Forced starvation in a world of plenty

From the Editors
Editor’s note: Since this article was written, the House passed a bill to subsidize agribusiness and deleted the food stamp section from the bill.
On June 20, the House of Representatives voted down the Farm Bill with its cruel $20.5 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).  Some Republicans voted no because they want an even larger $40 billion cut instead. If it had passed, two million victims of hunger would have lost access to food stamps and 200,000 children would no longer receive school lunches.  The bill included amendments that would force people to take drug tests, have no felony convictions, or even arrests, and a requirement to work in order to be eligible for the program.
While that part of the bill represents austerity from the ruling class to tighten the belt on the most vulnerable workers, other parts guarantee risk free profit making for giant agribusinesses.  Most of the revenue of these super-rich companies would be provided through large subsidies and insurance against natural disasters, crop failure and falling market prices—making them recession proof.
On the other hand, our failing capitalist economy has left nearly half of all households below, at or near the poverty level. At least one in six, a record 50 million people including 17 million children, are food insecure.  Many have no idea where their next meal is coming from.  Freeway exits are lined with human beings bearing signs, “WILL WORK FOR FOOD.”  Homeless moms beg for nourishment so they can produce enough milk to breastfeed their infants.  Parents skip meals, pushing food off of their plates onto that of their children.  Ten-year-olds looking for work, elderly on fixed incomes, and college students in hyper debt—all this is the silenced face of hunger in America.
In the face of such misery, the not so silent mouthpieces for the ruling class in Congress point fingers at each other for the defeat of the bill.  These silver-tongued professional liars, trying to shame the destitute, argue that people aren’t working because the “nanny state” is taking care of them.  They know that all food stamp revenue is processed through the poor before ending up in the bank accounts of their rich masters.  Republican Congressman Steve King of Iowa referred to the growing numbers of “people that are hungry” as the “dependency class.”
In fact, the most rapidly growing section of our population is not a racial, ethnic or immigrant group.  It is an economic class of workers—many of whom are dispossessed. They are being thrown outside of a system that won’t feed anyone it can’t profit from, even though there is an abundance of food.
A handful of monster corporations like Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland own and control automated food production worldwide, using little human labor.  Everything from seed to dinner table is their private property.  They dump so much food on the more profitable world market that it creates scarcity here, forcing food prices up, and again they profit.
Not needed at the job or market place, more of us will join the ranks of the dispossessed.  Once the shell shock has passed, the realities of class war will become clear.
Do we starve and perish, or do we save ourselves and indeed the rest of the world by taking over the corporations and guarantee that everyone gets the food and other necessities they need.

the Editors, People’s Tribune

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