Guns. Violence. Tucson. Mexico. China.

The swindlers of US capitalism. Their tentacles reach out around the globe and into every home in the US. Capitalism is a system and is responsible for what goes on in the world. It does not work. We want to replace it with a Democratic Socialist World.

I was thinking about what is going on around us last night. US capitalism is desperately trying to convince everybody that the Tucson shooter was just a lone nut and his murderous action had nothing to do with capitalist society. The ability of other voices to challenge this has been greatly increased by the Internet and so capitalism and especially its right wing are on the defensive. The mass media has no choice but to cover this also or it will be discredited. This is good. Mostly capitalism is on the defensive because it is pinned to the wall by previous threatening statements and stunts where many of its politicians put targets on opponents such as the shot Congress Woman Giffords and where they spoke of using an M16 to take her down.

Yes this right wing vicious propaganda has had an affect. But it is more than that. US capitalism is in severe crisis. 20 million people are without jobs in real terms. Tens of millions of others have lost jobs in the past two years only to find new jobs which pay them ten, twenty, thirty per cent less than they earned before. Then there are the millions losing their houses or about to lose their home. There is great instability and discontent in society. This is the environment in which the alleged shooter lives. And his father and mother also. From what we hear they have not been able to cope too well with their lives in US capitalist society either. Everything is connected. The shootings are rooted in the crisis of the US capitalist system.

And talking about everything being connected. Over thirty people were found murdered in Acapulco, Mexico on Sunday. At least sixteen of these bodies had had their heads cut off. Mexican capitalism is coming apart. The state is seriously challenged by the major drug cartels. The political parties are unable to build a movement which can show a way out. But the most important issue of all is the economy and its inability to provide even a subsistence living for the majority. Why am I raising this. It is to see the connection again.

The main reason for the devastation of the Mexican economy has been the North American Free Trade Agreement. This allowed the major US corporations access to the Mexican market and especially in agriculture but also in other areas wipe out the local producers. So massive numbers of Mexican workers and peasants were turned loose without any income. Some have made it to the US where they are attacked by racists like the Arizona governor, but millions more are living in extreme poverty and starvation in Mexico. If it is a choice between starving and the drug business naturally many will choose the drug business.

Then there is the other connection. That is the drug business itself. It only exists with its massive profits because of the demand that exists for drugs in the US. Not only that but 90% of the guns used in the Mexican drug business come from the US. So the US capitalist system with its alienation and huge market for drugs and its insistence on keeping drugs illegal and its availability of large quantities of guns is central to this crisis in Mexico

But look even deeper. As I say at the heart of this crisis in Mexico lies NAFTA. NAFTA was the creation of the US corporations, that is US capitalism. They pushed it through. They are responsible for the devastation of the Mexican economy. Now who was one of the main point people pushing NAFTA. None other than Bill Daley who has just been appointed by Obama as his chief of Staff. Daley, the US corporations, US capitalism, now Obama by promoting Daley, they are all connected to and responsible for the catastrophe in Mexico and the slaughterings in Acapulco.

We have continually said that US capitalism does not work. We have also said that it is increasingly being challenged by China. Gates the US so called Secretary for Defence, the truth is he is the Secretary for War, is presently visiting China. He is trying to charm and threaten the Chinese military tops to work more together and he is also trying to get more markets for the US military industrial complex war mongers and profiteers. He has been rebuffed. The Chinese military tops object to the US supplying Taiwan with weapons. The Chinese government does not recognize Taiwan as an independent state, only a province. The US has committed itself to go to war with China if China invades Taiwan. Imagine if Hawaii broke away from the US and China started arming it the outcry that would result. We do not support in any way the Chinese elite but look at he arrogance of US capitalism.

How is this connected to Tucson and Acapulo. In the most general sense it is connected by the fact that US capitalism, the most economically and militarily powerful country in the world is a malfunctioning society and as such it affects all other society's in the world. Then it has the culture of extreme violence. It has military bases in close to 200 countries in the world from which it seeks to use or threaten to use military violence against the local people in pursuit of looting those countries and maintaining its positions of power. See Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran at the moment. Then here in the US at home it is a society of extreme violence and repression. The US has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prisoners. This is a staggering fact which in itself disqualifies US capitalism from having any kind of leading role in the world. And its so called soft culture, movies etc are dominated by violence and slaughter.

It is all connected. Capitalism and US capitalism runs like a thread through all the problems and crises. As we say only the end of capitalism and the building of a democratic socialist world can solve the problems we face.

Remember keep up the campaign to free Bradley Manning.

Sean.