Image: Unemployment By Ernest Neuschul 1931.
By Massoud Nayeri, Global Research —
The least expectations of all hardworking families are simple and noble. They want to raise their children to be educated, content and prosperous in a safe environment. This is a universal aspiration. From Baghdad to Boston, working families share the same hopes and expectations; only the degree of suffering separates them. When one part of a body is in strain, the whole body reacts in complexity. People around the world are responding to their particular problems in different ways. A farmer in Ecuador is confronted with the question of life and death while an American farmer is facing an uncertain and gloomy future. In other words, on the different levels, they all are suffering.
In the U.S., for many the “American Dream” meant to be secure and prosperous. America was the “land of milk and honey” and the “American Dream” was the immigrants’ dream. Today that dream has transformed into a nightmare. If one is poor in the U.S., he or she -one way or another- lives in the state of constant fear. This fear is real and it is rooted in an economical system that classifies people based on their class; the socio-economic status, race and gender. Logically, this fear is much more intense for those who are labeled as poor immigrants with or without a clear “legal status”.
In general, the poor and low-income families in the U.S. regardless of their race are suffering. The United Nations special report on the extreme poverty and human rights in the United States of America declares that
“about 40 million live in poverty, 18.5 million in extreme poverty, and 5.3 million live in Third World conditions of absolute poverty”.
In every major city, the number of homeless people is on the rise. This reality in the U.S. with the most powerful economy in the world is absolutely shocking. Why is the strongest economy in the world hopelessly entangled with the problems such as “homelessness” or is unable to provide basic necessities such as “clean water” to her citizens?
These days, it is not unusual to observe the growing number of American citizens who sleep on the pavements near luxury high-rise buildings in the major cities! There must be something rotten in the very core of a social system which increases its wealth without diminishing its misery. Indeed the problem lies in an economic system of exploitation – that is the Capitalist system.
From its inception, the U.S. grew as an unjust economic system. What is unprecedented today is the widest gap between wealth and poverty. Roughly in the last 3 decades the top 1% gained from $8.4 trillion to $29.5 trillion in wealth. This intense inequality has exposed the extreme nature of racism and chauvinism of the U.S. government. Although today the ultra-right wing politicians, officials and the so-called political analysts boldly propagate racism and xenophobia more than ever; nonetheless it is vital to concentrate on the roots of the problem not the outcome.
Slavery in the U.S. did not originate from racism; rather racism necessitated the justification of the exploitation of slaves. Today “Black Lives Matter” and “Me Too” – so-called movements – are confusing the roots of an economical exploitation with its byproducts, racism and chauvinism. A good doctor seeks to find the actual cause of a patient’s medical problem through the apparent symptoms. In the U.S. like any other Capitalist countries, the exploitation of working people is the cause of the problem; racism and chauvinism are the symptoms.
However, this simple difference between the actual cause and symptoms of any problem in the U.S. is not clear for many activists. Their valuable energy, dedication and determination are acted out as daring but politically blindfolded! They carry different flags, from pseudo-Socialists to Antifa small groups in hope to “wake up” the majority. In reality they have become tools for distraction and obstacles in the revolutionary path. Their gurus who they worship emphatically usually are the Capitalist functionaries at best. It is unbelievable but true that the so-called “Socialists” or “Communists” find their salvation in the Democratic Party! They are so feeble that they worship Mrs. Gabbard or Mr. Sanders as their saviors of the working people! These small groups of activists against the power of the working people believe in the “alternative facts”! They still believe that the outmoded Capitalist system is reformable, if only the right politicians are in charge! Meanwhile, as “progressives” they support the online censorship and are totally silent about the unjust incarceration of innocent whistleblowers and true journalists such as Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning.
The profound disparity between wealth and poverty is shaping the future of the United States of America. This unbalanced and unjust distribution of wealth undeniably has reached the point of an explosive and unstable stage. This means the grand ideology of planters and merchants in 17th century in creating a Republic no longer serves the interest of the entire “1%” in the United States of America.
This is a unique situation which demands a new system of operation. A system that either embraces one form of barbarism or releases the powerful forces of the “99%” in creating a just and revolutionary social and economical organization in benefit of the majority. The outcome of revolution and counter-revolution will determine the future of the United States of America. Today, the three branches of the U.S. government (Executive, Legislative and Judicial) are disharmonious and as a result are inefficient to administrate a functional government.
For the financial elite, the functionality and not the descriptive formality of the government is the main concern. Support for Fascism in Germany – a new form of a Capitalist government- rose rapidly in 2 years. In September 1930 election, the insignificant Nazi Party votes increased up to 700 percent! On January 30th, 1933, the financial German elite appointed Hitler as Chancellor and the leader of Germany. Of course for these drastic changes to take place; the reactionary elements in Germany were projecting themselves for long time and were ready to seize the moment in the right time.
Today, in the U.S. the same Fascistic elements are finding their voice and opportunity to implement the American style of Fascism. The Presidency of Mr. Trump has opened a new method of governance, an authoritarian and dictatorial regime. The White House has intensified its willingness to undermine the idea of separation of powers by the looming “impeachment” saga. President Trump in many ways has made it clear that he is prepared to utilize violent forces against his political opponents. On many occasions, Mr. Trump has projected that any attempt to replace him will start a “civil war” in the U.S.
For the working families, the animosity and out of control hostility of the Democratic and Republican parties toward each other is worrisome. The 2016 election put Mr. Trump, a conman with a Fascistic agenda in the White House. President Trump from the start created a support base for himself against those who he claims “hate America”.
