Workers of the World Unite...

'The more things change, the more they remain the same'. This rather hokey expression seems almost prophetic nowadays. In the past few decades homes have been equipped with technology that would be inconceivable a generation ago. It has illuminated and connected every corner of the globe. And yet, there are 18 million empty homes in the United States of America while 3.5 million are homeless. That works out to about 5 empty homes for every homeless person. Manufacturing plants rust as millions remain unemployed. The stock market is soaring, billionaires are making billions, and there isn't enough money to pay teachers.

The analysis of Karl Marx, believed archaic and irrelevant only a few short years ago, have again become highly relevant. Our social and economic conditions, for all the bluster and noise of the 20th century, are fundamentally unchanged from where they were in the 1800s.

The 20th century was a time of optimism. The American dream was validated. The radicalism of the previous century was forgotten after World War 2. Radicals like Karl Marx were proven to be wrong. Since 2008 however, the jury has reconvened. And in that jury box we come cannot help but be impressed. Consider, for an example, these two quotes from the Communist Manifesto, written 1848:

The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation. The cheap prices of commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians’ intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.

And...

Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers. This union is helped on by the improved means of communication that are created by modern industry, and that place the workers of different localities in contact with one another. It was just this contact that was needed to centralise the numerous local struggles, all of the same character, into one national struggle between classes.

If Marx were alive today, if he were witness to the struggles through Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and America he would not be surprised. He saw it coming. He saw it coming because he understood the nature of capitalism.

While we may not want to run out and join our local band of communists, we may want to reconsider many of the observations that were relevant in the 19th century not only from Marx, but from others. Strangely enough, for all the progress we have made over the past century, we seem to be back, more or less, where we started from.

Social Democracy

Through the latter part of the 20th century, the belief that we were on the right track was widespread. It seemed the sky was the limit. That the energy of private capitalism would eventually float all boats. This success depended greatly on the influence of Fabian Socialism.

In Canada, progressive voters tend to vote for the New Democratic Party. In the UK, they vote Labour and in the USA, they vote Democrat. Fabian principles represented by social democratic policies pushed for universal medical care, state pensions, adequate social assistance and so on. Tremendous gains have been made and unions helped ensure that workers were paid decent wages. This all contributed to vastly increased demand for goods and services and in turn, manufacturing firms thrived.

Since the 1980s small business owners would parrot the ideological madness of right wing predators, unwittingly taking part in their own demise. Globalization, cuts to social services, cuts in union wages were all initiatives they supported. Used like useful idiots, they too fell victim to the ravages of monopoly capitalism and its concomitant neo-liberal ideology. They didn't know it, but the social democrats (aka socialists) they decried were their collective meal ticket. The attack has been especially virulent in the USA where the term 'socialism' has become unequivocally pejorative.

Austerity budgets are turning social progress back to 1930s levels, rendering the gains made by unions and progressive social democrats over the decades, void. Three decades of cries to 'get lean and mean' in the New World Order's race to the bottom has resulted in the middle class getting lean and the billionaire class meaner than ever.

Utterly Powerless

We now live in a time of ruthless, predatory capitalism. It takes no prisoners and when it does, it tortures them. Since the 1980s workers have faced stark choices. Threats to move manufacturing abroad have actually been promises. Unions have become crippled and powerless.

The influence of social democratic idealism has been relegated to non economic issues. For example, social democrats may still make progress in terms of women's and minority rights or other types of soft liberal legislation but when it comes to anything related to money, the soft left is powerless. While the Governor of Wisconsin rapes the workers, and while workers are under attack in every corner of the Western world, the elites maintain and increase their wealth and power. The stock market thrives while the people on the street suffer. And the war on the working class is just beginning.

The two pillars of working class strength, strong unions and public spending, have been reduced to ineffective shadows of their former selves. The social democratic response is limited to asking for more, for a larger piece of the pie. That is because the fundamental ideology of social democratic movements and parties are reformist. The aim is to reform capitalism; to redistribute wealth. In the past this objective has been met in some places more so than in others. And if we learn anything from history, we know that you don't 'ask' the billionaire class for anything. You demand and you are prepared to back your demands, or stay home.

