Here comes the revolution

Gerald Celente is a trend forecaster who is credited, largely by himself, for predicting such things as the end of the Soviet Union, the bursting of the dot.com bubble, the boom in the price of gold, the success of Starbucks, and many other booms and busts in human affairs. His latest predictions are that we are headed for a depression that will make the 1930s look like a summer camp outing. He says that this time around, there will be a social upheaval that will result in rioting and revolt. He even predicts that some states will become so incensed with the way the federal government is running things that they will secede from the union.

Celente joins that persistent chorus of voices that keeps predicting dire things for Obama. There is a stream of negative forecasting, especially among the regressives, that insists that Obama and his liberal notions will sunder the ship of state. The nature of the anti-Obama criticism--which is accumulating before he takes office and has a chance to implement his plans--makes clear that for some the first black president is not a cause for celebration. Many out there are smarting at the thought of having a you-know-what in the White House in a capacity other than butler. The real motive behind the derisive contempt expressed for Obama is clearly evident in the nature of the criticism.

However, there is a possibility for revolt that reaches far past the lingering racial resentments. Obama's efforts to civilize political dialogue through the appointment of cabinet members and officials of differing perspectives is being done at a time when corporate fascists are on a particularly damaging rampage. The real cause for potential revolt emerges from the stipulations attached to the loans to the auto companies.

The anti-union stance of the Republicans in the Senate is expressive of a class notion that is rooted deeply in the feudal past. The false information that UAW auto workers were making $73 an hour was circulated to appeal to the class rage of those who hope to identify with the fascist hierarchy. The Senate, and then Pres. Bush in stipulating the terms of the loans, insists that the workers be put on an "equity" basis with autoworkers in the foreign-owned auto factories. In other words, lump the proletariat into one big despised class. This insistence that union members have their wages and benefits stripped from them comes when the managing class in the American business world has put on a demonstration of incompetence and avarice that is the real cause of the depression we are entering. As a condition of granting the loan, the labor force will be required to have their jobs eliminated, their wages cut, and their benefits curtailed.

This demand is made at the same time that executives have collected $1.6 billion in perquisites from the $700 billion bailout fund. This kind of class-based discrimination is the stuff revolutions are made of. Elements of our government have sent a clear message that they embrace the fascist consignment of working people to an underclass whose lives are disposable while a privileged class lives high on the sacrificed lives of others.

Most people want Obama and America to succeed. But there is a virulent opposition to freedom, equality, and justice that wants to conserve only the fascist past and privilege. The question is whether they will push America's working people into a massive revolt.