new democracy
16th September 2002, 08:32
this is an intresting article from the libertarian socialist magazine "Discussion Bulletin"( http://libertariansocialism.4t.com/ ). idon't agree with the entire content, but it have lot's of good points:
THE LEFT - ENEMY OF THE WORKING CLASS!
What is the Left? The Left consists of those parties or organisations, usually calling themselves "socialist" or "communist", which claim to represent the interests of the working class, but are in fact simply the left wing of capitalism. This leaflet aims to show why this is so.
In capitalist society there are two principal classes - the capitalist class (or bourgeoisie) and the working class (or proletariat) whose interests are diametrically opposed. The capitalist class is the ruling class everywhere. The working class is dominated and exploited - it is the class of wage slaves, the class of producers who own nothing but their labour power, which they sell to the capitalists for a wage. The value which the capitalist market gives to this labour power is less than the value actually created by the workers - upon this difference in value is based the extraction of surplus value by the capitalists from the workers. This is the cornerstone of capitalism. This exploitation leads the working class to wage class struggle against the capitalists.
All those phenomena in society which come under the heading "political" are expressions of the struggle between these two classes and, secondarily, of the struggle between rival factions of the capitalist class. All political movements represent either one class or the other. But knowing which is not always straightforward. Why is this?
The capitalists keep us enslaved partly by physical chains (e.g. police, armed forces) but also by mental chains. This means that the ideas that we are brought up with, the ideas that dominate society, are those that represent the ruling class's interests. The working class is the victim of the biggest con in history, accepting for the most part the system that oppresses us in the name of "democracy, freedom, equal rights" etc. But it gets trickier. Even when we see through these lies and begin to look to our own class interests, alternative capitalist schemes of a more radical appearance wait to snare us, so that we think we are supporting our own class interests but are in fact supporting a different brand of capitalism. This is why it is not enough to see whether a movement or organisation calls itself socialist or working class - we have to examine whether their aims and practice actually represent working class interests.
How, then, does the Left support capitalism?
In previous centuries, when capitalism was expanding, communist revolution was not yet possible, but the growth of capitalism (including the growth of the working class) at the expense of earlier forms of society was gradually creating the basis for such a revolution. It was in this context that revolutionaries of the time, such as Marx and Engels, supported the growth of capitalism, and hence supported certain capitalist movements such as some, but not all, movements of national self-determination, because they led to this growth.
Also, the working class was able to win meaningful concessions from capitalism at that time by means of forms of organisation which in no way challenged capitalism such as trade unions.
However, in modern capitalism things are quite different.
The capitalist transformation of the world has been accomplished and the level of productive forces necessary for communism has been reached. Capitalism is now in its period of decadence, its downward slide when it can no longer grant meaningful reforms to the workers, and can only overcome its crises through ever more destructive world wars. The communist revolution is now possible, and also necessary - the alternative is the most destructive world war of all.
Because of this historic change, revolutionaries can no longer support bourgeois movements such as national liberation, reformism, trade unionism etc. These movements today simply represent weapons of capitalism against the working class. Together with the newer capitalist lies such as state-capitalism pretending to be "socialism", these things make up the politics of Leftism. The Leftist parties today all support some or all of the above movements, thereby helping to dragoon workers into supporting one bourgeois faction against another.
Let us examine some of these things that the Left would have us support.
THE LABOUR PARTY and ELECTIONS
The Labour Party (and this is true of similar parties abroad) is the main party of state-capitalism and is one of the principal pillars of the state. Nothing could be more ludicrous than the lie that it is some kind of workers' party. It comes as no surprise, however, that the same Leftists who claim that the state capitalist societies of Eastern Europe etc. are "socialist" or "workers' states" or otherwise non-capitalist should advance similar claims about the state-capitalist parties in the West.
Some Leftists who might not support the Labour Party nonetheless stand candidates in bourgeois elections. Elections under capitalism are a total sham choosing which capitalists oppress us, and pretending this is an actual exercise of power. Standing candidates in capitalist elections, for whatever reason,simply helps to perpetuate the myth that voting can actually mean something for workers.
