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Corporate Coup d’état Coming Soon to a City Near You
In her book The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein demonstrates how wealthy elites often use times of crisis and chaos to impose unpopular policies that restructure economies and political systems to further advance their interests. She calls these orchestrated raids on the public sphere in the wake of catastrophic events, combined with the treatment of disasters as exciting market opportunities, “disaster capitalism.”
Disaster capitalism is on display around the country, as legislators use the debt crisis afflicting their states as an opportunity to hollow out the public sector. In Michigan it’s being packaged as “emergency financial management” by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who is looking to exploit an economic crisis that has left his state with a severe budget deficit. In March, Snyder signed a law granting state-appointed emergency financial managers (EFM) the ability to fire local elected officials, break teachers’ and public workers’ contracts, seize and sell assets, and eliminate services, entire cities or school districts, all without any public input. He claims these dictatorial restructuring powers will keep Michigan communities out of bankruptcy.
Michigan currently has unelected EFM’s in charge of the schools in Detroit, as well as the cities of Pontiac, Ecorse, and Benton Harbor. In Benton Harbor, the city’s elected mayor and city commissioners were stripped of all power by unelected EFM, Joseph Harris. Harris issued an order saying the city commissioners have no power beyond calling meetings to order, approving minutes, and adjourning meetings. This decimation of local democracy is spreading. Robert Bobb, the EFM that has taken over Detroit’s public school system, sent layoff notices to all of the district’s 5,466 unionized employees. Bobb says he will exercise his power as EFM to unilaterally modify the district’s collective bargaining agreement with the Federation of Teachers starting May 17, 2011.
ACLU of Michigan Executive Director Kary Moss said the law raises concern about separation of powers, its impact on minority communities, collective-bargaining rights and privatization of services. She is absolutely correct. Faced with a deficit, emboldened EFMs can sell off public property to developers, close public schools and authorize charter schools, and void union contracts with literally no recourse for local, tax-paying residents or their elected officials to stop it.
And, it gets worse. Michigan has joined with the Turnaround Management Association (TMA) to develop a training program for prospective emergency managers. According to their website, TMA members are a professional community of turnaround and corporate renewal professionals who share a common interest in strengthening the economy through the restoration of corporate value. Michigan Treasurer Andy Dillon, while speaking about the new program during a seminar on municipal distress, said that mayors and school superintendents are essentially running big businesses that, in many cases, are more complicated than private companies. It’s no surprise then, that Wall Street investors are thrilled about the potential impacts of the EFM law.
An estimated 400 accountants, lawyers, school employees, and city workers began classes offered by the program in Lansing, Michigan this week on topics including “Dealing with the Unionized Workforce,” navigating municipal bankruptcy and negotiating contracts for sewer, water and other utilities. ”Dealing with the Unionized Workforce” is code for destroying unions and has nothing to do with balancing the budget. Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) in an appearance before the House Oversight Committee, under questioning from Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), admitted a key provision in his state budget proposal to curb union rights had no fiscal benefit, putting to rest the notion that union-busting governors like Rick Snyder have any intention of actually solving their state’s economic woes. As for “negotiating contracts for sewer, water, and other utilities”, this is code for privatize, privatize, privatize!
This so-called financial emergency is really a democracy emergency. Local governments are NOT corporations, nor should they resemble them. The true purpose of emergency financial management is the conversion of a democratically elected government into a hierarchal business entity through economic “shock therapy”, which would be impossible if workers, elected representatives, and residents had any say. Michigan has become a laboratory for CEO Governor Rick Snyder to impose disaster capitalism onto his state. If we allow what is taking place in Michigan to continue unabated, it won’t be long before disaster capitalism finds its way to a city, town, or school district near you.
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81 Comments so far
Show AllThe word public has become the latest expletive. Public schools, public transportation, public housing, public utilities etc. are all under attack and unless vigorously defended will be swept away.
Then use a different word. :~D
How does American schools, American Transportation, American Housing, American Utilities etc, sound?
Rather than defend it? Let the right wing trash another word the way they did "liberal"? I retired as a "public servant," which means I had a job in a government, one that actually helped people. I don't think I would have wanted to be an "American Servant." Sounds like a maid or butler.
The brains behind the right wing want to "privatize" everything so profit can be made from anything that gets done for anybody. The opposite of "private" is "public."
There is a "public sector" and it is under attack and, if a message can be gotten to the United Stateians, it should be that the public employees aren't ripping them off but helping them, or trying to as best they can while under propagandistic assault.
Good fighter!
The right wing nuts want to eliminate the public good for their own selfish private interests.
