From The Outhouse

Junious Ricardo Stanton

Class Warfare In AmeriKKKa

"In no other country is the existence of social class, not to
mention class struggle, so vehemently denied as in the United
States. But in no other country are the class divisions so deep. And
nowhere else is class war practiced with a viciousness that equals
that of the American ruling class. It has taken less than 24 hours
for the strike of transit workers to expose before the eyes of the
world the brutal reality of American society. The strike exemplifies
the unbridgeable class divisions in American society, in which a
corrupt and reactionary financial oligarchy utilizes the most brutal
methods to smash all resistance to its lust for profits and personal
wealth. One has only to look at the cast of characters leading the
assault on transit workers to get a sense of the real social issues
at stake in this conflict. First, there is Michael Bloomberg, who
spent lavishly out of his vast personal fortune of more than $5
billion to buy the mayoralty. He had the effrontery to go before
cameras Tuesday to denounce bus and subway workers as "selfish,"
"thuggish," "disgraceful" and "shameful." Second, there is real
estate mogul Peter Kalikow, with a net worth of more than $1
billion, who is negotiating on behalf of the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority (MTA). Third, leading the anti-transit
worker hate campaign of the gutter media is Rupert Murdoch, the
owner of the New York Post and Fox News. His personal fortune is
estimated to be approximately $8 billion. These individuals pocket
in one day more than even the highest paid transit worker takes home
in a year. These are the people demanding that transit workers-whose
wages barely cover basic necessities in New York, one of the most
expensive cities in the world-sacrifice their wages, pensions and
benefits in order to meet the interest payments to rich investors,
who augment their fortunes by purchasing high-yield MTA bonds."
http://wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005

As the corporate mass media pumps out pablum to keep the
intellectually immature populous duped, distracted and bamboozled so
the class warfare being waged against them in AmeriKKKa is not
evident, the ruling elites continue to gorge themselves at the
expense of the poor, working and lower middle classes. No clearer
example is plainer than the recent New York transit workers strike.
The local New York City media (and for the most part the national
news outlets) demonized the striking workers as if they didn't have
a right to earn a decent living. Most media consumers are unaware
the corporate media suppresses news and information that would
reveal wages for most workers in AmeriKKKa let alone New York City
the most expensive city to live in in AmeriKKKa, have remained
stagnant or declined in recent years. Why is it the media suppresses
this type information but readily promotes the silly affairs and
goings on of celebrities and athletes? Because the media is in
cahoots with the elites who control the economy and make public
policy. "In a capitalist 'democracy' like the United States, the
corporate news media faithfully reflect the dominant class ideology
both in their reportage and commentary. At the same time, these
media leave the impression that they are free and independent,
capable of balanced coverage and objective commentary. How they
achieve these seemingly contradictory but legitimating goals is a
matter worthy of study. Notables in the media industry claim that
occasional inaccuracies do occur in news coverage because of
innocent error and everyday production problems such as deadline
pressures, budgetary restraints, and the difficulty of reducing a
complex story into a concise report. Furthermore, no communication
system can hope to report everything, hence selectivity is needed.

To be sure, such pressures and problems do exist and honest mistakes
are made, but do they really explain the media's overall
performance? True the press must be selective, but what principle of
selectivity is involved? I would argue that media bias usually does
not occur in random fashion; rather it moves in more or less
consistent directions, favoring management over labor, corporations
over corporate critics, affluent whites over low income minorities,
officialdom over protestors, the two-party monopoly over leftist
third parties, privatization and free market 'reforms' over public
sector development, U.S. dominance of the Third World over
revolutionary or populist social change, and conservative
commentators and columnists over progressive or radical ones."
Monopoly Media Manipulation Michael Peranti

