The Money is There, We just Have to Fight For It

Every time we hear about social struggles or contract disputes, particularly in the public sector, we hear about how we're in "difficult times".  We have pointed out many many times on this blog that we are not in difficult times in terms of there being shortages of money, or that other important partner in the Labor process, Labor Power.  Society is "awash with cash", as they say in the serious journals of capitalism, and we are all very aware that there is an abundance of Labor power.  Here in the US and throughout the world, all sorts of capital lays idle. buildings, machinery, and human Labor power.  In the US alone there are millions of people that capitalism cannot put to work.

What we have is a strike of capital.  We have this because the system reached that point where there is too much stuff.  The future does not look good for profit taking, it's looking very risky and unstable.  Capitalists do not set the forces of production in motion in order to benefit society as a whole; they don't do it in order to produce things people need to live a decent life, this is incidental; they seek surplus value which is the source of their profit, but with the world economy suffering from a serious bout of overproduction/overcapacity (google overcapacity if you are not familiar with this problem and you will find out the level of this malady.), there's little room for more production.  This leads of course to all sorts of other speculation and gambling that we witnessed in the credit boom.

I guess I am simply rambling on to constantly remind myself and any worker that will listen, that there is no need to take cuts, there is no need to cut social services.  The diseases, death and misery that exists throughout the world, in particular the former colonial world, is not due simply to "corruption" in the abstract or the acts of "evil" men or the result of a duel between god and satan as some people have informed me. All of this is the result of the economic system that we live under------the system of production that we call capitalism. I have to remind myself of this in order to counter the massive propaganda machine of the capitalists themselves that hide this fact.

Even the mass destruction that earthquakes wreak in countries like Haiti, Turkey and Nicaragua is the product of an economic system not simply a natural disaster, simply an objective act of nature that humans have no control over. The destruction is so severe in these countries because capitalism has been incapable of developing the infrastructure of these societies.  The buildings, roads, bridges are inadequate.  We even see this in the US.  There have been numerous structural disasters here due to the market's inability to maintain social infrastructure, Katrina and the bridge that collapsed in Milwaukee comes to mind.  The buildings on Wall Street are crucial to the accumulation of capital though and don't suffer such fate without outside interference like the World Trade Center bombing.

I saw a flier from a candidate for mayor in my town.  He is a lawyer and "former small business owner" this is supposed to separate him from the corporate world I suppose. His election pamphlet states: "City employees work hard and deserve our respect , yet they to will have to do their part." Well, I know what that means, he is going to cut the pay, pensions and benefits of city workers. It's all about "shared sacrifice". This will only exacerbate the crisis of overproduction/overcapacity and all workers know that sacrifice is not shared.

But check this out.  Remember the collapse of Lehman Brothers at the beginning of the Great Recession? The bank has been in bankruptcy court since September 2008 and the cost of this charade------which is set up to help the capitalists figure out how to salvage money from the collapse, shift it around and extract further funds from workers and the middle class-------is expected to be more than $1 billion.

Lehman has paid its lawyers and managers $871 million for 21 months work according to Business Week.  That works out to $1.4 million a day.  Enron's bankruptcy cost $793 million.  This was for legal and "other advisory fees" writes Business Week.

This is just one small example of the waste and destruction that the market economy inflicts on society.  The US is about to sell $30 billion worth of weapons to the Saudis, an autocratic dictatorship that beheads people, publicly flogs women if they leave home without the company of a male relative and has "religious" police that make sure you are practicing the correct branch of Islam.  The Israelis are a bit upset and have lodged complaints, (about the arms sale) but not to worry, the US replies.  They will sell Israel slightly more efficient weapons that will keep them just ahead of the Saudis.  The US is the world's biggest arms dealer with about 46% of the world's total.  It's great when you're selling to both sides.

Meanwhile, back home, they need to cut the workforce, cut social services, gut pensions and extend the retirement age to 70 to avoid paying someone a retirement than hardly pays the rent now.

We have to reject in our own mind this nonsense that we have to sacrifice, that there is no money, If we don't overcome our own belief in it then we can't move forward. And the sacrifice we need to make is the one that leads to the end of this rotten system.