The United States Is Sinking: The Crisis Is Widespread & Demands Action from Workers Worldwide

As a part of the wide-sweeping crisis that is shaking up the capitalist and imperialist system, the stock exchanges in major markets and economies have begun to convulse with sharp falls in share prices and other securities after Standard & Poor’s lowered the United States’ credit rating.

As we all remember, Obama’s administration managed to arrange an agreement between the majority of Democrats and Republicans to raise the debt ceiling, allowing them to avoid a momentary cessation of payment (default) on the country’s overdue obligations, particularly U.S. Treasury bonds. This agreement will allow the debt ceiling to increase from $14.3 trillion to $16.7 trillion, which represents 115 percent of the U.S. GDP.

The decisions made by the House of Representatives and the Senate do not represent a real way out of the crisis the American economy is currently undergoing. They will simply momentarily postpone the new upheavals that are coming in the near future, since, as always, it is the workers and the people in general who will have to pay more taxes and suffer through more deprivation and hardship. The so-called tea party, an extreme right-wing, pro-fascist group now acting within the Republican Party, has managed to subjugate Obama and the Democratic majority so that, in exchange for raising the debt ceiling as the government asked, the interests of wealthy Americans are protected and their taxes will not be raised even the slightest bit. At the same time, they demanded cuts in public spending — that is, spending on education, health, housing and general welfare — without touching or reducing even a cent of the budget dedicated to supporting the “war” (in reality, the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq).

In addition to the crisis spanning the countries of the European Union, the American economic crisis is so great that, to avoid collapse and the definitive sinking of the capitalist system, they have spent over $64 trillion rescuing large banks and international monopolies, in addition to enormous resources secretly handed over to large industrial and financial complexes; as a result of the first audit conducted on the U.S. Federal Reserves (the main U.S. bank), it is now known that over $16 trillion was awarded. All the while, budgets for education and health are being reduced and unemployment in the United States today has risen to 25 million people; this is 9.2 percent of the labor force.

The United States’ crisis is provoking widespread panic to the point that some international investors and speculators, as well as some governments, are going to abandon the dollar and the euro as their reserve currency in order to purchase gold, which is why its price has gone up to over $1,700 per troy ounce.

America’s economy today is broken and rotten, as demonstrated by the current national debt total for the entire country, which exceeds $70 trillion (the collective debt of the 52 states and territories that make up the country), and government debt that, with the recent intervention, exceeds the country’s own GDP ($16.7 trillion). The U.S. has a trade debt of over $1.2 trillion (the budget for which exceeds $1.3 trillion). Extreme hunger and poverty are effecting nearly 50 million people; over 25 million are condemned to unemployment. Corruption is the daily bread. This is demonstrated by, among other things, the make-up of the large, imperialist companies’ balance sheets and the secret money injections being given to the components and businesses that make up a part of the international financial oligarchy.

The disrepute of this country — and, above all, of its ever changing administrations — is growing; thus increasing distrust and repudiation of the actions of imperialist countries and their governments, which always seek to unload the effects of the crisis on the backs of workers and the dependent countries and oppressed peoples of the world. These facts in and of themselves constitute the explanation for the mass protests of workers, retirees, the poor, indignant women and young people, who are dissatisfied and long for change and democratic and revolutionary transformations like those occurring in Greece, England, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Libya and Israel, among other countries.

This crisis will have severe repercussions in countries of our region, which will see a reduction in exports, an increase in the price of imports and reductions in remittances for immigrants, who will be out of work and will suffer the effects of inflation and rising interest rates, among other problems. It is well known and obvious that the easy answer for reactionary governments, including the so-called “alternative” ones, will be to move the consequences of the crisis onto the workers and the people, resorting to despicable acts and unpopular economic, political and judicial measures. The path of the employees, the blue-collar workers, the youth and the women is that of organization, and an open and direct fight against imperialist oppression and capitalist exploitation to conquer the traditional powers and construct a new society, free of all the evils that capitalism breeds and creates.