Details for next meeting will be posted up on the forum shortly.
For those interested, I will post the details of the first meeting here as well:
Topic: The Economic Crisis: Class Responses and Solutions
Date: 28/06/09
Attendees:
G (Left communist sympathiser)
JJ (Unaligned)
JT (Unaligned)
M (Anarchist)
MB (Anarchist)
NR (Left communist sympathiser)
P (Libertarian Socialist)
PZ (communist)
Chairperson (de facto): NR
Minute taker (de facto): NR
Presenter: NR
Presentation:
[FONT=Verdana]The Crisis[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana] “[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]Commerce is at a stand-still, the markets are glutted, products accumulate, as multitudinous as they are unsaleable, hard cash disappears, credit vanishes, factories are closed, the mass of the workers are in want of the means of subsistence, because they have produced too much of the means of subsistence; bankruptcy follows upon bankruptcy, execution upon execution.” This may sound like a very accurate description of the current crisis one might make today, however, this is in fact how Frederick Engels described capitalist economic crisis 130 years ago in his “Socialism: Utopian and Scientific”. Today we are witnessing the most devastating economic crisis of this rotten system since the Second World War and arguably the most serious and significant in its entire history. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]To begin, by now we’re all probably familiar with the statistics describing the nature and scale of crisis, but, even at the risk of beating a dead horse, we must begin by looking briefly at the crisis thus far, its effects and likely future consequences.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]The current financial crisis and world recession are the largest and most devastating capitalism has experienced in 60 years and are even arguably on par with the Great Depression. Worldwide since the beginning of the crisis, decline in industrial production has been at least as severe as the during corresponding time period of the Great Depression whilst Global stock markets and the volume of world trade are falling even faster. The combined GDP of the 30 OECD member nations fell 2.1 per cent in the first quarter of 09 - the biggest quarterly contraction recorded since the OECD started collecting figures in 1960. In the USA, the world's largest economy, GDP contracted at a 6.3 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 5.7 percent in this year’s first quarter.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]In Europe the situation is even worse. Industrial production across the Eurozone fell 21.6% from April 2008 – 2009. Germany suffered a 3.8 per cent decline in its first-quarter GDP - almost three times the rate of decline in the US and steeper than most estimates of the economic collapse during the worst years of the Great Depression! Britain saw a fall in GDP of 2.2% up from 1.6% the previous quarter. Significantly only France did not experience an acceleration of decline in the first quarter of this year. [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]Despite these figures, recent months have seen a marked shift in the predictions and tone of the bourgeoisie with regard to the crisis and its likely future trajectory. Talk of recovery is all the rage amongst the media and the economic specialists of the ruling class given improvements in consumer spending. Yet despite this apparent optimism, the crisis is far from over. ‘Recovery’ rather than meaning a rapid and welcome end the crisis rather represents it’s continued unfolding on another plane. Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the IMF, recently suggested that "Rather than a V-shaped recovery, at the global level we may be looking at something more like an L-shape; we go down and we stay down". But, even if the hype that the recession may be bottoming out and that there is light at the end of the tunnel turn out to be true, capitalism’s economic crisis is far from over, the spectre of mass unemployment and rampant inflation still haunting the world economy.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]Given all this, another more important question now comes to the fore: what caused the crisis? What are its origins? By now we should all be familiar with the way in which the ruling class explain the crisis, the background and events leading up to the current affair as detailed in television news reports and so on, so I won’t be recounting here the story of the bursting of the US housing bubble for reasons of space. What I will say is this, the financial practices which laid the basis for the US housing market and world financial crash were completely irrational and the series of events would be humorously absurd if not so serious in their implications. The real question here is why? Why such madness? Why these irrationalities?[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]Bourgeois ideologues the world over have invented their own answers to this question. The crisis is the fault of the “financial speculators”, the “greedy bankers”, the “debt ridden and irresponsible”, poor working class, the short sighted economic policy of the state or even “all of us” for living “beyond our means” and getting too far into debt. Whilst all of the responses of the ruling class point the finger at all number of different parties, they are all identical in their content and purpose, that is, they act to obscure its real roots of the crisis and see it as a direct product of out of control speculation, a peculiarity and avoidable accident imposed upon a perfectly functioning system, [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]The Marxist analysis of the crisis, its roots and its implications is diametrically opposed to this ideological apologism of capitalism offered up by all its defenders. The current crisis is [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]not[/FONT][FONT=Verdana] the result of speculation; speculation is the result of the crisis. Whilst the financial sphere is the showcase of economic crisis, for this is where stock market bubbles, currency collapses, and banking upheavals make their appearance, the real contradictions of capitalism lie in the ‘real’ economy. The financial panic which announced the return of open economic crisis is thus not the illness but the symptom of a deeper crisis, whose origins lie in the realm of production. What [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]the current crisis [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]is[/FONT][FONT=Verdana] is a crisis of overproduction, a crisis of the capitalist system itself, one inherent in its laws and natural functioning and an expression of its historical decadence.