Inqaba ya basebenzi Number 2 April 1981 - DISA

Central Banks. The Bretton Woods
system was dead and buried.
Watergate
The Pentag "s vast and costly
military adventures abroad, contributed
heavily to the weakening of the
American economy and the consequent
loss of strategic and military
power. The growing crisis of
American capitalism was particularly
reflected in its over-extension in
Vietnam. Nixon was swept into
office to be able to bring a speedy
victory but had to settle for
humiliating defeat. In a bid to
restore the morale of imperialism,
Nixon tried to elevate the Presidency
on the basis of authoritarian powers.
But he went too far, even for
sections of the ruling class.
The Watergate hearings forced
Nixon's resignation. These were
more than a personal indictment
against him; they were part of a
process by which strategists of
capital used Congress and the courts
to curb the power of the Presidency.
The failure of the Vietnam war,
the Watergate affair, the fall of the
dollar, the energy crisis, Iran,
etc.—all spelt the decline of the
post-war strength of US imperialism.
Since then the ruling class has
been groping for a strategy and a
policy for the future. But the future
for the capitalist class is bleak.
The ruling class cannot find any
policy that does not involve an attack
on the working class. In fact it has
been the working class that has
borne the brunt of the economic
crisis over the last decade.
For a generation after the war a
layer of American workers enjoyed
prosperity greater than that achieved
even by the middle classes in
Europe. American goods, American
films, and American values, seemed
to be the last word in modernity.
There seemed to be ' an endless
supply of televisions, cars, and'all
the other tokens of affluence, as well
as an endless supply of dollars to buy
them.
Poverty
Those days have gone for the
American workers. The Wall Street
Journal (19.11.79) pointed out that
"since 1972 the real income of a
typical American family has declined
by 8%, although its dollar income
has increased by 66%". These
figures do not take into account the
increases in state and city taxation,
so the real decline in living standards
is considerably more.
The inflation rate at the moment
is given at 12.5% but in reality it is
much higher. The official Consumer
Price Index does not take into
account the fact that poorer families
spend a far greater share of their
income on the faster rising items like
Unemployed workers in Detroit, centi. if the American motor car industry.
15
Even by the government's own
meagre standards for 'minimum
requirements', poverty now engulfs
more than 25 million people.
More than 8 million workers
(7.5% of the workforce) are
unemployed in America. Teenage
unemployment is 19% while black
unemployment is 14%. But these
figures also hide the extent to which
the unemployment affects large
numbers of families. It is officially
admitted, for example, that while
the average level of unemployment in
1973 was 4.9% the total proportion
of the workforce who had experienced
unemployment for one or more
spells in that year was 14.2%.
Unlike workers in Europe. American
workers are not cushioned to any
great extent Hy social welfare. Only
about half of the unemployed receive
any state benefits and that does not
take into account the many hidden
unemployed and underemployed.
When it comes to health charges, the
American workers can be seen to be
completely at the mercy of the
sharks and parasites of the private
medical system.
In 1976. when living standards
were a little higher than today,
nearly 45 million Americans were
without even basic hospitalisation
insurance and when it came to major
medical expenses. 80 million were
not insured. It cost the average
family* even with insurance cover,
about $2 800 for the delivery of a
food, housing, energy, and so on, healthy child. A worker needs a