Today, unions are powerless because the bosses have become radical and right wing to the extreme. The only principles they adhere to beyond cold pragmaticism are cold and calculating neo liberal policies, policies that boldly proclaim, it's every man for himself. Sink or swim. They would rather ship jobs away or close shop than negotiate. Social democratic political parties merely parrot the wishes and policies of the private sector. If social democrats want to strengthen the safety net, a powerful assault from the right, from bond rating agencies and even the IMF will efficiently put them down.

The Growth of Monopolism

The ideology that best serves the monstrosity that is monopolism is neo-liberalism. Neo-liberalism was proclaimed the New World Order by disciples such as Reagan, Thatcher, the Bushes, and fascists like Pinochet in Chile. And it has been followed to the letter by 'new labour' and other so called moderate Western governments.

Neo-liberalism isn't in fact neo (or new). It is essentially the doctrine of laissez faire economics; the doctrine that suggests that the market is self correcting if governments would stop meddling. It abhors social programs and public infrastructure. It is rehashed classical economics. It is worth noting that when the crisis of 2008 occurred, those same neo liberal ideologues that caused the crises in the first place saw nothing wrong with socialism for the ultra wealthy.
Neo liberal policies have been devastating for developing countries. Enforced by the IMF and the World Bank, they ensure easy pickings for the vultures. Loans are conditional on the recipient nations adherence to widespread privatization, further impoverishing those that need aid.

There is nothing stable about capitalism. To survive, it needs constant growth. It is a virus and a virulent one at that. It has exploited the post industrial world and is no longer satisfied with the terms of exploitation. It has naturally gone where it can get the most bang for its buck.

The old and cozy arrangement where business would invest to the satisfaction of local politicians and in turn receive favourable treatment in terms of taxes, standards, regulations, and subsidies isn't enough. Now they are coming for the social safety net. They will scour the meat from every bone before they are through with us. They are salivating at the profits that could be made if they could privatize Canadian and European public health care. They will privatize those programs, it is only a matter of time.

Class War

The fight back is just beginning. The people of Wisconsin, North Africa and the Middle East have been the first to stand up in this immense struggle; a struggle we cannot afford to lose. We are locked in and there is no turning back. The virus is pernicious and can't be reformed. That ship has sailed. Who or whatever within that system is humane or soft will perish. A CEO that may decide to increase wages or offer better benefits will be thrown to the wolves and with good reason. If they don't, a more ruthless and efficient enterprise will destroy us.

We live in interesting times. Whether we want to or not, we are in a fight for our lives. We need to be clear about that and we need to understand, the enemy does not respect weakness. They have not a wisp of fear. They believe we are powerless. And that will be their fatal mistake.

The time has come to organize general strikes from Beijing to Mumbai, from Al Jubayl to Tel Aviv, from Wisconsin to Lima and from London to Moscow.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.

Social Mutations and Global Strain

There is nothing natural about much of the social and economic realities we struggle with. We can't conflate what is natural with what we have gotten used to. The social and economic order has been artificially altered for centuries for the convenience and pleasure of his majesty. Currently 'his majesty' is Barack Obama, the figurehead leading the Empire. Artificial contortions can only be maintained so long and eventually, something's got to give.

We are witnessing numerous fractures due to ongoing conditions of artificial social tension. North Africa and Middle Eastern States that have been carved up, artificially, by Western powers, whose populations have long been repressed are now demanding an end to the contrived dictatorships that have held them down. They want nothing more than a modicum of normalcy. They want their kids to be happy.

Western powers have a long history of creating conditions of arbitrary boundaries, malevolent alliances, and methods of turning local populations against each other. It is hard to think of a place, including places in close proximity to the core of empires that have not been victims of quite arbitrary social gerrymandering based on nothing more than cultural or religious differences. Even within national boundaries of the empire, people have been artificially pitted against each other. This was enforced and wilful favouritism to one group over another enhanced acrimonious relations. In most places on the globe, divide and conquer strategies ignited conflicts between people that had previously got along living in close proximity to each other.

