[Peace-discuss] Fw: [laborsmilitantvoice] The stop in the mind again

Mon Mar 2 13:26:50 CST 2009

This is from a friend of mine in Oakland California.

David J.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Richard Mellor 
To: “444“ 
Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 12:35 PM
Subject: [laborsmilitantvoice] The stop in the mind again

I was at a school board meeting last week, the last of numerous meetings aimed at wearing down the public’s resistance to cuts in education.   The board president and others cried their crocodile tears at having to cut such vital public services and layoff workers but had to “deal with this”, The cuts were being “pushed down on us”  was the excuse, a variation of the “I was just following orders” defense.

This scenario is happening throughout the state of California, and indeed the nation, as candidates who ran for election on a platform of commitment to excellent public education are dismantling it rather than “pushing back”.

In this instance, the board had brought back a recommendation for the public to consider that “mitigates” the damage.  Naturally, after three or four meetings at which the pubic are informed by elected officials and Union leaders alike that that there is no money, their enthusiasm wanes and they stay at home.  The board announced to the audience that they needed direction---but there was only one direction presented, and that was backwards.  This is not an inspiring strategy. But it is not supposed to inspire, it is supposed to convince the audience that defeat is inevitable.

In language that one would not hear from their mouths at election time, the board Chairperson made it clear that if the California economy worsens they will be back doing the same thing next year.  The board is telling the victims of the cuts a year in advance that they will do the same.  They are willing partners in the assault on education as they have no plan for fighting back.  Their election campaigns were nothing but empty promises.

Are cuts really inevitable?  Is there a lack of money?  Well, if we accept the banker’s and their politician’s arguments that there is no money, then cuts are inevitable.  But anyone who has not been in a coma for the past six months can see that there is plenty of money.  Just this morning, the government announced it is bailing out the world’s largest insurance company for the third time in six months.  The US taxpayer already owns 80% of AIG and in this new deal will cancel some $35 billion the company owes you and I, part of an earlier $60bn gift.  In addition, the interest rate on the rest of the loan will be reduced. Aren’t we nice people?  With the initial TARP bailout of $700 billion, the first $350 billion of that was handed over to the banks and disappeared in to a black hole.  They used it to buy treasuries and other banks. Some $8 trillion has been promised with more to come.  No, there’s plenty of money, at least $15 billion or more a month is being spent in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The board in this instance gave due warning that in a year’s time, (most likely before as the crisis is so deep) they will dismantle an already underfunded education system even further.  They have to be fiscally responsible, they argue.  It is laughable were the consequences not so tragic, but fiscal responsibility is not the trademark of those whose hands are on the economic levers of society.  Enron executives swindled the state of California out of billions.  Bernie Maddoff stole $50 billion, a sum greater than the GDP of countries like Syria or Kenya.  And a figure that stuns the mind, $11 trillion, is estimated to have been stashed away in offshore accounts by wealthy individuals (not corporations) in order to avoid taxes.  

The English historian, Christopher Hill made an interesting point about the process that took place during the English revolution of the 1640’s.  He said that the heroic revolutionists waging a struggle against feudal absolutism had one major problem.  He called it the “stop in the mind.”  They accepted the dominant ideology of the time that claimed the king was king by “Divine Right”.  Known, not surprisingly, as “The divine right of kings” and accepted by everyone as truth, it was very difficult to challenge the King’s right to rule; the rising capitalist class, and the religious oppositionists like John Bunyan who spent 11 years in jail for his beliefs, had “a stop in the mind”, they could only go so far; petitioning the king’s pleasure was about their limit. As long as they accepted “Divine Right” they could only mitigate their situation, they could only put forward a strategy that alleviated the pain; they couldn’t develop a strategy to eliminate it.

It is not quite as simplistic as this but I would say that Oliver Cromwell came along and suggested they cut off the Kings head and see what happens.  This occurred, and the Divine Right of Kings lost its grip on the population.

I am not suggesting that we cut off anyone’s head but if we want to stop this assault on jobs, housing, education, and our living standards in general, we have to reject the argument that there is no money.  We have to reject their concept of what is realistic, schools closing, people losing jobs and homes, and adopt and fight for what we think is realistic and for the allocation of resources to attain it. If we do not, then we will end up with what they want and not what we need.

Over the past year I have been at a few school board meetings in the local area.  Each community campaigns separately at “their” school board for less cuts.  There is no attempt go on the offensive and broaden the campaign and link up with people in neighboring communities.  Each school board could play a different role.  They could have taken the position that they oppose the cuts and will not implement them.  They could call on the school boards in neighboring communities and urge them to do the same and notify the state authorities that this is their position; that they will not be the agents of destruction in education.

They could call meetings in each community, say three or four local communities to start that would be advertised as meetings to signal the end of the decline of public education.  Instead of breaking up in to little groups to figure out how and where to implement the cuts dictated from above, they can break up in to groups to plan how to take the campaign to neighboring communities and pressure their boards to join them and encourage people to join the campaign in the process. They can explain that their best defense against retaliation by the state for defending education is for the population to be active.

In this way a more generalized grass roots campaign can be built from the ground up and would demand that the bailout of the bankers stop, we want our money back and our bailout.  A campaign demanding what we need would have a powerful effect on people and inspire them as opposed to demoralizing them which is the intention of the present elected officials. People are very angry and want things to change, they just don’t see a force in society to which they can turn.

A campaign of this nature could start with demands such as:

A $15 an hour minimum wage now (this would increase demand)
No tax increases on homeowners 
Restore Taxes on Rich & End War – Return money to our Communities
Reduce Class Size to 12 
Corporate America OUT of our schools 
No layoffs--hire more teachers
Fully Funded Schools Democratically Run by Students, Teachers, Parents, Community

This economic crisis is not over and is historic in nature. This does not mean there is no money. We are witnessing a strike of capital.  They are refusing to let capital go and are fleeing to safety with it.  They are now likely to take further public control of the financial system in order to shift the burden of recovery more solidly on to the backs of the people who get up and go to work every morning.  

Even the discredited former Federal Reserve chief and Ayn Rand supporter, Alan Greenspan is calling for the nationalization of the banks. They want to create a “bad bank”  where they can deposit all the bad deals their friends made and have the public clean them up before they  give the viable remains back to the private sector.
Nouriel Roubini, one of the shining stars of the market economists called for the nationalization of the banks as this "Bolshevik nationalization" is a better alternative to throwing trillions of dollars at "Zombie banks."

They are very worried that the patience of US worker’s and the middle class is wearing thin. “The decision to save AIG could fuel mounting public anger” writes Francesco Guerrera in today’s FT.  

If we want to pass on to our children an education system that works for them and an environment that allows teachers to provide that education, we need to let them feel this public anger; and in order to do that, we need to organize it.  The Labor leaders at the highest levels have the power to do this but they won’t as they accept that there is no money also; they will only act if they are faced with massive pressure from below.  It is the responsibility of all of us, parents, teachers and students, to help build a movement that will drive this assault on our living standards backwards.

Richard

"Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you."  Pericles, 430 BC

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http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/
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