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Having said all this however, you may be rightly asking, what is the real significance of this seemingly abstract and theoretical matter? The economic analysis and explanation of the current crisis is ultimately a matter of class perspective. That offered up by the ruling class is ultimately reduced to ideological mystification. The ruling class is completely unable to understand and acknowledge the contradictions and limitations inherent in capitalism as the cause of all economic crises. To do so would mean acknowledging the historical specificity of class society, the need for socialism and working class revolution, in other words, the negation of its own existence as a ruling class. The task of coming to a scientific and revolutionary analysis of the crisis is a task which falls to the working class, specifically to its revolutionary political minorities.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]The significance of a Marxist analysis of the crisis for revolutionaries is not only its value as a scientific approach and explanation, but more importantly, as a guide to political action. Where bourgeois explanations of the crisis see it’s solution as within the framework of capitalism - whether it be by state intervention to nationalise the economy or reign in the speculators; or, by the ideal operation of the unbridled free market – Marxism on the other hand sees the current crisis as a crisis of the system itself, an expression of the illogic of capitalist relations of production and their decadence. As such for Marxists the solution to economic crisis and all the barbarity of society based on class division and exploitation is ultimately world workers’ revolution and the abolition of capitalism[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]The Responses[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Now I’ve covered very briefly the economic crisis itself I’d like to shift my attention now to the question of class responses.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Having learnt the lessons of the failure of the state to respond to such profound economic crisis, particularly from the great depression, worldwide the response of the bourgeoisie has been a unanimous flight back to the aegis of the state. This desperate move can be clearly seen in the massive ‘bailout’ packages announced by all major capitalist states: $1.1 trillion in the US; $586 billion in China, $250bn in Japan; €200bn for the EU and a more modest (if it can be called that!) $47bn in Australia; plans which include both the propping or nationalisation ailing companies, banks and financial institutions and all the attempts to jump start the economy and halt complete and utter collapse. What’s more, none of these figures take into account the tens of trillions of dollars of liquidity injected into local financial markets, amounting to some $10.5 trillion in the US alone, nor where these grand sums of money have actually come from, namely even more gargantuan recourses to debt.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]These policies, which are in open contradiction with the much cherished "free market" ideology of the last few decades are seen by some commentators as a return to state capitalism. However, the ruling class’ new found infatuation with statism is not the return of state capitalism because in reality it never really went away. Contrary to the claims of the ruling class, the current economic crisis was not caused by, nor did it begin with the bursting of the housing bubble in 2007. The current crisis is in direct continuity with that which began in the late 1960’s following the so-called “Thirty glorious years” of post-WWII capitalism. All the manoeuvrings of the bourgeoisie and its state capitalist economic policy – Keynesianism, state planning, the arms economy, neo-liberalism, globalisation, the casino economy – have proved insufficient to prevent the devastating return of open economic crisis and have in fact only delayed it’s return and in the process added fuel to the fire. For capitalism, crisis is in this era chronic and its permanent state of existence. The current economic crisis thus represents the inability of the bourgeoisie and its state apparatus to successfully manage, manipulate and suppress the anarchic laws and ever more violent convulsions of a system on its deathbed.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]The response of the ruling class has not been limited to state projects to sure up the economy and contain the effects of the crisis. More importantly, the world bourgeoisie is responding to the crisis by shifting its effects onto the working class.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]Unemployment is predicted to rise by between 18 million and 30 million this year, and as much as 50 million if the world economy continues to deteriorate. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]According to official records, the number of unemployed in the US rose to 8.1% - a total of 12.5 million people. In the last 12 months alone, the number of unemployed workers has increased by nearly 5 million, a number greater than the entire population of Sydney, and the unemployment rate has risen by 3.3 percentage points. As bad as these numbers sound, these statistics actually give a very imperfect picture.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]If the official figures are adjusted to account for those who have given up looking for work that doesn’t exist and those in involuntary part time work a more realistic figure would be of 24 million workers or 15.6 percent of the work force affected by unemployment in the US alone, a number greater than the entire population of Australia out of work[/FONT][FONT=Verdana].
