Labour's Lost Love and The Poverty Trap

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Comment by Jacqueline S. Homan on September 7, 2010 at 22:27

The whole problem is the for-profit capitalist paradigm. Capitalists ALWAYS fabricate bullshit excuses for ripping people off, whether as employees or customers. Poverty IS resolvable. All that's required is the political will to do so. But that political will must think outside the capitalist box and start thinking in the socialist box. I just had a discussion about this (some moron named "Alex T" on the WAMU radio station site making poo-poo saying how capitalism is the best thing since toast. He made the fatal error in trying to use the splintering and disintegration of Yugoslavia to make his case. I shot down his shit factory quite thoroughly and described how the guarantee of a job with a living wage and national public health care enabled the people there to live decently until the IMF played the proverbial camel poking its nose into the tent, then getting all the way in. Anyway, here is that response I made to him. Please take note of "guaranteed right to a job" and "health care" and how capitalism impoverished the people as well as directly caused the bloody Balkans wars of the 1990's (Enjoy, guys :>):

Alex T said:

I happen to be in Yugoslavia in 1988. This was supposed to be the Socialist utopia that Tito had help to create. During his reign after WII, he had brought all these different ethnicities that had fought each other for hundred of years. Some of the more prosperous states like Croatia and Slovenia were tired of having to send more of their revenue to poorer republics like Serbia, Bosnia, and Montenegro leading to Civil War in the 90's.
No Jackie Socialism will not work in this country. Our tradition in commerce since the founding of this country has been on free enterprise and that will not change.


I know who undermined Yugoslavia. But you obviously do not. Putting aside the fact that the Vatican backed the fanatical Catholic state of Croatia and was complicit in the horrors of Jasenovac and Croatia's Ustase were resurrected under Tudjman, putting aside the fact that Bosnia's Alija Izetbegovic was a fascist and a fundamentalist Islamic hardliner who was an active Nazi in the Waffen SA during WW II who openly called for his praetorian guard of elite Bosniaks to resurrect the SS Handzar and used his own people (the staged "Breadline Massacre" of May 27, 1992) as human shields and disposable pawns in the 1990's Balkan Wars by detonating a bomb and blaming the Serbs, putting aside the fact that Tito was a Catholic Croat and merely a puppet "dictator" who was somewhat of a tepid Communist, putting aside the fact that the US and NATO backed the known narco-terrorist klepto-megalomaniac Hashim "The Snake" Thaci, Albanian leader of the KLA who has been directly tied to KLA black market organ harvesting (murdering Serbs for their body parts) in the Serbian province of Kosovo, putting aside the fact that Slobodon Melosevic was a Serb nationalist who was no angel; putting all these things aside, here's what you left out about American and European capitalist involvement in the planned breakup of socialist Yugoslavia.

Before Yugoslavia disintegrated into a hellhole of economic strife and civil wars, the people there had a very good standard of living. Sarajevo, the most cosmopolitan city of Eastern Europe with the richest of histories, was a cultural jewel known as Eastern Europe's "Jerusalem."

But some (like many in the East Bloc Warsaw Pact nations) saw American capitalist consumerism as this exotic gem and they wanted it, thinking that they would get to keep the security provided by their socialist system (their national health care, their generous unemployment benefits, education system, the guarantee of living wage jobs with paid vacations, generous pension benefits, etc. and get this whole new glittering jewel of materialism on top of all that. They didn't get it. Now they do — they got that red, white, and blue "free market" capitalist dick shoved right up their collective ass.

Since you're only telling half-truths and half the story, I will enlighten your readership to the critical parts you deliberately left out in your attempt to intentionally misinform readers with your brilliant apologia for cruel oligarchy and fascism (which capitalism always eventually leads to).

After the fall of Communism in the former Soviet Union, the US seemed to have all these "enemies" all of a sudden. All these "enemies" who can't wait to attack us because they "hate our freedoms." That's the mass line to cover up the class line. In fact, Joseph Schumpeter made the same observation in his analysis of the fall of the Roman Empire. Fact: the American ruling class (viz a viz the National Security State) created those "enemies." Why aren't there "enemies" waiting to pounce on Denmark? Ever think about that?

