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September 24, 2008

Solution to capitalist crisis: Overthrow Capitalism


Solusyon sa Krisis ng Kapitalismo: Ibagsak Ito

Ang panibagong pampinansyang krisis ng pandaigdigang dekadenteng kapitalismo na nagsimula sa nakaraang taon ay muling sumabog na mas malakas sa nakaraan – noong unang bahagi ng 2008.

Ang pinakahuling pagsabog nito ay nagbabadyang lalupang yayanig at hahatak pababa sa naghihingalo ng pandaigdigang sistema. Kahit ang ilan sa burges na ekonomista ay nagsasabing mas malala pa ito sa Depresyon sa 1929 na nagtulak sa pinakabangis na digmaan sa buong mundo.

Sa krisis pampinansya ay lalupang nahubaran ang katotohanan na nasa yugto na tayo ngayon ng kapitalismo ng estado – ang huling depensa ng bumubulusok-pababa na sistema. Nalalantad na ang ‘neo-liberalismo’ na bukambibig kapwa ng mga pwersang maka at kontra-globalisasyon ay sa realidad ng galaw ng ekonomiya ay isang mistipikasyon.

Ang ‘pagligtas’ o bail-out ng estado sa nabangkarotang malalaking mga bangko at pampinansyang institusyon gaya ng Northern Rock sa Britain, Bear Stearns, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae at Freddie Mac sa USA, sa China, Japan, Germany, France na nagkahalaga ng daan-daang bilyong dolyares mula sa buhis ng mamamayan ay patunay lamang kung walang interbensyon at kontrol ng kapitalistang estado tiyak na babagsak ang ekonomiya ng sistema.

Ang katotohanang ito ay hindi na maitago kahit ng mga burges na komentarista at ekonomista na dati-rati ang bukambibig ay ‘liberalisasyon’ at ‘malayang kalakalan’:

We’ve come a full circle. We now realize that you need actually good governance and good regulations and not just let the market run the show” (Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, quoted by Reuters, PDI, Sept. 19, 2008)

Krisis sa Pinansya: Epekto ng Krisis ng Sistema

Ang krisis sa pinansya (sa partikular, ang ispekulasyon) ay hindi ang puno’t-dulo ng krisis ng sistema kundi ito ay produkto lamang ng huli.

Ang krisis sa pinansya kung saan mga bangko ang unang bumagsak ay nagmula sa hindi na mabayarang utang na pinauutang nito. Kaya ang mitsa ng pinakahuling pampinansyang krisis ay ang housing crisis sa USA at maging sa ibang abanteng kapitalistang bansa gaya ng Great Britain kung saan bilyun-bilyong dolyares ang hindi na mabayaran ng mga mamamayang nangungutang ng pabahay sa mga bangko.

Sa madaling sabi, ang krisis sa pinansya ay nagmula sa pagpapautang at pangungutang.

Magmula noong krisis sa 1960s, sa pangkalahatan ay pinagagalaw na lamang ang ekonomiya ng mundo sa pagpapautang at pangungutang dahil hindi na kaya ng sistema na paunlarin pa ang produktibong pwersa ayon sa kapasidad ng huli. Mismong ang kapitalistang mga relasyon sa produksyon ang humahadlang sa ibayo pang pag-unlad ng huli. ‘Lumalago’ ang pandaigdigang ekonomiya sa nagdaang mga taon dahil sa pagpapautang at pangungutang: 

The basis for the rates of growth in global GNP in recent years, which have provoked the euphoria of the bourgeoisie and their intellectual lackeys, are not fundamentally new. They are the same as the ones that have made it possible to ensure that the saturation of markets, which was at the root of the open crisis at the end of the 60s, didn’t completely stifle the world economy. They can be summed up as growing debt.” (International Review no. 30, 3rd Quarter 2007)

Ang mekanismo ng pinansya – sistema ng bangko, ispekulasyon at mekanismo ng pagpapautang – ay bahagi na ng pag-unlad (o ebolusyon) ng kapitalismo magmula pa noong 18 siglo. Kailangan ang mga ito para magkamal at isentralisa ang perang kapital para magkaroon ng kinakailangang puhunan para sa industriyal na pagpapalawak na labas na sa saklaw ng sinumang pinakamayamang indibidwal na mga kapitalista. Kaya, may mahalagang papel ang pagpapautang para pabilisin ang paglaki ng produktibong pwersa sa panahon na progresibo pa ang kapitalismo.

Sa kabilang banda, ang pagpapautang ay nagpapabilis din ng krisis sa sobrang produksyon, ng paglikha ng mga produktong lagpas na sa kapasidad ng pamilihan.

Ang ispekulasyon ay hindi dahilan ng krisis kundi bunga lamang nito. Kung ganap mang nangibabaw ang ispekulasyon sa buong ekonomiya ito ay dahil sa nagdaang mahigit 70 taon ng krisis sa sobrang produksyon ang industriya ng paglikha ng produkto ay lumiliit ang tubo. Kaya hindi maiwasang ang perang-kapital ay ilalagak sa ispekulasyon o popular sa bansag na “casino economy”.

