always leafless, being parasitic on beech tree roots. There are jack-in-the-pulpits in the bottomlands. Spring is the best time for flowers at the Bluff, but some composites bloom in the summer and fall when there is mostly heavy shade.

Dark evergreen Christmas ferns grow near the foot of the hill, and there are a few other ferns. Large igneous boulders at the top of the slope are covered with clinging resurrection ferns, so-called because their thick leaves can shrivel up, but resurrect green and flat again later. There are also a few spleenworts amid the rocks and even growing out of small cracks. There is little if any poison ivy on the hillside. In May bright red coral honeysuckle blooms along the forest edge behind the apartments, as do very large strawberry or hearts a'bustin (with love) bushes, named for their spiny, hot pink capsules that dangle red-orange seeds in the fall; their flowers are much less spectacular. The shrub layer also includes lots of painted buckeyes that have yellow flowers in March, visited by bumblebees; maple-leaf viburnums that have clusters of white flowers in May; and pawpaws, possibly the dwarf variety. Taller pawpaw groves are common along nearby creeks and have large, cloying, bananalike fruit in late summer. The hillside has a few scattered dogwoods, redbuds, and fringetrees that bloom in March and April when they get enough light down in the understory. Overhead there are various oaks, hickories, American beech, ash, sugar maples, and a large black walnut, surrounded by legumes during the summer.



Resurrection ferns, cranefly orchids, trout lilies, coral honeysuckle, and other plants at the top of the Bluff ©.

Frogs and probably also salamanders breed in the pools below the Bluff in early spring. Marbled salamanders and small snakes shelter under debris on the moist hillside. Eastern newts, seemingly rare in this part of Durham, have been found in the neighborhood, and much more common Eastern box turtles can also be found. By late summer large brown mosquitoes make going into the forest problematic, but there are also many fireflies and large black damselflies, the territorial males jet black with bodies that flash with blue and green iridescence in the forest shade. In the large area of bottomland forest barred owls, hawks, migratory yellow-bellied sapsuckers, herons, and other birds can be heard or seen at various times. There could be wood ducks, pileated woodpeckers, prothonotary warblers, woodcocks, and even turkeys. River otters are said to live in relatively small and clear (except when it turned opaque and yellow as 540 was being built upstream) Burdens Creek. There are many crayfish and fish in the Creek, and probably freshwater mussels, though the main species might be an Asian species. There are also beavers. Once in these woods I suddenly found myself walking along next to a possum during the day and there are raccoons and deer. With the people there are also feral or pet cats. Maybe there are nocturnal flying squirrels, and there must be flocks of moths and katydids on summer nights, Urbanization must be reducing their numbers, but I see a lot on Hopson Road on summer nights.
 

Fortunately the richest and oldest woods were mostly left alone when the apartments and offices were built, but the apartments come very close to the edge of the slope, which people seem to take as an invitation to dump their trash, and NRP never seemed much troubled by it. Landscaping contractors dumped fallen leaves, uprooted bushes, excess soil, etc., though one of NRP's local managers claimed they were against this (it seems like they should have been in control of their own contractors). The large debris piles take years to decompose, so plants underneath are killed, and this debris propagates non-native bushes into the woods. People go to these piles and dump trash, or throw it just inside the forest edge or over the slope. Maybe a year or two ago one brush pile had a lot of disposable diapers and the one next to it a lot of bagged pet waste, leading to the question of which is worse, the fecal coliform bacteria and pathogens or the plastic that won't decompose or fragment for a very long time. At various times there have been small piles of kitchen garbage, mattresses, furniture, a sofa, a broken wall mirror, rugs, tools, cellphones, a wrecked laptop, a computer monitor, batteries, plastic food packaging, plastic and glass bottles, cans, pots, shoes, etc. The complex has a central trash compactor and recycling center and they must have rules about trash disposal. NRP's local management claimed they cleaned up trash something like once or twice a year, probably meaning at most only a few feet into the trees, even though NRP owned and still owns a large area of the forest. The only reason there isn't more trash there now is because volunteers clean up some of it, mainly the plastic, one to three times a year. A few years ago Durham County passed a law forcing people to clean up excessive trash or aesthetic 'problems' on their land, and that helped here three years ago. The law is probably aimed more at penalizing homeowners, who may be poor, old, or prefer unconventional or naturalistic, wildlife-friendly landscaping, rather than companies that don't care about trash as long as it isn't in front of their offices. Besides the trash, herbicide is or was periodically sprayed along the forest edge and chemicals are probably spread on the lawns. Native solitary bees, providers of valuable and free pollination services, dug their burrows in one spot. Some stormwater is sent over the hillside, causing erosion, though I have seen worse though probably legal examples, such as behind the Phillips Research Park Apartments, located on a hill off Ellis Road at the north end of RTP, also surrounded by biologically rich older woodland, and at the Old Chatham Golf Club in Chatham County, though that might have been corrected by now.



