A Future That Works

A Future That Works
NO2aTory/Liberal coalition - Vote with your feet for an alternative to a neo-liberal economy and neo-conservative state Yes2aLeftFront and a Red/Green Left Alliance

Monday 14 May 2012

The enigma of capitalism, and the inevitable flaws in its highest stage

European stock markets have slid as fears over the Greek economy grow and how this will affect the euro currency with £28.5 billion wiped from the value of London's leading shares index. Alexis Tsipras leader of the Syrizia party holds the key to Europe’s future this means that we are at a transition point and the Marxist Left has the political advantage as popular revolt rises across the European Union. Aleka Papariga and the KKE can either provide the momentum for a European wide resistance or they can be the break on forming a united European Left Front. The whole neo-liberal economic and neo-conservative political agenda has been in crises since the financial crash of 2007/8, whilst the capitalist classes desperately want to use the crisis to further consolidate their class power and increase their wealth by reducing the social-bundle of health care and welfare conceded to the working classes in the mid-20th century, since 2007 the peoples consent for this project has weakened as its ideological legitimacy has collapsed. With the crises comes a moment when people are looking at the ideology of neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism and capitalism in a way that hasn’t been possible for over thirty years. The European and Scandinavian Left could use this political and economic crisis in the same way the crisis of class power was used by right-wing theoreticians and politicians in the mid-1970’s to overturn the ideological legitimacy for social-democracy and welfare capitalism that had been the post-war settlement in the bourgeoisie democracies. We are witnessing a crisis of capitalism unfolding equal to the great depression that followed the financial crash of 1929. It’s up to the Marxist-Leninist Left whether this is the trigger for a socialist fightback or the last stand of social-democratic welfare capitalism. Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Pierre Laurent have shown the way forward in France now it’s up to Alexis Tsipras and Aleka Papariga in Greece to build a momentum and political and economic ideological legitimacy for a left alternative to the hegemony of the IMF, WTO, World Bank and the diktats of international finance capital.

32 comments:

  1. In the Greek election on the 6th May Syriza led by Alexis Tsipras who is Pierre Laurent’s vice-president in the European Left came second in the poll with 16.8% only 2% below the conservative New Democracy party. Alexis Tsipras hopes to form a left-wing coalition government rejecting the austerity measures imposed on Greece by the IMF and ECB. If the European and Scandinavian Left can unite as European Left Front like the Front de Gauche led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon in France this can be the turning point as the historical and geographic dialectics of the crises of capitalism form a nexus point for a social revolt against the neo-liberal/neo-conservative Washington consensus which has dominated the last thirty years.

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  2. Pierre Laurent is national secretary of the Parti Communiste Français, president of the national campaign council of the Front de Gauche and chair of the European Left. Alexis Tsipras is joint vice-chairperson along with Maite Mola of the Partido Comunista de España who is also the European Lefts political coordinator. It must be the duty of all Marxist parties to rally behind his leadership and form a united European and Scandinavian Left Front across the European Union to turn the historical and geographic dialectics of the crisis of capitalism into an irresistible momentum for a left alternative to the liberal economics and conservative politics which have dominated the last three decades and use this crises of capitalism to move from social-democratic bourgeois capitalism towards a socialist political economy.

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  3. ''The next 100 days promise to be the most important in a generation for Europe. Unless Germany can be persuaded by, primarily, the new French president, but also by the grim march of events to change tack fast, there is now a 50/50 chance that euro membership could be reduced to a cluster of small states around Germany. A series of uncontainable bank runs and financial collapses could not be handled by the current structures. The result would be a European depression from which Britain would not be immune. It is the one part of the world to which our exports are currently rising.''

    ''In this context it is hardly a surprise that the radical grouping of left parties in Greece – Syriza – came second in the general election, nor that its opinion poll support has since jumped to 27%. They are implacably opposed to the trap in which Greece has been placed.''

    ''First in line for a countrywide bank collapse will be Spain. Last week, its government took one bank into public ownership, forced all banks to acknowledge their property losses and to make provisions for a cool ¤120bn for the losses. And after Spain, which will be the next domino to fall? Nobody knows. What we do know is there will be mayhem.''

    (Will Hutton, The Observer, Sunday 13/05/2012)

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  4. Dimitris Keridis, professor of political science at Panteion University in Athens says ‘‘overnight Greece will go from being a rich country to a poor country’’ if it leaves the euro-zone. Michlis Chrysochoidis of the Pasko Party predicts Greece will descend into ‘‘civil war’’ if it has to leave saying ‘‘what will prevail are armed gangs with Kalashnikovs and which ever has the greatest number of Kalashnikovs will count’’.

    The economics of neo-liberalism and politics of neo-conservatism has to quote Polly Toynbee in the Guardian, the ‘‘dictatorship of financiers’’ has brought Europe into ‘‘the eye of the vortex’’ and ‘‘no-one knows what happens next’’ and as she says ‘‘Karl Marx could not have devised so perfect a crisis of capitalism’’. The historical and geographic centre of the material dialectics of these crises of capitalism now centres on Greece, its passing from the social-democratic to the revolutionary phase of Leninist theory and practice.

