10 December, 2010

MPs fiddling expenses and leaked diplomatic cables: what connects them and is the game finally up for capitalist ‘democracy’?

“Julian Rush is on the case but it already really does look as if there is an evolving war online between the organic anarchy of the web, as represented currently on the one hand by WikiLeaks and an assorted group of internet activists, and on the other hand by both the old and new icons of the corporate capitalist order, credit card and web commerce companies.” — Channel 4 Email, 9 December, 2010

Aside from having their ‘little secrets’ exposed, British MPs just as with their compatriots in the diplomatic service have had their way for so long that they look like a force of nature. But no more. What the complicit media echoes so faithfully and fearfully, ‘we have to restore faith in the system’ reveals just how frightened they are and just how tenuous their hold on power really is. It all rests on our belief in the system and once that connection is broken the state has two choices: repression or dissolution.

Wikileaks was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was simply a step too far for the political/media class to take. It had to be neutralized and the real meanings in all those cables buried or people are going to start connecting the dots together.

Of course the meanings embedded in the cables are not being reported but they are written by people whose function is to enact the strategies of their paymasters. It doesn’t matter how they say it. It doesn’t matter who they talk about, or even if they get their ramblings totally wrong. What matters is that specific policies are carried through and much rests on the state’s diplomats. Diplomats are essentially human extensions of the state, embodying many of the legal characteristics of a state such as diplomatic immunity or a diplomatic passport.

What the cables reveal are the inner workings of empire. Remember the Nixon tapes? ‘Motherfucker this and motherfucker that’ all over the place as Nixon ranted on about his ‘enemies’, tripping on some kind of drug-induced haze through the White House. These are our leaders, who we are meant to look up to?

“Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera has posted all U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks that pertain to Bolivia on his official website.

“He told reporters Wednesday he wants people to know the “barbarities and insults” of what he called Washington’s “interventionist infiltration.”” — ‘Bolivia hosts Wikileaks Mirror’, Bolivia Rising

We need to see the ruling elite for what it is and what better way than when their servants think they’re talking alone together?

The state/media argues that when engaging in foreign relations, if diplomatic notes are to be effective they have to be private. Okay, aside from around 250,000, they are. Carry on with whatever it is you’re doing but bear in mind we know what you really think. You’re not a special breed, apart from the rest of us and you do things in our names allegedly endorsed by a vote every few years. A vote that gives state policies the stamp of our approval. Remember, these are the same people that supply information that contributes to people being blown up somewhere in the endless wars being waged by capital around the planet.

It was Robert McNamara, thousands of miles from the battlefield, sitting in an office in the Pentagon using a spreadsheet to calculate the total tonnage of bombs to drop on North Vietnam in order to bring the country to its knees. The calculus of murder expressed in numbers of bombs needed, the fuel, the pilots. Ultimately it’s the economics of slaughter.

But to be dictated to by a state that lies to its citizens and steals our wealth from us ‘legally’ and hands it over to a handful of transnational banks and to add insult to injury fiddles its own expenses? I think not. Issues have gotten to be too critical to be left in the hands of a cabal of self-serving careerists, who are simply incapable of seeing beyond their own immediate interests. We don’t need people like this allegedly running things!

The publication of these formerly private conversations when taken collectively reveals a state intent on meddling anywhere it sees its interests involved or threatened and in the process revealing their arrogance and disdain for those who see things differently. But then that’s how empires behave– with impunity.

The release of these cables is an historic event for they forever transform the relationship between the state and its citizens. They blow away the illusion that our leaders are honourable men and women rather than mere servants of capital.

And, as events unfold here and elsewhere in the ‘developed’ world, what we see is a state in disarray and on the defensive but unfortunately as yet anyway, no alternative is on hand to offer our beleaguered citizens. Wikileaks is a wake up call for us to do something before it’s too late. The Empire must be destroyed!