Fuel and food prices soaring,production stagnant,unemployment rising, the housing market in freefall, the credit crunch. Then banks and financial institutions going down one after another - Northern Rock, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Lehman Brothers,AIG, Merrill Lynch,HBOS.Who next?
The policy u-turns are amazing - the Bush government, high priests of neo-liberalism, true believers in the free market, NATIONALISES Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The sums involved are staggering - in one weekend the US Federal Reserve produced $85bn to bail out AIG, that's $14 for every person on the planet, enough to feed all of the poor in the world for weeks or maybe months.
The trouble is we know that while the bankers walk away with golden hand shakes working people will be expected to pay the price.They will say now is the time for us all to tighten our belts, now is the time for sacrifice.
This is a huge challenge to everyone on the left. Everyone is talking about the issues. We have to be able to explain why capitalism breeds crises,(and why its not just a few spivs in the city). We have to restate the basic case for socialism i.e. for production based on human need not profit. Above all we need to defend the interests of working people and insist that we are not made to pay for their crisis.
To assist in this process Portsmouth SWP is holding an EMERGENCY PUBLIC MEETING.
CAPITALISM IN CRISIS : who will pay the price?
Speaker: Joseph Choonara
Wednesday 24 September 7.30pm
Southsea Community Centre, St.Paul's Square, Southsea
There will need to be many meetings, many protests, many strikes and many struggles of all kinds but this meeting will be good place to start understanding what is happening and preparing to resist. POMPEY RESISTANCE invites all its readers to attend.
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