As Ramsey Clark said, Yugoslavia was built upon an idea. The idea was that the southern Slavs would not remain weak and divided people falling out among themselves, or falling prey to some imperialist outsiders. They would join together and have a territory that was large enough and strong enough to become a viable nation with its own development. After WWII, multi-ethnic socialist Yugoslavia was a post-war industrial power, a viable nation and an economic success.

Between 1960 and 1980, Yugoslavia experienced one of the most vigorous growth rates, a decent standard of living, socialized medicine and education, guaranteed right to a job, one month's vacation with pay, affordable public transportation, housing, and utilities. Its literacy rate was over 90%. Life expectancy was 72 years in Yugoslavia between 1960 and 1980 — higher than in the US, where close to 50 million Americans lack access to health care. And the bulk of Yugoslavia's economy was in the public, not-for-profit sector. It was the type of country that global capitalists would normally not tolerate. Yet Yugoslavia was tolerated because it was seen as a buffer to the Soviet bloc, the Warsaw Pact nations.

At the same time, efforts were made to undermine Yugoslavia's socialist economy. Yugoslavia opened itself up to American capitalism as early as 1968, making the same mistake that the Polish Communist party leaders made: they borrowed from the West. But that came with IMF penetration into Yugoslavia's economy and enormous debt. And with this debt came IMF demands for "restructuring." Restructuring is a euphemism for the imposition of harsh austerity measures which, by intent and design, disproportionately crushes the working class. Austerity programs means you force the people to work harder and longer for less; and with the savings procured from these measures, you pay off the interest that's accumulating on that IMF debt.

There was a very conscious and deliberate plan to break up Yugoslavia, with full priori knowledge that it would cause bloody civil wars in the 1990's.

In November of 1990, President George Herbert Walker Bush ("King George I") pressured Congress to pass the Foreign Appropriations Act that called for the cutting off of all aid and credits to Yugoslavia. Trading without credits is fatal for any nation that doesn't have a hard currency, so this had a very devastating effect on Yugoslavia. This law also demanded that if any republic in Yugoslavia wanted further US aid, they would have to break away from Yugoslavia and declare their independence. (Foreign aid is when the poor in rich countries are forced to send money to the rich in poor countries.)

This law also required the US State Department's approval of election procedures and results in every one of the Balkan republics. It required that the republics do not hold national elections, but instead hold elections only in their own republics. Then the aid would go to those republics, if and only if they met the US definition of "democratic" — meaning small, ultra right-wing nationalists and fascist parties.

The ultimate goal was to "Balkanize" Yugoslavia and turn the fractured region into weak, helpless banana republics; privatized, de-industrialized, and demoralized. International bankers — the stakeholders in the IMF, World Bank, and Federal Reserve — by their henchmen in US and Western European governments, decided to destroy Yugoslavia in 1989 when it became evident that it was the one remaining Eastern Europe nation that would not relinquish what remained of its socialist system. It was the one country trying for economic independence outside of the global "free market" Third Worldization process.

The global capitalist superclass wanted a Yugoslavia whose rich resources would be at the disposal of rich multinational corporations, whose population would work for sub-poverty wages and not have health care or access to an education, and whose economy offered no competition with existing capitalist producers — only new investors. They wanted to dismantle Yugoslavia's petroleum, mining, auto and engineering industries. And they wanted to eliminate Yugoslavia's public sector and social programs.

There was also an ideological component and motive behind Yugoslavia's destruction in which the Vatican was not merely tacitly complicit, but an active participant (which I briefly treat in my book Divine Right: The Truth is a Lie)

In Serbian Bosnia, the last remaining radio station was a Serbian station. It was a dissident station whose broadcasts were critical of NATO and Western policies. UN "peacekeepers" went in and shut down the station.

