1-22-06, 8:40 am
Contribution of the German Communist Party (DKP), International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties 'Current Trends In Capitalism: Economic, Social And Political Impact. The Communists' Alternative,' Athens, 18-20 November, 2005
The 'new' world order of capital The collapse and the destruction of the socialist states in Europe, especially the Soviet Union paved the way for capital to subjugate all areas of social and cultural life under its interests. Pre-existing crises have worsened and new trouble spots have emerged.
Three key features characterise the current changes, which serve to achieve imperialist aims the world over:
In the economical field, spheres such as culture, education and health, which, until now were only partially accessible to capitalist interests, are now dominated almost completely by them.
In the political and social sphere, the forced implementation of the aims of big business, especially those of large, international corporations and banks through rigorously neo-liberal policies. This is particularly evident in the destruction of working-class welfare and political rights which had been fought for by the working-class movement and the transition to a new regulation pattern in capitalism. This new regulation pattern aims to create the best possible conditions for capital to achieve maximum profits on a national and international scale.
In the area of foreign and military policy, the doctrines of a 'new world order', 'war against terrorism' and 'humanitarian missions' to ensure that the aims of big business are implemented.
Imperialist Globalisation
Over 150 years ago, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels stated in the Communist Manifesto that 'the bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and with them the whole relations of society. The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe.'
Today this process has reached a new stage. The transnational corporations control the world market to a large extend. The last barriers of national markets are being swept aside.
It is no longer a mere question of integrating trade and markets. Today, scientific and technological developments make the swift, international networking of production processes and the regulation of the flow of capital possible. This would be impossible without revolutionising the forces of production, especially information and communication technology and biotechnology, alongside the development of materials.
The result is a new stage of monopolisation. International corporations and banks have achieved an unprecedented level of power. Today, their turnovers and profits exceed the gross national product, or at least the budgets of many states.
In the area of capital export too, an increasingly large amount of foreign investment is no longer being used to set up new production plants for financial, service and trading business but for buying all or part of plants which already exist. Regarding the flow of capital, there is another tendency. 85 to 90 % of all investments by large business come from the trio USA, EU and Japan. The overwhelming majority of this investment is being poured into these same three imperialist centres. Particularly in the field of modern technology, the rest of the world is neglected. Only their raw materials and other profitable resources are of interest.
Large mergers in the banking and insurance sector and as a result the enormous influence of the financial giants on all areas of economic life have led to states being more dependent on banks due to their huge national debts. This, together with the networking of the international flow of finance and financial speculation means that financial capital has reached a new level of power.
The dismantling of social and democratic rights
Fewer and fewer people control an ever growing portion of social wealth .They make the decisions on investments and job losses, about movements of capital, inner- and transnational laws, about the future of whole countries and regions, about war and peace.
Transnational corporations are pushing the internationalisation of labour forward. Various sections of the working class are made to compete with each other and the worst social and environmental conditions are to become the standard for everyone. Wage and welfare dumping is being imposed on a worldwide scale.
Monopoly capital is seeking to establish a world order which secures its profit interests.
Restrictive ways for capital to exercise power are either coming into existence or being tried out. Laws governing the police are being changed, alongside security checks within the German civil service, increasing surveillance of public areas, imitations on the rights to assemble freely and to strike, the reactionary draft constitution of the EU, the 'Federal Ministry for Public Security' and the erosion of prisoners-rights in the USA are but few signs of this. Forms of power which are even more reactionary, some out rightly fascist are once again being considered.
War and peace
As long as the socialist states of Europe, especially the Soviet Union existed, they placed a limit on the scope for aggressive military ventures.
Today there is a common task for the imperialist centres of power, namely clearing away the last obstacles for a domination of the world market through trans-national companies. When economic means and political pressure are ineffective, the imperialist military machine is set in motion.
NATO is an aggressive military alliance dominated by the USA which has consistently disregarded international law, the first demonstration of this being the war of aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999. Strike forces, 'rapid response units' and the re-equipping of military forces for deployment over the whole globe are aiming at securing access to markets and sources of raw materials.
The Iraq war in 2003 was an attempt was an attempt by the US to take a further step in establishing a so called new world order by force under its political and military leadership.
