Communist Workers' Organisation

The notion that there exists a growing middle class whose livelihood rests neither on wage labour nor manufacturing or industrial profits has long been used to challenge Marx’s revolutionary perspective that ultimately the future of capitalism will be decided by a struggle between the two great contending classes in modern society: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, or if you prefer, the bosses and the workers.

The working class currently faces the challenge of the combined consequences of the pandemic and the underlying crisis of capitalism. Even though the health emergency is far from over, the wave of redundancies and restructuring has already started. The degree to which workers are able to not only resist attacks on their conditions but to impose their own interests on the ruling class in the next few months will shape the balance of class forces.

Back in 2012 the concept of a "graduate without a future" briefly entered the zeitgeist. Paul Mason was among its key proponents, finding a commonality between the Arab Spring, the anti-austerity movement in Greece and the student protests in the UK: a social strata of young educated people with no prospects who became the driving force of opposition to the "system".

Capitalism’s continuous plunder and destruction of the natural environment is forcing animals such as bats, rodents and other small creatures into our cities. They bring their diseases with them and pass them on to humans. We have no immunity to these new viruses and the result is epidemics like SARS, MERS and the present pandemic Covid-19. Capitalism is the real mother of the virus!