(n.b. French language version available here)
1. Introduction
The European Social Forum (ESF) and the World Social Forum (WSF) are today
the largest and broadest international movements against social injustice and
neo-liberal capitalism. Socialist Action supports both.
The ESF, in addition to its fundamental goal of social justice, particularly
embodies key steps forward that Socialist Action has championed for years.
• The movement is international. Those fighting for social justice have
international interests, the enemy is organised internationally, and therefore
so must be the movement for social justice.
• The movement supports independent organisation of women, black people,
gays and lesbians, religious groups, those seeking to protect the environment,
and all those fighting social, cultural and political oppression.
• The necessary diversity in the movement means that the struggle must
be organised democratically – otherwise it cannot arrive at common positions
and its unity be maintained.
These correspond to the fact that Socialist Action rejects any view that social
struggle is exclusively around economic issues. The most advanced form of social
struggle is political not economic.
Indeed, even after the elimination of the capitalist economy, a prolonged
social struggle will be necessary to eliminate inequality, sexism,
racism, xenophobia,
and all discrimination. The state in such a society must be used to promote
this social organisation, and not to suppress or control it – as occurs
under capitalism.
Socialist Action has two significant differences with many in the ESF over
the role of politics and the length of the struggle we face.
• Socialist Action is clear that if political power is left in the hands
of the capitalist class, and the movement for social justice organises only at
the level of the social, economic, and ideological, the capitalists will inevitably
use their political power to crush and/or disorient the movement. While the movement
for social justice can itself be organised at the social level, nevertheless
political organisation, separate from but supporting the movement, is required
to secure its goals. The political struggle will eventually be decisive.
• The struggle for social justice will be long and difficult and is fought
for the highest possible stakes – the lives of billions of people, with
an impact on every person on the planet. The reason for the length of the struggle
is that the movement for social justice must take into account not only its own
strength but that of its enemies. The capitalist enemy is powerful, ruthless,
and there is no crime to which it will not resort. The capitalist class is, therefore,
capable of great resistance and the struggle against it will be very protracted
and serious. That is the perspective in which preparations to fight for social
justice must be made.
The aim of this pamphlet is to examine how to advance most effectively the
entire ESF and WSF. A key first issue is to assess accurately the general international
situation - as this determines many immediate issues of tactics, strategy and
approach.
2. The present
international political situation
The effect of the Iraq war, continued resistance to the occupation of that
country, the international movement against the war, and the impact of these
within many individual countries today dominate world politics. However, this
immediate political situation rests on, and sums up, a number of long-term
economic, social and political trends.
• The global capitalist economy has been slowing for thirty years. Each
international business cycle in this period has seen lower growth than the one
before. This continuing slowdown does not eliminate periods of growth within
business cycles. But it does mean there is no immediate perspective of international
capitalism returning to the type of almost universal and harmonious economic
growth seen in, for example, the post-World War II period prior to 1973.
• Capitalist society, internationally and in almost all individual countries,
is creating deeper and deeper social polarisation. Internationally, inequality
has reached the widest point in human history. In large areas of Africa, as well
as parts of Asia and Latin America, social disintegration, with all its consequences,
is deepening. In Britain, as in most developed capitalist countries, all the
trends towards greater equality that appeared in the post-World War II period
have been reversed and inequalities in incomes and conditions of life are growing.
• At the social level, the proletarianisation of the world continues with
the creation of huge new working classes in China, India, South East Asia and
Latin America. Simultaneously, soon and for the first time in human history,
the majority of the world’s population will live in cities and towns. Within
the advanced capitalist economies this proletarianisation continues via the widespread
entry of women into paid work, the transformation of previously self-employed
occupations into wage labour, the further contraction of the numbers of farmers,
and the penetration of big capital into restaurant, shopping and other service
sectors of the economy, simultaneously with the expansion of the latter at the
expense of manufacturing.
• On an ideological level, in the late 1980s and early 1990s capitalism
attempted to project a triumphalist perspective of universal acceptance of its
values. In its most extreme form ‘the end of history’ was proclaimed.
These assertions were, however, significantly weakened in their mass impact by
the overt economic problems that appeared in the late 1990s with the South East
Asian debt crisis, and weakened further by the Iraq war. The international movement
for social justice, publicly gathered in the ESF and the WSF, has become the
most widely organised and publicised alternative to the capitalist project, while
in certain parts of the world forces are also fighting against the effects of
neo-liberalism under the banner of religious, Marxist, environmentalist, patriotic
or other views.
• Confronted with opposition to deteriorating social conditions, and challenges
to its ideological hegemony, capitalism is rehabilitating the most extreme reactionary
ideologies and political movements – above all racism and, among certain
layers, fascism. Racist hysteria against asylum seekers and other victims of
capitalist exploitation pervades the mass media. The extreme right has become
a significant force in most European countries. Attempts to ‘humanise’ even
such figures as Hitler are pursued. The present aim of this is not to install
fascist rule but to attempt to gain the support of the population in the advanced
capitalist countries for wars such as that in Iraq, to ‘dehumanise’ those
who will be killed in large numbers by such assaults, and to prevent the majority
of the population in the economically advanced countries seeing in capitalism
the real source of their problems. Such racist filth, an open denial of the equality
and equal rights of all humanity, corrupts society to its foundations and also
undermines the basis of any rational scientific thought.
This world
situation therefore poses those who opposed the Iraq war, and the supporters
of the ESF, with major policy questions. Discussions and differences
on these are inevitable as the movement develops. But because of the
enormously high stakes involved, nothing must be allowed to disrupt the
unity in action of the movement. This pamphlet aims to contribute to
this debate within that framework.
3. The war
in Iraq and its aftermath
A key question the ESF must explicitly address is the assessment of the general
international situation. What is the overall international relation of social
forces? Who is on the offensive and who is on the defensive? What is the current
trajectory and possibilities of the struggle? The answers, explicit or implicit,
given to this question determine many issues of alliances, demands, and tactics.
