----- Original Message ----- Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2003 8:39 PM Subject: The Other War
> http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/index.cfm/action/tikkun/issue/tik0305/article/030511e.html > > Tikkun Magazine > May-June 2003 > Charles Derber > > While he is attacking Iraq, George W. Bush is also waging a war at home on > the American people. Launched with velvet economic and social weapons, > this other war is already devastating American workers and communities. > Yet Bush's war against ordinary Americans is largely invisible because the > media are busy dutifully mesmerizing the public with the official > propaganda entertainment on Iraq. It is high time to address this second > front of the Bush war regime, since there is still time to stop it. > > Over the past century, the American government has evolved into a marriage > of global companies, the American political class, and the Pentagon, with > corporations increasingly the dominant partner. This new Iron Triangle > does not share a completely unified set of interests, but the three > partners increasingly work together to maximize corporate profits and > minimize popular dissent. The corporate state they are working to create > is formally based on democratic rhetoric, constitutionalism, and free > elections, but it is profoundly anti-democratic in practice. Its aim is to > shovel public wealth into the coffers of private elites. Since the > corporate state steals from ordinary workers to enrich the wealthy, it is > plagued by a chronic crisis of legitimacy that requires the transformation > of citizens into couch potatoes. > > Bush's war at home seeks to tighten the grip of the corporate state by > radically accelerating this money transfer from poor to rich, > institutionalizing it in a reverse Robin Hood system for decades to come. > His efforts in support of the corporate state take place in the wake of > the dramatic new threats to its survival. The collapse of the financial > markets after the 1990s speculative boom marked the beginning of a > sustained crisis in corporate profitability, a long term unraveling of the > current economic order that could spell the decline of American global > hegemony. The Enron crisis created a follow-on crisis of faith in the > American corporate order both at home and abroad. The Bush war plan > attacks the double crises of profitability and faith by 1) refocusing the > American public on exaggerated foreign threats and 2) creating a "regime > change" at home that dismantles the remnants of the New Deal social > contract and enshrines a new brutal state capitalism never seen before. In > the name of the "free market," the Bush regime is marshalling all > resources of the state to bail the corporate order out of the mess that it > has created for itself. > > Bush's war at home has gone through its first battles, preparing the > ground for the domestic counterpart to the "battle of Baghdad," a pending > legislative campaign for the most radical socio-economic transformation > since the Civil War. The first stage of the warlaunched with massive tax > breaks for the rich, radical deregulation, vast corporate welfare, > zero-budgeting for social programs, and new policies to facilitate > corporate flight abroadis familiar from the Reagan years and relatively > benign compared to what is to come. But it has created vast new casualties > littered all over the home front. The most obvious are the millions of > Americans who have lost their jobs; Bush is the first president in modern > history to preside over a net loss of jobs, a staggering two million net > jobs "disappeared." Not surprisingly, 50 percent of Americans tell > pollsters that they fear for their own job in the next year. > > The casualties on the home front are concentrated among the unemployed and > the working poor, who together now constitute close to 40 percent of the > population. Bush's giant tax cuts for the wealthy, totaling in the > trillions of dollars up to 2010, are the largest hand-out to the rich > ever. The combination of tax cuts (including a shrinking of corporate > taxes from 50 percent in 1940 to about 14 percent of the entire tax burden > now) and vast increases in corporate subsidies and defense outlays, with > 50 percent of discretionary expenses going to the Pentagon, have already > radically reduced the amount of money for social programs, especially for > the most needy. In the House-approved Bush Budget for fiscal year 2004, > cuts would eliminate health coverage for 13.6 million kids, end school > lunches for 2.4 million low income children, end benefits for 65,000 > neglected and abused children, and reduce food stamp benefits to an > average 81 cents a meal from 91 cents. > > To staunch the red ink of exploding fiscal and trade deficits, Bush is > drawing blood by massively heaping burdens on states and localities that > already are experiencing horrific deficits, forcing new, draconian