Honduran Coup: Damning Indictment of Capitalism

Honduran Coup: Damning Indictment of Capitalism

by Dennis Rahkonen / July 10th, 2009

Since he’s spending his summer vacation at our home, I recently washed my 11-year-old grandson’s dirty clothes. As I later folded them, small tags told me they were manufactured in the Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Not one item bore a “Made in USA” label, which is very sad, considering that the unionized needle trades were once a bastion of our country’s labor movement, and that finding attire produced overseas was a rarity just a few decades ago.

All this relates closely to the despicable coup that deposed Honduras’ democratically elected president, Manuel Zaleya.

Although the coup’s initiators say they were motivated by other factors, what really spurred their reactionary ire was Zaleya promoting better pay and conditions for Honduran workers in general, but particularly for the virtual sweatshop slaves whose cruel exploitation by mostly U.S. garment firms has been an utterly obscene profit generator for shameless owners residing in luxury in the North.

...

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/07/honduran-coup-damning-indictment-of-capitalism/

Can't be making the worker's lives better they might start expecting it...not good for the profit base...thanks for this...

n/t.

It was on greatest, now it's off.

And they'll say "The Congress and the Supreme Court ordered it".

I saw a country basically run by the U.S. and Honduran military, supporting a few corporations and ultra-wealthy families. There was an extremely small middle-class and a huge population of uneducated, unemployed or underpaid, homeless people who had no opportunity of any kind in life.

The United Fruit Company American Compound not far from San Pedro Sula, was turned into a resort complex while I was there and we visited. The United Fruit Company had been there nearly 100 years and their compound was lovely, full of well-built homes, pools and parks. Just outside it were villages with no roads, no running water, no schools, and no opportunities for employement except in the banana fields. 100 years and that's what we accokmplsihed? I was ashamed.

There's much more about what we did to the country's business and civil structure and we should be ashamed of all of it.

and yet anytime a country's leader seems to try to do anything for the people, there we seem to be to keep it from "getting out of control" (our control that is...) :( thanks for sharing!

That constitution is about as just as the U.S. Constitution of 1860.

More:



sw

"capitalism is the intrinsic enemy — not the ballyhooed champion — of fair play, democracy, simple decency, and peace. (my bold)"
but nice to see the anti-capitalist forces are alive and well in spewing this sort of rhetoric.

Why are so many jobs that used to be here in other countries? Partially because the workers demands for decent wages and conditions cut into the profit base, or capital. Now you may say of course the company has to make money, capital,...but when a CEO makes 900 times the wage of his lowest paid worker and has control over what that salary is there is something wrong...its called greed...pure capitalism invokes greed as its purpose is solely to profit...

I'm sure this will get deleted, but I don't care. You're a right wing asshole.

Capitalism is KILLING this planet. Exploiting people and resources for the enrichment of the few (PROFITS!) is the most morally bankrupt system ever devised. The creation of a wealthy overclass that oppresses whole populations and murders at will is a travesty and a disaster and no decent human being would defend it.

and fwiw, supporting capitalism doesn't make one a "right wing" anything. the democratic party supports capitalism. democrats disagree with repubs over aspects OF capitalism, but both correctly support capitalism. i am a decent human being, and i defend capitalism because it is the best hope for mankind and has greatly benefited mankind.

going into the toilet in service to capitalism. And even more sick of watching capitalists rampaging across the planet, destroying people's cultures and livelihoods. If capitalism is so great, how come the more it spreads, the more people there are who end up living in misery?

Capitalism is a pathology that needs to be excised if human beings are ever going to be truly free.

do you want to compare the misery in mao's china, in the soviet union, or other "worker's paradises" compared to countries that embraced capitalism? want to compare current standard of living, EVEN AMONGST the lowest income quintile in the average capitalist country vs. other countries? etc. want to talk about wealth built?

the detriment of working people, and for working people to be free that class must be destroyed and the system along with it. But never forget that the issue is one of conflicting classes all the way down to individuals.

lol. as a working class hero myself, i greatly prefer capitalism. i note that i don't see many of the critics of capitalism here running off to socialist countries. i wonder why that is.

and interestingly enough, most of the countries that restrict people leaving are socialist countries. see:esat germany , cuba, USSR, etc. if these countries are so great, how come they have to hold their populace hostage?

if they do so. will cuba take them? i am sure there is a socialist paradise somewhere willing to take our oppressed workers. after all, socialism says we are brothers right? why haven't you emigrated to one of these socialist paradises? you can afford the internet and a computer. sell em and get a plane ticket. the reason is, that despite the rhetoric you KNOW that socialism sucks. talk to the former inhabitants of east germany or the USSR or romania etc. people yearn to be free. people are clamoring to come to america. why is that? oh right. they are all deluded by the great all powerful corporate fascist insect capitalist patriarchal machine.

No system is perfect, and capitalism, especially if left unregulated or is allowed to overrun government, creates vast wealth inequality. You can have a situation where an individual businessman is living in extraordinary luxury and wealth and his neighbors are literally starving to death because of lack of money for food due to extremely low wages paid at the factory that he owns.

