Notes on the ongoing fascist drift

1.   There are several types of households. And, it is these nuclei that constitute the true monads of social life.

·        The vast majority is threatened by the police intrusion of tax agencies, always pressured by governments to implement a growing fiscal penalty, using and abusing the possibility of digging through various databases in search of increased income from those who live on the income of the work. But less so from the so-called entrepreneurs because “they are the ones who create the jobs”, in a logic that emanates from the most reactionary skulls. It is the fiscal penalty, which is conveniently comprehensive regarding the inflows/outflows of capital to offshores.

·        In general, the overwhelming majority of family nuclei are threatened by the pressure of capitalists in conditioning the income from work, through unpaid overtime, the precariousness of work that leads to precariousness in life, the rising age for retirement, in a plan that it means less time out of work and more extended time on the job, with discounts[1]. It is the pressure of capital with the subservient cooperation of the political class, mandated and obedient.

·        All are threatened by the financial system which, capturing the apparatus of the State and the political classes, favours unbridled consumerism paid on credit or, anchored in mortgages, capable of generating brutal losses in the event of default. It is about the pressure of the financial system, as a rule slavishly carried out by governments, also highly dependent on credit.

2. There is an osmotic, promiscuous and servile relationship between the political classes and the dominant strata of the capitalists (large industry, services and the financial system); and, a hierarchy that includes the so-called PME's[2], the champions of tax evasion, with the benevolence of governments, knowing that without this flight, low wages and job insecurity, many of these PME's would not be viable. It is one more form of state support towards social harmonization, smoothing the sharpest edges.

The drive of governments are, as a rule, emanations from the political classes, in the sense of conditioning and the growing capture of income from the population; is the same drive that focuses on the idiocy of the infinite growth of GDP. This, however, is not the greatest drama of our times. More relevant is the apathy of the multitude of workers and former workers; the anchyloses of their traditional institutions (unions); which allows the existence and fattening of capitalists and political classes, through the insertion of capital in Ponzi pyramids, from of the creation of money, out of nothing, without any relation to the so-called “real economy”. Tolerance that generates apathy, the disconnect between disadvantaged human groups and the victims of the action of political and economic structures, constitutes the main cause of Humanity's dramas nowadays.

3. For those who place climate change as their first priority, we say that without the dismantling of the capitalist logic, climate change will continue to be just collateral damage, from the dominant point of view, of capital accumulation and political classes, with ecological groups childishly to believe that they can catechize the political classes, in parliamentary action, in the sense of a (chimerical) imposition on common capitalists and the financial system. The practice of ecological groups in the last fifty years has been to osmosis themselves with liberal, social-democratic or Trotskyist-Stalinist groups, whose withering is visible; together, there is nothing structural about their practices, just the underlining of a “there is no alternative ”. Claiming against the effects without trying to suppress the causes is a gross methodological and political error.

Given the occurrence of an acceleration of these           changes, a dilemma arises:

·         humans are able to manage the planet in a logic of satisfying their needs, living beings and the planet's balance, which requires the abolition of the logic of capital accumulation that, by nature, focuses on endless growth;

·        or, the capitalists and their political officials proceed to a segmentation of the human herd between the useful members to the accumulation and the negligent ones, whose number must be reduced through diseases, reduction of the birth rate and of the longevity. A process that excites technologists and capitalists, with the replacement of human beings by robots.

4. However, the costs of capitalism's damages are transferred to the States, to be paid by an ever-increasing tax burden, which is particularly burdensome on labour income. The typical intra-capitalist competition requires the presence of increasingly lethal military forces, priority users of technologies with enormous power of confinement or destruction; and, with the promotion of nationalist and racist particularisms, old and excellent instruments for dividing the human herd.

The aforementioned apathy combines with the constant flood of media rubbish from television stations, the written press and digital platforms that, magnanimous, freely dump fantasies, lies and imbecilities at the disposal of all. This immense mass of data, under the name of information, serves for the construction and measurement of the state of mind of the large, inorganic masses of people, for the adoption of practices, ideologies, consumptions and social habits, leading to a collective alienation of the crowd that, in turn, ensures “the business must go on ”. In earlier times (in Europe) alienation stemmed from the narratives surrounding the figure of a vigilant named Jesus, imposed by temporal power and by the great mass of ecclesiastics. Can data used for manipulation purposes be called information?

