a failed system

8/3/2019 A Failed System

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A failed systems failed

promises

May 9, 2010

By Stephen Gowans

With Communisms demise, and the return

of Warsaw Pact countries to the capitalistfold, the world was promised a new age of

peace and prosperity. The shadow of warwould lift. Military expenditures would be

cut back, and troops would be brought homefrom Cold War postings. There would be

more money for new wars on poverty and

homelessness, this time. And capitalism, thesingle sustainable model of success (it had,after all, emerged triumphant in a decades-

long battle with Communism) would deliverthe poor from poverty, and bless the world

with a bonanza of consumer goods.

Talk about failed predictions.

In place of peace, we got the lone remainingsuperpower waging war to sweep up the few

remaining stragglers that continued to resistintegration into the US dominated global

economy. Iraq was conquered, at theexpense of countless dead, homeless,

mangled and ruined; campaigns of intrigueand bombing in the former Yugoslavia

pushed the region into the US orbit; and awar on Afghanistan continues to blast away

thousands of peasants but cements a USmilitary presence in a Central Asia pregnant

with the promise of oil and gas wealth. Warson Iran and north Korea are real

possibilities.

Today, the United States is asserting itsmilitary might over the face of the globe

more audaciously than ever. There are368,000 US troops deployed in nearly 130

countries around the world. (1) US citizensthink their military protects their interests

abroad and defends host countries fromthreats. They rarely pause to wonder

whether whats called their interests arereally their own personal interests or those

of people who live in bigger houses and getbigger tax breaks and have sizeable

investment portfolios. Nor do they make ahabit of wondering how it is that with the

US exercising a virtual military monopolyover the world, host countries could be

under a threat so imminent they wouldrequire a US force presence. Exactly which

of the tiny collection of countries nothosting US troops are threatening the

remaining 130?

Could it be that US troops gird the globe toenforce the access of US firms and investors

to the land, labor, markets and resources ofothers? Do our interests equate to Iraqs

oil, Indochinas tin, Central Asias naturalgas, Kosovos mines, the Balkans pipeline

routes, Africas treasure trove of minerals


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and oil, and Indonesias sweatshops? A lotof people forget, remarked Alexander Haig,

former Supreme Commander of NATO andSecretary of State in the Reagan

administration, that the presence of US

troops in Europe is the bona fide of oureconomic successit keeps Europeanmarkets open to us. If those troops werent

there, those markets would probably bemore difficult to access. (2) A lot of people

forget, because they were told somethingquite different: That US troops were

stationed in Europe to deter a Sovietinvasion, not to put a gun to the head of

Europeans to keep their markets invitinglyopen to US firms and investors. The obvious

question, With the threat of a Sovietinvasion long passed, why are US troops

still there?, is rarely asked. So it doesntreally matter that weve forgotten. The most

blatant of Washingtons latest exercises inimperialism run amok has a similar

character. It was said that the Iraqigovernment of Saddam Hussein was hiding

banned weapons. None were found. But USforces stay in Iraq anyway, to ensure the

conquered country remains the refashionedparagon of free markets and free trade

Washingtons policy makers have turned itinto.

Which is to say, the emergence of US

capitalism triumphant hasnt given us peace,as promised; it has given us a bold US

military prepared to wage war. And it seemsto be waging war to facilitate US capital

settling everywhere, nestling everywhereand establishing connections everywhere, to

paraphrase a shockingly topical passagefrom the Communist Manifesto of Karl

Marx and Friedrich Engels, a documentwhose irrelevance was said to have been

established beyond a shadow of a doubtwhen the Berlin Wall was razed to the

ground. Yet, today, it seems to be morerelevant than ever; certainly more relevant

than when a competing ideology forced thestewards of capitalism to tidy up the image

of their vaunted system lest the rabble get itinto their heads that they could do better. Its

said in newspapers and on TV that

Washingtons wars have to do with fightingterrorism, but the documents which definethe US national security strategy are long on

paeans to free markets and free trade andcapitalism and short on concrete measures to

protect the lives of US citizens from attacksby radicalized West Asians bearing

legitimate grievances against the Unitedstates. On the contrary, the strategy is a

recipe for provoking terrorist attacks.

Marx and Engels: While the irrelevance ofCommunist Manifesto was said to have been

established beyond a shadow of a doubtwhen the Berlin Wall was razed to the

ground, today it seems to be more relevant

than ever

Bourgeois society, to use Marxs and

Engels phrase, hasnt given us prosperityeither, unless by us, you mean the people

who own and control the economy. For thebulk of humanity things are a lot worst

materially than they were when communists,socialists, and nationalists kept upsetting the

capitalist apple cart by bringing vast tracksof national economies under public control,

and putting the public welfare ahead of theprofit interests of bondholders and investors.

According to the United Nations, 54countries are poorer today than they were in

1990, about the time Communism wasdeclared failed, and capitalism lionized as

the single sustainable model of success.


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More children under the age of five aredying in 14 countries, and enrollment in

primary schools is down in 12. Extremepoverty remains the fate of over one billion

people. And in former Soviet republics

cradle to what has been dismissed as a failedsystem poverty had tripled one decadeinto their liberation from Communism.

