Capitalism and its
inequality is the number one enemy
of today’s world. That is the
objective and empirical reality that
is staring the world in the face.
June 30, 2021 "Information
Clearing House" - -
"SCF"
- - U.S. President Joe Biden and
his Western allies are trying to frame global
challenges in a way that ultimately avoids
dealing with the most urgent problem that really
matters – the explosion in inequality under the
capitalist economic system.
The poverty, hardship and litany of social
problems, including the impact of the Covid-19
pandemic, that stem from the grotesque
inequality that capitalism produces are – and
should be – the number one challenge for all
nations, particularly those in the West where
the issue is most acute.
However, instead of addressing what should be
blindingly obvious, Biden and other Western
so-called leaders are framing the challenges in
a cock-eyed way. That means the problem of
capitalist inequality accumulates and gets
worse. (And yet right-wing American media
pundits have the ignorant stupidity to describe
Biden and his Democrat party as being “radical
leftists” and “Marxists”. Jeez, give us a
break!)
Listening to Biden and the others at the
Group of Seven summit over the weekend, one
would think that the greatest challenge of our
time is the purported clash between “democracies
and autocracies”. That is, between the United
States and its Western allies on one hand, and
on the other hand Russia and China.
Yes, the G7 forum did mention other
challenges facing the world: the Covid-19
pandemic and adverse climate change. They are of
course priority concerns that need to be
addressed. But the number one challenge of
capitalist inequality is nowhere heard during
the hours and hours of tedious discussions. How
incredible is that?
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In what is perception management or narrative
control, Biden and the other Western politicians
promulgate alleged adversity from Russia and
China as somehow an existential problem of our
time. (Russia and China are always calling for
normal dialogue and relations, by the way).
Biden
says things like “the United States, the
European Union, NATO and G7 allies will stand
united together to confront Russia and China”.
OK, he tries to sound as if he doesn’t want
an all-out war, but the logic of Biden and his
allies is ultimately one of war.
On coming to Europe in his first overseas
trip as president, Biden openly
stated that he was rallying allies under
U.S. leadership against what he disparaging
calls “autocracies”. Biden’s tour of Europe was
to “re-establish U.S. leadership”, reported CNN.
While AP said the American president was “eager
to reassert the United States on the world
stage… pushing democracy as the only bulwark to
rising forces of authoritarianism.”
The series of summits at the G7 and with EU
leaders and NATO allies was framed in such a way
as to be the prelude to a showdown-like meeting
with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva
on June 16. What’s all the belligerence for? Can
Biden not just meet another important world
leader – Russia’s Putin – and discuss in an
earnest and cooperative manner vital issues
about the pandemic, climate change and nuclear
disarmament. No, of course, Biden can’t. Because
he and other Western politicians are held
hostage mentally by their own false propaganda
about alleged Russian malign conduct.
When Biden arrived in England last week ahead
of the G7 summit his first
speech was at a U.S. airbase, at Mildenhall
in Suffolk, where he addressed troops. He
depicted his mission in Europe as akin to the
challenge of the Second World War. He talked
about bomber aircraft taking off from that very
base and fighting against Nazi Germany.
Then Biden linked that background to his
meeting with Russia’s Putin. He said with a
tough-guy tone: “I’m heading to the G7, then to
the NATO ministerial, and then to meet with Mr
Putin to let him know what I want him to know.
And at every point along the way, we’re going to
make it clear that the United States is back and
democracies of the world are standing together
to tackle the toughest challenges and the issues
that matter most to our future; that we’re
committed to leading with strength, defending
our values, and delivering for our people.”
Building his historic narrative, President
Biden then went on to say: “Here’s why this all
matters so much right now: I believe we’re at an
inflection point in world history — the moment
where it falls to us to prove that democracies
will not just endure, but they will excel as we
rise to seize the enormous opportunities of a
new age. We have to discredit those who believe
that the age of democracy is over… We have to
expose as false the narrative that decrees of
dictators can match the speed and scale of the
21st [century] challenges.”
So Biden is making out that there is an
equivalence between the historic fight against
Nazi Germany and the “dictators” of Russia and
China.
This has become a mantra in Washington under
Biden, that the biggest historic challenge right
now is between “democracy and autocracy”. And if
we accept that narrative framework, then the
intended conclusion is that we must accept
American leadership. This is what the U.S.
political establishment is trying to push with
its frontman Joe Biden, and lamentably the
European political class is falling into line.
The upshot is that the world is being led into a
dead-end of confrontation between the West and
Russia and China. Why can’t the world just work
together in cooperation and mutual multilateral
benefit? Because the United States’ global power
is predicated on hegemony which in turn requires
control through setting up hostile blocs.
In the same week that Biden and his Western
allies were declaring that they were seeking to
address global challenges, and defending the
“rules-based order” (whatever that means), a
blockbuster revelation was
reported and hastily buried by the corporate
media. It was reported that billionaire
capitalists in the U.S. paid no taxes. People
like Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Elon Musk,
paid negligible or no tax on hundreds of
billions of dollars in increased wealth. That’s
only the tip of the iceberg. American CEOs and
the entire capitalist ruling class have seen
their wealth burgeon in recent years and they
have paid little to nothing to society in the
form of tax. This is while workers and their
families are increasingly paying more tax,
losing jobs, homes and their health.
This pathological, destructive and
unsustainable condition under capitalism has
seen vast chasms in inequality and poverty in
all Western societies, but especially so in the
United States. A handful of billionaires have
more combined wealth than half of the
population. That is the inherent and inevitable
dysfunction of the capitalist system which
degenerates into an oligarchy, not a democracy.
When Biden talks blithely about “our
democracies” what he really means is “our
oligarchies”.
Capitalism and its inequality is the number
one enemy of today’s world. That is the
objective and empirical reality that is staring
the world in the face. But don’t expect the
American and European so-called leaders to
acknowledge or even be aware of that. They’re
only tinkering with a terminally broken system,
for example, in proposing harmonizing corporate
taxation or investing in infrastructure.
Distracting from a full-on challenge to the
capitalist system by an organized majority of
working people is the function of Western
misleaders. They’re too busy tilting at
windmills and telling us that Russia and China
are the enemy. That’s the tragedy of our time.
But it has to stop. It can’t go on. It is
unsustainable and killing our world.
