The very smart people who put George W. Bush in the White House would have been delighted with the fury aroused by the mention of his name at the Mercusul Social Forum (FSM). If they heard that a very distinguished Brazilian lady deafened her audience with repeated shouts of “Booosh Fora!!!” (Bush out!!), they would be sure that the FSM represented no kind of a threat, and that the speakers and delegates remained in ignorance of the true nature of the power-system they were trying to change.
No-one at the MSF seemed to understand that Bush, like all but one or two of the US Presidents since the 1870s, is no more responsible for the broad thrust of US Imperialism than an obnoxious Cabin Steward is responsible for the lousy food being served by an airline. Bush is a figure-head for what scholars refer to as `the Power Elite´.
William Domhoff defines the US power elite as
the leadership group of the upper class. It consists of active-working members of the upper class and high-level employees in profit and nonprofit institutions controlled by members of the upper class through stock ownership, financial support, or involvement on the board of directors.
There are power-elites operating in every society and at every level. From the neighbourhoods, to the cities, to the states to the Federal – and especially – the Global level. As Governor of Texas, Bush was the front-man for the Texas power-elites. Now, like every President since Lyndon Baines Johnson, he is fronting for the global power-elites. They, in turn, through people like the hugely influential, but low-profile, ex-Senator Howard Baker, are closely- integrated with the elite-network in Texas. These are the people who have ensured that – by and large – the USA has been governed in the interests of their families and their corporations for several generations.
Moreover, Presidents, Governors and Mayors do not operate in isolation. The power-elites also choose most of the men and women who sit around their Cabinet tables, hold key policy-portfolios at city, state and federal level and run the World Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organisation. It does not matter which party they nominally serve or which nationality they are. They have been allowed to take up important offices in order to serve the power-elites that have nurtured them, and into which they may well have been born.
The power-elites chosen front-men (and occasionally, women) are not mere puppets. They are very smart people. No matter how blatantly they are betraying the millions of people they were elected to serve, they – with the help of their speech-writers and PR staffs – argue their case brilliantly and give convincing displays of sincerity. They are often able to present their routine betrayals of the powerless as a protection from something far worse – Big Government, socialised medicine, and now of course, global terrorism. At the same time, the control that the power-elites exercise over the US mass-media, from the New York Times to the thousands of religious radio-stations, almost completely drowns out the voices of those who want to offer opposing arguments.
The same system used to work for the US and the national power-elites in every state in Latin America. Presidents (the ubiquitous `Harvard-trained economists´) were elected to serve the interests of their national power-elites to which they belonged and the US power-elites with whom they had close links. Now, however, with the election of left-ist or at least independent-minded Presidents in Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay, the system seems to have broken down – at least temporarily. To an extent it also seems to be at least partially true with the Lula-government in Brazil. On the other hand, the skill with which the separatist movements are operating in Bolivia and the military threats to Ecuador and Venezuela from the Colombian regime, are classic examples of how local power-elites can simultaneously pursue their own sectional interests and the wider aims of the US power-elites.
Members of the Latin American `counter-elites´ seem to be more or less completely unaware of – or indifferent to – how the local and global power-elites operate, the possibility of achieving anything but short-term, local victories is very limited. Until they have a precise shared understanding of what and who they are up against, they will not be able to make any real progress towards achieving what we all want – a just and sustainable world.
Although much of their work is done behind closed doors, with participants required to maintain strict confidentiality, the history, memberships, modus operandi, and political strategies of the power-elites are reasonably well-documented.
The meticulous researches of academics such as William (Bill) Domhoff, James Petras, Carroll Quigley, Laurence Shoup and William Minter, enable us to know a great deal about their personnel, structures, processes and policies.
Other researchers such as Sara Robinson and Bruce Wilson have argued that, if progressives study how the neo-liberals and neo-conservatives have managed to achieve such a dominant position in US politics, it is also possible to learn a great deal from them.
It is so important to understand the power-elites that I will continue discussing who they are and what they do for some time yet. Watch this space.
Tags: George W. Bush, Mercusul Social Forum, power elites, social forums, US Imperialism