Apathy incorporates, as genetics, the idea of ​​defending the homeland[3] and allows the daydreams with which the political classes finance military institutions; this incorporation can manifest itself in the trivialization of a culture of acceptance of violence and war, taken with natural elements for resolving differences, whether on the battlefield or in street demonstrations, in the silent violence of the workplace and residence. This apathy flattens, for example, domestic violence, taken as something with strong roots in society and, therefore, trivialized, as the subordination of women.

5. The nationalist idea fosters antagonisms between people who are not at all conflicting with each other, who do not even know each other, but only because they focus on different coloured cloths waving in the wind, if not on racist prejudices. Nationalism is a gift that is offered to the powerful and politicians of a country to legally and therefore, with impunity, demand resources and sacrifices from the population; putting immigrants in the background, in terms of rights and income, in a racist, exclusionary and cowardly attitude. Dividing and ruling is a practice with millennia of practice.

6.   The anchoring of family income and economic life in general is evident in the opaque activity of the financial system, whose databases allow for an almost nudity in people's everyday lives; the next abolition of physical money will be a giant step towards the lechery and control of each human being or by the financial system, in partnership with the “operationals” who show their face – the political classes. I partiti politici si dividono in grandi e piccoli. I grandi mentono e rubano. I piccolli desiderano sopprattutto di crescere (E. de Straznik).

7. The ideological defilement is permanent and overwhelming. In schools and universities, utilitarianism prevails, contempt for the social sciences, which have become instruments of social domestication or instruments of value generation, which, obviously, will essentially accumulate in the capitalists' patrimony. Is it by chance that economics taught at universities is essentially a technical discipline, with a lot of GDP, profit, supply, demand, competitiveness, value creation, entrepreneurship and the like? The interest of capitalists in introducing themselves into economic education aims to train agents of capital who, taking into account the cost of fees, privilege the offspring of capitalists, naturally nullifying this possibility among young people from the middle and lower classes of the population who, according to “modern” political regimes, they should be limited to their economic and social subordination. The time of the stairwell universities that honored figures of the Portuguese intelligentsia, such as Relvas, Passos, Sócrates or Vara, seems to have passed.

8.  The credit chains, involving States, families, companies, duly monitored by central banks and by the voluptuousness of stock exchanges, they are consistent with the infinite growth of GDP, as an inexhaustible source of enrichment for capitalists, with the intrusion and monitoring of the so-called “big date”. Conversely, the families, they are faced with huge debts for the use of a house, with high risks in terms of unemployment, increases in the tax burden and prices defined by oligopolies (fuels, banking services, transport, supermarkets, telecommunications). The tare of infinite GDP growth constitutes the usual engine of the diaphanous unreality that enriches the rich, on the one hand, and fosters huge pockets of poverty – absolute or relative among workers, pensioners, and the unemployed. Recently, the frightening and impoverishing contribution of COVID-19 has strongly increased the autocratic and repressive power of the state apparatus, to the precariousness of work, to the confinement required by telework and, consequently, to the fragility of the poorest people's lives.

9. It is clear that companies and capitalists also contribute to fiscal punishment, but their relationship with the state apparatus is much more promiscuous and varied; there is tax evasion, subsidies, legislative support and, above all, a real possibility of raising prices, reducing costs, contracting debt and obtaining subsidies or tax deductions from the State.

At the top of the state apparatus are the various strains of the political class, much more equal than diversified; and, always complainants lack of financial resources by pressing the plebs towards increasing revenue tax and expenditure restraint public social character; hence, as a rule, increases in taxes and public debt.

The divorce between those who live on income from work and the State is evident; their interests are antagonistic or, if the capitalist state, is not an enormous abscess in the life of communities.