Imposible sa kapitalismo na walang krisis sa pinansya dahil ang dahilan nito ay ang natural na katangian ng kapitalismo na lumikha ng produkto na para bang walang limitasyon ang pamilihan;  ang paglikha lagpas sa kapasidad ng pamilihan; ang sobrang produksyon:

In these crises there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would have seemed an absurdity - the epidemic of over production. …there is too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce.” (Communist Manifesto)

Isang ilusyon ang sinasabi ng mga pwersang anti-globalisasyon na maaring mabuhay ang kapitalismo ngayon na walang ispekulasyon o ‘casino economy’. Hindi nila naunawaan ang galaw ng kapitalistang sistema. Kahit sa panahon ng 19 siglo ay pinakita na ni Marx na ang ispekulasyon ay bunga ng kakulangan ng malalagakan ng kapital para sa produktibong pamumuhunan. Dahil dito, naghahanap ang mga kapitalista ng mabilisang tubo sa isang malaking pasugalan. Sa kasalukuyan, ang mundo ay naging isa ng casino. Ang pagnanais ng kilusang anti-globalisasyon na itakwil ng kapitalismo ang ispekulasyon sa kasalukuyang panahon ay humihiling na maging vegetarian ang mga tigre o kaya ay huminto sa pagbuga ng apoy ang mga dragon.

Sa 19 siglo, sa pangkalahatan ay ‘hinahayaan’ lamang ng estado ang pamilihan ang magdidikta sa negosyo at komersyo dahil sa pangkalahatan ay malawak pa ang sasakuping hindi-pa-kapitalistang bahagi ng mundo. Kaya ang krisis ng sistema noon ay nalulutas sa pagsakop ng bagong pamilihan. Ngunit ganap ng nagbago ang lahat ng ito ng masakop ng kapitalismo ang buong mundo at iginapos sa kapitalistang relasyon ang pandaigdigang ekonomiya. Samakatuwid ay nabuo na ang isang integradong pandaigdigang pamilihan at wala ng bagong pamilihan na masasakop pa.

Ang 20 siglo ay simula ng pagkasaid ng pamilihan at ang pagkakahati ng mundo ng mga kapitalistang kapangyarihan – ang panahon ng imperyalismo:

For the first time, the world is completely divided up, so that in the future only re-division is possible, ie territories can only pass from one ‘owner’ to another, instead of passing as ownerless territories to an ‘owner’” (Lenin — Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism)

Ang sinasabi ng Communist Manifesto na “the conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created by them” na nareresolba sa 19 siglo sa pamamagitan ng pagpapalawak pa ng pamilihan ay naging permanente na sa panahon ng imperyalismo kung saan nasakop na ng sistema ng sahurang pang-aalipin ang mundo.

Ang imperyalismo ay ang dis-integrasyon ng kapitalismo, ang pangangailangang ibagsak ito at palitan ng isang lipunan na walang pagsasamantala sa pamamagitan ng rebolusyon ng manggagawa:

The contradictions of the capitalist system, which lay concealed within its womb, broke out with colossal force in a gigantic explosion, in the great imperialist world war.

…… A new epoch is born! The epoch of the dissolution of capitalism, of its inner disintegration. The epoch of the communist revolution of the proletariat” (Platform of the Communist International, 1919).

Panghihimasok ng estado: Solusyon ba sa krisis?

Sa pangkalahatan, naniniwala ang Kaliwa ng burgesya sa propaganda ng mga estado na ang globalisasyon ay ‘pag-abandona’ o kaya ‘pagluluwag’ ng estado sa galaw ng ekonomiya at pagsuko nito sa ‘batas ng pamilihan’. Kaya naman mariing tinuligsa ng kilusang anti-globalisasyon ang ‘pribatisasyon, deregulasyon at liberalisasyon’ na ‘patakaran’ ng mga estado. Sa halip, nanawagan ang kilusang ito ng pagkontrol ng estado sa ekonomiya, ng pagtatanggol ng mga pambansang estado sa kani-kanilang pambansang ekonomiya laban sa ‘imperyalismo’. At ang ‘radikal’ na saring ng Kaliwa ay nanawagan ng nasyunalisasyon sa batayang bahagi ng ekonomiya sa ilalim ng ‘estado ng manggagawa’ o ‘estado ng bayan’:

The basis of anti-globalisation ideology is the denunciation of the ‘neo-liberal’ policies adopted by the major powers since the 1980s, which have allegedly placed the entire world in the hands of the great multinational companies, subordinating all human activities - agriculture, natural resources, education, culture, etc - to the pursuit of profit. This is sometimes described as a process of commodification and standardisation of products - everything is up for sale, in short.

The world is run by the dictatorship of the market. This dictatorship has at the same time stolen political power from democratically controlled states, and thus from the citizens of the world.

Thus the anti-globalisation lobby raises the battle-cry: ‘our world is not for sale’. They demand that the law of the market must not guide political policies. Political decision-making must be restored to the citizens, and democracy must be defended and extended against all financial diktats.” (ICC, ‘Anti-Globalisation: Ideological Posion to the Proletariat’)

Anuman ang lenggwahe ng Kaliwa ang linya nila ay walang kaibahan sa Keynesianismo at Stalinismo.

