08) REFLECTING ON A TUMULTUOUS YEAR

People's Voice Editorial

     As 2012 comes to an end, revolutionary and progressive activists have much to reflect upon. This was the fourth full calendar year of the global economic crisis which erupted in the fall of 2008, and there is no end on the horizon for 2013. Everywhere in the "developed" capitalist world, austerity is the only item on the menu for the corporate elite and their parties, including social democratic politicians who were elected on platforms to defend working people.

     This was also a year in which the US-dominated NATO imperialists and their local supporters ramped up efforts to sabotage the "Arab Spring." Terrified by the popular mobilizations across the Arab world to demand better pay and working conditions, social equality, and democratic freedoms, the ruling classes are willing to use every weapon at their disposal to divide the peoples and fan bloody civil conflicts, such as the current attempt to overthrow the government of Syria.

     Not least, 2012 saw the spread of environmental catastrophes and climate change, arising from greenhouse gas emissions which are the result of unchecked capitalist expansion. It is obvious that our planet's future cannot be left to the whims of an economic system driven solely by the quest for maximum corporate profits.

     The recent meeting of Communist and Workers' parties in Beirut (see pages 6 & 7) showed that there is a people's alternative to the austerity agenda. However, the working class and its allies must be prepared to fight for fundamental social change to halt the slide into poverty, ecological collapse, fascism and war. This will be a difficult and complex battle against a ruthless enemy, but as a famous revolutionary once warned, the only options for our world are socialism or barbarism.

(The above article is from the December 1-31, 2012, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)