DEMOCRATIC
SOCIALISM in AMERICA
PERPECTIVES
Hugo
Adan Zegarra
Aqui uno de
los 4 Anexos que incluyo en mi libro a publicarse a fin de año
Estos 4
textos sirvieron de base a mi reflexión sobre Persp de Soc in Amer
Extracted from:
THE
IMPLOSION OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM
THE
CHALLENGE FOR THE RADICAL LEFT
Samir amin
“ Globalized capitalism – only
yesterday having declared the "end of history" - did not survive more
than two decades before imploding. But what "other world" is being
called forth to succeed it? Will capitalism enter a new phase in its
deployment, less unbalanced globally and more centred in Asia and South
America? Or will we see a truly polycentric world in which various popular
democratic alternatives will arise and be confronted by violent measures of
capitalist restoration?”
….
….
AUDACITY, MORE AUDACITY
The historical circumstances created by the implosion of
contemporary capitalism requires the radical left, in the North as well as the
South, to be bold in formulating its political alternative to the existing
system.
Why
Audacity ?
1. Contemporary capitalism is a
capitalism of generalized monopolies. By this I mean that monopolies are
now no longer islands (albeit important) in a sea of other still relatively
autonomous companies, but are an integrated system. Therefore, these monopolies
now tightly control all the systems of production. Small and medium
enterprises, and even the large corporations that are not strictly speaking
oligopolies are locked in a network of control put in place by the monopolies.
Their degree of autonomy has shrunk to the point that they are nothing more
than subcontractors of the monopolies. This system of generalized monopolies is
the product of a new phase of centralization of capital in the countries of the
Triad (the United States, Western and Central Europe, and Japan) that took
place during the 1980s and 1990s. The generalized monopolies now dominate the
world economy. „Globalization‟ is the name they have given to the set of
demands by which they exert their control over the productive systems of the
periphery of global capitalism (the world beyond the partners of the triad). It
is nothing other than a new stage of imperialism.
2. The capitalism of generalized and
globalized monopolies is a system that guarantees these monopolies a monopoly
rent levied on the mass of surplus value (transformed into profits) that
capital extracts from the exploitation of labour. To the extent that these
monopolies are operating in the peripheries of the global system, monopoly rent
is imperialist rent. The process of capital accumulation – that defines
capitalism in all its successive historical forms – is therefore driven by the
maximisation of monopoly/imperialist rent seeking.
This shift in the centre of gravity of the accumulation of
capital is the source of the continuous concentration of income and wealth to
the benefit of the monopolies, largely monopolised by the oligarchies
(„plutocracies‟) that govern oligopolistic groups at the expense of the
remuneration of labour and even the remuneration of non-monopolistic capital.
3. This imbalance in continued
growth is itself, in turn, the source of the financialisation of the
economic system. By this I mean that a growing portion of the surplus
cannot be invested in the expansion and deepening of systems of production and
therefore the „financial investment‟ of this excessive
surplus becomes the only option for continued accumulation under the control of
the monopolies.
The implementation of specific systems by capital permits
the financialisation to operate in different ways:
(i) the subjugation of the management of firms to the
principle of ”shareholder value‟
(ii) the substitution of pension systems funded by
capitalisation (Pension Funds) by systems of pension distribution
(iii) the adoption of the principle of ”flexible exchange
rates‟
(iv) the abandonment of the
principle of central banks determining the interest rate - the price of
„liquidity‟ – and the transfer of this responsibility
to the „market‟.
Financialisation has transferred the
major responsibility for control of the reproduction of the system of
accumulation to some 30 giant banks of the triad. What are
euphemistically called „markets‟ are nothing other than the places where the
strategies of these actors who dominate the economic scene are deployed.
In turn this financialisation, which
is responsible for the growth of inequality in income distribution (and
fortunes), generates the growing surplus on which it feeds. The „financial
investments‟ (or rather the investments in financial speculation) continue to
grow at dizzying speeds, not commensurate with growth in GDP (which is
therefore becoming largely fictitious) or with investment in real production.
The explosive growth of financial
investment requires – and fuels – among other things debt in all its forms,
especially sovereign debt. When the governments in power claim to be
pursuing the goal of „debt reduction‟, they are deliberately lying. For the strategy of financialised monopolies requires the
growth in debt (which they seek, rather than combat) as a way to absorb the
surplus profit of monopolies. The austerity policies imposed „to reduce debt‟
have indeed resulted (as intended) in increasing its volume.
