Occupy Oakland shuts down the docks |
by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
The Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, wrote on the eve of the second world war that The historical crisis of mankind is reduced to the crisis of the revolutionary leadership. He explained that the objective conditions and the prerequisites for a workers’ revolution were not only ripe for a transformation of society but were “somewhat rotten.”
The Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, wrote on the eve of the second world war that The historical crisis of mankind is reduced to the crisis of the revolutionary leadership. He explained that the objective conditions and the prerequisites for a workers’ revolution were not only ripe for a transformation of society but were “somewhat rotten.”
He used an often
quoted phrase that humanity was faced with Socialism or Barbarism. The
Barbarism came on the scene soon after his statements as 50 million or so
people died in the war that that followed, as many as 12 million in death
camps. Communists, labor leaders, the physically and mentally disabled, gays
and lesbians, Romany and as many as 6 million Jews all perished in places like
Treblinka, Aushwitz, and Bergen Belsen.
Today, we are not
simply faced with socialism or some form of barbarism, as barbarism exists
aplenty in the capitalist horror that encompasses most people of the
world. From the factories of Bangladesh
to the plantations of Indonesia, sweat shops of Cambodia, and mountains of
Afghanistan barbarism is the norm, the legacy of capitalism in its slow and
agonizing demise. The difference is that
what faces us now is socialism or annihilation. While nuclear war cannot be
ruled out it is the environmental degradation, the plundering of the world’s
natural resources in capitalism’s rapacious quest for profits that threatens to
end life on this planet as we know it. The environmental catastrophe,
overwhelmingly market driven like starvation and conflict is real and
capitalism is incapable of solving it.
In the US, the
richest and most powerful economy on the planet, inequality and poverty are on
the increase and despair and a sense of foreboding exists. The Great Recession is dragging on longer than
the so-called experts expected and the insecurity and fear of falling through
the cracks, so useful in keeping folks in check, hovers around unacceptable
levels, a point where a spark can ignite a conflagration.
Objective
conditions are worsening for American workers and the middle class. Once powerful unions like the UAW have been
tamed through a powerful combination of the employers and the top leadership of
the worker’s organizations who see no alternative to capitalism and try time
and again to help it to its feet at the expense of workers and the middle
class.
Results
of a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll released today give us a glimpse in to
the mood in US society when it comes to the economy and the two capitalist
parties.
As expected, the
love affair with Barack Obama is not what it was as he has turned out to be
quite the war president and a fine representative of the 1%. 83% of Americans disapprove of Congress which
is the highest number in the history of WSJ polling and 29% of Americans say
the country is headed in the right direction.
When it comes to
their own representatives in Congress, a mere 32% of Americans say their
representative deserved re-election with 57% of Americans saying they would
like to defeat and “..replace every member of Congress if they could”
the WSJ adds. There’s “..a strong, deep disconnect between the public and
the government that purports to serve them” Fred Yang, a Democratic
pollster tells the Journal. It is not
the mood for change that is missing.
The criminal
acquittal of George Zimmerman has dealt a significant blow to how the black
population sees this country and 54% of them polled said they “strongly
disagreed” with the idea that America is a country that judges people on
their character and not the color of their skin, 30% of them felt that way
after Obama’s election. When those who “somewhat disagreed” are
included, that figure jumps to 79%.
Further on the effects
of the trial, the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll found that 33% of Americans had
lost confidence in the US justice system because of it, 24% of them whites and
71% of blacks. This figure is far more reflective of a racist justice system
than the details and ins and outs of the legality of an individual case like
Trayvon Martin’s murder. Whites are treated differently in this that system.
Obviously, those with money are treated the best of all and can get away with
murder quite frequently---Zimmerman is the son of a judge and we are supposed
to think that this doesn’t matter in America. But with more than two million
people incarcerated, close to 50% of them black folks, there are only two
explanations for this incarceration rate.
One is to argue
that people with darker skin are more prone to criminal activity which is the
racist argument which many whites believe but refuse to acknowledge openly. The
other is that the justice system, indeed, the entire system is racist---the
latter is the only correct answer, the only answer that offers all workers a
future.
