Overthrowing the New Feudalism

7/31/2019 Overthrowing the New Feudalism

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Overthrowing the New FeudalismAn Alternative Manifesto of Occupation


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The New Feudalism

The old system has returned.Over the past few decades, it

has slowly crept up on usunawares.

We now live under a newsystem oflords, royalty andpriests.


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The Old System

Lords held the right to propertywhile the peasants worked for

them in return for protectionand the use of land.

Royalty held political power andruled the kingdom with thesupport of the lords.

Priests provided divinejustification of the nobility andthe royaltys right to rule over

average people in jargon theycould not understand.


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The super-rich are the newlords.

This small group controls most

of the worlds wealth andproperty. They also control thepolitical system through theapplication of their wealth.


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Politicians are the new royalty.

They need to work for theagendas of the super-rich in

return for the financial supportthey need to consolidate andmaintain their power.


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Economists and academicexperts are the new priests.

They justify the actions of

politicians and businessexecutives with a complexmass of theoretical jargon thatmost average people do nothave the time to study.

It is only accessible to thosewho make careers out of it.


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Observation

Any system of politicaloppression is perpetuated by

the collusion between the threegroups that control thefollowing three ingredients:money, powerand knowledge.


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Principle: Money = Power=Money = Power

All money is power. All power is

equivalent to money.

Money has worth because it haspower to get things you want.But if you already have thepower get what you want, it is

the same as having money.

Whoever has one, can use it toget more of the other. The richgrow more powerful; thepowerful grow richer.

Quote:

To turn $100 into $110, is work.To turn a $100 million into $110million, is inevitable.


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Argument

Knowledge = Power.

But power is relative. It is onlyuseful if you have more of itthan others.

Therefore possession ofknowledge that is not

accessible to others is power.


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Example

In an agrarian society, a personwho can predict the amount of

rainfall each season has power.

But only if the knowledge ofhow it is done is kept secret.

To maintain the power, he has

to mislead the others. He willclaim favors from the godsrather than revealing theweather signs he looks for.


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Theory

Oppressive systems areinherently unstable

A system where a smallminority holds most of thesocietys money and power is

not stable.

The population alwaysoutnumbers the elite.Rebellions will emerge withtime.

But only if the people know

what is going on


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Knowledge as the key toperpetuating power

Deny people knowledge of the

system. Limit this knowledge toexperts.

Make the knowledgeinaccessible: use a deadlanguage (e.g. Latin); use

technical jargon; multiply thecomplexity of the system sothat it takes years of study tounderstand it.

Dismiss challenges to the

system as uneducated oruninformed. Dismiss alternativeideas as fringe or crackpot.


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Argument: The failure ofcapitalism and socialism

Both incorrectly focused on the

distribution ofmoney.

The real issue is the distributionofpower.

The proper system is one where

money can buy anything exceptvotes.


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Argument

Any real distribution of powerhas to take place away from

authorities and to individualcitizens.

Power transfer from oneauthority to another authority(even if more regional) cannot

be considered genuinedistribution of power.


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Decentralization of Power

Power is always exercised byindividuals, not groups or

entities.

When one says government

has power, it is those

individuals within thegovernment who actually have

it.

Decentralization of powermeans limiting the maximumamount of political power thatcan be held by any individual

human being.


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The Invasion of theMBA/Harvard Types

Early business leaders were

experts of their domain cars,steel, electricity, computers.They had no MBAs. Modernbusiness leaders are experts

in something called businessand know nothing about their

domain.

Argument

There is no such disciplinecalled business. It is a

concept used by those with nohard skills or domainknowledge to take overbusinesses built by pastleaders.


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Harvard/MBA Types TheMethods

Downplay the hard skills they

do not have accounting,engineering, design, logistics.

Glamorize soft skills

marketing, communicationskills, teamwork, branding,

making deals, risk taking,strategy.

Instead of building ones own

businesses, use MBAcredentials to gain entry to

businesses already built bypast business leaders.


