UNITED STATES – In a move evocative of the Richard Nixon’s 1971 to 1972 price freeze ahead of his reelection the Trump Government has cut backroom deals with unknown sources to import millions of pounds of cheap “beef” in last-ditch effort to keep prices low ahead of the national midterms and local elections.
Donald Trump, in this period of historically low approval ratings for the ruling class, has consistently struggled to find any long-term solution to the economic and political consequences of his government’s misrule. Dubious short-term payouts, such as an alleged “Trump Dividend,” a $5,000 payout to all U.S. adults should the Republican Party retain the House and Senate in the midterms, are blatant schemes to fool people who are struggling to put food on the table and believe, despite everything, that the ruling class, of any strata, cares to solve the problems of society. The latest scheme: to cut prices for ground beef by means of bypassing tariffs with a covert 300,000 metric ton, or 661 million pounds, deal with country of origin unlabeled.
Prior to the deal, the federal government cut protections for, and snatched up horses previously free and wild on federal land. They sat in auction houses for years, looking for a place to be sold to. Suddenly in March, more and more of them began disappearing from the auction houses to unknown buyers. Pair the opaqueness of these horse deals with that of the meat deals, and it is no wonder the masses have begun to speculate on rumors about “horse beef.”
All of these backroom deals, the varying tricks and plots to win the fleeting support of the masses, point to a concrete reality. The tactics of the imperialist state have become increasingly obvious in their abject pursuit to maintain the present rule of the capitalist class, and thereby oversee the increasing transfer of profits into the coffers of the capitalist class. The State will sabotage the agricultural sector when deemed necessary in the name of the same capitalist class; this is no an accident! Failing small farms are a boon for the capitalist class as this serves further monopolization of the industry. With the turn of numerous major companies towards LLMs and data center infrastructure, vast amounts of land becomes necessary, and this land is being bought at discount from defunct farmland. As overlapping crises loom closer, and the global tendency of the rate of profit to fall trends towards zero, it becomes harder for highly centralized firms to maintain the flow of increasing profits. One avenue for cost cutting is through decreasing the cost of development by accessing cheaper constant capital, I.E. land. This tactic comes as farms nationally are facing difficulties due to “years of high input costs and low commodity prices” according to U.S. family farm advocates Farm Aid. The undercutting of profits for the smaller farms is to the benefit of the monopoly capitalist class, in particular the large technology firms which require the land for development. The result is a kickback for the agricultural monopolists as the Trump government hopes to benefit in the bourgeois electoral mid-terms from lowered prices and quell growing unrest.
These wildly corrupt maneuvers foretell a coming period of deep crisis in the national economy, and the vulture-like snatching up of land and production by the monopoly capitalist class at any expense. The weight of the economic consequences caused by the international capitalist system are felt first and foremost by the exploited and oppressed masses. It is they who will be saddled with mystery meat, not the fine dining capitalists.
Despite this, there remains hope as the global and domestic crisis of the world imperialist system intensifies. A multi-generational weak point for the forces of oppression, ecocide, and imperialism rises as these forces scramble in decay. The working and oppressed peoples around the world must rise to this challenge in building a revolutionary, anti-imperialist, and internationalist movement to prepare for the seizure of the historic opportunity to bring an end to the capitalist-imperialist system worldwide.
