What's facing us in 2010?

Perspective and tasks...

1.World capitalism enters the second decade of the 21st century in the midst of a deepening economic and geopolitical crisis. In January 2009, in the aftermath of the financial meltdown that had begun in September 2008, the Socialist Equality Party explained that the economic crisis signaled a turning point in the protracted decline in the global position of American capitalism. The SEP warned that economic restabilization on a capitalist basis could “be achieved only through … a catastrophic lowering of the living standards of the working class....” We insisted that there could be no “socially neutral” resolution to the crisis, and that “the improvisational responses of the American ruling class to the economic upheaval will solve nothing.” On the eve of the inauguration of Barack Obama, the SEP predicted that he would seek a “solution to the crisis that does not touch the foundations of capitalism and the interests of the financial elite.”

2. This evaluation has proven correct. None of the fundamental causes of the crisis have been addressed. The contrast between the scale of the disaster that struck in September 2008 and the feckless character of the Obama administration’s response could not be more striking. Despite the criminally reckless speculation that wreaked havoc on the lives of millions of workers within the United States and billions of people internationally, Obama avoided any action that impinged on the wealth and interests of Wall Street. The first priority of the Obama administration was to reassure the financial elite that their wealth would be protected, and that there would be no re-imposition of “New Deal”-style restraints on Wall Street gambling. In fact, the opposite has taken place. The massive infusion of cash into the world financial system has led, predictably, to a new round of reckless speculation on Wall Street. Share values have soared, enriching rich speculators while the government does nothing to address the deep distress of the overwhelming majority of the working population.

3. The conditions confronting the global working class are dire. A substantial portion of the world’s population lives in desperate poverty. The January 12 earthquake in Haiti, which killed 200,000 people, has shocked the entire world. But the suffering of the Haitian people is unique only in the suddenness of the catastrophe. Countless thousands die each day of malnutrition, disease and the myriad consequences of global poverty. Moreover, the staggering dimensions of the Haitian tragedy are rooted in economic and political conditions created by nearly a century of brutal exploitation by American corporations. Now, the American government views the catastrophe as an opportunity to send in the military and restructure the Haitian economy even more directly in the interests of American capitalism. The US has blocked desperately needed aid while preventing refugees from fleeing to the United States. As a result, tens of thousands more Haitians have needlessly died. As was the case with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Asian tsunami of 2004, the earthquake in Haiti has revealed the ugly reality of capitalism.