The Bending Cross

Commentary by Michael Bonanno.

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Michael
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The Bending Cross

Post by Michael » November 15th, 2010, 1:09 pm

(originally published at OpEdNews)

I'm reading a book entitled The Bending Cross. It’s the biography of Eugene V. Debs.

I was a integral part of The Corporatocracy for 25 years. They threw the union out at the Dow Chemical site in Connecticut in 1972 and I was 22, had pretty much given up on college, although I'd completed three semesters, and needed work.

An abusive father "would not let me leave his home" for any reason other than to get married. He said "the door swings one way".

I realize now that I could have told him to pound sand. I was 22 and leaving his home was my choice, not his. Conditioning, however, had frightened me to death and I stayed with him. However, I looked hard for a potential wife and found one.

A marriage based upon these criteria was destined to fail. It and two of the following three marriages failed miserably. I won't bore you with anymore personal whining. If you're at all interested, you can go to the About Michael page on my web site.

As I mentioned, I took advantage of the misfortune of others to begin what seemed like a rewarding career with The Dow Chemical Company.

An example of the temporary death of my brain was how humorous I thought it was that Dow had a Standard Operating Procedure that directed us technicians to dump contaminated water to the Thames River in Connecticut (yes, the Thames) “until fish began to appear to be disturbed”. One can almost see the humor in that statement until one sees the hatred of the earth. It then ceases to be humorous.

I actually worked my way up to the position of Operations Supervisor for the Latex Plant and served in that capacity in all three production plants, Latex, Styron/Magnum and Styrofoam, at the site.

I, of course, was honored.

I became aware in 1996 that Dow needed to become "more globally competitive" and, as much as I was proud of climbing the ladder from "what's a pump"? to Operations Supervisor, I was equally shocked and awakened when Dow used the excuse of "global competition" to delayer layers of management. Dow got rid of the position of plant Operations Supervisor globally in 1996 and, in 1997, three years before I could technically retire, they delayered me.

I've met so many people who work hard for the American Cancer Foundation once they realize that someone close to them has cancer; so many people who work hard to promote breast cancer research once they know someone close who has contracted breast cancer; so many people who join Mothers Against Drunk Driving once they've lost someone who was killed by a drunk driver; so many people who begin to give to the Arthritis Foundation once they know someone who suffers from arthritis. Count me in on that hypocrisy.

For the greater part of 25 years, I didn't even follow the nightly news. When NAFTA was being debated, I had no idea what it was. None. I had a job to do and didn't have time to waste on "politics". Now that's some unawareness, agreed?

So, this wonderful company who had showered me with bonuses and promotions for 25 years went from the manufacturing business to the mergers and acquisition business and threw people away like so many dirty dish rags.

I wasn't always like this. When I was 20 years old, I campaigned, during the illegal intrusion into Vietnam, for a priest name Joseph Duffy. He primaried Tom Dodd, father of Chris Dodd, for the Democratic nomination for US Senator. He was not silent and, it appears, he was not part of the majority and he lost.

During those years, I debated such issues as social justice for the Black race and the lies that got us where we were in Vietnam, as well as the absurdity of fighting an unwinnable war.

I wrote a lot of poetry and music decrying the state of the nation at the time.

However, when I attempted to obtain my freedom, to start my life in a manner of my choosing - well, I told you what happened.

I've been learning since 1998 or so that there is no Democratic Party or Republican Party. There is only The Corporatocracy.

I thought I was a Democrat. Then I heard some about The Libertarian Party and thought that suited me just fine until I learned what its domestic policy is. I just can't imagine any of our citizens feeling comfortable stepping over the dead and dying in our streets as Libertarians would not force the private sector to offer jobs equally to everyone, would not force those who offer jobs to anyone to pay them a living wage and would not force “us” to give up our “hard earned” money, via taxes, to help those hurt by the first two policies. What, other than dead and dying bodies in the street, can be the result of such policies?

Two years ago, I joined The Socialist Party of the United States. I thought I might want to become a member of The Green Party, but there's so much that The Green Party does wrong in expressing its views.

The first thing it has to do is to get rid of its name. I'm not sure, but I think that The Green Party is an offshoot of Greenpeace and Greenpeace is a single issue organization. When people hear about the Green Party, they think eco-fascists, whatever the hell they are.

Even in California, the Socialists ran as The Peace and Freedom Party. They ran away from what they are. It didn't make much difference in their total vote count, I presume, as that vote count was extremely small.

I believe that we Socialists have to step forward and say, "Yes, we're Socialists.” To steal a line from Democratic Party apologist Thom Hartmann, we want a "we" society, not a "me" society.

We need to campaign on a Socialist platform and let the stupidity fall where it may. It can be refuted easily. People will listen to anything that sounds promising and, presented properly, Democratic Socialism is a promising system of governance which would make our system of economics fair and balanced (please forgive me for that).

Communism, that form of non-governance that's never been tried anywhere at any time, cannot work because of people. People want the they need, sure, but they also want what you need as well. And they'll give what they can as long as "what they can" is subject to their own definition.

Socialism is not a segue between corporate capitalism and Communism. Communism can only result in state capitalism as is now the case in China. The gap between the rich and the poor will not be significantly different between a nation with corporate capitalism and a nation with state capitalism.

Both systems lie when they say that their plan is to ultimately give everyone the opportunity to reach nirvana. It is not and should not be the goal of the American Dream, or any dream, for that matter, to reach nirvana. The goal should be to come as close to reaching fairness as possible.

If it means forcibly taking from the wealthy that which is not theirs, that which was earned by the toil or even the inordinate time given to the company by the workingperson, then let’s not shrink from that task.

It's time for the Socialist Party of The United States to stop hiding behind nuanced, milquetoast rhetoric, the kind used by The Green Party, and to gather the working people together who are losing everything and explain why they're losing everything.

It has nothing to do with brown people putting their lives at risk, crossing deserts to receive less than a living wage from the ruling elite who take advantage of their illegal status in The FUSA, The Former United States of America. It has everything to do with the ruling elite pulling the rug from under the American workingperson and sending manufacturing jobs to nations who allow their citizens to be paid a wage which doesn't even approach a living wage.

The Corporatocracy can talk about how much more people in the slave labor nations are earning since they've moved the operations to those nations, but, as Billy Preston once wrote, "Nothing from nothing leaves nothing."

The ruling elite tell these slaves, "You are paupers now, but our building manufacturing facilities in your country will raise you to the level of poverty, so be grateful" and the citizens of such nations see improvement as improvement and not as insult.

It's time to challenge the corporate shills, especially those who monopolize the airwaves, to a real debate on Socialism. As their presentations thus far have proven, to me at least, they haven't the faintest idea about which they spend so much time speaking and the debate can be easily won.

Ours are not radical ideas. The filibuster and the Electoral College are radical ideas. The idea that people believe the theatrics and boil their blood based upon those theatrics is a radical idea.

Ours are sane ideas. If nothing else, the Tea Party, a twisted and manipulated movement if there ever was one, has proven that constant messaging, repetition and passion are needed to convince people of an idea and Socialism is an idea whose time has come.

We need to turn things around quickly. We need to clean the unwarranted sullied reputation of Socialism. We need to show that greed and greed alone promotes the hatefully adverse reaction to that word. It is otherwise a word which holds promise for the American people and for the people around the world.



To friendship,
Michael

“A cult is a religion with no political power.” - Tom Wolfe


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