Strategies Of Containment

By William T. Hathaway

22 February, 2013
Countercurrents.org

http://www.countercurrents.org/hatahway220213.htm



Many of us on the left have been kettled at demonstrations: surrounded by a wall of police, herded into a small area, and prevented from reaching our goal. The term is a translation of kesseln, the German military tactic of enclosing an enemy force within a tight cordon of troops and gradually wearing it down rather than attacking it directly.

But we are also kettled by the thought police, and that's even more insidious. This strategy of containment is used politically to confine potentially revolutionary energy into an area where it can't reach its goal. Instead of by cops, we are corralled by institutions that purport to be progressive or even socialist. This pseudo-left diverts our energies away from organizing a militant working class and towards supporting the Democratic Party. Democrat congressman Dennis Kucinich referred to this when he described his calls for a more peaceful US foreign policy as a way to keep peace activists within "the big tent" -- the Democratic Party. The Democrats like to have a few seeming progressives like Kucinich in their ranks to create the illusion that they are the party of change.

They also have media and political groups on their periphery that are often critical of their policies but consistently promote the premise that this party is our only chance and with enough effort it can be made progressive. They spend their energy trying to convince the Democrats to move left. Their base is not in the working class but among slightly-left-of-liberal professionals who prefer progressive policies because they will benefit from them. They want to reduce the accumulation of wealth by the superrich and direct more of it in their direction and some of it down to the masses to ease discontent. As befits their class, they are well educated and have access to financial and political power. They communicate professionally and persuasively. Like the wall of cops, their message is clear: You must stay here. The only way to change the system is from within it. There is no alternative.

To prevent militant rank-and-file activism, labor bureaucrats also kettle workers into pro-capitalist unions tied to the Democratic Party. The union hierarchy exists to block independent action by the workers. The leaders speak with populist rhetoric, but to keep their privileged position they collude with employers to force lower wages and poorer working conditions onto their members.

The goal of these pseudo-left media, political groups, and unions is to hold us within capitalist institutions, thus rendering our efforts futile. The police kettle us physically and the pseudo-left tries to kettle us mentally, to keep us in the system.

"Working within the system" is a strategy promoted by the system itself in order to divert demands for fundamental change into superficial reforms. But this gradual approach has been proved to be a sham. Hard won improvements in wages, health care, and retirement benefits are being reversed under both Democrat and Republican presidents.

Instead of advancing Roosevelt's modest reforms, the Democrats have undermined them. They have consistently served the needs of capital for imperialist wars and exploitation of workers. When they allowed wage increases in the 1950s and '60s, it was largely to stimulate domestic consumption. When they supported equal employment opportunities for women and minorities in the '70s and '80s, it was largely to expand the labor pool so corporations could reverse the earlier wage increases.

It's not just greed that causes corporations to be vicious. The system requires this. Slashing labor costs is the only way they can maintain dominance in the face of low-wage competition from emerging industrial powers such as China and India. The corps are shifting their economic pressures onto us, the workers. They've lowered wages to the point where young workers are earning less than their parents did. The only "progress" is that now we all have an equal opportunity for the lousy jobs that are available.

The Democrats led this attack on workers when they were in office and colluded with it when they were in the opposition. Labor union leadership cooperated in this betrayal of their members. Throughout it all the pseudo-left clucked in disapproval but continued to support the Democrats. This pattern continues today.

But more and more people are now breaking free of these strategies of containment. A look at the historical record and the experience of our day-to-day reality show we've been kettled with lies. It has become obvious that capitalism can't produce long-term prosperity for its workers. Its profits must continually increase, and it has three ways of generating those: exploiting our labor by paying us less than the value we have added to the product; innovating new ways to lower costs; expanding their markets. Now that these last two methods are approaching their limits, the exploitation must increase to produce the required profits.

Liberal prosperity was a feature of the Keynesian phase of capitalism, a 30-year bubble of better wages that occurred only in North America and Europe when it was necessary to stimulate consumer demand. But those conditions are gone and can't return. The world market has become more important than the home country, and selling there requires low prices, which in turn requires cheap labor.

We're now in the consolidation phase of capitalism, when global competition eliminates the less effective predators and wealth concentrates in fewer and fewer giant corps and the rest of us become their vassals. We have to overthrow this barbaric system and build a humane one or face an increasingly degraded life.

To direct this struggle successfully, we need a political program based on the lessons of history and a strategy for implementing it. We need a militant base within the working class that can defend workers independently of the unions. We must break decisively from the Democratic Party, that graveyard of social movements. We need media that inform the working class rather than delude it. And we must do all this internationally, coordinating our efforts with workers in other countries to build democratic socialism, where the people decide how the economic life of society will be organized. When the resources and productive capacity of the world belong to its people, they can use them to meet human needs rather than to generate private profits for a few owners.

This is the challenge of our time, an historic battle for liberation. It's an enormous job, but no more difficult than other evolutionary changes humanity has mastered. The best program I've found for building this economic democracy is the Socialist Equality Party's: http://www.wsws.org.

William T. Hathaway is an adjunct professor of American studies at the University of Oldenburg in Germany. His latest book, RADICAL PEACE: People Refusing War, presents the experiences of peace activists who have moved beyond demonstrations and petitions into direct action, defying the government's laws and impeding its ability to kill. Chapters are posted on a page of the publisher's website at http://media.trineday.com/radicalpeace. He is also the author of SUMMER SNOW, the story of an American warrior in Central Asia who falls in love with a Sufi Muslim and learns from her an alternative to the military mentality. Chapters are available at www.peacewriter.org

problem :

'The pseudo-left diverts our energies away from organizing a militant working class.'

