Belgique - België PB 2600 Berchem 1-2 BC 9925 International Communist Current

Spring 2020

23rd ICC Congress The responsibilities of revolutionaries in the current period The different facets of fraction-like work

Resolution on the international situation Imperialist conflicts, life of the bourgeoisie, economic crisis

Report on the impact of decomposition on the political life of the bourgeoisie

Report on decomposition today (2017) Review Resolution on the balance of forces between the classes

Report on the class struggle Formation, loss and re-conquest of proletarian class identity

Report on the question of the historic course International

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périodique semestriel Supplement à INTERNATIONALISME.FR Bureau de Depot: B-2600 Berchem 1-2 164 N° d’agréation P408982 International Review 164 Spring 2020 Contents

23rd ICC Congress The responsibilities of revolutionaries in the current period The different facets of fraction-like work 1 Resolution on the international situation Imperialist conflicts, life of the bourgeoisie, economic crisis 5

Report on the impact of decomposition on the political life of the bourgeoisie 12

Report on decomposition today (2017) 17

Resolution on the balance of forces between the classes 22

Report on the class struggle Formation, loss and re-conquest of proletarian class identity 27

Report on the question of the historic course 35

Contact the ICC: http://www.internationalism.org [email protected] [email protected] Responsible editor: H. Deponthiere, PB 102, 2018 Antwerp Central Station, [email protected] (rest of world) Antwerp 

23rd ICC Congress The responsibilities of revolutionaries in the current period The different facets of fraction-like work

Last spring, the ICC held its 23rd International Congress. This article proposes against the Proudhonist, Bakuninist, Blan- to give an account of its work. quist, and corporatist currents. It was the Point 4 of the “Report on the structure and functioning of the revolutionary left, which fought first of all the reformist organisation” defines the International Congress as “The highest moment in tendencies, and then the ‘social-patriots’, the unity of the organisation... It is at the International Congress that the pro- which ensured the continuity between the gramme of the ICC is defined, enriched, or rectified; that its ways of organising 2nd and 3rd International during the war, and functioning are established, made more precise or modified; that its overall then by forming the Communist Interna- orientations and analyses are adopted; that a balance sheet of its past activities tional. And it was the left, once again, and is made and perspectives for future work drawn up”. in particular the Italian and German lefts, which took up and developed the revo- lutionary gains of the 3rd International, trodden under foot by the social-democratic This Congress was centred round our con- ary bastion in Russia was subject to a and Stalinist counter-revolution”. tinuity with the Communist International, total blockade and military intervention whose centenary was last year. Historical by the imperialist powers; the Spartacist If its struggle is to be victorious, the continuity and transmission are a fun- Revolt in Germany had been drowned in proletariat requires a continuity in its class damental concern for the revolutionary blood and two of the key figures of the consciousness. Otherwise it is doomed to be organisation. It was with this approach new International, Rosa Luxemburg and the plaything of the schemes of its enemy. that the activities resolution adopted by Karl Liebknecht, murdered”, the resolution The left fractions have always been the most the Congress recalled that “the Communist underlines that, despite the differences with committed and determined in the defence International was founded a hundred years the period of revolutionary response to the of this continuity in class consciousness, ago in March 1919 with the intention to be First World War and the ensuing counter- in its development and enrichment. the ‘party of the revolutionary insurrection revolution, “The ICC faces increasingly Groups like the Internationalist Com- of the world proletariat’. Today, in different difficult conditions as decadent capitalism munist Tendency (ICT) make the following circumstances but in conditions still defined sinks further into another barbaric spiral of objection: fraction of what? For a long by the historic epoch of the decadence of economic crisis and imperialist conflict in time there have been no communist parties capitalism, the objective posed by the Com- its phase of decomposition. To accomplish within the proletariat. And it’s true that, munist International, the creation of the its historic tasks ICC must draw strength in the 1930s, the Communist Parties were world political party of the revolutionary and its fighting spirit from the crises it will definitively won over by the bourgeoisie. working class, remains the ultimate aim of face, as did the marxist left of 1919”. We are not fractions, but that doesn’t mean the fraction-like work of the ICC”. that we don’t have to carry out a work The resolution insists on the fact that Fraction-like work similar to that of a fraction. A work which “the Communist International was not unites into a coherent whole: To place ourselves in a line of continuity created out of the blue, its foundation was – the fight against opportunism; dependent on the preceding decades of the with the efforts of the Communist Interna- fraction work of the marxist left in the 2nd tional, the Congress saw its aim as devel- – the defence and development of the International, particularly by the Bolshevik oping and concretising our work as being critical historical continuity of the Party…”. Which means for today’s revolu- similar to that of a fraction. The notion of proletariat, forming a bridge between tionaries that “just as the Comintern could the fraction has always been crucial in the the past of the workers’ movement and not have been created without the prepara- history of the workers’ movement. Like the its future; tory work of the marxist left, so the future working class as a whole, its political or- – the response to new situations arising international will not come to be without ganisations are subjected to the pressure of in society and the proletarian class an international centralised fraction-like alien ideologies, both bourgeois and petty struggle. activity of the organisational inheritors of bourgeois. This engenders, in particular, the the Communist Left”. disease of opportunism. To fight against The Congress deepened our understand- this disease, the proletariat gives rise to left ing of fraction-like work at the level of Recalling that “the Communist Inter- fractions within its organisations: our press, our intervention, theoretical national was founded in the most difficult method, the elaboration of marxist method circumstances imaginable: it followed four “It has always been the left that has and the defence of the organization. There years of mass carnage and immiseration ensured the continuity between the prole- is a whole work involved in construct- of the world proletariat; the revolution- tariat’s three main international political ing the bridge towards the future party organisations. It was the left, through the which will have to be based on very firm marxist current, which ensured the continu- theoretical, programmatic, analytical and 1. International Review, nº 33. ity between the 1st and 2nd International,  International Review 164 Spring 2020 organisational foundations. This is what the this dynamic was the collapse of the bloc decomposition of the old order and even proletariat needs if it is find a path through around the former USSR. profit from it for their own interests. By the terrible convulsions of capitalism and contrast, this is impossible in capitalism The ICC had to face up to a challenge develop a revolutionary offensive aimed since “communist society, which alone for marxist theory. On the one hand, in at overthrowing this system. can follow capitalism, cannot develop at September 1989, we produced “Theses all within it; the regeneration of society In this framework of fraction-like work on the economic and political crisis in is thus completely impossible without the a “Report on Transmission” was presented the eastern countries” where, two months violent overthrow of the bourgeois class to the Congress, although due to lack of before the fall of the Berlin Wall, we an- and the eradication of capitalist relations time we weren’t able to discuss it. How- nounced the brutal downfall of the USSR of production” ever, given the importance of the question, itself. On the other hand, we were obliged we will take charge of discussing it in the to understand in depth the new situation, by The proletariat has to face up to the con- coming period. Transmission is vital for elaborating in 1990 the “Theses on Decom- ditions and implications imposed by this the proletariat. Much more than all the position”, the basic idea of which was this: new historic epoch, drawing all the lessons other revolutionary classes in history, it “the generalised decomposition which is that flow from it for its own struggle, in needs the lessons of the battles of its pre- infecting the system today, and which can particular the need to defend, even more ceding generations in order to assimilate only get worse... Here again, quite apart energetically than in the past, its politi- their acquisitions and take its struggle from the strictly quantitative aspect, the cal, class autonomy, since decomposition forward towards its revolutionary goals. phenomenon of social decomposition has puts this in grave danger. Decomposition Transmission is particularly important for today reached such a breadth and depth favours “partial” struggles (feminism, ecol- the continuity of revolutionary organisa- that it has taken on a new and unique qual- ogy, anti-racism, pacifism etc), struggles tions because there is a whole series of ity, revealing decadent capitalism’s entry which don’t go to the roots of problems approaches, practices, traditions and expe- into a new and final phase of its history: but only address their effects and, worse, riences which belong to the proletariat and the phase where decomposition becomes a focus on particular aspects of capitalism are the fertile soil in which the proletarian decisive, if not the decisive factor in social while preserving the system as a whole. political organisation elaborates its way of evolution”. These mobilisations dilute the proletariat functioning and maintains its vitality. As into an inter-classist mass, dispersing and The 23rd Congress carefully looked at it says in the activities resolution adopted fragmenting it in a whole series of false the considerable aggravation of the process by the Congress: “the ICC must be able to “communities” based on race, religion, of decomposition, notably affecting the transmit to new comrades the necessity to affinity etc. The only solution is the central countries. We have seen spectacular study thoroughly the history of the revolu- proletariat’s struggle against exploitation illustrations of this – among others – in tionary movement and develop a growing because “the struggle against the economic Brexit in the UK, the victory of Trump or knowledge of the different elements of the foundations of the system contains within it the Salvini government in Italy. experience of the communist left in the the struggle against all the super-structural period of counter revolution”. All these points were broadly taken up in aspects of capitalist society, but this is not the reports and resolutions of the congress true the other way around.” The report on transmission devotes which we have already published and we a central chapter to understanding the invite our readers to study these documents conditions of militancy and the histori- Situation of the class struggle attentively and critically. With these docu- cal acquisitions which have to guide it. ments, we are trying to respond to the main Forming conscious, determined militants, The revolutionary organisation is based tendencies in the present situation. capable of standing up to the hardest tests, on a militant engagement within the is a very difficult task but its indispensable Decomposition, as we see it spreading class. This is concretised in the adoption for the formation of the future party of the on the world scale and more and more of resolutions in which the present situa- proletarian revolution. dominating all spheres of social life, is tion is analysed by placing it in a historic an unprecedented phenomenon in human framework, to make it possible to draw out Decomposition, an unprecedented history. The Communist Manifesto of 1848 perspectives that can give an orientation epoch in human history considered such a possibility “Freeman to the proletarian struggle. The Congress and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord thus adopted a specific resolution on the During the 1980s, the ICC began to un- and serf, guild-master and journeyman, class struggle and a more general one on derstand that global society was heading in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood the world situation. towards a historic impasse. On the one in constant opposition to one another, car- Decomposition has had a powerful hand, given the resistance of the proletariat ried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now impact on the struggle of the proletariat. of the central countries to a military mobi- open fight, a fight that each time ended, Combined with the disorienting effects lisation, capitalism didn’t have a free hand either in a revolutionary reconstitution of of the fall of “socialism” in 1989 and to move towards its organic outcome to its society at large, or in the common ruin the enormous anti-communist campaign historic crisis – generalised imperialist war. of the contending classes”. However, launched by the bourgeoisie, the work- On the other hand, the proletariat, despite historical cases involving the collapse of ing class has suffered a deep retreat in its the advance in its struggles between 1983 an entire civilisation and the “mutual ruin consciousness and its combativity whose and 1987, was not able to open up its own of the contending classes” have been very effects still persist – and have even got perspective towards the proletarian revolu- localised and could be easily overcome by worse over the last 30 years. tion. In the absence of either of the major the later imposition of new conquerers. To classes being able to put forward a perspec- the extent that the decadence of modes of The Congress went deeper into the his- tive, we were seeing society rotting on its production prior to capitalism (slavery, toric framework for understanding the class feet, a growing chaos, the proliferation of feudalism) saw the very powerful eco- struggle, closely examining the evolution centrifugal tendencies, of every man for nomic emergence of the new ruling class, of the balance of class forces since 1968. himself. A spectacular manifestation of and that this was an exploiting class, the . “Theses on decomposition”. new relations of production could limit the . ICC platform point 12. 23rd ICC Congress 

The resolution underlines that: the political apparatus of the bourgeoisie In this sense, the revolutionary organisa- of its electoral game and the formation of tion is an entity which bourgeois society – the gains of the struggles between 1968 governments, a phenomenon eloquently rejects with all its fibres. Not only because and 89 have not been lost, even if they attested by Brexit; of the historic threat it represents as the have been forgotten by many workers vanguard of the proletariat, but because (and revolutionaries): the fight for the – the considerable aggravation of imperi- its very existence is a constant reminder to self-organisation and extension of strug- alist tensions, notably between the US the bourgeoisie that it has been condemned gles; the beginnings of an understand- and China and in the Persian Gulf, as well by history, an affirmation of the urgent ne- ing of the anti-working class role of as the intensification of the arms race; cessity for humanity to replace the deadly the unions and parties of the capitalist the trade war, which is the consequence competition of each against all by the left; resistance to being dragooned into of the worsening of the crisis, and which association of free and equal individuals. war; distrust towards the electoral and is used by the US as a means to put It’s this new form of radicality which the parliamentary game, etc. Future strug- imperialist pressure on its rivals; bourgeoisie cannot understand and fills it gles will have to be based on the critical – the perspective, which is becoming with anxiety, so that it has to permanently assimilation of these gains, taking them closer and closer, of new convulsions mobilise itself against the organisations further and certainly not denying or in the world economy: falling growth and militants of the proletariat. As the forgetting them; rates, slow-down in world trade, exor- Communist Manifesto underlines: – the great danger for the proletariat bitant debt, the incredible phenomenon “The Communist revolution is the most of democracy, democratism, and the of negative interest rates, etc. radical rupture with traditional property instruments of the democratic state, Marxism is a living theory. This means relations; no wonder that its development notably the unions, the left parties and that it must be capable of recognising involved the most radical rupture with the extreme left, but also its ideological that certain instruments for analysing the traditional ideas”. campaigns and political manoeuvres; historic situation are no longer valid. This Being a foreign body means that the – the current weakness of the proletariat, is the case with the notion of the historic revolutionary organisation is permanently despite the efforts we saw in the struggles course, which was fully applicable to the under threat, not only through repression between 2006 and 2011, where, as well period 1914-89 but which has lost its and the attempts to infiltrate it and destroy as the reappearance of assemblies, many validity as a way of understanding the from within by specialised state bodies, or questions about the future of society dynamic of the balance of forces between by the actions of parasitic groups (as we began to be posed; the classes in the current historic period. shall see later on), but also by the permanent This led the Congress to adopt a report on – the positive effect which certain ele- danger of being turned away from its tasks this question. ments of the present situation can even- and its function by the penetration of ideolo- tually bring: a greater concentration of gies which are alien to the proletariat. workers in huge cities, associated labour The defence of the organisation The organisation can’t exist without on a world scale, growing links between permanent combat. The spirit of combat young workers on an international level, The revolutionary organisation is a foreign is an essential feature of the revolutionary the incorporation of new battalions of body in bourgeois society. The proletariat organisation and its militants. Combats, the proletariat in countries like China, is “a class of civil society which is not a crises, difficulties are part of all revolution- Bangladesh, South Africa, Mexico…; class of civil society, an order which is ary organisations. the dissolution of all orders” (Marx). The – the indispensable role of the workers’ workers can never really find their place in “Crises are not necessarily a guarantee struggle on their class terrain against this society because economically, as the of impending collapse and failure. On the the increasingly violent blows of the exploited class deprived of any means of contrary, the existence of crises can be historic crisis of capitalism. production, they are always in a precarious an expression of a healthy resistance to At the congress, there were disagree- situation, at the mercy of unemployment; an underlying tendency towards failure ments on the appreciation of the situation and because, politically, they are “Pariahs” that had hitherto been developing peace- of the class struggle and its dynamic. Has who can only find their salvation and their fully. And therefore crises can be the sign the proletariat suffered ideological defeats emancipation outside of capitalism, in a of reacting to danger and struggling which are seriously weakening its capaci- communist society which can’t emerge against signs of collapse. A crisis is also ties? Is there a subterranean maturation of before the bourgeois state is overturned an opportunity: to understand the root consciousness, or, on the contrary, are we all over the world. The bourgeoisie, its causes of serious difficulties that will seeing a deepening of the reflux in class politicians, its ideologues, may disdainfully enable the organisation to ultimately identity and consciousness? accept the “working citizen”, workers as strengthen itself and temper its militants a sum of alienated individuals, but they for future battles. These questions are part of an ongoing abhor and furiously reject the proletariat debate, with amendments presented to the as a class. “In the Second International (1889- Congress resolution. 1914) the Russian Social Democratic La- In the image of their class, revolution- bour Party was well known for undergoing Other burning questions of the ary organisations, while being part of the a series of crises and splits, and for this world situation capitalist world, are at the same time a reason was held in contempt by the leaders foreign body within it because their very of the larger parties of the International reason for existence and their programme like the German Social Democracy (SPD) In line with its responsibilities, the Con- is based on the need for a total break from who presented an appearance of going gress examined other aspects determin- the operation, reasoning, and values of from success to success, steadily increas- ing the evolution of world society, in present-day society. ing their membership and electoral votes. particular: However the crises of the Russian Party, – the tendency towards a loss of control by . See the “Report on the impact of decomposition on and the struggle to overcome and learn the political life of the bourgeoisie” (2019).  International Review 164 Spring 2020 from them by the Bolshevik wing, steeled already had to defend itself against this control of the International). the revolutionary minority in prepara- danger identified by Marx and Engels. Unfortunately, this lesson from history tion for standing against the imperialist “It is high time to put an end, once and has been forgotten by the majority of the war in 1914 and for leading the October for all, to the internal conflicts provoked groups of the communist left. Given that Revolution of 1917. By contrast the facade daily in our Association by the presence the priority of the parasites is to take aim of unity of the SPD (challenged only by of this parasitic body. These quarrels only at the main organisation of the communist ‘trouble-makers’ like Rosa Luxemburg) serve to waste energies which should be left, the ICC, these groups consider that completely and irrevocably collapsed in used to fight against the bourgeois regime. this is an “ICC problem”, even going so 1914 with the complete betrayal of its By paralysing the activity of the Interna- far as to maintain, at certain moments, internationalist principles in face of the tional against the enemies of the working cordial relations with parasitic groups. First World War”.  class, the Alliance admirably serves the However, the behavior of the latter (from bourgeoisies and the governments”. The The defence of the organisation is a the Communist Bulletin Group nearly 40 International had to fight against plots by permanent element in the activity of the years ago to the more recent International Bakunin, an adventurer who used a façade organisation and was thus an important Group of the Communist Left) passing of radicalism as a way of hiding a work point in the balance sheet and perspec- through a number of small groups, blogs of intrigue and slander against militants tives for our activities at this Congress. or individuals, speaks for itself: like Marx and Engels, of attacks against This fight is carried out on all fronts. The the central organ of the International (the – odious denigration of our organisation most important and specific is the strug- General Council), of destabilisation and and its militants, in particular the ac- gle against attempts to destroy it (through disorganisation of the sections, of creating cusation that we use Stalinist methods slander, denigration, suspicion and dis- secret structures to conspire against the or are even state agents; trust). But, at the same time, “the ICC is activity and functioning of the proletarian not immune from the opportunist pressures – theft of our material means; organisation on the programmatic positions, allied to – threats to use bourgeois justice or the sclerosis, that, on a different scale, have Obviously, the historic conditions in police against our militants; already debilitated the other groups of which today’s proletarian struggle develops the communist left”. This is why there is are very different from those that existed – −publication of police-like material pro- a unity and a coherence between this vital at the time of the First International. This viding information that could identify aspect of the struggle against the threat of was a mass organisation regrouping all the our militants or sow suspicion between destruction and the no less vital need to living forces of the proletariat, a “power” militants inside the same organisation. fight against any expression of opportun- which genuinely worried bourgeois gov- ism that may arise in our ranks: “Without ernments. Today the proletarian milieu is The General Council of the International this permanent struggle on the long-term extremely weak, reduced to a number of considered that the Alliance “admirably historic level against and vigilance toward small groups who don’t represent an im- serves the bourgeoisies and the govern- ments”. In the same way, the activities political opportunism, the defence of the or- mediate danger for the bourgeoisie. This rd ganisation, its centralisation and principles said, the difficulties and dangers which resolution of the 23 ICC congress con- of functioning as such will be for nothing. this milieu faces do have similarities with siders that “in the current historic epoch, If it is true that without proletarian politi- those confronted by the First International. parasitism is objectively working on behalf cal organisation the best programme is an In particular, the existence of “parasitic of the bourgeoisie to destroy the ICC” idea without social force, it is equally true bodies” whose reason for existence is in and that “as the last 30 years’ experience that without full fidelity to the historical no way to contribute to the struggle of the shows, political parasitism is one of the programme of the proletariat the organisa- working class against the bourgeoisie but most serious dangers that we will have tion becomes an empty shell. There is unity on the contrary to sabotage the activity to face… . In the past decades political and no opposition or separation between of organisations engaged in this struggle. parasitism has not only persisted but de- the principles of political organisation and At the time of the First International, the veloped its anti-ICC arsenal and widened the programmatic principles of the prole- Alliance led by Bakunin carried out its its repertoire”. tariat. While the struggle for the defence of work of sabotage (before being expelled Thus, recently, we have witnessed a theory and the struggle for the defence of at the Hague Congress in September 1872) more sophisticated but also more danger- organisation are inseparable and equally inside the International itself. Today, ous kind of activity: the falsification of indispensable, the abandonment of the largely because of the dispersion of the the tradition of the communist left through former is a threat, certainly fatal, but in proletarian milieu into a number of small the promotion of a fake communist left the medium term, while the abandonment groups, the “parasitic bodies” don’t oper- based on Trotskyism. Without even con- of the latter is a short-term threat. As long ate inside one group in particular but on sidering the intention behind this, such an as it exists, the organisation can recover, the margins of these groups, trying either enterprise can only complete a front of including theoretically, but if it no longer to recruit elements who are sincere but slander and snitching aimed at “creating exists, no theory will revive it.” who lack experience or are influenced by a cordon sanitaire that isolates the ICC petty bourgeois ideas (as the Alliance did from the other groups of the proletarian The struggle against parasitism in Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium), political milieu…and from the searching or by doing all they can to discredit the au- elements”. thentically proletarian groups and sabotage The history of the workers’ movement their activity (as the Alliance did when it This is why the Congress committed has provided evidence of a danger which, realised that it would not be able to take the whole organisation to engage in a de- today, has taken on a considerable impor- termined and unrelenting struggle against tance – parasitism. The First International . Engels, “The General Council to all the members parasitism, considering that “an essential, of the International Working Men’s Association”, long term axis of the ICC’s intervention . International Review nº 153, "News of our death August 1872 , warning against Bakunin’s Alliance. is greatly exaggerated". Published (with slight variations in translation) in . Activities resolution of the Congress. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Collected Works, . Ibid. vol.23, Lawrence and Wishart. continued on page 11 

Resolution on the international situation

Imperialist conflicts, life of the bourgeoisie, economic crisis

Historical framework: the phase of cisive factor in the evolution of society, – the tidal waves of drug addiction, which capitalist decomposition and therefore of all the components of have now become a mass phenomenon the world situation – an idea that is by no and a powerful element in the corruption 1) Thirty years ago, the ICC highlighted the means shared by the other groups of the of states and financial organisms (...); communist left – that constitutes the major fact that the capitalist system had entered – the profusion of sects, the renewal of thrust of this resolution. the final phase of its period of decadence, the religious spirit including in the that of decomposition. This analysis was 2) The May 1990 theses on decomposition advanced countries, the rejection of based on a number of empirical facts, but highlight a whole series of characteristics rational, coherent thought (...); at the same time it provided a framework in the evolution of society resulting from – the invasion of the same media by the for understanding these facts: “In this the entry of capitalism into this ultimate spectacle of violence, horror, blood, situation, where society’s two decisive phase of its existence. The report adopted massacres, (...); – and antagonistic – classes confront by the 22nd Congress noted the worsening each other without either being able to of all these characteristics, such as: – the vacuity and venality of all ‘artistic’ impose its own definitive response, history production: literature, music, painting, – "the proliferation of famines in the ‘Third nonetheless does not just come to a stop. architecture (...); Still less for capitalism than for preceding World’ countries…; – ’every man for himself’, marginalisa- social forms, is a ‘freeze’ or a ‘stagnation’ – the transformation of the ‘Third World’ tion, the atomisation of the individual, of social life possible. As crisis-ridden into a vast slum, where hundreds of mil- the destruction of family relationships, capitalism’s contradictions can only get lions of human beings survive like rats the exclusion of old people from social deeper, the bourgeoisie’s inability to offer in the sewers; the slightest perspective for society as a life” – the development of the same phenom- whole, and the proletariat’s inability, for The report of the 22nd Congress fo- enon in the heart of the major cities in the moment, openly to set forward its own cused in particular on the development of the ‘advanced’ countries, … ; historic perspective, can only lead to a a phenomenon already noted in 1990 (and situation of generalised decomposition.  – the recent proliferation of ‘accidental’ which had played a major role in the ICC’s Capitalism is rotting on its feet.” catastrophes (…) the increasingly awareness of the entry of decadent capital- Our analysis took care to clarify the two devastating effects, on the human, so- ism into the phase of decomposition): the meanings of the term “decomposition”; on cial, and economic levels, of ’natural’ use of terrorism in imperialist conflicts. the one hand, it applies to a phenomenon disasters …; The report noted that: “The quantitative and qualitative growth of the place of ter- that affects society, particularly in the – the degradation of the environment, rorism has taken a decisive step (...) with period of decadence of capitalism and, on which is reaching staggering dimen- the attack on the Twin Towers (...) It was the other hand, it designates a particular sions.” historical phase of the latter, its ultimate subsequently confirmed with the attacks in phase: The “Report on decomposition” to the Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005 (...), 22nd Congress of the ICC also highlighted the establishment of Daesh in 2013-14 (...), “... it is vital to highlight the fundamental the confirmation and aggravation of the the attacks in France in 2015-16, Belgium distinction between the elements of decom- political and ideological manifestations of and Germany in 2016”. The report also position which have infected capitalism decomposition as identified in 1990: noted, in connection with these attacks since the beginning of the century [the 20th and as a characteristic expression of the – "the incredible corruption, which grows century] and the generalised decomposi- decomposition of society, the spread of and prospers, of the political apparatus tion which is infecting the system today, and radical Islamism, which, while initially (...); which can only get worse. Here again, quite inspired by Shia (with the establishment apart from the strictly quantitative aspect, – the development of terrorism, or the sei- in 1979 of the mullahs’ regime in Iran), the phenomenon of social decomposition zure of hostages, as methods of warfare became essentially the result of the Sunni has today reached such a breadth and depth between states, to the detriment of the movement from 1996 onwards, with the that it has taken on a new and unique qual- ‘laws’ that capitalism established in the capture of Kabul by the Taliban and, even ity, revealing decadent capitalism’s entry past to ‘regulate’ the conflicts between more so, after the overthrow of Saddam into a new and final phase of its history: different ruling class factions; Hussein’s regime in Iraq by American the phase where decomposition becomes a troops. decisive, if not the decisive factor in social – the constant increase in criminality, evolution.” insecurity, and urban violence, (...); 3) In addition to confirming the trends already identified in the 1990 theses, the It is mainly this last point, the fact that – the development of nihilism, despair, and report adopted by the 22nd Congress noted decomposition tends to become the de- suicide amongst young people… and of the emergence of two new phenomena the hatred and xenophobia (...); . “Decomposition, the final phase of the decadence resulting from the continuation of decom- of capitalism”, pt.4, International Review nº 62. . Ibid, pt. 2. . Ibid, pt. 7. . Ibid, pt. 8.  International Review 164 Spring 2020 position and destined to play a major role inability to manage the "Brexit" imposed The historic course – a paradigm in the political life of many countries: on it by the populist currents. change – a dramatic increase in migration flows Whether the populist currents are in from 2012 onwards, culminating in government or simply disrupting the classic 5) In 1989-90, in the face of the disloca- 2015, and coming mainly from the war- political game, they do not correspond to tion of the Eastern bloc, we analysed this torn Middle East, particularly following a rational option for the management of unprecedented historical phenomenon – the the "Arab spring" of 2011; national capital nor therefore to a deliberate collapse of an entire imperialist bloc in the card played by the dominant sectors of the absence of a generalised military confron- – the continued rise of populism in most bourgeois class which, particularly through tation – as the first major manifestation of European countries and also in the its media, is constantly denouncing these the period of decomposition. At the same world's leading power with the election currents. What the rise of populism actu- time, we examined the new configura- of Donald Trump in November 2016. ally expresses is the aggravation of a phe- tion of the world that resulted from this Massive population displacements are nomenon already announced in the 1990 historic event: not a phenomenon specific to the phase theses: “Amongst the major characteristics “The disappearance of the Russian of decomposition. However, they are now of capitalist society’s decomposition, we imperialist gendarme, and that to come of acquiring a dimension that makes them should emphasise the bourgeoisie’s grow- the American gendarme as far as its one- a singular element of this decomposi- ing difficulty in controlling the evolution time ‘partners’ are concerned, opens the  tion, both in terms of their current causes of the political situation”. A phenomenon door to the unleashing of a whole series (notably the chaos of war that reigns in clearly noted in the report of the 22nd of more local rivalries. For the moment, the countries of origin) and their political Congress: “What must be stressed in the these rivalries and confrontations cannot consequences in the countries of destina- current situation is the full confirmation degenerate into a world war (even sup- tion. In particular, the massive arrival of of this aspect that we identified 25 years posing that the proletariat were no longer refugees in European countries has been ago: the trend towards a growing loss of capable of putting up a resistance). (…) a prime basis for the populist wave de- control by the ruling class over its political Up to now, during the period of decadence, veloping in Europe, although this wave apparatus.” such a situation where the various impe- began to rise long before (especially in The rise of populism is an expression, rialist antagonisms are dispersed, where a country like France with the rise of the in the current circumstances, of the bour- the world (or at least its decisive zones) National Front). geoisie’s increasing loss of control over is not divided up between two blocs, has 4) In fact, over the past twenty years, popu- the workings of society, resulting funda- never lasted long. The disappearance of the list parties have seen the number of votes mentally from what lies at the heart of its two major imperialist constellations which polled in favour of them triple in Europe decomposition, the inability of the two emerged from World War II brings with it (from 7% to 25%), with strong increases fundamental classes of society to provide a the tendency towards the recomposition of following the 2008 financial crisis and response to the insoluble crisis into which two new blocs. Such a situation, however, the 2015 migration crisis. In about ten the capitalist economy is sinking. In other is not yet on the agenda (…) This is all countries, these parties participate in the words, decomposition is fundamentally the more true in that the tendency towards government or parliamentary majority: the result of impotence on the part of the a new share-out of the planet between Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, ruling class, an impotence that is rooted in two military blocs is countered, and may Slovakia, Bulgaria, Austria, Denmark, Nor- its inability to overcome this crisis in its even be definitively compromised, by the way, Switzerland and Italy. Moreover, even mode of production and that increasingly increasingly profound and widespread when populist groups are not involved in tends to affect its political apparatus. decomposition of capitalist society, which government, they have a significant influ- we have already pointed out (…) Among the current causes of the popu- ence on the political life of the bourgeoisie. list wave are the main manifestations of “Given the world bourgeoisie’s loss of Three examples can be given: social decomposition: the rise of despair, control over the situation, it is not certain – in Germany, it was the electoral rise of nihilism, violence, xenophobia, associated that its dominant sectors will today be the AfD that considerably weakened with a growing rejection of the “elites” (the capable of enforcing the discipline and Angela Merkel, forcing her to give up “rich”, politicians, technocrats) and in a coordination necessary for the reconstitu-  the leadership of her party; situation where the working class is unable tion of military blocs.” to present, even in an embryonic way, an – in France, "Man of Destiny” Macron, Thus, 1989 marks a fundamental change alternative. It is obviously possible, either an apostle of a "New World", although in the general dynamics of capitalist because it will itself have demonstrated he managed to win a large victory over society: its own powerlessness and corruption, or Marine Le Pen in the 2017 elections, because a renewal of workers’ struggles will – Before that date, the balance of power has in no way succeeded in reducing the cut the ground under its feet, that populism between the classes was the determining influence of the latter's party, which in will lose its influence in the future. On the factor in this dynamic: it was on this the polls is hot on the heels of his own other hand, it cannot in any way call into balance of forces that the outcome of party, La République en Marche, which question the historical tendency of society the exacerbation of the contradictions of claims to be both of the "right and left" to sink into decomposition, nor the various capitalism depended: either the unleash- with political personnel on both sides manifestations of it, including the increas- ing of the world war, or the development (for example, a Prime Minister from ing loss of control by the bourgeoisie of its of class struggle with the overthrow of the Right and a Minister of the Interior political game. And this has consequences capitalism as the perspective. from the Socialist Party); not only for the domestic policy of each – After that date, this dynamic is no longer – in Great Britain, the traditionally most state but also for all relations between states determined by the balance of forces skilful bourgeoisie in the world has been and imperialist configurations. giving us for more than a year the spec- . “After the collapse of the Eastern bloc, tacle of deep distress resulting from its destabilisation and chaos”, International Review . Ibid, pt. 9. nº 61. Resolution on the international situation 