10.  The exclusions and dormancy in which most peoples of the world live facilitate the authoritarian and fascist impulses on the part of governments that, if necessary, will make use of heavily armed police officers and indoctrinated in canine obedience to … attack with water cannons, sticks, humanized dogs to attack people, if not rubber or real bullets that – always accidentally – injure or kill protesters; as it was frequent in the demonstrations of the French Gillets Jaunes.

The surveillance of each person's movements and opinions is potentially carried out through numerous channels - landline or mobile telephone network - the so-called “social” networks where imbecilities predominate but under the scrutiny of big data and the police, whenever If necessary, they can carry out specific queries to identify “dangerous” ideas. This happens while the courts are proving to be bottomless pits where cases of scams and corruption involving people of the political class and media entrepreneurs are in a state of dormancy.  Recently, fourteen members of the gang in government functions (PS) issued, with pomp and circumstance, a Portuguese Charter on Human Rights in the Digital Age that was identified as “belonging to the family of censorship”

The media, little differentiated, highly concentrated in the hands of financial or advertising groups, clearly practice an erasure of ideas that are unfriendly to power; and, to present a democratic facade, they promote one or another, allegedly left-wing, commentator.

11. The dominant representation model shows a substitute monarch to symbolize the homeland and which is called the President of the Republic, although there are cases in Europe in which folklore is carried out by a king. They are individuals at the end of their careers, walking in procession through the territory or, in presidential regimes, individuals duly trained in the management of the interests of the powerful.

Elections for parliaments usually fall to individuals belonging to institutions – the parties – which are divided into two large groups.

·          The most relevant group is those who manage the State apparatus, in an osmotic relationship with the capitalists, the financial system or, members of cavernous entities such as law firms, specialized in influence peddling; they will also benefit from permissive, dubious legislation, cumbersome and ineffective judicial systems;

·          The minority group is that of deputies who are the protagonists of the opposition and the media animation that aims to attract the (scarce) assistant people.

The two groups have in common their presentation as interpreters and caretakers of popular interests, even if they do not comply with the basic rule of representation — that the decision rests with the represented and not the representative.

12.  To finish, and taking advantage of the next electoral carnival, of a municipal character, we add some notes that intend to show what is a representation and a democratic decision : and, what is the totalitarian manoeuver that constitutes the DNA of the party sects:

·          The decisions on the collective needs are taken by its direct stakeholders (the population) in line with their elected and, not emanating from supporters directories;

·    The election is aimed at individuals, at the local/regional/national level, through their own initiative applications. Thus, there are no applications in the form of lists. The elected will have to harmonize, collectively, for the decision;

·          Limitation of the number of mandates (maximum of two or three). The exercise of political functions, of representation, is not a way of life but a duty of citizenship. It is intended to avoid the encystment of political classes;

·          Possibility of termination by referendum, of mandates on the initiative of voters, of the same geographical framework in which the election was carried out;

·          Opening and facilitating referendums by decision of the political structures or of the population inserted in the same geographical framework;

·          Total absence of perks and immunities for all those who hold positions representing the population; and, an aggravated criminal framework without prescription, for cases of corruption;

·         The staff of the Public administration and the judiciary are technical structures, independent of the various levels of government action;

·      The government consists of the elected representatives for RA and , as such , may be dismissed, of these functions under parliamentary decision or have the mandate as a deputy impeached, by popular referendum.

·       Free and easy access to all files and decisions of public bodies

·   Judgement of corrupt and mismanagement acts that have taken place in the last 25 years

 This and other documents, here:

http://grazia-tanta.blogspot.com/  

http://www.slideshare.net/durgarrai/documents

https://pt.scribd.com/uploads                                

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[1] In Portugal, this innovation was carried out by two PS entities; such Vieira da Silva, a former minister who retired and Pedro Marques, his subordinate and executor of this innovation about fifteen years ago, currently to accumulate political weight in the European Parliament.

[2] The concepts of nationality and patriotism emerged with capitalism , when the bourgeoisie found it useful to define a territory and a population as their own, excluding all those who were outside the borders, subject to very tight control. In the U E , the creation of a global market suffered a setback with the use of covid-19 to confine and impoverish populations and make even more precarious employment and access to regular income, even if meager.

