157 lines
7.5 KiB
Plaintext
157 lines
7.5 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 10 Num. 91
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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THE PERFECT SLAVE THINKS HE'S FREE
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==================================
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"Nos han dado la tierra." ("They have given us the land.")
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-- Juan Rulfo
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Circa 1600s, in England, the land owned the yeomen and the
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British Lord owned both. The yeomen were part and parcel of the
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estate.
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But then it occurred that the land would be more profitable to
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the British Lord if he raised sheep on it. Due to manufacturing
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advances, a growing wool trade led to seizure of the common lands
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for sheep pasture. The British Lords managed this through their
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Parliament. "Strong and active peasants were transformed into
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wageworkers or sturdy beggars; city streets were filled with
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paupers." [1]
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Many of the displaced yeomen came to America, where they again
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became serfs (indentured servants) for awhile. "Penniless and
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lowly Englishmen, arrested and convicted for any one of the
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multitude of offenses then provided for severely in law, were
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transported as criminals or sold into the colonies as slaves for
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a term of years." [2]
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In America, tremendous estates were owned by Lords of the Land.
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Holland set up a "patroon" system giving feudal rights and
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privileges to select colonizers. The Dutch West India Company
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presided over the arrangement, and several British companies
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"chartered by royal command with all-inclusive powers... held the
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trade and land of the greater part of the colonies as a rigid
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monopoly." English immigrants "ardently expected that in America
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land would be plentiful. They were bitterly disappointed." [3]
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Still, there were not enough laborers. In 1619 a Dutch ship
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brought the first group of black slaves to Jamestown. In the
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South, the economy depended on agriculture. Slavery was the prop
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of that system. In the North, the Lords of the Soil, through
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their feudal powers, monopolized trade and manufacture. "All
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power was concentrated in the hands of a few landowners." The
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feudal lord "forced his tenants to sign covenants that they
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should trade in nothing else than the produce of the manor...
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[The feudal lord] claimed, and held, a monopoly in his domain of
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whatever trade he could seize." [4]
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The British king's Proclamation Line of 1763 forbid settlement
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west of the Appalachian Mountains. But home-grown elites refused
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to let go of their vast landholdings, so tension grew. In *Rural
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Radicals*, Catherine McNicol Stock explains how "British army
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officers told [frontier Americans] that their best chance of
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gaining freehold land was to support the British in overthrowing
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the landlords -- while their landlords told them exactly the
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reverse." [5]
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The American Revolutionary War was fought. Subsequent to that
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conflict, the Land Lord class gradually declined and a
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manufacturing/merchant class gained ascendancy. A new type of
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slave -- the wage slave -- was born. Writes Gustavus Myers (a
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"leftist," by the way),
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If the proletarian white population had been legal slaves,
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as the Negroes in the South had been, much consideration
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would have been bestowed upon their gullets and domiciles,
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for then they would have been property; and who ever knew
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the owner of property to destroy the article which
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represented money? But being "free" men and women and
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children, the proletarians were simply so many bundles of
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flesh whose sickness and death meant pecuniary loss to no
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property-holder.
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Most workers did and do pay rent to that same class that
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expropriates the product of their labor. The luckier who own
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their own land must still pay a yearly tribute to the apparatus
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of Monopoly Capital.
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Recently, an "improvement" on the wage-slave system has been the
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"temping" of the American worker. After Monopoly Capital has
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claimed the fruit of their labor, a few crumbs are tossed to the
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workers and they are expected to go warehouse themselves -- at
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*their* expense -- until a new temporary need arises for their
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labor.
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As pointed out by Myers, Monopoly Capital has always been eager
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for surplus of labor. For that reason it has always favored
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floods of immigrants to the U.S. This pool of labor competes
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bitterly for available jobs, driving down the cost of hiring.
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When labor, for economic reasons, seeks to slow new immigration,
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paid propagandists of Monopoly Capital float various myths. One
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myth is that "American workers won't do certain jobs; we must
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have immigrants." But if there were fewer immigrants, the labor
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pool would shrink and better wages for "certain work" could be
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demanded and won. Better wages would most definitely mean that
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American workers *would* do "certain jobs." Another myth floated
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is "racism/xenophobia." Economic motives of competing labor are
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falsely called racial and/or xenophobic.
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The solution to our slavery is *not* Marxism. Marxists give good
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analyses of the tyranny of Monopoly Capital. Unfortunately,
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their "solution" is worse than the problem! Myers shows how,
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throughout the life of the United States, bribery of government
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officials has been systemic; it is part of how the system has
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always worked and continues to work. Monopoly Capital, from
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before the time of the Revolutionary War on up to today, has
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always used bribery as part of its *modus operandi*. And, for
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hundreds of years, there have always been scandals, public
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outrage, official investigations, and "reform." BUT NOTHING HAS
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EVER BEEN REALLY CHANGED. The solution to our problem is to copy
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the tactics of our enemies. The Teamsters Union has shown the
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way: WE can give "campaign contributions." That is the way
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things get done. But we must organize as a bloc (*not* as
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individuals replying to puny, mass-mailed, solicitations.) What
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heading our bloc goes under is the question.
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---------------------------<< Notes >>---------------------------
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[1] *The Rise of American Civilization* by Charles and Mary Beard
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[2] *History of the Great American Fortunes* by Gustavus Myers
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[3] ibid.
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[4] ibid.
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[5] *Rural Radicals* by Catherine McNicol Stock
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+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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For related stories, visit:
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http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html
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http://feustel.mixi.net
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of Conspiracy Nation, nor of its Editor in Chief.
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(1) telnet prairienet.org (2) logon as "visitor" (3) go citcom
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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