Counterrevolution Blues: The Corporate Lackeys Strike Back

[McCamy Taylor]

I. Counterrevolution Now

Last weekend 250 laid off union workers occupied Republic Door and Glass in Chicago demanding their severance pay. President-elect Obama expressed sympathy with their plight. Illinois Governor Blagojevich vowed that the state of Illinois would do no business with Bank of America until that company released some of the $25 billion it had received in tax payer bailouts to pay the workers what they were due. American workers celebrated---

And the next day, the Bush administration and the mainstream media effectively changed the subject by indicting Blagojevich, labeling him “insane” and tainting Obama in the process. When Obama tried to discuss his health care initiative, the press would only talk about “Whitewater II”. At the same time, Senate Republicans ignored the nation’s unemployment crisis and staged a filibuster of the auto industry bailout, because, in the opinion of Jim DeMint (R-SC), union employees make too damn much money. In their “Action Alert” as shown in MSNBC’s Countdown tonight, we saw that the Republicans never intended to bargain in good faith with the UAW. They always intended to send GM into bankruptcy---and blame the unions.

Revolution. Counterrevolution.

If you are reading this, you probably read what I wrote last weekend. In case you missed it, here is a link. Worker’s Revolution in America: Approaching Zero Hour

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/McCamy%20Taylor/337

Very briefly, over a century ago, Engels described the reasons why American workers lagged behind European workers in organization, and he listed the circumstances in which we would finally demand the kind of rights---health care, education, safe work place, respect —that European workers demand.

That day is here. The business interests which have been exploiting us to their own advantage----we are not only productive, we are also good little consumers--- will do anything to make sure that the window of opportunity passes without being put to use.

What follows is a real internet ad.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=80945

Help Plot the Counterrevolution

Do you feel like getting together with a bunch of like-minded people to plot the counterrevolution?
This very question might be considered seditious after Jan. 20. So, I'm asking it now. I'm planning an intimate little retreat to kickoff the New Year, and you are welcome to attend.
You can join me, my wife, Elizabeth, senior staff writer Jerome Corsi, Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein, managing editor David Kupelian and some old friends and new friends Jan. 4-11, 2009, as we conspire to fight back the threats to our freedom posed by incoming President Barack Obama (oh, how I hate to type that name with that title before it!)

These corporate lackeys will be on a cruise, plotting how to keep you from getting health care. They will also be scheming to keep your children from getting a college education, so that they can fill the less than subsistence minimum wage jobs of the future. And they will be working on a plan to keep the vote rigged so that corporations will control elections. That way, they can continue to adulterate our food, poison our air and water and send our jobs overseas----while raiding our tax coffers whenever their ponzi schemes backfire.

Speaking of ponzi scheme, please compare the mainstream media reaction to these two indictments.

First, The Financial Times has The Jaw Dropping Blagojevich Scandal .

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a63d2148-c7b6-11dd-b611-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

The complaint filed by prosecutors against Rod Blagojevich, Democratic governor of Illinois, raises several questions, once one’s astonishment subsides. If the details of the complaint are correct and the charges proved, a first puzzle will be to decide which is more remarkable, the settled culture of political corruption which they point to or the brazen stupidity of the accused.
On the face of it, the case does not embarrass the president-elect or his staff – rather the opposite, since Mr Blagojevich is shown as furious over the fact that he would be rewarded with mere appreciation for appointing the candidate once favoured by the Obama team. But this leaves some matters unresolved….

Funny, I think that this next scandal, that has unfolded almost simultaneously is much more jaw dropping but I will bet that the average American has not heard about it.

http://www.dailymarkets.com/scams/2008/12/12/former-chairman-of-the-nasdaq-stock-market-bernard-l-madoff-indicted/

Former Chairman Of The Nasdaq Stock Market, Bernard L. Madoff Indicted

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Thursday 70-year-old Bernard L. Madoff, ex-chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Markets and his investment firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, with securities fraud for a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme that he perpetrated on advisory clients of his firm, the SEC said in a statement.