Some of this is snow, but most of it is trash thrown behind Falls Pointe in winter 2010 ©.

  


A few volunteers picked up some trash that spring (photo) and in the fall ©.



Trash picked up in spring 2015 (there were other cleanups through 2018 not shown) ©.

Here is a pile of yard waste and trash that same spring ©.

Three mattresses thrown in a brush pile, a sofa, a burned bicycle, etc. dragged out of the woods in fall 2015 ©.



A pile of trash in summer 2017 ©.

Having corporate offices far away, selling frequently, and creating subsidiaries helps those in control avoid accountability while generating capital. The land, created by nature over an eternity, is seen as a commodity, something created only for exchange on a market, rather than for its use-value, as the common environment humanity and the rest of nature inhabits. I did a short search to see what Marx said regarding the natural environment, and, among other works, there is a chapter of The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (International Publishers, 1964, reprinted 1984, page 101 – 102; another translation is posted online at: www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/rent.htm ), containing some of his early writing. This passage is mainly about land used for agriculture and the transition from feudal landed property to capitalist commodification of the land, as is common around the world today, and especially in the USA, created out of colonies with few or no leftover feudal relations, after the land had been basically seized from its native inhabitants, who also had few or no feudal relations. Marx writes without sentimentality about the transition from feudalism to capitalism, which can then be replaced by socialism: “It is necessary that this appearance be abolished [“the semblance of a more intimate connection between the proprietor and the land than that of mere material wealth” and the “political” and “human, intimate” connection between the proprietor and his serfs] … ”that all personal relationship between the proprietor and his property cease, property becoming merely objective, material wealth; that the marriage of convenience should take the place of the marriage of honor with the land; and that land should likewise sink to the status of a commercial value, like man. It is essential that that which is the root of landed property – filthy self-interest – make its appearance, too, in its cynical form. It is essential that the immovable monopoly turn into the mobile and restless monopoly, into competition; and that the idle enjoyment of other peoples' blood and toil turn into a bustling commerce in the same commodity ... The medieval proverb nulle terre sans seigneur [there is no land without its lord] is thereby replaced by that other proverb, l'argent n'a pas de maître [money knows no no master], wherein is expressed the complete domination of dead matter over mankind,” domination over both the landowner and the worker. Later he writes that “Association,” replacing capitalist relations, has both economy of scale and equality, and “reestablishes, now on a rational basis, no longer mediated by serfdom, overlordship and the silly mysticism of property, the intimate ties of man with the earth, since the earth ceases to be an object of huckstering...” There is extensive discussion of the false view of land and other economic factors as commodities in The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time by economic historian Karl Polanyi, published in 1944 (quotes are from the Second Beacon Paperback, published in 2001). He writes that “A market economy must comprise all elements of industry, including labor, land, and money … But labor and land are no other than the human beings themselves of which every society consists and the natural surroundings in which it exists. To include them in the market mechanism means to subordinate the substance of society itself to the laws of the market” (page 74 – 75). But even in the early 40's it could be seen that in treating land as a commodity “Nature would be reduced to its elements, neighborhoods and landscapes defiled, rivers polluted, military safety jeopardized, the power to produce food and raw materials destroyed … no society could stand the effects of such a system of crude fictions [labor, land, and money treated as commodities] even for the shortest stretch of time unless its human and natural substance as well as its business organization was protected against the ravages of this satanic mill” (page 76 – 77).  