TRADE UNIONISM
Trade unions exist in order to negotiate the terms of the sale of labour power under capitalism - to negotiate reasonable" wages for the workers without in any way challenging the system of wage slavery. In fact, if capitalism were threatened, the union bureaucracies, who have a comfortable niche within capitalism, would also be threatened. Under modern capitalism the working class can no longer use trade unionism as an organisational method to advance its interests. The truth is that unions today simply act as instruments to police the working class and to sabotage its struggles on behalf of capitalism.
UNITED FRONTS
As revolutionaries we engage in class struggle alongside workers who still have many capitalist illusions, while making no compromise with these illusions and constantly trying to win workers away from them. This, however, is not what the Left means by "United Front". In Leftist parlance, "United Fronts" and "Popular Fronts" are varieties of alliances between supposedly "revolutionary" organisations and other organisations for particular aims (e.g. defence of "Democracy") in which there are allegedly " common interests". The working class, however, has NO common interests with the capitalist class. Today, all factions of capitalism are equally reactionary. Hence, to call on workers to support one faction against another, such as Labour against Conservative, Democratic capitalism against Fascism, "Anti-Imperialism" against Imperialism, is simply to con us into fighting for the interests of capitalism, and against our own interests.
NATIONALISM
The concept of the Nation is a useful device for the capitalists. It leads the workers of a particular geographical area to think they have a common interest with the capitalists of that same area, and that they have a conflict with workers in other areas. "National Liberation Movements" are simply a version of this same lie in radical form. When the working class is deceived into supporting such a movement, it means they are fighting to replace one lot of bosses with another lot. That is the only change; there is no change for the workers. (Furthermore, all such movements, if they are to succeed in gaining independence from one imperialist power, can only do so by switching to another, as for example Cuba did in changing from U.S. client state to Russian client state).
STATE CAPITALISM
Every country in the world today is capitalist. State-capitalism is a form of capitalism in which the state, rather than independent companies, owns capital and exploits the workers. A tendency towards state capitalism on a world scale has been noticeable since World War One. It now exists everywhere but to different degrees - alongside private capitalism in the mixed economies of the West, or almost completely replacing it in countries like Russia. But everywhere the working class exists as the class of producers separated from ownership of the means of production, owning nothing but its labour power which it must sell for a wage. In Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Cuba etc., despite the lies of Stalinists, Maoists or Trotskyists, all the essential features of capitalism (commodity production and exchange, money, and of course production of surplus value from the working class) exist just as in any other country. When the Left tells us. to support or "defend" such states, they are telling us to support capitalism.
THE LEFT - LAST RESORT OF CAPITALISM
The Left's objective function for capitalism is as a kind of safety net to catch those of us who have seen through the usual bourgeois cons, and thus lead us into supporting capitalism in a more radical form when we think we are supporting our own class interest. The Left, from the Labour Party (including all its Trot factions) or the "Communist" Party to the SWP, RCP, RCG etc ad nauseam, whether Stalinist, Maoist, Trotskyist or Anarchist, is totally COUNTER- REVOLUTIONARY and is the mortal enemy of the working class.
THE COMMUNIST ALTERNATIVE
To all militants who honestly wish to fight for proletarian class interests, but who have illusions in Leftism, we say: Abandon these ideas - Communism is the movement of the working class for its own historic interests, against all varieties of capitalist oppression, including the bourgeois-democratic false radicalism of the Left. Communism is the revolutionary movement of the workers themselves against all alternative rulers that the Left want us to follow like sheep, against all leaders such as the Left want to be. Communism is also the society produced by that movement, a society without classes, in which we all collectively control our own existence, in which we run the world for our own needs and desires, in which Humanity can fulfil itself as the conscious agent of its own History, and no longer be an enslaved mass toiling for the benefit of a parasitic ruling class. The Left is the last barrier in the way of the acceptance of a revolutionary view of society, and a revolutionary struggle leading to the establishment of the communist society.from: http://libertariansocialism.4t.com/db/db010918.htm .