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[FONT=Verdana]Closer to home, in Australia official unemployment rose from 5.5 percent to 5.7 percent in May up to 651,200, a 37.7 percent increase over the past year. With unemployment rising relentlessly some business analysts warn that the toll could exceed the government prediction of 8.5 percent, or nearly one million jobless, by the end of 2010.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]For all those ‘lucky’ enough to keep their jobs the situation is equally dire with workers facing wage cuts, freezes, reduction of hours and erosion of conditions. Since the beginning of the recession, 37% of all UK workers have experienced either cut in pay, a decrease in hours or an attack on working conditions. 27% of workers in the UK have taken a pay cut and 24% have seen a cut in hours or have “lost benefits”. Workers are also having to shoulder increased responsibilities without additional pay with 40% being given extra duties. But the attacks don’t stop here, a recent survey by the British Chamber of Commerce showed that 70% of firms planned to freeze or cut wages this year.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]All the attempts of the British Government to ‘stimulate' the economy have already totalled 51% of GDP, predicting to reach nearly 80% by 2013-14. Meanwhile public spending will decline from 48% of GDP now to 39% by 2017-18, including more than £10 billion off the health budget and spending on infrastructure down £22bn. In Australia in the situation is much the same with recently announced military white paper, devoting billions to the expansion of Australian capital’s imperialist might by as much as 70% by 2030. This comes as a result of cuts to the welfare system, targeted notably targeted at youth unemployed and those not in education.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]Plummeting of living standards are not only hitting workers in the developed nations. Workers, peasants and the disenfranchised living in the third world on capitalism’s peripheries are suffering the same and even more horrendous conditions. For example, as a result of the global economic crisis, the number of people going hungry has increased by 100 million up to 1 billion across the entire globe a number equivalent to one sixth of the world’s population.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Whatever its response, for the working class, capitalism has no solution to the crisis. The current economic crisis and the attacks of capital directed against the proletariat demonstrate not only the bankruptcy of capitalism, a system which periodically plunges humanity into cycles of economic crisis, poverty, war and brutal exploitation, but the possibility of and need for a militant class response. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]This capacity of the working class to respond to the attacks of capital and ultimately put an end to capitalism is being forged right now in its daily struggles against capitalist exploitation.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]The blow issued to the consciousness and combativity of the working class following the ‘end of history’ with the ‘collapse of communism’ (what was in reality a particularly brutal expression of state capitalism) saw a marked retreat of the class in struggle globally. Today around the world we are witnessing a still small but clear resurgence in the class struggle, despite and being accelerated by the return of open economic crisis. This renewed militancy and consciousness has been shown in the workers’ struggles mounted around the world in the past few years. To cite just a handful in the past couple of years:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]- In Bangladesh in January 2007 there were a whole series of general strikes and unrest. Later, in mid September 2007, solidarity strikes involving factories throughout the Dhaka Export Processing Zone saw running battles with the police. Around the same time striking workers in the Khalishpur industrial belt attacked union leaders who were conspiring with management against workers' demands. Further clashes between garment workers and police that brought 25,000 workers on to the streets of Dhaka in a militant demonstration that was held despite a government ban on protests and rallies. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]- In Egypt, in the summer of 2007, we saw massive struggles in the textile industry met with active solidarity from a number of other sectors (docks, transport, hospitals, etc).[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]- In Dubai, in November 2007, building workers (essentially entirely made up of immigrants working at the barest of conditions) mobilised massively.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]- In France, in November 2007, attacks against pensions provoked militant strike action by railway workers, with examples of solidarity links being established with students who at the same moment were fighting against government attempts to accentuate social segregation in the universities; a strike that openly unmasked the sabotaging role of the big union federations[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]- In Turkey, at the end of 2007, 25,000 workers at Turk Telecom struck for over a month, the biggest struggle since the 1991 Miners’ strike.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]- In Russia, in November 2008, important strikes in St. Petersburg (notably at the Ford factory) showed the ability of the workers to overcome police intimidation.