Make Revolution Not War

The intent of this page is to explore how Portlandians might work towards focusing and strengthening economic investment at the regional (Cascadian), local (Portland metro) and even neighborhood level while doing everything possible to reduce entanglements with the most pernicious elements of the global economy. For well over three decades policy makers have subjected Americans, most Europeans and others to a relentless and sustained propaganda assault promoting a particular form of neoliberal, globalized "free market." According to the sales pitch, handing over the keys to the global economy to a relative handful of society's most aggressive, acquisitive and profit-motivated "wealth creators" would not only allow them to enrich themselves, but allow them to trickle a steady stream of that wealth down onto the rest of us. In reality, the wealth gusher flowed out of nearly everyone's pockets and into the coffers of a tiny elite.

Getting Started

OK. So everything's screwed. What can we do?

Perhaps the most important starting point is to inform yourself. Arming yourself with at least a basic understanding of why the dominant political and economic structures of our society are only marginally functional (at best) for most of us is a potentially valuable touchstone you can use to keep yourself mentally and emotionally oriented.

Trickle-Down Slavery

In his book, Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy, author Kevin Bales defines slavery as "a relationship in which one person is controlled by violence through violence, the threat of violence, or psychological coercion, has lost free will and free movement, is exploited economically, and paid nothing beyond subsistence." Using this measurement, Bales estimates that "more than twenty-seven million people are still trapped in one of history's oldest social institutions." His investigations reveal how this "new slavery," producing $13 billion in goods and services, "is inextricably linked to the global economy."

According to their website, Free the Slaves -- the organization Bales founded -- makes it their mission to "liberate slaves around the world & attack the systems that allow slavery to exist." Those systems, however, are daunting. Not only do they include the "global free market's" poisonous alphabet soup of usual culprits -- IMF, World Bank, GATT, NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO, MAI, GATS, FTAA, BIS and so on -- they also include the much beloved The U.S. The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

Perhaps it's not surprising to discover that neoliberal, "free markets" contribute to slavery. Limiting freedom to the marketplace, after all, gives that marketplace permission to buy the land out from under the feet of you and your indigenous neighbors, then drive you off of it. Even if it's the same land you and your ancestors have lived on since the beginning of time. It's the kind of freedom that can sell you a fraudulent mortgage on an overpriced suburban McCrackerbox, deflate its value by crashing the global economy, then foreclose you out of your home even as it plucks the remaining coins from your pocket in order to bail itself out of the financial catastrophe of its own making. Markets want to be free. Markets want people to serve as commodities within the globalized "labor market." Drowning at the bottom of this free market "labor pool," sucked in by globalization's relentless undertow, is the slave.

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The U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons, by contrast, is not usually associated with "freedom." Under the influence of "free market fundamentalism," however, the Bureau is eager to throw the prison gates wide open. To the marketplace, at least. "But," you might wonder, "I thought the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons is as American as mom, apple pie and predator drones. How could something as un-American old-school American as slavery get mixed up with our beloved Bureau, the epitome of Americanism?" The answer, of course, is "privatization" -- the New Americanism. New Americanism stipulates that the land of the free market is the home of the slave. It's a homeland secured by the abject bravery of fine young predator drone pilots who -- with the click of a mouse and jerk of a joystick -- display their abject braveism by transforming impoverished villagers all over the globe into the tiny, bloody, blown-up chunks of flesh, bone and sinew of "neutralized threat."

The New Feudalism and You

You Americans, you have mastered the art of living with the unacceptable.
-- Breyten Breytenbach

In order to come to grips with how and why the Land of the Free is undergoing an enforced transformation into the Home of the Slaves, it's important to the role of feudalism, in both its historical and its emerging contexts. A relentless, extreme and uncompromising assault on working people is underway right now. It’s the worst attack on ordinary workers seen in decades, and it’s taking place all over the globe. This latest battle comes on the heels of a four decade long war waged on working people by large corporations, corporate-owned politicians, paid-off judges, corporate-controlled media, right wing “think tanks” and chambers of commerce.

This war on working people is not new. What is new are the stakes. It is no secret that anti-worker forces have kept working people in their cross hairs for decades. What’s different this time is these same forces now aim to kill. The terrible plagues unleashed by the Great Recession -- rising unemployment, falling wages and growing desperation -- are precious gifts to those obsessed with keeping working people afraid and off balance.

Community Resources

Local

• Right 2 Survive | Right 2 Survive PDX (blog)

"Working to empower the houseless and disenfranchised, and to oppose abuses of power by government."

Regional

• Good Grief America - The Peoples Union --- Stop Foreclosures --- Rebuild Community!

The devastation of foreclosure; what can be done (Audio | 55:37 minutes) More Talk Radio hosts Cecil Prescod speaks with Nancie Koerber from Good Grief America.

Housing was the vehicle that Wall Street used to drain the life out of America. The result has caused record unemployment, foreclosures, homelessness and the unweaving of our community fiber. All linked to this issue are increased suicides, divorces, bankruptcies, and small business failure. Our community services such as food stamps, unemployment, foster care, homeless shelters and many others are over burdened and unable to meet the needs of struggling families.

National

• Take Back the Land

The Take Back the Land Movement is a national network of organizations dedicated to elevating housing to the level of a human right and securing community control over land. The Movement must be led by impacted communities and is firmly rooted in 'Positive Action' campaigns, including those which break the immoral laws which allow banks to gain billions in profit while human beings are made homeless.

• Food Not Bombs | The Food Not Bombs Movement: Cook for peace. (Also available many local communities, including Portland.)

External Links

Energy

• Oregonians For Renewable Energy Policy

Finance

• Oregonians for a State Bank
• Abusive Offshore Tax Avoidance Schemes - Glossary of Offshore Terms
• The truth about tax havens | The truth about tax havens: part 2
• Rogue Economics Undermines World Justice

See Also

Foreclosure | Portland General Strike | Food Not Bombs | City Wiki | Rally For Peace: Time To Break The Spell,