Wait till you see this.......
http://dailybail.com/home/outrage-taxpayer-funded-job-center-spent-tens-of-thousands-o.html
comments are priceless too.........
A private group "governed by more than 40 Central Florida business leaders".
Cutting out all the buzz, The only thing I see that's troubling is the potential for....
KICKBACKS!
This was another part of the 19th century that the Corporate powers that be miss. All of a sudden certin politicans will be driving much nicer cars, and moving to much nicer homes!
If everything is privatized down to the cop on the beat, who is to say otherwise!
>^^<
The word 'servant' comes from the Latin for slave.
I felt a lot less like a "slave" when I was a Public Servant than I did when I worked in private industry as a "wage slave."
Oh, and don't forget what they consider the most blasphemous of all: the public airways including public TV and radio!
Yeah. Click and Clack are obviously subversive. After all, they don't charge a fee for the advice they give. Who ever heard of such a thing?
Michigan-Gateway Computer Inc., The Sequel
Soon the only State Troopers left in Michigan will be the ones assigned to protecting Prick Snyders Sorry Ass. By the way don't think that the dimocrats would be any better, Jennifer Granholm put Robert Bobb incharge of the Detroit Schools and Andy Dillon is also a dimwit, I mean democrat.
dimwit Z1,
Most people who are Democrats are better than most politicians.
Vote for who you want and then watch who owns the voting machines and counts the votes.
And it was probably the State Troopers that endorsed Rick Snyder. Troopers always think they are untouchable.
Eliminate Corporate Personhood. Boycott Corporate evil-doers. Participate in flash actions. Participate in large protests. Participate in general strikes. Spread the word.
Now if someone could create one master web site that would post all local events----that would make it easy for people to join in spontaneously.
Excellent idea!
Try here:
http://usuncut.org/
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/
and
moveon.org
fascism has come to the amerikan sheeple and it comes on cat's paws inducing nary a whimper from the beat up tore down peons
You nailed it. This is blatant, overt fascism, and yet "nary a whimper" is heard from the MSM, the citizens, etc. Here we have state after state, city after city, county after county across the country destroying freedoms, nullifying democratic elections (which is what the EFM's are), smashing unions, smashing social services and protections, and instituting broad, fascist, un-democratic draconian laws and programs that fly in the face of the Constitution, the common good, and common decency.
And all the while this - I want to say "creeping" fascism, but it isn't creeping anymore, it is dashing ahead in broad daylight - blatant fascism is occuring all across the country, where are the outraged citizens, the huge marches or protests? Aside from the ones in WI, now past, where are they at?
This country - when it DOES become a full-blown fascist oligarchy (and it will) - will become one very quietly. Americans will make the Good Germans of the 30's and 40's look like violent resisters by comparison.
"This is blatant, overt fascism, and yet "nary a whimper" is heard from the MSM..."
Well, duh, they're the PR department of the fascists.
Pity most of the Unions have become so rotten that they are easily smashed. A true union couldn't be broken.. the early UAW they just stoped the lines and sat at their stations, this kind of solidarity is nearly gone in america.
Remember the Teachers in WI walked out as individules as the union was sitting on it's hands trying to decide what to do. Only day's later did other unions decide to join in!
Every metting I go devides into a pity party for each ethnic whine an grevieance! How in hell can we come togther on anything when we spend our time whining about our selfish issues and come togther!
>^^<
Did you miss all that demonstrating in Wisconsin?
My point is that this is happening everywhere, not just in WI, and yet that was the only place that any real noise was made by the populace. And it stopped in any event. Imagine if in Egypt they just protested for a week or two and then went home. Or Libya. Or Tunisia. Or Bahrain. Etc. Etc.
Americans just can't get worked up except in very rare circumstances, even when blatant fascism is spreading across the land. That was my point. I am not discounting the WI protests - God bless 'em. But just exactly WHAT is it going to take for Americans to get off their asses?
--Illegal wars being launched by our government? No....we already do that, daily, and nobody gives a shit.
--Our government torturing prisoners of war? No...we already do that, and nobody gives a shit.
--The President declaring he is a dictator, and that he can kill anyone, anywhere, anytime he wants, without due process? No...he already did that, and nobody gives a shit.
--The cancellation of habeas corpus, the basis of all western judicial process for the last 500 years? No....our President already did that, and nobody gives a shit.
Get my point yet??
The battle in WI is far from over. It's morphed into a recall campaign & there was that close judiciary election.
Your list of is accurate, but public tolerance of these outrages stem from the 9/11 attacks. The public is misguided, but that's the root.
You certainly can't expect to hear it from MSM-----they are quintessentially fascist.
