A moment of silence: designed to keep people quiet and passive

This accomplishes nothing

President Obama led a one minute moment of silence today for the victims of the Tuscon rampage that killed six people and wounded 14.  The president and his wife Michelle came out on to the steps, stood there for a minute and then went back inside.

An important aspect of living in capitalist society, especially in the US, is that nothing be said or discussed that is controversial or that might lead people to take action.  Anger is bad. Of course, anger when expressed the way it was in Tuscon is not good, but it's OK to be angry and its Ok when that anger can be expressed in a positive way.  When workers go on strike it is an expression of anger and it is not a passive thing certainly, or shouldn't be.  For the bosses, when production stops and they can't make profits this is an act of terrorism as far as they are concerned. To force workers out on strike in order to defend their means of subsistence or to use the armed forces of the state to break that strike are acts of extreme violence.

Bradley Manning, the alleged conspirator with Wikileaks who has exposed capitalist diplomacy as a fraud and them for the lying thieves they are has made them angry and they have taken away his freedom and subjected him to torture and the possibility of life in prison. They have created a climate of fear and intimidation within the military and society.

The capitalists react quite strongly when they are angry and this senseless killing in Tuscon will no doubt be used to curb free speech and other democratic rights in the interest of public safety, very much like the attacks on 911 have.

Americans are very angry and they have a right to be. They are being assaulted on all sides, not by some Mullah with a 7th century mindset, a former recipient of US taxpayer funds,  but by the bankers and speculators on Wall Street and their political representatives in Washington.  More than 44 million private-sector workers in the United States—­42 percent of the private-sector workforce­—don’t have paid sick days  according to new research by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR).  If we add to that, rent that eats up 60% to 70% of your income, or a mortgage that eats up 70% of your family income, that can lead to depression and anger.  Losing your home or job can make you angry I would think. These are all policies that inflict the most savage violence on workers and our communities.

Whenever this anger breaks out in to mass action like it did in Seattle in 1999, or the student movement last year, the state responds with violence.  The US capitalist class does not want anything to rouse workers and the middle class in to action.  They do not want any discussion of the system, the crisis, why and how it occurred.  They want tranquility. Go in any Safeway store or drug chain  that sells books and magazines and through which  millions of workers pass through every day in this nation and see the mindless garbage they're pushing.  There will be nothing that might spark debate or controversy.

The method of choice for resisting this violence by the perpetrators of it is the prayer/candelight vigil and the moment of silence.  This is one way of trying to prevent the anger from expressing itself in an organized way through mass direction action, strikes, occupations etc.  When the youth were fighting the cops in Seattle in 1999 and drawing to their battle a section of the rank and file of organized Labor, the head of the AFL-CIO at the time, John Sweeney, was leading a prayer vigil. The Union officials as well as the capitalist class, are deathly afraid of the potential power of the US working class and the anger that lies beneath the surface of society that could unleash it. I don't pray because it is a passive ineffective method of resistance and because there's no one listening.  But, if your prayer helps you to go out and take action, that's fair enough.

The Union leaders should be giving this anger an organized expression.  Movements of workers in Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Algeria, Bangladesh, India and Cambodia to name a few are fighting their government's efforts to drive them further in to poverty.  Even in so-called communist China, a dictatorship, workers at auto plants have struck illegally and won major gains.

Instead of a worthless moment  of silence in response to what is a killing that was egged on by the vicious racist right wing in this country, our time would be better spent getting off our asses and building a mass movement that can drive back this offensive the US capitalist class is waging on workers domestically and throughout the world. In his public statement about the Tuscon murders, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka took his cue from the politicians of big business, after all, the Labor hierarchy ahs no independent position of their own. "Too much vitriolic, hate-filled rhetoric that we hear on radio and television has demonized public servants and candidates as 'enemies.'", writes Trumka.

Throwing someone out of their home is an act of violence.  Denying someone medical care if they are poor is an act of violence. The US justice system perpetuates violence and the US military industrial complex  inflict horrendous violence on the people's of the world in defense of the corporations. Obama is not offering any moments of silence for the victims of his unmanned drones attacks in the impoverished nations US capitalism is occupying.  Is the capitalist class and  its political representatives the friends of the working people of America?  I do not think so. I think those that do this to workers are the enemies of workers.

How we deal with our enemies, how we fight them, this is the issue.  It is the economic system that is the cause of the violence and misery we witness around us and it is the economic system we have to change. To fight for justice and equality brings us in to conflict with those that perpetuate and prosper from injustice and inequality. In such a struggle to not recognize our enemies leads to disaster.

Instead of moments of silence we can begin to build an independent working class political alternative to the two capitalist parties the Republicans and Democrats. A mass movement in the workplaces, schools, and the streets based on direct action fight to win policies and a mass political party of the working class is what their moments of silence are designed to avoid.  We should play no part in it.