------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Feb. 7, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
PEOPLE WANT JOBS, SOCIAL SECURITY--BUSH SAYS: "LET 'EM EAT WAR" By Leslie Feinberg New York The bigwigs of big business plan to wine and dine on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to celebrate the opening of the World Economic Forum. One familiar face at the annual capitalist think tank will be missing, but his presence will be felt like that of an 800-pound gorilla. Kenneth Lay, former Enron CEO and regular at Davos gatherings, has been politely, discreetly, but decidedly disinvited. Lay and his financial empire--now in ruin--were the unmentioned pink elephant in the ornate House of Representatives hall on Jan. 29, too. As George W. Bush, leader of the world's most dangerous regime, armed with the world's most dangerous weapons, strode to the dais amidst pomp and circumstance to deliver his bellicose State of the Union address, his former chief energy advisor was never mentioned and nowhere to be seen. How the mighty have fallen. Enron--the seventh-largest corporation in the world in its glory days--has become a dirty, five-letter word, from Washington to Wall Street. Corruption, greed, hubris, trickery, fraud--the list of charges Enron executives face in six Senate committees, two House committees, an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and a criminal inquiry by the Justice Department, is long. But greed and corruption alone do not cause economic recessions like the one widening and deepening around the world today. This crisis of abundance comes at the stage of history when goliath banks and mammoth corporations have fused into the monstrous entity of imperialist finance capital. They plunder the world's workers, pillage the most oppressed and ravage the planet with only one objective: profits. There is one law to which they must hew: expand or die. But the capitalist market is contracting. And the long shadow Enron casts may be the harbinger of a lengthy season of wintry recession. That makes the imperialist beast even more ravenous and more dangerous. RATTLING THE SABERS Bush's speech aimed to forge economic fear into war fervor. His speechwriters and advisors, who reportedly revised his address at least 18 times, were most certainly mindful of a recent poll by the New York Times and CBS News that showed people are more worried about the economy than "terrorism." (New York Times, Jan. 27) So as police ringed the Capitol Building, Bush rattled the sabers: "The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons." Even school children know that the U.S. has the biggest arsenal in the world. He characterized Iraq, Iran and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea--north Korea--as the "axis of evil"--meant to equate three small, developing countries with Nazi Germany, imperial Japan and Italy during World War II. Bush's demonization of these developing countries, none of them nuclear powers, "may have little to do with Sept. 11. It has a lot more to do with the Pentagon's long term plans, and for a $50 billion increase in defense spending, the biggest leap in two decades," noted the British Guardian Unlimited Online the following day. At a time when his administration is trying to crush Palestinian aspirations for national liberation, Bush made Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad targets of his "anti- terror" battle. Perhaps most significant was his statement: "I will not wait on events, while dangers gather. I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer." "Osama bin Laden was not mentioned once, al-Qaeda only in passing," observed Guardian Online. "The speech was clearly aimed at ushering in a new phase in the anti-terrorist campaign, in which links with the Sept. 11 attacks will no longer be the criteria for U.S. military action." But the countries in the crosshairs stood tall. "The world will not accept U.S. hegemony," Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi responded the next day. A statement from the Workers Party in north Korea called for withdrawal of the 37,000 U.S. troops in south Korea. It said "The U.S. seeks to unleash a new war with south Korea as a forward base and the U.S. forces in south Korea as the main force, swallow up the whole of Korea and, furthermore, put Asia under its military domination." Even the pro-U.S. government in the south rejected Bush's characterization of the north. In Baghdad, senior Iraqi parliamentarian Salim al-Qubaisi charged, "The American administration led by Bush has been threatening Iraq from time to time to prepare world public opinion for a new aggression against Iraq." Bush's 47-minute speech was interrupted more than 70 times by wild applause in the congressional chamber from the two parties of war. And much was made in the monopoly media about Bush's 80 percent approval rating in polls. But Bush Jr. would do well to recall how his father's popularity plummeted after the Gulf War as this country slid into a recession. In his State of the Union, Bush Jr. gave the economy shorter shrift. And there was less clapping from the Democrats. But they are both parties of big business. They are slinging mud, rather than stones, when it comes to the Enron debacle, for example, because they all live in glass palaces paid for by the banking and corporate empires. Bush's aggressive remarks were reminiscent of the 1952 declaration of Charles Wilson, President Dwight Eisenhower's defense secretary--and former president of General Motors-- that what was "good for General Motors" was "good for our country." Enron's deep ties to the Bush family give it an as- yet-unrevealed relationship to the CIA. The current Secretary of the Army, Thomas White Jr., was an Enron executive. When Bush Sr. was in the Oval Office he made the world "safe" for Enron and other predatory oil and gas transnationals. James A. Baker, an Enron consultant, helped the company win big contracts to help "rebuild" Kuwait after the Gulf War ended. (Newsweek, Jan. 28) Now Vice-President Richard Cheney has been forced to admit that he intervened with Indian officials last year on behalf of Enron regarding a troubled power project. Lay reportedly threatened Indian authorities with U.S. sanctions. (Financial Times, Jan. 25) The White House also concedes that Cheney met with Lay six times in 2001, the last just days before Enron's collapse. Bush and Cheney refuse to divulge details about discussions with Enron executives. Cheney sat directly behind Bush during the speech. Former Enron executive Sherron Smith Watkins is being hailed as a courageous whistle blower. But she sent management a warning so high-pitched that only the top dogs could hear it. Her letter warned Lay that another executive, J. Clifford Baxter, was complaining mightily to all who would listen about the company's crooked accounting schemes. After being subpoenaed by the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee, Baxter was found shot to death in his car. His death was quickly ruled a suicide. But it turns out he hired a bodyguard one day before he was found dead. Baxter's shooting is as convenient in its timing for Enron execs as Princess Di's demise was for the House of Windsor. A lawyer involved in the broadening Enron financial scandal told Newsweek, "All the facts that you know now are just the tip of the iceberg." (Jan. 28) Now, Bush Jr. is making Central Asia "safe" for campaign- contributor Unocal to build a lucrative gas pipeline. Who among the World Economic Forum coterie will cast the first stone at Enron? Coca-Cola executives, who reportedly hired death squads to terrorize their Colombian workers? BP Amoco, that is despoiling the planet? Merck, one of the giant pharmaceuticals that sued the South African government to bar it from obtaining generic AIDS drugs? Boeing, Microsoft and IBM, three of the Fortune 500 that use prison labor? Deutsche Bank, Siemens and Volkswagen, that wrung super-profits from slave labor during the Nazi era? Even now, on the eve of WEF opening, police are stationed in front of Old Navy, Starbucks and other hated symbols of U.S. finance capital here. As crowds of capitalists arrive, the cops are practicing crowd control against the have-nots. Bush, in his state of the union, called on working people to donate 4,000 hours of community service to their country. It's the movement against capitalism, against globalization's iron grip, that needs those volunteer hours. There are banners to paint, press releases to write, battles to strategize. Be all that you can be, in the army of the liberation. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
