A Demand for Peace in 2006

At this time of year we look at the past and hope for a better new year. A happy new year. But if we gaze into the crystal ball and have a look, we may shudder in horror. Chances are, the future will be filled with danger. The danger may be confined to the Middle East in the short term, but further on, we are all in grave danger.

The fact that the Americans lost the war in Iraq sets up a rather gruesome scenario. Imagine a world map to be a large game board with four players sitting at the table. One player represents America, the second player represents China, the third, Russia, and the fourth, Europe.

The first two players are most worriesome.

To win the game, control of resources, and particularily oil, is key.

Player two had not been a serious factor until recently. But now China, with a population of well over one billion, has been growing and growing an increasing thirst for oil to sustain its industry and higher standard of living.

The Decline of the American Empire

Bush gambled in Iraq and lost. For the Americans, the stakes were high. Winning the war would mean that they not only gain control of the vast oil resources in Iraq, but they would also be in a key position to control the politics of the region. Losing this war has consequences that may cripple the empire.

America spends approximately as much as the rest of the world in its military. This has nothing to do with defending its borders. It has everything to do with control and plunder. What America has lost the world over is respect. That loss of respect as well as a general loathing for not only the Iraqi massacre, but military interference in countries all over the world, has a substantial impact on their global influence. Iraq has shown the world that all the hype about The New World Order and their military might is just that; hype. Bush said that he has political capital after his last election. An ironic statement given the fact that America has gone into deep debt in that respect.

To make matters worse for the Americans, its traditional backyard, Central and South America have swallowed too much of the poison medicine that has been force fed to them by the Americans. They have had enough. America and the IMF and World bank have plundered Latin American nations to the point of crisis. Chavez of Venezuela has been using oil wealth to not only help the people of Venezuela but in neighbouring countries as well. Throughout Latin America, there is a resurgence of leftist energy as well as deep suspicion about the motives of the American state and private enterprise. Moderate socialists such as the recently elected Evo Morales in Bolivia have taken a sharp turn to the left to gain electoral support. Even his opponent, Jorge Quiroga, had done his best to distance himself from the Americans during their final debate before the election.

Perhaps most telling on the subject of respect is what is happening at the moment in the Canadian election. The Americans are openly attacking Prime Minister Paul Martin for his apparent anti American stance. The Americans charge that his attacks on America are a ploy to win the election. What is most significant about this is that the closest country to America, both geographically and politically, is Canada. But to win an election, to appeal to the electorate, cadidates must distance themselves from America and particularily, Bush.

For the past century and particularily the past 50 years, America has been able to control and influence heads of state all over the globe. World leaders in true quissling fashion, bowed to the might of American wealth, bribes, and the threat of military intervention. The key ingredient here was fear. The Americans used fear on a number of levels.

Tactics of the Empire

The tactics used by the empire to take control where they wanted to gain control were first, to use fraud and to seduce leaders with wealth and trinkets.
In this fascinating article (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/09/1526251) about his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins, spells out the methods the empire uses to take control. Here is an excerpt from the interview with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman. "And in Iraq we tried to implement the same policy that was so successful in Saudi Arabia, but Saddam Hussein didn't buy. When the economic hit men fail in this scenario, the next step is what we call the jackals. Jackals are C.I.A.-sanctioned people that come in and try to foment a coup or revolution. If that doesn't work, they perform assassinations. or try to. In the case of Iraq, they weren't able to get through to Saddam Hussein. He had -- His bodyguards were too good. He had doubles. They couldn’t get through to him. So the third line of defense, if the economic hit men and the jackals fail, the next line of defense is our young men and women, who are sent in to die and kill, which is what we’ve obviously done in Iraq." -Perkins

Their tactics, including all out war, failed in beleagured and impoverished Iraq. World leaders over the globe are thumbing therir noses at Bush and people the world over are not only thumbing their noses at him, but showing open contempt for Bush and American power generally. Where in the past it was politically advisable to sidle in with the Americans, it has now become a political liability.

Iraq

The Americans hoped to walk through Iraq and set up a puppet govenment. It backfired as a result of the political capital of Iranian born Ayatollah Sistani who demanded elections. As a result, Iraq will be governed by Shi'ite clergy either behind the scenes or explicitly. They have made vain attempts to install criminals such as Allawi and his cousin, Challabi, but it isn't working. We can predict then, that their next move will be to try to buy the Shi'ites. It probably won't work. The Americans don't understand the sincerity of a true faith in and fear of God. They will assasinate politicians and they will try and try again, but they will fail in Iraq.

The stupidity and insanity and greed that has taken Bush and his masters into Iraq has proven to be their biggest liability. It continues to be their biggest liability and it will continue to be. At this point everybody knows their game and they don't understand that. They are far too arrogant.

The scenario in the Middle East is one of increasing independence from American influence. It is likely that Iraq and Iran will forge an alliance and it will be quite natural given the Shi'ite populations in those countries. This also threatens Saudi Arabia with a large Shi'ite population and a large pool of oil. The spoiled princes of Saud can't be sleeping comfortably with threats not only on their doorstep, but within Saudi Arabia itself. A population that will be emboldened along with the whole Islamic world with the defeat of the Americans in Iraq.
Iraq is situated in a very strategic position geographically, but politically as well.

The Global Gameboard

Click on this link for a list of American interference incidents in foriegen nations since world war two:

http://www.krysstal.com/democracy_whyusa02.html

At this point th empire is in a desperate situation. They cannot afford to lose in Iraq but it is impossible for them to win. If history is an indicator, they will not simply cut their losses and run, at least not yet. The people of Iraq will have to endure more war through 2006. The Americans will try to maintain as much influence as possible.

It is also possible that Bush will be foolish enough to raise the stakes and attack Iran to try to cut the influence of the Shi'ites in the Middle East. It is not probable however. Doing so would not only be a further risk, but it would completely scrap any shread of credibility America may maintain at this point. The possibility that Iranian and eventually Iraqi oil may be exported mainly to China is a significant threat to them however. An expansion of the present war is certainly within the realm of possibilities.

But there are compelling situations cropping up all over the globe. Perhaps most significant is the developing situation in Latin America. While war is being waged in Iraq, the Americans are developing a military presence in Latin America that is unprecedented. Even poor countries like Haiti are important to the Americans at the game board. While busy in Iraq, they weren't too busy to invade and usurp the legitimate government of Aristide. Chavez would be well advised to surround himself with body guards in 2006. Not only Venezuela, but other Latin American countries are increasing exports of raw materials to China. The future may see more military activity in South America.

Standing up to the Americans has proven to not only be possible as in Iraq, but a worthwhile endeavor as shown when the Argentianians have shown the IMF the way to the door. The Argentians and now the Iraqis have shown the world that defiance of America is no pipe dream. It can be done. The Americans are attempting to show the world the cost of defiance through the bloody massacre of thousands of innocent people.

As America fumbles and trips, the Chinese seem to know exactly what they are doing. Russia is watching and waiting and Europe may carefully distance itself from Uncle Sam. Everybody is getting a sense of direction and it isn't going well for the empire. Where this game could go eventually would make today seem a picnic.
At this point in history, when imperialism has reached its zenith, the father of all imperialists has received a staggering blow. As the situation becomes more desperate, the possibility for more war increases. Unfortunately, this is not a game. It is very real and this year, as in 2005, that reality will be felt mostly by the people of Iraq. Beyond that, the struggle for control of the planet's wealth may place many of us in the same brutal situation as the Iraqis are today.

The year 2006, perhaps more than ever, demands a call for peace. We all have a part to play. In fact this is not some obscure game that is out of our reach. In reality, we can make a difference. The time to be meek has passed. Demand peace for the people of Iraq in 2006. And if you don't care about the people of Iraq, consider this: War clouds are on the horizon whether you see them or not and you may be swallowed up by them beyond 2006.

Good Bye Tookie Williams

Arnold Schwarzenegger held the power of life or death for Stan 'Tookie' Williams. Choosing death serves absolutely nobody. He made the choice to legally murder Tookie Williams. He made the choice to appease the racist bloodlust of those that vote for him and that is why Tookie Williams will die tonight.

Mr. Williams is accused of murder. But to murder a man to appease voters is a deed, evil of biblical proportions.

Peace to you Mr. Williams. The world knows that you are a good man. Let us pray that you will never again see the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger in any realms you may find yourself.

The Art of Tyranny

Condoleezza Rice is making the rounds in Europe, ostensibly defending the American practice of extraordinary rendition; that is, the practice of secretly kidnapping and torturing what it deems to be suspects. But that is merely a ruse and given the nature and history of that administration, it would be reasonable to suggest everything they do is has an ulterior motive.

It is a ruse, a distraction and a smoke and mirrors game. The real intent of Rice's admission that people are rounded up in the middle of the night and spirited away to secret prisons across Europe as well as locations all over the world, is to normalize such practices. This has been happening throughout the Bush administration's time in power. They have provided a thin and flimsy defense for the most horrific crimes imaginable, including the mass slaughter that continues to grind along in Iraq with no relief in sight for the poor innocent people of that abused country.

Within the context of these thin and flimsy rationalizations, Rice and apologists for this practice of normalizing fascism make claims that they are in the process of installing democracy and freedom in these assumed international backwaters. In the meantime, they are torturing detainees, waging illegal war, and locking people up without trial. The contradictions are too obvious. They have no intention of persuading people that they are democratic or champions of freedom. Within the context of which they are operating, it would take exceptional naivity to even entertain faith in this barely visible veneer of good intentions.

