Mad Capitalism Disease

national | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis

Sunday January 04, 2004 20:56

by john throne - labors militant voice

loughfinn at aol dot com

mad cow disease in the US

Mad cow disease now in the US. It is the insane drive for profits and to hell with peoples health that lies at the heart of the mad cow disease.

Mad Cow Disease. Mad Profit Disease. Mad Capitalism Disease.

Most scientists believe mad cow disease comes from the feeding of ground up bodies of dead and diseased cattle to other cattle which we end up eating. Other scientists believe mad cow disease develops from environmental pollution by heavy metals which are used in insecticides. Whichever is correct this disease comes from the greed for more and more profits and to hell with peoples health. Feeding dead animals to living ones cuts feed costs and increases profits. Using polluting insecticides reduces damaged crops and increases profits. It is not mad cow disease that we are dealing with. It is mad capitalism disease.

This outbreak of disease also results because the profit addicted corporations run this country. Cattle too sick to stand are called “Downers” Any reasonable person knows any animal too sick to stand is too sick to eat. But this cow in Washington, this downer too sick to stand, was killed, cut up, sent out to the stores and we are now eating it. Why? How?

In November 2003 Bush and his friends in the dairy and meat industry killed a bill that would have stopped downers being put into the food supply. It would be too “onerous” on the profits of the industry they said. Those profits again. The dairy and meat industry capitalists bribe the politicians to get their way. They are powerful also particularly powerful because the US electoral system is not based on one person one vote.

Each state elects two senators to the US senate. California’s thirty million people elects two senators. Idaho’s one million people elects two senators. So the small rural states, and the meat and dairy industry based in these states, have a huge influence on US laws and politics. Big capital as a whole sees giving the rural voters more power as a way to reduce the power of the working class in more urban states, eg. California, Illinois, New York etc.

Many lies have been told since the drive began to invade Iraq. One of the most glaring is the slogan “United We Stand”. The truth is that the owners of the US corporations and their political representatives, Bush, Clinton, the Democrats, the Republicans, are not united with US workers. They see us only as a source of profit. They see us as they see working people all over the world. We are to be lied to, to be exploited and to be kept down.

We need to use our imagination. What kind of people, what kind of thinking, decides that sick and dying animals are to be fed to working people. The US corporations do not care about US workers. We are prey to be fleeced. The profit addicted US corporations and their capitalist system are the enemies of US and all working people.

Here are a few excerpts from the book “Been brown so long it looked like green to me: the politics of nature” by Jeffery St. Clair published by Common Courage. It is a description of the IBP slaughter house in Pasco, Washington State. “Under pressure from aggressive managers meat that falls on the floor is placed back on the line without being cleansed. Cutting tools and conveyor belts are regularly coated with pus from abscesses and tumors...often cows are not rendered unconscious before being sent down the line. Workers say they often hear cows frantically mooing as they are skinned and dismembered alive. Workers are denied bathroom breaks forcing them at times to urinate in their pants so they wont fall behind the line and get fired.”

Our food industry and our lives cannot be trusted to the corporations and their profit addicted mad capitalist system. As workers and consumers we should unite to take the profit out of the food industry.

Published by Labors Militant Voice. Chicago.