Sa panahon pa ng Communist Manifesto ay napakalinaw na inilarawan ng mga marxista ang katangian ng kapitalismo at kung bakit kailangan itong ibagsak. Pero ninanais ng kilusang anti-globalisasyon na mag-imbento ng ‘bagong teorya’ laban sa kapitalismo at ‘bagong solusyon’ para sa kapakanan ng sangkatauhan:

In sum, the anti-globalisers have reinvented the wheel. It’s some revelation that capitalist enterprises only exist to make profit! That, under capitalism, all goods are turned into commodities! That the development of capitalism means the globalisation of exchange!

The workers’ movement did not wait until the 1990s and the new wave of clever academics and radical thinkers who have come up with all this. All these ideas can be found in the Communist Manifesto, first published in 1848:

“The bourgeoisie has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single unconscionable freedom - Free Trade. The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage-labourers.

The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere. The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. To the great chagrin of reactionaries, it has drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood.”

Thus, the anti-globalisers claim to be offering a new analysis and a new alternative while at the same time suppressing all reference to two centuries of struggles and of theoretical endeavours by the working class, aimed precisely at understanding the bases for a truly human future. And little wonder: the better world proposed by the anti-globalisers does not look forward, as the workers’ movement has always done, but backwards, to a mythical rural past of happy little enterprises and local exchanges - or, more prosaically, to the period between the 1930s and the 1970s, which for them represents a lesser evil compared to the liberalisation which got underway in the ‘80s. After all, that was the period of ‘Keynesianism’ in which the state was a more obvious actor on the economic stage.” (Ibid)

Isa pang mistipikasyon na sinisigaw ng Kaliwa laluna ng mga stalinista, maoista at troyskyista ay ang modelo ng ‘sosyalistang estado’ o ‘estado ng manggagawa’ o ‘estado ng bayan’ na siyang kokontrol sa ekonomiya sa ngalan ng ‘uring manggagawa’ at ‘sosyalistang konstruksyon’. Ayon sa kanila, ito ang ‘epektibong paraan’ para ‘hindi maapektohan’ ng krisis ng pandaigdigang kapitalismo – ang ‘sosyalistang planadong ekonomiya’. Subalit, mabilis na naglaho ang bisa ng mistipikasyong ito ng bumagsak ang imperyalistang USSR at ang Eastern Bloc. Ganun pa man, hindi pa rin sumuko ang mga trotskyista (kabilang din ang mga maoista) sa ganitong modelo dahil para sa kanila: “ang krisis ng mundo ngayon ay krisis ng rebolusyonaryong liderato” o sa bulgar na pagkasabi, ang Trotskyistang (o maoista) partido lamang ang makapagligtas sa sangkatauhan.  

Sa mahigit 70 taon, ang iba’t-ibang paraan ng burgesya para resolbahin ang krisis ng sistemang pinagtatanggol nito – Keynesianismo, ‘planadong ekonomiya’ o ‘neo-liberalismo’ – ay napatunayan na nagpalala lamang sa krisis ng sistema dahil ang ugat mismo ng krisis ay ang mismong mga kapitalistang relasyon, ang sistemang sahuran mismo.

Ganito ang pangunahing linya ng makapangyarihang imperyalistang mga bansa noong 1980s kung bakit ‘tinalikuran’ nito ang Keynesianismo at pinalitan ng ‘neo-liberalismo’: ang panghihimasok ng estado sa ekonomiya ay nagdulot ng krisis sa 60s, 70s at 80s.

Ang katotohanan ay hindi bumitiw ang estado sa pagkontrol sa ekonomiya magmula ng pumasok ang kapitalismo sa kanyang dekadenteng yugto ng pumutok ang unang imperyalistang digmaang pandaigdig noong 1914. Bakit?

In all periods of decadence, confronted with the exacerbation of the system’s contradictions, the state has to take responsibility for the cohesion of the social organism, for the preservation of the dominant relations of production. It thus tends to strengthen itself to the point of incorporating within its own structures the whole of social life. The bloated growth of the imperial administration and the absolute monarchy were the manifestations of this phenomenon in the decadence of Roman slave society and of feudalism respectively.

In the decadence of capitalism the general tendency towards state capitalism is one of the dominant characteristics of social life. In this period, each national capital, because it cannot expand in an unfettered way and is confronted with acute imperialist rivalries, is forced to organise itself as effectively as possible, so that externally it can compete economically and militarily with its rivals, and internally deal with the increasing aggravation of social contradictions. The only power in society which is capable of fulfilling these tasks is the state.” (ICC Platform on State Capitalism)

Sa pagpasok ng kapitalismo sa kanyang permanenteng krisis, wala ng masasandalan ang burgesya kundi ang estado para sikaping bigyang ‘lunas’ ang krisis nito. Ang tendensya ng kapitalismo ng estado ay nakikita noon sa New Deal ni Roosevelt, ng Nazismo sa Germany at Pasismo sa Italy. Nakikita ito sa ‘planadong ekonomiya’ ng mga Stalinistang estado sa Rusya, Eastern bloc, China, Vietnam, Cuba, North Korea. At maging sa nasyunalisasyon ng diktadurang Marcos sa 1970s.

