US Capitalism. Many Fronts. None going too well. Wikileaks information on Swiss Bank Accounts.

Bodies lie amongst wreckage after the Chinese regime put down the Tianamen Square movement. Hu represents the Chinese elite who were behind this oppression and who continue in power. The Obama regime seeks to cooperate with them. The US workers movement should link with the Chinese workers movement for an international workers struggle against capitalism and oppression in the US and in China.

A word to our regular readers. Sorry about the absence of posts yesterday. Our two main contributors were both ill and in hospital. We are back in action today. But please remember the appeal we made a week ago for more writers for our blog. Our appeal still stands. Contact us. Our blog is like a small daily paper would have been in the old days with a regular readership of hundreds. If you have something to say please contact us so we can discuss.

China's President Hu has arrived in Washington. China is the most powerful country in the world after the US and is challenging to be the number one power in the years ahead. Does Obama go to meet Hu? No. He sends Biden, the man owned by the credit card and financial companies in his home state. Not a good start. But it shows something. US capitalism remains extremely arrogant and is seeking to continue to rule the world in its old fashion. It is its way or the highway.

US capitalism got a severe shock in the 1960's. It lost in Vietnam, it had to make major concessions on the degree of its racist rule at home, its military partially disintegrated. It fled from Vietnam, it made the concessions on its racist rule but at the same time, and faced with increasing economic crisis it did not retreat overall. Instead it launched an offensive against the working class internationally. It organized the coup in Chile and slaughtered tens of thousands, it organized the right wing dictatorships in Latin America to put down the swing to the left there. And with Reagan and Thatcher it drove world capitalism onto the offensive against the working class it has been on ever since. Then when Stalinism collapsed it stepped up this offensive and with the Wall Street Journal announcing "We Won," it set off to establish what it called "Full Spectrum" domination of the world. With the excuse of 9/11 it launched the wars and occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. An impressive display of recovery from the blows it took in the 1960's. But this offensive is not going so well at the moment.

There has been the uprising in Tunisia which threatens all the Arab allies of the US. There have been the movements of the working class in Europe against the attacks on living standards. There has been the increased evidence that it will not be allowed to push around China. At home the Tucson shootings show the fragility of US society and also the crisis of the two capitalist parties and how their refusal to move from their extreme right wing policies increases the crisis in society. The bail out of Wall Street and the Tucson shootings show that there is a gulf between what the majority of Americans think and what the two capitalist parties advocate. The US is now heading into a situation where it will have to increase its debt ceiling or go bankrupt and it is also moving to cut its spending in all the states. The debt ceiling will be raised but the talk about it reminds us that the world economy rests on over $14 trillion in US debt. When this can no longer be serviced then the world will enter the worst slump in its history. Debt as Marx said can at times allow capitalism to go further than its own limits but at some time it reaches these limits and is snapped back within them in the form of an extreme world crisis.

I see the main editorial in the Wall Street Journal today is not about the Visit of the Chinese President. None of the editorials are. They are trying to tell him he is unimportant, cut him down to size, humiliate and weaken him for his visit and talks. As the young people say: "They wish." Instead of it being on the visit the Wall Street Journal's main editorial is on regulation in the US economy. It is saying that maybe there is an end coming to what it calls the "era of big regulation." Now if readers do not keep in mind that there is little difference between blatant lies and propaganda they might wonder what the Wall Street Journal is talking about. "Era of big regulation," remember we are still in the process of decades when deregulation was the thing and this facilitated the crimes on Wall Street and the world's financial sector which led to the 2008 crash and the need for tax payers to bail out world capitalism. To give credibility to its claim about the "era of big regulation" it shows a graph of what it says are the costs of new federal regulations on business from 1981 on. Naturally enough this graph shows an increase over this period. But say you wanted to do a survey to find out did chickens like to be eaten by foxes would you interview foxes. Not likely. But this is the method of the Wall Street Journal. Its graph is from the extreme right wing pro business anti regulations Heritage Foundation and employers outfit. Naturally the foxes say what expected.

Finally we see the attempt today to boast about the 136,000 new manufacturing jobs the Labor Department claims were created in 2010. Whether this happened or not can be debated. But let us take them at their word. Since 1997 over 6 million manufacturing jobs were lost! It will take decades to make up for the jobs lost in manufacturing since 1997 at 2010's rate. This is more attempting to beat its breast when the President of China is here and pretend that US capitalism is healthy.

With so many problems and with a new economic crisis coming down the road you might think why is it that capitalism is still relatively stable. A good question. The answer is not hard to find. The force that could take on and throw back the capitalist offensive is the international working class. The uprisings and struggles internationally show the working class either already fighting, is ready or could be mobilized to fight. But the problem is leadership. the trade union and labor leaders are completely cowed by capitalism. They think there is no alternative and so they refuse to mobilize their members. Instead they do everything they can to prevent the movement fighting.

Look at the Chinese President's visit. I see he is meeting with the Obama regime a few times and has a meeting with CEO's of major US corporations. But where is the US union movement. The gigantic and rising Chinese working class are suffering under the dictatorial rule of the Chinese elite as represented on this visit by Hu. They have no democratic union rights. The US union leadership should have mobilized a "mass welcome for HU." It should have demanded full democratic union rights for the Chinese workers, better pay and conditions and linked up with the Chinese worker in China to do this. Instead they are not even allowed to meet Hu. And what is worse. They do not even protest that they are not. The union leaders in the US have forfeited their right to lead. Unless they change their policies they have to be removed.

The left and radical movement have not been able to harness the anger that exists amongst the working class against the capitalist offensive either. Their problem is a combination of left sectarianism, that is putting their own perceived needs about that of the movement, ultra leftism, that is putting forward demands and a program that does not connect with the existing consciousness of the working class and at other times opportunism, that is bending the knee to the pressures of the moment. There has to be a struggle within the left and radical movement against these ills. They damage the movement.

For a minimum wage of $15.00 and hour or $5.00 an hour wage increase whichever is the greater.

For free health care, education and affordable decent housing for all.

For a united front of struggle and mass direct action for these basic demands and against the capitalist offensive.

Organize the unorganized into fighting trade unions and community organizations.

Build mass working peoples' parties within which workers can fight politically for their interests.

Build a revolutionary socialist current in the workers movement which would fight for a Socialist World Federation.

Finally I see that a former Swiss banker has given wikileaks discs with the names of major world politicians and corporate leaders who have secret bank accounts in Switzerland. If these can be got out and if they contain major figures there can be a lot more Tunisias. Imagine the rage if it is shown that these leaders were salting it away when working peoples taxes were being used to bail out the banking system.

Remember keep up the campaign to Free Bradley Manning, Defend wikileaks and Defend Assange.

Sean.