One of the
things President Abe Lincoln said in 1861 that has echoed down through
time is this:
is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the
fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not
first existed. Labor is superior of capital, and deserves much
the higher consideration.
If he had
uttered those words during the McCarthy Era of the 1950s, he would
have been called a communist sympathizer, charged with plotting the
overthrow of the US Government, and imprisoned.
and the Wealthy in U.S. History
wealthy investors in search of profits and workers in search of jobs
need each other. Yet the ongoing struggle between workers and the wealthy
has characterized American history since the first English colonists
sloshed ashore at Jamestown in 1607. The tide of this ongoing battle
has changed most definitively whenever Uranus has arrived in mid-Aries,
opposite the US natal Saturn (ruler of established ways and means).
From mid-Aries, Uranus also is within orb of a square to the US Sun
(sense of "I am") in mid-Cancer. Since July 4, 1776 Uranus
in mid-Aries has coincided with the great depression of the 1840s and
the great depression of the 1930s—both periods of working class uprisings.
the USA 's birth, Uranus in Aries coincided with such uprisings as
Bacon's Rebellion in the 1670s, and the refusal of Indians to be enslaved
by Spanish gold-hunters in the 1590s. Uranus moving conjunct the US
natal Saturn in Libra has also brought dramatic innovations to the
worker-wealthy conflict. Examples: Beginning in 1619, African slaves
were imported and eventually replaced English indentured servants.
In the 1880s, a new wave of immigrants from Europe were replacing native-born
American industrial workers. A century later, during the Reagan Administration,
the wealthy began to outsource jobs to cheap-labor markets, and in
a variety of other ways make life difficult for native-born American
had hardened the resolve of the wealthy to wipe out all awareness of
what Lincoln had said in 1861. Slowly but surely "socialist" programs—public
education, unemployment compensation, social security and other programs
beneficial to the working class—have been subtly sabotaged. Now Congress
is poised to pass the so-called "drug benefit for seniors" that
will eventually destroy Medicare by gradually forcing seniors into
HMOs, further enriching the insurance corporations.
between US military operations in foreign lands and the interests of
big corporations is hard to miss, although corporate-owned media does
its best to enable the American public to miss it. People outside the
USA believe the Bush Administration invaded Iraq to capture the oil,
protect the dollar against the euro, and protect Israel from Iraqis
sympathetic with the Palestinian cause. Inside the USA , people are
urged to believe "we" are bringing "American freedom
and democracy" to Iraq.
Planet Transits to the U.S. Chart
major turning points in the ongoing American class war have occurred
when the outer planets have made hard angles to the US Sun-Saturn square
or Mars-Neptune square. Even before the USA was born as a nation in
1776, hard angles from the outer planets coincided with major turning
points in this conflict. When the first African slaves were offloaded
in the Jamestown colony in 1619, Neptune was within orb of a conjunction
with the US natal Saturn in Libra, and opposite Saturn was Jupiter
in Aries, square Venus conjunct the US natal Sun placement in Cancer.
Neptune, Jupiter and Venus thus afflicted the US Sun-Saturn by forming
a T square pattern.
The US Civil
War broke out when Neptune was opposite its own natal position and
Uranus was conjunct its natal position, as well. The outcome was a
declaration that slavery was henceforth illegal in America . Slavery
was morphed into institutionalized oppression of African Americans,
effectively continuing the "benefits" of cheap labor for
the wealthy. I put benefits in quotes because the huge divide between
rich and poor created by this post-slavery racism sabotaged the economic
development of the South until the Civil Rights Movement broke its
hold. The wealthy and workers, I repeat, are really interdependent.
1960s when "Jim Crow" was attacked, Uranus and Pluto were
conjunct the US natal Neptune and square the US Mars. The civil rights
movement spread to the anti-Vietnam War and the so-called "counter-culture" movements.
The rich did not easily give up "divide and conquer" by color-coding
the working class, however, especially in the South. And wealthy conservatives
worked hard to put their guys in the White House. Momentum was definitely
with the rich by year 2000 when Democratic candidate Al Gore lost the
Supreme Court case that installed Republican George Bush in the White
House, inspiring conservatives to mount another assault on the working
At the heart
of this ongoing struggle is an assumption passed down from the European
Dark Ages: Mother Nature has not provided enough for everyone so the
most able must control the less able. This economic philosophy replaced
the belief extant in the Americas when Columbus arrived: that Mother
Nature provides more than enough for everyone so Her fruits must be
distributed as fairly as possible, and the natural environment protected.
between the wealthy and workers was hotly debated by the Founders in
the late 1700s. It dominated the writing of the Declaration of Independence,
Constitution and Bill of Rights, with transiting Uranus conjunct the
US natal Saturn, square the US Sun in Cancer. In effect, the Constitution
spoke for the wealthy while the Bill of Rights spoke for the workers.
That it was wealthy slave-owner Thomas Jefferson, paraphrasing Tom
Paine, who penned the Bill of Rights indicates that Jefferson and his
friends were trying to resolve the conflict between workers and the
wealthy. That they succeeded to some degree set the stage for the further
development of democracy during the 19th and 20th centuries.
now have is not really democracy (government by the consent of the
governed), but rather rule by the rich (plutocracy) masquerading as
democracy. Nevertheless, during the past two centuries, democracy as
an ideal has grown dramatically. Now most nations claim to have a democratic
government, although some are a lot more democratic in fact than others.
The "freedom and democracy" the Bush Administration claims
it is bringing to the long-suffering people of Iraq is based on the
present American design: everyone should vote, but those elected should
serve the wealthy. President Bush's dedication to preserving the status
quo inherited from the Dark Ages makes him a hero of wealthy investors
who are now free to import cheap labor or outsource American jobs to
cheap labor markets abroad.
history of Uranus in this ongoing class war, we can look for the next
major turning point when Uranus moves opposite the US natal Neptune
, and thus also square the US Mars. Uranus will move within orb of
that opposition in January 2008, and be exact on June 2 and July 21,
2008 , and March 9, 2009 . We can look for a definitive, long-lasting
resolution to the American class war when Uranus moves through mid-Aries
during the 2000-teens, making direct hits May 15 and September 30,
2014 , and March 7, 2015 . With the US natal Sun-Saturn square hit
by Pluto, Uranus, Mars, Jupiter and Venus, we can look for a major
transformation of our economic beliefs.