There would have to be much more trash to kill the wildflowers, but this special area that should be appreciated and protected is instead marred with trash, and the trash is harmful to the plants and possibly wildlife. Whatever waste isn't decomposed or buried washes into Burdens Creek and on towards Jordan Lake, where a large amount of trash is cleaned up by volunteers and government employees every year. No doubt tons of debris and trash have to be cleaned up at Jordan Lake State Recreation Area's swimming areas after the prolonged flooding in the fall. There are worse threats to local biodiversity, but the attitude that it is okay to dump trash in a woods, where few will see it, is like the attitude that it is fine to let exotic chemical GenX or pharmaceuticals get into the Cape Fear River, leave coal ash where it could contaminate groundwater and waterways, bury toxic waste near Crabtree Creek, or send excessive carbon dioxide and poisons from fossil fuels into the atmosphere. It might be out of sight and out of mind, but it adds up to become a problem for the community. Things like light pointlessly radiated into the night sky, the winter roar of traffic on I-40, and native trees engineered to suit the timber industry are also a kind of dumping and lack of consideration that could harm other people and our common environment. I hope to write about some of these problems in the New Year.

There must be other trash-filled natural areas in Durham, but I am glad to rarely come across them. At one time, possibly when suburbs first came to these parts, trash was dumped at certain bridges and the ends of roads, and volunteers cleaning up trash for Earth Day (April 22^nd) and Big Sweep (early October in Durham) still find appliances, mowers, shopping carts, even cars, but much of the trash has been removed and nature is overwhelming and burying the junk. The early suburbs also dumped partially treated sewage into creeks and while the water released by treatment plants into many creeks today is far cleaner, it is still a source of pollution. Sometimes people still dump trash and yard waste on roadsides or in secluded areas, but they can get into trouble if there is a witness or something that bears their address is included. In one of the more unusual cases, pounds of seemingly edible bread were scattered along So-Hi Drive. Rural trash middens, half-buried deposits of antique glass jars, etc., sometimes even divided by brand, are hidden in woods all over Durham County. This trash is half-buried, becoming more of a 20^th century archaeological curosity than an eyesore or hazard, though animals such as mice and emerging cicadas could get trapped and snakes have been known to swallow bottles and golf balls, another frequent find in wooded areas. Fresh litter is abundant in many places, escaping from dumpsters behind businesses, discarded along high-traffic roads, or washed in during floods. Every week Durham's semi-automated trash trucks release litter as they make the rounds in my neighborhood.

 

Lots of trash, probably from Durham, dumped at the Northeast Creek Waterfowl Impoundment in Chatham County (owned by the Army Corps of Engineers and operated by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission) and probably cleaned up by government workers ©.

  

Litter and bags of trash and tires dumped where Ellis Road crosses Northeast Creek in Durham ©.

Keep Durham Beautiful probably lacks the power to prevent a lot of these problems, but also doesn't help concerned citizens enough, and local and state governments also seem to care little, though they have some power to stop the dumping and get it cleaned up. It is very hard to get the NC DOT to fulfill its responsibility and pick up large junk dumped on rural roadsides, which they claim they can't find when informed, though they were very diligent in spraying herbicide along Scott King Road and Highway 54 over the summer (see the earlier post). Volunteers can adopt roads and clean up litter there two or three times a year, but not all roads can be adopted, including even some roads that have signs saying that they are available.  
 

Across the railroad tracks behind Falls Pointe there have been plans to build on hills at the northeast corner of TW Alexander and Highway 55, across from the Triangle Wastewater Treatment Plant (and a sludge drying facility will be built on the southeast corner) for several years, but clearing started a few weeks ago, before the snow, and a Charlotte-based subsidiary of the PulteGroup, Inc. ( www.pultegroupinc.com/home/default.aspx ), one of the largest residential builders in the US, bought the corner October 9, 2018. The site was last cleared several years ago, but a thick young forest resprouted. I don't think there are a lot of wildflowers there, but there might be some jack-in-the-pulpits. I thought Pulte might leave some woods between the houses and the treatment plant (though it has been upgraded several times over the years and doesn't produce as much of a smell now), but everything is being cut, except along a stream coming from the SSA site and a wetland that might have been flooded by beavers. The hill has a good view, but it would not be surprising if Pulte mass grades it down to a more mediocre level, allowing a lot of silt to erode into the stream, which goes into Burdens Creek, with few around to see it.