The breadth of the movement against the Iraq war
The Iraq war undoubtedly saw, for the first time for over a decade, mass resistance
to a military offensive by a US administration. The numbers participating in
demonstrations against the war exceeded even the number who opposed the Vietnam
War forty years ago. There was intense media debate. A majority strongly opposed
the war even in countries, such as Spain and Italy, whose governments supported
it. In Britain, despite support for the war by both Labour and Conservative
party leaderships, and by the majority of the mass media, the balance of public
opinion usually opposed the war and increasingly has moved against it. There
was a serious division in the UN. Most important of all, resistance in Iraq
to the invasion has been continuous and escalating, forcing the brutal and
self-interested character of the US and British governments in carrying out
the invasion to be more and more clearly revealed. This struggle poses, for
the first time since the beginning of the 1980s, the possibility of a defeat
for the US in a major international project.
This mass anti-war movement followed and built on a decade of protests against
neo-liberal policies. Key steps were the 1994 Zapatista uprising, the 1996
First Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism in
Chiapas, the 1999 protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organisation,
international demonstrations in Prague, Stockholm, Brussels, Bangkok, Washington,
Barcelona, Genoa, and Florence.
These prepared the way for, and accompanied, the WSFs in Porte Alegre (2001-2003)
and Mumbai (2004), and the ESFs held from 2002 onwards. In parallel, significant
strikes against specific neo-liberal policies took place in a number of European
countries (including France and Italy). A left government was elected in Brazil
led by Lula, one managed to maintain itself in power in Venezuela under Chavez,
and in most of Latin America there was increased opposition to neo-liberalism.
The neo-liberal policies advocated by the IMF in the 1990s led to open economic
disaster in South East Asia, Russia, Brazil, and Argentina and were abandoned
by a significant number of these countries, which then experienced strong economic
growth – as with Russia and Argentina.
Victories in the US’s strategic projects
But despite the resistance and difficulties US imperialism has encountered
in executing its war in Iraq, it is clear that it has succeeded in gaining
major strategic objectives under the banner of the absurdly mis-titled ‘war
against terrorism’. The US has occupied Afghanistan and Iraq, extended
military bases into central Asia in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and acquired
a new compliant regime in Georgia. Sharon’s regime in Israel is continuing
and deepening a bloody policy of repression against the Palestinians, Libya
has been forced into a more acquiescent relation with the US, new pressure
is being mounted against Iran and Syria, and there has been no mobilisation
of the Arab or other peoples sufficient to reverse these trends. Throughout
Europe an offensive against the welfare state is being intensified and the
rise of extremist racist parties is in most cases, including Britain, more
rapid than those of the left. In the US the most anti-war candidate within
the Democratic Party, Howard Dean, was successfully defeated in the primaries.
The only alternative candidate to Bush with a chance of being elected, John
Kerry, would maintain the most important present policies of the US with only
relatively small modification.
The international relation of social forces
It is also clear that to attempt to prevent a defeat in Iraq, or more than
compensate for its effects if it becomes inevitable, the US is attempting to
intensify a number of assaults on a world scale – for example against
Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and the Palestinians. Therefore, although the
popular actions against the war in Iraq were large, and those participating
were militant, they have so far not been capable of reversing the policies
of the US administration and its allies or of securing major international
objectives of the movement for social justice.
It is therefore US imperialism which remains on the offensive and the world
movement for social justice at present remains on the defensive – albeit
the US is experiencing more serious resistance than previously. This is the
only realistic view of the international and domestic political situation.
And only a strictly objective view, not simply desires or wishes, can generate
a victorious strategy to defeat an enemy as powerful as US imperialism. If
such a realistic assessment is not made the movement will put forward proposals
that do not generate the maximum support or which lead to setbacks through
unnecessary defeats of individual groups or struggles. Equally, an objective
view is necessary to secure the maximum advance that is possible in every political
situation.
Therefore while it would be highly desirable to be able to assess that the
popular movement was on the international offensive, driving back the attacks
of the imperialists and making new gains – as was the situation, for
example, from World War II until 1979 – it would be untrue. The task
of the world movement for social justice is therefore to ensure that the significant
minority, which is fighting back against this imperialist offensive, does so
most successfully and succeeds in gaining the widest possible support on individual
issues so that in time the offensive by imperialism can be rolled back. Secondly,
it is to find how, over a period, the movement for social justice can turn
itself into a majority, both locally and internationally, which alone is capable
of successfully defeating the imperialist attacks that will intensify in the
coming period, and to be able to move onto the offensive to secure its own
goals.
This current overall situation therefore determines the areas in which this
social struggle is, and must be, conducted. This is, at present, primarily
on a defensive terrain – against neo-liberalism, war, racism and the
extreme right. The necessary tactics to wage this struggle must be to create
the widest possible alliances in action against the US imperialist and neo-liberal
offensives. Differences on ideology, politics, or other issues, while being
discussed, must not be allowed to interfere with the maximum unity in action
against these offensives by the US and other capitalist forces.
Orientating in that situation requires a clear attitude to the main social
forces operating internationally and within Britain.
4. The world
economic situation and increasing military aggression by the US
An era of permanent US military aggression
Underlying all the current trends in world politics is the three-decade-old
slowdown of the international capitalist economy. The specific forces underlying
this slowdown propel US imperialism onto its path of almost permanent military
aggression. As the latter is the most spectacular and decisive feature of the
present situation its economic roots must be understood. Military pressure
and aggression is not an optional policy for US imperialism. It is a necessary
result of the entire world and domestic situation it faces.
Three decades of world economic slowdown
A key part of the ideological claims of neo-liberalism and imperialism in the
1990s was that US and world capitalism had entered into a new wave of rapid
and unprecedented economic growth. At its extremes it was claimed that there
was a ‘new economy’. This US growth allegedly provided a new paradigm
that other countries could follow.
The facts show that this claim was totally false and crude propaganda based
on ripping individual facts out of context and refusing to study overall trends.
The international economy has been slowing for thirty years, ever since the
crisis of 1973-75, as wider areas of it fall into stagnation and crisis. This
trend continued during the 1990s.
