OWS and the next financial crisis when the financial criminals need bailing out.

The magnificent OWS movement is exploding around the world. In the US we see how the state machine has been built up and increasingly armed under the excuse of fighting terrorism and the so called Patriot Act. Just look at the gear that is being worn by the cops in Oakland. They are like something out of an animated Hollywood production. There are also cop units such as this in virtually every city in the country. Using 9/11 and the excuse of fighting terrorism the US corporate class have been preparing to take on the US working class when it rebels against being put on rations. The OWS movement is the first round in this battle.

A new financial crisis lies ahead also. All the old criminal ways that got the world economy there in 2008 have been continued with and in fact to a greater degree. The other shoe will drop soon. A new 2008 catastrophe lies ahead. Most likely it will be even worse that the last one. The issue we should consider is what will happen when this occurs. The last time the criminal elite were bailed out with taxpayer's money. I would like to venture the idea that this will be much more difficult this time. The consciousness here in the US especially is much higher in relation to the last bail out and the role of the banks and the bought and paid for politicians. The anger against the banks and Wall Street is dramatically greater. The conditions of the youth and working class are worse. And as the repression of the OWS movement intensifies the class anger against the system will only grow.

So what am I saying? I think it will be much more difficult to bail out the financial criminal elite and capitalism the next time. The anger of the working class will be a much greater obstacle the next time. As a result the class divide and struggle will be much greater. Here in the US after trying to repeat the bail out you could not rule out the Obama regime or another regime trying to do an FDR. Even go further and take over major financial institutions. Internationally I think we can have huge left movements develop. This time I think they can be inside and outside the mass organizations such as the trade unions and also the mass social democratic organizations.

I think we are coming closer to a break in the situation where the capitalist offensive was in the driving seat. We are coming closer to where the capitalist offensive is driven back and a new offensive of the working class opened up. In this situation the ideas of anti capitalism, democratic socialism, working class struggle and power will be put on the agenda of the mass consciousness of the masses once again. I believe we are close to the opening up of a new period internationally and in history.

I was looking again at the incredible outfits and tactics of the US cops as they attack the OWS demonstrators. I am thinking also of the US forces ferocious attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan. A huge capitalist offensive has been going on now for years. I think that this is coming to an end. For the workers movement it will pose new challenges. For the left also, an end to sectarianism, ultra leftism and opportunism. I believe we are on the verge of a new period. Not that there will not be lulls followed by new leaps forward and new lulls, not that there will not be victories and defeats, but I do believe that the capitalist offensive is heading towards some serious defeats and looking to being replaced by a working class offensive. That is the general process which has been the capitalist offensive being dominant will be replaced with a working class offensive being dominant.

The role of the labor leaders, the after affects of the collapse of Stalinism, the hi tech boom, the financial and housing bubbles, these made capitalism look as if its future was rosy for a period. We are now entering a different period. During this last period the capitalists especially the US capitalists were enormously over confident. Remember the "full spectrum domination" that they talked about. Their over confidence meant that their offensive, their counter revolution, was much more far reaching and vicious than it might otherwise have been. Marx said that sometimes the revolution needs the whip of the counter revolution. I feel that the whip of the counter revolution is still being applied but that the result of this will be to drive to its feet the revolution. We are already seeing this, from the Middle East to North Africa to Latin America to the youth in the cities and streets of the world, to here in Oakland and the US. Great revolutionary upheavals are now on the agenda. In looking at this we have to try and apply ourselves to dealing with the problem that Trotsky posed, that is that the crisis of the human species is the crisis of the working class leadership.

Remember keep Bradley Manning alive in our struggles.

Sean.