 

Looking south from the Pulte site, across TW Alexander Drive to the large field where a high hill once stood; the SSA facility is in the distance on the left ©.

 

Another view of the Pulte site; the saplings have mostly been cleared, but it is doubtful if any of the larger trees still standing, or even the contours of the land will still be here when they are done ©.

 

A barred owl perched in this relatively large oak, but it is just barely on the wrong side of the "Tree Protection Area" fence, and will probably be cut (or will it be saved by the blue band painted on it?), as well as the beech next to it and the loblolly pine saplings in the background ©.

Over the last three or four years many townhouses have been built several miles away around the intersection of Highway 54 and Barbee Road, on a ridge which forms the watershed between Northeast Creek and smaller Crooked Creek (Barbee Road basically marks the top of the ridge between the two basins). The construction on 54 hasn't done much for the roadside scenery and the design didn't take into consideration the good views of the sky and landscape there, or the former farm ponds, now filled in. Public engineering companies in Durham claim they can't add features highlighting a site's natural advantages because of local regulations that make features like trails too expensive. The height of buildings must be regulated, but if companies and local governments are going to build dense housing and increase mass transit services, allowing higher buildings in the suburbs could save land. Pulte built the townhouse project on the northeast corner at 54 and Barbee and previously, in 2009, Pulte merged with the Centex Corporation, the company behind many of the residential projects near Barbee Road (typically large “McMansions” with little space in between and few trees left standing, which might be the current 'style' or the result of a push for density by the Durham Planning Department). Despite erosion controls, the small streams around 54 and Barbee turned opaque yellow, and after rain Northeast Creek was unusually yellow, though there is additional construction going on upstream as well, such as along Ellis Road at 147 and on NC 55. Southern Durham's clayey Triassic Basin soil, weathered from sedimentary rocks created in rift valleys that opened up when dinosaurs were around, erodes when exposed and then doesn't settle easily.

Several years ago the Triangle Brick Company clearcut its extensive holdings where Durham, Wake, and Chatham counties meet, across Highway 55 from the pinxterflowers, and sometime in 2018 more land was cut along Grandale Road around the border between Durham and Chatham counties. I thought Durham had or has a policy of not building densely south of Scott King Road, but a residential project along 751 was approved and Cary is advancing from the other side, so I wonder if this is just timber harvesting or something more. Durham has a rule regarding building after clearcutting, but someone has to be watching. In the current brushy state these areas will benefit the deer population, as well as rodents and red-tailed hawks, but not species that need large unbroken woodlands. The combination of protected gamelands and mostly forested private land there forms a valuable corridor for wildlife, something the NC Natural Heritage Program pointed out to local governments.

 

Burdens Creek Bluff - today the land rests under a blanket of snow ©. 

 

Part of the Burdens Creek floodplain, probably flooded by beavers ©.





A wading bird track beside the slough and a Chinese privet ©.

ICMLPO statements on the Yellow Vests, Venezuela, and Migration

Below is a statement in support of the French Yellow Vest/gilets jaunes movement and resolutions in solidarity with the Venezuelan working class and migrants in general against imperialism, from the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations ( www.cipoml.net/ ).
.

Solidarity with the struggle of the workers and popular masses of France

Since November 17 a broad movement has developed of tens of thousands of people, dressed in yellow vests, who are occupying highway junctions, blocking access roads and demonstrating every Saturday in Paris and other cities. This movement is also developing in the island of Reunion, one of the colonies of French imperialism.

Motivated by the rejection of a new increase in the tax on fuels imposed by the State, the movement has spread rapidly through social networks with strong media coverage, specifically in 24-hour news services.

The images of violent clashes of hundreds of "yellow vests," without flags or banners of organizations (except the flag of France) attacking warehouses in the wealthy neighborhoods of Paris and shouting "Macron resign!" have been seen around the world. In several countries, particularly in Europe, many people identified themselves in this outbreak of anger, in radical denunciation, speeches and acts of the demonstrators. The movement of the "yellow vests" has gained sympathy both in France and in other European countries and has also raised questions of its nature, objectives and prospects.

The movement of the yellow vests in France means the entry into the social struggle of new sectors of the popular masses, those coming from the rural areas and from the outskirts of the cities. These are sectors of the petty bourgeoisie, of workers mainly from small companies, those with little union organization, poor workers, artisans, professionals, small employers, etc.

