Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Corporate Fascism Marches On

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, May 2, 2011

Corporate Fascism Marches On

Click here to access article by David Glenn Cox from The Leftist Review.

...there are few issues with such broad bipartisan support as the Colombian Free Trade Agreement. ...It is one of three Free Trade acts now awaiting Congressional confirmation, along with South Korea and Panama. It has been said that insanity is repeating the same action over and over and expecting a different outcome. If that is so, then, Free Trade must qualify as the height of insanity.

Of course, it is insanity from the point of view of ordinary working people. You know, the people who actually produce and create things and services, some of which enriches our lives, but much of it is useless, wasteful, and harmful products that destroy lives and the environment.

Under capitalism we working people do not decide how we use our productive labor. That is decided by those who claim to "own" the enterprises in which we work under the laws of capitalism, laws which capitalists have established to serve themselves. What is produced is determined by how profitable it is for investors, not how well they serve human needs. So, from their point of view support of "free trade" policies does, indeed, serve their interests as he demonstrates throughout the rest of the article.

Hence, supporting such policies is perfectly rational for them. Once you accept a capitalist system, you must accept the consequences. It was designed only to serve the needs of a very tiny minority of people who lay ownership claim to our economy.

Another point also needs to be made about the relationship between capitalism and fascism. So-called Western democracies use carefully managed forms of representative government, constitutions, and elections to provide an appearance of "democracy", and comprehensive indoctrination via the institutions of education and media to insure that people believe in this facade.

When people stop believing in appearances and fight back against this tiny class of "owners", the latter are always prepared to use force to subdue the people. This is when fascism rears its ugly head. Hence, fascism must be seen as a integral part of capitalism and employed whenever appearances give way to reality and the system is threatened.

A system that truly promotes freedom and human fulfillment for all would provide working people with the opportunity to decide some of the most important decisions of their lives--what products and services that they will produce or create, how they will be produced, and how the wealth will be shared and used from this process. That would be a true democracy.