The Present Crisis and the People’s Movements: Is Anti-Capitalism Enough? Now it is quite needless to reiterate that the entire capitalist world is witnessing the most terrible and protracted economic slump since the Great Depression of 1930s. The economic crisis that started off as the subprime crisis in the US at the end of 2006 has continued to afflict capitalism in the form of sovereign debt crisis. The recent power transfer in Greece and Italy and the clouds of danger hovering over the Eurozone demonstrate the gravity of this very crisis. The crisis which is entering its fifth year has generated the highest unemployment rate, steepest decline in investment and serious reduction in the volume of economies in the past nine decades and this process, in the times to come, is going to assume all the more monstrous proportions. Born as the consequence of the absurd practices being implemented by the giant institutions of finance capital and banks in speculation and finance markets, the crisis had soon made it clear that this is not merely a financial crisis: this was a particular expression of the economic crisis which has arisen during the phase of monopoly of the finance capital. It is true that in a few countries like India, owing to the low level of integration with the global financial system as compared to the advanced capitalist countries, and the presence of “welfarist” public sector capitalist structure (though considerably weakened), the impact of this crisis has not been as dreadful as has been the case with the US, Europe and Japan. China too, due to the presence of a peculiar type of capitalist formation, which had come into being after the fall of Socialism internally, has not been as much hit by the severity of this crisis as the advanced countries. The ruling classes of these countries are quite enthusiastically publicising this fact and in summits like G20, are reading out sermons to the bourgeois leaders of advanced countries concerning their this very “achievement” too, as Manmohan Singh has recently done. However, the reason for the comparitively diminished impact of the present crisis on these countries is the lesser integration in the Global financial system and the survival of public sector structure and capitalist “welfarism” to an extent, which, as a consequence of the policies of neoliberalism and globalization, is fast arriving at its denouement. Thus, with the process of Globalization becoming more extensive, this would be rendered increasingly impossible. The inter-imperialist rivalry among all the imperialist blocs and groups, too, has sharpened under the pressure of the global crisis. The oil and natural gas resources hold central importance in this rivalry, because the modern capitalism, for its accumulation, depends to a large extent on it; whether in the form of direct cosumption, or that indirect consumption, which is not possible without the mediation of petro-products. Since today the question of energy is the central question for capitalism and since today the major source of energy are the petrolium products, therefore, West Asia becomes the foremost theatre of inter-imperialist rivalry and imperialist scramble for it. Lenin had once remarked, politics is the most concentrated expression of economics. The political expression of the economics of today’s crisis-ridden capitalism has emerged in West Asia, by now as we all know, in form of the Arab Spring. There are four major reasons which had led to the Arab uprisings. The first reason is the long-standing hatred of the Arab people towards imperialism and colonialism. Following the discovery of oil resources, the West Asia has remained the centre of imperialist plunder, war and rivalry. With the crowning of the US as the leader of the world capitalism after the Second World War, this process became more horrific and since then has become even more horrific. One aspect of the Arab uprisings of today is, therefore, this explosive anger against imperialism. The second reason is the question of Palestine, which demands a separate discussion. The issue of Palestine holds significance for the whole of Arab people, which had been divided into various countries by colonialism. As a matter of fact, naturally there is ground for only two states in the entire West Asia: one, the Arab state and second, the Jewish state. The gruesome genocide and inhumanity being committed by Israel with the support and assistance of the US imperialism in Arab has caused the patience of the Arab people to run out. This, too, is one of the aspects of the present Arab uprising. The third reason is the dictatorship, totalitarianism and repression-oppression of the degenerated national bourgeois rulers in the Arab countries. It is worth considering that the Pan Arab nationalism, which came into existence with Nasser of Egypt, had at one stage adopted radical positions against imperialism, however, today, having become completely corrupt and degenerate, it is entering into disgraceful compromises with imperialism. Nothing ‘national’ or pro-people is left in its character and it believes in snatching away all the democratic rights of the people and ruling through despotism and brute force. And the less we talk about the Shah regimes of Arab, the better! They openly act as the lackeys of imperialism. And finally, the last reason which intensified all these reasons all the more, and that is, the present global capitalist