All are victims of the consequences of neoliberal policies developed for years by right-wing and social democratic governments, policies that Macron has aggravated and expanded. They are demonstrating against elimination of neighborhood public services, especially public transport, the elimination of social protection, etc., and against the continuous increase in taxes, in prices of basic necessities, such as electricity, gas, etc. Moreover, Macron and his government have transferred billions to the rich, to the big companies in the form of public aid, and the reduction of taxes and social contributions on big companies, on large wealth.

That is why Macron is widely considered the president of the rich and the big employers.

When that movement tried to demonstrate in the wealthy neighborhoods of Paris, Macron and his government responded with repression. Every Saturday, thousands of police and gendarmes arrested hundreds of protesters. This has radicalized the most consistent sectors of the yellow vests.

Until now, the yellow vests have remained outside the organized workers, trade union and popular movement that has been fighting for years against the neoliberal policies of the government in office. This is due in large part to its heterogeneous social composition and is expressed in a so-called "apoliticism" and rejection of trade union organizations. This attitude is also encouraged by reactionary forces within the movement. But among the yellow vests, at least in the workers and popular sectors that are involved, they are open to the demands of the workers and popular movement that is fighting. That is why there are demands on the positions of the picket lines of the yellow jackets that are close to the demands of the workers and popular movement. These are essentially the demands: increase in the minimum wage (SMIC), pensions and social assistance and higher taxes on large companies and others, for social justice. Of course, there are other demands that correspond to the interests of the small bosses, and some of a reactionary nature, especially on the issue of immigrants and refugees.

That movement has created sympathy in France and internationally, because it has attacked one of the representatives of the oligarchy, Macron, an arrogant president who gives lessons to the whole world. This movement also comes after major demonstrations, strikes that have been going on for years in France and that show the vitality of the class struggle, the militancy of the working class, of the laboring masses, of working women, of youth of the popular sectors.

In the context of this movement there took place the mobilization of secondary students for their own demands, against Macron’s education reforms and in defense of public education, to which the government responded very violently.

Macron was forced to retreat on the increase in the taxes on gasoline that was at the beginning of the protest; but he has not responded to the other demands, especially the demand for a real increase in the minimum wage. That is why the struggle continues.

The movement of the yellow vests is creating fear in the bourgeoisie, due to the economic and social chaos, in the context of the sharpening of the crisis and Macron’s growing unpopularity. This will force the government to make some concessions in order to stop the struggle.

For the moment, the response of Macron and his ministers is very far from the demands of the movement.

The mobilization of the workers must grow, especially in the companies, through strikes and demonstrations in the streets, for an increase in wages, pensions and social benefits.

This movement shows the importance for the workers and union movement, for the organizations that are fighting against neoliberalism, for the revolutionary organizations, for the Marxist-Leninist parties and organizations, to take up the demands of all the popular strata, the victims of neoliberal policies, in order to promote and lead the fight against capitalism, for the revolution and socialism.

That is why it is necessary to promote the political struggle to unite the working class around its class interests, so that the working class takes the leadership of the fight of the broad popular strata.

It is necessary, as our sister party in France, PCOF (Communist Party of the Workers of France) [ www.pcof.net/ ], stated, to develop the workers and popular opposition against the policies that serve the rich, the bosses and the arms sellers.

Coordination Committee of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations, ICMLPO

December 2018

Resolution on Venezuela

We Support the Venezuelan Workers and People Against the Imperialist Aggression

Due to the economic blockade imposed by the US, the EU and their lackeys, the social democratic policies of the government and the organizational weaknesses that still exist in the revolutionary movement, the Venezuelan people are undergoing a complex economic, social and political situation. This threatens to become aggravated for the popular masses unless there is a change of direction towards a genuine revolution and popular democracy under the direct leadership of the working class, peasants, commune members and the popular movement.

The international revolutionary movement grouped around the ICMLPO is taking up the great challenge of supporting a people that faces immense imperialist powers. These powers are trying to appropriate its natural riches, placing the whole weight of the crisis on the workers. For this reason and because of the justness of the struggle that our comrades are waging, we stand with them with the deepest solidarity to support those who resist and fight in that country, under difficult conditions, in order to achieve victory in the current battles and preparing for those that are to come, with a clear and consistent line of action.