Before the NATO bombings of Belgrade, before the assault in Yugoslavia by Western financiers, Slobodon Milosevic's parliament had more opposition representatives than any other European nation's government. Milosevic was elected three times in elections that foreign observers affirmed as having met the West's definition of "democratic", and therefore compliant with US demands. Yet, Milosevic was labeled a "war criminal" and a "dictator." The Hague War Crimes Tribunal requested that the US produce documentation of the war crimes Milosevic committed so that they could indict him as a war criminal.

In 1992, the US imposed a trade embargo against Yugoslavia. The result: economic devastation and social disintegration from which the region has still not recovered to this day in 2010. There is mass unemployment up to 80%, malnourishment, hyperinflation, and the health care system has completely collapsed at great cost to the population.

With trade sanctions, the civilian population is not "collateral damage" — it's the primary target.

To justify these atrocities to the gullible American public, Western corporate-owned media launched a propaganda campaign which utterly demonized the Serbs to the American public for ten years (at least). Charles Boyd, former Deputy Commander of the US-European Command wrote in the September/October 1994 issue of Foreign Affairs (not exactly a "Commieland" journal):

"The popular image of this war in Bosnia is one of unrelenting Serbian expansion. In fact, what the Croatians call "the occupied territories " is land which the Serbs have held for more than three centuries. Most of the same is true in Serb land in Bosnia."


So it was admitted in 1994 that the smear campaign against the Serbs, and against Milosevic (although he was no angel!), was all part of an elaborate propaganda scheme to foment hatred and disgust in the hearts and minds of the American and Western European people and turn them against the Serbian people by manufacturing consent for imperialist-driven genocide. It's a lot easier to destroy a nation and its people when you can convince the rest of the world to despise them and view them as "less than."

Boyd also wrote (in that same article):

"The US has punished one side in this war unfairly. It has supported the legitimacy of a leadership in the Bosnian Muslim government that has become increasingly ethnocentric in its makeup, single party in its rule, and manipulative in its diplomacy. We say we want peace, but we have encouraged a deepening of the war."


So why were the Serbs targeted?

The American ruling class initially got a guy who they decided would be their boy in breaking up Yugoslavia. He was a banker. He was described as charismatic and charming. His commitment to Communism was milquetoast at best. He was the ideal man for the job. His name was Slobodon Milosevic. But instead of being a tool, he became an obstacle.

Serbs comprise the ethnic majority. For all the scuttlebutt about Serb atrocities, remember that atrocities were committed on all three sides — the worst were committed by the fanatical Roman Catholic Croatian fascists.

Mainstream media is the stenographer of power. Well-paid journalists working for the establishment wrote stories that suited the interests of that power — that velvet glove that clothes the iron fist of the National Security State. They're not the watchdogs of democracy and truth; they're the lapdogs of the elite. Well-kept mistresses among the billionaire Koch brothers' harem (like CNN, Fox News, Bill O'Reilly, and Tea Potty drama queen Glenn Beck).

Class and ethnicity are not mutually exclusive factors in terms of either one or the other in understanding the breakup of Yugoslavia. Ethnic emnity (like gender and religion) is commonly enlisted to serve class interests. Generally, when there's different racial or ethnic groups living in a society where there's some measure of hope, security, and prosperity, they tend to get along — they mingle and even inter-marry. But when the economic shit hits the fan, when you've got trade sanctions, high unemployment, things begin to unravel get desperate and that's when people begin closing ranks along racial/ethnic/religious and gender lines.

It is the rich capitalists (and many of their middle class economic hit-men) who have the "class envy" — they can't stand the idea of the poor/working class masses of the world having anything.

In the heart of Eastern Europe you had this relatively large country; 80% of its economy was still publicly owned; a standard of living that was high with an elaborate system of human services. Now it has been broken up into small right-wing fascist republics. Everything is deregulated. Everything is privatized. And everybody is now poor. They're poor in Bosnia. They're poor in Montenegro and Serbia. They're poor in Macedonia. And they're poor in Croatia. They're poor in Albania. Poor. Poverty. Privatize. Deregulate. Crime. Black market organ harvesting. Narco-terrorism. Religious fanaticism. Militaristic fascism. Get 'em down to being peasants so they'll be stepping on each others' throats to line up to work for 15 cents an hour (and they're getting close to that already) like the slave laborers in Indonesia, Saipan, and the Philippines. That's the goal of "free market" capitalism, which you call "freedom" — meaning the "right" of a certain privileged group to economically oppress the non-privileged and take away their freedoms.

