A one-sided class war

The Public Eye: Roll Over, Karl Marx. Category: Columns from The Berkeley Daily Planet

Mészáros speech in Brazil

[forgive the brutal Google translation from the Portuguese]
original: http://www.vermelho.org.br/noticia.php?id_secao=9&id_noticia=156877

István Mészáros: "It requires the eradication of capitalism"

Passing through Brazil, the Hungarian philosopher István Mészáros has had on its agenda the conference session "structural crisis requires structural change" in the Main Hall of the Chancellery of the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) in the last 13 days. He was greeted by a packed audience with enthusiasm and applause sound.

Mészáros begins his speech by making clear that anything he is proposing can be seen as a "realizable utopia" and to transform this so-called impossible in reality it is essential that the crisis of capitalism is properly evaluated. "Without an assessment of the economic and social crisis of our day, who can no longer be denied by supporters of the capitalist order, even though they reject the need for a major change, the probability of success in this regard is negligible," says the philosopher .

Nature of the crisis

Meszaros to the crisis facing the world is a "deep structural crisis and increasingly severe, which requires the adoption of comprehensive structural remedies in order to achieve a sustainable solution." Although the crisis is commonly presented as 'current', Mészáros disagrees that it has originated in 2007 with the bursting of the housing bubble in the United States.

The crisis had begun more than four decades and in 1971 he wrote in the preface to "The Theory of Alienation in Marx" that the riots of May '68 and its aftermath "dramatically emphasized the intensification of global structural crisis of capital."

Because it is a structural crisis, not just cyclical, this crisis can not be solved in focus that generates that there is no change of the structure that created it. Mészáros reinforces the difference between cyclical and structural crisis, distinguishing them by the impossibility of this system feedback, reshape themselves from a new form also the bases of the capitalist system. This, however, does not mean that economic crises can present even more violent than the structural crises.

"The non-explosive nature of a prolonged structural crisis, in contrast to the severe storms, in the words of Marx, through periodic economic crises which they themselves can release and resolve, can lead to fundamentally misconceived strategies as a result of the interpretation erroneous absence of storms, as if such absence was impressive evidence of the indefinite stability of 'organized capitalism' and 'integration of the working class, "says Meszaros.

What this crisis (which is not new) would have the characteristics that define how structural? Mészáros identifies four main aspects: the universal (ie is not restricted to one branch of production, or strictly financial, for example), the truly global scope (not only involves a limited number of countries), time scale and extensive continuous ("if you prefer, permanent," Meszaros added, emphasizing that it is not more than a cyclical crisis of capital) and, finally, so gradual unfolding ("in contracts with the eruptions and the most spectacular and dramatic collapses of the past" , says the philosopher). So the scenario is constructed that would qualify this as a structural crisis, with the impossibility of solving the "storm" within the current structure.

Capitalism destructive

Another point raised by Mészáros - and with expressions of support received by the audience - was to delineate the "absolute limits" of capitalism. One of these limits is the role of labor in society, which is seen as a necessity, both for individuals when they produce for society as a whole. A situation where the work is seen as a problem, or worse, as a failure, is itself a limit to be resolved. Capitalism to Meszaros, "with its dangerously growing unemployment" (though the issue is not purely numerical), presents the work of its limits.

Meszaros also draws attention to other evils of this structure. The first question presented by the philosopher would be in focus that the capital has been pointed out, the "parasitic sectors of the economy." To illustrate what is that, Mészáros points to the runaway speculation that the economy has experienced (and that when sin in its results, is appointed as an individual failure, belonging to a particular group, while for the philosopher, should have the system as a major culprit, as he should answer for what he produces to oxygenate) and a "sleight institutionalized."

The wars and its military-industrial complex apparatus appears as a waste to which the authoritarian society submits capital. This point is discussed by Meszaros as a "destructive and devastating criminal operation of a permanent arms industry, along with the wars necessarily associated with them."

