with summaries and quotes from articles recommended for study and discussion
Kharkov, Palestine, Caledonia, degrowth in China, Green Deal, Guillamón
Updated 27-5-2024
Assembly.org.ua, 21-5-2024
«Пусть ТЦК и полиция сами возят». Как в Харькове начал действовать закон об усилении мобилизации и грозит ли экономике коллапс из-за него
https://assembly.org.ua/pust-tczk-i-policziya-sami-vozyat-kak-rabotaet-zakon-ob-usilenii-mobilizaczii-i-chto-teper-s-ekonomikoj/
“Let the TCC and the police do the driving themselves.” How the law on strengthening mobilization began to take effect in Kharkov and whether the economy is in danger of collapsing because of it
The edgy political film “Legitimate 2: 10 Years Later” coincided with rumors and speculation that after May 18, international and domestic transportation in Ukraine will come to a halt as drivers and other workers hide from widespread mobilization. For the first capital, where production is in ruins and practically everything is brought in, this issue is particularly problematic.
As you know, according to the law passed on April 11, during any street check of documents and verification with the electronic register of persons liable for military service, the police will have the right to detain a person liable for military service and take him to the TCC if his current data is not in the system after the 60-day deadline for submission. For not carrying a military ID card – also detention and bussification to establish data. On May 17, the Supreme Disposer signed into law No. 10379 to increase absenteeism fines for evaders. According to it, for refusal to appear on a summons or to update the credentials will be imposed in absentia fine from 17 to 25.5 thousand hryvnia with the prospect of blocking accounts in case of non-payment (the minimum wage in Ukraine is 8 thousand hryvnia).
As far as we can see at the moment, the bussiness and hiding from it is going on as usual. The probable exodus of the population from Kharkiv is rather connected with the seizure of a part of the border zone by Russian troops since May 10 and the intensification of the shelling of the city throughout the spring. The real opening of the big hunting season for citizens is expected in the summer, from July 16.
Yulia Khomyakova, who works in a grocery store in Kharkiv, tells us: “I can tell you for sure that there are fewer people, literally in the last week before May 10. And it’s not about hiding. Because not only men [have become fewer], but also women and children. All the drivers and sellers that are left here continue to go to work, no matter what and against all odds. They are not all going to disappear. It’s not realistic to replace the men!” Regarding Saturday’s strike by truckers from different regions, who partially blocked the Kiev-Odessa highway with about a hundred trucks, demanding reservations and creating a 5 km traffic jam at the exit from Odessa, she says: “Honestly, I don’t know. If anything, the whole country should go on strike. A group of a few thousand truckers won’t achieve anything, as far as I’m concerned. And the whole country is in a fog and doesn’t want to think. Kyiv political-emigrant blogger Miroslav Oleshko also noted the day before yesterday in his Telegram channel: “If the boxing match (of Usik and Fury, – note.) is discussed more than the occupation of 70 kilometers of land in two days, the corruption at the fortifications and the strike of distant bikers, it becomes clear that everything is going to a tragic end. On the other hand, at least their action was not dispersed – such people can pack and lock up anyone they want, and when asked for access, they reply that the container contains secret military cargo.
The idea of a peaceful general protest strike was floated last month: “There is a great option.) All men in the country should buy food for a few months and not go out at all. Yes, it will be hard, but it will help. In one day, all the men will be off the streets. The TCA will be fucked, the meat will be gone. There won’t be anyone to cover the losses. Maybe in this case these assholes will start to negotiate”, – suggested in one of the chat rooms of Kharkiv ukhilyants a participant named Boris. Others replied that they would do the same without him: “Well, the police will come, you are not outside, they will go through the neighbors, ask “is there such and such”, someone will say “there is”, and that’s it, they will pick you up and take you away. And it’s probably not for a few months, but until the elections in America. It is easier to stay at home in winter than in summer, and many people have been sitting for more than a year. My friends have already bought swimming pools at home because they are afraid to take their children to the river again. But it is far from the case that the neighbors will give up hiding.
Of course, the mobilization of some workers makes it possible to worsen the working
conditions for others who don’t want to follow. Among others, Novaya Pochta, as one of the main logistics operators in Kharkiv and Ukraine, is famous for this. “I have heard that NP has started issuing reservations to employees. Who knows if this is true? How does it work? In the NP and before all the juices were squeezed out of the employees (I know this from my experience, I worked in the office for 6 years), now I suspect that those liable for military service will be exploited like the last slaves, holding this reservation, and those will tolerate any conditions, just not to go to war? If there are those who have received the reservation on the NP, share your experience,” – asked on May 11 on the review site Vnutri.org.
According to the calculations of Orendatabot, Kharkiv region is in the leaders of the anti-rating on the closure of FOPs for the first 4 months of 2024. Most often closed work in retail trade (34.9%), computer programming (10.1%) and wholesale trade (6.2%). Most of all closed businesses in Kyiv – 3846. The second place on the list is occupied by Kharkiv region, where there are 2385; the first place is followed by Dnepropetrovsk region, where there are 2371. 23% of the closed FOPs started work last year. It is 7,3 thousand enterprises. “And where are the statistics of the rest? Closed real FOPs that worked. Trade – gone, IT – gone. They open FOPs to reduce tax payments, cashing, etc. In frontline Kharkov, those who try to work are packed by TCC, rockets, shaheds, FABs, KABs arrive. All known IT, which did not leave and did not close the FOP, at least not in Kharkiv”, – comment on these data in one of Kharkiv povestochnyh groups.
Every barin by the will of the sovereign must put serfs on military affairs. The Cabinet of Ministers resolution ¹ 560, adopted on Thursday, May 16, provides for the delivery of summonses by employers and imposes on them the obligation to organize the arrival of their employees in the TCC (probably, to deliver them by the neck). This will be done after receiving an order from the TCC or local administration. In addition, the heads of enterprises, institutions and organizations must inform the military commissars about the employees who refused to receive a summons or wrote a request for dismissal, otherwise they can come there themselves. The cry of the soul of Andrei Savchenko in the same community:
“Soon there will be no one to live in this city! They are just bombing us to death! They can’t provide for those who are there, and they want to rake up as much as possible, volunteers are dying, the fees have fallen, the boys have no money, but the deputies buy new cars and the TCC wins tenders for buses! This is a pure contractual agreement, where the light of the nation, healthy boys, fathers of breadwinners are simply rolled into the ground in meat attacks! So, if at the beginning nobody knew anything and went because it is our homeland, now everyone understands that we are needed as long as we can walk and protect other people’s wallets, and when you come back disabled, nobody will remember you and the pension of 700 UAH! So people are tired of 10 years of war! And 33 years of politicians’ bullshit!”
Traditionally, mobilization is harder in the periphery than in the big cities. In Pervomayskoye, for example, the first consequences of the law’s implementation are already being felt: “In our town, people are being laid off from almost all enterprises, and problems with supplies have already begun. Roma” bakery, a production and purchase of grain and cereals, and a window company, also problems with forwarders from other regions, and this is only the 3rd day. In the enterprises they began to drain workers to TCKs. Yesterday the driver of the bakery from Kharkiv did not return. He managed to give the keys to the kiosk and call the company. A man brought the car separately”, – an anonymous complained to us this morning. If there is no one to hand over, according to the idea, they can take away the businessman himself, unless they introduce a tacit provision of reservations for assistance in the execution of the plan.