4. It is this system – commonly called „neoliberal‟, the system of generalized monopoly capitalism,
„globalized‟ (imperialist) and financialised (of necessity for its own
reproduction) – that is imploding before our eyes. This
system, apparently unable to overcome its growing internal contradictions, is
doomed to continue its wild ride.
The „crisis‟ of the system is due to its own „success‟.
Indeed so far the strategy deployed by monopolies has always produced the desired results: „austerity‟ plans and the so-called social (in fact antisocial)
downsizing plans that are still being imposed, in spite of resistance and
struggles. To this day the initiative remains in the
hands of the monopolies („the markets‟) and their political servants (the
governments that submit to the demands of the so-called „market‟).
5. Under these conditions
monopoly capital has openly declared war on workers and peoples. This
declaration is formulated in the sentence „ liberalism
is not negotiable.‟ Monopoly capital will definitely continue its
wild ride and not slow down. The criticism of „regulation‟ that I make below is
grounded in this fact.
We are not living in a historical
moment in which the search for a „social compromise‟ is a possible option.
There have been such moments in the past, such as the post-war social
compromise between capital and labour specific to the social
democratic state in the West, the actually existing socialism in the East, and
the popular national projects of the South. But our present historical moment
is not the same. So the conflict is between monopoly capital and workers and
people who are invited to an unconditional surrender. Defensive strategies of
resistance under these conditions are ineffective and bound to be eventually
defeated. In the face of war declared by monopoly
capital, workers and peoples must develop strategies that allow them to take
the offensive.
The period of social war is
necessarily accompanied by the proliferation of international political
conflicts and military interventions of the imperialist powers of the triad. The
strategy of „military control of the planet‟ by the armed forces of the United
States and its subordinate NATO allies is ultimately the only means by which
the imperialist monopolies of the triad can expect to continue their domination
over the peoples, nations and the states of the South.
FACED WITH THIS CHALLENGE OF THE WAR DECLARED BY THE
MONOPOLIES,
WHAT ALTERNATIVES ARE BEING
PROPOSED?
First response: „market
regulation‟ (financial and otherwise). These are initiatives that
monopolies and governments claim they are pursuing. In fact it is only empty
rhetoric, designed to mislead public opinion. These initiatives cannot stop the mad rush for
financial return that is the result of the logic of
accumulation controlled by monopolies.
They are therefore a false alternative.
Second response: a return to the
post-war models.
These responses feed a triple nostalgia:
(i) the rebuilding of a true „social
democracy‟ in the West,
(ii) the resurrection of „socialisms‟ founded on the
principles that governed those of the 20th century,
(iii) the return to formulas of
popular nationalism in the peripheries of the South.
These nostalgias imagine it is possible to “roll back‟
monopoly capitalism, forcing it to regress to what it was in 1945. But history never allows such returns to the past. Capitalism
must be confronted as it is today, not as what we would have wished it to be by
imagining the blocking of its evolution. However, these longings continue to
haunt large segments of the left throughout the world.
Third response: the search for a “humanist‟
consensus.
I define this pious wish in the following way: the illusion
that a consensus among fundamentally conflicting interests would be possible.
Naïve ecology movements, among others, share this illusion.
Fourth response: the illusions of
the past.
These illusions invoke „specificity‟ and „right to
difference‟ without bothering to understand their scope and meaning. The past
has already answered the questions for the future. These „culturalisms‟ can
take many para-religious or ethnic forms. Theocracies and ethnocracies become
convenient substitutes for the democratic social struggles that have been
evacuated from their agenda.
Fifth response: priority of
„personal freedom‟.
The range of responses based on this priority, considered
the exclusive „supreme value‟, includes in its ranks the diehards of
„representative electoral democracy,‟ which they equate with democracy itself. The formula separates the democratisation of societies from
social progress, and even tolerates a de facto association with social
regression in order not to risk to discrediting democracy, now reduced to the
status of a tragic farce.
But there are even more dangerous forms of this position. I
am referring here to some common „post modernist‟
currents (such as Toni Negri in particular) who imagine that the
individual has already become the subject of history, as if communism, which
will allow the individual to be emancipated from alienation and actually become
the subject of history, were already here!
It is clear that all of the
responses above, including those of the right (such as the
„regulations‟ that do not affect private property
monopolies) still find powerful echoes among a majority of the people on
the left.
6. The war declared by the
generalised monopoly capitalism of contemporary imperialism has nothing to fear
from the false alternatives that I have just outlined.
