A-Infos (en) Canada, Anarchist journal Linchpin #5 - page 3 - It's the stupid economy by Big B; Against the state and capital on the high seas By Marley B

It's the stupid economy by Big B ---- There's value in not declaring a recession 
if you're the U.S. or Canadian financial regulators responsible for the economy 
­ let alone a depression. And it may not be for what regular readers of Linchpin 
would think the reasons are either. There are few signs that the right-wing 
strategists who analyse world security and the markets ­ and whose analysis goes 
on to influence the conservative governments here and in the U.S. are worried 
about scenes from the Grapes of Wrath enveloping the heartland, or that ten
thousand fresh memberships in communist organizations will be filled out 
tomorrow if a depression proves real.

           They're worried about consumer
panic that will halt the unprecedented eco-
nomic growth of the last ten or fifteen years
... they're worried about having offered every
innovation that can grow an economy (like
the car did, and flat screen tv's can now) fast-
er than they can develop new ones ... they're
worried about having to replace sheer profit
with widespread social programs ­ the fall-
out of Hurricane Katrina ­ only all the time,
and everywhere ­ and the one apparent les-
son learned from the last great depression.
They're worried about their bottom line.
            What's clear is that the Western
economies can't be saved this time out with
the innovation and new economies created
through war, since the U.S. adopted the
model of permanent war post-9-11. And in
the case of the U.S. they're worried because
any recession now would be a clear indica-
tion that the world no longer values its cur-
rency, and can no longer afford the way the
U.S. has chosen to secure its energy routes.
It's feeling a little like the end of empire. Es-
pecially when the East can afford, and man-
age permanently, scenes from the Grapes
of Wrath, and in fact spin, like finely woven
silks, that misery into an asset of their econ-
omy ­ much like England did at the start of
the industrial revolution.
            Asia has no shortage of food staples
such as rice (nor does the U.S., who grows
90% of its grain staple needs). It was report-
ed recently that Thai rice growers were fetch-
ing as much as a thousand dollars per tonne
of rice ­ an unprecedented amount. What
the world food markets are experiencing now
is a crisis in the distribution of food staples,
brought on by the unsustainable way the
U.S. has chosen to secure its energy routes
mentioned before.
             Technically, there isn't a reces-
sion in the U.S. at present ­ if a recession
is defined as two consecutive fiscal quarters
(roughly three months a piece) with negative
growth. The U.S. fed tells us this isn't so, and
other bell weathers such as the newest job
loss figures suggest that things aren't reces-
sion bad. But the language of the markets
is largely a made up one, understood by its
practitioners, but experienced by us all. And
as much as there are regulators able to drive
inflation down as an act of absolute state
power at these first signs of crisis, there are
enough analysts and money managers whis-
pering depression to make it none-the-less
self-fulfilling. Hard as it is to ignore when peo-
ple walk away from their homes en masse,
cannot manage their debts en masse, can-
not afford to heat their homes, or drive their
cars en masse ­ and when whole economies
contract around the cost of supplying the fuel
necessary to bring the goods to market, it
would seem inevitable that tough times are
ahead.

------------------------------

Against the state and capital on the high seas By Marley B

Thanks to the work of a rare breed of histori-
ans (see below) we now know that the pirates
of the 17th and 18th centuries, rather than vi-
olent thieves, were in fact rebels against the
oppression of the young modern state and
of a still-emerging capitalism. The (mostly)
men who became pirates were poor sea-la-
bourers, slaves and navy sailors who, in the
face of extreme exploitation and tyranny at
the hands of merchant and navy captains,
decided to throw off their chains and build al-
ternative ways of life that represent some of
the first experiments of the modern era with
direct democracy and radical equality.
           When they mutineed, pirates re-
placed the dictatorship of the merchant or
navy captains and elected their captains,
subject to instant recall. A captain had sole
authority over "fighting, chasing, or being
chased" but top authority rested with the
ship's "council" where everyone had a vote
and where the most important decisions
where made by majority rule.

           Pirates also rebelled against the
emerging system of wage slavery (what we
now call the hourly wage or salary). Instead
they distributed loot according to a pre-capi-
talist share system where wealth was dis-
tributed along radically egalitarian lines, with
the captain receiving barely twice as much
as those receiving the lowest share. Part of
the captured booty was also set aside in a
common fund, a welfare safety net for pirates
injured "on the job."
           Libertarian legal codes were used
on pirate ships (yes, they had constitutions).
Most of the laws dealt with maintaining har-
mony on the often-crowded ships. Capital
punishment was used at times but it is telling
that this was reserved largely for abusive cap-
tains, either their own or those from captured
ships. Pirates were also free to leave a ship
and join another or start their own. The 18th
century Atlantic ocean saw the emergence
of a loose informal federation of pirates, a
mobile community of linked but autonomous
pirate ships who collectively wreaked havoc
on European transatlantic commerce (itself
based on the genocide and racist exploita-
tion of peoples in Africa and the Americas)
           As always, we should not romanti-
cize our radical history. Patriarchy, slavery,
racism and the occasional act of brutality
were also at times part of pirate communities
(though far less present than in the broader
society). But we should acknowledge the pi-
racy of this time and place for what it truly
was: a movement that, while containing its
own contradictions, also expressed the de-
sire among the oppressed to resist the bru-
talities of the modern state and the capitalist
system from their very beginning.
For further reading check out:
Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker. The
Many-Headed Hydra (Beacon Press, 2000)
Marcus Rediker. Between the Devil and the
Deep Blue Sea (Cambridge University Press,
1987)
Peter Lamborn Wilson. Pirate Utopias: Moor-
ish Corsairs and European Renegadoes (Au-
tonomedia, 2003
_________________________________________
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