They are and have been sending an implicit message to the world. No only to the international community, but to the American population as well. That message is that the very underpinnings of modern legal principles means nothing; that this is The New World Order and we are in charge. Cross us and you will be crushed whether you are defending your country or even if you are an unfriendly or independent news source.

Rice maintains that the U.S. does not condone torture, a statement that Bush has recently been repeating. When can we remember reasonable leaders repeating, over and over again that they do not condone torture? It isn't done because reasonabe people don't torture people. The people that would make such utterances would be generals in Latin America in the 80's, the tyrants of Asia or Africa, the Stalinists and so on. They said they didn't do it because they indeed did it. If you will torture, chances are you will also lie. Those kinds of defences occur within a context of tyranny, they are the smoke from a burning fire.

Rice also said in her recent news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that they need good intellegence to face down the threat of terrorism. They need to defeat the terrorists that wantonly kill civilians and Rice made the distinction between that and collatoral damage. This splitting hairs and justification of bombing the life out of civilian populations again is a means of normalizing state terror and tyranny.

Previous to this news coference with Merkel, Rice chastised Europeans for criticizing the American practice of rendition. She said that interrogations of these suspects have saved European lives. This is a loaded statement. First, it blows the cover off the rationale for the renditions. They are to interrogate people outside the restraints of the law. In other words, Rice is admitting here that the detainees are tortured. Secondly, there is a hint here that European lives are more valuable than say, Iraqi, or Arab lives. Rice also reminded some Europeans that their hands are not clean either and they better just shut up. Europe is nowhere near as comfortable and not only are the population and the media unfriendly to the spirit of fascism but many politicians are as well. An all party committee in Britain recently issued a report that said even giving permission to fuel fligts to collect prisoners in the Middel East would breach interntional law. Europeans are recognizing that they are in bed with the devil.

European leaders may be genuinely disgusted at these practices or maybe they have to deal with a more informed and sensitive domestic population that does Rice. In any case, they must at least show a degree of outrage at these practices. Enter stage Right; Condoleezza Rice and the traveling road show. One of many that have graced the world stage over the past five years with the same mesages repeated over and over; We don't torure and murder because murder means this and torture means that.
European leaders have been collaborating with the Americans in the war on terror and have proven to be pliable and weak. Now they are in a position where they must cooperate with the devil or be exposed for all they have done in that collaborative effort. Over 400 rendition flights have landed in Germany. It is no wonder than that Merkel appeared a little nervous standing next to Rice. She had to choose her words very carefully.

Perhaps all world leaders, with exceptions such as Chavez and Castro, have publicly wrangled with the Americans for domestic consumption and at the same time colluded with them behind the scenes. There is a price to pay for this 'dealing with the devil' sort of cowardice. The price is, when you do it, the devil gets control of your soul. And that is exctly what this devil does best; it controls anything and everybody it can.

Throughout history, world powers have emerged with the intent to dominate and terrorize with the aim to take over the world, no less. It is happening again and it is America that is doing it. And when this happens, the true nature of political leaders is exposed. Their slippery cowardice is evident for all to see. They side against those they see as weak in order to curry favour from those with power. Even the most elemental morality is ignored in this persuit.

Is the is the duty of all of us to keep on top of this process and to talk about it and to write about it. Above all, it is our duty to stand against the tyrants and their accomplices and to stand in solidarity with the victims. As Bush himself said, you are either with us or against us. Let him know in no uncertain terms that we are against him. He is the alpha and the omega of terrorism.

(Previously published in MWC NEWS)

The Nature of the Beast

Humanity has slipped into the grip of an alien and alienating force. It is no exaggertion to describe this force as a phantom. It has no mass, no shape or colour, or no basis in tangible reality. It is located in the abstract. This entity is more powerful and potentially horrific than anything that has been manufactured in the imaginations of fiction writers. Reality indeed is stranger than fiction. This entity has taken control of the world in a very short time. It directly impacts the psychology and every aspect of the lives of a large portion of humanity. We have been shaped by it and in turn, we have shaped it. This dialectic however is changing and our influence over our alien monarch is waning.

That ghost is capitalism itself and we instictively pay homage to it. We know where we came from and we know that it is this force that delivered us. We have an inkling that it is naturally democratic and somewhat gentle and kind. But there are some unavoidable flaws in that dim view. Especially in the recent past. The problem seems to be that the whole thing is turning on us and although we always knew it had a malevolent streak, we thought we could live with it. To decide properly whether or not we can continue to live with it into the future, we must examine its very nature.

The nature of capitalism is predatorial, it is hungry, and it is dominant over the affairs and lives of human beings. It demands to be fed and like a shark, it must keep moving and eating or it will die. It will root out every corner of human habitation, usurp the culture and traditions, and take over. It has no human sentiment or moralistic constraints. It will support human habits that will support it and will ravage any and all that stand in its way.

It is worth pointing out that it is a phantom and exists only in the realm of illusion if we aim to study its nature. It is as surely from the realm of the abstract as a dog or a chair exist in the realm of tangible reality. Capital itself is represented in money and money has no substance or value in itself. A coin means nothing more than a round piece of metal to anybody that has not been taken possession of by the phantom. But to those of us that have been taken under it's spell, money rules our lives.

Capitalism was born in humble surroundings. Some bookkeeper, somewhere in the mists of history, discovered that wealth can be increased through a relatively simple process. If a worker is hired to make a chair and is paid less than what the chair is sold for, the difference goes into the pocket of the person that hired the worker. If one hundred chairs are made in this way, there is that much more for the sorceror. As capitalism grew from these humble roots, its nature changed. It is, by its very nature, a powerful revolutionary force. It never remains still and it is an ever growing shape shifter. It does however have tendencies and a nature that render it predictable to a large degree. What is happening today was predicted well over one hundred years ago and if we study the nature of capitalism, we can get a general sense of where we are going.

The energy that drives its growth is profit. As the beast grows more and more massive, the potential for profit diminishes in a given unit of exchange and as a result, the terms of human exploitation become increasingly severe. Henry Ford may have had the luxury of actually paying his workers well enough to buy the cars, but those days are long gone. There is increasing pressure toward lowering wages. The capitalist state may have had the foresight to implement social spending measures in the 1930s to the 1970s creating more demand for goods and services, but those days seem to be behind us. Social democratic politicians are as severe with cutbacks and belt tightening as those from the right.

Capitalism has grown from domination of small shops and enterprises to the domination of the state and now it is in the process of taking over the world. As we continue to feed it's increasing demand for more and more wealth, its traditional source of food can no longer satisfy a now ravaneous and insatiable appetite. Workers cannot fetch the portion of wealth that they had enjoyed in the hay days of capitalism. Instead, capital must seek out better terms of exploitation and it does this in parts of the world where people are happy to work for a pittance to escape the ravages of starvation and poverty.

It has grown to a point where the quaint competitive nature that urged free enterprise no longer exists. Local merchants are crushed under the weight of large international monpolies. It has become a hungry psychopath that has literally has taken over much of the world and there is no escaping its grasp. We are in its clutches. And what that means to any given individual has a lot to do with his or her position, or relationship, to capital. If I am a producer of capital, my situation for myself and my children get more and more desperate as the years roll by. If, on the other hand, I am a capitalist, my power and wealth grow dramatically through time. To me, this is not a demon but a god.

This is a system that has provided for human needs to an extent that could never be imagined by people that preceded its development and growth. But as it matures, and it matures at ever increasing rates, it becomes increasingly inhumane. The meeting of human needs has always been a residual effect of this system and that is what gives it legitimacy and the amazing sticking power that it has. Caring for human needs is not a sentiment that is a characteristic of capitalism however. It is not a trustworthy or even desirable means to satisfy human needs. It has the soul of a psychopath and if humans must be slaughtered or deprived in order to optomize capitalistic conditions, so be it.

CEOs that make decisions based in human sentiment or compassion will not be CEOs for long. Investors will fire them and hire CEOs that will maximize profit. For instance, corporate managers might make a decision to follow Henry Ford's footsteps and pay workers enough to create demand. Investors will bail on that enterprise of fire the managers because on the level of international monopolies, competition is not dead. And THAT is a huge problem that promises to become a significant military threat. Other corporate interests will chew up and spit out idealists in the coliseum of imperial capitalism.

At this point, capital has become concentrated and it controls and is controlled by large international capitalist entities. National states have become subservient to international imperialism. Financial oligarcies not only have control of modern states, but they also have a stranglehold on developing nations. Through the World Bank and the IMF, they demand that the people of developing states feed the growing monster. Social programs and public services are not tolerated if they might result in providing for the people that are suffering if a concimitant restraint on profit is part of the equation. The monster will place control of basic needs in the hands of foriegn capitalists (or domestic capitalists) and they will put their price on vital needs. They will privatize electricity, food, medicine, and even water.

The acquisition of colonies by large powers has taken on a new sense of urgency. In the past few decades we see solomn serious importance heaped upon free trade agreements, privatization, and globalization. This is spun as the salvation of every developing corner of the world. What is happening today is coloniel expolitation on speed. Prior to the development of true capitalism, England, France, Spain and other imperial nations have plundered colonies and stole their wealth with barely a veneer of fair play. Often, they commited genocide and stole the wealth of the people outright. The wealth of nations and rich people was something close to a zero sum game then and increasing wealth meant taking it by force. And now, in these days of mature capitalism, we are returning to the mathematics of a zero sum game and worse when we consider the aggregate of human needs in the world opposed to the wealth that is alive in circulation. The need for creating new markets, finding cheap labour, and appropriating raw materials is greater now than ever before. The American state spends over a billion dollars a day on its military which is roughly equal to what the rest of the world spends. The American military is the claws and the teeth of this ever growing monopolist imperialism.

