(PTS, 9/29/08) Christian Castillo, national leader of the Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas (PTS) indicated today that “the rejection by the US House of Representatives of the plan for bailing out the speculators, that produced an historic fall in the markets of the whole world, is a new sign that we face a crisis of a magnitude comparable only to that of 1930. Up to now, the government bailouts costing millions have been completely useless. The international financial system continues in free fall and refutes not only those who believe in the market’s self-regulation, but also all those who assert that this crisis can be contained with a little more regulation and state intervention.”

Castillo also stated that “the rejection was caused by a combination of factors, that go from the rejection by a large part of the population that pressured the legislators, to the mistrust of the financial market itself, given certain limits that were put on the original bailout plan. The rejection shows that a big political crisis has begun, that jeopardizes both Bush and McCain and Obama, who went out to say the the bill had to be approved in the next few days.”

The PTS leader also explained that “in this context of an acute crisis of world capitalism, the attitude of the Argentinean government, of paying the debt to the Club of Paris and opening a new exchange for bondholders, is a combination of appeasement and provincialism, since the argument that these measures are necessary to assure financing is odd, when the whole financial system is collapsing. The development of the crisis makes the demand for nationalization under control of the banking workers and the monopoly of foreign trade more timely than ever. The government, in turn, prefers to pay an illicit and illegitimate debt to bankrupt speculators, instead of allocating these funds for healthcare, education, housing and guaranteeing an 82% sliding scale retirement.”

PTS – Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas