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Vol. 74/No. 48      December 20, 2010

 
Fight for a socialist world
(editorial)
 
“The economy is growing, so why does it feel like a recession?” one capitalist investor recently wrote when looking at current U.S. unemployment figures. For millions of workers in the United States and around the world the answer is simple—the capitalist system is in crisis and conditions of life continue to deteriorate for the vast majority.

Official unemployment is above 9 percent in the United States for the 19th consecutive month. It is more than 20 percent in Spain. In Ireland, the jobless rate has doubled over the past two years to 13.6 percent. “Official” means many more are actually jobless.

Austerity measures announced by capitalist governments to protect the banks and capitalist profits will soon put tens of thousands more public workers out on the street. At the same time, many of the programs workers have fought for and count on for relief as the economy falters are being savagely cut.

Capitalist politicians don’t know what to do about the crisis of their system. They live on hope that the economy will turn around and they won’t have to face working-class struggles challenging capitalist rule.

We are living through a period in which depression conditions will extend for years to come, despite ups and downs. We are living through a period when the capitalist rulers will use whatever powers of their state they deem necessary to defend their system. We are entering a period that will be marked by decades of long, hard struggles, which will ultimately decide which class will rule.

As the introduction to Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Jack Barnes explains, the wars and economic devastation being wrought by capitalism must be ended through a revolutionary struggle for power by working people. As was done by the Cuban toilers in their revolution in 1959.

“Only the conquest, and exercise, of state power by the working class and expropriation of finance capital can lay the foundations for a world based not on exploitation, violence, racial discrimination, class-based pecking orders, and dog-eat-dog competition, but on solidarity among working people that encourages the creativity and recognition of the worth of every individual, regardless of sex, national origin, or skin color.

“A socialist world.”
 
 
Related articles:
Crisis strains ‘unity’ of capitalist Europe
Rulers foist burden on working people
Grinding joblessness confronts millions in the United States  
 
 
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