The proletarian revolutionaries and other revolutionaries face the great challenge of organizing and leading the independent struggle of the proletariat and the people to confront the crisis and provide a revolutionary perspective. In these efforts they have the support of the communists organized in the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations, ICMLPO, of other revolutionary forces, of the workers and the peoples of the world.

Long Live Proletarian Internationalism

XXIV Plenary of the ICMLPO

Mexico, November 2018

Resolution on Migrants

No to Repression, No to the Criminalization of Migrants

The reactionary, racist, xenophobic president Donald Trump has announced that the United States government will close the borders with Mexico to prevent the migrants coming from different countries of Latin America and the Caribbean from entering his country.

With his fascist and racist rhetoric, he is accusing the migrants of being criminals and terrorists, of endangering the "security of the United States."

What threatens the safety of millions of people around the world is war, aggression and looting. It is U.S. imperialism, European imperialism, which with their policies of war are provoking misery and increasing the flow of immigrants.

Mass migration is a phenomenon that is taking place in Africa, Europe, Latin America and Asia. The immigrants are fleeing from war, repression and misery.

Its origin is a consequence of the imperialist measures.

The ICMLPO decisively condemns the racist, anti-migrant measures of U.S. imperialism. They are measures of misery and war against the workers and peoples of the world.

The ICMLPO struggles together with the migrants and those who organize and stand in solidarity with them, to uphold the rights of migrants and to protect them. We call on the democratic and progressive sectors to add their voices and actions in defense of the rights of migrants and the right of all human beings to free movement. No human being is illegal.

We denounce and fight against the repressive actions of the armed forces and state violence against migrants.

The struggle against the reactionary policies of the imperialist states is part of the general struggle against the imperialist system.

Let us fight firmly against racism, xenophobia and nationalism.

Mexico, November 2018

XXIV Plenary of the ICMLPO

Stop new US military base construction in Okinawa!

Below is a statement and petition by the Coalition Against US Foreign Military Bases ( noforeignbases.org/ ) opposing the construction of a new base in Henoko Bay, Okinawa, to replace unpopular Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.  Landfill for the new base began last Friday, and will damage coral reefs and sea grass beds, presumably harming the endangered dugongs (similar to a manatee, see:  www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/Okinawa_dugong/index.html , which also has a petition) that live there.  I think there is a sentiment that Okinawa carries too much of the burden of Japan's military alliance with the US, and that Okinawans are culturally different and treated like a colony by the Japanese government since before WWII (for example, see the Facebook group Okinawa Peace Appeal in English, at:  www.facebook.com/groups/107137066745995/ , which has news from Okinawa as well as protests in the USA).  Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan resigned in 2009, in part because he could not fulfill a pledge to remove the Futenma base, and I think I read that Hillary Clinton was personally involved in denying his request (but it seems like Japan as a sovereign country should be the one in control of its territory).      

The Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases supports the democratic will of the Okinawan people and opposes U.S. military base construction at Henoko.

 

Memory of the death and destruction of the Battle of Okinawa is deep and still present today, as the Japanese central government, in cooperation with the Pentagon, attempts to build yet another U.S. airstrip, one which would destroy pristine Oura Bay in Henoko, despite opposition from some 80 percent of the Okinawan people and their governor, Denny Tamaki.

Ignoring the people’s will and international opposition, including from many U.S. military veterans, the Japanese government began pouring soil and sand into Oura Bay before noon on December 14 in Nago’s Henoko district. The U.S. Navy claims the construction is necessary to replace U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, often called “the most dangerous airbase in the world.” That hugely unpopular base, which the U.S. has been promising to shut down since 1996, is currently in the densely populated residential area of Ginowan.

The airstrip will endanger the people, despoil a pristine environment and destroy endangered sea life, including the last few dugong (a marine mammal related to the manatee), which, according to Okinawan mythology, “has divine status—a messenger of the sea gods,” says Hideki Yoshikawa, secretariat of the nongovernment organization Citizens’ Network for Biodiversity in Okinawa. “Today, however, there are only between three and 10 alive.” The peace movement on Okinawa is remarkably diverse, like nature itself, but it is united by a common philosophy: a belief in nuchi du takara: all life is precious.

