A Socialist West? When? by Atila Sinke Guimaraes

NEWS: October 29, 2008

Bird’s Eye View of the News

Atila Sinke Guimarães

A SOCIALIST WEST? WHEN? – There have been unexpected social-political consequences coming from the Wall Street crisis as well as from the American government's strong intervention in the banking system. Once the American dinosaur-market lost its balance and fell into the pool of world finances, no one else in the pool could avoid the disastrous effects of the huge splash. In almost all the countries of the West, government bailouts are being applied to buy the banks to “save” them from bankruptcy.

Here is how The Tablet - the leftist-progressisvist London weekly - views the consequences of the bailout by the British government:

“What had seemed like a mere crisis in the banking system turned this week into something close to a calamity. The emergency rescue plan announced by Gordon Brown and Alistair Daring would have been close to unimaginable a matter of weeks ago. While it has long been the ambitions of the Left in the Labor Party to nationalize the banks, not even Tony Benn could have imagined that it might be partly achieved by these means. And despite this dramatic action and further moves by the Bank of England there is no certainty that the financial system will recover swiftly.

“These are, as both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor asserted, extraordinary times. They also have to represent the end of an era in banking” (Editorial, The Tablet, October 11, 2008, p.2).

Similar governmental actions to buy collapsing banks have been launched at high-speed almost everywhere - by both leftist as well as conservative governments.

In Germany - as everywhere - the market fell sharply

The most common causes alleged for the Wall Street breakdown include the fall in housing prices in the US and the consequent disproportion between the new low prices and the previously set mortgage payments. Given this gap, people en masse stopped paying their mortgages and the banks were left without funds. At the same time they saw the failure of their high-risk speculations, where they had irresponsibly invested money they didn’t have and could not back. Another factor of the crisis was the greed mentality in customers that led them to pressure banks for short-term profits from their investments.

Independent of these causes, the remedy - the intervention of the State to “save” the economy - seems to be even worse than the crisis. Under the pretext of propping up a while longer some moribund giants of the banking system, it nationalized them.

Further, the first $700-billion bailout approved in the US to remedy the situation appears insufficient to fill the abysm of debts the banking system created in the last decades. There are already experts asking for a second bailout to continue the same process since other banks have entered similar crises. Today it looks as if the banks and financial institutions - up to now considered responsible prestigious institutions in control of everything - are no longer able to walk on their own two feet and must rely on the crutches of the State.

Thus, it appears that henceforth the government will be the chief head of the economy, with all the consequences such a situation brings to the private lives of Americans. The government will virtually control the mortgages, loans and financial investments that each American makes. It is hard to believe that free initiative, which has been one of the dogmas of Capitalism, can continue to validly exist. In short, the Wild Capitalism - financial speculation to produce easy money - seems to be sinking into a State-controlled economy: Socialism.

In one month, this financial crisis in the US and the West has done more to fulfilling the Socialist agenda than what would have been gained under decades of Socialist governments. The crisis gives a pretext for virtually nationalizing the whole banking system.

Liberation Theology taking over the UN

The financial crisis diverted our attention from another important event.Fr. Miguel d’Escoto was elected head of the UN General Assembly and assumed the position on September 16, 2008.

Ortega raises his fist in a gesture of triumph

At the Sandinist Night, Ortega, center, raises his hand in a Communist gesture of triumph; at his right in the photo is Fray Betto, the ex-guerilla leader of the Liberation Theology, and Fr. Miguel d'Escoto

Fr. d’Escoto was one of the leaders of the Sandinista Revolution, where a guerilla band that extended its fight into a civil war took power in Nicaragua in 1979. From that date until 1990, d’Escoto was the Foreign Minister of the Marxist government of Daniel Ortega. At the time, Fr. d’Escoto and Minister of Education Fr. Ernesto Cardenal, SJ, represented novel highlights of the Sandinista victory: for the first time in History two Catholic priests were ministers in a Marxist government.

a nun militantly supports the Sandinists

Church support for the Sandinists: above, a nun carrying a rifle in a guerilla unit

It was also a victory for Liberation Theology, duly commemorated in São Paulo, one of its main centers. Cardinal Evaristo Arns, Archbishop of that city, sponsored the Sandinista Night (February 28, 1980) to pay homage to the guerrillas and present Nicaragua as a model for all Latin America. The Christian Base Communities (CBCs) had given strong support to the Nicaragua guerillas, and São Paulo was the city where the CBCs were more numerous and successful.

In 2006, again thanks in part to the support of the Church and the CBCs, Daniel Ortega returned to power in Nicaragua, this time through democratic elections. Despite naïve or collaborating commentaries by the Western media stating that Ortega had changed and was no longer Communist, he has clearly shown the opposite. For example, at the last Forum of São Paulo meeting, Ortega paid public homage to the Communist leader of the Colombian FARC, Raul Reyes, who was killed when fighting against government forces.

It was Daniel Ortega, in fact, who proposed the name of Fr. d’Escoto to head the UN. His suggestion was accepted, and now the UN is under the influence of Liberation Theology. America magazine calls the choice of d’Escoto a “Heart Transplant” for the UN (September 8, 2008, pp. 19-21). This new heart of the UN, so enthusiastically welcomed by the Jesuit magazine, is a heart that longs for the Socialist and Marxist ideals of Liberation Theology.

Latin America tending toward Russia

Meanwhile, things are going from bad to worst in Latin America with regard to US interests. Indeed, last September Bolivia and Venezuela expelled their American ambassadors. Washington responded with similar measures.

A bloc of clearly Communist countries in Latin America is already formed by Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua. Paraguay is quickly entering this group. Another bloc of Marxist governments - not officially Communist but highly Socialist - includes Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. That is, Latin America is already under the Socialist-Communist sphere of influence.

Kirov, a Russian battlecruiser, heading to Venezuela in late September

This October a Russian fleet entered the Caribbean waters off Caracas, Venezuela. It is preparing for joint military maneuvers to be carried out this coming November with the Venezuelan navy (National Catholic Reporter, October 12, 2008, p. 5). At the same time, Venezuelan President Hugo Chaves is negotiating a billion-dollar package with Russia for arms and nuclear technology for “peaceful purposes.”

Further, Russia and Iran are sending professional and technical assistance to Venezuela and Bolivia to help exploit some of the richest oil and gas fields in the Western hemisphere.

If one considers these facts, he sees that by means of the massive nationalization of banks in the US and Europe as well as through elections installing leftist governments in Latin America, Socialism is taking over the West.

It is not difficult to surmise that the election of a Socialist-minded candidate to the White House will give extraordinary impetus to an increasingly nationalized economy. It seems that the West can become irreversibly Socialist if, in the coming election, America chooses a candidate turned toward Socialism. I hope and pray that this will not happen and the US will continue to be the world bulwark against Communism and Socialism.

I also pray that excessively scrupulous traditionalist leaders do not play the role of traitors at this delicate moment by offering ill-timed advice. I know of some such leaders who are inopportunely raising objections of conscience about this or that moral issue, advising Traditionalist Catholics to abstain from voting or to cast a ballot of protest. This is the wrong advice! It only weakens the anti-Socialist vote and favors the pro-Socialist cause.

Only one question is at stake: Will America become Socialist or not? Other moral issues can be taken up after the elections, each one in its time and place, as we are doing now in the fight against “gay marriage” in California and assisted suicide in Washington. There is no mortal sin in voting against Socialism. Whoever asserts such a thing has erroneously applied the principles of moral theology.

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