That depends, Frank. At 81, I doubt I will live long enough to
witness an honest to goodness revolution. How old are you?
My grandson Jace, is 7 years old. He could well find himself in such
a wild world. If we simply look at the year 1917 and what was
happening around the globe, the Russian Revolution, the First World
War, the expansion of the young American Empire into Cuba, Puerto
Rico,the Philippines, and eyeing the Pacific Rim, not to mention the
Labor Union struggles within our own borders. There was not even a
safety net for the poor and the elderly. Yet it was not until the
Crash that brought on the Great Depression a dozen years later, that
almost brought the Working Class to the boiling point.
Close but no cigar! As President Herbert Hoover bumbled around with
his, "Trickle Down" theory, America was fast approaching the maelstrom
of no return. It took one of their own, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a
man who understood the precarious balance needed to maintain
capitalism, the under girding economic system that the ruling class
had built upon. Most of these greedy monsters never understood what a
hero they had in their midst. FDR almost single handedly saved the
nation from a costly revolution. Who can we say stands out today as
the hero who will cause the ruling class to share enough of their
wealth, to keep the nation on its course as Masters of Planet Earth?
Not Trump, nor Clinton. Sanders was certainly not one of the "in
crowd". He had no support to draw from if he had been chosen to lead.
Given that they have no Strong Man, the ruling class will maintain
control by force. They are not programmed to willingly give up any of
their ill gotten gains. The working class will not be satisfied with
the decreasing standard of living. The pot will certainly boil over.
And a revolution is exactly what we do not need. It will simply
replace our current oppressors with a new batch of eager controllers.
What we need is to call a Working Class National Conference, bringing
together as many of the great thinkers as we can, to sit down and plan
what sort of structure would be needed in order for all humans to live
productive and fulfilled lives.
When we have such a plan, we can determine the method of implementing
this new system without bringing our national pot to the boiling
point. We are so used to violence as our default position in solving
our problems, that we blind and deafen ourselves to ways of peacefully
achieving our goals.
Perhaps my grandson Jace will live to see a mass uprising. Or he
might see the planet suffocate in its own man-made puke. Or he could
well see the end of Humanity through our own weapons of mass
destruction. We need to wake to the fact that we are now in the
Valley of Death. There are more roads in this Valley that lead to
disaster and destruction, than there are leading to hope and peace.
So to take another look at your question, Frank, in our lifetime?
Well, what we do today is actually part of whatever future awaits us.
So I guess it is in our lifetime.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/12/16, Frank Ventura <frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl, you talking about in our lifetime here?
Frank
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2016 12:05 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The political war on the working class
The political war on the working class might better be said to be The
Enslavement of the Working Class.
As far as reading books in order to determine whether Capitalism is
bad for the Masses, or whether the Rich are just simply better bred
and brighter than the Working Class, we only need to look around us.
The rape of the natural resources and the inability of those doing the
plundering tell us all we know about Capitalism and our Master's
intelligence.
Currently it also points to the level of intelligence of the oppressed
masses. But the masses will finally tire of being treated like scum,
and they will rise up and replace the Capitalists with a New Order.
It always happens. And the Ruling Rapists and Plunderers never learn.
Far too often the Old Order is replaced by a New Order made up of
those just outside the guarded walls of the Ruling Class. These
people are no friend to the Working Class, even though they pull on
their sheep's clothing and come among us, smiling and telling us sweet
lies.
It is critical, before we waste our time and sacrifice our lives for a
regime change, that we know what we want to replace it with, and how
we will achieve it.
So, while the Working Class is ripe for revolution, it is not yet ready.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/11/16, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2016/8024/802420.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 24 June 20, 2016
(editorial)
The political war on the working class
“Blame the Trump voter for the drop in the labor force,” declared
columnist Rex Nutting on the news site MarketWatch June 3. “Older,
uneducated whites,” he said, have disproportionately given up looking
for a job, while those with a college diploma do well. “It’s the degree,
stupid,” Nutting concluded.
“The white American underclass is in thrall to a vicious, selfish
culture whose main products are misery and used heroin needles,” sneered
Kevin Williamson in the National Review in March.
Their contempt is typical of the mounting propaganda war against the
working class, from both the left and right of capitalist politics. The
hysterical denunciations of Donald Trump are not aimed at the bourgeois
politician, but rather at the workers who’ve turned out to hear him, fed
up with “politics as usual” and the effects of capitalism’s slow-burning
world depression and non-stop wars.
There is a growing openness among workers to discuss and debate the
broadest social and political questions. This is above all what the
ruling class fears.
The bosses and their spokespeople denigrate workers, trying to convince
us not only to accept deteriorating conditions of life, but to blame
ourselves. If we don’t have a college diploma, unemployment and low pay
are what we deserve. Health problems and addictions are a consequence of
lifestyle choices resulting from our “ignorance.” And on it goes.
Such anti-working-class slanders have long been directed against workers
who are African American. Today they are also aimed at “poor Hispanics”
and “poor whites” — that is, our whole class.
This propaganda war is articulated above all by voices among the
self-designated “meritocracy,” a high-earning professional and upper
middle-class layer seeking to justify its wealth and position.
The new book Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? Class, Privilege, and
Learning Under Capitalism by Jack Barnes, national secretary of the
Socialist Workers Party, explains the rise of this meritocracy and
sharpening class inequality in the United States, and answers the
anti-working-class propaganda war of the mouthpieces for capitalism.
Above all, as Barnes explains, it is about “the battle to throw off the
self-image the rulers teach us, and to recognize that we are capable of
taking power and organizing society.” Workers will find this book a
valuable tool as we discuss and organize along that course.
Related articles:
SWP: Capitalism wastes human ability, potential
Tenn. worker: ‘We sure need something different!’
US socialist candidate joins with striking workers in Quebec visit
Communist League in Australia: Workers need to organize independent of
bosses
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