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FFWP Conference call
covered a number of issues.
The crises of US
imperialism, and imperialism in general is reflected on a number of fronts:
Economic, political, military, and environmental. We discussed how the
world economy was still going ahead but at a slow speed. How a new recession,
possibly even a slump would strike in the years ahead, with the plunging of
stock markets, failures of banks, soaring unemployment, increasing attacks on
wages and conditions. How when such a development took place in the future this
would dramatically exacerbate the crises on all the other fronts. This was
important to be kept in mind. US and world imperialism were already in crisis
and this when the world economy was still growing. A new recession or slump
would make all crises worse, would exacerbate all existing tensions, would
further increase fragmentation. (See
Michael Roberts’ The Global Debt Mountain)
The political crisis
especially of US imperialism worsens by the day. Trump in the White House
staggers from one blunder to the other. Weakening the institutions of US
imperialism, undermining its influence abroad. The more strategic
sections of the US capitalist class want rid of him but they cannot see how to
do this without further weakening their institutions and political parties especially
the Republican Party. However it is possible that things will get so bad they
may decide to get rid of him and ride out the weakening of their institutions.
The decades when US capitalism was relatively politically stable with its two
capitalist party monopoly is ending. New splits, new parties, new formations,
new crises, new instability lies ahead.
If the trade union
leaders would lead and build a Labor Party this could fill the vacuum that is
opening up. But they will not do so until they have no choice in the sense of
their positions being threatened. The beginnings of serious tensions in the
trade union bureaucracy are just beginning to be slightly apparent at the
moment. No politicians of either capitalist party are being invited to the coming
AFL-CIO conference in an effort to postpone conflict. Breaking from tradition by not inviting political figures
from one of the two capitalist parties is not a shift to the left but a
move to put off any debate and to try to maintain the present status quo. Leaders
of some unions such as most of the building trades are with Trump while others
especially the public sector unions are very opposed to Trump. But union members, whether they voted for trump or not,
are very volatile politically, and the union leadership will go to great
lengths to avoid any open debate. These tensions will only worsen and at
some stage the trade union bureaucracy or a section of the trade union
bureaucracy, will have to take some independent political action.
The political crisis
in the White House is spilling over into US imperialism’s military. Trumps
insulting behavior when he called the widow of the soldier killed in Niger has
blown up. He could not remember the soldier’s name and would not even say to
the bereaved widow that “your husband’ has been killed. Just kept repeating
“your guy”. Then he has his general Kelly come out and justify his remarks and
insult the African American congresswoman with the whiff of racism in his words
and this has made things even worse. This will reverberate back into the
military where 40% are now either minorities or women. And of course it will
also increase the knowledge that Trump is a serial sexual predator. This will
not be good for morale in the military rank and file with its large proportion
of minorities and women. The issues of why US imperialism has soldiers and some 800 military
installations in over 140 countries will also increasingly come up. (See:
America’s War-Fighting Footprint in Africa)
On the environmental
front US imperialism gets further into trouble, gets the planet further into
trouble. Puerto Rico is in a catastrophic crisis. The full effects of Harvey
are still to be felt in Texas where where many toxins were spread in the
floods. Then there have been the fires in California. Puerto Rico is being
treated very differently from Texas. Trump goes and throws paper towels at
people in Puerto Rico. Less people have electricity on the island today than
yesterday. A fraction of the number of people has gone to Puerto Rico to get
electricity going again as went to Texas. On top of this the affects of climate
change increase throughout the planet. The recent huge storm in Ireland coming
on top of Harvey, Irma, and Maria is an example. This further undermines Trump
and his climate change deniers and will weaken them politically. .
There are a few
things that help Trump cling on in the White House as well as the fear of the
more strategic section of the capitalist class that bringing him down will
damage their institutions. He is filling cabinet posts with the most backward
elements that help the bottom line of the various industrial sectors by
deregulating. And along with that the super rich want their tax cut. But things
cannot go on as they are. At some stage there will be a break in the
situation.
The conference call
discussed China where the so-called Communist Party is presently having its
conference. The Chinese leader Xi stressed strengthening the state sector. It
seems he is worried that the private sector, which includes over one third of
the world’s billionaires, can get too much power and increasingly create
instability. In his opening speech he stressed again and again “safety”
and “security.” This is in line with the regimes increasing clamping down on
protest. But this will not stop opposition to the regime. In 1993 there were
8,700 what are described as “mass group incidents” that is demonstrations of
one kind or another. In 2010 there was a huge increase to 180,000. The new and huge
and relatively new Chinese working class will rise to its feet in the future.