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Gradually displace managers

with domain expertise withmore MBA types. Domainexperts tend to see throughMBA style management and areconsidered a threat.

Claim that brand is moreimportant than product/service.

Delegate all value generatingwork to domain experts andmake oneself responsible for

strategy.

Fail at strategy and blamemarket conditions for losses.


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Hire consultants to mask lack of

understanding of the business.

Outsource to mask inability tomanage a full supply line.

Mergers and acquisitions used

to mask inability to build newbusiness areas, lack of R&Dand not knowing how to re-invest profits.

Cost cutting to mask lack ofrevenue growth.

External trainers and team

building to mask inability tobuild employee capabilities.


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Create a culture where people

are made to believe thatbusiness is about mergers,acquisitions, making deals,

strategy, impressive

presentations and not the corebusiness.


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Corporate CEOs and boards ofdirectors

They often sit in each others

boards of directors and haveattended the same ivy leaguebusiness schools.

They will always pay each otherlarge bonuses and severance

packages.


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Corporate CEOs and speculators

Speculators and hedge fundsbecome large shareholders of

corporations.

They influence CEO and board ofdirectors to increasingly focus onshort term increases in stockprice (e.g. spending onmarketing), at the expense of longterm assets, R&D, personnel etc.

Speculators cash in by selling thestock once the price reaches theirtargets.

CEO collects a bonus and departsthe corporation with a goodreputation before the stock pricestarts falling.

Repeat cycle till the corporationfaces bankruptcy.


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The Old Boys Club

The players

CEOs, business school alumni,politicians, regulators,economists, diplomats, boardsof directors.

The methods

Assume positions of power andinfluence within businessschools, corporations andgovernment.

Trade favors with old

classmates and alumni.

Create entry barriers tooutsiders by creating an

exclusive network.


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The Revolving Door

The players: High levelcorporate executives, bankers,

politicians, regulatory agencyofficials.

Politicians: Serve as regulators.Create regulations favorable tocorporate interests in return for

various favors. Leave politicalcareers and get hired asconsultants, executives orlobbyists for friendlycorporations.

Corporate executives: Retirefrom posts and join governmentagencies that regulate theirindustry. Create favorableregulatory environment forformer employers.


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Economists

Justify government andcorporate actions with

theoreticaljargon that isincomprehensible even toeducated members of thegeneral public.

Shift the blame from politicians

and corporate executives tojargon: market conditions,inflation, interest rates, moneysupply, volatility, liquidity,consumer confidence etc.

Justifies amongst other things:deposit insurance, fractionalreserve banking, fiat currency,deficit government spending,high debt.


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Bankers

The Fractional Reserve Systemallows bankers to eat their cakeand have it too to say thatthey are holding your $100deposit while actually holdingonly $10 and lending $90 out tosomeone else for interest.

That someone else pays the $90

to someone and he too depositsit in another bank, which in turnlends out $81 of that, so on andso forth.

Now there is more apparentmoney in circulation ($171) than

there really is ($100).

The lower the reserve rate (e.g.10%) the more profits the bankmakes.


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Deposit Insurance & Too Big to

Fail

Fractional reserve banking is a

high-profit, high-risk venture. Ifmost depositors try to withdrawtheir money at the same time, abank run occurs the bank hasno funds at hand to paybecause most of it has been

lent out.

Instead of the bank absorbingthe losses due to its riskypractices, bankers get thegovernment to use taxpayer

money to protect them. This iscalled deposit insurance.


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Deposit Insurance & Too Big to

Fail Cont.

Bankers can gamble with

depositor money knowing thatthe government will bail themout if they lose.

This entire process is justifiedby various theories produced

by economists and isperpetuated by the revolvingdoor.


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Campaign Finance

The super-rich will always beataverage candidates because

they can out-advertise them.

How can a representativedemocracy represent theaverage person if it iscomposed of people from a tiny

minority of super-rich? Do suchpeople represent you?

Spending money to buy votes isnot freedom of speech.


