EDITORIAL
The Capitalists Are Unfit to Rule and so Are Their Two Parties

Nov 7, 2022

What follows is the editorial that appeared on the front of all SPARK’s workplace newsletters, during the week of October 31, 2022.

The interest rate for the common 30-year mortgage shot up past 7%, the highest it’s been in 20 years. And mortgages are not the only thing with higher rates. Interest on car loans is up. So is the rate your greedy credit card company charges you.

Inflation on top of inflation. In this world where wealth collects at the top of the economy, stolen from those of us at the base who do the work, in this world, yes, we buy things on credit. We aren’t Elon Musk with 44 billion dollars to spare. Without credit, we can’t get a house, a car, or even school clothes for our kids.

Inflation is killing us. We face a sharp rise in prices for all the vital necessities: food, housing, gas for our cars, heating oil to get us through the winter, electricity to keep the lights on, water to keep things clean and cook and on and on and on.

It is a crisis, caused by this capitalist class with its manic striving after profit. They push up prices to make more profit. No one is spared from the inflation. Workers, retirees, those on disability, the unemployed, partially unemployed, the “self-employed,” Uber workers, contract workers, on-call workers, mom-and-pop store owners—we’re all hit.

And inflation is not the end of it. The same capitalist system that brought us inflation is also working in ways that guarantee unemployment. The chief banker for this system, the head of the Federal Reserve System, says it. He predicts his bank’s policies will bring about “some pain for households.” Unemployment is what he calls “the unfortunate cost of reducing inflation.”

Put in plain English, it’s an admission that this system cannot get rid of inflation without causing a big jump in unemployment. The fact is, we have both: scary inflation AND unemployment. Already today, this system of production cannot employ almost 38% of the working-age population. The economists call them people “not participating in the labor force.”

“Not participating”—it’s a statistical lie to hide the real, very high level of unemployment. In fact, 38% of the working age population has no place in the productive economy, and no wage.

This is the system we inhabit. And in this system, both parties, Democratic and Republican, accuse each other of causing the problems.

Yes, it’s true, Republicans helped cause the disaster. So did Democrats. But there is a much deeper problem, which is how this capitalist system works. And neither party talks about that.

Working people, facing only Democrat and Republican, have no choice in the election. To vote for one of those two parties means to choose between two henchmen for the capitalist class.

In three states, at least, there is another choice: candidates of the Working Class Party, who openly stand for the party working people need, which working people themselves will build.

In Maryland, it’s possible to vote Working Class for Governor and Lieutenant Governor.

In Michigan it’s possible to choose Working Class in the 1st, 3rd, 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th, and 13th Congressional districts, as well as for the 2nd, 3rd and 6th State Senate districts, PLUS everyone, everywhere in the state can vote Working Class for State Board of Education.

In Illinois, you can vote Working Class in the 4th Congressional district.

This election won’t change things. No election can. But by voting Working Class, you are planting a flag, letting it be known that there are people, some tens of thousands of people, even more, who are fed up with the disaster that the capitalist class has created for their lives.

Your vote says what you know to be true: that your own class, the working class, can do a far better job of running things. Your vote for Working Class is a down payment on the party the working class will organize and the future it will build.