The media always finds some reason for the insanity of these action. Imagine the state someone must be in to sit round a Christmas tree with his family and systematically execute his kids one by one. What horror they must have felt before their turn arrived. The bourgeois press mentioned in passing that there were some financial difficulties but the general thrust is that this is another human being that threw in the towel, that couldn't make it and took it out on all those around him------it's a personal problem is the main conclusion we must draw.
The politicians of the two Wall Street parties implement wars on terrorism, wars on drugs and wars on crime but there is never a war on the system that is the basis for all these abnormalities. I remember when that young soldier came back from Iraq and shot his wife killing her and the eight month old child she was carrying before he shot his three year old, his three dogs and then himself. The mass media's focus was on money issues and the possibility of infidelity. There was no infidelity (I haven't followed the issue since) the media claimed at the time. But what then could cause this? It is obvious what caused it, this human being, a young working class man barely out of his teens was destroyed by the situation and environment the Wall Street politicians put him in under false pretenses.
He obviously had illusions in the goals or cause of the invasion but that's natural growing up in a society perpetuates such lies and cloaks them with the blanket of patriotism. The reality of Iraq destroyed him completely. He was already a suicide risk. He was a National Guardsman and suicides in the NG in 2010 were up 82% from 2009 and 450% from 2004, nothing to do with having to kill innocent Iraqi's and seeing his own comrades killed as well. Running over a child in a Humvee has a profound effect on normal people.
There will be more suicides and mass murders as the crisis of capitalism destroys the fabric of society for the vast majority of the population, the 99%. As the crisis in the US continues, more and more older people are seeking refuge from the savagery of the market by appealing to their adult children for aid. The Wall Street Journal gives an example today of a 60 year old woman who has been forced to move in with her son after losing her job. Battling diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis and without health insurance she eventually went though all her savings and lost her home.
The road to destitution and homelessness is laid at most people's door through the cost of medical care or losing everything they have as the woman above has in order to pay for it themselves. And while unemployment is greater among the young, older workers stay unemployed a lot longer, after all, who would hire them when youth are so available? Today, 20% of adults 65 or older live with family members. Another unemployed 65 year old has been forced to move in with his mother; these people will never get a job again at a time when the meager security blanket that does exist in the US is being shredded by the 1% in their rapacious quest for profits.
The other negative of this development is that adult children taking in parents have children of their own to care for. Education costs are rising, unemployment among youth is high; "They are the bologna in the sandwich" says Cathy Brown, executive director of the Council on Aging in St Johns Fla.
There is more pain to come in this historic period following the economic crisis that broke in to the open with the collapse of the subprime mortgage market in the US. The richest country in the history of human society has millions of people who lack food security, health care, and shelter. Thirty million or more are out of work as capitalism cannot employ them. The US has 2 million people in prisons, other victims of the market, many of whom will never see the light of day. As the crisis deepens we will see more mass killings and family annihilation's as personal relations deteriorate and the shame of not being able to keep one's head above water and see a way out destroys our humanity
The Occupy Wall Street Movement has had a positive affect on this mood and has support of such a large section of the US population because the reality of life in the marketplace where profit reigns has deteriorated significantly for millions of Americans, not just in the inner cities and the communities of the rural south or Appalachia, but in the suburbs too. The struggle to find a way out is messy, and will not travel in a straight line. The absence of any sort of lead from the heads of the workers' organizations delays the formation of a mass movement, leads to more confusion as one is being born and struggles to find its feet and means that more suffering than necessary is inflicted on the working class by the 1%.
The war on the system, the class war, is the war they avoid mentioning at all costs. To accuse a rival of trying to foster "class warfare" is a favorite attack tactic for the politicians of the two Wall Street Parties, the next step is to accuse them of being socialists. But we know there is a class war going on all the time and intensifying as I write. As we have said before, the capitalist class only call it class warfare when we fight back.
When you think about it, expecting us to fear Iran, a country that hasn't invaded anyone in who knows how many centuries as well as the constant threat of North Korea, al Qaeda or "alleged" al Qaeda or the immigrant hordes that are trying to enter the US, steal our jobs and way of life, is absurd given the assault we are facing from the 1%, their politicians and police. The mass media keeps these sideshows in the public eye but objective reality cannot be wished away and more and more people will see this nonsense as the propaganda that it is and eventually brush it aside.
A few miles from where I am sitting there is a strike of workers at a Licorice factory who are trying to keep some sort of income and benefits from the bosses clutches. If you drive past them and honk your horn you will be sure to get a ticket from the local police who sit in wait for such shows of solidarity. Tomorrow there is a gathering in commemoration of Oscar Grant the unarmed black working class man who was shot in the back while laying on hos stomach surrounded by armed police.
The US capitalist class is the most ruthless patrons of a most brutal and racist regime. The native native population fought them, the imported slaves fought them, the millions of poverty stricken European workers fought them in the factories of Lawrence, the textile mills of the south and the mines of Virginia. The Latino workers and other nationalities that have made California the agricultural powerhouse of the world have fought them. They have been able to divide us in the pursuit of their own interests but there have also been great moments of working class unity and struggle in our history that we should be proud of.
The 21st century and capitalist globalization has ushered in a new era. It has strengthened the working class internationally, it has globalized us too. The brutal suppression of workers' struggles throughout the world is a sign of their weakness and our growing strength.
We have a world to win and 2012 will be another year along the road to winning it.
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