The corporate media policy makers are committed to furthering the
class interests of the media owners and shareholders. Thus, in a
fascist climate such as we currently live in, the slant spin and
focus will be decidedly anti- organized labor but pro wealth
distribution policies away from the poor and working class into the
coffers, bank accounts, portfolios and spread sheets of the ruling
elites and their super rich associates. Recently the New York city
press vilified the Transit Workers Union that went out on strike for
increased wages and benefits but said little or nothing about the
outrageous sums of money Wall Street paid in bonuses in December.
"The news of the gargantuan payouts on Wall Street aroused little
interest from the mass media. The Times, like New York City's
tabloids, relegated the story to its business pages. What a contrast
to their reaction to last month's New York City transit strike, when
33,000 workers making an average salary of $50,000 dared to walk out
in opposition to management's demands for concessions! For three
days, Rupert Murdoch's New York Post and other sections of the mass
media could not contain their anger. They denounced the workers as
'rats,' calling them 'overpaid' and 'greedy,' and demanding that
they be fired and their leaders thrown in jail. Meanwhile, the media
shed crocodile tears for lower-paid workers, portraying them as the
real victims of the strike. It should be pointed out that the
bonuses paid out by Wall Street for 2005 alone would be enough to
cover the wages of every New York City transit worker-at the highest
scale and with overtime-for at least 10 years. Where is Murdoch's
outrage and that of rest of the city's media now? None of them are
calling Paulson, Fuld and Mack 'greedy rats' for taking in tens of
millions, while 20 percent of New York City's population is
attempting to survive on annual incomes of $7,000 or less."
http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jan2006/wall Similarly little was said
last November when Congress citing budgetary constraints cut $50
billion in funds benefiting college students, child support
enforcement, Medicaid and food stamp programs while slashing taxes
that will benefit primarily he richest one per cent of AmeriKKKans.
"House Republicans, after weeks of negotiations, narrowly passed a
budget bill early Friday to cut $50 billion from Medicaid, food
stamps, student loans and other programs over the complaints of
Democrats that Congress is squeezing students, the elderly and the
poor to pay for tax cuts for the rich. The House approved the bill
217-215, after GOP leaders agreed to demands from moderate
Republicans to jettison a measure to drill in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and to slightly reduce proposed cuts to
food stamps. Still, the vote was so politically sensitive that House
leaders didn't begin debate until 10 p.m. Thursday and didn't pass
the measure until nearly 2 a.m. -- when most news reporters gone and
only a few C-SPAN junkies could witness the fiery floor action. No
Democrats voted for the bill, and 14 Republicans opposed it. House
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said in a floor
speech that cutting money for Medicaid, child support enforcement
and foster care as the House prepares to vote on $70 billion in tax
cuts was a 'sin.'" http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article

The aggressive attacks on the poor and organized labor have been
going on for over twenty years starting with the decertification of
the US Air Traffic Controllers Union by the Reagan administration
and not a whimper of support for the Air Traffic Controllers by the
national leaders of the AFL-CIO. The disastrous and fiscally
irresponsible NeoCon agenda George W Bu$h is pushing calls for a
continuation of Reagan's polices: tax cuts for the rich, cut backs
and elimination of social welfare programs, erosion of the lower
middle class lifestyle through outsourcing and job transfers,
increased government expansion (Homeland Security) and a continuous
bloating of defense spending to siphon off any possibility the money
will be used for domestic improvements. Class warfare is taking the
poor and working class out. This by design and unless there is a
major shake up of the status quo from the bottom up, the trend will
continue unabated for the foreseeable future. "The real class
warfare in America today is top-down, as it has been ever since
Ronald Reagan. The proposed Bush tax cut, which would bestow 43
percent of the money on the top 1 percent of earners [see Robert
McIntyre, "Tax Wars," page 23] is just the beginning. The general
conservative assault on social endeavor is occasionally principled
and libertarian, but can be usefully understood in terms of class.
The rich don't need government because they can simply opt out--to
private schools, exclusive clubs, gated communities, personal
physicians, nannies, limousines, and helicopters. The rest of us
depend on basic public services and social infrastructure. Starve
Medicare, and you ration health care for those with a limited
ability to pay. Cut federal help to schools, and you deny upward
mobility to the children of the non-rich. Refuse to address the
job-family straddle faced by working parents, and you assault every
child whose parents cannot afford expensive private day care. That's
class warfare, big-time. Collective purpose is not just about social
investment. Deregulation has been a back-door form of class warfare.
A generation ago, industries such as airlines, electric power
generation, trucking, telephone service, hospitals, and banks were
all government-regulated. Supposedly, deregulation would help
consumers, but its practical effect has been a mixed bag. Airline
fares have come down on average (along with service), but prices
today are a crazy quilt, and average prices actually fell at a
faster rate before deregulation. The whole airline system is now a
mess. Likewise, electric power. Ditto banks. Ditto telephones." Top
Down Class Warfare Robert Kuttner
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww? So don't go for Bu$h's
okie-doke that the economy is getting better, yeah it might be for
CEOs and shareholders but not for working folks. IBM which is in
relatively healthy shape finance wise recently froze its pensions
for long time workers. What does that tell you? What do you think
companies like Ford and GM who are in deep trouble are going to do
with their pension plans which by the way, are severely
under-funded? How will IBM's move impact hourly wage earners and
working class folks in other businesses? Isn't deliberate pension
plan under-funding another example of class warfare? Is anyone
paying attention?

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