From the SEC:
The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal court in Manhattan, alleges that Madoff yesterday informed two senior employees that his investment advisory business was a fraud. Madoff told these employees that he was “finished,” that he had “absolutely nothing,” that “it’s all just one big lie,” and that it was “basically, a giant Ponzi scheme.”
The senior employees understood him to be saying that he had for years been paying returns to certain investors out of the principal received from other, different investors. Madoff admitted in this conversation that the firm was insolvent and had been for years, and that he estimated the losses from this fraud were at least $50 billion.

Medoff’s firm is primarily known for its business in market-making, but Madoff also ran an investment-advisory business that managed money for high-net-worth individuals, hedge funds and other institutions.

According to regulatory filings on January 7, 2008, the Madoff firm served between 11 and 25 clients and had $17.1 billion in assets under management. It appears, notes the SEC, that virtually all assets of the advisory business are missing.

Holy multi-billion dollar rip off! Here is a guy who used to run the markets (so we know he knew better) who has stolen billions of dollars that we the tax payers are now being expected to fork up----and the press is hardly batting an eye compared to the 24 -7 coverage of a certain Illinois governor who is associated with the president-elect who is known to have sympathy for the plight of the working class. Mamma mia! That’s America!

I think Jerome Corsi is wasting the money of the people who sign up for his cruise. The American elite already know how to run a counterrevolution. First, they mobilize the corporate media. We have seen them in action this week. You have only to compare the kid gloves treatment that George W. Bush received through most of his first term to the way that they are already attacking Obama who has not even been sworn in yet to understand that W. was a corporate candidate . He represented those who have money in this country.

Second, they keep the cost of elections high. That way, even those candidates who want to represent the working classes are always having to think about fund raising just to keep their seats. This makes them easy targets for FBI (which has a right wing bias) stings especially since they can not count upon the corporate largess that bankrolls the conservative candidates. Any attempts to keep election costs low are attacked by the right wing as “attacks on freedom of speech”. The net effect of this is to restrict the ability of the voters to select candidates that truly represent the people. Instead, we get to choose between candidates that represent oil, manufacturing, high tech etc.

The counterrevolution plays the Divide and Conquer card. We saw it in the primaries, when the Republicans attempted to pit Democratic women versus Democratic Blacks. We see it in business, when they pit southern workers versus northern workers---whose state will get the jobs? They allow Latino immigrants into the country, but keep their status poor so that they will work for low (or no) wages.

http://www.hispanicprwire.com/news.php?l=in&id=12829&cha=14

MONTGOMERY, Ala., Oct. 16 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- A dozen Latino workers at a Tennessee cheese factory went weeks without pay and endured an abusive work environment before demanding paychecks from an employer, who then had them arrested, jailed and threatened with deportation, according to a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

The federal lawsuit charges that Durrett Cheese Sales of Manchester, Tenn., its president and several members of the Coffee County Sheriff's Department conspired to violate the rights of the workers by falsely charging them with trespassing after they stopped working and demanded paychecks that had been delayed several weeks.

"The company used the Coffee County Sheriff's Department and ICE to retaliate against employees exercising their legal rights to stage a peaceful work stoppage," said Mary Bauer, director of the SPLC's Immigrant Justice Project. "The sheriff's department didn't even bother to protect the rights of these workers."

Did you think that southern workers accept lower wages, because they have all adopted the spirit of St. Francis, and they choose to live more frugal lives? Hell no! Southern workers get paid less, because their bosses have been exploiting minority labor---first Black and now Latinos---from folks who have been victimized by the law for over a century. If you can pay a bunch of immigrants nothing, then the citizens will have to work for almost nothing .

The counterrevolution hates unions and busts them whenever possible. That is what the Alabama senators were doing this week. That is why they planned all along to let GM go under and blame the unions. Note that the press has been in their court, spreading disinformation about what a union autoworker makes as an hourly wage. Unions do more than stand up for the rights of workers. They provide a sense of empowerment. They are the first step towards a workers’ revolution in which all American laborers are treated with respect and dignity. The counterrevolution is trying very hard to blame the current economic crisis on unions and minorities even though we can all see that it has been caused by people like Madoff above who have stolen billions of dollars.