What is most disturbing is the potential that exists for massive world wars in the future. Huge trading blocks are competing for limited resources with the pressing need to keep feeding their own hungry ghosts. The alliances that are developing now, perhaps unwittingly, are preparing the stage for another major world war. Discussion of major wars has gone the way of the USSR. Many actually believe that the fall of the Soviet Union was the end of history as if the cold war was the war to end all wars. China is developing into a major world power with its own hunger for oil that will soon be insatiable. Russia, China, America, and Europe are all positioning themselves for control of this vital commodity. It is no accident that oil billionaires have taken control of the most powerful state and the most powerful military in the world; the United States of America. Control of oil is vital.
The ugly slaughter that is happening today in Iraq may be a glimpse into a far worse future. Economic and political policies are dictated by the needs of capital. Politicians of all stripes are increasingly under the dictatorship of this ethereal monarch. It is no exaggeration to conclude that humanity has come under the spell and control of a non human phantom, a ghostly psychopath, that has but one need; the need to grow. Futhermore, this inhuman spook not only has the capacity, but it is in its very nature to destroy humanity.

What we do know is that the war in Iraq is not about weapons of mass destruction or implanting democracy at gunpoint. Iraq was invaded by oil billionaires and you don't hafta be a rocket scientist to figure out why. What is truly frightening is the speed with which capitalist powers can suddenly rally masses of people to pound war drums and march in step. This is the handiwork of yet another appendage of the grand spook; the yellow corporate media. And as we become seduced, we too become mindless murderous drones caught under the spell of a force that could make Adolph Hitler seem soft and sentimental. Even the poison of nationalism will perish when capital has no more use for its useless sentimentality.

What is needed now is analysis and debate on the true nature of capitalism, imperialism, war and politics. We must stand up against war and plunder and we must fight the excesses and ambitions of our malevolent master. At this stage of the game, we need more than awareness and debate. We need action and we need it now. Imperialism has already started to consume the flesh and the life of human beings. And if we understand the nature of the beast, we have to conclude that things are only going to get worse.

(Previously published in MWC News)

A Poem of Peace

The Smell of Fascism

You may have noticed a sickening smell wafting through the lands of the free and the homes of the brave. The sickening smell of tyranny and cowardice has seemingly put a spell on politicians, pundits, and much of the population. The cowards quiver in fear and beg the iron barbs of the state to tear human beings to shreads and beg for protection against sinister brown skinned foriegners. They hype up terrorist threats everywhere and massacre civilians in Islamic countries and then spew hatred about the threat of Islam.

This isn't the first time that the smell of fascism has hypnotized masses of people.

In 1933 somebody set fire to the home of Germany's Parliment, the Reighstag. A month prior to that event, Adolph Hitler had gained power. The fire itself was far less significant than how that fire was used, politically, by Adolph Hitler. Immediately following the razing of this building, Hitler removed any teeth that may have existed in law that could be used to protect human rights and liberties. He inacted the Decree Against Treason as well as The Decree on the Protection of People and State.

On September 11, 2001, the twin towers were demolished and the Pentagon was hit, killing thousands of people. As a result of this, the American state responded with The Patriot Act. A number of Prime Ministers marched in step, rather zombie-like.

The perpetrators of these crimes, both the fire in the Reighstag and the attack on the twin towers, provided a pretext for the destruction of legal principles that are the defining characteristic of free societies. They helped provide the necessary conditions to build a fascistic state.

The Spirit of Fascism

It may be argued that bona fide fascism requires certain attributes and what is happening now doesn't quite cut it. But what is hapening now has the smell and the taste of the spirit of fascism. Terror Law supporters may argue that Hitler despised Jews or that other speciific characteristics make Hitler's fascism different than whats happening now. At the same time, the zombies support the arbitrary detention of Arabs for security reasons. We must look a little deeper and find the common sentiment beneath both these particular displays of racism. We will notice a strong sense of nationalism, xenophobia, as well as a desire for increased security and state power.

The spirit of fascism grows from fear and mass hysteria. It is a sentiment that holds a rigid ideological line and takes aim at differences and dissent. It is a spirit that wants, above all, control. The underlying hypothesis is that those with power have it because they are superior to those that do not and that those with the power have a paternalistic right to arbitrarily control and to punish their underlings. Individually, fascists adore their superiors and despise those they perceive as weak. The fascist spirit is the ultimate coward. It will turn in its neighbour and it will step on a victim. It will smile at power and spit on human needs. It does not tolerate the reality that humans are quirky, funny, unpredictable, and lovable. It is a spirit with no sense of humour.

Fascism has powerful natural enemies such as rationality and justice. Human beings are also natural enemies of fascism. They must be manipulated into its acceptance. It's power does not come from rational or caring human beings. It's father is violence and its mother is fear. Fascism imposes the arbitrary will of the most violent leader over everybody else. Prototypes of fascism are criminal gangs and state dictatorships. It's worst enemy is light and it thrives in the shadows. The light of rationality will burn away its irrational hatred and aggression. Its champions are children of pathological fear turning them into racist inhumane tyrants. They build concentration camps and murder people indiscriminately.

Legitimate Authority

Modern civilizations have suffered and continue to suffer tremendous growing pains. But their have been some remakable developments and achievements in this process, not least of which is the development of rationality as the foundation of authority. Prior to this, monarchs or clergy could arbitrarily impose their will over society. They could decide that so and so should be locked away, tortured, or killed on a whim. They could decide that war should be waged on another country. They would sacrifice many of their own subjects to kill citizens of another land. A law that would suit the ambitions of the monarch or the upper classes would simply become law. But this is an aberration and alien to our collective human soul. The spirit of democracy is not.

The spirit of democracy is very old and if we really examine it, we will notice that it is a characteristic of primitive hunter gatherer societies. It has never been snuffed out through the ages by brutal tribal chiefs, ruthless kings, or tin pot dictators. It remained alive through human decency and has gained legal legitimacy in the light of rationality. Even in the darkness of the middle ages, the magna carta was born from a feud between an English king and his barons. That document gave law an air of rational legitimacy. And as societies developed, laws became increasingly subservient to the spirit of rational authority. The constitutions and charters that define modern states are rooted deep inside human rationality. We have become accustomed to and have taken for granted the expectation that laws, as well as our rights and freedoms, are securely attached to those roots. We have come to expect to be protected by legitimate legal principles from the arbitrary dictates of those with financial or military power.

The line between freedom and tyranny

If we examine the line that seperates fascistic or arbitrary power from legitimate rational authority, we will notice that we have recently slipped across to the other side; to the side of arbitrary tyranny. What we have taken for granted has been betrayed and we have been betrayed. What is truly remarkable is the ease with which this has taken place and that very few have even noticed. Unlike the blunt edged fascist battering rams of Hitler or Pinochet, these crypto fascists are relatively subtle and slippery.

What makes this betrayal so very bitter is that we have collectively suffered and fought for such a long, long time to develop and preserve basic human rights. We have suffered the unplesant trepidation of living amongst known criminals and have allowed dangerous people to inhabit our commuities for the greater good; the good of freedom. We have collectively chosen not to live in a predictable and locked down society. We live with crime as well as unpredictable and unpleasant behaviour. We have fought and died in wars to defend and preserve our basic freedoms. And now the authorities are locking people up and shooting and bombing people that are completely innocent. Their rationale: that they want to protect society from terrorism.
Here is the line between freedom and tyranny: We cannot act against people before they commit the crime. We cannot detain or kill people to prevent them from acting. We have to wait until the crime is commited and we have evidence of the crime or the planning (intent) of the crime. We need the evidence.

And, no country can wage war on another. The waging of war is a crime that contains within it, all war crimes.

We have crossed that line into the world of tyranny. One act of terrorism and the Disneylike facade of capitalist states is ripped away, exposing a rusty iron skeleton and razor wire.

Criminalizing Dissent

Most recently the media has been buzzing about Tony Blair's defeat over the Terrorism Bill. This media distraction places all our attention on the politics of popularity and partisian intrigue. It removes our attention from the fact that Blair did not lose at all. He got his Terrorism Bill through. He was apparently adament about allowing authorities to detain suspects for 90 days with no evidence or charges; they settled for 28 days. What is more significant than that number is that the bill effectively outlaws dissent. For instance, it makes illegal the "glorification" of the preparation of terrorist acts. This is not within the realm of rational law by any stretch of the imagination. It is subjective enough to grant the state a free hand to arrest people for dissent. Prior to this, Tony Blair was spending much time with the media warning of the dangers of extremism. Extremism again is one more example of language that is subjective enough to be meaningless and as a result, paving the way for arbitrary state power. The spirit of fascism relentlessly seeps through all the cracks and the holes that riddle the minds of the daft cowards. Blair is not alone with this. The other states that have enacted anti terror legislation have also criminalized dissent.

This bill is built upon the backs of over 100 peices of legislation put in place to make sure Britons are safe from terrorism.

There is something well rooted in stupidity about believing that legislation can be passed that will protect citizens from terrorism. If terrorists want to poison water, shoot up shopping malls, or wear suicide vests in English or American crowds, there is no legislation that can stop that. These draconian laws have been passed in western democracies such as Germany, France, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Canada, the United States and Sweden. Tony Blair is not stupid and neither are the rest of those that are fighting tooth and nail to ensure that our basic freedoms are stripped away. The fact that all these countries are passing quite similar 'anti terror' laws is cause for suspicion and alarm. This is not just a matter of abstract laws that might be abused some time in the future. The Americans have started operating concentration camps complete with torture, secrecy, and arbitrary detention.

