People's Voice Editorial

     The ruling class has tried to whip up enthusiasm for its celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, but people across the planet are very sceptical about the private profit system. A new BBC World Service poll reports that only 11% of the 29,000 people questioned across 27 countries responded that "free market capitalism works well and increased regulation will make it less efficient." Only in the U.S. and Pakistan did more than one in five agree that capitalism works well as it stands.

     Almost a quarter (23% globally) agreed that "capitalism is fatally flawed and a different economic system is needed". That is the view of 43% in France, 38% in Mexico, 35% in Brazil, 30% in Ukraine, and 27% in Spain. Here in Canada, 20% agreed, more than those who support the system as it stands. (Over 50% of Canadians support "regulation and reform" of free-market capitalism.)

     There is strong support everywhere for more equal distribution of wealth. That view was backed by majorities in 22 of the 27 countries, especially in Latin America (92% in Mexico, 91% in Chile, and 89% in Brazil). In 26 countries, the majority want government to be more active in regulating business.

     Interestingly, world opinion over the former Soviet Union is divided between the imperialist countries and the "global South." While the majority of Americans and Europeans agreed that the end of the USSR was "mainly a good thing" (79% in Germany, 76% in Britain and 74% in France), millions even in this region took a different view. On the other hand, 70% of Egyptians, 61% of Russians, 54% of Ukrainians, and an average of about 40% in Pakistan, India and Indonesia say the end of the Soviet Union was "mainly a bad thing."

     "It appears that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 may not have been the crushing victory for free-market capitalism that it seemed at the time," said Doug Miller, chairman of polling firm GlobeScan which co-conducted the survey.

     Too bad for the bosses, but from the viewpoint of the global working class, support for socialist alternatives to capitalism is on the rise!