cuts in > education, health care, and social welfare on the state and local levels. > The deficits in states from California to New York are so high that > emergency services including police, fire, and "homeland security" are > being radically cut, on top of the mass firing of teachers, health care > and social workers, and the wholesale closing of schools, hospitals, and > community shelters and services. Meanwhile, Bush's trade and labor > policies have permitted big companies to eliminate defined benefit > pensions, abolish corporate health insurance (or dramatically cut benefits > and increase co-pays), and eliminate unions themselves. The percentage of > private sector unionized workers has fallen to under 9 percent under Bush, > drastically weakening workers' ability to defend minimal protections and > benefits. Bush's gift of $15 billion to the airlines after 9/11 while > offering nothing to their laid off workers is an apt symbol of the Bush > war at home. > > This is all preparatory for the "mother battle" to come. The war plan for > "regime change" at homea total transformation in the nation's political > economy beyond anything Reagan or the Gilded Age robber barons > envisionedis outlined in a series of legislative proposals that are buried > from public view in the current carefully-nurtured obsession with > terrorism and Iraq. Bush's plan exempts wealth from taxation and public > accountability, privatizes the entire "commons," removes monopoly > restraints on global companies, morphs the social welfare budget into a > corporate welfare system, enshrines a permanent warfare state for global > profits and domestic control, and builds a permanent government of CEOs > and a regime of radical inequality that Jefferson believed would destroy > democracy. > > A leading edge of the domestic "battle for Baghdad" is a series of > remarkably radical programs for restructuring the concept and taxation of > wealth. Taxation of wealth had always been based on a view that wealth is > produced from the commons and thus should be redistributed in some measure > to all who contribute to its creation. Bush has reconceptualized wealth as > the constitutionally protected fruit of private entrepreneurship, thus > negating the basis for taxing or controlling it. In the most radical shift > since the introduction of the income tax in 1913, Bush is proposing to end > the dividend tax and the estate tax while creating astonishing tax > shelters for upper income families. The abolition of the dividend and > estate taxes will benefit overwhelmingly the top 1 percent who already > control about 40 percent of the nation's wealth and 49 percent of taxable > stocks and mutual funds. The various tax shelter proposals allow a family > of four to remove $60,000 each year from taxation over the entire lifetime > of the owners; that is, once sheltered, no taxes will ever be paid on > these funds. Rationalized as a vehicle for increasing savings and > investment capital, it is a thinly disguised move to protect wealth from > the reach of the state, a parallel to the constitutional shifts made > during the Gilded Age that defined corporations as legal private persons > and sheltered their resources from public control. > > Closely related is the proposed legislation for privatizing social > security, legislation that will destroy social security as a > redistributive social contract across generations and turn it into an > entrepreneurial scheme for private investment. This is a part of the > privatization of the commons that involves not only dismantling all the > social insurance programs of the New Deal but turning public wilderness > forests over to the mining and timber companies; water resources over to > global conglomerates such as Bechtel; the air waves over to media > monopolies such as NewsCorp; educational, health, prison and social > welfare services over to corporations such as Microsoft and General > Electric; and even military services over to private military companies > such as Dyncorp and Military Professional Resources. Privatization of the > commons is embedded in the constitutionalism of the World Trade > Organization and the International Monetary Fund, both controlled through > Washington. > > One of the generals leading the domestic Battle of Baghdad is Colin > Powell's son, Michael, Bush's chair of the Federal Communications > Commission. Powell is fighting for near total deregulation of media > monopolies, removing the last restraints on concentration in radio, TV, > newspapers, and other key information and entertainment companies. Ten > corporations already control 11,000 radio stations, 2,000 television > stations, and 1,800 newspapers in the United States. The Powell plan would > allow Clear Channel, the largest radio empire in the States with over 1200 > stations to go up to well above 1500 stations, a move from already > astonishing market power to what media analysts such as Bernard Kalb > regard as