At sa panahon ng ‘neo-liberalismo’, nakikita ito sa bail-out ng estado sa naluluging malalaking kompanya at patuloy na panghihimasok nito, sa iba’t-ibang mekanismo (institusyon) sa buhay ekonomiya ng lipunan – IMF-WB, APEC, NAFTA, etc.

Ang pinakahuling stock market ‘crash’ sa buwan ng Setyembre ng taong ito at ang bail-out ng gobyerno ng USA sa mga nabangkarotang bangko at pampinansyang institusyon gaya ng Lehman Brothers at marami pang iba ay naging mitsa upang yugyugin ng mga pwersang anti-globalisasyon ang kanilang sarili sa ideolohiyang dala-dala nila. “Nagsasabi kaya ng totoo ang mga kapitalistang estado sa polisiya nilang globalisasyon?”, “Totoo kayang pinatutupad ng mga estado ang neo-liberalismo?”

Ang panghihimasok ng estado sa ekonomiya at kapitalismo ng estado ay manipestasyon na nasa permanenteng krisis na ang panlipunang sistema. Ganito ang nagdaang mga makauring lipunan, ganito din ang kasalukuyang mapagsamantalang sistema. Sa panahon ng permanenteng krisis, lalupang pinalalakas ng burgesya ang kontrol ng estado sa buong buhay panlipunan.

Narito ang kahungkagan at kontra-rebolusyonaryong katangian ng kilusang anti-globalisasyon kung saan nanindigan ito na ang kontrol at panghihimasok ng estado sa ekonomiya ang tanging solusyon sa krisis ng kapitalismo. Ngunit, para panatilihin ang kanilang ‘radikal’ na postura at panatilihin ang kanilang mistipikasyon sa hanay ng manggagawa at maralita, igigiit nito na magagawa lamang ito ng isang estado na ‘maka-manggagawa’ at ‘maka-bayan’:

One of the clearest examples of this false alternative is the argument that the state has withdrawn from the economy, leaving a free hand to the giant companies which are undermining democracy and the general interest. This is a total fraud. The state has never been more present in the economy than it is today. It’s the state which regulates world trade and fixes the interest rates, customs tariffs, etc. The state is still the leading economic actor, with a public expenditure which makes up an increasing portion of GNP and of the ever-swelling budget deficit. This is the so-called ‘powerless’, ‘absent’ state in the model country of liberalism, the USA. It is virtually impossible to mention any economic, political or social sector in which the state doesn’t have an important, if not preponderant role.

And the state is not the guarantor of a better world, where riches are more equally distributed: it’s the state which ruins this world, through war, through attacks on workers’ wages, pensions and social benefits. It’s the state which bleeds the working class dry to stand up to the crisis of the system.

What the anti-globalisers are saying to all those who ask questions about the state of the world is this: the choice is between liberalism and state capitalism, when the real choice is between socialism or barbarism.” (Ibid)

Sa ilalim ng kapitalistang sistema, may estado bang maka-manggagawa? Sa ilalim ng ‘sosyalismo ng isang bansa’ ang estado ba nito ay estado ng manggagawa? Ang makauring interes ba ng proletaryado ay interes din ng bansa o pambansang interes? Sinagot na ito ng kasaysayan at karanasan ng HINDI.   

Solusyon sa Krisis: Ibagsak ang Kapitalismo

May dalawang natatanging solusyon sa krisis ng kapitalismo:

1. Pandaigdigan o pangkalahatang digmaan para muling hatiin ang mundo ng makapangyarihang imperyalistang mga bansa.

2. Wakasan ang sistemang sahuran, sistema ng kalakal at sistema ng pamilihan. Wakasan ang pagsasamantala.

Ang una ay pansamantala lamang (dahil lalakas ang ekonomiya para sa digmaan) at magdudulot lamang ng ibayong kahirapan at pagkasira ng sangkatauhan. Sapat na ang karanasan ng sangkatauhan sa dalawang imperyalistang pandaigdigang digmaan at sa malaganap ngayon na mga lokalisadong digmaan sa ngalan ng ‘digmaan para sa pambansang kalayaan’ para maunawaan ang kahihinatnan ng solusyon ng burgesya sa krisis. Ang pangalawa ay permanente at magdulot ng ibayong pag-unlad ng produktong mga pwersa.

Ang una ay ang solusyon ng uring kapitalista. Ang ikalawa ay solusyon ng uring manggagawa. Ang una ay hahantong sa barbarismo. Ang ikalawa ay hahantong sa komunismo.

