For many people, when you mention capitalism, the first thing they think of are big businesses dominated by the pursuit of the bottom line. Trying to keep out of the red, or trying to increase profits – that’s what capitalism’s all about.
With the fall into recession it became clear for many that each country also wants to balance its books. In this year’s general election in the UK all the main parties insisted that the question of the deficit was the number one issue facing a new government, whatever colour it turned out to be. As such, the cuts in public sector expenditure are already having an impact on workers’ lives, with the prospect of much worse to come with each new announcement. Capitalism is affecting workers’ jobs, pay, working and living standards.
But capitalism affects a lot more than that. As the main article on this page shows, there continues to be a proliferation of disasters that can be attributed ultimately to capitalism’s pollution of the atmosphere, global warming and climate change, as well as disasters that are obviously manmade. The reckless pursuit of profit has led to a massive ecological deterioration. Not only that, capitalism is showing itself increasingly incapable of being able to deal with the catastrophes that it has created.
The competition that has always been integral to the capitalist mode of production is not limited to the battle between individual companies for resources, customers, sales and profits. Competition takes place at a military level in conflicts between different countries – the ultimate form of competition being imperialist war. And the perspective for future conflicts in the epoch of ‘total war’, taking into account nuclear weaponry and the massive capacities of conventional armaments, is potentially the obliteration of humanity.
Capitalism is a disaster: at the level of government cuts, environmental devastation and imperialist war. Come and discuss this catastrophe, as well as the struggle of the working class, the only force with the potential to destroy the capitalist system and create a new and human society.