market domination. The consequences of monopoly in this sector > are especially obvious and alarming, as Clear Channel already is allegedly > restricting any negative reporting on Iraq and preventing the playing of > popular anti-war songs on any of its channels. > > While the new global monopolies lock in control of global markets, their > size and political influence secures their control of government itself. > They are developing the capacity to turn the entire federal government > into a gigantic corporate patron, at whose ample breast they can suckle > indefinitely. Shifting federal resources from social welfare to corporate > welfare has been the key aim of both Democratic and Republican > administrations since the 1960s, with even right-wing institutions such as > the Cato institution agreeing with Ralph Nader that the cronyist annual > corporate handouts total at least $300 billion a year. The new corporate > state delivers far more expansive forms of corporate welfare than > agribusiness subsidies or pharmaceutical give-aways; Bush's plan will > shift virtually the entire social arm of the government to corporate > control while using foreign policy to secure global corporate profits. > Bush's novel contribution here is a new Orwellian empire to increase > profitability and repress dissent against the corporate state. > > Military Keynsianism has always been the secret weapon of radical free > marketeers to forestall the demand-side problem in the economy. Faced with > a very serious economic crisis in the wake of the global glut and > downturn, the slide in wages, and the collapse of consumer confidence, > these so-called free marketeers turn to military conquest to supply new > demand for corporate products and services. Bush is projecting military > spending approaching half a trillion in the next fiscal year; much of this > spending, including the war on Iraq, homeland security, and Iraqi > reconstruction, are bonanzas for some of Bush and Cheney's closest > corporate cronies. One of the first and most lucrative reconstruction > contracts for fire prevention and servicing Iraq's oil fields already has > gone to Halliburton, Cheney's energy company. This initial multi-million > dollar contract is just a down payment on the longer-term opportunity to > exploit the endless riches buried in the Iraqi desert. The almost certain > early reconstruction contracts that will be given to Bechtel, the world's > largest contractor with close Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld links, make clear > that intimate cronies will be at the head of the line at the Iraqi trough. > Those of us not blinded by the power of the corporate state can see that > the Iraq war will do far less than prior wars to solve the overall crisis > in the economy and is more likely, through imperial over-reach, to hasten > American hegemonic decline at the expense of rivals such as Europe and > China. Bush, however, is determined to go forward, blinded by his > messianic militarism and his passion to feed and grow the > military-industrial complex while in office. > > Indeed, the Bush plan is for total militarization at home and abroad, > since it enriches his cronies in the short term and represses dissent. > Controlling populist movements was also a vital aim of the Cold War, which > split labor from other popular movements and bound it to corporate power > in a monolithic force arrayed against "the evil Empire." The war on > terrorism is the successor to the Cold War, a vehicle for building > American empire and suppressing dissent in the name of anti-terrorism. > Like the Cold War, it shamelessly exploits fear and patriotism and > splinters opponents of the corporate state. Homeland security is just one > part of the "shock and awe" campaign at home that seeks to divide > progressive groupsincluding labor, environmental groups, and otherswho had > allied so explosively under the banner of global justice in Seattle. > Nonetheless, a pre-emptive peace movement has already struck back, not > only against the war in Iraq but against the larger imperial and domestic > aspirations of the corporate state. Bush's war at home is meeting > unexpected resistance; polls show a majority of Americans believe Bush's > domestic agenda is taking the country in the wrong direction. Fighting > Bush's unannounced war at home is and must continue to be an integral part > of the peace movement's agenda. There will be no peace anywhere until we > have created the regime change Americans need and will increasingly demand > as their own fortunes decline: our battle must be to replace the Bush > corporate state and its Republican or Democratic successors with > democracy. > > Charles Derber, professor of sociology at Boston College, is author of The > Wilding of America and the recently published People Before Profit: The > New Globalization in an Age of Terror, Big Money and Economic Crisis. _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
