Part 3 - Continued from previous page

In the race of globalization, this “international society” had the lead over the states in many aspects. In simpler words, the states “promoted” or subscribed to decisions planned by these “societies of citizens” (multinationals). So, the expansion of multinationals from the “multinational” to the “global” does not signify a nomadism interpreted as the cutting of the “umbilical cord” connecting them with the “national centre”. Multinationals need the “protection” or the power provided by their corresponding “national centre”. The truth is that the national states of the imperialist countries lay all their weight on supporting their multinationals. But even within the multinational integrations the dominant role belongs to the ruling powers, which exploit all the regulations for the strengthening of the super-speed represented mainly by their own multinationals. Moreover, the imperialist states lay all the weight on protecting and subsidizing their own economy, while at the same time they launch out into the world race with slogans against any protectionism, for the abolition of all restrictions of the free handling of capitals and commodities, and with the theory and ideology of free trade. Finally, the world economy cannot be globalized without using the power of arms of its national centre. Thus, it needs the state more and more.

The dominated countries, the countries that have to abolish any autonomous economic existence to be looted by the activity of the multinationals, literally see the formal shift of decision centres to international organizations or see that they are forced to withdrawals and shrinking of sovereign rights they had previously. Talking about imperialism, Lenin said that a clear distinction between its economic base and its political trends has to be made. Within this analysis Lenin considered the complete enslavement of a country by imperialism absolutely possible through the subornation of parliaments, politicians, civil officials. Nowadays we have advanced to the shift –even typically– of many responsibilities, once belonging to the national states, to the supranational organizations, acting on behalf of the dominating imperialist powers.

3.2.2. The most important changes on the social level

The restructuring of the imperialist/capitalist system, as an attempt to meet with its prolonged general crisis, brought a series of turmoils in all sectors. On the social level, the most important of them are the following:

(a) The most important element of the restructuring is its tendency to negate the living labor and to reject it from the productive process, on levels unforeseen up today in the history of capitalism. This means that the reserve industrial army of labor takes gigantic dimensions all over the world. The pivot of this process is the higher form of the subordination of the science and technique to the capital, which started in the beginning of our century but intensified greatly during the last decades. 

(b) Nevertheless the dualization (the negation, the rejection of the living labor, and the attempt to impose a new model of society, without rights for the big majority of the people) has other aspects as well: political, social, cultural. The dualisation develops both in the interior of each country and on international level - i.e. in both a vertical and horizontal way. 
In the interior of each country, the strata of the population which are rejected and thrown in a total misery become larger and larger. The labor force is squeezed in extreme level. The flexibility of labor relations is promoted, provoking an unprecedented suppression of conquests and rights of the working masses, won in the past by them during long and bloody struggles. In the interior of each country, there is a large section of the population living under the poverty level, unemployed or underemployed, reduced to absolute misery and with no perspective for work. Many bourgeois analysts are speaking for the "society of the 2/3 (two thirds)", meaning that it is the 1/3 which is rejected and "excommuniated" from the first society (which is supposed to be composed by the other 2/3). The reality is much worse, because the absolute and relative poverty concerns more than 1/3 of the population. But even if this number would be correct, it is in any way a huge proportion. What kind of system is capitalism, if it is unable to give the slightest perspective to the one third of its societies? But capitalism is magnanimous: it simply stops counting this excluded 1/3. It is an invisible part of the society: it exists, but capitalism doesn't give a damn about it. Or, to be more correct, it cares; as far as this concerns its advertising "philanthropist" campaigns.

(c) The horizontal dualisation (called by many as antagonism and gap between the developed North and the undeveloped South) shows another aspect, equally important: The most rich fifth (20%) of the world population enjoys 82,7% of the world income. The poorest fifth of the world population "enjoys" just the 1,4% of the world income. This gap shows that the rest 3/5 of the world population must be satisfied with 15,9% of the world income. If we examine those 3/5, we 'll see that 1/5 gets 11,7% of the world income, 1/5 gets 2,3% and 1/5 gets 1,9%. Consequently, we can see that the three fifths of the world population, according to the data of the UNProgram for Development, are "living" with 5,6% of the world income! This is about an inconceivable concentration of inequality on the earth, that never existed before, in no other system and even in no other period of capitalism.