This systematic production of conflicts and encouraging a military production would result in another limit destructive capitalism, although it is not just a result of this, the ecological destruction that would be "a dynamic monopoly military grounded even had to take the form of two devastating wars world, as well as the total annihilation of humanity implicit in a potential third world war, in addition to the dangerous destruction of nature that has now become evident in the second half of the twentieth century. "

Create the future

"There is and there must be hope," says the philosopher. Despite the picture of destruction presented by Mészáros and experienced daily within the capitalist structure of society, it is the effort to consider the future, not only as a desire dreamer, but as a necessary task to change the system.

The solution to problems posed by capital have been featured in earlier historical moments. Mészáros rescues the solutions presented to capitalism. Recalling the liberal John Stuart Mill, Mészáros points as inconceivable that capitalism comes to a "steady state economy", as Mill argued, it is part of the ever-expanding capitalist logic of capital and its accumulation.

Returning to the point of the edge of ecology, are more visible the illusory character of a brake on capital, since 2012 will be held at Rio +20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, which aims to engage the nations in a sustainable project growth. Attempts to create projections for rates of carbon, for example, always present in environmental guidelines would be to Meszaros, evidence of incompatibility between the capital and the brake also between capital and non-destructive in nature advance.

Meszaros also points to solutions already tried in history: social democratic output, evolutionary socialism, the Social Welfare State and the promise of the highest stage of socialism. "The common denominator of all these attempts failed - despite their major differences - is that they all tried to achieve their goals within the structural basis of sociometabólica established order." Thinking to change without eradicating the capital, therefore, would leave the possibility of latent capital return, to be "restored". Change for Meszaros, structural and needs to be radical, as he specified for the audience, wiping out capital at the root.

The hole in the U.S. economy, with an alarming rate of $ 14 trillion, is for the philosopher, the mark of a waste. Seeing the restlessness of the capitalists in China and its "three trillion [dollars] in cash," capitalism is already thinking about a "better use" for that amount. "And what is the best use? On the back of the hole they made in the United States? "Asked Meszaros.

How was generated and how they can ensure that a proportion of this gap in history does not repeat questions are intertwined structural nature of the crisis and, in consequence, the structural response necessarily requires it. Crisis is stumbling in its endless wars, devastation of nature destructive and continuous production.

With Brazil Fact

Summer School class on Marxist economics

[Audio] Rob Sewell on Marxist Economics

Written by Rob Sewell
Thursday, 23 June 2011

Rob Sewell, editor of Socialist Appeal, gives and introduction Marxist economics and the economic crisis at the Marxist Summer School, 18 June.

All audio from the Summer School

Rebuilding international communist leadership: RIM

from [** MAOIST_REVOLUTION **] Communist Party of India (M-L)

n.1 - June 2011 - The debate in the ICN
MAOIST ROAD 12

Communist Party of India (M-L) Naxalbari
On the Present Situation of the RIM and the Challenge of
Regrouping Maoist Parties at the International Level
The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) is
now defunct for all practical purposes. The only remaining
sign of its presence is the A World to Win News Service.
Even this is reduced to mere tokenism, incapable of providing
direction and at times misused as a mouthpiece of
sectarian views. This situation is both grievous and challenging.
The RIM used to present itself as the embryonic centre
of the worlds Maoist forces. Its formational process and
practice justified this. Foremost among these is its initiation
from a worldwide rebellion that emerged from among
Maoist parties and organisations against the capitalist coup
and restoration in China. Though a tiny minority and mostly
isolated, these Maoist forces dared to swim against
the revisionist, centrist tide. Most of them could be part of
an international process of regrouping that ultimately lead
to the formation of the RIM in 1984. Since then this movement
had been instrumental in promoting the proletarian
revolutionary cause with ideological consistency. It could
draw immense energy and greater clarity from the presence
in its ranks of parties leading the two glorious peoples
wars initiated in the later part of the last century. It could
bring out the authentic and united voice of Maoism on
major world developments. It initiated and led several internationalist
campaigns of solidarity and resistance. The
journal A World to Win inspired by the RIM acquired a
prestigious position. Most important of all, it advanced to
the height of adopting Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and
playing a key role in gaining wider adherence to this ideological
position within the international Maoist movement.
It is therefore extremely grievous that the international
proletariat and the oppressed peoples have been deprived
of this international weapon right at this time of global
imperialist crisis. The Maoist forces are once again faced
with the challenging task of seeking out principled, ideologically
consistent, unity amongst themselves and regrouping
at the international level. This broadly presents two
options - reorganise the RIM or build a new international
organisation. In either case, a summation of the RIM experience,
even if initial, is necessary. This should not be limited
to participatory parties of the RIM. It must strive to
draw upon and incorporate inputs from the greatest number
of existing Maoist parties.