Still on patriotism, note the competitive and excluding commitment of international football championships. Perhaps one day the mobs' winning eagerness will slide into the demand for a degree of violence like the one well portrayed in the movie Rollerball (2002).

 

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[1] In Portugal, this innovation was carried out by two PS entities; such Vieira da Silva, a former minister who retired and Pedro Marques, his subordinate and executor of this innovation about fifteen years ago, currently to accumulate political weight in the European Parliament.

[2] PME – Pequenas e Médias Empresas (Small and Median Compamies)

[3] The concepts of nationality and patriotism emerged with capitalism , when the bourgeoisie found it useful to define a territory and a population as their own, excluding all those who were outside the borders, subject to very tight control. In the U E , the creation of a global market suffered a setback with the use of covid-19 to confine and impoverish populations and make even more precarious employment and access to regular income, even if meager.

 

The State and the political mediation

 The State and the political mediation

- the functioning of a control society -

 

1 - The social-democratic model

2 - Parties, unions and employers' associations

 

(((((((((((((+))))))))))

1 -  The social-democratic model

The attribution to each person of an individualized character, a monad type, in the construction of post-war social-democratic peace, was accompanied by the construction of enormous state apparatus; one, military in the aftermath of the war, but also an administrative one, dedicated to the rebuilding of the productive structure and its internal economic relations, but also a strong intervention in the social area, with the creation of Social Security, for example, developed by Beveridge, following Bismark, some decades before.

It was intended a positioning between isolated, atomized people, on the one hand, and a powerful state apparatus as their only representative, on the other; as unique, it was also, for the population, a nation-state, as a reference anchored in a historical narrative, more or less falsified, according to the conveniences of the possessed layers. The very designation of nation-state reveals the fusion between two unique and unquestionable entities imposed on the indigenous people of a territory - the State - as a device, supreme manager of a specific reality, and the Nation, even when in that territory there are several nations, with their specific traditions and cultures.

Naturally, the State would have to find structures to frame natural persons and, the Churches that in the past had almost monopolized this function, lost their attraction, in the context of secular societies, as a consequence of the materialistic logic of capital accumulation; and, with the salvation of souls as a concern, sent to the most believers.

Thus, a so-called democratic model was created through the political and institutional importance attributed to three structures, considered as framing the population - parties, unions and, employers' associations. Their interests, of course, are not coincidental, but the object of a final confection or made unitary by a decision of the State, through the government's seal. These structures, being dominant and more mediatized, do not represent the whole society; for example, the military hierarchies, the dominant religious beliefs, the financial system, the big capitalists, the foreign capital, certain embassies, the football world ... all contribute to filling the matrix of relations that involve the State. However, they relate to that in a less formal or less mediatized way, if not without any public notoriety.

This model - which was called social-democrat - intended and seeks harmonization between the parties, through a decision-making summit that mediates political unity and the conciliation of economic and social interests. A practical application was defined by Cunhal[1], in Portugal, in the early 1960s, as the “unity of the honorable Portuguese” - a moralistic and not a very… Marxist concept - which left out the great economic and financial groups of the time that naturally dealt their interests directly with the government if, not even with Salazar[2]. Today neither does EDP, Galp, Volkswagen, Lone Star or, the financial system see their interests dealt in the context of the Social Concert but rather, in a higher and more discreet instance, as a minister or a prime minister. A greater and determinant insertion of a small and less influential country on the global level tends to make Social Concert as a showcase for small and medium-sized companies, to give them voice, the right to a formal media coverage, to emptied structures such as unions and employers' associations.

In the context of a social concert - taken as something more politically comprehensive than the institutional figure with the same name, the role of the government will be the management of the State apparatus to harmonize those political and social interests, to accompany the discussions within the scope of international bodies, especially within the EU - regardless of what lobbies  in Brussels may achieve - fight for EU funds, discuss deficits and public debt levels, etc.

2 - Parties, unions and, employers' associations

 

Going back to the social-democratic model, the framing of the population is done through parties, unions and, employers' associations.

