by Sean
I have lived in a number of countries. Far from being the "best country
in the world" the US is one of the most difficult in which to hang your
hat. Compared with other advanced capitalist countries the mass of the
population have to work harder, pay more for health and education,
endure lower pay and benefits, endure greater violence and live in
greater insecurity. Why is this?
The explanation is
simple. The corporations and their system are much more dominant in the
US than they are in any other advanced capitalist country. They have a
monopoly of the mass political organizations, that is the two mass
political parties are capitalist parties, bought and paid for by the
capitalist class. Through these and the corporate state they control
society. There is no mass workers party to counter act even to the
slightest extent their propaganda political power and control.
Then
there is the monopoly they have over the mass media. This is being
challenged now by the social media but this unfortunately is still very
much liberal in its outlook instead of socialist and working class.
And
there is US foreign policy and its relationship to home policy. The US
corporations want to rob and loot the rest of the world, and they need
to keep their home population with them in this objective. After all the
children of the owners of the corporations will not fight the wars. So
the propaganda is always that we need to be ready for "war." It does
not call it that. It does not have a ministry for war. It has a ministry
for "defense." But who is going to invade the US? It is the US which
invades other countries and in fact is the only country to have dropped a
nuclear bomb on another country.
But what
this "defense" propaganda is good for is to keep the US masses down and
the US corporations dominant at home. If the country is always under the
threat of attack then the US masses are more easily convinced that they
must unite with the US corporations to defend the homeland. United we
stand propaganda. Not much united we stand when it comes to wages, jobs,
benefits, profits. What we have here is the US corporations assault on
the understanding and consciousness of the US working class.
But
every now and then the corporate dominance gets a bloody nose. In the
1930's the working class occupied the plants, increased union membership
six fold and forced the corporations to make major economic
concessions. This movement also increased the consciousness of the
working class about society in general.
Then
in the 1960's we had the great explosions of the black revolt and the
anti war movement and the women's movement. What a great decade. It
forced the corporate system to make major concessions on racism, along
with the heroism of the Vietnam fighters it ended the Vietnam war and
along with these events we had the women's movement which forced the
corporations to make concessions on gender issues also.
However
in spite of these great movements the US corporations are still much
more dominant today than in any other advanced capitalist country. This
is why life is so tough here. But the first signs of a new upsurge and
change are in the air. The first signs of a US spring. The recent
reaction to the de-funding of Planned Parenthood where they had to back
down, the movements in Wisconsin and Ohio where the extreme right
corporate agenda is being thrown back, the powerful anti racist reaction
to the murder of Treyvon Martin the black youth in Florida, all these
are signs of the first budding of the US spring.
This
coming US Spring will throw back and weaken the corporate dominance of
US society and make US life more humane. Hopefully it will have the
power to establish a mass workers party and increase the unions by tens
and tens of millions and end the capacity of the US corporations to go
to war and occupations abroad. A new day is dawning in the US. What an
enriched society it will become when the US masses in all their
diversity and energy throw back the corporations and begin to express
themselves and put their imprint on society and change the balance of
forces to the advantage of the working people and not the corporations.
Sean.