crisis. These are the reasons which gave birth to the present Arab Spring. We can see that following the crisis that started off in 2006, on the one hand, the Arab people rose against the despotic dictators of their countries and imperialism (please note that Libya ceased to be a part of this uprising, the moment the rebels accepted the intervention of NATO), on the other hand, people in the advanced countries too, took to the streets against unemployment, poverty, retrenchments, homelessness, etc which have emanated from the crisis. Today the Occupy Wall Street Movement that is going on in the US and other ‘occupy movements’ that have started off in the major cities of various other advanced countries of the world, are the spontaneous upsurges of the people in these countries against unemployment, insecurity, uncertainty borne of capitalism, rescuing banks at the cost of the people, bailing out speculators and the profiteering of corporate monopoly capitalism. If we cast a glance at the situation prevailing in the US itself, it becomes clear that the US economy is in the most decrepit state since the Great Depression of 1930s. The official unemployment rate at this time in the US is around 9.1 percent. However, in certain parts like Hartford, the rate of unemployment has reached 33 percent. That is to say, one in every three persons capable of working is unemployed. Two decades ago, the top 1 percent wealthiest people in American society had access to nearly 10 percent of all resources, however, today this figure stands at 23 percent. The top 5 percent of population controls 75 percent of total financial wealth. The number of homeless in the US is increasing with a record-breaking pace. All these facts not withstanding, the CEOs of banks and gigantic corporations are busy minting money, because whenever they are ruined in the gambling of casino economy, the government promptly rescues them by handing out bail-out packages. Whereas, on the one hand, the US is facing a terrible slump, on the other hand, the story of Europe too, is no different. In Europe, huge bail out packages were given in order to get rid of the depression. However, the governments here, in rescuing banks became bankrupt. Consequently, “austerity drives” were launched which meant withdrawal of state support from welfarist schemes of education, medical care, health care, employment, pension, social security, etc. The reason given was budget deficit. However, this budged deficit had arisen out of the bailing out banks and financial institutions, which, caught in the swirl of their own greed, were drowning. The political upheaval caused by this in Greece and Italy even led to the fall of governments there. However, no particular change can be ushered in through this too. The reason being that the only course available to capitalism in order to tackle this crisis leads it to all the more horrific slump and therefore, the new governments, too are compelled to implement the same policies with slight alterations. In order to mitigate the rapidly running out liquidity in the markets due to the slump, more cash is thrown in; however, not in the real economy but rather in speculation and gambling, which presents the crisis of irreconcilability in even fiercer form in the next cycle. Each time the people have to pay its price by losing their jobs, homes, security, facilities of education and healthcare, and every time in even more terrible way. Now, for the people of advanced western countries, this burden has, in a way, crossed that limit, which can be called the limit of sensitivity. And this precisely is the reason for the upheaval that has been caused in the kingdom of heaven itself today. The ‘Occupy movements’ in advanced countries and the Arab Spring in the Arab world, though both are two different kinds of peoples’ upsurges arisen due to separate reasons, yet both these point towards only one fact. These upsurges are demonstrating the failure of capitalism as a socio-economic system. These have brought the legitimacy of capitalism into the docks. If we keep aside the question of alternative for the time being, this can undoubtedly be said that these movements have once again and in the most effective and practical manner proved the hollowness of the claims that the world has no alternative other than capitalism; that capitalism is the most natural and advanced system which is analogous to human nature; that the liberal bourgeois democracy is the highest system humanity can attain; and that the “victory” (?) of capitalism has led to the ‘end’ of ideology, history, poetry, etc and the rational choice-making liberal bourgeois individual is the ‘last man’! Now one does not even feel like laughing at these claims as that too, would amount to paying some heed to them. The history has consigned all proclamations regarding ‘the end of history’ to the garbage bin of history. The mass upsurges have demonstrated that the people across the world can never accept such a barbaric, inhuman, despicable and anarchic system which has, for more that past 200 years, given nothing else except hunger, poverty, unemployment, war, environmental destruction, insecurity, uncertainty and devastation. Capitalism is devoid of all progressive potentialities and these upsurges prove that the people across the globe are sick and tired of this misanthropic system. However, the pertinent question here is that do the present