To combat a growing host of global warring enemies, U.S. rulers increasingly require loyalty, both from international allies and from the masses at home. This wartime need underlies the rotating episodes of two ongoing “true-crime” sagas: the cases of Dominique Strauss-Khan, the ousted head of the International Monetary Fund, and Whitey Bulger, the Boston gangster recently captured after 16 years on the lam.
In both cases, the capitalist media boasted of “proof” that U.S. courts protect the downtrodden from the mighty and inexorably punish the guilty. But make no mistake. The bosses aren’t merely distracting workers with media circuses here. These cases have implications far worse than these two criminals’ misdeeds.
Manhattan D.A. Vance Uses Strauss-Khan Assault to Serve U.S. Imperialism’s Class Interests
On May 14, IMF boss Strauss-Khan was arrested for sexually assaulting a New York hotel housekeeping worker, a story that grabbed headlines around the world.
But on July 1, New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. declared there were “too many inconsistencies” in the hotel worker’s testimony. Saying he now “had no case” against Strauss-Kahn, Vance freed him from house arrest and returned his bail money.
But Vance’s flip-flopping had accomplished U.S. rulers’ goal: It forced Strauss-Kahn’s resignation as head of the IMF. Why? Strauss-Kahn’s original sin was pushing for a new currency to replace the dollar as the IMF instrument for indebting poor nations. This proposed “basket money,” originally designed as a combination of the dollar, the British pound, the euro, and the Japanese yen, would now expand to include China’s yuan. Beyond devaluing the U.S. dollar (by enabling countries to buy the new currency instead of U.S. Treasury bonds) and thereby threatening the dominance of the U.S. ruling class, the new currency would also enhance the influence of China, the United States’ chief economic rival.
Vance is no Johnny-come-lately. He’s a chip off the old, imperialist block; his father, Cyrus Vance, Sr., was the Secretary of State who helped President Jimmy Carter draft the “Carter Doctrine” in 1980. This policy declared Mideast energy a “vital U.S. interest” to be defended by military force, laying the groundwork for U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While there’s no evidence that Strauss-Kahn was a victim of a sting, his inability to keep his pants up — following a long line of similar “indiscretions” — was a gift that U.S. bosses used to eject him from the IMF, check his assaults on the U.S. dollar, and damage his chances to become the next president of France.
French President Sarkozy Cozies to U.S. War-makers, Arms Libya Rebels Following Strauss-Kahn Flap
Now U.S. rulers have sharpened their focus on “coalition-building.” Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner blessed the choice of French economist Christine Lagarde, a member of Sarkozy’s pro-U.S. Union for a Popular Movement party (UMP), to run the IMF. Lagarde had for years headed the law firm of Baker & McKenzie, a leading U.S. imperialist force in the Middle East and North Africa.
Steve Dunaway, of the Exxon Mobil/JP Morgan Chase-controlled Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) think-tank, spelled out Lagarde’s latest pro-U.S. duties: “She has to demonstrate that the IMF will not automatically rubberstamp European decisions and be a convenient piggy bank to help Europe finance the debt crisis in some euro-area countries” (CFR website, 6/29/11). Sarkozy called the selection of this U.S. stooge “a victory for France.”
Immediately following Lagarde’s coronation, Sarkozy began flying arms to the anti-Qaddafi, U.S.-leaning Libyan rebels. These shipments go beyond the UN’s resolution on Libya but delight Obama and the Pentagon.
Freeing Strauss-Kahn supposedly humiliated Vance and allowed French rulers to save face in the eyes of the world. No longer would superpower U.S. bosses hold the 2012 French presidential elections hostage. But despite having to reverse himself, Vance’s push for a premature indictment will help war-bent U.S. imperialists at the French polls. It has clearly weakened the Socialist Party’s challenge to Sarkozy, whoever their candidate may be. “Strauss-Kahn’s possible return has thrown the Socialist party’s primary race into disarray” (Guardian, UK, 7/3/11).
The critical back story is that Strauss-Kahn’s Socialists oppose French integration into NATO’s U.S.-dominated military command. Incumbent president Sarkozy had rejoined this coalition in 2009, also to the delight of Obama and the Pentagon. By arresting Strauss-Kahn and then releasing him, DA Vance did maximum damage to Sarkozy’s Socialist Party adversaries without making Strauss-Kahn a martyr, which might have drawn anti-U.S. (and anti-Sarkozy) forces out to vote.
What gets lost amid the sensational headlines is how Strauss-Kahn’s sexism exemplifies the pervasive attacks on women under this system. The IMF is a huge force for the oppression of working-class women worldwide; women are doubly affected by the austerity measures forced upon the most exploited countries. These women are super-exploited by the lowest incomes and murderous medical “care.” They are victimized by mass rapes in imperialist-inspired wars over diamonds in central Africa.
Regardless of Strauss-Kahn’s future, or which ruling-class faction calls the tune at the IMF, this is the hard law of capitalism: maximum exploitation for maximum profit.