US exploitation of the world economy
It is, furthermore, impossible for the rest of the planet to follow the US
model. The latter is based on the extraction of vast quantities of capital
from the rest of the world, as shown in the US balance of payments deficit
which now runs at over $600 billion a year, $1.5 billion a day, five per cent
of US GDP, or almost one third of US capital accumulation. The world as a whole
cannot extract net capital from itself and it is therefore impossible for the
rest of the world to follow the US imperialist model. The actual cumulative
trends in the world economy are the following:
• In the 1970s most of Africa’s economies plunged into crisis and
have not recovered three decades later. Much of sub-Saharan Africa is economically
and socially devastated with millions of deaths from poverty, preventable or
controllable disease, and war.
• In the 1980s most of Latin America entered relative economic stagnation.
The continent has not regained its previous rate of growth despite a partial
recovery in certain economies during the 1990s.
• Most of Eastern Europe, and all of the former USSR, entered into catastrophic
economic decline after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1989-91 – experiencing
the greatest peacetime falls in output (in some cases of more than 50%) of any
countries in history. After a decade Eastern Europe has still not recovered its
previous level of economic output and it will probably take closer to two decades
for the former USSR to do so.
• In the 1990s Japan entered into a long period of relative economic stagnation,
after four decades of rapid growth, following the collapse of the ‘bubble
economy’ of the late 1980s.
• In 1997-98 South East Asia, after several decades of extremely rapid
growth, experienced sharp crisis. While growth subsequently resumed, its rate,
of three to five per cent a year, is qualitatively lower than its previous level.
• Western Europe and the Euro-zone entered into relative economic stagnation
during the 1990s. This became still more pronounced during the downswing of the
international business cycle from 2000 onwards.
• Only China, and to a lesser extent India, among the major economies outside
the US, continue to show rapid long-term growth.
The successive, spreading slowdown, and in some cases decline, of widening
areas of the world economy has created a progressive deceleration of the world
economy. There are declining world rates of investment and therefore is declining
potential for long-term economic growth.
The US parasite in the world economy
In light of the real facts about the world economy, the propaganda attempt
to present the US as a paradigm of new rapid growth is entirely false. The
performance of the US economy appears impressive only in comparison to the
rest of the world economy, which has decelerated drastically. The US has merely
regained its century-old rate of economic growth, of 3-3.5 per cent a year,
while the rest of the world economy has sharply slowed below its growth rate
of the past half century.
With US growth financed only via its huge balance of payments deficit, far
from the the US economy providing a paradigm, it is a parasite sucking capital
from the rest of the world economy and therefore slowing the latter.
Economy and politics of US imperialism
The huge US balance of payments deficit - over $600 billion a year - also shows,
contrary to frequent media and administration assertions, that the US economy
is not competitive at its current dollar exchange rate. However, a substantial
and prolonged devaluation of the dollar, in order to reduce this deficit, and
thereby lessen the necessity of the flow of capital from abroad, would involve
significant pressure on the living standards of the US population, resulting
in political instability within the US. This reality provides a direct link
between the economic and political situations in the US.
The two presidents in recent US economic history who pursued a path of dollar
devaluation – a precondition for limiting the dependence of the US on
extraction of capital from abroad – were Nixon and Carter. Both were
ejected from office in ignominious circumstances. In contrast, Reagan and Clinton,
who were able to maintain a high exchange rate of the dollar, and therefore
cheap imports of consumer goods and large inflows of capital, were the only
two US presidents since 1961 able to serve two full terms.
US non-competitiveness and US military aggression
The non-competitiveness of the US economy at current exchange rates, combined
with the risk of significant domestic political instability if prolonged and
substantial dollar devaluation is embarked on, dictates the attempted path
of military aggression by US administrations. Left to purely economic forces
the US would increasingly lose its competitive position to Asian and European
rivals. A progressive erosion of the position of the dollar as a reserve currency
in favour of the euro would occur, further reducing the room for manoeuvre
by US administrations. Therefore, if issues are settled purely on the economic
terrain, a gradual undermining of the economic hegemony of the US will occur.
The attempt to reverse this by economic means, i.e. a prolonged devaluation
and reduction in US living standards, would result in political instability
and the likely defeat of administrations attempting it.
The only method available to US imperialism to attempt to prevent an undermining
of its hegemony, while seeking to maintain internal political stability, is
therefore to attempt to shift struggles from the terrain of economic competition
to that of military power. In the latter field US hegemony has not decreased
but sharply increased following the disintegration of the USSR. The following
examples highlight the US attempt to use military power to resolve economic
problems in its favour:
• In Iraq the US has sought to destroy by military intervention the favourable
competitive position enjoyed by French, Russian and Chinese companies and to
redirect advantage, above all control of Iraq’s oil, to US corporations.
• In the wider Middle East the US has attempted to undermine the positions
held by European companies by boosting its puppet state Israel and increasing
the subservience of the region’s Arab regimes.
• In Central Asia the US is attempting to aid its drive to gain control
of the region’s oil supplies from Russian competitors through the establishment
of military bases on the territory of the former USSR and direction of pipeline
routes to US client states such as Turkey and Georgia.
• In Eastern Europe the US is attempting to use reactionary clientelist
regimes in Poland, the Baltic republics and other states to undermine the position
of its German and French competitors. It is similarly using these governments
to prevent the further integration of the European Union as a rival to the US,
and to attempt to drive a wedge between the EU and Russia.
• In Latin America the US is attempting to overthrow the left reformist
administration of Chavez and, under cover of the fraudulent ‘war against
drugs’, to extend its military reach into wider regions of the continent.
Given the underlying economic trends further attempts to intensify US military
aggression and pressure are inevitable in the coming period. US imperialism
and its administrations cannot be persuaded onto a more reasonable course.
They can only be defeated in struggle.
For this reason, the situation in Iraq is of great strategic, as well as regional,
significance. Defeat of the US project in Iraq, that is of its first use of
military force to occupy a substantial country in the recent period, would
undermine its strategy on a world scale – sending a clear signal that
the US did not possess an unchallengeable accumulation of political and military
advantages that allowed it to resolve all major world questions in its own
interests. In no other part of the world at present can such a significant
defeat for US imperialism be delivered.
