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Should we pay for the crisis

Marxist Analysis · 2026-05-13

Core Argument

The central thesis is that the sovereign debt crisis engulfing Greece and the wider eurozone is not a crisis of profligate public spending, but a crisis of capitalist overaccumulation and class rule. The claim is that the working class is being forced to pay for a crisis it did not create, while the immense private wealth concentrated in the hands of a tiny capitalist class — much of it hidden in offshore accounts and speculative instruments — is more than sufficient to cancel the entire public debt of Europe and the United States combined. The argument is that austerity is not a technical necessity but a political choice, and that the only rational alternative is the cancellation of debts, the expropriation of the banks, and the democratic planning of production on a socialist basis.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis draws directly on Marx's theory of crisis as developed in the Communist Manifesto, specifically the concept of crises of overproduction — the "epidemic of over-production" in which society finds itself with "too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce" for the narrow property relations of bourgeois society. This is not a conjunctural liquidity crisis but a structural crisis of the capitalist mode of production itself.

The article also deploys the Marxist concept of the concentration and centralisation of capital, citing the staggering statistic that the combined wealth of 10.9 million rich people ($42.7 trillion in 2010) represents roughly two-thirds of world GDP. This is used to demonstrate that the problem is not a shortage of resources but their private appropriation and maldistribution. The argument sits firmly within the classical Marxist tradition that sees crises as inherent to capitalism, not as correctable malfunctions, and that counterposes the revolutionary abolition of capitalist relations to reformist attempts to manage the crisis.

The piece also implicitly draws on the Marxist theory of fictitious capital and the credit system, though it does not name these concepts explicitly. The description of debt as a "mountain" that acts as a "constant drag on demand" and the observation that the long boom was "based on a mountain of debt" point toward an understanding of overaccumulation and the tendency for debt to substitute for realised surplus value.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article was written in July 2011, at the height of the Greek sovereign debt crisis. The specific conjuncture is defined by the following:

  • Greece's total debt stood at €328.6 billion (142.8% of GDP in 2010, projected to rise to 157.7% in 2011). The article cites the Greek newspaper Kathimerini to show that even if the primary debt were wiped out, Greece would face a shortfall of €20-25 billion in 2012-13 alone.
  • The EU troika (European Commission, ECB, IMF) was demanding draconian austerity in exchange for the next tranche of €12 billion in loans. Standard & Poor's had already indicated that the proposed "rollover" of private debt constituted a de facto default.
  • Greek workers had already seen wage cuts of one third in the preceding year, with further cuts of 30% demanded. A Greek doctor is quoted earning €1,500 per month — 70% less than colleagues in other European countries.
  • The article situates Greece within a broader pattern: US public debt at $14.32 trillion (98% of GDP), combined EU and US public debt at roughly $28 trillion, and world external debt at $60.28 trillion.
  • Inequality was accelerating: the top 1,000 richest Britons had increased their wealth by 18% in the preceding 12 months; top CEO pay rose 32% to £3.5 million; the top 1% of US earners saw their share of national income rise from 8% (1975) to 18% (2008).
  • The article notes the emergence of mass resistance: the Greek general strike and occupations of Syntagma Square, and the British public sector strikes of 2011.

The geopolitical dimension is also addressed: the US (Obama) pressed Europe to resolve the Greek crisis because a eurozone collapse would put pressure on the dollar and risk a "serious financial crash in the USA."

Where the Argument Continues

This article is a classic statement of the RCI's position on the eurozone crisis, but it leaves several threads open for development:

  • The theory of the rate of profit: The article invokes overproduction but does not systematically deploy the tendency of the rate of profit to fall as the underlying driver of the crisis. This is developed in other IDOM articles, particularly those analysing the 2008 crash and its aftermath.
  • The political strategy for workers' power: The article calls for workers to "follow the example of the Greek workers" and for the expropriation of the banks, but does not elaborate on the concrete organisational forms — the role of the revolutionary party, the united front, the transition from strike action to dual power. These questions are taken up in Against the Stream episodes and in IDOM articles on the Greek movement (e.g., "Greece: The Struggle Continues").
  • The question of the euro and the nation state: The article identifies the nation state as an obstacle but does not develop a systematic critique of the euro as a mechanism of German export imperialism. This is explored in later IDOM pieces on the contradictions of the single currency.
  • The Chinese dimension: The article notes rising inequality in China but does not integrate China's role in the global crisis — its overaccumulation, its dependence on export markets, and the fragility of its credit-fuelled growth. This is a major theme in subsequent IDOM analyses of the world economy.

Connections

  • Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto (Chapter I): The article quotes the famous passage on crises of overproduction at length. This is the theoretical anchor.
  • Marx, Capital Vol. III: The theory of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall and the credit system are the unspoken theoretical foundations. Readers should consult the chapters on the "Internal Contradictions of the Law" and "The Role of Credit in Capitalist Production."
  • Trotsky, The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International (1938 Transitional Programme): The article's demand for the expropriation of the banks without compensation echoes the transitional demands of the Fourth International.
  • Other IDOM articles from the same period: "The Eurozone Crisis: A Marxist Analysis" and "Greece: The Struggle Continues" (both 2011-2012) develop the political strategy and the critique of reformism in more detail.
  • Against the Stream episodes: Several episodes from 2011-2013 cover the Greek crisis, the role of Syriza, and the limits of the "left government" strategy. These are essential for understanding the RCI's critique of the Syriza experiment.

Key Quotes

  1. "The total Greek debt in 2010 was €328.6 billion, which equals 142.8% of GDP. This year it will be 157.7% of GDP, an increase of over 10% in one year. Everybody is pointing an accusing finger at Greece. But it is only an extreme case of a phenomenon that affects every other country in Europe."

  2. "According to the Greek Tax Office SDOE, more than 10,000 'offshore' companies are owned by Greek capitalists with a total annual turnover of around 500 billion! ... When they talk of the Greeks 'making necessary sacrifices,' it is not these Greeks they are talking about."

  3. "Just over half the private fortunes of the world's rich would be enough to pay off all the combined public debts of Europe and the USA (about $28 trillion). That is a really astonishing expression of what Marx called the concentration of capital."

  4. "The reason for the present crisis is precisely that the capitalists are not investing in production in Greece or anywhere else. They are hoarding their money, or spending it on gold, works of art or any parasitic speculative activity that can give them a high return on their loot."

  5. "There is no rational reason why millions of people should be condemned to unemployment while millions of others are forced to work long hours of overtime in the factories. In a rational economic system the hours of work would be shared out and unemployment abolished, while the working day is drastically reduced."

  6. "The resources are there, the money is there, and the needs are there. What prevents these factors from coming together to create a new and better life for all? Only an outdated and degenerate socio-economic system that has long outlived its usefulness."