Report from the USA: False Security

On July 4th, the leftists were out on the streets of Philadelphia to protest the Iraq occupation, and to mourn the abuses incurred against the sacred US constitution by the government it gave rise to. Or rather, by the class interests that gave rise to the Constitution. For the modern tendency of fascism and imperialism is just the capstone to the process which, since the first bourgeois revolutions, has inexorably driven the capitalist economy, an economy that has always required the bourgeois state to impose its will with violent force, as profit grows and the points of crisis and class struggle multiply. Indeed, the very US Constitution that is so praised for its mythical egalitarian content was drawn up partly for the purpose of centralizing the army of capital to crush revolts against its rule, such as the well-known but little-discussed “Shay’s Rebellion” of 1786-1787.

Now that the corpulent and filthy body of capital casts off its last democratic attire, we Marxists need only say that the machinations of the Bush gang (as would those of any other administration, for it is not the men who are the real masters in Washington DC) conform to the spirit, if not the letter, of the document put down by the “Founding Fathers”.

As the economy deepens into crisis, it continues with the modern solution – increased state intervention. The blame for all the troubles is laid on the heads of a handful of unruly corporate bureaucrats; the Enron and WorldCom scandals, trumpeted as the heights of corporate criminality (which the heroic Bush will deal with forthright) serve to eclipse the general cycle of great profits followed by devastating crises, leading to wars and further profits and crises, a cycle to which capital is held captive, regardless of the petty “ethics” of its individual functionaries.

Iraq and Beyond

Today, the armies of the bourgeois regime must sprawl the world over if capitalism is to survive. Iraq was a natural candidate as the next target in the so-called War on Terror, the new figurehead of imperialist expansion that is as hypocritical as it is open-ended. And with the war in Iraq, another ingredient is thrown in the pot: Liberation! A liberation by gunpoint, time-honored tradition of modern bourgeois cynicism. Even the professional humanitarians, stung by dissonance in the UN meetings, must surely bow their heads to this noble end.

However ridiculous the rhetoric of the puppet Bush and his sock-puppet Blair, the propaganda machine is well-oiled and deeply ingrained, and it seems that the majority of the US section of the working class is pacified, if not supportive, towards the aims of the Coalition.

Nevertheless, a growing impatience mounts as roughly 1 Coalition soldier, usually American, has been killed each day since “major combat operations” were declared finished by the US regime. While there is no draft in effect, military service is not quite as voluntary as the brass makes it out to be. The US military recruits by means of what is termed a “poverty draft,” whereby proletarian youth are drawn into the military by promises of college funding or at least better pay than any other employment available to them. For many it is the only available job. One of the military’s premier recruiting grounds is in the territory of Puerto Rico, where the per capita income is less than half of that in Mississipi, the poorest state. Overall, the military’s recruitment campaigns are overwhelmingly targeted at communities generally populated by working class “people of color”. Some media pundits have even recognized as much in a backhanded way, suggesting that a draft be instituted so as to draw recruits from all classes of society.

Various programs exist, such as the “GI Rights Hotline,” which aim to help recruits who want out, and there are occasional acts of resistance by individual soldiers, but there is as of yet no concerted campaign. However, discontent is growing within the ranks, especially after the military announced that it will be extending the soldiers’ stay in Iraq in light of the increased attacks launched against them.

On the eve of the Iraq war, the rallying cry of American leftists was “Inspections, Not War,” confirming the de facto alliance of the anti-war front with imperialism. For the opportunists, while they oppose American imperialism, do so as a loyal opposition within global capital as a whole, at this time siding with the governments of France, Germany, Russia, and others, and overall with the UN, that contemptible cabal of imperialist states, where butchers can come to wear a human mask.

The American leftists, with the blessing of Hollywood celebrities and pop stars, have been at great pains to pronounce that they’re patriots too, and they’re only doing what they feel is best for their great nation! They represent the interests of a minority in the American bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeoisie, who watch the continuing dissolution of the old “free world” alliances of the Cold War with nervousness.