between classes. Whatever the balance all states are imperialist, and take the linking Iran to the Mediterranean and of forces, world war is no longer on the necessary measures to satisfy their appe- the Lebanese Hezbollah, is the main agenda, but capitalism will continue to tites: war economy, arms production, etc. beneficiary and has fulfilled its objec- sink into decay. We must state clearly that the deepening tive of taking the lead in this region, in convulsions of the world economy can particular by deploying troops outside 6) In the paradigm that dominated most of only sharpen the opposition between dif- its territory. the 20th century, the notion of a “historical ferent states, including and increasingly course” defined the outcome of a historical – Turkey, obsessed by the fear of the on the military level. … For the moment, trend: either world war or class confronta- establishment of autonomous Kurdish these rivalries and confrontations cannot tions; and once the proletariat had suffered zones that can only destabilise it, oper- degenerate into a world war. … However, a decisive defeat (as on the eve of 1914 ates militarily in Syria. with the disappearance of the discipline or as a result of the revolutionary wave of imposed by the two blocs, these conflicts are – The military “victories” in Iraq and 1917-23), world war became ineluctable. liable to become more frequent and more Syria against the Islamic State and the In the paradigm that defines the current violent, especially of course in those areas retention of Assad in power offer no situation (until two new imperialist blocs where the proletariat is weakest.” prospect of stabilisation. In Iraq, the are reconstituted, which may never hap- military defeat of the Islamic State did pen), it is quite possible that the proletariat “The present disappearance of imperial- not eliminate the resentment of the will suffer a defeat so deep that it will ist blocs does not imply the slightest calling former Sunni faction around Saddam definitively prevent it from recovering, into question of imperialism’s grip on social Hussein that gave rise to it: the exercise but it is also possible that it will suffer a life. The fundamental difference lies in the of power for the first time by Shiites only deep defeat without this having a decisive fact that (…) the end of the blocs only opens further fuels it. In Syria, the regime's consequence for the general evolution of the door to a still more barbaric, aberrant, military victory does not mean the sta- society. This is why the notion of “his- and chaotic form of imperialism.” bilisation or pacification of the shared torical course” is no longer able to define Since then, the global situation has only Syrian space, which is subjected to the the situation of the current world and the confirmed this trend towards worsening intervention of different imperialisms balance of forces between the bourgeoisie chaos, as we observed a year ago: with competing interests. and the proletariat. “ …The development of decomposition – Russia and Iran are deeply divided over In a way, the current historical situa- has led to a bloody and chaotic unchaining the future of the Syrian state and the pres- tion is similar to that of the 19th century. of imperialism and militarism; ence of their military on its territory. At that time: – the explosion of the tendency of each Neither Israel, hostile to the strengthen- – an increase in workers' struggles did for himself has led to the rise of the ing of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, not mean the prospect of a revolution- imperialist ambitions of second and third nor Saudi Arabia, can tolerate this Iranian ary period since proletarian revolution level powers, as well as to the growing advance; while Turkey cannot accept the was not yet on the agenda, nor could it weakening of the USA’s dominant posi- excessive regional ambitions of its two prevent a major war from breaking out tion in the world; rivals. (for example, the war between France and Prussia in 1870 when the power – The current situation is characterised by Nor can the United States and the West of the proletariat was rising with the imperialist tensions all over the place give up their ambitions in this strategic development of the International Work- and by a chaos that is less and less area of the world. ingmen’s Association); controllable; but above all, by its highly The centrifugal action of the various irrational and unpredictable character, – a major defeat of the proletariat (such powers, small and large, whose divergent linked to the impact of populist pres- as the crushing of the Paris Commune) imperialist appetites constantly collide, sures, in particular to the fact that the did not result in a new war. only fuels the persistence of current con- world’s strongest power is led today by flicts, as in Yemen, as well as the prospect of That said, it is important to stress that the a populist president with temperamental future conflicts and the spread of chaos. notion of “historical course” as used by the reactions.” Italian Fraction in the 1930s and by the ICC 9) While, following the collapse of the 8) The Middle East, where the weakening between 1968 and 1989 was perfectly valid USSR in 1989, Russia seemed doomed of American leadership is most evident and and constituted the fundamental framework to play only a secondary power role, it is where the Americans’ inability to engage for understanding the world situation. In making a strong comeback to the imperial- too directly on the military level in Syria no way can the fact that our organisation ist level. A power in decline and lacking has left the field open to other imperialisms, has had to take into account the new and the economic capacity to sustain military offers a concentration of these historical unprecedented facts on this situation since competition with other major powers in trends: 1989 be interpreted as a challenge to our the long term, it has demonstrated, through analytical framework until that date. – Russia has imposed itself as an essential the restoration of its military capabilities power in the Syrian theatre thanks to its since 2008, its very high military aggres- Imperialist tensions military force, in particular to preserve siveness and its capacity to be a nuisance its naval bases in Tartus. internationally: 7) As early as 1990, at the same time as – Iran, through its military victory to save – It has thus thwarted US “containment” we were seeing the disappearance of the its ally, the Assad regime, and by forging (with the integration into NATO of its imperialist blocs that had dominated the an Iraqi-Syrian land corridor directly former Warsaw Pact allies) on the Eu- “Cold War”, we insisted on the continua- ropean continent with the annexation tion, and even the aggravation, of military . Ibid. of Crimea in 2014, with the separatist . “Militarism and Decomposition”, International clashes: Review n°64. amputation of Donbass breaking any possibility of making Ukraine a central “In the period of capitalist decadence, . “Analysis of Recent Developments in Imperialist Tensions”, International Review nº 161.  International Review 164 Spring 2020

part of the anti-Russian apparatus. ing situation of decomposition: this major upsets the existing balances. conflict is forcing all states to reconsider – It has taken advantage of America’s In Asia, China has already changed the their evolving imperialist options. difficulties to push towards the Mediter- balance of imperialist forces to the detri- ranean: its military intervention in Syria 11) The stages of China’s rise are insepa- ment of the United States. However, it is has enabled it to strengthen its naval rable from the history of the imperialist not possible for it to automatically fill the military presence in that country and in blocs and their disappearance in 1989: the “void” left by the decline of American the eastern Mediterranean basin. Russia position of the communist left affirming leadership because of the domination of has also managed for the time being to the “impossibility of any emergence of each for themselves in the imperialist make a rapprochement with Turkey, a new industrialised nations” in the period sphere and the distrust that its power pro- NATO member, which is moving away of decadence and the condemnation of vokes. Significant imperialist tensions have from the American orbit. states “which failed to succeed in their crystallised in particular with: ‘industrial take-off’ before the First World Russia’s current rapprochement with – India, which denounces the creation of War to stagnate in underdevelopment, China on the basis of the rejection of the Silk Road in its immediate vicin- or to preserve a chronic backwardness American alliances in the Asian region has ity (Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka) as a compared to the countries that hold the only a weak prospect of creating a long- strategy of encirclement and an attack upper hand” was valid in the period from term alliance given the divergent interests on its sovereignty, is undertaking a 1914 to 1989. It was the straitjacket of the of the two states. However the instability major programme to modernise its organisation of the world into two oppos- of relations between the powers confers on army and has almost doubled its budget ing imperialist blocs (permanent between Russia as a Eurasian state a new strategic since 2008; 1945 and 1989) in preparation for the world importance in view of the place it can oc- war that prevented any major disruption – and Japan, which has the same desire to cupy in the containment of China. of the hierarchy between powers. China’s block it. Tokyo has begun to question its 10) Above all, the current situation is rise began with American aid rewarding post World War II status limiting its legal marked by China’s rapid rise to power. The its imperialist shift to the United States and material capacity to use military latter has the aim (by investing massively in 1972. It continued decisively after the force, and it directly supports regional in new technological sectors, in artificial disappearance of the blocs in 1989. China states, diplomatically but also militarily, intelligence, etc) of establishing itself as appears to be the main beneficiary of “glo- in order to confront China. the leading economic power by 2030-50 balisation” following its accession to the The hostility of these two states towards and acquiring by 2050 a “world-class WTO in 2001when it became the world’s China is driving towards their convergence army capable of winning victory in any workshop and the recipient of Western relo- as well as their rapprochement with the modern war”. The most visible manifes- cations and investments, finally becoming United States. The latter have launched a tation of its ambitions is the launch since the world’s second largest economic power. four-party Japan-United States-Australia- 2013 of the “new Silk Road” (creation of It took the unprecedented circumstances of India alliance that provides a framework transport corridors at sea and on land, ac- the historical period of decomposition to for diplomatic, but also military, rapproche- cess to the European market and security allow China to rise, without which it would ment between the various states opposed of its trade routes) designed as a means of not have happened. to China’s rise. strengthening its economic presence but China’s power bears all the stigma of also as an instrument for developing its In this phase of “catching up” with US terminal capitalism: it is based on the imperialist power in the world and in the power by China, it is trying to hide its over-exploitation of the proletarian labour long term, directly threatening American hegemonic ambitions in order to avoid force, the unbridled development of the war pre-eminence. direct confrontation with its rival, which economy through the national programme is harmful to its long-term plans, while the This rise of China is causing a general of “military-civil fusion” and is accompa- United States is taking the initiative now to destabilisation of relations between pow- nied by the catastrophic destruction of the block it and refocus most of its imperialist ers, a serious strategic situation in which the environment, while national cohesion is attention on the Indo-Pacific area. dominant power, the United States, is trying based on the police control of the masses to contain and block the threatening rise of subjected to the political education of the 13) Despite Trump’s populism, despite China. The American response – started by One Party and the fierce repression of the disagreements within the American bour- Obama taken on and amplified by Trump populations of Uighur Muslims and Tibet. geoisie on how to defend their leadership by other means – represents a turning point In fact, China is only a giant metastasis and divisions, particularly regarding Rus- in American politics. The defence of its of the generalised militaristic cancer of sia, the Trump administration adopts an interests as a national state now means the entire capitalist system: its military imperialist policy in continuity and con- embracing the tendency towards every production is developing at a frenetic pace, sistency with the fundamental imperialist man for himself that dominates imperial- its defence budget has increased six-fold interests of the American state. It is gener- ist relations: the United States is moving in 20 years and has been ranked second in ally agreed among the majority sectors of from being the gendarme of the world the world since 2010. the American bourgeoisie that it is vital order to being the main agent of every man to defend the USA’s rank as undisputed 12) The establishment of the “New Silk for himself, of chaos, of questioning the leading world power. Road” and China’s gradual, persistent and world order established since 1945 under long-term progress (the establishment of Faced with the Chinese challenge, the its auspices. economic agreements or inter-state part- United States is undergoing a major trans- This “strategic battle for the new world nerships all over the world; with Italy, formation of its imperialist world strategy. order between the United States and with its access to the port of Athens in the This shift is based on the observation that China”, which is being fought in all areas at Mediterranean; in Latin America; with the framework of “globalisation” has not once, further increases the uncertainty and the creation of a military base in Djibouti guaranteed the United States’ position but unpredictability already embedded in the - the gateway to its growing influence on has if anything weakened it. The Trump particularly complex, unstable and shift- the African continent) affects all states and administration’s formalisation of the Resolution on the international situation  principle of defending only their interests It is a further indication of the new stage ing a setback on China, which had made as a national state and the imposition of in which capitalism is sinking further into Venezuela a political ally of choice for profitable power relations as the main basis barbarism and the abyss of untrammelled expanding its influence and has proved for relations with other states, confirms and militarism. powerless to oppose American pressure. draws implications from the failure of the It is not impossible that this American 14) The change in American strategy is policy of the last 25 years of fighting against offensive of imperialist reconquest of its noticeable in some of the main imperial- the “every man for himself” tendency as a Latin American backyard may inaugurate ist theatres: world policeman in defence of the world a more systematic offensive against China order inherited from 1945. – in the Middle East, the United States' on other continents. For the time being, it stated objective towards Iran (and raises the prospect of Venezuela’s plunge This turnaround by the United States sanctions against it) is to destabilise into the chaos of a deadlocked clash be- is reflected in: and overthrow the regime by playing tween bourgeois factions, as well as an – its withdrawal from (or questioning of) on its internal divisions. While seek- increased destabilisation of the entire South international agreements and institu- ing to continue its progressive military American zone. tions that have become obstacles to disengagement from the quagmire of 15) The current general strengthening its supremacy or contradictory to the Afghanistan and Syria, the United States of imperialist tensions is reflected in the current needs of American imperialism: now unilaterally relies on its allies in re-launch of the arms race and military withdrawal of the Paris Agreement on Israel and especially Saudi Arabia (by technological supremacy not only where Climate Change, reduction of contribu- far the largest regional military power) as tensions are most apparent (in Asia and the tions to the UN and withdrawal from the backbone of its policy to contain Iran. Middle East) but for all states, all leading UNESCO, the United Nations Human In this perspective, they provide each major powers. Everything indicates that a Rights Council, the Global Compact on of these two states and their respective new stage is looming in inter-imperialist Migrants and Refugees; leaders with the guarantees of unwaver- clashes and that the system sinking into ing support on all fronts to tighten their – the willingness to adapt NATO, the military barbarism. alliance (provision of state-of-the-art military alliance inherited from the military equipment, Trump's support in In this context, the EU (European Union) blocs, which has lost much of its rel- the scandal of the assassination of the in relation to the international imperialist evance in the current configuration of Saudis’ opponent Khashoggi, recogni- situation will continue to confront the imperialist tensions, by imposing on the tion of East Jerusalem as the capital of tendency towards fragmentation as put allies a greater financial responsibility Israel and of Israeli sovereignty on the forward in the “Report on Imperialist ten- for their protection and by revising the Syrian Golan Heights). The priority of sions” from June 2018.10 automatic character of the deployment containing Iran is accompanied by the of the American umbrella; prospect of abandoning the Oslo agree- The economic crisis – the tendency to abandon multilateral- ments, with its "two-state" solution (Is- ism in favour of bilateral agreements raeli and Palestinian) to the Palestinian 16) On the economic level, since the begin- (based on its military and economic question. The cessation of US aid to the ning of 2018, the situation of capitalism strength) using the levers of economic Palestinians and the PLO and the pro- has been marked by a sharp slowdown blackmail, terror and the threat of the use posal for a “big deal” (the abandonment in world growth (from 4% in 2017 to of military brute force (such as atomic of any claim to the creation of a Palestin- 3.3% in 2019), which the bourgeoisie strikes against North Korea) to impose ian state in exchange for considerable predicts will be worsening in 2019-20. themselves; US economic aid) are aimed at trying to This slowdown proved to be greater than resolve the Palestinian bone of conten- – the trade war with China, largely with a expected in 2018, as the IMF had to reduce tion, which has been instrumentalised view to denying China any possibility of its forecasts for the next two years and is by all regional imperialisms against the gaining economic stature and develop- affecting virtually all parts of capitalism United States, in order to facilitate de ing strategic sectors that would allow it simultaneously: China, the United States facto rapprochement between its Arab to directly challenge US hegemony; and the Euro Zone. In 2019, 70% of the and Israeli allies; world economy has been slowing down, – the questioning of multilateral arms – in Latin America, the United States particularly in the “advanced” countries control agreements (NIF and START) is engaging in a counter-offensive to (Germany, United Kingdom). Some of the in order to maintain their technological ensure better imperialist control in its emerging countries are already in recession lead and relaunch the arms race to ex- traditional area of influence. Bolsonaro's (Brazil, Argentina, Turkey) while China, haust America’s rivals (according to the rise to power in Brazil is not as such the which has been slowing down since 2017 proven strategy that led to the collapse of result of a simple push of populism but and is expected to grow by 6.2% in 2019, the USSR). The United States adopted in results from a vast operation of American is experiencing its lowest growth figures 2018 one of the highest military budgets pressure on the Brazilian bourgeoisie, a in 30 years. in its history; it is relaunching its nuclear strategy woven by the American state capabilities and is considering the crea- The value of most currencies in the with the objective, now fulfilled, of tion of a sixth component of the US Army emerging countries has weakened, some- bringing this state back into its imperial- to “dominate space” to counter China's times considerably, as in Argentina and ist fold. As a prelude to a comprehensive threats in the satellite field. Turkey plan to overthrow the anti-American The vandalising behaviour of a Trump, regimes of the "Troika of Tyranny" At the end of 2018, world trade recorded who can denounce American international (Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua) we zero growth, while Wall Street experienced commitments overnight in defiance of have seen the so-far abortive attempt in 2018 the largest stock market “correc- established rules, represents a new and to remove the Chavist/Maduro regime tions” in the last 30 years. Most indicators powerful factor of uncertainty, providing in Venezuela. are flashing and point to the prospect of a further impetus towards “each against all”. Washington, however, is clearly inflict- 10. See: International Review nº 161. 10 International Review 164 Spring 2020 new dive in the capitalist economy. using in particular the old structures of the which more and more limits its margin of Western bloc, and preserving a certain order manoeuvre.”12 17) The capitalist class has no future to in trade exchanges, were means of coping offer, its system has been condemned by 20) The current development of the cri- with the worsening crisis (the recessions history. Since the 1929 crisis, the first sis through the increasing disruptions it of 1987 and 1991-93) but also with the major crisis of the era of the decadence of causes in the organisation of production first effects of decomposition, which, in capitalism, the bourgeoisie has not ceased into a vast multilateral construction at the the economic field, could thus be largely to develop the intervention of the state to international level, unified by common mitigated. exercise general control over the economy. rules, shows the limits of “globalisation”. Increasingly faced with a narrowing of Following the EU’s reference model The ever-increasing need for unity (which extra-capitalist markets, more and more of eliminating customs barriers between has never meant anything other than the threatened by generalised overproduc- member states, the integration of many imposition of the law of the strongest on tion “capitalism has thus kept itself alive branches of world production has been the weakest) due to the “transnational” in- thanks to the conscious intervention of the strengthened by developing veritable tertwining of highly segmented production bourgeoisie, which can no longer afford to chains of production on a global scale. country by country (in units fundamentally rely on the invisible hand of the market. It By combining logistics, information divided by competition where any product is true that solutions also become part of technology and telecommunications, al- is designed here, assembled there with the problem: lowing economies of scale, the increased the help of elements produced elsewhere) exploitation of the proletariat’s labour comes up against the national nature of – the use of debt clearly accumulates huge power (through increased productivity, each capital, against the very limits of problems for the future; international competition, free movement capitalism, which is irremediably divided – the swelling of the state and the arms of labour to impose lower wages), the into competing and rival nations. This is sector is generating appalling inflation- submission of production to the financial the maximum degree of unity that it is ary pressures. logic of maximum profitability, world trade impossible for the bourgeois world to over- has continued to increase, even if less so, come. The deepening crisis (as well as the Since the 1970s, these problems have led stimulating the world economy, providing demands of imperialist rivalry) is putting to different economic policies, alternating a “second wind” that has extended the multilateral institutions and mechanisms between ‘Keynesianism’ and ‘neoliberal- existence of the capitalist system. to a severe test. ism’, but since no policy can address the real causes of the crisis, no approach can 19) The 2007-09 crash marked a step in This fact is illustrated by the current at- achieve final victory. What is remarkable the sinking of the capitalist system into titude of the two main powers competing is the determination of the bourgeoisie to its irreversible crisis: after four decades for world hegemony: keep its economy moving at all costs and of recourse to credit and debt in order to – China has ensured its economic rise both its ability to curb the tendency to collapse counter the growing trend of overproduc- by using the levers of WTO multilateral- through gigantic debt.”11 tion, punctuated by ever deeper recessions ism while developing its own economic and ever more limited recoveries, the 2009 Produced by the contradictions of the partnership policy (such as through recession was the most significant since decadence and historical impasse of the the "New Silk Road" project aimed the Great Depression. It was the massive capitalist system, state capitalism im- at counteracting the slowdown in its intervention of the states and their central plemented at the level of each national growth) without regard to environmental banks that saved the banking system from capital does not, however, obey a strict or "democratic" standards (a specific complete bankruptcy, racking up a huge economic determinism; on the contrary, aspect of globalisation policy aimed at public debt by buying back debts that could its action, essentially of a political nature, imposing Western standards and global no longer be repaid. simultaneously integrates and combines competition between the beneficiaries the economic dimension with the social Chinese capital, which has also been and losers of globalisation). Ideologi- (how to face its class enemy according to seriously affected by the crisis, has played cally, it challenges the Western liberal the balance of forces between the classes) an important role in the stabilisation of order that it considers to be in decline and imperialist dimensions (the need to the world economy by applying plans to and since 2012 has been trying, through maintain a huge armaments sector at the relaunch the economy in 2009, 2015 and the creation of institutions (the Shanghai centre of any economic activity). Thus, 2019, based on massive state debts. Organisation, the Asian Development state capitalism has experienced different Bank...) to lay the foundations of an Not only have the causes of the 2007- phases and organisational modalities in the alternative competing international 2011 crisis not been resolved or overcome, history of decadence. order, which the Western bourgeoisie but the severity and contradictions of the describes as “illiberal”. 18) In the 1980s, under the impetus of the crisis have moved to a higher level: it is major economic powers, such a new phase now the states themselves which are faced – The American state under the Trump was inaugurated: that of “globalisation”. In with the crushing burden of their debt (the administration (supported by a majority a first stage, it first took the form of Rea- “sovereign debt”), which further affects of the American bourgeoisie), considers ganomics, quickly followed by a second, their ability to intervene to revive their itself the loser of "globalisation" (which which took advantage of the unprecedented respective national economies. “Debt has it had originally initiated), its position historical situation of the fall of the Eastern been used as way of supplementing the as world leader having been eroded pro- bloc to extend and deepen a vast reorgani- insufficiency of solvent markets but it can’t gressively by its rivals (mainly China, sation of capitalist production on a global grow indefinitely as could be seen from but also western powers like Germany). scale between 1990 and 2008. the financial crisis which began in 2007. The policy of “America First” tends to However, all the measures which can be bypass regulatory institutions (WTO, G7 Maintaining cooperation between states, taken to limit debt once again confront and G20) which are increasingly unable capitalism with its crisis of overproduc- to preserve America’s position (which 11. 16th international congress, “Resolution on the international situation”. tion, and this in an international context 12. International Situation Resolution, 20th ICC which is in constant deterioration and Congress. Resolution on the international situation 11

