The following article by W. Owl was first published in Unity, the weekly paper of the Irish Communist Party.
THE late John Pilger once interviewed a Chinese man on the question of China's economy. He asked if there were any capitalist in China. The answer was "yes, but the difference between China and the United States for example is that they don't run the country."
This year we are in the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence described in Unity 1.8.26 as the "Mythical Revolution." The civil war that took place from 1861 to 1865 was less about the emancipation of the slaves and more about the interests of the northern ruling class and the southern ones who wanted to maintain their economy based on slavery. Those civil war attitudes are still prevalent today.
In his Gettysburg address in 1803 Abraham Lincoln talked of "government of the people for the people by the people." It goes without saying that it never has been the case in the United States as from the very outset it has been government of the rich, for the rich, by the rich. None more so than today where a billionaire president and others like him rule the roost.
A recent piece in the Irish Times-29th led me to look up the term plutocracy and its definition which is "a society of government controlled exclusively by people of great wealth either directly or through indirect influence like campaign funding."
The piece itself dealt with Limerick born Patrick Collison who along with his brother John moved to San Francisco in 2010 and founded a company called Stripe which facilitates online payments and has grown into a Silicon Valley giant employing more than 8,000 people and as headquarters in Dublin and San Francisco making them both billionaires in the process indeed as the article pointed out, they are Irelands wealthiest individuals estimated to be worth $17.5 billion each.
We are told that Patrick has donated $7 million to a political campaign group that is fighting to block a proposed wealth tax in California. In the laughingly named Building a Better California there is opposition to the proposal that would require Californian residents worth more than $1 billion to pay a one-off 5% tax on those assets.
Part of the proposal is that the money raised would fund healthcare programmes in the state. Voters in California are set to have their say on the idea in November, following a successful push to put the proposal on the ballot by a healthcare workers trade union. Collison is not on his own as several tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalist have donated millions of dollars to the Building a Better California group which has supported rival legislature initiatives with the intention of nullifying the wealth-tax push. This group describes its mission as ensuring the US states "remains a centre of innovation, good-paying jobs and economic opportunity". Not to say keeping the billionaires-billionaires.
A co-founder of Google Sergey Brin has donated $82 million dollars. Other donors are Eric Schidt a former chief executive of Google, Tony XU co-founder of US food delivery giant DoorDash. All have put millions into the campaign. We are used to the term oligarch especially when it is referring to Russia and it has a similar definition in that "it is power resting in the hands of a small elite group of people who are often wealthy". It has to be said that looking at the above term plutocracy fits the bill perfectly for the United States. Maybe we could re-name the country the United Plutocratic States of America, the land of the free home of the brave multi-billionaires. Or maybe not.
In the same edition of the Irish Times a report showed that the war in Ukraine has been very rewarding for some. James McCarville who owns JMA Ventures Ltd, a firm that provides refugee accommodation paid himself €3 million in 2023. He also received €200,000 in pension contributions. His company has been paid nearly €30 million by the state since 2023. For some people war can be a very lucrative venture.
A footnote on the world cup
IT must be said that it was the most political ever. Not only did we have Trump interfering in a referee's decision but the only designated referee from Africa being denied entry to the US as were many fans from Africa and Asia as well as most of the Iranian support staff. FIFA and its president the Trump supporting Infantino said nothing.