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]- In China, economic growth has slowed from double digits in 2007 down to a predicted 7.5% for 2009. Despite this still exceptional growth figure literally tens of millions of Chinese are being thrown out of work. In response to deteriorating conditions workers have been fighting back all across the country and on massive levels, albeit still sporadically. Riots against intolerable living conditions, protests over the employment, strikes against capitalist austerity and all manner of what the Chinese state calls “mass incidents” are becoming an almost permanent affair. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]- In Greece, in December of 2008, a climate of enormous discontent exploded into open rebellion by students, workers and the unemployed all over Greece following the police murder of teenager Alexandros Grigoropoulos. Mobilisations by the students against repression received solidarity from both the working class in Greece, with many examples of workers going outside and beyond the official unions and young people all across Europe, preceded and accompanied by other revolts of young people in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Lithuania and elsewhere. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]- Again, in France on March 19 this year, record numbers of people took to the streets as part of a general strike against President Sarkozy’s anti-worker economic policies. The demonstrations, involved more than 3 million people, followed an earlier general strike called on January 29, which involved 2.4 million workers. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]- In the Antilles workers mobilised massively over rising costs of living, demanding their reduction and increased wages, paralysing the whole economy by a general strike, lasting 44 days in Guadeloupe and 38 days in Martinique, which at their peak brought 100,000 out onto the streets – almost a quarter of the population. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]- In Britain, workers occupied and picketed Visteon car part plants from the beginning of April through till mid-May when 600 workers were been laid off with no notice and had their wages and redundancy pay withheld. A fundamental strength of the struggle was the understanding that this battle was not theirs alone and the need to extend the struggle, workers successfully combating schemes for continued production under ‘workers' management’ by which occupations can become a trap for workers by shutting them up inside rather than spreading the struggle outwards. Occupations quickly spread to other plants and workers from other sectors where called on to come in show of solidarity. Workers were through struggle were able to win a small increase in their redundancy payment, but at the expense of both their jobs and pensions, certainly not the victory proclaimed by the unions, and whilst waged largely under its control, the concessions made by Visteon were achieved despite the union and not because of it. The real victory for the Visteon workers was the struggle itself.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]- Again in the UK, the wave of unofficial strikes which swept the country’s energy sector, sparked by the walkout of workers at the Lindsey Oil refinery, proved to be one of the most important and controversial workers' struggles in Britain in the last 20 years. At the end of January this year the Lindsey refinery workers walked out over the contracting of Italian and Portuguese workers (whose labour was cheaper and conditions inferior, accentuating competition between workers and driving down all workers' wages and conditions) and the redundancy of a portion of the existing contract workers, igniting a powder keg of discontent across the energy and construction. From its beginning the struggle was hampered by the weight of nationalism, epitomised by the slogan ‘British Jobs for British workers' heavily peddled by the union, the Labour Party and the media. However, with the evolution and extension of the movement this nationalist ideology was increasingly put into question and tended to be swept aside (albeit never totally), revealing the kernel of proletarian interests and actions. The strike was brought to a very sudden and unforeseen end by the bosses and unions when banners began to appear calling on the Italian and Portuguese workers to join the struggle, proclaiming ‘workers of the world unite', and when Polish construction workers joined the wildcats in Plymouth. Instead of a long-drawn out defeat of the workers, with increasing tension between workers from different countries, the Lindsey workers gained an extra 101 jobs, kept the jobs of the Italian and Portuguese workers, gained a promise that no workers would be laid off as there were jobs on the site, and went back united. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]A new wave of strikes was set off when 51 contract workers were laid off earlier this month, despite other contractors taking on workers, hundreds of workers on the site immediately walked out in solidarity. On June 19th Total, the owners of the site, took the unexpected and outrageous step of sacking an additional 640 strikers. Solidarity strikes have since been launched by workers all over the country. This new wave of struggles has broken out on a much clearer basis: solidarity with sacked workers.