As they say, the only constant is change and science shows how change is indeed built into the very fabric of all matter which cannot even exist separately from change and constant transformation. Yet, when it comes to economics, they teach us in schools that capitalism is here to stay and will not need to change; that it’s a constant.
What the ruling class doesn’t want us to learn is that capitalism accumulates wealth into fewer and fewer hands and day by day makes the poor poorer; and what this does is deplete the working class of the resources they need to buy so the system which is based on consumerism can go on. And here lies their dilemma: they keep squeezing the wage earners until the system falls into chaos.
They have no answer for this and they want us to think there is no answer. Just live as long as possible through cycles of crises that get more severe every time and throw more and more people into the ranks of the poor as the rich continue to accumulate more wealth!
An analysis of the period from 2007 when the most recent recession began and the end of 2010 shows that the bottom 90% of the US population collectively lost close to a whopping 40% of their wealth while the top 10% not only did not lose anything but increased their wealth by 2%!
Not all periods have seen such precipitous falls in people’s standard of living, but in the last several decades, there has been a constant decline in income and wealth among wage earners while the top has seen a steady rise in their wealth.
As the wealth of the nation has been concentrated in fewer hands, so has the control of politics and even societal groupthink and culture by leaving all media in the hands of only a few large corporations which have created an oligarchy controlling all levers of power from “elected” government officials to the supreme court and from the news to the military. All the policies that have been pushed and implemented for over 200 years have been to enrich a certain class of people which has become the 1% of the society at the expense of the remaining 99%.
As the titanic shift in wealth distribution or rather concentration has taken place, so has there been a corresponding political shift to match the economic.
Much has already been said about the move of both Democrats and Republicans to the right in the past 30 years. Today’s Democrats are in fact more right wing than Republicans of 30 or 40 years ago. If Nixon were to run against Obama, he would strongly criticize his opponent for being too right wing, and Nixon was no liberal!
But, why and due to what force or development has that shift occurred? The answer is best given by understanding the forces operating within the society. The capitalist class is constantly trying to pacify, weaken, demoralize and defeat their class enemies. I say “class enemies” because it’s a constant battle over who takes how much; the more the working class takes, the less there is for the capitalists and vice versa since it’s a zero-sum game. The success of the ruling capitalists depends on how well they deceive, demoralize and push back workers.
Just to give an example and put this in perspective, 40 years ago, organized labor constituted about 40% of the workforce in the US. Now, it’s about 7%. Basically, what this means is that the victory of the working class over large investors and owners of capital in organizing themselves into unions which was achieved after years of struggle and came after many deaths and imprisonments, has mostly been reversed under the rule of both parties. And as the unions have been marginalized and defeated, workers’ ability to negotiate decent standard of living has dissipated.
Whereas the Democrats were once careful not to offend and anger workers too much, as the political clout of the latter faded, so did Democrats’ fake loyalty. On the other hand, as the corporations’ clout increased, the more cautious Democrats were swayed and convinced by the Republicans that they have nothing to worry about: the enemy is too weak to do anything.
Now, why are the Republicans going after teachers’ and other state employees’ unions? Because, those are pretty much what’s left of unions. They’re the 7% that’s still left who due to having a union, still have living wages instead of many others who are down to poverty wages, many with no health insurance and with zero job security.
Again, the Democrats play the good cop while Republicans finish the job. Once, the job is done, the Democrats will again be convinced that it was the right thing to do and that they had nothing to worry about. No revolt, no problem. People are taking it, so everything is fine.
The other trend that has helped the capitalist class is the regression in class consciousness and awareness and the loss of the will to fight back among the working poor. There has recently been a reversal in this which i will come back to below.
Again, as the more cautious Democrats saw that the Republicans’ aggressive ways did not endanger the status quo, they kept shifting to the right and adopting the more aggressive approach. This is what distinguished President Clinton from those who came before him. He was the new and improved Democrat. This is not to say that the Democrats before him did not work for the ruling capitalist class but the shift was noticeable and in line with the shift in political and economic move of the ruling class and the level of their boldness in attacking workers and their standard of living.
