We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, March 4, 2013

The financial aristocracy and the growth of working class struggle

Click here to access article by Andre Damon and Joseph Kishore from World Socialist Web Site
For 30 years, the American ruling class has built up its wealth through a process of financialization, in which the productive forces of the economy were steadily undermined. This process led to the Wall Street collapse of 2008, which has become the occasion for an even more frenzied orgy of speculation.
Meanwhile, "back at the ranch" of real working Americans, budgets cuts are automatically occurring which will further adversely impact their lives already hurting from the collapse of the real economy.