Trump and the New Battle Lines of Tech Capital

“Do I need to go down and get the certificate that says I’m CEO of the company to get you to stop challenging me on this?”

-Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO

The situation in Seattle is extremely fluid and changing day by day. Locally based corporations have now begun to cleave into distinct factions in relation to the Trump administration. On the one hand, the liberal bourgeois monoliths of Starbucks, Amazon, and Microsoft have all parked themselves in the anti-Trump camp. These three companies care about the immigration ban only because it interferes with their ability to hire immigrants. Although the different CEOs may express humanitarian motivations in regards to opposing the ban, their primary motivation is to ensure the ability to hire immigrants who’ll work for less and not demand a raise. This is spelled out quite clearly in the various statements they have released to their employees, the public, and the media.

Global capitalism is what made Jeff Bezos one of the eight richest humans on the earth, a position he clearly doesn’t want to lose. For this reason alone, he released a statement to his employees affirming there is no nation better than the United States “at harnessing the energies and talents of immigrants. It’s a distinctive competitive advantage for our country—one we should not weaken.” He also explained that “our legal team has prepared a declaration of support for the Washington State Attorney General who will be filing suit against the order.”

Amazon, Microsoft, and Expedia (another Seattle based tech-company) all joined a lawsuit filed by State Attorney General Bob Ferguson against the immigration ban. Once the verdict was delivered from federal judge James Robart, the immigration ban was struck down and free movement reinstated. This set off a political controversy that propelled Washington into the international spotlight and made it the new center of what many liberals refer to as “the resistance.” However, underneath this image of a unified resistance lie some unsavory secrets the bourgeois liberals want to forget. The most important of these secrets is their decade-old plan to build a new juvenile hall/luxury apartment complex. When this integrated luxury apartments/child prison was first introduced, one of its most fervent backers was none other than Bob Ferguson.

Before becoming the now famous State Attorney General, Bob Ferguson was a lowly Metropolitan King County Councilmember. In 2011, Ferguson complained that the current juvenile hall was falling apart and needed to be replaced. Like any honest liberal bourgeois scumbag, Ferguson explained to the public that “the state of the current facility is unacceptable, and I will continue to push options until we find a solution. For example, surplus County property could be traded with an interested developer in exchange for a replacement facility.” After introducing the absolutely novel idea of selling off public land to shithead developers, Ferguson proceeded to push this project forward until encountering the first major piece of resistance in 2012.

A group of people took over a meeting at Seattle University that was meant to sell the idea to the public. They group began to interrupt the speakers and ultimately shut down the meeting. One of those interrupted was none other than Bob Ferguson. After being called a grinning exploiter of children, Ferguson attempted to make fun of the heckler’s vocabulary. This episode of bourgeois arrogance was documented in a now well-known video and marked the beginning of the No Juvie campaign that continues to this day. Unfortunately, in 2012 the local bourgeois cum-rag known as The Stranger encouraged its readers to vote for the new juvenile hall/luxury apartments and the entire project was democratically affirmed by the liberal constituents of King County. This is one of those dirty secrets the local liberal “resistance” would like you to forget, especially The Stranger.

(Bob Ferguson on far left, pictured with various King County officials)

In the same election that enshrined the juvenile hall, Bob Ferguson was elected to be the State Attorney General, a position he holds to this day. While he was busy in Olympia, his pet project began to encounter widespread resistance. By 2016, the entire radical left of Seattle was united against the project and the City Council had passed a resolution committing to phase out youth detention. Despite this, the county and developers have continued to push the project forward in defiance of changed public opinion. After a demonstration against the juvi was staged in front of his house, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray began to have second thoughts. With the election of Trump, this openly gay mayor had to rapidly right all the mistakes his bourgeois liberal peers had made over the years. One of these mistakes was the pet project of none other than State Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

On the exact same day that Ferguson announced his lawsuit against the immigration ban, Ed Murray released a statement to the county that stated: “I have learned that since the passage of the Countywide levy in 2012, a consensus has grown among juvenile justice experts that incarceration is harmful and counterproductive…While I recognize that an immediate transition to zero youth incarceration is unrealistic, I have some concerns about the current plans for the detention facility given our joint goals of working toward zero detention. My request is for King County to consider a second look at the facility design and to convene a table for dialogue among various interests and perspectives to explore whether there are practical options or modifications to consider.”

Not only is the mayor now in support of canceling the juvi project (which is already a year behind schedule), a host of other liberal politicians were echoing his sentiments. In response to this, two King County judges lashed back, stating “as a former legislator yourself, you likely are aware that counties with a population of over 50,000 are required by state law to have a detention facility.” This is a perfect example of the new lines being drawn in Seattle: the liberal mayor wants to stop the building of a jail, while two county judges insist that law and democracy have inevitably enshrined this project into reality. As it now stands, Murray and his liberal chums are scrambling to distance themselves (and Bob Ferguson) from this juvenile hall/luxury apartment complex. Now is the perfect time to force the city to definitively cancel this project using whatever means necessary. After five years of actual resistance (including noise demos, workshops, arson, vandalism, panels, and forums) real victory is now in sight. We encourage our readers to push for the maximum at this moment and not stop until they have won.

But so as to not get ahead of ourselves, we must remind our readers that while the bourgeois liberals are as greedy and hypocritical as ever, their opposition is considerably more worrisome. While the swollen heads of Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks have stood up to Donald Trump in the matter of immigration, the cretinous toads at the Boeing are already busy licking the boots of the cheeto-faced rapist. In December, 2016, Trump tweeted that the new Air Force One 747 that Boeing was building the White House was too expensive and should be canceled. This caused the stock price of Boeing to instantly drop 1% and sent the corporate leadership scrambling to find the good graces of the new president. Since then, Boeing has joined General Electric, Dow Chemicals, Pfizer, Oracle, and several other disgusting corporations in supporting a Republican proposal to heavily tax all imports.

Not only would all foreign goods be taxed 20%, but there would be no export tax for any US companies. At the same time, this proposal would cut corporate income tax 25-35%. Unlike the coffee plantations of Starbucks or the “fulfillment centers” of Amazon, the Boeing corporation deals directly with the forces of death without an intermediary. For years, this evil, irredeemable company has built weapons and vehicles that have killed literally tens of thousands of people across the planet. Boeing works directly with the federal government to create deathly arsenals capable of eradicating people and land. Their support of Trump and his wall shouldn’t come a surprise. During the Bush administration, Boeing secured the contract for building a border wall between Mexico and the US. While this deal fell apart and was never completed, it may be resurrected with Boeing at the helm.

While we might grow excited over the prospect of Jeff Bezos’ wealth being redistributed across the region, it would be far better if the entirety of Boeing was liquidated and forcibly removed. Socialist councilwoman Kshama Sawant has proposed expropriating the Boeing plants and turning them into bus factories, various Stalinists have tried for years to organize the Boeing workforce against their employers, but in reality, the best thing to do is convince the population that we don’t need this Trump supporting arms manufacturer any longer and that all of their capital should be seized and destroyed so it can never be used again.

At the end of the day, Amazon and Starbucks only own fake money, some servers, some buildings, and land. Boeing, on the other hand, possesses the means of production to make murderous weapons that it freely sells to various nation states. Once and for all, we should remove Boeing from the region and make sure they never return. It’s possible there will be many allies in this struggle. It’s possible that this struggle will begin quite soon. As always, we wish you luck navigating this new terrain and hope you will take matters into your own hands. The politicians and CEOs cannot be allowed to be perceived as the leaders of this new resistance.

The coming insurrection must emerge from below.