Only one other world is possible: communism. Destruction of world-capitalism is indispensable for it

In the last few years, various social forums are being held in various parts of the world. This new culture of social forums is a new addition to various other attractive means of mystification of the working class and toiling masses of people all over the world. World capitalism is discovering and utilising ever newer means of mystification to contain the working class in the capitalist terrain. AISF is nothing but an important weapon of the ideological arsenal for bourgeois mystification. It is in perfect continuity with the ESF( European Social Forum) and the WSF( the World Social Forum). The AISF following in the footsteps of the other forums leaves no stone unturned to create the illusion of the possibility of another better world free from the intensifying problems of life and livelihood without destroying the decadent world capitalist system, the root cause of all problems endangering human existence today. It has made lofty promises and assertions. Let us try to find out the real essence of these and the real goal to which they aim to lead us to.

Their theories of Anti-Globalisation

Basis of anti-globalisation ideology is the denunciation of 'neo-liberal' policies adopted by the major powers since the 1980s, that have allegedly placed the entire world in the hands of great multinational companies, subordinating all human activities - agriculture, natural resources, education, culture, etc - to the pursuit of profit. The world is run by the dictatorship of the market. This dictatorship has at the same time stolen political power from democratically controlled states, and thus from the citizens of the world.

Thus the anti-globalisation lobby raises the battle-cry: 'our world is not for sale'. They demand that the law of the market must not guide political policies. Political decision-making must be restored to the citizens, and democracy must be defended and extended against all financial diktats.

Anti-Globalisation Obscures Experience of Marxism and Class Struggle…

In sum, the anti-globalisers have reinvented the wheel. It's ‘new’ revelations are: capitalist enterprises only exist to make profit! under capitalism, all goods are turned into commodities! The development of capitalism means the globalisation of exchange!

The workers' movement did not wait until the 1990s and the new wave of clever academics and radical thinkers who have come up with all this. All these ideas can be found in the Communist Manifesto, first published in 1848:

"The bourgeoisie has resolved personal worth into exchange value,(i.e. commodity) … It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage-labourer( i.e. a commodity owner whose only commodity is labour power)…

The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe … To the great chagrin of reactionaries, it has drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood."

Thus, the anti-globalisers’ claim to be offering a new analysis and a new alternative deliberately suppresses all reference to two centuries of struggles and of theoretical endeavours by the working class, aimed precisely at understanding the bases and tasks for a truly human future. And little wonder: the better world proposed by the anti-globalisers looks back longingly to the period between the 1930s and the 1970s, which for them represents a lesser evil compared to the liberalisation i.e. privatization/ denationalization/ less-state which got underway in the '80s. After all, that was the period of 'Keynesianism' in which the state was a more obvious actor on the economic stage.

…falsifies history….

However, before rushing to choose the years 1930-70 over the last two decades, it's worth recalling a few of the characteristics of that period.

Let's not forget that Keynesian policies the product of the unprecedented crisis of 1929 could only prove to be a temporally palliative but could never put an end to the inherent crisis of over production of capitalism. Let’s not forget the predominance of state control of the national economy in every developed country before during and after the second world war; let's not forget the catastrophic situation of the working class during the world war and for some years after it; let's not forget that since 1945 not a single day has passed without war and that this has resulted in the loss of tens of millions of lives. And finally, let's not forget that at the end of the 1960s, capitalism plunged into an economic crisis that led to the inexorable growth of unemployment. Nothing but state capitalism, the inevitable product of decadence , is responsible for all this.

This is the 'better world' the anti-globalisers look back on so fondly, the lost paradise destroyed by the multinationals!

…. and hides bourgeois nature of the state and the bankruptcy of capitalism

All this is the expression of a classic ideological manipulation by the bourgeoisie: to rehabilitate the state and make people believe that it can be used against the excesses of liberalism, or even serve as an alternative to the law of the market.

According to the anti-globalisers liberalization is the root cause of all problems afflicting humanity today. Thus in their view the proletarians only have to rally to the defence of the state and of public services: this is the real secret of this ‘radically new’ theory: state capitalism, whether in its Stalinist or democratic form.

