Capitalism isn’t working. This is the conclusion being drawn by increasing numbers of workers and young people as every week a new crisis dominates the headlines. These calamities include the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression, which has left millions unemployed; millions in foreclosures; the BP oil spill and the growing threat of global warming; an escalating disaster in Afghanistan; vicious Islamophobia and racist scapegoating of immigrants.

Socialist Alternative representative Ramy Khalil debated Tea Party leader Keli Carender on the radio. Listen to the debate here from Pacifica-affiliated KBCS 91.3 FM Voices of Diversity on July 21, 2010.

The G20 meeting in Toronto of the leaders of the main capitalist governments of the world demonstrated a complete incapacity to solve the huge problems that confront us, particularly those hardest-hit – the poor and the working class – by the economic crisis.

Despite huge bail-out plans, world financial markets continue to batter the EU. The very existence of the eurozone is in question. Although the Greek working class is in the frontline, deep cuts are being implemented internationally.

A representative of Socialist Alternative debated a representative of the Tea Party movement at the May 8, 2010 Northwest Socialism Conference in Seattle. Watch the video here!

After a hard-fought, month-long strike at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, the nurses and technical/professional staff can proudly say, “We won!” Union members’ determined solidarity and their support from the community, the broader labor movement, and political leaders beat back concessions demanded by the hospital on union rights, wages, and working conditions.

All around the country it’s the same story: state and local governments are short on cash and saying they have to cut spending on education, health care, and other social services. Meanwhile, record Wall Street bonuses of over $140 billion were reported for 2009 by the very same banks which received hundreds of billions in taxpayer bailouts. This is a crisis the rich created, but they want ordinary working people to pay for it.

We’ve all heard this phrase. It implies that those without one are lazy and that jobs are there for those who are willing. 9.7% of the adult population isn’t working, and I’d be willing to bet my next unemployment check that most of them want to work. This translates to almost 15 million people who are considered unemployed. There are nearly 9 million who are under-employed because they can’t find a full-time job. As usual, those at the bottom are hit hardest.

After last fall reaching its highest levels since the Great Depression, official U.S. unemployment has improved slightly to 9.7%, while actual unemployment and underemployment remain far higher. Last month, the highest ever long-term unemployment rate was recorded, with 6.5 million Americans out of work for six months or longer.

All around the country it’s the same story: state and local governments are short on cash and saying they have to cut spending on education, health care, and other social services. They have to lay off public employees or cut their wages and benefits. Devastating budget cuts are being implemented in almost all U.S. states, which are now running an estimated $375 billion combined deficit.

Stung by the shock defeat in the Massachusetts special Senate election, President Obama had proclaimed that he was prepared to curb the major banks and Wall Street. He referred to the bonuses in Wall Street –amounting to over $150 billion as “obscene.” “If these folks want a fight, it’s a fight I am willing to have... Never again will the American taxpayer be held hostage by a bank that is too big to fail,” he said.

For bankers, the new year started the way it usually does: with massive, unjustifiable bonuses. The numbers are staggering on their own, but the situation becomes infuriating when you consider the state of the economy. Bonuses given out by major banks and securities firms for 2009 were reported to be a record-setting $145 billion, up 18% from 2008 (Wall Street Journal, 1/14/10).

International Women’s Day (IWD) was founded in 1910 in order to confront the great inequalities women faced in the labor force and society as a whole. Unfortunately, one hundred years later, women still make up a majority of the world’s poor.

In 2009, Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire and the Democrat super-majority in the state legislature wrung out a $9 billion deficit through an all-cuts budget, hacking away at everything in sight from education and health care to services for children, the poor, and the elderly. Big business and the rich, by contrast, escaped unscathed – the state’s regressive tax system remained horrendously skewed in favor of corporations like Boeing, Microsoft, Weyerhauser, Amazon, and the rich who own them.

“There’s no question this is extraordinary – the worst situation in 50 years.” That’s how Susan Urahn, director of the Pew Center for the States, described the massive budget deficits facing state governments across the country on ABC News. “We saw a $180 billion cumulative budget gap in 2009 and predict the same for 2010.”