Euro. Wikileaks.Tax Victory for US Capitalism.

Euro.

It has been a bit of a week for capitalism world wide. The Euro has gone up and down like a rickety boat on a stormy sea. It reminds us of the financial crisis of the past period when the US financial institutions and world capitalism were tottering. The state stepped in and bailed capitalism out. The market could not do it, it had failed, the state had to bail it out. The crisis of the euro is still far from over but capitalism will make a major effort to save it. On balance it would seem that in the longer term it will come apart. In spite of the best efforts of capitalism the general conclusion of Marx that capitalism cannot overcome the boundaries of the nation state will most likely exert itself.

Wikileaks.

Then we have Wikileaks. This is not an inconsequential detail for capitalism. And not totally unrelated to the crisis of the euro in the sense that it relates to relations between the different capitalist powers also. Trotsky said that diplomacy is the lubrication of the revolutionary movement. This is important. We cannot build a revolutionary organization without relating to each other in a diplomatic way. However this is not the essence of the issue. We are not dealing here with some kind of sneaky way of talking that hides reality, some kind of superficiality. On the contrary we are talking about a way of relating to each other that brings out the reality. And the reality is that the objective international interests of the working class are one, of the revolutionary movement are one, and that the task of revolutionary socialist diplomacy is to make this clear, to bring out this objective unity.

However bourgeois diplomacy is a different ball game all together. The international interests of capitalism are continually in conflict, continually objectively in conflict. They are at all times trying to steal each others markets and resources and behind this lies the threat of war of one kind or another. The task of bourgeois diplomacy therefore is to hide the objective reality, to hide the reality that the essence of their relationship is one of continual conflict. They meet and smile, and wine and dine, and pretend to be such good friends and colleagues. But behind this is the vicious conflict, the dirty nasty continual attempt to get over on their rivals, to have victory over their rivals. But the problem is they cannot always say this as it would leave their world in non stop conflict and also it would open up opportunities for the working class and the revolutionary movement to challenge its rule. So its speaks with its slick sneaky dirty lies, its "diplomacy", its fancy dinners. Bourgeois diplomacy therefore is a way to hide the reality behind the irreconcilable conflicting interests of the different capitalist powers.

This is where Wikileaks comes in. By exposing the real words of the diplomats from all the different countries it has helped expose the real nature of the relationships between the capitalist powers. It has helped expose the continual conflict between them. By publishing these conversations Wikileaks has done a service to the working class movement. It is positive that the working class see this conflict. It also complicates the relations between the capitalist powers and so weakens them and their system as a whole. If only the union and labor leaders would take advantage of the situation we make make some real steps forward. Missed opportunities abound.

And finally to Obama and the US Democratic Party again. The Democratic Party the party funded and supported by the US trade union movement. It is now clear that Obama and the Democratic Party are going to go along with extending the Bush tax cuts to the rich. The union leaders like a sick sheep make the odd bleat now and then. Incredible. The situation in the US is ripe for a mass working class movement. the US trade union leaders should mobilize their forces to go after the rich and their extreme wealth and the corporations whose system as the Wall Street Journal says has left the country awash with cash. On this basis they should organize the unorganized and build a mass working peoples party. Instead Obama has completely capitulated to the Republicans on taxes and unemployment benefits and the union leaders have let him do it. This country is going to blow up.

We should also remind ourselves that there are tens of thousands of lefts and activists in this country. what are we doing about things? We have to look at the moat in our own eye. We can take on our left sectarianism and ultra leftism, move to build a united front on a fight to win basis and begin to move working class people into action and make it impossible for the union leaders to hold the union movement in inaction any longer.

Sean.