It is going to get worse.

The economic crisis of capitalism is getting worse. Anybody with eyes in their head can see this. Over half a million jobs were lost in April and this would have been worse if the Government had not added 72,000 jobs, most of them temporary for the coming census. The private sector, that is the profit addicted corporations did away with 611,000 jobs.  5.7 million jobs have gone since the start of the recession in 2007. 

The Economic Policy Unit, an economic think tank, says: "There are a whole lot of people who are going to be economically desperate for many years." The main thing is not the banks and corporations and their fraudulent lying and swindling and their blackmailing of the government for more money, the main thing that will determine the future of the economy is can people find decent jobs. If they cannot then the 1930's are here and the country is in serious trouble. The evidence is clear. Not only are workers finding well paid good jobs but these jobs are being lost in the millions. 

Look at what this means in human terms. The Economic Policy Unit estimates that the poverty rate for children is in danger of increasing from 18%, where it was in 2007, to a horrific 27.3 % in 2010. This fact alone condemns capitalism. It shows that capitalism has forfeited the right to rule. 

For black children the poverty rate is a catastrophe. This was 34.5% in 2007 and if the unemployment rate rises as expected the poverty rate for black children will rise to 50% or higher. This is a crime of mass proportions and it is a crime of capitalism. It also shows that capitalism has forfeited the right to exist, the right to rule. What are the Democrats and Obama and the Republicans saying about this, doing about this?  They are bailing out the banks and corporations and letting the capitalists get away with continuing with their tax swindles. The working class people can go to hell. This is their attitude. 

The official unemployment rate for men is 9.4%. The real rate is closer to 20% when the partially employed and those who have given up looking for work are included. The official unemployment rate for black workers is 15% but again in real terms it is more than twice this. 

7.8 million jobs would need to be created just to bring the economy back to where it was when the recession began. A catastrophe is developing in the economy and for tens and tens of millions of working class people. In the meantime Obama and all in Washington preside over the rotten and corrupt capitalist system which caused and is causing this crisis. They protect it from the anger of the working people and from its own contradictions and criminal behaviour. 

The only alternative is not a small one But in circumstances such as these we have to see the big picture and we have to be prepared to take action that works. We have to build independent trade unions and recruit the overwhelming majority of workers to these, we have to build a mass workers party and use this to drive the parties' of the corporations from power, we have to build an alternative to the capitalist state in the form of a democratic socialist society where the wealth of the economy will be collectively owned and run on the basis of a democratic socialist plan. 

The union leaders should be leading on this path. But until they are threatened with loosing control of their organizations they will hold the movement back. Just like the capitalist class has forfeited the right to rule by the economic catastrophe they have brought on the world, the trade union leaders have forfeited the right to lead their organizations by their inability to lead them to victories, instead leading them to defeat after defeat and at the same time collaboration with the bosses and corporations. 

We the rank and file have to build alternative leaderships in the workplaces and unions and community organizations. In this way we can build a new working class leadership around a program and strategy which can replace capitalism with a democratic socialist society. For all of us, we face a challenge. Life cannot go on as it is. Capitalism's crisis means that our lives are changing for the worse and this will accelerate. We have to reject the idea that we can continue being inactive and unorganized. We have to become activists in the workplaces and in the communities and organize. We have to educate ourselves in the ways of the movements that came before us and which won victories for the working class. The luxury of inactivity and passively complaining is no longer one we can afford. Contact our blog and get active with us.  

Sean.