anti-capitalist movements hold potential for a providing any alternative, advancing towards revolution and culminating in systemic change and not merely power transfer? These have struck a blow to the claims of legitimacy of capitalism, however, can they offer and alternative to capitalism? Even before answering these questions, various revolutionary organizations, thinkers and intellectuals across the globe, who had been suffering from a sense of defeat till now, who were dejected-disappointed by the dead calm and absence of any militant protest against capitalism prevailing over a long period of time, are in a rapturous and jubilant mood. A few Marxist thinkers have gone to the extent of propounding this theory; or disappointed due to the fall of communist parties and the Socialist camp, had already propounded it, that there would be no role of Party and leadership in the future revolutions, rather they would be accomplished spontaneously by the people on their own. New left thinkers like Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, “post-Maoist” (only God knows what does it mean!) thinkers like Alain Badiou etc, have altogether abandoned the idea of any revolution taking place under the leadership of the vanguard of the proletariat; they even do not believe that the proletariat is the most revolutionary class in the human history, which through its own emancipation, will annihilate itself and liberate the entire humanity; these “free” thinkers hold that now there is no need of such a thing as vanguard (organization); they also maintain that now “people” or “multitudes”, in general, will substitute the proletariat and instead of the capitalist class, they like calling “ruling class”; Badiou, while expounding on the theory of a post-Marxist Communism, arrives at the conclusion that the “idea” of Communism has been present since the primitive age and all revolutions were different halts in the journey of this very Idea; Badiou also claims that now the age of party and state has elapsed and we are entering in an epoch where the categories such as party and state have become obsolete and irrelevant; all these categories were products of Marxist Communism and now the eternal Idea of Communism in the purest form has substituted the Marxist Communism based on class analysis. Such axis-less thinkers had made similar proclamations at the beginning of the Arab Spring too, that their theory of party-less, leader-less, post-Marxist Communist revolution is being proved correct. However, soon the Arab Spring, instead of translating in any revolution, culminated as the rule of alliance between army and Islamic fundamentalists in most of the places, and elsewhere the hegemonic dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in form of liberal parliamentary democracy substituted the despotic individual dictatorship of any member of the bourgeoisie. Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, much before time, went even to the extent of ecstatically declaring the corroboration of their theory in various newspapers. However, now the Arab Spring behind us, all such thinkers can be seen looking for corners and recesses to hide. And once again with the commencement of Occupy Wall Street movement, these thinkers have come out of their burrows to proclaim the veracity of their theories and once again that stage is drawing near when they will have to eat their own words. However, besides rejecting these proponents of New Left, we will have to undertake a balanced explanation of the destiny of all these movements based on a correct scientific outlook. We will have to offer a scientific explanation as to why, despite bringing the capitalist system into the docks, these movements do not generate much hope. We will have to understand as to what are the problems and limitations of these movements. l The present Occupy Wall Street movement started off with a call given on internet by Adbuster, an anti-consumerist organization. One can recall that in the Arab Spring too, the new media was enormously put to use. In the US this movement started off with a demonstration at Zucotti Park in New York. Nobody had even thought then that this would attract so many people. However, people from different strata of society joined this movement with their set of grievances. After a prolonged period, various classes were on street together with their varied demands. Prior to this, the sporadic movements which had occurred during the past two-three decades in various advanced western countries including the US, were mostly centered around a single issue. For instance, many a times, movements have taken place on the question of education, on the question of housing, on the issue of Police repression. However, this time, people from different classes of society had taken to streets together with their own grievances and for their own reasons. Commentators like Vijay Prashad consider this phenomenon positive and believe that precisely because of this reason the Left divided into various fragments, for the time being, will emerge with some unified programme out of this movement. However, such an observation is fraught with many problems. Any communist leadership can evolve only when it not only possesses a unified charter of demands, but also has a well-defined ideological position, a well-thought out programme, strategic and general tactical understanding and besides an astute leadership. However, presently