The parasitic capitalist economy, led by the United States, is on its deathbed.
Despite the fact that parasitic capitalism is hooked up to an artificial lifeline that is infusing trillions of dollars into its weakened system, the outlook for the parasite is dismal.
Capitalism was born parasitic, coming into being with Europe’s first onslaught on Africa that enslaved African people and turned us into the world’s most lucrative commodity.
The enslavement of African people, the plunder of African gold and resources, the colonization of our entire homeland, along with the genocide of the indigenous people of the Americas and the theft of their land, and the colonial domination of most of the world brought Europe out of deep poverty making it the most powerful and wealthy economic force in the world.
Struggles for national liberation, increasing control of resources by oppressed nations, internal imperialist power struggles and the growing economic strength of countries such as China, Russia and India are among the causes of this death crisis for economic white power.
Far from fearing this crisis African Internationalists are doing everything possible to deepen it by building the movement to reunite and liberate Africa under the leadership of African workers around the world.
Once liberated from the clutches of our oppressors, resource-rich Africa will be the world’s richest, most powerful economy. The resources that every country around the world needs to function are located in Africa.
A liberated and socialist Africa will provide prosperity, dignity and independence for every African man, woman and child on the planet.
Subprime: a trillion dollar scheme at expense of African people
Every day brings new revelations of the true face of the parasitic capitalist ruling class as fraud, lies and theft on the part of bankers and politicians are being exposed. Despite Obama’s promise of hope and change, trust in the imperialist U.S. government is at an all time low.
From $50 million dollar rip-off schemes by top-level Wall Street moguls; to manufacturers who send peanut butter laced with roaches and rat droppings to school cafeterias; to Obama cabinet members exposed for corruption and tax evasion; to Wall Street bankers who used tax payer’s bailout money to buy corporate jets and pay themselves huge bonuses, a new scandal seems to erupt with every news report.
The predatory bankers and the media are trying to pin the blame for the current crisis on the collapse of the subprime mortgage industry in 2007.
Subprime mortgages are adjustable rate loans that start out with low interest rates that increase by double or more after the initial teaser period.
Subprime loans are not new. They are old-fashioned predatory mortgages repackaged as “creative lending.” Subprime mortgages are supposedly for homebuyers who lack “prime” or good credit, but in fact African and Mexican communities were targeted, regardless of the credit rating or income of the borrower.
In the 1990s under the Clinton administration the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) lending guidelines were changed to permit the predatory subprime mortgages specifically to target African and Mexican communities.
African homebuyers were often not told by the lenders that subprime interest rates were adjustable.
Wall Street bankers participated in a scheme initiated by U.S. president Barack Obama’s finance chair, the billionaire banker Penny Ritzier, to use “bundles” of subprime loans as investment tools in investment funds.
Every major Wall Street investment bank, along with private banks and mortgage lenders and the government-sponsored mortgage providers Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, used these subprime mortgage backed securities to invest with, making literally trillions of dollars for themselves at the expense of African and Mexican people.
When the subprime mortgages began to default in massive numbers, Wall Street’s investments went bad. Trillions of dollars were lost on Wall Street bringing about the collapse of some of Wall Street’s biggest banks, including Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns.
In predominately African cities such as Cleveland, Atlanta, Detroit and Baltimore, African homeowners have lost hundreds of thousands of homes and at least a $100 billion in collective African community wealth.
At the same time Wall Street bankers were bailed out with trillions of dollars of taxpayer’s money, which bankers have used to continue their lavish lifestyles unchecked.
Most of Wall Street’s bad debts — estimated at $3.6 trillion — are still being hidden by the remaining banks today. Much of the media continues to blame this crisis on African people who were struggling to “take part in the American dream” of home ownership.
The collapse of the subprime mortgage-backed securities has ramifications worldwide for countries that participated in the subprime get-rich-quick scheme. Thus a worldwide banking crisis of unprecedented proportions was initiated.