Seventeen countries in Eastern Europe andthe countries that made up the former Soviet

Union have hardly become dynamos ofprosperity, which should leave anyone with

an ounce of gray matter wondering by whatstandard success is measured; surely not by

the majoritys well-being. (3)

After having been demonized for decades bya capitalist establishment bent on making

Communism radioactive (along with anyoneso cavalier about their standing in polite

society to utter a kind word about it) itssometimes forgotten, if ever apprehended in

the first place, how impressiveCommunisms economic achievements

wereand still are, considering the barrenand poisoned ground in which the lone

holdouts have been forced to eke outprecarious existences.

Lets start with the most reviled of the hold-

outs: north Korea. The idea that north Koreais a threat to the United States is about as

believable as the idea that a colony of ants isa threat to the elephant whose foot hovers

three inches over its hill. North Korea hasnta single solider stationed outside its borders.

Washington, on the other hand, has 37,000troops deployed, on, or near, the northKorean border, 65,000 troops stationed in

nearby Japan, the Seventh Fleet lurking innearby waters, and bombers within striking

distance. It has dismissed Pyongyangs pleasto sign a nonaggression treaty, declaring

bizarrely that it will not succumb toblackmail. And what has north Korea done

to threaten the United States (or to blackmail

the country)? It has fired up a mothballednuclear reactor capable of producing

weapons grade material, and withdrawnfrom the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty,

but only after Washington reneged on an

agreement to build light water reactors andprovide fuel oil shipments. And only afterWashington issued a virtual declaration of

war, designating north Korea part of anaxis of evil.

Could a north Korea with one or two crude

nuclear bombs pose much of a threat to theUnited States poised to strike with

overwhelming force? Quite the other wayaround. Indeed, north Koreas pursuit of

nuclear weapons can be said to be a rationalresponse to an overwhelming US threat.

And there have been plenty of signs thethreat is real.

This is just the beginning, a Bushadministration official told the New York

Times, after US and British troops marchedon Baghdad. I would not rule out the same

sequence of events for Iran and north Koreaas for Iraq. (4) The Pak Tribune cited CIA

sources that revealed a list of countries

where replacement of government has beendeclared essential. (5) The list includednorth Korea. US undersecretary of state for

arms control and international security, JohnBolton, warned Pyongyang to draw the

appropriate lesson from Iraq. (6) It has.The DPRK (north Korea) would have

already met the same miserable fate as


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Iraqs had it compromised its revolutionaryprinciple and accepted the demand raised by

the imperialists and its followers for nuclearinspection and disarmament, declared the

official daily of the ruling Korean Workers

Party, Rodong Sinmun. (7) Later, thegovernment issued this statement: The Iraqiwar teaches a lesson that in order to prevent

a war and defend the security of a countryand the sovereignty of a nation it is

necessary to have a powerful physicaldeterrent. (8)

Washington ultra-hawk, Paul Wolfowitz,

anticipating similar words US Secretary ofstate Hilary Clinton would utter seven years

later, warned, north Korea is headed downa blind alley. Its pursuit of nuclear weapons

will not protect it from the real threat to itssecurity, which is the (internal) implosion

brought about by the total failure of itssystem. Indeed the diversion of scarce

resources to nuclear weapons and othermilitary programs can only exacerbate the

weakness of the (government). (9) Sowhats the choice? Head down a blind alley,

or turn over the country to Washington, andthe multinational corporations it represents?

Whos the blackmailer?

History has not been kind to the tinycountry. The mountainous north was once

the center of the peninsulas heavy industry,the south its breadbasket. The Korean War,

which saw US bombers destroy everybuilding in the north over one story, changed

that. The north was reduced to rubble. But itrebuilt, and until the 1980s, outpaced thesouth economically. By 1961, it was self-

sufficient in agriculture. North Koreanchildren were better vaccinated than their

counterparts in the United States, accordingto the World Health Organization and

United Nations, who commended thecountry for its delivery of health care. And

life expectancy was higher than in thecapitalist south. (10)

Then disaster struck. The socialist trading

bloc collapsed, depriving Pyongyang of its

major trading partners. Oil subsidies fromRussia ended. And if that werent enough,floods and droughts ravaged crops. Famine

followed. But, for a time, the country hadenjoyed impressive material gains, an

affirmation of what can be achieved outsidethe capitalist system, even where resources

are diverted to defense against anunrelenting foe than remains poised on your

borders to strike. Imagine what the countrycould have achieved without the United

States breathing fire down its neck.

Cuba, in many respects, fits the same mold:Astonishing social and economic gains

under a communist government, theimplacable and unrelenting hostility of the

United States, and some backsliding afterthe collapse of its major trading partners.

