IT SUCKED THEN AND IT SUCKS NOW!
IT SUCKED THE WHOLE TIME IN BETWEEN TOO.
BY DIABLITO
I wrote this article about a year ago in issue #2 but we didn't print very many copies of that issue so here it is again. My views back then were maybe a little simplistic, but I still agree with everything that I said. I had a lot more passion back then which I am trying to regain.
One of the most common diseases that Americans suffer from is amnesia. When Americans are told of the horrible things that happened in the early days of our country, such as slavery and mass-genocide against the Indians, it is typically said that things aren't like that any more, things have gotten better. When those same people are told about how awful things are now, they are told that these problems are the result of recent corruption. Or as conservatives say, degrading moral values. They say we should go back to the wonderful past.
You can't have it both ways! You really can't have it either way. Throughout our nation's history, without pause, we have had an evil, repressive government. Even if you would consider yourself to be anything other than an anarchist, I should be able to convince you that the previous sentence was true after presenting you with (or maybe reminding you of) a few basic facts.
 Our so-called "founding fathers" were all rich white men, most of whom owned slaves.
One of the main reasons for declaring independence was that the settlers felt that the British were placing unfair limits on their theft of Indian land. Here is a direct quote from the Declaration Of Independence: "He (King George of England) has...endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers (the newly arrived white people who were murdering the Indians and stealing their land) the merciless Indian Savages..."
From before the revolution until the mid 1860's there was official and widespread slavery in much of this country.
During this time, even in parts of the country where there was not slavery, basic civil rights were denied to non-whites.
The land theft and murder of the Natives continued until our government had invaded its way across the entire continent and the Indians were left in poverty on tiny reservations.
Many people would excuse the genocide, saying that racist attitudes were common-place at the time. However, using this same logic we could consider Adolf Hitler a hero, like most people consider George Washington (Anti-semitic attitudes were just as common-place in Germany when Hitler was in power).
In 1846 the United States invaded Mexico in order to steal the northern half of the country (what is now California and the South West). This was portrayed as us carrying out our glorious Manifest Destiny - to conquer the continent. Yet when another country does the same thing (in a way that hurts our corporate interests) it becomes a cowardly act of aggression.
After official slavery was ended, overtly racist laws remained in effect continuously throughout this country until the early 1960's.
Women were long denied basic rights. They did not even get the right to vote until 1920.
Corruption is nothing new. It has been going on since the very beginning of this country. In the old days the bribery was more overt - the rich guys would hand the politicians sacks of gold. Now a days they are more sneaky, with PACs, soft money, etc.
In 1945, the U.S. bombed civilian targets in Germany and Japan, killing over a million. The most famous of the nuclear bombings were Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where hundreds of thousands were killed and many more got illnesses from the radiation in the following years. Some people claim that these bombings were necessary and actually saved lives on both sides. This is not true. Most of Japan's military was already destroyed, and Japan was trying to negotiate a surrender at the time of the bombing.
Throughout our history the United States, our country, has invaded and intervened in other countries to protect the interests of the rich at the expense of the people of these countries. One of many examples of this is Guatemala. In 1956 the elected Guatemalan government nationalized much of the land owned by an American corporation, United Fruit, in order to redistribute it to the peasants. To protect corporate interests, the U.S. then invaded and installed a corporate-friendly dictatorship.
Oh, well that was just the horrible past. Let's look at the wonderful present.
(And the relatively recent past.)
Corporations (usually legally) give hundreds of millions of dollars each year to politicians. You would think that people would be up in arms against this bribery. If I gave you $100 million, like the corporations gave Bill Clinton this year, then you'd probably do about anything I asked you to (knowing that if you did, I'd keep giving you that kind of money).
The United States, through military aid and training, keeps murderous foreign governments in power. Why? Because it benefits the corporations who control our government through bribery. Indonesia is a good example. The U.S. backed dictatorship has killed over a million of its people. American corporations make huge profits from Indonesia's resources and cheap labor.
In the 1960's and 70's the U.S. fought the Vietnam War to defend corporate interests. Millions of Vietnamese civilians were murdered. The country was left in ruins.
In 1991 the United States bombed Iraq and killed thousands of civilians. It also implemented (through the U.N.) a trade embargo which is still in effect that has caused the deaths of thousands more (by starvation and lack of medicine). The reason: to protect corporate oil interests and the Kuwaiti dictatorship. (Yes, not just Iraq, but Kuwait too, has a dictatorship.)
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund work as a pseudo-world government. (Yes, there's already a world government.) They are controlled by the U.S. and a few other rich countries. They force countries to adopt policies, such as having low minimum wages and few restrictions on corporations, benefiting them while keeping the people in poverty.
The rich in this country have been getting richer while the rest of the people have become poorer. From 1977 to 1990 the average income for the richest 1% of the country doubled, while the income for the bottom 60% went down 8.5% (All statistics are inflation compensated).
84% of the wealth in this country is owned by the richest 5% of the population.
Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are spent each year to directly subsidize corporations.
American corporations profit from child-labor (children as young as five) and slave labor (yes, literally) around the world (even in the U.S.).
The CIA has hired death squads and assassins to kill those who are a threat to the New Corporate World Order.
Even in America we have police forces that terrorize the people, especially in the ghettoes. And then there is the "War On Drugs." Started in the 70's to crush the Black Panthers and similar movements, it has put millions in jail. Corporations are now starting to use these prisoners for slave labor.
All put together:
Politics in the U.S. and the world may seem complicated, but everything can be simplified into the following two paragraphs:
The rich control everything. There is no democracy. The government, the military, the police, (both in this country and in the rest of the world) are simply tools of the rich to keep power and carry out its will. Everyone is bribed, forced, or brain-washed into obeying the rich.
With this total power the rich keep people in poverty and slavery. With these people's suffering comes profit to the rich. There is nothing new about this. It was true when the United States came into being. It is true now. It was true the whole time in between.
Note: Obviously this article is very short and extremely summarized. There are hundreds of good books about the truth of history and the present situation. One good book about the truth of history is A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, by Howard Zinn. Contact us if you want to know where any of our information and statistics came from or if you have any questions.
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Time for a Revolution!
By Joe Navarro
Greedy
Oppressive
Violent
Evil
Rapers of our minds
Never good
Malicious
Extreme force
Nazi
Tyrants
When will the people of America wake up and see that this government is not as good and free as people say it is? Which is run by a two party system and where voting doesn't make a difference. We were not put on this Earth so a bunch of fat bureaucrats can tell us how to live our lives. The human mind is a great thing and was not made to be ruled. We are too independent of thinkers and too much of individuals for that. True, in anarchy there might be no order and maybe a little chaos, but isn't one's personal freedom and life's fulfillment worth that? I think so, and would be willing to risk my life for that. It is time that we banded together, it is time that we take charge, it is time for a Revolution!
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