Madrid, Spain – 28-29 June 2003
1. Introduction
The SACP is greatly honoured for the invitation to attend this all-important seminar of some of the communist, workers parties and other revolutionary movements. We are especially honoured that we were asked to present an introductory input to this all-important debate for all progressive forces globally.
The input seeks to bring together and synthesise reflections that have been taking place within the ransk of our Party over the last six months about the current global situation. Indeed some of these reflections have benefitted greatly from interactions and exchanges with a number of other communist and workers’ parties, including debates and discussions within our own Tripartite Alliance in South Africa. This input aims at facilitating, rather than foreclosing, this very important debate and provides yet another platform for our parties and movements to reflect on the current global conjuncture. In particular the input will also begin to raise some of the possible actions and way forward for the communist movement globally.
2. The current global situation since the invasion of Iraq
The invasion of Iraq (an invasion not a war to be quite specific) has achieved what was perhaps one of its primary objectives, the forcible removal of Saddam Hussein and his regime, and the grabbing of the Iraqi oil fields for US oil companies. These oil companies were the single biggest backers of the George W Bush election campaign in 2000.
The oil oligarchy and global domination
The Bush administration objectives on, and its, oil connection is highlighted and buttressed by the following facts:
These oil interests seems to have shaped the immediate strategy of the US in attacking Afghanistan, Iraq and attempts at destabilising the Chavez government in Venezuela.
However, the agenda of the United States, despite its current links with oil companies is broader than just that. It is a strategy to dominate the world and control its key natural and economic resources. In essence the United States has abrogated to itself the role of the prime imperialist force responsible for imposing and policing a global capitalist order. These ambitions are captured in the US’s National Security Strategy released in September 2002. Oil and a regime change in Iraq are just the main immediate prizes. The real prize is the official emergence of the USA as a fully fledged global emperor with no restrictions, checks and balances whatsoever, but only accountable to the interests and whims of the ruling class in the USA.
The US National Security Strategy lays out an aggressive miltary and foreign policy, embracing pre-emptive attacks against “enemies” and asserting that “the best defence is a good offence”.
In promoting this strategy the US gives itself the right to completely ignore international opinion and the United Nations system itself. Dismissing deterrence as a Cold War relic, the new strategy speaks of “convincing or compelling states to accept their sovereign responsibilities”. It lays out a plan for permanent US military and economic domination of every region of the globe, enforced by a massive expansion of the US armed forces.
To preserve American hegemony and domination the security strategy says US forces will be required to perform “constabulary duties” under “American political leadership rather than that of the United Nations”. In addition the US is opposing the formation of an International Criminal Court, and if it were to agree its scope and purview must exclude US armed forces operating in other countries. The earlier prelude of these developments were the refusal by the US to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, US treatment of the World Conference Against Racism with disdain, and subsequently the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Imperialism and its capitalist contradictions
Of course at the core of this strategy and shifts is the new slow-down in the main centres of capitalist accumulation, and the time honoured recourse to militarisation and increased destruction of environment to spur profitable growth. In many ways this strategy also marks and signals the failure of the Washington Consensus to deliver on its promises of a better world. Neo-liberalisation has failed to deliver a better life for the overwhelming majority of our people. In essence, all these current global developments and the US growing arrogance and militarisation are also an expression of the ongoing and deepening contradictions in the global capitalist system.
This US security doctrine and current global shifts are NOT a rupture with the underlying and persistent realities and contradictions of a century and a quarter of imperialism. This phase marks both a continuity and a rupture with the previous decade of imperialism. It is a continuity in so far as current developments are an expression of a broader imperialist agenda to build a permanent global capitalist order. But at the same time the current developments mark significant “ideological ruptures”, with imperialism over the last decade or so.
The previous phase beginning with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the proclamation of the “end of history”, was dominated by the illusion of “benign globalisation” (that it is inherently beneficiary if its prescriptions are followed to the letter). Two ideological discourses marked the phase of “benign globalisation”. The first was that of limitless growth through neo-liberal alignment (the Washington Consensus). This has clearly been proven wrong.
The second ideological discourse was that of “peaceful transitions to (liberal) democracy” will bring stability and economic progress for humanity. The reality is different from these two ideological claims of benign globalisation. One other growing reality directly in contradiction to the claims of the Washington consensus is the very dismantling of the welfare state in advanced capitalist countries. This is increasingly exposing the working classes in these social formations – for the first time since the immediate post Second World War economic boom - to the harshest winds of neo-liberal restructuring. Growing unemployment with diminishing social security and decreasing delivery of affordable public services marks this.
In addition, large parts of the developing world are being thrown deeper into poverty, environmental degradation, new diseases and marginalisation.
Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa in particular is in the midst of worsening poverty and an HIV/AIDS pandemic that threatens to wipe the whole continent with devastating effects for the globe and humanity as a whole. This is despite, if not directly a result of, just over two decades of structural adjustment programmes that have failed miserably to address underdevelopment.
3. New emerging realities and new prospects for strengthening progressive political currents
If we are to properly grasp the world after the invasion of Iraq and the challenges that this pose for communist, workers and progressive forces, it is also important to reflect soberly on progressive political currents in the present period.
