National struggles attempt to reach out globally as workers' leaders bail out capitalism

Greek workers fight back against the bankers troops

We are witnessing an historic global crisis of capitalism.  Instead of the new American century we got September 11th, economic collapse, the Arab Spring and an historic global movement against the offensive of capital.

The attempt at an integration of European nation states, a United States of Europe is in danger of collapse as the  global crisis engulfs that continent.  Greece is in danger of further collapse as years and years of austerity are on the cards.  "Bit by bit, Greek society is being stretched, and it is popping at the seams" writes today's Wall Street Journal.  It shows there's not much in a name as the Greek "socialists" destroy workers' living standards on behalf of the bankers and global capital. Things will not get any better and are most likely to spread to other countries, "What is at stake is our quality of life, and for some, their subsistence" writes one Greek blogger. 

The onslaught against Greek workers and the middle class is intense and will have to be repeated throughout the world.   The US corporate lackeys and its global partners are seriously concerned.  Investors are "skittish" and it is important to "regain their confidence" writes the WSJ.  In order to do this, "countries are being asked to rip up paternalistic policies that provided stability and comfort to legions of citizens..." the Journal adds. "The question is, can it be done without igniting society in to revolt.?" Murdoch's paper asks its readers.

In Greece the situation is dire as global capital puts the squeeze on the population.  The state is in debt to the the big pharmaceutical companies that provides the state health care system with drugs.  But there is no clear sky ahead, "It's hard to see a solution that doesn't involve more cuts" the Journal adds. Greece's debt is 164% of GDP and naturally the working class is blamed for their high expectations, like we are told by the political representatives of the billionaires in the US, we have to "live within our means", or more accurately, the means imposed on us by the profit system.  The global crisis is also a political one, "It's not just a financial thing.  It's the lack of a functional government.  People are afraid that we may be driving toward a failed state." says one Greek writer.

The Greek crisis has already caused splits and defections within the shameful Greek socialist party.  Of the billions so far used to bailout Greece, "every single euro we got went for debt. We haven't spent a single euro on development" says one Socialist Party defector. Boy, does this sound familiar.  The bailout in the US was also a bailout of the banks, investors and other crooks whose policies brought us this far. But this situation and the failure of the Socialist party to remedy it cannot last forever.  Something will have to fill the vacuum and if the left doesn't the right will. Read about the alternative to the default for the moneylenders in an earlier blog.

Chinese protesting tax increases

But the revolt is already global.  In China, where protests are technically illegal, the bureaucracy is faced with them almost daily.  The Chinese bureaucracy had to back down on tax increases it tried to impose on small independent makers of children's wear in the town of Zhili near Shanghai after migrant workers rioted.  Riot police and the military were called in to calm the situation but the tax was suspended as a result.  The town's government, just as they do here, blamed the rioting on a  small group of people that, "caused trouble intentionally and seriously disrupted normal social order."
The Chinese economy is slowing and the mighty Chinese working class, millions upon millions strong is demanding better conditions and higher wages with some considerable success. China will explode at some point in the future.

As the global struggle between capital and Labor breaks out more in to the open we can see more clearly the class nature of society as the statements of ruling powers appear to be written by the same spin doctor no matter the language, color, religion or nationality of the source.  Whether in China, Greece, Chile, Mexico or Australia where strikes broke out this week, or North or Central Africa, we hear the same response.  In the US, we hear from the less astute bourgeois and their flunkies in the media that the OWS movement is just a mob, hippies, troublemakers etc.  Resistance is always a threat to "the norm". But we reject their "norm". The norm for capitalism is poverty, destruction of the environment, endless wars and millions dying from diseases that were eliminated years ago only to return due to the inability of the market provide medicine, health care and the social infrastructure necessary for a secure and safe human existence.

It is not only Greece, but the US and Europe that is being driven in to the third world. We can't eat cell phones.

As a previous blog pointed out, the crisis of the working class and society is the crisis of leadership.  In Europe for example there are numerous workers' parties, communists, socialists, the social democratic and Labor parties but when faced with a serious confrontation with capitalism in crisis the leaders of these parties end up cooperating or where they're in power like in Greece and Spain, directly carrying out the savaging of workers' living standards on behalf of the IMF and the bankers; they have no alternative to capitalism and have no faith that workers, that the collective producers of society can govern it and organize production on the basis of social need and not profit.

What is the point of an international trade Union movement like the ICTU if strikes and actions aren't coordinated globally? Why are the Greek workers fighting a well organized global enemy alone?  The workers of Europe have trade Unions as well.  The capitalist class has more of a continental and global unity and cooperation going than the workers organizations; the Greek workers should not be fighting alone. The same in Latin America where the Chilean students and workers have been waging a major struggle against capital.  Brazil has a so-called socialist government in power.  Capital is organized globally and we should be.

It is this crisis of leadership that we have to overcome.  We cannot resolve this crisis without a clear program and a united global movement whose aim it must be to take under public ownership and control the dominant forces of global production in order to rationally plan in a collective and rational way the organization of human society. We can build a democratic socialist federation of socialist states.

There has been a historic shift in the balance of forces worldwide.  The confidence of the capitalist class has been shaken by events as the world workers and youth move on the offensive.  The road is not a smooth one and there will be defeats as well as victories but we are undoubtedly moving forward.