REGIME CHANGE BEGINS AT HOME -: Freeing America from Corporate Rule by DERBER (E

The Nile on eBay   REGIME CHANGE BEGINS AT HOME - by DERBER

In this timely book, Charles Derber argues that the current regime - the American system of corporate control - is destroying the American dream by outsourcing millions of jobs, turning American employment into a "one-night stand", undermining the security that created the American middle class, and turning the forces of law against citizens.

FORMATHardcover LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

Since 1980, America has been run by a corporate regime that has co-opted both political parties and shifted sovereignty from "we the people" to trans-national corporations. The result has been job insecurity for millions of workers, debts as far as the eye can see, and a dangerous quest for global domination. Democracy itself has been undermined and the Constitution weakened. This regime must be overturned! And, as Charles Derber demonstrates in his provocative book, it can be. After all, Derber points out, there have been other corporate regimes in American history, although this latest version is by far the most extreme. Still, the corporate regimes of the Gilded Age and Roaring Twenties were overturned. To create regime change again, it will require bold, creative strategies, uniting progressives and conservatives in a new politics, which Derber outlines in detail.Regime Change Begins at Home exposes the many lies the corporate regime has used to maintain itself throughout its history, from the Cold War to the Iraq war, with a particular emphasis on how the Bush administration has cynically sought to, as Condelezza Rice once put it, "capitalize on the opportunities" presented by 9/11. Derber reveals how the Bush administration has used the so-called "war on terror" to frighten and distract the public. But regime change is possible. In Part III, Derber lays out the vision of a new regime, describing the social movements now fighting to achieve it, and the major new political realignment-one spanning the traditional conservative-liberal divide-that can make it happen. Derber does not minimize the difficulty of the task ahead, but he offers hope and specific, sophisticated, often surprising advice for defeating the regime and returning America to its citizens.

Author Biography

Charles Derber is Professor of Sociology at Boston College and former director of its graduate program on Social Economy and Social Justice. Derber received his undergraduate degree at Yale University and his PhD at the University of Chicago. He is a scholar in the field of political economy, international relations, and society, with eight internationally acclaimed books and major research grants from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institutes of Mental Health.Derber's books have been reviewed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Washington Monthly, and other publications. His op-eds and essays appear in Newsday, The Boston Globe, and Tikkun, and he is interviewed frequently by Newsweek, Business Week, Time, Bloomberg, and The L.A. Times for stories about business and politics.

Table of Contents

Part I Corporate Regime; 1. The Regime and the Money; 2. Elections and Regimes; 3. Beyond Normal Politics; Part II Arsenal Of Deceit; 4. Bad Faith; 5. The Big Lie; 6. Dog-Wagging With Bush; Part III 2004; 7. The Perfect Storm; 8. Econogate; Part IV Regime Change; 9. Extreme Regime; 10. The Fight For Our Lives

Review

"Writing in a punchy, buoyant style, with sidebars on "Corporate Superpowers" and profiles of downsized workers, Derber mixes classic populist motifs from Ralph Nader, Michael Moore and Hegel: the co-optation of the state by monied interests, the corruption and sameness of politicians, nostalgia for a now-trampled Constitution, and an oppressive sense that our lives are being marketed to us."—Publishers Weekly

Review Quote

Praise for People Before Profit: "A provocative and stimulating work, directed to issues of the highest significance."