That is capitalism left to do whatever it pleases. For humanity's sake, capitalism must be chained down with regulations unless people want to witness a return of the virulent forms of corporatism that overtook Europe in the 1930s. Sure, in most countries that feature private ownership of capital, there are no laws preventing people from fleeing, except of course in right wing dictatorships (but that's beside the point), but if people are made to starve to death for the sake of greater profits, then one honestly has to wonder why people should be forced to exist under such a system if not for the sake of blind ideological dogma.

in these countries they will do these things to you IF you try to leave. iow, you are a hostage, not a citizen. why is it that socialist countries do this and capitalist countries don't?. i'm not seeing a lot of starvation in the US. our #1 health problem amongst the poor (for the first time in recorded history) is obesity and diet / behavior related health problems (eating and smoking). how ironic. NOBODY is stopping our oppressed worker class (lol) from emigrating to these wonderful socialist paradise. heck, any socialist or sympathetic organization could organize buying people plane tickets, etc. why doesn't this happen? because socialism sucks. why do people clamor to get INTO the US and other capitalistic countries, but not these socialist paradises? because socialism sucks.

the berlin wall was not there to prevent the hapless oppressed workers of west germany from entering the great paradise of eastern germany, after all. it was to keep the east germans from getting out. face it. socialism has been a miserable failure. the 20th century saw scores of millions of people killed in its name. pogroms, forced starvation, slaughter of the intellectuals, dissidents, etc. there is simply no comparison. capitalism has its warts. it remains the worst system ever invented, except for all the others.

The point is when you are dead, you are beyond caring. If you were starved to death, you certainly didn't want to end up like that anymore than you would want to end up in front of a Red Army firing squad.

At the very least, I'm arguing for regulation of capitalism. Forget about socialism because that's not a reality that is coming to America anytime soon. I'm arguing for regulation and the freedom from unfair competition and monopolies that currently dominate this country.

if one believes in freedom. dulce et decorum pro patria morie est (quoting from memory). regardless, it is better to live on one's feet and die on one's knees. nobody says that it's a good thing that some people go hungry, etc. that sucks . although it's MUCH more common in socialist countries. like i said, frigging OBESITY is the #1 health problem amongst the lowest income quintile in this country. nobody is arguing for unregulated capitalism. we don't have CLOSE to unregulated capitalism. singapore is much less regulated than us, and even they have plenty of regulation. try to start business and tell me we have unregulated capitalism. my point is that it's a WONDERFUL thing that socialism is not coming to america soon. socialism has been a dismal failure.

When I say regulation, I'm not talking about the system Bush and Reagan et al. left us with. Sure, there's a bunch of bureaucracy with filing taxes, but that comes when you have a tax code that is rife with exceptions and grandfather clauses and a whole bunch of bullshit nonsense, thanks to the big business capitalists who have sent their parasitic lobbyists to infect Congress. How is it that a small business owner could get taxed at a greater percentage of profits than a Fortune 500 company with grandfather clauses and exclusive tax credits? What, because the small business owner doesn't have a bankroll of several hundred lobbyists? How is that fair or an indication of good regulation? It's not. It's no regulation. That is not what regulation is, and the country as it is is definitely not what folks like Truman and FDR would wan. Up until recently this country came closer to the definition of proto-fascism than it does with anything Adam Smith envisioned.

When I say starvation, I'm talking about all the countries of the world that have some form of private ownership of capital and private enterprise. Countries like Honduras or Bolivia or any number of countries in Africa and Asia. Those people are literally dying of starvation. About a third of earth's population is starving, roughly 2 billion people with thousands dying each day because of it. The death toll is of holocaust proportions. Meanwhile, Americans are suffering from obesity because they eat too much unhealthy food.

As far as socialist countries go, the only two I can think of is North Korea and Cuba, so I still don't see where the "exodus" from socialist countries go except for the Cubans and North Koreans. China doesn't count, and the Soviet Union has been gone near 20 years now. The Chinese have embraced capitalism as much as any third world country has. One only has to visit the local Wal-Mart to see that score. The only difference is they still fly a red flag.

Exalting the system of their own oppression.

Worshiping at the altar where they're being sacrificed.

That sort of thing

in our system. i am working class. i am a working class hero. i also get kick-ass benefits, and make more than enough income to be a capitalist. to save, invest, and build wealth, to make MY capital work for me. heck, my deferred comp lets me put aside up to 15k a year PRE TAX to invest. and you damn well know, i max that puppy out. capitalism and ownership go hand in hand

given a few toys for the gatekeepers willing to help the elites out. But as the middle class shrinks in this country we'll see this all play out, and we will all find out which side we're really on. Enjoy your toys for now.

Great OP.

has been spouted by know nothing for decades. they are, and you are, ALWAYS wrong. i don't see a mass exodus to socalist countries. i see people in socialist countries being held hostage and risking their lives to get out. so, the facts disagree with your rhetoric

The USSR and the Warsaw Pact failed because they didn't run their systems democratically. That's why workers felt no stake in those systems.