THE LEFT - ENEMY OF THE WORKING CLASS!
What is the Left? The Left consists of those parties or organisations, usually calling themselves "socialist" or "communist", which claim to represent the interests of the working class, but are in fact simply the left wing of capitalism. This leaflet aims to show why this is so.
In capitalist society there are two principal classes - the capitalist class (or bourgeoisie) and the working class (or proletariat) whose interests are diametrically opposed. The capitalist class is the ruling class everywhere. The working class is dominated and exploited - it is the class of wage slaves, the class of producers who own nothing but their labour power, which they sell to the capitalists for a wage. The value which the capitalist market gives to this labour power is less than the value actually created by the workers - upon this difference in value is based the extraction of surplus value by the capitalists from the workers. This is the cornerstone of capitalism. This exploitation leads the working class to wage class struggle against the capitalists.
All those phenomena in society which come under the heading "political" are expressions of the struggle between these two classes and, secondarily, of the struggle between rival factions of the capitalist class. All political movements represent either one class or the other. But knowing which is not always straightforward. Why is this?
The capitalists keep us enslaved partly by physical chains (e.g. police, armed forces) but also by mental chains. This means that the ideas that we are brought up with, the ideas that dominate society, are those that represent the ruling class's interests. The working class is the victim of the biggest con in history, accepting for the most part the system that oppresses us in the name of "democracy, freedom, equal rights" etc. But it gets trickier. Even when we see through these lies and begin to look to our own class interests, alternative capitalist schemes of a more radical appearance wait to snare us, so that we think we are supporting our own class interests but are in fact supporting a different brand of capitalism. This is why it is not enough to see whether a movement or organisation calls itself socialist or working class - we have to examine whether their aims and practice actually represent working class interests.
How, then, does the Left support capitalism?
In previous centuries, when capitalism was expanding, communist revolution was not yet possible, but the growth of capitalism (including the growth of the working class) at the expense of earlier forms of society was gradually creating the basis for such a revolution. It was in this context that revolutionaries of the time, such as Marx and Engels, supported the growth of capitalism, and hence supported certain capitalist movements such as some, but not all, movements of national self-determination, because they led to this growth.
Also, the working class was able to win meaningful concessions from capitalism at that time by means of forms of organisation which in no way challenged capitalism such as trade unions.
However, in modern capitalism things are quite different.
The capitalist transformation of the world has been accomplished and the level of productive forces necessary for communism has been reached. Capitalism is now in its period of decadence, its downward slide when it can no longer grant meaningful reforms to the workers, and can only overcome its crises through ever more destructive world wars. The communist revolution is now possible, and also necessary - the alternative is the most destructive world war of all.
Because of this historic change, revolutionaries can no longer support bourgeois movements such as national liberation, reformism, trade unionism etc. These movements today simply represent weapons of capitalism against the working class. Together with the newer capitalist lies such as state-capitalism pretending to be "socialism", these things make up the politics of Leftism. The Leftist parties today all support some or all of the above movements, thereby helping to dragoon workers into supporting one bourgeois faction against another.
Let us examine some of these things that the Left would have us support.
THE LABOUR PARTY and ELECTIONS
The Labour Party (and this is true of similar parties abroad) is the main party of state-capitalism and is one of the principal pillars of the state. Nothing could be more ludicrous than the lie that it is some kind of workers' party. It comes as no surprise, however, that the same Leftists who claim that the state capitalist societies of Eastern Europe etc. are "socialist" or "workers' states" or otherwise non-capitalist should advance similar claims about the state-capitalist parties in the West.
Some Leftists who might not support the Labour Party nonetheless stand candidates in bourgeois elections. Elections under capitalism are a total sham choosing which capitalists oppress us, and pretending this is an actual exercise of power. Standing candidates in capitalist elections, for whatever reason,simply helps to perpetuate the myth that voting can actually mean something for workers.
