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Regional secretary with the National Education Union
Coronavirus: collapse of the capitalist consensus?
The pandemic has laid bare the failings of a global order based on exploitation, land theft and greed, writes BERT SCHOUWENBURG

WINSTON CHURCHILL was no friend of the working class, but we should follow his advice of never letting a good crisis go to waste, and not repeat the mistakes of 2008, when we did exactly that. 

Back then, the subprime mortgage scandal threatened to bring down the entire capitalist infrastructure, prompting the US Federal Reserve to invest an estimated $16 trillion in bailouts to banks and corporations around the world. 

Rampant speculation on obscure and risky financial instruments unleashed by globalised financial capital seeking investment opportunities, unrestrained by national constraints, had brought the international banking system close to collapse. 

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