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Briefs
that create the social base for a Workers’ Government
Only workers can ban fascism that transforms capitalism into socialism!
In the aftermath of the March 15th Mosque massacre in
Christchurch, the NZ Government moved quickly to Socialism can deliver Zero CO2
impose bans on social media providing outlets for
extreme ‘hate speech’. A ban on semi-automatic assault
rifles took about a week. State bans are futile and
dangerous. They are used to suppress dissent and
empower the state forces against the masses. They serve
to trap workers in parliament and away from mobilising
to change the system. They are directed at 'extremism'
which includes the 'left', leaving the real extremists, the
capitalist patriarchal ruling class, untouched.
State bans don't stop evil because the capitalist state
gain taxes from the profits of porn, prostitution, and does
nothing to eliminate the oppression that criminalises
working people. It takes sides with capitalism which is
why it protects fascists. It was not a mistake on the part The Zero Carbon Bill is up for debate. It was born dead,
of police and security agencies that they are reluctant to smothered by climate polluters. The second school strike
criminalise white supremacists. The history of the NZ has taken place, and XR is now moving towards a global
state shows its existence is dedicated to white, male general strike. Liberal commentators are even calling for
supremacy. Like women, Maori are still very much the end of capitalism. George Monbiot says XR means
second-class citizens in NZ. "going straight to the heart of capitalism". But this means
nothing unless you find the heart and know how to stop
Yes, people power works up to a point. Winning the it. We can't spend time debating when the vast majority
women’s vote in 1894 was granted after much knows we have to act yet as yet does not know how to
campaigning because Seddon wanted women’s act.
temperance votes to pass legislation to prohibit
consumption of alcohol. Women, despite their votes, and XR have got the method. Mass mobilisations for non-
the economic success of some women, are still a long way violent direct action (NVDA) at governments until they
from equality with men. More than a century later act. But act how? You can be sure they will act to
cannabis reform will go ahead only to make it profitable suppress XR as soon as it looks like shutting down
for the corporates and carpet baggers. The black market governments. The Yellow Vest movement (YV) is the
will continue to exist and be targeted by police. The evidence of this. Governments that are committed to
Treat Settlement industry has returned token amounts of saving capitalism (in their dreams) must use all means
land and assets to Iwi are far from a fair compensation possible, bribes, co-option, and inciting divisions around
for the history of racist colonial land grab and social nation, race and sex, to smash all opposition movements
oppression. Women’s rights are being challenged and that pose a threat to their power.
removed as the current Govt plan to introduce sex self-
ID which if passed will allow anyone to sign a declaration Yet youth, and workers in general, mobilised by XR and
saying he is a woman and demand that the state enforce school strikes, are capable of testing that reaction and
that legal right against the protests of women. learning from it. When the state abandons democracy to
label the opposition 'terrorists', they will learn that "going
The only bans that work for change are those imposed by to the heart" means giving capitalism a 'heart attack'. It
the working masses as it mobilises for revolutionary means overthrowing the power which flows from
change. We say to change the system (capitalism + ownership of the means of production and which forces
patriarchy) which enables among many evils, workers to make profits for the bosses. It means building
pornography, child abuse, sex trafficking and both Maori socialism within capitalism ready for the challenge to
and women’s systematic oppression, working people (80% stop capitalist destruction of nature and the terminal
of the people) need to be completely independent of the crisis of capitalism which will lead to lead to the
bosses' state (representing the 10% comprising bankers, extinction of many species including humans.
gentry, big shareholders, property speculators, and a
range of petty exploiters) and replace it with a workers' But how to do this? ER is preparing for the climate
state. general strike September 20th. It is time to build the
movement in the months ahead so that the strike is
For an independent Workers’ Party with a political effective and brings the global economy to a halt.
program to mobilise workers into democratic councils Beyond that we need to plan for an indefinite general
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Class Struggle 129 Winter (June-August) 2019
strike where the power of the opposition will shift The Labor Party doesn’t like the raids and is prepared to
from the streets and NVDA to sites were workers can negotiate. They are in favour of raids if the national
defend their power, to strikes and occupations of interest is threatened. What they hope to achieve is
workplaces, strategic organisation like the media, and clarity. They seek more definition as to what constitutes
the creation of workers organs like assemblies and genuine investigative journalism as opposed to that
councils with their own means of defence. which threatens the national interest. They may get this
clarity. Nevertheless, the AFP have autonomy and whilst
These sites allow workers to mobilise their class power they are supposed to consult with the minister if a raid
against the state in such a way as they can protect it might be contentious, they can get away without doing
against the state forces thrown at them. They enforce so. It is still not clear whether the AFP acted on behalf of
their power by closing down the economy and at the same the Morrison Government or unilaterally. Irrespective of
time building an alternative economy that expropriates who initiated the raid it shows that the system will clamp
capitalist property and turns it into common property down when it is threatened with exposure.
that can be used to plan production for human need and
not profits greed. Revolutionaries have every interest in exposing
Australia’s barbaric military practices – in Afghanistan
That is why the only alternative to extinction is survival and elsewhere. This police raid against press freedom
socialism. However, beware the attempts by deniers to should be opposed unconditionally. The media have stood
discredit XR, especially the campaign to discredit Greta up against it. They ABC has vowed that it will not expose
Thunberg as a ‘privileged’ teenager funded by green any whistle blowers. The workers movement must
capitalists. (see ‘Greta’ article in this issue) actively oppose this serious attack on our democracy.
[From Communist Left of Australia]
Australia: AFP raids the ABC
Australia has a fair go image. Both Australian and the rest Education Strike Called Off
of the world perceive the country as one of freedom Just as Class Struggle 129 goes to press, there is a new
where the state, the armed forces do not interfere in turn in the protracted teachers' strike. The series of
freedom of the press or the rights of individuals. The rolling strikes were cancelled by the union leadership
raids by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) on the without consulting union members. Instead of continuing
national broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation strike action, the union leadership opted for negotiation
(ABC) have exposed how limited this freedom in reality with Chris Hipkins, Minister of Education.
is. The strike seemed unfaltering up to this point. Teachers
Why did the Federal cops raid the ABC? Because of some have had strong support from the community. According
investigative journalism into Australia’s participation to a poll commissioned by the unions, public attitudes
into the war in Afghanistan. This exposed Australian back teacher demands:
troopers’ participation into the murder of civilians. Was # Education a priority - more money for education
this investigation any sort of security threat? No! Of relative to other issues
course, it was an embarrassment. Well so it should be! # turn-around the shortage of teachers
The Australian public have every right to know if troopers # class sizes reduced
in Australia’s name are guilty of such barbaric and illegal # support for pupils with special needs
acts. # pay rise for teachers# more time for teachers to
teach# reduce administration, more time for planning,
It is not clear whether this raid was initiated by the
preparation and assessment
Morrison government or merely an initiative of the AFP.