What's happening in Venezuela and Bolivia is a much more democratic and positive model.

While other models may be of use later, you can't do much better than Leninism for destroying the capitalists.

And it never gave the workers control of the means of production.

The vanguard party was only supposed to be a short-term "provisional government" arrangement until the Revolution consolidated power. It wasn't intended to be the permanent power structure.

The states that called themselves "Leninist"(a term Lenin himself would never have used, and with an insistence of rigidly replicating the Soviet model everywhere, whether or not it worked anywhere else that Lenin also would likely never have insisted on)ended up being brutal, soul-destroying dictorships that had no truly socialist characteristics at all.

Rosa Luxemburg should've been listened to and the Krondstadt soldiers and sailors should not have been crushed. And a dictatorial vanguard structure will never be accepted by any peoples in the future as the model for their liberation movements.

:popcorn:

does the government of cuba allow anybody to leave? um,no. nor did the USSR, east germany (ever hear of the berlin wall), etc.

:applause:

:applause:

:applause:

i own a fair amount of stock, and trade stocks, commodities, futures, etc. i believe in capitalism, and it has done great things for my ancestors, as well as myself. my ancestors were poor immigrants who came to this country with nothing, and thrived through capitalism.

than a socialist one. capitalsm r00ls!

those oh so wonderful worker's paradises,. lol. *i* have control over my capital. i have choice. that's empowering and democratic. socialism gives the govt. the power to rule me. fuck that

i can invest in whatever i desire. that is greatly empowering. i can choose to waste it, invest it, etc. it's MY choice
.

i prefer interactive brokers. tradestation has the best charting. ameritrade izone is nice for swing trades.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS139872+28-Apr-2009+GNW20090428

From whom do you think those guys extracted their $54,000,000?

Which jail cell do you prefer?

tradestation has the best CHARTING. it's brokerage SUCKS. they actually farm out their futures trades to another broker anyway. i keep a small tradestation account, so i can have access to their datastream and charting. i use IB for the vast majority of my trades. i use izone for swing and some long term stuff. i also use t rowe price for my deferred comp at work.

Your small niche in the finance sector of capitalism demonstrates nothing about the "democracy" of capitalism. Your gleeful disregard for the theft, death, and exploitation that is the core of capitalism is, politely, repulsive.

has increased economy, efficency, etc. that's why a tiny percentage of our citizens can produce enough food to sustain the nation AND allow for exports. compare to socialist countries. that might involve math and facts, though... anathema to socailists

You can have a market where one entity is a privately owned monopoly, and it uses its position and power to crush small upstarts and throws up barriers to entry. As long as such a monopoly is not state-owned or owned collectively by the people, one could not conceivably call that socialist, either, but you can bet that if people wanted the government to do something about the unfair monopoly, the monopolists who run the firm would be paying big money to air ads 24/7 extolling the virtues of private ownership and condemning state intervention as socialism or communism.

Of course, there is no requisite for competition under socialism either, but that's why there was a split in the school of thought between people who felt the state-run enterprise was sufficient to meet supply and demand and those who felt multiple entities, that are collectively owned by respective workers, competing against each other were better able to meet supply and demand.

Not since 1980, for damn sure. Not very often before that.

You might as well face it, the market is NOT on your side.

We need to design a humane, democratic alternative. And we, the people, are fully capable of doing that.

We should have the say.

it's a neutral aggregate and the best invention ever for wealth creation, risk sharing, and price discovery. it's also made me plenty of money, despite not being on my side. there has never been a 20 yr period in history where our stoclk market did not provide a positive return to a dollar cost averaging investor. in most it offered excellent returns. i trade futuresin an electronic exchange. it is the most democratic institution on earth. i'm a # in an order book, race, gender, religion, disability, don't matter.

n/t.

to accumulate capital, invest it, trade it in futures, etc. capitalism gives me choice. it empowers.

"...in history where our stock market did not provide a positive return to a dollar cost averaging investor."

That may soon be changing. The era of sky-rocketing stocks is over, my friend. Take a look at the Dow. Capitalism is at the end of its rampant growth stage -- now all thats left is SUCK and SAP and feeding upon itself.

May your bourgeois investments rot and wither until you wake up one day and realize its too late and all was for naught...

in 1987, and every other crash, bubble pop, recession, etc. they've been wrong EVERY time. try learning from history, instead of repeating it. also, many of my investments are not bourgeois. but nice tired socialist rhetoric. what next? should i avoid the capitalist insect oppressors? you sound like angela davis on a bad day, but at least she gets paid big money to spout silly discredited rhetoric. as i said, i have investments in commodities, oil, real estate, stocks, etc. real things. that's the value of capitalism. it allows us to OWN stuff and to let our money work for us.

But I've noticed none of the clothing I currently own was made in Honduras and I suspect nothng I would want to wear is made their either.

So I guess I've been boycotting them all along, though unwittingly.

I assume most of Chiquita's are from there.