Before 9 11 happened, there was massive and unprecedented dissent against capitalism. This was unlike the protest movements of the 60's. In the 60's there were protests against the war or for civil rights. But now the protesters were marching against capitalism. These protests were a reaction against globalization. Not only that, the size and the organization of the protests were quite impressive. These protests and this movement was organized and energetic. Organizing and mobilization can easily be facilitated now with new technology and the internet. Revolution could come out of the blue with speed never before imagined. The sense of control they had enjoyed with spinless drones on mainstream media lulling the crowd into a fog of runaway brides or the latest gossip on the rich and famous has slipped away. Now, information is spreading like wildfire and alternate news organizations are sprouting everywhere. Dissent is growing everywhere as the masses reach out to share ideas and real news. A genie has escaped its bottle and there is no way to get it back in.

And it is this reality, not Bin Laden, that has the cowards shaking in their cowardly boots. The cowards are doing their utmost to create more Bin Ladens and more terrorism to turn our reality into a fascist nightmare in order that they may live according to the standards they have grown accustomed to.

(This article has been posted at MCW News)

Our Wealth is Our Work

Leftists tend to react against capitalism almost instinctively. There are no shortage of reasons for this reaction. The profit taking system is explotive and predatorial. It is a cause of war and oppression. We hesitate to write the sequel to The Black Book of Communism, which would naturally be The Black Book of Capitalism, not because we cannot find capitalist crimes. Rather, the job would be so overwhelming that we would need several lifetimes to complete it.

To its credit, we can say with certainty that capitalism has pulled us out of the muck of feudalism. It has altered the human world dramatically and it would be hard to argue against the assertion that it has made the human condition better overall. The effect it has had on human freedom, laws, and on our reliance on empirical knowledge is unmistakable. On top of that, it has made our material condition far better than it would be if capitalism had never developed.

On the other hand, it looks as if capitalism has gotten to the point where it has outlived its usefulness. If we could argue that its excesses and problems would eventually diminish; that it has within it a self repair mechanism, then we could argue to hold the course. But all the evidence points to the contrary. With increasing speed, the true nature of capitalism and the capitalist state, most obviously represented by the American state, is making itself known. It cannot hide itself behind Keynsian principles or riviting speechs any longer. The plight of the working classes is becoming more severe and the brutality of the state apparatus is becoming more pronounced.

From the capitalistic perspective, the workers themselves owe their wealth to the risks and the initiative of capitalists. If it were not for their investment of capital, the working classes wouldn't have jobs or any tax base to build social services on. The working classes would return to scrounging in the muck for subsistence or worse, they would build a Stalinesque fascistic state.
But those arguments assume that wealth starts from capital and, naturally, from capitalists and that the working classes are naturally tyrannical and the wealthy classes are naturally egalitarian and democratic.

However - consider this:

All over the world we find ourselves in the midst of a grand globalization experiment that has devastating consequences for the vast majority. The promise is, it will get much worse.

What we see unfolding before us is the economic experiment penned by Milton Freidman, Mises, and Hayek as well as the French economist Say. This is not a sinister plot drawn up by the Bushes or the Cheneys. Bill Clinton was as hard on social programs and easy on the ultra rich as any president before him. Tony Blair and other supposed moderates are indistinguishable from the extreme right. This globalization, so called, is not as much a project as it is a manifestation of the place we find ourseleves in the growth and development of capitalism. They don't have control of it any more than you do. Perhaps it isn't so much that the Bushites and pretty much all capitalist state politicians are following the teachings of the Freidman ilk gurus as it is they are responding to the whims of capitalism. The gurus were merely prophetic. Perhaps this is more the natural development of capitalism than an experiment.

If we examine the guts of economics, we must start by asking ourselves how wealth is created. From there, we may consider human needs and distribution.

Freidman, Mises, and Hayak have seperated themselves from the fundamentalist perspectives of Adam Smith and Ricardo who knew that it was central to scientific economic study to understand the answer to this question: What is it that that determines value? They saw an objective measure of value as a precondition for coming to terms with understanding questions about wealth distribution or market dynamics. Smith suggested that it is labour that determines value. Ricardo's ideas followed from Adam Smith's findings and developed a seperation between use vaue and exchange value. These ideas would be later elaborated on by Karl Marx. It isn't surprising that the marginalists focus more on supply and demand curves or marginal utility curves than they consider the more fundamental question. It could be argued that they have made up their minds prior to their inquiry and the more fundamental perspective does not bode well for the ethics around the claim that it is the capitalists that have the natural right to own and control the bulk of the wealth. When we examine the basis of neo liberalism, we can see, beyond a doubt, that it is shallow and that it is vulgar economics.

The notion that superficial marketing and profit grabbing will produce what is best for society is on very thin ice in these days. For example, a given society may need more cancer research or health care or housing. The market suggests however that more profit can be made by producing hoola hoops or handphones. The capitalists will naturally produce hoola hoops. Capitalism is very good at producing trinkets, shiny toys, and killer hamburgers but as we can see from the world we live in, basic human needs are considered a nusance if there isn't a profit in it.

We can see that advanced capitalism is not living up to the promise of stability or equilibrium. Capitalism is showing itself to be an anarchistic loose hose, flipping and whipping depending on the mood of speculators. Rather than stability, the economy is subject to the whims of a grand global casino game. We must go deeper to discover what it is that determines value. We must go to Ricardo, Smith and for more depth, Marx.

The theory of supply and demand helps explain the price of something in a given time or place but it does not explain why things have the exchange value they have. The labour theory of value packs a far greater punch if we are to understand the nature of wealth. According to this theory, the exchange value of commodities is determined by the amount of labour measured in working hours necessary to make them (given current levels of technology). Shirts sell for less than computers because it takes less time (human hours) to make shirts. In a given unit of time, a worker can produce many shirts but only one computer. Smith and other economists tested this theory by comparing prices of commodities with the necessary labour time needed to produce them. They found that while it does not explain the exact price of things, it does explain why they exchange for their approximate prices. This theory takes the mystery out of the concept of value by relating it, exchange value, to human labour. Consider the fact that the basis of capitalist economies is surplus value, that is, the hours of labour beyond what the worker is paid for and the value that is appropriated by the capitalist; that this is the basis of the wealth of capitalists. And when we consider what can be done with labour power in terms of developing priorities, goods and services, we may then consider possibilities beyond the poor and short sighted rationality of the marginalists, popularly known today as neo-liberals. We might abandon the superstitious nonsense that the theft of the value that is produced by labour as an indispensable ingredient to economic success. In other words, we can afford to abandon the notion that exploitation, war, and theft are necessary evils for societies to function well. At that point, we may go beyond the tyranny of psychopathic greed and develop a sane and humane world.

Everything around you that you own and use is the result of effort of a vast army of unseen workers. The great attribution error of history is the erroneous assumption that we need the owners of money to make it all possible. When we really examine the situation, the capitalist class don't even manage businesses. They simply play the grand casino and hire workers to manage it for them. Managers are not them; managers are us. And managers are as dispensible functionaries as any of us on an individual basis. But no class of functionaries are more dispensible than the owners because they serve only as parasites. We can do without them and their political lackys utterly.

We are all in this together and we are the ones that make this world work. We can afford to abandon the superstitious nonesense that we need wealthy masters to care for us. They can take their rightful seat in the history of societies development and we may salute them. But the time is also coming where we tell them to get a job and contribute to wealth creation and distribution.

Every dime that reaches a rich man's pocket is created by workers. Miners, manufacturers, truck drivers, writers, and managers work to create all that is around you. The chair you are sitting on, the PC you are using, and everything else that you have is wealth and it is the creation of work.

Capitalism has served us well to be sure. But it has become an abstract inhumane psychopath. It's face is no longer the family business. It's face has disappeared. It is sick and humans are suffering. Like all things, it has a birth, a process of development, and an ending. Where that death is placed in history is up to you and me.

(This article was previously published in MCW News)

Grand Theft Argentina

The people of Argentina perhaps feel a little shocked and maybe even a bit awed at the sight of the President of the United States proclaiming another bout of grand theft after such a short time following the criminal plunder of their country by his clients, bosses, and bretheren. The President of the United States, the spokesman for the very same theives that looted the country the last time is back around, salivating over the prospect of stealing billions more.

Neo-liberal policies have been the ruin of Argentina. Argentina has actually been under the neo-liberal gun since a military coup occurred in 1976. The militarys economic policies reversed decades of protectionist policies aimed at encouraging industrial development and internal development. International money speculators were invited in at that time.

In 1989 Carlos Menem was elected on socialistic principles and once in power, he turned 180 degrees and implemented neo-liberal economic polices. Domingo Cavallo, (Harvard educated) became the finance minister. They operated under the guidance of the IMF and opened the Argentinaian goods market to trade. They opened the capital markets to unrestricted foriegn capital inflows. They privatized all state enterprises. They pegged the peso to the dollar to curb inflation. This screwed Argentina's potential for export. They privatized the mail, the airports, the banks, the rail system, social security, the national oil company, the phone companies, gas, water, electricity (all public utilities) and subways. They were sold to the rich at rock bottom prices. This all placed Argentina in a very precarious position. At the first sign of trouble, the parasites could easily run off with all the wealth. And they did.

The IMF run the Hayak, Mises, Freidman doctrine to the letter. They force developing nations to open their economy to foriegn investment and allow publicly owned utilities to be sold to the highest bidder. They are to balance budgets even at the expense of sick, the elderly and those down on their luck. They restrict the role of government as much as possible. They cut wages and social programs.