these demands are not becoming an organic part of a charter of demands and there seems to be little scope for a consistent ideological position behind the demands of any such charter in future too. The reason being that the demands of the different strata, distraught by the outcome of the economic crisis, who have taken to the streets with their own set of demands, are emerging in form of an aggregative structure. Therefore, with some of these demands met, or partially met by the ruling classes, they can get dispersed with the same alacrity, with which they have come together. It is quite clear that the present Occupy Movement does not have any well-defined objective or aim. It has no formal structure of membership which can provide it stability to an extent. Neither does it have any clearly discernible leadership. As a matter of fact, whatever is happening in the US today and other big cities of various advanced countries across the world is the spontaneous explosion of peoples’ anger and discontent against recession, unemployment, destruction and ruination caused by the most naked policies of neo-liberalism in the phase of finance monopoly capitalist Globalization. The various social classes are on the streets for their own separate reasons. These reasons are economic as well as political. However, their demands are rather expressing themselves in a aggregative complex, not as a charter of demands tied to the programme for attaining any definite objective. A motley crew of political groups are participating in these demonstrations where from various Marxist-Leninist groups to anarchists, Christian socialists, supporters of welfare state, Chomskyites, Trotskyites, NGOs, voluntary organizations, etc are present. They are raising anti-capitalist slogans, however, no one seems to be explaining that when they are rejecting the capitalist system driven by the interests of the Wall Street, what alternative they are offering themselves? More often than not they do not talk about capitalism itself, but the dictatorship of finance capital in particular. Why not the dictatorship of capital itself? Why oppose only the dictatorship of the banks? One fears that perhaps it is an expression of the desire of returning to ‘public welfare state’ from ‘corporate welfare state’ (in the words of Joseph Stiglitz). In all likelihood, isn’t it the aspiration of returning to the ‘Golden Era’ of Kennedy? Because when one does not talk about the alternative to the capitalist system itself, then it would inherently mean giving the slogan for return to the ‘welfarist’ capitalism. This point is made clear by some of their slogans too. For instance, ‘Save the Main Street, not the Wall Street’; ‘Save the 99 percent, not the 1 percent’, etc. Here what is worth considering is the fact that to whom this cry for help is addressed? Most certainly, to the state. Earlier, the state used to actively intervene in safeguarding the interest of the backward sections of the masses. It is a huge myth that the state, in this phase of neo-liberalism, has become non-interventionist. In fact, the state has become a lot more interventionist than ever. However, it is altogether a different matter that this intervention is not aimed at providing food, housing, employment and social security to the poor, weak and backward sections of people but rather at handing out bail out packages to the corporations distraught by the the severity of the recession. That is to say, what is being demanded is that the state must intervene in favour of people and safeguard their interest, or at least pay some heed to the these issues and not act as an agent of the corporations. However, the capitalist system, i.e., the entire capitalist system based on private ownership as well as private profit and which functions on the strength of capital accumulation was not put into docks in a well-defined, systematic and theoretical manner. What is being attacked is merely the symptoms of the capitalist system, fed up with which, people have taken to streets. Therefore, all these demonstrations do not offer any positive proposal. The people have raised their voice in despondency since the havoc wreaked by the capitalist system on them had crossed a certain limit. You register your protest on the question of unemployment, poverty, hunger, homelessness and right to education and health. However, you do not offer any alternative to the system which has given rise to all these problems. You first declare the whole of politico-economic system to be bankrupt, you call the entire political class corrupt (which indeed, is true!); however, in the end, you neither call upon to uproot that whole system and the ruling class, nor present any viable programme for doing so; what you are doing ultimately, is merely putting forth a demand! And to whom? To the same people and system that you have declared to be corrupt and bankrupt! ‘Save the Main Street, not the Wall Street’ would so long remain a misleading slogan till the entire system which is based on the dictatorship and supremacy of the Wall Street over the Main Street is not put into docks. Therefore, as long as the existing system is intact, saving the Wall Street is the only alternative and in absence of this, the Main Street too, does not get any relief. In a system based on private ownership and private accumulation, one will naturally save the private ownership and private accumulation! What