The first 10 years of the New Millennium

Economic crisis have plagued capitalism in time of industrialization. They are signs of the problems of the capitalist world system

Some countries took the Millenium Development Goals seriously. China and Brazil are large countries and set to reach the goals set for 2015. Both have done so through their own economic development. Their achievements show that some former poor nations are moving forward, set to take a more prominent role in the world. Symbilzed by the fct that China hosted the Olympics in 2008 and Brazil will do so in 2016.

Western donor countries provided funds for the Millenium Development Goals but “as usual” too little, too late and often with too many restrictions. Most of Africa is not going to meet the goals. The latest trend shows that deep poverty is on the rise as more than 1 billion today are starving thus making a mockery of high flying conference pledges.

This increase in hunger is a sign of the crisis of the first decade, the 2000s. These crises of the capitalist world order take many forms.

War as a sign of crisis

War is one of them. On September 11, 2001, two jumbo jets flew into the twin World Trade towers in New York. Within a few hours both scryscrapers collapsed, and later that day a third skyscraper fell to the ground. It was the first time in history that a skyscraper had collapsed because of fire. Government investigations failed to give an explanationfor this phenomenon, but assumed the jumbo jets had caused the collapse even if this might be against the laws of physics. A huge FBI investigation to find the master mind of the cowardly attacks that killed 3,000 people concluded that Osama Bin Laden was the culprit but recognized that there was NO evidence to spport this belief.

The Taliban Government of Afghanistan offered to hand over Osama Bin Laden to the Americans if they could see evidence of his guilt. When US refused to share evidence the Afghan government would not cooperate. President George W. Bush decided it was time for war. Afghanistan was occupied. Today 8 years later, USA joined troops from other NATO countries. The Afghan people remain in utter distress and poverty.

USA started a second war in Iraq, allegedly to stop the Saddam Hussein government from developing weapons of mass destruction even though they knew fully well that there were no weapons. Iraq remains occupied. Mulitnational companies have taken over the country´s oil fields. Four million Iraqis have fled to other countries. A million have died in the conflict.

Starting new wars in new areas

US special forces are branches of the US military. They fight unofficial wars that the American people are usually not told about. Official sources recognize that special forces are in 15 foreign countries gathering information, spreading false information, organizing terror actionsand assassinations. Among countries secretly invaded by US special forces you find Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Columbia…

Controlling people

The wars after the infamous September 11, 2001 terror acts have been used to greatly intensify surveillance and control of people. The US Patriot Act, drafted by Bush officials, was approved in a matter of days by the US congress though none of those who voted for the law had read it. The emergency laws are used to justify detention of people without trial, secret prisons around around the world, torture and spying on just about everybody. Countries in Europe and elsewhere have implemented similar suppressive laws during the last ten years. Laws that greatly reduce the freedoms and rights of people.

Economic crisis

Economic crisis have plagued capitalism in time of industrialization. They are signs of the problems of the capitalist world system. Whereas values are created by working people who grow the land, mine the underground and make products in workshops and factories, such activities are often not very rewarding. Not even for the owners of the production. The really big money is made by banks and speculators with access to endless millions of dollars who manipulate prices and earn usury interests and fees on loans to businesses, countries, people´s homes, credit cards and small and big farmers. Likewise they earn fortunes on manipulating prices of currencies and export commodities.

The world´s richest man Warren Biffett has made his 60 billion dollars on banks and other speculation. In the process he has impoverished millions. He has done very well during the crisis. If he had a heart for people, he could out of his own pocket feed quite well for three months or longer the 1 billion people who are now undernourished.

The poor hit the worst

The worst capitalist economic crisis in 80 years started in 2008. Governments in rich countries moved to save the capitalist system. Banks got trillions of dollars in “compensation” for money they had lost in scrupulous speculation that was more than gambling. The owners and executives of banks lost little, whereas many poor people lost jobs, lost their homes, could no longer afford medication or food. As always the poorest countries were hardest hit.

Ministers of finance in rich countries tell us that the worst is over because few banks had to close but the increase in the number of unemployed people around the world shows that the crisis is ONLY over for the rich.

One result of the crisis is that USA has lost some of its global power and influence. China has managed the crisis well and is on track to become the richest country in the world within 20 years. India is also doing well, at least some in India is doing well. Russia that after the fall of the Soviet Union was in desperate crisis is strengthening its position and increasingly lets its voice be heard speaking against the Western countries and the effort of the USA to dominate the world.

Huge migrations of people

Yet another symptom of the crisis is the large scale migration of people across the globe. The world has tens of millions who have fled war and starvation. Much larger numbers of people have left their homeland in search for work so as to feed their families. 20 million Mexicans work in USA. Three million Zimbabweans work in other countries. Within China there are 100 million migrant workers who have left their villages to work in cities. The migrants are not welcomed even when nations depend on their work. They meet racism and exploitation but are willing to endure the hardship because this is the only way forward they can see.

Global Warming – an even larger threat

The most serious crisis for humanity and for all life forms is not the economic crisis and not the horror of war. Global warming and climate change is more and more threatening. In the 90s many countries came together to sign the Kyoto Protocol that would reduce emission of green house gasses that lead to global warming. The USA refused to sign. But with the new president Obama hopes were high that USA would now join other Western countires (the main polluters of the world) in a serious effort to do something to avert climate disaster.

In December 2009, worl leaders met in Copenhagen for a climate conference. The time had come for an agreement that could improve the chances of survival for countless species including Homo sapiens. The meeting was a terrible disappointment. While demonstrators were beaten and detained in the streets in freezing cold, world leaders could not agree. When US president Obama arrived he managed to completely destroy the Kyoto protocol and to ensure that no agreement of any importance was reached. This was a very distressing end to the first decade of the millennium.