The United States is not in a recession. We're getting "restructured" and "rationalized."

[Hannah Bell]

When you've lost a job or taken a steep pay cut; when your pension is threatened and your backup plan nose-dives; when you're faced with foreclosure or stuck in an abandoned neighborhood; when your biggest investment in life just lost half its value despite all the time, love, money and labor you put into it; when you're forced to relocate, but can't afford to uproot; when you're too young for Medicare and too old not to have pre-existing conditions that exclude you from health insurance; when you've followed all the rules only to find that the rules have changed--when one or all of the above apply, it's understandable that you may cling to your private barrel of anxieties as the current hurls you down the Niagara.

Understandable, but useless. The barrels that we cling to--contracts, unions, pensions, promises, IRAs, VEBAs--will not protect us. Workers' rights are not defined by law or contract. Workers' rights are defined by struggle. Empty barrels won't protect us from the precipice, and there's no turning back.

The United States is not in a recession. We're getting "restructured" and "rationalized."

The good news is no one--not the salary workers, the knowledge workers or the retirees--will be spared. The carbon monoxide of 'too-bad-for-them-but-I'm-okay' complacency has blown away. Catastrophe demands unity. The good news is, our history can lead us.

Money isn't lost, it changes hands. It's not a conspiracy, it's capitalism. The transfer of wealth from labor to capital didn't begin with the current crisis. We can trace it back to Caterpillar, Staley, Bridgestone and every lockout since then... We can trace it back to Southern tenant farms and garment sweatshops in Manhattan. What's new isn't the method but the magnitude. All workers in all sectors are under the whip this time...

http://socialistworker.org/2009/05/22/right-back-where-we-started

[Hannah Bell]

1. THE DELPHI bankruptcy characterizes the contemporary strategy and serves as a template

for what the Detroit Three and subsequent industries can expect. Recently, Delphi abolished health care and life insurance for salary retirees. The switch enabled the company to report to the SEC that it "swung to a $566 million net profit from a $577 million loss a year earlier" (Autobeat, 5/13/09). Easy money. Unearned money. Lots of it. Next, they will liquidate the salary pension. What's to stop them? Capitalism is the law.

GM and Chrysler may not achieve all their goals in the quick rinse bankruptcy controlled by the Feds, but they'll be back in court to finish the job, just like Delphi. Observe how history repeats itself. Base wages at Delphi were negotiated by the UAW in 2004, 18 months prior to bankruptcy: $14 per hour and no pension. Base wages at the Detroit Three were negotiated by the UAW in 2007, 18 months prior to bankruptcy: $14 per hour and no pension. One coincidence leads to another.

But the nail in the coffin is the agreement to settle the contract in 2011 by arbitration, based on nonunion standards. That isn't a contract, it's a death warrant for the UAW. The union agrees not to strike and commits to a goal that nullifies any benefit to union membership... Read the actual contract language at the Soldiers of Solidarity Web site.

Read it and weep. Weep for the unsung heroes who risked everything they loved in the depths of the Great Depression so the next generation might labor in dignity. Weep for the youngsters, who tread in the footprints of the generation, and who chose to collaborate with management and sold their birthright for a bowl of maggots that the clipboards call joint programs.

Read it and revolt like the heroes of America's civil rights movement, who faced guns and clubs, police dogs and fire hoses, pimped-out politicians, and judges controlled by cowards in hoods, so their children might live in dignity.

Read it and recognize that UAW members lost their voting rights...

[Hannah Bell]

2. The struggle isn't between North and South, black and white, native born and immigrant

--it's between labor and capital.

When we try to take back what belongs to us, they will beat us and arrest us, and we will know exactly where we stand on the precipice.

[valerief]

37. It always has been between labor and capital and always will be.

The haves vs. the have-nots.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

3. Hannah Bell, I admire your passion and enjoy your posts.

I agree with the view that we've had this enormous wealth transfer happen as we all stand transfixed and that literally no one will be spared.

I remember meeting an older airline pilot once who had to go back to work because his pension went down the tubes in a restructuring.He earned that pension through years of DEFERRING salary increases, etc. in order to keep the airline afloat so that at least he would have a comfortable retirement. Wrong. Gone. So not only was he out the pension, but all the salary deferred earlier. It's also interesting to note how many corporations protect executive pensions and severances by holding those assets in shell companies that are unaffected by bankruptcy.

At his particular point, hundreds of thousands of Americans are swirling the drain. REAL help would be an immediate increase in the minimum wage tied to inflation, a REAL National healthcare, a living wage established, caps on executive pay tied to the median wage in a publicly held company, I could go on. No one appears to be advocating or leading in Congress or the Senate or as a President on these bread and butter pocketbook issues that affect so many.

You are right that the complacency is gone, but what will replace it?

[Hannah Bell]

4. My hope is when people understand that it's deliberate policy, that

they're being conned, they'll be mad enough to push back.