other alternative does one have? The present crisis has taken the private accumulation itself to a dangerous low and the bail out and stimulus packages are precisely being handed out to safeguard it, and this is what is being opposed in these movements. However, this is simply expressing displeasure, in bits and pieces, at the various symptoms with which the different cross-sections are afflicted. Therefore, without opposing the capitalist system, in toto, simply to oppose its various symptoms which have arisen in the phase of finance monopoly is either akin to living in a utopia or else putting forth an imaginary demand of returning to the “welfarist” era of capitalism, which itself demands such a good health of capitalism which is impossible for it to achieve, even if it persists in absence of any meaningful resistance and revolution. In fact, even if any anti-capitalist movement succeeds in overturning the power (as has happened in Tunisia and Egypt and whose chances of happening in advanced western world are almost negligible), the real question remains that what happens the next day of overthrowing the power? And this question is related to the fact that whether or not this entire transformation has taken place as the consequence of a movement ideologically inspired and equipped with an experience, leadership and organization. If the people, by spontaneously taking to streets, take the state power to the point of impossibility and in the situation succeeding this, if no revolutionary political leadership and organization is present to build a well-conceived alternative structure, then this vacuum will be filled by one or the other reactionary force or forces which is ultimately make some changes on formal plane so that the spontaneous anger of the people can be absorbed and the legitimacy of the system can be safeguarded for the time being, however, any such force or forces will, in fact, only ensure the survival of the entire capitalist system. Look at the examples of Egypt and Tunisia. In Egypt, the movement that started off at the Tahrir Square, ultimately deposed Hosni Mobarak. However, the political vacuum born thereafter was filled by the alliance between the Army and Islamic fundamentalists. The power that will be installed after the elections too, would be, as a matter of fact, capitalist power whose economic policies would be no different. Indeed, that power would not establish the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in form of the naked repressive rule of any absolutist despot, but rather will implement this dictatorship through a more hegemonic bourgeois parliamentary democracy. This process has already begun in Tunisia. The workers’ movement are still going on in both these countries since the working class has begun to realize that the recent changes have not offered much to it. It must fight in an organized manner for its liberation. However, the absence of political leadership and organization is still the biggest hurdle in its path. This crisis is even graver because here the absence of political leadership and organization cannot be explained as an accidental chance occurrence. In such a scenario, it could have been considered the lack of political consciousness and something could have been done to eliminate it through perpetual process of politicization. However, in all these movements, a conscious reservation and allergy towards organization, ideology and leadership is discernible. Within the Occupy Movements too, such political forces are present in prominence which were celebrating the absence of any kind of organized political leadership. Whatever is going on, has been named by some as ‘leaderless revolution’. However, this nomenclature is incorrect and contradictory in itself. Whatever is happening is leaderless and hence it is not revolution. In fact, it would not even be appropriate to call it a movement; its character is more of a spontaneous upsurge. In a movement too, the aspect of idea and organization comes into play. However, nothing of the sort can be seen in the events which are unfolding. Various Anarchists, neo-Marxists and radical intellectuals like Noam Chomsky, Slavoj Zizek and Naomi Klein etc delivered speeches at these demonstrations. However, notwithstanding this, the unorganized and unsystematic character of this entire upsurge and a conscious allergy to leadership and organization will in incapacitate it to offer any alternative. Whether that alternative could have been immediately implemented in the advanced countries or not, is altogether a different question. However, a revolutionary political movement too, will bring capitalism theoretically, ideologically and politically into the docks, and not merely its symptoms and at present, this, too, is not happening. This clearly reveals a serious limitation of this upsurge. No man exists without head and no army can fight without its commander. In short, one can say that though these movements objectively reject all the lunatic claims of ever-lasting, eternal character of capitalism, however, they do not present any alternative to capitalism. These movements culminate at the spontaneous protest against the symptoms of capitalism, which today certainly have assumed mammoth proportions. But this anti-capitalism is not sufficient. Without any well-defined and well-thought out aim or objective, without any organization, without any clear-cut ideology, without