[lbo-talk] 'What Wall Street protesters are so angry about'

[Thomas Volscho]

The elite has been preparing for this for a long time.  In 2008, a division returning from Iraq was training at Ft. Stewart for civil unrest as reported by the Army Times.  But go back even further to the early 1970s and the rise of prisons since Nixon and militarization of police to see that Neoliberal USA is a slow process of "locking down" America (see Christian Parenti's book of that name).  I remember scanning through FBI law enforcement bulletin and they have tactical discussions about "dealing with" protests.  Ward Churchill and Jim Vanderwall have a great chapter in their (1988) book on Cointelpro (rumor has it the FBI ordered the first 20 copies from South End Press) detailing counter-insurgency tactics (many of which were borrowed from Gen Frank Kitson for dealing with IRA).  There was a photo of Canada G8 protests circulating on the net with masked "anarchists" wearing same boots as police.  Not to mention the recent stories (though unsurprising if you read Parenti) about NYPD intelligence divisions.  The elite wants this to simply "go away" but it is increasingly clear that it won't.  There are an array of private security firms (former Secret Service, PD, Army Rangers, etc) in the wait if state-sanctioned police institutions cannot be repressive enough (or if "those" public employees defect).  It will not be surprising if gov't contracts for private detention centers start rolling out soon.  Security for the elite and those below them is also a means of accumulating capital when other profitable investment opportunities run out (one of the final frontiers of accumulation?)

-----Original Message-----
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Marv Gandall
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011 12:17 PM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] 'What Wall Street protesters are so angry about'

On 2011-10-14, at 1:26 AM, Bhaskar Sunkara wrote:


> The most bourgeois of venues sometimes surprise. The charts are pretty
> great.
>
> On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 12:50 AM, Mike Beggs <mikejbeggs at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> From 'Business Insider' of all places, a pretty good selection of charts...

Why the surprise? The bourgeoisie is as keenly aware as we that there is a serious economic crisis and a growing crisis of legitimacy of the system, and it discusses these issues forthrightly and in detail in the financial press, think tanks, and other forums largely outside the public purview.

As always, it is split between those who think reforms are needed to restore order and profitablity and those who think the resolute application of austerity and brute force is all that is required. These days, there are are probably more of the former than the latter, but to date they have also been divided, confused and paralyzed about the nature and degree of reform which is necessary and possible. The spreading mass unrest has got to be concentrating minds at the top, however.
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