Both have an interest in attacking the ABC and as well Negotiations had reached an impasse with the
investigative journalism. As Ita Buttrose, ABC government refusing to budge. They failed to recognise
Chairperson, pointed out “These raids were meant to this widespread public support and claimed money was
intimidate” She is seeking talks with the government. not available, despite the government's kitty for a rainy
This raid has met strong opposition from all of the media. day. They did offer funding to replace school donations
News Limited is in opposition as it had one of their in the poorest schools.
investigative reporters raided also.
It has been a mega strike. It is the first time ever that all
The ABC has been consistently under attack from right teachers (including principals) in the compulsory
wing forces. They are calling for an unbiased ABC. This schooling sector have struck together. The primary
effectively means a right-wing ABC. There are plenty of teacher union NZEI and the secondary teacher union PPTA
right-wing commentators who get their say on shows like united and the action has appeared staunch. But strike
Insiders. But they object when pro-refugee activists get action has been tactical. Each strike day has been for
their say. They objected when a young Muslim man got students in a particular year so teachers could continue
to ask a question on anti-terrorist legislation. This raid getting paid while they did work other than class room
amounts to more pressure on the ABC to toe the right- teaching for the day. This is not a tactic to maintain and
wing line.
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Class Struggle 129 Winter (June-August) 2019
build on-going solidarity. It suggests the union leadership # new top step on salary scale of $90.000
didn’t want to disrupt education to pressure the Govt. # Reduced workload for secondary teachers
# $5m professional development fund
So as a tactic rolling stoppages produced the minimalist
response designed to get a settlement. The day-long Reaction from teachers has been mixed. Already the
negotiations with Hipkins resulted in an offer which the offer appears to be divisive with the leadership
union leaders, Jack Boyle of the PPTA and Lynda Stewart unilaterally calling off the strike, and the focus on money
of the NZEI, think members will accept. The offer has while new/young teachers are missing out on support for
been sent to teachers to vote on next week. them.
The revised deal offers: We say this looks like a backdown by the union leadership
in a deal with the Government that is using the neo-
# pay parity for both primary and secondary teachers
liberal fiscal responsibility doctrine to claim there is no
(primary teachers like this)
more money for education.
# special deals for union members - a $1500 lump sum
payment plus starting the new deal before non-union
teachers get it
land uses more labour and forfeits some of its profits to property speculators. (see article on the CGT in this
those on better land. issue)
So, farmers have always been divided by the quality of The blatant class propaganda of the bankers, farmers,
their land. A member of CWG recounts how both sides of developers and small business to the CGT was that they
his family were dairy farmers who worked to break in couldn’t survive the tax. But this did not mask the real
farms during the 20s and 30s. One side lost two farms in fear that their historic unearned monopoly wealth would
the Bay of Islands due to falling prices and bank expose them as parasites and become a slippery slope to
foreclosures, and ended up draining part of the Kamo expropriation. Hence the panic cry of the “End of NZ
swamp before walking off the land in the late ‘30s. At Values”.
the same time the other side of the family drained a a
The irony is that such NZ ‘values’ based on monopolising
chunk of Taranaki swamp, created a fertile farm, paid off
rent is in reality nothing but the value produced by
the bank after the depression and today employs farm
workers who produce the only value by transforming
workers to help run a profitable farm.
nature, yet can’t buy houses to live in today. What this
The point is that farmers and banks have always relied on tells us is that business in NZ is very fragile, facing a
capital gains from the unearned increment as a bonus to global economic crash and a climate emergency, and is
make farming viable when prices fell during slumps. desperate to hold onto its capital gains at all costs when
Nevertheless, only those who were on the best land could profitability world-wide is falling.
survive and grow while most
If the monopolists are
on worse land remained small
Caterpillar tractor ploughing pasture panicking about falling profits
farmers, sold up or walked off
then we need a debate about
the land.
what creates capital gains in
What does that tell us about the first place. Maybe it is
the nature of conservative time to explain why the fight
politics in NZ? That hard by the rich to retain their
work on the part of gross wealth is a rational
individual family farmers response to their fear of the
was not sufficient to collapse of capitalism.
succeed in farming. Survival Without a doubt it is
and success depended first capitalism’s failure to make
on the alienation of Maori profits from production that
land, monopoly rent and threatens its collapse, and
state subsidies such as makes capital gains an opioid
infrastructure that made drip feed for a dying
capital gains possible. capitalism.
It is significant that in his resistance to the inroads of The underlying cause of this decline in production is the
settler land theft, Te Whiti understood that the problem inability of capitalism to exploit workers enough to profit
with the colonial economy was private ownership of land sufficiently to justify reinvesting profits in new
and money exchange. The settlement at Parihaka was his production. Since 2008 we have seen massive subsidies
attempt to reject private ownership and money and going to the banks and monopoly firms being hoarded
retain instead tribal ownership and collective labour. rather than reinvested in new production because the
This valiant attempt was defeated because of its threat conditions for renewed profits did not exist.
to the settlers’ access to land and the viability of colonial
World capitalism suffers from chronic stagnation so that
capitalism.
surplus money capital seeks other outlets for investment,
We can see that historic showdown between Maori in particular property speculation. Alternatively, big (oil,
economics and the colonial economics as the material ag, pharma, tech etc) monopoly firms which dominate
basis of a residual white racist culture. This explains the market can extract extra profits from other firms that
today’s existential contradiction between the inertia of have to compete against monopolies.
the dying capitalist economy claiming to represent NZ
The most critical fact about dying capitalism is that it
‘values’ based on land theft and monopoly rent, and the
is also killing the planet. Taxing the capital gains of
necessity of a new global economy that socialises private
monopoly capital will neither allow capitalism to be
property and plans production of collective labour in
reformed, nor save the planet. We have to draw the
harmony with nature for need and not profit.
line against defending a system that is destroying all
That is why the CGT had it survived would not have made living life to hold onto its ill-gotten wealth. We need to
a dent on inequality of incomes as taxes on the private end capitalism and the monopoly of private property,
property of the rich are notoriously avoided and evaded. expropriate unearned rents and profits as our common
It would have left the basic monopoly on land untouched wealth and fund collective ownership and production
and the economy held to ransom by bankers, gentry and for our human survival.
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Class Struggle 129 Winter (June-August) 2019
keep tabs on the world’s rapidly disappearing carbon softens up working people for the right’s attacks on
budget. You have to explain that to us repeatedly, no science and rationality and the siren songs of fake
matter how uncomfortable or unprofitable that may be... populist, nationalist, racist, sexist movements.
