(The following article is from the October 1-15, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

People's Voice Editorial, Oct. 1-15, 2008

As Marxist economists have pointed out, the bail out of debt-ridden banking and insurance giants amounts to a form of "socialism for the rich." After decades of denying any government role in the economy other than to cut regulations and expand the military, the ruling class has been compelled by the depth of the global capitalist crisis to use massive state intervention to stave off complete collapse.

     In the short term, emergency actions are necessary - after all, the implosion of capitalism would have immediate and devastating consequences for working people, not least by adding tens of millions to the growing numbers of unemployed workers.

     The real question is the mid-to long-term result of placing up to a trillion dollars of debt on the taxpayers - mainly working people - of the capitalist countries. This will inevitably reduce buying power and set the stage for an even deeper economic crisis. The ruling class could choose instead to surrender some of the massive tax breaks for the rich enacted by their neoliberal governments. Or the U.S. corporate elite could drastically downsize military spending. Both options seem unlikely, since the business of the ruling class is to enrich itself.

     Yet these measures are desperately necessary. Shifting the tax burden onto the rich and the corporations, and slashing the bloated US and Canadian military budgets, would free up huge sums to protect working people who are the hardest hit by economic catastrophe. Nationalizing the energy industry is another vital step, one which could provide the material basis for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, creating jobs, and expanding social programs.

     In other words, what we need is not more socialism for the rich whose system generated this turmoil, but a healthy dose of socialism for the workers who create all wealth.