Losing Our Fear When There is Nothing Left to Lose: Broke Rage in Post-Election California

PART 1

"I am Governor Jerry Brown. My aura smiles and never frowns. Soon I will be president..." -
California Uber Alles, Dead Kennedys

You can feel it in your chest. It's that anxiety that stays with you from the moment that you wake up and go to work to when you finally pass out and start the day again. It's walking all the way to the library to work on your resume, only to get to the doors and read the sign that says, "CLOSED DUE TO FURLOUGHS." It's wondering where the children on the street have gone and then remembering that most of the houses on your street are boarded up. Their signs declare: "BANK OWNED." It's reading in the newspaper that the day care program your daughter goes to is being shut down, seeing the guards at the unemployment office, and the fear you feel when you slip that can of beans into your bag and hope that this time you won't get caught. It's getting your paycheck at work and staring in sadness at the pitiful amount. It's the taste of the tap water that you feel bad about even giving to your dog. It's standing in line at Revenue Recovery on 10th and J Street, as the woman next to you screams at the clerk behind the window, "I lived in that house my entire life! You motherfuckers!"

It's the feeling deep in your stomach, the taste of bile in the back of your throat, and the burning rage that runs down from your face to your balled up fists when you see them, hear them, brush past them at that new, expensive Raley's you run into during your lunch hour to use the bathroom. The politicians, the developers, the businessmen, the upper class; talking through their crooked teeth, in their silken clothes, in all their decadence and superiority that only a Harvard degree, rich parents, and a job ordering other people around brings. Another law is passed, another park closed, more services cut, and those smug bastards slink back to their mansions in La Loma to prepare for their next campaign race. But these upper middle class managers are only the pencil pushers for those that really control this world. Those that own and control wealth, who rake in massive profits from our labors in the Central Valley, who direct and control politics and its police; although they seem so far away in Sacramento. Yet, we still feel the violence and poverty of their politics directed against us day in and day out. At night, the sirens wine and our hearts pound. There's got to be more to life than this...

Across the Central Valley, the United States, and across the world - things are getting worse for most people. In the Central Valley, unemployment continues to climb. Foreclosures continue unabated. Cuts to basic social services raise co-pays, shut down day care centers and clinics, and close library doors. Schools are shut down forever as classrooms grow larger, and in higher education, fees and tuition increases leave many students locked out of universities. Factories are closed, production is outsourced, and many businesses undergo massive layoffs. Police beat and kill without remorse, protected by a blue code of silence and a supportive city government, as the prison population swells. In the jails, prisoners are killed in droves by guards at the losing end of batons and tasers, while on the streets people whisper how the Sheriff's are running the drug trade inside. Immigrants, already facing an onslaught of low wages, pesticides, and poor living conditions, face an ongoing attack from ICE, as state governments attempt to pass racist laws and divide the working class. Those in control of the city of Modesto: a collection of business leaders, ex-police, and career politicians, form an upper class that secures and fights for it's own interests as they close parks and raise fees at community centers, pass more repressive laws, and protect business interests.

Meanwhile, many turn to drugs to help cope, as our streets are flooded with crime and neighbors become wary of each other. Many do not venture out after dark, as car thefts increase, certain areas become drug dens, and vacant properties become trap houses. At a time when we need to be coming together more than ever, we often couldn't be farther apart. As unemployment rises, the drug economy grows, and gangs and cartels become stronger and fight for control over the drug trade and more territory. For many poor and working class youth, the gangs represent the only viable job option - even as they point only towards open prison gates, death, and the continuous destruction of working class communities and people. Here, it seems only prisons and meth are the growth industries. Everywhere, people are impacted. Everyone is taking a hit. We all know it - but what can we do about it?

The Crisis

The current economic crisis was caused when the speculative housing bubble burst several years ago, sending the economy into a tailspin. As many people began to default on their sub-prime loans (made popular by predatory loan sharks), the house of cards of speculative spending began to crumble. This downturn in the housing market soon began to affect other sectors, as industries related to housing, such as construction, began to be hit as well. Soon, across the board, various industries were laying people off, plants such as Hershey's and NUMMI were shut down, and workers faced cuts to their hours and pay.

Public sector workers such as teachers and government employees faced lay offs and job cuts, as city and state governments received less tax revenue. Construction workers had less things to build as less houses were needed and companies were unable to take out loans for development projects. Manufacturing workers faced plant closures and massive layoffs, as companies had less money coming in and sought labor markets where they could pay workers less. Service industry employees faced cuts to hours and scaled back wages, as consumers tightened their belts and spent less. Meanwhile, unions (where they existed) responded with negotiating the degree in which the capitalists attacked us. Avoiding struggle and confrontation, the unions operated as corporations unto themselves, and mitigated with the bosses which days would be furloughed, how many workers would be laid off, and how much workers pay would be reduced.