The bottom line is that the authorities have gone all out against those who refuse to serve them. This is the moment of truth for them. If not enough people show up in two months, the game will be over in the more or less near future. Check back on “Assembly” to keep up with how and where things are going.
Complete article (except hyperlinks). Translated by DeepL.com
Anonymous, 23-5-2024
Sul movimento delle “tende” nei campus universitari
https://www.leftcom.org/it/articles/2024-05-23/sul-movimento-delle-%E2%80%9Ctende%E2%80%9D-nei-campus-universitari%C2%A0
On the Movement of “Tents” on College Campuses
Preface: Brief Historical Contextualization of the Palestinian Question
After eight months of ruthless bombardment accompanied by a blockade of humanitarian aid, the horrors of the Israeli assault on Gaza have all but erased the memory of the vicious attacks by Hamas and its jihadist allies on October 7 of last year. The asymmetric nature of the conflict means that, as always, the Palestinian dead and wounded far outnumber the Israeli dead and wounded. Worldwide demonstrations in support of the Palestinian cause are also motivated by the historical injustice of the dispossession of Palestinians in 1948. As we have reported elsewhere,1 this was only possible because of a specific moment in the history of imperialism, when the two great victorious powers of World War II competed with each other to be the sponsors of a “homeland” for the Jews, following what they claimed was the Nazi genocide. In 1948, both the USSR and the U.S. saw it as a bulwark for their interests in the oil-rich Middle East. The Palestinian bourgeoisie was divided and received only weak support from the much weaker Arab monarchies that had emerged from the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire thirty years earlier. Jewish terrorist organizations did the rest, and the massacres at Deir Yassin and elsewhere paved the way for the creation of the state of Israel. Since then, history has largely been a story of Palestinian terrorist attacks followed by Israeli army attacks. The people of Gaza and the West Bank have been squeezed between two reactionary forces for decades. But as we wrote last October, this time is different. The global capitalist system is in deep crisis, affecting every state and intensifying imperialist competition. Russia’s attack on Ukraine, after years of NATO encirclement, and the support it has received from Western sanctioned countries, China and Iran, are breaking up the (relatively) cozy globalization of the past decades. With Iran supporting Hamas and the United States insisting on arming Israel, the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza puts it at the center of these rivalries. And these rivalries are being played out not only in demonstrations and counter-demonstrations around the world, but now also in universities in the West.
The occupation of universities by students is aimed at getting institutions to implement Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel or any company or institution that does business with it. The whole aim is to use “international law” (as if it were a neutral, non-class reality) to weaken the “apartheid colonizing state”. From the various accounts of comrades inside and outside Italy who have intervened in the student occupations, it is clear that some have participated out of an understandable humanitarian concern for the terrible massacre in Gaza, but the actual political direction of the occupations is in the hands of Maoists, Stalinists and others-here generically referred to as “antagonists”-who basically support Palestinian nationalism (and there is never any mention of the Islamist fascism of Hamas or the fact that it provoked what it knew would be a bloodbath for the entire Palestinian people). Those who are pro-Hamas (perhaps unconsciously), those who take to the streets to demonstrate, such as Si Cobas, and all of the rank and file trade unionists, are in fact aligned on a war front and do not understand the binding ties of the Hamas leadership to imperialist powers such as Iran, Russia and China–financed by the former–and the Shiites of Yemen, who have established inseparable economic-political ties with China itself. Those who descend to the terrain of defending an imperialist front are, in all respects, part of the disgracefulness of the war and become an integral part of it.
Therefore, some considerations are in order. One is that the student occupations involve only a minority of students, but there is so much publicity about them (inflated by social media) that it has almost obscured the real problem of our time: the drift toward generalized war. As the media fills the tents on campus, the real preparations for war are accelerating. Whether it is Macron’s attempt to reunite a divided EU or the increase in arms spending and the restarting of arms production lines, the student occupations, for all their political content, are a distraction in the face of these more serious developments.
The demonstrations are so dominated by BDS ideology that its vocabulary defines the agenda of the occupations. Far from taking an internationalist and anti-capitalist stand, the demonstrations are actually part of the imperialist game itself. Instead, it is crucial to adopt the vocabulary of anti-capitalism and class struggle.
One of the goals of the organizers is to call what is happening in Gaza a “genocide. In a sense, this is an ideological argument to erase the fact of the real genocide that took place in World War II (when 13 million Jews, Slavs and Roma, among others, were “selected” by the Nazis to be exterminated – and which is used today by the Zionists as a cover for their atrocities). Genocide must mean the deliberate elimination of an entire people, and by labeling what is happening in Gaza as such, BDS appeals to the institutions of the current imperialist world order to take action against Israel. Gaza is a humanitarian disaster (and could get worse), but it is more akin to the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, when Croats and Serbs fought for control of Bosnia. There is no doubt that there are racist elements in the current Israeli government who would be willing to change this policy (ethnic cleansing of the West Bank is the goal of Smotrich and Ben Gvir and was one of the reasons for the “Al-Aqsa Flood” or the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023), but they do not control the IDF or its policy of eliminating Hamas. What is happening in Gaza is another example of the meaning of “total war. There is no place for the working class to hide in imperialist war-as the fate of the citizens of Coventry, Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki confirmed long ago. It is on this class basis that we must oppose all wars. But this is not the point of the BDS movement, which is in fact involved in the ideological wars of capitalism and is therefore positioned within the system. For the tent movement, the ultimate goal is not to unite the world working class against its exploiters everywhere, but to highlight the divisions that capitalism uses to divide our class, whether by nationalism, religion or “ethnicity.”
BDS deliberately invokes the struggle against the “apartheid state. This not only equates Israel with South Africa (a false analogy, since in the democratic state of Israel every adult formally has a vote, which was not the case in South Africa, where only whites could vote), but implies that the defeat of apartheid was a victory for black people. This is only true if “people” means the black bourgeoisie. We have argued for decades that this would have been the outcome. The anti-worker nature of this history has been visible in South Africa ever since. Ramaphosa, the current president of South Africa, was not only head of COSATU (the trade union federation), but also a board member of Lonrho (which even conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath had called the unacceptable face of capitalism). The class struggle in South Africa continues, but also against those now in power, and we need look no further than the massacre of mine workers in Marikana [on August 16, 2012, police forces opened fire on striking workers, killing 34 and injuring nearly a hundred] to confirm this.
Israel is not a colonial state in the same sense. It is a democracy (the only one in the Middle East, according to Zionist propaganda), as South Africa now claims to be, but democracy, as we all know, is nothing but a political fig leaf for the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. It is “democracy for the rich” (Lenin – State and Revolution) and for the bourgeoisie it is the best wrapping to maintain its rule over the wage slaves in social peace. It is within this framework that their oppression takes place. In Gaza, we can see what democracy really means, and the students occupying campuses in democratic bourgeois states, from the U.S. on, are only getting a small taste of the repression that all democratic states resort to when the rule of capital is threatened. The real colonizing states are the products of European capitalist expansion around the world, such as Canada, the U.S., Australia, Argentina and Brazil, but why distract ourselves by opposing only the results of hundreds of years of capitalist history when we should be confronting the entire system on a global scale?