SO WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
This moment offers us the historic opportunity to go much
further; it demands as the only effective response a
bold and audacious radicalization in the formulation of alternatives capable of
moving workers and peoples to take the offensive to defeat their adversary‟s
strategy of war. These formulations, based on the analysis of actually
existing contemporary capitalism, must directly confront the future that is to
be built, and turn their back on the nostalgia for the past and illusions of
identity or consensus.
AUDACIOUS
PROGRAMS FOR THE RADICAL LEFT
I will organise the following general proposals under three
headings:
(i) socialise the ownership of
monopolies,
(ii) de-financialise the management of the economy,
(iii) de-globalise international
relations. Socialize the ownership of
monopolies
The effectiveness of the alternative response necessarily
requires the questioning of the very principle of private property of monopoly
capital. Proposing to „regulate‟ financial operations, to return markets to
'transparency' to allow „agents' expectations‟ to be „rational‟ and to define
the terms of a consensus on these reforms without
abolishing the private property of monopolies, is nothing other than throwing
dust in the eyes of the naive public. Monopolies are asked to „manage‟
reforms against their own interests, ignoring the fact that they retain a
thousand and one ways to circumvent the objectives of such reforms.
The alternative social project
should be to reverse the direction of the current social order (social
disorder) produced by the strategies of monopolies, in order to ensure
maximum and stabilised employment, and to ensure decent wages growing in
parallel with the productivity of social labour. This objective is simply
impossible without the expropriation of the power of monopolies.
The „software of economic theorists‟ must be reconstructed
(in the words of François Morin). The absurd and impossible economic theory of
„expectations‟ expels democracy from the management of economic
decision-making. Audacity in this instance requires
radical reform of education for the training not only of economists, but also
of all those called to occupy management positions.
Monopolies are institutional bodies
that must be managed according to the principles of democracy, in direct
conflict with those who sanctify private property. Although the term
„commons‟, imported from the Anglo-Saxon world, is itself ambiguous because
always disconnected from the debate on the meaning of social conflicts
(Anglo-Saxon language deliberately ignores the reality of social classes), the
term could be invoked here specifically to call monopolies part of the
„commons‟.
The abolition of the private
ownership of monopolies takes place through their nationalisation. This
first legal action is unavoidable. But audacity here means going beyond that
step to propose plans for the socialisation of the
management of nationalised monopolies and the promotion of the democratic
social struggles that are engaged on this long road.
I will give here a concrete example of what could be involved
in plans of socialization.
'Capitalist' farmers (those of
developed countries) like 'peasant' farmers (mostly in the South) are all
prisoners of both the upstream monopolies that provide inputs and credit,
and the downstream ones on which they depend for processing, transportation and
marketing of their products. Therefore they have no real autonomy in their
„decisions‟. In addition the productivity gains they make are siphoned off by
the monopolies that have reduced producers to the status of „subcontractors‟.
What possible alternative?
Public institutions working within a
legal framework that would set the mode of governance must replace the
monopolies. These would be constituted of representatives of:
(i) farmers (the principle
interests),
(ii) upstream units (manufacturers of inputs, banks) and
downstream (food industry, retail chains ) and
(iii) consumers,
(iv) local authorities (interested in natural and social
environment - schools, hospitals, urban planning and housing, transportation),
(v) the State (citizens).
Representatives of the components
listed above would be self-selected according to procedures consistent with
their own mode of socialised management, such as units of production of inputs
that are themselves managed by directorates of workers directly employed by the
units concerned as well as those who are employed by sub-contracting units and
so on. These structures should be designed by formulas that associate
management personnel with each of these levels, such as research centres for
scientific, independent and appropriate technology. We could even conceive of a
representation of capital providers (the „small shareholders‟) inherited from
the nationalisation, if deemed useful.
We are therefore talking about
institutional approaches that are more complex than the forms of
„self-directed‟ or „cooperative‟ that we have known. Ways of working
need to be invented that allow the exercise of genuine democracy in the
management of the economy, based on open negotiation among all interested
parties. A formula is required that systematically links the democratisation of
society with social progress, in contrast with the
reality of capitalism which dissociates democracy, which is reduced to the
formal management of politics, from social conditions abandoned to the „market‟
dominated by what monopoly capital produces. Then and only then can we talk
about true transparency of markets, regulated in institutionalised forms of
socialised management.
