11-24-08, 9:31 am
Unfolding globally today is another capitalist 'crisis of overproduction' and a corresponding crisis of unmet human needs, even for food and water. Earlier crises (1907, 1929) led to terrible suffering, political breakdowns and war, but also opened the path for the Russian, Chinese (1917, 1949) and other socialist revolutions.
Today, without labor unity and action, humanity itself faces a terrifying death amidst war and social and environmental destruction. Capitalism's failure will accelerate the damage already done to the social and environmental foundations of human existence, and further spread the nightmare that millions are facing in the Congo, Haiti, Palestine, India and the Russian Federation – and in significant pockets of poverty in most capitalist countries, the US included.
The crisis is certain to escalate Wall Street and big capital's efforts to further cheapen labor and plunder weaker countries. The capitalists will make every attempt to divide workers, to provoke nationalist reactions and racism among workers and their organizations everywhere, and to oppose internationalist class-based responses. This attempt to provoke nationalism as opposed to internationalism will be extend worldwide (even to China), with the most dangerous focus of reaction being 'white American' nationalism, a tendency already evident in supremacist and anti-immigrant groups.
Global labor unity, organization, class-consciousness, and coordinated action can turn this latest failure of the old system into victories for a new system, and holds extraordinary potential for human liberation from capitalism.
