Capitalism over centuries proved itself a dynamic system, able to renew itself. From mercantile and finance capital at the margins of production, through the heroic age of capitalist industry and agriculture paid for by the blood of working people, to an even more bloody age of imperial expansion and global warfare driven by the demand for resources and markets, to this, its final phase.
For rather than a system able to revolutionise production, final era capitalism is a break on the further development of humanity. It is characterised by the absolute domination of finance capital. Few fortunes can be made through the production of commodities. Instead all must contribute a regular tribute to the financiers. If a government wishes to build a school or a hospital, private finance must take a share. Many schemes that could go ahead thus are abortive. A factory, farm or even just a citizen will bear the vast cost of bailing out the banks, the guarantees extended to them, the extra tax burden imposed by their assisting of massive tax avoidance and evasion for others, for many decades. Concepts such as intellectual property have been developed and extended so that even the natural wealth of the planet can be owned by an individual or corporation, to whom others must pay tribute if they wish to make use of it. The dominant culture lionises the person that makes a fortune overnight, at whatever cost to others, and despises those that just want an honest living.
The cost of this is enormous. Much of the world has entered a ‘lost decade’ of stagnation punctuated by periods of recession. Democracy has been effectively suspended in parts of Southern Europe. Citizens face higher taxes, pay cuts and services being shut.
Everything is ‘sweated’ to its limit. LEAN methodology is inflicted on public and private sector workplaces alike. Perks and privileges are deemed ‘uncompetitive’ and removed. Benefits supporting the disabled and those forced onto the dole by the lack of jobs are squeezed, with cowboy outfits like ATOS Origin making fortunes for their owners.
As with previous societies, such as the Greek city states, it is clearer than ever that our current form of society is reaching its ecological limits. However, this time the crisis is global, not local. Climate change, resource depletion and soil erosion are having an effect in every part of the world.
The answer is that we need to reaffirm revolutionary principles for 2012. The overthrow of the financiers and the liberation of the majority must be our core aim. This cannot be achieved through ‘dropping out of society’, or an illusion that we can create an alternative to what exists unaffected by the world around us, but by conscious engagement in the mainstream of actually existing society, whether in the workplace or outside it.
* This is very much written in a personal capacity, with some inspiration from an article by an early Tunbridge Wells socialist, Willis-Harris, published in Justice (March 1st 1890).
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