The war now ended (or so it seems), there is little left for them to do but point fingers at Bush and make a big scandal out of the false intelligence with which the war was officially justified. “If only we had a more responsible president!” And so these alleged dissenters, who are ever eager to trumpet their “heroic” stands against state tyranny, are fully integrated into the system and will help fill the voting booths next year.

Meanwhile, the US government has resumed involvement in the so-called peace process in Palestine. However, this involvement may become increasingly nominal as Israel ceases to be the US’s central bulwark in the Middle East.

Perhaps of more significance are the recent African ventures. Bush has toured Africa with a newfound, and convenient, humanitarianism. Misgivings over Iraq aside, what respectable champion of “human rights” and “freedom”, cherished ideals of liberal do-gooders, could deny that an intervention in war-torn Liberia is a worthy cause? As with his earlier crocodile tears over Auschwitz, Bush condemned the sins of slavery committed by his predecessors, like a hitman who comes to confession to ask, not so much to absolve a past murder, but for permission for the next one.

An obvious question, for those having even a passing familiarity with recent African history, is why the US regime has set its eyes on Africa, when it had previously ignored the conflicts that have ravaged countries throughout the continent for years. One clear reason is the familiar need for oil, of which several African countries have plenty, and indeed, the US is already drawing about 18% of its oil from Nigeria, Angola, and Gabon, with large American investments being poured into Equatorial Guinea so as to exploit its ample oil supply in the near future. African oil provides an excellent opportunity for American oil companies to lessen their dependency on Middle Eastern oil controlled by OPEC.

More broadly, however, American capital needs new markets in the face of a strengthening European Union, which threatens to become a major imperialist rival against the US and its allies. Bush’s blasting of the EU in May over its ban on American biotechnology, and the US government’s petition to the World Trade Organization to intervene, are emblematic of a growing animosity between the powers. Just as the leaders of the EU cite biotech’s potentially harmful effects as their reason for opposing it, so does Bush wave African famines around as indicating a need for genetically modified crops. In the end, both of these reasons are a propaganda excuse for a looming trade fight.

Soon, the US military may establish its presence in Liberia, with the alleged intention of ending the violence and enforcing another project of “liberation”. Liberia could serve as a useful toehold for American imperialist influence, as it engages further noble causes, such as the aforementioned famines or the AIDS crisis, as means of extending its tendrils throughout the continent.

When we make these observations, let’s make it clear that we communists are certainly not indifferent to the conflicts and disasters that blight the world periodically. We have no lack of sympathy for the victims of these events. However, the imposing military forces arrayed today, by the world’s great bourgeois states, exist purely for the protection and expansion of capital. Capitalism, in the course of its designs, may have its police states intervene in various ravaged quarters, trumpeting its humanitarianism and temporarily alleviating some problems, but overall it is capital itself, with its necessary crises and conflicts, that breeds these very horrors, which will continue until the proletarian revolution delivers the death blow to such a monstrous system.

And so we can only observe with grim irony when the US regime, the same one that funds openly murderous regimes the world over (such as that of Equatorial Guinea in the very continent of Africa), which has aggravated the AIDS crisis in Africa by forbidding the production of generic AIDS medicines, pretends to be humanitarian when there is a profit to be made from it. We of course do not expect or demand that it behave otherwise. Only with the violent disposal of the bourgeois state can we put an end to the atrocities inherent to its existence.

Union Struggles

In October 2002, the regime responded to the west coast Longshoremen dispute with the Taft-Hartley Act, referred to by some as the Slave Labor Act, which, among other things, forbids general strikes, slowdowns, and secondary boycotts, leaves the bosses without any obligation to negotiate with unions, and allows the president to intervene in labor disputes deemed a threat to the national interest. The invocation of this act was both a mark of an economic crisis, and a reminder to all American workers of what interest the bourgeois state serves, to the point of dictatorial force if necessary. The dock workers eventually won a new contract but the implications for militant strike action remain.

