An Analysis of the Capitalist Crisis - What of the working class?

In recent times, it has become (to some of us) all to clear that the Financial, and subsequently Capitalist crisis is going to have a grave impact on the working class. It will send millions into joblessness, force many more into further despotism. It will further concentrate capital, and centralise capital, already we see the slandering of socialism by U.S media, so that when this crisis is over, the blame can once again be pointed at Socialism. So that once again the Libertarian can avoid the pointed finger, and maintain their straw-men arguments with Mises theory. On the other hand it will also undermine libertarian ideology. It will change to some extent the balance of power in the global economy.

But what wont it do? First of all, it will not spark revolutionary movements for the most part, and if any are sparked, they will not have socialist leadership. And I think that this is something I particularly want to talk about. So I will leave the rest to our respective imaginations and focus on this point.

As much as I want it to happen, it wont. But why? You would think that after all of this rhetoric, of forces pushing workers to fight back, that they would, right? Well here’s the thing. It’s not actually that simple. Material factors, though pushing toward a fight, do not guarantee that a fight will be waged or even won.

Working class consciousness is probably one of the more important material factors. The state of much of the western world today is in a grand imbalance. It is so varied, it is impossible to map out even the most vague of statistic graphs to reflect it. There is equilibrium to some extent. Just as many workers align to the right as they do the left. And most, if not all workers still believe that either a revolution can’t work, or wont happen. Many workers share the ideology of the bourgeoisie, and many more are merely disillusioned and see no alternative, thereby merely shrug their shoulders and return to work.

Another important factor is that it is too late. There is no revolutionary leadership with credibility. Nor are there any even visible revolutionary parties in existence today. This crisis will only push workers deeper into the dungeon, and it’s pretty pitch black down there.

Workers are not mobilising as they should be in order to accelerate a movement toward revolutionary politics. Already there are 18 million homes vacant in the U.S, and many more in other advanced western blocs, billions on bailouts, and not a single demonstration of movement forming in opposition. There is a third world war going on, and there is barely a movement to combat that either.

Right now, objectively, the working class is not of form to take on the ruling class any time soon. It is still in the stages of immature struggle. This crisis will not propel the working class into mass action. This is a fact that is a little hard to bite into, for many of us. But now is not the time to be disillusioned.

What will happen, is that the working classes consciousness will be increased, if only marginally. There will be an activation of a working class vanguard, militant workers who will remember the lessons this crisis will teach them. And when socialist revolutionaries are present on the other end, offering an alternative to the ideas of Capitalism, those workers will be much easier to convince.

Just as in 1905, a revolution failed, the 2008 capitalist crisis will not breed a victory. However, that is not to say that in 2020, there will be no uprising. On the other end of this crisis we will have a battle hardened bunch, ready to fight, les they experience the same horror again in the future.

So I have written this up briefly to say, do not jump too far ahead of the working class. They are not ready yet. They will be, some time soon. But today is not the day. What we need to be doing now is building our organisations up. We need to be gaining credibility. Becoming larger, becoming stronger. We need to be practising our arguments and flooding the ears of the many with propaganda which opposes the voice of the few. And when the next crisis hits, there may be the possibility of a counter-attack.