Noam Chomsky in Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky
On Corporations:
"Occupy" is first public response in class war in 30 years
"Occupy," says Noam Chomsky, "is the first major public response to 30 years of class war," a people-powered movement that began in NYC on September 17, 2011, and rapidly spread to thousands of locations worldwide.
Although police have raided and shut down most of the original sites, by early 2012 the movement had already transitioned from occupying tent camps to occupying the conscience of the nation.
In "Occupy," Chomsky points out that one of the movement's greatest successes has been to put the inequalities of everyday life on the national agenda,
influencing reporting, public awareness and language itself.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 9
May 1, 2012
On Welfare & Poverty:
"Precariat": precarious existence at periphery of society
Parts of the narrative shift has been to admit that millions of ordinary Americans suffer with poverty while the "free market" system adds to their misery by offering "financial products" that squeeze them even harder than everyone else. "The trick,"
writes Barbara Ehrenreich, "is to rob them in ways that are systematic, impersonal, and almost impossible to trace to individual perpetrators."
The combination of corporate predation and state neglect amount to forms of social coercion and structural violence waged against what Chomsky calls the "precariat"--those who live a precarious existence at the periphery
of society: the elderly, the poor, and communities of color. "It's not the periphery anymore," writes Chomsky, "it's becoming a very substantial part of society."
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 10-11
May 1, 2012
On Welfare & Poverty:
GOP proposals take chain saw to safety net
In 2012, the New York Times [had] a column discussing multimillionaire Mitt Romney's statement that he was "not concerned about the very poor" because there is a "safety net" for them.
The writer responds to Romney's assurance with these words: "Where to begin? First, a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities last month pointed out that Romney's budget proposals would take a chainsaw to that safety net."
How did we in the US get to this point? "It's not the Third World misery," says Chomsky, "but it's not what it ought to be in a rich society, the richest in the world, in fact,
with plenty of wealth around, which people can see, just not in their pockets." And Chomsky credits the work of movement organizers for having helped bring these issues to the fore and having initiated a shift.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 12
May 1, 2012
On Corporations:
Sit-down strikes really frighten the business world
I'm just old enough to remember the Great Depression. There was militant labor union organizing going on. It was getting to the point of sit-down strikes, which are really very frightening to the business world--you could see it in the business press at
the time--because a sit-down strike is just a step before taking over the factory and running it yourself. The idea of worker takeovers is something which is, incidentally, very much on the agenda today, and we should keep it in mind.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 25
May 1, 2012
On Jobs:
Recession unemployment jobs won't come back
In the 1930s, unemployed working people could anticipate that their jobs would come back. If you're a worker in manufacturing today (the current level of unemployment in manufacturing is approximately like the Depression) and current
tendencies persist, those jobs are going to come back.The change took place in the 1970s. There are a lot of reasons for it. One of the underlying factors was the falling rate of profit in manufacturing.
It led to major changes in the economy--a reversal of the several hundred years of progress towards industrialization and development. Manufacturing production continued overseas--very profitable, but no good for the work force.
Along with that came a significant shift of the economy from productive enterprise--producing things people need or could use--to financial manipulation. The financialization of the economy really took off at that time.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 26-7
May 1, 2012
On Government Reform:
Concentrated wealth yields concentrated political power
The development that took place during the 1970s set off a vicious cycle. It led to concentration of wealth increasingly in the hands of the financial sector.
This doesn't benefit the economy--it probably harms it and the society--but it did lead to tremendous concentration of wealth.Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power.
And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle. The legislation, essentially bipartisan, drives new fiscal policies, tax changes, also rules of corporate governance, and deregulation.
Alongside of this began the very sharp rise in the costs of elections, which drives the political parties even deeper than before into the pockets of the corporate sector.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 28
May 1, 2012
On Technology:
Scandal that Amtrak runs at same speed as in 1950s
I happened to be giving talks in France a couple of months ago and ended up in Southern France and had to take a train from Avignon to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. It took 2 hours.
The trip we took was the same distance as from Washington, DC, to Boston. I don't know if you've ever taken the train from Washington to Boston, but it's operating at about the same speed it was 60 years ago when my wife and I first took it.
It's a scandal. It could be done here as it's been done in Europe.
