Gulf oil; catastrophe - the worst ever.

I can hardly watch. It breaks my heart. The birds in the baskets covered by brown oil with the traumatized and terrified expression on their faces. Their eyes blank and unknowing. Then I think of those responsible and I become enraged. The Cheyneys, the Bushs, the heads of BP and all the oil companies. They all knew that such things were inevitable but addicted to their billions of profits they went ahead anyway. In my rage I was saying to my companion that these criminals should all be locked up. But she said know. She was not in favor of that. They should all be put in the oil where the birds are. Thinking about it I think she is more right than me. Put the Cheyneys and the Bushes and the oil heads in their own oil.

We have always argued on this blog that capitalism does not work. We have explained that according to the UN development program everybody in the world could have access to clean water, food, housing, health care and education for $80 billion per year. The last I saw the seven richest people in the world had $1.54 trillion between them. The bail out for the financial crooks was in the trillions. Capitalism does not work for many reasons but more than anything else it does not work because it cannot transfer the tiny fraction of the wealth of the super rich to help the poor come up to a basic decent level. Capitalism does not work. It must be replaced by a democratic socialist society.

Now with the catastrophe in the gulf we can see how true it is that capitalism does not work for another reason. It is destroying the planet. And in doing so it is exposing how undemocratic it is. The decisions about the oil industry and drilling have all been made behind closed doors. Remember Cheyney's famous meeting on oil policy where he would not say who was present. Capitalism is starving the majority of people of the world and poisoning the rest of us as it destroys the planet. Capitalism does not work. The good news is a lot of people agree.

The BBC in a survey of 27 countries, including the US, found that only 11% of people think that capitalism works well. This means that an overwhelming majority thinks it does not work well. As important, 23% think capitalism is fatally flawed and there needs to be a new system. This is almost one quarter are for the complete ending of capitalism. And this when there is no mass force arguing for this position.

Capitalism does not work. We need to fight for a democratic socialist alternative. contact us here on our blog and let us work together for this.

sean.