A recent edition of The Economist
(April 7, 2011) complained about “Capitalism’s waning popularity”. One
does not have to be a genius to understand that thirty years or more of
cuts in welfare, large scale privatizations and constant pressure on
workers in the workplace was sooner or later going to end up with
ordinary working people questioning the system that is responsible for
these policies, i.e. capitalism.
A recent edition of The Economist
(April 7, 2011) complained about “Capitalism’s waning popularity”. One
does not have to be a genius to understand that thirty years or more of
cuts in welfare, large scale privatizations and constant pressure on
workers in the workplace was sooner or later going to end up with
ordinary working people questioning the system that is responsible for
these policies, i.e. capitalism.
The article
opens up with the following: “Rising debt and lost output are the
common measures of the cost of the financial crisis. But a new global
opinion poll shows another, perhaps more serious form of damage: falling
public support for capitalism.” (The poll the article is referring to
is available here.)
The more intelligent strategists of capital look at such polls
seriously, and for a very good reason. They understand that if millions
of people consider their system a good one, one that “delivers”, i.e.
one that provides a reasonable living and one that appears to have a
good future, then their system is safe. The capitalist class does not
hold onto power merely by controlling the state apparatus, the police,
the army and the judiciary, the mass media and the education system.
It also needs to keep a grip on the consciousness of millions of
ordinary working people and make them believe that in spite of all its
vices capitalism is the best of all possible socio-economic systems.
However, even control of the state, the media and the education system
is not enough for this nice cosy set up to remain unshaken. All these
other means of control break down if the system is not capable of
providing at least a reasonable, tolerable existence for the majority of
the people.
Workers can take quite a lot, so long as they can get on with paying
the rent or the mortgage, putting enough food on the table for their
families, having a decent education system, healthcare system and so on.
They can even accept some degree of loss of such services. They can
grudgingly accept what their trade union or party leaders say when they
present such attacks as “temporary” and as a price to be paid for
improving things in the future.
The point is that there is a limit to all this. If such a situation
is prolonged, if the calls for workers to make sacrifices is repeated
over and over again, and if in the middle of all this the world is
shaken by an almighty financial crisis which then leads to growing
unemployment accompanied by increasing inflation, then all the means at
the disposal of the capitalist class to convince people that their
system is the best possible available are no longer sufficient, and
things begin to change.
The apparent “sudden” breaking out of the Arab revolution is an
indication of this, as are the mass movements in the advanced capitalist
countries. In France in the autumn we saw 3.5 million people take to
the streets in protest at Sarkozy’s austerity measures. In Greece we
have seen general strike after general strike. In Britain on March 26 we
saw anything between 500,000 and 800,000 workers and youth protest
against Cameron’s draconian austerity policies. This was the biggest
trade union organised demonstration in the history of Britain. In the
USA we saw the magnificent mobilisations in Madison, Wisconsin.
What is happening in the United States must be of real concern to the
US ruling class. They were taken by surprise by the Tunisian and
Egyptian revolutions, but what we saw in Wisconsin shows that revolution
is not affecting only the Arab countries. It is in the air everywhere.
The Economist article points out in fact that there has been sharp
change in opinions in the USA: “This is most marked in the country that
used to epitomise free enterprise. In 2002, 80% of Americans agreed that
the world’s best bet was the free-market system. By 2010 that support
had fallen to 59%….” The sharpest drop was actually between 2009 and
2010 when it fell from over 70% to below 60%.
This figure, however, is an average across all social classes. If we
look at the opinions of ordinary working people, especially those at the
bottom of the ladder we see an even more marked shift in opinion. As
the article continues, “Capitalism’s waning fortunes are starkly visible
among Americans earning below $20,000. Their support for the free
market has dropped from 76% to 44% in just one year.”
So what we have now is a majority of the lower paid US workers no
longer having the illusions they may have had in the past. This is an
important development in the situation in the United States and it
indicates that more struggles are on the way like the one we recently
saw in Wisconsin.
Maybe the US ruling class can console itself with the results for
France which reveal that only 6% of the French population “strongly”
supports the free market. This is a further fall from the already low 8%
back in 2002. If one adds those who “somewhat agree” with the idea that
capitalism is a superior system the overall figure rises to 30%, but
this is still a sharp fall from the 42% figure in 2002. If we add to
these figures Sarkozy’s popularity ratings which reveal that only 29% of
the population are happy with his performance – his worst approval
rating since he came to office in 2007 – then we can see that French
capitalism is also in deep trouble. Most of Europe presents a similar
picture. And even such an economic powerhouse as Japan reveals falling
confidence in the capitalist system, where 50% either “strongly” or
“somewhat” disagree with the idea that the market economy is the best
system.
Not surprisingly, the poll also reveals that those countries where a
significant majority of the population believes capitalism is working is
in those countries that are presently booming, such as China, Brazil
and Germany. What will happen when these economies slow down is not
indicated in the polls. We can confidently predict that people’s
opinions will sharply change in these countries also, as they have done
in the USA and most of Europe.
The poll quoted in The Economist was carried out by GlobeScan. Its
Chairman Doug Miller showed some surprise at the results when he said
that: “America is the last place we would have expected to see such a
sharp drop in trust in the free enterprise system. This is not good news
for business.” He added that, “The poll suggests that American business
is close to losing its social contract with average American families
that has enabled it to prosper in the world. Inspired leadership will be
needed to reverse this trend.”
This sharp turn in opinions in the biggest and most powerful country
in the world bodes well for the class struggle in the coming period.
Gone are the days when the USA was the country of the “American Dream”
where everyone was supposed to be able to become successful through hard
work and effort. Reality has come home to the United States and no
amount of “inspired leadership” will solve this dilemma for the US
bourgeoisie. Of course, we can think of another kind of “inspired
leadership” that could make a difference, a genuine socialist leadership
of the US labour movement capable of mobilising the immense power of
the US workers. That is something we are working on!
