Mad Cow Disease. Mad Profit Disease. Mad Capitalism Disease.

Most scientists believe mad cow disease comes from the feeding of ground up bodies of dead and diseased cattle to other cattle, that we end up eating. (Cats, dogs and sheep have also been used) Other scientists believe mad cow disease develops from environmental pollution by heavy metals that are used in insecticides. Whichever is correct, this disease comes from the greed for more and more profits and to hell with people’s health. Feeding dead animals to living ones cuts feed costs and increases profits. Using polluting insecticides reduces damaged crops and increases profits. It is not mad cow disease that we are dealing with. It is mad capitalism disease.

This outbreak of disease also results because the profit addicted corporations run this country. Cattle too sick to stand are called “Downers” Any reasonable person knows any animal too sick to stand is too sick to eat. But this cow in Washington, this downer too sick to stand, was killed, cut up, sent out to the stores and we are now eating it. Why? How?

In November 2003 Bush and his friends in the dairy and meat industry killed a bill that would have stopped downers being put into the food supply. It would be too “onerous” on the profits of the industry they said. Those profits again. The dairy and meat industry capitalists bribe the politicians to get their way. They are powerful also particularly powerful because the US electoral system is not based on one-person one vote.

Each state elects two senators to the US senate. California’s thirty million people elect two senators. Idaho’s one million people elect two senators. So the small rural states, and the meat and dairy industry based in these states, have a huge influence on US laws and politics. Big capital as a whole sees giving the rural voters more power as a way to reduce the power of the working class in more urban states, e.g. California, Illinois, and New York etc.

Many lies have been told since the drive began to invade Iraq. One of the most glaring is the slogan “United We Stand”. The truth is that the owners of the US corporations and their political representatives, Bush, Clinton, the Democrats, the Republicans, are not united with US workers. They see us only as a source of profit. They see us as they see working people all over the world. We are to be lied to, to be exploited and to be kept down.

We need to use our imagination. What kind of people, what kind of thinking decides that sick and dying animals are to be fed to working people? The US corporations do not care about US workers. We are prey to be fleeced. The profit addicted US corporations and their capitalist system are the enemies of US and all working people.

Here are a few excerpts from the book “Been brown so long it looked like

Green to me: the politics of nature” by Jeffery St. Clair published by Common Courage. It is a description of the IBP slaughterhouse in Pasco, Washington State. “Under pressure from aggressive managers meat that falls on the floor is placed back on the line without being cleansed. Cutting tools and conveyor belts are regularly coated with pus from abscesses and tumors...often cows are not rendered unconscious before being sent down the line. Workers say they often hear cows frantically mooing as they are skinned and dismembered alive. Workers are denied bathroom breaks forcing them at times to urinate in their pants so

they won’t fall behind the line and get fired.”

Our food industry and our lives cannot be trusted to the corporations and their profit addicted mad capitalist system. As workers and consumers we should unite to take the profit out of the food industry.

Published by Labor’s Militant Voice. Chicago.

>>>Bush and his friends in the dairy and meat industry

What makes you think Bush has friends in the dairy & meat industry? Is this something you dreamed up? I think it is.

>>>Big capital as a whole sees giving the rural voters more power as a way to reduce the power of the working class in more urban states, e.g. California, Illinois, and New York etc.

That’s absurd

>>>The truth is that the owners of the US corporations and their political representatives, Bush, Clinton, the Democrats, the Republicans, are not united with US workers. They see us only as a source of profit. They see us as they see working people all over the world. We are to be lied to, to be exploited and to be kept down.

That’s even more absurd. Surely you’re not thick enough to believe that the goons who run labor unions have your best interests at heart. Bush is much more interested in your welfare than is the AFL/CIO.

>>>US corporations do not care about US workers. We are prey to be fleeced. The profit addicted US corporations and their capitalist system are the enemies of US and all working people.

That’s a patently ridiculous statement. The most successful corporations (Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, etc.) attribute their success to their ability to attract a cadre of outsanding employees, to inspire them, and to retain them over the long haul. These companies do not have a hostile relationship with their employees. To the contrary it’s to everyone’s benefit to pull together.

>>>>Our food industry and our lives cannot be trusted to the corporations and their profit addicted mad capitalist system. As workers and consumers we should unite to take the profit out of the food industry.

Heaven help us with the government and/or organized labor in charge. Even worse would be a dipshit like Ralph Nader. Give me successful Corporations any day.