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A corporation cannot have apolitical will. The individualmembers of the corporationcan.

The political will of thecorporation is actually the will

of its top executives, not itsemployees.

Individual members of acorporation alreadyhaveconstitutional rights by virtue ofbeing individuals, regardless oftheir membership in thecorporation. They do not need

to be represented twice.


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Capitalism Corporate

Feudalism

Under proper free market

conditions, the distribution ofwealth should be roughlyproportional to the distributionof skills in society.

The economy should be

dominated by small andmedium businesses.

Claim

Today, a few large corporationsare using political power tosuppress competition fromsmaller, more numerouscompetitors.


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Copyright

Copyrights are used by largecorporations as both a source

of easy money and as a legalweapon.

They have lobbied andsuccessfully increased theoriginal 25 years to almost a

100 years today.

Record labels and moviestudios profit for close to acentury without actuallycontributing anything new to

society after the initial release.

Copyright revenue is used tolobby for more copyrightextensions.


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Patents

Patents are not aboutprotecting an invention. That

can be already achieved bykeeping the invention a tradesecret.

Patents are a mechanism toencourage inventors to share

their discoveries with otherswho can develop it further andcreate derivative works.

At the same time, for about 20years, the inventor can recover

his R&D costs through royaltiesfrom other manufacturers.


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Patents

Claim: Patents have becomeweapons at the hands of large

corporations.

They hire large teams of patentlawyers to patent even the mosttrivial inventions. Smallinventors do not have the

money to do this.

Large corporations also usepatents to prevent innovationsby competitors they sueclaiming patent infringement as

a tactic. Whether the case iswon or not, a product can bedelayed.

Instead of encouraginginnovation, patents now stifle it.


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Media Bias by omission

Large media corporations areowned by rich media moguls

who have their own partyaffiliations.

Views and events that threatenthe established views areignored. Ignoring a viewpoint is

far more potent than attackingit.


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The Demands


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Ban lobbying

Do not confuse lobbying withthe right to petition. The U.S.

lobbying industry spends about$30 billion per year (over $200per voter).

Citizens of a senator orcongressmans constituency

should be able to petitionhim/her once they have aminimum number of signatures.

The difference between goodand bad lobbying has been

muddied. Ban everythingexcept the above.


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Shut the revolving door

Ban government officials,senators and congressmen

from consulting for, orinteracting in any way withprivate corporations orinstitutions.

Ban regulators from joining

private corporations after theirtenure.


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Abolish corporate personhood

This is both extremely highpriority and extremely difficult.

All contracts should be betweenhuman beings in the case ofcorporations, executives. If theexecutive leaves, contractsshould be transferred to his

replacement.

Legal liability of decisions willrest with decision makingexecutive or committee. Onlyfinancial liability will rest with

the corporation.


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Overhaul campaign finance

When running for public office,candidates have to temporarily

forfeit free speech rights.

No candidate may use privatefunds for advertising oncecandidacy is declared.

Candidates require set numberof signatures to receivecampaign funds fromgovernment.

Corporations may not partakein the political process. Onlyindividuals that make up thecorporations may do so.


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Implement 100% Reservebanking through IT

A bank should not letdepositors money gather dust.But at the same time, moneycannot be in two places at once.

Develop an instant fixeddeposit scheme:

Depositors can block anyamount from their savings atany time for any period(preferably through an internetsystem). Bank can lend out onlysuch blocked funds. Depositorscannot withdraw these funds

until maturity.

Interest is earned, but no risk ofbank run. No inflation of moneysupply.


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Eliminate short term CEOs andshort term shareholder power

Only shareholders who hold

long term stock (say, thatcannot be sold for 5 years) canvote.

Pay a large chunk of a CEOsremuneration in the form of

long term stock options.

If CEO leaves early, or thecompanys stock price falls

over the long term, he will losefinancial benefits.


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End secrecy and surveillance

Dilemma: There are thingsabout national security that

citizens have a right to knowbut foreign nationals do not.How to make this happen?