The IMF would have blacklited the USA in the era of the New Deal.

The neo-liberal economy effectively moves wealth from the bottom strata of society to the top. This is really what it is all about. It is an expensive large scale scam. They use public money to pay off debts and then sell the entity to the highest bidder. The investors walk off with a money tree and have no loyalty whatsoever to those they steal from. When times get tough, they simply walk away with the billions of dollars. Under neo-liberalism, if you are in the top 20% income, you win. If you are in the bottom 80% you lose.

There are essentially four steps that the IMF encourage or force countires to take. They are: First, privatization. This is blatant theft.

(2) Capital market liberalization; allowing the capitalists to run away with the bank when things get hot. They also want to seduce speculators and will force high interest rates to do it. The clear winners here are the international banks and the US treasury (which controls the World Bank) .

(3) Market based pricing mechanisms and cutting subsidies to food, water, gas, etc..

(4) Free Trade. Well of course.

The 1990's were a period of privatization of state run enterprises and de-regulation in Argentina. The nation has been at the mercy of the global capitalist casino and has payed a hefty price. Following the lead of the likes of Milton Freedman and Augusto Pinochet, the Argentina government adopted a private pension fund and this has been a contributing factor in their recent economic crisis. The Insurers of Retirement and Pension Funds (AFJP) has bled 300 million of workers pension dollars a month into the hands of international capitalists. They have also introduced zero deficit economic policies which includes slashing the 2002 budget by 7 billion dollars as dictated by the IMF.

Throwing pension funds to the so-called free market has allowed foreign investors steal workers pension funds. They pitched the idea of privatizing pension funds as a method to "generate domestic savings" and to enhance economic growth and job creation. What it did do is create an opportunity for vultures from Wall St. to make a quick profit and leave.

The economic crisis had been brewing for some time and it devestated that nations economy when those neo liberal chickens came home to roost.

The workers of Latin American countries have been plundered and impoverished under the greed and ideological nonesense of modern capitalism, or neo liberalism. But the very same thing is happening to America, Canada, Europe and all industrialized countries. Evidence of that is evident in the urge we all feel to qualify that word, "industrialized". It should be post-industrialized. We too wil be sacrificial lambs to be slaughtered at the alter of capitalism. What happenes tonight in Argentina wil happen tomorrow in New York, Paris, and London.

We're Not in Kansas Anymore

In recent years the warm and fuzzy coating has fallen away from the modern capitalist state. Or more accurately, it is being torn off. On one hand the social programs that were used to keep the lower classes happy are being reduced and removed. Where people were coaxed into docility before, the future does not have docility in the cards. As a result the state will force political compliance.

The shift has already occurred. We have slipped over the boundary into the world of the nightmarish police state. How this was accomplished was quite impressive. At this point most people still have not noticed and those that do, for the most part, welcome the change. They welcome the increased security. They like to take flights without the worry of terrorists blowing them out of the sky. They like to live in cities without the worry of terrorists bombing subways or randomly shooting citizens.

What these people don’t realize is that the enemy is not who they think it is. The enemy is actually the power that claims to be protecting us.

The fact is that if terrorists want to blow up airplanes, poison food sources, or randomly kill people in way imaginable, there is simply no way of stopping them. Those that tell you that we need increased security are not doing so in an attempt to curb terrorism. They are doing so to curb YOU. You see, you are their enemy and they know it but you don’t. They are already taking measures to prepare for a war against you and you don’t even know what is happening. In fact, you don’t even recognize your own enemy and when you do, we will likely have little room to maneuver.

Prior to 9/11 there was Seattle and Quebec. There were protesters organizing against capitalism. This was landmark. There were protest movements in the West before and they were against war, against poverty, for woman’s rights, or for gay rights. But this is the first time that America and the West has had massive and popular protests as part of a building movement against capitalism itself. This was monumental and the significance has apparently been lost on the geniuses that spin opinions in the mainstream media.

The occurrence of 9/11 couldn’t have come at a better time for those that would like to create a world-wide police state. The most disturbing aspect of this is that the keepers of the state, whether they are Republicans, Democrats, liberals or social democrats, Labour or Conservative, are all on the same page. The Labour Party in Britain, a social democratic party, has put in place draconian measures that rival the neo cons in Washington. This transcends the notion of a neo con conspiracy.

The big question, the question we all need to ask ourselves is whether or not these new laws can be used to stifle democratic dissent. The answer is clear and the answer is undeniably 'yes'. The reason that that question and answer are so very important is because the very foundation of free societies has been pulled out from beneath us. For hundreds of years societies have been evolving toward greater freedom and human rights from the Magna-Carta to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we have been steadily going in a progressive direction. That is until recently where the war hawks have usurped the whole damn thing.

The fact is that if you live in America, Canada, Britain or Australia, you no longer live in a free society. That the difference is hardly noticeable as we go about our day by day lives is part of the problem. That reality is evidence of volume of accomplices that are working in concert, including most mainstream media, most politicians, as well as those that have designed this Orwellian landscape. They have pulled off a master coup as they had us distracted by war and rumors of war.

For the moment let us give them the benefit of doubt.

Assuming that the politicians of today (eg. Bush, Martin, Howard and Blair) are very sincere about fighting terrorism and that these anti-terrorist laws are really intended to give the police and the spooks enough leverage to protect citizens from terrorism. Let us imagine that these draconian laws will deter terrorists and safeguard society from random acts of violence. Let's also assume that these laws are not intended to stifle dissent. The question then arises about future politicians that may use these laws against politically incorrect but peaceful protest. What is to stop some future politicians from using these laws to effectively police and eradicate political dissent? What will prevent them from tossing people such as unionists, boycotters, and protest organizers in the hoosegow forever?

But, as we know, we don't have to wait for some unscrupulous future fascist leader to see how opressive these laws can be. The people that are tortured in concentration camps today will tell us that it has already happened.

The fact that the reaction to this by the media, the legal profession, as well as the pre-9/11 protesters is merely a whisper is perhaps a result of incredulity rather than antipathy. For most people the reality of crossing the boundary into a world of arbitrary authoritarianism has not sunk in. The whole thing is too outlandish, too far out and too surreal to process in most reasonable minds. It just doesn’t compute (What – we have slipped into a police state? Nah – can’t be).

Canada has not done much, relative to other countries, to make it a target of terrorism. But the shredding of the freedoms and rights of Canadians has occured nonetheless. You'd almost think it was some sort of world wide conspiracy.

Canada has passed legislation that gives the state the power to literally throw you in jail and throw away the key and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. You can't even see a lawyer if you have been targeted.

Bill C-36 allows the state to detain people on the suspicion that they will commit a crime. The individual could be barred from legal council in closed hearings. People involved in protest movements or strikes could be prosecuted this way.

So far, it seems that it immigrants and particularly immigrants from Islamic countries that have been singled out by the New World Order. It may very well be that state oppression is selectively discriminating against this particular ethnic group to bolster public support for political repression. The propaganda suggests that Muslims are prone to terrorism.

The potential iron net is far greater however. The wording of the act permits the state to act against those who may “seriously” interfere with essential services. Threats to economic systems are deemed worthy of prosecution. This could be defined as an act of terrorism. Planning such activities could be reason enough to land you or me in jail. Surveillance may be carried out without the blessing of a judge. This bill throws out the checks and balances that are necessary for a free society.

Read what Canadian lawyer, Rocco Galati has to say regarding this bill:

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/WTC_1984.htm

Other previously free societies have also passed similar laws including the United States, Britain, and Australia.

There are sufficient laws in place to check crimes and terrorism. This new reality we now live with is not meant to curb terrorism. That is merely a ruse. It is aimed at removing our freedom to organize dissent against capitalism. Stopping terrorism could be achieved if the killing and oppression would end.

As Noam Chomsky said, the way to stop terrorism is to stop terrorizing.

In the past the rationale for war has been to preserve freedom. Today, the enemies of freedom are our elected politicians and those they serve. The enemies of freedom have slipped in through the back door. It is your duty to recognize this. Otherwise, all those that sacrificed their lives for freedom in the past have done so in vain.
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"19 terrorists in 6 weeks have been able to command 300 million North Americans to do away with the entirety of their civil liberties that took 700 years to advance from the Magna Carta onward. The terrorists have already won the political and ideological war with one terrorist act. It is mindboggling that we are that weak as a society." -Rocco Galati

Dreams Can Come True

So can lies, hysterical delusions, and fabricated threats.

The claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction turned out to be lies. The war privateers needed a war and they lied in order to have one. They told other lies. They also said that Iraq had ties to the terrorists that plowed airplanes into the twin towers.

Bush was not alone in his lies and war schemes. He had plenty of help within his administration, abroad, and in the mainstream media as well. They presented these war lies, when they did mention them, as if the President and his cronies were misled by sinister speech writers or spies or ‘sources’, such as the present Prime Minister and Oil Minister in Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi.

The Bushies had deliberately taken aim at Iraq long before the invasion. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published a report on the Bush Administration’s dealings with intelligence information on Iraq. They claim that the Bush administration exaggerated and lied about the Iraqi military to portray Iraq as a credible threat to the United States. For stubborn and loyal followers of the hawks, there is the disturbing and infamous Downing Street memo. If there was any doubt that Bush was intent on making war in Iraq no matter what, read the memo. The memo states, in part, “Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.”