Whatever maybe the limitations or even errors of the
RIM, it is an indisputable fact that it was the most advanced
one among the various international initiatives of
Marxist-Leninist forces. This is particularly true in the matter
of ideology. Therefore, regardless of whether one opts
for reorganising the RIM or prefers to build anew, its experience
must be struggled over and synthesised. In view of
the advanced position achieved by the RIM we hold that it
is appropriate to reorganise the RIM, rather than striving
to build something new. But such reorganisation must go
beyond an organisational regrouping of the participatory
parties and organisations of the RIM. We cannot simply
reactivate the RIM and continue as before, even with a
new CoRim. There are two reasons. First of all, the present
predicament of the RIM stems, in some measure at least,
from its very constitutive concepts and methods of functioning.
They must be addressed and a resolution attempted
to achieve meaningful reorganisation. Apart from this,
a number of Maoist parties, some leading peoples wars,
are outside the RIM. Reorganisation will be incomplete
without pooling their views and experiences.

No single party can arrogate to itself the task of summing
up the RIM. It must be done collectively. Yet a beginning
must be made, to initiate debate and struggle. The
following positions are being advanced in this spirit. They
are preliminary in nature and open to revision. We focus
on the drawbacks, since the positive features are broadly
known and already mentioned in brief. Besides, the pressing
need is to identify and resolve those negative factors
which have brought the RIM to the present stalemate.
The capacity of the RIM to function as a cohesive body
was grounded in its insistence on ideological unity. This
made it possible to proceed beyond a co-ordination and
achieve the formation of a committee to lead it and its centralised
functioning. The committee was conceived as an
embryonic political centre. This conformed to the stated
aim of working towards the formation of an International of
a new type. The qualification new type was incorporated
precisely to distance this future International from the Comintern
conception of being the world party of the world
proletariat. Hence the centralised functioning of the committee,
the CoRIM, was to be guided by the recognition,
explicitly mentioned in the Declaration of the RIM, that the
formation of a new International demanded an appropriate
form of democratic centralism, apart from a new General
Line. The CoRim was given the responsibility of carrying
out various ideological, political and organisational tasks.
It was to take guidance for this from the general positions
collectively adopted by the participatory parties and organisations.
Furthermore, it was allowed an active role in the
process of generalising and synthesising the experiences
of the individual parties by bringing these to the attention
of all the participants, through its circulars and reports.
Thus the ideological unity, lying at the foundation of the
Movement, was sought to be transformed into a material
force by manifesting it in an appropriate organisational
form and method of functioning. This was the distinctive
feature of the RIM. The positive gains achieved by the
international proletariat and the oppressed peoples through
this Movement are closely bound up with this feature.
Yet, the present situation of stagnation too is located precisely
in this, in the paralysis of the CoRim.

This paralysis is related to sharp ideological and political
differences among the parties in the CoRim on the Nepal
issue. No doubt these differences are widely present
within the Movement itself. But we highlight those in the
CoRim because it is primarily responsible for the present
stalemate. However, the problem of the present situation is
not rooted in such differences as much as it is in the methods
adopted to deal with it and arrive at a resolution. This is
not the first time that sharp differences have come up. The
RIM and its Committee have been marked by wranglingism
from the very beginning. But, in the past, this was
overall handled in a manner ensuring collective participation.
This allowed the RIM to identify points of unity and
advance on that basis, without papering over differences.
When deviations from this correct method took place, ideological
struggle tended to get diverted into secondary
issues and unprincipled methods. It needed the collective
intervention of the Movement to check this. The sharp
differences on the Peru issue, the problems of handling
associated with this and the achievement of a level of unity
in 2000, through collective struggle, may be recollected.
But in the present instance the CoRIM failed to discharge
its responsibility of consulting and involving the whole
Movement. The reasons for this must be sought in the
current outlook of the concerned parties, not just on the
specific issue of difference, Nepal, but on the whole range
of ideological, political and organisational positions. An
analysis of these matters is beyond the scope of this note.
What is to be noted is that the present paralysis of the
CoRIM leading to the RIM becoming defunct is not an
inevitable consequence of its structure that granted the
role of an embryonic political centre to the CoRIM. It is the
unavoidable product of deviations from the points of unity
in the understanding that led to the formation of the
RIM.