Oh, and by the way, Bank of America quietly capitulated and has agreed to pay the 250 workers their severance. That made hardly a blip in the wall to wall coverage of Blagojevich-gate. Would not want the workers of America to get drunk with power.

II. Counterrevolution Then

We can learn some lessons about the tricks of the counterrevolution by examining the ways that past counterrevolutionaries have acted.

Counter-revolution has existed almost as long as there has been revolution. In 1790, Edmund Burke wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflections_on_the_Revolution_in_France

prompting Thomas Paine to write the infinitely more readable The Rights of Man

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/paine/thomas/p147r/p1rights.html

I am contending for the rights of the living, and against their being willed away and controlled and contracted for by the manuscript assumed authority of the dead, and Mr. Burke is contending for the authority of the dead over the rights and freedom of the living.
Tom Paine The Rights of Man

Here we see one of the tools of the counterrevolution. Call it tradition, patriotism it is a principle which claims that the existing rules are more important than the people and that the people should change themselves to suit the rules.

Paine expands upon Burke expanding upon this theme in the Miscellaneous Chapter, quoting from Burke:

"The rights of men in government are their advantages; and these are often in balance between differences of good; and in compromises sometimes between good and evil, and sometimes between evil and evil. Political reason is a computing principle; adding- subtracting- multiplying- and dividing, morally and not metaphysically or mathematically, true moral denominations."

As the wondering audience, whom Mr. Burke supposes himself talking to, may not understand all this learned jargon, I will undertake to be its interpreter. The meaning, then, good people, of all this, is: That government is governed by no principle whatever; that it can make evil good, or good evil, just as it pleases. In short, that government is arbitrary power.

But there are some things which Mr. Burke has forgotten. First, he has not shown where the wisdom originally came from: and secondly, he has not shown by what authority it first began to act. In the manner he introduces the matter, it is either government stealing wisdom, or wisdom stealing government. It is without an origin, and its powers without authority. In short, it is usurpation.
Tom Paine The Rights of Man

The counterrevolution falls back on authority or the old my government, right or wrong argument to oppose the revolution.

Astonishing. Two hundred years later, the reactionaries are still using the same arguments. We can not change the way we do things, we have to respect traditions. It would not be American to do it that way.

Germany: From Revolution to Counter-Revolution by Bob Sewell demonstrates a whole encyclopedia of workers’ revolution busting tactics. Disgusted by WWI, German workers’, among the first in the world to embrace Marxism, staged a revolt. This lead to an on-going struggle with their own country’s bourgeoisie and elite classes in which the workers were systematically killed by counter-revolutionary forces, starved as runaway inflation reduced their earning power to nothing, tricked by corrupt labor leaders and distracted by nationalism as the enemy was declared to be France and other countries which had punished Germany with a large war debt( which did not keep Germany’s wealthiest from getting even wealthier even as it lead its people to suffer horribly. Makes you wonder if American, French and British capitalists planned it that way). All of this lead to the defeat of the left and the eventual rise of fascism.

http://www.marxist.com/germany-counter-revolution-rise-fascism.htm

Lessons that we can take away from Germany: beware of unions that care more about the interests of the business or the union leaders than the workers. On the other hand, if you cheer when a “rival” union gets taken down, who will be there to stand up for you, when your union is busted? (Think air traffic controllers). Most important of all, corporations and the governments that serve them will not hesitate to resort to force or even murder if necessary to keep workers docile and their wages low. This last one is a favorite of the gun crazy U.S. government, which used this tactic in Argentina and Chile to overthrow elected leftist governments and in countless other countries to murder labor leaders, usually under the guise of fighting communism or terrorism though in fact their real goal is to keep labor costs low for U.S. companies. Under the current administration, a similar coup was attempted in Venezuela, to oust the left wing government of Chavez, proving that nothing has changed since the days of Nixon-Kissinger--except that South American leaders are better prepared for U.S. interventionism. These attacks on foreign workers are attacks on U.S. workers, for if the men and women who labor in other countries do so for starvation wages at the wrong end of a gun, then American workers will see more of their jobs being shipped overseas.

