Tag: Franklin D. Roosevelt

Why Biden supports the unionization of the Amazon workforce

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Why Biden supports the unionization of the Amazon workforce

First, the ruling class confronts an unprecedented crisis, which has been enormously intensified by the pandemic. As a result of the refusal of the ruling class to take the necessary measures to save lives, nearly 530,000 people have died from COVID-19 over the past year. The impact of mass death, combined with the disastrous social and economic situation, is having a profoundly radicalizing impact on the consciousness of workers and youth.

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Second, the international situation is no less concerning to the ruling class, which is determined to maintain its global hegemonic position through the use of military force. The Biden administration is carrying out an increasingly confrontational policy toward Russia and, in particular, China. The logic of this policy leads to war. In the event of a major “great power conflict,” the pro-capitalist unions will be critical in promoting national chauvinism and suppressing the class struggle. War abroad requires a disciplined “labor movement” at home.

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The strategy Biden is pursuing is known as corporatism—that is, the integration of the government with the corporations and the unions on the basis of a defense of the capitalist system. In 1938, Trotsky drew attention to this tendency when he wrote, in the founding document of the Fourth International, “In periods of acute class struggle, the leading bodies of the trade unions aim to become masters of the mass movement in order to render it harmless… In time of war or revolution, when the bourgeoisie is plunged into exceptional difficulties, trade union leaders usually become bourgeois ministers.”

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At its most fundamental level, the promotion of the unions by the ruling class is aimed at quarantining workers from socialism. The overriding fear of the ruling class is that the objective radicalization of the working class, intensified by the pandemic, will acquire a socialist leadership and political program. It is this fear that is behind Biden’s extraordinary intervention at Amazon.

With Black and Jewish Candidates in Deep South, Dems Projected to Win Georgia and Take Senate–Putting Biden’s ‘FDR-Sized’ Promise to the Test

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

With Black and Jewish Candidates in Deep South, Dems Projected to Win Georgia and Take Senate–Putting Biden’s ‘FDR-Sized’ Promise to the Test

The duo’s historic wins lock the Senate into a 50-50 split, which will be tipped in favor of the Democrats by another path-breaking politician: Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, the first Black woman to assume that role and the soon-to-be Senate tiebreaker.

Neoliberalism is the Bipartisan Consensus, Not the Lesser of Two Evils

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Neoliberalism is the Bipartisan Consensus, Not the Lesser of Two Evils

West’s incorrect partisan conceptualization of neoliberalism is not only wrong, but it is misleading. While the word “neoliberal” is etymologically related to the word “liberal,” it has no relationship with the current political usage of the term “liberal” and its modern association with the Democratic Party. Rather, it harkens back to the 18th century Scottish economic philosopher Adam Smith who advocated the removal of all tariffs and restrictions on free capital so that the “invisible hand” of the market could bring prosperity to all. In the post-WWII years of the 20th century, Smith’s ideas about the liberalization of capital were brought back into the spotlight by economist Friedrich Hayek and, later, Milton Friedman whose goal was to completely dismantle the social safety nets of FDR’s New Deal, which, it was argued, hampered free capital. Thus, neoliberalism is a “neo” form of 18th century economic liberalism and has no connection to the political “liberalism” of today’s Democratic Party.

Trump Regulator Set to Consider Approving the Banking Model that Ushered in the Great Depression – Uninsured Deposits

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Trump Regulator Set to Consider Approving the Banking Model that Ushered in the Great Depression – Uninsured Deposits

Seven banking and credit union associations have sent a letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the regulator of national banks in the U.S., spelling out the dangers of the OCC approving a pending bank charter that would allow a national bank to accept and hold deposits that lack federal deposit insurance. The lack of federal deposit insurance triggered the bank runs and banks collapses that played a key role in ushering in the Great Depression. (More on that in a moment.)

Social Democrats are Fooling Themselves: We Can’t Vote our way out of Neoliberalism

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Social Democrats are Fooling Themselves: We Can’t Vote our way out of Neoliberalism

The social democrats may argue that the people’s interests have been represented under capitalism in the past through the New Deal, but this argument is based in multiple layers of deception. Firstly, the interests of the proletariat and the poor will never truly be represented under a capitalist state; the New Deal (which didn’t even advance the wellbeing of those outside of the favored white settler population) was easily undone the moment the capitalist class decided that neoliberalism was necessary. Scandinavia’s descent into neoliberal austerity in recent decades is another example of how under capitalism the capitalists, not the people, have the final say. Secondly, social democracy within an imperialist country still means a perpetuation of imperialist violence and exploitation against colonialism’s victims; even the Scandanavia model, which is idealized by social democrats, has been built upon the profiting off of Western imperialism. And thirdly, capitalism’s crises have made it so that it’s no longer viable to establish social democracy.

How FDR Saved Capitalism

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

How FDR Saved Capitalism

Franklin Roosevelt succeeded in undercutting the growth of left-wing political movements in the mid-1930s by adopting much of the rhetoric of the left and co-opting many of its leaders.

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The fact that left-wing parties did not make significant inroads during the Great Depression dramatically demonstrated not only the power of America’s coalitional two-party system to dissuade a national third party but also the deeply antistatist, individualistic character of its electorate.

Related:

Presidential Firepower – How FDR saved capitalism in eight days.