- Introduction
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- The class struggle continues to play a central role
in the process of capitalist accumulation, albeit it takes different forms
depending on the socio-economic context. In order to map out the unfolding
of the class struggle it is necessary to specify key concepts related to
the (a) varied conditions and dominant sectors of capital in the global
economy (b) nature of the class struggle (c) the principle protagonists
of class struggles (d) character of the demands (e) mass struggles.
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- Capitalist accumulation is unfolding in a very uneven
pattern with important consequences for the nature and intensity of the
class struggle. Moreover, the particular responses by workers and especially
the capitalist state to the general condition of the economy has shaped
the degree to which class struggle intensifies and which of the two major
"poles' (capital or labor) has taken the offensive.
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- Conceptual Clarification
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- In analyzing contemporary capitalism, the most striking
distinction is between three radically different conditions facing the
capitalist system. These include countries experiencing (a) high growth,
(b) stagnation, (c) deep crises.
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- High growth capitalist countries are sharply divided
between those which are (a) commodity boomers, largely exporters of agro-mineral-energy
products, mostly found in Africa and Latin America, (b) manufacturing exporters
largely found in Asia (China, India,South Korea) .
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- Crises economies can be sub-divided into three groups.
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- Fast recovery economies include Germany and the Nordic
countries, which, after dipping into negative growth have expanded their
industrial exports and are growing rapidly since 2010.
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- Slow recovery or stagnant economies, include USA, Great
Britain, France and Italy which have touched bottom, recovered profits
especially in the financial sector, but have made little or no progress
in reducing unemployment, expanding manufacturing and overall growth.
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- Prolonged and deep crises economies, includes Portugal,
Spain, Greece, the Baltic and Balkan countries, which are bankrupt, with
rising double digit unemployment (between 15% - 20%) and negative growth.
They carry a heavy debt burden and are implementing severe austerity programs
designed to prolong their economic depression for years to come.
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- Just as there are uneven patterns of capitalist development,
the same is true with regard to the class struggle. There are several
key concepts that need to be taken into account in the analysis of class
struggle.
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- First, there is the distinction between 'class' and 'mass'
struggle. In Latin America there are many instances of multi-sectoral
worker, peasant or public sector struggles led by class anchored organizations.
At times these class based movements become 'mass struggles' incorporating
heterogeneous groups (street vendors, self-employed, etc.). The contemporary
Arab revolts are mostly mass struggles generally without class leaderships
or organizations, or in some cases led by 'youth' or 'religious organizations'.
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- Secondly, there is the distinction between 'offensive'
and 'defensive' class struggles where class organizations either fight
to extend their social rights and increase wages or struggle to preserve
or limit the loss of wages and living standards.
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- The class struggle is a two way proposition: while workers
and other exploited classes struggle from below, ruling classes and their
states engage in class struggle from above to increase their profits, productivity
and power.
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- The class struggle takes various forms. The majority
of class struggles today are over 'economic issues', including an increasing
share of national income. A half decade ago throughout Latin America,
as is the case today in the Arab countries, the class or mass struggle
was/is primarily political, a struggle to overthrow oppressive neo-liberal
and repressive regimes.
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- With these concepts in hand, we cannot proceed to analyze
the relationship between countries and regions in varying degrees of crises
or growth and their relationship to the varying degrees and types of class
struggle.
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- Uneven Development and Class Struggle
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- The countries experiencing high growth, whether in Asia
based on manufacturing or in Latin America based on the agro-mineral export
boom, are facing a growing offensive economic class struggle over a greater
share of the growing economic pie. In China under pressures from below,
wages and salaries have exceeded 10% growth, and in some regions 20%, over
the past decade, while in Latin America, workers in Bolivia and elsewhere
demand over 10%. In large part high growth is accompanied by inflation
which erodes nominal increases offered by the state and employers. Especially
provocative are sharp increases in the prices of basic foodstuffs, energy
and transport which directly impinges on the everyday life of workers.
