NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/alt/activism/21120

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Date: 20 Jan 93 20:18 PST
Subject: READ CLINTON'S LIPS !
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From: [e-mail] (Harel Barzilai)
Subject: READ CLINTON'S LIPS !

The following excerpts have been transcribed from an audio recording
of "Debate I" in New Hampshire last year, moderated by Kokee Roberts.

It is revealing both regarding the Stealth "Middle-Class Tax Cut"
(recall that the worst burden of the Reagan/Bush era fell on the
"lower" class, but respectable mainstream politicians can only talk
about helping the "middle class", not those welfare queens exploiting
those poor stock-brokers and Pentagon), and concerning broader issues.

Recall we are told the obvious lie that Clinton was "surprised" that
the deficit figures are, somewhat, higher than the Bush
Administration's official figures during the campaign -- and that this
is the reason for "reconsidering" the middle-class tax-cut.

However, beyond this obvious lie, is a deeper one; namely, the reason
given for and the method of implementing the middle-class tax cut.

            =====================
            D E B A T E   ( I ) :
            =====================



KOKEE: [Posses the question to all the candidates:]"...unemployment
figures in October were high -- that's why YOU're president. What do
you do, in the next week, to ease the suffering of families of the
unemployed?"

BROWN: <Answers first>

CLINTON: In the first week, I would issue an executive order to double
th rate of hight funding in the first year to create 200,000 jobs
[...] I would present a bill to Congress to cut middle-class taxes and
make up for it with an increase in taxes on the wealthy who are not
presently paying their fair share [...]"

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              =========================
              T h e   " B i g   L i e "
              =========================

Note that the reason cited by Clinton was *fairness*. Note Clinton
made the under-statement that in the aftermath of the Reagan/Bush
welfare programs for the corporate and the rich, the wealthy "are not
presently paying their fair share."

Note most of all that he stated clearly that increases on the wealthy
would compensate for the tax-cut, so the deficit is not increased.

This is the Big Lie behind the maneuvering to consign any sort of
remedies to the brutal realities of the Reagan/Bush years, to the same
trash-heap as was the "Peace Dividend" (the "Peace Movement" having
been too willing to accept this term rather than insisting on the
"Peace Principal", of course).

The mainstream propaganda organs like NPR are not stupid and unless
completely incompetent have not forgotten this history, and know what
they are doing when they "put spin" and help perpetuate the Big Lie by
telling us [1/19/93]:

    "[the middle-class tax-cut is] a promise that faded as Clinton
    spoke more honestly about the deficit"

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         ===========================================
         " V e r y ,   v e r y   i m p o r t a n t "
         ===========================================

In fact, during the same debate, shortly after making the remarks
above, Clinton interrupted, during the "free-for-all" after Brown and
Kerry responded to Tsonga's No-Tax-Cuts, jumping in:

KOKEE: [Starting to speak]

CLINTON: "Wait a minute, I wanna say just one thing.

    I wanna make it very clear that this middle-class tax cut, in my
    view, is central to *any* attempt we're gonna make to have a short
    term economic strategy and a long-term fairness strategy which is
    part of getting this country going again.

    Middle class people in this country worked harder for less money
    and paid higher taxes for 10 years -- the wealthiest people made
    more money [i.e. increased further their wealth during this period
    --HB] and paid lower taxes --

    -- I don't propose to increase the deficit -- my middle-class tax
    cut is revenue neutral. $400; people say its not very much money
    -- I think it's a *lot* of money.

    It's enough for a mortgage payment

    It's enough for clothes for the kids

    And it's enough to have a *big* short-term impact on this economy
    when those working people either pay their consumer debt down or
    start spending it.

    I agree with Paul [Tsongas] [that] over the long-run we need a
    *big* investment strategy and a lot of us share a common
    commitment to that.

    But we have had a decade in which this country went from ranking
    of the twenty-two richest countries in the world, we ranked 8th in
    1980 in income equality -- now we are DEAD [thump] LAST [thump],
    because the middle class [sic -- ignoring the poor again --HB] has
    gotten the shaft and I think this is nothing more than a down
    payment pulling this country together again and getting it going.

    I think it is very, very important

              =================
              T h e   M o r a l
              =================

There is an important lesson here.

