Standing at a crossroads

[People's World]

"We stand at a crossroads. We can either continue down the path of greater income inequality, ceding our voices and our democracy to the wealthy and the powerful. Or we can fight back. That is what men and women across America have chosen to do to make this Main Street's moment."
That quote comes from the new book, Fighting Back to Save the American Dream. The book was written by Gerald McEntee and Lee Saunders the past and current presidents, respectively, of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Their union has lost thousands of members in the war waged by the right wing against the union rights of the American people.
"Casino Capitalism," driven by the unbridled greed of the 1%, caused the current crisis.
It is the parasitic drive for maximum profits waged by finance capital in particular that brought the country down, not the benefits of public and private workers whose wages have been stagnating over the last three decades. During those three decades of stagnation for the vast majority, the 1% has accumulated fabulous and unprecedented wealth.
In their book, the two labor leaders put forward some real beefs with some Democrats and with the administration on some of the issues. The make it clear, however, that an historic setback for the 99% will result if the Republicans take the White House and U.S. Congress in November.
All of the organized progressive movements are on high alert. They know that they must unite and fight or face dire consequences. There is no "neutral" in this epic battle. "We stand at a crossroads."
The right wing has more dough then Nabisco and it is using it to spread racism, McCarthyism, immigrant bashing, homophobia and sexism. All of this aims to confuse, demobilize, demoralize and divide the people.
It is also out to steal this election Jim Crow style. The right is afraid that if the democratic and progressive majority of voters get to the polls, it will go down to defeat.
If the ultra right is defeated at the polls new possibilities for real change will open up. Hopefully, labor and peoples movements will be able to take the offensive.
Being able to take the offensive in the struggles for jobs, health care, peace and equality are critical to the survival of the 99%.
I am an American Communist and we as Communists believe that the American people in their majority will, in their time, find their way to transforming our economic system into Bill of Rights Socialism.
The battle today, however, is not for Socialism but for a higher form of democracy. It is a righteous struggle to avoid a social and economic catastrophe.
The aim of that struggle now is to change course, improve working people's lives and build the unity and power of the 99% while harnessing and weakening the dominance of the 1%.
Things cannot continue as they are.
For millions of working people, racial minorities, women, youth, immigrants and seniors this is a fight for survival.
This is the worst crisis since the 1930's. But it is happening at a more advanced stage of capitalist decline and decay and it is a worldwide crisis.
U.S. capitalism is 80 years older than it was during the Great Depression. Since then there have been many subsequent economic crises and also a structural crisis which exported much of the nation's manufacturing base.
Since then the Wall street parasites have been given even freer reign, causing unparalleled insecurity, deprivation and poverty for workingclass and middle class families.
We now live in a country where over half of the jobs pay less then $33,000. A quarter pay less than the federal poverty line. One hundred and three million live below twice the poverty line and 20.5 million have income less than half the poverty line. (Peter Edelman, "Worse than we Thought..", "The American Prospect", Poverty Issue, July/Aug. 2012, pg.12)
Other studies show that 146 million or nearly half the population are either poor or near poor. This is the American Dream?
Edelman says that we have become a low wage economy "to a far greater extent then we realize."
There is a big hole in the social safety net. Fifty million have no health care. Twenty five million are unemployed or underemployed. Millions have run out of benefits and in some cases hope.
Forty-nine million are hungry. That's one in six, for and for children one in five.
According to the National Center on Homelessness, 1.6 million children are homeless. That's one in 45.
We are number one in the world, however, when it comes to putting people in prison (2.3 million).
Because of economic racism black, Latino and immigrant communities are living in a permanent state of economic crisis.
This is the mess that the capitalist class has made of this nation, a nation built by the labor if its multi-racial, multi- national working class.
Yet, as bad as things are for so many, if the Republicans win, things will get even worse.
But this battle can be won.
Yes , "We are at a crossroads," but through a united fightback, a turning point in a good direction is possible.
Photo: Reversing a situation where 50 million have no health care is believed by many to be impossible if Romney wins the 2012 election. http://www.flickr.com/photos/progressohio/ / CC BY 2.0



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[blindpig]

These guys want to save the 'American Dream', I say we put a knife in it. The American Dream is the illusion that there is no class conflict, that the vast majority of us are 'middle class', that upward class mobility is easy-peasy, that America is the good, shining exemplar of the world. That the historical anomaly that this delusion is based upon, the period 1950-1975, was the first blush of empire, built upon the exploitation of a broken world economy, is conveniently forgotten. They conveniently ignore the fact that the tools of union power were being stripped away even as this this halcyon era was starting, setting the stage for today's deplorable state.

Casino Capitalism' huh, as opposed to what other kind? What kind of capitalism would you be OK with, Mr Union leaders? Where is the sea change in capitalism, which makes one flavor more acceptable than another? No such thing has occurred, industrial capitalism has been superseded by finance capital in the manner which Marx predicted, the capitalist hunt for cheaper labor overseas has been ongoing for over 30 years, there is no sea change, it is a cumulative effect. The biggest change has been the demise of the Soviet Union, which left world capital free of all constraints. It is a historical narrative of meeting the immediate requirements of capital, pretty cut and dry. There is no this, that or the other capitalism, there is just Capitalism. Class conflict is thus inevitable, the relationship is no different than 100 years ago, which side are you on, gentlemen?

