US Capitalism: It is not joking.

Two mass murderers: Cheney and Mubarak

by Sean O'Torrain

The authors of this blog have consistently explained that US capitalism is conducting an offensive against its own working class. George W Bush actually said his aim was to take back all the gains won in the 1930's and the 1960's. Now we have the recent statements from former vice president Cheyney. Some people think he is a nut case. But this is not so. He is one of the most hard nosed brutal determined representative of US capitalism.

What did he say recently on US TV? He said that food stamps, social security, education, all that helps working people has to be cut and all the money saved from ending these programs to go instead to the military. This is what the top echelons of the capitalist class think and are aiming for. There is the old saying that there comes a time in every imperialist power's history when it can no longer afford guns and butter. US imperialism has reached this stage. It is keeping its close to 200 military bases and vast arsenal round the world on borrowed money and huge deficits. it is borrowing this money from countries such as China, one of its major rivals. This cannot go on.

So what is it doing? It is trying to keep the guns and cut the butter for its own working class. This is what is represented by the cutting of wages, living standards and social services of the US working class. US capitalism is putting its own working class on rations so that it can continue to afford to keep its military might intact, this military might which is to defend the wealth and resources and profits of the major US corporations.

Think about this. In the last few years, especially around the time of the Occupy movement the cities were suddenly filled with cops in full body armor. Where did these come from? Somebody had to have taken the decision in advance to get all these cops armored up. It was no accident. Preparations had been going on for years. The US capitalist class saw that as they moved more and more to put their own working class on rations their own working class would fight and they would have to be put down. Hence the masses of cops with body armor. And along with this the Pentagon has been handing over free of charge huge armored vehicles to the cities. Then on top of that the prisons are being built one after another and filled to the brim. Then along with that just about every body's communication is being listened into. And on top of that the cops are being brutalized as never before. Just think how many times we see a few big cops beating up and killing somebody, especially youth of color. Just a few days ago we saw the cops holding down and beating with their fists a mentally challenged elderly lady.

The working class has to recognize what is going on. The Cheyneys, the Bushes, the big corporations are well along with their preparations to put the working class on rations and to do this they know they will have to use the fist. The working class has to prepare to take on the capitalist offensive. The union leaders should be doing this. But they are so pathetic and weak and tied to capitalism that they will not. Fighting organizations will have to be built in the working class and among the youth; in the workplaces, in the union rank and files, in the schools and colleges and these linked together to fight. At the same time efforts will have to be made to open up cracks and divisions in the state machine.

The rank and file of the state machine is also being put on rations. And as this fighting opposition is built it will have to recognize the kind of enemy it is up against. The US capitalist class will do everything it can to hang on to power. Remember it is the only capitalist class that has dropped atomic weapons on civilian populations. As well as mobilizing the working class the new workers movement that has to be built in the US will have to seek to win over and bring to its side sections of the state apparatus.