Yet this does not absolve the embryonic centre concept
from all blame. A tendency of promoting the central role of
the CoRIM at the cost of bilateral relations among parties,
even to the extent of discouraging such direct ties, existed
within the CoRIM and the Movement from the very beginning.
This tendency emerged from the failure to rethink the
issue of international organisation in the light of the initial
criticism made of the world party concept made in the
Declaration. It was squarely rooted in visualising a new
International more or less in the pattern of the Comintern.
More and more, political exchanges and contacts became
routed through the CoRIM. This lead to a situation where
bilateral contacts among the participating parties were
weakened, and often abandoned. As a result we have the
present predicament where the freezing up of the CoRIM
has caused immobility of the whole Movement. This is
more than an organisational, structural, problem. Let us
recollect that the initial contacting of the late 1970s and
early 80s was actualised through various initiatives of individual
parties, in circumstances far more adverse than
those existing today. The present stagnation is mainly an
ideological problem, one of outlook. The extent to which
this stems from the embryonic political centre concept
remains to be assessed, but its role is undeniable.
The tendency of absolutising the central role of the
committee was opposed and criticised by some parties precisely
on the grounds that it was tending to go beyond the
points of unity leading to the formation of the RIM and the
CoRIM. It was even pointed out that this reflects an outlook
of recreating the centralisation seen during the Comintern
period, in one or another manner. At each instance
these parties demanded that bilateral ties must be promoted
and that the tendency within the CoRIM that opposed
this must be rectified. But this was not taken up with the
importance it really demanded. And it did not get due recognition.
Quite often such matters were posed and dealt
with as issues solely concerning the style of functioning
of the CoRIM or deviations from the Maoist methods of
leadership. Given the differences on the vision of a new
International, it was inevitable that the very concept of
'embryonic political centre' would be a site of unity and
struggle from the very beginning. Yet this was not explicitly
recognised and dealt with as such.

This is an important lesson that should be taken and
applied in the present initiative. We must therefore review
the position on embryonic political centre and deal with
the structural form of leadership accordingly. The Declaration
of the RIM has correctly observed, The concept of
world party and the resultant over-centralisation of the
Comintern should be evaluated so that appropriate lessons
from that period can be drawn as well as from the
positive achievements of the First, Second and Third Internationals.
It also is necessary to evaluate the overreaction
of the Communist Party of China to the negative aspects
of the Comintern that led them to refuse to play the
necessary leading role in building up the organisational
unity of the Marxist-Leninist forces at the international
level. Both these aspects must be addressed in any attempt
to build an international organisation of the proletariat,
even in its preliminary forms or stages.

Since the adoption of the Declaration, the thinking and
practice of Maoist parties, within and outside the RIM, has
changed significantly. New parties have been founded. In
this situation, the Declaration, though still correct and relevant
in many aspects, can no longer be the basis, even
for a reorganisation of the RIM. It is therefore necessary to
initiate a process of debate on various ideological, political
and organisational issues. This must necessarily be broad
enough, in the topics selected as well as participation, so
that the present reality of the international Maoist movement
is properly represented. Through this process the
points of unity and differences can be identified and a
relatively advanced platform can be arrived at, to become
the basis of reorganisation. We once again clarify: such
reorganisation must go beyond an organisational regrouping
of the participatory parties and organisations of the
RIM. We cannot simply reactivate the RIM and continue
as before, even with a new CoRim. In this sense it will be a
new initiative. But this new initiative must build off from
the advanced positions attained by the RIM, taking lessons
from its experiences, both positive and negative.