(d) This situation and all the restructuring process brought more consequences: we are in front of a wide proletarianization, which is not advancing exclusively because of the huge depopulation of the world countryside. It is also advancing because of the destruction of medium strata, especially the intelligentsia. Such strata are grinding, particularly in the metropolitan centres, because of the massive use of the "intangible" in the production and the services.

(e) The depopulation of the world countryside aims at the domination of the agricultural-food supplying filiere of the multinational corporations and at the coping with the agricultural crisis of overproduction. The devastation of the countryside condemns huge populations in famine, destroys all forms of natural economy, blows up the agricultural production of whole countries in order to oblige them to import food from the rich countries. Those procedures, together with the raking up of ethnic and tribal confrontations (which are always stired up by the multinational corporations), have provoked a huge coercive agricultural exodus. This exodus can be compared and has many similarities with the procedures of primary accumulation described by Marx in "The Capital". In the eastern world this process is accelerated by the destruction of the cooperative structures and the privatization of the land. In China the provision of labor force, particularly in the zones that have been conceded in the foreign capital, is made through the internal immigration and the expropriation of the cooperatives and communes existing in the chinese countryside (those were the "four modernizations"...).

(f) All this move provoked big migratory currents, the bigger that have been witnessed in capitalism's history. Some calculations show that the migratory current of the recent years concerns 650 millions of people. The previous migratory currents, during the beginning of our century and the early 60's, came in a period of rising of the cycle and they had been "easily" absorbed in the reception countries. The so-called "miracles" of the economic development have their base exactly on this relatively cheap labor force, which has been used in the most difficult and dirty jobs. On the contrary, the actual migratory current, the biggest in modern history, is a moving gigantic reserve labor army. There is no the slightest possibility for its absorption. That's why the main form of existence it has is to be stowed in the megacities which are spreading in several regions of the world. The megacities in the entire world have been multiplied and the phenomens of "savage" urbanization are characteristic of this process.

(g) Under the direction of the monopolistic capital, a "periphery of the world" is created, in which a series of industrial activities are emigrating and where is used a cheap labor force. In the shantytowns and the slums of this periphery are stowed millions and millions of people uprooted from the countryside; and farther on extends the countryside of the world, condemned in desertation. Every now and then, "Irrational" wars draw the attention for certain regions of this forgotten countryside. What happens? The struggle for raw materials, for deposits of strategic materials, activates the "interest" but also the fierce antagonism of the imperialists. The same happens as far as the control of passages and routes of transport and communication (even the space) are concerned. Still, this description is not complete. The monopolistic capital took care to create "free zones" in the periphery of the world, where no legislation applies and the capital is free to "officiate" without any constraints. How many such "free zones" exist all over the world? More than 500. But we have no data concerning the volume of the labor force exploited in them. The bourgeois statistics is suffering from strabismus in this field as well…

(h) Another important consequence is the disturbance of the balance between human and nature, the destruction of the natural environment every time that this brings profits to the multinationals. The ecological destruction through the unreasonable use of energy forms (like the nuclear energy), the deforestation of huge areas-oxygen lungs, the climatic changes, the pollution of the seas and the water resources, the desertification of whole regions, etc., are not natural phenomena; they are the result of the perpetuation of the capitalist relations of production. Complementary to this unbearable situation, comes the spread of several contagious diseases (despite the fact that it is possible to fight effectively against them), and of diseases provoked by the frenetic tempo of life and the nightmarish working conditions. The science and its production have been transformed into slaves of the capital, and all their activities are focused in the target of serving the New Order absurdity: destruction of the bio-diversity, interventions with monstrous aims in the DNA, biological warfare, etc.

All those changes (accompanied by many political changes and modifications, and imposing the activation of a series of manipulating and repressive mechanisms) have brought up many new situations. The marxist-leninist movement must study them, must detect what is genuinely new, and what is to be concluded on the level of strategics and tactics. The detection of the objective law of the class struggle’s development in the contemporary conditions will be possible only if the appropriate attention to the new facts will be given, only if there will be the ability to compose social alliances and fronts that will reflect the changes which took place. 

