Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 222 August / September 2011
As we go to press, a last-minute agreement between France and Germany has averted the potential collapse of the euro despite a partial Greek default. No one has any illusions that this is anything other than a stop-gap measure, and that the sovereign debt crisis of other European countries continue to worsen – Italy, Spain and Portugal in particular. As part of what is turning into a perfect storm of the world’s financial system, the dispute in the US over government debt threatens the survival of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
A bunch of Tea-Party zealots see it as their God-ordained duty to oppose any tax rises and thereby risk complete financial collapse. All around us we see capitalism in decay, inter-imperialist rivalries developing, splits in the ruling class deepening as they head towards disaster.
In Britain, the facade of democratic rule has been ripped apart by the phone hacking scandal, and what we find is the naked and brutal corruption of the bourgeoisie. Who can ever continue with the illusion that power lies in parliament? We see that it lies with a cabal of billionaires to whose interests media magnates give voice. These magnates have politicians at their beck and call, and can bribe an entire police force with their loose change. It is they who choose governments and in return expect hugely lucrative favours. Yet however subservient these governments are to their billionaire paymasters, they are utterly ruthless towards the poor and working class. Millions face poverty as a result of the cuts in state spending demanded by the City of London through its ConDem Coalition. Abroad, the Coalition wages war on Libya with complete disregard for civilian casualties let alone the terms of the United Nations resolution under which it claims to operate.
The crisis has brought opposition: new movements of the working class and oppressed are being born, in the Middle East and North Africa, in Greece and Spain. Such movements have forced their way into imperialist calculations and have given hope to billions across the world. Yet here in Britain, the most decadent of imperialist powers, there is no opposition of any consequence.
The trade unions have done little: they are not fighting organisations. Despite the fiery talk on the 26 March TUC demonstration, a one day strike by public sector workers on 30 June has been the limit of their opposition to the ruling class assault to date, a gesture that was too much for Labour leader Ed Miliband who opposed it out of hand. The ruling class is able to bomb Libya with impunity: 40 people turned up for a national Stop the War protest outside parliament in July, while within, the Labour Party supported the warmongers. There is no movement to take advantage of the ruling class crisis. Building one is now of the utmost urgency.
We have to take our stand alongside those who are challenging imperialism elsewhere in the world. We urge our readers to join us.
