Mumia Abu-Jamal on the politics of style

Taken from an Oct. 14 audio column at prisonradio.org.

It is a bit of a struggle to look at debates these days. I’ve seen plenty of ’em over the years.

So many that they seem to run together. Promises. More promises. Lies.

When all is said and done, debates are exercises in PR (public relations), and mass manipulation.

They are tools of politicians used to create images of themselves. For the politician isn’t really the ruling class; to the rich and super rich, they are servants.

There was a time when the American middle class was a protected class, kept out of the raging storms of capital abroad.

We don’t live in that world anymore, thanks to the globalization system.

The U.S. middle class, with their wage and pension advantages, is now superfluous.

For the global class no longer needs a middle class; they need nothing to interfere with their profits.

That’s where we are.

And no answer in any debate will change that, especially if NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) isn’t even mentioned. n