I think "Communist" is essentially a code word for "Labor Union"

[Myra Bronstein]

Speaking of Russia, I know I've read that bankers declared war on them many decades ago because of their refusal to allow British style (and now American style) private central banking. Now I can't find details. Anyone know what I'm referring to?

I want to understand what impact this had on Russian/USSR/global history and if it relates to the 1917 revolution. After all, the private banks took over the US in 1913 with the Federal Reserve Act, aka Glass-Owens bill, just four years before the Russian revolution.

[Magda Hassan]

With out checking it out more I can only imagine that Imperial Russia was in hock up to it's eye balls given the expenditure on the First World War. I don't think that Lenin and company felt obliged to repay any debts incurred by Imperial Russia. This would have pissed off quite a few people who had money involved.

I will have to research more about names and amounts though.

[Myra Bronstein]

Unemployment is a favorite tool of the bourgeois technocrats. ...

Oh lookie--in their own words:

"Rising unemployment was a very desirable way of reducing the strength of the working classes.... What was engineered--in a Marxist sense--was a crisis in capitalism which re-created a reserve army of labor, and has allowed the capitalists to make high profits ever since."

--Alan Bud, chief economic advisor to Margaret Thatcher
(The source is an article by Christian Parenti in The Baffler.)

http://www.marxmail.org/facts_frame.htm

[Magda Hassan]

Oh yes indeed. The capitalists think dialectically too. They must not be underestimated.

The other issue with unemployment is when immigration is used as a tool to create this situation (as it is in the US, UK, Australia, Germany, France and other many other places) workers are encouraged to think that it is the immigrants that have caused their reduction in living or unemployment. They are ripe for picking by the right wing racists. This is how Hitler initially got a base of support amongst some of the German workers. Blame their misery on 'The Jews' In Germany "The Turks", UK 'The Pakis" Australia "The Lebos, wogs, Asians' etc Divide and rule. A divided working class is the key. An educated and organised working class knows who it really is that brings in migrants to lower workers wages and keeps the focus on that. They make allies of the migrants as they are also exploited and in unity they can achieve anything.

[Myra Bronstein]

I think it's the main reason the French have been demonized for decades, at least in the US.


http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRea...MX20090129

"Thu Jan 29, 2009 3:54pm EST

France hit by national strike

By Estelle Shirbon

PARIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of strikers marched through French cities on Thursday to demand pay rises and protection for jobs, challenging President Nicolas Sarkozy to do more for ordinary workers.

The streets filled with flag-waving protesters, but the one-day strike failed to paralyze the country and support from private sector workers appeared limited.

After dark, as Paris crowds thinned, some protesters clashed with police, throwing bottles, overturning cars and starting a fire in the street, but no major violence was reported.

Labor leaders hailed the strikes and rallies, which marked the first time France's eight union federations had joined forces against the government since Sarkozy took office in 2007.

"This is one of the biggest days of worker action in the past 20 years," said Francois Chereque, head of the large, moderate CFDT group.

Unions said 2.5 million people took part in dozens of rallies across France, including 300,000 in Paris. Police put the figure at just over a million nationwide.

"The government has taken measures for banks but today it is the workers who are suffering," said striker Charles Foulard, a technician at a refinery run by energy giant Total.

"This crisis comes from the United States, it's the financial bubble that is bursting. It's not for the workers to pay for that," he said as crowds gathered at the Place de la Bastille in Paris, birthplace of the French Revolution.

In a rare show of unity, the unions drew up a joint list of demands for the government and companies, saying Sarkozy should drop reforms they see as a threat to public services and aim stimulus measures at consumers rather than companies.

GOVERNMENT STANDS FIRM

Specific demands included better pay and conditions for public transport workers and the abandonment of plans to reform hospitals, cut 13,500 jobs in education this year and change the status of the state-owned post office.

Unlike in 1995 and 2006, when mass strikes forced the governments of the day to back down on reform plans, public transport continued to run on Thursday, albeit on a reduced and erratic schedule, and many schools stayed open.

Perhaps encouraged by that fact, ministers indicated they were not ready to review their 26 billion euro ($34 billion) economic stimulus plan, which is aimed at encouraging industrial investment rather than boosting consumer spending.

