Within capitalism, a crisis does not appear accidentally. Since 1825, more or less regularly, crises have recurred. Crisis means that the capitalist economy is not developing smoothly and continuously. The basic contradiction of capitalism, between the social character of production and private capitalist form of appropriation of the resulting production, is the biggest cause of — and final reason for — economic crisis in capitalism.
However, that basic contradiction does not lead directly to the crisis, but rather it manifests itself in new, different contradictions, which themselves trigger a crisis. Limited consumption, stemming from the basic contradiction of capitalism, represents a substantial aspect of the crisis, whereby limited consumption in certain sector influences the production in the other sectors. In other words: the basic contradiction of capitalism appears also in a growing disproportionality among the individual sectors of production.
The deepening of process of imperialist globalization leads to a speedy infection of the world, spread by crisis. The free market mechanism causes unequal development, socially and geographically. Investment concentrates the wealth in a few areas, in the hands of a small number of people. Only state interventions can secure removal of those social and geographical differences. But the neoliberal policy has liquidated such interventions and asserts that the magic hand of the market will solve everything. State enterprises, which ensured some income for the state budget, were privatized. Absence of that income flow was substituted by increasing of indirect taxes, which hit the ranks of moderate wage earners in society hardest. Nevertheless, it is necessary to emphasize that state intervention within capitalism does not solve the basic contradiction of capitalist system, but only softens, in some measure, the negative impact of the market.
The basic contradiction of capitalism cannot be resolved in the framework of capitalism. That contradiction can be resolved only in the framework of socialism. Today’s global crisis is a reflection of the collapse of neoliberal and capitalist ideology, adopted and pursued not only by the European right wing parties, but also by the social democrats. This crisis proves that the market does not provide a solution for everything and that it cannot be self-regulating.
Today we see how the USA and EU carry out nationalization and interventions, in order to remove what they themselves have caused. The collapse of the European socialist camp, which led to the creation of a new balance of forces and a basis for new economic tendencies, has led to the fact that the USA started to dictate its economic policy conceptions, not only through the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization. In other words, the crisis is linked to US domination, which imposes its own version of global neoliberal policy. That neoliberal policy had to be fixed in a constitutional treaty and it is fixed in the Lisbon Treaty. The European Central Bank, instead of following an economic development goal, follows a a stable money goal.
Today, it is time to present ourselves as authentic Left, with a socialist alternative. The main priority of socialism consists in its capability to mobilize the financial resources of society and to invest and distribute those resources in favor of society. That capability, built on the prevailing social character of ownership of means of production, secures proportional and balanced economic and social development. Today, the authentic Left, trade unions, and non-privileged have a chance to declare publicly that banks and other strategic enterprises must not serve private interests. Speculation and similar fictitious business represent one of the factors endangering stable economic development.
Today is a time to offer an alternative Left policy, against privatization of everything. Latin America is achieving great success in the struggle against neoliberalism and US domination.
