New Communist Party of Britain

WORLD TODAY

The economic and political crisis of capitalism once again proves the validity of the Marxist critique of capitalism. Those in the labour movement who contended that capitalism had found a way of becoming crisis-free and that boom-and-bust was a thing of the past have been proved wrong.

The current slump may well prove to be the most profound in the history of the capitalist system. The capitalist media try to find a scapegoat to blame for this crisis. They point to greedy bankers and even claim that the past Labour government was to blame. But the real reason for the crisis is endemic to the capitalist system itself.

The crisis affects every capitalist country in the world, irrespective of whether they have capitalist or social democratic governments. The proof of this is the fast rising unemployment throughout the system with notable concerns going to the wall, giving rise to a further concentration of power within a shrinking elite.

We meet again at a time of sharpening contradictions - and the primary contradiction in the world today is between United States imperialism and the rest of the world it seeks to dominate. When it suits them American, British and Franco-German imperialists will bang the drum of “human rights”. They’ll bleat on that they are the friends of the Arabs when they think they can get away with it.

But when the Lebanese were attacked by Israel in 2006, Anglo-American imperialism did nothing to stop it until it became clear that the Israelis were losing. They look on while the Palestinians languish under a brutal occupation and the Gazans suffer an inhumane and illegal blockade.

They propped up the Ben Ali and Mubarak regimes in Tunisia and Egypt until the last minute. They support the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara.

They posed as the friends of the Libyan people to get a mandate at the United Nations Security Council, giving undertakings to the Russian and Chinese governments which were soon broken and the mandate was used to sanction Nato support for the overthrow of the Gaddafi government by Libyan reactionaries in imperialist pay. Renewed attempts to use the UN as a cover for imperialist “regime change” in Syria have now been foiled by Russian and Chinese vetoes.

We stand by the Syrian government and the communist and progressive forces in Syria fighting to defend their independence and their democratic, secular constitution.