I know dozens of people silently pretending like things are normal with them, when they're not. It's only the need to save face before others who seem to be ok that keeps them silent.

But things aren't ok for most people i know, & they're getting worse, not better.

and no good news on the horizon - more bad news, in fact.

if the dam breaks in one place, it will break in many.

[flyarm]

6. and the worse it gets the more people hang on to this false "hope" crap.

while they are getting hosed big time and their money and their kids money goes to a select few..and it seems to me ..some around these parts here at du are in total denial..or on someone's payroll..only too willing to feed a pablum of more false hope to the masses..

I don't get it..unless some just don't leave their homes and go outside and don't see the massive store closings and homes in forclosure signs littering their neighborhoods.

all this hopey crap..has us losing our rights under the new WH regime..and according to some here..we should look the other way because it is "our guy" fucking us...

So we are supposed to cheer for the new guy who uses the old guys people to fuck us..but are they really the old guys people?? nah..it was all planned folks..wake up and smell the coffee..this was and is all planned. It's why the media shoved one guy down our throats telling us it was good for us..

We are all victims of good old manufactured media manipulation of the masses..even when we know what they do..we still turn them on for a daily dose of horseshit.

But this time our kids futures are at stake..and we are sitting by letting the powers steal their constitutional rights, and their future chances of jobs and living standards..and we cheer for some freaking kind of bullshit hope!

The banks get all the money ..and the car companies get sold off to companies with ownership that 2% stake is owned by Muammar Gaddafi of Libia the fucker who took down PaAm..and he gets millions upon millions..of the 7 billion this new government of ours just gave him with the Fiat transaction..warms the cockles f ones heart i tell you..not...

and why does Muammar Gaddafi get your money?? because the guy in charge (Obama)of
the new guy in our government's finances..( geithner) has
lifelong stakes in Ford Motor company..

so while you lose your homes , jobs, insurance..etc...keep up the hope dream..but understand that is all you are fucking getting..a bag full of horseshit hope!

[earth mom]

27. That's exactly how I feel-like how in the hell can anyone support what the greedy bastards

and their boot licking apologists supporters have done to this country and the majority of the people?! :wtf:

What pisses me off the most is that Obama as a black man, should know what greed and exploitation does to people who have no power or money.

Obama should gawd damn well know better.

Yet Obama allows the corruption and exploitation to continue, and even hired the same crooked fuckers to continue ripping us all off! :grr:

[flyarm]

29. yeah and Obama sent Geithner to see the Bildebergs at their annual meeting..getting warm fuzzies yet

as i have said for some time..there are no two parties..their is one giant money pot in the middle and they are all whoring themselves for it ..and the only people left out are "we the fing People"..

when one is guilty in DC they all fing are..it is one big kabuke dance and we are all taken to the cleaners..and none of them is ever held accountable..they throw a commission in front of you and lie their asses off..and you are left holding the bag..and it is recyle rince and recyle again..the same crooks come back and back and BACK ..AND THEY LET YOU THINK YOU VOTED FOR THE CROOKS.. YOU DON'T.

[PainPerdu]

40. Stanford Research Institute template

Ms. Bell, your post is superb.

And,you are so correct that this is INTENTIONAL. Indeed,the blueprint was crafted in the '60's. The plan was entitled "The Changing Images of Man."

It is available to read at Online Journal.Peter Chamberlain does an excellent synopsis there.

[blm]

5. I have said much the same to my circle.... it's been more like a controlled burn.

.

[lonestarnot]

9. Circle, are you circling wagons?

:evilgrin:

[blm]

13. heh...we may all HAVE to do that soon enough.

I meant a few close family and friends who have been paying attention in recent years. Very few in my family's case, as three of my sisters are actually married to fascist sympathizers.

[conscious evolution]

11. Culling the herd

Thats my pet theory.

[blindpig]

7. K&R N/T

[Karmadillo]

8. Thank you for posting this.

nt

[glitch]

10. Excellent post K & R

People will no doubt fear the "socialist" in the url, but eventually they'll lose their fear and get on with it.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

12. K&R

[crazylikafox]

14. k&r

[Luminous Animal]

15. K&R.

[maryf]

16. K&R nt

[blindpig]

17. They're pretty damned cocky..

Taking with both hands....hubris always leads to a bad end.

Couldn't help but happen, can't end in but one way.

[bottomtheweaver]

18. Good post. They've just about finished wrecking the New Deal

and this administration seems prepared to deliver the coup de grace. The shadow government has been growing steadily since they knocked off FDR in 1945 and they've just about got complete "mind control" of the planet. Democracies are sitting ducks thanks to our easily co-opted media. The internet is a new frontier they apparently hadn't fully anticipated the effects of, but I don't expect that to last much longer. Meanwhile, let's use it while we can! K/R

p.s. and guess who helped them do it? http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=318248&mesg_id=318248

[Greyhound]

22. Depending on definition, either Clinton or Idiot Frat Boy delivered the coup de grace

on the New Deal.