If such outrages are to be stopped, people need to come to realize
that the economic elites, particularly the corporate, are Full Time
Activists.

They are activists 24 hours a day, seven days a week, year in, year
out, exercising pressure and leverage, lobbying, making campaign
contributions, challenging virtually every regulation in the way of
profit-margins in the courts, hiring media and public-relations
consultants and buying print space and airtime to push their agendas,
constantly.

This does not even begin to enumerate the deeper, structural
influences such as threats of "capital strikes;" the tremendous
influence over Congress and the Courts; the corporate ownership of the
media -- as well as the media's reliance of corporate advertisers for
its revenues, and so on.

EVEN IF we all because full-time activists (insofar as possible given
the constraints of family and jobs), the corporate elites would retains
these impressive advantages; however, unless we take such steps and
cease seeing activism, public pressure, as a one-time, or even
"discrete" activity, then the advantage maintained by the powers that
be in the Corporate Capitalist State will be colossal indeed.

The problem to be overcome was outlined clearly in a recent article in
Z magazine:

"...Politics is thus seen as an extraordinary, and finite, activity
(rather than an ongoing process of participation extending throughout
a lifetime), detached from "normal life" except by the most
de-politicized form of civic responsibility or participation. This
everyday perception, now held by the overwhelming majority in this
society across all racial, class, gender, ethnic or other social
cleavages, represents a great triumph of right-wing ideology.

"Democracy is not possible unless and until the mass of people engage
in the process of attempting to rule themselves, a process which is
inherently political. Indeed, it is as a part of this process that
politics becomes a part of "normal life."

"A second book whose implications deserve fuller thought as to how to
develop democracy is Juliet Schor's _The Overworked American_ [partly
a deliberate program by Business, Schor argues according to a review I
have online -- [e-mail]]. One of the key problems with
furthering citizen involvement in the management of local factories,
or even in sustaining a local union, is the extensive amount of time
that is needed for these activities. As Schor indicates, that time is
being increasingly taken up by work. The implication for those of us
who want an expanded civil society are only briefly adverted to, but
obviously are deeply troubling. At the initial level, there is less
time available for political activities.  In addition, all of us know
that political activity involves a certain tedium of meetings and what
may be described as activist scut work.  The lack of time puts too
great a premium on efficiency and tends inexorably toward autocratic
and hierarchical practices.

"There is no obvious solution to the problems of a depoliticized
culture  and over-pressured work life. These critical problems must be
acknowledged in attempting to develop a more progressive social
agenda."

[...]

******************************************************************

From _HELP Campaign in New Jersey_ (Hazard Elimination Local
Participation) by David Tykulsker(*) in Z magazine, December 1992
issue. Write for a sample issue for $3 at the address below; please
mention you heard of them online ("UseNet",
"misc.activism.progressive" or whatever).

(*)SUBHEADINGS: The Failure of Regulation; The Right to Know As
Background (ending in "...Hence was born a determination to do
something with the Right to Know, what we came to call a `Right to
Act'"); Conceptualizing Community Participation ; Conceptualizing
Worker Participation; Reality and Defeat; and Problems of Organizing
for Democracy (side-bar "Preemption" on GATT-NAFTA))

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"Z is an independent, progressive monthly magazine of critical thinking
on political, cultural, social, and economic life in the United
States.  It sees the racial, sexual, class, and political dimensions
of personal life as fundamental to understanding and improving
contemporary circumstances; and it aims to assist activist efforts to
attain a better future."
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SUBSCRIPTIONS: One Year $26; Two Years $45; Three Years $60
Student/Low-Income: $18  //  Sample issue: $5.00
[Libraries/Institutions: $35 ; International: One Year $50]
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Z Magazine, // 116 St. Botolph St // Boston MA 02115 // [phone]
(For subscriptions)(no longer "150 W Canton St., // Boston MA 02118")
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Some 70 pages per issue, no advertisements ("Zaps" etc are run free)
Z is a project of the nonprofit Institute for Social & Cultural Change
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LETTERS, ARTICLES, ZAPS (activists announcements/press releases --
for free publication in Z):
Z magazine, 18 Millfield St., Boston MA 02543 ; [phone]
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