Ang una, para mangyari ay kailangang makumbinsi ang masang anakpawis sa pagtatanggol sa pambansang interes at mahahatak sa pambansang pagkakaisa. Kailangang makumbinsi ng burgesya ang mga manggagawa na magsakripisyo para sa ‘pambansang interes’. Ang pangalawa, para maganap, ay kailangang magkaisa ang mga manggagawa sa buong mundo kung saan itakwil nila ang pambansang interes ng kani-kanilang burgesya at yakapin ang makauring pagkakaisa. Ibig sabihin, kailangang agawin ng uring manggagawa ang kapangyarihan at ibagsak ang burges na estado at lahat ng mga institusyon nito.

Ang una ay isang malupit na digmaan sa ngalan ng nasyunalismo at pagtatanggol sa ‘inang-bayan’ habang ang ikalawa ay isang mapagpalayang rebolusyon, isang komunistang rebolusyon.

Sa madaling sabi, ang TANGING solusyon ay ang pagkakaisa ng buong uring manggagawa at ekstensyon ng pakikibaka laban sa lahat ng anyo ng kapitalismo – pribadong kapitalismo at kapitalismo ng estado; laban sa lahat ng mga atake ng kapital sa kanilang kabuhayan.

Ang pagkakaisang ito ay hindi sa pamamagitan ng pakipag-alyansa sa isang paksyon ng burgesya, hindi pagkakaisa para sa pambansang interes, hindi pagkakaisa sa ilalim ng mga unyon na matagal ng nasa kampo ng kontra-rebolusyon, at higit sa lahat hindi pagkakaisa sa ilalim ng bandila ng anumang mga partido ng Kaliwa – stalinista, maoista, trotskyista , anarkista at repormista.

Ang pagkakaisang ito ay isang makauring pagkakaisa na makikita sa asembliya ng mga manggagawa kung saan sila mismo ang may kontrol. Ang pagkakaisang ito ay sa ilalim ng gabay ng isang internasyunal na rebolusyonaryong partido ng manggagawa sa batayan ng internasyunalismo. Isang internasyunal na partido na mabubuo lamang sa panahon na sumusulong na ang rebolusyonaryong kilusang manggagawa sa buong mundo.

Hindi na maiwasan at mapigilan ng naghaharing uri ang paglawak ng krisis sa pinansya tungo sa iba pang bahagi ng lipunan – industriya, manupaktura, serbisyo, presyo ng bilihin, sahod at iba pa – kung saan ang unang-unang biktima at magdusa ay ang uring manggagawa at ang mga pamilya nito.

Dahil sa pandaigdigang krisis sa pinansya ay nagbabadyang mawalan ng trabaho ang milyun-milyong manggagawa:

1. Sa Amerika, 2.6 milyon manggagawa ang natanggal sa trabaho sa sektor sa manupaktura sa nagdaang dalawang taon.

2. Sa Britanya, nagbabantang mawalan ng trabaho ang 11,000 manggagawa sa sektor sa pinansya lamang dahil sa pumutok na krisis ng taong ito.

3. Sa pagkabangkarota ng Bear Stearns, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae at Freddie Mac sa USA tiyak na daan-daang libo na naman ang mawalan ng hanapbuhay.

4. Gayong optimismo pa rin ang linya ng propaganda ng estado ng Pilipinas (“may kapasidad ang bansa na salagin ang epekto ng pandaigdigang krisis”), ito ay isang ilusyon lamang. Habang totoong ‘salvador del mundo’ ang naghihirap na mga kapatid nating OFWs sa ibayong dagat para ‘pasiglahin’ ang pambansang ekonomiya, nagbabanta naman na mawalan ng trabaho ang karamihan sa kanila na nasa Europe at Amerika sa panahong raragasa na ang bagyo ng krisis pinansyal sa ibang bahagi ng ekonomiya. Kaya naman, pinalalakas na ngayon ng bawat estado ang kampanya para sa patriyotismo para sa paghahanda sa mas matinding dagok ng krisis.

5. Nagbabanta ding maapektohan ang export-oriented industries dito sa Pilipinas sa lalupang pagbulusok-pababa ng bulok na sistema.

Sa madaling sabi, pipigain ang lakas-paggawa ng manggagawang Pilipino at pababain ang sahod nito para makasinghap man lang ng konting hangin ang naghihingalong sistema. Ngunit hindi lang ito sa Pilipinas  nangyayari at mangyayari kundi sa halos lahat ng mga bansa.

Ito na lamang ang magagawa ng kapitalismo para patuloy siyang mabubuhay.

Ang nalalabing paraan na lamang ng manggagawa ay labanan ang mga atake ng kapital sa kanilang kabuhayan. At ang paglaban na ito ay magtatagumpay lamang kung magkaroon ng malawak na pagkakaisa ang manggagawa at kung sila mismo ang hahawak at magdedesisyon sa kanilang pakikibaka. Magiging epektibo lamang ang malawak na paglaban kung hindi na aasa ang manggagawa sa kongreso, senado, ehekutibo kundi sa lakas ng kanilang pakikibaka sa lansangan. Lalakas lamang ang makauring pagkakaisa kung hindi papayag ang mga manggagawa na hati-hatiin sila ng iba’t-ibang mga unyon na walang ibang interes kundi palakasin lamang ang kani-kanilang mga unyon at ang mga paksyon ng burgesya na sinusuportahan nito. Ganito na ang ginagawa ng mga manggagawa sa Bangladesh, Egypt, Vietnam, France, Britain, Germany, USA.