3.2.3. The political changes and the appearance of the New World Order

The concept of “monopolistic capitalism which has been globalized after a period of split of the system” plays an essential part in our evaluations. We study the globalization of monopolistic capitalism as this appeared historically through a sequence of developments and juxtapositions, through a series of expressions and episodes of the class struggle, and not as a natural development of capitalism/imperialism. The point “after a period of split of the system” states the historical time, but also the marks which the monopolistic capitalism bears on it, the specific problems it has had to confront. So, when we talk about globalization of the relation capital, we refer to the present stage of monopolistic capital, which has managed to impose its networks all over the planet, after an intense challenge of its dominance. The historical time exists in this concept. The most important elements which determined this course were the following:
(a) The retreat of the revolutionary movements all over the world after 1975 and the spread of the disintegrating processes imposed by the multi-faced revisionism.
(b) The appearance of the deepest, most multi-sided and prolonged crisis the capitalist system has ever suffered.
(c) The restructuring process, which was determined exactly by the need to deal with the capitalist system’s crisis.
The most important results of this course were the following: 
1. The official completion of the restoration of capitalism in a series of countries, and the disintegration of the Soviet block.
2. A lot of reclassifications within the imperialist camp, since the bipolar situation (USA-USSR) stopped playing its previous role.
3. Not only has the capitalist system failed to get over, but also it sinks deeper and deeper into the vicious circle crisis-restructuring-crisis. 
4. The process of domination of the monopolistic capitalism, which enters the phase of globalized monopolistic capitalism after the healing of the schism suffered in 1917, has been forwarded to a great extent.
5. The New World Order, which forms the necessary superstructure of the globalized world capitalism, has appeared.
6. Unavoidably, all these modifications and earthquakes had consequences on social level, on the living conditions of the masses, on the world class stratification. The main and basic issue is the spread and growing to gigantic dimensions of the dual society, both horizontally and vertically all over the planet.

This phase of overturning and counter-revolution definitely poses new tasks and aims to the struggling working masses. So, Mao is once more confirmed nowadays, when he said that we are going to face great fights, which in many respects will be different from the great fights of the previous periods.

The New World Order is the necessary superstructure, the superstructure corresponding to monopolistic capitalism, which was globalized after a split of the system. The New World Order is a slogan and a reality under shaping. A nazi slogan, repeated by George Bush in the days of the Gulf War. The New World Order means the transition to a new stage, to a higher stage of the restructuring process (which started at the beginning of the ‘70s). What are its main features?
(a) It is an extremely aggressive policy of the imperialist camp in order to answer two issues: 1. The dealing with the capitalist crisis and 2. The dealing with the revolts and outbreaks all over the world.
(b) It is an extremely aggressive policy of the imperialist Directorate aiming at covering the gaps created by the collapse.
(c) It is an extremely aggressive policy of the imperialist Directorate signifying a new great aggravation of the inter-imperialist rivalry.
(d) It is an extremely aggressive policy of the imperialist Directorate trying to eradicate anything that reminded and reminds of another social organization, socialism, communism, etc.
(e) It is an extremely aggressive policy of the imperialist Directorate striking the working people and the peoples’ masses on a global scale, deepening the dualization and imposing a modelization, which pushes the individual to the fringe of society and makes it incapable of any participation, organization, struggle, etc.
(f) It is an extremely aggressive policy of the imperialist Directorate, which, in the name of internationalization, interdependence and globalization, dissolves national economies, levels national specialities, oppresses whole nations, condemning them to the utmost degradation. 
(g) It is an extremely aggressive policy of the imperialist Directorate, which more and more, next to the generalized economic war of the multinational giants among them, and their coalitions against the working people and national economies, presents the fact of limited, regional, peripheral, etc. wars as a usual and normal situation.
(h) It is an extremely aggressive policy of the imperialist Directorate, which leads to an international life among countries, regions etc. under the immediate heel of the international gendarme and its organizations. Embargoes, interventions, punishments, bombardments are decided by the Directorate, validated by the “organizations of the international community” and imposed by the armed sections of the counter-revolution.
(i) It is an extremely aggressive policy of the imperialist Directorate, where the return to pre-October landscapes (partitions of countries, alteration of frontiers, revival of symbols and slogans, balkanization of regions, national slicing, adoption of nationalism, creation of countries-protectorates etc. etc.) is related to the most phantasmagoric show of technological power (mainly through clever arms systems and information networks). These are elements of past centuries’ barbarity with science fiction pictures constantly aiming at the enslavement of the masses. 

