Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
"If the United States saw what the United States is doing in the United
States, it would invade them to free them from the tyranny of the United
States." *
"This is the first coup attempt on the American continent without the participation of the American embassy" Brazilian Tweet
The response to the fascists, white nationalists and other anti-worker groups that laid siege to the US Capitol on Wednesday has been swift and, in many ways, unprecedented, much like the invasion of the legislative body itself. The country is in shock while no doubt the Nazi’s, white supremacists and QAnon celebrate the courage and boldness of their supporters on the front lines. No candlelight vigils that accomplish nothing for them.
Prominent Trump Republicans are abandoning him like rats leaving a sinking ship. More importantly, major sections of the US ruling class, prominent leaders of industry, finance and banking, tech and other sectors of the economy including media, are calling for his head. Publisher Simon & Schuster said it would drop a coming book by Sen. Josh Hawley, a key backer of Mr. Trump’s claim that he won the election. Hawley raised his fist in the air in support of the fascists as he passed the crowd.
This crowd are now talking of the “rule of law” and the importance of a “peaceful transfer of power”. Jay Timmons, president of the National Association of Manufacturers an organization with an extremely violent history when dealing with workers since its founding in 1895, said that VP Mike Pence should consider using the 25th amendment of the US constitution. This amendment allows for the removal of a president on the basis that they’re unfit to govern.
“There’s no room for violence in our democracy” says Marc Benioff, the billionaire CEO of Salesforce Inc. “Our democracy” is the key phrase as it doesn’t include the democratic rights of others, their nations or individuals. Massive violence is a staple of US foreign policy when it comes to regimes that want to introduce democracy in to their midst and determine their own independent political and economic paths.
Wednesday’s “insurrection” was “an affront to the democratic values we hold dear as Americans” says
Stephen Schwarzman, the billionaire (worth $19 bn) CEO of Blackstone Group, a
conglomeration of coupon clippers that manage money for other coupon clippers.
After the housing crash, when five million people were driven from their
shelter by the moneylenders, (occupants don’t “lose” these homes, they are driven out of them.)
Blackstone and other similar outfits saw an opportunity. They don’t normally
like to invest in single family homes as landlords, they prefer their victims
under one roof like a huge block of flats, but the collapse in housing presented
a opportunity to buy homes for less than it cost to build them and went on to
spend $10 billion purchasing some 50,000 of them. There were many scenes of
distraught homeowners being dragged from their homes by sheriffs at the urging
of the banks. Violence has many forms.
Larry Fink, the CEO of Blackrock Inc. is equally disturbed by the violence at the Capitol claiming it was, “an assault on our nation, our democracy, and the will of the American people.”
Trump’s racism, his misogyny having many outstanding lawsuits for sexual
harassment and rape, his dealings with contractors, workers and constant
dishonesty was not enough to cause these fine outstanding captains of industry to
speak up. His refusal to condemn Nazis. His refusal to condemn the murder of
Black people by the police, this was not enough. They thought they could
control him as the rewards were impossible to ignore. He has been good to them giving them lots of
money, deregulating industries and so on.
Peggy Noonan, the eloquent former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan has spent four years on a roller coaster but the past few weeks are keeping her on track. In her weekly column in the Wall Street Journal she demands the “insurrectionists” be brought to justice as she assures the U.S. ruling class that we must “remember who we are” U.S. capitalism has a manifest destiny, it is ordained by their God, a Christian God as the US is a Christian country. Capitalist democracy, or more accurately bourgeois democracy must be defended, it is the apex of civilization as Francis Fukuyama once proclaimed.
“No civilized country can accept or allow what we saw Wednesday with the violent assault on the Capital. This was an attack on democracy itself.”, writes Noonan and, like all her class colleagues, the more astute, sober sections of the US ruling class, she warns that the “rule of law” is paramount:
“Rule by the people relies on adherence to law and process. The assault and siege was an attempt to stop the work of democracy by halting the peaceful transfer of presidential power, our crowning glory for more than two centuries.”