The Occupy students fail to see the imperialist wood of the various nationalist trees they want us to support. This is identity politics of the worst kind, which will only perpetuate the misery and exploitation produced by a capitalist system that, in its deepening crisis, is bringing humanity to a dangerous crossroads. The left of capital, like the various supporters of Russia and Ukraine, is deeply entrenched in this movement, which is simply mobilizing a section of the “people” in the race to generalized imperialist war. What they fail to see is that the Palestinian working class (and the population as a whole) is being crucified between two equally reactionary forces (although one enjoys greater imperialist support than the other). “From the river to the sea,” the slogan most often heard in these occupations, is taken from the 1982 Hamas charter and is nothing more than a call to wipe out Israel. The Western imperialists and their press cite it as an anti-Semitic call of the “Palestinians,” but they fail to remember that the original phrase actually appears in the 1973 platform of the Likud Party, now led by Netanyahu, which is totally dependent on the settler and pogrom parties of Smotrich and Ben Gvir, who want the ethnic cleansing of Arabs, whether Muslim or Christian, from Eretz Israel [Greater Israel]. Workers around the world must oppose these two capitalist rackets as part of an internationalist rejection of all borders. Incidentally, not all Palestinians in the diaspora supported the “Free Palestine” demonstrations (just as not all Jews support the actions of the Israeli state). Internationalists are for the freedom of Palestinians, just as we are for the freedom of the entire world working class (including workers, Arab and Jewish, in the current state of Israel). But to frame the struggle in national terms is to perpetuate the arguments of our class enemies. Those who call for a “free Palestine” should think about how this can happen. It means either a new imperialist deployment beyond the dollar-dominated “Pax Americana,” but that would mean a world war. Or it would be achieved through the struggle of workers around the world to end the system that thrives on exploitation and oppression. We know which of these two struggles we are fighting for.
The solution to the crisis in the land of Palestine is not the solution of one or two states, but a solution without states in common with the rest of the world, a world without capitalism and its national borders of exploitation and oppression. A world without imperialist war.
Complete article. Translated by DeepL.com
A. Mantovani, 17-5-2024
Mise au point d’Alessandro Mantovani, mai 2024, sur l’article de Programma comunista, février 2024 sur la question de Palestine
http://pantopolis.over-blog.com/2024/05/mise-au-point-d-alessandro-mantovani-sur-l-article-de-programma-comunista-fevrier-2024-sur-la-question-de-palestine.html
Clarification by Alessandro Mantovani, May 2024, on the February 2024 Programma comunista article on the question of Palestine
(…)
In this year’s issue 2 of “Programma comunista”[1] you published an article on the Palestinian proletariat, in which you used some of the data contained in a previous article of mine on the same question. As you point out, our conclusions are different. The result of my research is, if not the opposite, then very different from what you think you can draw on the basis of the same data. In the title of my article, it’s no coincidence that the word proletariat is placed in quotation marks to indicate that it is only with great caution and limitations that we can currently speak of the existence of a Palestinian proletarian class in the true sense of the word. An existence, however, that seems undeniable to you.
In fact, I explained in my introduction that for Marxism, the proletarian class, as a revolutionary class, is not defined by the mere fact that it earns a wage or is unreserved. This is not enough. There must also be those dynamic elements that make a social stratum capable of influencing class relations: for example, territorial concentration, grouping into large production units, and so on. The Russian proletariat came to power, albeit as a minority in the country, because it was concentrated and strong in Petersburg. Another element to take into account is the degree of “purity” of the relationship between capital and wage labor. For example, a seasonal worker who is still tied to agriculture for part of the year, or a cottage worker, is somewhat different in mentality from an industrial worker. A service worker is different from an assembly line worker, and so on. A crucial moment in the maturation of the proletarian class, in Marx’s terms, is the transition from the “formal domination” to the “real domination” of labor over capital, i.e., the transition from the seasonal, home-based, artisanal, manufacturing, manual, etc., worker to the large-scale industrial worker, who today can be somewhat compared to workers in large concentrations of services (transportation, hospitals, post office, etc.).
From this point of view, both in Palestine and in the Palestinian diaspora, we are far from having a fully constituted proletariat: both among Arab workers in Israel and among those in the “occupied territories” (West Bank and especially Gaza), informal and precarious work, high unemployment rates, gender and age inequalities in employment, exploitation of children and lack of guarantees prevail. These are all signs of underdevelopment that prevent the formation of a coherent proletariat. The number of proletarians in relation to the total population is also very limited. Of this limited number, almost half of the Palestinian workers in Israel and the settlements work informally. Among the workers in the occupied territories of Israel, a maximum of 100,000 can be considered more or less purely proletarian, but they are fragmented and characterized by pendular migration.
As for the Palestinian diaspora in the Arab countries, Palestinians today are highly discriminated against and therefore prevented from fully integrating into the social fabric of their host countries, with the partial exception of Jordan. Thus, while Jordan and Lebanon, the countries with the largest number of Palestinian refugees, certainly have a quota of proletarians among their resident Palestinian population, “pure” proletarians must constitute a minority, immersed in a magma of dispossessed refugees, precarious semi-proletarians and petty bourgeoisie.
In the Gulf petro-monarchies, Palestinian proletarians are insignificant in number compared to other immigrant workers: probably around 200 to 250. 000 against 7 million Indians, 3.3 million Bangladeshis, almost as many Pakistanis, 2.4 million Egyptians, 1.7 million Indonesians, 1.6 million Filipinos, 1.3 million Nepalese, 1.1 million Sri Lankans, 1.1 million Yemenis, 650,000 Sudanese, 550,000 Jordanians, 330,000 Lebanese.
My conclusion was as follows: “In Palestine, therefore, it seems problematic to imagine that a fragmented, precarious, insubstantial proletariat, immersed in a pool of dispossessed, petty-bourgeois and refugees, could even today propose an autonomous influence on the dramatic events unfolding there. As we have seen, even the Palestinian diaspora lacks a solid contingent of proletarians. This should give pause to those who, perhaps in a sincere classist spirit but too lightly, frame it. Nevertheless, a Palestinian proletariat is emerging. But – and this is the essential point – not so much as a national class, but as part of a proletariat that is already international in the Middle East, not only as a historical vocation, but precisely as a concrete characteristic, since it is made up of workers of different nationalities. This is the direction in which the future of class struggles lies in a region that must be considered as a whole.
If I may make a general remark, I believe that your somewhat retrograde interpretation of objective data is based on an erroneous assessment of the capitalist and social development of the countries formerly known as the “Third World”. It’s true that capitalism has made great strides in these countries since the Second World War, and it’s true that some of them, such as China and certain “Asian tigers,” can be considered fully or almost fully capitalist, but on the whole the globe is still far from having achieved the capitalist homogeneity of the capitalist metropolises, and the proletarian strata that have formed there are just as far from the degree of “purity” that they possess in the advanced countries. Hence the fact that you have put aside the so-called national and colonial question and put the proletarian revolution everywhere on the agenda (“single” and not “double” in the diagram provided by Amadeo (Bordiga)).