Wala ng epektibong solusyon sa loob ng sistema. Katunayan, lahat na ng solusyon ay nagawa na nito maliban sa panibagong pandaigdigang digmaan. Ang katotohanang ito ang nasa likod mismo ng pahayag ng first deputy managing director ng IMF sa kabila ng kanyang ‘optimismo’:

Nearing the end of the year’s third quarter, most advanced economies are either virtually stagnant or on the verge of recession, while underlying inflation risks are becoming increasingly well-contained” (Speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Sept 18, 2008).

Katunayan, ang solusyon ng kapitalismo sa kanyang krisis ay ganun pa rin, mula noon hanggang ngayon – pagpapautang at pangungutang:

The American bourgeoisie likes to present itself as the ideological champion of free market capitalism. This is nothing but ideological posturing. An economy left to function according to the laws of the market has no place in today’s capitalism, dominated by omnipresent state intervention. This is the sense of the “debate” within the bourgeoisie on how to manage the present economic mess. In essence there is nothing new being put forward. The same old monetary and fiscal policies are applied in hope to stimulate the economy.

For the moment what is being done to alleviate the current crisis is more of the same— the application of the same old policies of easy money and cheap credit to prop up the economy. The American bourgeoisie’s response to the credit crunch is yet more credit! The Federal Reserve has cut its interest rate benchmark 5 times since September and seems posed to do so once more at its next scheduled meeting in March. In a clear recognition that this medicine is not working the Fed has steadily increased its intervention in the financial markets offering cheap money – $200 billion in March, on top of another multibillion package offered last December— to the financial institutions that are short on cash.” (IR 133, 2nd Quarter 2008)

Ang krisis ng kapitalismo ngayon ay hindi na tulad noong 19 siglo na cycle lamang ng boom and bust ngunit sa pangkalahatan ay nasa ilalim ng pagsulong ng pandaigdigang sistema. Ang ‘recovery’ ng krisis ng sistema ngayon ay nagiging mas panandalian habang ang kanyang krisis ay tumatagal ng tumatagal at palalim ng palalim.

Kailangan ng ibagsak ang burges na estado at ang mga burges na partido para makalaya ang uring manggagawa sa kahirapang dulot ng internal na krisis ng pandaigdigang kapitalistang sistema. Hinog na ang obhetibong kondisyon ngayon para sa komunistang rebolusyon.  

ANG MGA MANGGAGAWA AY WALANG BANSA, MANGGAGAWA SA BUONG MUNDO, MAGKAISA!       

September 22, 2008

Capitalist Elections Against the Working Class

The election media blitz is running full blast. We hear the same media messages over and over: we are supposedly witnessing the most important election in American history; we face a stark choice between sharply different candidates; this election will determine the future direction of society for generations to come.

Of course that is what they always say about presidential elections. It makes for great theater, even if it has nothing to do with reality. It’s hard to remember the last time the media told us that the current presidential election is meaningless, that it offers a choice between indistinguishable opponents, or that no matter who wins nothing much will change.

And of course this year is even more historic than usual — the first African American candidate nominated for president by a major party on one ticket and a woman running for vice president on the Republican line for the first time in history. No matter who wins, the media tells us, we will have an historic first.

For the working class, reality is quite different from the media mythology. No matter who wins, no matter who occupies the White House, the situation for the working class will be the same

- our sons and daughters will be called upon to shed their blood for American imperialism, which will be forced to resort to more and more military interventions throughout the world

- the economic crisis will continue unabated attacking our wages, our standard of living, our health care, our pensions, our housing conditions, social services

- the social divisions that exist in the U.S. will continue to worsen; the rich will get richer and the poor poorer

- unemployment will continue to grow

- the future will continue to look bleak.

Of course the big "news" in this election is Obama as an African American presidential candidate and his rhetoric about change, which is attracting millions of young people to his candidacy. However black or white or biracial he may be, Obama is just another capitalist politician like any other. Despite his early opposition to the war in Iraq, he is in fact no anti-war candidate. He made it crystal clear in his convention acceptance speech that he is as committed to using military power to defend American imperialist interests as any other capitalist politician. He doesn’t want to bring the troops home from Iraq; he wants to transfer troops to the war in Afghanistan and launch military strikes into Pakistan, and to be prepared to unleash war elsewhere. His main criticism of Bush policy is that the US military is spread so thin that it leaves it unable to respond to other threats to its hegemony, like in Georgia. Obama is just as much a war monger as McCain. On the economy, none of his policies can deal with the fact that the problem with the economy is not policy mistakes by Bush, but the global crisis of capitalism, which is an historically anachronistic system, about which Obama is powerless to do anything.