This will be an event of world significance. There was also more talk than at
any other Party conference about the environment. On this issue also the regime
fears serious opposition.
There was a
discussion on the conference call on the nature of the Chinese regime and
economy That is now the worlds largest and
most profitable auto market. It was raised was the economy any different
from when the US economy had a large state sector in the past which served the
private capitalist sector. It was also raised was it the case that the economy
had gone some way towards a large capitalist sector but that was it the state
sector that still not dominant. This issue was left for further discussion. It
was agreed that whatever about the actual nature of the economy that China was
imperialist as is shown by it expanding of its reach out into Africa, Central
Asia, South East Asia and the South China Sea. It was also raised that Xi
and those at the top of the regime did not want events, either economic or
political and especially in terms of class struggle to get out of their
control. They were trying to control the Internet with its 100’s of millions of
participants in China.
There was a brief
mention of North Korea and it was felt that it was unlikely that US imperialism
would go to war against that regime. China has said that if North Korea starts
a war it will stand aside but that if US imperialism starts a war it will not
stand aside. This as well as the destruction that would result in the entire
region not to mention the possibility of a nuclear conflict and its effects
world wide would it was felt stop a war at least at this stage. But our
conference call was cautious as there are times when accidental factors such as
the moron in the White House can get out of control.
The Conference Call
then discussed Syria. It was agreed that Comrades should oppose the regime.
There was then some discussion about the various forces fighting the regime. It
was agreed that that we should not support oppositions that were supported by
US Imperialism, Russian imperialism, Iranian imperialism. One Comrade spoke of
there being other organizations, which opposed the regime and were not
supported by or collaborated with imperialism. It was agreed that more
information should be sought and more discussion should be held on such
groups. It was also raised that there are
times with regard to crises within a nation state that the working class has
been decimated or weakened to the point that it is unable to play any
significant role and that the situation will not be remedied to any degree
without the intervention of the regional or international working class. It
was also mentioned that given the record of the left in general where it had
paid insufficient attention to the special oppression of women that any support
for any group would have to consider the approach of any such group to women
and gender oppression.
It was raised that
there will be many such conflicts as in Syria, There are many
conflicts such as Syria as the old world order of the cold war and after the
end of the cold war recedes into the past. And that more thought should be
directed to what positions should be taken in such cases. It was pointed out
that Lenin had written material on the repression of Islamic groups under
Tsarism and these writings could be helpful.
There was mention of
the recent events related to the special oppression of women. How over the
course of the conference calls it had been stressed that on every call we
discuss events concerning the special oppression of women. Also related to this
the idea of the whip of the counter-revolution. As the special oppression of
women increases with the war especially of Trump and the Republican Party
against women but also as the vicious behavior of such people as the
Hollywood capitalist Weinstein and other people in power become exposed then
this is being responded to by greater struggles of women and others against
this oppression. The size of the women's marches against Trump at the time of
his inauguration was mentioned. It was also mentioned that in the past,
insufficient attention had been paid by left forces to fight against the
special oppression of women and this had to change. FFWP conference calls have
made this a permanent topic for discussion on all FFWP conference calls.
Finally there was a short
discussion on the nature of the self styled revolutionary socialist groups. How
FFWP saw itself as a working peoples' Think Tank which seeks to help build a
revolutionary socialist current with a healthy internal culture. An essential
part of this was looking at past work and past mistakes and this especially
included looking at and openly explaining our own past mistakes. That unless
people were prepared to openly and honestly admit to mistakes, including their
own mistakes, it would be hard to see anything fruitful coming out of
discussions with such groups or individuals..
We appeal to all
Comrades who agree on the need to be part of the organizing of a mass
international movement of the working class to overthrow capitalism to contact
us. We believe that an international organization of tens of millions will be
needed to end US capitalism. We believe that an international organization of
hundreds of millions will be needed to overthrow world capitalism and open up
the road to the collective power and the collective brain of the working class
building a new society. None of the present self styled revolutionary groups
with their left sectarianism, their ultra leftism their at times opportunism
and especially with their internal culture can bring together such forces. FFWP
seeks be part of such mass international organizations and also to work with
others to build within such forces an international revolutionary current with
a healthy democratic internal culture, a culture that includes the right to,
the inevitability of, in fact where different views exist, the desirability of,
factions and factional rights so that issues can be clarified.
Please contact FFWP at: we_know_whats_up@yahoo.com if
this approach appears reasonable. FFWP is a current, a Think Tank within
which revolutionary socialist ideas and work can be discussed and which seeks
to build a revolutionary current with a healthy democratic approach to
clarifying ideas and acting against capitalism.
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