(The United States has maintained aneconomic blockade for half a century.) Still,

despite these challenges, Cuba is a much

kinder and egalitarian place today than itwas before the revolution, under the rule ofthe US-backed Batista regime, when the

countrys economy was an appendage ofthat of the United States. The United States

fears Cuba, journalist Seamus Milneobserves, not because it is a threat to the

safety of US citizens, but because its anexample of what can be accomplished

outside the US dominated capitalist model.(11 )


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In 1953, the illiteracy rate in Cuba exceeded22 percent. Today it is under one percent.Three percent of those over the age of 10

had a secondary school education. Today,almost 60 percent do. Back then, at the

height of the sugar harvest, whenunemployment was lowest, eight percent

were jobless. Today, the unemployment rateis three percent, making Cuba one of the few

countries in the world to boast fullemployment.

Well over 80 percent own their own homes,and pay no taxes. The remainder pays a

nominal rent.

No other country has as many teachers percapita. Education is free through university.

The country also provides free universityeducations to 1,000 Third World students

every year. And classroom sizes put those ofWestern industrialized countries to shame.

Health care is free. And while the United

States has deployed over 300,000 troops inalmost 130 countries to keep markets open

to US investment, Cuba has sent 50,000doctors to work for free in 93 Third World

countries to heal the sick. (12)

Infant mortality is lower than in any otherThird World country and even some

Western capitalist countries (its higher inWashington, DC.) Life expectancy is 76

years, and is expected to rise. (13) By

comparison, the return of capitalism haspushed life expectancy down in formercommunist countries.

These gains, seldom mentioned in the

United States, place the country head andshoulders above other Latin American

countries firmly ensconced in the US orbit,for which Washingtons single sustainable

model of success continues to delivergrinding poverty, misery, and gross

inequality, but the profits necessary to keepthe capitalist system afloat and the capitalist

class awash in mansions, retinues ofservants, stables of luxury cars, exclusive

schools and private clubs.

There are elections, and, contrary toWashingtons anti-Cuba propaganda,

Cubans do vote. But they dont chooseamong two largely identical parties, as in the

United States, where the parties, and their

candidates, are almost invariably in thrall to,or are representatives of, the capitalist class.As for human rights, Cuba stands as a model

of what can be achieved by way ofeconomic and social rights, the basic rights

to food, housing, clothing, health care,education and jobs, enshrined in the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, butnot recognized as human rights in the United

States. (14) Washington, on the other hand,has made a fetish of civil and politicalliberties, which, in the case of its relations

with Cuba, has everything to do with givingits agents in the country, mistakenly called

independent journalists and independentlibrarians (theyre not independent of

Washington, which bankrolls theiractivities), room to maneuver to organize

destabilization, with the object of


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overthrowing the revolution and banishingeconomic and social rights in favor of

investors rights. That Cuba, a poor country,has been able to guarantee the right to food,

clothing, shelter, health care, education and

jobs, despite trying economic circumstancesand US hostility, can be seen asextraordinary, or simply what can be readily

accomplished outside the strictures ofcapitalism. If a poor Third World country,

harassed by a powerful neighbor, can deliverhigh quality health care and education for

free, why cant the worlds richest countrydo the same? The answer: Capitalism drives

towards better profits, not better lives.

Ever since the US-dominated globaleconomy has, with the collapse of Eastern

Bloc Communism over 10 years ago, moreboldly sought purchase everywhere, US

military imperialism has run amok, wars ofaggression have been started, and poor, and

formerly communist, countries have becomepoorer. The leaders of the Western world

declare capitalism to be the singlesustainable model of success, but countries

that rejected capitalism, and committed toegalitarianism, have done better in terms of

guaranteeing economic and social rightsthan comparison countries, despite difficult

circumstances. Meanwhile, those that haverejected egalitarianism in favor of a return to

capitalism have regressed. The promises ofpeace and prosperity that attended

Communisms collapse were a fraud basedin the self-interest of a narrow band of

wealthy people in the worlds richestcountries. That it is a fraud is richly evident

in the failed promises and dismal record ofthe post-communist era.

1. Where are the Legions? GlobalDeployments of US Forces,

GlobalSecurity.Org,http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/g

lobal-deployments.htm)

2. UPI, January 7, 2002.3. UN report says one billion suffer

extreme poverty, World Socialist Web Site,July 28, 2003.

4. Pre-emption: Idea With a Lineage

Whose Time Has Come, The New YorkTimes, March 23, 2003.5. Iran to be US next target: CIA report,

Pak Tribune (Online) March 24, 2003.6. U.S. Tells Iran, Syria, N. Korea Learn

from Iraq, Reuters, April 9, 2003.7. North Korea vows to make no

concessions, Agence France-Presse, March29, 2003.

8. Administration Divided Over NorthKorea, The New York Times, April 21,

2003.9. Wolfowitz Visits US Military Base In

Korean Buffer Zone, AFP, June 1, 2003.10. Peace, the real resolution to famine in

North Korea, ZNet, July 23, 2003.11. Why the US fears Cuba, The

Guardian, July 31, 2003.12. Ibid.

13. Speech by Fidel Castro on the 50thanniversary of the attack on the Moncada

barracks, July 26, 2003.14. Karen Lee Wald, Democracy, Cuba-

Style, Canadian Dimension, July/August,2003.

Originally written in August 2003, revised

and updated May 2010.

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