Corporations, millionaires control our country

  Michael Schwartz Schwartz is a
fifth-year sociology student who graduates this quarter. He would
like to thank all you of you made all of the hours of research and
stress worth it.
Click Here for more articles by Michael Schwartz

Those of you who have been reading my articles know that I make
strong statements about the United States. Since this is my last
article, I want to be very clear about something; I am in no way
whatsoever referring to the people of the United States. When I
discuss the United States and when I point to the atrocities and
genocide committed, I am referring to actions of the government,
not the people. Neither you nor I get to vote on the question of
whether or not we should bomb Iraq.

I know that many of you believe that the Democrats are somehow
“better” than Republicans. I disagree completely.
Let’s quickly look at some facts.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, who is held up as a model Democrat,
presided over the forced deportation of one million Mexicans in
1931. Over 60 percent of these people were U. S. citizens at the
time. He also signed the executive order that resulted in over
150,000 Japanese Americans being rounded up and herded into
concentration camps, which were called “internment
camps.”

President Truman, a Democrat, ordered a nuclear attack on Japan.
Those bombs were responsible for over 500,000 deaths. This is the
only time in the history of the world that atomic weapons were
used.

  Illustration by CASEY CROWE/Daily Bruin Presidents
Kennedy and Johnson, both Democrats, presided over the war in
Vietnam. This war was responsible for the deaths of over four
million Vietnamese.

President Carter, a Democrat, increased military aid to
Indonesia after their genocidal attack on East Timor in which one
third of the population was killed and he also supported
Nicaragua’s dictator Saomoza until he was toppled in a
revolution.

Former President Clinton ordered the bombings of Iraq,
Afghanistan, Sudan and Yugoslavia as well as the continuation of
the genocidal sanctions on Iraq. He also increased the
militarization of the border with Mexico where more people have
died in the last six years trying to enter the United States than
those who tried to cross the Berlin Wall during its entire
existence.

As I have documented on numerous occasions, our government is a
government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy. The
facts show that no matter how loud people yell about a difference
between the two parties, giant corporations are equally happy to
give to both Democrats and Republicans.

In this last election securities and investments firms donated
$13,782,003 to the Republicans and $10,370,038 to the Democrats.
Telecommunications firms donated $9,058,026 to the Republicans and
$8,713,920 to the Democrats. Computer and electronics companies
gave $6,469,521 to the Republicans and $6,658,172 to the
Democrats.

For good measure I’d like to point out that there are
almost 100 millionaires in the U.S. Congress and this list includes
both Democrats and Republicans. Since millionaires make up a little
more than one percent of the population I’d say they’re
slightly over represented in our legislative body.

Many times I have said that our military serves the interest of
capitalism first and foremost. Why do I say these things? Let me
give you a quick example: according to the March 4 Los Angeles
Times article, “Executives Considered to Head
Military,” three corporate executives are under consideration
to lead the Air Force, Army and Navy. These three top executives
from General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and Enron are now headed to
the Senate for confirmation.

With information like that do I really need to explain that our
military serves the interests of corporations? This shouldn’t
be a shock considering that almost everyone in Bush’s cabinet
is a former Fortune 500 executive.

So, if the government is not run in the interests of the people,
whose interests are served? My answer is that the one percent of
the country that controls 90 percent of the wealth in this nation
are the true beneficiaries of Democratic and Republican
policies.

Lots of people write me and say that if what I write were true
the media would be reporting it. Well the media is not really a
“free press.”

The media is owned by the very institutions and people that
we’re discussing. Viacom owns CBS, General Electric owns NBC,
ABC is owned by Disney, CNN is owned by Time Warner and AOL, MSNBC
is owned by General Electric and Microsoft, and Fox News is owned
by Rupert Murdoch. I think it’s safe to say that since the
corporations own the media we shouldn’t be surprised when the
media does not tell the truth about corporations.

The incentives for buying media organizations have long been
obvious to Wall Street, which has seen vicious competition break
out in order to capture the remaining media markets. Christopher
Shaw, a Wall Street expert who has handled over 120 media mergers,
articulated these incentives in 1986. Shaw told investors that
media buyouts would give them two things:
“profitability” and “influence.” Shaw
predicted, and has since been proven correct, that by the year
2000, major U.S. media would be in the hands of six giant
corporations.

One question faced by those who fight for change is whether they
should press for reform or revolution. Often, people think that the
way you can change society is by pulling a lever for a candidate
every four years.

But the system won’t change whether the Republican Party,
the Democratic Party, the Green Party or any other party that wants
to change things from the top down instead of bottom up controls
it.

We’re not going to change the fact that billions of people
in this world lack the basic necessities of life without replacing
the system that produced that reality in the first place. Today, we
have the resources to feed, clothe, house, educate and provide
health care for every man, woman, and child on this planet. So, who
or what is stopping us? Well, think about the fact that the top one
percent of Americans owns more wealth than the bottom 95 percent
combined.

Think about the fact that they own the means of communication
and the means of production. Obviously, our interests and their
interests are opposed to each other. What we need is an economic
and political revolution.

For years, like many of you, I’ve been fighting against
all the symptoms of capitalism. Every one of my articles has dealt
with a major symptom of capitalism, from prison slave labor to the
sanctions on Iraq. All of the facts in this article just depict
parts of the economic system that controls our lives. But I decided
that I am tired of fighting the symptoms; I want to go after the
disease itself.

There is no way to reform a system that has put billions of
people into extreme poverty. I have decided to dedicate my life to
the fight for socialism. I want to live in a world where the people
who create the wealth of society run society. I refuse to live in a
world where the majority of the population lacks the basic
necessities of life. I welcome all of you to join me in the
struggle for a society that is truly in the interests of humanity
and where no one would lack the necessities of life. I welcome you
to join me in the fight for socialism.