The ruling class has a long history in this respect. For 300 years, slavery, the pedestal of the economy, was presented to the world as democracy. When President Jackson defied the courts and ordered the Army to remove the Native Americans to Oklahoma, it was presented as in the interests of the Native Americans. The unprovoked invasion of Mexico and the annexation of half of its territory in the 19th century were presented as liberating the Mexican people from a corrupt and brutal government. Even today, the westward expansion of slavery during the 19th century is hailed as the “March of Democracy.”
History shows that the basic role of politics is to clear the way for the objective motion of the economy. What does that mean today?
The political form of government depends on the economy. When there is widespread ownership of the economy, democracy is necessary. When there is concentrated, restricted ownership of the economy, political forms hostile to democracy become necessary. America has been known as a democracy, despite slavery and monopoly control of the government, because of the petty ownership by broad strata of the American people. Wage-less, automated production is changing all this, and there is no going back to the previous era.
Globalization and automation began the process of polarization of wealth and poverty in our country. The first step is the destruction of the economic middle. Working class families, who 20 years ago owned homes and dabbled in the stock market, today see their homes in foreclosure and their savings and retirement wiped out, and face the grim possibility of poverty.
The economy is the foundation of the social order. That economy – the way things are produced and distributed – is fundamentally changing and ripping apart the society that rests upon it. Change means instability and the political structure is moving to protect the economy.
Suddenly government-directed socialization of loss and privatization of profit takes the place of “what governs least, governs best.” Trade unions, which long ago chose anti-communist “business unionism,” found it good business to place their considerable resources at the disposal of the corporations. Paths for corporations, unions and government, laid out decades ago, have converged. The developing merger of government, corporations and a labor front is not simply pro-business and anti- the people – it is fascism.
During the first half of the 1900s, a number of countries, especially Germany, Italy and Spain, began the transition from monarchy to democracy. This transition was a moment of political instability and popular forces surged forward to claim their country for the people. In order to protect the domination of the corporations, fascist revolutions overthrew the existing governments and imposed a dictatorship of corporate power in the form of a merger of government, the corporations and a government-sponsored trade union labor front to control the workers.
What happened in Europe and Asia by revolution and the force of arms is happening quite naturally in America. During the 1930s, revolutionaries pointed out that fascism would come to America in the form of democracy. There is a danger of that happening. The growing objective impulse toward nationalization of corporations “too big to fail” will further this fascist impulse unless the people gain control and ownership of the government.
Centuries of history have moved our country to a fork in the road. Which path will we take? Will it be the merger of corporate economic power with the legal force of the government in order to tighten control of the people? Or will it be a government of, by and for the people that makes these indispensable corporate giants public property? Time is short and the future is up to us.
Those
of us who seek fundamental social change are engaged in a
battle to win the hearts and minds of the people. This can't be done
without a revolutionary press. For 40 years, the People's Tribune
has brought our readers the stories of those who are struggling to
move forward in a world where corporate power is threatening to crush
them. Along with those stories, we try to offer some strategic
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People's Tribune Editorial Board
People's Tribune 'crucial' says contributor:
Never has it been more crucial to strengthen and expand the circulation of the People's Tribune. Leadership is emerging among the people who are "poor in things and rich in spirit"- and they need the news and analysis from the nation, from all the communities which are on the front lines struggling against harsh and brutal economic conditions.
We can do this. $5 a month from 200 people, $10 a month from a hundred people, $20 dollars a month from fifty people, $50 a month from twenty people - and we would have a thousand more dollars per month. The PT points the direction - it orients our leaders with a class perspective we just can't find anywhere else.
-Cathleen Williams Sacramento
People's Tribune 'crucial' says contributor:
Never has it been more crucial to strengthen and expand the circulation of the People's Tribune. Leadership is emerging among the people who are "poor in things and rich in spirit"- and they need the news and analysis from the nation, from all the communities which are on the front lines struggling against harsh and brutal economic conditions.
We can do this. $5 a month from 200 people, $10 a month from a hundred people, $20 dollars a month from fifty people, $50 a month from twenty people - and we would have a thousand more dollars per month. The PT points the direction - it orients our leaders with a class perspective we just can't find anywhere else.
-Cathleen Williams Sacramento
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continue publishing in our current form. For 40 years, the People's
Tribune has brought our readers the stories of those who are struggling
to move forward in a world where corporate power is threatening to
crush them. Along with those stories, we try to offer some strategic
perspective to help put the struggle in context and point the way
toward victory. The People's Tribune gets no grants and has an
all-volunteer staff. We rely completely on subscriptions and donations
from our readers. We do this so that we can continue speaking the truth.Please donate whatever you can.
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