The example may seem marginal in the developed capitalist
countries because farmers there are a very small proportion of workers (3-7
percent). However, this issue is central to the South where the rural
population will remain significant for some time. Here access to land, which
must be guaranteed for all (with the least possible inequality of access) is
fundamental to principles advancing peasant agriculture (I refer here to my
previous work on this question). „Peasant agriculture‟ should not be understood
as synonymous with „stagnant agriculture‟ (or „traditional and folklorique‟).
The necessary progress of peasant agriculture does require some „modernization‟
(although this term is a misnomer because it immediately suggests to many
modernisation through capitalism). More effective inputs, credits, and production
and supply chains are necessary to improve the productivity of peasant labor.
The formulas proposed here pursue the objective of enabling this modernisation
in ways and in a spirit that is „non-capitalist‟, that is to say grounded in a
socialist perspective.
Obviously the specific example
chosen here is one that needs to be institutionalised. The nationalisation /
socialisation of the management of monopolies in the sectors of industry and
transport, banks and other financial institutions should be imagined in the
same spirit, while taking into account the specificities of their
economic and social functions in the constitution of their directorates. Again
these directorates should involve the workers in the company as well as those
of subcontractors, representatives of upstream industries, banks, research
institutions, consumers, and citizens.
The nationalisation/socialisation of
monopolies addresses a fundamental need at the central axis of the challenge
confronting workers and peoples under contemporary capitalism of generalised
monopolies. It is the only way to stop the accumulation
by dispossession that is driving the management of the economy by the
monopolies.
The accumulation dominated by
monopolies can indeed only reproduce itself if the area subject to „market
management‟ is constantly expanding. This is achieved by excessive
privatisation of public services (dispossession of citizens), and access to
natural resources (dispossession of peoples). The extraction of profit of
„independent‟ economic units by the monopolies is even a dispossession (of
capitalists!) by the financial oligarchy.
DE-FINANCIALIZATION : A WORLD WITHOUT WALL STREET
Nationalisation/socialisation of
monopolies would in and of itself abolish the principle of „shareholder value‟
imposed by the strategy of accumulation in the service of monopoly rents. This
objective is essential for any bold agenda to escape the ruts in which the
management of today's economy is mired. Its implementation pulls the rug out
from under the feet of the financialisation of management of the economy. Are
we returning to the famous „euthanasia of the rentier‟ advocated by Keynes in
his time? Not necessarily, and certainly not completely. Savings can be
encouraged by financial reward, but on condition that their origin (household
savings of workers, businesses, communities) and their conditions of earnings
are precisely defined. The discourse on macroeconomic savings in conventional
economic theory hides the organization of exclusive access to the capital
market of the monopolies. The so-called „market driven
remuneration‟ is then nothing other than the means to guarantee the growth of
monopoly rents.
Of course the
nationalisation/socialisation of monopolies also applies to banks, at
least the major ones. But the socialization of their intervention („credit
policies‟) has specific characteristics that require an appropriate design in
the constitution of their directorates. Nationalisation in the classical sense
of the term implies only the substitution of the State for the boards of
directors formed by private shareholders. This would permit, in principle,
implementation of bank credit policies formulated by the State – which is no
small thing. But it is certainly not sufficient when we consider that
socialisation requires the direct participation in the management of the bank
by the relevant social partners. Here the „self-management‟ of banks by their
staff would not be appropriate. The staff concerned should certainly be
involved in decisions about their working conditions, but little else, because
it is not their place to determine the credit policies to be implemented.
If the directorates must deal with
the conflicts of interest of those that provide loans (the banks) and those who
receive them (the „enterprises‟), the formula for the composition of
directorates must be designed taking into account what the enterprises are and
what they require. A restructuring of the banking system which has
become overly centralised since the regulatory frameworks of the past two
centuries were abandoned over the past four decades.
There is a strong argument to
justify the reconstruction of banking specialization according to the
requirements of the recipients of their credit as well as their economic
function (provision of short-term liquidity, contributing to the
financing of investments in the medium and long term). We could then, for
example, create an „agriculture bank‟ (or a coordinated ensemble of agriculture
banks) whose clientele is comprised not only of farmers and peasants but also
those involved in the „upstream and downstream‟ of agriculture described above.
The bank‟s directorate would involve on the one hand the „bankers‟ (staff
officers of the bank – who would have been recruited by the directorate) and
other clients (farmers or peasants, and other upstream and downstream
entities).
We can imagine other sets of
articulated banking systems, appropriate to various industrial sectors,
in which the directorates would involve the industrial clients, centers of
research and technology and services to ensure control of the ecological impact
of the industry, thus ensuring minimal risk (while recognising that no human
action is completely without risk), and subject to transparent democratic
debate.