And since the Republican pole of the two-party system represents the less cautious and more aggressive wing, as the Democrats moved, so did they move further to the right. Bush and Cheney represented precisely that fearless breed of Republicans. It’s interesting how Fox News often uses the term “fearless” to describe themselves. The implication is vis-à-vis the working class, of course. I’m sure they’re not talking about bears and wolves and lions.
By the time, Obama became president, the pressure was more than ever for the Democrats to throw their caution to the wind, get more bold and get with the program.
This was natural and to be expected. But, it did have one unexpected (for the ruling oligarchy, that is) consequence: a movement was born which saw after many decades that the two parties were two wings of the same ruling 1% who in collusion with each other were robbing the 99%. That was of course the Occupy Wall Street.
And what kind of reaction would you expect from the 1% and the two-party system serving them? Well, exactly as they reacted: crack down as hard as possible. Why? Because, what they fear the most is the empowerment a popular movement brings to people. It reverses the demoralization, apathy and helplessness the ruling class has instilled into people’s heads and makes them realize they actually do have power. Once they reach that realization and collective will, it’s game over for the usurpers and exploiters. This is what has been happening in Egypt.
And what kind of reaction would you expect from the “kinder, gentler” liberal wing of the ruling oligarchy? Co-opt, integrate into the Democratic Party and diffuse. This was most notably attempted by the likes of the “Move-On” organization which is an advocacy group for the Democratic Party.
In his latest show on HBO called “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the liberal comedian and commentator criticized Occupy Wall Street for not helping the Democrats like the Tea Party is doing for the Republicans. He admonished the Occupy protesters to quit camping on the streets and go door to door to help elect Democrats, starting with Obama. Apparently, some OWS members even liked his comments because they posted his commentary on OWS web site.
What he doesn’t understand is that first of all, the Tea Partiers did not come from nowhere and end up pushing the Republicans further to the right. They were backed by big money and corporations. Secondly, they don’t need or want a change of the class rule or status quo. They are ideologically with the 1% who already are in power and are there to squeeze the working class harder.
For OWS to integrate into the Democratic Party is to disregard the fact that the working class has been victimized by both parties who work as a team for the 1%. We must overthrow the hyenas’ harem, not join the pack as additional servants for the pack leaders.
What we must understand is that the ruling 1% has different faces, approaches, tools and tactics. We must be alert to them all. To help us stay clear about who are our friends and who our foes, it helps to ask which class of people do the two parties benefit or serve? It also helps to keep in mind that it’s a zero-sum game and the more they take, the less there is for us. Any party that helps keep the status quo is with them.
Liberals are right when in defense of Obama, they say he has no choice and that he has to kill people simultaneously in several different countries. He has to because it’s in the job description. He has to because he’s expected to by the 1% who are his real bosses. He has to because the empire for which he works requires it. But, that also means he doesn’t work for us the people.
The OWS movement is not exactly dead. It will rise again—maybe in a different form or shape but it will, nonetheless—and the rulers know that and have been preparing for that; hence the hasty passage of the NDAA and other repressive laws.
But, the movement has already done what such a movement is capable of doing at this time and under current circumstances. It has raised the political and economic understanding among the people and introduced into the society’s vocabulary terms and concepts that were unimaginable just a year ago. It has shed the light on the wealth distribution between the “99% vs. the 1%” and has even brought capitalism under the microscope. It may not be much but it’s a start.
Moreover, whereas in years prior, small, marginalized, cliquish and sectarian leftist groups kept talking to themselves in their meeting rooms attended by the same 5 individuals and while labor unions kept taking membership dues from workers and pouring it into to the campaigns of the Democrats who time and again collaborated with the Republicans in attacking workers’ standard of living once they got into office and closed the doors, OWS showed the way forward. It brought the old leftists out and even drew many rank and file union members who in many occasions called on Occupy protesters to help them in their battle with employers.
This is a baby step but it is a step towards politicization and raised consciousness. That’s where it all begins.
