James Petras: Capitalists, Technocrats and Fanatics: The Ascent of a New Power Bloc
The sweeping electoral victory of the BJP in India is the latest expression of the world-wide advance of a new power bloc which promises to impose a New World Order harnessing ethno-religious fanaticism and narrowly trained technocrats to capitalist absolutism.
See also - Turkey: Erdogan's Theological Justification for His Dictatorial Stance
India : Billionaires, Hindu
Fascists and IT “Savants”
Turkey : The Transition to
Islamic-Capitalist Authoritarianism
Turkey under the rule of
Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party has moved decisively toward one-man
rule: linking Islam to big capital and police state repression. Erdogan’s
‘triple alliance’ is intent on unleashing mega-capitalist projects, based on
the privatization of public spaces and the dispossession of popular
neighborhoods. He opened the door to unregulated privatization of mines,
communications, banks – leading to exponential growth of profits and the
decline of employment security and a rising toll of worker deaths. Erdogan has
shed the mask of ‘moderate Islam’ and embraced the jihadist mercenaries
invading Syria
and legislation expanding religious prerogatives in secular life. Erdogan has
launched massive purges of journalists, public officials, civil servants,
judges and military officers. He has replaced them with ‘party loyalists’;
Erdogan fanatics!
Israel & the “Jewish State”:
Israel , according to its
influential promoters in the US ,
is a ‘model democracy’. The public pronouncements and the actions of its
leaders thoroughly refute that notion. The driving force of Israeli politics is
the idea of dispossessing and expelling all Palestinians and converting Israel into a
‘pure’ Jewish state. For decades Israel ,
funded and colonized by the diaspora, have violently seized Palestinian lands,
dispossessed millions and are in the process of Judaizing what remains of the
remnant in the “Occupied
Territories ”.
See also
See also - Turkey: Erdogan's Theological Justification for His Dictatorial Stance
The far-right is no longer at the margins of
western political discourse. It is center-stage. It is no longer dependent on
contributions by local militants; it receives financing from the biggest global
corporations. It is no longer dismissed by the mass media. It receives feature
coverage, highlighting its ‘dynamic and transformative’ leadership. Today capitalists everywhere
confront great uncertainty, as markets crash and endemic corruption at the
highest levels erode competitive markets. Throughout the world, large
majorities of the labor force question, challenge and resist the massive
transfers of public wealth to an ever reduced oligarchy. Electoral politics no
longer define the context for political opposition. Capitalism, neither in
theory nor practice, advances through reason and prosperity. It relies on
executive fiats, media manipulation and arbitrary police state intrusions. It
increasingly relies on death squads dubbed “Special Forces” and a ‘reserve
army’ of para-military fanatics.
The new power bloc is
the merger of big business, the wealthy professional classes, upwardly mobile,
elite trained technocrats and cadres of ethno-religious fanatics who mobilize
the masses. Capitalism and
imperialism advances by uprooting millions, destroying local communities and
economies, undermining local trade and production, exploiting labor and
repressing social solidarity. Everywhere it erodes community and class
solidarity.
Ethno-Religious Fanatics
and Elite Technocrats
Today capitalism depends
on two seemingly disparate forces. The irrational appeal of ethno-religious
supremacists and narrowly trained elite technocrats to advance the rule of
capital. Ethno-religious fanatics seek to promote bonds between the
corporate-warlord elite and the masses, by appealing to their ‘common’
religious ethnic identities.
The technocrats serve
the elite by developing the information systems, formulating the images and
messages deceiving and manipulating the masses and designing their economic
programs. The political leaders
meet with the corporate elite and warlords to set the political-economic
agenda, deciding when to rely on the technocrats and when to moderate or
unleash the ethno-religious fanatics. Imperialism operates via
the marriage of science and ethno-religious fanaticism- and both are harnessed
to capitalist domination and exploitation.
The election of Narendra
Modi, leader of the BJP and long-time member of the Hindu fascist Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) para-military organization was based on three essential
components:
(1) Multi-billion rupee
funding from corporate India
at home and abroad.
(2) Thousands of
upwardly mobile IT technocrats mounting a massive propaganda campaign.
(3) Hundreds of
thousands of RSS activists spreading the “Hindutva” racist doctrine among
millions of villagers.
The Modi regime promises
his capitalist backers that he will “open India ”– namely end the land
reserves of the tribes, convert farmland to industrial parks, deregulate labor
and environmental controls.
To the Brahmin elite he
promises to end compensatory quotas for lower castes, the untouchables, the
minorities and Muslims. For the Hindu fascists he promises more temples. For
foreign capitalists he promises entry into all formerly protected economic
sectors. For the US , Modi
promises closer working relations against China ,
Russia and Iran … The BJP’s
ethno-religious Hindu fanaticism resonates with Israel ’s notion of a “pure”Jewish
state. Modi and Netanyahu have longstanding ties and promise close working
relations based on similar ethno-racist doctrines.
Erdogan has recruited a
small army of technocrats who design his mega projects and provide the
political infrastructure and programs for his electoral campaigns. Technocrats
provide a development agenda that accommodates the foreign and domestic crony
corporate elite.
The Anatolian Islamists,
small and medium provincial business elite, form the mass base – mobilizing
voters, by appealing to chauvinist and ethnocentric beliefs. Erdogan’s
repressive, Islamist, capitalist regime’s embrace of the “free market” has been
sharply challenged especially in light of the worst mining massacre in Turkish
history: the killing of over 300 miners due to corporate negligence and regime
complicity. Class polarization threatens the advance of Turkish fascism.
Billionaires , Ethno-Religious Fanatics & Technocrats
The Israeli economy is
dominated by billionaires. Its “society” is permeated by a highly militarized
state. Its highly educated technocrats serve the military-industrial and
ethno-religious elite. Big business shares power with both. High tech Israeli’s
apply their knowledge to furthering the high growth, military industrial
complex. Medical specialists participate in testing the endurance of
Palestinian prisoners undergoing torture (“interrogation”). Highly trained psychologists
engage in psych-warfare to gain collaborators among vulnerable Palestinian
families. Economists and political scientists, with advanced degrees from
prestigious US and British universities (and ‘dual citizenship’) formulate
policies furthering the land grabs of neo-fascist settlers. Israel ’s best
known novelist, Amos Oz condemned the neo-fascist settlers who defecate on the
embers of burnt-out mosques... read more:
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