Once again it was made clear that the USA is prepared to breach international law and use the full weight of its military might, regardless of the consequences, in order to impose its authority on the world. The wars against Afghanistan and Iraq were not only attempts to hold grip of the oil- and gas resources there the aim was also to secure political-military control over the Middle East.
At the same time the Iraq war established and maintained the US strategy of 'preventive war'. Due to policies like this war has become a permanent sate of affairs internationally.
Current US government policies reveal the aggressive nature of imperialism. However, other imperialist centres have done nothing to stop the implementation of these policies. They are pursuing the same aims. However they do not yet possess comparable instruments of power which means they often recourse to different tactics.
The next wars are already being planned. They threaten the lives of millions of people indeed the lives of the whole of humanity. Iran, Syria, Cuba and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have already been named as enemies. The People ´s Republic of China is regarded as a strategic competitor to be fought against.
The imperialist centres, especially the USA and the EU are in extreme competition to each other This shows in the form of trade limitations and contrary concepts of how to control international markets. Though there is no acute danger of war between the imperialist centres, it cannot be excluded for the future.
Current developments within capitalism are characterised by common interests, antagonisms and rivalries between the imperialist centres of power. As a consequence we are witnessing the dismantling of social and democratic rights everywhere, in the economically stronger capitalist countries too. The results are militarisation and war and an increasing destabilisation and barbarisation of all aspects of society.
The Europe of monopolies
The European Community has developed into an independent political and military centre alongside the USA. The EU is dominated by the interests of financial capital, by trans-national companies and large banks operating in the EU states. The EU enables international corporations to be active on a unified market freed from national borders and regulations which put limits on capital. In recent years the EU has been extended to form a 'political union' with supranational institutions and supranational power.
The western European countries are in a position of strength which enables them to launch assaults on other markets. Under the EU-flag the economically strongest countries, particularly Germany are attempting to increase their importance in world politics and their influence on international markets. The EU has officially announced that its aim, formulated in Lisbon in 2000, is to become the world ´s leading economic power before the year 2010, thereby reaching a position in world politics which is at least equal to that of the USA.
The single European currency means that highly productive core-regions gain in economic strength whereas underdeveloped areas are further marginalized. Generally the gap between the rich and the poor regions will get wider. In Germany this affects the eastern federal sates in particular.
Alongside its further economic and political development, the establishment of the EU as a military power in its own right serves the aim of consolidating the union into a globally active imperialist world power. Its strategies include the forming of a rapid response force which can be deployed up to 4 000 kilometres outside Europe.
The setting up, consolidation and extension of the European Union mean that fundamental decisions concerning economic, social, domestic and foreign policies are being moved further and further away from the people and transferred to EU bodies. A system covering the whole of the EU has been created for registering and monitoring the population by networking the police, the secret services and the judiciary under the guise of tackling crime. Regulations regarding immigration and asylum rights have been set as low as possible and this is being followed up by the forming of 'fortress Europe' against undesirable immigration by centralising the border police.
With the 'convergence criteria', the 'stability pact', the creation of the Euro and many other EU-directives, coordinated policies have been accelerated. They aim at reducing social rights, deregulating employment conditions, reducing real wages, introducing an extended cheap-wage sector and privatising national companies. In all European states people have been confronted with the destruction of all the achievements of the welfare state and with reactionary economic, social and welfare policies.
The European integration process is not only an area of competitive struggle and political disputes between various elements within the bourgeoisie, but particularly between various classes. The fundamentally imperialist character of the EU makes it an illusion to expect that the 'European Union' could become a counterpoise in the world which stands for peace, democracy and social progress unless there is a fundamental break with the current relations of power and property.
For a change towards democratic and social policies
Shift the balance of power!
The working class and the trade union movement
The working class remains the decisive force for achieving political change in Germany and internationally.
Social progress is only imaginable today and in the future, when people act in united fronts and in alliances. It is both necessary and possible for workers of all kinds, civil servants, German and foreign colleagues, those organised in socialist, social democratic and communist parties, those without party-affiliations and Christian workers to act together.
The DKPs basic principle is to support this unified action with full commitment, to emphasise on what unites all participating groups and to organise common action with patience and openness.
United action of colleagues in companies and in trade unions is of crucial significance in order to achieve social and political aims successfully. This cooperation has another aim which is that of encouraging the necessary discussions in order to gain better insights.
