The Velvet Slipper And The Military-Peace Nonprofit Complex http://swans.com/library/art17/barker73.html

The history of the elite manipulation of social change has been well documented by popular writers like Howard Zinn amongst many others, and to some extent even Jack London gave a warning of how the iron heel may act to defuse large-scale revolutionary movements. Indeed, in his fictitious autobiographical account of a revolutionary, London described how when his revolutionary movement was on the brink of launching "a sudden colossal, stunning blow" to the entire North American oligarchy, their forthcoming revolution was postponed when the oligarchy caught wind of what they planned and pre-empted them. The oligarchy did this by "deliberately manufactur[ing]" the social conditions that would precipitate an isolated and containable revolutionary uprising that could be destroyed. Back in the real world it is perfectly understandable why elites should seek to manipulate progressive social movements, now we just need to decide what actions we can take to protect our movements from such unwanted interventions.