I’m afraid this prejudice depends on your own desire to substitute a simplified class conflict for a very complex reality. Given my own past experience in your ranks, I remember that when I thought along these lines, I had not yet delved deeply into Marx’s economic work, on the one hand, and the economic and social conditions of non-European countries, on the other. I think that anyone who does so without preconceived ideas can and should come to see this view as simplistic, and unfortunately it is one that is very popular among sincere internationalist revolutionaries. I hope that other comrades can, through curiosity and study, overcome the attitude that leads some of us to conform reality to preconceived schemes rather than opt for the opposite attitude, which in my humble opinion is the only truly Marxist one.
All hope aside – given that a reader who doesn’t have my article at hand might be led to believe, upon reading yours, that the data I report confirms your opinion on the clear and undeniable existence of a Palestinian proletariat – I respectfully ask you to publish it. This would be an act of fairness not only to me, but above all to your readers. In any case, I thank you for your attention and wish you good work.
Alessandro Mantovani, May 2024
[1] Text from Il Programma comunista, Milan, March-April 2024, “Il proletariato palestinese nella tagliola infame dei nazionalismi”: https://www.internationalcommunistparty.org/index.php/it/?view=article&id=3592&catid=457. See the Italian text by Alessandro Mantovani, former member of the Partito comunista internazionale (Il Programma comunista), https://www.sinistrainrete.info/estero/27215-alessandro-mantovani-il-proletariato-palestinese.html: Il “proletariato” palestinese. Un po’ di cifre”, given by us here in French (pantopolis).
Part of an article as reproduced in Pantopolis. Translated by DeepL.com
Comment by FC
PH. B. publishes uncritically, as usual. Having previously criticized Programma’s tendency to deny the existence of the proletariat in Israel and the Israeli proletariat, having criticized Mainassian’s effort to deny the existence of a Palestinian capitalist and imperialist class, now I would have to criticize Mantovani’s very academic and Marxological effort to deny the existence of a Palestinian proletariat. However, I’ll limit myself to recalling part of Marx’s definition of the proletariat in the German Ideology: “… the class which no longer counts as a class in society, is not recognized as a class, and is in itself the expression of the dissolution of all classes, nationalities, etc., within present society…”
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01d.htm
ICP (Florence), El Partido Comunista, May 2024
La guerra en Palestina y los sindicatos alemanes
https://www.international-communist-party.org/Espanol/ElPartid/ElPar038.htm#palestina
The War in Palestine and the German Trade Unions
In Germany, opposition to the war has been stifled and any criticism of the state of Israel, however timid, is denounced as anti-Semitism. There have been some pacifist protests, which have been countered by pro-Israel demonstrations. However, in a strict application of the “Burgfrieden,” the social peace established between capital, labor unions and social democracy already in World War I, German labor unions and political parties are – for the time being – well aligned in their support for Israel, or more precisely, for German-Israeli capital.
In fact, German banks and industries are among the most reliable suppliers of weapons, tanks and armored vehicles to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). German employers know that they can count on the unconditional support of the leaders of the main trade union confederation, the DGB, and the trade union bureaucracy. IG Metall, the largest union affiliated with the DGB, always supports the industries in obtaining new arms contracts from Israel. These unions are complicit in and condone the destruction of Gaza.
In fact, a DGB press release on October 10, when the bombing of Gaza had already begun, clearly reaffirmed its position: “Israel is in a difficult situation and we are pleased that our government has quickly intervened and expressed its unconditional support for the Israeli people under attack.
In Germany, the trade unions justify their support for German-Israeli capital with anti-fascism, the rejection of anti-Semitism, a “moral” response to the historical sins of “the country”. In an open letter to the Israeli regime’s trade union federation, the Histadrut, the DGB leadership wrote: “We join our affiliated trade unions in expressing our solidarity with Israel in the face of the brutal attacks by Hamas in recent days. Note: solidarity with Israel, not with Israeli workers. The DGB goes on to say, “As trade unions, we are committed to peace, freedom, democracy and a multicultural society, and we oppose all forms of terrorism. We fight against anti-Semitism, in Germany and worldwide.” The DGB has not expressed solidarity with the Palestinian workers, who, in addition to being exploited by their own bourgeoisie, are constantly under siege and bombardment, nor with the workers in Israel, who are forced into a permanent fratricidal war by their militarist and racist state.
The trade unions of the German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB) and the employers’ associations of the German Confederation of Industry (BDA) and the Federation of German Industries (BDI), together with all parties in the German parliament (except the extreme right-wing AfD), the Protestant and Catholic churches, the Jewish communities and many other organizations, have signed an appeal for a demonstration in support of Israel on October 22 in front of the Brandenburg Gate. The Left Party (Die Linke) has repeatedly announced its support for the war. It has signed not only as a party, but also as the “Rosa Luxemburg Foundation” (the great internationalist and tireless opponent of the Burgfrieden). Citing the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the DGB has gone further, equating any opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza with the Nazi pogrom of November 9, 1938. Shouting “Never again!” it has called for a ban on protests on the other war front: “It is absolutely unacceptable that Muslims take to the streets in Germany and abuse the right to demonstrate or openly violate it by celebrating the Hamas massacre and glorifying it as an act of liberation.”
The DGB justifies its open support for German-Israeli imperialism with “democratic values”: “Peaceful coexistence and cohesion in our multicultural society depend on the values of the constitution being accepted by all and on our living together being characterized by tolerance and respect. This applies to all people living in Germany, regardless of their origin or religion”.
We, the internationalist communists, say to the German workers: “German values”, “democracy” and “respect” are only a mask to lead them into a deadly imperialist war. Whether the state of their bosses is on one side or the other of the world front, the interests of the workers are neither with Israel nor with Hamas, but with the proletariat of all countries.
Complete article, translated by DeepL.com
ICP (le prolétaire), 20-5-2024
Solidarité avec les prolétaires et les jeunes révoltés de Nouvelle Calédonie !
https://www.pcint.org/01_Positions/01_01_fr/240520_nlle-caledonie.htm
Solidarity with the proletarians and youth in revolt in New Caledonia!
The riots and clashes that began on May 13 ended on May 19 with a heavy toll: 6 dead (including 3 young Kanaks killed by “Caldoches” militias), hundreds injured and arrested, numerous fires set in official buildings (municipal buildings, local police stations) and others, and shops looted in the greater Nouméa area – the capital, which with more than 180,000 inhabitants represents 2/3 of New Caledonia’s population. As in the rest of the island, blockades continued in neighborhoods and on communication routes, while economic activity came to a standstill.
These riots were triggered by the mobilization of pro-independence organizations against the constitutional reform decided by the government to “unfreeze” the electorate (frozen since the Nouméa Accords), which would increase the number of non-Kanak voters potentially hostile to the pro-independence movement by about 25,000 people who have been present on the island for at least 10 years. Of the island’s 270,000 inhabitants, only 41% are Kanak, compared to 24% “European” (“Caldoches”), with the remainder belonging to various Oceanic, Asian or non-Oceanic communities.
