The Syndicate

The discussions on the Fiscal Cliff are making me dizzy.  They move in an infinite loop.  No matter which option or combination of options they select, it won't fix the problem.   There has been so much wealth extraction from this country that they've killed the demand side of the economy.   Obviously, the demand side is the consumer market and the consumer market is the labor market and the labor market means people who work or used to work for a living.  

The whole conversation is idiotic and I'm tired of it.   The political parties provide the talking points and people parrot those talking points as if the words came from the mouth of God himself.  The democrats talk up the issues of the poor.  The republicans talk up the issues of the middle class.  The joke that people don't seem to grasp is that both political parties actually work for the corporations, their representatives and the wealthy who profit from them.  Get a clue Billy Bob and Betty Sue. They ain't workin' for you.

Recently, while doing some research, I saw a reference to something called the Powell Manifesto.  It was written in 1971 by Lewis F. Powell.  A copy of it was obtained and published by investigative reporter, Jack Anderson.  The organization called Reclaim Democracy has a copy of it published on their website along with a brief introduction:

In 1971, Lewis F. Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell’s nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The following are excerpts from the memo, but the entire Manifesto should be read to understand the full impact of what he was proposing and to apply those concepts to the nightmare we are living today:

The Powell Manifesto No thoughtful person can question that the American economic system is under broad attack. This varies in scope, intensity, in the techniques employed, and in the level of visibility. A visiting professor from England at Rockford College gave a series of lectures entitled “The Ideological War Against Western Society,” in which he documents the extent to which members of the intellectual community are waging ideological warfare against the enterprise system and the values of western society... Perhaps the single most effective antagonist of American business is Ralph Nader, who — thanks largely to the media — has become a legend in his own time and an idol of millions of Americans. A frontal assault was made on our government, our system of justice, and the free enterprise system by Yale Professor Charles Reich in his widely publicized book: “The Greening of America,” published last winter... What has been the response of business to this massive assault upon its fundamental economics, upon its philosophy, upon its right to continue to manage its own affairs, and indeed upon its integrity? The painfully sad truth is that business, including the boards of directors’ and the top executives of corporations great and small and business organizations at all levels, often have responded — if at all — by appeasement, ineptitude and ignoring the problem. There are, of course, many exceptions to this sweeping generalization. But the net effect of such response as has been made is scarcely visible. In all fairness, it must be recognized that businessmen have not been trained or equipped to conduct guerrilla warfare with those who propagandize against the system, seeking insidiously and constantly to sabotage it. The traditional role of business executives has been to manage, to produce, to sell, to create jobs, to make profits, to improve the standard of living, to be community leaders, to serve on charitable and educational boards, and generally to be good citizens. The overriding first need is for businessmen to recognize that the ultimate issue may be survival — survival of what we call the free enterprise system, and all that this means for the strength and prosperity of America and the freedom of our people. Possible Role of the Chamber of Commerce But independent and uncoordinated activity by individual corporations, as important as this is, will not be sufficient. Strength lies in organization, in careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations. Moreover, there is the quite understandable reluctance on the part of any one corporation to get too far out in front and to make itself too visible a target. The role of the National Chamber of Commerce is therefore vital. Other national organizations (especially those of various industrial and commercial groups) should join in the effort, but no other organizations appear to be as well situated as the Chamber. It enjoys a strategic position, with a fine reputation and a broad base of support. Also — and this is of immeasurable merit — there are hundreds of local Chambers of Commerce which can play a vital supportive role. It hardly need be said that before embarking upon any program, the Chamber should study and analyze possible courses of action and activities, weighing risks against probable effectiveness and feasibility of each. Considerations of cost, the assurance of financial and other support from members, adequacy of staffing and similar problems will all require the most thoughtful consideration.

I've been aware of the Chamber of Commerce for quite awhile because Tom Donohue, CEO of the Chamber thought he was going to be the Dictator in Chief and was quite bold about presenting his agenda.  I wrote about it in 2006 when the Jack Abramoff extortion racket was exposed.