had been their primary vocation) and to national wealth produced must be allocated of taxes and the price of goods of prime favour bilateral agreements that better to servicing the debt, heavily affects na- necessity. defend its interests and the stability es- tional budgets and severely reduces their Nevertheless, although the bourgeoisie sential for conducting business. room for manoeuvre in the face of the in all countries is more and more compelled crisis. Nevertheless, it is certain that this 21) The influence of decomposition is an to strengthen its attacks against the work- situation will not: additional destabilising factor. In particular, ing class, its margin of manoeuvre on the the development of populism further aggra- – end the policy of indebtedness, as the political level is by no means exhausted. vates the deteriorating economic situation main palliative to the contradictions We can be sure it will make use of every by introducing a factor of uncertainty and of the crisis of overproduction and a means to prevent the proletariat from re- unpredictability in the face of the turmoil of means of postponing the inevitable, plying on its own class terrain against the the crisis. The coming to power of populist at the cost of ever more serious future growing deterioration of its living condi- governments with unrealistic programmes convulsions; tions imposed by the convulsions of the for national capital, which weakens the world economy. – put any brake on the mad arms race functioning of the world economy and to which each state is irrevocably May 2019 trade, is creating a mess, and raises the condemned. This is taking on a more risk of weakening the means imposed by manifestly irrational form with the capitalism since 1945 to avoid any autarkic growing weight of the war economy retreat into the national framework, encour- and the production of arms, the growing aged by the uncontrolled contagion of the Continued from page 4 share of their GDP that will continue economic crisis. The mess of Brexit and to be devoted to it (and which today is the difficult exit of Britain from the EU reaching its highest level since 1988, at must be an open and continuous political provide another illustration: the inability of the time of the confrontation between and organisational combat against para- British ruling class parties to decide on the imperialist blocs). sitism in order to eliminate it from the conditions for separation and the nature of proletarian milieu”. future relations with the European Union, 23) Concerning the proletariat, these new the uncertainties surrounding the “resto- convulsions can only result in even more The struggle for the future party ration” of borders, in particular between serious attacks against its living and work- Northern Ireland and Eire, the uncertain ing conditions at all levels and in the whole future of a pro-European Scotland threaten- world, in particular: Working like a fraction thus has a number ing to separate from the United Kingdom of facets which form a unity: defence of – by strengthening the exploitation of affect the English economy (by reducing the organisation, combat against parasit- labour power by continuing to reduce the value of the pound) as well as that of ism, development of marxism, capacity for wages and increase rates of exploitation its former EU partners, deprived of the analysis and intervention confronted with and productivity in all sectors; long-term stability they need to regulate the evolution of the world situation. This the economy. – by continuing to dismantle what remains unity was at the heart of this Congress and of the welfare state (additional restric- will have to guide the activity of the ICC. The disagreements about economic tions on the various benefit systems for As we said at the beginning of this article, policy in Britain, the US and elsewhere rd the unemployed, social assistance and the 23 ICC Congress was centred round a show that there are growing divisions pension systems); and more generally militant reminder of the experience of the not only between rival nations but also at by “softly” abandoning the financing Third International and the effort to draw home – divisions between “multilateral- of all forms of assistance or social sup- all the lessons from this experience. This ists” and “unilateralists”, but even within port from the voluntary or semi-public is why the activities resolution ends with these two approaches (eg between “hard” sector; this commitment: and “soft” Brexiteers in the UK). Not only is there no longer any minimal consensus – the reduction by states of the costs “To accomplish its historic tasks the about economic policy even between the represented by education and health in ICC must draw strength and its fighting countries of the former western bloc but the production and maintenance of the spirit from the crises it will face, as did this question is also increasingly causing proletariat's labour power (and thus sig- the Marxist left of 1919. If it is capable of conflicts within the national bourgeoisies nificant attacks against the proletarians assuming fraction-like work, then it will themselves. in these public sectors); have the means to regroup the Communist Left current and new revolutionary energies 22) The current accumulation of all these – the aggravation and further development on clear programmatic bases, and thus contradictions in the context of the advanc- of precariousness as a means of impos- fully play its role in the foundation of the ing economic crisis, as well as the fragility ing and enforcing the development of future party”.10 of the monetary and financial system and mass unemployment in all parts of the the massive international indebtedness of class; ICC December 2019 states following 2008, open up a period – attacks camouflaged behind financial of serious convulsions to come and once rd operations, such as negative interest . Activities Resolution of 23 Congress. again place the capitalist system in front 10. Ibid. of the prospect of a new downward dive. rates which erode small saving accounts However, it should not be forgotten that and pension schemes. And although capitalism has certainly not definitively the official rates of inflation for con- exhausted all the means it has to slow sumer goods are low in many countries, down its sinking into the crisis and to avoid speculative bubbles have contributed uncontrolled situations, particularly in the to a veritable explosion of the cost of central countries. The over-indebtedness housing; of states, where an increased share of the – the increase in the cost of living notably 12 International Review 164 Spring 2020 Report on the impact of decomposition on the political life of the bourgeoisie

In the context of the impact of decomposition on the life of the bourgeoisie, this Bulgaria, Austria, Denmark, Norway, report focuses more particularly on the difficulties faced by the bourgeoisie with Switzerland and Italy. The study points to the rise of populist currents and on the way in which it tries to react to this. It will two moments that affected these growth therefore not deal directly and centrally with the history of populism or with more figures: the 2008 financial crisis and the general issues such as the relationship between populism and violence. refugee wave in 2015. The exacerbation of other phenomena characteristic of decomposition, such as terrorism, every Decomposition and populism This revolt against the political leaders “(…) can in no way lead to an alterna- man for himself, has fuelled the flames and tive perspective to capitalism”. stimulated the populist encroachment into The ICC has not discussed a report on all aspects of capitalist society. Finally, the the life of the bourgeoisie since its 17th – “The populist reaction is to want to rise to power within the leading imperialist congress in 2007. replace the existing hypocritical pseudo- power of a populist president has further However, the “Report on decomposi- equality with an ‘honest’ and open intensified the power of the tidal wave, as tion” from the 22nd ICC congress, which system of legal discrimination. (…) The recent data illustrate: the formation of a updates and completes the main axes logic of this argumentation is that, in the government composed solely of populist of the theses on the decomposition and absence of a longer-term perspective of groups in Italy, a political apparatus that places the phenomenon of populism in growth for the national economy, the liv- is sinking into confusion in Great Britain, this context, provides the framework of ing conditions of the natives can only be strong pressure from populist forces on more or less stabilised by discriminating Merkel’s politics in Germany, the victory reference for analysing and interpreting  the upheavals characterising the political against everybody else.” of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, the “Yellow life of the bourgeoisie today. The main Vests” movement in France, the emergence ideas are as follows: The increasing loss of control of a nationalist populist party (“Vox”) in by the bourgeoisie of its political Spain, and so on... – Decadent capitalism has entered "into a apparatus specific phase - the final phase - of its The expressions of populism are causing history, the one in which decomposition more and more uncontrollable convulsions Since 2017 and the 22nd International becomes a factor, if not the decisive fac- within the political apparatus of the various Congress, following the vote in support tor, in the evolution of society.” Along bourgeoisies. The following sections of of Brexit in the UK and the election of with the refugee crisis and the devel- the report will show that they are a major Trump as President of the United States, opment of terrorism, populism is one factor in all industrialised countries and the impact of populism on all aspects of of its most striking expressions. This that they also have a significant impact in the international situation has become in- process of decomposition of society is similar forms in a number of “emerging” creasingly clear: it has been shown clearly irreversible. countries. with regard both to the imperialist tensions – The rise of populism "is not the desired and the struggle of the proletariat. It is also becoming more and more prominent in the Trump’s presidency and the political choice of the dominant sectors exacerbation of opposition within of the bourgeoisie”. On the contrary, economy. It is finally revealing itself in a the US bourgeoisie it is a confirmation of the tendency spectacular way on the level of the bour- towards “an increasing loss of control geoisie’s political apparatus: the events of by the ruling class over its political the last two years therefore confirm in a The US bourgeoisie’s crisis did not come about as a result of Trump’s election. In apparatus”. spectacular way “this aspect that we identi- th fied 25 years ago: the tendency towards a 2007, a report to the 17 Congress already – Its real cause is "the inability of the growing loss of control by the ruling class noted the crisis of the American bourgeoi- proletariat to put forward its own of its political apparatus.” sie by explaining: “It is first and foremost response, its own alternative to the this objective situation - a situation that crisis of capitalism. Into this vacuum There has been a spectacular expan- excludes any long-term strategy on the part comes the loss of trust in the official sion of this loss of control in recent years, of the remaining dominant power - that institutions of society, that are no accentuating a real populist groundswell. made it possible to elect and re-elect such longer able to protect it, and it grows According to a study by The Guardian a corrupt regime, with a pious and stupid stronger and stronger, giving rise to newspaper, covering the last twenty years, President at its head [Bush junior]. (...), a loss of confidence in the future and the populist parties have seen the number the Bush Administration is nothing more the tendency to look to the past and to of votes for them in Europe triple (from than a reflection of the dead-end situation look for scapegoats to blame for the 7% to 25%). In about ten countries, these of US imperialism”. However, the victory catastrophe”. parties participate in the government of a populist president (Trump) known for or the parliamentary majority: Poland, making unpredictable decisions not only – There is "a common element present in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, brought to light the crisis of the US bour- most advanced countries: the profound . All quotes from “Report on Decomposition”, 22nd geoisie, but also highlighted the growing loss of confidence in the ‘elites’ (...) ICC Congress. instability of the political apparatus of the due to their inability to restore health  . “Resolution on the International Class Struggle”, to the economy and to stem the steady 22nd ICC Congress. . “The Impact of Decomposition on the Life of the rise in unemployment and poverty”. . Report on Decomposition.. Bourgeoisie”. Report on the impact of decomposition 13

US bourgeoisie and the exacerbation of leader of the opposing bloc; for large parts the populist Rassemblement National. internal tensions. of the US bourgeoisie, it is the enemy of the In Germany, Merkel immediately “free world”, but nevertheless a potential Incapable of preventing his election, the established herself as the champion of ally against China (and against Germany). most responsible fractions did everything anti-populism (“We can do this”), but While the majority of bourgeois factions in their power to try to limit the damage this boosted the populist wave so that the seem to remain opposed to a rapproche- (a) by manoeuvring to remove him, but German bourgeoisie was now confronted ment with Putin, Trump constantly blows the “impeachment” procedures seem to be with AfD, which has become the country’s hot and cold on this subject: there were very long term; (b) by placing trusted men second largest political party. As a result, friendly talks with Putin in Helsinki last on the presidential staff (From McMaster the Grand Coalition had to be reconstituted July, with Trump, openly breaking NATO’s to Kelly and Tillerson along the way) but after the last elections, having been largely blockade against Russia following the they have gradually been removed (the last forsaken in the general elections, and the aggression against Ukraine, declaring his one, Mad Dog’ Mattis has just quit); (c) by election results in the regions of Bavaria desire they do “great things in the world” trying to impose political control through and Saxony confirmed the electoral defeat together; then we have Trump’s decision its Republican deputies although, in the for the CDU/CSU and the collapse of the in October to abandon the agreement on end, it was Trump who played vampire SPD. The situation is complex and Mer- the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, to the Republican Party; (d) by aiming to kel’s relinquishing of the presidency of her claiming that Russia does not stand by it. develop an alternative to Trump within party, CDU, (and therefore in the future the the Democratic Party - but this has been a position of Chancellor) heralds a phase of failure so far. In the end, Trump’s re-elec- Results and consequences of the uncertainty and instability for the dominant tion for a second term seems increasingly various strategies of the European bourgeoisie in Europe. probable. bourgeoisies The political apparatus of the German Moreover, Trump’s confusing and ca- The “Contribution on Populism” envis- bourgeoisie is therefore in turmoil just as pricious policy highlights the perplexity aged as a hypothesis three types of strate- Germany is under pressure within the EU, and divisions within the US bourgeoisie gies that the bourgeoisie could adopt in on the one hand from the Central European about the economic and imperialist policies the face of the populist wave: first, direct countries that reject its policy towards needed to maintain its global supremacy. opposition, playing the anti-populism card; refugees but also the role as subordinate Beyond Trump’s versatile and commercial second, having the traditional parties take subcontracting economies which they feel approach, the shift from multilateralism to over aspects of the populist politics and Germany imposes on them; and on the other bilateralism reveals a real tension within thirdly, re-invigorating, or even reviving the hand from the countries of Southern Europe the bourgeoisie: the domination of US opposition of right vs left. To what degree (Greece, Italy) which reject its economic imperialism has always presented itself have we seen these strategies implemented policy; and all this while also finding itself behind a moral screen: the defence of de- and what have been the consequences? in the sights of the Trump administration, mocracy and the free world, the defence of which wants to impose import taxes on its human rights (Clinton, Obama), the fight Confrontation with an anti-populist cars and machines. against evil (Bush), and this at the head of policy: the French and German exam- The adoption of populist ideas by tradi- a broad coalition of states. Faced with the ples tional parties: the British example difficulties of maintaining this role as a In France, the bourgeoisie’s anti-populist global policeman, Trump openly broke with policy initially succeeded in countering The British bourgeoisie tried to channel the the hypocrisy of multilateralism to impose Marine Le Pen by pulling the “new” disastrous consequences of the referendum the cynical reality of the bilateral power Macron and his “La France en Marche” to exit the EU by having one of its major struggle, even with his friends (Britain) movement out of the hat – a movement traditional parties, the Conservative Party, and allies (Germany). In its logic, the US which, according to the media campaign, take on the responsibility for implementing can only maintain its global supremacy was not linked to the traditional parties. the Brexit plan. Far from stabilising the if it improves its economic situation and However, Macron was quickly confronted situation, conflicts within the British politi- this can be done by blackmailing its com- with the problem of having to implement cal system have intensified, giving rise to petitors through its overwhelming military a policy oriented towards globalisation, at further instability and unpredictability as supremacy. His former national security a time when Trump’s protectionism was to what will be the final outcome: adviser, General McMaster, explained it changing the rules, and especially when, at – the May government's continued hesi- well in the Wall Street Journal: he has “the this time, he was forced to launch massive tation and delay (a) in putting forward farsighted vision that the world is not a attacks against the working class. a coherent policy to implement Brexit ‘global community’, but an arena where and (b) in reaching a clear agreement nations, non-governmental and economic The consequences were quick to appear: with the EU, is pushing the EU to take actors are engaged in competition. (…). Macron was now confronted with a dizzy- measures to safeguard its own interests Rather than denying this elementary nature ing drop in popularity and the slingshots against what the European officials are of international relations, we embrace it”. from the “Yellow Vests”, which would already calling "a failed state"; In this sense, Trump’s irrationality does not undoubtedly benefit the populist currents reflect a lack of orientation of his policy most, especially since Macron still doesn’t – negotiations within the British govern- but resides in the orientation itself, which really have the support of a solid and ment, far from tending towards resolv- positions the leader of world capitalism at reliable political structure (a strong party ing conflicts, have exacerbated them the forefront of “every man for himself” machine) and this after the bourgeoisie had (giving rise to a series of resignations and chaos. scuttled its traditional parties - weakened of ministers opposed to what was the and plagued by internal disputes - in the current policy at the time) and this es- Trump’s unpredictability towards Rus- 2017 elections. Nevertheless , despite its pecially within the Conservative Party sia reveals how much these tensions crystal- fragility, it remains the only political force itself, which is in danger of splitting lise around the attitude towards the former in France capable of limiting the weight of apart, so that even May's vague and . Wall Street Journal, 30.05.2017. . International Review nº 157, 2016. general agreement reached with the 14 International Review 164 Spring 2020

EU is unlikely to get approval from the rigour advocated by Germany. However, a truly decisive factor in the political life of British Parliament. The divisions are any new monetary crisis involving Italy the bourgeoisie in general and in the forma- just as real within the Labour Party with would call into question the existence of tion of government teams in particular: the the Brexiteers, including party leader monetary union and the eurozone. Italy decomposition of bourgeois society, which Corbyn, opposed by a large number of knows this, which allows it to use it as a in recent years has made indisputable MPs who are “pro” the EU; form of blackmail. Also, the budget deficit progress”. Indeed, in the second decade of will increase Italian debt, which would the 20th century and the first decade of the – in the words of one European diplomat, downgrade its rating with the international 21st, Socialist or social democratic parties there is deep instability and British poli- rating agencies and would lead institutional were deployed in the front line to counter ticians are more and more looking like a investors to abandon Italian funds. the first effects of decomposition on the "political Taliban". In recent months, the bourgeoisie’s political apparatus (cf. Blair, most radical populist views have won We should closely follow the social Schröder, Zapatero, Hollande). renewed prominence, the dream of "Al- policy impact of the populist coalition. The bion reborn", and not just those outside social measures announced so far remain As a consequence, they suffered not only the traditional parties (like Farage) but far below what the populists promised, in from the disillusionment in the major demo- hard-line Conservative Party politicians particular by Five Star (9 billion announced cratic parties after the “post war boom”, too (Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mog for citizenship income instead of the 17 such as the Christian Democracy (in Italy, and Steve Baker). planned) and moreover, the Italian govern- Holland, Belgium and even Germany) but ment has agreed, under pressure from the they are also particularly identified with the The constitution of a populist govern- EU, to postpone a series of these measures failed political system. Thus the tendency ment: the Italian example to limit their budgetary impact. Moreover, towards decline seems irreversible: the One scenario not envisaged by the text on the populist government did not repeal the Socialist Party has disappeared in Italy, populism is the constitution of a govern- Job Act, concocted by the Renzi govern- is threatened with extinction in France, ment composed solely of populist parties. ment to liberalise the Italian labour market Holland and Greece and is in deep crisis For several years, populist parties have been and make it largely precarious. As a result, in Germany, Spain or Belgium. Only the part of government coalitions in various many of the measures announced will have Labour Party in Britain seems to be escap- countries and, in several countries of the an effect contrary to that announced. Thus, ing this trend at the present time, although former Eastern bloc such as Hungary or the “dignity decree” theoretically reduces this does not seem linked right now to the Poland, populist parties have even taken the possibilities of using limited-term bourgeoisie’s revitalisation of the right/left over at the head of the state. Today, how- contracts in the event of renewal but, under opposition. It is possible that the Labour ever, it is the EU’s fourth largest economy, the Job Act, the trend will be towards non- Party could profit from the Conservative Italy, which, against the backdrop of a very renewal of contracts and thus an increase Party’s difficulties in managing the populist difficult economic and social situation in precariousness. In addition, citizenship groundswell around Brexit, when, should (Gross Domestic Product falling by 10% income will also increase pressure on the the Tory Party implode, the bourgeoisie at constant prices between 2008 and 2017), unemployed (it will be withdrawn if they will have to turn to it for help. has seen the emergence of a government refuse three job offers) and spending will New radical popular left-wing forma- made up exclusively of populist parties (the be controlled (payments will be credited tions of various types have emerged in League and the Five Star Movement). This to a controlled-use card). Finally, retire- some countries: Syriza, Podemos, “La government combines a nationalist and ment at age 62 will only be available to France Insoumise”, the Democratic Social- xenophobic policy with a social welfare those who have contributed to the system ist current within the Democratic Party in policy for Italians, namely: (a) a citizen- for 38 years. the USA, with the support of a significant ship income, costing €9 billion; (b) pension The re-establishment of the right/left number of young people in the wake of reform reducing the retirement age from opposition Bernie Sanders’ candidature in the past 67 to 62 years (additional budget costs of primaries, etc. The various alternatives to €7 billion); (c) the adoption of the “dignity The third strategy envisaged, re-estab- the bankruptcy of social democracy, which decree” which reduces the renewal period lishing the right/left opposition to cut the the bourgeoisie is putting in place, provide for fixed-term contracts from 3 to 2 years; ground from under the feet of populism, clues to the impact of decomposition and (d) the reduction in taxes for self-employed does not seem to have been really put in populism on the working class, in relation workers and SMEs; and (e) an obligation place by the bourgeoisie. On the contrary, to the scale of the defeats suffered and the for companies that have received public the past few years have been characterised level of consciousness in the various in- aid to repay it if, within five years of ob- by an irreversible trend towards the decline dustrialised countries today. In Italy, one of taining it, they transfer their activities to of the Socialist parties. the countries where the working class was another country. The question of the crisis of the social in the vanguard during the struggles from The impact of this Italian populist policy democratic parties refers to the question 1968 to the 1980s, the “left-wing alterna- on the stability of the EU is incalculable in of the role of the left-wing parties, already tive” proposed is the Five Star Movement, the long term: in terms of its refugee policy, addressed in the report on the life of the a populist movement that declares itself, its hard line (attacking NGOs in particular) bourgeoisie of the 17th Congress (2007). furthermore, neither right nor left, and this clashes with other European countries, After having played an essential role in underlines the importance of the political especially France and Spain. On the budg- halting the wave of workers’ struggles of difficulties experienced by the Italian pro- etary side, the Italian government refuses the 1970s and 1980s (left in government, letariat. In Germany, the alternative is not the constraints imposed by the European left in opposition), these parties have been really the former Stalinists of Die Linke Commission (budget deficit of 2.4% of available for other tasks because, as the but rather the Greens, which also reflects GDP instead of the 0.8% planned for by the report points out, since the early 1990s, the the state of mind of the working class and previous government, in total contradiction social question was no longer the decisive the weakening of the sense of class identity. with European budgetary rules); instead it factor in the formation of governments: “... In France and Spain, on the other hand, the wants a social welfare policy for the “Ital- there is another factor that is becoming . “The impact of decomposition on the life of the ian people”, which rejects the budgetary increasingly important, which is becoming bourgeoisie”. Report on the impact of decomposition 15 alternatives called for are explicitly located in China’s application of the Singaporean States)”; and the prospects for restructur- on the left, and develop instead a “work- model. ing linked to a shift towards a more skilled ers’” discourse and claim to be located on economy are proving perilous. The hunt for corrupt elites (from Polish a proletarian terrain, even if they appear to judges to Russian oligarchs, European In this context, there are two trends be concerned with the proper functioning bureaucrats, supporters of the Turkish within the party today: an economic trend of the bourgeois political apparatus (Syriza Gülen movement or those of the Brazilian and a nationalist trend. With Xi the latter in Greece implemented the fierce auster- “Workers Party”) goes hand in hand with seems predominant (“No one should expect ity imposed by the EU; Podemos in Spain xenophobic nationalism that focuses on China to swallow snakes at the expense provided the support necessary to ensure a the rejection of foreigners (refugees from of its interests” (XIX CCP Congress, shaky stability to the central government). the Middle East or Africa, Venezuelans) 18.10.17)) but there seems to be some dis- In this sense, they cannot be considered as or minorities (Erdogan accentuating his cussion within the party between a faction left-wing populist parties. anti-Kurdish discourse, Orban targeting the that tends to want to make concessions to Roma or Putin targeting the Chechens). the USA (according to Deng Xiaoping’s The emergence of “strong conception of “hiding your talents and leaders” in Eastern European China biding your time”) and a faction with a countries and in countries outside hard line of confrontation with the USA; the capitalist heartlands Xi seems rather to be in favour of the lat- On the surface, the country shows an ter “asserting itself on the international apparent serenity, but political tensions The populist wave is not limited to the scene as number one in a ‘great country’ do not spare China, despite its dazzling industrialised countries of the West but also - to use his expression - treating America economic and military development. affects a number of countries in Eastern as an equal partner.”10 Europe and some “emerging” countries, Since the late 1970s, it has abandoned its where it is manifested through specific essentially autarkic economy to develop, on phenomena, such as the rise of “strong the Japanese and Singaporean models, an Populism, an essential factor in economy gradually integrated into regional the political life of the bourgeoisie leaders”. The economic destabilisation today under the pressure of the 2008 crisis on and then global markets. This political line, the one hand, and the huge corruption advocated by Deng Xiaoping, has not been scandals affecting the political parties on maintained without political upheavals and As the 22nd ICC International Congress the other hand, have caused resentment struggles, as illustrated by the events in “Report on Decomposition” recalled, de- and exasperation among the population Tiananmen and again around 2003, but it composition, of which populism is one of in a whole series of these countries, such was accentuated between 2003 and 2013 the most striking expressions, is a decisive as Poland, Hungary, and Turkey , which by President Hu Jintao. This orientation factor in the evolution of society and is has been recuperated by populist forces required the establishment of peaceful an irreversible process. While populism through reactionary movements leading relations with the United States: in 1992 a is not the result of a deliberate political to the advent of “strong men”, charismatic memorandum of understanding was signed, will on the part of the dominant sectors of leaders like Orban, Kaczyński, Erdogan or which granted American requests concern- the bourgeoisie, they have been unable to Bolsonaro and, for quite a while already, ing customs tariffs and intellectual property prevent its impact on their political appa- Putin. rights. It was also accompanied by a wave ratus from reaching such a level that they of democratisation in the 1980s and 1990s, are confronted with a tendency towards a While the 1990s and even the early but with limitations after Tiananmen. growing loss of control over it, and with 21st century had been characterised by unpredictable shocks that will more than “democratic opening” in many of these Xi Jinping’s rise to power has showed ever characterise the political life of the countries (as well as in Russia and China), a certain reorientation of Chinese politics, bourgeoisie in the coming period. these “strong” leaders displayed their which is expressed on a political level, as contempt for the “liberal” elites, the tra- in other countries, by a shift towards power 1. This loss of control by the bourgeoi- ditional “democratic” political game and into the hands of a strong leader. Xi is sie over its political apparatus is clearly an “independent” press, clearly preferring presented as Mao’s equal. This reorienta- distinct from the various political crises instead a nationalist authoritarian regime, tion is the result of a number of factors: that the bourgeoisie may have experienced rejecting immigrants or minorities that (a) China’s rapid economic development, in the 1960s to 1980s. Their context is could alter national cohesion. “On July which goes hand in hand with a further radically different: before the 1990s, the 26, 2014, in Romania, Mr. Orban clearly affirmation of international expansion bourgeoisie’s political crises were linked showed his colours in a resounding speech: (the “New Silk Road”); (b) it also leads to either to the inability to cope with the (...) We consider, he said, that a democracy more explicit manifestations of national- working class or to the consequences of does not necessarily have to be liberal and ism and an impressive development of its imperialist confrontations (the Suez crisis that it is not because a state ceases to be military strength, while the USA develops in Britain and France, the Algerian crisis liberal that it ceases to be a democracy an increasingly aggressive attitude towards in France, the Maastricht Treaty in France (...). Societies with a liberal democracy China; (c) The supersonic transformation and Holland, etc.) and were managed within as their foundation are unlikely to be able of the Chinese economy “has led to deep the political apparatus. The current crisis to maintain their competitiveness in the spatial and social divisions and significant concerns a growing tendency towards the coming decades. (…). He also announced ecological damage. (…). The Gini coef- loss of control by the bourgeoisie of its an economic project, that of ‘building a ficient, a fine measure of income disper- own political apparatus. This was already competitive nation for the great global sion and thus of the degree of inequality highlighted in the last report on the life of competition of the coming decades’”. This in societies, has fallen from 0.16 at the the bourgeoisie (17th ICC congress, 2007): is the idea that there are different models beginning of the post-Maoist transition to “The bourgeoisie of the most developed of democracy, an idea that is also found 0.4 on average since the late 1990s (0.27 countries of Europe, Japan and the United in some ways in Putin’s Russian model or in Sweden, to 0.32 in France, 0.34 in the United Kingdom and 0.4 in the United . Le Monde Diplomatique, 5 December 2017. . Le Monde Diplomatique, 23.09.2018. 10. Le Monde Diplomatique, 4 October 2018. 16 International Review 164 Spring 2020