The de-financialisation of economic
management would also require two sets of legislation. The first concerns
the authority of a sovereign state to ban speculative fund (hedge funds)
operations in its territory. The second concerns pension funds, which
are now major operators in the financialisation of the economic system. These
funds were designed - first in the US of course - to transfer to employees the
risks normally incurred by capital, and which are the reasons invoked to
justify capital‟s remuneration! So this is a scandalous arrangement, in clear
contradiction even with the ideological defense of capitalism! But this
„invention‟ is an ideal instrument for the strategies of accumulation dominated
by monopolies.
The abolition of pension funds is
necessary for the benefit of distributive pension systems, which, by
their very nature, require and allow democratic debate to determine the amounts
and periods of assessment and the relationship between the amounts of pensions
and remuneration paid. In a democracy that respects social rights, these
pension systems are universally available to all workers. However, at a pinch,
and so as not to prohibit what a group of individuals might desire to put in
place, supplementary pensions funds could be allowed.
All measures of de-financialisation
suggested here lead to an obvious conclusion: A world without Wall Street,
to borrow the title of the book by François
Morin, is possible and desirable.
In a world without Wall Street, the
economy is still largely controlled by the „market‟. But these markets are for
the first time truly transparent, regulated by democratic negotiation among
genuine social partners (for the first time also they are no longer
adversaries as they are necessarily under capitalism). It is the financial
„market‟ – opaque by nature and subjected to the requirements of management for
the benefit of the monopolies – that is abolished. We could even explore
whether it would be useful or not to shut down the stock exchanges, given that
the rights to property, both in its their private as well as social form, would
be conducted „differently‟. We could even consider whether the stock exchange
could be re-established to this new end. The symbol in any case – „a world
without Wall Street‟ – nevertheless retains its power.
De-financialisation certainly does
not mean the abolition of macroeconomic policy and inparticular the macro
management of credit. On the contrary it restores its efficiency by
freeing it from its subjugation to the strategies of rent-seeking monopolies.
The restoration of the powers of national central banks, no longer
„independent‟ but dependent on both the state and markets regulated by the
democratic negotiation of social partners, gives the formulation of macro
credit policy its effectiveness in the service of socialized management of the
economy.
AT THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL : DELINKING
I use here the term „delinking‟
that I proposed half a century ago, a term that contemporary discourse appears
to have substituted with the synonym „de-globalisation‟. I have never conceptualised delinking as an autarkic retreat,
but rather as a strategic reversal in the face of both internal and external
forces in response to the unavoidable requirements of self-determined
development. Delinking promotes the reconstruction of a globalisation based on
negotiation, rather than submission to the exclusive interests of the
imperialist monopolies. It also makes possible the reduction of international
inequalities.
Delinking is necessary because the measures advocated in the
two previous sections can never really be implemented at the global scale, or
even at a regional level (e.g. Europe). They can only
be initiated in the context of states / nations with advanced radical social
and political struggles, committed to a process of socialization of the
management of their economy.
Imperialism, in the form that it
took until just after the Second World War, had created the contrast between
industrialised imperialist centers and dominated peripheries where industry was
prohibited. The victories of national liberation movements began the
process of the industrialization of the peripheries, through the implementation
of delinking policies required for the option of self-reliant development.
Associated with social reforms that were at times radical, these delinkings
created the conditions for the eventual „emergence‟ of those countries that had
gone furthest in this direction – China leading the pack, of course.
But the imperialism of the current
era, the imperialism of the Triad, forced to retreat and „adjust‟ itself to the
conditions of this new era, rebuilt itself on new foundations, based on
„advantage‟ by which it sought to hold on to the privilege of exclusivity that
I have classified in five categories. The control of:
• technology;
• access to natural resources of the
planet
• global integration of the monetary and financial system
• systems of communication and
information
• weapons of mass destruction.
The main form of delinking today is
thus defined precisely by the challenge to these five privileges of
contemporary imperialism. Emerging countries are engaged in delinking
from these five privileges, with varying degrees of control and
self-determination, of course. While earlier success over the past two decades
in delinking enabled them to accelerate their development, in particular
through industrial development within the globalized „liberal‟ system using
„capitalist‟ means, this success has fueled delusions about the possibility of
continuing on this path, that is to say, emerging as new „equal capitalist
partners‟. The attempt to „co-opt‟ the most prestigious
of these countries with the creation of the G20 has encouraged these illusions.