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]The Solution[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Today’s crisis is of historic importance and is on par with the Great Depression, if not exceeding it. This is not only because the crisis has been one of such a monumental magnitude but because it represents the failure of all the methods of the bourgeoisie to contain the outbreak. Today the bourgeoisie can only respond with these same failed measures – fighting debt with debt, credit with credit – essentially trying to dig itself out of a hole.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]More significantly however, unlike the Great Depression which came following the massive and devastating defeat of the proletariat, following the failure of the revolutionary wave which brought WWI to a close and swept the world following the Russian Revolution, the current crisis comes at a time when the class struggle is in resurgence and is accelerating this development. All of the struggles mentioned above show very clearly the return of the working class to the scene of history. [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]The horrors of capitalism can only be brought to an end by socialist revolution. This revolution can only be made by the proletariat, the only truly revolutionary subject in society today. Unlike revolutionary classes in previous modes of production who overthrew the existing social relations of production and dethroned the ruling class only to substitute one form of exploitation for another, the working class, as history’s first revolutionary and exploited class cannot make revolution without abolishing private property, exploitation and the entire class system.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]The working class is international and its interests transcend all national boundaries. Revolutionaries oppose all nationalism, racism, xenophobia and protectionism as corresponding to the interests of the bourgeoisie which divide the proletariat and undermine its struggles. Communism and the liberation of the working class from misery and exploitation of capitalism can only triumph as a product of the world revolution. To win its economic struggles today and the political struggle against the ruling class, the most important weapon in the arsenal of the class is its conscious organisation and solidarity.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Parliament and Social Democracy are in no way avenues of the proletariat’s fight against capitalism. The current crisis has torn from Social Democracy its progressive or working class veil and exposed it for what it really is – bourgeois and pro-capitalist to the core. At this time of crisis neither left nor right of the parliamentary political spectrum offers any solutions for the working class. In order to overcome the crisis, all the political factions of capital are forced to attack living and working conditions to prop up the system on its knees. Real change cannot be attained through the ballot box. The working class has no interest in the outcome or participation in the electoral circus of the ruling class which masks and mystifies the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Only the violent smashing of the bourgeois state and the capture of political power by the working class on a world scale can usher in a society free from economic crisis, class division, exploitation and all forms of oppression. [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]The crisis too, completely discredits the unions. Like their partners in the crime, the social-democrats, the unions are true defenders of capitalism[/FONT][FONT=Verdana], agents of the bourgeois state within the working class. Faced with the crisis the unions are frantically trying to shore up faith in the ailing system, enforce capitalist austerity measures on working class, spread nationalism and protectionist poison, tie the interests of the working class to national capital, encourage the proletariat to “tighten their belts” and make sacrifices for the “national interest”, undermine solidarity across enterprises, industries and national borders, and isolate, police and undermine all workers struggles. In order for workers to successfully resist the attacks of capital and assert itself offensively, workers must take direct control of their struggles. The weapon of the proletariat for this purpose is the wild cat strike, going outside and against the unions, directed by general assemblies of strikers and committees of delegates elected and revocable by these assemblies. [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]
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[FONT=Verdana]To encapsulate all these lessons of the class struggle past and present; to keep alive the sparks of consciousness which will ignite the prairie fire; to participate in all the struggles of the working class as most determined and combative fighters, stressing the general interests of the class and the final goals of the movement; to dedicates itself to the work of theoretical clarification and reflection - this is the role of revolutionaries and the political organisation of the working class. To use the words of Herman Gorter: “What we need here is such a kernel, hard as steel, clear as glass”.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]The return of economic crisis on a scale and depth unprecedented in well over half a century demonstrates to humanity the bankruptcy of capitalism, a social system no longer able to assure progress but only poverty, chaos and barbarism. Today revolutions must reaffirm the words of Rosa Luxemburg who declared in 1918, “In this hour, socialism is the only salvation for humanity”, the choice humanity is faced with today is “Socialism or Barbarism”.[/FONT]
Discussion Minutes:
JT: What is meant by a ‘crisis of overproduction’?