This is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced... For too
Thus, the conspiracy theory of the Left ‘manufactures’
long, the people in power have gotten away with basically
workers as fodder for the reactionary appeals of populism
not doing anything to stop the climate and ecological
breakdown. They have gotten away with stealing our and fascism. Far right movements are now going
future and selling it for profit. But we young people are ‘environmental’ because there is no denying the weather
waking up. And we promise, we will not let you get away bombs that hit them and the need to compete with the
with it anymore.” cosmopolitan, globalising, liberal, centre-left and left for
recruits to boost white ‘ethno’ nationalism. France’s
Young people ‘waking up’ are not the unconscious tools Rally National (RN) under Marine Le Pen now has a
of capital. Imagine when facing mass sackings, we are climate program. Of course, it is reactionary nationalism.
inspired by one teenage worker who refuses to be sacked.
She appeals to labour law (i.e. law which reproduces the ‘“Borders are the environment’s greatest ally,” twenty-
exploitative social relations of capitalism) but quickly three-year-old National Rally (RN) spokesperson Jordan
realises that labour law blocks workers from fights and Bardella told a right-wing paper in April. “[I]t is through
winning their jobs. Instead of accepting her fate dictated them that we will save the planet.” Le Pen herself has
by the law, and neutralised by politicians and argued that concern for the climate is inherently
bureaucrats, she argues for all workers to unite, strike, nationalist. Those who are “nomadic,” she said, “do not
occupy the work place, and fight for workers’ control. care about the environment; they have no homeland.”’
It’s called class struggle, where isolated workers express
Why capitalism left, right, or centre cannot
their energy and agency in workers’ solidarity and
workers’ power. Let’s credit the XR youth with the same save us from extinction
agency as workers who are can learn from their
Here is what we think can happen. XR will go through
experience and choose to act against extinction all the
climate emergencies and climate general strikes to then
way to the overthrow of capitalism.
discover they must lead to social revolution. Most
Why does the left resort to conspiracy already know that despite the hype greening capitalism
won’t work. A recent study of the potential of Green
theories and not join youth in a united front Capitalism rejects it as a contradiction in terms.
against extinction? Capitalist ‘growth’ is the problem. It is necessary to
substitute socialist planning of ‘growth’ that stops the
The answer is that the liberal Left is bankrupt. One exploitation and destruction of nature.
characteristic of the moribund, defunct left that never
recovered from the end of the Soviet Union, is that it is Hence the XR demand: “Change the System, not the
extreme in its dogmatism. One part of this doctrine is Climate”. Enlightened capitalists can shift their shares
that the failures of socialism are not due to the failure of into renewable energy, but they can’t shut down big oil
leadership already sold out to capitalism, but the and gas and keep the carbon in the ground. The market
ideological ‘backwardness’ of workers. So, let’s blame is part of the problem because the solution has to be
the workers. The ‘XR-as-dupes-of-green-capitalism’ profitable. NGOs green-washing, alt right ‘climate
conspiracy is an attack on the radical agency of XR nationalism’, and tons of other hot air, becomes exposed
incapable of learning from its experience that capitalism by the deepening climate crisis as a diversion from
has to go. Instead they should to listen to those who climate revolution.
“know better” (given their sorry history of abject failures The next target for XR is the big polluters themselves who
and retreats from the class struggle – some record) that also happen to be those with the power to directly
for now, the “truth”, the “reality is”, that we are being control and use the states to serve their interests. So how
“progressive” in tinkering with “business as usual”. to shut down the polluters? Here we arrive at the critical
In other words, ‘middle class’ kids cannot be point where climate justice demands a socialist
revolutionaries unless they follow the doctrine of the revolution. But what is a socialist revolution? Will it not
bankrupt Left. Otherwise they are doomed to be the end up just like capitalism, with an autocratic elite in
dupes of this or that new reformist movement which charge and carbon emissions just as great or greater?
sucks out all their youthful energy. What about a revolution from within to reclaim the
‘commons’ – building a cooperative alternative society
OK, XR members may still be novices testing out radical within capitalism? Here we need to learn the historic
means of pressuring capitalist governments to respond to lessons of earlier attempts at building socialism to
their demands. We don’t expect them to hit the streets evaluate which system will work best.
as born-again revolutionaries. And for that we have
blame the bankrupt Left for failing to build a viable At this point we have return to Marxism as the scientific
socialist movement. They abandon class analysis for basis for understanding capitalism as the Capitalocene.
careerist postmodern fantasies that replace class We get rid of Anthropocene which holds humanity
struggle with personal consumer preferences. This responsible for destroying nature rather than the
capitalist ruling class. A Marxist workers’ party and
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Class Struggle 129 Winter (June-August) 2019
program is needed to bring to life the lessons of the Keynesianism. Under capitalism state spending to
Capitalocene in destroying nature, and how to make a stimulate capitalist growth fails unless capitalists are
revolution to build socialism. We should remember the assured of a sufficient profit. Basically, the Marxist
existential question posed by Rosa Luxemburg – Reform critique of MMT is that underconsumption is not the
or Revolution? and the slogan of Vladimir Lenin - “All problem. The crisis is caused by falling profits. So,
power to the Soviets”. In a sentence - to take the power what pretends to be a left social democratic solution
from the polluters we need to smash the capitalist state (‘socialist’ even) actually requires austerity attacks on
and plan for a workers’ state. workers to drive down the costs of labour to make it
work. This is called ‘socialist pragmatism’ (see below).
Yet before people are ready to accept that reforms
won’t work and that we need socialist revolution to Related to the GND and MMT is the movement to ‘reclaim
survive, they need to be convinced of the bankruptcy the ‘commons’. It is dependent on a social democratic
of capitalism in every sense. And that something called government to enable it to legally create ‘commons’ and
‘socialism’ is the answer. We have to be sure that no collectively owned property, and Keynesian policies to
reforms driven by green capitalism such as the Green implement it.
New Deal will work. On the contrary, delusions of this
“My argument boils down to this: In order to save and
kind only delay and weaken the ability of the
preserve what we have in common, the earth, we must
movement to break from bourgeois ‘growth’ ideology
transition to a form of society that respects the
that only capitalism (and its market) can find the
commons. It is not about passively waiting for such a
solutions to the threat of extinction.
society to miraculously arise: the commons is already
Let’s deal with the most delusionary. These are those here, although hidden from view by the ideologies and
who claim to be socialists or anti-capitalists who clearly structures of existing society. By fighting to reclaim the
think that capitalism can be taken over from within, commons—which includes not only the land but also the
modifying existing institutions with minimum disruption social powers at our disposal to collectively organize our
by simply acting to defend and extend bourgeois lives without recourse to hierarchical forms of
democracy. As if a democratic state can somehow domination—we can transition to a new society, at the
override the laws of motion of the dying capitalist same as saving the earth itself. It seems to me that
economy. Let’s start with the current Green New Deal. working for this would be worth the effort.”
a. The Green New Dealers What is the Marxist critique of socialism in one commune?
