If you work for a living, the news just keeps getting worse. Oil prices have reached record levels of over $140 per barrel – 14 times higher than just ten years ago. OPEC predicts it could rise as high as $170 before the end of summer. Choosing between food, medicine and gasoline is now the norm for millions of working class families. Contrast this with the mega-profits of ExxonMobil, which raked in $40.6 billion in 2007 and another $10.9 billion in just the first three months of 2008.

Editorial for Socialist Appeal Issue 40

It is now official: George W. Bush is the most unpopular U.S. President in modern history. 71 percent of Americans say they “disapprove” of the job he is doing, while just 28 percent say they “approve.” The previous all-time low was set by Harry Truman in 1952, with 67 percent disapproval. In other words, Bush is even more unpopular than Richard Nixon in the days before he resigned from the presidency in August 1974.

Much of the discontent is due to the war in Iraq, which just 30 percent support, the lowest rating ever. Just a few months ago, in January, nearly half those polled believed “things were going well” in Iraq. Millions who formerly supported the war are now against it, especially as the economic effects of the war are coming home to roost.

The situation in the USA is one if increasing crises.  The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to trail on, costing nearly $275 million per day.  The situation at home is one of increasing unemployment and continual crisis in the housing and credit markets.  US workers will be called on to go to the polls to elect a party of big business, but this era of crises will only serve to casue more people to question the world in which they live. Editorial for Socialist  Appeal Issue 37.

Editorial for Socialist Appeal 36

The campaign to elect the next President of the United States is in full swing. The Democratic and Republican primaries and caucuses have begun, accompanied by a media frenzy intended to make it seem as though there truly are significant differences between the candidates, and to distract working people from the pressing problems we face. As we go to press, the race to nominate the next presidential candidates of big business is still wide open. But the real question is, who will represent the working class majority of American society?

Editorial for Socialist Appeal Issue 35

A look back at the events of the last 12 months provides clear confirmation that capitalism means war, misery, and counter-revolution for the vast majority of humanity. The world situation is one of increasing political and economic instability, social polarization, and the ravages of war and famine. Across the planet, layoffs, cuts in social services, and the merciless squeezing of the working class and poor is on the order of the day. But there is an opposite side to these counter-revolutionary tendencies: the revolutionary movement of millions of people who are saying “enough is enough!”  Around the world, workers, youth, and the poor in general are rising up against a system based on exploitation and profit.

Editorial for SA #34

Whether you live in Philadelphia, Seattle, Detroit, Mexico City, or Baghdad, most working people would agree that quality jobs, health care, education, housing and infrastructure isn’t too much to ask for. Instead, capitalism gives us war, racism, economic turmoil, and unemployment. And it’s not as though the money isn’t there – over $2 billion is spent each week just on the occupation of Iraq – it’s a matter of priorities. Just imagine how many badly-needed schools, bridges and hospitals could be built, providing quality jobs for millions of people in the process. 

Editorial for SA #33

Like the Katrina disaster two years ago, the collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis, MN is yet another reminder of the real effects of the capitalist policy of “guns before butter”. A key bridge in a city with some of the worst rush hour congestion in the country, it is just one of the 73,784 U.S. bridges found by the American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE) to be “structurally deficient or functionally obsolete” – including 64.8 percent of the bridges in Washington, DC. The thirteen people who lost their lives are just part of the tragedy.

Editoral for Socialist Appeal 32                          

As Congress enters its summer recess, millions of Americans who were expecting a real change after the Democrats’ November 2006 victory are justifiably discontented.  For all their promises and rhetorical bluster, what have these big-business politicians really accomplished?  Has anything fundamental changed for working people? Bush’s approval rating is at an all-time low of just 29 percent – a sharp drop  from his 90 percent approval rating after the September 11 attacks. How quickly things change! Only Harry Truman, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter had lower approval ratings. But after nearly 7 years of Bush’s disastrous domestic and foreign policy, his overwhelming unpopularity is understandable.