(We reproduce an article from Britain relevant to the situation in NZ. To read full article go to http://www.marxist.com/monopoly-capitalism.htm)

Capitalist economists constantly argue that privately run industry driven by pursuit of profit is the best way for an economy to function. But, even a cursory look at the world around us tells a very different story. Far from being efficient, capitalism is riddled with contradictions and crisis. You could write multiple volumes, as Karl Marx did, on the inadequacies of capitalism, but here, in this limited space, we shall deal with just a few.

The workers at the Foshan Honda plant in China won a 35% wage increase after taking strike action which started on May 17.

According to the PSA “Budget 2010 does little to improve prospects for public sector workers and delivery of public services... expect further restructuring tighter restraints and the steady erosion of public services. Job losses will continue....”

Labour history has been made. New Zealand has had it's first Mall workers strike. Workers in JB Hi-Fi in Albany, organised with the Unite Union, were on strike for better pay and against a culture of bullying and intimidation against union members.

It’s been close to a month since the Deepwater Horison Oil Rig exploded and sank into the Gulf of Mexico, just 45 miles south of the already beleaguered gulf coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi. The ensuing oil spill may well surpass that which followed the wreck of the Exxon Valdez, which poured over 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound in the spring of 1989. British Petroleum, which was the operator of the oil platform, had been leasing the rig from the deep seas drilling conglomerate TransOcean.

The loss of belief in the existing society, its institutions, laws and morality, is a prior condition for revolution. But such a change does not happen all at once. Gradually, to the degree that the given socio-economic system begins to fail, the feeling grows that “something is not right” with society, that some kind of change is necessary.

Europe faces a protracted period of austerity, with major contractions in output, consumption and employment. The crisis has started with the smaller, more vulnerable economies like Greece, Portugal and Ireland. But the others will follow, starting with Britain. 

Europe faces a protracted period of austerity, with major contractions in output, consumption and employment. The crisis has started with the smaller, more vulnerable economies like Greece, Portugal and Ireland. But the others will follow, starting with Britain. 

After talk of the so called "credit crunch" gave way to optimistic comments about the "green shoots" in the economy, events in Greece caught the bourgeois commentators unaware. Now the world economy has once again been plunged into chaos and uncertainty as the governments of Europe try to contain the fall-out from the near-default of Greece and it is the workers who will be presented with the bill.

“To the toiling masses of Europe it is becoming ever clearer that the bourgeoisie is incapable of solving the basic problems of restoring Europe’s economic life.” (Trotsky, On the United states of Europe, 1923)

New Zealand Perspectives 2010 should be read in conjunction with previous years’ perspectives documents (New Zealand Perspectives 2008 & 2009) as they are a continuation from them. In addition these perspectives should be read in conjunction with the latest World Perspectives analysis and associated material from the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) and Socialist Appeal NZ.

In December 2009 the unemployment rate reached 7.3% of the work force (or 169,000 people), the highest rate in sixteen years. 

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