World Crisis

Society stands at an impasse. Ahead, Capitalism faces economic meltdown and war in Europe, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Having written off the colonial masses to poverty and disease to protect their profits, the bosses now turn their fire on the workers of the developed world. We need a program to fight back against this offensive.

Who doubts the crisis in society? The Media are obsessed with Clinton’s dalliances and the attempts to "unite-the-Right". At the same time, out of the 4.4 billion people living in the ex-colonial countries: three-fifths lack basic sanitation, one-third have no safe drinking water, one-quarter have inadequate housing and one-fifth are undernourished and have no access to modern health services.

Capitalism also offers no solution in the developed world. In Canada, even at the height of the boom, 8% are unemployed. This means that 1.2 million people sit idle due to the failure of this anarchic system. Youth unemployment stands at 16%, solid proof that capitalism has no future to offer the younger generation.

And yet the bosses preach there is no money to help the poor. Even the UN admits that universal access to education, health care, reproductive health care for women, adequate food, safe water and sanitation would cost just $60 billion a year. This is less than 4% of the combined wealth of the 225 richest people!

Nothing can be done under capitalism unless it makes a profit, and that is its fundamental flaw. The bosses develop the means of production while driving down the wages of the working class. Then they are surprised when the workers cannot afford to buy back the goods they have just made. This crisis of overproduction means that commodities cannot be sold at a profit. To put it bluntly - capitalism doesn’t work.

The inevitable descent into overproduction is why Korea, Indonesia and Japan have slumped. Yeltsin’s attempt to restore capitalism to Russia has been blown over by the winds of economic reality. Brazil, comprising 17% of US exports, is toppling. Europe, Canada and the USA are next. Present conditions will seem like a holiday.

What is the solution, what can be done? Capitalism is anarchy. It destroys factories, communities, the environment, and above all, people. You cannot control what you do not own. Working people must take hold of the commanding heights of the economy and democratically run them for the good of all. Again and again, workers and youth have tried to change society. But the leaders of the Labour movement have been found wanting. The NDP (Canada's New Democratic Party) and the trade unions must stand up for our interests as workers and young people who need a future. YFIS has been formed to galvanize this class struggle. Capitalism offers only despair. There is no middle road. Join the fight for socialism!