Dilemma: Should lawenforcement preemptively

monitor criminal activity? Isprevention worth the risk ofputting surveillance at thehands of the government?

For any given federal secret,

there should be at least tworeviewers from each state(representing the two mainparties) with clearance toreview it.


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A swifter justice system

Argument

The more time passes betweencrime and punishment, the lessof a deterrent it is.

No case should be held up dueto a lack of court dates. Victimsshould not languish in courtsfor years.

Keep pouring resources intothe justice system until the onlything that limits the speed of acase are the legal proceedingsthemselves.

Bring information technologyinto the deliberation process.


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Non-financial penalties

Fines encourage rich criminalsand penalize poor ones. An

expensive legal system doesthe same. Fines cause the richno harm.

Fines should be there tocompensate the victim, not to

penalize and deter the guilty.

All crimes should carry apersonal penalty componentthat cannot be bypassed bypaying money. The guilty must

personally submit to thepenalty.

Possible: Community service,banning from certain activities,civic detention, prison


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Disregard the economists

Economists failed to predictevery major economic crisis

and repeatedly dismissedanyone who correctly predictedit.

Economics as a science is stillwhere chemistry was when it

was alchemy. Economistscannot even agree on what thefundamental principles of thediscipline should be.

Do not trust a group of

experts who trust theirmathematical models more thantheir own senses.


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The MethodsSucceeding where traditional movements fail


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The Basic Principle of Protest

The tyrant has only two eyes,

two hands and one body, no

more than is possessed by you.Where has he acquired enougheyes to spy upon you, if you donot provide them yourselves?How can he have so many armsto beat you with, if he does not

borrow them from you? The feetthat trample down your cities,are they not your own? Howdoes he have any power overyou except through you? Howwould he dare assail you if he

had no cooperation from you?

-- tienne de la BotieThe Discourse of Voluntary

Servitude


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Do not talk sense to the money-power elite

They already know what they

should not do and why. Andthey dont care. Talk sense onlyto voters.

Those in power only respond topower power to unseat them.


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Ignore the nerve center, attackthe immune system.

Ignore the leaders politicians,

business leaders they willignore protests as long as theycan get away with it.

Target the foot soldiers, croniesand collaborators

All armed collaborators whoinstill fear in their fellowcitizens under the aegis of lawenforcement, national security.

Riot police who shoot and

arrest protestors, secret policeorganizations that spy onopposition groups. Theirsalaries and equipment are paidfor by taxpayer money.


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Foot soldiers, cronies andcollaborators

Gather evidence their faces,

their names, where they live.

Shun them from society theyhave to live among you; theirchildren have go to school withyour children; they have to

attend church with you; shopwhere you shop.

When regime change comes, trythose who shot protesters formurder; others for attemptedmurder, assault, abuse ofpower.

They cannot both oppresssociety andbe a part of it.


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Just Following Orders

Do not allow the Nurembergdefense.

Armed personnel who usedforce against citizens willalways claim that they werejust following orders once a

regime has fallen.

The justification for acts donepursuant to orders does notexist if the order was of such anature that a man of ordinarysense and understanding wouldknow it to be illegal.

The threat ofprosecution/execution shouldmake any foot soldier,collaborator think twice.


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Sicsemper tyrannis

A Latin phrase meaning Thusalways to tyrants, said to have

been uttered by Brutus duringJulius Caesars assassination.

Subverting the democraticprocess of a nation is a seriouscrime, on par with, if not worse

than murder.Seek maximum penaltiesincluding life imprisonment andexecution for leaders ofoppressive regimes and theirfoot-soldiers.

Unless a few heads falloccasionally, the rich andpowerful tend to forget theirplace in society.


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Ignore all secondary issuestemporarily environment,poverty, disease, war all theseare either caused or made

worse by one thing: the mixingof money and politics.