For this reason the single most important task of the world movement for social
justice, of the ESF and WSF, must be to fight for the defeat of the US aggression
in Iraq.
5. The ESF
and the imperialist ruling classes
Given the complexity of the struggle for international social justice, the
myriad of oppressions maintained by capitalism against which it is necessary
to fight, and the length of the struggle, the ESF will face a constantly developing
political situation. It is completely impossible to foresee accurately all
its events, combinations, and trends.
This world situation is, however, driven by large-scale social forces that
exist, and in many cases operate, on a world scale. Understanding the fundamental
trends of the international political situation is therefore best achieved
by analysis of these.
The aim of such an analysis is to understand the overall dynamics of the political
situation and therefore how most effectively to intervene to change it. This
dynamic is determined by the interrelation of all elements operating within
it - internationally and in their unique national combinations. Such dynamics
include, but are not confined to, the strength of forces seeking social justice.
Analysis of the political situation, therefore, cannot limit itself to simply
assessing the situation within the movement for social justice, or even among
the oppressed and exploited, but must take into account all social forces operating.
The following therefore deals with the trajectories of the main social forces
existing on a world scale.
The continuing internationalisation of the world economy
Underlying the entire development of the social situation is the deepening
internationalisation of the world capitalist economy – popularly known
as globalisation. The capitalist system was international from its origins.
But the course of the 20th century demonstrated that advanced capitalist
production has now developed to the point where it is only capable of operating
on an international scale. The period between World War I and World War II,
when the international economy was cartelised behind the boundaries of national
empires, saw the deepest economic crisis in capitalism’s history. Only
World War II, and the re-creation of an increasingly integrated world capitalist
economy organised by the US, allowed the re-launching of sustained capitalist
economic growth. Globalisation is not, therefore, an optional or reversible
course for capitalism. It is the only path it is capable of pursuing.
Any project of creating a purely national capitalist economy is utopian and
will be incapable of maintaining itself for a sustained period against the
pressure of world capitalism. Regarding other purely national alternatives,
between the world wars Stalin’s method of an autarchic planned national
economy showed that ‘socialism in one country’ was, at a dreadful
social price, more capable of developing production than ‘capitalism
in one country’. But capitalism in one country, or in individual national
empires, no longer exists.
In the last two decades, for example, the Chinese economy has achieved its
success, and with it the lifting of hundreds of millions out of poverty, through
using the trends of the world economy in its own favour, not via seeking autarchy.
China, however, has succeeded in this not by blindly subordinating itself to
the world economy but via using the nationalisation of large parts of its economy
to utilise international economic trends in favour of its own development.
Cuba has similarly used international trends in its own interests to recover
economically from the devastating blow dealt to it by the collapse of aid from
the former USSR.
The US imperialist bourgeoisie
For several decades after World War II the most powerful imperialist capitalist
class, that of the US, faced a dual challenge.
• It sought to defeat an upsurge of colonial revolutions that brought to
an end all the major formal capitalist empires and also overthrew capitalism
in China, Vietnam and Cuba.
• The US sought to dismantle the empires of its capitalist competitors,
in particular Britain and France, which acted as a barrier to its domination
of the maximum area of the world economy. The US sought to establish a world
empire without formal colonies.
From World War II to 1979 the US was on the defensive, culminating in its defeats
in China, Cuba and then Vietnam and a final post-war colonial revolutionary
wave in 1979 with the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and the Somoza dictatorship
in Nicaragua. However, commencing with Reagan, the US took the opportunity
of the split between the USSR and China to launch a major counter-offensive
with the aim of weakening or destroying the USSR – which had been in
various degrees of alliance with this revolutionary wave. This counter-revolutionary
offensive was successful.
The dominant fraction of the US capitalist class assessed that this victory
in the Cold War created a new and unprecedented shift in the international
relation of forces in its favour. Between 1943, with the defeat of the German
army at Stalingrad, and 1979 imperialism had suffered historically unprecedented
defeats that not only dismantled the colonial empires but placed certain significant
constraints on its ability to overtly intervene in the internal affairs of
third world states. These victories reversed five centuries of essentially
continuous and undefeated imperialist and colonialist expansion that had perpetrated
the greatest crimes in the history of humanity - the slave trade, the impoverishment
and pillaging of numerous countries, and the achievement in several cases of
what Hitler attempted - the genocidal elimination of entire peoples.
Flushed with its post-1979 victories, the project of the dominant fraction
of the US ruling class remains to reverse a substantial part of this adverse
shift in the historical relation of forces. It aims, and in a number of cases
openly proclaims its intention, to construct a new world order under its direct
leadership and with all major questions resolved in its interests. This project
is cloaked in the pretence/ideology of a ‘benign imperialism’.
US imperialism claims that only a few holdouts, ‘rogue states’,
and those ‘opposed to reform’ are preventing the achievement of
such a world order allegedly guaranteeing economic and social development,
peace and democracy. To remove such obstacles, ‘pre-emptive’ military
force and every other form of subversive action is justified, including unilateral
action if required by the US and a few states most closely tied to it. The
Iraq war provided a test bed for this political orientation.
While the military and economic power of this US project is extremely strong,
its proclaimed ideology is merely a tissue of lies. There is no more a ‘benign
imperialism’ than there is a vegetarian tiger. The methods of US imperialism
are the same as its European precursors and include:
• killing two million people in Vietnam
• unnecessary use of nuclear weapons against Japan
• repeated military incursions in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa
• gratuitous systematic bombing to economically devastate North Korea in
the final stages of the war on that peninsula
• propping up of the great majority of the most odious and repressive regimes
in the world - four decades of support for apartheid South Africa before being
forced to abandon this, support for Franco, Salazar, successive Guatemalan regimes,
Israel, the Shah of Iran, Pinochet, Marcos, Samosa, the Greek colonels, and Saudi
Arabia
• imposition of economic programmes, via the IMF, the WTO and other means
which are responsible for the deaths of millions of people, and supreme indifference
despite the possibility of resolving these issues
• the crushing of billions by poverty, deaths of tens of millions from
preventable or containable diseases
• judicial terror against the US black population
• destruction of the world environment
• willingness to use aggressive military force against all those who oppose
it.
