let's give it back to the squares: Not to defend bourgeois democracy or anything...

servile-masses-arise:

philosophy-of-praxis:

akagoldfish:

While I agree that the US has not yet become a full blown fascist state, I think your commentary severally understates how far we have gone in that direction.

The line between the “private” and “public” sectors as are establishment refers to them…

It’s hard to work with a definition of fascism based solely on history because the examples of governments most widely regarded as ‘fascist’ (Germany, Italy, Spain, possibly Japan) were so different from each other. Fascism has never been a consistent ideology, even within individual countries it’s hard to make out a definitive strain of fascist thought. Look at Italy, they were monarchists, they were republicans, they were syndicalists, they were capitalists. It’s like Mussolini said, “fascism is 100% reaction”.

I’d almost say that calling the present system in the US fascist gives fascism credit where it isn’t due. The US system is far more stable and better equipt to sustain itself than any fascist one has been. How long did the longest fascist state last? As far as the ruling class were concerned, fascism was a quick means to an end - if Hitler hadn’t been so successful in gaining support from the working class the bourgoisie would have quitely deposed him in 1935, with a mansion and a title and the honour of being remembered as the man who saved Germany.

In my view, fascism is just what liberal capitalism looks like when it’s in crisis, preferably with a war economy. It is always the bourgeoisie’s last resort and will never leave their playbook. Even when there is no crisis, the ruling class will always wisely pander to a small fascist movement, willing to do their dirty work when the traditional methods fail.

This is why the fight against fascism is not a ‘single issue’ It’s one important front in the fight for working class self emancipation.

(Source: leftish)

Social Uprooting: On Perpetual Warfare and the Tacit Consent of the Governed

theamericanbear:

From Gary Kamiya:

If in the year 2000 the U.S. president had told the American people that the government would soon begin using robot planes to track people, including U.S. citizens, all over the world, and would reserve to itself the right to detain and kill them…

Corporate Margins And Profits Are Increasing, But Workers’ Wages Aren’t

As we’ve been noting, corporate profits have made it back to their pre-recession heights (even if corporate tax revenue hasn’t followed suit). In fact, in 2011, corporate profits hittheir highest level since 1950. But as Bloomberg News noted today, this hasn’t translated into wage growth or more purchasing power for workers:

Companies are improving margins and generating profits as wage growth for the American worker lags behind the prices of goods and services…While benefiting the bottom line for businesses, the decline in inflation-adjusted wages bodes ill for the sustainability of economic growth as consumers may eventually be forced to cut back. […]

Of the 394 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index that have reported since Jan. 9, earnings for the quarter ended Dec. 31 increased 5.1 percent on average and beat analyst estimates by 3.2 percent. Some 70 percent of the companies have posted better-than-projected results.

This pattern has become all too familiar during the slow economic recovery. In fact, real wages fell in 2011, despite record corporate profits. “There’s never been a postwar era in which unemployment has been this high for this long,” explained labor economist Gary Burtless. “Workers are in a very weak bargaining position.”

Between 2009 and 2011, 88 percent of national income growth went to corporate profits, while just 1 percent went to wages, a stat that is “historically unprecedented.”