For capitalism, the election campaign is a crucial element in the democratic mystification, the ideological swindle that spins the myth that in a capitalist democracy everyone is equal and has the opportunity to speak his/her mind, that everyone can participate in making the decisions on how society is to be run. The ruling class pumps hundreds of millions of dollars into the campaign, and mobilizes its mass media, its unions, its educational institutions, and its left and right political organizations to reinforce this myth and pull workers into the electoral circus. For the ruling class, the elections are a valuable tool in misleading working people, in tying them to the state, derailing them from the class struggle, and bamboozling them into thinking they are "free" — free to choose their oppressors for the next four years.

Capitalist elections weren’t always such an empty sham. In the 19th century when capitalism was still a growing, historically progressive system, capable of further developing the forces of production, elections constituted the venue where the capitalist class decided upon its "executive committee" to control the government and rule society. Various factions of the ruling class, defending different programmatic orientations, different economic interests, such as finance capital, or the railroads or the oil industry, competed with each other for control of the state. In this period, because capitalism was still expanding and it was therefore still possible to wrest significant reforms from the system, it made sense for the workers movement to participate in elections and take advantage of the factional disputes within the ruling class to win gains for the working class, such as the eight hour day and the end to child labor.

But this situation changed dramatically in the early 20th century with the completion of the world market, when capitalism reached the zenith of its historic development and became a fetter on the further development of the productive forces. With the system in decay, the possibility of wresting durable social reforms from the capitalist system no longer existed, and the orientation of the workers movement toward capitalist elections was fundamentally altered. The determination of political policy switched definitively into the hands of the executive branch, the permanent bureaucracy in particular, which rules in the interests of the national capital- Capitalist Elections Against the Working Class ism and prepares constantly for the deadly competition with rival nations.

With the disappearance of the historical circumstances that made elections relevant to the workers movement, electoralism inevitably became an instrument of political mystification, an ideological swindle perpetuating the democratic myth and obscuring the true nature of the capitalist class dictatorship and fostering the illusion that working people can participate in the determination of governmental policies.

In this context, the electoral circus represents the grand ideological maneuver of the bourgeoisie. For the greater part of the past century the American bourgeoisie has been particularly adept in controlling presidential campaigns to put in place political teams that would be capable of implementing its strategic orientations and promote the credibility of the electoral circus. The party in power in the White House was generally determined by carefully orchestrated media manipulation of the electoral process to generate the desired outcomes. Under the political discipline within the ruling class, the major parties and their candidates could be relied upon to accept the division of labor determined by the dominant fractions. The factors at play in determining the desired leftright political division of labor at the level of the national state may vary depending upon prevailing domestic or international circumstances. This ability to control the outcomes of elections and to maintain discipline within its own ranks began to deteriorate after the collapse of the bloc system on the international level, leading to the embarrassing results of the Bush administration in the stolen election of 2000, which did not serve well the interests of the ruling class.

Today there are two fundamental political objectives for the dominant fractions of the American capitalist class in the coming presidential election:

- a rectification of the Bush administration’s disastrous imperialist policy blunders in order to significantly restore American authority on the international level and enable it to intervene militarily in other pats of the world,

- a total refurbishment of the democratic mystification, which has taken a terrible beating since the year 2000.

The dominant class has already made great strides in setting the stage for repairing the mess that the Bush administration has made of imperialist policy. Obama’s proposed withdrawal from Iraq over two years has already been agreed to by the Iraqi regime and the Bush Administration. The groundwork is in place for a more sophisticated, "multilateral" imperialist policy, that will lessen American imperialism’s growing isolation and reestablish its authority in the international arena.

In terms of resuscitating the electoral mystification, Obama clearly best serves the interests of the dominant class. His charismatic, but largely vacuous, appeals for change have triggered a rarely seen enthusiasm among young generations of voters, who have been largely apathetic to the capitalist political process, drawing them into electoral politics in large numbers for the first time in many years. Capitalist political pundits have promoted the Obama phenomenon as "a social movement," that has tapped the wellsprings of "hope" and a desire for change.

To the contrary, what we are witnessing is not a social movement, but an extremely successful ideological campaign, reviving the electoral mystification. However, the Obama candidacy ultimately risks aggravating the very problems that it’s designed to redress. If he loses the general election, disillusionment will set in with millions of young people. If he wins the election, it will be impossible for him to deliver any significant change, which will also give rise to widespread disappointment and disillusionment.

For the working class the election is a complete diversion. The only way to defend our interests is the class struggle, in the streets and in the workplaces - against the pay cuts, and layoffs, against the attacks on our living conditions, against imperialist war. This daily struggle to defend working class interests against capitalism holds within it the seeds of the development of class consciousness, of a working class movement that will be capable of confronting capitalism head on and destroying this social system based on the exploitation of man by man and powered by the drive for profits with a social order controlled by working people themselves, where the fulfillment of social need is the driving force.

Internationalism, September 2008

September 9, 2008

Hunger, war, ecological disaster: The only hope is revolution

Filed under: Perspectives

How ever you look at it, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the present system of social economic organisation - capitalism - is breaking down all over the planet.

