US workers need to wage a class war of our own.

Some folks over here in Britain have mentioned to me that they are stunned by how gullible Americans are.  How come a billionaire can put on a cowboy hat and go deer hunting and con working class people in to thinking he’s just “one of the guys”? I have been asked.

Firstly, that scenario doesn’t con everyone.  And I think the greatest obstacle that holds U.S. workers back is that we simply see no way out of the mess we are in.  This is the way it is and we have to grin and bear it. Politicians voted in to office are elected by a relatively small section of the population. Mind you, many Americans would agree when it is raised that at some point there will be a major explosion in this country; they know that is what it will take especially as there is no significant social force to which they can turn.  The heads of organized Labor as we have mentioned many times are barely distinguishable from the politicians in Congress and often to the right of them on issues and the left is pretty insignificant.

While we wouldn't oppose increased taxes on the rich, we have to recognize the limits of this. The Democrats are working the con again as Obama launches his plan for a “Buffet Tax” that will apply to people earning over $1 million a year. This is a multi-layered con. Firstly, Warren Buffet after whom the tax is named, is one of the richest men in the world worth anything from $50 to $80 billion.  Buffett has waxed eloquent about paying less federal tax than his office employees, 17% of his taxable income in 2010 compared to their 33% to 41%.  Buffet’s non-taxable income would be of some use here.

But let's not gloat

Buffet and other super rich around the world are a little more astute than the other wasters that live off the hard work of others and see that there is some real danger that they could lose far more than a little tax money that they can normally find a loophole for anyway.  They are calling for “shared sacrifice” and increased taxes for themselves in order to shield themselves a little from the hatred and anger for the rich that exists throughout the world.  In the US, inequality and poverty is on the rise as people lose jobs, homes, and health care; Buffet sees this.  The conclusion we need to draw from this is that they fear us, that we have the numbers and the potential power to change this situation.  

By calling it the “Buffet tax” Obama and the Democrats as the political representatives of these wasters hopes to divert our attention a bit; we should not be fooled.

On another front, more right wing sections of the capitalist class, driven somewhat stupid by the injection of religious ideology in to their thinking as well as underestimating our strength and overestimating theirs are accusing Obama of stirring up “class warfare”.  This is very common in the US whenever there is any talk of infringing on the rights of capital or the private sector.   As I wrote in a previous blog, there is no need to “stir up” class warfare, it is already at fever pitch.  But, as the image says, they only call it class warfare when we fight back.  To avoid genuine class warfare and us fighting back in our own interests, Obama and the Democrats drag out the “Buffet Tax”, present us with a hero who will act on our behalf and the Union officials will welcome this.

The Republicans, as they always do attack such taxes as job killers. “Class warfare may make for good politics, but it makes for rotten economics” says Paul Ryan, a prominent Republican Congressman, “…it punishes job creation and those people who create jobs,” he adds. This is very much like the argument that we shouldn’t fight for higher wages because the bosses will simply raise prices.  They may or may not be able to raise prices depending on market forces. If the market will not bear price increases they eat it in profits and it will be them that have to downsize or not take that vacation or buy that boat.

As Michael Roberts pointed out in a blog yesterday of the one million jobs Texas governor Rick Perry boasts about creating, 300,000 were in government and public sector employment in Texas has increased 19% since 2000. It is the public sector that has been the job creator, jobs that pay a relatively decent wage with benefits anyway. And as we have all witnessed, the US capitalist class, just like all of them throughout the world have had no problem taking “public” money to bail them out of this mess.

Buffet, George Soros and the others who are calling for taxing them selves are afraid they could lose all. “My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.,” he told the NYT.

They are on a strike of capital they will not invest in jobs in this climate because it is not profitable or too risky to do so.  When we go on a strike of Labor, in other words, when we refuse to sell Labor power to them, they break that strike, through legal and judicial means if they can along with a little economic terrorism like cutting off your health care  (they like mortgages because of this reason) or with force and direct violence if they have to.

People like Buffet do no productive Labor and the crisis is continuing because they refuse to invest in production.  It is not written in the bible that they are the job creators; in fact, they are the job destroyers.  We have to liberate this capital from their clutches.  It is our creation; it’s not theirs.  This capital can no longer be held or allocated by them.

We have to break their strike.