The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles Society as a whole is more and more

splitting up into two great hostile camps, facing each other: bourgeoisie and proletariatThe bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation. Karl Marx & Friedrich Engelss Communist Manifesto

As students, we were brought up to believe the United States was a Democracy. That we were supposedly a pluralistic society or (a belief in power). We were taught the working class had a say-so in elections and that power was widely distributed. This, however, is a myth. The fact is, power is held by only a few (an oligarchy). The elites in this oligarchy hold the power in big business and government offices and are not for the interest of the common people or working class whether it be health care, a good education, enough to eat, affordable housing etcthese elites or owning class are out for profit and will use the working class by paying low wages, outsourcing, cutting benefits, anything to make profits soar.
These elites are not necessarily the rich alone. It is made up of what C.W. Mills coined the Military-Industrial Complex where there are three different groups of cooperating elites: The Corporate or Business Elites Which comprise of rich people with connections to

corporations, CEOs, stockholders, people with big salaries. People like Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Nike founder Phil Knight. Next are the Political Elites President, Congress, Senators, Speaker of the House and Governors (who decide what government does on a more local basis). Then there are the Military Elites Joint Chiefs of Staff, Generals, and Heads of Services, basically, the Brass of the Military. All of these elites are connected to one another. The corporate elites lobby for the political elites to gain clout, change or make forced government decisions through lobbying and giving large amounts of money to political parties. And the military elites cooperate with corporate and political elites to gain prestige and hopefully be gainfully employed or somehow very well compensated once their term in the military is up. They sometimes act as spokesmen for corporate elites and/or gain seats in government administrations. These elites have control over the working class. The government can make the decisions that effect the working class lives and corporations can make the calls that effect the lives of the working class such as set wages, outsource, pink slips etcAnd the common person which is what I will refer to as the working class from here on, are in no position to take on these corporate capitalists. Sure, in a pluralistic society it is possible to start an organization, but the common person doesnt have the means to start these organizations (the money or the time) and most of them are kept so uninformed

throughout their lives, they wouldnt believe the truth about our politico-economic system if you told them. Corporations on the other hand, are able to take and keep control of the common person because they have the means of doing so. They have the money and control over the common persons lives. If threatened they can fire or outsource and if they want big changes in tax breaks etcthey can always lobby and threaten the government with outsourcing or whatever it takes to get the changes they want. Individuals dont count for much in the political sense and dont try to organize interest groups to defeat the elites or are just to nave to the fact that our government is basically an oligarchy on the side of big business. Thus, most of the common people cannot distinguish between those who own the wealth and those who must work for a living. As long as they get their three meals a day, a roof over their heads and a six-pack to drink while watching the corporate evening news, they dont realize theyre being kept ignorant of whats really going on in the world. In the meantime, these corporate capitalist elites say they are putting their money to work when in all reality, they are pushing more production out of these uninformed couch potatoes and paying less wages while they kick back and watch their profits soar. At the same time, between housing costs, medical costs, the cost of food and less wages, the common person is almost worse off than they had been since the great depression. In the Communist-Manifesto, Karl Marx says that the state appears to be nothing but an

executive committee (excomm) of the bourgeoisie. The government is nothing but an executive committee; it may look like a government but its just a committee that manages the country for the bourgeoisie (the middle class, a social group opposed to the proletariat in the class struggle; the capitalist class). The capitalists are elites or they work for them. In 19th & 20th century, Western Europes working conditions were horrible. In the Sadler reports on working conditions, they must form unions, strike and/or use violence if they had to in order to keep conditions tolerable. But the government tried to crush these unions. The government was their enemy. In every case, the enemy of the worker was the government. The state creates an appearance that makes it seem to be open and democratic, but in essence, the state is class dominated by the elites. There is a definite contradiction between appearance and essence. What do you do about it? Under excomm, or Classical Marxism, the executive committee leads to smash state, which leads to bureaucracy; which leads to hierarchy; which leads to oligarchy, which ultimately makes up fascism. Under excomm, the only way to do away with the power elites was through a bloody revolution to overthrow the government. Classical Marxists believe the state is a tool of class under which the capitalists use to control the people. Neo-Marxists, however, found the excomm concept flawed. They found that the capitalist class is not inevitable. They believe in a revolution through the ballot box. That you can organize and have working class parties: pass laws and policies to change society

towards socialism. The Neo-Marxists believe the state isnt capitalist, but is dominated by the capitalist class because they have the money and resources to do so. They believe the capitalists win because they are more organized and have more money to spend than the working class. They believe the state is not the executive committee, that it isnt necessarily a tool of class. They also believe that not everything people do in society is determined by the economy. An example would be the rich as well as the poor can listen to and enjoy opera and classical music. Therefore, they believe there is Relative Autonomy of class and culture. That there are correlations between class positions but not necessarily determinations. Neo-Marxists believe in False Consciousness, to be aware of ones self, and in order to get there, a person must not let the capitalists control the way we see the world. We cannot allow the ruling class to manipulate the way we see the world. Now, through control with consent, the elites can control you through education, the media etc without our even knowing it. They purposely keep specific information about the government and history out of our lives just so they can control usthat the barrier to class is lack of consciousness. Which, in todays day and age, is very true. But this can be changed by the working class by being more aware of whats going on in the world, and not through news outlets like FOX News.total deception. Do the homework involved; read many different sources, preferably outside the United States or if you must, at least get your news from public radioself supported and not corporately owned and

operated. Its a good start.