 

The excuse that the base is needed for defense is a thin pretext. Satoko Oka Norimatsu, co-author of Resistant Islands: Okinawa Confronts Japan and the United States, wrote, “The people there know that the military only attracts violence and death, instead of peace and stability.” As Hiroji Yamashiro, the charismatic and popular leader of the anti-base movement, said to people gathering at Henoko, “The American military stole our land to build bases then they used these bases to wage wars around the world. If they build a new base here, they will use it to fight new wars [but] if we win here, we can send a message of peace around the world.”

 

This is a crisis of democracy, as the U.S. military and the right-wing Japanese government under Shinzó Abe are trampling on the democratic will of the people of Okinawa in order to build yet another base. Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki said, “I cannot help feeling strong resentment toward the work being carried out in defiance of the prefectural residents’ will.”

The Okinawan people and their prefectural government have done everything they can to prevent the base in Henoko being built as a replacement—and will continue their efforts to stop it if it begins. The vigil at the gate has continued for more than 5,000 days and the actual sit-in blocking construction vehicles, which has been joined by many internationals, has gone on more than 1,000.

 

The people of Okinawa have experienced 73 years of occupation, the taking of precious farming land, and now some 30 U.S. military facilities and 25,000 military personel on this small island. They are fed up with the pollution, noise, violent crime and accidents caused by the U.S. military and do not want any new bases built in the prefecture.

We call upon all peace-loving people to join the people of Okinawa in opposing the construction of the U.S. Military Base in Henoko. We urge you to sign the people’s petition to the White House demanding that the construction be stopped until a democratic referendum can be held in Okinawa.

To sign the petition please CLICK HERE.

Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases

The PCOF on Macron's concessions to the Yellow Vests

Below is a translation of a statement from the Communist Party of the Workers of France (Parti Communiste des Ouvriers de France, PCOF) on President Macron's concessions to the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement ( www.pcof.net/communique-le-gouvernement-a-du-reculer-amplifions-le-mouvement-de-contestation-sociale/ ).  The working class wasn't able to stop Macron's pro-capitalist policies at the beginning, but now the French government is being pushed back.  Similar protests, though some are led by rightists, are starting in other EU states, Tunisia, and Iraq, and the USA could use a "yellow vest movement" to demand progressive economic and political reforms (preferably with more organization than the French movement), though recent movements such as Occupy and the Moral Monday movement here in North Carolina seem similar.
  

Communiqué

 

The government had to back down: spread the social protest movement

Macron and his government have been forced to make concessions, even though they are limited, faced with the strong social protests that have taken place for weeks through the movement of the “yellow vests.”

The arrogant president, of the bosses and the rich, sent his minister to try to defuse the great social anger that is seen particularly in the neglected regions of the country. Since Tuesday, government taboos such as the ISF [Solidarity Tax on Wealth] issue, a symbol of politics for the rich, have been "put back on the table" by Macro’s spokespersons, provided they do not question the main neoliberal orientations that remain the course.

The distancing from the contemptuous management style of the president and his government and the incantatory calls for the involvement of the "intermediate bodies" are multiplying. This is a sign of the weakening of the government and its electoral base.

The movement of the “yellow vests” is part of a longer period of union mobilizations: those against the El Khomri law [a law making it easier for companies to lay off workers and take other anti-worker measures, named after the former minister of labor – translator’s note], against the "work” law, the abolition of the APL [housing aid], against the closure of hospitals, etc. then that of the railway workers. Today, the mobilizations and strikes in the companies are developing around an increase in wages, starting with the increase of SMIC [monthly minimum wage] to 1800 €.

The added consequences of the reform of the baccalaureate, the removal of posts in the high schools, of the path to higher education, the reform of the vocational high schools, which are being implemented, have led to the mobilization of hundreds of high schools. The answer is the baton, but in the current climate, the result can be more mobilizations, more support from other sectors in struggle.

The government has been weakened, a breach has opened.