Attacks on workers continue in the troubled airlines companies, which threaten layoffs resulting from bankruptcy if their workers’ unions don’t cooperate with tremendous wage cuts. It turned out that when unions cooperated, the layoffs came anyway. US Airways used the Iraq war, just as they had used the attacks of September 11th 2001, as an excuse to force wage concessions from their workers and impose over 3,000 layoffs. American Airlines imposed on its flight attendants’ and pilots’ unions a similar agreement allowing 3,000 layoffs and severe wage cuts, while at the same time the airline’s executives received raises. After months of disputes, the unions conceded, and at the beginning of July this year the layoffs have begun to take effect. The union bureaucrats of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), representing mechanics and baggage handlers from US Airways and United Airlines, came off to many workers as working on the side of the bosses.

In one instance, IAM made an agreement with United Airlines in Indianapolis to allow the closure of UA’s maintenance center there, despite a union contract forbidding such a closure. As a result, UA’s mechanics voted in July to end their 58 year membership in IAM and switch to the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA), a relatively small union outside of the AFL-CIO with a reputation for being more militant. The AMFA’s advantages are its transparent negotiations, the control exerted by the rank and file over the officers, and the fact that it had already won mechanics at Northwest Airlines the best contract in the industry. Overall, workers in the airline industry are recognizing that the economic crises and company collapses are features inherent to the present social system, and are rejecting the bosses’ reasoning that states that workers who resist their exploitation are the cause of their own misery.

A notable independent union movement that has emerged in recent years is the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). The CIW unites farm workers throughout the state of Florida who are largely Haitians, Latinos, and Mayan Indian immigrants, who are paid meager wages for grueling work. The CIW is best-known of late for its campaign against the fast-food chain Taco Bell, who buy many of their tomatoes from the “Six L’s Packing Company, Inc”, based in Immokalee, Florida. Six L’s pays its workers forty cents for every 32-pound bucket they pick. At such a rate, they would have two pick 2 tons of tomatoes if they were to make fifty dollars in a day. Taco Bell’s excuse: It’s the responsibility of the contractor company and not us! Which has not stopped Taco Bell from refusing to buy from contractors who mistreat livestock. The CIW has launched a campaign to increase the wages of tomato-pickers by 1 cent per pound, employing a combination of work stoppages and national boycotts. Though a definitive victory for the CIW has yet to come, marches in support of the Florida tomato-pickers have been held nation-wide, and student boycotts have forced the closure of Taco Bell locations in 16 college campuses. Most importantly, the issue has achieved a wide-scale awareness and many fellow farm-workers are beginning to express solidarity with the struggle of the CIW.

Overall, proletarians in the US are facing a tremendous bourgeois offensive in all industries, with government-backed infringements on healthcare and retirement benefits, and a general lengthening of the work week.

Meanwhile, nearly 10 million workers are unemployed and the figure is rising. The leadership of the AFL-CIO, the umbrella of the vast majority of American unions, is content to blame Bush for the economic crisis and to back the Democrats, rather than encourage a militant union movement actually capable of achieving results for the proletariat. However, the AFL-CIO, while generally a harbor for regime unions, does include some unions that are making progress, such as the union of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) which is aggressively organizing thousands of workers and leading a growing drive by many unions to organize outside of the government’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB imposes a lengthy time of legal wrangling before elections are held, which give the employers plenty of time to intimidate or fire workers who are pro-union, and to douse the workforce with anti-union propaganda. The growing dissatisfaction with the NLRB, and the turn to extralegal methods of struggle, is a positive sign on the road towards a red union movement.

The problem is that successfully organizing outside of the NLRB requires that workers have other resources with which to fight, such as strong support from workers nearby, and from the local working class community.

The few examples given here of union struggles are far from exhaustive, even inadequate, but it is hoped that some idea is given of the developments within what is presently the most imposing bastion of world capital that has ever existed. The present period of recession presents an intense attack on the US working class, and more and more proletarians are responding in kind.

The illusions of security and comfort that have long pacified the workers of the United States have already been broken for most, as the capitalist crisis reveals the unavoidable precariousness of the proletarian condition, as well as the only way out – the communist revolution.