A View from the Left: The Financial Crisis & The Socialist Alternative

[Better Believe It]

September 26, 2008
A View from the Left
The Financial Crisis
By DAN La BOTZ


Why the Plan will Fail

The Paulson plan by itself will fail because it seeks only to restart the economy on the same basis, with all of the problems already touched on above. Everyone recognizes that the plan itself is not enough, but McCain's proposal of mere oversight ignores the reality of the economic disaster that has befallen us and the capitalists' need for intervention, while Obama's economic program is too moderate and too modest to have much impact on a disaster of this scope.

Even if the Paulson plan passes, the next administration will face a continued unraveling of the financial system, the persistence of recession, and the broader issues which derive from both the decline of the United States as a world power and the coming end of the petroleum-based economy, and, we should also note, the environmental crisis. What is needed is a program aims not to save the bankers and the capitalist system, but one which begins with what we so often erroneously call the American middle class, but would be better called working people, and with the working poor, the casual laborers, and the just plain poor.

We need at once a moratorium on foreclosures, an end adjustable rate mortgages, renegotiation of 30- and 40-year mortgages and creation of a financial program to aid struggling homeowners. We must tax the banks, insurance companies and corporations which have profited in the course of creating the financial crisis and make them pay the costs of reconstruction of the financial system, a new system. We need to create affordable and attractive public housing to meet the needs of those who now struggle to pay market rents. We must re-regulate the financial sector and create state and social credit agencies. Still, all of this will only be a bridge over troubled waters, and we may cross the bridge only to find a rising tide on the other side.

A Socialist Alternative

The socialist alternative begins with the understanding that the economic crisis provides an opportunity to rethink and then to redo our economy and our society. While we oppose the efforts to save the capitalist system, we need to demand programs to support its victims. If we are going to spend billions and trillions of dollars to revamp the economy, then it should not be to save the bankers, financiers, and speculators who have brought us to ruin, but rather to keep people in their homes, to find them jobs, and to win them health insurance. If the government is to own things, then it should own not only financial institutions, but also productive industries and construction companies so that we might build a national rail system. If the government owns things, then we should have a national plan for the economy, elaborated through democratic institutions.

To create such a system of democratic socialism which represents the human alternative to an economic crisis suggests a political struggle, which means the building of a new political party to the left of the Democrats. To build such a party that can fight to change the direction of society and build a democratic and socialist alternative will require new social movements larger and more powerful than the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s or even the militant labor movement of the 1930s. Acorn, national network of community organization that focuses on housing issues, called demonstrations around the country saying save homeowners, not bankers. Such demonstrations represent an important beginning of building such a movement.

I don't agree with all of the points made in the article but it raises ideas that are worthy of discussion. Please read the entire article at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/labotz09262008.html

[Better Believe It]

1. ACORN: Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now

ACORN Members Call on Congress, Feds to "Bail Out Main Street, Not Just Wall Street"
September 23, 2008

On Tuesday, Sept. 23, ACORN members staged demonstrations in 35 cities, calling on Congress to "Bail Out Main Street, Not Just Wall Street" in protesting the Bush administration’s failure to include lifelines for American homeowners facing foreclosure in its Wall Street bailout proposal.

ACORN members rallied on Capitol Hill, at Congressional offices and outside Federal Reserve banks.

ACORN members protested Tuesday in Cincinnati; Boston; Springfield, Mass.; Hartford; Bridgeport, Conn.; Denver; Pittsburgh, Pa.; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Orange County, Calif.; Long Beach, Calif.; Miami; Orlando; Cleveland; Dallas; St. Louis, Mo.; Minneapolis; Albuquerque; Phoenix; Tucson; New York; Seattle; Detroit; Louisville, Ky.; Providence, R.I.; Las Vegas; Indianapolis; Columbus, Ohio; and Little Rock, Ark. at their local Congressional offices and Federal Reserve banks.

"When this administration and the Federal Reserve refused to regulate the banking and credit industry, greed ran rampant," said ACORN member Linda Lee outside the Federal Reserve building in Pittsburgh. "The predatory lenders were allowed to come into our neighborhood and sell taxpaying homeowners scores of bad loans that pushed them into foreclosure and bankruptcy. Now they want to take our tax dollars to save the lenders, but forget about us."

ACORN members oppose the administration’s current proposal, which calls for spending $700 billion of taxpayer money to bail out Wall Street, who fueled the current crisis, but fails to devote a single penny to rescue American homeowners who were victimized by the predatory lending of these same institutions.

http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=12439&tx_ttnews=22329&tx_ttnews=12387&cHash=aac01eafd3

[VAliberal]

2. Tremendous article!

Thanks.

[Better Believe It]

3. Your Welcome

It's a pretty long article but I'm glad you found it interesting.

[Joe Chi Minh]

4. Absolutely invaluable article.