States, once masters in the subtle art of and on his return the threats of the same where the populist/anti-populist opposi- electoral manipulation, is now facing in- Bolsonaro and his supporters against the tion (anti-Trump) has been at the centre creasing difficulties in obtaining the least WP and other left-wing movements; po- of political life since the Trump election, undesirable result”.11 The unlikely political larisation of the “Yellow Vests” against the as the mid-term elections have further upheavals affecting the English, American figure of Macron, etc. demonstrated. Often, while opposing pop- and German bourgeoisies, the three most ulism, they are largely inspired and take 4. Unlike the first expressions of experienced bourgeoisies in mastering up populist approaches or ideas: populism (Haider, Berlusconi,...) which the political game in the past, perfectly defended an ultraliberal economic policy, – In France, the campaign around Macron illustrate the gravity of the problem. the current populist parties advocate a used the same strategies as populism: Populist movements are formed around policy aimed at protecting the indigenous rejection of traditional parties, “new” recurring themes such as refugees, security, population (“Italians first”, ”real Finns”, man (Macron) and political “move- the resentment of those left behind by ”Eigen volk eerst” (“our own people first”, ment” (LREM) presented as breaking the crisis, but they also feed on specific the slogan of the Flemish populists),...) by with the past. tensions within the national bourgeoisies: openly discriminating against others. This – By focusing priorities on the need to the US bourgeoisie’s dismay at the de- may involve economic protectionism or eliminate terrorism and on the public cline of its world leadership, the British the promotion of a form of chauvinist neo- safety of citizens (increased controls, bourgeoisie’s ambiguity towards Europe, Keynesian policy: Trump claims to protect increased number of cameras, etc.), they divisions between regionalist and national- American workers and their work against also instilled the idea that it is inevitable ist factions within the Spanish or Belgian the “invasion” of Mexican and Central to agree to sacrifice a little freedom for bourgeoisie, etc. American immigrants as well as foreign greater security. products; Polish or Hungarian governments 2. While the increasing pressure of pop- take protective measures for their employ- – Lafontaine in Germany and Podemos in ulism is plunging the traditional political ees and pensioners while opposing any Spain fight populism by translating its apparatus of the bourgeoisie into chaos, refugee quota in the name of defending the anti-immigration language to the point these movements tend to benefit today in nation’s cultural integrity; the Lega/Five of view of the “left”: by creating an op- various countries - and not only in Eastern Star government in Italy is implementing an position between a left advocating “open European countries but also in the USA uncompromising and tough policy against borders” and another left advocating and Great Britain for example - from the the reception of refugees while planning “closed borders and local help”, they support of factions of the big bourgeoisie. a “citizenship income” for every Italian integrate populist arguments into the Thus, in the USA, not only the steel or citizen and lowering the retirement age very anti-populist discourse. automotive sectors can support Trump’s from 67 to 62 years. This kind of policy protectionist policy, but even the IT sec- January 2019 appears to be more “realistic” than that tor against the rise of Chinese companies, of the left, insofar as in safeguarding the such as Huawei or Alibaba, which threaten benefits of the oppressed natives at the their global domination. And other areas expense of other oppressed people. of Silicon Valley may be in favour of a rapprochement with Russia. Recent events in Russia and Hungary highlight the fact that the importance of 3. Populism is street politics. In fact, if such a chauvinistic “social” policy for populist parties and movements generate a the credibility of populist movements kind of militant energy, unlike traditional and “strong leaders” should not be un- parties, it is because these formations no derestimated. For example, in Russia, the longer respect taboos and therefore allow draconian pension reform, which Putin and all prejudices to be expressed. his government pushed through by taking As a result, populist campaigns, marked advantage of the media hype around the by anger and resentment, denigrate the Football World Cup (the retirement age traditional political world and elites, rising from 55 to 63 for women, and from and point fingers at those who are guilty 60 to 65 for men), provoked strong protests for what is not working. They naturally and a decline in Putin’s popularity rate from lead to the stigmatisation of groups and 80 to 63%. The latter immediately had to individuals, to a tendency towards their relax the measures and announce a big demonisation, which is already happening increase in the value of pensions, without and will happen more and more frequently however being totally convincing, insofar and explicitly in various forms in the po- as his popularity is based more on the fact litical news: attacks on refugee reception that by restoring state control over the oli- centres in Germany; letters with suspicious garchs, he had succeeded in guaranteeing powder addressed to Trump and other regular payment of wages and pensions. members of his administration during the In Hungary, major demonstrations have campaign for the mid-term elections in the taken place to protest against the Orban USA, while booby-trapped packages were government’s “slavery” law, which almost sent to Democratic parliamentarians, the completely eliminates all wage compensa- media (CNN) or elite figures (Soros); the tion for overtime. anti-Jewish attack by a white supremacist 5. In response to the rise of populism, in Pittsburgh; assassination attempt against the bourgeoisie has set up anti-populist presidential candidate Bolsonaro in Brazil campaigns, particularly in France during 11. “The impact of decomposition on the life of the the 2017 election campaign or in the USA bourgeoisie”. 17 Report on decomposition today (May 2017)

The ICC adopted the Theses on Decomposition more than 25 years ago. Since then, this own response to the crisis of the capitalist analysis of the current phase of society has become a key element in our organisation’s economy, world war or the communist understanding of the evolution of the world. The following document provides an up- revolution. Even if there had been a shift in date of the Theses on Decomposition with regard to the evolution of the world situation the balance of power between the classes, during the last quarter century, and especially in the recent period. if, for example, the bourgeoisie were mov- ing towards a new generalised war or if the proletariat had engaged in struggles Concretely, we must confront the essen- of social life possible. As a crisis-ridden opening up a revolutionary perspective, tial points of the Theses with the present capitalism’s contradictions can only get that would not mean that the period of situation: to what degree have the various deeper, the bourgeoisie’s inability to offer decomposition of society would have been elements been confirmed, even amplified, the slightest perspective for society as a left behind (as the IGCL stupidly asserts). and to what extent have they been disproved whole, and the proletariat’s inability, for The process of decomposition of society or need to be developed? In particular, the the moment, openly to set forward its own is irreversible because it corresponds to current world situation requires us to return can only lead to a situation of generalised the terminal phase of capitalist society. to three issues of key importance: decomposition. Capitalism is rotting on its The only thing that could possibly have feet.” (Point 4). happened, in the case of such a change- – terrorism; round, is a slowing down of this process, – refugees; “In fact, no mode of production can live, certainly not a “turning back”. But, in any – the rise of populism as an expression of develop, maintain itself on a viable basis case, such a change-round has not occurred. the loss of control by the bourgeoisie of and ensure social cohesion if it is unable Over the past quarter century, the world the political game. to present a perspective for the whole of proletariat has been totally incapable of the society which it dominates. And this providing itself with any prospect at all of 1) The general framework for the is especially true of capitalism, which is analysis of decomposition overthrowing the existing order. Quite the the most dynamic mode of production in contrary, we have witnessed a regression history.” (Point 5). in its combativity as well as in its ability “...it is vital to highlight the fundamental “...in a historical situation where the to display the fundamental weapon of its distinction between the elements of decom- working class is not yet capable of enter- struggle, solidarity. position which have infected capitalism ing the combat for its own, and the only since the beginning of the century and In the same way, the bourgeoisie has ‘realistic’ perspective - the communist the generalised decomposition which is not succeeded in achieving for itself a real revolution - but where the ruling class is infecting the system today, and which can perspective “other than day-to-day stop- not able either to put forward the slightest only get worse. Here again, quite apart gap measures to prop up the economy” perspective of its own, even in the short from the strictly quantitative aspect, the (Theses, point 9). Following the collapse of term, the latter’s previous ability during the phenomenon of social decomposition has the eastern bloc, the world economy seemed period of decadence to limit and control today reached such a breadth and depth to experience, after a period of instability the phenomenon of decomposition cannot that it has taken on a new and unique qual- in this area, a significant recovery from its help but collapse under the repeated blows ity, revealing decadent capitalism’s entry crisis. In particular, we saw the emergence of the crisis.” (Point 5). into a new and final phase of its history: of the BRICs showing impressive growth the phase where decomposition becomes a To begin with, we must insist on an rates. However, the sense of euphoria that decisive, if not the decisive factor in social essential aspect of our analysis: the term had gripped the world bourgeoisie, imag- evolution.” (Point 2). “decomposition” is used in two different ining that its economy could revive as in ways. On the one hand, it applies to a phe- the “post war boom” years, was cruelly “Concretely, not only do the imperial- nomenon that affects society particularly dampened with the convulsions of 2007- ist nature of all states, the threat of world in the period of the decadence of capital- 2008 which highlighted the fragility of the war, the absorption of civil society by the ism and, on the other hand, it refers to a financial sector and threatened a depression state Moloch, and the permanent crisis of particular historical phase of capitalism, similar to that of the 1930s. The world the capitalist economy all continue during its ultimate phase. bourgeoisie managed to limit the dam- the phase of decomposition, they reach a age, in particular with a massive injection synthesis and an ultimate conclusion within “(...) the phenomenon of social decom- of public funds into the economy which it.” (Point 3). position has today reached such a breadth resulted in an explosion of sovereign debt and depth that it has taken on a new and “In this situation, where society’s two and caused, most notably, the Euro crisis unique quality, revealing decadent capital- decisive - and antagonistic - classes con- in 2010-2013. At the same time, the rate ism’s entry into a new and final phase of front each other without either being able to of growth of the world’s largest economy its history: the phase where decomposition impose its own definitive response, history remained at a lower level than before 2007 becomes a decisive, if not the decisive factor nonetheless does not just come to a stop. despite interest rates being virtually equal in social evolution.” (Point 2). Still less for capitalism than for preceding to zero. As for the highly praised BRICs, social forms, is a ‘freezing’ or a ‘stagnation’ On the basis of our analysis of decom- they have now been reduced to ICs since position, we can see this unprecedented Brazil and Russia are facing a spectacular situation in which neither of the two main slowdown in their growth, or even reces- 1. See “Theses on decomposition, final phase of classes of society, the bourgeoisie and the sion. What dominates in the ruling class capitalist decadence”, International Review nº 107, 2001 proletariat, is in a position to implement its today is not euphoria, the belief in “brighter 18 International Review 164 Spring 2020 tomorrows”, but moroseness and anxi- world’ into an immense shantytown without heat. This was not only the case for ety, which is certainly not relaying to the where hundreds of millions of human the poor countries of Europe, as the figures whole of society the feeling that a “better beings survive like rats in the sewers were 6.7%, 13.1% and 5.3%, respectively future is possible”, especially amongst the (...) in Germany and 8%, 15.9% and 10.9% in exploited whose living conditions continue the United Kingdom. – The development of the same phe- to deteriorate. nomenon in the heart of the major We could also cite many examples of Thus the historical conditions which cities of ‘advanced’ countries (...) “accidental” disasters, in the past 25 years. led to this phase of decomposition have The ‘accidental’ catastrophes which But it is enough to mention two of the most not only continued to exist, they have have multiplied in recent times (...) spectacular and dramatic affecting, not worsened, which has resulted in a wors- Third World countries, but the two most – The increasingly devastating effects of ening of most of the manifestations of developed economic powers: the floods of ‘natural’ disasters at the human, social decomposition. New Orleans in August 2005 (nearly 2000 and economic levels (...) dead, a city emptied of inhabitants) and In order to fully understand such worsen- – The degradation of the environment the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March ing, it is important to recall that - as point 2 of which reaches astonishing proportions 2011, which is comparable with that of the Theses points out - we are talking about (...) “ (Point 7). Chernobyl in 1986. the epoch or phase of decomposition and not merely “manifestations of decomposition”. The FAO’s official figures show a fall As regards the “devastating scale of Point 1 of the Theses insists that there is a in malnutrition since the 1990s. However, the degradation of the environment”, crucial difference between the decadence there are still close to one billion people something that is now confirmed by of capitalism and the decadence of other who suffer from malnutrition today. This observations and forecasts that today are modes of production that preceded it. To tragedy mainly affects Southern Asia and universally accepted in scientific circles underline this difference is important in especially sub-Saharan Africa where, in and that most sectors of the bourgeoisie of relation to the question that constitutes some regions, nearly half of the popula- every country now recognise (even if the the key to decomposition: perspective. If tion are the victims of hunger, especially ruling class is incapable of implementing we look at the decadence of feudalism we the children, with dramatic consequences the needed measures owing to the laws of can see that it was limited by the “parallel” for their growth and development. While capitalism). The list is long, not only the emergence of capitalist relations and the technology has led to phenomenal increases catastrophes awaiting humanity due to the gradual and partial rise of the bourgeois in productivity, including in the agricultural destruction of the environment, but also class. The decomposition of a series of sector, at the same time farmers in many those that are hitting us presently: pollu- economic, social, ideological and politi- countries are unable to sell their produce, tion of the air in the cities and of the water cal forms of feudal society was somehow and hunger continues to be a scourge for of the oceans, climatic change bringing attenuated in reality (not necessarily with hundreds of millions of people as in the increasingly violent weather phenomena, any real consciousness) by the emerging worst periods of human history. And if the spreading desertification, the increasing new mode of production. Two illustrations it does not strike the rich countries, it is disappearance of plant and animal species can be given: the absolute monarchy was because the state is still able to feed its that more and more threatens the biological used in some countries for the economic poor. For example, 50 million people in the equilibrium of our planet (for example, the development of capital, contributing to United States receive food aid vouchers. disappearance of bees is a threat to our the formation of a national market; and food resources). Today, more than one billion people the religious view of the “purification of live in shantytowns and the number has the body” - supposed to be the home of the only increased since 1990. Thus, the 3) The political and ideological devil - had a usefulness in the primitive “transformation of the Third World into manifestations of decomposition accumulation of capital by increasing the a huge slum” is evident to such an extent birthrate and by imposing discipline on that the Global Risks report presented to The picture we gave in 1990 was as fol- future proletarians. the Davos Forum in 2015 placed “rapid lows: It is for this reason that in the decadence and uncontrolled urbanisation” among the – “the incredible corruption that grows of feudalism there may have been more major risks threatening the planet for the and prospers inside the political ap- or less advanced manifestations of social first time, noting in particular that “40% of paratus (...) decomposition, but there could not have urban growth takes place in shantytowns” existed a specific period of decomposi- globally, which means that this proportion – the development of terrorism, or the tak- tion. In human history some very isolated is much higher in the under-developed ing of hostages, as methods of warfare civilisations were able to finish in a total countries. between states, to the detriment of the decomposition leading to their disappear- ‘laws’ capitalism established in the past And this phenomenon of the growth of ance. However, only capitalism can have in to ‘regulate’ conflicts between fractions shantytowns tends to spread into the rich- its decadence a global era of decomposition, of the ruling class est countries, in various forms: millions of as a historical and world phenomenon. Americans losing their homes during the – the constant increase in crime, insecurity subprime crisis, inflating further the num- and urban violence (...) 2) Social manifestations of bers of the existing homeless, the camps of decomposition – the development of nihilism, despair Roma or refugees on the outskirts of many and suicide among young people, and cities in Europe, and even in the centres ... the hatred and xenophobia (...) The theses of 1990 pointed to the main And even for those who live in permanent social manifestations of decomposition: housing, tens of millions of them live in real – the tidal waves of drug addiction, which is now become a mass phenomenon and – "The proliferation of famines in the slums. In 2015, 17.4% of the inhabitants of a powerful element participating in countries of the ‘third world’ (...) the European Union lived in overcrowded conditions, 15.7% of dwellings were leaky the corruption of states and financial – The transformation of this same ‘third or rotting and 10.8% of dwellings were institutions (...) Decomposition today (2017) 19

– the profusion of sects, the revival of That said, it is important to remember that mobilised, but above all the bourgeois and the religious spirit, including in some it was on the basis of the Paris bombings the petty bourgeois, who considered that advanced countries, the rejection of in 1985 that our comrade MC began a such a measure was an insult to God. At a rational, coherent and constructive reflection on decomposition. The theses the same time, obscurantism and religious thought (...) analyse as particularly significant the entry fanaticism continue to increase amongst of capitalism into the phase of decomposi- the most disadvantaged sections of the – the invasion of the same media by the tion: “the development of terrorism, the population, especially young proletarian spectacle of violence, horror, blood and taking of hostages, as means of warfare immigrants who are Muslim, drawing along massacres (...) between states, to the detriment of the ‘laws’ with them a significant number of “native – the vacuity and venality of all ‘artistic’ that capitalism established in the past to born” young people. Never in European production: literature, music, painting, ‘regulate’ conflicts between fractions of cities have we seen so many veils, or even architecture (...) the ruling class “. “burqas” on the heads of Muslim women. And what about the attitude of those tens – the attitude of 'every man for himself', It is hardly necessary to note to what of thousands of young people who, after marginalisation, the atomisation of extent this question has acquired a promi- the assassination of the cartoonists of the individuals, the destruction of family nent place in the life of capitalism. Today, newspaper Charlie Hebdo, considered relationships, the exclusion of the elderly terrorism as an instrument of war between that they had brought it on themselves by from social life, the annihilation of love states has become central to the life of soci- drawing the “Prophet”? and affection “ (Point 8). ety. We have even seen the constitution of a new state, Daesh, with its army, its police, All these aspects have been confirmed its administration, its schools, for which 5) The question of refugees and have even got worse. By leaving aside terrorism is the weapon of choice. momentarily the aspects related to the This question is not addressed in the theses points which will be emphasised below The quantitative and qualitative increase of 1990. So here we provide a supplement (terrorism, the refugee question and the rise in the role of terrorism took a decisive step to deal with this problem. of populism), we can note, for example, that 15 years ago with the attack on the Twin violence and urban crime have exploded in Towers, and it was the world’s leading The question of refugees has acquired a many countries in Latin America and also power that deliberately opened the door central place in the life of society in recent in the suburbs of some European cities - to this attack in order to justify its inter- years. In 2015, more than 6 million people partly in connection with drug trafficking, vention in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was were forced to leave their country, bring- but not only this. As regards this traffic, subsequently confirmed by the attacks in ing to more than 65 million the number and the enormous weight it has in society, Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005. The of refugees in the world (more than the including at the economic level, it can establishment of Daesh in 2013-14 and population of Great Britain). To this number be said that this is a continually growing the attacks in France in 2015-16, Belgium must be added the 40 million people who “market” because of the increasing malaise and Germany in 2016 represent another are displaced within their own country. This and the despair that affects every layer step in this process. Moreover, the Theses is an phenomenon unprecedented since the of the population. Regarding corruption, give us some elements of explanation of Second World War. the growing fascination of jihadism and and all the manipulations that constitute Population displacement is a part of suicidal acts on a part of the youth of the “white-collar crime”, many instances have the history of humankind, a species that developed countries: been uncovered in recent years (like those appeared in a small part of East Africa of “Panama papers” which are just a tiny – "the development of nihilism, despair 200,000 years ago and spread throughout tip of the iceberg of the gangsterism in and suicide among young people, and the world wherever there were exploitable which the financial sector more and more the hatred and xenophobia; resources for food and the other basic needs has to tread). With respect to the venality of life. One of the great moments of these – the profusion of sects, the revival of of creative artists and their recuperation, displacements of population is that of the the religious spirit, including in some we can quote the recent award of the Nobel colonisation of the greater part of the planet advanced countries, the rejection of Prize for Literature to Bob Dylan, artistic by the European powers, a phenomenon a rational, coherent and constructive symbol of revolt in the 1960s, but there are which appeared 500 years ago and coin- thought (...) many others we could name. Finally, the cided with the rise of capitalism (see the destruction of human relationships, family – the invasion of the same media by the pages of the Communist Manifesto on this ties, and human empathy has only worsened spectacle of violence, horror, blood and subject). In general, migratory flows (while as evidenced by the use of anti-depressants, massacres (...)” they include traders, adventurers or soldiers the explosion of psychological pressure driven by conquest) are composed mainly and stress at work and the appearance of All these aspects have only increased in of populations fleeing their country because new occupations intended to “support” recent decades. They affect every sector of of persecution (English Protestants of the such people. There are also expressions of society. In the most advanced country of “Mayflower”, Jews from Eastern Europe) real carnage like that of summer 2003 in the world, there was the rise of a “religious or poverty (Irish, Sicilians). It is only with France where 15,000 elderly people died right” (the “Tea Party”) inside one of the the advent of capitalism in its period of during the heat wave. two political parties in charge of managing decadence that the dominant migratory the interests of the national capital, a move- flows are reversed. Increasingly, it is the 4) The question of terrorism ment involving the most favoured sectors inhabitants of the colonies who, driven of society. Similarly, in a country like by misery, come to find work (generally France, the adoption of homosexual mar- Obviously, this is not a new question ei- low-skilled and very poorly paid) in the riage (which in itself was only a manoeuvre ther in the history or in the analyses of the metropoles. This phenomenon continued of the Left to distract from the betrayal of ICC (see, for example, the texts “Terror, after the waves of decolonisation which its electoral promises and the attacks it terrorism and class violence” published have followed one another from the end had carried out against the exploited) has in International Review nº 14 and nº 15. of the Second World War until the 1960s. seen millions of people of all social sectors 20 International Review 164 Spring 2020

It was at the end of the 1960s that the open “This general tendency for the bourgeoisie field of demagogy, it is in no way prepared crisis of the capitalist economy, with the to lose control of its own policies, was one to take over the affairs of state. rise in unemployment in the developed of the prime factors in the collapse of the When we developed our analysis of countries at the same time as the increase Eastern bloc; this collapse can only ac- decomposition, we considered that this in poverty in the former colonies, gave centuate the tendency: phenomenon affected the form of imperial- rise to a significant increase in illegal – because of the resulting aggravation of ist conflicts (see “Militarism and decom- immigration. Since then, the situation has the economic crisis; position”, International Review nº 64) and only worsened despite the hypocritical also the consciousness of the proletariat. speeches of the ruling class, which finds – because of the disintegration of the On the other hand, we considered that it in the “undocumented” a workforce still western bloc which is implied by the had no real impact on the evolution of the cheaper than those that have the necessary disappearance of its rival; crisis of capitalism. If the current rise of papers. – because of the temporary disappearance populism were to lead to the coming to Thus, for several decades, the migra- of the perspective of world war which power of this current in some of the main tory flows were mainly about economic will exacerbate the rivalries between the European countries, such an impact of emigration. But what is new in recent different bourgeois factions (between decomposition will develop. years is that the proportion of immigrants national factions especially, but also Indeed, while the rise of populism can having fled their country for reasons of between cliques within national states).” have specific causes in a given country war or repression has exploded, creating (Point10) (after the fall of Stalinism for certain Cen- a situation like that experienced follow- If the worsening of the economic crisis tral European countries, the effects of the ing the Spanish Civil war or the end of resulting from the collapse of the Eastern financial crisis of 2007-2008 which ruined the Second World War. Year after year, bloc did happen at the beginning, it has and deprived millions of Americans of their the number of refugees who, by all sorts not been sustained. However, the other homes, etc.), it has a common element that of means, including the most dangerous, aspects have remained valid. What needs is present in most advanced countries: the are knocking on the doors of Europe, is to be emphasised in the current situation deep loss of confidence in the “elites”, increasing, which is putting to the test the is the full confirmation of this aspect that that is to say, the traditional ruling parties capacities of European countries to play we identified 25 years ago: the tendency (conservative or progressives like the so- host and making the issue of refugees a for the dominant class to increasingly lose cial-democrats) because of their inability major political issue in these countries control of its political apparatus. to restore the health of the economy, to (see below on the question of populism). stop a steady rise in unemployment and The massive displacements of populations Obviously, these events are used by vari- poverty. In this sense, the rise of populism are not phenomena peculiar to the phase ous sectors of the bourgeoisie (particularly constitutes a sort of revolt against the of decomposition. But today they are as- those of the left) to revive the flame of current political leaders, but a revolt that suming a dimension which makes them a antifascism (this is particularly the case in cannot lead to an alternative perspective singular element of decomposition and we Germany) for obvious historical reasons. to capitalism. The only class that can give can apply to this phenomenon the analysis In France, too, during the last regional such an alternative is the proletariat when we gave in 1990 about unemployment: “In elections in December 2015, there was a it mobilises on its class terrain and gains fact, although unemployment (which is a “Republican Front” which saw the Socialist consciousness of the necessity and the direct result of the economic crisis) is not Party withdraw its candidates and call to possibility of the communist revolution. in itself an expression of decomposition, vote for the right to block the road to the It is the same with populism as with the its effects make it an important element of National Front. That said, it is clear that general phenomenon of the decomposition this decomposition.” (Point 14). the main target of anti-fascist campaigns, of society which marks the present phase as history has taught us, the working class, of the life of capitalism: their determining is not at present a threat or even a major 6) The rise of populism cause is the inability of the proletariat to concern for the bourgeoisie. put forward its own response, its own al- The year 2016, notably with Brexit and In fact, the almost unanimous view of the ternative to the crisis of capitalism. In this the election of Donald Trump at the head most responsible sectors of the bourgeoisie vacuum, a loss of confidence in the official of the world’s top power marks a stage of and their media against Brexit, against the institutions of society that are no longer great importance in the development of a election of Trump, against the extreme able to protect it, a loss of confidence in phenomenon that had not yet played a sig- right in Germany or against the National the future, a tendency to look to the past, nificant role when it appeared in countries Front in France cannot be considered as to seek out scapegoats responsible for the like France, Austria or, to a lesser extent, a manoeuvre: the economic and political disaster, is getting stronger and stronger. Italy with the rise of the populist extreme options put forward by populism are by no In this sense, the rise of populism is a right in the elections. This phenomenon means a realistic option for managing the phenomenon totally typical of the period is obviously not the result of a deliberate national capital (contrary to the options of of decomposition. This is all the more so political will of the dominant sectors of the the left of capital which propose a return as it finds valuable allies in the rise of ter- bourgeoisie, even if these sectors clearly to Keynesian solutions faced with the rorism, which creates a growing sense of know how to use it against the conscious- “excesses” of neo-liberal globalisation). If fear and helplessness, especially with the ness of the proletariat. we confine ourselves to the case of Europe, massive influx of refugees aggravating fears that they have come to take the jobs The theses of 1990 stated: populist-led governments, if they were to implement their programmes, could only of the natives or will hide new terrorists “Among the major characteristics of the lead to a sort of vandalism which would in their midst. decomposition of capitalist society we only further aggravate the instability that When we had identified the entry of should emphasise the growing difficulty of threatens the institutions of this continent. world capitalism into the acute phase of the bourgeoisie in controlling the evolution And this is all the more so because while its economic crisis, we had pointed out of the political situation.” (Point 9). the political staff of the populist movements that this system had succeeded initially has acquired a serious experience in the Decomposition today (2017) 21 in pushing its most catastrophic effects The fact that the two basic classes of so- of the relationships which form the basis towards the periphery, but that these effects ciety (the proletariat and the bourgeoisie) for all social life; would not fail to return to the centre like a are incapable of providing a perspective – the proletariat’s confidence in the future boomerang. The same model applies to the favours the lack of global vision and leads and in its own strength is constantly three questions which have been discussed to a passive accommodation to existing sapped by the all-pervasive despair and in more detail since: reality. This favours narrow-minded, blind, nihilism within society; petit bourgeois visions with no orientation – terrorism already exists on a much towards future. It can be said that decom- – consciousness, lucidity, coherent and more dramatic scale in some peripheral position constitutes in itself a powerful unified thought, the taste for theory, have countries; factor in annihilating a consciousness of a hard time making headway in the midst – these same countries have a far greater its reality. This is very dangerous for the of the flight into illusions, drugs, sects, problem with refugees than the central proletariat. But it also produces a blindness mysticism, the rejection or destruction countries; of the bourgeoisie, so that decomposition, of thought which are characteristic of because of the difficulty to recognise it, our epoch." (Point 13). – these countries are also subject to con- produces a cumulative phenomenon, spi- vulsions of their political apparatus. The experiences of struggles over the ralling in its effects. last 25 years have largely confirmed these The fact that today the central countries Finally, two tendencies peculiar to analyses. It is particularly the case if we are witnessing such a boomerang return is capitalism further aggravate this difficulty look at the two most advanced movements an indication that human society is sliding in recognising decomposition and its con- of this period: the anti-CPE movement in further and deeper into decomposition. sequences: France in 2006 and the movement of the Indignados in Spain in 2011. It is true that – Capitalism is the most dynamic mode 7) The general difficulty in solidarity was at the heart of both move- of production in history (Point 5) and recognising the existence of ments, as it had been at the heart of more "the bourgeoisie cannot exist without decomposition limited experiences – like the mobilisation constantly revolutionising the instru- against pension reform in France 2003 or ments of production, which means the One of the reasons for the difficulty en- the Metro strike in New York in 2005. relations of production, that is to say the countered by the proletariat and, first of However, these demonstrations remained whole of social relations” (Communist all, by its own vanguard, to identify and isolated and, other than gaining a quite Manifesto). This gives the impression of understand this era of decomposition and passive sympathy, did not arouse a general a permanent “modernity”, of a society arm itself against it, is the very nature of mobilisation of the class. decomposition as a historical phase. which, despite everything, “progresses” and develops. One consequence of this Solidarity and collective action is one of The process of decomposition which is that decomposition does not occur the fundamental features of the proletarian imprints its mark on the present historical uniformly in all countries. It is more struggle, but it has been much more difficult period constitutes a phenomenon which attenuated in China and other Asian to express it than in the past, despite the advances in a very insidious way. Insofar as countries. On the other hand, it takes a severity of attacks on the working class, at it affects the foundations of social life most much more extreme form in other parts the level of redundancies, for example. It profoundly and is manifested in the break- of the world, for example in Africa or is true that the intimidating experience of down of the most ingrained social relations, in some countries of Latin America. All the crisis has produced a temporary retreat it does not necessarily have a single and this tends to “hide” decomposition. One in combativity; however, the fact that such indisputable expression as, for example, might say that the nauseating odour it a retreat has become almost permanent the outbreak of world war or the revolu- produces is diminished by the seductive means that we have to understand that while tionary situations. Rather, it is expressed perfume of “modernity”. this factor does play a role, it is not the only by a proliferation of phenomena that factor involved, and we should consider – In the most advanced countries, the have no apparent relation to one another. the importance of what point 13 says about bourgeoisie with the development of Each of the phenomena, by itself, could be “everyman for himself”, atomisation and state capitalism is still capable of produc- taken to show that decomposition is not individual withdrawal. new, each one is associated with earlier ing certain counter-tendencies to limit stages of capitalist decadence. For example, the effects of decomposition. We can The question of organisation is at the there is a continuation of imperialist wars. see this with Brexit where the British heart of the struggle of the proletariat. However, within this continuity, one finds bourgeoisie rapidly re-organised itself Leaving aside the enormous difficulties the element of every man for himself and to reduce the damage. that revolutionary minorities have in seri- in particular “the development of terrorism, ously taking up the organisational question or the seizure of hostages, as methods of 8) The impact of decomposition (which would merit a further text), the warfare between states, to the detriment on the working class problems of the class in organising itself of the ‘laws’ that capitalism established in have worsened, despite the spectacular the past to ‘regulate’ the conflicts between In point 13, the Theses deal with this ques- spread of general assemblies in the move- different ruling class factions.” (Point tion in the following terms: “The different ment of the Indignados or in the anti-CPE 8). These elements appear “indistinct” elements which constitute the strength of the movement. Over and above these more amidst the classical and general traits of working class directly confront the various advanced examples, which remain a step imperialist war, which makes it difficult facets of this ideological decomposition: towards the future, many other similar to identify them. A superficial examina- struggles have had great difficulty in tion will not uncover them. The same is – solidarity and collective action are organising themselves. This is especially true of the political apparatus of the bour- faced with the atomisation of ‘look out the case with the “Occupy” movement geoisie (thus, the emergence of populism for number one’; in 2011 or the movements in Brazil and can be erroneously linked to the phenom- – the need for organisation confronts enon of fascism between the two wars). social decomposition, the disintegration Continued on page 39 22 International Review 164 Spring 2020 Resolution on the balance of forces between the classes

