Davos summit: a broken capitalist system

Take the wealth off the 1%!

Monopoly man with axe dancing on money bags, photo torbakhopper (Creative Commons)

Photo torbakhopper (Creative Commons) (Click to enlarge)

Robin Clapp

At their annual semi-secret get together in Davos, Switzerland last week, 3,000 bankers, industry chiefs, media moguls and capitalist politicians met to deliberate the state of world affairs.

Their primary concerns were not that 900 children worldwide still die every day from drinking polluted water, or that climate change scientists have warned that 2015 was the warmest year ever recorded.

Nor were they embarrassed that under their ownership of the world economy the wealth gap has now widened to such mind-boggling proportions that just 62 multi-billionaires own the same amount of wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people across the globe.

Inequality

This shocking report on inequality from Oxfam, concerned them far less than the news that their private casinos, more commonly known as the world's stock markets, had been experiencing difficulties that were undermining their profits and prospects.

These self-declared masters of the universe were forced to conclude that their system isn't working properly. Pumping the banks full of money through Quantitative Easing has merely created more debt and inflated asset prices.

The much-lauded recovery from the 2008 economic crash is unstable and without real foundation. Now, slowing growth in China, recessionary trends in Europe and plunging oil prices, are all creating a perfect storm of global gloominess.

But once again it's the working class and the poor who will be expected to pick up the tab for capitalism's failures. Our living standards haven't risen during the so-called recovery. On the contrary, savage cuts to jobs, wages and conditions are the new normal.

People know this system doesn't deliver for them and their families. What is needed instead is an alternative for the 21st century - a socialist system, where the real wealth creators, the 99%, control and own the wealth produced, thus providing the 1% represented at Davos with their final redundancy notices.

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Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.