The mobilization against the thaw is politically led by the FLNKS (Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste, which unites the main pro-independence organizations) and organized by the CCAT (Cellule de Coordination des Actions sur le Terrain), initiated by FLNKS militants and the USTKE (Union Syndicale des Travailleurs Kanaks et des Exploités), led to mass demonstrations in Nouméa (20,000 according to the media, against a similar number of Caldoche “loyalists”) and throughout the territory, as well as strikes. The CCAT then called for blockades on May 13, the day before the vote in the National Assembly on the law to unfreeze the electoral body; while the actions in the rest of the territory remained generally peaceful, Nouméa witnessed a veritable social explosion: young demonstrators poured out their anger against everything that represented a system that crushes them and promises only misery, exploitation, unemployment and racism.
The overwhelmed police and political authorities, for their part, allowed militias to organize to defend the wealthy properties in the neighborhoods of Caldo from the wrath of the rioters. The government declared a state of emergency (with the support of the PS, faithful to its long tradition of colonial repression, including in New Caledonia, in the name of restoring “republican order”) and sent a thousand men to reinforce the island; the Minister of “Justice” issued a circular calling for “the most severe sanctions against rioters and looters,” citing as a model the repression of the riots in the proletarian neighborhoods of June 20-23. The French authorities accused the CCAT, denounced as a “mafia-like group committing murder and looting”, of being responsible for the events and placed 10 of its leaders under house arrest (1).
However, the CCAT protested that it had never called for an uprising, as it had been accused of doing, but only for peaceful actions, and on the 14th it called on “all our young people to put their feet up”. At a press conference on the 15th, the FLNKS declared that it “condemns the acts of extortion committed”, called for the lifting of the blockades and reaffirmed its support “for business leaders and their employees”; the current poisonous climate, it added, “cannot justify jeopardizing peace and all that has been built”, and concluded by announcing that it would respond positively to the President’s proposals for consultation.
But these fine words were not enough for the young rebels, who continued their clashes. Since the Matignon agreement of 1988 and the Nouméa agreement of 1998, a Kanak bourgeoisie has been flourishing in the shadow of the state. It does not want to jeopardize its gains and therefore wants to “prevent the street from gaining the upper hand” (statement of the president of the Union Calédonienne-FLNKS group of elected representatives, 14/5). But for the proletariat, nothing has really changed in the last 30 or 40 years, and Caledonian society remains deeply marked by its colonial past; social inequalities are glaring; in 2022, the unemployment rate was 15.5% for Kanaks, compared to 8.3% for non-Kanaks, and 72% of those who have jobs are only part-time and their jobs are often unskilled, with 80% being blue-collar or white-collar workers: the result is that the median standard of living for Kanaks is half that of non-Kanaks.
The importance of New Caledonia for French imperialism
After becoming a French colony in 1853, New Caledonia was initially used to deport prisoners (including Communards such as Louise Michel) and turn it into a settlement, despite revolts by the indigenous population.
But it was the exploitation of nickel, of which the island has a quarter of the world’s reserves, that made New Caledonia a precious possession for French capitalism. It led to an economic boom in the late 1960s, making nickel production the economic lungs of the territory: the sector employs around 20% of the territory’s salaried workers and provides the bulk of its exports. But it is now in crisis, following the collapse of prices (-45% by 2023) and rising energy prices. The big companies that have made their fortunes from mining are not willing to absorb the losses; the Swiss giant Glencore has closed its northern plant (KNS) and announced its departure, which would result in the dismissal of more than 1,700 people, while the southern plants (SLN and Prony) are facing bankruptcy. The French government has announced a “nickel pact” that has been rejected by the elected representatives, mainly because it would require major investments by the regions at a time when their finances are at rock bottom. The proletarians of these companies are in a difficult position to resist: the SGTI-NC, the main union in this industry, has called a general strike in the sector on January 25, but without stopping production and in agreement with an employers’ organization of subcontractors! Clearly, the proletarians cannot count on such a collaborationist organization, whose aim is to be integrated into the ongoing discussions with the shareholders! In New Caledonia, as elsewhere, only an independent class orientation can win concessions from the capitalists and the state.
Today, it is no longer the failing nickel industry that motivates Paris and determines its policies, but its new imperialist ambitions in the Indo-Pacific zone. This vast region is increasingly becoming the site of growing great power rivalries and thus both a threat and an opportunity for French imperialism. France’s presence in New Caledonia is an important card that it has no intention of relinquishing as it seeks to present itself as a regional power with a vast “economic maritime zone,” even if it does not currently have the military resources to back up its claims.
In other words, the proletarians, the rebellious youth and the Kanak masses are facing a determined enemy: it cannot be defeated by following the methods and goals of the pro-independence organizations, which only want to negotiate a compromise with French imperialism, but only by a revolutionary anti-capitalist struggle in conjunction with the proletarians of metropolitan France, who have in their hands the potential power to break it.
- Solidarity with the proletarians and rebellious youth of New Caledonia!
- Down with French imperialism!
- For the resumption of the revolutionary class struggle and proletarian internationalism!
(1) It should be noted that Darmanin has since found someone else to blame for the riots: Azerbaijan!
Complete article. Translated by DeepL.com
Aníbal, 27-5-2024
Presión capitalista en China, empleo y desempleo juvenil, tendencias.
https://inter-rev.foroactivo.com/t12261p150-china-de-donde-viene-adonde-va-evolucion-del-capitalismo-en-china-2#114183
China: where it comes from, where it goes. The evolution of capitalism in China. [2] – Page 7 Capitalist pressure in China, youth employment and unemployment, trends.
…. “My generation came of age with sky-high job and economic expectations, but that optimism is gone. In my case, I make less money now than I did five years ago, and I’m exhausted. I am poorer than before, and I have not even been able to have a healthy social life, a partner, think of children…. I have thought many times about going back to Zhejiang to live with my parents and find a quieter job,” Lu said.
Amid slowing economic growth and high youth unemployment, the concept of “full-time kids,” referring to young people returning to their parents’ homes, has become popular on China’s social media. Some escape the labor slavery of “996” and choose a lower-paying job with better hours, which eventually pays off because they no longer have to pay rent or child support. Others stop working altogether and live as retirees, receiving an allowance from their parents for doing household chores.
…. A recent study by Zhaopin, a recruiting firm, found that half of the country’s college graduates now want to work for state-owned enterprises, up from 36 percent by 2020.
Last year, China stopped publishing youth unemployment data for six months after it hit a record high of 21.3%. In March last year, the figures returned, having fallen to 15.3%, but with a new counting method that did not include students, who are also looking for work.
Another popular outlet for many young people is the civil service exam. A test that has been administered since the old imperial dynasties, it consists of a written exam and an interview that evaluates the candidate’s knowledge on a variety of general topics, mainly political and economic.
Last year, the U.S. network CNBC published an analysis after tracking reports on the matter from state departments: 7.7 million people took the first civil service exam in 2023, competing for 200,000 government jobs.