1) By the late 1960s, with the exhaustion decantation within this zone was that: combat after a short period of reflux, the of the post-war economic boom and in bourgeoisie had to modify its strategy – the left of capital succeeded in win- the face of deteriorating living conditions, aimed at hindering any politicisation of the ning over a large part of these young the working class had re-emerged on the proletariat through its economic struggles. elements involved in the process of social scene. The workers’ struggles that Thanks to a judicious division of labour politicisation; exploded on an international scale put an between the various bourgeois factions, end to the longest period of counter-revo- – frustration and disappointment led right-wing parties in government were lution in history, opening a new historical many of them, strongly marked by the appointed to carry out economic attacks course towards class confrontations, thus impatience and “radicalism” of the petty against the living conditions of the pro- preventing the ruling class from putting in bourgeoisie, towards partial struggles letariat, while the left-wing parties in the place its own response to the acute crisis of or the violent, minority actions of ter- opposition (supported by the unions and capitalism: a Third World War. This new rorism (the Baader-Meinhof Gang in leftists) had the responsibility of sabotag- historical course had been marked by the Germany, Red Brigades in Italy, then ing workers’ struggles from the inside and emergence of massive struggles, particu- Action Directe in France); diverting them onto the terrain of electoral larly in the central countries of Western mystifications. – the layers of the swamp striving towards Europe with the May 1968 movement proletarian positions tended to gravitate The mass strike in Poland in August in France, followed by the “hot autumn” in the direction of autonomism and 1980 revealed that the proletariat, despite in Italy in 1969 and many others such as workerism, or towards defending the the leaden weight of the Stalinist regimes, Argentina in spring 1969 and Poland in myth of ‘self-management’. was able to raise its head and spontaneously winter 1970-71. In these massive move- recover its methods of struggle, including ments, large sectors of the new generation Moreover, the “critical” adherence of sovereign general assemblies, the election who had not experienced war once again the main leftist groups (Trotskyist and of strike committees responsible to these raised the perspective of communism as a Maoist) to the counter-revolution and their assemblies, the necessary geographical real possibility. organisational practice and intervention as extension of the struggles and their unifica- crypto-Stalinist sects, but also the mind- In connection with this general move- tion beyond corporatist divisions. less activism of the autonomist milieu ment of the working class in the late 1960s and the cult of violence of the terrorist This gigantic struggle of the working and early 1970s, we must also highlight the micro-groups destroyed a large part of class in Poland revealed that it is in the international revival, on a very small but this new generation in the process of being massive struggle against economic attacks no less significant scale, of the organized politicised. This destructive work helped to that the proletariat can become conscious communist left, the tradition that remained deform and discredit the real revolutionary of its own strength, affirm its class identity faithful to the flag of world proletarian movement of the proletariat. Parallel to which is antagonistic to capital, and develop revolution during the long night of counter- this extremely negative role played by the its self-confidence. revolution. In this process, the constitution pseudo-radical component of the swamp of the ICC represented an important impe- But the defeat of the Polish workers, with and the groups of the extreme left, the bour- tus for the communist left as a whole. the founding of the “free” trade union Soli- geoisie developed a wide-scale and long- darnosc (which benefited from the support Faced with a dynamic towards the politi- term political counter-offensive against the of the trade unions of Western countries) cisation of workers’ struggles, the bourgeoi- historic revival of the class struggle. This also revealed the very strong weight of sie (which had been surprised by the May political counter-offensive of the bourgeoi- democratic illusions in a country where the 1968 movement) immediately developed sie initially consisted, at the beginning of proletariat had no experience of bourgeois a large-scale and long-term counter-offen- the 1970s, in setting up the “alternative” democracy. The defeat and repression of sive in order to prevent the working class of bringing the left to government in the Polish workers opened a new period of from providing its own response to the main Western countries. The aim was to retreat for international class struggle in historical crisis of the capitalist economy: herd the working class back to the elec- the early 1980s. the proletarian revolution. toral fold by sowing the illusion that the programme of the left parties would make 4) Nevertheless, despite its depth, this re- 2) Because of the break in political continu- it possible to improve the living conditions treat was short-lived. In the first half of the ity with the workers’ movement of the past, of the exploited masses. This first wave of 1980s, faced with the worsening economic the tendency towards the politicisation of struggles, which had developed since the crisis, the explosion of unemployment and the 1960s was manifested in the emergence late 1960s, was therefore exhausted during the new attacks on the living conditions of of what Lenin called a “political swamp”: these “years of illusions”. the proletariat in the central countries, a a milieu of confused groups and elements, third wave of struggles emerged. Despite and at the same time a zone of transmission, 3) But with the worsening of the economic the defeat of the long miners’ strike in Great situated between the bourgeoisie and the crisis in the second half of the 1970s, a new Britain in 1985, this wave of struggles was proletariat. At the moment of its greatest wave of workers’ struggles had emerged, marked by the erosion of the left in the extension, this area of politicisation com- also involving the proletariat in some opposition, a growing discrediting of trade prised mainly young and inexperienced Eastern European countries (notably in unions (as witnessed in several countries, people, many of them students Already in Poland in the summer of 1980). including Scandinavia, by the sporadic the first half of the 1970s, the result of the Faced with this resumption of class spontaneous strikes that broke out outside Resolution on the balance of forces between the classes 23 and against repeated union manoeuvres). In France, despite the defeat of the the exploited class. The stagnation of the This third wave of workers’ struggles was railway workers’ strike in 1986 (thanks to class struggle, then its retreat at the end of accompanied by an increase in abstention the sabotaging work of the “coordinations” the 80s, resulted from the capacity of the rates in the elections. in the SNCF), two years later, in 1988, the ruling class to turn certain manifestations of workers’ militancy exploded once again the decomposition of bourgeoisie society, In order to avoid being surprised as in in another part of the public sector, the especially the tendency towards “each for May 68, and to paralyse the whole dynamic hospitals. Faced with a deep and general themselves”, against the working class. of confrontations with trade unionism, the discontent towards the unions, and the bourgeoisie developed a third strategy: 6) Since the retreat of the first wave of potential danger of this massive struggle that of strengthening its apparatus for struggles, it has been essentially demo- spreading to the whole public sector, the controlling the working class through the cratic illusions (fuelled by the bourgeoi- ruling class again reinforced its strategy deployment of base unionism, led by the sie’s counter-offensive and trade union for boxing up and dividing the working groups of the extreme left of capital. Faced sabotage) that have been the main obstacle class. The French bourgeoisie was able to with the rise of militancy, notably in the to the politicisation of the working class make use of a hospital sector which was public sector, the bourgeoisie strengthened struggles. still inexperienced and politically more its union and para-union forces. The aim of “backward”, the nurses, in order to keep As highlighted in the article in Interna- this policy was to prevent any extension of any push towards unification stuck in the tional Review n°23, “The struggle of the struggles beyond corporations or sectors, hospitals, sabotaging any possibility of the proletariat in the period of decadence”, the to sabotage the class identity of the prole- movement spreading to other parts of the working class is confronted with several tariat through setting up divisions between public sector. factors which make the politicisation of its “white collar” and “blue collar” workers, struggles difficult: and to block any tendency towards the self- In order to break the movement in organisation of the working class. the hospital sector, the manoeuvre of the – the true nature of the proletariat both as bourgeoisie consisted in offering the nurses an exploited class, dispossessed of all 5) It was the British bourgeoisie (the most on their own a kind of bribe (a wage in- property, and as a revolutionary class, intelligent in the world), with the policies of crease of 350 francs a month, unblocking has always meant that class conscious- the “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, which a billion francs already held in reserve for ness cannot advance from victory to sounded the key-note for the strategy of this purpose), whereas other categories in victory but can only develop unevenly the ruling class in other central countries, the hospitals who had mobilised for the towards victory through a series of de- aimed at stopping the dynamic of the class movement got nothing! This defeat of the feats, as Rosa Luxemburg argued. struggle. working class, given the historic tendency In the period of decadence: Thanks to the sabotaging role of the min- towards “each for themselves” could only ers’ union, the ruling class had imprisoned be inflicted on the proletariat thanks to the – the working class can no longer maintain the workers in a long, exhausting sectional dirty work of the self-proclaimed “nurses’ permanent mass organizations, political strike, totally separated from other sectors coordination” which had been set up parties and workers' unions, to defend of production. The crushing defeat of the straight away with the help of the CFDT. its interests; miners’ strike dealt a savage blow to the This semi-union organ succeeded in derail- – there is no longer a "minimum" political whole working class in this country. This ing the anger of the nurses onto the rotten programme as in the ascendant period, success of the ruling class in Britain served ground of defending their “status” of “Bac but only a "maximum" programme. as a model for the bourgeoisie in other plus 3” in order to justify the re-evaluation Bourgeois democracy and its national countries, notably in France, the country of their wages, when their movement had framework is no longer an arena for the in Europe where the proletariat had tradi- originally broken out against the lack of political action of the proletariat; tionally been very combative. The French personnel and the degradation of conditions bourgeoisie, inspired by the example of the affecting everyone in the hospitals, “white – the bourgeois state has learned to intel- Iron Lady in blocking the dynamic of the collar” as well as “blue collar” (see our ligently use the former workers’ political class struggle, set out to lock up the workers pamphlet, Bilan de la lutte des infirmières: parties, which betrayed the proletariat, in corporatism, taking full advantage of the les coordinations, la nouvelle arme de against the politicisation of the work- tendency towards “each for themselves” la bourgeoisie. In the other countries of ing class. (which was one of the first phenomena of Europe, including in Germany (notably the decomposition of capitalism). in the car industry), this manoeuvre by In addition, in the current period: the bourgeoisie consisted of granting wage In 1986, since the most traditionally – the bourgeois state has learned to slow increases to one category of workers in the combative and experienced sectors of the pace of the economic crisis and same enterprise, with the aim of dividing the French proletariat had since May 68 to plan its attacks in concert with the the workers, aggravating competition be- confronted union sabotage on a number trade unions by deploying all possible tween them, sapping class solidarity and of occasions (in the mines, steel, transport, means to avoid a unified response by the setting them against each other. car industry…) the bourgeoisie could only working class and a re-appropriation of use such a strategy by setting up “coordina- But worse still with this strategy of divid- the final political goals of its struggle tions” aimed at taking on the baton from the ing the workers and encouraging “each for against capitalism; discredited main union confederations. themselves”, the bourgeoisie and its tame – all the forces of capitalism have worked unions were able to present defeats of the In Italy, where the proletariat had fought to block the politicisation of the work- working class as victories. very important and massive struggles (in ing class by preventing it from making particular the “Hot Autumn” of 1969), Revolutionaries must not underestimate the link between its economic struggles the bourgeoisie also used the same policy the Machiavellianism of the bourgeoisie against exploitation and the refusal of of corporatist containment, by recuperat- in the evolution of the balance of class workers in central countries to allow ing the education workers’ coordinations forces. This Machiavellianism can only themselves to be mobilised behind the after 1987. continue with the aggravation of attacks on bourgeoisie's war policy. A particularly 24 International Review 164 Spring 2020

significant manoeuvre in the early 1980s of the relationships which form the basis tion” of individual work is a key factor was the pacifist campaign against Rea- for all social life; in enforcing atomisation, and increasing gan's “Star Wars" programme. As the the difficulty of going on strike, because – the proletariat’s confidence in the fu- third wave of struggles began to wear the self-exploitation of these workers ture and in its own strength is constantly out in the late 1980s, a major event in the considerably hinders their ability to fight sapped by the all-pervasive despair and international situation, the spectacular collectively and develop solidarity against nihilism within society; collapse of the Eastern bloc and the capitalist exploitation. Stalinist regimes in 1989, dealt a brutal – consciousness, lucidity, coherent and 8) With the bankruptcy of the Lehman blow to the dynamics of class struggle, unified thought, the taste for theory, Brothers bank and the financial crisis of thus changing the balance of forces be- have a hard time making headway in 2008, the bourgeoisie was able to push one tween the proletariat and the bourgeoisie the midst of the flight into illusions, more wedge into the consciousness of the to the benefit of the latter in a major drugs, sects, mysticism, the rejection proletariat by developing a new ideological way. This event loudly announced the or destruction of thought which are campaign on a global scale, aimed at instill- entry of capitalism into the final phase characteristic of our epoch”. ing the idea (put forward by the left-wing of its decadence: that of decomposition. With the retreat of its revolutionary per- parties) that it is the “crooked bankers” who When Stalinism collapsed, it did one last spective and class identity, the proletariat are responsible for this crisis, while making service to the bourgeoisie. It allowed the has also largely lost confidence in itself it appear that capitalism is personified by ruling class to put an end to the dynamic and in its ability to effectively confront traders and the power of money. of class struggle which, with advances capitalism in the defence of its living and setbacks, had developed over two The ruling class was thus able to hide conditions. decades. the roots of the failure of its system. On One of the objective factors that ag- the one hand, it sought to pull the working Indeed, insofar as it was not the strug- 7) gravated the loss of class identity of the class into defending the “protective” state, gle of the proletariat but the rotting of proletariat was the policy of relocation and since bank rescue measures were supposed capitalist society on its feet that put an restructuring of the productive apparatus in to protect small savers. On the other hand, end to Stalinism, the bourgeoisie was able the main countries of Western Europe and this bank rescue policy has also been used, to exploit this event to unleash a gigantic the United States. Many large concentra- particularly by the left, to point the finger ideological campaign aimed at perpetuating tions of workers were dismantled with the at governments seeking to defend bankers the greatest lie in history: the identification closure of mines, steel mills, automobile and the financial world. of communism with Stalinism. In doing so, plants, etc, sectors where the working the ruling class dealt an extremely violent But beyond these mystifications, the class had traditionally led massive and blow to the consciousness of the proletariat. impact of this campaign on the working very combative struggles. This industrial The bourgeoisie’s deafening campaigns on class has been to reinforce its powerless- desertification was accompanied by the the so-called “bankruptcy of communism” ness in the face of an impersonal economic strengthening of the ideological campaigns have led to a regression of the proletariat in system whose general laws appear to be about the end of the class struggle, and its march towards its historical perspective natural laws that cannot be controlled or therefore of any revolutionary perspective. of overthrowing capitalism. They were a modified. These bourgeois campaigns have been able major blow against its class identity. to develop thanks to the Stalinist or social 9) The unleashing of imperialist conflicts This profound retreat in consciousness democratic parties which, for decades, have in the Middle East, as well as the absolute and class struggle has manifested itself in identified the working class only with the misery of the impoverished masses of the a decline in the workers’ fighting spirit in “blue collar” workers, thus masking the fact countries of the African continent, have all countries, a strengthening of democratic that it is wage labour and the exploitation resulted in an increasing flow of refugees illusions, a very strong revival of the trade of labour power that defines the working into the countries of Western Europe. On union grip and a very great difficulty for class. Moreover, with the development the other side of the Atlantic, the sinking the proletariat to return to the path of mas- of new technologies, the “white collar” of capitalism into decay has also been sive struggles, despite the worsening of the proletariat is much more dispersed in small illustrated by the exodus of waves of mi- economic crisis, the rise in unemployment, production units, making it more difficult grants from Latin American countries to precariousness, and the general deteriora- for massive struggles to emerge. the United States. tion of its living conditions in all sectors In such a situation of retreat of the class Faced with these manifestations of the and all countries. consciousness of the proletariat and the decomposition of capitalist society, a new Moreover, with the entry of capitalism move away from any revolutionary per- danger has emerged for the proletariat: into the ultimate phase of its decadence, spective, the tendency towards every man populist ideology based on a rigorous the proletariat now had to face the miasma for himself and the competition to survive “identitarian” policy of de-solidarisation, of the decomposition of bourgeois society in the midst of the growing economic slump advocating, in face of the worsening crisis, that affects its ability to find the way back tend to dominate. when ”resources” and ”opportunities” are towards its revolutionary perspective. On shrinking, that ”native” populations can The increase in unemployment and the ideological level, “The different ele- only avoid the worst at the expense of other precariousness has also highlighted the ments which constitute the strength of the parts of the non-exploiting population. This phenomenon of the “Uberisation” of working class directly confront the various policy manifests itself in protectionism, the work. By using an internet platform to facets of this ideological decomposition: stigmatisation of immigrants as “profiteers find a job, Uberisation disguises the sale on the welfare state” and the closing of – solidarity and collective action are of labour power to a boss as a form of borders to waves of migrants. faced with the atomisation of ‘look out “individual enterprise”, while reinforcing for number one’; the impoverishment and precariousness The increasingly open rejection of tradi- of these “entrepreneurs”. The “Uberisa- tional bourgeois parties and “elites” has not – the need for organisation confronts led to a politicisation of the proletariat on its social decomposition, the disintegration . “Theses on decomposition”, International Review nº 62. class terrain but a tendency to seek “new” Resolution on the balance of forces between the classes 25 men in the electoral fields of bourgeois danger of the resurgence of workers’ strug- 11) Nevertheless, despite three decades of democracy. These “new men” are largely gles, the bourgeoisie is now seeking to erase retreat of the class struggle, the bourgeoisie populist demagogues and adventurers (like class antagonisms. By trying to drown and has so far failed to inflict a decisive defeat Donald Trump). The rise of far-right parties dilute the proletariat in the “population of on the working class, as it did in the 1920s in several European countries, as well as the citizens”, the ruling class aims to prevent and 1930s. Despite the seriousness of the rise to power of Trump in the United States, it from regaining its class identity. The issues at stake in the current historical elected with many votes from workers in international media coverage of the Yellow period, the situation is not identical to the “rust belt”, reveals that some fringes of Vest movement reveals that it is a concern that of the counter-revolutionary period. the proletariat (particularly those affected of the bourgeoisie of all countries. The proletariat of the central countries by unemployment) can be poisoned by has not suffered physical defeat (as was The youth movement for the climate, populism, xenophobia, nationalism and all the case during the bloody crushing of although expressing a global concern about the reactionary and obscurantist ideologies the revolution in Germany during the first the threat of the destruction of humanity, that emanate from the foul putrefaction of revolutionary wave of 1917-23). It has not has been totally diverted onto the terrain capitalism. been massively recruited behind national of partial struggles that can easily be re- flags. The vast majority of proletarians The tendency towards the individual cuperated by the bourgeoisie and are very are not ready to sacrifice their lives on the “looking after number one” and the dis- strongly marked by the petty bourgeoisie. altar of defending the national capital. In location of society has also manifested “Only the proletariat bears within it a the major industrialised countries, in the itself in the danger of certain sectors of the perspective for humanity. In this sense, United States as well as in Europe, the pro- proletariat being recruited behind national the greatest capacity for resistance to letarian masses did not join the imperialist or regional flags (as was the case during this decomposition lies within its ranks. (and so-called “humanitarian”) crusades of the independence crisis in Catalonia in However, this does not mean that the “their” national bourgeoisie. 2018). proletariat is immune, particularly since it lives alongside the petty bourgeoisie The proletarian class struggle is made 10) Because of the current great difficulty which is one of the major carriers of the up of advances and setbacks during which of the working class in developing its infection…During this period, it must aim the working class strives to overcome its struggles, its inability for the moment to to resist the noxious effects of decomposi- defeats, to learn from them and to return regain its class identity and to open up a tion in its own ranks, counting only on its to the combat again. As Marx stated in the perspective for the whole of society, the own strength and on its ability to struggle 18th Brumaire, “The bourgeois revolutions, social terrain tends to be occupied by inter- collectively and in solidarity to defend its like those of the 18th century, quickly rush classist struggles particularly marked by interests as an exploited class.” from success to success, (...) Proletarian the petty bourgeoisie. This social layer, revolutions, on the other hand, like those without a historic future, can only be a The struggle for the class autonomy of of the 19th century, constantly criticize vehicle for illusions in the possibility of the proletariat is crucial in this situation themselves, interrupt at every moment their reforming capitalism by claiming that imposed by the aggravation of the decom- own course, go back to what already seems capitalism can have a more “human face”, position of capitalism: to be accomplished to start it over again, can be more democratic, more just, cleaner, – against inter-classist struggles; mercilessly mock the hesitations, the weak- more concerned about the poor and the nesses and miseries of their first attempts, preservation of the planet. – against partial struggles put forward seem to bring down their opponent only to by all kinds of social categories giving These inter-classist movements are the allow him to draw new strengths from the a false illusion of a "protective com- product of the absence of any perspective earth and to recover again, formidable, munity"; which affects society as a whole, includ- in front of them, constantly retreat again ing an important part of the ruling class – against the mobilisations on the rotten before the infinite immensity of their own itself. ground of nationalism, pacifism, "eco- goals, until the situation is finally created logical" reform, etc. making it impossible to turn back, and the The popular revolt of the “Yellow Vests” circumstances themselves cry: Hic Rhodus, in France against the “high cost of living” In the balance of forces between the hic salta!” as well as the international movement of bourgeoisie and the proletariat, it is always the “Youth for Climate” are an illustration the ruling class that is on the offensive, These “circumstances” which will create of the danger of inter-classism for the pro- except in a revolutionary situation. Despite a “situation that makes it impossible to turn letariat. The citizen revolt of the “Yellow its internal difficulties and the growing back” will be determined, in the first place, Vests” (supported and encouraged from tendency to lose control of its political by the exhaustion of the palliatives which the beginning by all parties of the right and apparatus, the bourgeoisie has been able to have so far enabled the bourgeoisie to slow the extreme right) revealed the ability of turn the manifestations of the decomposi- down the collapse of the world economy. the bourgeoisie to use inter-classist social tion of its system against the conscious- Indeed, in order for the conditions for the movements against the consciousness of ness and class identity of the proletariat. emergence of a period of revolutionary the proletariat. The working class has therefore not yet struggle to be created, it is necessary “that overcome the deep setback it has suffered exploiters cannot live and govern as in the By releasing a package of 10 billion since the collapse of the Eastern bloc and past. Only when ‘those below’ no longer euros to deal with the chaos accompany- the Stalinist regimes. This is all the more want to and ‘those above’ cannot continue ing the Yellow Vests demonstrations, the so since democratic and anti-communist to live in the old way, only then can the French bourgeoisie and its media were campaigns, maintained over the long term, revolution triumph.” able to insidiously instil the idea that only have been regularly updated (for example inter-classist citizens’ movements and petty The inexorable worsening of poverty, on the occasion of the centenary of the bourgeois methods of struggle can push the precariousness, unemployment, the attacks October Revolution in 1917). government back. on the dignity of the exploited in the years

