We must seize the time

The greatest calamity for working people during the present crisis is that we have no leadership that can take advantage of this near collapse of the system and the turmoil our enemies find themselves in. During the 1930's there was still a very active and militant current present within the working class, this was particularly so in auto, steel and other industries. There were three successful general strikes in Toledo, Minneapolis and San Francisco followed by the sit down wave and 44 day occupation in Flint Michigan that broke the back of the mighty General Motors.

Capitalism today has been on the verge of collapse and is not yet out of the woods. The theoreticians and thinkers of the capitalist class are desperately trying to guide their class through this difficult period. Their political representatives, Barak Obama being among the most eloquent of them, are appealing to national pride and history as if capitalism has always existed as the dominant economic system. The recent US budget is based on a completely unrealistic economic outlook. As it was once said of Reagan "The only woman in the White House is Rosy Scenario" But people are not convinced that things will get better, objective reality at this stage of the game points in the other direction as jobs and homes are lost and poverty among the poorest gets even worse.

The absence of leadership will not stop a movement from developing, it delays that process and ensures the suffering and confusion along this road is greater than it need be. But slowly opposition is building. The present crisis has and is continuing to have a dramatic effect on consciousness as the objective situation undermines the idea that the market is god.

In the second of a series in the Financial Times on the crisis of capitalism, Gillian Tett writes, "..the pillars of faith on which this new financial capitalism were built have all but collapsed". This is a staggering account of the state of affairs and is an honest one. But a statement that reveals most starkly the dire mood that prevails among the capitalist class comes from Bernie Sucher of Merrill Lynch's Moscow branch. He says:
"Our world is broken---and I honestly don't know what is going to replace it. The compass by which we steered as Americans has gone. The last time I ever saw anything like this in terms of disorientation and loss was among my friends in Russia when the Soviet Union broke up."

Tett says, as many of the strategists of capital are saying now, that the problem was that in the financial sector they basically just gorged themselves, playing in a huge casino making bets that were so complex even bankers couldn't understand them, and that these bets were packaged and doled out to thousands of others who wanted to gamble using someones ability to pay the mortgage as collateral.

They don't know where they're going. They're afraid that social unrest will explode and in that situation people's consciousness changes rapidly as we try to resolve the crisis of the system. They are afraid of nationalism as Martin Wolf wrote in yesterdays first part of this series. But most of all they afraid of working class unity and socialist ideas re-emerging with an alternative that can point society forward. A letter to the Times a few weeks ago advised them all to read the economic writings of Karl Marx as they could learn from him. This is a stunning admittance, something they would not likely cop to in the pages of the mass media that is designed for you and I.

With no alternative capitalism will recover, but this crisis has changed the world forever, it is a crisis of historic proportions, a new turn in world history. The working class will inevitably find its feet, even in the US where the bourgeois are so powerful and the heads of organized Labor so compliant and the most fervent defenders of capitalism and the market--a new movement in response to this state of affairs is inevitable. The working class was initially stunned in response to the great depression of 1929; today's crisis is having a similar effect as people try to figure out what can be done. But there have been demonstrations against foreclosure auctions, against evictions. Seventy Five thousand demonstrated in NYC against cuts in public services and for increased taxes on the rich over the weekend. This is only the beginning.

The finance industry, in other words, the allocation of capital, of the surplus value created by Labor, is in private hands like all major industries in capitalist society. The banks and financial institutions must be taken in to public ownership under the control and management of the working class. It is clear that those in control of society cannot manage it to the benefit of its inhabitants or the environment in which we live.

Not one job lost
Not one home lost
No cuts in public services

Public ownership of the financial institutions and distribution and allocation of capital by committees of workers, economic experts and small business with workers in majority

Public ownership of the dominant industries under workers control and management and the elimination of the control of production by an unelected clique that constitute a dictatorship over society.

No support for Democrats or republicans---for an independent mass workers' party

The strategists of capital recognize that they have come to a turning point in history and are discussing a strategy for dealing with it---so must we. We cannot go on in the old way. Every day there are layoffs and evictions. In the former colonial world, some 50 million more will be driven deeper in to poverty over the next six months.

Real change doesn't just happen. You can't just "hope" for it. We have to act and we have to have a plan. We are a small group of people around Facts For Working People. Don't let the racists and nationalists fill the vacuum. We welcome you to join with us to build a future for us and our children.

We must seize the time.