But with the current ongoing implosion of the imperialist
system (called „globalisation‟), these illusions are likely to dissipate. The
conflict between the imperialist powers of the triad and emerging countries is
already visible, and is expected to worsen. If they want to move forward, the
societies of emerging countries will be forced to turn more towards
self-reliant modes of development through national plans and by strengthening
South-South cooperation.
Audacity, under such circumstances, involves engaging
vigorously and coherently towards this end, bringing together the required
measures of delinking with the desired advances in social progress.
The goal of this radicalization
is threefold: the democratisation of
society; the consequent social progress achieved; and the taking of
anti-imperialist positions. A commitment to this direction is possible,
not only for societies in emerging countries, but also in the „abandoned‟ or
the „written-off‟ of the global South. These countries had been effectively
recolonized through the structural adjustment programs of the 1980s. Their
peoples are now in open revolt, whether they have already scored victories
(South America) or not (in the Arab world).
Audacity here means that the radical left in these societies
must have the courage to take measure of the challenges they face and to
support the continuation and radicalisation of the necessary struggles that are
in progress.
The delinking of the South prepares
the way for the deconstruction of the imperialist system itself. This is
particularly apparent in areas affected by the management of the global
monetary and financial system, since it is the result of the hegemony of the
dollar.
But beware: it is an illusion to
expect to substitute for this system „another world monetary and financial
system‟ that is better balanced and favorable to the development of the
peripheries. As always, the search of a „consensus‟ over international
reconstruction from above is mere wishful thinking akin to waiting for a
miracle. What is on the agenda now is the
deconstruction of the existing system - its implosion - and reconstruction of
national alternative systems (for countries or continents or regions), as some
projects in South America have already begun. Audacity here is to have
the courage to move forward with the strongest determination possible, without
too much worry about the reaction of imperialism.
This same problematique of delinking
/ dismantling is also of relevance to Europe, which is a subset of
globalization dominated by monopolies. The European project was designed
from the outset and built systematically to dispossess its peoples of their
ability to exercise their democratic power. The European
Union was established as a protectorate of the monopolies. With the
implosion of the euro zone, its submission to the will of the monopolies has
resulted in the abolishment of democracy which has been reduced to the status
of farce and takes on extreme forms, namely focused only on the question: how are the "market" (that is to say monopolies)
and the "Rating Agencies" (that is to say, again, the monopolies)
reacting? That's the only question now posed. How the people might react is no
longer given the slightest consideration.
It is thus obvious that here too
there is no alternative to audacity: „disobeying‟ the rules imposed by
the "European Constitution" and the imaginary central bank of the
euro. In other words, there is no alternative to deconstruct the institutions
of Europe and the euro zone. This is the unavoidable prerequisite for the
eventual reconstruction of „another Europe‟ of peoples and nations.
In
conclusion: Audacity, more audacity, always audacity.
What I mean by audacity is therefore:
(i) For the radical left in the societies of
the imperialist triad, the need for an engagement in the building an
alternative anti-monopoly social bloc.
(ii) For the radical left in the
societies of the peripheries to engage in the building an alternative
anti-comprador social bloc.
It will take time to make progress in building these blocs,
but it could well accelerate if the radical left takes on movement with
determination and engages in making progress on the long road of socialism. It
is therefore necessary to propose strategies not „out of the crisis of
capitalism‟, but „out of capitalism in crisis‟ to borrow from the title of one
of my recent works.
We are in a crucial period in
history. The only legitimacy of capitalism is to have created the conditions
for passing on to socialism, understood as a higher stage of civilization. Capitalism
is now an obsolete system, its continuation leading only to barbarism. No other
capitalism is possible. The outcome of a clash of civilizations is, as always,
uncertain. Either the radical left will succeed through
the audacity of its initiatives to make revolutionary advances, or the
counter-revolution will win. There is no effective compromise between these two
responses to the challenge.
All the strategies of the non-radical left are in fact
non-strategies, they are merely day-to-day adjustments to the vicissitudes of
the imploding system. And if the powers that be want, like le Guépard, to
„change everything so that nothing changes‟, the candidates of the left believe
it is possible to „change life without touching the power of monopolies‟! The
non-radical left will not stop the triumph of capitalist barbarism. They have
already lost the battle for lack of wanting to take it on.
Audacity is what is necessary to
bring about the autumn of capitalism that will be announced by the implosion of
its system and by the birth of an authentic spring of the people, a spring that
is possible.
….
….
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