SEATTLE, USA, October 27—The business press heralded David Calhoun, the new chairman of the Boeing board of directors, as the savior of the Boeing workforce. He’s the man that can navigate the company through the 737 MAX crisis, they assure us.
“Is that good or bad for us?” asked a tool design engineer. Who could blame her as the company just announced there will be no bonuses for engineers and technical staff this year? Of course, chief executives will get much bigger million-dollar bonuses as they “are written in their contracts.”
Boeing’s board has changed over the last decade, facilitating Calhoun’s rise. Gone are the ruthless “captains of industry.” They’ve been replaced by political operatives and private equity vampires.
This change—and its spread to other US industrial firms—is unstoppable under capitalism. It’s part and parcel of an emergent fascist corporate state. No matter who is president, the system dictates this development. Only communism can uproot the capitalist forces that make it inevitable.
The Nature of the Beast
Boeing’s board and chief executives are quite skilled—at generating wealth for the ruling class. Not so good at manufacturing safe airplanes! The corporation is a fine tuned political machine with a side business of making aerospace products.
Boeing’s general counsel, former judge Michael Luttig, is the former boss of FBI director Christopher Wray. Luttig was also the groomsman for the Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
The company’s board includes Nikki Haley, until recently Trump’s United Nations ambassador, and former NATO supreme commander Edmund Giambastiani. They are joined by the ex-CEOs of Allstate and Aetna and a host of former political officials and private equity big shots.
But none rise to the level of the new chairman. Calhoun is the senior managing director at Blackstone Equity.
Blackstone has $554 billion assets under management. It is the world’s largest hedge fund investor and private owner of property.
Boeing chairman Calhoun is in charge of the largest section of Blackstone: private equity. All the bosses are parasites living off our work, but he is a particular kind that flourishes as capitalism outlives its usefulness.
Blackstone doesn’t produce a thing. Calhoun just steals wealth with financial shenanigans. How can that be good for us?
The Rise of the Fascist Corporate State
The changed board and its new chairman reflect the deep and continuing capitalist crisis of overproduction. Too many manufacturers around the world are producing more than the market can bear. Just building factories does not work (for the U.S. ruling class) anymore. Hence, the emergence of the “Corporate State” and misnamed financial “tools.”
Sometimes, even the business press notes the parallels to the 1930’s Italian and German fascist corporate states. But like their 1930’s forbears, they try to mix this up with communism.
The fascist corporate state maintains private ownership of the means of production. It intensifies exploitation, supercharging attacks on any fight-back. This development is inevitable as capitalism’s global crisis intensifies.
On the other hand, communism will put the means of production in our hands. The value we create will go directly to our fellow workers. No more corporations, no more corporate profits, no more financial “tools,” no more overproduction, hence no more capitalist crises!
It’s not hard to convince most Boeing workers that the working class creates all value. Nor is it a hard sell that these equity guys (and they are almost exclusively guys) are vampires that suck wealth from our hard work.
“The big question is whether or not these people [pointing to his co-workers] take this information and run with it,” advised a Boeing friend as we discussed this article. “Or will they say this is interesting and put it aside for future reference.”
To all our friends at Boeing: Run with it! Join the ICWP now and attend our January conferences.
The Genesis of a Fascist Equity Firm
Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman founded Blackstone 30 years ago with a hefty dose of Rockefeller money. Peterson is known for his campaign to end defined pension plans while cutting social security and Medicare allotments. He succeeded David Rockefeller as head of the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR). To maintain the dominance of US imperialism, “It’s weapons or walkers!” he famously declared.
After Peterson retired, Schwarzman carried on the political tradition. A leading member of the CFR, he today advises Trump. He’s actually Trump’s Palm Beach neighbor. Trump’s daughter and son-in-law regularly attend the Schwarzmans’ lavish parties to beg for money and favors.
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