Trade unions are the largest progressive force and organisation of the working class. One of the important features of communist policies has been and will remain active work in the unions for the rights and interests of the working class.
On the one hand plans are being made to misuse the unions for a modernisation coalition, with the aim of creating attractive conditions for investment and production by foreign and domestic capital. On the other hand there are plans to destroy the trade unions ability to fight back, to weaken the resistance to reactionary re-structuring of society.
As communists we are working in companies and in the unions to form resistance. This is the most important field of political activity. It is vitally important that the DKP proves itself to be the party of the working class.
At the same time we are participating in the process of gathering forces such as the left wing of the trade union movement, who recognise class-antagonisms in our society, who are orientated towards union resistance rather than social partnership. Together with all class-conscious trade unionists who are prepared to fight, we are doing everything we can to achieve the original aim of the unions and to work against situations where workers compete against one another.
It is also up to us and the whole of the left to contribute to strengthening the idea of autonomous, class-orientated union policies and to make sure that ideas critical of the system and socialist ideas are brought into the debates.
Trade union cooperation on European and international level must be intensified in order to prevent workers in each country from being played off against one another and to allow workers to act in unity.
The beginnings of new social movements
Since the World Economic Summit in Munich in 1992 there has been a movement against imperialist globalisation in formation. It operates partly alongside, partly together with the working class movement. It opposes the inhumane politics of the World Bank and the IMF. It also denounces the role and responsibility of the G7 for living conditions all over the earth, it also denounces the politics of the EU summit meeting, the introduction of reactionary changes to the social and political system of both member and non-member states The movement also organises congresses and demonstrations, new organisations are influencing it.
The movement represents various political and social forces and unites people with different ideologies who are prompted to act by the consequences of imperialist globalisation which can be directly experienced.
This supranational movement and its networking appear to be a new quality of resistance. The movement has the potential to become the answer and counterpoise to the developments of imperialism to the development of imperialism from wide sections of society.
However the effectiveness of this movement will depend on:
how far it is possible to develop extra-parliamentary opposition which discusses social perspectives and alternatives which they are able to put forward in effective campaigns
how far it is possible to connect international class struggles with various actions against the consequences of imperialist globalisation
whether it will be possible to discuss and develop new forms of struggle which are able to achieve political demands (e. g. internationally-networked strikes).
Closer cooperation between the anti-war and peace movements, the movement against the dismantling of the welfare state, the ecological movement and international solidarity groups is necessary as well as those movements which aim to defend basic democratic rights. The beginnings of this cooperation can already be seen.
It is the task of the communists and their parties:
to make a contribution towards forming those movements, carrying in opinions centred around class struggle and our alternative for a society socialism.
to contribute towards networking movements and towards effective, unified international campaigns. It is less and less possible to limit resistance to one company, one region or even one country.
The call of the Communist Manifesto 'workers of the world unite' becomes more important in connection with the current social and political debates. This demands new forms of cooperation between communist and revolutionary parties in order to be more effective within the broad new social movements.
The DKP supports cooperation with other left-wing parties in Germany, Europe and the world in a spirit of equality and solidarity. At the same time we consider cooperation between elements of the Marxist left communist and workers parties to be necessary in Europe and worldwide. In Europe we suggest the formation of a network of communist and workers parties. Previous channels of communication should be developed further into coordinated cooperation.
The future socialism
The alternative to the current capitalist system is a society in which ownership of the most important means of production is replaced by social ownership.
The revolutionary break with current relationships of power and property must be the result of struggles of wide mass movements. The task must be to build a new society in which the wishes and hopes of all for a socially just and peaceful world is made reality, a world in which people live in solidarity with each other.
The DKP believes that this is only possible in a society in which, through overcoming the profit-principle the results of production serve to satisfy the need of all, which are regulated by the whole of society. This society is socialism, a society which removes the exploitation of man by man. Socialism will not be achieved while the important means of production are in private ownership.
The power of the working class, its labouring allies and all anti-capitalist forces will replace the rule of capital. Conditions must be created right from the beginning which make socialist democracy the permanent basis of the new society.
The competing interests of individuals will be replaced by peace, global responsibility, international solidarity, respect for human rights, democracy, the planned use of all the forces of production and the possibility for the individual to develop freely.
Heinz Stehr chairs the DKP.
