A Slow Motion Train Wreck

In March and April, three banks have failed. Those banks had combined assets of close to $550 Billion. Now in May, the journalists are reporting that three other banks are ‘’teetering on the edge’’, while six or eight others are ‘’moving ever closer to default’’. The journalists have compared this to a ‘’slow motion train wreck’’.

The economists are concerned with ‘’contagion’’, in which other banks could fail, due to a ‘’run on the banks’’. As almost all banks do not have sufficient cash on hand, to cover all deposits, their fears are well grounded. 

Those who draw their money out first, before the banks fail, will be fortunate. The rest will lose all but a quarter million. 

In order to reassure those with considerable money in the banks, the head of the Federal Reserve has just stated that ‘’the U.S. banking system is sound and resilient.’’ He then went on to assure one and all that there is no danger of any financial collapse. 

It is significant that he said this with a ‘’straight face’’. It is entirely possible that he practiced this speech, this bare faced lie, in front of a mirror. Or possibly there was no need to do so. 

As Lenin stated, the capitalists ‘’cannot act contrary to their nature’’. It is their nature to lie. They lie constantly. The joke among the working people, is that: ‘’You can always tell when the capitalists are lying! Their lips are moving!’’

There is certainly some truth to this. The only reason he went to such length to reassure depositors, that the banking system is stable, is because it is on the verge of collapse!

In fact, a few economists are predicting the collapse of possibly four thousand regional banks! Those same economists are predicting that the stock market will lose half its value! Nonsense!

Such starry eyed optimism! As soon as all ‘’regional banks’’ collapse, and depositors lose an estimated ten to twenty trillion dollars, how is it that the stock market can expect to lose a mere half of its value? The stock market is about to lose far more than half!

Within a short time, only the ‘’central banks’, those that are considered to be ‘’Too Big To Fail’’, will remain standing. All ‘’regional banks’’, those that are considered to be ‘’Too Small To Succeed’’, will ‘’go down the tubes’’. 

Bear in mind that the assets of one of the regional banks that just failed, was worth over $300 Billion! Even that is ‘’Too Small To Succeed’’! Clearly, only the banks that have assets of over $1Trillion, qualify as ‘’Too Big To Fail’’!

That which applies to banks, also applies to businesses! Any business with assets of less that $1Trillion, can be considered to be a ‘’small business’’, and as such, is ‘’Too Small To Succeed!’’

As the ‘’regional banks’’ collapse, so too countless ‘’small businesses’’ will also collapse. Those with hundreds, or even thousands of employees, will be unable to pay their work force, as those companies will have no money in the bank! ‘’Too Small To Succeed’’!

Workers are not about to work for free! Without a work force, all the assets in the world, will not save a business from bankruptcy! The Power of the Proletariat!

Within a short time, we can expect only a few, perhaps a half dozen, central banks to be left standing. They will be ‘’propped up’’ with tax payer money. At the same time, we can also expect to see a very few exceptionally large businesses, multi national corporations, to be left standing.

The extreme wealth of the ‘’Chosen Few’’, the ‘’Monopoly Capitalists’’, the ‘’Multi Billionaires’’, the class of people known as the ‘’bourgeoisie’’, will be increased dramatically! A few of them may even achieve their lifelong goal of becoming a ‘’Trillionaire’’!

The ‘’other side of the coin’’, so to speak, is that of ever more wide spread unemployment, homelessness and hunger. A Second Great Depression! Far more severe than the First Great Depression!

The suffering of the common people, the working class, the proletariat, as well as the family farmers, is about to become far more intense! Further, the middle class, the petty bourgeois, is about to become wiped out! They are about to join the ranks of the proletariat!

The economists are correct, when they predict ‘’widespread devastation’’! Unless the capitalists are stopped!

The class struggle is about to become simplified! The petty bourgeois, the middle class, as well as the family farmers, are about to become members of the proletariat! Workers against capitalists!

As I have mentioned in previous articles, those middle class people will bring with them their awareness, of the Revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin, to the working class.

To such people, I can only stress the fact that you have no future under capitalism. You have a bright future under Socialism. 

With that in mind, consider the advice of Lenin, concerning the importance of a proper Communist Party: ‘’It is only under the leadership of such a Party, that the Proletariat is capable of displaying the full might of its Revolutionary onslaught, and of overcoming the inevitable apathy and occasional resistance of that small minority, the labour aristocracy…only then will it be capable of displaying its full might, which, because of the very economic structure of capitalist society, is infinitely greater than its proportion of the population’’.

At the time that Lenin wrote this, in 1920, the proletariat in Russia was in a minority. Now in North America, the proletariat is in the vast majority. Their strength is far greater than they suspect! The only thing lacking is the proper leadership, an American Communist Party. 

Lenin went on to say that: ‘’It is the Communists Parties’ principle task at the present moment to unite the scattered Communist forces, to form a single Communist Party in every country (or to reinforce or renovate the already existing Party) in order to increase tenfold the work of preparing the proletariat for the conquest of political power – political power, moreover, in the form of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat’’. 

It is significant that at the time Lenin wrote this, the ‘’most advanced strata of the proletariat’’, had embraced Soviet power, as well as the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. 

Such is no longer the case. That is no cause for despair on our part. It just means that we have our work cut out for us. It also means that we have got to learn from the mistakes of our Revolutionary ancestors. In this way, we can honour their memory. As I have covered this in previous articles, there is no need to repeat it here.

As for the hard core pessimists, who think that it is ‘’no use’’, that ‘’nothing will change’’, may I suggest that you give yourself an attitude adjustment. Or at least remain silent. Otherwise, the Revolutionary forces, which are about to be unleashed, will treat you like the Counter Revolutionary that you are! Such an experience is guaranteed to be most unpleasant!

Under far more difficult circumstances, Lenin was able to form a Communist Party, and raise the level of awareness of all common people, the proletariat and the peasants. The same is true of other great Revolutionaries. They ‘’blazed the trail’’, so to speak. We have merely to follow in their footsteps, while avoiding their mistakes. Now that we have the internet, it should not be terribly difficult. 

Take inspiration from the following slogans:

Workers of the World, Unite!

Scientific Socialism!

Dictatorship of the Proletariat!