any experienced leadership, the present anti-capitalist movement cannot arrive at the real question. That capitalism is not eternal, immortal has been proven earlier too. Now, there is no need to prove it once again. Today what is needed is that we offer an effective model of alternative and advance towards building a revolutionary leadership and organization that can translate it into reality. In absence of this, capitalism will, time and again reach the point of impossibility, however, by taking advantage of the political vacuum and partially fulfilling some demands, it will reorganize itself as is happening in Egypt and Tunisia. We must struggle against the tendency of uncritical celebration of non-Party revolutionism, depoliticization and spontaneity. Today, building a revolutionary party anew is the most fundamental and important task in all these countries. Unless and until such a party is built, revolutionary conditions will keep on preparing and will go on expiring. And each time the people pay dearly for the moment of revolution to elapse. The moment the reverberation of the slogans of present anti-capitalist movements will die down, disappointment and despondency will loom large afresh. The people will, time and again hit the roads in despair. However, in the absence of ideology, organization and leadership, the same story will be told all over again. Therefore, it is extremely important to comprehend that disappointed by some mistakes of revolutionary parties following the revolution of the 20th century, and later by the experiences of the dictatorship of a social-fascist party under the namesake socialism, abandoning the entire concept of party is reaction would prove excessively suicidal to the revolutionary movement of the people. This is precisely what imperialism wants; that the force which offers challenge to it, in the absence of organization, vision and leadership, loses its way in a blind alley. As long as there is no vanguard, imperialism can easily confront any such challenge and the contemporary developments have precisely proved this. In order to build any such organizational and political alternative, the communist revolutionaries across the world would have to forsake their dogmatism and obstinacy and undertake afresh a creative Marxist analysis of their respective countries; they will have to learn from the revolutions and the great leaders of the past, however, without being a prisoner of the past and without losing the wisdom to creatively put into practice this science in the reality of their times. Today, the communist revolutionaries, because of their dogmatism and remaining prisoners of the past and owing to the lack of ideologico-political understanding, are being unsuccessful in offering any effective structure of alternative. So long as these shortcomings remain, a true revolutionary communist leadership is difficult to be organized. And till the time this does not happen, people, distressed by misery and ruin, again and again will spontaneously take to streets, because capitalism is incapable of giving them anything else. However, the fate of every such upsurge will be the same as that of the contemporary anti-capitalist spontaneous upsurges. Here, in passing, it is significant to make a mention of a humorous phenomenon. In the cities of various crisis-ridden advanced countries too, Occupy Movements were launched in the style of Occupy Wall Street movement. However, despite the absence of any such spontaneous peoples’ upsurge in India, few cyber “left” revolutionaries have waged the campaigns such as ‘Occupy Delhi’, ‘Occupy Kolkata’ and ‘Occupy Dalal Street’. As can be expected, the outcome is shameful and ridiculous! It seems a bit strange that not only in the matters of consumerism, market culture, individualistic sickness and other bourgeois eccentricities, we imitate the western advanced capitalist countries, but rather in the case of protesting against these eccentricities too, we are proving imitators! It is more like making fun of oneself and only this can be said that putting an end to all such cyber campaigns will be the best in the interests of the Left! In the end, we can only say that it would be better if we channelize all our energies in building a revolutionary party anew. The times to come would be full of even more terrible crises and upheaval for capitalism. It does not have any other way out. It is sustaining itself through the force of inertia. Capitalism has never been as decrepit and weak as it is today. It is succeeding in surviving, owing to the lack of politically conscious and organized revolutionary working class movement and leadership. In this process, it is imposing the terrors of war on the humanity, raising the question of existence by ruining the environment and translating the lives of 80 percent population of the entire world in living hells. The question of getting rid of it is increasingly becoming a question of our existence. The breaking of silence by the present anti-capitalist movements is a positive and a welcome change. However, we must comprehend that this anti-capitalism is inexplicably insufficient. Today what is needed is that we advance towards organizing a revolutionary leadership. (September, 2011) -Abhinav Sinha,,,...................redpolemique.wordpress/
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:58:56 +0000
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