They had the capacity to do it, the skilled work force. It would have taken a little popular support, but it could have made a major change in the economy.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 36-7
May 1, 2012
On Corporations:
Abolish corporate personhood via Constitutional Amendment
Q: What about enacting a Constitutional amendment to abolish corporate personhood or to get corporate money out of politics?A: These would be very good things to do, but you can't do this or anything else unless there is a large, active, popular base.
If the Occupy movement was the leading force in the country, you could push many things forward. But remember, most people don't know that this is happening.
Or they know it is happening, but don't know what it is. And among those who do know, polls show that there's a lot of support.
That assigns a task. It's necessary to get out into the country and get people to understand what this is about, and what they can do about it, and what the consequences are of not doing anything about it.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 39-40
May 1, 2012
On Government Reform:
Public policy has become divorced from public opinion
Suppose we had a functioning democratic society. Let's just imagine that. What would a primary look like, say, in NH? The people in a town would get together and discuss, talk about, and argue about what they want policy to be. Then if a candidate comes
along and says, "I want to come talk to you," the people in the town ought to say, "Well, you can come listen to us if you want. So you come in, we'll tell you what we want, and you can try to persuade us that you'll do it;
then, maybe we will vote for you." That's what would happen in a democratic society.What happens in our society? The candidate comes to town with his public relations agents and the rest of them. He gives some talks, and says, "Look how great I am.
This is what I am going to do for you." Nobody believes a word he or she says. And then maybe people vote for him, maybe they don't. That's very different from a democratic society.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 47-8
May 1, 2012
On Homeland Security:
Our military is not for defense; rein it in
The thing that can be done, you all know about: reining in our crazed military system, which has about the same expenses as the militaries of the rest of the world combined.
But our military system is not for defense. In fact, it's actually harmful to us, if you look at it. It doesn't have to be like that.
So there are things that are quite feasible. Proposals have to be made and brought to the population in a convincing way. And most of the population already agrees with most of these things.
But you have to turn the population into a force that will be active and engaged. Then you could have results.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 49-50
May 1, 2012
On Corporations:
Wealth distribution is heavily weighted to top tenth of 1%
The population is angry, frustrated, bitter--and for good reasons. For the past generation, policies have been initiated that have led to an extremely sharp concentration of wealth in a tiny sector of the population. In fact, the wealth distribution is
very heavily weighed by, literally, the top tenth of 1% of the population, a fraction so small that they're not even picked up on the census. This is mostly from the financial sector--hedge fund managers, CEOs of financial corporations and so on.
At the same time, for the majority of the population, incomes have pretty much stagnated. Real wages have also stagnated, sometimes declined. People have been getting by in the US by much higher workloads. For African Americans almost all wealth has
disappeared.
Concentration of wealth leads almost exclusively to concentration of political power, which in turn translates into legislation, naturally in the interests of those implementing it; and that accelerates what has been a vicious cycle.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 54-5
May 1, 2012
On Jobs:
Spread "industrial democracy" of worker-owned enterprises
NYC's City Council, under the influence of the Occupy movement, passed a resolution, against corporate personhood. The resolution establishes that "corporations are not entitled to the entirety of protections or 'rights' of natural persons, specifically
so that the expenditure of corporate money to influence the electoral process is no longer a form of constitutionally protected speech" and calls on Congress "to begin the process of amending the Constitution."In the longer term, there are many things
that can be done. For example, in Ohio, there's a significant spread of worker-owned enterprises. A lot of this derived from a major effort, 30 years ago, when US Steel wanted to sell off one of its major installations. The work force and the community
offered to buy it and run it themselves--industrial democracy, essentially. That went to the courts and they lost; although with sufficient support they could have won. But even the failure, like many failures, has spawned other efforts.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 60-1
May 1, 2012
On Budget & Economy:
Austerity in a period of recession makes situation worse
There is a new small book by the Economic Policy Institute called Failure by Design: The Story behind America's Broken Economy. And the phrase, "by design," is accurate.
These things don't happen by the laws of nature or by principles of economics, to the extent they exist. They're choices. And they are choices made by the wealthy and powerful elements to create a society that answers to their needs.
Take the European Central Bank (ECB). There are many economists, Nobel Laureates and others, and I agree with them, who think that the policies that the ECB is following and pursuing--
basically austerity in a period of recession--are guaranteed to make the situation worse. So far, I think that's been the case.