RSS
A brief look at changes taking place in the US
Posted on June 20, 2012 by Sako Sefiani
As they say, the only constant is change and science shows how change is indeed built into the very fabric of all matter which cannot even exist separately from change and constant transformation. Yet, when it comes to economics, they teach us in schools that capitalism is here to stay and will not need to change; that it’s a constant.
What the ruling class doesn’t want us to learn is that capitalism accumulates wealth into fewer and fewer hands and day by day makes the poor poorer; and what this does is deplete the working class of the resources they need to buy so the system which is based on consumerism can go on. And here lies their dilemma: they keep squeezing the wage earners until the system falls into chaos.
They have no answer for this and they want us to think there is no answer. Just live as long as possible through cycles of crises that get more severe every time and throw more and more people into the ranks of the poor as the rich continue to accumulate more wealth!
An analysis of the period from 2007 when the most recent recession began and the end of 2010 shows that the bottom 90% of the US population collectively lost close to a whopping 40% of their wealth while the top 10% not only did not lose anything but increased their wealth by 2%!
Not all periods have seen such precipitous falls in people’s standard of living, but in the last several decades, there has been a constant decline in income and wealth among wage earners while the top has seen a steady rise in their wealth.
As the wealth of the nation has been concentrated in fewer hands, so has the control of politics and even societal groupthink and culture by leaving all media in the hands of only a few large corporations which have created an oligarchy controlling all levers of power from “elected” government officials to the supreme court and from the news to the military. All the policies that have been pushed and implemented for over 200 years have been to enrich a certain class of people which has become the 1% of the society at the expense of the remaining 99%.
As the titanic shift in wealth distribution or rather concentration has taken place, so has there been a corresponding political shift to match the economic.
Much has already been said about the move of both Democrats and Republicans to the right in the past 30 years. Today’s Democrats are in fact more right wing than Republicans of 30 or 40 years ago. If Nixon were to run against Obama, he would strongly criticize his opponent for being too right wing, and Nixon was no liberal!
But, why and due to what force or development has that shift occurred? The answer is best given by understanding the forces operating within the society. The capitalist class is constantly trying to pacify, weaken, demoralize and defeat their class enemies. I say “class enemies” because it’s a constant battle over who takes how much; the more the working class takes, the less there is for the capitalists and vice versa since it’s a zero-sum game. The success of the ruling capitalists depends on how well they deceive, demoralize and push back workers.
Just to give an example and put this in perspective, 40 years ago, organized labor constituted about 40% of the workforce in the US. Now, it’s about 7%. Basically, what this means is that the victory of the working class over large investors and owners of capital in organizing themselves into unions which was achieved after years of struggle and came after many deaths and imprisonments, has mostly been reversed under the rule of both parties. And as the unions have been marginalized and defeated, workers’ ability to negotiate decent standard of living has dissipated.
Whereas the Democrats were once careful not to offend and anger workers too much, as the political clout of the latter faded, so did Democrats’ fake loyalty. On the other hand, as the corporations’ clout increased, the more cautious Democrats were swayed and convinced by the Republicans that they have nothing to worry about: the enemy is too weak to do anything.
Now, why are the Republicans going after teachers’ and other state employees’ unions? Because, those are pretty much what’s left of unions. They’re the 7% that’s still left who due to having a union, still have living wages instead of many others who are down to poverty wages, many with no health insurance and with zero job security.
Again, the Democrats play the good cop while Republicans finish the job. Once, the job is done, the Democrats will again be convinced that it was the right thing to do and that they had nothing to worry about. No revolt, no problem. People are taking it, so everything is fine.
The other trend that has helped the capitalist class is the regression in class consciousness and awareness and the loss of the will to fight back among the working poor. There has recently been a reversal in this which i will come back to below.
Again, as the more cautious Democrats saw that the Republicans’ aggressive ways did not endanger the status quo, they kept shifting to the right and adopting the more aggressive approach. This is what distinguished President Clinton from those who came before him. He was the new and improved Democrat. This is not to say that the Democrats before him did not work for the ruling capitalist class but the shift was noticeable and in line with the shift in political and economic move of the ruling class and the level of their boldness in attacking workers and their standard of living.