Would things be much worse under a Republican administration? I suppose marginally so in some aspects, but generally speaking , given this administration's record, I cannot see it being much worse. The TPP, the austerity hammer which will assuredly come down next year, the sacrifice of our environment to capitalist profit, none of this will change, it will get worse, if anything. The only hopeful thing which might come out of a second term might finially be the realization that the people have no reason to support the Democratic Party, that it is just as much a tool of the ruling class as the Republicans. Detatched from that vampire which sucks away money, organization and motivation from the workers our class might begin to take back all that is rightfully ours.

[Dhalgren]

The only hopeful thing which might come out of a second term might finially be the realization that the people have no reason to support the Democratic Party, that it is just as much a tool of the ruling class as the Republicans. Detatched from that vampire which sucks away money, organization and motivation from the workers our class might begin to take back all that is rightfully ours.

That is the work for us: detaching the working class from the Democrats AND the Republicans. If Chernyshevsky is important to us, today, it is in showing us that starting small is a really big thing. We have to get out and start forming groups of (if nothing else) materialists - get the ball rolling. I think that Anax saw this site as just such a beginning. We need to get folks in the physical world to think and maybe come here and learn. Every person who rises up is a victory, every person who begins to view his/herself as a class member with a stake in this war is a march forward. It is a long damned road, but we have already begun...

[anaxarchos]

These guys want to save the 'American Dream', I say we put a knife in it. The American Dream is the illusion that there is no class conflict, that the vast majority of us are 'middle class', that upward class mobility is easy-peasy, that America is the good, shining exemplar of the world. That the historical anomaly that this delusion is based upon, the period 1950-1975, was the first blush of empire, built upon the exploitation of a broken world economy, is conveniently forgotten. They conveniently ignore the fact that the tools of union power were being stripped away even as this this halcyon era was starting, setting the stage for today's deplorable state.

Casino Capitalism' huh, as opposed to what other kind? What kind of capitalism would you be OK with, Mr Union leaders? Where is the sea change in capitalism, which makes one flavor more acceptable than another? No such thing has occurred, industrial capitalism has been superseded by finance capital in the manner which Marx predicted, the capitalist hunt for cheaper labor overseas has been ongoing for over 30 years, there is no sea change, it is a cumulative effect. The biggest change has been the demise of the Soviet Union, which left world capital free of all constraints. It is a historical narrative of meeting the immediate requirements of capital, pretty cut and dry. There is no this, that or the other capitalism, there is just Capitalism. Class conflict is thus inevitable, the relationship is no different than 100 years ago, which side are you on, gentlemen?

Would things be much worse under a Republican administration? I suppose marginally so in some aspects, but generally speaking , given this administration's record, I cannot see it being much worse. The TPP, the austerity hammer which will assuredly come down next year, the sacrifice of our environment to capitalist profit, none of this will change, it will get worse, if anything. The only hopeful thing which might come out of a second term might finially be the realization that the people have no reason to support the Democratic Party, that it is just as much a tool of the ruling class as the Republicans. Detatched from that vampire which sucks away money, organization and motivation from the workers our class might begin to take back all that is rightfully ours.

"These guys" claim to be materialists. If so, setting aside all sentimentality and nostalgia, they are obligated to explain how the objective basis for the "dream" is to return. If they don't believe these conditions can return, then why raise the slogan (banning Casino capitalism in favor of old fashioned vampire capitalism doesn't cut it)? If they do believe those conditions can return, then how do they return without also bringing with them the certainty of their future destruction?

Might as well admit that this fookin' dream is as dead as a doornail, irresepective of what anybody "wants"...

Wake the fuck up.

[Dhalgren]

Yet, as bad as things are for so many, if the Republicans win, things will get even worse.

So, over the last four years things have gotten worse. The extrapolation is that over the next four years things will get even worse. But, it will get worser with a Republican president than with a Democratic one (because, in the end, this guy is just talking about the Emperor). Yet he has not even made his case for this pitiful "crossroads". All of the things he lists as negative to the working class and detrimental to the "Murky Dream" are things that are supported by (if not sponsored by) the Great and Powerful Obama. For every "Republican Capitalist Shit" (RCS) there is a "Democratic Capitalist Shit" (DCS). The very idea that you would summon the terminology of the "crossroads" in this sorry stand-off is ludicrous.

He should have ended the piece with, "I'm a commie who believes in unicorns, faery tales, and the better angels of capitalist hearts!"

[runs with scissors]

Yet, as bad as things are for so many, if the Republicans win, things will get even worse.

How could they get worse? Maybe they'd get better. Could GOPRomney get away with all this austerity crap? The upcoming trade agreement? Bailing out banks and forcing us to give insurance companies $? Expanded war and extra judicial assassinations? Bush couldn't have, neither could McCain.

I shudder to think what else the Obamacrats have in store for us over the next 4 years. By the time they turn it over to Bush III the austerian policies will be in place and it'll all just be theater. But at least there should be a ton of middle class liberals out of work and free to campaign for their next Party Messiah.

Vote Robama or Obomney 2012!
Because what difference does it make?