The concessions are a six-month suspension of the measures that have lit the powder keg: the suspension of the fuel tax increases, the freezing of electricity rates until May 2019. This is too little and too late. Since the beginning of the movement of the yellow vests, the demands for social justice, for concrete measures to increase the low wages, the pensions, the allowances for the unemployed, etc,. the demands for more taxes on the big companies, for greater democracy, etc.,  have come together. To the list of demands of the yellow vests, there have been added those of the workers’ and trade union movement, the collectives for the defense of the interests of the popular strata (in social housing, education for the children and young people of the popular strata, in defense of hospitals and the system of health care that is accessible to all, etc.), of public services.

These different movements do not oppose but complement each other.

The government is proposing discussions to gain time and try to break out of its isolation. Do not give it a break!

The movement of the yellow vests calls for further mobilizations.

The trade union movement, at the call of the CGT in particular, has called for strikes and demonstrations on December 14.

The initiative is in the hands of the workers, the popular strata and their organizations of struggle.

The demands forging unity between the different movements are more than ever on the agenda:

- Increase of the SMIC to 1800 €, of the pensions and minimum income;

- Taking care of transportation by the employers (1);

- VAT [Value Added (sales) Tax] of 5.5% for basic necessities;

-Restoration of the tax on wealth.

 

Paris December 5, 2018

Communist Party of the Workers of France

www.pcof.net – pcof [at] pcof [period net]

(1) The chief boss made an important statement: "80% of our employees use their car to go to work, of whom 50% have no other choice and they drive an average of 44 km [about 28 miles]." The conclusion that he did not draw from this, but we do, is: taking care of transportation by the employers!

Fall issue of Revolutionary Democracy published

The September issue of Revolutionary Democracy ( www.revolutionarydemocracy.org ), an independent Marxist-Leninist communist journal published in India in English, has been released.  It covers struggles in India and the rest of South Asia as well as issues in other countries, theoretical questions, republishes translated documents relating to the history of the USSR, usually includes some art or poetry related to revolutionary struggles, etc.  There are usually two issues a year.  In the USA, send a $5 dollar check, money order, or cash to George Gruenthal at the address below (contact him for the shipping cost for other countries).  PayPal is also an option. 

192 Claremont Ave., #5D

New York, NY 10027

 

Table of Contents:

 

‘Culpable Genocide Not Amounting To Murder’ – The Tuticorin Massacre, C.N. Subramaniam    

 

Absence of Political Will to Save the Indian Economy, A Case Study of Indian Financial Management, N. Bhattacharya  

 

Seducing People with Promises, Political Economy of Budget 2018-19, K.B. Saxena

         

Agrarian Crisis and Women Workers in Rural India, Jaya Mehta 

           

What to do with the Four Million Stateless in Assam? Santosh Rana

 

Manipur Against Corporate Plunder, An Interview with Jiten Yumnam, Malem Ningthouja 

             

SAIL: There is a Little Death in Every Steel, NTUI

 

 

 

 

 

Immediately Stop the Unlawful Arrest of Trade Unionists and Human Rights Defenders, NTUI

 

Statement of Romila Thapar and others. (28th Sept. 2018)

 

Repeal The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967. (October 22, 2018), AICCTU, AITUC, NTUI

 

 

 

Brazil: The Majority of the Electors Did Not Vote for the Fascist Millionaire, Luiz Falcão

 

 

About the Elections in Brazil: Did Fascism Fall on Us? Guido Proano Andrade

 

Tracking Bhagat Singh and Jawaharlal Nehru, Amar Kant

 

 

 

 

Correspondence: Mahendra Neh, Member, Politburo of the Marxist Communist Party of India     (United)  

  

A Communist Approach to the Question of the Right of Nations to Self-Determination in the Era of Imperialism, The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan)

 

EMEP Chairwoman Selma Gurkan Will Be On Trial for Criticising the AKP’s War Policies   

            

 

Are the Popular Fronts Necessary?, Raul Marcos

 

Letter on the Renaming of Tsaritsyn (January 25, 1925), J.V. Stalin

 

Results of the Youth Conference of South-East Asian Countries, (March 22, 1948), N. Mikhailov

 

The Letter of New Central Committee – A Review, (23^rd July 1950), Jyoti Basu

 

On the Question of Lavrentiy Beria – I, (2nd July, 1953), V.M. Molotov.

 

Serious Mistakes and Shortcomings in the Activities of the CPGB, (January 21, 1954), M. Mitin