In contrast, an executive branch that has workers' interests at heart will insist that workers in other countries receive a fair, living wage, and that they have decent work conditions. Plus, they should receive education and health care benefits just like we do at home (or should receive them at home) so that no company is tempted to exploit workers anywhere and so that workers all across the globe are able to become consumers of American goods. This will promote democracy around the world, since a healthy, educated, secure work force is one that has the time and resources necessary to take an interest in its own government. Bad for the Military Industrial Complex. Good for everyone else.

III. The Last Word

Speaking of the Military Industrial Complex, I will give the last word to Tom Paine. War, as we all know, has many uses. It is a favorite tool of the counterrevolution, since it provides an enemy to make workers forget that the elite are their natural enemies. For instance, the Saudi Royals use Al Qaedi for this purpose. Their disaffected young men are encouraged to go to other countries to fight "evil" rather than staying at home to clean up their own corrupt government. I recall a poignant moment in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in which a Lebanese communist declared that he used to be a leftist but after the invasion he was going to become a Muslim radical instead. Somewhere, a rich Muslim was smiling and maybe even high fiving a rich Jew. And it is a great way to bleed the people dry and give all their money to wealthy businessman for a cause about which they can not complain. Who can argue with defense of the nation?

War can be the cause of so much misery that it leads the workers of a nation to revolt, but war can also be used as a tool of the counterrevolution to solidify its power. Or, in the words of Orwell, We have always been at war with Oceania

From the Author's Preface to the French Edition of the Rights of Man:

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/paine/thomas/p147r/p1preffr.html

The government of England is no friend of the revolution of France. Of this we have sufficient proofs in the thanks given by that weak and witless person, the Elector of Hanover, sometimes called the King of England, to Mr. Burke for the insults heaped on it in his book, and in the malevolent comments of the English Minister, Pitt, in his speeches in Parliament.

In spite of the professions of sincerest friendship found in the official correspondence of the English government with that of France, its conduct gives the lie to all its declarations, and shows us clearly that it is not a court to be trusted, but an insane court, plunging in all the quarrels and intrigues of Europe, in quest of a war to satisfy its folly and countenance its extravagance.

The English nation, on the contrary, is very favorably disposed towards the French Revolution, and to the progress of liberty in the whole world; and this feeling will become more general in England as the intrigues and artifices of its government are better known, and the principles of the revolution better understood. The French should know that most English newspapers are directly in the pay of government, or, if indirectly connected with it, always under its orders; and that those papers constantly distort and attack the revolution in France in order to deceive the nation. But, as it is impossible long to prevent the prevalence of truth, the daily falsehoods of those papers no longer have the desired effect.

To be convinced that the voice of truth has been stifled in England, the world needs only to be told that the government regards and prosecutes as a libel that which it should protect.*<1> This outrage on morality is called law, and judges are found wicked enough to inflict penalties on truth.

The English government presents, just now, a curious phenomenon. Seeing that the French and English nations are getting rid of the prejudices and false notions formerly entertained against each other, and which have cost them so much money, that government seems to be placarding its need of a foe; for unless it finds one somewhere, no pretext exists for the enormous revenue and taxation now deemed necessary.

Therefore it seeks in Russia the enemy it has lost in France, and appears to say to the universe, or to say to itself. "If nobody will be so kind as to become my foe, I shall need no more fleets nor armies, and shall be forced to reduce my taxes. The American war enabled me to double the taxes; the Dutch business to add more; the Nootka humbug gave me a pretext for raising three millions sterling more; but unless I can make an enemy of Russia the harvest from wars will end. I was the first to incite Turk against Russian, and now I hope to reap a fresh crop of taxes."

If the miseries of war, and the flood of evils it spreads over a country, did not check all inclination to mirth, and turn laughter into grief, the frantic conduct of the government of England would only excite ridicule. But it is impossible to banish from one's mind the images of suffering which the contemplation of such vicious policy presents. To reason with governments, as they have existed for ages, is to argue with brutes. It is only from the nations themselves that reforms can be expected. There ought not now to exist any doubt that the peoples of France, England, and America, enlightened and enlightening each other, shall henceforth be able, not merely to give the world an example of good government, but by their united influence enforce its practice.

