Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Banking on Criminality: Drug Money and the Above-the-Law Global Banking Cartel

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, December 14, 2012

Banking on Criminality: Drug Money and the Above-the-Law Global Banking Cartel

Click here to access article by Andrew Gavin Marshall from his blog.

The fact that the Justice Department refused to prosecute HSBC because of the effects it could have on the financial system should be a clear sign that the financial system does not function for the benefit of people and society as a whole, and thus, that it needs to be dramatically changed, cartels need to be destroyed, banks broken up, criminal behaviour punished (not rewarded), and that people should dictate the policies of society, not a small network of international criminal cartel banks.

But then, that would be rational, so naturally it’s not even up for discussion.

This latest banking scandal illustrates once again that class structured societies will always function to serve the class that rules over the society. Hence, given the structure of existing powerful societies ruled over by capitalists, decisions of any significance will be decided in favor of their class, sometimes known as the One Percent. In this sense what judicial authorities decided was rational from the standpoint of their class. Of course, for the rest of us such judgements and decisions are irrational and unjust; however, because they are endemic to any class structured society, the only real, rational, and just solution is revolution and the establishment of inclusive, classless societies.