On January 23rd, 2016 in Iowa, Mr. Trump as a professional conman projected himself as the most trusted leader among his followers by saying:
“… my people are so smart… I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any votes.”
Since then, he has created an informal “Fifth Ave. Club” with hardcore members. He has tapped into the desire of the neglected middle class. A group of people who desperately seek to be associated with the glory of the wealthy minority in America just like the medieval peasants who worshiped their glorious Kings and Queens in Europe. They look up to Mr. Trump as their “God’s Chosen Leader” with wisdom to “Make America Great Again”.
Right after the 2016 election, the Democratic Party in opposition to the new political reality played its own dirty tricks. They tirelessly did everything to defame Mr. Trump as a “Russian asset” while supporting him wholeheartedly on the tax cut for the rich and increasing the military budget. The Democrats, in essence, were in agreement with President Trump to limit the democratic rights and govern as a police state in the name of “National Security”. After the failed “Mueller Report”, the Democrats ignited the “impeachment” saga in the hope to occupy the White House soon without the American people’s participation. They want a peaceful congressional coup d’état, a transformation of power without inciting the working people.
As the impeachment saga flares up each day, the hard-working families in the U.S. are witnessing a transformation of their government from “democracy” to an unknown future. If the Democratic Party leadership succeeds in their impeachment drive, then the military wing of the ruling class will be in power which is eager to drag the nation to a dangerous military confrontation with their long time “adversaries” such as Russia. A triumphed Democratic Party after the impeachment battle will give the warmongers a unique opportunity to advocate a military solution as the only solution to the American problem.
With this strategy, the party of war will demand the unconditional support and obedience from the working people by attacking their democratic rights in the name of “National Security”. A period that dissidents will be labeled as “Russian asset” and McCarthyism is unleashed for vicious persecutions and witch-hunt. On the other hand, if the impeachment effort is failed, the American people would witness a period of extreme “rule of law and order” by a despotic President. A dark period in American history that millions of conscious people will be either silenced, imprisoned or simply perish by harsh political repression and the American style of Fascism.
Fascism is a word that has been used many times from “left” or “right” to describe a demon that they loathe. But Fascism has its own concrete political definition. Mr. Trump is representing a version of Fascism in America. The rise of Mr. Trump and Trumpism to power in the U.S. is forming in different political and economical circumstances than Mussolini in Italy, Hitler in Germany or Franco in Spain. Trumpism is a premature newborn of Fascism. Mr. Trump was elected as president – of course not by the popular vote – now he wants to take this opportunity and reign as an absolute leader. The main obstacle against Mr. Trump’s personal adventure and Trumpism is the American Labor. The majority of working people in the U.S. are ready to combat any form of reactionary rule. They are on the rise again after decades of setbacks that they have had to endure since President Reagan came to power.
However, despite the Fascistic minded President with his incompetent GOP representatives and the illusive Democratic leadership, the American people are fighting independently for their own rights as workers, farmers, teachers, students, immigrants and minorities in general. The rise of the 99% in the U.S. at this level is extraordinary. Understanding the new wave of working people resistance in the U.S. requires an investigation of the social, political and economic backdrop.
The major Capitalist countries are either experiencing a recession or moving into it. The U.S. economy as the most powerful world economy also is not immune to this crisis. Even the most optimistic American economists admit that the U.S. economy is either at “risk” or on the “edge” of recession. Joshua Green of Bloomberg Business Week points out that
“The real peril facing Donald Trump’s presidency… is the possibility that the current mood of economic pessimism could intensify and push the country into a full-blown recession”.
Certainly Mr. Trump’s trade war has ended any hope to “achieve global economic stability” that the Capitalists around the world had hoped in the last G20 gathering. In the U.S., the real economy is undermining the rise of the stock market. The financial elites are nervous in anticipating another crisis even more severe than 2008. President Obama following President Bush, facing the 2008 economic crisis, stood on the back of working people in America to bail out the failing banks.
The commercial media at that time praised Mr. Obama as a hero and savior who turned around the recession! However, in 2019, the U.S. economy is facing yet another recession but this time under the leadership of a chaotic White House and without a pretentious hero Like Mr. Obama. This peculiar situation gives the American workers and farmers a chance to turn around the pending recession into a stage of a new prosperous economy- this prospect is only possible if a conscious and revolutionary leadership wins the trust of the majority of the working people in the U.S.
Workers and farmers -with or without an impending recession- already are resisting the 1% austerity measures, fighting for living wages and social conditions. They recognize their struggle is a global phenomenon. Millions of working people around the world from Chile, Haiti, Catalonia, France, UK, Hong Kong, Algeria, Lebanon, Ecuador, Morocco, Egypt, Russia, Iraq and many others are on streets defying the status quo in their countries. They are fighting back not in days but in weeks and months which is a new phenomenon in the class struggle. American auto workers and teachers already have joined this international movement despite of their conspirator union bosses. An uncompromising leadership of the productive forces in America – the workers and farmers- is the only power that is able to combat and defeat the destructive forces of the focal fascistic leadership of the Republican Party and the elusive Democratic Party.
However, the most catastrophic scenario that is facing humanity in general, beside the serious consequences of climate change is the inevitability of the third and final nuclear world war. Without a robust war industry, the U.S. economy will collapse in an instant. Fighting for PEACE is and should be the foremost concern for all democratic-minded people.
This article was originally published by Global Research
Massoud Nayeri is a graphic designer and an independent peace activist based in the United States. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