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- Among the most promising signs of the advance of the
class struggle are the real and substantial socio-economic gains achieved
by workers over the past decade in Latin America.In
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- Argentina unemployment has declined from over 20%to less
than 7%,real wages have risen by over 15% ,the minimum wage,pensions and
medical coverage have increased substantially and trade union membership
has expanded.Similar processes on a lesser scale have taken place in Brazil:unemployment
has fallen from 10% to 6.5%(March2011),the minimum wage has increased over
50% over the past 8 years and several hundred landed estates have been
occupied and expropriated because of the direct action of the Rural Landed
Workers Movement.In Latin America,while social revolutionary politics have
declined since the mid, 2000's the economic class struggle has been successful
in extracting substantial reforms that improve the livelihood of the working
class and impose some constraints on neo-liberalism's rapacious explotation
of labor,in sharp contrast to what is occurring in Anglo-America and Southern
Europe.
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- In the stagnant 'developed' imperial countries, the
state has proceeded to impose the entire cost of the 'recovery' on the
backs of workers and public employees, reducing employment, wages and social
services, while enriching bankers and the corporate elite. The US, England
and France have witnessed a sharp class offensive from above which in the
face of feeble opposition from a shrinking bureaucratized trade union apparatus
has largely reversed many previous social gains by labor. Essentually the
struggles of labor are defensive, attempts to limit the roll back but lacking
the class political organization to counter-attack reactionary budgetary
measures which cut social programs and reduce taxes for the rich, widening
class inequalities.
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- The most intense class struggles have taken place in
the countries with the deepest economic crises, namely, Greece, Spain,
Ireland and Portugal. In these countries the ruling class has reversed
a half century of social and wage gains in the course of 3 years in order
to meet the criteria of the Western bankers and the IMF. The class offensive
from above led by the State has been met with a number of general strikes,
numerous marches and scores of protests but to no avail. The corporate-state
elite, led in most cases by Social Democratic politicians, have privatized
public firms, slashed millions of public employees, raised unemployment
levels to historic heights (Spain 20%, Greece 14%, Portugal and Ireland
13%) and channeled tens of billions into debt payments.
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- The crises has been seized by the ruling class as a
weapon in reducing labor costs, transferring income to the top 5% of the
class hierarchy and increasing productivity , without reactivating the
economy as a whole. GNP continues 'negative' for the foreseeable future,
while austerity undermines domestic demand ,and debt payments undermine
local investment to reactivate the economy.
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- The political crises of the rentier-autocratic-corrupt
Arab client regimes is manifested in the mass popular democratic movements
on the offensive toppling regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, to
begin with, and challenging the pro-imperial state apparatus. In Egypt
and Tunisia, pro-imperial autocracies were overthrown but new popular democratic
regimes reflecting the new mass protagonists of political change have yet
to take power. In the rest of the Arab world, mass revolts in Yemen, Bahrain,
Algeria, Jordan, Syria and elsewhere have pressed forward against imperial
armed autocracies, raising the spectre of democratic as well as socio-economic
changes.
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- The US and EU imperial powers initially caught off guard
have proceeded to launch a counter-attack, intervening in Libya, backing
the military junta in Egypt and attempting to impose 'new' collaborater
regimes to block a democratic transition. The mass struggle, influenced
by Islamic and secular forces, have a clear program of rejection of the
political status quo, but, lacking a class leadership, have not been able
to pose an alternative political economic structure beyond vague notions
of "democracy".
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- In summary, growth accompanied by a rapid increase in
national income and resurgent inflation has been much more conducive to
offensive class struggle from below than 'crises' or 'stagnation', which
at best, has been accompanied by 'defensive' or rear guard struggles.