This was an insurrection Noonan affirms, “incited by the president of the United States.”. She likens the insurrection to the end days of Hitler as Trump “angrily channel surfs in his bunker”. America is not safe in his hands and he must go.
If only he had listened is what they really think. There was a collective gasp from the US ruling class when, during the debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump suggested he may not abide by the results of the election if he lost. He did lose the popular vote but was rescued by the undemocratic Electoral College.
Universal suffrage is an important component of capitalist democracy and in the U.S. it was yielded over a long period of time first only to white men with property to what we have today. This type of democracy works best for the ruling class, it is more stable and much less costly than military dictatorship or authoritarian rule and the serious theorists of capital are well aware of the dangers that fascism brings, it burned them badly in the past.
Along with their electoral system there are all the institutions of capitalism that allow it to function relatively smoothly which means profits and capital accumulation are secure. The universities, which are capitalist think tanks, the media, the courts and so on are all crucial to the system functioning and Trump has discredited them all, has undermined the institutions of capitalism.
What happened Wednesday threatens this set up. And it’s not just fascism, that threatens it as the US working class is the real concern. The inequality, poverty, and plain savagery of the market has taken its toll on the US working class and we have to recognize that. Since the events in Ferguson we have seen the most powerful multi-racial protests in this country certainly in my 50 years here. History, teaches that when the class struggle breaks in to the open there is an increased tendency to class unity as the class nature of society becomes more apparent and for decades, the US working class has been losing ground. These movements will not go away and at some point, organized labor will also be engulf in conflict as the movement affects organized workers.
The more sober representatives of US capitalism like Peggy Noonan recognize this and the dangers ahead. She refers to the assault on the Capitol as a “…a sin against history.”, and that “When something like this happens it tends to be repeated. It is our job to make sure it is not.” This is a real fear for the US ruling class and we should not lose sight of the fact that while they may have differences between themselves about hot to govern society; they are united in controlling it and these events will be used to increase social control and undermine civil liberties. Workers should be wary of this. Apparently, some union officials have called for state agencies to ban travel for “rioters’ or “terrorists” although I cannot confirm this. It matters which forces in society use these labels and why..
Noonan is aware of the rising anger and despair that Trump tapped in to from the right and Sanders from the left. Recall that many Sanders’ supporters switched to Trump after Sanders backed the warmonger Hillary Clinton. The heads of organized labor are in a similar position recognizing that any significant victories against the employers will inspire millions of workers and undermine their propaganda that concessions are inevitable and that we can’t win. Rank and file power threatens the relationship they have built with capital based on labor peace and acceptance of the market as the answer to all things; this is one reason the largely rank and file led teachers strikes/protests of 2018-19 are not promoted as the way forward for labor.
With Trump gone, the ruling class is hoping for a return to business as usual and a more stable capitalist democracy, stable for profit making and capital accumulation that is. But there is no going back. The Pandemic, itself a product of capitalist food production, has exacerbated what was already a growing economic crisis and the cost of the Pandemic will be added to this and workers and the middle class will pay for it one way or another.
Trump did not create the forces that turned up at the Capital last Wednesday, he simply gave them license, he coaxed them out of the shadows, they have always existed and the US has a long history of right wing extremism and fascist organizations. White supremacy has been an integral part of US society since the latter half of the 17th century when white became a racial definition. It seems inevitable that the Republican Party will split at some point in the not so distant future as the forces Trump has brought in to the open will seek a political expression, some sort of right wing or proto fascist formation.
Capitalism is a decaying system, it cannot stave off the looming environmental catastrophe that is its own making any more than it can end world hunger, poverty or wars. Racism as Malcolm X said, cannot be eliminated in the capitalist system of production. This will become more evident in the class battles that are over the horizon. The pandemic has revealed not only the weak underbelly of US capitalism but has also changed consciousness as those in society that received the least have sacrificed the most.
It will be no easy task shifting the burden of capitalist crisis on to their backs.
* Mohamad Safa, Permanent Lebanese representative to the UN.
No comments:
Post a Comment