Marx was right 150 years ago
The current capitalist crisis is a result of the same causes as all the periodic crises of capitalism: excessive speculation and fictitious credit. Karl Marx explained this 150 years ago. (see K Marx, "The English Commercial and Financial Crisis", New York Tribune, 15 December 1858; re-printed in The Socialist Correspondent, Issue 2, Summer 2008).
Capitalist Crisis: what now?
These periodic crises lead to the destruction of the means of production and labour power, that is, to factory closures and redundancies, the 'real economy', as it is now being referred to. Unemployment rising, increasing negative equity and house re-possessions, living standards falling are all outcomes of the bankruptcy of capitalism. The current crisis has the makings of one of the most severe. And, what are we offered as solutions by the Labour, Tory, Liberal Democrat and Nationalist parties in the UK? Variations on the same theme: marginally different ways of managing the system. It may seem an empty truism but none of them question the capitalist system as being the root of the problem. Until the system as a system is challenged then we have got to expect more, or worse, of the same. As Paul Sutton in his "Capitalist Crisis: what now? What next?" points out Keynesian solutions are "essentially palliative rather than truly transformative", and argues that there is a need to move on to more fundamental change. Ultimately the overthrow of the capitalist system is the only real solution.
Communist Manifesto
In this context the Communist Manifesto is as relevant today as it was in 1848, when it was first published. Pat Turnbull reviews the Manifesto on its 160th anniversary.
Speculation
Greg Kaser in his piece, "Speculation, Inflation, Contagion", points the finger at speculation and raises the issue of the "Tobin Tax", a proposed tax on foreign exchange transactions (97% of the $1.3 trillion a day deals in the foreign exchange markets are reportedly for speculative purposes). Interestingly the Canadian Parliament has passed a vote calling for this. Of course this would not change the system. It would be a regulatory mechanism, maybe a regulatory system too far for most capitalists!
US Imperial Supremacy
As Uri Cohen relates in his article, "Global Finance and the 'New Cold War', with the defeat of socialism, and "under overall US command the Western world morphed into a rolling privatisation, corporate plunder and military intervention machine". Cohen goes on to outline the origins of the current Russo-American conflict. He argues that the West allowed Russia's Yeltsin to "give away Russia's riches to his hand-picked friends as a means of securing the loyalty of the new post-Soviet corporate elite to the US-friendly regime in the Kremlin", and it was because they feared a return to socialism. These "hand-picked friends", who stole Russia's assets, went on to become Russia's oligarchs.
Gideon's Gaffe
One of those Russian oligarchs is Oleg Deripaska, an aluminium tycoon. Earlier in the year he hosted Nat Rothschild, the British financier, Peter Mandelson, the then EU Trade Commissioner and George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor on his yacht, Queen K off the coast of Corfu. Osborne leaked a story to the media to score a petty political point and ended up with a media scandal and huge, maybe permanent, damage to his long-time friendship with Nat Rothschild, of the extremely wealthy and powerful Rothschild family, as well as his own ambitions. Gideon is George's original name: hence Gideon's Gaffe. The short piece by Questor exposes the connections of politicians, media barons and tycoons.
The EU, Mandelson and Trade
Peter Mandelson returned from Corfu to become Lord Mandelson and Business Secretary in the New Labour Cabinet. You can see why he was selected as Business Secretary for a government which courts big business. Under his watch as European Trade Commissioner, Mandelson oversaw trade tariff rates reduced on aluminium exports, hugely benefiting Deripaska. This was at the same time as he was imposing Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) to the severe disadvantage of the ACP (African, Caribbean, Pacific) countries. This includes a series of clauses in the EPA arrangement which allows the European Union to exert significant influence on the ACP countries' economic governance in a highly partisan and non-developmental manner. This pressure from the richest countries to keep the countries of the developing world within the capitalist fold and prohibit economic independence is very difficult to challenge successfully.
South Africa
Alex Davidson reflects on the divisions in the African National Congress which led to changes in its leadership and then to the recall of Thabo Mbeki as President of the Republic of South Africa. With the national election looming, the article looks at the underlying causes of the differences and what it might mean for the people under a (certain to be elected) new ANC government.
