And if you listened to Democracy Now yesterday, you heard the former Greek
minister of Finance describe how the German and French banks are doing
something similar to Greece. He explained the situation in detail and it was
horrifying. I'm not even sure what empire we're talking about. This seems
to be the Finance Industry, banks, shadow banking, hedge funds, huge
corporations who are in business solely to benefit stock holders and not to
produce products, and politicians throughout the western world who work on
behalf of financial elites, not on behalf of their countries.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2016 10:37 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: my blog carl jarvis
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: [blind-democracy] US, Puerto Rican govts
squeeze workers for debt
Have you ever wondered what an Empire looks like in its death throes?
Well, if you skipped classes on the days your teacher discussed the Fall of
the Roman Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, or any of a dozen
others, then just take a good look at Puerto Rico. As the wealthy Lords and
Ladies thrash about desperately attempting to squeeze a few last drops of
blood from the Puerto Rican people, even the Working Class is listed as an
endangered species.
Working Class Americans need to take notice of the decline of their brothers
and sisters being forced to bear the Cross of Corporate Debt laid upon their
backs. Study it well. This is the inevitable fate for working class
people whose Ruling Class has turned to plundering its own people. And when
those Puerto Rican workers have been robbed of all they own, the Masters
will bring out the military and the Bully Boys to force them to bend their
backs just a little harder.
At least, as an avowed Agnostic, I don't have the embarrassing task of
trying to explain how my Loving God can allow this corrupt Empire to crush
the Spirit of a beautiful People.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/28/16, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2016/8017/801751.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 17 May 2, 2016
US, Puerto Rican govts squeeze workers for debt
BY SETH GALINSKY
The colonial government of Puerto Rico declared a fiscal state of
emergency April 5 and authorized Gov. Alejandro García Padilla to
impose a moratorium on payments on its $72 billion debt. Fortune
magazine ran an article with a headline proclaiming, Puerto Rico Has
Decided It Doesnt Need to Pay Its Debts.
But the temporary measure is simply a maneuver to win a better deal
than a so-called rescue plan being debated in the U.S. Congress.
Proposed by Republicans and backed by some Democrats, that plan would
set up a U.S.-appointed fiscal control board, which would decide which
debts get paid first and would have the power to impose haircuts on
bondholders, the equivalent of bankruptcy.
Garcías main demand is that more Puerto Rican capitalists be
represented on such a board.
A lot of the bondholders bought the bonds at half price, retired
hospital worker Luis Epardo said by phone from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico,
April 9. But they want to get paid 100 percent. Then there would be
no money to pay the police, teachers, pensions. They dont care about
the people of Puerto Rico.
Some bondholders who oppose bankruptcy because they are worried their
competitors will get paid first are threatening to sue. But Investors
Business Daily argued that Puerto Rico needs debt relief, saying the
choice is between order and chaos.
An editorial in the Wall Street Journal April 7 called on the Congress
to impose tough love in exchange for relief a rather arrogant
statement in light of Washingtons imperialist record on the island.
Ever since the U.S. military took control of Puerto Rico in 1898, U.S.
imperialism has plundered billions from the islands resources and
labor of its workers and farmers.
Washington encouraged the expansion of U.S.-based sugar companies that
drove many small farmers off the land. Today some 85 percent of the
fruits and vegetables consumed there are imported from the United States.
In 1920 Congress passed the Jones Act, requiring all maritime cargo to
Puerto Rico be carried on U.S.-owned ships, which doubles the cost of
imports. During the late 1940s Washington began giving U.S. companies
in Puerto Rico big federal and local tax breaks.
After the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Puerto Ricos fame
as the Poorhouse of the Caribbean was an embarrassment to the U.S.
capitalist rulers. Washington extended federal minimum wage laws to
the island and additional tax breaks to U.S. companies there, part of
an attempt to transform Puerto Rico into its Showcase of Democracy
to combat the attraction of workers and farmers in the region to the
Cuban Revolution. In 1976 the federal government completely exempted U.S.
companies there from corporate taxes.
From 1996 to 2005 Washington phased out many tax breaks, accelerating
the impact of the worldwide economic crisis, and highlighting once
again that Puerto Rico is a U.S. colony with no say in its own affairs.
While Puerto Rico is still a world center for pharmaceutical
manufacturing, the drug companies slashed their workforce from about
20,000 in 2000 to less than 11,000 in 2014. Employment in
manufacturing overall dropped more than 24 percent from 2007 to 2012.
Puerto Rico never recovered from a 2006 recession, its economy
shrinking for nine of the past 10 years. The government laid off
thousands of public workers, raised the retirement age, raised sales
taxes, cut pensions and took out more loans to pay the debt.
Gutting pension funds
To keep paying the bondholders, the government also shorted its
payments to pension funds. According to Reuters, the main pension
funds for 330,000 workers and retirees are virtually penniless with
about $1.8 billion in assets to pay $45 billion in liabilities.
More than 1,200 people are leaving the island for the United States
every week, especially youth and middle class professionals.
Industry is disappearing and young people cant find work, cattle
rancher Armando Arcelay told the Militant by phone from Aguadilla,
Puerto Rico, April 11. In my neighborhood, out of 70 homes, 10 are
abandoned. The young people are emigrating to Florida. The official
unemployment rate in Puerto Rico is 11.8 percent, more than double the
U.S. average.
There are thousands of small cattle ranchers on the island, many with
just 20 to 25 cows, Arcelay said, but slaughterhouses have begun
delaying payment for their cows and credit is harder to get.
As much as 20 percent of beef used to be produced here, he said.
But now were down to 5 percent.
Despite the mosquito-borne Zika virus epidemic, Arcelay said, the
municipal government has stopped spraying pesticides. They say there
is no money to fumigate.
The government didnt use the loans they got correctly, Arcelay said.
But thats not the fault of future generations.
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