The imperialist Directorate

Which is the Directorate? As known, the USA, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Canada comprise the “G7”. Of course, the USA, Germany and Japan play the basic part in it. The role of Canada and Italy is relatively secondary. An active role is also played by Great Britain and France, which have an important military arsenal and impose their interests wherever they can, although they have been somewhat downgraded by the ascent of Germany and Japan. Within the Directorate a lot of conflicts, compromises and changes of temporary alliances, etc., occur. When we refer to the Directorate (either referring generally to the present imperialist system, or to the Directorate of the EU meaning its main imperialist powers), we do not mean the abolition of contradictions among those comprising it, because although they agree on their common front against the peoples, they are rent by deep contradictions, competitions and conflicts. We could say that the entry into the New World Order has aggravated in the extreme the contradictions and conflicts, has pushed the competition to new levels, because: 
(a) a significant imperialist power, the Soviet Union, has been downgraded, a coalition (Comecon, the Warsaw Pact) has dissolved. So, the terms for the covering of the gaps it left by all the imperialist powers have been fulfilled;
(b) the economically ascending imperialist powers judged it was time they claimed the relevant plunder from the markets, and it was time that they conquered more, 
(c) the US superpower had to forestall any serious controversy by its competitors, therefore, to take initiatives, etc.

The aggravation of contradictions among imperialists is unavoidable as long as we are in the era of imperialism. The question for us today is whether the contradiction between imperialist countries and the classes joining forces with them on the one hand, and the struggle of the peoples, the fight of the working class etc. on the other, regardless of how much it deepens, cannot lead the imperialists to a general agreement, surmounting, eliminating, weakening their contradictions. The Directorate is not the super-imperialism. It is the temporary form that takes the relationship, the concert and competition of the main imperialist powers on a worldwide level. After all, the fact that the system does not face any important threat from an organized power (they are only afraid of systemic dangers, such as unforeseen revolts, collapses of the monetary system, of the banks, etc.), leads both to a more unbridled attack against the peoples, and to wilder rivalry among the main powers. An immediate and recent example: the concert of all as regards the “collapse” of the eastern coalition and the relatively controlled way of its forwarding did not at all prevent a frenzied competition at the same time among the basic ones as to who would take the most. This competition led to the regional internationalized wars conducted through representatives (the case of Yugoslavia, etc.).

Also, within the Directorate the asymmetry between economic and military power is manifested. The USA is in the first place both as an economic and as a military power, but it sees its economic power relatively shrinking. Germany and Japan have made great progress in the economic sector, but they present some backwardness in the military one. Nevertheless, they have already developed a remarkable arms industry, their military presence in several regions of the world (though limited) is noticeable, and they claim the right to become standing members of the UN Security Council, so as to play a more energetic role. Russia is the power experiencing the most great fall in the imperialist hierarchy. Right now it is not a member of the Directorate. They do not count on it and can even create problems for it. Russia will normally be restructured, will sooner or later break with the other powers and claim a place in the Directorate. But it has lost a lot of ground. This will require a series of confrontations on political and economic level, as well as the forwarding of considerable restructuring within Russia and the “Commonwealth of Independent States”. There are indications of reorganization, but it has not got rid of economic dependence on western capitals yet. China is another important link of the chain. The main question is whether it will avoid the lurches and drastic changes experienced by the other regions of the world, where capitalism was restored. It cannot avoid such developments. Furthermore, it is not reasonable to suppose that international imperialism will let China become a superpower. There are going to be rows, conflicts, subversive activities, etc.