First it is not anti-hierarchical because it assumes the
The Green New Deal (GND) proposed by Alexandria existence of the capitalist nation state which defends
Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is a left social democratic document private property. It faces the same problem of previous
that proposes to clean up 100% of energy by 2030; a 50% revolutions which proved incapable of ‘changing the
cut in the military budget, full employment and system’ without overthrowing the state. Second, in a
comprehensive public health, and the end to war. It globalised capitalist world, any isolated socialist
proposes to do this by redirecting state subsidies from revolution would not be able to enter into an
carbon to a ‘green’ economy. international division of labour and economic plan that
The Green New Deal is supported by left liberals and harnesses sustainable energy as a global project to
social democrats. Of course, Sanders has signed up to the restore nature. By adapting to global capitalism, any new
GND (see below). What does it offer that is different from system to stop climate change would be aborted.
new deal liberalism (Sanders) or even left Labourism If the Green New Deal and its variants cannot work
(Corbynism)? New Zealand’s recent “wellbeing budget” because it remains dependent on capitalism’s survival, is
comes nowhere near to the GND as ‘wellbeing’ under there another solution to the crisis of the capitalocene
capitalism means coping with alienation, wage labour that does not require the urgent transition to socialism?
and a neo-colonial state. What it offers is the ‘hope’ that
capitalism is not doomed as long as there is the potential a. Sanders, & ‘socialist’ pragmatism
for citizens to mobilise to throw out the elites and
Long-time ‘democratic socialism’ Bernie Sanders wants a
introduced sustainable growth without eliminating
new, New Deal and has signed up to the GND. But that is
capitalism. This is exactly the ‘hopium’ that Morningstar
no advance on the ‘hopium’ offered by AOC as it fails to
accuses Greta of pushing. So, it is important to compare
get to the root of the problem – ‘progressive’ capitalism.
the GND to XR.
But ‘progressive’ for which class? Trotsky critiqued the
This is not a new kind of green. As well as referencing ‘progressive’ tradition in the US as a left form of
the original New Deal of the 1930’s all these various ‘pragmatism’, the popular philosophy which hold that
shades of green ‘solutions’ are basically Keynesian. what is ‘works’ for capital is good for all.
They rely on state spending on social investment in
Then, after decades of trying to redistribute wealth
jobs, infrastructure etc to incentivise capitalist
Sanders recognised that new taxes to pay for it were
investment. One fashionable current version is MMT
universally unpopular. Acting on advice from others he
(Modern Monetary Theory) which supports the state
now wants to shift the focus from distribution to workers
printing money to see the investment-growth cycle
ownership of production. He wants to build on earlier
going. But MMT cannot escape the dilemma of
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Class Struggle 129 Winter (June-August) 2019
attempts to legislate capitalists giving shares to workers The modern concept of Ecology didn't exist in Marx's time
in a wealth fund managed by the unions. Workers will also because for him nature and society were symbiotic as a
participate on the boards of companies to share in co- contradictory historical mode of production in which the
management. forces of production (nature) and the relations of
production (society) were locked into a fight to the
Note that this is a pragmatic proposal because it may
death. Humans were on both sides of this contradiction,
work and it may derail XR into another ‘wrong kind of
as members of antagonistic classes – as capitalists vs
green’. It is popular with workers and some employers.
workers. Workers sold the use of their physical energy to
But it would take the passing of the Green New Deal in
work for a wage as the commodity ‘labour power’.
Congress to implement it. It is not a proposal based on
Labour power had the special property of producing more
principled socialism, that workers who produce the
value than its own value when the employer owns and
wealth should independently determine what their share
controls the means of production. Workers did necessary
is, not Congress doing pragmatic deals with bosses! Can
labour to create enough value to exchange for the means
Sanders’ reforms be turned into a real socialism within
of subsistence (food, energy, transport etc) but also
12 years to rescue humanity from extinction?
worked additional hours of surplus labour to create
Peter Gowan has suggested a Sanders Plan that includes surplus value as the basis of profits.
workers ownership, and moves to nationalise the banks,
Therefore, Ecology as a concept explains nothing unless
finance and fossil fuel industries. However, there is
integrated inside the general theory of capitalism and its
nothing new in the means for achieving this. Sanders as
logical successor, socialism. Ecology is already subsumed
President could do a ‘socialist Trump’ and use his
in the contradictory unity of nature and society. Ecology,
executive power to sideline a hostile Congress and Courts
as a practical problem, always existed in people’s heads
to legislate these reforms. Ironically, he calls this the
to ‘explain’ the daily struggle of humans as part of
‘Salvador Allende’ strategy. This may be a pragmatic
nature. But this ecology is not a ‘given’, or universal
‘socialism’ that could work for capital, though it hasn’t
constant. It is a ‘taken’. It changes with every new mode
elsewhere. But what about the principle of class struggle.
of production from slave society to capitalist society that
The ‘system change’ we and XR needs right now is not
‘takes’ from nature by exhausting its bounty. Marx’s
creeping state socialism along the historic lines argued
analysis of capitalism explained this fact.
by Mensheviks, but an international socialist party
leading XR that has world socialist revolution at the top Nature is continuously changing as a result of class
of its agenda. struggle between workers and capitalists. Nature-as-
labour struggles against society-as-capital constantly, as
Marx on Socialism and Ecology workers contest capital over the share of value they
While many people are convinced that capitalism is create. Why? Because for labour, its share, in the form or
the wage, is materially necessary to reproduce labour
doomed, they are so hostile to socialism they continue
power. This natural process becomes hijacked by capital
to look for a mythical ‘third way’ - neither capitalist
nor socialist. The main objection is that ‘socialism’ – when it exploits labour to produce more value beyond
the ‘actually existing’ socialism of the USSR. China or that of the wage. Therefore, the reproduction of ‘nature’
specific to the production of profit is determined by the
Cuba – are as much responsible for climate change as
‘use-value’ of labour power to the capitalists – i.e.
the capitalist world.
producing more value than its own value. Workers are
Here we are talking about Socialism as conceived by Marx reproduced only as wage labourers, not as humans.
as a stage between capitalism and communism where
The dynamics of ecology today are defined by nature
workers’ revolution creates a workers’ state based on
and capitalist society that leads inevitably to the
workers councils and plans production and distribution of
goods for need not profit. We reject the bogus destruction of nature (including human nature) with
‘socialisms’ attached by various bourgeois and petty the extreme consequences of the threat of extinction
of most species on the planet. Thus, Marx's theory
bourgeois currents to parliamentary socialism. We reject
predicted the inevitable destruction by capitalism of
the use of the term to describe the degenerated
the forces of production (including labour-power) as
‘socialist’ states that failed to build real socialism
because they were surrounded or invaded by global the pre-condition for the socialist revolution.