The European and Japanese imperialist ruling classes
The capitalist classes of the European states have no moral objection to an
openly imperialist world order. They pioneered it over several centuries and
attempt to maintain it in formally independent former colonial territories.
But they want such an order constituted under their leadership or, as this
is impractical, with their significant participation. They therefore believe
it dangerous that such an imperialist order should be unilaterally constructed
by the US – as the latter will use such unilateral power to resolve issues
in its own interests and against European competitors.
For this reason the most important European states, France and Germany, in
alliance at present with Russia, favour such imperialist projects being organised
through a condominium of imperialist states, for example the UN, rather than
unilaterally by the US. This can lead to tactical differences with the US,
as over Iraq, and to intensified forms of economic competition – shown
most graphically in the contest for reserve currency status between the euro
and the dollar.
Japan, confronted at short range with the military strength of China and Russia,
is unable to play an equivalent role of even partial independence of the US.
At present, therefore, Japanese imperialism contents itself with rebuilding
its military potential, removing political obstacles to its use, politically
rehabilitating overtly nationalist, military and imperialist ideologies, and
laying the technological base for later acquisition of nuclear weapons.
Attitude to the imperialist ruling classes
In an epoch of unprecedentedly destructive weapons, the future crimes of the
imperialist powers threaten to exceed even those of the past – up to
and including the use of nuclear arms. Even at present the attempts to create
popular support and ‘justification’ for imperialist projects require
the promotion of the most reactionary ideologies and political movements, racism
and xenophobia. These increasingly dominate the media of the imperialist countries.
Buttressing imperialist ideologies and institutions requires reducing the significance
of the loss of life by Arab and other peoples, the trivialisation and elimination
of diversity of expression in the mass media and the systematic debasing of
human culture, science and thought.
Against such policies, the resistance of peoples and countries is inevitable.
Attempts to implement such projects necessarily lead the world further into
an era of permanent conflict, wars, and crimes. No section of the imperialist
powers will systematically oppose such schemes, but will merely insist that,
to a greater or lesser extent, they be executed in their own interests rather
than those of their competitors.
Their character and history shows that no trust may be placed in any section
of the imperialist bourgeoisies by the ESF or any other progressive movement.
However the pursuit of progressive struggles makes it permissible and necessary
to exploit differences between the various imperialist powers which may involve
the making of practical alliances with sections of them – as with France,
Germany and Russia over the Iraq war, as Brazil is doing, as Cuba does in the
fight against US encirclement, and as China does to enlarge its room for economic
and political manoeuvre. Such alliances are however purely tactical in character
and do not reflect that any group of imperialists is more progressive than
any other. Every imperialist ruling class merely regrets that it itself does
not have the power to execute the level of crimes of the US imperialists.
It is entirely permissible to enter into a practical alliance with an imperialist
ruling class to pursue an interest of the working class and oppressed – for
example with French and German imperialism to oppose the actions of the US
in Iraq. But even in such a struggle the imperialist ruling class will be a
hesitating, uncertain and cowardly ally. Above all no strategic confidence
may be placed in it. The strategic goal must be constantly to expand the sphere
of organisation of the working class and oppressed independently of every section
of the imperialists. All tactical issues are placed within that framework.
6. The political
trends in semi-colonial countries
The semi-colonial capitalist classes
The increasing globalisation of the capitalist economy results in the semi-colonial
capitalist classes finding themselves generally undermined and weakened by
the pressure of the imperialist bourgeoisies. They are unable to compete in
the decisive sectors of production with the imperialist multinational companies,
which therefore increasingly penetrate and take over their home markets. The
entire apparatus not only of ownership but of the mass media, marketing and
culture from the imperialist countries is therefore penetrating the semi-colonial
states. However a fundamental struggle against imperialist domination could
not be successful in a capitalist economy and would require a mobilisation
of the popular masses that would threaten the position of the semi-colonial
bourgeoisies themselves. The semi-colonial capitalist classes therefore increasingly
adopt either a position of supine prostration before US imperialism and its
direct relays (as in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Nicaragua, Colombia) or attempt
to gain a certain margin of manoeuvre by exploiting conflicts of interests
between the imperialist powers, in particular between the US and France/Germany.
The latter path is pursued by Brazil, Argentina and South Africa. In the latter
case such divisions may increase the room for manoeuvre by popular movements.
In most cases the semi-colonial bourgeoisies continue the economic and social
attack on the majority of the population even when engaging in limited conflicts
with imperialism. In a small number of cases however, the most important contemporary
one being Venezuela, sections of the semi-colonial bourgeois may be drawn into
severe conflicts with imperialism, involving substantial popular mobilisations.
Political movements of the semi-colonial bourgeoisies
In such a world situation the wide international reformist movements of the
1950s-1970s (Bandung, Non-Aligned Movement) have essentially collapsed as large
or effective forces, together with most of the type of bourgeois reformist
leaderships (Nkrumah, Sukharno, Nasser, Nyrere) that provided their national
political bases. Attempts to create regional groupings on a similar basis,
for example in Latin America, cannot fundamentally change the international
situation, or regain the momentum of the non-aligned movements of 1954-79.
Any international movement for social justice will therefore have to involve
and base itself on popular forces for support much more directly than the non-aligned
movements of the post-World War II period. For example, the WSF and ESF have
received support from reformist parties, notably in Brazil, and from sections
of the imperialist bourgeoisie, as in France, but both the WSF and the ESF
are much more linked to popular and social movements than was the non-aligned
movement.
In so far as the semi-colonial bourgeoisies take steps that correspond to the
needs of the mass of the population, or clash with the interests of the imperialists,
it is necessary to enter into practical agreements with them to pursue such
struggles. Thus in Venezuela those fighting for social justice are totally
alongside Chavez in resisting the attempts by imperialism and local reaction
to remove him. In Brazil, while struggling against the right wing economic
and social orientation of the Lula government, it is necessary to support its
opposition to the US war in Iraq and opposition to imperialist policies in
the WTO.
