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Society stands at the crossroads of socialism or chaos. If
the working class does not succeed in overthrowing capitalism, then this
chilling prediction will seem in retrospect to have been too mild. The current
economic crisis brings back on to the agenda the prospect of revolution but
also the possibility of counter-revolution. There will be ebbs and flows,
setbacks and outright defeats in the class struggles ahead. The workers do not immediate
seek revolution. There will be illusions in reformism, religious demagogy,
populism, nationalism and – most dangerous of all – racism and xenophobia. All
contributing to despair and confusion. However, there will also be a resurgence
of socialist ideas, which will grip the minds of the working class. It will go
against all Marxist thought if socialist ideas do not find an audience. There
is speculation about a rise of a popular right wing such as UKIP. But it will
be even more surprising if a new left does not sooner or later present a
challenge. The crisis brings the classes into direct confrontation. The failure
to overthrow the rule of capital and introduce a rationally planned socialist
system has brought a return of scenes hardly witnessed since the19th century:
hunger, homelessness, hysteria, the destruction of the environment plus wars
and civil wars. The only way out of the nightmare, resulting quite possibly
this time in the terminal destruction of human society itself, is to reorganize
society on the basis of a rational administration of resources and a harnessing
of humankind’s productive potential. The end of the Soviet state, the eclipse
of Stalinist parties along with the rejection of Trotskyist opportunism and
adventurism plus the exposure of the treachery and betrayal of the reformists
of the social democratic labour parties offers a clean slate to socialists to
win over fresh layers. However, old traditions die hard. The paralysis of the
working class in moving to change society today comes not so much from the old
illusions in reformist or national programmes, but in the perceived
helplessness of the mass of ordinary people.
The initial response to the crisis is usually one of stunned
shock. As workplaces close, as workers lose their jobs and have their homes foreclosed
it is true that there will be a weakening in the cohesion, solidarity and
initiative of the working class. However, in the process of the descent into
the abyss, there will inevitably be inspiring struggles. The period of the
Great Depression in the 30s also witnessed the great waves of sit-in strikes in
the USA and France. In some countries there have already been explosive
reactions. These are clearly only the tentative beginning of a massive
worldwide movement of protest. It is
remarkable that there is a general understanding throughout society today of
the causes and nature of the current crisis. The attempts to blame asylum
seekers, illegal immigrants, benefit scroungers, single mothers, Polish
plumbers, or even Islamic terrorists for the crisis has all been tried but
overall without too much success. Bankers and financiers are held in universal
contempt as are their political servants and media mouthpieces. Few needed to
be told that the Iraq war was over oil. The revolution could be within reach If
only there were a political party strong enough to channel that mass class
hatred into building a new socialist world. A socialist political party is needed
to generalise this discontent, to plan for democratically elected committees to
liaise and co-ordinate, and above all to imbue the people with confidence in
the historic meaning of the change, give their actions an international
horizon, and make explicit and conscious what would already be taking place on
the ground in an instinctive and pragmatic form.
Many new factors have strengthened the workers’ movement.
The squeeze of the so-called middle class, their proletarianisation as some
would term it, has strengthened the working class. We are far better educated and
informed than previously via the communications revolution. Despite of the
nationalist threat, the internet has drawn the world together and an
international consciousness has arisen that would have been inconceivable
before. They have created a cultural climate which drastically tilts the relative
balance of forces in society. Democratic social movements have arisen above all
the women, who have risen to their feet and forever shaken off their
historically subservient role, but also mobilised and in the forefront of
working-class struggles are the ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples. It is a new cultural awareness – a mood to
which capitalists themselves have had to pay lip-service and homage to in
pledges of social equality, fair trade, ethical banking, sustainable
development– that has become an unquantifiable factor standing in the way of
the capitalists’ resolve to drive down living standards. This new awareness was
manifested in an unprecedented international movement of anti-capitalist
protest, with thousands of activists crossing national frontiers in solidarity
campaigns in spontaneous eruption of protest enough to alarm the ruling class,
as in the Zapatistas, Occupy Movement, the Arab Spring or the Indignados. The outsourcing
and relocation of industrial capital has led to the new theatres of class war,
in China and Bangladesh and other regions of the world. In 2005 there were
90,000 officially designated “public order disturbances” in China i.e. strikes
and protests
Capitalism has long outlived its usefulness. The global
banks and corporations which rule the world have been revealed to be totally
parasitic. Non-socialists keep asking themselves if a solution be found within
capitalism itself? Yet this ongoing destruction of the world has made many once
more question the assumption that the idea of a socialist society is a utopian
mirage. The material basis for socialism is plenty. The irony is that it is
this very plenty which is posing apparently insuperable problems for
capitalists. Their problem is how to dispose of the goods, but they present us
with a picture of scarcity and hopelessness. Capitalism has now reached the
point where, at least in some areas of the economy, productivity is so advanced
that its products are effectively available free of charge. Music is available online at no cost. Within
the computer industry, much of the software products are now given away free,
partly a reflection of fierce competition but also an indication of
technological progress. It is an anomaly that it is the very productivity on
which the chances for socialism and for human survival depend which is too much
for the capitalist market to cope with. What is needed is not simply more
renewable energy, or this or that technological fix, but a changed attitude to
technology and the relationship of man, society and nature.
It is unfortunate that for the majority of in the
environmentalist movement, none of their findings questions capitalism. On the
contrary, Big Eco-business has sprung up even though the Stern report described
climate change as "the greatest market failure the world has ever
seen." Some suggested a carbon tax on emissions. Some have drawn up
elaborate geo-engineering projects. "We must act quickly" the experts
all agree. "Can we afford to do what it takes?" the economists and
politicians ask. The people answer "Can we afford not to?” they should ask
themselves just who is meant by “we?” and who it is that has to act now. Irrational
capitalism is now prevailing and it is urgent that it is understood that the
only people who can turn the sustainable ecological vision into something real
is the working class. If not the “socialism or barbarism” is closer to hand
than ever.
The battle has still yet to be joined together, and we will
be surprised by what latent resources the working class can still summon forth
when the time comes. The struggle to build a worldwide workers' party goes back
almost to the beginnings of capitalism. The working class majority have not yet
spoken in one voice. When they do, they will transform the outlook.
“There is no supreme
savior,
No God, no Caesar, no
Tribune,
Producers, do it
yourselves!
Proclaim universal
salvation!”
The Internationale
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