capitalist powers. Alienation from Self, Society and Nature
For Marx, socialism already exists in embryo trapped
In developing a theory of the Capitalocene, some
inside capitalism (workers produce the wealth as a force
Marxists revise Marx in the name of nature. Jason
of nature and struggle to control or plan production) so
Moore is one. He is among those who claim to be
that logically to return to nature it is necessary to remove
Marxists but who play around with Marx’s basic
capitalism and allow the socialist embryo to develop. The
concepts, even dropping the labour theory of value.
only way to reverse climate change and at the same time
Ecology as the nexus between nature and society must
plan for society to return to nature is real socialism based
be based on the labour theory of value. It is that which
on democratic workers councils backed by workers
predicts capitalism’s finite existence, necessary
militias on a global scale.
decline, and massive destruction of nature. And
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Class Struggle 129 Winter (June-August) 2019
predicts why it is the working class, that produces Instead of writing off the masses who are mobilising
value, acts for nature when it revolts against against climate collapse as dupes, we have to warn
capitalism to bury it and build socialism. them of the many various attempts to neutralise
Take John Bellamy Foster is a well-known Marxist writing class struggle. There are many would-be leaders of
about ecology. He argues Marx accounted for the damage XR on both Right and Left who preach capitalist
capitalism does to nature and predicted increasing reform rather than socialist revolution.
environmental destruction. This is clear in the concept of
‘Metabolic Rift’. One can go too far and reduce the social As we wrote in “Are YV and XR the new Reds?”
relations of capitalism to an objective these movements are reacting to an
metabolic/physical process. The whole point of Marx’s unprecedented world-historic existential crisis.
work was to show how capitalism alienates workers from For the first time humanity faces a terminal crisis
nature and yet nature fights back as class war to redeem of capitalism which cannot survive without the
itself. Only by ending capitalism and building socialism genocide of working people and the ecocide of
will alienation be overcome. most life forms. This poses the question point
The concept of alienation is central to any Marxist blank as human extinction or socialist revolution.
analysis of climate collapse. First, workers’ control That is the objective reality. XR is learning the
over their labour-power (nature) is alienated by the lessons of climate science and rising
owners of the means of production who dispossess spontaneously against their fate as slaves or
peasants of their means of subsistence. Workers figure corpses in the future horror story of capitalism.
as no more than statistics in the capitalist books as part Will the bankrupt Left rise to this challenge? No.
of the Price of Production. Second, capitalists, by
depriving workers of their means of subsistence What is missing from the Morningstar Left critique
(nature), can make them work for longer than is of Greta and XR is the Marxist science of society
necessary to earn a wage (necessary labour) to buy about which most people remain ignorant. Not
their means of subsistence (nature). because they are ‘backward’, but because of the
All exploitation of nature requires the active agent of bankrupt Left failed to make Marxism the science
labour-power to be exploited. Thus, big oil and gas of workers’ life and culture. Marx called this
exploit nature by employing workers to extract and burn science ‘dialectics’ as it explains that nature and
carbon. This alienation of the value they create separates society are a contradictory unity in motion,
workers from the product of their labour and makes them motivated by the class struggle to resolve that
appear as the equals of capitalists as buyers and sellers contradiction, revolutionising society in the
of commodities. The exploitation and alienation of labour
process to restore a harmony with nature.
during the production process now appears as an equal
exchange relationship in the market. The bankrupt Left has no understanding that the
The end of alienation therefore means the end of class same forces that are causing the terminal crisis of
society, specifically capitalist society. The capitalists capitalism today are those that incubate the
insert themselves into a natural non-exploitative embryonic socialist society emerging within
process to exploit nature for profit and create the capitalism to replace it. The old world is dying, but
Capitalocene. That is why Marx viewed capitalism as a the new world has yet to be born. It will not emerge
historically limited form of exploitative society. The miraculously as the result of some external agency.
contradiction between nature and society would force Only conscious class struggle can resolve the
workers, as part of nature, to revolt against its contradiction between embattled nature and dying
destruction and unite to overthrow capitalism. To end
capitalism in a new socialist world.
alienation workers must break with this exploitative
social relation and restore the harmonious unity of It is class struggle that will prove that capitalism has
nature and society! to be overthrown by its alienated subjects waking
up and organising mass movements. And as their
What must be Done!
demands are heavily repressed by the state,
The trick today is to reject lip-service to greening fascism, and paramilitary gangs, these social
capitalism from the right, left and centre. They are movements will transform themselves into
equally suicidal. Within the new social movements revolutionary councils and militias capable of
that profess to fight climate change, Marxists need overthrowing capitalism and creating a socialist
to be part of the mobilisations with a program that society where the contradiction between society
warns of the duplicity of capitalism in all its forms, and nature is replaced with harmonious unity.
and explicitly states and wins the argument for
survival socialism.
10
Say no to war with Iran!
Down with Sanctions and the defacto Muslim ban!
The U.S. sanctions and threat of war against Iran come at a time when U.S. imperialism is in
global decline and facing an historical defeat at the hands of the new rising great imperialist
powers, Russia and China. Iran (and to some extent Iraq) now becomes the focal point of U.S.
foreign policy that seeks to break up the Russia/China bloc at its weakest point. This is
imperialist geopolitics, the rivalry between two hostile blocs for control of the Middle East as
a springboard to West Asia. Russia and China have strengthened their alliance with Turkey,
Iran and Qatar. Trump wants to break this alliance by testing how far Russia and China will go
to defend Iran, and maintain their interests in MENA. Trump’s working assumption seems to
be that the U.S. has the power to apply unilateral sanctions to countries from Russia and China
to Iran and Venezuela, and force his rivals to compromise, do separate deals, and weaken their
capacity to resist U.S. hegemony.
offer of 120,000 U.S. troops will not look remotely Among the ironies operating in the present Iran case are:
adequate to suppressing an Iranian revolution, and it 1. Trump and Rouhani understand each other and don’t
doesn’t help Pompeo’s sales effort that Bolton is want war, after threatening force, like the two mobsters
suggesting U.S. security requires regime change. they are, and 2., the international players who DO want
this war and who have for years called for the U.S. to
Congress got a report from Pompeo on May 20th,
wage it are Israel and Saudi Arabia!
presumably about this trip as well as whatever is real
about new, additional frictions with Iran, but the public And Trump could use a war. He may continue to have
hears next to nothing because military and intelligence Speaker of Congress Pelosi opposing his impeachment,
experts have said all the provocations are on the U.S. side but he is beginning to lose court and state laws battles
and Iran is simply reacting with understandable self- where he fights to keep his finances hidden. And his
defense preparations. demonstration of his autarchic misunderstanding of trade
with China is not going to be popular, or remain so for
We have been able to learn that Pompeo and Trump
long. The farmers who voted for him are already feeling
believe Trump already has authorization to attack Iran
the actual effects as commodity prices tank, while the
(euphemistically, to defend Americans and allies) under
consumers generally will feel the pain in just a few
the 2003 Iraq war force authorization! A war Trump has
weeks, and in this season where even the Democrats (!)