This memo suggests a culture of lies. It’s not only Bush – unfortunately. It’s also the political and media elites working together against the people of the United States, Iraq, Britain and many other countries; but most especially, against the people of Iraq. The spin doctors know about the lies and do they mention it? No. We all know that these people are maintaining lies in their tacit acceptance and their uncritical posturing following clear evidence that the whole war was sold through lies. What’s most baffling is how many people accept all this with hardly a raised eyebrow.

The history of Iraq is unfolding, not as it should from the invaders point of view. But it is unfolding nonetheless. And what we can see emerge from the cocoon of Saddam’s world, a world made considerably more miserable by a decade of crippling sanctions, is a very Islamic society and likely, an Islamic state based in Islamic law. The Americans lopped the head off the monster of Iraq and what did we see? We saw the masses tear down a statue of the Dictator, Saddam. But that scene belied the reality of the head being ripped off an Islamic hydra.

Now, as we watch history unfold in that terrorized country, it looks as if some of the hype may have been prophetic in some ways.

Does Iraq have Al Qaeda connections as the Bush party claimed? They didn’t then when Bush said they did. But they very likely do now.

Is Iraq a base for terrorists? There is nothing to suggest that Iraq had been when the liars were making the claim, but they certainly have plenty of people willing to blow themselves up to attack Americans or anybody connected with them now. On top of that, the antipathy against the West in Islamic societies and the on the job training occurring in Iraq will likely have Westerners watching over their shoulders for many years.

Mark Sherman recently reported in an AP article that “An American accused in court papers of having ties to Osama bin Laden is now working for the Iraqi government’s Foreign Ministry”; this, according to U.S. officials and a former counterterrorism spook. Once the Sunnis get on board with the governance of Iraq, the likelihood of Al Qaeda connections inside the government will be far greater than it is now.

The Iranian Ayatollah, Sistani, was one of many flies in the ointment Bush didn’t count on when he invaded. Muqtada al-Sadr is another and the resilience of the Sunni resistance yet another. And there are many others. It’s hard to imagine a scenario that would better play into the hands of fundamentalist Muslims and generally, anybody that wishes to eject the USA from the region, than the one that has played out over the past several years.

The dream of building a Western democracy in Iraq was either immensely stupid or just another lie. Pick the latter, that’s the truth. There was never any such intent just like there was never any such intent in Haiti, Guatemala, or anywhere else.

The new Iraq that will emerge will present enormous problems in the future. Israel will feel threatened by the emergence of an intensely fundamentalist Islamic state in Iraq; a state that will be very close to Iran. American puppets in the region such as the Saudi government, the Egyptian government, and the King of Jordan will also feel the heat. Threats will abound for many years to come, thanks to Bush’s “war on terror.”

What follows is a list of some of the lies that preceded the war:

Al Qaeda and Iraq: The claim that Al Qaeda is connected to Iraq may have been false before but it isn’t false now. Al Qaeda may soon enjoy connections in both the government and the insurgency, if that has not already happened.

Oil: The claim that this war is not about oil is a lie and will forever remain a lie.

Nuclear Weapons: They made the claim that Iraq was on the road to building nuclear weapons and were convincing enough with their visions of mushroom clouds that many Americans still believe them. Before the invasion, Bush had claimed that the Iraqis were six months away from developing a nuclear weapon.

Threat of Attack: They claimed that Iraq had a fleet of unmanned aircraft that could be used to attack the United States.

Quantity of chemicals: They said that Iraq has 500 tons of chemical weapons.

Chemical weapons: They said that Iraq has 30,000 weapons and planes capable of distributing lethal chemicals.

Nuclear Threat: They said that satellite photos show that Iraq is rebuilding nuclear facilities.

Saddam’s refusal to cooperate: They said that Saddam Hussein wouldn’t allow weapons inspectors into Iraq.

That’s a few of them and the beat goes on.

These things will always remain lies for that time, but it’s hard to predict the future. Some of these claims may close to the truth someday just as the claim that Al Qaeda was in Iraq has come true. As long as the madmen scream for war, the threat of terrorism will remain and it will grow. And if any of those horrific things do happen, or others, we can thank the liars for making their own lies, dreams, and delusions come true.

A Little Box of Bullshit

The notion that the average citizen should take the responsibility and the privilege of being part of the decision making processes – aside from merely marking an ‘X’ every so often, isn’t really taken seriously. People generally satisfy themselves with the notion that elections satisfy the criteria for a functioning democracy. As a result we have a class of bureaucrats theoretically serving politicians who serve their corporate masters. The citizens that vote are not in this equation. The citizenry are merely the audience and real decision making occurs in a place remote from the general population.

Any notion of real democracy; that is, a society where the people have input into the decisions that affect society is a threat to this order. This order is different than medieval society only in degree, not in kind. The depressing notion that we are essentially in the same boat where we are in service to the masters is, unfortunately, true. And psychologically the servants of today in modern capitalist societies are not much different than the serfs or slaves of feudal tyranny. We tend to look to the master class for direction and find safety in their supposed wisdom. We have learned to defer to them and to psychologically depend on them. We don’t recognize the fact that it is us and not them that create all the wealth and make everything work.

A dog eventually falls in love with his chain.

The 64,000 dollar question is; how do they manage to do it? How do they manage to keep the general public in a state of docile servitude?

To study the answer to this question, it is helpful to watch the people with power and how they communicate to the general population. For example, when they want to do something that may be unpopular and could conceivably start a protest or an uprising, ideas are presented. The masters may want to start a war for instance and they will present their case as to why a war in important. They will instill fear into the general population. The war may be carried out for oil, or to grab billions of tax dollars through arms manufacturing or whatever. The real reasons are never mentioned by those with an interest in the war. What is really impressive is the way they can present the case to the serious minded pundits and intellectuals and the way those same pundits, commentators and intellectuals eat it up. That is impressive. And they, the educated and apparently ‘smart’ talking heads present a psychological hit to the general population.

Here we must examine the art of bullshit; the spinning of fine tales by the media establishment.

To sell bullshit and to have it adhere to most people, it must have the blessing of the educated. The uneducated or the less educated will naturally defer to them and accept that they know better. After all, they are educated. So with careful aim, the professional bullshitters must strike their target, the educated.

It is this class of citizens that are crucial to ensure that the rabble stay in line behind the invisible steel fences. It is the first line of defense. The second line of defense is a tangible force. They need these lines of defense to hold the social order. Otherwise, they, the rabble, may take control and who knows what’d happen then. After all, they ain’t educated.

So the educated talking heads will be paraded out in front of cameras and in very sober and serious tones they will discuss the impending disaster that will befall all of civilization if a war is delayed much longer.

They are there to convince us that the corporations and those that run them are our lifeline. They are our salvation and we need our masters as desperately as the educated talking heads need them. We are all on the same side after all and we must face the enemy.

Another poignant example is the problem of socialized health care in Canada. This is a potential bonanza for the private sector but they have been held at bay for a long time as a result of Canadians’ stubborn attachment to health care. It presents quite a problem. They have been working at its destruction for several decades now and they continue, relentlessly, to slowly destroy it. This is a job for the political class and they have been making impressive headway at times but the socialist monster is as resilient as hell. Their biggest victory has been in the mid-90s when the Liberal government managed to cut funding dramatically. At that time they were cutting public expenditure everywhere and health care didn’t escape the cuts. The system has been limping since that time. Those that have crippled it are quick to point out that it is limping and that maybe private insurance schemes would fix that problem.

Back then, the right wing think tanks like the Fraser Institute managed to persuade Canadians that there is a dangerous deficit that needed reigning in. The think tanks, the politicians and perhaps most importantly, the media, made the deficit a salient and pressing issue. Fear of the massive deficit was instilled into the minds of the average citizen to the point that almost everyone was on board. Everyone began to push in unison for the cutting of social programs and all government spending. At the same time, the same hysteria was being manufactured in the United States, Britain, and most Western societies. We needed free trade and we needed to put ourselves in a competitive position for the lean, mean economic machine known as globalization. To remain competitive we had to clamp down on social parasites like seniors, the ill, and the poor, was the cry. The talking heads convinced us.

At the same time almost 40% of tax dollars went into the pockets of investors that were owed money by governments for loaning the money in the first place. These collectors of interest made off like bandits and this interest collection scheme was never questioned. It was all perfectly legitimate and government workers and the poor and the ill were branded parasites. Government spending was the monster that would devour us all.

That was then. Now there is not much said about the crime of running a debt and borrowing from our grandchildren. There is a war in Iraq and it is costing many billions of dollars. But this money is feeding wealthy weapons manufacturers. So, where is the media? Where are the politicians that were screaming about the deficit? They are saying nothing because they are part of the same bullshit shell game. They are playing us all for fools.

They have pulled off some impressive displays of bullshit over the years beyond the two examples cited above (the need for war and the urgent need to cut social programs). In a broader context, they have managed to convince the educated talking heads, and as a result the rest of us, that the system that enslaves actually liberates and the very notion of liberation from THAT system will result in slavery. In other words, the capitalist system is touted as liberation itself and the only means of achieving freedom for mankind (sic). Any notion of wealth distribution will result in gulags and forced labour.

Capitalism is liberating for the wealthy but it is not for those that must work in order to survive and especially for those that are poor. Aside from that, it has an ostensible tendency toward freedom of expression and ideas and freedom of movement.

But as liberating as capitalism appear, its oppressive nature is obvious and ugly. It is the very nature of capitalism to control people and commodities. Both are involved in the process of exchange; the process that makes capitalism work. People need commodities and capitalism needs to provide them. If it does not do this, it perishes.

