Jarrow demonstration: we are the 99% Take the wealth off the 1%, photo Paul Mattsson

We are the 99% Take the wealth off the 1%, photo Paul Mattsson   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

A lot has happened since the G7, a group of rich capitalist nations including the UK and US, last met in summer 2019. Since then, the capitalist system’s inability to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic has been a disaster for most of the world’s working class and poor.

The G7 summit from 11-13 June brings together the political leaders of nations with vast economic wealth, around 30% of global GDP. But over decades they have demonstrated their inability to solve global poverty or halt climate change.

That’s because, without exception, the leaders are unprepared to do anything that would fundamentally challenge the economic dominance of the super-rich, and the systematic exploitation we experience under capitalism.

The pandemic has acted as a brutal but effective teacher for the world’s population. At every stage of the unfolding catastrophe, global capitalism has been further exposed. While the virus has already cost 2.5 million lives worldwide, in the same period the ten richest billionaires have increased their fortunes by $500 billion.

The billionaires and their political representatives are scared of the mass upheavals that are coming, fuelled by seething class anger. That’s why they have preceded the summit with announcements of a suggested 15% minimum corporation tax rate.

The summit will discuss a target for global vaccination by the end of 2022, stopping climate change, and how to shore up a sustained economic recovery. But none of these objectives can be achieved by a system based on maximising the profits of a tiny minority.

We need to fight for a world where the vast wealth in society is used to provide for the needs of humanity. That means taking the major corporations and banks into democratic public ownership as part of a socialist transformation of society.

A starting point is to build powerful organisations of the working class, to build fighting leaderships in the trade unions, and to assist in the creation of a new mass party for workers in Britain and around the world.

To help us in that struggle, join the Socialist Party.