No you will never hear anything out of MSM, because it is Corporate Owned. Remember what happened during the first week of the protest in Wisconsin, and all the Sunday morning shows would not include any Union Officials from AFSCME or Teachers Unions.
Thanks...Fascism it is...Mussolini and Franco would be proud
We need to wake up to the undemocratic, authoritarian “emergency financial management” threat which conservative extremists are unleashing on us...
Today's conservatives are not traditionalists with a desire for small-government...today's conservatives are fascists with a desire for undemocratic, corporate-government.
Excellent article with a conclusion that gets right to the point:
"The true purpose of emergency financial management is the conversion of a democratically elected government into a hierarchal business entity..."
Corporate-trained and controlled EFMs replace elected officials at the whim of the governor in a merger of state and corporate power.
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”
“Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy”
-Benito Mussolini
" If we allow what is taking place in Michigan to continue unabated, it won’t be long before disaster capitalism finds its way to a city, town, or school district near you."
God blessed, the second article I've read today - after Mr. Scheer's - that goes a long way in describing the situation in the US but still fails to draw the proper linguistic conclusion.
WE ARE A FASCIST STATE!!
What in that simple statement is so hard for writers and commentators on the left to state?
Instead, we are treated to more sanitized descriptions of a political philosophy that by every indication is rearing its ugly head again and yet we sit here and banter innocuous phrases and politi-speak while the truth is masked.
Although I respect and agree with Klein in her assessment of disaster captialism, I would argue that disaster capitalism's endpoint - which we are already at - is indeed fascism and we all need to start using the correct terms or we are still ceding battles to our masters of propaganda.
"WE ARE A FASCIST STATE!! What in that simple statement is so hard for writers and commentators on the left to state?"
I think, unfortunately, that 1) Most Americans automatically equate "fascism" with jack-booted Nazis, "Heil Hitler!," and concentration camps for Jews. They just can't understand that the Nazis of Germany were simply one manifestation of fascism. This is partly the fault of education; civics courses in our sad educational system don't cover any kind of analysis of the various types of government in the world. And partly the fault of Americans themselves, for being too uninterested to learn on their own what they are not taught in school. They don't see jack-booted thugs patrolling the streets here, they see no ovens and citizens being gassed, they see no swasticas on our flag, so - hey, no fascism here. 2) American exceptionalism is so deeply-ingrained in most Americans from a very early age that even when they want to be objective and honest about things - especially when trying self-reflection - they just can't get past that Exceptionalist screen that covers their minds but which they do not see.
The nature of American "fascism" includes government and corporate destruction of any real mass based alternatives to capitalist imperialism: Co-option, surveillance, infiltration, internal sabotage, provocation to criminal acts, arrests, beatings, chemical attacks on activists, arrests, witch hunts, torture and assasination.
If it's not fascism, it's a techno derivation that is more stable because it wraps itself in a veneer of "individual choice" while undermining & destroying effective social action by the masses.
Most of the fascist control mechanism are classified Top Secret - yet another hallmark of fascism.
A good case can also be made for Barack Obama being a lifelong company man and previously secret fascist. His mother and father both seem to be very close to some deadly Company actions in Indonesia. Any clearcut evidence of company connections would, of course, be classified.
Alan Riding's recent book, The Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi Occupied France, details the Goering's Art Hunts, and some outright bonfires that burned what might now be "decadent art" valued in the billions. Still much was saved and later recovered.
The destruction and looting of French Art under the Nazis was in many ways less destructive to the national culture when compared to the lootings of the museums in Baghdad by the USA. In any case, they're in the same league.
The US military and police force becomes more fascist with each year, with Xian fascists taking over the military acadamies and well on the way to running many domestic police forces. Our prison system has reached concentration camp proportions.
Mass street violence and widespread oppressive responses will only occur when the elite decides to drop the facade and allow the hollowed out US economy to sink catastrophically.
Imperial overstrech and defeat paved the way for the major successful mass revolutions against modern Western empires. America is not immune and the world undrerstands this. The world must struggle to somehow render US military might less decisive; so that democracy and socialism can flourish.
"This decimation of local democracy is spreading."
According to Mark Morford in an amazingly shitty piece, this is obviously untrue. So put away the CD page and, you know, go to Starbucks!
Mark Morford? Shitty? Nothing amazing in that.
Still, though, when a glib piece is so bad that you can only comment on it in an entirely unrelated thread, you have to wonder about an author's basic sentience at that point.
I'm still deciding whether or not that was the douchiest piece I've read on CD this year.