+
https://www.elmundo.es/economia/2024/05/27/6651d0e8e4d4d8ce518b4579.html
…. Sluggish domestic demand is posing major problems for Chinese officials trying to reflate the economy, as a slump in the property sector is proving to be a huge drag on the economy….. Rising unemployment among the young, highly educated population has been a headache for Chinese leaders in recent years. The government has pledged support for private companies, which typically absorb a large share of the young workforce. Specifically, the Ministry of Finance spent 8.7 billion euros on the issue and promised a series of measures, including tax breaks, to boost employment among the younger population.
The CEO of Entrii, a company that connects Spanish entrepreneurs with the Chinese market, Rodrigo Fabiero, told elEconomista.es that the Chinese market is “currently in a complicated situation” due to the fall in consumption. Although the unemployment figures are fairly static, “they are generating some uncertainty.
… “In such a scenario, spillovers to China’s trading partners are expected to be generally negative, with the effects of weaker demand for trading partners’ products outweighing the gains from lower commodity prices,” the IMF staff said.
To mitigate these effects, they recommend monetary easing, “especially through lower interest rates,” and expansionary fiscal measures, including financing for unfinished housing and support for vulnerable households, in addition to public policies. In this regard, they have already announced that they will increase fiscal spending to 3% of GDP. “This could further support demand and guard against deflationary risks,” the IMF said.
https://www.eleconomista.es/economia/noticias/12775388/04/24/el-paro-juvenil-esta-estancado-en-china-y-anuncia-un-empeoramiento-en-la-demanda-interna-.html
Labor valorization, pressure, militarism.
Capitalism in China is experiencing the same tendencies and contradictions as elsewhere: pressure on wages and hours, cyclical changes in conditions, with moments of downturn that show how the precariousness of the proletarian condition is much more than a conjunctural precariousness. The boom of enormous job creation, with rising salaries but with enormous working hours, shows its wear and tear and its contradictions, the entrepreneurial hardness develops while the possibilities of job rotation diminish. In the housing market, the delays of overproduction on the basis of the capitalist money market, of “solvent demand”, have appeared with crudeness….
But the process of capital valorization must continue, in China as everywhere else, whatever the cost, China allocates an important part of its budget to support the private sector, to strengthen the most competitive state sector and, above all, to modernize and expand the army, because its leaders are well aware that the inter-imperialist race requires this and more:
China Increases Defense Budget by 7.2% Amid Regional Tensions
China on Tuesday announced a 7.2% increase in its defense budget – already the second largest in the world after the United States – to 1.6 trillion yuan ($222 billion), virtually the same as last year’s increase.
Tensions with the United States, Taiwan, Japan and other neighbors over key claims in the South China Sea are seen as driving the development of increasingly advanced military technologies, from stealth fighter jets to aircraft carriers and a growing arsenal of nuclear weapons.
The official budget unveiled Tuesday during the opening session of the annual legislative session is considered only a fraction of the spending by the People’s Liberation Army, the Communist Party’s military wing, when spending on research and development and the purchase of foreign weapons is taken into account.
https://apnews.com/world-news/general-news-0494d7be50602827a534c72d5f6a1dd7
Data for the past 15 years:
https://www.infodefensa.com/texto-diario/mostrar/4805908/gasto-militar-chino-dispara-60-diez-anos-emplear-17-pib-mitad-esfuerzo-eeuu
Complete article. Translated by DeepL.com
Aníbal, 22-5-2024
“El mundo necesita una urgente redistribución global de la riqueza”. Sandrine Dix son-Declève, copresidenta del Club de Roma.
https://inter-rev.foroactivo.com/t13002-el-mundo-necesita-una-urgente-redistribucion-global-de-la-riqueza-sandrine-dix-son-decleve-copresidenta-del-club-de-roma#114103
Sandrine Dix son-Declève, Co-President of the Club of Rome, “The world urgently needs a global redistribution of wealth.
… “to finance the great change that is needed”
https://www.lavanguardia.com/economia/20240521/9660853/mundo-necesita-urgente-redistribucion-global-riqueza.html
An appeal to big capital and its big multinationals to release some money to finance the ecological reforms that capitalism needs with increasing urgency… because the catastrophic consequences of capitalism are accumulating, they are interrelated, new manifestations of degradation and dangers are appearing, generating increasing costs of all kinds… …. and therefore must adopt “green” palliative strategies.
The reforming capital… continues to be in power, exploiting the proletariat, dominating it and attacking nature, as it inherently needs to do, which is why its militaristic tendencies and its devastation of human health, especially that of the proletariat and impoverished peasants, and the degradation of ecosystems, do not cease.
The problem is capitalism. We need the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat to eradicate it worldwide.
Complete article. Translated by DeepL.com
Amos, 15-5-2024
Kritik an Kohei Saitos Buch Systemsturz – Der Sieg der Natur über den Kapitalismus
https://de.internationalism.org/content/3201/kritik-kohei-saitos-buch-systemsturz-der-sieg-der-natur-ueber-den-kapitalismus
Criticism of Kohei Saito’s book “Systemsturz – Der Sieg der Natur über den Kapitalismus”
In recent decades, it has become clear that bourgeois civilization poses a serious threat to the natural conditions that form the basis of human existence on the planet. It has also become increasingly clear that the main sections of the ruling class have been forced to recognize the seriousness of the ecological crisis, and even its connection to the other main manifestations of a society in decline, most notably the flight to militarism and war.[1] This newfound “understanding” is in no way offset by the fact that other sections of the same ruling class are retreating into an openly irrational and suicidal denialism about the dangers of climate change and the pollution of air, soil and water. But neither recognition nor denial can hide the fact that the bourgeoisie is proving incapable of slowing down, let alone stopping, the juggernaut of environmental destruction. Above all, we can point to the obvious and repeated failure of the spectacular COP conferences of recent years.
This exposure of the impotence of the ruling class has created the need for some kind of ideological compensation, especially on the part of the left wing of the bourgeoisie. This has given rise to a kind of “green Keynesianism”, the idea of a “Green New Deal” in which the state, by punishing the worst polluters and investing in “sustainable” technologies, would not only be able to prevent climate change from getting out of control, but would also create green jobs and green growth – in short, a healthy green capitalism.
But there are also more radical voices that are quick to point out the shortcomings of this kind of green capitalism. Foremost among them are the proponents of “degrowth. Authors such as Jason Hickel[2] can easily show that capitalism is driven by the constant need to expand and accumulate value, and that it must treat nature as a “free gift” to be exploited to the maximum, while trying to subject every last region of the planet to the laws of the market. Hickel therefore speaks of the need for a transition to a post-capitalist economy[3] Others, such as John Bellamy Foster, go further and refer explicitly to Karl Marx’s growing interest in ecological issues in the later stages of his life, to what they call Marx’s “eco-socialism”[4]. More recently, however, books by the Japanese writer Kohei Saito, who has studied Marx’s later writings in depth as a result of his involvement in the new edition of the complete works of Marx and Engels (the MEGA project), have generated enormous interest and sales, especially his latest work, entitled Slow Down: How Degrowth Communism Can Save the Earth (2024; German title: Systemsturz – Der Sieg der Natur über den Kapitalismus).