In part the theory of 'relative deprivation' seems to fit the idea of rising
class struggle, except that the kind of struggle is mainly 'economistic'
and less aimed at the state per se. Moreover, the methods of struggle
are normally strikes for higher wages. This is most evident in Argentina,
Brazil, Chile and Peru where intense struggles have taken place over narrow
economistic demands.The excepton is the community based indian struggles
in Peru and Ecuador against the state and foreign mining companies exploiting
and contaminating their land,air and water.
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- Nevertheless, several caveats are in order. The working
class in Bolivia, experiencing a dynamic growing agro-mineral export,
boom,launched a ten day general strike (April 6 -16, 2011) over wages.
The prolonged strike over time, turned 'political' raising questions about
the legitimacy of the Morales regime among some sectors.. In part this
is due to the fact that wage increases are fixed by the government. According
to the principle workers organization (COB) the raises dictated by the
regime were below the rise in the prices of the basic family food basket.
Hence, what began as an economic struggle became politicized. Likewise,
in the case of Peru,with a dynamic mineral export economy, the neo-liberal
Garcia regime experienced sharp economic and ecological confrontations
with mine workers and Indian communities. In the run-up to the Presidential
elections of 2011, the struggle became highly political, with a plurality
of working and peasant class voters supporting Humala the center- leftist
candidate..In high growth countries depending on big foreign owned mining
companies
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- And substantial Indian communities,class conflict combines
withecological,class,national and ethnocommunity demands.
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- In other words the distinctions drawn earlier between
offensive/defensive and economic/political class struggles are fluid, subject
to changes as the struggle and its context changes.
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- The dramatic rise of the class struggle in high growth
China reflects the growing labor shortages in the coastal regions, the
huge profits to a new class of billionaires ,the intense exploitation of
labor and the entry of a 'new generation' of young workers with alternative
options to working in a 'single plant'. The 'socialization' of large concentrations
of workers in big plants, in close proximity, facilitates collective action.
Sharpening inequalities, especially in light of the rapid growth of super
rich capitalists linked to corrupt political officials and unresponsive
state controlled trade unionists has led to 'spontaneous' class direct
action.Tthe radicalizing impact of inflation is evidenced by the outbreak
of a large scale strike of truckers in China's biggest port Baoshan in
Shanghai:the workers were protesting rising fuel costs and port fees.According
to one report "Chinese officials have warned that soaring prices and
rampant inflationofficial corruption pose the greatest threat to Communist
Party rule.(Financial Times 4/23-24/11 p1)
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- Politically oriented trade union struggles have recently
come to the fore in Venezuela, where the Chavez government has emphasized
the 'worker content' of the "Bolivarian socialist revolution".
This has encouraged workers striking in private firms to demand the expropriation
of intransigent capitalists as well as change in the management of public
firms replacing bureaucratic technocrats with workers.
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- The least developed class struggle is in the 'stagnant'
United States. A combination of low union density (93% of private sector
workers are not unionized), highly repressive labor legislation, a self-perpetuating
millionaire trade union leadership totally dependent on the capitalist
Democratic Party inhibits the development of class consciousness except
in 'local pockets' of resistance. The rapid erosion of wages has been
combined with heightened exploitation (fewer workers increasing production)
and the shredding of the last vestiges of the social net (social security
and medical plans for the over 65 aged population).
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- One could argue that high per capita income per se is
not a sufficient reason to assume a weakening of class struggle, as France
and Italy have more general strikes than England even as per capita income
is higher. What is crucial is the institutional links between trade unions
and labor/social democratic parties on the one hand and the free association
of factory based worker assemblies on the other. In the US and UK stagnation
and reaction are linked to the subordination of labor to neo-liberal Social
Democratic/Democratic parties; while in France and Italy the trade unions
have closer ties to the factory assemblies and retain a higher degree of
class autonomy.
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- In other words there is no iron rule that ties particular
forms of class struggle to the dynamism or stagnation of the economy
what needs to be included is the degree of independent class organization
capable of raising the level of struggle amidst volatile economic and political
changes.