And since the Republican pole of the two-party system represents the less cautious and more aggressive wing, as the Democrats moved, so did they move further to the right. Bush and Cheney represented precisely that fearless breed of Republicans. It’s interesting how Fox News often uses the term “fearless” to describe themselves. The implication is vis-à-vis the working class, of course. I’m sure they’re not talking about bears and wolves and lions.
By the time, Obama became president, the pressure was more than ever for the Democrats to throw their caution to the wind, get more bold and get with the program.
This was natural and to be expected. But, it did have one unexpected (for the ruling oligarchy, that is) consequence: a movement was born which saw after many decades that the two parties were two wings of the same ruling 1% who in collusion with each other were robbing the 99%. That was of course the Occupy Wall Street.
And what kind of reaction would you expect from the 1% and the two-party system serving them? Well, exactly as they reacted: crack down as hard as possible. Why? Because, what they fear the most is the empowerment a popular movement brings to people. It reverses the demoralization, apathy and helplessness the ruling class has instilled into people’s heads and makes them realize they actually do have power. Once they reach that realization and collective will, it’s game over for the usurpers and exploiters. This is what has been happening in Egypt.
And what kind of reaction would you expect from the “kinder, gentler” liberal wing of the ruling oligarchy? Co-opt, integrate into the Democratic Party and diffuse. This was most notably attempted by the likes of the “Move-On” organization which is an advocacy group for the Democratic Party.
In his latest show on HBO called “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the liberal comedian and commentator criticized Occupy Wall Street for not helping the Democrats like the Tea Party is doing for the Republicans. He admonished the Occupy protesters to quit camping on the streets and go door to door to help elect Democrats, starting with Obama. Apparently, some OWS members even liked his comments because they posted his commentary on OWS web site.
What he doesn’t understand is that first of all, the Tea Partiers did not come from nowhere and end up pushing the Republicans further to the right. They were backed by big money and corporations. Secondly, they don’t need or want a change of the class rule or status quo. They are ideologically with the 1% who already are in power and are there to squeeze the working class harder.
For OWS to integrate into the Democratic Party is to disregard the fact that the working class has been victimized by both parties who work as a team for the 1%. We must overthrow the hyenas’ harem, not join the pack as additional servants for the pack leaders.
What we must understand is that the ruling 1% has different faces, approaches, tools and tactics. We must be alert to them all. To help us stay clear about who are our friends and who our foes, it helps to ask which class of people do the two parties benefit or serve? It also helps to keep in mind that it’s a zero-sum game and the more they take, the less there is for us. Any party that helps keep the status quo is with them.
Liberals are right when in defense of Obama, they say he has no choice and that he has to kill people simultaneously in several different countries. He has to because it’s in the job description. He has to because he’s expected to by the 1% who are his real bosses. He has to because the empire for which he works requires it. But, that also means he doesn’t work for us the people.
The OWS movement is not exactly dead. It will rise again—maybe in a different form or shape but it will, nonetheless—and the rulers know that and have been preparing for that; hence the hasty passage of the NDAA and other repressive laws.
But, the movement has already done what such a movement is capable of doing at this time and under current circumstances. It has raised the political and economic understanding among the people and introduced into the society’s vocabulary terms and concepts that were unimaginable just a year ago. It has shed the light on the wealth distribution between the “99% vs. the 1%” and has even brought capitalism under the microscope. It may not be much but it’s a start.
Moreover, whereas in years prior, small, marginalized, cliquish and sectarian leftist groups kept talking to themselves in their meeting rooms attended by the same 5 individuals and while labor unions kept taking membership dues from workers and pouring it into to the campaigns of the Democrats who time and again collaborated with the Republicans in attacking workers’ standard of living once they got into office and closed the doors, OWS showed the way forward. It brought the old leftists out and even drew many rank and file union members who in many occasions called on Occupy protesters to help them in their battle with employers.
This is a baby step but it is a step towards politicization and raised consciousness. That’s where it all begins.