Issue 236 of SOCIALIST REVIEW Published December 1999 Copyright © Socialist Review

As the century closes, debt, poverty and hunger afflict large parts of the globe. The gap between rich and poor has widened. Nato's war in the Balkans has been followed by Russia's invasion of Chechnya. Today arms spending by the world's major powers is on the rise again.

Yet this is not what we were promised ten years ago. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union were meant to usher in a period of peace and stability. The introduction of the computer, the internet and the 'technological age' was supposed to mean the end of mundane work with more leisure time for all.

Yet the basic gains of the century for working people are under attack. We are told that it is no longer possible to afford decent pensions or a welfare state or free public healthcare. Workers in countries such as Britain are working longer hours on average than their parents did, often with worse conditions and under very high levels of stress.

There is supposedly no alternative to the market and its values, even though the drive to profit is at the root of all these problems. As the new millennium comes, many people are wondering why it is that, although there have been enormous advances during the 20th century, the living standards of many workers are beginning to deteriorate and the future for their children looks bleak.

Today opposition to the market is widespread, and it is growing. It was to be found in the mass demonstrations organised by Jubilee 2000 over the last year that have involved tens of thousands of mainly young people marching against Third World debt. It was also to be found during the Carnival Against Capitalism in June. And it will be seen also in the mass protests that are taking place against the World Trade Organisation (see page 4) as it tries to carve up the globe among the world's major multinationals and big powers.

What is remarkable and in many senses unique about the struggles that are taking place today is that they are anti-capitalist. Although many people get involved in campaigns for very specific reasons, such as starvation in Africa or Third World debt, they very quickly move on to a complete rejection of the system itself.

In part this is because the horrors of the system go deep, and the campaigns in the past such as Band Aid in the mid-1980s delivered so little as they came up against the powers of the system. But the nature of the struggles is also determined by the fact that for most people reforms they were promised have not been delivered.

It was just two years ago that the mood for change in Britain and throughout Europe swept the Tories out of office and brought Labour governments to power. But little has changed. While the Tories are once again mired in sleaze over the Archer affair, Labour offers no real alternative.

Today anger and disillusionment against Labour are growing rapidly. In part this is in reaction to the callous and authoritarian attitudes displayed by supposedly left politicians to the victims of the market (such as the homeless) and partly it is a recognition that these politicians have neither the desire nor the ability to cure the ills of the system which create so much harm.

What links the anti-capitalist demonstrations with issues like supporting Livingstone for mayor of London is a growing realisation that change will only come from protest and organisation from below. If working people are to improve their conditions in the new century, this is the direction in which we have to turn.