Canada is willing to loan the State of Michigan money to build a new bridge crossing to help alleviate the traffic on the Ambassador bridge.
The person who OWNS the Ambassador bridge is blocking this as he deems it Socialism. He has no desire to build another crossing. He would rather all traffic forced to use his bridge and pay a fee to do so.
As millions of automobiles wait in line, engines idling to cross that bridge we see the "efficiency" of the free market in action.
The fact is this. Were it not for governments the vast majority of infrastructure in the US and Canada would never have been built. The first electrical companies as example , had no intention of building power lines to the smaller towns.
There are women in Northern BC being raped and murdered because there no bus or train systems between towns (not profitable) so they feel forced to hitch hike when travelling to find work.
One can not use the private for profit market model to run a government no matter what the Libertarians claim. It idiocy.
So true. I used to be a libertarian, until I saw "privatization" up close & personal. Eventually it dawned on me that a private, for-profit model to run a government is EXACTLY what mussolini was talking about, with his "corporatism" being the merging of of corporate & government power; gov't by private interests (the owning/ruling class). Same as plantations & company towns. Same as the british east india trading COMPANY & all the other huge trading/exploring/looting/pillaging COMPANIES from centuries ago (working for EMPIRE; mussolini was literally trying to recreate the glorious roman empire, fasces and all).
Big gov't is not the problem. Big gov't, in a modern era, is an ABSOLUTE NECESSITY. Gov't (big or small) captured by the private monied interests IS THE PROBLEM. Wallstreet, city of london, boston vault, chicago xchange, hong kong xchange, etc... is the problem. Gov't of by for the people is the solution. A democratic republic (if we the people can keep hold of it) is the best tool for promoting the general welfare, establishing justice, providing for the common defense (NOT imperial wars of conquest by the monied interests).
Well it was designed to be acountable, but in 200+yrs of trying the corporations have taken it over! A for effort D+ for exicution!
Time to burn it down and start over, since theres no new world we can move to Starting overwise that iz.
>^^<
Many of us who comment on CD predicted a couple of years ago that the Shock Doctrine was coming to the US and soon. Damn, I wish we weren't right so often, as most of us predict a very dark future ahead. At least it confirms the validity of our models of reality, for whatever that's worth.
Anyway, I wonder when it is going to become obvious to the average Joe out there that private entitites can only outperform public entities over the short term, not over the long term. Private entities, particularly corporations, must focus on, and do focus on, the short term, for if they do not do well in the short term they will not be around for the long term. Governments have the resources, or the ability to garner the resources, to allow them to focus on the long term in providing a broad array of services and to approach quality of life issues from a holistic perspective, and may do a decent job of planning and preparing for the future for the public good if the governments are controlled by those responsible to the people (through a vote or otherwise).
Maximizing welfare in the short term is completely different from maximizing welfare in the long term, and often actions intended to accomplish the one are incompatible with those intended to accomplish the other, so even if one could assume that the private entities would be the least bit concerned with the public welfare (which is highly doubtful), giving such private entities responsibility for the public welfare would likely lead to catastrophe in the long term.
Americans have been brainwashed since birth about how great their country is and they are so dumb they actually believe it despite the fact that they have the most corrupt, racist, unjust, violent and totalitarian society in the western world. Greedy corporations own the congress and run the economy and the government while right wing religious morons preach hate and enforce their idea of morality on women.
Explanations that call the masses "dumb" are of very little utility.
Perhaps your explanation makes yopu feel better, but politically, it is worthless and reactionary, to boot.
Nov 22, 1963
Yes Waldo that was the big one and now they are in their house to house clear and hold operation.
But we are still standing and will never give up.
Maybe no surrender, but that doesn't mean we have any victory to look forward to. I am totally ready to defend my own birthright, but I'm also realistic enough to concede that I have no real power. The only comfort I find is that knowing my weakness provides me with another solution, guerrilla tactics.
We the people are no longer citizens. At best we are stockholders, without any voting rights, in an empire that is crashing. We are completely dependent on GM and WalMart being successful.
Hoa binh
Fascism has reared it's ugly head in the past. We as a nation with the help of many were able to suppress it. Now it seems to have returned in our own country. Time to rise up and smash it again. Once they concentrate the power their is no voting them out. It's going to take something a little more persuasive.
Here's the problem...fascists of today have learned from history how NOT to proceed. You don't go around showing off like dictators, you pitch what you do as The American Way. Sinclair Lewis nailed it "Fascism will come to America with a flag in one hand and a bible in the other" (or words to that effect).
Truth. And it happened in early 2001. The big concern with Obama was how to hamstring him. Mission accomplished.