The Wall Street
Journal is the main publication of US finance capital and the capitalist class
as a whole and bases the health of society and economic improvement on the
level of profits. The discontent revealed by this survey perplexes them a bit as
it arises “..despite and uptick in other barometers of American well-being,
including a surging stock market and continued signs of strengthening on the
employment front.” It’s all very
simple for them, numbers up, numbers down.
But even their employment numbers are skewed. A Household
Survey last month put the number of job increases since January at 753,000. But
as Mortimer Zuckerman commented in the WSJ last week, “there
are jobs and then there are "jobs." No fewer than 557,000 of these
positions were only part-time.” “The survey also reported that in June
full-time jobs declined by 240,000, while part-time jobs soared by 360,000 and
have now reached an all-time high of 28,059,000.” Zuckerman adds. The
capitalists don’t create jobs because people need them, they buy labor power if
they can profit from it; they can’t profit, you won’t work.
Source |
Whether the objective pre-requisites in the US are ripe,
semi ripe, or rotten enough for a workers’ revolution that could transform the
economic and political structure of society is a matter for debate, but there
is no doubt that the objective situation is very favorable for activists and a
movement for social change, more favorable than it has been for a long
time. That close to 138 million people
opted out of the electoral process in the last election is not due to apathy or
reaction as some argue.
The Occupy movement had tremendous popular support for a
whole period and at the huge gathering in Oakland that shut down three shifts
at the port we had as many as 30 to 40 thousand people present, workers and
their families, the disabled, students, single mothers with their children and
the elderly. Union workers, the unorganized,
white collar and blue collar all came out. The great strength of the Occupy
Movement was its audacity, courage and willingness to defy the law but refusing
to wage a political struggle and build anything permanent as well as resisting
making any concrete demands was an obstacle to its continued success although
it is not dead yet.
What is clear is that Trotsky’s statement about a crisis of
leadership, not necessarily a revolutionary one at this point, holds true
today. It’s clear that there is intense
anger beneath the surface of US society. There is anger at the rich, the
bankers, the coupon clippers who flaunt their stolen wealth ever more
aggressively. Anger at the racism,
sexism, inequality and lack of basic services in the richest most powerful
country in the world. US capitalism’s wars and the cost of them are not popular
and are a major cause of the war on living standards and the 1%’s austerity
agenda.
The heads of organized Labor could change this situation if
they would offer an alternative to capitalism rather than appeasing it, but
they will not, trapped as they are by their own view of the world which is the
same as the bosses’. Every little step forward, every victory on the part of
the working class threatens the relationship they have built with the bosses
and capitalism based on cooperation and labor peace and has the potential to
lead to chaos.
The figures here are a small example of what actually exists
in US society; a restless, angry and insecure population insecure and wary of
what the future holds. I will say with some confidence, it is not going to get
any better. It is remarkable in a way
that there haven’t been mass riots in the cities at the failure of the US
justice system to protect a huge section of the population from racial violence
or women from sexual discrimination and rape and all workers from the threat of
joblessness, homelessness and security.
Capitalist courts cannot protect workers; as institutions of a racist
society they inevitably abandon the victims that society in general. Millions have lost homes, jobs, have no
health care and can’t afford to get it, as the Wall Street Journal asked a couple
years ago, “Why No Outrage?”.
US society is a tinderbox, an overconfident capitalist class will make some serious mistakes. Congress still needs to cut more social spending and at some point there will be
further explosions in the streets much like the Occupy Movement. It could be
over any number of issues as people are pushed beyond their limits. There are increasing protests against
environmental degradation for example. Strengthening and broadening this
movement as it develops is an important aspect of any activists activity and
revolutionary socialists must be seen as the most ardent supports of and
defenders of the movement as it develops.
And by avoiding the traditional mistakes of sectarianism, ultra leftism
(making demands of the movement that do not correspond with the mood) and
opportunism, building a revolutionary socialist current within this movement as
it develops, a crucial element of it if we art to make permanent gains as
opposed to partial victories, will be successful.
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