Crisis deepens daily
Today the U.S. and world parasitic capitalist economy is on a downward spiral that could bring down U.S. imperial hegemony and the entire white power system itself.
While the media compares today’s crisis to the “Great Depression” of the 1920s, the reality is that the scope and depth of the current crisis is unprecedented.
Despite the trillions of dollars being thrown at the crisis by the government and the Federal Reserve in the form of stimulus, bailouts and rescue plans, the fact is the Obama administration has no idea how to fix this crisis.
The Obama presidency is in the pocket of the ruling class bankers and elite and catering to their demands for more of the loot.
Forty-six U.S. states are facing major budget shortfalls, including California. California has the eighth largest economy in the world and is now $42 billion in the red.
In a desperate attempt to balance their budgets, the states have no other plan than to raise taxes and cut back on education and social services, which will deepen the crisis for millions of unemployed and impoverished people.
The number of people receiving unemployment checks in the U.S. is at an all time high, approaching five million. Official unemployment rates are reported to be 7.6 percent.
If you count all the people who are underemployed, part time only or who have stopped looking, though, the rate is closer to 15 percent. Unemployment rates are expected to skyrocket to 20 or even 30 percent this year.
As major corporations, automakers, pharmaceuticals, software manufacturers, department stores, small businesses and whole malls shut down in unprecedented numbers, more than 600,000 people are losing their jobs every month, a figure expected to increase dramatically throughout 2009.
Housing prices continue to tank while foreclosures have increased 81 percent since 2007 with the number of homes in foreclosure expected to reach 10 million in the coming period.
Homelessness is rampant as food pantries and shelters are overwhelmed with those in need. Homelessness for entire families has increased by 26 percent in the area surrounding Washington D.C.
Credit card and car loan debt is expected to massively default this year and the commercial real estate market is predicted to crash.
Africans bear the brunt of the crisis
For African people in the U.S. this economic reality is profoundly impacting our already impoverished communities.
The official government unemployment rate for African communities is 11.9 percent, but as we have shown, the real jobless rate is double that when we add in those who gave up looking for a job and those who are underemployed.
Unemployment for young African men under the age of 20 is nearly 33 percent officially, which in reality is 66 percent or more.
But for African people there is an added factor: the counterinsurgency war waged against African communities has forced millions of us out of the workforce and into the U.S. colonial prison system which makes billions of dollars for the parasitic capitalist system and white people.
There are more than five million African people who cannot work because we are in prison, on probation, awaiting trial, or unable to get a job because we have lost our right as a convicted “felon” in a system built on murder and theft.
Other economic data recently released by the State of the Dream 2009 report includes:
- The median household income for an African family is $38,269 compared with $61,280 for white families.
- Twenty-four percent of African people live below the poverty line versus ten percent of whites.
- The current deep crisis will see at least a third of African middle class families fall into poverty.
- In half of low-income families after housing costs are paid there is only $257 a month left for food, $29 for clothing, and $9 for medical care.
Only solution is African Liberation
Despite these dire conditions, the African People’s Socialist Party is doing everything to deepen imperialism’s crisis and hasten the demise of white power which has oppressed us for more than 500 years. We have no interest in trying to fix this parasitic economy.
The Party is building the African Socialist International (ASI), which is growing around the world. A recent ASI conference in Sierra Leone brought African people from throughout West Africa hungry to organize to reunite and liberate Africa.
On March 15-18, 2009, the African Socialist International will meet in Nairobi to build the ASI in East Africa, and later this year the ASI will meet in South Africa, England and in Washington D.C.
The Party has also built the All African People’s Development and Empowerment Program (AAPDEP) that is bringing together African engineers, health care workers and farmers around the world to work together with African communities in Africa and in the U.S. for self-sufficiency.
AAPDEP has already put projects such as rainwater harvesting, community clinics and fishing, and wells for farming on the ground in Africa, and it is working on plans for building a network of African community farming in the U.S.
When African workers regain power over our Africa, every man, woman and child will know prosperity, justice and independence.
Izwe Lethu i Afrika!
