It's not just an economic crisis that capitalism has created. We also face an environmental catastrophe created by a handful of gigantic fossil fuel corporations.

What Bernie Sanders is calling for is incredibly important. Things like a $15/hour minimum wage, single-payer healthcare, taxing the rich, and free education. The radical reforms he has popularized are a key part of any socialist program today.

There are limits to reforming a system that is dominated by these massive and rapacious corporations.

Big Oil, Wall Street and big business as a whole - they stand in the way of the kinds of change needed. They are fiercely against the radical reforms Bernie Sanders is popularizing.

The underlying issue is the system of capitalism itself, and under this system the best means for regulating or checking their power is not relying on a government which represents the interests of the rich but for millions of working people to become politically active in workplaces and communities through building unions and our own political party.

Capitalism is based on ruthless exploitation and competition, and leads inevitably to the development of mega monopolies.

For a whole historic period after World War II, US capitalism was the strongest in the world and could afford to concede rising living standards.