They're not stupid, they learned to move slowly. It took them 20 years to undo it, and that after they halted it's completion in the first place (see FDR's Second Bill of Rights).

[bottomtheweaver]

23. If they manage to wreck Social Security, it's all over.

We'll be right back in October 1929, or worse. And it could easily happen.

[Greyhound]

25. It could and I'm afraid it probably will.

All this happy horseshit about the recovery and being at the bottom is just PR to take the heat off while they finish the looting. The sucker's rally is flat and they've already started/continued the talking points about "fixing" SS, with not a peep about removing the cap.

The Great Crash was only the beginning, and we've already seen the 21st century version of that. Obama's been told numerous times that drastic action is necessary, but he seems determined to own this disaster. Oh well, he'll still be rich and just another ex-President, so it's not like he has to worry.

[bottomtheweaver]

31. It's possible, but here's the scenario I see:

by the time they get around to serious "entitlement reform," even if it's as soon as this summer, they'll have so completely squandered their credibility that no Rep in his/her right mind, or Senator up in 2010, will touch it. If chimperor couldn't pull it off with the entire propaganda machine on his side, I don't think this admin will either, although we already know they'll try.

I hate to think it will come down to Pelosi and Reid to hold the line, which basically means Pelosi, but it probably will, and I think the chances are good she'll come through. If she doesn't, we're so far up the creek it isn't funny.

[CoffeeCat]

33. What's scary is that Bush tried to destroy SocSec...

Remember Bush's tour around the United States, trying to convince senior citizens
to put their Soc Sec funds into the stock market.

Holy shit!

Can you imagine how up a creek those rec'ving Soc Sec would be now???? Their investments,
would have been halved!

That was but one rung on their Fascist ladder, but Bush didn't get to implement it, because
the public outcry was too fierce.

Can you imagine the windfall that would have been for Wall Street?

More people need to bring up that point...Where in the hell would we be today if Bush's privatization
plan had been allowed to move forward?

[Delphinus]

34. Absolutely!

Maybe the Grey Panthers will rise up where the working masses will not?

[tiny elvis]

35. knocked off FDR

http://www.fdrassassination.50megs.com/

Shocking new evidence indicates that President Roosevelt did not die of a natural cause but was poisoned by Nazi agents...
DISCOVER that FDR fell into a coma just minutes after eating a cyanide-laced bowl of porridge and died two and a half hours later.
DISCOVER the First Lady, Surgeon General, chief of the Secret Service and head of the State Department all discovered FDR had been murdered, but conspired to conceal the facts.

I had to ask.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

19. And, we, (as opposed to the banks) are, sure as hell, not in a "recovery".

[Subdivisions]

20. Weren't you one one of the people on this site that was calling such rhetoric "tin foil"? K&R

If not, then my humble apologies. But I do seem to remember it that way.

[Hannah Bell]

24. no.

[Greyhound]

21. They and you have it. Unfortunately, it is not common knowledge

and it is kept from most people simply ensuring that most people are not directly effected by it.

20% - 25% of the working population is sufficient to achieve all the goals, and therefore most will not lose their jobs, and losing their actual job is the only thing people cannot ignore. All the rest is rationalized away as "corrections", "contractions", "an economic slowdown", and so on, just read the paper while you still can for the latest euphemism. Many will blame the "others", themselves, or just bad luck for their losses of savings/pension/IRA/401(k)/home value, etc.

We've been bled to death, and we still don't even know it. It is not about the death of the American economy, it is the concept of America that must be killed, the idea of the nation being owned and controlled by it's citizens for the benefit of those citizens. That is the goal and always has been.

A kinder, gentler feudalism (oligarchy, corporatism, whatever) with the parasite class in control of everything and everyone to build a better future for themselves.
:kick: & R

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

26. I am terribly afraid that within 20 years

this country will look like a banana republic. Top 1-2% has virtually all of the wealth, a small professional class of manangers (lawyers, accountants, administrators) holds all the rest. Everyone else is a peon with no rights (other than the rights to sit the fuck down, shut the fuck up and do as your betters damned well tell you or be jailed for your troubles) and no resources. This has been tried in the past and it has a name: Feudalism.

We are already a long way down the road to the plutocrats' ultimate fantasy.

[valerief]

38. We ARE China now, you know. nt

[autorank]

28. Bless you Hannah Bell k*r n/t

[ProgressIn2008]

30. K&R for the Socialist Worker and for some truth. nt

[leftstreet]

32. "It's not a conspiracy, it's capitalism"

Absolutely!

K&R

[bluesmail]

36. Thanks for the no BS thread. Gawd how I detest the BS threads. eom

[Joanne98]

39. Exactly. We're getting slaughted. Get ready to fight back.