[Peace-discuss] a possible flier for the next Main Event

[Jenifer Cartwright]

I like Bob McChesney's expression -- "Capitalism with the gloves off" -- a lot. Makes a good heading for the flyer, maybe. Recognising "tendencies to fascism" is good too -- our need to be forewarned, etc. Neo-liberalism is a term that turns me (and plenty of others) off... ditto that "liberal" has become perjorative, for some reason... and how on earth can Milton Friedman be considered "liberal" anything -- neo or otherwise??? Yeah yeah, I know, I'm not With the Program -- those were rhetorical questions, no need to enlighten me(!). Anyhow, unless yr target readership is The New Left, I'd say use terms and expressions that mean something to those taking the flyers, which "Captialism w/ the gloves off" and "Tendencies twds fascism" both do. Might resonate w/ readers considering that the economy and eavesdropping, etc have had much (unfavorable) press of late.
 --Jenifer
 
 

--- On Wed, 10/22/08, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at uiuc.edu> wrote:

From: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] a possible flier for the next Main Event
To: "ann h." <annhett at yahoo.com>
Cc: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
Date: Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 2:02 PM

ann h. wrote:
> 14 Points of fascism: The warning signs 
> http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm

Ann--

This might be a good place to start in a meeting discussion as we try to figure

out the shape of politics in the contemporary US, in order to oppose them.  But

I'm not sure it makes a good handout.

First, the US is not now a fascist state, except under a definition of fascism 
that would be adventitious and unhistorical.  What we want to oppose is not so 
much tendencies to fascism (altho' of course we would want to oppose them)
as 
the policies of this existing (non-fascist) government.

Second, altho' it may in the future be seen to be true that the US was
tending 
towards fascism in our day, making that the focus of our objection now may be 
regarded as crying wolf.  Again, I'd rather work on making people aware
that our 
government is killing people around the world -- and exposing why, against
their 
lies.

We might say that out enemy is neoliberalism, not (at the moment) fascism, 
because the latter doesn't exist (now), and the former surely does.  Bob 
McChesney made the distinction in a piece a decade ago:

    Earlier in the twentieth century some critics called fascism
"capitalism 
with the gloves off," meaning that fascism was pure capitalism without 
democratic rights and organizations. In fact, we know that fascism is vastly 
more complex than that. Neoliberalism, on the other hand, is indeed
"capitalism 
with the gloves off." It represents an era in which business forces are
stronger 
and more aggressive, and face less organized opposition than ever before. In 
this political climate they attempt to codify their political power and enact 
their vision on every possible front. As a result, business is increasingly 
difficult to challenge, and civil society (nonmarket, noncommercial, and 
democratic forces) barely exists at all.

    It is precisely in its oppression of nonmarket forces that we see how 
neoliberalism operates - not only as an economic system, but as a political and

cultural system as well. Here the differences with fascism, with its contempt 
for formal democracy and highly mobilized social movements based upon racism
and 
nationalism, are striking.  Neoliberalism works best when there is formal 
electoral democracy, but when the population is diverted from the information, 
access, and public forums necessary for meaningful participation in 
decision-making. As neoliberal guru Milton Friedman put it in Capitalism and 
Freedom, because profitmaking is the essence of democracy, any government that 
pursues antimarket policies is being antidemocratic, no matter how much
informed 
popular support they might enjoy. Therefore it is best to restrict governments 
to the job of protecting private property and enforcing contracts, and to limit

political debate to minor issues. (The real matters of resource production and 
distribution and social organization should be determined by market forces.)

--CGE
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