While Saito’s previous books[5] were written in a more academic style, this book is a much more popular work that not only presents his main argument that Marx himself was a “degrowth communist”, but also outlines the steps that could lead to the introduction of degrowth communism today. And indeed, at first glance, he seems to be talking about communism as understood by the real, historical communist movement – a society of freely associated producers in which wage labor no longer exists. The fact that he wants to go beyond the term “eco-socialism” (which implies that there can be and have been forms of socialism that were not ecological, that were no less ecologically destructive than capitalism) and now speaks of communism is a response to the growing search for solutions that go to the roots of today’s crisis of civilization. However, a closer and more critical examination of Saito’s argument shows that this is an answer that can only lead to more false solutions.
Marx Did Not Reject the Materialist View of History
As noted above, Saito is not the first to point out that the “late Marx” developed a strong interest in both ecological issues and the communal forms of society that preceded the emergence of class society and left traces even after the rise of capital. Specific to Saito is the idea that the study of these issues led Marx to an “epistemological rupture”[6] with what he calls the “linear, progressive view” of history characterized by “productivism” and “Eurocentrism,” and to a new vision of communism. In short, Marx had abandoned historical materialism in favor of “degrowth communism”. But Marx never advocated a “linear, progressive view” of history. Rather, his conception was dialectical: the different modes of production have passed through periods of ascent, in which their social relations allowed for a real development of production and culture, as well as periods of stagnation, decline, and even regression, which could lead either to their simple disappearance or to a period of social revolution that could usher in a higher mode of production. In a broader sense, a generally progressive movement can be discerned in this historical process, but all progress to date has come at a price: Marx and Engels, for example, expressed the idea that the replacement of primitive communism by class society and the state represented both decline and progress, and that the communism of the future would represent a kind of “return on a higher plane” to the archaic form of society.
With regard to capitalism, Marx pointed out in the Communist Manifesto the enormous development of productive capacity made possible by the rise of bourgeois society. These advances were also bought by the ruthless exploitation of the proletariat, but the proletariat’s struggle against this exploitation laid the foundations for a communist revolution that could put the new productive forces at the service of humanity. Even at this early stage in the life of Capital, Marx was impatient for such a revolution, recognizing the crises of overproduction as signs that capitalist social relations had already become too narrow for the productive forces they had unleashed. The defeat of the revolutionary wave of 1848 led him to revise this view, recognizing that capitalism still had to evolve considerably before a proletarian revolution would be possible.
This did not mean, however, that every country and region of the world was doomed to undergo exactly the same process of development. When the Russian folklorist Vera Sassulich wrote to him in 1881 asking whether the Russian mir, or agrarian commune, could play a role in the transition to communism, Marx formulated the problem as follows: While capitalism was still in its infancy in large parts of the world, “the capitalist system in the West was withering (…) and [approaching] the time (…) when it will be only an ‘archaic’ formation”. [8] This meant that the objective conditions for a proletarian revolution were rapidly maturing in the centers of the system and that, if it came to pass, “the present Russian common property of the soil could serve as a starting point for a communist development.
This hypothesis did not mean abandoning the method of historical materialism. On the contrary, it was an attempt to apply this method in a contradictory period in which capitalism was simultaneously showing signs of historical decline but still had a very large “hinterland” whose development could temporarily halt its growing internal contradictions. And far from endorsing or supporting this development, which was already expressed in the imperialist aspirations of the great powers, Marx saw that the sooner proletarian revolution broke out in the industrialized centers, the less pain and misery would be caused in the peripheries of the system. Marx did not live to see all the consequences of imperialism’s conquest of the planet, but others who took up his method, such as Lenin and Luxemburg, were able to recognize in the early years of the 20th century that capitalism as a whole was entering its epoch of decline, and with it the possibility – and necessity – of a worldwide proletarian revolution.
The same concern characterized the “late” Marx’s burgeoning interest in the ecological question. Inspired by his reading of scientists such as Liebig and Fraas, who had become aware of the destructive side of capitalist agriculture (Liebig called it “predatory agriculture”), which, in its hunger for immediate profit, exhausted the fertility of the soil and wantonly destroyed forests (which, as Marx had already noted, had a detrimental effect on the climate). If the development of capitalism was already undermining the natural foundations for the production of the necessities of life, then its “progressive mission” may have come to an end – but this did not invalidate the method, which was able to recognize the positive role of the bourgeoisie in overcoming the barriers of feudalism. Moreover – and Saito is well aware of this, having shown it in his earlier works – Marx’s concern with the effects of capitalism on the relationship between man and nature did not come out of nowhere: its roots can be found in the notion of man’s alienation from his “inorganic body” in the Economic-Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, a notion further elaborated in the Grundrisse and Das Kapital, especially in the idea of “disturbed metabolism” in the latter work. Similarly, the recognition that communist society must overcome the rigid division between town and country is found both in the early writings of Marx and Engels and in the period in which Marx explored agricultural science as a prerequisite for restoring the natural fertility of the soil. Elaboration, development, criticism of outdated ideas – but no “epistemological rupture”.
Only class struggle leads to communism
Much more could be said about Saito’s actual vision of communism. In particular, it relies heavily on the notion of the “commons” and implies that pre-capitalist forms of community still have an essential existence in today’s capitalism and could even serve as a kind of nucleus for communist transformation. In fact, it was already clear in Lenin’s time that imperialist capital was rapidly completing the work of the period of “primitive accumulation”-the destruction of communal ties and the separation of the producers from the land. A good century later, this can be seen even more clearly. The vast slums that surround the megacities on the periphery of the system testify both to the destruction of the old forms of community and to the inability of decadent capitalism to integrate large numbers of the dispossessed into the “modern” network of production.
This notion that the new society could be built within the shell of the old reveals perhaps the most fundamental distortion of Marxism in Saito’s book. Of course, Saito criticizes the “Green New Deal” – both for its reliance on “top-down” measures imposed by the state, and for its failure to address the problem of the capitalist need for endless “growth” that is incompatible with maintaining a healthy natural environment. In contrast, Saito insists that the new society can only emerge from a social movement “from below. For Marx, communism was the real movement of the working class, based on the defense of its class interests and leading to the overthrow of the existing order. For Saito, on the other hand, the social movement is a conglomerate of different “class forces” – in addition to attempts to create small expressions of the “commons” in the neighborhoods of contemporary cities like Detroit, he points to cross-class protests like the “yellow vests” in France, protest groups that were on bourgeois terrain from the start, such as Extinction Rebellion, a series of workers’ strikes, the “citizens’ assemblies” set up under the auspices of Macron in response to the yellow vest protests. In short, not the class struggle, not the struggle of the exploited to free themselves from the capitalist organs that keep them under control (such as the trade unions and the left parties), not the emergence of a communist consciousness expressed in the formation of revolutionary minorities.
One of the clearest proofs that Saito is not talking about class struggle as a lever of communism is his attitude to the indignados movement that emerged in Spain in 2011. It was a movement based on a proletarian form of organization-the mass assemblies-even though the majority of its protagonists considered themselves “citizens” rather than proletarians. Within the assemblies, there was a struggle between organizations like “Democracia Ya,” which wanted to revive the pre-existing “democratic” system with the assemblies, and a proletarian wing that defended the autonomy of the assemblies against all manifestations of the state, including its local, municipal tentacles. Saito praises the “movement of the squares,” but at the same time advocates directing the assemblies toward the creation of a municipal political party, Barcelona en Comu, and the election of a radical mayor, Ada Colau, whose administration has proposed a series of “democratizing” measures and ecological declarations. In addition, the Barcelona experiment has given rise to the “Fearless Cities” movement, which aims to apply the same model in a number of other cities around the world.