NR: Marxian Crisis Theory is a hotly debated subject. There are many contending theories: disproportionality, under-consumption/over-production, the falling rate of profit, etc. However we understand the fundamental basis of capitalist crisis, there is agreement that capitalist crises manifest themselves in the phenomenon of over-production. By this we mean, not that there is excess with respect to the needs of humanity but over-production with respect to the market, the social product in the form of commodities to be realised in full. See the quote opening the presentation.
JT: What about the deregulation of financial markets? See the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act.
NR: These all have a role in the unfolding of the crisis, however they are not a cause. This is not a crisis of speculation, deregulation, neo-liberalism, etc. All these have deeper origins, namely as attempts to overcome the past crises of capitalism.
P: Contributions regarding profitability and airlines. Neo-liberalism as a policy of the state.
NR: Welcomes and agrees with these contributions. Falling rate of profit does provide some seemingly valid explanations with regard to capitalist crisis and past crises eg. war as a means of capital devaluation and restoring profitability.
PZ: Agreed on neo-liberalism as an expression of state capitalism.
PZ and P: Agreed on value of Falling rate of profit theory and role of war.
JJ: What about unions? Certainly these are the defensive bodies of the working class. I do not understand the ‘anti-union’ perspective.
NR: The counter-revolutionary nature of the unions is a product of the decadence of capitalism a system where progress or reform are no longer possible. This nature of unions is manifest in current workers struggle where unions have proved to be the best defenders of capitalism against the working class as noted in presentation.
P: What is decadence? What does the term mean?
G: Modes of production go through periods of ascendant and decline. Decadence means capitalism is no longer a progressive system.
P: What tells us that capitalism is decadent?
G: Capitalism can no longer expand freely around the globe and into pre-capitalist zones. WWI showed that the imperialist national capitals had captured the globe and could only re-divide markets amongst themselves with blood.
G: Given living standards in Australia, is there a basis for a resurgence in class struggle?
JJ: Agreed, good question. What is the significance of Lenin’s analysis of imperialism: super-profits and the labour-aristocracy.
P: Contributions regarding imperialism, Chinese manufacturing and global capital flows.
JT: Contribution regarding Marx on centralisation of capital and its applicability to China.
NR: Attacks on the working class have been worldwide. Yes, workers in developed nations have better standards of living. However, crisis and the attacks of capital are global and the working class and its fight back are also.
G: Is there/has there been a resurgence in class struggle in Australia?
PZ: No, at least not in comparison with other parts of the world.
JJ: Australian history is a factor in this.
NR: Agreed. Contrast revolutionary workers’ history with that in Europe.
P: There is a militant history in Australia, however the connection with it is broken. What is needed is to reconnect with this tradition and relevance to the Australian working class. NR’s presentation does not have this and needs it, focuses mostly heavily on Europe and other parts of the world.
NR: The use of examples from Europe and elsewhere is merely a matter of the facts. Thus far the response of the Australian working class has not been the same as that elsewhere around the world. Despite this, resurgence in class struggle is a world phenomenon. If there is there is a resurgence in the class struggle in Australia, it is still embryonic.
