Well, that turned out to be blatantly false, and so is the mantra of the “death of capitalism”. Capitalism is certainly going to be regulated more now, as well it bloody should. To pronounce its death, however, is a great exaggeration.

You can accuse the people being foreclosed upon of irresponsibility, and in the US there is a strong racist element in this argument. When the first wave of foreclosures hit places like Cleveland and Ohio they were devastating to the black communities there but some peoples’ response was ‘well what do you expect, black people are irresponsible. We are seeing right-wing explanations of the crisis which explain it in terms of personal greed, both in Wall Street and those who borrowed money to buy houses. So they attempt to blame the crisis on the victims. One of our tasks must be to say ‘no, you absolutely cannot do that’ and to try and create a consolidated explanation of this crisis as a class event in which a certain structure of exploitation broke down and is about to be displaced by an even deeper structure of exploitation. It’s very important this alternative explanation of the crisis is discussed and conveyed publicly.

“We have to ask the question: which is more important, the value of the banks or the value of humanity? The banking system should serve the people, not live off the people.”