On the backs of the workers of the world capitalism marches on awhile

You don't get this through hard work

Trillions of dollars was taken out of homes by US workers and the middle class in the first half of the decade. Housing prices were still climbing, lenders were cutting all sorts of deals and telling all sorts of lies to get people to borrow and get themselves from under the clutches of the landlord and in to the greasy claws of the banks where their interest on the mortgage at least would be tax deductible. Not only that, their home would be that little nest egg they would need for their later years perhaps.

We all know what happened since then. The subprime housing market collapsed, what some industry analysts argued was the greatest transfer of African American wealth in history. The rest followed and all the scams and chicanery of the great American entrepreneurial spirit were revealed. Like the Savings and Loan scam of the 80's and 90's the victims unwillingly came to the rescue and bailed out the perpetrators of the scam mortgaging their futures and the future of the youth of America in the process.

But the damage this time was far greater. Not only were the perpetrators rescued to the tune of trillions of dollars but the economic formation we know as capitalism was dragged from the edge of the abyss. Desperate yuppies whose parasitic existence includes no such thing as socially productive Labor were in a state of panic; they thought the "sumptuous feast" as Lawrence Summers, one of their own once called it, would last forever. The theoreticians of capitalism rushed to explain in the pages of capitalism's serious journals that all will be well, that crisis of this nature had occurred many times in the history of this social system and capitalism will survive it. There was no need to abandon hope.

The Financial Times and other serious theoretical journals of capitalism had numerous articles quoting Marx and urging it's young readers less experienced in the art of exploitation and capital accumulation to read his works in an effort to understand the economic system in which they plied their nefarious trade.

But the tide has turned for them. The CEO's in the US sit on more than $2 trillion in cash unwilling to throw it in to circulation and invest in the real economy. The ground is too unstable, profits too uncertain. They took trillions from the tax payer and invested it to make more for themselves. They have begun yet another war in order to gain and Iraq-like foothold in one of the top oil producing countries in the Middle East. Things are perking up; what good is a Tomahawk missile if you don't use it?

The attacks of 911 gave US capitalism an excuse to step up its struggle against its competitors and the workers of the world, building hundreds of bases and military outposts where those young working class men and women it refuses to put to work and hasn't yet incarcerated can spend their time learning the art of warfare in one sided battles that leave them alive in many cases but scarred and dehumanised people.

The economic crisis gave them another opportunity to step up the war US capitalism has been waging domestically, using it as an excuse to savage living standards, workers organizations and social services that are the products of generations of struggle. In this endeavor the US capitalist class has found a wiling partner in workers' leaders at the highest levels who have the same world view as them; the only way society can be organized is along capitalist lines---capitalism must be rescued and workers and the middle class must pay, the alternative is chaos.

Living in the belly of the beast here in the US we are the first victims of the ideological war that the capitalist class, and all ruling classes wage on the rest of us. We must consume for fear of death. We over consume buying things we don't need, houses that are too big and fit in to the natural world like a bull in a china shop. We are obsessed with the idea of individual freedom to the point where we have very little freedom compared to others. In capitalism, money is freedom, money is social power. The only power stronger than this organized power is an organized and conscious working class; without our Labor power, production can't take place and profit cannot be made.

The more we think we have power because we are individuals with our own mind, "I can own a Harley of a different color than you if I choose", or the more we adopt their false idea that we are all in control of our own destiny, the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality, the less free we are because the collective is weakened. Add their divide and rule tactics of racism, sexism, religious sectarianism and all other means by which they divide workers and it turns out we have a very limited freedom indeed. It was the great American Eugene Debs who said:
"Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."

The economy is picking up for them as profitability returns.  There is money to be made that's what matters. The house above is in Los Altos California, it is some 50 miles from where I live.  It was just sold to a Russian Billionaire Yuri Milner

That house holds a record as the highest price paid for a single family home in America, Milner paid $100 million for it.  It's a 25,000 square foot mansion with an inside and outdoor pool, tennis courts, the lot.  This is how the capitalist economy works; where did he get that money?  Credit allows capitalism to go beyond its limits but, like an elastic band it is eventually pulled back within them, with catastrophic results, for most of us.  There was an opportunity to put an end to it, there have been more than one such opportunities in history, but if that road is not taken it emerges from the crisis, different from before, and for workers and the environment, much more destructive.

I watched this movie last night that is a must see. It is a documentary about Chinese migrant workers and its called, The Last Train Home.  It documents the life of a family, one of China's 135 million migrant workers who go home once a year to see their parents and generally the children they have left behind.  It reminds us of the great qualities that human beings have, the struggles parents and grandparents go through to give their children a better life.  It shows the strain that life in a capitalist economy, especially in places like China where so many of the world's industrial workers are employed in factories with no Union rights.  It is a very powerful film. There will be some explosion in China in the period ahead as the Chinese working class, like the Arab masses, enter the global stage with a vengeance.

As I watched it I felt it was happening to me and it was. It was happening to my people, to workers.  I am white and have no allegiance whatsoever to a person or group of people because they are the same color as me. The Queen of England is white and no doubt drinks tea like me; the similarity ends there.  The bosses in China who exploit these workers and in the process destroys their humanity and personal relations, do so in league with their class colleagues at WalMart, Nike and Reebok.  They are Chinese like the people they exploit.  They are the same color, speak the same language, they most likely are the same religion.  But where is the unity there?  Their unity is with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.  The family that sold that $100 million home were Chinese living in America and they sold it to a Russian. They are all parasites.

That film made me sad at times but it also strengthened my kinship with workers of all nationalities and this is what helps me maintain my resistance in one way or another to the rotten system of production we call capitalism.  Malcom X said that you cannot have capitalism without racism.  He also came to realize that it is the unity of the oppressed that matters.  They never killed him for saying all white people are devils, this was useful to them as it keeps us apart.  Race, religion, sexism, these are all really important issues that are an added oppression many workers have to endure. I am white and oppressed as a worker but I do not feel oppressed because of the color of my skin.  But the taking up of these issues have to be in the context of how best to unite the working class internationally because only the international working class can end this madness.