Faced with the acceleration of economic . Lenin, Left-wing Communism: an Infantile attacks against the exploited class, and the . Theses on decomposition. Disorder. 26 International Review 164 Spring 2020 to come, constitute the material basis which development of the class consciousness constitutes the basis for the development can push the new generations of proletar- of the proletariat has always been its ca- of its class strength and unity.” ians to find their way back to the path of pacity for subterranean maturation, that 14) In the economic and defensive struggles the struggles that were led by previous is, the ability to develop outside periods of the proletariat “Now and then the workers generations, in defence of all aspects of their of open struggle and even in periods of are victorious, but only for a time. The real living conditions. Despite all the dangers major defeat. Class consciousness can fruit of their battles lies, not in the immedi- threatening the proletariat, the period of develop in depth, in small minorities, ate result, but in the ever expanding union decomposition of capitalism has not put an without it spreading widely throughout of the workers. This union is helped on by end to the objective “circumstances” that the proletariat. The development of class the improved means of communication that have been the impetus for the revolutionary consciousness should therefore not only are created by modern industry, and that struggles of the proletariat since the begin- be measured by its immediate extension in place the workers of different localities in ning of the workers’ movement. the class at a given time, but also through contact with one another. It was just this its historical continuity. As we stated in 12) The worsening economic crisis has contact that was needed to centralise the the article in International Review nº 42 already revealed a new generation on the numerous local struggles, all of the same “Internal debate: Centrist slidings towards social scene, even if it is still very limited character, into one national struggle be- councilism”: “It is necessary to distinguish and embryonic: in 2006, the student move- tween classes. But every class struggle is a what is part of a continuity in the historical ment in France against the CPE, followed political struggle. And that union, to attain movement of the proletariat - the progres- five years later by the “Indignados” move- which the burghers of the Middle Ages, sive elaboration of its political positions ment in Spain. These two massive move- with their miserable highways, required and its programme - from what is related ments of proletarian youth spontaneously centuries, the modern proletarian, thanks to circumstantial factors - the extent of rediscovered the methods of struggle of to railways, achieve in a few years. their assimilation and their impact in the the working class, including the culture whole class.” “This organisation of the proletarians of debate in massive general assemblies into a class, and, consequently into a politi- open to all. The existence and determined mainte- cal party, is continually being upset again nance of the organisations of the communist These movements were also character- by the competition between the workers left, under the difficult conditions of the ized by solidarity between generations themselves. But it ever rises up again, decomposition of capitalism, expresses this (whereas the student movement of the stronger, firmer, mightier”. underground capacity of class conscious- late 1960s, very strongly marked by the ness to develop its historical movement The “increase in the means of com- weight of the petty bourgeoisie, had often in a period of profound disorientation of munication” allowing workers to “make seen themselves as being in opposition to the proletariat such as the one we are liv- contact” to “centralise local struggles” are the generations which had been mobilised ing today. no longer the railways, as in Marx’s time, for war). If, in the movement against the but the new digital telecommunications CPE, the vast majority of students fighting This subterranean maturation of the class technologies. against the prospect of unemployment and consciousness of the proletariat is also precariousness, had recognised themselves manifested today through the emergence In fact, if the effects of “globalisation”, as part of the working class, the Indigna- of small minorities and young elements relocations, the disappearance of entire dos in Spain (although their movement in search of a class perspective and the sectors of industry, the dispersion into a had spread internationally through social positions of the communist left. multitude of small productive units, the networks) did not have a clear awareness multiplication of small service jobs, pre- The organisations of the communist left of belonging to the exploited class. cariousness and Uberisation of work have must not ignore these small minorities, even added to the blows to the class identity of the While the massive movement against if they appear to be insignificant. The proc- proletariat of the old industrial metropoles, the CPE was a proletarian response to ess of decantation in the period of capitalist the new economic, technological and social an economic attack (which forced the decomposition is much slower and more conditions in which the proletariat finds bourgeoisie to retreat by withdrawing the uneven than it was at the end of the 1960s itself today contain elements favourable CPE), the Indignados movement was es- and beginning of the 1970s. to the re-conquest of this class identity sentially marked by a global reflection on Despite the deleterious effects of de- on a much larger scale than in the past. the bankruptcy of capitalism and the need composition and the dangers facing the “Globalisation” and especially the develop- for another society. proletariat, “Today, the historical perspec- ment of the Internet, the creation of a kind Within this new generation, the class tive remains completely open. Despite the of “global network” of knowledge, skills, identity of the proletariat has not yet been blow that the Eastern bloc’s collapse has collaborations in work at the same time recovered due to the lack of experience of dealt to proletarian consciousness, the as mass travel, create the objective bases this young generation, its vulnerability to class has not suffered any major defeats for the development of a class identity the mystifications of “anti-globalisation” on the terrain of its struggle (...) Moreover, on a global scale, especially for the new ideology and its difficulty in reclaiming and this is the element which in the final proletarian generations. the history and experience of the workers’ analysis will determine the outcome of the 15) One of the main reasons why the pro- movement. world situation, the inexorable aggrava- letariat has not been able to develop its tion of the capitalist crisis constitutes the Nevertheless, these movements had struggles and consciousness to the level essential stimulant for the class’ struggle begun to lay the groundwork for a slow required by the gravity of the historical and development of consciousness, the pre- maturation of consciousness within the situation is the rupture of political continu- condition for its ability to resist the poison working class (and especially among its ity with the workers’ movement of the past distilled by the social rot. For while there young highly skilled generations) about is no basis for the unification of the class the challenges of the current historical . Theses on Decomposition. in the partial struggles against the effects situation . Communist Manifesto. of decomposition, nonetheless its strug- 13) An essential characteristic of the gle against the direct effects of the crisis Continued on page 39 27

Report on the class struggle Formation, loss and re-conquest of proletarian class identity

Capitalist society, in the final phase of de- The proletariat’s identity is by lost himself in the proletariat, yet at the cline, is giving birth to a whole variety of nature revolutionary same time has not only gained theoretical “identity crises”. The atomisation inherent consciousness of that loss, but through in the system of generalised commodity The exploitation of the working class is urgent, no longer removable, no longer production is reaching new levels, and this the foundation stone of the entire edifice disguisable, absolutely imperative need applies both to social life as a whole and to of capitalism. It is not, as the proponents — the practical expression of necessity the reactions against the increasing misery of identity politics argue openly or un- — is driven directly to revolt against this and oppression spawned by the system. derhandedly, just one form of oppression inhumanity, it follows that the proletariat On the one hand, groups and individuals amongst many. Because, despite all the can and must emancipate itself. But it can- suffering from particular oppressions are changes it has been through over the last not emancipate itself without abolishing the encouraged to mobilise as particular groups two centuries, capitalism continues to rule conditions of its own life. It cannot abol- to fight their oppressions – as women, as the Earth, what Karl Marx famously wrote ish the conditions of its own life without gays, as transgender people, as ethnic mi- in 1844 about the revolutionary nature of abolishing all the inhuman conditions of norities and so on – and not infrequently the proletariat remains as true as ever. This life of society today which are summed up compete with each other directly, as with the is a class whose struggle against capitalism in its own situation. Not in vain does it go current confrontation between transgender contains the solution to all the “particular through the stern but steeling school of activists and certain branches of feminism. wrongs” inflicted by this society: labour. It is not a question of what this or These manifestations of “identity politics” that proletarian, or even the whole prole- are at the same time co-opted by the left “a class with radical chains, a class of tariat, at the moment regards as its aim. It wing of the bourgeoisie, all the way up to civil society which is not a class of civil is a question of what the proletariat is, and its most distinguished academics and most society, an estate which is the dissolution what, in accordance with this being, it will powerful political echelons (as with the of all estates, a sphere which has a uni- historically be compelled to do”. Democratic Party in the USA). versal character by its universal suffering and claims no particular right because no Class identity thus has an objective Meanwhile, the right wing of the bour- particular wrong, but wrong generally, is basis which remains unalterable as long geoisie, while superficially decrying the perpetuated against it; which can invoke as capitalism exists, but the subjective rise of identity politics, rises up in defence no historical, but only human, title; which consciousness of “what the proletariat is” of its own form of identity-seeking: the does not stand in any one-sided antithesis to has long been held back by the negative search for the Real Men threatened by the the consequences but in all-round antithesis side of the proletarian condition: the fact spectre of feminism, the nostalgia for the to the premises of German statehood; a that “man has lost himself in the prole- glories of the White Race facing displace- sphere, finally, which cannot emancipate tariat”, that this is a class which suffers ment by foreign hordes. itself without emancipating itself from the full weight of human self-alienation. In later works Marx would explain that the The quest for these partial, and some- all other spheres of society and thereby particular forms assumed by alienation in times entirely fictitious identities and emancipating all other spheres of society, capitalist society – the process also known communities, is a measure of mankind’s which, in a word, is the complete loss of as “reification”, the veil of mystification self-estrangement in a historic epoch in man and hence can win itself only through inherent in the universal exchange of com- which a universal human community is the complete re-winning of man. This dis- modities – make it particularly difficult both possible and necessary for the survival solution of society as a particular estate is  for the exploited to grasp the true nature of the species. And above all, like other the proletariat”. of their exploitation and the true identity manifestations of social decomposition, it In The Holy Family, written during the of their exploiters. And this is why there is the product of the loss of the one identity same period, Marx explains that the work- must be a “theoretical consciousness of that whose affirmation can lead to the creation ing class is by nature a revolutionary class, loss” and socialism would have to become of such a community, also known as com- even when it is not aware of this: scientific in its methods. But this theoretical munism: the class identity of the proletariat. consciousness is not in any sense divorced The recent “Yellow Vest” movement in “When socialist writers ascribe this world- from the real conditions of labour and its France provides us with a graphic illus- historic role to the proletariat, it is not at all, revolt against the inhumanity of capitalist tration of the dangers that arise from this as Critical Criticism pretends to believe, exploitation. loss of class identity: that large numbers because they regard the proletarians as of workers, rightly angered by the constant gods. Rather the contrary. Since in the When Marx writes that the working attacks on their living standards, are mobi- fully-formed proletariat the abstraction class “cannot emancipate itself without lised not for their own interests but behind of all humanity, even of the semblance of abolishing the conditions of its own life”, the demands and actions of other social humanity, is practically complete; since the the so-called “communisation” current take classes – in this case, the petty bourgeoisie conditions of life of the proletariat sum up this to mean that any affirmation of class and a part of the bourgeoisie itself. all the conditions of life of society today in identity can only be reactionary, since it their most inhuman form; since man has . See the article on our website: The “Yellow Vest” is no more than an exaltation of what the movement: the proletariat must respond to the attacks . Introduction to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of capital on its own class terrain! of Right. . The Holy Family, Chapter IV. 28 International Review 164 Spring 2020 proletariat is within capitalist society, so class is not only an associated class “in of its destruction and replacement by the that the communist revolution demands itself”, not only objectively: association dictatorship of the proletariat. But class the immediate self-negation of the working as the premise for a higher form of social movements that pointed to a revolutionary class. But this is to lose sight of the dialecti- organisation only takes shape when the future were not limited to France: in Eng- cal reality of the working class as a class subjective dimension, the self-organisa- land, the country of “gradual reforms”, the that is both of capitalist society and not of tion and unification of the class in struggle strike movement of 1842 already revealed it, an exploited and a revolutionary class at against exploitation, arises out of its place the outlines of the mass strike that would the same time. We insist, along with Marx, in the capitalist social relation. become the characteristic mode of struggle that it is only by affirming itself, both at in a later epoch. The Chartist movement But the proletariat remains the class of the level of its economic and social strug- itself understood its demand for universal dispossession, and this would eventually gles, and as the candidate for the political suffrage as a demand for the working class apply to the very instruments it had created direction of society, that the proletariat can to take political power into its own hands, for its own defence. The first unions and pave the way to the real dissolution of all and its methods were not limited to peti- political parties, at one level motivated by classes and the “complete re-winning” of tioning the bourgeoisie: it also gave rise the understanding that the proletariat was humanity. This is why this report will focus to a “physical force” wing which, in the not a class of civil society, by the project precisely on the problem of class identity: Newport rising of 1839, did not hesitate of dissolving the existing order, were also from its initial development in the ascend- to arm itself against the existing regime. bound by the need for the class to improve ant phase of capitalism, to its subsequent The formation of the First International its lot inside the system. And contrary to loss and future re-appropriation. in 1864, even though it originated in the the first expectations of the founders of need for international co-ordination of marxism, this system was still far away defensive struggles, was a further indicator The formation of class identity from any “final crisis” or period of decline, that the working class was pitted against so that the longer and more extensively the the foundations of bourgeois society – that The proletariat is by definition the class of proletariat forged its organisations inside a really self-aware class identity could not dispossession. It is originally formed by the the shell of capitalist society, the greater the be accommodated within the framework dispossession of the peasant’s small plot of danger that these organisations would be- of the nation state. land, or the artisan’s instruments of produc- come part of civil society tout court – would tion, and herded into the disease-ridden become institutionalised. As Engels put it The fear that the International and the slums of early industrial society. Engels in 1892: at a certain point, “Trades’ unions, Paris Commune inspired in the hearts of in The Condition of the Working Class in hitherto considered inventions of the devil the bourgeoisie, as well as the objective England writes about all the demoralising himself, were now petted and patronised conditions of capitalist global expansion in effects of this process which led numerous as perfectly legitimate institutions, and as the last part of the 19th century, provided proletarians into drunkenness and crime, useful means of spreading sound economi- the basis for the eventual integration of the subjecting them to the most brutal com- cal doctrines amongst the workers”. With mass workers’ organisations into bourgeois petition among themselves. But Engels the hindsight of bitter historical experience, society and finally into the state apparatus rejected any moralistic condemnation of we know that the road to revolution did itself. To these factors can be added the these purely individual reactions to their not pass through the gradual building up confusions and opportunist concessions condition and pointed to the alternative that of workers’ mass organisations within the that arose within the proletarian movement was already taking shape: the collective system. On the contrary, when the real test itself, not least the identification of the struggle of the workers for the improvement came with the onset of decadence, these or- proletariat with the national interest, which of their condition through the formation ganisations, which had become slowly but the Second International, with its federal of trade unions, educational and cultural surely corrupted by the dominant society structure and its difficulties in understand- associations and political parties like the and ideology, were definitively recuper- ing the evolution of the national question, Chartists – all of this inspired ultimately ated by the ruling class to help it fight its was never able to overcome. But the sense by the vision of a higher form of society. imperialist wars and to combat the threat of class identity that arose during the long The physical bringing together of the work- of revolution. period of social democracy, a period in ers in the cities and the factories was the which the organised labour movement This was by no means a linear proc- objective premise for this struggle. This is provided a whole layer of workers not ess. The proletariat was constantly being one dimension of the association of labour only with organs of economic defence reminded that it was in essence an outlaw which overcomes the relative isolation of and political activity, but a whole social class – a force for revolution. Its initial artisan and peasant labour; but as a purely and cultural life, by no means disappeared efforts to build the most elementary com- “sociological” process, the machinery of with the opening of the epoch of capitalist binations in its defence were ruthlessly early industrialisation was so brutal and decline. On the contrary, transmuted into suppressed by the bourgeoisie, which took traumatic that it could also have resulted a mystification hostile to the proletariat, it a long time to understand that it could turn in the production of an indifferent mass would “weigh like a nightmare on the brains the workers’ own organisations against of paupers, and even in the extinction of the living”, and would in particular be them. Moreover, the political conditions of the proletariat through starvation and taken over by the social democratic and of mid-19th century Europe would lead disease. It was the recognition of a com- Stalinist parties with aim of maintaining the proletariat into overtly insurrectionary mon class interest, opposed to that of the their control over the working class: bourgeoisie, which was the real basis of struggles against the ruling class in Europe the initial class identity of the proletariat. in at least two key historical moments: 1848 and 1871. In France, already the . World Revolution nº 304: “History of the workers’ The “constitution of the proletarians into movement in Britain, Part 2: Chartism and the 1842 a class”, as the Communist Manifesto put homeland of revolution after the experi- general strike.” ence of 1789-93, the working class took . This movement had been preceded by the Merthyr it, was thus inseparable from the growth uprising of 1831, which, it could be argued, was better of class consciousness and of organisation: up arms against the state and, particularly in 1871, concretely posed the problem organised and more successful, even if the workers “and consequently into a political party”, could only take power in one city and only for brief as the phrase continues. The working . Introduction to the English edition of The condition moment. It was also the first recorded moment that of the working class in England. workers marched under the red flag. Report on the class struggle 29

“Class identity is the recognition by the tinuously develop its self-confidence and ing out “what the proletariat is”: in the proletariat that it constitutes a distinct class its political and social unity. The most epoch of wars and revolutions, the class in society, opposed to the bourgeoisie and important manifestations of this capacity can only grasp its identity by organising having an active role in society. However, were, in addition to the workers’ struggle itself outside all existing institutions and in this does not mechanically signify that it itself, the development of a socialist vision, direct antithesis to capitalist society. recognises itself as the revolutionary class of a theoretical capacity, and of a political The following decades of counter- in society. For many years, class identity revolutionary organisation. This process revolution were to deepen this process of gravitated around the notion of a class of of accumulation, the work of decades and dispossession. In the 1930s the proletariat capitalist society aspiring to have a decent of generations, was interrupted and even was confronted with the biggest economic standard of living and enjoying recognition reversed by the counter-revolution. Only crisis in the history of capitalism, the first and a social potency. tiny revolutionary minorities were able to real economic crisis of decadence. But maintain their confidence in the proletariat “Such an identity was constructed by the the Communist Parties created to counter in the decades that followed. The historic counter-revolution and notably by the trade the treason of 1914 had in turn abandoned resurgence of the working class in 1968, unions and Stalinism, basing themselves internationalism in favour of the infamous by ending the counter-revolution, began to on certain weaknesses that go back to the theory of socialism in one country and, once again reverse this tendency. However, period of the Second International: a blue through the Popular Front, were seeking the new expressions of self-confidence and collar worker, militant, concerned with his to politically dissolve the working class class solidarity by this new and undefeated rights in society, recognised by it, linked into the nation and prepare it for war. Even proletarian generation remained for the to the large enterprises and working class the anarchist unions that had retained a most part rooted in the immediate strug- neighbourhoods, proud of his condition proletarian life in Spain succumbed to gles. They were not yet based to the same as a ‘worker citizen’ and enclosed in the this new betrayal. The outbreak of war in extent as before the counter-revolution on universe of the great family of workers. 1939 did not mean, as Vercesi argued, the a socialist vision and political formation, “social disappearance of the proletariat” “Such an identity was very much linked on a class theory, and on the passing on of and thus the uselessness of organised to a precise period: that of the zenith of accumulated experience and understand- political activity for revolutionaries. The capitalism (1870-1914), but its persistence ing from one generation to the next. In social disappearance of the proletariat is in the period of decadence, in which the other words: the historic self-confidence of impossible as long as capital survives, and vision of a proletariat profoundly excluded the proletariat, and its traditions of active the formation of revolutionary minorities from bourgeois society as announced by unity and collective combat belong to the obeys a permanent need within the class. Marx, has led it to become a very dangerous aspects of its combat which have suffered But it certainly did signify a new step in false identity, full of illusions about being most from the break in organic continuity. its political disarray, not only through the integrated into capitalist society, about Equally, they are among the most difficult terror of fascism and Stalinism but, more reaching accommodation with it, and this aspects to re-establish, since they depend insidiously, through its incorporation into destroying a real class identity and con- more than many others on a living political the project of defending democracy. And it sciousness. The only identity possible for and social continuity. This in turn gives included the rapid integration of the Trot- the proletariat is that of a class excluded rise to a particular vulnerability of the new skyist opposition into the war effort and the from this society and which carries within generations of the class and its revolution- dispersal of its left fractions. The proletariat it the communist perspective.” ary minorities”. did manifest itself at the end of the war in We can add that even before the shat- certain countries, above all Italy in 1943, Main stages in the dispossession tering blow of the defeat of the first revo- but contrary to the expectations of a large of class identity in the epoch of lutionary wave, the great battle of 1914- part of the Italian communist left (including decadence 18 meant the loss of decades of patient Vercesi) this did not mean a reversal of the labour in the construction of its unions counter-revolutionary course. A text on the balance of class forces and political parties, a loss which has been The counter-revolution, taking ever adopted by our international central organ particularly difficult for the working class more totalitarian forms, continued to hold in April 2018, citing our “Orientation Text to accept and understand: even among the  sway during the period of post-war pros- on Confidence and Solidarity”, outlined revolutionaries who opposed this betrayal, perity, while capital discovered new forms two phases in the history of the workers’ only a minority was able to grasp that these for undermining the proletariat’s sense of movement since 1848. Its focus is on the organisations had been irretrievably lost to itself. This was the period in which “soci- growth and loss of the self-confidence of the class. Subsequently, with the rise of ologists could begin theorising about the working class, but this question is very Stalinism, what had been a difficulty of ‘embourgeoisiement’ of the working class closely linked to the problem of class comprehension became the basis for the as a result of the spread of consumerism identity: the working class can only have construction of the fake identity mentioned and the development of the welfare state. confidence in itself if it is aware of its own by the report on perspectives. But while this And indeed both these aspects of capital- existence and interests. terrible burden inherited from the past was ism after 1945 remain as important added to have a disastrous impact on the progress “During the first phase, extending from weights on the possibility of the working of the revolutionary wave – expressed in the beginnings of its self-affirmation as an class reconstituting itself as a revolutionary particular through the theory and practice autonomous class until the revolutionary force. Consumerism atomises the working of the United Front – this period also shed wave of 1917-23, the working class was class and peddles the illusion that every- light on the new form of class identity em- able, despite the series of often bloody one can attain the paradise of individual bodied in the mass strike, in the formation defeats it suffered, to more or less con- ownership. Welfarism – which was often of workers’ councils and the rise of the introduced by left parties and presented as Third International. As Marx had already . From a Report on the perspectives of the class a conquest of the working class, is an even struggle, December 2015. put it, the proletariat is revolutionary or it more significant instrument of capitalist . International Review n° 111, 2001. “Orientation is nothing: this rediscovered class identity control. It undermines the self-confidence Text on Confidence and solidarity in the proletarian was not really “new” but was simply bring- struggle.” of the working class and makes it reliant on 30 International Review 164 Spring 2020 the benevolence of the state; and later on, self-seeking is the fundamental principle to capitalism, but even the end of the class in a phase of mass migration, its organisa- of our society everywhere, it is nowhere so struggle and of the working class itself. tion by the nation state would mean that shamelessly barefaced, so self-conscious as In doing so, the bourgeoisie itself showed the issue of access to health, housing and just here in the crowding of the great city. the need to undermine class identity as a other benefits became a potent factor in the The dissolution of mankind into monads means of combating the threat of proletar- scapegoating of immigrants and divisions of which each one has a separate prin- ian revolution. within the working class.” ciple and a separate purpose, the world A third dimension of the undermining of atoms, is here carried out to its utmost The revival of the class struggle after of class identity in the period of decom- extreme.”10 1968, which reached its highest point position connects to this: that is to say, with the mass strike in Poland in 1980, In the final phase of this society, the the insistence that the working class is an refuted the idea that the working class war of each against all intensifies at every endangered or extinct species is deeply had been integrated into capitalism and level: from growing estrangement between underpinned by the structural changes gave us another glimpse of its essential individuals, to violent competition between that the ruling class has been obliged to identity as a force that can only express street gangs operating at the level of this introduce in response to the economic itself by bursting through its institutional or that housing estate or neighbourhood, to crisis of its system – everything that goes chains. Wildcat strikes outside the unions, the frenzied struggle between companies under the misleading headings of neo- general assemblies and revocable strike for their share of a limited market, to the liberalism and globalisation, but above committees, powerful tendencies towards expanding chaos of military competition all the process of “de-industrialisation” of the extension of the struggle – embryos or between states and proto-states at the the oldest capitalist centres. This process actual manifestations of the mass strike international level. This tendency also was of course determined by the necessity – renewed the perspective of workers’ underlies the search for communities based to abandon unprofitable industries and to councils. At the same time it provided the on a restricted identity that we referred to move capital to areas of the globe where soil for a small but important revival of earlier – a reaction against atomisation the same commodities could be produced the international communist movement which serves only to reinforce it at another much more cheaply. But there was always which had come close to disappearing by level. This unravelling of social ties works a directly anti-working class element in this the 1950s – an essential prerequisite for the continually and insidiously in polar op- process: the bourgeoisie was well aware, future formation of a new world party. position to the potential for the unification for example, that in taking on the miners of the working class around its common in Britain and closing down the mines, And yet as the above-quoted passage interests – in other words, to the re-forma- it would not only rid itself of a major from the text on Confidence and Solidarity tion of proletarian class identity. economic albatross, but would also strike argues, while May 68 and ensuing move- a serious blow against a very combative ments did raise the question of a new society The bourgeoisie of course is directly section of its class enemy. Of course, by at the theoretical level, the class struggle as affected by this same process – as we have shifting whole industries to the Far East a whole remained on the economic terrain noted in relation to its capacity to control and elsewhere, the bourgeoisie would be and was not able to grow towards a political its political apparatus, and in the growing creating new proletarian battalions for the confrontation with capitalism. The limits difficulty of maintaining stable alliances at class war, but it also had a certain under- of the proletarian revival contained the the level of relations between states. But standing that the industrial working class seeds of the new phase of decomposition unlike the working class the bourgeoisie of the main capitalist centres represented a which has seen the proletariat come close can to a certain extent turn the effects of particular danger to it. The working class is to losing its class identity altogether. decomposition to its advantage and even not limited to the industrial proletariat, but reinforce them. The collapse of the eastern this sector has always been at the very heart bloc, for example, was a prime example Class identity in the phase of of the workers’ movement and especially of the “objective” processes of decom- decomposition of the massive and revolutionary struggles position, spurred on by a deepening and of the past – shown for example by the irresolvable economic crisis. But because To understand why, since the end of the role of the Putilov factory in the Russian of the particular historical circumstances 1980s, the proletariat’s awareness of itself revolution, the workers of the Ruhr in the involved in the formation of this bloc – the as a social force has been in retreat, it is German revolution, the Renault workers in result of a defeated proletarian revolution necessary to examine its different dimen- the French mass strike of 68, the shipyard which gave rise to a system apparently dif- sions separately in order to understand how workers in Poland in 1980. they operate together. ferent from the capitalism of the west – the bourgeoisie has been able to fashion from Along with the shutting down of many To begin with, a capitalist society whose these events a whole ideological onslaught of these old industries, capitalism has very premises are beginning to unravel, a against the proletariat, an attack on class tried to create a new model of the working society in open disintegration, a society consciousness which played a significant class, especially in the service industries which has been through decades of decline part in the reflux of the struggle from the which have, in older capitalist countries and has been blocked in its further evolu- 1990s onwards. Facing a working class like Britain, moved further towards the tion, tends, more or less automatically, to which, already in the post-68 waves of centre stage of economic life. This model exacerbate the social atomisation which struggle, was experiencing great difficulty is the so-called “gig economy”, whose has been a key characteristic of this so- in developing a perspective for its resist- employees are urged to see themselves not ciety from its beginning, as Engels noted ance, the ‘death of communism’ campaigns as workers but as individual entrepreneurs in The condition of the working class in frontally attacked this essential dimension who can, if they work hard enough, make England: of class consciousness: its capacity to look it big, who can negotiate with the company “However much one may be aware that forward and provide itself with an orienta- individual by individual to improve their this isolation of the individual, this narrow tion for the future. But these campaigns pay and conditions. Again, these changes didn’t stop there: they proclaimed not only are ultimately dictated by the needs of . Resolution on class struggle, 22nd ICC the end of any possibility of an alternative profit, but they are also seized upon by congress. 10. From the chapter headed “The Great Towns”. the bourgeoisie to prevent workers from Report on the class struggle 31 seeing themselves as workers and as part tide of migrants and refugees who are of the argument present themselves as the of an exploited class. in turn the shock troops of sinister elites side interested in democracy and the will who aim to undermine Christian, white, of the people. This same polarisation can Populism and anti-populism or national culture. These delusions are be observed in the “culture wars” which combined with unquestioning support have fuelled the rise of populism: as we for the populist parties and demagogues noted earlier, populism is itself a form of Since our last congress in April 2017 the who present themselves as an “anti-elite” identity politics, casting itself as the de- populist upsurge has continued, despite force, as tribunes of the “real people”. The fender of the exclusive interests of this or the efforts of the most central factions of grip of such ideas – which can also lead a that nation or ethnic group, and it engages the bourgeoisie to erect a dyke against it, significant minority towards the practice of in a mutually reinforcing battle with all the as with the election of Macron in France the pogrom and terrorism – clearly works other forms of identity politics, whether the and the “Resistance” against Trump or- against these fractions regaining their real Islamist gangs who serve to misdirect the chestrated by the Democratic party and identity as part of an exploited class, as a anger of a particular stratum of disaffected part of the state security services in the US. section of the class who have been “left young proletarians stuck in urban ghettos, The reliability of Germany as a barrier to behind” not by the plots of anti-national or the more left leaning campaigns around the spread of populism has been severely cabals but by the remorseless impact of racial and gender issues. This polarisation weakened by the electoral rise of the AfD the global capitalist crisis. is a real expression of a disintegrating and and the development of a pogromist street increasingly divided society, but, faced with movement in places like Chemnitz. The But, recalling Bordiga’s famous dictum the proletariat, decadent capitalism shows divisions and near-paralysis of the British that “the worst product of fascism is anti- its totalitarian character, to the extent that bourgeoisie over Brexit has intensified. The fascism”, we must also point out that the this very polarisation occupies the social installation of a populist government in bourgeois opposition to populism plays a and political terrain and tends to block the Italy, together with the opposition mounted no less important role in the ideological emergence of debate or action on the terrain by populist governments in Eastern Europe, swindle that prevents the proletariat from of the proletariat. has posed serious problems for the future recognising its independent, and antago- of the EU. The threat to the unity of the nistic, class interests to all wings of the Spanish state by the forces of Catalan and ruling class. Writing at the beginning of The danger of nihilism and the other nationalisms has not been overcome. the Junius Pamphlet about the pogromist potential for a rediscovery of class In Brazil the victory of Bolsanaro is a new atmosphere that invaded Germany at the identity step in the rise of “strong leaders” who start of the First World War, Luxemburg openly advocate state terror against any noted that this “Kishinev air.. left the police- The capitalist world in decomposition opposition to their rule. Finally, the phe- man at the corner as the only remaining necessarily engenders apocalyptic moods. nomenon of the “Yellow Vests” in France representative of human dignity”. In the It can offer humanity no future and its and elsewhere shows the capacity of the US, the same appearance is created by the potential for destruction on a scale that beg- populists not only to manifest themselves egregious pronouncements and practices gars the imagination has become more and on the electoral terrain, but also on the of a Trump, so that the Democrats, liberal more evident to wide layers of the world’s streets, in large-scale demonstrations that Republicans, supreme court judges and population. The most extreme manifesta- can appear to take up some of the concerns even the FBI and CIA start to look like tions of this feeling that the world we live and even the methods of the working class., the good guys. In Britain, the apparent in is on its last legs expresses itself in the while having the effect of further confusing domination of political life by a small distorted mythologies of Islamic jihadism the meaning of class identity gang of “Brextremists”, in turn linked to or right wing Christian survivalism, but this dark money and even the machinations is a far more general mood. Increasingly Populism, with its aggressively national- of Russian imperialism, stimulates the disturbing reports of scientific panels about ist and xenophobic language, its contempt development of a mass opposition to Brexit climate change, destruction of species and for evidence and scientific research, its which, with the open encouragement of toxic pollution of all kinds have added to the manipulation of conspiracy theories, and parts of the media, can mobilise up to sense of doom: if the scientists say that we its barely concealed relation to the naked 750,000 onto the streets of London to call have 12 years to prevent an environmental violence of fascist street gangs, is without for a second referendum. Although often catastrophe, it is understood already that doubt a pure product of decomposition, the derided as a polite middleclass movement, the governments and corporations of the indication that the capitalist class is, even such mobilisations undoubtedly draw world will do next to nothing to carry out in its own terms, going backwards in the in large numbers of that educated urban the measures advocated by these reports, face of the historic stalemate between the proletariat who are angered by the lies of for fear of blunting the competitive edge classes. But while it emerges as a product the populists but are not yet able to detach of the national economies. Indeed, with the of social decay and tends to undermine the themselves from the liberal and left wing advent of populist governments, climate bourgeoisie’s control of its entire political factions of the bourgeoisie. denial becomes more and more hysterical and economic apparatus, here again the in face of the real dangers faced by the ruling class can make use of the problems In sum: the whole of political debate world, and opts for pure vandalism, with- created by populism in its permanent war tends to be monopolised by the questions of drawal from international agreements and against class consciousness. pro- and anti-Trump, pro- and anti-Brexit, the removal of all limits to the exploitation and so on, a debate entirely circumscribed This is evident in the case of those of nature, as in the case of Trump in the by patriotic and democratic ideology. The fractions of the proletariat who, lacking USA and Bolsanaro in Brazil. Add to this bourgeois opposition to Trump presents any perspective of class resistance against the fact that imperialist war is becoming itself as the Real America no less than capitalism and the effects of its crisis, more chaotic and unpredictable while a Trump and his supporters, and it condemns have been drawn directly into populist growing number of states have access to the current administration above all for its politics and have fallen for a new version nuclear weapons, then it is hardly surpris- violation of democratic norms; similarly, in of the “socialism of fools”: the idea that ing that nihilism and despair are even more the UK, the debate is always about the true their misery is caused by the growing widespread than they were in the period of interests of “our country”, and both sides 32 International Review 164 Spring 2020