claimed he opposed! Trump says he doesn’t want war, he
begin to think about impeaching him, some begin to
wants talks, then Rouhani says a war won’t happen and
remember that he swiped congress’ longstanding control
then we hear Tehran is multiplying its enrichment of
over trade policy, telling the twin party suckers a
nuclear material 400%, followed by another exchange of
national security emergency was caused by China’s
threats. Two days after Pompeo’s briefing the collision
thieving of technology!
with Iran disappeared from the airwaves, buried with
every other concern foreign and domestic as the twin In Trump’s circumstances, where his racist supporters
capitalist parties wrestle with whether to start care less that he has been clutching at increasing powers,
impeachment investigations over Trump’s lawlessness. are glad he’s arranging for presidential pardons for war
The U.N. calls on the two countries to cool off, hoping criminals, and where he is himself a named unindicted
out loud Oman will mediate between them, as Oman has co-conspirator, he may require a war to “wag the dog”
done in the past. A move in Congress to deny Trump Iran like Clinton did successfully with a few dozen cruise
war powers has failed. missiles in 1999. Generals appear on tv warning that an
Iran war would be much more like Viet Nam than
Into this mess Trump dumps a heated-up trade war with
Saddam’s Iraq was. We hasten here to point out that this
China and heaps praise on Hungary’s quasi-fascist Viktor
is a greased slope we ought to recognize, having seen it
Orban, an anti-Muslim, anti-Semite “illiberal democrat,”
a few times before back in the days of “the draft.” Trump
in Orban’s own words. Trump says he and Orban are two
would gladly send thousands to their deaths and not a
“controversial” guys defending their countries. Which is
few GI’s as well to avoid prison, a reality almost certainly
to say white nationalism/ whiteness maintenance.[1]
waiting for him once – or is it “if”? – he leaves office in
Orban is certain not to object to greater U.S. sanctions
January, 2021 or before. Increasingly, a second Trump
on Iran, or to more bellicosity with the threat of
term appears to require a large scale successful Russian
dispatching 120,000 U.S. troops to stand behind the
electronic attack on county voter rolls and other forms of
Carrier Battle Group and the B-52 squadron already sent.
vote suppression.
Orban is persona non grata in several NATO countries.
Trump wants to split Russia out of the SCO. He’d be glad
Worker revolutionists want to know why the U.S. borders
to “let Russia deal with Syria” if he can turn Russia
are open for visits by such neo-Hitlerite scum? We object
against Iran, and he can offer the Syria plum to Putin
and don’t want him here at all, contrary to the idealist
because they’re either pals or forced to act that way by
ultra-open borders position of certain fake Trotskyists.
compromising leverage Putin has. Trump got rid of the
We want to rescue the refugees Trump and Orban want
policy traditionalist General Mattis and his new Secretary
dead! The Immigration and Naturalization Service 2019
of Defense Shanahan is a yes man from Boeing. Let Putin
quota for Syrians is 62 persons. We say that is a racist
go for this horsetrading and leave the SCO and Trump will
and murderous Muslim ban, perpetrated on the sly.
be free to attack China later. The big budgetary buildup
The White House visit of this successful border-wall
for the Pentagon has not just been candy for the Military-
builder was part of the racist message itself!
Industrial Complex. Among the biggest capitalists a quick
This racist message comes at a time when most decisive war with China is a popular wish as the U.S.
European states are on record as opposed to Trump’s empire faces decline. WORKERS BEWARE! If your ruling
threat to Iran. European Parliament elections are class and their international bloc figure out how to break
about to begin, and we call upon worker revolutionists the SCO apart they will put you up to marching on Beijing!
to organize labor actions to denounce Washington’s
We call for saving the planet and all the threatened
war quest and any notions in European bosses’
species from this cataclysm. We call for U.S. and
governments to participate in it. (This would also be
Chinese workers to wage war on their capitalist rulers,
high time for the RCIT to demand the withdrawal of
making the socialist revolution and breaking humanity
Austrian armed forces from the former Yugoslavia.)
out of the loop of wars and economic collapses.
12
Class Struggle 129 Winter (June-August) 2019
So far, we think Trump is more than a little loco, and his end to the sanctions and an immediate withdrawal of
Iran ploy is so far less than likely to work. There is the all troops from the region and abandonment of all
chance that this very dangerous development comes to overseas U.S. military bases![2]
nothing, like 2017’s “mine’s bigger than yours” nuclear
button bluster against Kim & the DPRK. But that was The Iranian workers have found the costs of the war in
before Bolton was National Security Advisor, and the Syria have not been offset by the proceeds remitted by
DPRK is seen by Trump as a personal opportunity for the settlers, the 1 plus or possibly two million Iranians
capitalist penetration in the course of restoration, their leaders have moved into properties in Syria
whereas Iran is an object of his hatred of Islam. You confiscated from the refugees— the costs have not been
would think it would be otherwise, with the DPRK in borne by any repatriated profits, all of which go to the
possession of actual nuclear weapons and ballistic Mullahs and their henchmen and this occurs while
missiles capable of hitting allied and U.S. territory. His widespread class struggle breaks out across Iran itself.
demurring, matched by Rouhani’s stated preference for The religious hierarchs thought they’d head off the
peace is reported to have caused Bolton and Pompeo to masses’ grievances by shipping the unemployed to Syria.
have an angry shouting match, doubtless over who is to
Washington’s new sanctions post Trump’s withdrawal
blame for the failure to start an Iran war!
from the JCPOA aggravate the crisis of a regime
Trump dreams of a triumphal Trump military victory bankrupted by the intervention in Syria in support of
parade on July 4th, but his logic for an Iran war has Assad and now threatened with fire and fury by the
escaped the masses. There is no jingoism like Bush egomaniacal son of a racist landlord. We stand with the
enjoyed for his Iraq invasion in 2003. Not yet. Workers, Iranian workers against war and for all of their
beware! He may still want to sell one to his base when he demands. Down with Giuliani’s connivance with the
announces pardons for accused and convicted war capitalist MEK! Expose all imperialist secret
criminals on May 27th, this year’s Memorial Day. “diplomacy!” Open the borders to rescue refugees
from imperialism’s wars and counter-revolutions.
Trump must go, and go THIS year! The working class,
in defense of human life, in defense of itself and the • Down with Trump This year!
threatened 1 million species, needs to take his nuclear • Say No to U.S. sanctions against Iran! No war
“football” away and give him the boot. And not as a with Iran!
single issue but as one class demand with a temporary
emphasis among all the workers’ demands for justice and
• No to the red/brown alliance! There is no
the political power, a dictatorship of the proletariat in “anti-imperialist” bloc!
place of the fatal dictatorship of the capitalists, to get • For Labor Actions to stop imperialist war,
and build and keep justice. Then, if after he is removed, oppose all foreign interventions!
the reformists, whose opposition has so far been so
ineffectual, want to prosecute and jail him, we won’t • U.S. Troops form rank and file committees to
fret. We will be busy fighting the other Trumps with their build a COME HOME NOW movement!
dreams of other paths to world domination. And we will • For enlisted service members union and
be busy building a recovering world and closing jails, not
election of officers!
building new ones.