Do not ask for sweepingreforms. Select several, veryspecific reforms that have very

specific implementation steps.Maintain relentless pressure.Ask for nothing else, acceptnothing else.


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Appeal to other activists

Understand: The money-powerelite stands in the way of

solving many of the worldsproblems. They keepredirecting resources andpolitical power away from realissues to their own interests.

No matter what you stand forending famine, environment,human rights, disarmamentthe root cause includes mixingof money and political power.

All activists should pool theirresources and form a commonfront to fight this. Nothing willwork as long as the money-power link exists. All othercauses are secondary.


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Organize

Consider organizing yourselvesinto a caucus structure. The

smallest possible unit is agroup of 3 individuals who trusteach other. Conflicts are votedon. No deadlock since oddnumber.

A possible hierarchy: next level:3 groups of 3 = 9. So on and soforth. At each level, a unit hasone of three votes.

Groups that work with eachother should be linked by atleast one pair of members whoknow and trust each other.


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Communicate

Communication and publicityare two different things. Keep

private communications asprivate as possible.

Meet in person when phonesare monitored. Use phoneswhen neighborhood is

monitored. Use the Internetwhen both are not possible.

Peer-to-peer communications(whether electronic or not) arebetter than using third partynetworks (e.g. telephone, ISP).


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Educate

In the early stages, educatingpeople privately is far more

important than publicity.

Publicity works against you ifyour bark is bigger than yourbite.

Never preach, debate or berate

friends with opposing views.Win the person, not theargument. Learn the art ofasking questions that answerthemselves.

Know true stories to illustrateevery point you have to make.True stories hit harder thanstatistics or theory.


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Target individual humans forcriticism never corporations,institutions or concepts.

Crimes are committed byindividual human beings, notentities or concepts.

When accusing, accuse theguilty person, not his

organization or his beliefs.

Att iti P di Shift


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Attrition vs. Paradigm Shifts

Those in power will ignore non-disruptive protests as long as

they can.

People holding boards are not athreat. Popular voterdissatisfaction is also not athreat if all major parties

represent the same status quo.What is needed is an abruptshift in the political paradigm.Unseat and prosecute thosewho hold illegitimate power.

Find non-violent, but highlydisruptive ways to hurtillegitimate power at every level.

O t t th lit


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Out-vote the money-power elite

Protests alone will fail becausepoliticians know they can

deliver their campaignmessages if they spend enoughmoney.

Ignore EVERYTHING that comeout of politicians mouths for

the next few elections. Judge acandidates convictions basedsolely on where his moneycomes from.

Get as many people to followthis strategy as possible.Achieve multiple upsets acrossas many elections as possible.

V t f f i did t


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Vote for fringe candidates

Calling candidates who are notpart of the money-power elite

fringe or unelectable is aweapon.

Disarm this weapon by votingfor fringe candidates. It isriskier to let the mainstream

candidates keep winning thanto vote for wildcard candidateswith unproven track records.

Any potential disruption causedby such candidates is worth therisk.

Corporate executives,

Super-rich

Economists,

Experts


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Super rich

Destruction of legitimate businesses

Draining profits for bonuses and severance

Breaking honest employees

Contributing to political campaignsControlling candidate agendas

Lobbying to subvert laws and regulations

Infiltrating regulatory agencies

Acquiring public money through various schemes

Use legal tactics to undermine competition

Politicians,

Support groups

Use money to dominate elections

Pass money-power-elite-friendly laws

Help cover corporate losses with tax moneyUse police/military force against opposition

Monitor opposition in the name of fighting crime

and terrorism

Destruction of the economy through debt and

inflation

Experts

Justify economic schemes of politicians and

corporate executives with theories and jargon.

Criticize and drive away new ideas and theories.

Make the system incomprehensible to the public.

You

Discard traditional methods of protest

Ignore the experts

Organize and educate yourselves

Target and shun foot-soldiers and collaborators

Temporarily suspend all other causes and

focus all available personnel and resources to

breaking the money-power link

Documents

Overthrowing the New Feudalism