But the state is not the guarantor of a better world, where riches are more equally distributed: it's the state which ruins this world, through war, through attacks on workers' wages, pensions and social benefits. What the anti-globalisers are saying to all those who ask questions about the socio economic malaise is this: the choice is between liberalism and state capitalism, when the real choice is between socialism or barbarism, destruction of capitalism with all its states, democratic or otherwise and multinationals or increasing imperialist war and terrorism.

The source of wars, of poverty, of unemployment, is not the so-called liberal revolution imposed by super-powerful multinationals, but the mortal crisis of decadent capitalism, which no policy of the bourgeoisie, whether Keynesianism--more state or liberalism—less state can resolve.

Sowing Illusions in Reformism in order to hide Necessity for Proletarian Revolution

Anti-globalisers claim to be anti-capitalist. But their anti capitalism is confined to reforming the ‘excesses’ of the present decadent system which are materially inevitable and they never call for the destruction of this decadent world system. Their prescription of self management is nothing but self exploitation of the working class in essence in today’s economic conditions. They hide shrewdly the hard reality of the wage labour relationship, production for market, profit , the root cause of all discrimination and socio economic and political problems and thus block the process of development of consciousness and urge for overthrowing the capitalist system through internationally centralised , united collective struggle of the international working class.

Internationalism in words that hides nationalism in reality

But the adherents of all sorts of social forums and anti-globalisers also claim to be internationalists. but the defence of the national interest of capital is an essence the basis of their internationalism and anti imperialism The only possible form of real internationalism is that of the working class, the only class which has the same interests in all countries. It is inseparable from the goal of overthrowing capitalism and abolishing frontiers, which is the precondition for any genuine liberation of humanity.

The internationalism of the anti-globalisers is just the respectable shop window behind which is hidden the real goods: the defence of one imperialist interest against another. One of the main unifying themes of the anti-globalisers is opposition not just to the multinationals or the World Trade Organisation, but to the USA. In reality they are all the product of the same decadent capitalist system. Anti-globalisers’ sole target is to denounce the US imperialism and domination of the world market, not imperialism and the world market as such. But in today’s society every country can not but be imperialist for survival. Their high sounding call for democracy hides the reality that it is the best form of capitalist dictatorship. This is also the powerful weapon of the imperialist rivals of the US bourgeoisie. Global justice campaigner George Monbiot was quite explicit about this when, in one of his many articles for The Guardian in Britain, he called for European unity and the extension of the Euro as a bulwark against US war-mongering. This is about as far away from internationalism as you can get - calling for resistance to one imperialism by binding yourself hand and foot to another. Anti globisers are also part and parcel of the pacifist deception to the march towards new imperialist wars.

 

Why has bourgeoisie invested so heavily in publicising anti-globalisation movement?

 

The strong grip the old socialist and communist parties once held over the working class has been weakened by its experience of left-wing governments and the collapse of Stalinism. Faced with the aggravation of attacks on the working class, the bourgeoisie has a real need for mystifications that can derail the tendency for workers to become conscious of the real situation. ‘Alternative worldism’ corresponds to this need, posing as a credible alternative to the old left. The demand for a ‘real left’ makes use of old recipes for a fairer capitalism so that its foundations are not put into question. More specifically, the bourgeoisie cannot afford to ignore the fact that within the proletariat more and more people are posing serious questions about the current state of the planet. This is why the anti-globalisation movement, with its ideology of local self-activity, of libertarianism and syndicalism, its mish-mash of a hundred different mini-causes and sub-movements, is so well placed to lead this embryonic questioning into the dead-end of inter-classism and bourgeois ideology.

By reheating the old mystifications of the left, the bourgeoisie is once again seeking to obscure the simple truth: the only alternative to the destruction of humanity by capitalism in decay is the proletarian revolution and the construction of a communist society. In particular, it needs to hide the fact that any serious proletarian movement will inevitably have to confront the very things that the anti-globalisation movement supports: the state, the left , the trade unions and democracy.

The working class must recognise the bourgeois nature of all social forums including the AISF and anti-globalisation ideology and see it for what it is: an obstacle to its authentic struggles to defend itself from the growing assaults of capitalism.

 

International Communist Current

 

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