Yugoslavia is my father's country. I never knew my father (he got deported under very mysterious and suspicious circumstances before I was born, according to my grandmother). When I was in my early 20's and had just gotten into the plasterers' union (the first and only woman among its membership of 300) and was making good money for that brief period in my life, I had saved the money to go to my father's country in hopes of finding him.

When you grow up an unwanted (and then later orphaned) child with nothing, no family, no hope, no chance, limited opportunity, and no respect because of being a poor girl that society doesn't give a shit about you in a greed-ridden sepulcher decaying from within — a patriarchal, rich white male capitalist world — struggling to survive on the streets in a ghetto in the "Other America" (as I did); finding an absent parent in order to make sense of your own life and your place in society means everything. So when I finally got a chance for a good-paying blue-collar job in the skilled trades union at age 22, I made plans to try to find my dad and I made contacts with people in my father's country and began teaching myself a little Serbo-Croatian so I would be able to speak the language during my anticipated visit.

But when an uninsured driver hit me leaving me with a broken back and two smashed knees and took me out of the workforce in 1991, and when the shit hit the fan and all hell broke loose in the Balkans a few months after that, traveling to Yugoslavia to try and find out what happened to my dad was simply out of the question for me at that point. Today, it is still financially out of reach for me to be able to travel anywhere (outside of generous donations and/or other support from some humanitarian groups). Hell, I've never even been on a vacation and I can't even afford to travel within the US.

Had I not had to struggle in extreme poverty for most of my life with law school financially out of reach for me (it was a financial stretch just to go to a state college for my 4 year degree!), I would have been able to realize MY full potential and make MY dreams come true — I would be an international human rights lawyer today. And I know who I would be prosecuting for crimes against humanity.

Comment by Alan L. Maki on August 31, 2010 at 13:24

Labor should fight for a minimum wage that is a real living wage based upon all cost of living factors. This should be fought for internationally just as the 8 hour day was, and is, fought for.

Every single country has a Bureau of Labor Statistics which should be scientifically determining all cost of living factors.

If anyone feels sorry for employers who have to pay a real living wage for work they require to be done, then there should be a struggle for universal social programs paid for by taxing the rich and corporate profits to supplement these poverty wages so that everyone has a decent standard of living... such universal social programs would include public housing, low-cost public transportation, free public child care programs, free public education from pre-school through university.

A job is not supposed to lead to a life of poverty we could accomplish more poverty easy enough with more unemployment... a jobs are supposed to assure working people a decent life and decent standard of living.

Any employer who feels paying workers a real living wage is too great a burden should simply let his children and wife do the work for free.... otherwise do the job himself.

I keep hearing this crap from casino managements in the Indian Gaming Industry that "these are just entry level jobs;" well, these casino multi-billion dollar operations sure don't turn over just "entry level profits" as they employ people some two-million workers across the United States in their loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages and without any rights under state or federal labor laws as they pump billions of dollars into the campaigns of politicians who helped them set up this little scheme which leaves tax-payers footing the bill to subsidize these poverty wages with welfare and food stamps not to mention the tremendous health care costs incured from second-hand smoke associated cancers and heart and lung diseases.

The time has come for organized labor to initiate an international struggle for real living minimum wage laws and legislation based on real cost of living factors in every single country... and the minimum wage should be adjusted quarterly in line with these cost of living factors.

Come on, really; how does a family like the Fertitta's pump over 100 million dollars into the campaign coffers of politicians and get caught bribing public officials with tens of millions of dollars in Missouri get off crying poverty when it comes to wages for workers at the casinos they manage?

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council