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- Imperialism, Inter-Capitalist and Class Struggle
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- Despite the economic crises of 2007-2009, that shook
most but not all of the major neo-liberal capitalist centers
the capitalist class in Europe and North America came out stronger
than ever. Following prescriptions laid out by the International Monetary
Fund, the major private creditor banks and the Central Banks, the entire
burden of debt payments, fiscal deficits and trade imbalances,incurred
by the neo-liberal regimes was laid on the backs of the working and salaried
classes. Similar class selective austerity measures were applied throughout
the "periphery" of Eastern and Southern Europe. The result was
a radical restructuring of pensions, wages, social relations of production
- the entire ensemble of state class relations. As a consequence a veritable
'peaceful electoral' socio-economic counter-revolution from above has occurred
that heightens exploitation of labor by capital while concentrating income
in the top 10% of the social pyramid.
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- The imperial countries of the US and Europe facing intensifying
competition from the BRICS (especially China) and the industrializing countries
of Asia and rising commodity prices, have turned toward seeking 'competitiveness'
via intensified internal exploitation , greater pillage of the public treasury
and imperial wars.
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- Nevertheless, this inter-capitalist competition is having
an inverse effect, raising incomes among workers in the BRICs and lowering
living standards in the established imperial centers. This is because
the BRICs invest in the productive economy while the imperial centers waste
trillions in military and speculative activity.
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- One should make a caveat regarding the competition between
imperial and BRIC countries, insofar as there are thousands of financial,
commercial, technological and manufacturing threads linking them together.
Nonetheless, the conflicts between social formations are real, as are
the nature of the internal class cleavages and configurations. Imperialism
as it is played out today is a burden to working class advance. For now
the internal dynamic of the rising economic powers seem to provide them
with the capacity to finance domestic growth expanding overseas trade and
wage concessions to the emerging working class demanding a share of the
growing income pie.
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- Conclusion
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- While on the surface there is a decline of revolutionary
political class struggle from below, there is the potential for economic
struggles to become political in so far as inflation erodes gains and political
leaders fix rigid 'guidelines' on wage advances. Secondly, as Venezuela
illustrates, political leaders can provide conditions which favor the advance
from economic to political class struggle.
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- The most dynamic political class struggle today comes
from above the systematic assault on wages, social legislation, employment
and working conditions launched in the US, Spain, Greece, Ireland, Portuga,
England and the Baltic/Balkan states. There the economic crises has yet
to precipitate mass revolt; instead we see defensive actions, even large
scale strikes, attempting to defend historic gains. This has been an unbalanced
struggle where the capitalist class holds political and economic institutional
levers backed by the international power of imperial banks and states.
The working class has little in the way of comparable international solidarity.
The most helpful signs in the global class struggle is found in the dynamic
direct action of the Latin American and Asian working class. Here steady
economic gains have led to the strengthening of class power and organization.
Moreover, the workers can draw on revolutionary traditions to create the
bases for a re-launching a new socialist project. What could detonate
a new round of political and economic class warfare from below? The resurgence
of inflation,recession,repression and ever deepening cuts could force labor
to act independently and against the state as the embodiment of this regressive
period.
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-
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- On workers struggle in China see "Workers call
the tune" Financial Times (FT) 2/22/11, p. 3 also FT 2/16/11 "Chinese
wages increased 12.6% between 2000-2009 according to the ILO".
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- La Jornada 4/8/11 the Bolivian Workers Confederation
demanded 15% wage increase. In 2010, Bolivia had the greatest number conflicts
in 41 years El Pais 4/16/11.
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- "Emerging markets inflation surge" (Financial
Times) 4/14/2011, p. 1 "Beijing poised to let renminbi rise to fight
inflation (FT 4/17/2001) p. 3.
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- On Obama's Fiscal Year 2012 budget compare New York
Times 4/13/11 and 2/14/11. The later budget speech emphasizes over $4
trillion in cuts over 10 years largely affecting the social net, a major
concession to right wing Republican extremists.