• Free whistle-blowers and expose secret
Just as Trump’s tariffs largely punish U.S. farmers and
consumers, his Iran sanctions immiserate the Iranian
diplomacy and war crimes!
workers, for whom necessities become scarce with [1]
soaring prices. The regime of the Mullahs has problems of White nationalism today is the consequence of
their own making besides, for which Washington is terminal crisis throwing the ruling class back on the
blamed. The masses tire of this dodge. They know the most aggressive defence of imperialism, fascist
war in Syria is bankrupting the country, but our fake defence of white nations to smash the international
left “anti-imperialists” don’t. Right along with the working class.
[2]
Mullahs’ regime they support Assad and deny Iran’s war Earlier this week, officials said military planners had
crimes, their forced migration of Sunnis, confiscation of outlined options that could have sent up to 10,000
the deeds to their land and homes, and even ethnic military reinforcements to the region. Acting Defense
cleansing, all of which these tools loudly deny. Secretary Patrick Shanahan later said planners hadn’t
settled on a figure.
With a clueless Russophile “opposition” like this and no The U.S. has about 70,000 troops across the Middle
mobilized anti-war movement based in the working class, East, including at a major Navy base in Bahrain and an
Trump feels a complete freedom of action, despite Air Force base and operations center in Qatar. There
wholesale miasma in the military. He knows most are about 5,200 troops in Iraq and 2,000 in Syria.
Democrat politicians always rally round the flag for war
profits once the bloodletting is begun. We demand an Reprinted from http://www.cwgusa.org/?p=2310
13
Class Struggle 129 Winter (June-August) 2019
14
Class Struggle 129 Winter (June-August) 2019
Aotearoa:
headquarters, not Pride. The cops were supposed to Where does trans-ideology come from?
accept criticism of their abuse of LGBT, not walk
away from the parade. As a result the 2019 Pride It seems that most Radical Feminist accounts of the
March turned out to be a ‘radical chic’ celebration recent emergence of 21st century trans-ideology
with a bit of pseudo Marxist-Leninist pink washing tend to blame the corporate interests of big pharma
to mobilise ‘progressive’ youth against the in promoting gender transition. No doubt this is
opponents of the Sex Self-ID Bill, especially lesbians correct as far as it goes. But it doesn’t explain the
and their allies. rapid adoption and acceptance of a movement that
challenges the rights of women. Two recent articles
Transactivism is not Marxism attempt to go further in tracing a causal link
between neoliberalism and trans-ideology.
Certainly, transactivism has nothing whatsoever to
do with real Marxism, Leninism or Communism. The first by Heather Brunskell-Evans is excellent at
First, Marxists never negotiate with police. They are the cultural level of analysis but doesn’t explain
agents of the bourgeois state who enforce bourgeois neoliberalism as a response to the onset of the
law, including the Bill in question which if passed structural crisis of global capitalism from the 1970’s
will allow transwomen to invade women’s spaces onwards. For Marxists, neoliberal ideology emerged
and inflict male violence and probably get away in the 1980s, as a reborn early 19th century
with it. NZ Corrections have reported that six liberalism, to shift the burden of the crises of
women are ‘alleged’ to have been assaulted in capitalism onto workers as a whole. But trans-
women’s jail by transwomen over the last 2 years. ideology did not burst on the scene until the new
Yet Corrections do not seem to have tested those millennium, when capital’s crisis had become
‘allegations’ yet. terminal, and was desperate to clawback the
historic gains of women to restore the rate of profit.
Second, any transactivist who claims to be a serious To overcome women’s resistance, trans ideology
Marxist would reject trans-ideology outright and had to target politically progressive women,
support all women, including transwomen, against especially radical feminists, in order to divide the
oppression unconditionally. But taking a stand on working class and weaken its ability to mobilise
that would require a rudimentary understanding of against the patriarchy and capitalist class rule.
the history of women’s oppression and right now
trans-ideology has trouble acknowledging the The second is an article just published by Renee
existence of the female sex other than reducing it Gerlich that develops Naomi Klein’s ‘shock doctrine’
to body parts. from her book Disaster Capitalism to account for
the rise of trans ideology. Gerlich brilliantly extends
So, in ignorance of that history, transactivists Klein’s structural analysis showing that the
choose to bully those who criticize trans-ideology emergence of trans-ideology coincides with the rise
for ‘hate speech’ to shut down debate about the Sex of neoliberalism from the 1970s on, rising to a
Self-ID law before it becomes law. At this point in crescendo in the last few years.
the argument, we are forced to the conclusion that
far from fighting the patriarchy, transactivists have We agree with Gerlich that the attacks of neoliberal
joined the patriarchy to attack the historic gains of capitalism on women over this period were
the women’s movement. The next step is to explain disproportionate and devastating. As a result. more
why. women sought refuge from these attacks in
changing their gender. The motivation of men to
The logic of the argument is as follows. Trans- change their gender is less clear but it does create
ideology is best understood as the ideology of a the conditions for a new form of male violence
state and corporate sponsored transactivist against women. Gerlich’s view supports the reality
politics reflecting the post-modern individualism that trans-people were and are clearly trying to
of neo-liberal capitalism facing its terminal escape neo-liberal oppression. Following Klein, this
crisis. It promotes individual ‘free choice’ requires an organised fight back against the shock
against the solidarity of gender and class doctrine. However, the message that trans-ideology
politics. It conflates sex with gender, allowing is promoting is that transwomen have no obligation
men to pose as women in taking the side of men to join women in fighting neoliberalism or
in the historic oppression of the female gender at capitalism, let alone fight the historical and
a critical point in human history when women are material causes of gender oppression, but instead
standing up for humanity and nature against the demonises those women most able to lead that
threat of extinction. fight.
