The financial debacle shows why Africa must discard this moribund system

Publié le 29 septembre 2008 par hort

Can we dare to hope that this system has finally reached the end of the road after 500 years? I don’t think so. They have probably allowed this debacle to occur so that they can recharge their batteries, since they realize that the rest of the world, who now understand the rules, are not prepared to play the same old game. So, they have to think of new strategies in order to continue their hold on the economic and financial sectors. This is probably what this whole scandal is all about or else, the system has really been infiltrated by those who wish to destroy it. Hort

"From Deregulation to National Guarantor: in a Blink!"

Mumia Abu-Jamal

29/09/08

What we are seeing in the midst of America's financial crisis, is a crisis not so much of confidence as it is of ideology, for the crisis has its origins in an economic outlook that has been ascendant for generations.

I speak of the idea of deregulation, championed by former President Ronald Reagan, who became symbolic of the shrink-government movement. His reign marked the coming of age of the so-called conservative movement, built on principles (ostensibly, at least) of reductions in government, expansion of 'free' markets, lower taxes, and strengthened nationalism, usually by military means.

Although this has been primarily a Republican agenda, Democrats, like neo liberal President Bill Clinton, have hewn closely to this formula -- hence his claim to be a "new" kind of liberal.

At the heart of this philosophy has been trust in 'the blind hand of the market', with a distaste for the heavy hand of regulation. As such, both of these relatively recent incarnations of political parties have had a deregulation bent, and depended on the market to set the economic beat of the nation.

This has necessitated the rise of a kind of political deception, explained by scholar and Critical Resistance activist Ruth W. Gilmore as "anti-state actors." In the 2007 book, The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (Cambridge, MA: South End Press), Gilmore notes:

Strangely, then, we are faced with the ascendance of anti-state

state actors: people and parties who gain state power by

denouncing state power. Once they have achieved an elected

or appointed position in government they have to make what

they do seem transparently legitimate, and if budgets are any

indication, they spend a lot of money even as they claim they're

"shrinking government." Prison, policing, courts, and the

military enjoy such legitimacy, and nowadays it seems to many

observers as though there was never a time things were

different. {p.43}

Years of governance by these "anti-state state actors" has seen the growth and expansion of government by leaps and bounds. The prison-industrial-complex is now the largest on earth; while the military has been engaged in dubious occupations which closely resembles security services for the oil industries.

And the market is about as 'free' as the U.S. was during slavery. As deregulation crumbles the state emerges as the guarantor of corporate profits, where tax dollars are used to replace sour business deals choking with 'bad paper.'

While unemployment, foreclosures, homelessness, and repression evokes little more than a sneer, let the market feel failing stocks, or let banks stumble, and the deregulators come running to save their betters. Need loans? Need a bailout? Need a buyout? Nothing is too much for the well-to-do.

And your money is necessary to protect them!

This is socialism , with a wicked twist.

The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!

Audio of most of Mumia's essays are at: http://www.prisonradio.org

PLEASE CONTACT:
International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ
P.O. Box 19709
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Phone - 215-476-8812/ Fax - 215-476-6180
E-mail - icffmaj@aol. com
Web - www.freemumia. com
AND OFFER YOUR SERVICES!

Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370

WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!

Subscribe: mumiacolumns- subscribe@ topica.com Read: http://topica. com/lists/ mumiacolumns/ read Subscribe ICFFMAJ email updates list by e-mailing icffmaj@aol. com!

[Check out Mumia's latest: *WE WANT FREEDOM: A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from South End Press (http://www. southendpress. org); Ph. #1-800-533-8478. ]