'the pseudo-left media'


solution :

'We need media that informs the working class rather than deludes it.'



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(I just prepared the below for airing tomorrow morning)

1st — Rep. Eric “Rick” Crawford [R]
2nd — Rep. Tim Griffin [R]
3rd — Rep. Steve Womack [R]
4th — Rep. Tom Cotton [R]




Crawford, Rick (R-AR)

$57,600 Stephens Group
$16,250 Wal-Mart
$15,000 National Beer Wholesalers Assn
$14,750 AT&T Inc
$12,300 Arvest Bank Group
$9,000 Home Depot

$307,028 dirty money
$74,755 Transportation
$45,780 Lawyers
$168,555 health
$92,872 fossil fuels
$294,365 Finance/Insurance/Real Estate
$45,200 Communications/Electronics
$327,831 Agribusiness
$9,000 war




Griffin, Tim (R-AR)

$122,100 Stephens Group
$30,100 Arvest Bank Group
$19,694 Bank of the Ozarks
$15,000 Koch Industries
$15,000 National Beer Wholesalers Assn
$15,000 Wal-Mart


$301,828 dirty money
$70,050 Transportation
$178,646 Lawyers
$284,945 health
$255,009 fossil fuels
$549,873 Finance/Insurance/Real Estate
$94,656 Communications/Electronics
$95,750 Agribusiness
$58,134 war



Womack, Steve (R-AR)

$60,350 Wal-Mart
$53,500 Stephens Group
$37,600 Arvest Bank Group
$33,284 Tyson Foods
$15,000 Home Depot
$15,000 National Beer Wholesalers Assn
$10,500 AT&T Inc


$90,900 dirty money
$78,450 Transportation
$31,062 Lawyers
$60,762 health
$70,719 fossil fuels
$284,968 Finance/Insurance/Real Estate
$62,810 Communications/Electronics
$185,534 Agribusiness
$35,000 war



Cotton, Thomas (R-AR)

$46,500 Stephens Group
$11,250 Bank of the Ozarks
$10,250 Arkansas Best Corp
$10,000 Arvest Bank Group
$10,000 National Beer Wholesalers Assn
$23,750 war



Boozman, John (R-AR)

$148,750 Wal-Mart
$78,273 Arvest Bank Group
$66,600 Stephens Group
$49,750 AT&T Inc
$41,150 Tyson Foods


$835,715 dirty money
$312,889 Transportation
$573,069 health
$284,150 fossil fuels
$798,651 Finance/Insurance/Real Estate
$128,746 Communications/Electronics
$1,250 war



Pryor, Mark (D-AR)

$44,388 Entergy Corp
$37,300 AT&T Inc
$29,597 Tyson Foods
$21,700 Stephens Group
$867,835 dirty money
$412,799 Transportation
$438,743 fossil fuels
$1,468,233 Finance/Insurance/Real Estate
$704,946 Communications/Electronics
$91,950 war




note :

I've already done a 5 part expose' on Stephens already, plus listed in detail, Womack's donors.

Clear channel's 'community affairs' tomorrow morning, will be fawning over Tom Cotton for 1/2 hour.


I've already prepared a segment to air at the exact same time, listing his donors in detail :

(I've aired the below dozens of times already over the past few weeks as well)

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here is, Tom Cotton's, finance report.


biggest supporter.

Club for Growth, or otherwise known as, Club for Greed.

dominated by Wall Street financiers and executives.

ties to the Heritage Foundation, Dick Armey, and FreedomWorks.

the koch brothers and other billionaires

an organization funded by extremely wealthy conservatives like Peter Thiel,

leverage-buyout specialist John Childs, and New Jersey investor, Virginia James


they buy stooges, to carry out their budget-stripping goals,

was a key player in supporting Scott Walker, spent millions opposing the Walker Recall.



cotton, is a cookie cutter cutout, of walker

except he's a war cock sucking, war criminal, as well.


they spent over $5 million in texas to support Ted Cruz, yet another walker clone.



they also supported, Tim Griffin.

and strongly supported, George W Bush.


One of their campaigns, focuses on, privatizing, Social Security.


they spent $6 million, in the 20 10 midterm elections, calling for Social Security privatization.

Their pitch, for privatizing Social Security, was entitled, Social Security Privatization? Hell Yeah!





a direct quote, from the founder, of Club for Greed, Stephen Moore.

quote, the most selfish group in America today is senior citizens, unquote




cotton's second biggest supporter.

Stephens, and other bankster crooks, and bankster crook Lawyers.

finance, insurance and real estate.


Bank of the Ozarks, a corporate parasite.

Arvest Bank, supported the food tax, and a corporate parasite.

Arkansas Best Corp, supported the food tax.

National, Beer, Wholesalers Association.

Tyson Foods.

National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

Altria Group, formally phillip morris tobacco.

R J reynolds tobacco.


A-T and T

Verizon.

Windstream.

these are the most important and or, most local, supporters of cotton.

his specific intentions, are to gut the social programs, which our payroll taxes paid for.

while keeping the pentacunt, sucking america dry.



no wonder shit channel loves him

shit channel loves all war cock sucking, bankster crook cock sucking, war criminals.

because shit channel is, too.

shit channel, loves, war cock, and is owned by, war profiteering, war criminal, bankster crooks.




corporate media, is, the problem


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this is ^ word for word ^ what I'm airing.


THIS is the type of media we need.