SP Newsletter No.295

With the worst economic crisis in 80 years rocking the world many workers and young people are starting to question the capitalist system. Capitalism, which dominates the globe, is a system that allows a tiny minority of bosses to own and control the vast amounts of wealth that is produced by billions of ordinary workers.

Even before the heightened levels of suffering and misery wrought by the latest global downturn hit, no one could say that capitalism was ‘working’ for the majority of people. Even during the so-called ‘boom time’ 3 billion people, half of the worlds population, lived on less then $2 per day. 70% of the 1.3 billion living in absolute poverty are women and every second child that is born in the world lives in poverty. This situation is getting worse not better.

Even in ‘advanced’ countries like Australia ordinary people were, and still are, being attacked with increasing education fees, rising unemployment, and worsening working conditions including high rates of casualisation and low wages.

This is not to mention the global warming crisis or the brutal conflicts occurring in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan. And now, all over the world, ordinary people are being told to grit their teeth and bear an even higher burden thanks to the economic crisis. Apparently ‘there is no alternative’.

All of this boils down to the basic fact that capitalism is a system that puts profit before human need. The fundamental problem with the capitalist system is that workers do not get paid for all of the wealth that they produce. Therefore working people can never afford to buy back the goods that they produce. This leads to a situation where more is produced than can be sold, and in turn, economic booms and slumps occur.

One way that this problem is temporarily overcome is by making cheap credit available to people. Obviously this is only a short term solution and at some stage the money will have to be paid back. This is one of the main reasons that the current crisis has been so deep and will be so drawn out.

Because capitalism is a system that puts profits above all else, bosses are constantly forced to try and boost their own profits however they can. This often takes the form of forcing workers to take pay cuts, work extra hours without pay, or work faster.

Bosses also try to have services like education or healthcare privatised so that they can make money from them, and so that they don’t have to pay for these services through taxes. This means that young people and workers are in a constant struggle with bosses over how society’s wealth is used. While bosses attack essential services, wages and working conditions, ordinary people must fight back in order to maintain and advance these necessities.

Ordinary people will never be free of this day-to-day struggle for survival and a decent life until they are free of the system that produces these contradictions. Despite the rhetoric of capitalist politicians, there is an alternative.

A saner system would be based on human need instead of profit. Such a system could allocate societies resources through democratic planning by ordinary people, and alleviate the horrors of capitalism while taking humanity forward. This system is known as socialism, and this is what the Socialist Party is fighting for.

Upcoming SP meetings

The Melbourne Branch of the Socialist Party meets every Wednesday 7pm at Trades Hall on the corner of Lygon & Victoria Streets Carlton South. Upcoming meetings include:

3/2 – 70 years since World War Two
10/2 – Building SP in 2010
17/2 – A socialist attitude to the sex industry
24/2 – Perspectives for class struggle in Indonesia

For more information or for details of meetings in other parts of Australia contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111.

News links:

Middle East: In solidarity with the masses of Gaza
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2010/01/2701.html

Belgium: Victory for Inbev workers
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2010/01/2502.html

Climate change: Capitalism’s climate fiasco in Copenhagen
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2010/01/2501.html

Join the Socialist Party

If you agree with what you have read in our newsletter or on our website you should consider joining SP. The Socialist Party has branches in Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle and Perth as well as members and supporters in all other states.

We are involved in trade union work and student work. We also run community, anti-war and environmental campaigns. But most of all we want to build a party that will fight to get rid of the capitalist system, the system that is at the root of all of these problems. We fight for socialism - a system that will bring an end to wars, poverty and environmental destruction. To join SP contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111 and we will send you a membership application form.

Subscribe to ‘The Socialist’ newspaper!

Support the Socialist Party by subscribing to our monthly newspaper ‘The Socialist’. Subscription rates are only $10 per year or $20 solidarity price. You will receive 11 copies per year delivered to your door every month. You will also receive our email newsletter every week and you will know that you are supporting an organisation that is at the fore of fighting against the capitalist system. To subscribe to ‘The Socialist’ contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111 and we will send you a subscription form.

Socialist Party contact details

Melbourne: Phone Anthony on 0396399111.
Sydney: Phone Gary on 0297287727.
Newcastle: Phone Samantha on 0249681545.
Adelaide: Phone David on 0883441474.
Perth: Phone John on 0894020728.
Rest of Australia: Phone our National Office on 0396399111.
Rest of the world: Phone our International Office on ++ 44 20 8988 8760.

The Socialist Party is the Australian section of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI). The CWI is organised in over 40 countries across the world.

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