"Accumulate This"

by Seth Sandronsky

For centuries, military might has paved the way for the theft of people and nature in Africa, Asia and the Americas. A dead German called this process "primitive accumulation." Later, people are legally looted of the wealth their energy creates when they become wage workers. A current example of primitive accumulation is underway today in Iraq. That Persian Gulf nation has much oil, an essential input for the global system, and desired by elites in rich countries. A fraction of them in the U.S. is leading the charge.

As the Iraqi body count mounts, it is worth noting that perpetual peace and prosperity for humanity was supposed to follow the fall of the former Soviet Union. So ended the Cold War begun with the Russian Revolution. Some said the failure of Soviet-style socialism proved once and for all that there were no alternatives to capitalism, to paraphrase Margaret Thatcher. At last, mankind would be free. Billions of people acting to maximize their choices in the world market would make democracy a planetary reality. www.dissidentvoice.org