California's Jerry Brown has secret meeting with the folks he really represents

California's new governor, Jerry Brown, is not dishonest. He serves and always has served the interests of big business.  He warned before the election that workers and the middle class should  pay for the crisis and that he would vigorously pursue that avenue in office, making sure that we all learn to "Live within our means". He's been pretty straight all along and the top Union officials in the state supported him, pouring millions of dollars of their members' hard earned dues money in to his and other big business politicians campaign coffers.

When workers have no political choices except the candidates of the banks and Wall Street, Democrats or Republicans, the candidates don't care so much that they savage the very people whose votes put them in to office, or if they say one thing and do the opposite as they always do.  I don't have to go in to details on that here, we've written lots about that on this blog.  Why should they care?  Where are we to go politically. The great thing about the political situation here in the US is the capitalists have a monopoly, in fact a dictatorship, not only of economic life but in the electoral arena also; their candidate always gets elected.

Berggruen with trophy's. Do you trust this man with your future?

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Brown met last Friday with the members of the "Think Long Committee."  This committee was founded by a French billionaire, Nicolas Berggruen and is a sort of bi-partisan think tank.  Berggruen made his money coupon clipping as a hedge fund player.  He is known as the "homeless billionaire". "He has given up most of his home and most of his material possessions (except for his art collection and a private jet) to live out of hotels and advocate good government. says one source.

Berggruen on himself:
 “…for me, possessing things is not that interesting. Living in a grand environment to show myself and others that I have wealth has zero appeal. Whatever I own is temporary, since we’re only here for a short period of time. It’s what we do and produce; it’s our actions that will last forever. That’s real value.” – Nicolas Berggruen

What a hero.  I am going to write to the papers about this.  Somebody's got to stop this poor man form starving himself this way. How can someone live with only an art collection and a private jet? What about his TV Guide collection?  He has a right to possessions too.

So in this private meeting members of the two capitalist parties can discuss better ways to govern the state which is among the top ten economies of the world and about 13% of US GDP. And they can do it without having to pretend they're on different sides of some imaginary aisle like they have to in Congress or when they play party politics for public consumption. The problem the Chronicle, and others have it seems, is that there was no notice to the public or the press from Brown's office and that Brown is a bit more secretive about who he meets with than he lets on.

Not so, says Gil Duran, Brown spokesperson. Brown doesn't have to notify the public or the press because this was a "private meeting" and Brown was well within the law.  "There's a difference between a public event and a group private meeting." says Duran.

It doesn't matter as far as workers are concerned.  The point is that Brown is meeting to discuss with the people who actually rule society and whose interests he serves as governor of the state.  Firstly, the "Think Long Committee" was founded by a French billionaire Nicolas Berggruen to improve government, California's government in particular.  Berggruen, "...envisions a California government that is competent, flexible and efficient able to close the innovation and entrepreneurship gap that is emerging between California and places such as Singapore and China."  says the LA Times.

This means making workers more competitive through lower wages, increased workloads and less protection on the job, and government more streamlined through fewer jobs and fewer public services. All workers need to know is whose on the committee.  Let's see:  There's Eric Schmidt CEO of Google; Schmidt is Forbes' 52nd richest American with a net worth of $4 billion.  Google announced this year that it will give Schmidt a "parting gift" of $100 million as he is being succeeded at Google CEO by Larry Page. (WSJ).  

Broad in Aspen. Lots of great ideas that help workers come from Aspen.

Moving right along we come across another committee member, Eli Broad.  Eli Broad is described in the capitalist press as a philanthropist and developer, land pimp I like to call them. Broad's net worth according to Forbes is $5.8 billion. Broad's public education reform program promotes  policies based on the idea that public school systems should be run like private businesses and is a strong proponent of downsizing public education by closing neighborhood schools and increasing Charter schools. A Broad pushed education Czar in Detroit, Robert Bobb, is closing half of the city schools as class sizes increase to as high as 60.

Also on the board is George Schultz who served in the Nixon administration and was the US Secretary of State under Reagan.  He is an Ivy Leaguer with good connections trained throughout his life as they are to manage and govern the rest of us. Schultz has been called the father of the Bush Doctrine and was an adviser to the imbecile George W Bush during his 2000 campaign for the presidency. Schultz counts among his friends and confidants, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Condoleeza

Condoleeza Rice is also on the committee as is former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and former California governor Gray Davis.

Jerry Brown has been touted as a politician "open" to the public because he walks around Sacramento and can be seen with his wife walking to the Capitol. That's not the "open" that matters of course. When it comes to the serious stuff, like running society and making decisions about how the wealth workers create is managed and allocated and what measures will be taken to make workers and the middle class pay for their crisis,  Brown is no different than any other bourgeois politician---that is done in secret with the people whose interests he represents.

The details might be secret but we know one thing, they're up to no good.  A bunch of billionaires meeting in private aren't meeting to help us out.  If they were helping us it's be all over TV. 

So we get to vote every four years or so for the candidates of our enemies; the Eli Broads and Bill Gates of the world can't lose.  This blog stands for the transformation of society. For the end of capitalism and the building of a democratic socialist society.  We do not believe capitalism can be reformed, can be made nice.  It cannot feed or house the people of the world despite having the resources to do so. It cannot even do so in the US, the most powerful capitalist society in history. Racism, wars and environmental destruction are its legacy.

But the importance of an independent mass workers party is that regardless of the political position of its leaders or its program, it offers workers a place to fight, a party of our own.  And every election time the capitalist class has to take in to consideration this fact, "What do we have to do to make sure they don't vote for them?" It changes the balance of class forces.  And it is through economic and political struggle, the struggle for reforms,  that we learn, that we draw certain conclusions about the world around us; that we come to realize we have to change society not just alter it.