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.