World War Two, despite the proximity of – This economic growth – however fragile used simply to measure distribution on the shadow of Auschwitz and Hiroshima its underpinning – has, precisely because the basis of need. This has given rise and the threat of nuclear war between the of its connection with modern communi- to various utopian "post-capitalist" two imperialist blocs. cations technology, become increasingly theories which are deluded into think- globalised, an international chain which ing that such developments will arrive Nihilism and despair arise from a sense constantly balks at the limits of national automatically from the use of technology of powerlessness, in a loss of conviction borders and compels capitalism to or- itself,11 but which nevertheless express a that there is any possible alternative to ganise itself on an international scale. growing reality predicted by Marx: that the nightmare scenario being prepared by The current trend towards nationalist “capital has outlived itself”. capitalism. It tends to paralyse reflection protectionism is seeking to turn back and the will to action. And if the only so- – The obsolescence of the commodity this tide, but it is significant that most cial force that could pose this alternative form, of value production, is expressed of its proponents are in reality incapable is virtually unaware of its own existence, above all in what is perhaps the most of breaking their links with "rootless" does this mean that the game is up, that crucial "objective factor" of all: the global capital. In Britain, for example, the point of no return has already been economic crisis. It is capital’s inability the leading financiers of Brexit (like reached? to go beyond itself, by itself, which is Aaron Banks, whose offshore funds are the underlying factor behind the present We certainly recognise that the longer currently under legal investigation) are crisis of civilisation; and when the con- capitalism sinks into decomposition, the all speculators on the world stage, and tradictions arising from this historic state more it is sapping the basis for a more hu- the same goes for Trump and some of his of affairs become most open, they tend man society. Again this is illustrated most most committed supporters. And these to reveal to the exploited class the neces- clearly by the destruction of the environ- tendencies have produced a working sity for a new mode of production. The ment, which is reaching the point where class that is increasingly international 2008 crisis – even if the form it took (a it can accelerate the tendency towards a in its form and in its daily activities: the credit crunch that hit proletarians more complete break-down of society, a condi- use of the internet to co-ordinate global as individual savers than as part of a tion which does not favour the self-organi- production networks, the "movement collective class) and the means used to sation and confidence in the future required of labour" across borders which neces- overcome it (the application of heavy to make the revolution; and even if the sarily accompanies the movement of doses of the same poison that had led proletariat does come to power on a global capital, and so on. This is a fraction of to it in the first place) did not favour a scale, it will be faced by a gigantic labour the class which is also highly qualified, massive and global development of class not only to clean up the mess bequeathed often university educated, and has a consciousness – nevertheless remains by capitalist accumulation, but to reverse more "natural" resistance to populism as a proof of the essential vulnerability a spiral of destruction that it has already and racism. and obsolescence of the system, which set in motion. – These developments in the shape of is heading towards even greater con- But we also know that despair also the proletariat also includes a growing vulsions in the future. There are major distorts reality, generates panic on the incorporation of women into associated storm clouds brewing over the world one hand, denial on the other, and does labour – in the health and care indus- economy and there is no question that not permit us to think clearly about the tries in the west, into communications the growing inability of the ruling class possibilities that are still available to us. in India, for example, or into factory to master the economic contradictions In a number of recent documents presented production in Bangladesh and China. of the system, and thus the increasing to congresses and meetings of its central This provides the objective basis for necessity for frontal attacks on work- organ, the ICC has examined a series of overcoming the gender divisions in the ing and living conditions, remain a key objective developments which have taken class and for the understanding that the potential factor in the revival of class place (or rather continued) over the last few sexual oppression of women, and other struggle and of a more wide-spread decades and which could act in favour of forms of sexual oppression, are at root a proletarian self-awareness. the proletariat. The most important of these problem for the class, a pernicious obsta- developments are: cle to its unification. At the same time, Necessity for a development on the participation of female proletarians – The growth of the proletariat on a world the subjective level in the class struggle has always been a scale, which we tended to deny in the potent element in the development of past, driven in particular by the extraor- But we must bear in mind that these objec- its moral dimension. dinary growth of industry in China and tive factors, while being necessary to the other eastern and pacific countries. The – Technological developments – in recovery of class identity and class con- idea advanced by some sociologists marxist terms, the development of the sciousness, are not sufficient in themselves, that we are living in a "post-industrial" productive forces – are also, potentially, and that there are other factors operating society appears completely ridiculous a factor in recognising the obsolescence against the realisation of the potential when we can see that more than ever, of the capitalist mode of production. In they contain. Thus, the new generations of capitalist society presents itself "as an the process of production, the growth of industrial workers in the east have often immense accumulation of commodi- computers and robots under capitalism show high levels of militancy (for example, ties"; and that the core of all this stuff, generates unemployment on the one massive strikes in the textile industry in this frenzied building, production and hand, overwork on the other, but their Bangladesh) but they lack the long political distribution, is still carried on by hu- possible use in relieving humanity from traditions of the western proletariat, even man beings, despite the rapid advance drudgery also becomes increasingly ob- if the latter have been buried to a large of robotisation. Capitalism without the vious. At the same time, the use of digital extent. The integration of women into the proletariat is a pure fiction. At the same technology in the spheres of distribution, workplace has, when class consciousness time, we have seen a growing proletari- payment and finance hints at the pos- 11. See for example Paul Mason’s book, Post anisation of countless “professional” and sibility that the commodity form is itself Capitalism, a Guide to our Future, and its critique non-factory jobs. bankrupt, that the technology could be by the Communist Workers Organisation. Report on the class struggle 33 is low, often been accompanied by an ride through the streets in London, and a organisations like the IWW, Independent increase in harassment. And we have also 6 day strike. They insisted on collective Workers Union of Great Britain and United seen (certainly in the 1930s, but also to a negotiation against the managing direc- Voices of the World have quickly taken certain degree in the wake of 2008) that the tor’s ‘offer’ to speak to them individually. advantage of this and have become the economic crisis can under certain circum- In the end the threat that they would lose main force “organising” the workers. This stances become a factor of demoralisation their jobs if they did not sign up to the new is probably inevitable in a situation where and of individual atomisation rather than contract was withdrawn, but it is being tri- there is no general class movement, but the collective mobilisation. alled by those who opt in. A partial victory. influence of these radical unions testifies to Some UberEats delivery workers came to the need to contain a genuine radicalisation The working class is the class of con- Deliveroo meetings. They face similar con- amongst a minority of workers. sciousness. Unlike the bourgeois revolution ditions, being falsely given self-employed its revolution is not based on a steady ac- 2. Struggles against the war economy in status; pay has fallen so they barely make cumulation of wealth and economic power. the Middle East the minimum wage, with no guaranteed It can only accumulate experience, tradition pay, only getting £3.30 per delivery. After The strikes and demonstrations which of struggle, methods of organisation, and a wildcat strike one worker was sacked (or erupted in July in many parts of Jordan, so on. In sum, the subjective element is “deactivated” since he is not protected by Iraq and Iran, described in several recent crucial if an objective potential is to be employment law), underlining the courage articles on our website,14 were a direct seized and realised. needed by workers who struggle in such response by proletarians of the region to This subjective potential cannot be precarious industries…”12 the miseries inflicted on the population by measured in immediate terms. The balance the war economy. The demands raised by More recently, in October, workers at of class forces exists historically and we the protests were heavily focused on basic a series of fast food outlets in a number can say that, even if time is not on its side, economic issues: shortages of water and of cities in the UK – Macdonalds, TGI even though decomposition is becoming healthcare, poverty wages or unpaid wages, Fridays and JD Wetherspoon, together a growing threat and the working class is unemployment, testifying to the fact that with UberEats drivers, came out on strike experiencing considerable differences in these movements began on a class terrain. together and joined each others’ pickets emerging from its current retreat, globally They also raised a number of political and demonstrations. As the article in World the class has not been crushed since 1968 slogans which tend to assert proletarian Revolution says, these actions are based on and thus remains an obstacle to the full interests against the interests of the ruling a recognition that the employees of these descent into barbarism; it thus retains the class and its wars: in Iran, for example, firms are indeed part of a collective social potential for overcoming the whole system. both “fundamentalist” and “reforming” body and not just isolated individuals. It But we can only continue to assert this factions of the theocracy were lumped was also significant that these strikes in- by carefully examining more immediate together and the imperial pretensions of the volved many immigrant workers alongside expressions of rebellion against the social Iranian regime were frequently ridiculed; those born in the UK, while some of the order. And these are not absent: in Iraq protesters cried out that they were actions were co-ordinated with strikes in neither Sunni nor Shia; and “Not only With regard to the open struggles of the same firms in Europe. At the same have government and municipal buildings the class, we will look at two recent ex- time, according to the BBC, “the strikes been the target of demonstrators’ attacks amples: are being held to coincide with industrial but so have the Shia institutions belying action over pay by fast-food workers in their hypocritical ‘support’ for the wave 1. Struggles in Britain Chile, Colombia, the US, Belgium, Italy, of protests. The ‘radical’ populist al-Sadr In Britain in the last two years we have seen Germany, the Philippines and Japan”.13 had his delegation to the protesters attacked small but significant strikes by workers in The notion of the “precariat” applied and seen off – this was shown in footage the “gig” economy, as recounted in this to these workers implies that this is a new on social media”.15 article in World Revolution: class, but precarious employment has Even more important, in the autumn of “One of the fears about workers in always been part of the condition of the 2018 there were a number of very com- very precarious casual jobs, with a large working class. In a sense, the methods of bative workers’ strikes in Iranian industry, proportion of immigrants among them, the “gig economy”, with workers increas- with some clear expressions of solidarity is that they will not be able to struggle, ingly employed on very short term and between different enterprises, as in the case and so will be nothing but a competitive casual basis, takes us back to the days of of the Foolad steel workers and the sugar pressure to lower wages. Firms such as building or port workers queuing for hire workers at HaftTappeh. The latter struggle Uber and Deliveroo like to claim their on a day to day basis. also became well known internationally workers are self-employed (so not getting The attempts of workers from differ- through the holding of general assemblies minimum wage, holiday or sick leave). The ent firms and countries to come together and statements from a key strike leader recent strike at Deliveroo, which spread is an affirmation of class identity against Ismail Bakhshi about their strike commit- to UberEats drivers, has answered both the “new model” mentioned earlier, and tee as a kind of embryonic soviet. This has questions. They are most definitely part of shows that no section of the class, however been taken up by various elements in the the working class, and most definitely able dispersed and downtrodden, is incapable of milieu to imply that workers’ councils were to struggle to defend themselves. fighting for its interests. At the same time, on the immediate agenda in Iran, which Threatened with a new contract that the fact that these workers have largely we think is far from being the case. Other would change from hourly pay plus a been ignored by the traditional unions statements by Bakhshi show that there are bonus for each delivery (£7 and £1) with has left a space for more radical forms of serious confusions about self-management pay only for each delivery, despite their trade unionism: in the UK, semi-syndicalist 14. See the following articles: “Class struggle apparent isolation from each other and 12. See the article on our website from 2016: in Jordan’s war economy”, July 2018; “Iraq: their precarious circumstances, Deliveroo “Deliveroo, UberEats: Struggles by precarious and marching against the war machine “, August 2018; delivery workers organised meetings to run immigrant workers”. “Internationalist Voice and protests in the Middle their struggle, a protest moped and cycle 13. BBC website, 4/10/18: “McDonald’s, UberEats East”, November 2018. and Wetherspoon workers strike over pay”. 15. “Iraq: marching against the war machine”. 34 International Review 164 Spring 2020 even among the more advanced work- populism and nationalism. for bringing together workers from differ- ers.16 It’s also the case that some of the ent sectors, as well as the unemployed, so It is only through the class regaining a slogans in the earlier street protests had a the movement in the workplaces is key to sense of itself as a class, through the devel- nationalist and even monarchist character. reminding all those on the street that they opment of the struggle on its own terrain, Despite these profound weaknesses, we still are part of a class which has to sell its that all the energy and legitimate anger consider that this wave of struggle in Iran labour to capital. that today is being channelled in sterile was an important expression of the intact or harmful directions could tomorrow be This conjunction will also be important potential of the class struggle. With war “recuperated” by the proletariat. That this in solving the problem of the unitary or- becoming a permanent reality for grow- is more than a vague wish is shown by the ganisation of future massive movements ing sections of the class, these movements dynamic of the Indignados movement in – the problem of the workers’ councils. are a reminder not only of the absolute 2011. Motivated by “classic” working class In past revolutionary movements, the antagonism between the proletariat and issues – unemployment, job insecurity, the workers’ councils tended to arise from imperialist conflict, but of an embryonic impact of the 2008 crash on living standards the centralisation of general assemblies awareness of this antagonism, expressed – this was a movement which also raised in the large industrial units. This will no both in some of the slogans raised and questions about the future of humanity in a doubt remain an important factor in regions in the international simultaneity of these system which many of its participants saw where such units still exist (Germany for upsurges in Iran, Iraq and Jordan. as “obsolete”. It consequently organised example) or have been developed in the all kinds of discussions about morality, recent period (China, Indian sub-continent, The spread of social indignation science, the environment, questions of etc). But given the importance of the old sex and gender, and so on – in this sense centres of the class struggle, above all in These examples are not presented as proof clearly reviving the spirit of May 68 by Europe, which have been subjected to a of a global revival of the class struggle posing the question of an alternative to long process of deindustrialisation, it is or even of the end of its retreat, which capitalist society. This was an expression possible that councils will emerge from would in any case require the emergence of a proletarian movement which had begun a coming together of assemblies held of important class movements in the central to understand that it contains the answer to in central workplaces such as hospitals, countries of the system. In these countries, “particular wrongs” as well as “wrong in universities, warehouses etc, and mass the social situation is still marked more general”. It showed that the class struggle meetings held on streets and squares where by an absence of major struggles on the needs to extend not only across wider sec- workers from more dispersed workplaces, proletarian terrain. On the other hand, we tors of the capitalist economy, but also into the unemployed and precariously employed have seen a number of protests that express the spheres of politics and culture. can unify their struggles. a growing indignation against the brutality and destructiveness of capitalist society, In Nevertheless, the problem remains that The fact that major parts of the popu- the USA in particular, we have seen the even if the Indignados was in essence lation have been proletarianised by the direct actions at the airports against the a movement of the proletariat, largely combined impact of the crisis and changes detaining and expulsion of travellers from made up of employed, semi-employed, in the “skin” of the working class implies Muslim countries; huge demonstrations unemployed, university and high school that assemblies based on territorial rather in the wake of police shootings of young students, the majority of its protagonists than industrial units will retain a working black people in a number of cities: Char- saw themselves above all as citizens, and class character, even if there is evidently the lotte, St Louis, New York, Sacramento… were thus particularly vulnerable to the danger of the influence of petty bourgeois and the massive mobilisation of young ideology of “Democracy Now” and other and other strata in such forms of organisa- people following the school shooting at leftists who tried to drag the assembly tion. Such dilemmas lead us to the question Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School movement towards incorporation into a of the autonomy of the class and its relation in Parkland, Florida. Climate change and reformed parliamentary regime. There was, to the transitional state in the revolution of the destruction of the environment is also a of course, a substantial proletarian wing (in the future, since the working class, having factor sparking protests, notably the school the political rather than the sociological rediscovered its identity as a revolution- strikes organised in many countries under sense) of the movement which saw things ary social force, will have to maintain the umbrella of “Youth for Climate” or the differently but they remained a minority and this autonomous identity politically and Extinction Rebellion protests in London. In seem to have given birth to a far smaller organisationally during the transitional the same way, outrage over the patronising minority of elements who have moved to- period, until all have become proletarians and violent treatment of women – not only wards revolutionary politics. The “identity and thus none are proletarians. problem” of the Indignados movement was in “backward” countries like India but in It is also likely that this newly-found further emphasised in 2017 when so many the so-called “liberal democracies” - has revolutionary identity will take a more of those who had been genuinely indignant also been expressed on the streets rather directly political form in the future: in against the future offered by capitalism fell than being limited to internet forums. other words, that the class will define itself for the fraud of nationalism, particularly through a growing adherence to the com- However, given the general loss of class its Catalan version. identity, there is little to prevent these kinds munist perspective, not least because the of protests falling into the traps of the One of the key weaknesses of the move- profundity of the social and economic crisis bourgeoisie – into mystifications around ment was its lack of connection between the will have sapped away at illusions in any identity politics and reformism, and thus movement in the streets and squares and possible “return to normal” for capitalism being directly manipulated by left and the struggles in the workplaces, and this in decomposition. We saw an indication democratic bourgeois factions. The Yellow gap is something that future struggles will of this in the appearance of the proletar- Vest phenomenon also shows the danger of have to overcome. We have seen glimpses ian wing in the Indignados movement: the class further losing itself in inter-classist of this in the recent movements in the Mid- its proletarian character was based not so movements dominated by the ideology of dle East, and perhaps more explicitly in much on its sociological composition, but the metal workers’ strikes in Vigo in 2006. 16. “Response to Internationalist Voice on strikes For just as gaining the street is essential in Iran”. Continued on page 39 35 Report on the question of the historic course

Introduction

The report on the question of the historic course from the 23rd ICC Congress, which the ensuing period would be dominated by we are publishing here, confirms a significant change of analysis in relation to the an accelerated putrefaction, the descent into one elaborated in a basic ICC text from 1978 entitled “The historic course”. chaos of a dying system, still suffering the Briefly, this change in analysis flows directly from the modification of the world violent and destructive contradictions of situation that followed the fall of the eastern imperialist bloc, which led in turn capitalist decadence but in a new form and to the disintegration of the western bloc. In this new situation, which marked context. The resurgence of the proletarian the definite entry of the world into capitalism’s period of decomposition, it was class struggle, which had begun in 1968 necessary to analyse the consequently significant change in the evolution of the and which had prevented a third world war balance of forces between the classes; in particular the fact that the alterna- from being unleashed, would now come up tive between revolution and the destruction of humanity through world war was against new difficulties and a long period of no longer posed in the same terms, given that, with the disappearance of the retreat and disorientation, even though the imperialist blocs, world war was no longer on the agenda. aggravation of the world economic crisis would in the future push the proletariat to take up the struggle again. By making the necessary change in our ist war was a war of national defence like analysis, we were adopting the method of the limited, minor wars of the 19th century Furthermore, the collapse of the eastern Marx and the marxist movement since its – and thus joined forces with the imperial- bloc had put an end, perhaps definitively, inception, which consists of changing posi- ist bourgeoisie – while the centrist wing to the division of the world into two armed tions, analyses and even the programme as argued that the war was just a temporary camps, which had been the principal way a whole as soon as it no longer corresponds aberration and that things would go back that the world imperialism had operated to the march of history; this is fully in line to normal after the cessation of hostilities. in its decadent phase. The first and sec- with the goals of marxism as a revolution- The representatives of these two currents ond world wars, as well as the events that ary theory. The most celebrated example of ended up fighting against the revolution- preceded and followed them, showed that capitalism could no longer evolve thanks this is the important modifications which ary proletarian wave which put an end to th Marx and Engels made to the Communist the First World War, whereas the leading to colonial expansion as in the 19 century, Manifesto itself, summarised in the later figures of these proletarian uprisings such and that what remained for the rival impe- prefaces they added to this fundamental as Rosa, Lenin and Trotsky, in the newly rialisms was to attempt to carry out a new text, in the light of the historic changes formed Communist parties, preserved the division of the world market to their own that had taken place. “honour of international socialism” by set- advantage, through the massacre of war. ting aside the outmoded formulae of social And this attempt was articulated through a “Marxism is a revolutionary world democracy, which were now being used to tendency towards the grouping of various outlook which must always strive for new justify the counter-revolution. countries behind the two most powerful discoveries, which completely despises gangsters, a process fully confirmed after rigidity in once-valid theses, and whose The unprecedented changes marked by 1945. After the 1914-89 period dominated living force is best preserved in the intel- the end of the Cold War in 1989 were not of by the division of the world into two rival lectual clash of self-criticism and the rough the same breadth of those of 1914. But they imperialist blocs, the tendency towards and tumble of history.” did mark a significant step in the develop- the formation of blocs ceased to be the ment of capitalist decadence, coinciding Rosa’s insistence, in this period, on the dominant one in inter-imperialist relations, with the emergence of its final phase, the necessity to reconsider prior analyses in and each power would from now on follow phase of social decomposition. While the order to remain faithful to the nature and its own blood-soaked path in a world of turning point of 1989 did not change the method of marxism as a revolutionary “every man for himself”. programme of the working class, which re- theory was directly linked to the profound tains its validity throughout the decadence The report examines and reaffirms this significance of the First World War. The of capitalism, it did imply a major change analysis following the modifications after 1914-18 war marked a turning point in with regard to the conditions within which 1989. But it extends it further. capitalism as a mode of production, its pas- the class struggle had evolved up until sage from a period of ascent and progress In 2015, the 21st ICC Congress launched then, in the seven decades between 1914 to a new period of decadence and collapse a long-term project of reviewing 40 years and 1989. The report we are publishing which fundamentally changed the condi- of its existence, of “making as lucid an here is a contribution to the critical effort tions and the programme of the workers’ examination as possible of our strengths to develop a marxist analysis of this major movement. But only the left wing of the and weaknesses; of what was valid in our turning point in world history. Second International began to recognise analyses and what errors we have made in order to arm ourselves to overcome that the previous period had definitely end- In 1989, at the time of these world-shak-  ed and that the proletariat was now entering ing events, the ICC was already analysing, them”. into the “epoch of wars and revolution” as in various texts, the very important changes The report on the question of the the Third International was to call it. The taking place. “In the Theses on Decom- historic course from the 23rd Congress opportunist right of Social Democracy had position” and the text “Militarism and is a consequence of this specific effort falsely claimed that the first inter-imperial- Decomposition”, the ICC predicted that and pushes forward the analysis already 1. International Review nº 18 . International Review nº62, 1990. . International Review nº156, “40 years after the 2. Rosa Luxemburg, An Anti-critique. . International Review nº 64, 1991. foundation of the ICC”. 36 International Review 164 Spring 2020 contained in the texts produced 30 years from Sarajevo to the fall of the Berlin We are happy to say that, prior to its pub- ago, re-examining point by point the wall (including its different phases) and lication, the report has already stimulated original text on the historic course from which concerns the dynamic of society a public debate (a number of contributions 1978. In doing so, it concludes that the during this period, indissolubly linked to our online forum on the question since very term “historic course” can no longer but not identical to the balance of forces July), since its main conclusions already be considered as adequate for covering between the classes; figured in the Resolution on the Interna- the conditions pertaining to all historical tional Situation from the 23rd Congress – on the other hand, the concept of the periods of the class struggle. It applies to which had already been published. This is balance of forces between the classes, the period from Sarajevo in 1914 to the not the time to make a balance sheet of this which is applicable to all periods of the collapse of the USSR in 1989, but not to debate which is only just beginning. But it class struggle between bourgeoisie and the periods before and after this. In draw- needs to develop. Critical debate is an es- proletariat. ing this conclusion, the report underlines sential part of the marxist effort to develop a very important distinction between two These two concepts – historic course a new understanding as we negotiate the different concepts: and balance of forces between the classes “rough and tumble of history”. – are thus neither identical nor synonymous, – on the one hand, the concept of the but the 1978 text doesn’t clearly make this historic course, applicable to the period distinction.