The rural and urban petty-bourgeoisie of the semi-colonial
countries
Of the utmost importance in the semi-colonial countries is the relation of
the working class and movement for social justice with the town and rural petty-bourgeoisie.
These groups, in particular the peasants, were a fundamental base of support
for the entire progressive movement against colonialism. They supported and
formed the mass popular base of bourgeois reformist parties (such as the African
anti-colonial movements, Indian Congress, Peron), revolutionary petty-bourgeois
national movements (such as the Algerian National Liberation Front), and in
certain instances working-class parties (such as the Chinese Communist Party,
Vietnamese Communist Party, Castro). The defeats suffered by the working class
since the 1970s however have in some cases fractured and weakened this broad
progressive orientation, leading to sections of the urban petty bourgeoisie
and peasantry supporting overtly pro-imperialist forces (such as the Mexican
National Action Party - PAN), or currents mobilising against imperialism under
religious or other ideologies. In these latter cases the movement for social
justice, while not agreeing with their ideologies, must engage in united action
with them against the chief and most powerful threat to humanity – the
imperialist bourgeoisie. A fundamental goal of the movement remains to win
back the urban and rural petty-bourgeoisie to an overtly progressive orientation,
as only in alliance with these layers can the working class of the semi-colonial
countries be victorious.
7. The situation in the imperialist countries
The overall orientation of the imperialist bourgeoisies has already been described
above. However the capitalist class in the imperialist countries is such a
small section of the population that it cannot maintain its rule without gaining
support from wider layers of society. Undermining the position of the imperialist
bourgeoisies therefore requires severing them from their wider layers of social
support. This must be achieved in a very specific and concrete political situation.
The petty-bourgeoisie of the imperialist states
One of the consequences of the process of globalisation is that significant
sections of small business in a number of imperialist countries are being eliminated
or crushed by large capital. However, due to the major victories achieved by
the imperialists in the period since the 1980s, and the failure of the leadership
of the mass social democratic and communist parties to protect them, sections
of small capital lash out not against their real oppressors but against other
countries and in particular against ethnic and racial minorities. These forces
are given a further space to operate by the need of the imperialist bourgeoisies
to attempt to align their population behind them for various reactionary projects
and in inter-imperialist competition. A substantial resurgence of racist, fascist,
and reactionary nationalist political movements and ideologies has therefore
taken place in most imperialist countries – Le Pen serving as the leading
international symbol of this.
These currents, overtly or implicitly harking back to the fascist regimes of
the 1930s, are utterly reactionary. While the dominant sections of the imperialist
bourgeoisie are today not compelled to seek, and are not actively seeking,
the establishment of fascist regimes within their own countries they find such
movements useful and therefore give them significant aid through the mass media
and other means at their disposal. Root and branch struggle against such forces,
with their attempt to degrade the majority of humanity to sub-human status,
and their goal of crushing all movements of the exploited and oppressed, will
be a permanent field of activity in the coming years and one around which the
maximum unity in struggle must be developed.
Liberalism and social democracy
Liberalism and social democracy within the imperialist countries had analysed
the former Cold War as a struggle between a totalitarian/aggressive ‘communist’ system,
and ‘democratic’, ‘peace-loving’, ‘defensively’ oriented,
and ‘pro-free enterprise/mixed economy’ forces under the leadership
of US. The political conclusion of this, if true, would therefore have been
that the victory of the latter group was a step forward for humanity that would
open up an era of greater peace and social and political progress. Therefore
it was argued it was necessary to support the fundamental policy of the imperialist
powers while engaging in criticism of ‘excesses’ in their methods
or of individual actions.
Such an analysis has been entirely refuted by events. Far from demonstrating
a ‘peace loving’, ‘defensive’, and ‘liberal’ character,
the victory of the US in the Cold War was followed by its heightened military
aggression, the launching of repeated wars, attempts to put in place systems
such as National Missile Defence which would allow it to stage nuclear aggression
against other states, attacks on the social and political gains of the most
oppressed and exploited sections of the population, and a resurgence of racism
and reactionary nationalism in numerous countries. Events since the collapse
of the USSR confirm that the real character of the Cold War was that of imperialist
aggression by the US and its allies against a Soviet Union that acted as a
certain military and political counterbalance to this. The leadership of the
former USSR was not engaged in ‘aggression’ but, on the contrary,
failed to pursue a resolute enough struggle against imperialism – sacrificing
both other struggles and the population of its own country to its narrow bureaucratic
interest. This bureaucratic leadership of the Soviet Union, in alliance with
imperialism, took this tendency to its logical conclusion by being the main
force that restored capitalism in the territory of the former USSR – thereby
condemning the population of these countries to worse economic, social and
political conditions than those which had existed prior to 1991.
Following the victories of imperialism from the 1980s onwards, sections of
the leadership of social democracy pursued right wing neo-liberal positions,
of the Blair type, while most others pursued right wing social democratic policies
(Jospin, Schröder). In most countries the Communist parties were marginalized.
Despite its bureaucratic leadership, the disintegration of the USSR and the
restoration of capitalism on its territory represented a huge setback and defeat
both domestically and internationally. Within the former USSR living standards
and social protection plunged precipitately, male life expectancy in Russia
fell by 10 years, millions of women were forced into poverty and prostitution,
tens of thousands were killed in wars in Azerbaijan, Chechnya and Georgia,
and the population of Russia is today two million lower than it would have
been on previous trends. Internationally the most powerful state that had been
able to provide material aid against imperialism, greatly aiding for example
the victory of the Vietnam National Liberation Front against the US, was eliminated.
The destruction of the USSR was followed by a wave of reaction on a world scale
that still continues.
The social position of the social democratic and communist
parties
The social democratic parties, and to a much lesser extent the communist parties,
between them nevertheless continue to enjoy the support of the large majority
of the working class. Forces to their left enjoy the support of only five to
ten per cent of the population, frequently less, in most economically advanced
countries. Far greater forces splitting from traditional parties have gone
to the extreme right than to the left – an indication of the real and
currently adverse relation of forces in the imperialist countries.