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- The Greek workers have organized over 6 general strikes
between 2009-2011 see DROMOS (The Road) Athens weekly over that period.
Spanish workers organized two general strikes in 2010, Portugal one and
Ireland one major march.
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- Data compiled from International Labor Organization
Reports on Employment 2010-11.
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- See All Jazeera Feb March 2011. On the repressive
role of the new military junta see Al Jazeera 4/7/2011.
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- Reuters 2/14/11. Washington's behind the scenes maneuvers
to install a former Mubarak loyalist Field Marshall Tatawi as head of the
junta is a blatant example.
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- The incapacity of the Arab social movements to take
state power repeats a similar problem earlier in the decade in Latin America.
See James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer Social Movements and State Power
(London: Pluto 2005).
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- On the general strike in Bolivia see "Central Obrera
declaran huelga general" [La Jornada (Mexico City)] April 8, 16, 2011.
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- On the first round of the Peruvian presidential elections
and center-left populist winner Ollanta Humala see BBC "Peru facing
polarizing election as populists face off". April 12, 2011.
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- According to one account "rising labor costs are
an issue (in China). There is job opportunity everywhere there is much
less need for migration "Financial Times 3/18/11, p. 22.
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- On Chinese billionaires see Forbes March 2011. As a
result of "a rash of disputes between May and August (2010) employers
were hit by strikes or other problems. This resulted in pay raises notably
a 30% increase at Foxcomm the Taiwanese manufacturer". Financial
Times 2/16/11, p. 3.
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- Correo de Orinoco, Caracas, Venezuela (English edition
weekly) April 3-9, 2010.
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- The general strike of Wisconsin public sector workers
in March 2011 was the exception to the rule, a first of its kind, induced
by the Republican governor and legislature's effective abolition of collective
bargaining rights. Except for a one day strike of the San Francisco long
shore workers unions and a few sporadic protests in other states, the US
confederation of labor AFL-CIO has not mount3ed a single national public
demonstration,instead relying on multi-million dollar funding of Democratic
politicians.
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- Congressman Ryan a Republican has proposed the privatization
of social security and the senior health program (Medicare) and a draconian
reduction of spending for health care for the poor and disabled. President
Obama followed up with his version of regressive social cuts somewhat on
a lesser scale but in the same direction. See Obama speech to the American
people White House press release April 3, 2011. New York Times April 14,
2011, p. 1.
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- Discussions with shop delegates and Luciano Vasapolla,
secretary of the militant Italian trade union movement "Reto di communisti"
Rome, Italy. May 1, 2009.
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- On the negative impact of the financilization of capital
and military spending on the productive economy see Michael Chossudovsky
and Andrew Gavin Marshall ed The Global Economic Crises (Montreal: Global
Research 2010) ESP. Ch. 3, PP. 72-101 and Ch. 9, pp. 181-211.
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- For a clear exposition of the relation of imperialism
and domestic decay see James Petras and Morris Morley, Empire or Republic?
American Global Power and Domestic Decay (New York: Routledge 1995).
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- The "World Social Forum" and other such "left
forums" are mainly speech making opportunities for the chattering
classes made up of academics and NGO'ers. In most cases the foundations
and sponsors explicitly prohibit them from taking a political position,
let alone organize material support for ongoing class struggles. None
of the major working class general strikes in Europe, Latin America or
Asia has ever received material support from the perpetual left forum attendees.
The decline of workers internationalism has not been in any way replaced
by the international gatherings of these disparate forces.
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- Despite the demonization of the social and Cultural
Revolution in China and Indochina, many managers, party leaders and even
liberal intellectual are aware and fearful of the consequences of "pushing
the working class too far. In Latin America the revolutionary legacy of
past revolutions and the example of Cuba and Venezuela still serve as a
living legacy of revolutionary struggles.
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