This is not an international extension of the workers’ struggle – a prerequisite for communist revolution – but a structure for reintegrating the real class struggle into the system. And it is based on the rejection of another fundamental element of the communist project, the lesson that Marx, Engels, Pannekoek and Lenin drew from the experience of the Paris Commune of 1871: that the task of the proletariat, the first step of its revolution, is to smash the existing state apparatus, not only its armies, its police and its central government apparatus, but also its local councils and other forms of local control. For Saito, on the other hand, “it would be foolish to reject the state as a means of accomplishing things like creating infrastructure or transforming production” (Slow Down, p. 232). This amounts to a “Green New Deal” from below, not the revolutionary overthrow of existing conditions.
Proletarian Revolution and the End of Capital Accumulation
This is not the place to go into the immense challenges the working class will face once it has taken power and begun the transition to communism. Obviously, the ecological question will be central, and this will require a series of measures aimed at suppressing the drive to accumulate and replacing it with production for the satisfaction of needs-not just at the local level, but across the planet. It will also require the dismantling of the gigantic apparatus of wasteful production that contributes to climate catastrophe: the arms industry, advertising, finance, and so on. As we have shown elsewhere,[10] earlier Marxists from Bebel to Bordiga also spoke of overcoming the madness fueled by the accumulation process, of “slowing down” the hectic pace of life under capital. But we do not call this “degrowth” for two reasons: First, because communism is the basis for a genuine “development of the productive forces” with a completely new quality, compatible with the real needs of humanity and its metabolism with nature. And secondly, because within the framework of the existing system – and Saito’s “communism” does not escape this – talking about “degrowth” can easily be used as a justification for the austerity policies imposed by the bourgeois state, as a reason for the working class to stop its “selfish” struggles against wage or job cuts and to get used to reducing its consumption even more.
Amos (April 2024)
Complete article, except hyperlinks. Translated (except notes) by DeepL.com
[1] Vgl. unsere Aktualisierung der Thesen zum Zerfall (2023), Internationale Revue 59
[2] Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World, 2020 (auch auf Deutsch: Weniger ist mehr – Warum der Kapitalismus den Planeten zerstört und wir ohne Wachstum glücklicher sind)
[3] Hickels Kritik am Grünen New Deal geht jedoch nicht sehr weit: Für ihn förderte der New Deal der 1930er Jahre das Wachstum, “um den Lebensunterhalt der Menschen zu verbessern und fortschrittliche soziale Ergebnisse zu erzielen … die frühen progressiven Regierungen behandelten Wachstum als einen Gebrauchswert” (S. 94 im Original). In Wirklichkeit war das Ziel des New Deal die Rettung des Kapitalismus und die Vorbereitung auf den Krieg …
[4] Beispielsweise Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature, 2000 (auf Deutsch: Marx‘ Ökologie – Materialismus und Natur)
[5] Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism: Capital, Nature and the Unfinished Critique of Political Economy 2017; Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism, 2022
[6] Saito entlehnt diesen Begriff von Althusser, einem sehr raffinierten Apologeten des Stalinismus, der ihn auf das anwandte, was er als den Übergang vom jugendlichen, idealistischen Marx der Manuskripte von 1844 zum knallharten Wissenschaftler von Das Kapital ansah. Wir haben hier dagegen argumentiert: The study of Capital and the foundations of Communism („Das Studium des Kapitals und die Grundlagen des Kommunismus“), International Review (engl./frz./span. Ausgabe) Nr. 75. Wenn es einen solchen Bruch gab, dann fand er statt, als Marx mit der radikalen Demokratie brach und sich mit dem Proletariat als Träger des Kommunismus identifizierte, etwa 1843/44.
[7] Beispielsweise in den Schlussfolgerungen von Engels in Der Ursprung der Familie, der Privateigentums und des Staats
[8] MEW Bd. 19 S. 398. Vgl. auch The Mature Marx – Past and Future Communism, International Review 81 (engl./frz/span. Ausgabe).
[9] MEW Bd. 19. S. 296. Vgl. auch The Mature Marx – Past and Future Communism, International Review 81 (engl./frz/span. Ausgabe).
[10] Vgl. Bordiga und die Großstadt, IKSonline Juli 2020
Aníbal, 27-5-2024
Le texte publié par Pantopolis sur cette conférence d’A. Guillamón
http://pantopolis.over-blog.com/2024/05/conference-d-agustin-guillamon-17-mai-2024-a-l-ateneo-la-idea-de-madrid.html
The text published by Pantopolis about this lecture by A. Guillamón retains its classical approaches, some of which are real and some of which are false. Of these, I will focus ONLY on two (there are others):
“The revolutionary SITUATION of July 1936 never raised the question of establishing a workers’ power antagonistic to the republican state: there was therefore no proletarian revolution, if we speak in the strict sense. And in the absence of a proletarian revolution, the revolutionary situation rapidly developed in the direction of the consolidation of the republican state.
If there was no proletarian revolution, which is true, then in this supposedly revolutionary situation, who was the revolutionary acting on the outside? the bourgeoisie? one of its sectors? one revolutionary bourgeoisie against another in 1936? …. ! ahem!
Guillamón asserts that the bureaucratic leadership of the CNT was counterrevolutionary … but that there was revolutionary energy in the proletarian base:
“The transformation of the defense committees into revolutionary neighborhood and local committees, which sought to replace the state by administering and taking over all its functions, and the vast process of spontaneous expropriation of factories by the industrial unions, gave rise to one of the most profound social and economic revolutions in history.”
Two things must be made clear: the process in Spain is not described in this sentence, because it took place only in Catalonia and not equally throughout the country. On the other hand, if this were true, the revolution would be proletarian, carried out as a driving force by the rank and file of the CNT and the proletariat that participated in its actions.
But Guillamón claims that there was no proletarian revolution, although there was a revolutionary situation and “one of the most profound social and economic revolutions in history.
The confusion is obvious, and the sophisms camouflaged by rhetoric never cease to be so.
In reality, it was a struggle between left and right bourgeois factions, a struggle between left bourgeois reformism and right bourgeois conservatism, in a social situation characterized by worker and bourgeois unrest of all kinds, and the conflict was part of the preparation for the Second Imperialist World War, and the proletariat was oriented towards its participation in that war.
The anarcho-syndicalist and anarchist sectors never called for the abolition of the bourgeois republican state because of the CNT’s inherent approach of creating a workers’ syndicalist society that ignored the state and politics, and because of the historical link the CNT created with the liberal bourgeois and democratic republican sectors.
Guillamón wants to make a good impression on its anarcho-syndicalist audience.
PH B publishes uncritically, as usual.
Complete text. Translated by DeepL.com
Receive a message on every update of this news page
Left wing communism 
Recent Comments