What is happening today has been happening for a long, long time.

Class Strain

Historically, empires have favoured their own home team. They have been swayed by notions of patriotism and loyalty to some extent. Those of us that have lived within the belly of the beast, inside the Empire's hegemony have received favoured treatment until quite recently. To some extent, we have been a privileged class even if we were poor and unemployed. To be unemployed and poor north of the Rio Grande is nothing like being poor south of the Rio Grande. That is but one of many divisions that have set working class populations apart from each other. As a whole, we have turned a blind eye to the murderous rampages unleashed by politicians with the odd exception; like Vietnam. Generally, we gave the ruling classes a wide berth. The general consensus was, they know what they're doing and whatever it is they do, we're getting something out of it. Our standard of living legitimized them no matter how cruel and treacherous they were to people in the so called, third world.

But then came globalization and now that consensus is rapidly changing. The ruling classes and their political henchmen began to flirt with the Chinese, the Mexicans, and other third world populations. Those of us that read Marx knew they would. Like thieves in the night they silently and efficiently dismantled the manufacturing plants and stole them from under us. They took them to places where they could manufacture for less money. If we didn't see working class people in the third world as brothers and sisters before, we will now. Let's hope they forgive us.

We might want to look at the glass as half full. We might think for a moment, 'globalization will bring the people in the third world up to the standard of living we have become accustomed to'. A glimpse of our current situation shows that in fact, the glass really is half empty. Its only 'half full' for the banksters and corporations. Our current trajectory has non aboriginal North Americans entering, for the first time, the third world. It's a class thing. The original inhabitants of North America currently live in third world conditions in many areas.

If you had considered the ruling elites to be loyal to Americans, Canadians, or any other 'White country', a look at history shows that our standard of living was not as much a gift from the ruling elites as it was the result of long and hard struggles against them. It was also a conspiracy of sorts to dampen revolutionary sentiments. It was a very real fear. John Maynard Keynes exposed that fear when he spoke of the possibility of revolution within the heart of the Empire and the need to subvert it with redistribution mechanisms. Keynes was vehemently anti-communist. He said, "the class war will find me on the side of the educated bourgeoisie". He understood that the artificial social and financial strain that is a necessary condition to maintain wealth and power for the privileged few could give way to the citizenry taking control of the both the wealth of the land and the state. He worried, as did others, of the outcome that could result if this were to occur. To alleviate it, it was necessary to spend in order to develop healthy public infrastructure, especially when the going got rough. Keynes polices were a pressure relief valve. Between Keynesianism and intense unions battles, our standard of living had become the envy of the world and the reality of tension between the classes was out of sight - out of mind.

Building Tension

Since the 1980s, politicians, the media, and various collaborators with the ruling elites have managed to hide the increasing and latent enmity between the classes within the Empire's hegemony. They continue to do this as the strain increases to alarming proportions.

In the 1980s they began to dismantle manufacturing plants to send them abroad. That is when the politicians and mainstream media beat the free trade drum the hardest. The neo liberal economists said, in unison, America had been protectionist long enough, it's time to compete globally, to expand global markets. While the Empire's domestic leftists were screaming bloody murder, investors were making a killing.

As the capacity to squeeze a dime from a unit of labour diminished, the manufacturing heart of the Empire was contracted out . The catch phrase, 'what's good for GM is good for America' turned out to be a lie. Neither GM nor any other corporation has a patriotic bone in its ethereal body. Corporations are simple money making machines. It doesn't care how or where it does it. Those most loyal to the whole American dream must feel betrayed.