Across the board, we watched as we worked harder and were paid less. It was workers however, who took the hit - as corporations celebrated record profits and CEOs gave themselves record bonuses. One thing became clear: we are paying for this crisis, not them. As the New York Times wrote, "Corporate profits are lighting up boardrooms; it is one of the best years for earnings in a decade. Billions of profits, windfalls in the stock market, a stable banking system [thanks to bailouts from Bush and Obama] — but no jobs."

In the meantime, workers became much more likely to lose their homes due to foreclosure, as many people affected by the fallout of the crash found it harder to make their mortgage payments, even if they had not taken out sub-prime loans. A raising of college tuition by 32% in 2009 (which came after multiple years of similar fee increases) at CSUs and UC, (which were followed by more increases in 2010), and smaller increases at JCs, locked many working students out of higher education, or pushed others only further into debt. These increases, coupled with cuts to classes, kept many from being able to advance into higher paying jobs or at the least, complete their degrees. Furthermore, cuts to basic social services such as health and child care, left many working people with increased expenses, again, forcing many out of their homes through foreclosure, or at the very least, taking on 2nd and 3rd jobs.

Two Parties, One Attack on Working People

RAAN, (Red and Anarchist Action Network) claimed responsibility for damaging the windows of the Democratic Campaign HQ in Modesto, causing thousands of dollars in damage, this fall.

Several days ago, most people in Modesto, and Californians in general, weren't doing something - voting.

Maybe that's because they realized that both parities represent the same thing, the upper class and the interests of business. But, even as the head bureaucrats of unions, upper middle class Leftist organizations, celebrities, and academics begged us to go to the polls and support the Democrats, many simply did not heed the call.

Brown, who won the election, got only about 4 million votes, while Whitman, an ex-CEO who spent millions of her own money, got only 3.1 million. This is out of a station population of 37 million with about 22 million eligible to vote, meaning that only a mere third of the state's voting population pulled a level for either of the candidates. Youth voter turnout was extremely low, with only about 1 in ten voters hitting the polls on Tuesday being under 30.

But, as things things get worse, Democrats and Republicans are coming into lock step more and more, taking aim at poor and working people with renewed agency. As Tom Carter wrote on the race between Brown and Whitman, the campaign featured "fierce...competing to [see who could] establish themselves as the best qualified to impose further harsh austerity measures, including mass layoffs and cuts to education, health care, and pensions and other critical social programs." As Patrick Martin wrote, Republicans and Democrats nationally agree all to well that the workers should pay for the crisis, and not the rich:

"The calls for spending restraint and “smaller” government apply only to the programs that provide assistance to working people, the sick and the elderly. No Republican congressional leader favors cuts in spending on the military or the gargantuan tax subsidies to Wall Street...

[Despite public opposition, politicians are] slashing social programs such as Social Security, Medicare, education and unemployment compensation, and further tax breaks for the rich. President Obama made it clear that he was open to the Republican approach, pledging bipartisan cooperation to cut spending and repeatedly suggesting areas of “common ground,” such as energy policy, education and tax cuts for investment. He also touted his embrace of accelerated depreciation rules for business, so companies “get a huge tax break next year,” citing this as “an idea that business groups and Republicans I think have supported for a very long time."

The media creates a myth that the "voters" (who apparently in the millions would in fact rather not vote) have become angry at Obama's "socialism" via big government and big spending. Fed up with the 'Left-Wing' turn in American politics, people are swinging to the right, bucking the Democrats from their seat of power.

However, most people, especially those who turned out in droves for Obama's election several years ago, were hoping to produce tangible results and end of the Bush dynasty; bringing about drastic changes to the American system. These changes many hoped would include universal health care, an end to middle eastern wars, an end to foreclosures, money for jobs, housing, and education, and an end to government surveillance, spying, and attacks on civil liberties. Of course, no major changes occurred.

This is because far from rolling back the changes made by the Bush Administration, the Obama regime has simply continued them. As Carter wrote, "Workers and young people in California and across the US turned out in record numbers to vote for Obama and the Democratic Party in 2008, hoping for a reversal of the policies of the Bush administration. Instead, these policies were only further entrenched under Obama and the Democrats. The result was mass disaffection."

