Crossposted from Docudharma
First of all, do NOT change the name to something "nicer."
I've got bad news for you folks, there will be no Mission Accomplished in the Class War. There will be no great and glorious victory with flags waving above the battlements.
Class war is not about defeating the Rich, it is about scaring the hell out of them enough so that they give up power.
The Ruling Class (and don't worry we are NOT talking about YOU) only grudgingly accepted the New Deal because the idea of a true Class War, an all out uprising of the poor, the unemployed, foreclosed upon farmers, destitute Veterans, and yes....Leftist Agitators ...scared the hell out of them.
And it was ONLY as a result of that fear, fear of something far worse than the New Deal, that the Ruling Class gave up a smidgen of their wealth and power to the scary peasants (and yes, now we are talking about you) at their gate.
We are NOT talking about guillotines or ripping the rich from their beds.
A violent Class war would only hurt us, the poor peasants.
(But don't tell them that!)
The entire point of a Class War movement is to scare the Rich out of their bubble of complacency, selfishness and greed. To force them to allow the other 98% of us to have some semblance of a fair shake....to get them to stop preying on us to enrich themselves.
The goal is not to beat the Rich, because we can't. They control (if it came to that point) the army navy, airforce, marines, local cops and of course, they can always hire Blackwater.
The goal is merely to make them understand that their greed is causing others, causing us, to suffer.
There is one thing we must always remember...they do not know they are in a Class war, that they are waging a Class War. When you are winning a war so handily, with no casualties or suffering, you forget you are waging it! The constant stae of warfare is just another facet of The New Normal
The problem isn't that they are greedy rapacious oligarchs and plutocrats rubbing their hands together in glee at the suffering of the poor and middle class. The problem is that they are completely oblivious, in their comfy bubbles, to the struggles of the 98% of the rest of us.
With of course some notable exceptions like the Koch Brothers.
And the only way to get them out of their bubbles is to shock them out of them. To make them notice the suffering all around them. And, sadly, to make that suffering threatening to them.
Then ...perhaps...they will allow us to have unemployment insurance, they will allow us to have Food Stamps, they will allow us to have a Direct Jobs program, they will allow us to have real Financial Reform, they will allow us to have real Health Care Reform, they will allow us to have access to their Capital. Everything, in other words, that they have just recently denied us as they wage Class War against us, using our own government as their weapon.
In other words, they will allow the legislators they own, our Congress, (and no, not all of them) to pass legislation that benefits....that rescues...us. Instead of them.
Class War has been raging since Reagan. Their main messaging weapon in the Class War....is that Class War is a horrible, bad, unjust, and unthinkable thing. Class war is only horrible, bad, unjust, and unthinkable for one reason, because they are justifiably afraid that they WILL be held accountable by the vast majority of The People for their rigged games and excesses and arrogance. They are, as the Aristocratic Class has always been, deathly afraid that The People will rise up and kill them in their beds. This is, lol, projection. It is what they would do, if they were us. (Just as a part of racism is the fear of what they would do, if they had been similarly and systematically wronged for hundreds of years.)
We, the poor peasants, have no desire to rise up and kill them in their beds.
We just want them to stop trickling down on us and telling us that it is raining, and that we should be grateful that we have something to drink.
We just want a system that gives us a fair shake. They are the ones who want a system that gives them an unfair advantage.
An advantage they have enjoyed for so long that they think it is their right to have the entire financial, political, and social system stacked in their favor. A Calvinistic right that they believe they have somehow earned. And they are actually and truly hurt when it is suggested that somehow they are being unfair...or cruel. After all, if you were rich and powerful, you would screw those less powerful than you too.....right?
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How To Wage Class War
Take your money out of the banks
Cut up your credit cards
Stop buying anything made by Corporations
Patronize only small local businesses or co-ops
Start a small business or co-op
Divest yourself from any corporate holdings. Talk to and pressure shareholders of the Corporations to get them to press for Corporate Responsibility
Vote for and donate only to those politicians who will represent your interests above the interest of the Rich and the Corporations.
(These are just a few suggestions, please add yours in the comments!)
In other words, stop financially supporting those who are waging Class War on you.
Those are extreme steps, extreme sacrifices, and in some cases, impossible to do.
For instance, part of the Class War has been Corporations like Wal-Mart moving into small towns, destroying small businesses, and making you dependent on them for your goods and services. Giving you no choice on where or how to spend your money, except to give it to them....so that they can then use it to further wage Class War on you. your family and your neighbors. Start a co-op or small business to compete with them, even in a small way. Otherwise....they've got you. And they won't let you go as long as you are feeding their machine.
Can you function without a bank or a credit card? Well you can if you try, but it would be very difficult. Purposefully difficult. Again, you have been made dependent, purposefully so, on the mechanisms of daily life that they control and obscenely profit from.
The alternative is to create alternate mechanisms, cooperative mechanisms, to replace their means of controlling you. That is Class War, economic war. How and where you spend your money...and your vote...is the greatest weapon you have.
And use your only other weapon as well, your voice. Write phone and fax your Congress members, the CEO's and Board of Directors of Corporations and your local newspaper (if you still have one) and make your voice heard!
And yes, use the term Class war. Use it loudly. Conjure up the image of the very thing that they fear most..........Economic Justice and Equality.
And then, when they are worried enough, nervous enough, scared enough, they will stick their heads out of their now threatened bubbles of wealth........and allow us a little piece of their obscenely huge and destructive pie.
Most people cannot just jump off of the economic grid. But if you do what you can, where and how you can, that is a start. And once you have started, once you have changed your mind about how ....and why...you participate in an economic grid that is waging War on you, you can take the next step, and the next.
All they want is your money, so stop giving it to them! And, the most important part....let them know why! That combination will be enough of a War to wake them up!
Yes it will be hard. It will be a Long War, a war that does involve sacrifice. And commitment. And a change of lifestyle.
But if we DON'T do it, don't do something, the alternative will be harder, and uglier, and could lead to violence.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Oh and oh yeah......these are also the very same people and Corporations that are killing the planet. And if you think changing your lifestyle is hard now, just wait until your local Wal-Mart is underwater!
