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Let us abandon the sinking ship of the profit system!
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The capsized Costa Concordia, a gigantic floating leisure mall with capacity for over 3,000 passengers who pay thousands of
pounds to escape the dullness of day-to-day life, provides a striking image of today's society.
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Not least, because of the haste with which the ship's owner, wealthy giant company Carnival, which describes itself as "The
World's Most Popular Cruise Line", blamed the disaster on the captain and crew, causing the captain to be arrested.
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How convenient - and how predictable! Those who benefit from the profit system never take responsibility for the damage they
cause! Nor do they ever foot the bill for their criminal irresponsibility. Of course, Carnival's shareholders are covered by
an insurance policy which will pay the costs and damages incurred by the disaster.
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We rate them triple zero
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Likewise in today's crisis. The bankers and big shareholders whose profiteering brought the system to the brink of bankruptcy
in 2007, have never taken responsibility for the cost of their greed.
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On the contrary, they got their politicians in government to pay for their losses out of public funds and then to make us,
working people, foot the resulting bill with brutal austerity measures and massive cuts in welfare provisions and public sector
jobs and services.
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With the bailout cash they were awarded, the profit sharks went on to create even more chaos in the economy. Instead of using
this state bonanza to create jobs (as their government henchmen alleged they would), they closed down factories, cut jobs and
wages and reduced investment to the bare bone, while using the mountain of cash on which they were sitting to speculate on
financial markets.
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Predictably, the weaker economies of the developed world were the first to be hit by their speculative drive: Iceland, then
Ireland and the small central European states. The EU states of Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy have followed. Last week, it
was the turn of France, Europe's 2nd largest economy, whose credit rating was downgraded. It lost the famous "AAA", supposed to
be a symbol of economic "health".
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Meanwhile, the bailed out banks are making a killing out of the exorbitant interest they charge on the soaring public debt of
every country!
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Now the French and British governments are using this latest episode in the financial crisis to justify the need for more
austerity measures against the working class. In France, the measures were already on the agenda, so that it won't change much
to what the working class was already expecting. Here, Osborne is promising us further cuts, arguing yet again, that this has
nothing to do with the health of the British economy - which is apparently good, thanks to him - but everything to do with the
troubles exported by the Eurozone.
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But of course, neither in France nor over here, is there is any question of making the real criminals foot the bill for their
crisis. Their ship may be sinking, with all of us on board, but until the very end they will still tell us that their system
can work! Yes, they would like us to quietly drown, while they go on grabbing all the resources of society to keep themselves
afloat.
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Strike now to make them pay!
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However something can be done about that. Because, like the Costa Concordia, the capitalists' ship only "sails" because we, the
working class crew ensure that it does: we run the engines, pull the levers, tighten the bolts and turn the wheels. Which
gives us immense potential power over their system, but also over them. And that is precisely why the capitalist class gets its
politicians to lure the union leaders, who in theory at least, are at the "head" of our power, into their pockets.
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So even Len McCluskey, leader of Unite, who just told off Labour's leaders for supporting the ConDem cuts, can't or won't jump
Labour's ship. He says, "It is time for those who want a real alternative centred on investment, job creation and public
intervention to end the slump - and a Labour party that will articulate that - to get organised in parliament and outside."
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But at least he says we should get "organised"! That we should, and we can. The bosses are using every opportunity to cut
their labour costs, now and into the future, by cutting jobs, pensions and wages via 2-tier and using all kinds of other tricks.
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We in turn need to use every single opportunity to fight their attacks. This is the only way we will reach the point where we
can start issuing our own demands in order to get rid of this capsizing system, once and for all. So let us bring as many
others as possible on board - and strike now!
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