Parties tend to be closed, oligarchic, authoritarian structures, where the hierarchy is heavy and democracy is only propaganda to show abroad; something that does not concern other oligarchic structures, such as companies, the state apparatus or, religious structures. Intestinal struggles are developing to occupy internal positions, such as appointments to institutions that hold power and/or allow diversion of funds, interesting remuneration, state or municipal subsidies and, dispatches that constitute rights; or, simply greater public notoriety, as steps leading to future positions. Appointments of party cadres to government agencies are a common way of promoting to a higher level as regards legal or illegal remuneration; at this point, it should be noted that referring to corruption is synonymous of involvement of party cadres, obviously, with a greater incidence of those belonging to the parties of power - in Portugal, the PS / PSD… a pair of twins. And then, intense intestinal struggles in a very competitive framework within each party, as in the heart of the oligarchy that constitutes the party system.

As they are, in fact, structures of the State, to the parties are given funds, perks and, the guarantee that political decisions are up to them even if their actual representativeness is quite low. As political systems, historically, are oligarchic, it is the norm to have models of representation in which only party members or, tolerated by their autocratic leaderships, can apply for representation. Thus, elections are nothing democratic, at all; the candidates who present themselves are chosen directly by the party directories and their mandates cannot be revoked by those who voted for them; because the votes are on party lists, with no possibility of individualized choices, in most countries. Party castes become, by the relative stability of their presence in state bodies - through elections or not - as well as by their perks and special rights, a true nobility; they replicate the political life of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, constituting, by aristocratic rejection, a new class of sans-coulotes more pacified and brutish than their ancestors.

These are noble varieties, hierarchical one another, occupying all situations of representation and make all decisions within governments - national, regional and local; that occupy the Constitutional Court, the highest levels of public administration, public companies and, the useless figure of President of the Republic. All of this, properly sealed in a Constitution, as sacred as not fulfilled, in proportion to the ridiculous details that are found there and, that makes it one of the longest in the world. And that, it never fulfilled the noble intentions of its preamble placing Portugal with a population forced to emigrate, corresponding to 18.8% of the residents, against only 3.7% in the Spanish state.

The model of representation in market democracies excludes, outright, those who do not belong to parties and requires that a candidacy be included under the acronym of a party, with the approval of its leadership, as a rule, with very marked powers for that purpose. Paragraph 2 of article 10 of the Constitution states that “political parties compete for the organization and for the expression of popular will”. And, in fact, outside of a party, no one can run for a deputy to the Parliament, so no one there can be appointed as anyone's representative. On the other hand, the electoral constituencies for the Parliament are based on the districts - which do not exist - as well as the administrative regions that should have replaced them (article 291 of the Constitution), which also did not happen. After… 44 years…

The opportunistic realism of the so-called right-wing parties tends to merge with that of the parties referred as the left; all in comfortable accommodation inside a musty bipolarization in a extended plane of social-democracy, designed to keep ad aeternum the gentleness of the common people and it continues to accept a precariousness as a norm of life.

In this context, sedimented and putrefied of democracy, the current model of representation is taken for granted  that is not discussed. The remaining idea is that the people are deceived but do not know that they are or, who do not want to know, more concerned with the hypothesis of dismissal, of finding something that allows a regular (even low) salary, with the housing payment as well as the car and a mobile phone full of uselessness, the most expendable being the geolocation of its carrier and the serialization of people, their data and opinions.

This creates an environment of alienation, in which everything on the surface is false, precarious, unsatisfactory, a bad theater; as with the dominant financial system that adds its assets, knowing that they represent nothing but the belief in its infinite growth. Life under capitalism is filled with a virtual call to reality by the current coronavirus, knowing that its successor will come soon.

The unions, in their origin, integrated the claiming processes proper to an economic and political conjuncture, in the search for the professional and salary valorization of their members. As their connection to political parties became popular, this led to the integration of claiming processes in political and electoral calendars, under the responsibility of union officials, and the rise of workers, officials, party cadres in office for decades and, inside heavy bureaucracies.

