By WI BOPM
On August 10 a diverse array of union, community and student activists are hosting a protest and vigil in Appleton and similar actions will take place in locations nationally. This date marks the 2nd anniversary of the white supremacist attacks in Charlottesville.
The August 10 protests also will come just days after the latest mass shooting massacres in Dayton, El Paso and Gilroy. The majority of the mass shootings in the United States have been conducted by white supremacists. Much of the current climate has been stoked by right-wing think tanks and related organizations either “legal” or extra-legal and has been escalated to extreme degrees by United States President Donald Trump.
Eugenics & Capitalism With The Gloves Off
Appleton is the home base of the right-wing John Birch Society which for decades has pushed an agenda of anti-communism, opposes anarchists, socialism and pushes racism, an anti-union agenda and bigoted attacks on women and LGBTQ people.
The John Birch Society – with a history of working with white supremacist organizations such as the “White Citizens Council” – works directly or indirectly with many other right-wing organizations. Collectively by and large (although there might be factional differences) they generally have a “capitalism with the gloves off” program that is rooted in eugenics and is fundamentally anti-environment due to its program of making profits for the rich at all costs.
Some of these right-wing organizations that the John Birch Society is affiliated with include: the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation (see its all white board and its 990 Forms available at website: https://www.bradleyfdn.org/), ALEC, WILL, the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, the Mackinac Institute et. al. All – for decades – have been behind the unrelenting racist, Jim Crow anti-union and other attacks on working class and oppressed peoples in Wisconsin. (Note: These are some of the reasons why Wisconsin is the worst place for people of African descent to live or work in the United States.)
Since 2011 the attacks on working class and oppressed people’s in Wisconsin have increased rapidly and a short list includes: Continued attacks on TANF (formerly AFDC) and unemployment benefits, Act 10, de-regulation, increasing (billions more) debt service to the banks, attacks on Civil Service and prevailing wage, de-funding public education (supporting voucher/charter) schools), attacks on the healthcare and pensions of public sector workers, eliminating student rights in state statutes and many other horrific “legal” attacks which are now being used as models federally. These are just a few of the reasons former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was recently chosen to be the Executive Director of the neo-fascist Young American’s Foundation (Ronald Reagan is their hero). And why Mike Pence was chosen to be Vice President of the U.S. Indiana, like Wisconsin was used by Pence as an austerity model similar to Michigan with DeVos along with Puerto Rico, Greece et. al).
Besides tens of billions in profits for Wall Street banks, hedge funds and corporations etc., a major goal of these right-wing thinks was to have their political servants such as Pence, Walker et. al. destroy if possible and/or reduce to a non-threat INDEPENDENT working class and oppressed peoples’ organizations. In Wisconsin for example this has included: the reduction of union resources including union halls, student resource centers, women/LGBTQ resource centers, getting unions such as AFSCME off virtually all of the UW System campuses through Act 10 measures, eliminating state statutes such as 39.05 that reduces and/or eliminates students controlling their own resources on public campuses, eliminating or reducing civil service protections, city residency laws for public sector workers and prevailing wage laws. These are severe attacks on all workers but especially historically oppressed peoples such as people of color, women and the LGBTQ community, historically the most militant fighters within unions and community organizations.
Another major goal of these right-wing capitalists and their servants is to eviscerate or reduce to virtually nothing what they term “the administrative state” or i.e. local, state and federal agencies responsible for safety, regulation, civil rights etc. In Wisconsin an example of this is the severe reduction of workers and attacks on scientific inquiry in the Department of Natural Resources under the Walker administration.
Although the majority of right-wing organizations are “legal”, of course, the Wall Street vultures are also careful to ensure funding and/or other resources to extra-legal white supremacist organizations as well. The extra-legal measures are to ensure that just in case the workers and oppressed peoples are able to effectively combat the “legal” attacks that there are organizations such as the Klan, Nazi’s and related white supremacists in place that the ruling class can keep on leashes to use as needed.
Both the “legal” and extra-legal are employed by right-wing politicians, the police, the FBI etc. whose real jobs are to ensure that profits for the capitalists keep flowing and private property/the means of production are kept in place. And that the means of production are kept in the hands of Wall Street vultures – as opposed to in the hands of the people such as in People’s Cuba.
Sources:
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Lynde_and_Harry_Bradley_Foundation
