Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Detroit bankruptcy ruling paves way for nationwide attack on pensions

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

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Detroit bankruptcy ruling paves way for nationwide attack on pensions

Click here to access article by Jerry White from World Socialist Web Site.

While the author shows in some detail how the capitalist legal process is being used to settle Detroit's debts in a socially unjust way, but for some strange reason--given that this piece is posted on a "socialist" website--he overlooks a fundamental reason why Detroit's unpayable debts exist at all.

Missing in this examination, which focuses on the trees instead of the forest, is the fact of private ownership of Detroit's economy whose private "owners" as constructed under a capitalist system allowed them to simply move their industry, built by Detroit workers, to other places all over the globe wherever they could find cheaper labor to rent.

It also ignores that capitalists are a ruling class, and as such have constructed all important institutions in the society over which they rule, the most important of which are the legal and governmental institutions. Therefore, it is no surprise that the bankruptcy proceedings for Detroit and the attack on worker's pensions are playing out as they are.