3.2.4. About the strategic objective

In other words, in the present conditions we should give all our strength and tune our steps so that the phase of passive defence (in which we are on global scale and which is expressed through the spontaneous, uncoordinated, without common aims and common consciousness, resistance of the people masses), gives its place to the phase of active resistance; this new phase will be characterized by the existence and action of significant people’s movements, capable of creating breaches and damage for imperialism and the reactionaries, and of course by another level of consciousness, action and collaboration among the people’s movements on local, regional and international level. This transition from passive defense to active resistance must be a, in our opinion, the strategic objective of the international movement in the present phase. We name this objective as the international community of the peoples, which will be opposed to the international community of the imperialists. If the term is considered unsuccessful, we will gladly discuss it and we will expect suggestions. The question, however, is whether we agree on the essence of it.

We realize that progress in each region and country will be made in an asymmetric, uneven, not uniform way. Nevertheless, the existence of developed revolutionary movements in a region or country does not mean the overstepping of the present phase on its own. For example, nowadays there is a series of people’s movements in arms, but this does not overturn the general picture of passive defense as we defined it on a worldwide level. Agreement or disagreement on this subject is of great importance. We realize the need of great movements or parties, having reached advanced positions or being in difficult situations to be led to evaluations which might overestimate the potentials or give a more optimist view than that given by the sober examination of the correlation of power.

Let’s see for example the evaluation of a Party from Asia that “the objective conditions for making revolution are favourable”. This is right in principle. That is because crisis leads to the incredible squeezing of the oppressed classes, all the contradictions of the contemporary world are aggravated in the extreme, terms are created favouring the activation of the masses, the revolts are multiplied and revolutionary situations occur. [“To the Marxist it is indisputable that a revolution is impossible without a revolutionary situation; furthermore, it is not every revolutionary situation that leads to revolution. What, generally speaking, are the symptoms of a revolutionary situation? We shall certainly not be mistaken if we indicate the following three major symptoms: (1) when it is impossible for the ruling classes to maintain their rule without any change; when there is a crisis, in one form or another, among the "upper classes", a crisis in the policy of the ruling class, leading to a fissure through which the discontent and indignation of the oppressed classes burst forth. For a revolution to take place, it is usually insufficient for "the lower classes not to want" to live in the old way; it is also necessary that "the upper classes should be unable" to live in the old way; (2) when the suffering and want of the oppressed classes have grown more acute than usual; (3) when, as a consequence of the above causes, there is a considerable increase in the activity of the masses, who uncomplainingly allow themselves to be robbed in "peace time", but, in turbulent times, are drawn both by all the circumstances of the crisis and by the "upper classes" themselves into independent historical action.” (Lenin, The Collapse of the Second International)].

But we have to stress again and again the fact that we are quite far from revolution. That, on a worldwide level, the first strategic task is to develop the movement, to develop original people’s movements capable of striking blows to the enemy and, on this favourable ground, to develop original vanguards. As long as a worldwide front of the peoples with advanced elements of awareness of its importance and declared common aims has not been formed, as long as marxist-leninist parties and organizations capable of playing a significant role in the class struggle in their country have not been constructed (there are only a few of them today), we cannot seriously talk about revolution. We will experience revolutionary situations, but we will not be able to influence them significantly. That is why the same Party is right again, when it adds in the same document: “Definitely, the marxist-leninist parties and the other subjective forces of the revolution are still few, small and weak”.

Let’s consider the following words of Mao when he evaluated the military experience of the communist movement in 1938: “There are only three armies in the whole world which belong to the proletariat and the labouring people, the armies led by the Communist Parties of the Soviet Union, of China and of Spain, and as yet Communist Parties in other countries have had no military experience; hence our army and our military experience are all the more precious.” (Problems of War and Strategy, 1938). Within a few years since then, many parties acquired considerable experience and led people’s armies. This is an aspect we should never forget. The other aspect we should also never forget is the retrogression in history in the past 30 years; we should never forget what the liquidation caused by contemporary revisionism really means. The international proletariat is far from the situation of 1938 and has to cover this distance.

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