Recycled right-wing views on hunger
I AM writing to commend Socialist Worker on the recent articles dealing with the global food crisis ("When the solution is the problem" and "Can the whole world be fed?").
In the mainstream press--the New York Times, for instance--coverage of the crisis typically focuses on what may be charitably called a canard; that is, instead of drawing attention to the gross structural inequalities that are inherent to the capitalist mode of production, analysis in the Times and elsewhere tends to reinforce the misconception that not enough food is produced in the world on a yearly basis.
To be clear, I don't have any illusions about the editorial position of papers like the Times, but even despite their ruling-class bias, many articles contain important and useful information regarding the (admittedly pathetic) "responses" to the crisis undertaken by the world's most powerful economies, and serve to bring attention to the catastrophic implications that loom increasingly near for hundreds of millions of the world's poorest citizens.
Unfortunately, the types of ideas and analysis found in Socialist Worker are anything but common sense these days. Recently, I took a look at the "readers' comments" section that followed a Times article on the food crisis, and what I found horrified me.
As a result of the repeated emphasis on the alleged "crisis of under-production" in global agriculture (as opposed to the reality, wherein the structural prerogatives of the capitalist system make it impossible to distribute a net surplus of food to the world's poorest), almost every comment included some form of the reactionary "world is overpopulated" argument. Several readers even favorably invoked Thomas Malthus, the English demographer and political economist who blamed hunger and poverty on population growth, in an attempt to buttress their positions.
To me, this highlights two related issues. First, the importance of media like Socialist Worker cannot be underestimated today, as the global economy lurches from one crisis to the next. Ruling-class lies about the true nature of the world system need to be exposed and combated at every turn.
Second, the very fact that the world capitalist system is as unstable as ever means that billions of ordinary people all over the globe will be directly affected by the vagaries of "the market" and will search for answers and analysis that can help explain and demystify the workings of an unjust system. Socialist Worker is perfectly suited to such a task.
The ideas of Thomas Malthus should have been relegated to the ash heap of history long ago, but in the meantime, socialists and progressives seeking to transform the world for the better have a potent weapon in the pages of Socialist Worker.
James Fiorentino, Amherst, Mass.