TRADE UNIONISM
Trade unions exist in order to negotiate the terms of the sale of labour power under capitalism - to negotiate reasonable" wages for the workers without in any way challenging the system of wage slavery. In fact, if capitalism were threatened, the union bureaucracies, who have a comfortable niche within capitalism, would also be threatened. Under modern capitalism the working class can no longer use trade unionism as an organisational method to advance its interests. The truth is that unions today simply act as instruments to police the working class and to sabotage its struggles on behalf of capitalism.
UNITED FRONTS
As revolutionaries we engage in class struggle alongside workers who still have many capitalist illusions, while making no compromise with these illusions and constantly trying to win workers away from them. This, however, is not what the Left means by "United Front". In Leftist parlance, "United Fronts" and "Popular Fronts" are varieties of alliances between supposedly "revolutionary" organisations and other organisations for particular aims (e.g. defence of "Democracy") in which there are allegedly " common interests". The working class, however, has NO common interests with the capitalist class. Today, all factions of capitalism are equally reactionary. Hence, to call on workers to support one faction against another, such as Labour against Conservative, Democratic capitalism against Fascism, "Anti-Imperialism" against Imperialism, is simply to con us into fighting for the interests of capitalism, and against our own interests.
NATIONALISM
The concept of the Nation is a useful device for the capitalists. It leads the workers of a particular geographical area to think they have a common interest with the capitalists of that same area, and that they have a conflict with workers in other areas. "National Liberation Movements" are simply a version of this same lie in radical form. When the working class is deceived into supporting such a movement, it means they are fighting to replace one lot of bosses with another lot. That is the only change; there is no change for the workers. (Furthermore, all such movements, if they are to succeed in gaining independence from one imperialist power, can only do so by switching to another, as for example Cuba did in changing from U.S. client state to Russian client state).
STATE CAPITALISM
Every country in the world today is capitalist. State-capitalism is a form of capitalism in which the state, rather than independent companies, owns capital and exploits the workers. A tendency towards state capitalism on a world scale has been noticeable since World War One. It now exists everywhere but to different degrees - alongside private capitalism in the mixed economies of the West, or almost completely replacing it in countries like Russia. But everywhere the working class exists as the class of producers separated from ownership of the means of production, owning nothing but its labour power which it must sell for a wage. In Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Cuba etc., despite the lies of Stalinists, Maoists or Trotskyists, all the essential features of capitalism (commodity production and exchange, money, and of course production of surplus value from the working class) exist just as in any other country. When the Left tells us. to support or "defend" such states, they are telling us to support capitalism.
THE LEFT - LAST RESORT OF CAPITALISM
The Left's objective function for capitalism is as a kind of safety net to catch those of us who have seen through the usual bourgeois cons, and thus lead us into supporting capitalism in a more radical form when we think we are supporting our own class interest. The Left, from the Labour Party (including all its Trot factions) or the "Communist" Party to the SWP, RCP, RCG etc ad nauseam, whether Stalinist, Maoist, Trotskyist or Anarchist, is totally COUNTER- REVOLUTIONARY and is the mortal enemy of the working class.
THE COMMUNIST ALTERNATIVE
To all militants who honestly wish to fight for proletarian class interests, but who have illusions in Leftism, we say: Abandon these ideas - Communism is the movement of the working class for its own historic interests, against all varieties of capitalist oppression, including the bourgeois-democratic false radicalism of the Left. Communism is the revolutionary movement of the workers themselves against all alternative rulers that the Left want us to follow like sheep, against all leaders such as the Left want to be. Communism is also the society produced by that movement, a society without classes, in which we all collectively control our own existence, in which we run the world for our own needs and desires, in which Humanity can fulfil itself as the conscious agent of its own History, and no longer be an enslaved mass toiling for the benefit of a parasitic ruling class. The Left is the last barrier in the way of the acceptance of a revolutionary view of society, and a revolutionary struggle leading to the establishment of the communist society.from: http://libertariansocialism.4t.com/db/db010918.htm .