Capitalism cannot control everything we need. If it could, it would. Suppose gravity could be restricted or taken away from people. Capitalists and the capitalist state would conspire to make it a commodity. It would be illegal to manufacture your own gravity or to own it without permission. You’d have to pay the legal owners of the source of gravity for it. In a similar fashion, you cannot just put up a satellite dish willy-nilly and grab the signals out of the air even though doing so does not diminish the quantity that is available to the owners of the source or anybody else.

Commodities and services like insurance are controlled by the capitalists with the enforcement of the state to ensure that the citizen pay for insurance and for electricity.

This is the nature of capitalism. A capitalist society is touted as a free society but in fact individuals are held into wage slavery in order to survive and citizens are forced to pay capitalists for their vital necessities. This is not a system prone to freedom. They will hold up totalitarian examples and say, ‘see here, that is socialism’. This is to ensure the idea that ‘anything that is not capitalistic is less free than capitalism’ is swallowed by those that pay and the class that must work in order to eat. The selling of this doctrine is vital to their survival.

It is up to you to see bullshit for what it is. It is up to you to see a shell game and a scam performing before your eyes, especially when it affects your life and the future of your children.

When we accept ideological premises as our own, we must chew them up thoroughly before we can properly assimilate them into our psychic system. On the other hand, if we swallow whole chunks without chewing them properly, we will not digest them. They will make us insecure, defensive and aggressive because deep down we know that we really don’t know what we are talking about, just like the educated talking heads. We have swallowed bullshit whole and that is what we put out. And we know that, like them, we are phony lackeys to a remote master who is located the social stratosphere. To develop an identity that is truly ‘me’, it is necessary to question our beliefs rigorously and to have the courage and the desire to toss out what truly is bullshit and to allow the truth to develop our being. That means we must place our energy, each one of us, into the development of critical consciousness. As a result we will become truly ‘me’ and at that point, the bullshit emanating from the bullshitters will be inconsequential.

Freedom and democracy are not only noble ideals. They are very real and necessary aspects to a healthy and happy life where we have some control and where we are able to take our own initiatives. But we have been cut off from the decision making processes that affect each and every one of us and we have accepted slavery and called it freedom. The spinners and the bullshitters have presented us with a very narrow box to fit inside. But through acting and thinking outside that box, we can liberate ourselves.

Sapranos in the White House

If we belong to a street gang or pretty much any gang of criminals, the way to the top, the way to achieve power is through brutal force. Generally, the most dangerous, the most threatening psychopath gets to be boss. Somebody more dangerous may come along and kill him. The new guy is boss. They don’t spend a lot of time taking minutes of meetings and discussing points of order. The craziest guy with the biggest gun calls the shots and everybody else listens.

In a somewhat more complex way, that is also how fascism works. In fact, there are many parallels with fascists and the average everyday band of criminals. Their goals are more or less the same and so are their methods.

Some may say that this is the law of the jungle; that humans are that way naturally. But if they studied anthropology beyond watching the Flintstones, they would know that hunter-gatherer societies were not violent and the individuals were not self serving but were in service to the rest of the community.

In the modern civilized world, we are generally compelled to play by a set of rules that are based in rationality and legal principles that are set according to standards that most agree with. Whether based in civil or common law, nations agree on a set of basic notions of what constitutes a civilized society. From these principles The Bill of Rights was adopted in the USA, The Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been adopted in Canada and each nation has a set of legal principles that citizens must abide by. Internationally we have the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declared by the UN in 1948. In the civilized world, we have laws and no man or woman is above those laws.

Modern authority is based in rational principles and laws. Traditional or charismatic authority may be the basis for habits and customs within subcultures. These arbitrary rulers may hold sway over cults or movements, but they must all adhere to the principles of the wider legal authority of rational legal principles. This is what separates us from the archaic past and protects us from the tyranny of criminals or the menacing whims of violent madmen.

Now imagine living in a world that is run like a biker gang. Those that are most powerful, most violent and those with the biggest guns win. Legal principles mean nothing because the men with that power cannot be arrested and brought to trial. They have their own protection, their own police and their own military. They intend to force everybody else to abide by the law, but they are exempt. Not only that, they can make rules up as they go along. They do what they want and there is nothing anybody can do about it. Now the rulers can stack the deck in their own favour and nobody can stop them. They have at their command a military force that is the most powerful in the world.

This is what is going on in the world today. It’s not that the gangsters have gone wild and their mayhem will be over in a few years. The problem runs much deeper than that.

What is most important in the arrest and detention of suspected terrorists by American forces is not the plight of those men. What is even more important is the precedent that this has set. What is most important about the invasion of Iraq is not the massive slaughter and indiscriminate killing of many thousands of Iraqi people. What is even more important is the normalization and validation of the use of fascistic force. The cowards in the media and the cowards that mimic security legislation are complicit in this massive crime. As horrific as the oppression and killing is, the legacy that these actions project could be far worse. Aside from that, the legal principles that have been our protection from tyranny have been torn to shreds.

Those with financial, political, and military power have placed themselves above the law not only in their own society, but over all societies. Their response to dissent is either no response at all or they will repeat the same predictable lies over and over again. They thumb their noses at the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International or anybody that criticizes their draconian and brutal attack on civil liberties, the law, and on individuals. They will say that this is ‘the war on terror’; that we’ll have to excuse them while they lock people up without charges, torture people and invade other nations; unprovoked. If we accept this, then we’ll have to excuse every brutal dictator in history that had their nation attacked or threatened. The declaration at the Nuremberg Tribunals that initiating war, invading another country, is the ultimate war crime and contains within it all other war crimes, means nothing. The Geneva Conventions also mean nothing and the rule of law means nothing.

The Patriot Act was born in the violence of 9-11 and it was given immortality in the violence on July 7th in London. It effectively strips the citizens of the United States and any other citizen in the world of their fundamental human rights. The state can lock you up by claiming that you are an enemy. You have no right to a lawyer or a judge. You have no rights whatsoever and you may be tortured. You may also be spied on or killed should you arouse suspicion. We’ve recently seen what happened to Jean Charles de Menezes of Brazil for walking around with Arab colored skin.

The normalization of extraordinary state power has occurred with an alarming silence. Alarming too is the immunity of the corporate/state power from rule of law while at the same time stripping away ordinary legal protections for the average citizen. George W. Bush and company are free to terrorize whole societies at their leisure while brown skinned citizens have to worry about being apprehended or shot. The new oppression of the New World Order has racist, cultural, national, and class preferences. It has the same prejudices.

The language used by the overlords of the New World Order is disturbing in its ambiguity. To wage war against vague and subjective enemies is an excuse for tyranny. Passing laws that are worded with language that is open for any interpretation makes society vulnerable to abuse by the state. For example, recent legislation in Britain makes it an offence to “indirectly incite” anyone to commit terrorist acts. Couple the cavalier attitude judges and pretty much the whole legal profession has shown with respect to civil liberties over the past several years with this vague legal language adopted in the USA, Britain, Canada and other Western nations, and you have a recipe for explicit repression.

This indiscriminate language has a very aggressive edge. For Bush and company, the enemy has become quite abstract. Evil forces are 'out there' and they are enemies of freedom and democracy, according to Bush. As long as these elements exist, they pose a threat to the United States and the ‘free’ world. Bush stated in his last State of the Union address that it is the mission of the USA to free oppressed people all over the world. Considering his track record regarding freedom, we know what he is really talking about. This code for, 'we are going to take whatever we want, whenever we want to do it. When Bush mouths the word freedom, he necessarily perverts its meaning.

The standards that need to be met in order for Bush to rationalize military attacks have suddenly become very subjective. He doesn't have to find something hard like weapons of mass destruction any more. That proved too difficult. With the spineless media and henchmen by his side, Bush can justify an attack on just about anyone. The notion of and validation for ‘pre-emptive war’ has already been established. With the media, congress and other world leaders looking for their backbones, George W. Saprono will do what he wants.


We have awakened to a world where the mob has taken control. They have the biggest guns and Bush has the most ruthless gangland characters pulling his strings and yanking his chain. Besides, he is one of them. The World Court can go to hell, and every other court can go to hell. The guys with the most money and the biggest guns call the shots now.

From here it looks as if the maniacs in the White House and the terrorists that brought down the twin towers share the same goal of terrorizing American society. If their aim was to disrupt any sense of peace or civility in the United States, they have succeeded. If they aimed to play on the psychology and sense of security Americans may have had, they succeeded. But they couldn’t have done it without the Bush’s help in whipping up hysteria and fear.

Anti terrorist legislation is not about protecting you from terrorists. It’s about control. It’s about muting dissent in an era when the sweetness of the Keynsian state will give way to the full exposure of the ugly skeleton of the oppressive barbed iron state that has always been there.

But we need to hold our seat in the midst of this. In the midst of this insanity, if you listen you can still hear the voice of reason and calm. All the dogs are not barking up the same tree. Here is a fine example:

US District Judge John C. Coughenour said the successful prosecution of Ahmed Ressam should serve not only as a warning to terrorists but as a statement to the Bush administration about its terrorism-fighting tactics.
"We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant or deny the defendant the right to counsel," he said. "The message to the world from today's sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart."
He added that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have made Americans realize they are vulnerable to terrorism and that some believe "this threat renders our Constitution obsolete ... If that view is allowed to prevail, the terrorists will have won."
(http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072905N.shtml)

This was a stroke of courageous beauty amidst the backdrop of the ugly rise of what has the disturbing appearance of corporate/ bourgeois state tyranny . And there are many more. Watch for them, nurture them and protect them. They are our friends and allies.

