Starvation Through Abundance: The Bizarre Paradox of Crises of Capitalist Overproduction

The 2008 recession was and is one of the largest economic events of recent history, and has caused economic upheaval the world over, massive increases in levels of poverty and thousands of companies declaring bankruptcy, forcing their workers out of a job and spreading misery and despair.

For young people, this event was particularly catastrophic: austerity measures have led to university education becoming often unbearably expensive, and it is difficult to get a job even with a degree – and nigh on impossible without one. Young people have almost no possibility of gaining the economic base that makes it possible to buy a house or support a family. Our futures have been taken away – we are being forced to take any work we can, often through shady temp agencies that give young people no chance at unionisation or industrial action, which means that we can’t even improve situations for ourselves.

Why is this? Commonly the blame falls on the bankers. While we certainly have no love for bankers, and they contributed in no small way to the crisis, it is not the case that the whole crisis was caused by a few stupid bankers making bad investments. This argument lays the blame at the feet of a clique of individuals, instead of where it should lie – with how the economic system of Capitalism functions at a fundamental level.

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What is ‘affordable’ housing?

In this revealing video, Jeremy Corbyn and Sadiq Khan refuse to comment on their approval of a plan announced by Tory Lord Kerslake, and put together by Savills Estate agents and a variety of private business interests (with ‘input’ from housing charities, mind you), to “Solve London’s housing problem” by building 350,000 new homes in the capital.

Developers keep out

Sound good? Well, the devil is in the detail! You see all of the homes will be built by private developers. Most of the land will be ‘released’ by councils, who plan to demolish libraries, community facilities – and notably inner city council estates currently housing 400,000 working-class families, which they describe as “past their use-by date.”

So this eminently capitalist ‘housing solution’ will in fact bring an overall decrease in the absolute number of homes, with a massive transfer of wealth from our councils to developers, while maintaining inflated property prices, and socially cleansing our capital city to boot. A royal flush for the developers and financiers!

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Understand Capitalism – understand your life!

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Capitalism is in crisis. On this point all are agreed. But what is the crisis? How can it be solved? Is capitalism the ‘end of history’, as Francis Fukuyama famously said after the counter-revolutions in the USSR and Eastern Europe in 1989-91? Will capitalism simply ‘sort itself out’? Is it the best of a bad lot, as Churchill and Thatcher maintain?

OR is it up to you and me, the working people to lay hold of the means of production – the factories, mines, banks, offices, warehouses, shopping empires, shipping, rail, trucking conglomerates, and run them ourselves; to plan production sustainably to satisfy OUR basic needs and to meet OUR pressing interests.

For what will be the cost exacted from the masses of working people of the world in ‘blood and treasure’ for capitalism’s ongoing existence? Can the world bear yet more “belt tightening”, poverty, misery, ill health, malnutrition, environmental degradation, unemployment – with all the physical and spiritual degradation that these entail – and deaths from economic and political causes – notably war and famine? And why? All so the few hundred billionaires can carry on amassing obscene amounts of wealth at our expense!

In this talk, Ella Rule explains the economics of capitalism, including the basics of Karl Marx’s Classic “Das Capital” and Lenin’s “Imperialism”. Only by understanding the problem, can we find a solution. How is value created? how is it amassed? Of what does exploitation consist (How are workers robbed of the values they create?)

Watching this video introduction is a vital step – that takes us closer to the goal of building a movement with the understanding to tackle our parasitic and decadent ruling class; place workers in control; and enable us to build an economy that serves the interests of the vast masses of humanity. Please watch and help to spread it far and wide. You are welcome to repost it, but please acknowledge your source.

“The capitalists are our implacable enemies. Their wealth is built upon our poverty, their joy upon our misery!”

There is not a crime that capitalists will not commit to preserve their monopoly over the means of production, distribution and exchange. The only fitting punishment is to deprive them of their ill-gotten gains.

Our revenge will be the laughter on the faces of our children. A better world is possible.

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https://redyouth.org
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