The whole thing was an artificial situation in the first place. There never was anything natural about the vast gap between the people of Tijuana and the people of San Diego. It was simply one more spurious division between people of what is in reality, the same working class. The fact that we were favoured by the hegemonic rulers does not change the reality that we all have far more in common with each other than we do with members of the ruling class. However, our realities are substantially different. It needs to be acknowledged that we have historically turned away from the plight of our brothers and sisters in the periphery of the American hegemony. Life for workers is very different, depending on what side of the Rio Grande you live on. But that is changing and it is changing fast. It is a matter of time when we all live in the same miserable circumstances.

The Empire has abandoned us after all the wars we fought for them, after all the wealth we created for them and after all the apologies we voiced on their behalf. In many ways, we had it coming. We should learn to be careful about the kind of scum we crawl in bed with.

While financial bubbles maintained an artificial economy, they only managed to hide the underlying rot beneath it. The bubble burst and the rot was exposed. And in spite of the fact that shocking and utterly soulless criminal behaviour was exposed, the criminals themselves were granted huge financial gifts from future taxpayers. The fact that the tax base has evaporated seems beside the point.

Currently, we hear the fantastic news that cars sales are up; which seems a mystery since jobs and decent wages have disappeared. Underneath the good news, again, we see they continue to try to maintain artificial economics and in so doing, they defy reality and increase strain. They can't keep kicking the can down the road forever. Subprime lending, quantitative easing and all the magic tricks and illusions they can come up with cannot defy reality. It's all over the place. And even though they continue, they can't change reality. Their latest magic trick is yet one more sub-prime scam. The same bubble strategy that caused the 2008 shock, is back. This time they are financing auto sales. The same slippery machinations are used to bury the risky credit and to repackage it as bonds.

In the USA, the jobs picture is improving, the recovery is taking hold, you might argue. The good news is that in February of 2011, 192,000 new jobs were created.

Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration and past editor for the Wall Street Journal, points out:
"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 152,000 of the jobs or 79% are in private services, consisting of: 11,700 jobs in wholesale trade, 22,000 in transportation and warehousing, 36,400 in administration and waste services (of which 15,500 are temporary help services), and 36,200 in ambulatory health care services and nursing and residential care facilities. Entertainment, waitresses and bartenders accounted for 20,000. Repair and maintenance, laundry services, and membership associations accounted for 14,000."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23541

Roberts goes on to suggest that not only are the calculations way off but according to statistician, John Williams, "the reported gain was overstated by about 230,000 jobs. In other words, about 38,000 jobs were lost in February."

The Empire

The Empire is constantly trying to create and maintain artificial social and economic mutations, straining her resources to the breaking point. Empires have historically put out enormous resources into plundering the periphery through the use of military or manipulative techniques. The USA is no exception and as Empires go, America outdoes all previous empires in its scope and greed. The United States of America outspends all other nations on the planet on its military, it's so called national security interests. (In fact it is class security they worry about.) They have over 700 military bases around the globe and have their fingers in the business in every country on the planet, including those that don't want them, like Cuba.

There was a time when we, the working classes within the hegemony, could turn a blind eye to all the harm the Empire had been doing, all over the planet. But now they have slotted the lot of us in the third world category. It is now more appropriate for us to refer to ourselves as 'working class' as opposed to, middle class. We need to make friends with reality.

They will try turn our attention to immigrants. They will do their utmost to have us wage war on each other. It is in their interests for us not to recognize them as the enemy. History shows this strategy works. Today however, we have the internet. We are getting quite familiar with each other. We cannot allow this tension to be reduced to mindless chauvinism and xenophobia. It is class war. That is reality.

And in reality, it is the labour of workers that has build their empires and wealth. Each and every dime the banksters own has either come from either the past toil of workers or the promise of future labour. We hold all the cards and we simply don't realise it. The war party and the capitalists that direct the politicians are nothing more than parasites. They owe us everything and give us nothing.

It is clear that the time has come for us to recognize that the working class is one. That whether we are workers in Iraq, Palestine, Israel, China or Wisconsin, we are all in this together. To quote anonymous wisdom on a famous poster, "Class consciousness is knowing which side of the fence you're on. Class analysis is figuring out who is there with you".