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  5. It’s therefore a case of theory and practice as the crises of neo-liberal economics and neo-conservative governance and globalization bring Marxist and Leninist theory of capitalism and imperialism to the forefront. We have a theoretical analysis of the crises from Marxist theoreticians such as John Bellamy Foster, David Harvey and Joel Kovel, what is needed now is political leadership on the left to put Marxist and Leninist theory into practice as Vladimir Lenin, Josip Broz Tito, Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro did in the 20th century.

    Alexis Tsipras leader of the Syrizia party holds the key to the historical and geographic dialectics of Europe. This means that we are at a transition point and the Marxist Left has the political advantage as popular revolt rises across the European Union. Aleka Papariga and the Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas can either be a part of a Greek and European Left Front or they can be an obstruction to forming a united European Left Front. Lenin understood the need for a socialist transition from capitalism to be an international revolutionary process.

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  6. The KKE can choose not to be part of a united Greek Left Front with the Syrizia party and part of a broader European Left Front led by Pierre Laurent of the Parti Communiste Français and leader of the European Left. This would in my view lead to failure, and not be putting Marxist and Leninist theory into practice as an international class struggle and therefore down to Stalinist national bolshevism and the dogma of ‘‘socialism in one country’’ which would hand the dialectical material advantage back to the capitalist classes and global governance of finance capital.

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  7. The dynamics have changed and neo-liberal economics are discredited and merely going back to a neo-Keynesian model cannot save Greece or the euro.It will be significant if Alexis Tsipras Syrizia party are the largest party in the Greek parliament after a second general election, and if Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Front de Gauche do well in the French parliamentary elections in June. Maybe this could have a domino effect with an increased vote in Germany for Klaus Ernst’s Die Linke party.

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  8. For these reasons the Left parties have an advantage they haven’t had for probably seventy years, whether they have the leadership ability, theory and practices to take advantage of the material-dialectics unfolding from the aftershock from the crash of 2007/8 remains to be seen.

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  9. Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Pierre Laurent have both shown leadership, theoretical understanding and practices which have put them in a position to influence François Hollande. Alexis Tsipras as Laurent deputy leader of the EL is now in a position to influence the direction in which not just Greece but the whole of Europe goes.

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  10. This is why I argue that Aleka Papariga and the KKE can either join Tsipras Syrizia party and the EL led by Laurent and help build a united European Left Front and be a part of the changing historical and geographic dialectics or act in an infantile sectarian manner and hold back the European Left. A lot now rests on Papariga’s ability to act from a Marxist and Leninist theoretical understanding, but it needs the correct theory and practices plus leadership can Aleka Papariga and the KKE show the necessary leadership, theoretical understanding and practice?

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  11. Alexis Tsipras says ‘‘Greece is on the frontline of a war that is engulfing Europe.’’

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  12. ‘‘You ask me if I am afraid. I'd be afraid if we continued on this path, a path to social hell … when someone fights there is a big chance that he will win and we are fighting this to win.’’

    ‘‘It is not between nations and peoples," he says. "On the one side there are workers and a majority of people and on the other are global capitalists, bankers, profiteers on stock exchanges, the big funds. It's a war between peoples and capitalism … and as in each war what happens on the frontline defines the battle. It will be decisive for the war elsewhere.’’

    ‘‘growth through austerity" policies pursued in the name of resolving the crisis. It was chosen as the experiment for the enforcement of neo-liberal shock [policies] and Greek people were the guinea pigs..If the experiment continues, it will be considered successful and the policies will be applied in other countries. That's why it is so important to stop the experiment. It will not just be a victory for Greece but for all of Europe.’’

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  13. The first stage of a Marxist strategy for a transition from capitalism in the context of the current historical and geographic material-dialectics is that Aleka Papariga and the KKE join forces with Alexis Tsipras and the Syriza party in Greece in the same way that Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Pierre Laurent joined forces in the Front de Gauche and that they accept Pierre Laurent’s role as leader of the European Left in the EU.

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  14. If Aleka Papariga and the KKE fail to accept this basic first step then there’s little or no prospect of resisting never mind defeating the diktats of global finance capital and governance by the IMF, WTO, ECB etc. This is why Lenin correctly argued that infantile and utopian sectarianism was a threat to the success of socialism, and I’m confident that he would be chastising Aleka Papariga and the KKE for this disorder if they fail to form a united left front in Greece.

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  15. Alexis Tsipras has connected with the broad feeling of the people of Greece and has a chance of taking power from the Néa Dimokratía (liberal-conservative) party and PASOK (social-democratic/social-liberal) party. Like the Front de Gauche led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Pierre Laurent this represents an opportunity for the Marxist Left to have a popular base in the working class struggle in Europe against the neo-liberal economic and neo-conservative political agenda of the capitalist elite and global governance by the IMF, WTO and ECB.

