Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Obama's Cooper Union Speech: President Urges Wall Street Support For Reform

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

Friday, April 23, 2010

Obama's Cooper Union Speech: President Urges Wall Street Support For Reform

from Huffington Post. The author contrasts Obama's recent speech to that of FDR in the 1930's when the latter said,

"We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace -- business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. ...They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today.

"They are unanimous in their hate for me -- and I welcome their hatred."

Now, I am no fan of FDR. He was a brilliant member of the capitalist ruling class and feared various threats to his beloved system: the ruling class at that time was laced with pro-fascists, the planned economy of the Soviet Union was making vast strides at industrializing with no unemployment which appealed to many working people, and the economic system was in full collapse and there were no safety nets for working people.

He saved the system by cleverly steering a middle course by providing a few crumbs to calm the discontent of working people in the form of Workers Compensation, Social Security, more favorable labor laws, Federally sponsored employment programs, etc. And as the above quote illustrates, he used anti-banking rhetoric to pose as a friend of working people.

World War II brought the US out of the depression and the ruling class immediately went on the offensive to roll back many of the gains made for, and by working people by attacking militant labor leaders and left wing intellectuals (McCarthy period), co-opting others, passing restrictions on labor organizing, a massive media campaign against labor and left wing ideas, etc.