An article published on September 4, 1987 in the New York Times, the reporter wrote:

Reagan Appoints Privatization Unit President Reagan today appointed a commission to study ways Government functions can be turned over to private business. Prof. David F. Linowes, a political economist at the University of Illinois, was named chairman of the President's Commission on Privatization, and said the 12-member panel's mandate ''is very broad.'' It will ''probe the entire dimension of Government operations'' and offer recommendations in six months, he said. Mr. Reagan, vacationing at his ranch near here, issued a statement saying the commission would help him ''end unfair Government competition and return Government programs and assets to the American people.' So far the Government has sold only one significant asset, Conrail, the national freight railway system. But efforts to pay contractors to fill a range of service jobs previously carried out by the Government have been somewhat more successful. The White House says 38,000 Government positions have been turned over to contractors in the last six years, at an annual saving of $602 million.   (Loss leader contracts) Professor Linowes, speaking to reporters here, said he could not predict what the commission might recommend. But he indicated that likely targets of study included Federal low-income housing projects. The Government has already given some prospective tenants vouchers to pay for low-income housing of their choice, rather than building new Federal housing units. A similar Administration idea, to distribute education vouchers so parents can send children to the school of their choice, has gone nowhere. Professor Linowes said the commission would also study the Federal penal system and the health care field. (This is where the redesign of our health care system began.)  Several state and local governments have turned their jails over to private contractors, with mixed results.   Early in the Reagan Administration the Government proposed turning over some regulation of nursing homes and other health care facilities that accept Federal funds to an organization run by private industry. (Self-regulation for industry and beginning of functional sovereignty - international network of associations making "rules" for the industry.)   But the Government had to pull back in response to critics who said that, without public oversight, there was no way to assure that nursing home patients were cared for properly. Meanwhile, the Office of Management and Budget announced today that it had created a new position, Associate Director for Privatization, and appointed Ronald Utt, an official with the United States Chamber of Commerce, to fill it. He is to promote ideas to reduce Federal spending through privatization. Besides Professor Linowes, those named to the commission were: ANDERSON, Annelise Graebner, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution in Palo Alto, Calif. ANTONOVICH, Michael D., member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. BISH, Walter, president of the Independent Steelworkers Union at the Weirton Steel Corporation in West Virginia, the largest employee-owned company in the United States. BROCK, Sandra Mitchell, government relations adviser in Washington for Heron, Burchette, Ruchert & Rothwell. CARRUTHERS, Garrey, Governor of New Mexico. FINK, Richard, founder of Citizens for a Sound Economy. LAIRD, Melvin R., former Defense Secretary. McINTYRE, James T., former head of the Office of Management and Budget. PRIEST, George, Yale Law School professor. STANLEY, Ralph L., senior vice president of the Municipal Development Corporation in New York City. WRISTON, Walter, former chairman of Citicorp.

It's pretty funny that all attention is focused on the Council of Foreign Relations and the State Department while no attention is paid to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce connection to the Office of Management and Budget. 

Walter Wriston was without doubt, one of the most powerful people in our country.  I wrote about him and the economic war on the people of the United States in a series titled, War in the Context of Everything Else.  Wriston is in the section titled, The Global Ponzi Scheme. 

The best for last - demonstrating that the criminal corporate syndicate that Lewis Powell proposed was actually built and is still operating (assuming you've been paying attention to that Marxist little troll, Grover Norquist) - 

Grover Norquist's bio retrieved from the Wayback Machine:

In the past, Mr. Norquist served as:

• A commissioner on the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce.

• A commissioner on the National Commission on Restructuring the Internal Revenue Servi

• Economist and chief speech-writer, U.S. Chamber of Commerce (1983-1984.)

• Campaign staff on the 1988, 1992, 1996 Republican Platform Committees.

• Executive director of the National Taxpayers’ Union.

• Executive director of the College Republicans.

Lewis Powell was clearly concerned about "Green" lawyers like Ralph Nader.  The joke on the Left environmental movement is that corporate mafia infiltrated them too.  In 1984, the Environmental Defense Fund made a deal with Pacific Gas and Electric to turn regulation against people rather than corporations - and to squeeze the retail consumers using market mechanisms and marketing concept of "conservation".   In an article titled, "The Making of a Market-Minded Environmentalist, Fred Krupp, CEO of EDF wrote:  

"I became the green community's chief advocate for using economic incentives to solve environmental problems.  The Wall Street Journal has cheered me on, crediting me with a "singular style that serves business and the environment well".

And the joke on the Right is that the corporate mafia bought them also.    At about the same time I wrote the page on Tom Donohue, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, I wrote about Grover Norquist and his connection to Jack Abramoff in a thinking piece titled, "Movement Politics".  The term "Movement Politics" is something I picked up from reading articles that Grover Norquist wrote pertaining to "buying a movement".

If the Pogo cartoon strip was being written today, Pogo would have said, "I have seen the enemy and the enemy is the Chamber of Commerce". 

The Chamber of Commerce is a criminal corporate syndicate.  They used the collective power and wealth of corporations not only to destroy our economy, but also to dismantle and privatize the government.  A privatized, "for-profit" government is not government.  It's a fascist, totalitarian system that will turn your children and grandchildren into slaves.  

Vicky Davis
December 5, 2012