As long as the majority of the working population continue to support the social
democratic and communist parties, those fighting for social justice cannot
set in action the majority of the population without practical agreements with
either the social democratic and communist parties as a whole or currents within
them. Those fighting for social justice must therefore attempt to enter into
united action with these forces against imperialism and capitalism, while at
the same time struggling against the right wing policies of the social democratic
and communist leaderships.
The emergence of left wings within the reformist parties
Due to the mass character of the social democratic, and to a lesser extent
communist, organisations, a revival of the popular struggle will not simply
bypass them. On the contrary it will produce left wings within them, with which
united action must be conducted both in the fight against the imperialists
and against the right wing of these parties. The general weakness of the left
wings within the social democratic and communist parties is not a sign that
they will be entirely bypassed in struggle, Labour for example will not disappear
as the mass party of the working class in Britain in the present period, but
reflects the adverse relation of social forces.
The definition of the character of each specific situation, and therefore the
key struggles and demands within it, which defines the appropriate bases on
which it is necessary to fight for united action, is one of the most important
issues of practical tactical questions facing the movement for social justice.
8. The ESF
and the WSF
The victories won by imperialism from the 1980s onwards disoriented the working
population of most countries and all those resisting the capitalist offensive,
and in many cases severely weakened their organisations. Trade union membership
fell sharply in almost all countries, right wing capitalist parties reduced
formerly mass parties of the working class to relatively marginal groups in
Japan, the trade unions in the US have become almost marginalized in most cases
outside the public sector, most communist parties were severely reduced with
in some cases, as in France, an important part of their social base in the
most oppressed parts of the population being won over by fascist and racist
organisations. The leadership of social democratic parties was generally taken
by the most right wing currents within them, and privatisation and attacks
on the social gains of the population were universal as shown vividly by the
Blair government.
Following such large scale defeats, the vigorous resistance to imperialism
by a number of important, but minority, layers of the population, which started
from the mid-1990s onwards, inevitably developed around a number of diverse
issues. These naturally generated and reflected different ideologies, different
strategies and different tactics based on these experiences. A prolonged period
of struggle, which is inevitable given the deepening character of the imperialist
offensive, will therefore occur before an agreed strategy will be widely adopted
that is capable of inflicting a sustained defeat on the capitalists. The international
movement against the Iraq war, the ESF and the WSF are important steps in that
development.
In the numerous current and coming struggles the key criteria by which all
forces must be judged is not ideology or proclaimed theoretical views, but
the practical position they take on the most immediate and important matters
of the social struggle. The tone taken in discussing differences and tactics
must reflect this. Socialist Action wants to engage in both debate and united
action with the whole range of forces in the struggle. That is why it supported
the holding of the 2004 ESF in London. The necessary and inevitable discussion
that will take place must not cut across unity in struggle against a common
capitalist enemy. Broad masses of the population, and even the most advanced
and militant layers, will not - and should not - judge views within the movement
for social justice in the first place by their ideology but by their practical
views and proposals for the social struggle. It is the ability to lead large
social forces in struggle, not the ability to produce theories or analyses,
that is the primary condition for political leadership. Analysis and theory
is important because it leads to, and is not a substitute for, the most effective
conduct of political struggle.
Within that framework there are a number of key issues for the movement to
consider.
9. Some key
issues
Within the framework outlined above a number of key issues for the ESF have
to be gradually discussed and clarified in order to take it forward in the
most successful and practical way.
• Many different groups fighting against many different oppressions and
crimes participate in the ESF. This is extremely positive. But capitalism also
lives by dividing and conquering – setting the population of the imperialist
countries against the population of semi-colonial countries, and utilising racism,
sexism, homophobia, and religious and other discriminations. The power of the
capitalist class can itself be relatively centralised through the capitalist
state. If the capitalist class is united in organisation and those fighting against
it divided, capitalism will win. In the same way that the capitalist class can
centralise its power on the political level, so must those fighting for social
justice. This does not mean that the ESF and WSF should become a political party.
But it means that political parties fighting for the oppressed and exploited
must be built alongside them.
• Most currents within the ESF and WSF believe that the imperialist and
capitalist system can be reformed until it fundamentally changes its character.
Therefore, large numbers of those in the ESF and WSF either believe that it is
undesirable or impossible to eliminate the international capitalist system, or
that changes can be made which make such a goal unnecessary. Even the bulk of
those who believe that it is no more possible to create a humane capitalist system
than it is possible to teach a tiger vegetarianism, and therefore believe that
the international capitalist system must be ended, do not accept that this can
only be done by taking state political power out of the hands of the capitalists.
Socialist Action very much wishes these views were true. The major struggles
against capitalism involve large losses, almost all of which are borne by those
fighting for social justice. Nothing would be better than if these struggles
could be reduced to a minimal level or eliminated. But experience shows that
this would be a utopian assessment.
Reforms or concessions can undoubtedly be obtained from capitalism in certain
circumstances. Wherever this can be done there must be a constant fight to
achieve such reforms, both for their own sake and as points of development
for further advances. But the dynamic of the capitalist system, as shown over
several centuries, increases international and domestic inequality and exploitation;
it is inherently expansionary; in order to attempt to prevent the inevitable
rebellions against such effects the imperialists necessarily resort to extreme
violence and oppression; periodically deep crises within the capitalist system
compel it to resort to the most extreme solutions – imperialist conquest,
racism, and in extremis fascism. History confirms there is no level of violence
to which the imperialists will not sink in order to defend and implement their
interests. Capitalism will readily step outside the bounds of legality and
democracy to maintain its power – using for this a control of the state
that is not confined to formal government but extends deep into the bureaucracy
and armed forces.
Reforms wrested from the imperialists are therefore necessarily unstable and
constitute points of struggle, based on relations of forces that the capitalists
constantly seek to overturn. Thus, for the last 20 years, imperialism has been
mounting a sustained offensive to reverse many of the social gains made by
the majority of the world’s population in the period 1942-79 and in particular,
in Western Europe, to eliminate the welfare state. This offensive will deepen
with a further rise of inequality, social attacks, racist movements, imperialist
wars, etc.