People did not swing to the right - they simply woke up to the fact that the Democrats and Republicans do not exist to "fight" for our interests. Millions of people did not vote on the 2nd because they knew that it was pointless to do so. Neither candidate would make the changes needed to help poor and working people, since both candidates have an anti-working class platform. As Carter wrote:

"The election centered on who was best qualified to impose further austerity measures. Both candidates, backed to the hilt by corporate money, agreed that the cost of the economic crisis must be imposed on the working class. Brown’s campaign exemplifies the dramatic rightward shift of the Democratic Party over the recent period. Brown stressed repeatedly his promise to cut pensions and other “wasteful spending.” “Fixing government is not simply about cutting state employees or expenses,” Brown added, but also includes removing regulations on big business.

In an interesting twist, Brown's biggest backers are the unions of workers that he plans to attack, including the large SEIU, which represents state workers. As Kevin Kearney wrote:

"On pensions, he said he would “raise ages, raise contributions” like Whitman and negotiate with public employee unions to make more desired cuts. Brown has boasted, “When it comes to unions: I’m the only governor who ever vetoed the pay raises for all public employees. I did it once, I did it twice, and I’ll do it again.” He asserted, “No one is tougher with a buck than I am.” Brown’s campaign has the backing of most of the major unions, and his strategy is to work with them in imposing cuts. The latest austerity budget negotiated by current governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic Party-controlled legislature includes a pledge of significant cuts in public employee benefits agreed to by the Service Employees International Union.

Brown, in contrast [to Whitman], has described his method for imposing austerity as “empowering local governments,” by which he means unloading decision-making on education, health care and welfare spending to cash-strapped local governments, which would relieve the state government of direct accountability. In this sense, he’s made much of his connections with politicians and union bureaucrats as proof he’s best qualified to impose the brutal cuts demanded by the financial elite."

And while the union bosses of SEIU are more interested in staying in control of their business (managing the workers in their unions by selling them out to filth like Brown), Brown also states his opposition to public education:

"When asked if he would roll back the fees for university students that have made the cost of education “astronomical” (in Brown’s words) he said “no”. When asked if he would promise to freeze fees where they are, he gave the same response."

While Whitman was known for her support of racist anti-immigrant legislation like that being proposed in Arizona, Brown is no friend to the immigrant worker either:

"On the issue of immigration, Brown boasted of initiating the invasive “Secure
Communities” program, which attempts to collect identifying information(fingerprints) for all immigrants in the country and compile it in a database. He said, “If they are found to be here illegally, they get deported.” He also mentioned that, “Workplace inspections are part of the solution.”

Brown, Obama, and the Democrats offer working people nothing. They offer not a different version of attack on working people that the Republicans propose, but simply a different managed one - one that is in fact more sinister, because it is backed by the major organizations of the Left: the unions and the non-profits which claim to 'fight for us.'

Thus, we have been left with a choice of the bureaucratic capitalism of Brown on one hand, and the fascistic capitalism of Whitman on the other hand. Democracy in capitalism only allows us to point to those that would rule over and destroy us. We must take up the banner of class war; of revolutionary action, if we are to better ourselves. It is now time for every workplace to go on strike. Every school, hospital, unemployment, and food stamps office to be occupied. It is time for every field to be taken over by those that toil under it. It is time to burn the ballot, and leave behind the nightmare that following these leaders has gotten us.

"Oh, we a gettin' boss..."

What's worse? A power that makes you union less, or a union that makes you powerless? Or perhaps a marriage of the two?

In partnership with the ongoing cuts, as well as those proposed by Governor Brown, unions are ensuring that these attacks will go into effect and workers will accept them. Chief among these unions is the SEIU, or the Service Employees International Union, which 'represents' many of the workers that will be hurt by such cuts. Mirroring the wedding of political bureaucrats with union bureaucrats in the SEIU, is the leadership of other major unions for teachers, professors, as well unions in manufacturing. When the bosses say jump, the unions ask, "How high, boss?" The unions have neither the desire or ability to launch counter attacks on the ruling class - this is something that can only come from ourselves, self-organized from bellow.

What we need are ways in which to direct our power, which comes from our solidarity between each other, against our enemies and towards are own interests. What the unions give us is simply another set of cops and politicians, which seek to control and profit from us. Working with those that they rail against, the politicians and bureaucrats now walk hand in hand with each other as workers are left bleeding. Homeowners by the millions still are faced with foreclosure. Health care remains out of reach for millions. Unemployment continues to rise. It is time to starting finding our own power, that we create between ourselves - instead of giving it away to someone else.

Political parities and the unions that work hand in hand with them not only have sold us out and failed us - they are working against us. Now, direct action isn't only, the only way forward, it's the only thing left that's possible for us to change anything. Those that claimed to bring "HOPE" and "CHANGE" to America simply let the nightmare of capitalism continue. Those that claim to fight for us, fight against us.

Free from unions. Free from the elections. We can now start to ask ourselves - what can we do to actually take this monster on?