Report

According to the materialist conception of history developed by Marx, the are to be scrupulously true to our historical contradictions of the capitalist system lead to a historic alternative: socialism or method of not only amending or changing barbarism; either a struggle leading to the overthrow of the bourgeoisie by the our analysis and argumentation in the light proletariat or the mutual ruin of these contending classes and society itself. of major events but also of justifying this Understanding the development of the class struggle within capitalism – its change in specific reference to the original different historical stages, its advances and retreats, the changing relative analysis. Our political method has never strengths of the adversaries – has therefore been of decisive importance for the been to abandon previous positions or analyses of the communist vanguard of the proletariat and an intrinsic aspect analyses without publicly settling accounts of the application of the marxist method. with what went before, because an ahistori- cal invariance or monolithism is impossible The major changes in the parameters of the the balance of class forces, and what this and a barrier to the clarification of class world situation in 1989, brought about by implies for the dynamic of society, in many consciousness. What remains valid in the the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the texts and articles, particularly in published HC78 text, what has been overtaken by the entry of decadent capitalism into its final reports and resolutions on the class struggle changed historical context within decadent phase of social decomposition, led the or- for its International Congresses, confirm- capitalism, and how the latter has revealed ganisation to take into account the growing ing in particular the increased difficulties the limitations of the HC78 text must be difficulties of the proletariat in this new and threats to the proletariat created by more explicitly understood and explained, situation, and to modify its analyses of the the period of the social decomposition of in order that any remaining anachronisms dynamic of society in relation to the balance capitalism. can be revealed and clarified. of forces between the classes. In point of In this regard for example, we can point fact, this analysis, contained in the text on to the report on the class struggle for the the Historic Course (HC78) from the 3rd A summary of the points of the ICC 13th Congress in 1999 or the report HC78 text Congress of the ICC in 1978 was no longer on the class struggle for the 14th Congress entirely appropriate to a post-1989 world in 2001 which was subtitled “The concept where imperialist rivalries would no longer Point 1) Revolutionaries need to make of the historic course in the revolutionary be channeled into the confrontation of two predictions. In fact it is a specific capacity movement”. imperialist blocs and where the resulting and need of human consciousness to predict capitalist response of another imperialist Other articles dealing with the problem (cf Marx’s comparison of the instinctive world war was removed from the historical of the balance of class forces in the period bee with the conscious human architect). agenda for the foreseeable future. The texts of decomposition should also be taken into Marxism, as a scientific method, like produced by the ICC immediately after account, such as “Why the proletariat has science as a whole, “by transforming a the collapse of the Eastern Bloc such as not yet overthrown capitalism”, and the series of experiences into predictions, and on “Militarism and Decomposition”, the article “Understanding the decomposition by confronting these predictions with new “Theses on Decomposition”, the article of capitalism”. experiences the researcher can verify (or “After the collapse of the Eastern bloc, invalidate) these hypotheses and advance However, despite having developed the destabilisation and chaos”, already clearly his understanding.” main theoretical elements to understand framed the scenario of the world balance what has changed in the balance of class Marxism bases its prediction of the of class forces in a different way to the forces the organisation up to now has car- communist revolution on a scientific, paradigm of the HC78 text. ried out no specific re-examination of the materialist analysis of the collapse of In the intervening two decades the ICC HC78 text. Obviously a rectification of this capitalism and of the class interests of the has elaborated this change of analysis of anomaly – even if belated – is required if we revolutionary proletariat.

. “The historic course”, International Review nº . International Review nº 99, 1999. This general and long term perspective 18, 1978. . International Review nº 107, 2001. is relatively straightforward for Marxists. . International Review nº 64, 1991. . International Review nº 103 and 104, 2000 and The difficulty for revolutionaries comes . International Review nº 62, 1990. 2001. in making medium term predictions of . International Review nº 61, 1990. . International Review nº 117, 2004. Report on the question of the historic course 37 whether the class struggle is advancing or Comunista and the CWO who saw, and still critical moment in 1914, and, apart from retreating. In the first place Marxism cannot see, world war and revolution as equally a few exceptions, abandoned internation- obviously rely on controlled experiments possible in the period since 1968. alism and joined the war effort of their as laboratory science can. own national imperialisms, dragging the Points 7/8) These points are dedicated disoriented working class behind it. The Point 2) Moreover, the proletarian class to showing that the imperialist world wars experience of the unprecedented slaughter struggle is characterised by very different of the 20th century and particularly that of workers in uniform in the trenches and periods of evolution, of extreme troughs of 1939-45 could only unfold once the the misery on the “home front” however and peaks, as a result of the fact that the proletariat had been defeated, once its led, after a few years, to the recovery of the working class is an exploited class with no revolutionary attempts were crushed and weight of the proletariat on the scales of the power base in the old society and therefore once it had then been mobilised behind the balance of class forces and opened a world destined for long periods of subjection. war ideologies of its respective imperialist revolutionary wave from 1917-1923, which The relatively short upsurges of its com- masters with the help of the treachery of as a consequence obliged the bourgeoisie bat are determined by periods of crisis in former workers’ parties which had crossed to bring the war to an end to forestall the capitalism (economic crisis and war). The to the other side of the class line. contagion of proletarian revolution. proletariat cannot advance from strength Point 9) The situation of the proletariat to strength as new exploiting classes have From the First World War onwards since 1968 is not the same as it was prior been able to do in the past. In fact, the pro- therefore the notion of a historic course to the previous two world wars. It is un- letariat’s final victory is conditioned by a in the class struggle toward either war or defeated and combative, resistant to the long series of painful defeats. Hence Marx’s revolution acquired a profound veracity. In mobilising ideologies of the imperialist statement in The 18th Brumaire of Louis order to impose its military response to the blocs, and thus provides a barrier to the Napoleon of 1852 about the extremely crises of capitalist decadence imperialism unleashing of a third world war. uneven evolution of the class struggle. The required the defeat of the revolutionary existence of such a jagged development of Point 10) All the military and economic aspirations of the proletariat and, when the class struggle was obvious in the past conditions for a new world war already these were crushed, its mobilisation behind but the length and depth of the counter exist, only the adhesion of the prole- the interests of the bourgeoisie. Conversely revolution between 1923 and 1968 has tariat is missing, a point also addressed a resurgent proletariat provided a major tended to obscure it. to Battaglia who had other, implausible, obstacle to this endeavour and opened the explanations for why world war had not possibility of the proletariat’s solution: Point 3) Nevertheless, accurate medium- broken out yet. communist revolution. term predictions by revolutionaries for the evolution of the balance of class forces are The defeat of the revolution in Russia essential. The consequences of mistakes in Commentary on the HC78 and in Germany and elsewhere in the 1920s this regard are eloquent: the adventurism facilitated the course to a Second World of Willich-Schapper after the defeats of the What remains true in the text War. Contrary to the period that followed 1848 revolutions; the KAPD’s “theory of the First World War, the period after the The first five points of the HC78 text retain the offensive” as the revolutionary wave Second did not see a reversal of the course, all their relevance to the importance and ebbed in the 1920s, Trotsky’s inauguration the proletariat having been defeated not necessity for revolutionaries to forecast the of the 4th International in 1938 in the depths only politically but also physically by future evolution of the class struggle: the of the counter revolution. the unprecedented brutality and terror of vindication of the need for such predic- Stalinism and fascism on the one hand and In contrast to these examples some pre- tions from the point of view of the marxist democratic anti-fascism on the other be- dictions have been shown to be perfectly method; the pertinency of the historical fore, during and immediately after the mass valid: Marx and Engels recognising that examples which show the critical nature carnage. No revolutionary wave emerged after 1849 and 1871 a period of work- of the forecasts of revolutionaries con- from the ruins of the 1939-45 war as it had ing class retreat was inevitable; Lenin’s cerning the class struggle and the serious from the war of 1914-18. This situation of prediction in the April Theses of 1917 of consequences of mistakes in this regard; continued proletarian defeat did not how- the flood tide of the world revolution; the the arguments against the indifference or ever lead to a third world war after 1945, Italian left’s identification of the 30s as a agnosticism of Battaglia and the CWO on as revolutionaries at the time thought it period of decisive defeat. this question. would. The 1950s and 60s entailed a long Points 4/5/11) Predicting the direction The central argument of the text also economic reconstruction and a protracted of the class struggle indicates whether retains all its validity for the period 1914- Cold War, with proxy local wars. During revolutionaries swim with or against the 1989. With the onset of the period of the this period, the proletariat gradually re- stream. Mistakes or ignorance about what decadence of capitalism the conditions of covered its strength, and the weight of the this direction can be catastrophic. This the evolution of the balance of class forces war ideologies of the 30s receded. With the has been particularly true in capitalist changed fundamentally from those of the outbreak of a new world economic crisis, decadence where the stakes, imperialist period of ascendance. The tendency of a new resurgence of class struggle began war or proletarian revolution, are so much imperialism in the period of decadence to in 1968 which frustrated another imperial- higher than in the period of capitalist lead to world-wide conflagrations between ist solution of a third world war. But the ascendancy. rival blocs requiring the mobilisation of the working class wasn’t able to move from working class en masse as cannon fodder its defensive struggles to a revolutionary Point 6) The opposition and mutual broke out with full force in the First World offensive. The collapse of one of the two exclusion of the two terms of the historic War. The outbreak of hostilities depended contending imperialist blocs, the Eastern alternative, war or revolution. While the on a political defeat of the main battal- Bloc, in 1989, effectively put an end to crisis of decadent capitalism can result in ions of the world proletariat. The Social the possibility of world war, although im- either of these alternatives, the latter do not Democratic Parties and the trade unions, perialist war itself continued to accelerate develop in unison but antagonistically. This putrefied by a long process of opportunist in a chaotic form under the impulse of the point is addressed particularly to Battaglia and revisionist degeneration, failed at the worsening world economic crisis. 38 International Review 164 Spring 2020

Where the HC78 text is no longer ap- ism, after having materialised in the form tion tends to spiral out of the control of plicable of ‘Socialism or World Imperialist War’ the contending classes. during most of the 20th century, has be- To understand this problem we will first In the paradigm that dominated most of come more specific in the terrifying form quote extensively from a plenary meeting the 20th century, the notion of a “historical of ‘Socialism or Destruction of Humanity’ of our international central organ in Janu- course” defined the two possible outcomes during the last decades due to the develop- ary 1990: of a historical trend: either world war or ment of atomic weapons. Today, after the class clashes. Once the proletariat had “In the period of capitalist collapse of the Eastern Bloc, this perspec- suffered a decisive defeat (as on the eve decadence, all states are imperialist, and tive remains entirely valid. But it should be of 1914 or as a result of the crushing of take the necessary measures to satisfy their emphasised that such destruction may come the revolutionary wave of 1917-23), world appetites: war economy, arms production, from generalised imperialist war OR from war became inevitable. In the paradigm that etc. We must state clearly that the deepening the decomposition of society. (…) defines the current situation (until two new convulsions of the world economy can only “Even if the world war cannot, at the imperialist blocs are reconstituted, which sharpen the opposition between different present time, and perhaps definitively, may never happen), it is quite possible that states, including and increasingly on the constitute a threat to the life of humanity, the proletariat will suffer a deep defeat with- military level. The difference, in the com- this threat may very well come, as we have out this having a decisive consequence for ing period, will be that these antagonisms seen, from the decomposition of society. the general evolution of society. One may which were previously contained and used And this is all the more so since if the wonder, of course, whether such a defeat by the two great imperialist blocs will now unleashing of the world war requires the could have the consequence of permanently come to the fore. The disappearance of the adherence of the proletariat to the ideals preventing the proletariat from raising its Russian imperialist gendarme, and that to of the bourgeoisie, a phenomenon which is head. We would then have to talk about a come of the American gendarme, as far by no means on the agenda at the moment definitive defeat that would lead to the end as its one-time ‘partners’ are concerned, for its decisive battalions, decomposition of humanity. Such a possibility cannot be opens the door to the unleashing of a does not need such adherence to destroy ruled out, particularly given the increas- whole series of more local rivalries. For humanity. Indeed, the decomposition of ing weight of decomposition. This threat the moment, these rivalries and confronta- society does not, strictly speaking, con- is clearly indicated by the 9th Congress tions cannot degenerate into a world war stitute a ‘response’ of the bourgeoisie to Manifesto: “Communist Revolution or (even supposing that the proletariat were the open crisis of the world economy. In Destruction of Humanity”. But we cannot no longer capable of putting up a resist- reality, this phenomenon may develop make a prognosis in this direction, neither ance). However, with the disappearance precisely because the ruling class is not in in relation to the current situation of weak- of the discipline imposed by the two blocs, a position, due to the non-recruitment of ness of the working class, nor even if this these conflicts are liable to become more the proletariat, to provide its own specific situation worsens further. This is why the frequent and more violent, especially of response to this crisis, the world war and concept of the “historical course” is no course in those areas where the proletariat the mobilisation for it. The working class, longer able to define the dynamic of the is weakest… by developing its struggles (as it has done current world situation and the balance of “…trend towards a new division of since the late 1960s), by not allowing itself power between the bourgeoisie and the the world between two military blocs is to be enrolled behind bourgeois flags, can proletariat in the period of decomposition. thwarted, and may even be definitively prevent the bourgeoisie from unleashing Having become a concept inadequate for compromised, by the increasingly deep and world war. On the other hand, only the this new period, it has to be abandoned. widespread phenomenon of the decomposi- overthrow of capitalism can stop the de- To conclude: the HC78 text, while tion of capitalist society as we have already composition of society. Just as the struggles preserving all its veracity from the point highlighted. of the proletariat in this system cannot in of view of method and the analysis of the any way oppose the economic collapse of “In such a context of loss of control of period 1914–1989, is now limited, firstly, capitalism, so the struggles of the prole- the situation by the world bourgeoisie, it by having been overtaken by major and tariat in this system cannot constitute an is not likely that the dominant sectors of unprecedented historic events; secondly obstacle to its decomposition.” the world bourgeoisie are today in a po- by its tendency to identify the notion of sition to implement the organisation and Thus, 1989 marks a fundamental change historical course and the notion of the discipline necessary for the reconstitution in the general dynamics of capitalist society evolution of the balance of power between of military blocs… in decadence. classes as the same, whereas they are not identical. In particular, the HC78 text “…This is why it is fundamental to high- Before that date, the balance of power speaks of the historical course to describe light that, if the solution of the proletariat between the classes was the determin- the different moments of class struggle in – communist revolution – is the only one ing factor in this dynamic: it was on this the 19th century when, in fact: that can oppose the destruction of humanity balance of power that the outcome of the (which constitutes the only ‘response’ that exacerbation of the contradictions of capi- – an increase in workers' struggles did not the bourgeoisie can provide to its crisis), talism depended: either the unleashing of mean the prospect of a revolutionary this destruction would not necessarily re- the world war, or the development of class period at a time when proletarian revolu- sult from a third world war. It could also struggle with, in perspective, the overthrow tion was not yet on the agenda, nor could result from the continuation, up to its ex- of capitalism. it prevent a major war from breaking out treme consequences (ecological disasters, (for example, the war between France After that date, this general dynamic epidemics, famines, unleashed local wars, and Prussia in 1870 when the power of of capitalist decadence is no longer di- etc.) of this decomposition. the proletariat was rising); rectly determined by the balance of power “The historical alternative ‘Socialism between classes. Whatever the balance – a major defeat of the proletariat (such or Barbarism’, as highlighted by marx- of power, world war is no longer on the as the crushing of the Paris Commune) agenda, but capitalism will continue to did not result in a new war. . See International Review nº 57. sink into decay, since social decomposi- Report on the question of the historic course 39

In a way, this tendency to mistakenly proletarian organisations. evolution of the balance of power between identify the historical course with the bal- the bourgeoisie and the proletariat: can we We have tended, on the basis of what ance of class forces in general is similar to consider that this evolution is in favour of the working class experienced during the the imprecise way the concept of opportun- the proletariat (which does not yet mean 20th century, to identify the notion of the ism has been used. For some time, there that there can be no turning back) or that evolution of the balance of power between was, within the ICC and more broadly in we are in a dynamic of the weakening of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat with the the political milieu, an identification be- the class (knowing that this dynamic can notion of a “historical course”, whereas the tween opportunism and reformism. At the also be reversed). latter indicates a fundamental alternative end of the 19th century and the beginning outcome, the world war or revolution, a In a more general and long term sense of the 20th, even if such an identification sanction of this balance of power. In a way, dispensing with the concept of the “historic was already a mistake, it was based on the current historical situation is similar course” brings into sharper relief the need a reality: indeed, at that time, one of the to that of the 19th century: the balance of of revolutionary marxists to make a more major manifestations of opportunism was power between classes can evolve in one profound historical study of the entire constituted by reformism. But with the direction or another without decisively evolution of the proletarian class struggle entry of capitalism into its period of deca- affecting the life of society. Similarly, this in order to better understand the criteria for dence, reformism no longer has its place in balance of power or its evolution cannot evaluating the balance of class forces in the the workers’ movement: organisations or be described as a “course”. In this sense, period of capitalist decomposition. currents that advocate the replacement of the term “defeat of the proletariat”, if it capitalism by socialism through progres- retains all its operational value in the cur- sive reforms of the current system neces- rent period, can no longer have the same sarily belong to the side of the bourgeoisie, meaning as in the period before 1989. while opportunism continues to constitute What is important, on the other hand, is to a disease that can affect, and carry away, take into account and study constantly, the

Continued from page 21 Turkey in 2013. insights or the capacity to pose in a very searching elements; we should note that embryonic way questions about the state, very little such social maturation prepared Confidence in its own strength as a class morality, culture, etc. These reflections are and followed the movements of 2006 is a key element of the struggle of the pro- certainly very interesting from the point and 2011. Despite the seriousness of the letariat that has been sorely lacking. In the of view of the future. However, they have historical situation - incomparably more cases of the two important movements just remained very limited, and in general far serious than in 1968 - no new generation mentioned, the overwhelming majority of below the level of reflection that existed in of revolutionary minorities has appeared. participants did not recognise themselves the most advanced movements in 1968. This shows that the traditional gap within as working class. They saw themselves as the proletariat - as Rosa Luxemburg em- “ordinary citizens”, which is very danger- The development of consciousness and phasised - between objective evolution and ous from the point of view of the impact coherent and unified thought comprise one subjective comprehension - has sharpened of democratic illusions but also in the face of the elements, as noted in point 13 of the in a very important way with decomposi- of the current populist wave. Theses, that face enormous obstacles in this tion, a phenomenon that should not be phase. Whereas 1968 was prepared by a Confidence in the future, and, in particu- underestimated. significant level of social upheaval amongst lar, in the possibility of a new society, has various minorities and afterwards, at least also been absent beyond a few very general for a while, gave rise to a proliferation of Continued from page 26 (and especially with the first revolutionary bridge between the former party that has “Theoretically, the communists have wave of 1917-23). This rupture was illus- disappeared (the 3rd International) and over the rest of the proletariat the advan- trated by the weakness of the revolution- the future party of the proletariat. Without tage of a clear understanding of the condi- ary organisations of the communist left the constitution of this future world party, tions, the march and the general ends of the current that had fought Stalinism in the proletarian revolution will be impossible proletarian movement as a whole.” 1920s and 1930s. and humanity will end up being swallowed May 2019 up by the barbarism of war and/or the slow This means that an enormous respon- decomposition of bourgeois society. sibility lies on the communist left as a . Ibid.

Continued from page 34 on its fight to defend the autonomy of the no guarantee that this rendezvous will be by no means be a mass organisation that assemblies and a general perspective of made. But we can say that the appearance seeks to encompass the class as a whole, social transformation against the various of new elements gravitating towards the this dimension of the politicisation of the leftist recuperators. The party of the future communist left today – some of them very struggle brings out what is profoundly true could well emerge through the inter-action young – is a sign that the process of sub- in the classic marxist phrase: “constitution between such large proletarian minorities terranean maturation is a reality and that of the proletarians into a class, and thus and the communist political organisations. it is continuing despite the very evident into a political party”. Of course the fragility of the existing milieu difficulties of the class struggle. Even if we 28.12.18 of the communist left means that there is understand that the party of the future will 40 International Review 164 Spring 2020

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to expose the opportunist dangers In fact, the Dutch left, like the Italian which threatened the International and left, had been formed well before the first its parties and which eventually led to world war, as part of the same struggle their demise. In the struggle for the waged by Luxemburg and Lenin against intransigent defence of revolutionary the opportunism and reformism which principles, this current, represented was gaining hold of the parties of the in particular by the KAPD in Germany, Second International. It was no accident the KAPN in Holland, and the left of that Lenin himself, before reverting to the Communist Party of Italy animated centrist positions at the head of the by Bordiga, came out against the Communist International, had, in his International’s policies on questions book State and Revolution, leaned like participation in elections and trade heavily on the analyses of Anton Pan- unions, the formation of ‘united fronts’ nekoek, who was the main theoretician with social democracy, and support of the Dutch left. This document is an for national liberation struggles. It was indispensable complement to The Ital- against the positions of the communist ian Communist Left, already published The Dutch communist left is one of the left that Lenin wrote his pamphlet by the ICC, for all those who want to major components of the revolutionary Left Wing Communism, An Infantile know the real history of the communist current which broke away from the Disorder; and this text drew a response movement behind all the falsifications degenerating Communist International in Reply to Lenin, written by one of the which Stalinism and Trotskyism have in the 1920s. Well before Trotsky’s Left main figures of the Dutch left, Herman erected around it. Opposition, and in a more profound Gorter. way, the communist left had been able 41 Previous issues of the International Review Previous issues of the International Review

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The International Communist Current reactionary. All the so-called ‘workers’, goals of the proletariat’s combat. defends the following political positions: ‘Socialist’ and ‘Communist’ parties (now ex-’Communists’), the leftist organisations OUR ACTIVITY * Since the first world war, capitalism has (Trotskyists, Maoists and ex-Maoists, been a decadent social system. It has twice official anarchists) constitute the left of Political and theoretical clarification of plunged humanity into a barbaric cycle of capitalism’s political apparatus. All the the goals and methods of the proletarian crisis, world war, reconstruction and new tactics of ‘popular fronts’, ‘anti-fascist struggle, of its historic and its immediate crisis. In the 1980s, it entered into the final fronts’ and ‘united fronts’, which mix up conditions. phase of this decadence, the phase of de­ the interests of the proletariat with those Organised intervention, united and composition. There is only one alternative of a faction of the bourgeoisie, serve only centralised on an international scale, in offered by this irreversible historical to smother and derail the struggle of the order to contribute to the process which decline: socialism or barbarism, world proletariat. leads to the revolutionary action of the communist revolution or the destruction * With the decadence of capitalism, the proletariat. of humanity. unions everywhere have been transformed The regroupment of revolutionaries * The Paris Commune of 1871 was the into organs of capitalist order within the with the aim of constituting a real world first attempt by the proletariat to carry proletariat. The various forms of union or­ communist party, which is indispensable out this revolution, in a period when the ganisation, whether ‘official’ or ‘rank and to the working class for the overthrow of conditions for it were not yet ripe. Once file’, serve only to discipline the working capitalism and the creation of a communist these conditions had been provided by the class and sabotage its struggles. society. onset of capitalist decadence, the October * In order to advance its combat, the revolution of 1917 in Russia was the first working class has to unify its struggles, OUR ORIGINS step towards an authentic world communist taking charge of their extension and revolution in an international revolutionary organisation through sovereign general The positions and activity of revolutionary wave which put an end to the imperialist assemblies and committees of delegates organisations are the product of the past war and went on for several years after elected and revocable at any time by these experiences of the working class and of that. The failure of this revolutionary wave, assemblies. the lessons that its political organisations particularly in Germany in 1919-23, con­ * Terrorism is in no way a method of struggle have drawn throughout its history. The demned the revolution in Russia to isolation for the working class. The expression of ICC thus traces its origins to the successive and to a rapid degeneration. Stalinism was social strata with no historic future and contributions of the Communist League not the product of the Russian revolution, of the decomposition of the petty bour­ of Marx and Engels (1847-52), the but its gravedigger. geoisie, when it’s not the direct expression three Internationals (the International * The statified regimes which arose in the of the permanent war between capitalist Workingmen’s Association, 1864-72, the USSR, eastern Europe, China, Cuba etc states, terrorism has always been a fertile Socialist International, 1889-1914, the and were called ‘socialist’ or ‘communist’ soil for manipulation by the bourgeoisie. Communist International, 1919-28), the left were just a particularly brutal form of Advocating secret action by small mi­ fractions which detached themselves from the universal tendency towards state norities, it is in complete opposition to class the degenerating Third International in the capitalism, itself a major characteristic of violence, which derives from conscious and years 1920-30, in particular the German, the period of decadence. organised mass action by the proletariat. Dutch and Italian Lefts. * Since the beginning of the 20th century, * The working class is the only class which all wars are imperialist wars, part of the can carry out the communist revolution. Its deadly struggle between states large revolutionary struggle will inevitably lead ICC postal addresses and small to conquer or retain a place the working class towards a confrontation Write to the following addresses without in the international arena. These wars with the capitalist state. In order to destroy mentioning the name: bring nothing to humanity but death and capitalism, the working class will have to destruction on an ever-increasing scale. overthrow all existing states and establish Spain, France, Brazil The working class can only respond to the dictatorship of the proletariat on a Mail Boxes 153, 108 rue Damremont 75018 Paris them through its international solidarity world scale: the international power of the and by struggling against the bourgeoisie workers’ councils, regrouping the entire Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Equador in all countries. proletariat. Apartado Postal 15-024, * All the nationalist ideologies - ‘national * The communist transformation of society CP 02600, independence’, ‘the right of nations to by the workers’ councils does not mean Distrito Federal, Mexico. self-determination’ etc - whatever their ‘self-management’ or the nationalisation pretext, ethnic, historical or religious, are of the economy. Communism requires the Belgium a real poison for the workers. By calling conscious abolition by the working class BP 102, 2018, Antwerp Central Station, on them to take the side of one or another of capitalist social relations: wage labour, Belgium faction of the bourgeoisie, they divide commodity production, national frontiers. It means the creation of a world community Great Britain, Australia, workers and lead them to massacre each United States other in the interests and wars of their in which all activity is oriented towards the BM Box 869 exploiters. full satisfaction of human needs. London WC1 N3XX * In decadent capitalism, parliament and * The revolutionary political organisation Great Britain elections are nothing but a mascarade. constitutes the vanguard of the working Any call to participate in the parliamentary class and is an active factor in the generali­ India, Phillippines circus can only reinforce the lie that sation of class consciousness within the POB 25, NIT, Faridabad, 121001, presents these elections as a real choice for proletariat. Its role is neither to ‘organise Haryana, India the exploited. ‘Democracy’, a particularly the working class’ nor to ‘take power’ in its name, but to participate actively in Italy hypocritical form of the domination of the CP 469, 80100, Naples, Italy bourgeoisie, does not differ at root from the movement towards the unification of other forms of capitalist dictatorship, such struggles, towards workers taking control Germany, Switzerland, Sweden as Stalinism and fascism. of them for themselves, and at the same Postfach 2124 * All factions of the bourgeoisie are equally time to draw out the revolutionary political CH-8021 Zurich, Switzerland