The accelerated precariousness of labor functions, with regular and alternating periods of work and unemployment, was integrated by the State, as a manager of unemployment benefits and social peace, in favor of businessmen and the infinite growth of GDP. The aim is to create a social peace that attracts investors, mainly foreigners, a purpose common to the State as well as union bureaucracies; both need more "growth", to generate more jobs, for the eternalization of capitalism and wage labor, preferably precarious.

The State, in managing unemployment and replacement income, assumed these functions, collectivizing them, integrating them, naturally, in the capitalist order, at the same time that the unions became bureaucratic institutions, managed, in fact, by employees; although voluntary registration, on the contrary to many orders.

More recently, the number of orders has been inflated, such as a return to medieval corporativism, mandatory integration, control of professionals who, working or not on behalf of others, find expensive, demanding supervision there, favoring those installed, leaving those initiated according to the contingencies of the unavoidable market. Some, despite the order designation, are only associations in which there is no obligation to register.

Under a political point of view, union confederations, even weakened, with a drop in representativeness, due to non-unionization or, the creation of autonomous union members, they are, commonly, part of corporative closed groups. UGT - a creature invented in the 70s, paid in German marks, to rival CGTP - aimed at the institution of a unions "market" that led to the inclusion of both in the Social Concert. This continues to be a media curtain for the fair to favor the most low-level employers, with some concessions to the representation of workers by the government of the moment. In politics, it is common that something has to change so that everything stays the same, after washing the face.

Employers' associations represented in that Social Concert, belong to industry, trade and the services, agriculture and tourism, including in particular the wide range of small and medium enterprises that have a characteristic, perhaps unique in Europe - the owners have a lower qualification profile than the workers who serve them.

                      Portugal -2017                                  (%)

	Basic	Secundary	Higher
Employees	43,7	28,6	27,7
Self-employed	70,6	13,3	16,1
Owners	56,4	23,5	20,1

 

                    Portugal – 2009                               (%)

	Basic	Secundary	Higher
Employees	62,3	19,6	18,1
Owners	78,9	10,3	10.8

 

                        Spain – 2009                               (%)

	Basic	Secundary	Higher
Employees	39,0	24,3	36,8
Owners	48,1	22,9	29,0

Source - Iberian Peninsula in Numbers

 

		Data on European countries for 2016 - employed population (%)
			Basic	Secundary	Higher
	Lower values		Lithuania - 3,6	Spain - 24,3 Portugal - 25,7	Romania 20,5        Portugal – 26,0
	Higher values		Portugal - 48,4   Spain - 33,0	Slovakia - 72,0	Cyprus - 45,7       Spain - 42,7
		Employment and Unemployment Statistics, EU-Labour Force Survey (Eurostat)

It is in the Social Concert that the governments, the State power, dialogues with the low entrepreneurs and the structures of the work. The relationship between governments and the large foreign-owned companies present in Portugal proceeds with great discretion, outside of the aforementioned Social Concert. At regard to the financial system, almost all of which was dominated by foreign capital, after the 2013 crisis, the situation is one of government subservience, as seen in the “polynomial” process - BES, Banco Bom (Good Bank), Banco Mau (Bad Bank), Novo Banco, Resolution Fund - where the role of the Portuguese State is to channel funds, previously considered as lost, from the tax mass extorted from the population of the poorest country in Western Europe.

 

This and other texts in:

 

http://grazia-tanta.blogspot.com/     

http://www.slideshare.net/durgarrai/documents

 

https://en.scribd.com/uploads

 

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[1] Cunhal was the indisputable leader of Portuguese Communist Party, for decades

[2] Salazar, a Portuguese fascist dictator in Portugal for decades was frequently visited by Gulbenkian (a very rich Armenian oil businessman living in Portugal), maintaining both bonds of friendship. And, being both frankly forretas, Gulbenkian on his visits bought eggs from D. Maria (Salazar housekeeper) who managed a poultry farm in S. Bento (at the time the dictator residence). Forreta is a Portuguese popular word to define a very spared person.