Capitalism. The bigger picture. Not good.

It is easy to get caught up with the details of life and day to day events. But it is important to have our eyes on the bigger picture. Look at the bigger picture as far as capitalism is concerned these days. It only survived the 2008 crash because it was given trillions of taxpayers money. And it continues with its old ways which make inevitable a new world wide crisis in the future. People are so angry about the last bail out that it will be politically harder to bail out capitalism this time. Imagine going to the tax payers and youth of these European countries where there have been the big riots against cuts and saying that the banks and the financial swindlers have to bailed out again. All hell will break loose. The US has not solved its debt crisis, it goes deeper into crisis and will have to raise its debt ceiling in the months ahead or go bankrupt. The future of the Euro is in doubt. Different European countries are on the verge of bankruptcy. The two advanced capitalist areas of the world have internal economic crises of enormous proportions. As we say capitalism is in crisis, capitalism does not work.

Then we have the rise of China and its increasing challenge to US capitalism. Obama and Gates the US war secretary were both humiliated in their recent visits to China. The Chinese elite were telling them they would not be pushed around. There is the coming visit of the Chinese president Hu to the US this week and he has said in advance that the role of the US dollar internationally will have to be looked at. Economically and militarily the Chinese elite are expanding their power and influence and pushing up against US capitalism and its allies. For activists in the US this is a central issue to keep in mind. The less US capitalism can loot from the rest of the world, the less it will be able to give when challenged by its own working class and the more its own working class will be forced to fight. The result will be a change in the consciousness of the US working class. But the Chinese elite should not be too confident. Its own gigantic working class will teach it some lessons in the years ahead.

US and world capitalism have had some other shocks in the recent period. Their occupations and wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are increasingly bogged down. Their are more signs of discontent in the ranks of the military who are fighting there. There has been the assassination of a US ally in Pakistan. And now there has been the uprising and bringing down of the dictatorship and US ally in Tunisia. This has electrified the Arab world. It has the potential to bring down other Arab regimes in the area who are all allies of US capitalism. There was a hint of panic in the Obama regime last week when Clinton attacked her own allies and called on them to make reforms to placate the anger. But as Tunisia shows it looks like being too little too late. Whether now or later these regimes will fall because they are collaborators with the US and the other world capitalist regimes in looting the wealth of the region and leaving the people in poverty.

In the middle of this there is wikileaks. A site was created just for Tunisia called Tunileaks. All the material thought relevant from wikileaks was posted on this site and made available to anybody able to access it. Cables from the US Embassy to Washington about the extreme corruption of the Tunisian regime fueled the anger of the Tunisian working and middle class and as we said yesterday on this blog fueled the revolutionary overthrow in Tunisia. Many on the left sneered at the importance of wikileaks exposing its material. We did not. Increased knowledge and seeing things written down in black and white have an affect. We must continue to campaign for the release of Bradley Manning and to Defend Assange and Wikileaks.

The main factor that is missing in the world situation today is an international movement of the working class with a clear objective to end capitalism and establish a democratic socialist world. Build an international trade union movement, build an international federation of working peoples' parties. In this way we can provide an alternative to the crisis ridden capitalist system which does not work.

Sean.