JJ: Is militancy in Europe a product of history.
M: Yes. Contributions regarding Greek Civil War.
M: We can’t just talk about workers. We must also take into consideration all the oppressed. This is the value of anarchism. No to the ‘socialist state’. Contributions regarding Berlusconi and armed forces. Contributions also on Marxism as religion and Stalin as Marxist.
P: Does a group such as the ICC take into account all of these social oppressions and realities that fall beyond the bounds of the class struggle?
NR: I think so. Capitalism is the source of social oppression. Socially oppressed group may struggle to attempt to alleviate their own social oppression, only the working class can offer true emancipation for all the oppressed by abolishing capitalism.
MB: Is capitalism the root of all social oppression? Did social oppression exist before capitalism?
NR: Good point. Capitalism is not the origin of social oppression. Capitalism does however perpetuate it.
P: There is a lot of talk about the working class. What is the working class?
PZ: Working class is more than blue collar.
MB: The terminology of Marxist class analysis is outdated, not helpful, and those who still insist on it seem dogmatic.
NR: Rebuttal. Marxist class analysis is not only still relevant but absolutely necessary for revolutionaries. Marxism is not static or dogmatic but a living theory. It is a method and guide to revolutionary political action. What can we possibly substitute for it?
MB: I'm not sure I understand what bourgeoisie or ruling class is or whether it exists. What about the 'middle class', what qualifies it, where does it fit in? The concept of a 'coordinator class' is useful, applicable to people such as managers and executives which don't qualify as bourgeois, are they workers!?
NR: The bourgeoisie is the capitalist class, a class defined by the ownership and control of the means of production for the extraction of surplus value from the working class as a source of income and for the accumulation of capital. We can talk of 'difficult cases' such as the managers, executives, police, politicians ,etc. which don't seem to 'fit the mould'. However there is a mistake here - we are trying to apply Marxist class analysis to individuals and in doing so, abstract from the material and social reality of the class struggle. Managers are the representatives of the bosses on the shop floor. Executives are the personification of capital. Police and politicians make up and represent the state. The fact that they do not own the means of production and are paid a wage does not make them revolutionary.
JJ: What is meant by the phrase “Capitalism is on it's deathbed” used in the presentation? Is this metaphor an accurate one?
NR: The metaphor is not perfect. Capitalism can not die by a purely mechanical and internal economic breakdown. The threat of environmental destruction, nuclear war and an overall descent into barbarism with the disintegration of the social fabric may well be possibilities however. What the metaphor does show is that there has been a change in the nature of capitalism, namely it is a decadent system today, crisis is permanent state of existence and the notion of 'ever more violent convulsions' is very fitting.
MB: How is capitalist crisis permanent?
NR: Overproduction is a permanent state of existence for capitalism once extra-capitalist markets have been saturated. However, crisis does not manifest itself only economically but as part of capitalist totality. Capitalism also engenders permanent social crises, the threat of imperialist war, total environmental destruction, etc.
G: Is capitalism a decadent system? We can see spectacular growth and development of capitalism, does the theory fit with reality? How does Rosa Luxemburg fit in with this and the boom periods of capitalism?
NR: Yes, growth. Yes, decadence. Marx spoke of a 'fettering of development of the productive forces', not there total halt or collapse. What is essential is that this development is being held back, constrained by capitalist social relations. Luxemburg is another can of worms. Understanding of capitalist decadence can be elaborated on the basis of Luxemburg, but also without her (Mattick-Grossman on falling rate of profit, Lenin-Bukharin analysis of imperialism). Internal debate of the ICC on the question of Luxemburg and the post-war boom. We also need to think about the concept of “Growth as Decay” as Marx noted in the Grundrisse. Arms production and other essentially unproductive activities have grown to massive proportions in place of productive investment, there is a net loss from the perspective of capital as a world system.
MB: How does war represent a loss? There are certain entrenched interests which benefit from war.
NR: Need to distinguish between the individual capitalist and the capitalist system. War is profitable for some, however it represents a bet social loss. See the broken window fallacy.