Excerpt from Book

"What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States."1 JOHN KERRY INTRODUCTION WHEN BAD REGIMES HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE MEET DAVID BILLINGSLY 1 David is a forty-six-year-old certified accountant with an MBA and a CMA. He got his degrees in the late 1970s and early 1980s and found a good job with a midsize, growing company. He got married, had two kids, and bought a house. He had a good bonus plan and pension program. He was living the American Dream. Ten years into the job, David was laid off. He found a job at a major computer corporation after several months, but six years later, the firm started to lay off full-time employees and hire outside contractors. He was out of work again, but this time "I was prepared, I had my job search. Have vita, will travel."2 But now it was the recession of the early 1990s. With his savings dwindling, David started taking temping assignments in accounting at one-fourth of his former salary. After years of part-time, temporary, and short-time permanent jobs, even after his wife got a job, he explains, "Now it''s survival. It''s putting food on the table. When my roof starts to leak, what do I do? The hot water heater goes, I don''t have the five hundred or thousand. I can''t buy a car and the brakes are going. My wife and I, our teeth are rotting away, and we don''t have any dental insurance." David feels he''s being "double raped" by the companies and the temping agencies that bill for $20 and give him $11. As the manufacturing jobs melt away, he says, "We screwed up, we''re going down. Like the Romans or the Egyptians or the British, we''re on the decline." The politicians are out for themselves, David believes, and both political parties are in bed with the corporations. He voted for Ross Perot in the 1990s and doesn''t vote anymore. David doesn''t see a future now. "I''ll tell you how bad it is: I''ve got a copy of Derek Humphrey''s book on suicide. I want to be prepared because I don''t believe that I''ll ever work on a stable basis again." David''s words echo the stories of many Americans I have interviewed over recent years.2 Although no two are alike, they are all experiences of people on the verge of despair, betrayed by the very institution that was to deliver their dreams--the American corporation. For these people, the American job--the rock on which the American middle class was created--had turned into what David calls a "one-night stand."3 How sad, you might think. But should these poor souls--as cruel as it sounds--be written off as unfortunate but necessary victims of "business as usual"? Or worse yet, could they simply be, well, losers? The Americans I interviewed have been downsized, outsourced, reduced to temping, freelancing, and part-timing. But this rapidly swelling pool of workers is no longer a statistical shrug-off. Together they now represent one-third of the American workforce.3 Furthermore, along with millions of other hardworking folks in this country, they have done everything right--the American way. They worked long hours, educated themselves, were creative and loyal. It was the system--or what I call the regime--that step-by-step turned against them. But let us look beyond the workplace. If we pull ourselves for a minute out of our collective trance, we''ll see that the current regime is actually rigged against all of us. Whether, like David, you are struggling to make ends meet, or your livelihood is in no immediate danger, you, too, are a casualty of today''s regime! THE REGIME AND YOU You may drive an SUV, enjoy a bigger house and higher household income than you expected, have four televisions and two really cool flat-screen computers. But think about your credit card debt. Or how long and hard you work (a month longer, on average, than most Europeans). And look around. Your local public schools and libraries are under-funded and probably rotting, your health care costs are spiraling, your tap water may not be safe, your state''s roads and bridges are deteriorating and may not be safe for that SUV (which might roll over on you anyway). There''s more. American unions are busted. Our tax system is skewed, robbing Peter to pay the very wealthy Paul. Our elections are manipulated (think Florida) and constitutional rights compromised (think Patriot Act). Big money drowns out your voice in Washington, D.C.4 How can we go about building the American Dream if the principles of the common good and of democracy, the very foundations of this glorious country, are being dismantled before our eyes, brick by brick? And as we let our government bang nail after nail into the coffin of our dreams, how can we explain why all this is happening today in the United States? WHEN BAD REGIMES HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE I argue in this book that all is not doom and gloom: this perversity can be explained and changed. Here is my premise: Americans are good people with strong democratic traditions. The problem lies in today''s regime--a system of rule based on underlying, and now deeply worrisome, imbalances of power in society between money and people. Central to the current regime is corporate ascendancy, a balance of power tipped in favor of corporate elites who have succeeded in parlaying their financial clout into the greatest hostile takeover ever: the acquisition of Washington, D.C. These brazen corporate raiders have enforced their political will by taking away from us, the public, our constitutionally endorsed authority. We have seen big business wield political influence before, but never have we had trillion-dollar transnational corporations gain such overwhelming control over our nation''s beautiful capital, and over all of America itself. Today''s corporate regime is unique, and uniquely dangerous.5 Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics, is the first task of the statesmanship of the day4 PRESIDENT TEDDY ROOSEVELT Conceived in the 1970s and shaped by the election of President Ronald Reagan in 1980, the current corporate regime has been steadily consolidating power. The result so far: profits grow and democracy shrinks. George W. Bush has pushed the envelope, taking the regime in more extreme directions as Washington becomes a money swamp, and people like you and me have too many days when we feel helpless to change it. image The American system wasn''t supposed to work this way. The Founders crafted the Constitution to ensure that "We, the People" would have a voice in our own affairs--and in those of the nation. The Constitution embraced an elaborate set of checks and balances that were to separate government agencies and prevent concentration of power. The Founders realized that checks and balances apply to corporations.6 There is an evil which ought to be guarded against.... The power of all corporations ought to be limited.... The growing wealth acquired by them never fails to be a source of abuses.5 JAMES MADISON, author of the U.S. Constitution In today''s regime, giants such as Wal-Mart, GE, and Merrill Lynch have accomplished what the Founding Fathers most feared. They have hollowed out the institutions that enable ordinary Americans to have a say in how our land is governed. To cover up this hijacking of our constitutional and democratic rights, the regime has targeted you and me with a classy Madison Avenue arsenal of manipulation techniques--from democratic rhetoric to downright deception. Think just about the bald lies recently constructed to justify war against Iraq, a war that brings back spooky memories of Vietnam. HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT REGIME CHANGE AT HOME? After 9/11, President Bush declared regime change to be official U.S. policy. He took this country to war to create regime change in Iraq. How does the president know which governments to overthrow? According to Bush''s criteria, a government must7 build or sell weapons of mass destruction violate U.N. resolutions threaten, invade, or dominate its neighbors exploit many of its own poorest citizens erode the civil liberties or human rights of its people fail to live up to democratic ideals The president, of course, was thinking of countries like Iraq, Iran, North Korea, or Syria. But look at the list more carefully. Sound familiar? The criteria that call for regime change apply to the American government itself. Americans live under a regime that is threatening to dominate not just its neighbors but the world as a whole. Did you know that the U.S. government is the planet''s biggest producer and merchandiser of weapons of mass destruction and that it has voted against and violated hundreds of U.N. resolutions?6 It treats our poor and many of our workers, such as David, in ways that violate U.N. conventions. It is violating our most important civil liberties and our own highest democratic ideals. It is eroding hope, not just in workers such as David Billingsly, but in millions of other Americans. I was one of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who went out into the street to protest against the war in Iraq. While I was walking on the streets during one protest, I glimpsed--among the hundreds of colorful signs denouncing the war--a poster

Details ISBN1576752925 Short Title REGIME CHANGE BEGINS AT HO Language English ISBN-10 1576752925 ISBN-13 9781576752920 Media Book Format Hardcover Illustrations Yes Year 2004 Imprint Berrett-Koehler Subtitle Freeing America from Corporate Rule Place of Publication San Francisco Country of Publication United States Series Berrett-koehler DOI 10.1604/9781576752920 UK Release Date 2004-06-12 AU Release Date 2004-06-12 NZ Release Date 2004-06-12 US Release Date 2004-06-12 Illustrator Jonny Lambert Birth 1974 Affiliation Hans W. Hagemann Position Author Qualifications MD Author DERBER Pages 304 Publisher Berrett-Koehler Publication Date 2004-06-12 DEWEY 322.30973 Audience General We've got this

At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it.With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love!

TheNile_Item_ID:141746590;