Only the elimination of the capitalist system will create an economic base
to begin the construction of a just society. Even that will not, by itself,
achieve social justice, but merely create a more stable basis for it. Many
decades, or even centuries, of social reconstruction and struggle will be required
before all residues of imperialism, racism, sexism, inequality, national chauvinism
and other discriminations are eliminated.
If it is understood that it is necessary to eliminate the capitalist economy
in order to achieve social justice then the centrality of the working class
in a new social order is evident. Only the organisation of large-scale production
can potentially eliminate poverty on a world scale or even maintain current
living standards. The only alternative to the organisation of production by
the capitalists is one by the working class. This does not mean that other
social groups do not play a large or even decisive role in the struggle, as
shown in a number of countries, but that such a struggle against capitalism,
to be successful, must culminate in the transfer of state power to the working
class and the organisation of the most powerful elements of production on its
basis.
The working class, in turn, is all those who live by wage labour. It is not
confined simply to industrial workers, nor is it defined by income level or
similar secondary characteristics. Indeed, one of the main features of modern
capitalist society is that many occupations that were previously self-employed
are becoming becoming transformed into wage labour (retail sector, finance,
lawyers, accountants, scientific workers etc). Most of what are referred to
as the middle-class are now highly paid workers not ‘petty-bourgeois’.
Only those living on surplus value created by exploitation are capitalists.
It is a key aim of the struggle, and a precondition for victory, to narrow
to the greatest possible extent the layers of social support of the capitalist
class and to seek to win all others to the side of the working class and oppressed.
10. The transition
to socialism
It is worth placing all these trends in a long term perspective. History demonstrates
that the overall struggle for social justice is inseparably tied to the progress
or defeats of the international working class. The exploitation of wage labour
is very far from being the only oppression or injustice perpetrated by capitalist
society – the oppression of women, racism and homophobia touch even greater
numbers of people. But only the working class is strong enough to defeat capitalism
and create a new productive system based on itself. Victories for the working
class are followed by victories for all the oppressed, and defeats for the
working class by reaction and setbacks for all.
The Russian revolution of 1917 was the first time in history that the working
class of any country succeeded in taking state power and holding onto it for
a significant period. The imperialist assault on this state was therefore without
precedent – up to 20 million killed due to imperialist intervention in
the civil war and 27 million killed in the Nazi invasion. Similarly, the victory
of the USSR over fascism unleashed a revolutionary and progressive wave without
precedent that lasted for almost four decades. The colonial empires were demolished.
The welfare state was created in Western Europe. The social democratic and
communist parties were strengthened in numerous countries against conservative
and openly capitalist parties. An unprecedented series of social gains were
gained in many fields – abortion and divorce rights, equal pay for women,
lesbian and gay rights, the elimination of the death penalty in a large number
of countries, the marginalisation of doctrines such as open support for imperialism
and empire, and the marginalisation of forces of the extreme and fascist right.
The destruction of the USSR was followed by a wave of reaction on all fronts.
Those who failed to understand this, and were led simply by justified repugnance
at the crimes of the leadership of the USSR, did not comprehend the inevitable
international and domestic reaction, and the changed relation of forces and
international dynamic, that started after 1989-91. An analysis that the USSR
was a ‘state capitalist’ society, qualitatively no different to
capitalism, not only violated any Marxist theoretical analysis of that society,
but led to the view that there had been no deterioration in the world relation
of forces following the destruction of the USSR. The destruction of the latter
was held to be irrelevant or progressive.
This analysis led to the view that the new mobilisations around such issues
as the US attack on Iraq, or against capitalist globalisation, represented
a new social upturn of a fundamentally offensive character of the type that
took place after 1968 with the victory of Vietnam in the war against the US
and with the major wave of struggles that unfolded in Europe and Latin America.
Such an offensive would place the achievement of a socialist solution to society’s
problems on the agenda in a relatively short-term sense. Slogans and alliances
would reflect this relatively short term perspective of struggle for socialism,
rather than understanding the defensive position of the working class and oppressed,
and putting forward immediate demands, and constituting alliances, accordingly.
Such an analysis leads to putting forward proposals within the movement that
are ultra-left as regards slogans and sectarian as regards alliances. Whatever
the intention behind such an approach, which is often honourable, it therefore
fails in practice to maximise the strength of the movement and imposes unnecessary
defeats upon it.
These errors on the USSR are reproduced in relation to China, Cuba and Vietnam – remaining
countries in which capitalism has been overthrown. Innumerable criticisms could
be made of the leadership of these countries. But the social systems on which
they rest are superior both domestically for their own population and internationally
to any capitalist alternative. They, therefore, have to be defended against
imperialist attacks.
11. The overall
trajectory of the struggle
Marxists see all the movements and trends outlined above in the long-term transition
to socialism. Capitalism is a system of generalized commodity production. This
system is made possible, and was created, by the commodification - that is
the production for sale and the market - of both the means of production and
labour power. The whole of society is brought under the dominant sway of production
for exchange value, rather than usefulness to humans. This also determines
the relation between the capitalist and working classes (exploitation) and
between the elements of the capitalist class (competition). The competitive
dynamic of capitalism forces it to continuously reproduce and expand itself,
bringing the maximum areas of society within the framework of production for
exchange value, and therefore the potential for profit creation. This dynamic
of expansion, both geographical and social, penetrates all spheres of social
life, culture, personal relations, politics, and ideology. In addition to its
numerous crimes, such a society debases all aspects of human life through their
reduction to monetary relations – as may be seen every day in the alienated
vision of society and relations between human beings pumped out by the Sun
and other mass media.
It gives to every human being on the planet the following objective choice.
To participate in promoting this debased society and its system of exploitation,
oppression, violence, war, corruption and lies, or to fight against it for
the truth and a society based on human solidarity and values. Socialist Action
unequivocally stands for the latter. That is why it supports and champions
the ESF and the WSF.