16
Class Struggle 129 Winter (June-August) 2019
Transactivism is an attack on women 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the Long Depression
– the relatively stagnant global economy up to the
By pitting identity politics against class solidarity, our present. Capitalism’s crisis of falling profits cannot
struggles for rights and social gains are channelled into
be resolved unless wages and conditions are driven
actions that do not challenge capitalist social or gender
relations. Yet prolonged social and economic crisis down by mass unemployment and other austerity
brings the fundamental contradiction of capital measures to raise the rate of exploitation. So far
between nature and society to the surface. The this too has failed and spontaneous uprisings are
experience of growing austerity spontaneously now building world-wide most notably the Yellow
produces resistance in the working class engaged in Vest movement. This means we can expect the
production and global economic crash
reproduction. The big we are heading for to
threat to capitalism is come all the sooner.
that women, especially
minority women, who To complicate its
have the least to lose problems, capitalism
and most to gain from now faces the backlash
social revolution, will of nature as
unite to fight against exponential global
misogyny and warming forces a
homophobia in the
collapsing ecosystem.
working class and lead
the revolution against Humanity is part of that
class exploitation and nature since social
gender oppression. labour is integral to the
biological and social reproduction of human life. It
Neoliberal ideology, dressed up as postmodern identity
is the threat to the reproduction of life that
politics, is most likely to fail in regard to women where
the contradiction between nature (production and motivates the Extinction Rebellion or the ‘fight for
reproduction of life) and crisis-ridden capitalist austerity life’ initiated by young people that is spreading as a
is the most acute. Moreover, the minority women who global rage against the system. This movement
are politically primed to rise up against the triple proves that ordinary people are realising that
oppression of class, gender and sexuality are lesbians. capitalism is in terminal decline and is destroying
Lesbians’ sexual orientation rejects heteronormativity in nature. Hence the solution must be ‘system change
the patriarchal family. They are perceived, correctly, as not climate change’, conceived as a democratic,
the biggest threat to gender ideology, and as most post-capitalist, socialist, collective, sustainable
capable of defeating new attacks by men, as their people-centred economy and society.
current resistance to transgender ideology proves.
Furthermore, they have an inherent political solidarity Capitalism, on its last legs, has to use every means
capable of taking a leading role in the labour movement. at its disposal to prevent the solidarity of women
This is where transactivism enters the picture as uniting with men and posing a revolutionary threat
postmodern identity politics, deliberately turning a to its class rule. Revolutionary system change is on
justifiable and harmless self-identity as transgender, and the top of the agenda today because we can’t
as a potential ally of women, into the homophobic and solve any of our problems if dying capitalism takes
misogynistic weapon of sexual self-ID. As a consequence, us down with it. Without a victorious women’s
heterosexual men masquerading as transgender are struggle against the patriarchy there can be no
licensed to attack lesbian sexuality and enter women’s system change. It is young women who are leading
spaces (toilets, refuges, prisons etc) to directly assault the climate emergency charge because it is women
and dominate women. Facing this new threat, it is radical
as a sex-class who have the least to lose and most
feminists, many of whom are lesbians, who have fought
most strongly for safe spaces independent of men, and
to gain in challenging the oppressive, exploitative
who are leading the resistance to trans-ideology. and ultimately destructive rule of capital and
climate collapse. That is why the fight for women
Why women will lead the revolution against trans-ideology and the transactivists
attacks on lesbians, is a pre-condition for unity and
Neoliberalism has failed so far to overcome the
solidarity necessary for the working class globally
cause of capitalism’s structural crisis because of
to make the social revolution, end patriarchal
widespread worker resistance to paying for it with
capitalism and create a post-capitalist,
their livelihoods and their lives. Profits have never
sustainable, human, world.
returned to the pre-1970s levels. A number of mini
Reprinted from: Situations Vacant Blog
boom bust cycles in the 1990s culminated in the
18
What We Fight For
Overthrow Capitalism appearance of individual "freedom" and "equality".
It reveals how and why the reformist, Stalinist and
Historically, capitalism expanded world-wide to centrist mis-leaders of the working-class tie workers
free much of humanity from the bonds of feudal or to bourgeois ideas of nationalism, racism, sexism
tribal society, and developed the economy, society and equality. Such false beliefs will be exploded
and culture to a new higher level. But it could only when the struggle against the inequality, injustice,
do this by exploiting the labour of the productive anarchy and barbarism of capitalism in crisis, led by
classes to make its profits. To survive, capitalism a revolutionary Marxist party, produces a
became increasingly destructive of "nature" and revolutionary class-consciousness.
humanity. In the early 20th century it entered the
epoch of imperialism in which successive crises For a Revolutionary Party
unleashed wars, revolutions and counter-
The bourgeois and its agents condemn the Marxist
revolutions. Today we fight to end capitalism’s
party as totalitarian. We say that without a
wars, famine, oppression and injustice, by
democratic and a centrally organised party there
mobilising workers to overthrow their own ruling
can be no revolution. We base our beliefs on the
classes and bring to an end the rotten, exploitative
revolutionary tradition of Bolshevism and
and oppressive society that has exceeded its use-by
Trotskyism. Such a party, armed with a transitional
date.
program, forms a bridge that joins the daily fight to
Fight for Socialism defend all the past and present gains won from
capitalism, to the victorious socialist revolution.
By the 20th century, capitalism had created the pre- Defensive struggles for bourgeois rights and
conditions for socialism –a world-wide working class freedoms, for decent wages and conditions, will link
and modern industry capable of meeting all our up the struggles of workers of all nationalities,
basic needs. The potential to eliminate poverty, genders, ethnicities and sexual orientations,
starvation, disease and war has long existed. The bringing about movements for workers control,
October Revolution proved this to be true, bringing political strikes and the arming of the working class,
peace, bread and land to millions. But it became the as necessary steps to workers' power and the
victim of the combined assault of imperialism and smashing of the bourgeois state. Along the way,
Stalinism. After 1924 the USSR, along with its workers will learn that each new step is one of many
deformed offspring in Europe, degenerated back in a long march to revolutionise every barrier put in
towards capitalism. In the absence of a workers the path to the victorious revolution.
political revolution, capitalism was restored
between 1990 and 1992. Vietnam, China and Cuba Fight for Communism
then followed. Today only North Korea (DPRK)
Communism stands for the creation of a classless,
survives as a degenerate workers’ state. We
stateless society beyond socialism that is capable of
unconditionally defend the DPRK against capitalism
meeting all human needs. Against the ruling class
and fight for political revolution to overthrow the
lies that capitalism can be made "fair" for all; that
bureaucracy as part of world socialism.
nature can be "conserved"; that socialism and
Defend Marxism communism are "dead"; we raise the red flag of
communism to keep alive the revolutionary
While the economic conditions for socialism exist tradition of the' Communist Manifesto of 1848, the
today, standing between the working class and Bolshevik-led October Revolution; the Third
socialism are political, social and cultural barriers. Communist International until 1924, the
They are the capitalist state and bourgeois ideology revolutionary Fourth International up to 1940 before
and its agents. These agents claim that Marxism is its collapse into centrism. We fight to build a new,
dead and capitalism need not be exploitative. We Fifth, Communist International, as a world party of
say that Marxism is a living science that explains socialism capable of leading workers to a victorious
both capitalism’s continued exploitation and its struggle for socialism.
attempts to hide class exploitation behind the
Class Struggle 129 Winter (June-August) 2019
20