Growth is what is needed in a period of recession, not austerity.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 63
May 1, 2012
On Corporations:
Occupy movement put "income inequality" on the agenda
One of the remarkable successes of the Occupy movement is that it has simply changed the entire framework of discussion--like the imagery of the 99% and 1%; and the dramatic facts of sharply rising inequality over the past roughly
30 years, with wealth being concentrated in actually a small fraction of 1% of the population.Earlier this month, the Pew Foundation released one of its annual polls surveying what people think is the greatest source of tension and conflict in
American life. For the first time ever, concern over income inequality was way at the top. It's not that the poll measured income inequality itself, but the degree to which
public recognition, comprehension and understanding of the issue has gone up. That's a tribute to the Occupy movement which put this strikingly critical fact of modern life on the agenda.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 69-71
May 1, 2012
On Government Reform:
Members of Congress literally buy power within Congress
Q: How would you go about dealing with the daunting task of getting money out of politics?A: Getting money out of politics is a very crucial matter; it has been for a long time.
It's gotten much more extreme now. Things have reached a point in the US where, even within Congress, if someone wants a position with a degree of power and authority, they literally have to buy it.
It used to be that committee chairs were granted by a political party on the basis of seniority, service and other factors. Now, you literally have to pay the party to be a candidate for a chair.
Well, that has an effect, too; it drives members of Congress into the same pockets if they want to get anywhere.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 77-9
May 1, 2012
On Budget & Economy:
2008 real estate bubble came from increasing role of finance
Q: Can you talk about the roots of the most recent crisis of the real estate bubble?A: At the root of its occurrence is the major shift in the economy that began to take place in the 1970s. It was escalated radically under Reagan, Thatcher in England
and on from there. There was a big growth period in the US, the largest in history, during the 1950s and 1960s. At that time, there was also egalitarianism: the lowest quintile did as well as the highest quintile. That came to an end in the
1970s when there was a shift towards increasing the role of finance in the society. Combined with this were corporate decisions to ship production abroad. It's not a law of nature, again. You can have decent working conditions and production at home and
abroad, but they make more profit that way. These decisions greatly changed the economy. One effect of this was that wealth became concentrated heavily in financial industries and that led to concentration of political power that leads to legislation.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 84-6
May 1, 2012
On War & Peace:
Iraq War was first war where massive protest preceded war
The protests against the Iraq War were historically totally unique. I think it's the first war in history where there was massive protest before the war was officially launched. I can't think of a case where that ever happened.
And it's claimed that the protests had no effect, but I don't think that's true. It should have gone on. Unfortunately, it reduced, and that allowed more leeway for aggression.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 93
May 1, 2012
On Corporations:
Stakeholders should have as high priority as shareholders
If you could take a look at standard texts in business economics--you know, nothing radical--standard texts in business economics point out that there's no economic principle or any other principle that says that
SHAREHOLDERS should have a higher priority than STAKEHOLDERS--workers and community. Shareholders are very narrowly concentrated, the top 1% of the population, and that means big banks, interlocking directorates, and so on.
There's no economic principle that says they are the ones who should determine investment policy. There's no law of economics that says that has to happen.
It could just as well be done by stakeholders, by the workforce and the community--perfectly consistent with anything that anyone claims about economic theory.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 95
May 1, 2012
On Corporations:
Hand over reconstructed auto industry to the auto workers
One of the things that Obama is praised for is for having essentially nationalized the auto industry and reconstructed it. That's pretty much what happened.
Well, once the auto industry was nationalized, there were alternatives. And one alternative was to reconstruct it and hand it back to the original owners--not to the same names, but to the same class, the same banks, and so on.
That's what was done.
But another possibility would have been to hand the auto industry over to the workforce and the communities, the stakeholders, and redirect it towards things that the country really needs.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 96
May 1, 2012
On Civil Rights:
Our grandmothers were hopelessly oppressed & didn't know it
Take a case like the women's movement. A lot of you are old enough to remember how that happened. It began with very small consciousness-raising groups--groups of women getting together and talking to each other and coming to identify and comprehend
that, first of all there is oppression, and that a better way is possible where we don't have to accept oppression. If you had asked my grandmother if she was oppressed, she wouldn't have known what you were talking about.
Of course, she was hopelessly oppressed, but identifying it is not always easy, especially if no one talks about it. So just getting to understand that you don't have to accept oppression, that you can be a free and independent person, is a big step.
The women's movement took that step and kept going. There was bitter resistance. And there still is, and there's a backlash. But you just keep struggling for it.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 99-100
May 1, 2012
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