Fuck Mainstream Media

When we pick up a paper or check the news on television we generally expect to be informed. The media has a responsibility and that responsibility is to inform us of what’s going on. If a dam is in danger of breaking two miles above our town, it is the responsibility of the media to let us know that the danger exists and why it exists. To a certain extent, we put our trust in them. But trusting the mainstream media is not a rational or intelligent choice to make. They have lied by saying things that are not true, by not saying things that are true, and very often through spinning bullshit, which is slightly different than lying. Sometimes bullshit is worse than lies. It’s not that they have done so several times, or even often. It’s that they do it all the time. They are programmed like a virus in software to fuck us up.

They never, by the way, use vulgarities like ‘fuck’. This is not an offhanded comment. It is very relevant. In fact, if you read media where the use of such words is acceptable, they have passed an important litmus test. They obviously don’t pander to the fucked up Christian Right and they don’t pander to the corporate elite who are very careful not to offend those that march in orderly fashion. They are in the business of providing audiences.

The mainstream media is not just a simple money pig. It is much more than that. With the marriage of the corporation to the state complete, it is natural for the corporate media to mouth the interests of both. The mainstream media has become a lackey, a tool of those that want to tell you that the Western world is in deep, deep danger. In a similar vein to Hitler’s fire in the Reichstag, the oil/ arms billionaires that run the White House want us to be terrified. They want a green light to make war in the Middle East and they want a green light to funnel billions of tax dollars into their own pockets through the sale of weapons systems. As a result we see very agitated talking heads that spew drivel ad nauseam about the need for security. It also serves their more sinister designs to build an iron shackled state apparatus where we will learn to live with less freedom and more security. We will learn that extremist views cannot be tolerated and they pose a threat to us all. Welcome to the Matrix.

They obviously serve many other functions besides making money and parroting the wishes of the aristocrats and overlords. They also strive to indoctrinate and shape the rabble into a uniform and docile mass of chauvinism.

Every day people are blown to bits in Iraq and often these events are not even mentioned in the news. When they are mentioned they will be treated rather frivolously. Contrast that with the severity and alarm on the airwaves whenever terrorists attack White or priveliged people. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, a disaster in Asia or Africa or Latin America may be mentioned casually while the misfortune of some rich, White Westerner would be a matter of much concern and excitement. Or they may focus on more ordinary folks like a runaway bride, or a missing teen in Aruba. This follows a pattern of implicit racism and it certainly suggests Brown foreigners are disposable and White Westerners are not. That pattern drives an implicit message into the minds of those that are vulnerable to its reception.

There is no doubt that the corporate media is working overtime to indoctrinate the citizenry, especially in the United States. It is in the United States where this process is magnified and as a result, people outside the USA may be affected to a lesser degree. This is not to slight the citizens of America, it is just that it is Americans that live deepest inside the belly of the beast of American hegemony. The CBC in Canada for example, is noticeably different than mainstream American media.

The crux of the problem is that the media is owned and controlled by that special interest group – the one that’s extra special. They have their own interests and those interests happen to be against the interests of the rest of us. And it is those billionaires that set the tone, the content, and the agenda for the rest of the media. A small-town newspaper does not have the resources to hire investigative journalists and they pick up the main stories from the newswire. Those items are fed by that same special interest group. Here, Chomsky explains who sets the content and the agenda for the mainstream:

“The New York Times and CBS, for example. Well, first of all, they are major, very profitable, corporations. Furthermore, most of them are either linked to, or outright owned by, much bigger corporations, like General Electric, Westinghouse, and so on. They are way up at the top of the power structure of the private economy which is a very tyrannical structure. Corporations are basically tyrannies, hierarchic, controled from above. If you don’t like what they are doing you get out. The major media are just part of that system.”

Chomsky also makes the point that the media has a specific motive and that motive is the audience itself. That is why news stories are very short and their patterns are quite simplistic. Short attention grabbing sound bites or pleasing optics are important. Content is but not in the way it should be. The main thrust of the business is not to inform, the business is about grabbing an audience and people are the product. Chomsky continues:

"Take the New York Times. It’s a corporation and sells a product. The product is audiences. They don’t make money when you buy the newspaper. They are happy to put it on the worldwide web for free. They actually lose money when you buy the newspaper. But the audience is the product. The product is privileged people, just like the people who are writing the newspapers, you know, top-level decision-making people in society. You have to sell a product to a market, and the market is, of course, advertisers (that is, other businesses). Whether it is television or newspapers, or whatever, they are selling audiences. Corporations sell audiences to other corporations. In the case of the elite media, it’s big businesses." (Lifted from: http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/articles/z9710-mainstream-media.html)

But there is more to this than selling audiences. You will notice that the media will make certain issues relevant and important. They will spin them out in concert with the party line and with each other, sometimes word for word. For example, the deficit was the big problem when the politicians and the large corporations wanted to cut social programs. Right wing think tanks and agencies like Moody’s of New York suddenly had a lot to say about how societies are governed and how tax money is spent. You will also notice that when tax dollars are spent on weapons systems, the media does not make an issue of the deficit. It is rarely mentioned, if at all. That is because those that control the media are the same people that profit from building weapons systems.

According to Peter Phillips, “The eleven largest or most influential media corporations in the United States are General Electric Company (NBC), Viacom Inc. (cable), The Walt Disney Company (ABC), Time Warner Inc.(CNN), Westinghouse Electric Corporation (CBS), The News Corporation Ltd. (Fox), Gannett Co. Inc., Knight-Ridder Inc., New York Times Co., Washington Post Co., and the Times Mirror Co. These eleven major broadcast and print media corporations now represent a major portion of the news information systems in the United states. For many people their entire source of news and information comes from these eleven corporations."
(Source:http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Media/Media%20Censor_ProjCensor.html)

General Electric is in the business of making battlefield computer systems. Their director, former senator Sam Nunn (who also directs Chevron/Texaco) isn’t likely to promote journalists that research his connections or to report any stories that work against the interests of NBC. He is not likely to be happy about his reporters making anti war statements either.

Recently, media and political elites have been shouting concern about the dangers of extremism. This sounds quite ominous. How does one define extremism? What is extreme in one culture is moderate in another. Attending Mosque every day and praying five times a day would be extreme from a Western point of view while viewing explicit sex movies would be extreme from their point of view. And extremes shift in time as well. From the point of view of 1970, all politicians are now extremely right wing. From the point of view of politicians in the 1930’s, today’s politicians and the population in general would seem bizarre. The point is, when the elites take on enemies like extremists, or 'evil doers', when they can make these subjective judgments, we must watch our backs. This very general term, extremism, casts a wide net. Will the mainstream media cast dispersions on leftists, environmentalists, or any spiritual practice that they subjectively deem extreme? Have the elitist media set out to squash dissent of all kinds using the modern day fire at the Reichstag (9-11) to do it? It really looks as if this process has already begun.

Steve Mizrach points out, “Opinion in our society must be carefully shaped and molded within certain careful boundaries: those who transgress those boundaries are libel to wind up "extremists," "ideologues," "fanatics," or "agitators. Now that dissidents in the U.S. can no longer be labelled 'fellow travellers' of the Moscow-run Commie conspiracy, the task has become more urgent. And how is it that consent, that most valuable of social products, is manufactured?”
(Source: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Media/Consent_AmerStyle.html)

Mizrach points out that the following tactics are employed by what we may regard, realistically, as the enemy; that is, the mainstream media. They mould opinion particularly on Sunday talk shows by parading the opinions of sycophants that are the mouthpieces that have been schooled within the hallowed halls of the university of corporate indoctrination.

These are bolstered by spin doctors, or, PR devils. “PR managers, known as "spin doctors" when working in government, are able to carefully craft speeches and advertisements which evoke powerful images in the American psyche, frequently using "power words" such as freedom, fairness, liberty, justice, and peacekeeping for policies which dominate, discriminate, imprison, exploit, and terrorize much of the rest of the world.” (Mizrach)

Mizrach also points out the real purpose of public opinion polls is not so much to measure public opinion as it is to shape it. They also employ academics and think tanks to shape and mould public opinion.

Together, these tools are used against us. They are more threatening an enemy to the citizens of Western nations than an army of bin Ladens. They are used not only to shape public opinion. They are used to lie to us and to indoctrinate the impressionable and the young.

But there remains wild cards; people with influence that are not politically correct. In the past several years we have witnessed the firings and muzzlings of very influential people. Bill Mahar was fired for stating the obvious on a show ironically named, “Politically Incorrect”. He isn’t alone. Phil Donahue and Peter Arnett have been fired for political reasons. This works very directly. Advertisers who are the corporate – or more generally, the business elites, have forced them off the air.

More recently the increasingly fascistic and bold business elites, represented by both the Democrats and Republicans, have de-clawed the relatively liberal Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS). Bill Moyers was called to the mat for his apparent ‘liberal’ bias. The message that has been sent to those with influence is to stay inside the box of what the corporate rulers deem politically correct for American politics. It is worth noticing the contrast between American media and that of any other country in the world. In Canada for instance, liberal is a political stance that people generally consider either middle of the road or maybe somewhat to the right. In Canada, socialism is leftist but curiously in America, socialism has been purged from politics. It’s as if it doesn’t exist.

We cannot underestimate the importance of Indymedia, bloggers, progressive web sites, and all progressive movements that rely on the internet. The internet is a genie let out of a bottle. This fluid and democratic flow of information is the blessing of this uncontrolled machine that sits before you. The corporations do not own or control this medium and here, we are free. And it is from here we face the enemy. From here we will work together to defeat the next rising wave of tyranny.