A recent report from the US Senate about the use of torture by the CIA outlines the most hair-raising villainies that have been committed in the name of “democracy”, removing any remaining doubts that one might have about the degenerate rottenness of US capitalism and imperialism. These are not “commie lies and propaganda,” but come straight from the horse’s mouth.

Francis Fukuyama, who upon the fall of the USSR famously declared “the end of history”, now says that America “suffers from the problem of political decay in a more acute form than other democratic political systems.” In plain English: capitalism and its institutions are in big trouble.

The starkest contradiction of the present epoch is the huge level of inequality in which the vast majority of the human race is immersed in poverty, misery and deprivation in an era of plenty. And yet, today the means of production and modern advanced technology have the capacity to produce much more than the total needs for a decent existence of the human race.