Tom Paine The Rights of Man

[Jackpine Radical]

1. McCamy, I am with you all the way, except for one detail:

I acknowledge the fact that Blago is scum, and I am something of a "coincidence theorist" with respect to his current problems. I think he brought things to a head for Fitz, and caused the plug to be pulled earlier than it would have otherwise happened.

On all the larger issues, however, I'm riding shotgun on your stagecoach.

[McCamy Taylor]

2. I think Fitz would have waited until he "sold" it to get TWO Dems except for the Bank of

America thing. If they had let the case progress, they could have caught all the people who were engaged in offering bribes and anyone who actually forked up money for the seat---take down two prominent Democrats rather than one. And if Obama gave a thumb up to the Senate pick, that would make Obama look involved.

To me, it looks like they pulled the plug on the investigation prematurely. Maybe someone in the administration threatened to leak it and so Fitz had to go public. For instance, Bank of America called the WH and said "Get this SOB Blagojevich off our backs!" and the WH said "He is about to be indicted" and Bank of America said "Indict him now!" and threatened to go to the press and leak the news that he was about to be indicted.

[D-Lee]

3. Prosecutor's press comments WERE extreme

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/opinion/13coburn.html?th&emc=th (free registration required)

The above article gives a thoughtful and authoritative perspective on a prosecutor's pre-trial comment limitations, which are relevant to assure that a defendant not be deprived of a later fair trial.

Just throwing this link into the mix and one might wish to ponder why a careful US Attorney (as Fitzgerald is reputed to be) would issue such extreme comments ...

[McCamy Taylor]

4. Thanks, Glad someone else agrees with me.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. It makes sense. We're just a little over 200 years old. A pup by a nation's

standard. What is coming next no capitalist could have seen coming. If they were too stupid to keep track of their own financial firms, they certainly won't be smart enough to see they handed the people all the reason they need to galvanize.

[rhett o rick]

6. Who is organizing the revolution? Peaceful of course. But we need to kick some congress-critters out

in the snow. We need to boycott businesses like ATT, BOA, GE, Exxon,etc. We need to find "Freedom Friendly" corporations to support.

[readmoreoften]

7. Understanding the process of revolution-counterrevolution is crucial.

My suggestion is that everyone read what they can on the Paris commune to understand the historical and political reality of counterrevolution. We need ideas for change based on historical precedents and material fact not utopian ideas of what "should be." Small "l' liberal ideas of pacifism and the hope for good government under parliamentary-style capitalism are far, far more utopian than anything a Marxist could come up with.

In 1871, the working-class citizens of Paris banded together to oust the remaining royals and clergy as well as the capitalist nationalists who fought the Royals. After they won their revolution, they quickly created a wonderful society run by the working-class complete with separation of church and state and public schools for all. They abolished police and saw a decline in crime. All this happened in two months. In their desire to show the world how peaceful they were, and partially because they truly believed that their own goodness was stronger than their vanquished enemies, they abolished the death penalty and did not kill the elites at the guillotine. Instead they signed a peace treaty and sent the rich to Versailles.

The clergy and the royals quickly conspired with their nationalist capitalist former enemies, manipulated the peasants through religion and used the military of the Prussian invaders and occupiers who were the literal enemies of France. They ignored their own peace treaty and slaughtered 30,000 men, women, and children--about half of the Paris Commune.

In counterrevolution we have seen that so-called "patriots", the church, the rich, and religious rural peoples who own land will conspire even with foreign occupiers to kill the working-class.

When I hear people say: "what we need is a government who won't let the rich do XYZ" all I can think is "utopian, utopian, utopian." How could such a government exist in any lasting way? It relies on the personal honesty of public officials and the good-heartedness of the rich as individuals. How could this really happen? Through "swearing to protect" or "swearing not to engage in backroom deals?" Especially in a mass-mediated society where the wealthy control the meaning of historical fact (bloggers can tell the truth, but it becomes 'conspiracy theory' until private media agrees.)

The reality is that no change is thinkable without understanding that there WILL BE a counterrevolution and accepting that it must be fought.

Great OP.