"I don't think one can constantly zap and change policy," said Budget Minister Eric Woerth. "We have to keep our cool during this very major storm," he told RMC radio.

Sarkozy, however, struck a conciliatory tone, saying people's concerns were "legitimate."

"This crisis imposes a duty on the public authorities to listen, to hold a dialogue, and at the same time a strong determination to act," he said in a statement, adding that he would meet union leaders next month to discuss planned reforms.

France's economic woes are less severe than Spain's or Britain's but its jobless rate is rising, hitting 2.07 million in November, up 8.5 percent on the year, and unions say Sarkozy's policies are not helping ordinary people.

"I am protesting against wages that are stagnating, demands on workers that are constantly increasing, and understaffing. It's my first strike in the 20 years I've been on the job," said Malika Youcef, who works at a school canteen in Paris.

At the Paris march, hospital workers in white coats mingled with Air France staff carrying model planes, chemical factory workers, teachers and plumbers, among other professions.

The powerful CGT union was out in force, with its red balloons filling the horizon and loudspeakers blasting the revolutionary song "The Internationale." Other unions favored the hippy anthem "California Dreamin.'"

(Additional reporting by Gerard Bon, Crispian Balmer and Geert de Clercq; editing by Andrew Roche)"

[Magda Hassan]

And I think "French" is essentially a code word for "Labor Union"
I think it's the main reason the French have been demonized for decades, at least in the US.

:rofl:

I think you may be on to something there. Yes, they've had some bad press from the US in recent times. Just because they wont roll over and die for them and want to keep their own language, culture and traditions and bits of the original bourgeois French revolution.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=9V7zbWNznbs

[Peter Lemkin]

I just heard a report that in the year 2008 the number of persons in labor unions in the USA increased for the first time in decades. I assume it is due to the 'economic collapse' and workers seeing how they are getting screwed while their bosses take yet another helping of cream. Speaking of which the [under-estimate] of 18,000,000,000$ of Public Bailout money the bankers took last year as bonuses is such heartening news - there is no reforming that type - they show no contrition, take no blame, only plunder the average sucker.

[Magda Hassan]

That is good news. about union membership that is. Sales of Marx have gone up exponentially too. Looks like some are dusting off the classics and having another look.

[Myra Bronstein]

That is good news. about union membership that is. Sales of Marx have gone up exponentially too. Looks like some are dusting off the classics and having another look.

I hope both are true: increased union membership and interest in Marx. I further hope that, as people wake up to the predatory nature of unregulated capitalism they also wake up to the fact that we've been feed decades of propaganda about capitalism, communism, socialism, and... much more.

There needs to be a snowball effect wherein people have an epiphany about the systematic lies they've been told about some things, and realize that systematic lies have been told about other things. For example President Kennedy's murder. Then they'll see things with fresh eyes and be able to connect the dots. I hope.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Some excellent posts in this thread.

Magda - you have probably seen Adam Curtis' excellent documentary, The League of Gentleman, in the fine series, Pandora's Box.

Alan Budd, an Economics Professor, frequent advisor to the British government, member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, and "consultant" for numerous banks, was interviewed for the film, which was about Thatcher's monetarism. Aka shock therapy.

In 1991, Budd said the following (referring to the "monetarist" policy of Thatcher's government which created 3 million unemployed in Britain and attempted, with considerable success, to break the unions):

The nightmare I sometimes have about this whole experience runs as follows: I was involved in making a number of proposals which were partly at least adopted by the government and put in play by the government. My worry is as follows; that there may have been people making the actual policy decisions, or people behind them, or people behind them, who never believed for a moment that this was the correct way to bring down inflation. They did however see that this would be a very good way to raise unemployment. And raising unemployment was an extremely desirable way of reducing the strength of the working classes; if you like, that what was engineered there - in Marxist terms - was a crisis of capitalism which recreated the reserve army of labour and has allowed the Capitalist to make high profits ever since.

As if waking up and realizing he was talking to a camera, Budd then added:

Now... I'm not saying I believe that story but [that]... I worry whether that was... really what was going on.

Between 1991 and 1997, Budd was Chief Economic Advisor to the British Treasury and Conservative government....