It can no longer feed its wage slaves, let alone the millions who aren’t even given the chance of being wage slaves. Because of the sudden rise in food prices that is hitting those who are already living in dire poverty, "at this very moment, 100,000 people are dying of hunger every day across the world; a child under 10 is dying every five seconds; 842 million people are suffering from chronic malnutrition and are being reduced to the status of invalids. And right now, two out of the six billion human beings of the planet (i.e. one third of humanity) are in a daily fight for survival because of the rise in the cost of basic foodstuffs" (International Review 133).

It can no longer maintain the illusion of economic prosperity. The ‘credit crunch’ is exposing all the slurry about economic growth fed to us by politicians and media for the past decade and more. Alongside the spiralling price of oil and fuel, we are seeing the world’s major economies, drawn by the former world ‘locomotive’, the USA, plunging into recession. The ‘economic miracles’ of India and China are also beginning to lose their sheen. In recent months, the Chinese central bank has been intervening on the foreign exchanges to the tune of nearly $50 billion in an attempt to push down the value of the Yuan. Over 67,000 companies have gone bust in China in the first half of 2008, laying off 20 million people and there now seems to be an outright contraction in manufacturing. As for Britain, with its allegedly stable economic base, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has himself warned that we are approaching the worst economic crisis for 60 years (see the article on p2).

It can less and less hide its nature as a system of military rivalry and warfare. The war between Russia and Georgia is being presented in the media as a revival of the Cold War between Russia and NATO. So how come the ‘end of communism’ in Russia at the end of the ‘80s was supposed to bring us a world of peace and harmony? Could it be that the struggle between Russia and America was not a struggle between different societies or ideologies, but between different imperialist states struggling for spheres of influence - just as it is today? What’s more, the hypocrisy of countries like Britain and the US condemning Russian atrocities in Georgia is pretty clear when you look at what the ‘democratic’ powers have been doing in Afghanistan and Iraq in the last seven years. All the world’s states, from the biggest to the smallest, are warmongers, and the conflicts between them are becoming more and more chaotic and dangerous.

It can no longer conceal the threat its very continuation poses to the planetary environment. The ‘debate’ about global warming - in the sense of whether it’s real and whether it’s a result of ‘human activity’ - is effectively over. All the world’s governments and big corporations are falling over themselves to show us their green credentials - while at the same time every pompous international conference on climate change and pollution only confirms how little each government is prepared to do about the problem the minute the interests of its ‘national security’ and its ‘national economy’ are put into question (see the article starting on page 3).

False hopes about ‘change’

The capitalist system is openly condemning itself as a system capable of satisfying the basic needs of humanity. The longer it goes on the more it poses the real danger of engulfing society in an apocalypse of starvation, war and ecological catastrophe.

But those who run this system will never admit this ‘inconvenient truth’. They cannot hide the scale of the problems facing humanity but they can certainly do all they can to obscure their real causes and above all to divert us with all sorts of illusory hopes and false prospects for change.

Hope and change are the ‘keynotes’ of the election campaign in the world’s leading military power, the USA. Barack Obama is being presented across the world in almost messianic terms as a man who offers hope to the world: hope for a different US foreign policy which "leads by the power of our example rather than the example of our power", to use Obama’s stirring phrase. Hope that America’s internal divisions between racial groups, the poison of slavery’s legacy, can be healed by a man who is black, but also a little bit white. Hope that the shocking gap between rich and poor in the US can be drastically reduced through a bold redistribution of wealth.

Many a critic of the farce of American ‘democracy’, where elections are contested by two parties who are not only indistinguishable but equally tied to big business, organised crime, the CIA and the military colossus, is leaping onto the Obama bandwagon, urging in particular the younger generation and the poor and dispossessed, those most disillusioned by the democratic game, to embrace this new illusion and thrown themselves into the pro-Obama camp. 

But Obama is no ‘anti-war’ option. He has made it perfectly clear that his opposition to the Iraq war did not mean any let-up on the ‘war on terror’ which is the USA’s pretext for military action to maintain its global domination. He criticised the Iraq adventure because he saw it as a diversion from the war in Afghanistan, which he supported from the outset, and to which he wants to commit even more military resources - including the extension of bombing raids deep into Pakistan.

Yes, the US has lost a great deal of credibility thanks to the blunderbuss foreign policies of the Bush clique. That’s why it needs to change its image on the world stage and Obama is the man for the make-over. But the imperialist drives that lead to its military adventures here there and everywhere will not go away with a change of personnel in the Whitehouse and a new lick of PR paint.

The same applies to the problems of impoverishment, economic crisis and environmental destruction, whether in the US or world wide. They are inseparable from the way that capitalism works. It is a system which must crush all the needs of humanity and nature under the merciless wheel of accumulation, and every company, country, government and politician has to obey this logic if they are to survive.

To stop the juggernaut of capital, a fundamental revolution is required, a profound uprising of the exploited and the oppressed against the very logic of production for profit. But this requires not only an economic change, but a shattering of the political apparatus which maintains the present social/economic relations. It means the destruction of the capitalist state and the creation of new organs of political power. The noisy show of ‘democracy’ is there to prevent us, the proletariat, from seeing the real nature of the capitalist state. Participating in the show only delays the dawn of consciousness about the need to take the power into our own hands and rebuild society from top to bottom.  

Amos 06/09/08






















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