    The KKE can be a vocal protest party on the streets or it can be part of a broader left fightback across the EU. The financial crisis of 2007/8 and the consequent realization crisis that has occurred for the capitalist classes and finance capital threaten not just a short recession but a depression on the scale of the 1930’s. The political and economic legitimacy of neo-liberal/neo-conservative ideology and capitalism is vulnerable.

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  16. If the working class and Marxist parties are to confront the diktats of international finance capital and global governance by the IMF, WTO, World Bank and the USA they need to be a united historic bloc. Otherwise the international market and forces of global (imperialist) capital will defeat the working class movement within individual nation states. This was Lenin’s view in What must be done? and Imperialism the highest stage of capitalism.

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  17. ‘‘We need to re-examine the whole framework of existing strategy if the threat to social stability and cohesion in Greece, and the stability of the whole euro-zone, is not to be threatened…………The common future of European peoples is threatened by those catastrophic choices. We deeply believe that this crisis is European, and therefore the solution lies at a European level.’’

    Alexis Tsipras, Syriza

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  18. ‘‘The most efficient negotiating tool we have is the position of Greece in the euro-zone. That's what we insist we will use in the hard negotiations with the troika.’’

    Yiannis Bournos, Syriza

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  19. World markets plunged to their lowest level this year as poor US jobless figures and weak manufacturing data from Europe sparked renewed fears of a global slowdown.

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  20. With the global economy running out of steam, oil was on the slide, with Brent crude falling more than 3% to $98 a barrel.

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  21. Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza Coalition of the Radical Left gaining ground in the opinion polls ahead of this month's election.

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  22. The financial markets aren’t waiting for the next crash or are they making it happen? Without the G8, IMF, WTO, World Bank and EU policymakers changing direction their austerity programme may well send the global economy into a 1930’s style great depression.

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  23. German parliament approved a second bailout of Greece after Angela Merkel called for €130bn (£110bn).

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  24. FTSE 100: down 41 points at 5279, - 0.77%
    German DAX: down 176 points at 6088, - 2.8%
    French CAC: down 60 points at 295, - 2.0%
    IBEX: up 10 points at 6100, + 0.18%
    FTSE MIB: down 142 points at 12730, -1.11%

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  25. The unemployment rate in Britain is 8.3% Austria has the lowest rate at 3.9%, Spain the highest at 24.3% followed by Greece at 21.7% and Portugal with 15.2%.

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  26. George Osborne's recovery via austerity plan is undone amid crisis of capitalism

    ''It is now clear that August 2007 marked as abrupt a change in the economic cycle as the Wall Street Crash of 1929.''

    ''Osborne will admit that it is taking longer than he expected to turn the economy round but will also insist that abandoning the government's deficit reduction plan would make matters worse. The working assumption is that life will eventually return to normal as it did after the last crisis of a comparable length, the Great Depression of the 1930s. As things stand, this looks a highly questionable assumption, and not just because of fiscal austerity.''

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/10/crisis-capitalism-osborne-recovery-plan?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038

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  27. ‎''Unemployment coupled with the free-market reforms of the late 1970s and 1980s broke the power of industrial labour and shifted the focus of western economies from manufacturing to finance. Financial capitalism delivered higher profits, but only by suppressing wages. But since market economies can only function if there is sufficient demand for goods and services, a way had to be found to boost consumption. That was achieved through higher levels of personal debt, cheerfully provided by the newly liberalized financial services sector.''

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  28. ‎''To complete the picture, the debt was shifted across national borders by globalisation, so China would lend America the money to buy the cheap industrial products being made in the factories of east Asia, and Germany would do the same for the less competitive members of the eurozone, such as Greece and Spain.''

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  29. ''If the Marxist interpretation is right, this will be a temporary respite, because if the emerging nations continue to develop at their current rate it won't be too long before they face similar tensions to those that have faced the west. All this represents a formidable challenge, as it did in the 1930s. Then, there was a three-stage process of recovery: first an aggressive easing of macro-economic policy; second an era of what might be called military Keynesianism as defence spending was boosted in preparation for war; and finally a series of institutional arrangements including stronger trade unions, capital controls and expanded welfare states designed to spread the fruits of growth. The demand generated by post-war reconstruction was also crucial.''

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  30. ‎''Britain and the United States have relied on unconventional monetary policy to boost growth, but this has not been enough to deliver sustained recovery. Trade unions are much weakened, the wage share in national income has been squeezed, and real income growth has been weak. Unlike in the period after 1945, governments are retrenching rather than expanding.''

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  31. ''We can no longer expect to borrow our way to prosperity, either privately or publicly and we are not as rich as we thought we were.''

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  32. Marxian Economic Theory

    John Roemer examines Marxian theory of exploitation, labour theory of value and exchange and the theory of the falling rate of profit and the importance of 'marginal utilities' and 'class struggle' in determining relative prices.

    Analytical Foundations of Marxian Economic Theory

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Analytical-Foundations-Marxian-Economic-Theory/dp/0521347750/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300634683&sr=1-1

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