The strengths and weaknesses of the progressive forces
It is necessary to now take this analysis further, and begin to advance perspectives on new prospects and possibilities for a progressive global politics. To do this, it is useful to briefly review what happened to the variety of progressive political currents in the 1990s.
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the general (but not complete) fragmentation of progressive, left-wing, working class, radical third-world, socialist and communist forces. Of course we should not exaggerate the unity of these forces prior to 1990, but the left project (in its various forms) was seriously and further fractured globally in this period. In our Party we have sought to analyse and understand the main features of this fragmentation. We have argued that it is both the consequence and cause of a series of inter-related factors:
To generalise in a somewhat sweeping way, the above resulted in:
Disappearance of, turmoil in, or painful, defensive re-building of many Communist parties. Obviously there are very important exceptions (China, India, Cuba, and, on a lesser but significant note, SA), but generally CPs, where they continued to exist, found themselves on the back-foot for most of the 1990s, defending a working class politics on the basis of a numerically diminishing traditional working class constituency. The ability to advance a pro-active, forward-looking global strategic perspective was severely limited;
Many of the major social democratic parties adopted neo-liberal policies others defended, but in a largely reactive way, an eroding welfare state.
Social democracy has been unable to develop any effective fresh global strategic perspectives. The shallowness of the “third way” of Schroder and Blair stands exposed as an attempt to give neo-liberalism and its failures a human face. The major social democratic parties have also contributed to and suffered from electoral shifts and negative currents among the populations of the developed world – xenophobia, short-termism, political apathy.
The continued degeneration of many radical national liberation movements in the South – Zimbabwe being one of many emblematic examples. The international trade union movement – positively surpassing much of its Cold War divisions, but largely fighting defensive battles.
Again to generalise, in the above conditions, the baton of global popular mobilisation and of anti-systemic politics has swung powerfully (and one-sidedly) towards social movement and NGO politics – what is sometimes called the “new left” (but which properly belongs to an old tradition – anarcho-syndicalism, cooperative socialism, etc etc), as opposed to the so-called “old left” (communism, social democracy, trade unions, and third world national liberation movements). Some of the main tendencies (found in varying measures) of this social movement/NGO current include:
We need to understand and appreciate the many positive features of this significant global current. Often better than other political/left traditions, this global wave of social movement mobilisation has punctured the myth of “benign globalisation” (with Seattle, Genoa, etc. being key moments). Its strength is, in many ways, a symptom of the 1990s crisis and strategic uncertainty of the other major left traditions.
But it also has characteristic negative tendencies:
New possibilities and space
There are now very important new factors that are making a broader and more strategic global left agenda both more essential and more possible, surpassing the one-sided dominance of social movement/NGO popular mobilisation, without undermining the many positive features of this movement. The anti-war and anti-imperialist mobilisation against the war in Iraq is one major contribution to these new possibilities.
Prime among these new factors is the militaristic, aggressive, unilateralist posture of the Bush Administration and the impending war on Iraq. The Bush agenda has
Bush and the most reactionary international elements have attempted to use the tragedy of September 11th to shape a new global agenda (which was up their sleeves all along). This agenda is opening very significant space for an alternative agenda of global solidarity with the following principal points of focus:
4.0 Towards global communist and progressive action
If we are to build and exploit the current realities towards strengthening a global left agenda, serious consideration should be given to the following:
4.1 Urgent need to harness the anti-war mobilisation and heightened engagement with anti-globalisation movement, to build an even more durable anti-imperialist movement. We need to relate these global struggles to rebuilding communist and workers’ forces on our respective domestic fronts.
4.2 We need to assert the need for both North-South “partnerships” AND consistent anti-imperialism (a centre-piece of Leninism). The global integration of economies, the disappearance of an alternative political/military/trading bloc makes engagement between North and South inevitable and therefore imperative. The deepening intra-imperialist contradictions, the groundswell of progressive social movements in the North, and the struggle for multi-lateralism (including balanced and equitable multi-lateralism in the global economic institutions) all create favourable factors in the struggle for more progressive North-South partnerships. To this end to have serious engagements around initiatives such as NEPAD – to seek to drive and impact on it within our overall strategic perspective of building an anti-imperialist momentum
4.3 Communist to work hard towards deepening links and working within the labour movement. With the possible end of “Cold War trade unionism”, and workers being exposed to the harsh realities of the failure of the Washington consensus, new opportunities are emerging in this regard.
4.4 Increased sharing of information and experiences, including experiences of communist and left movements in power and/or in opposition, including our respective electoral experiences.
4.5 Co-ordination of media and propaganda work, by sharing articles and working towards developing common compilation and sources of information as communists globally. This should include strengthening “International Correspondence”.
4.6 Working towards taking the Athens initiative and forum to new heights and even rotating it strategically, as conditions determine. Our most immediate task is to deepen our engagements and discussions and heighten co-ordinated actions
4.7 Co-ordinate our solidarity activities around a UN-led Iraqi transition, and increased solidarity work around Palestine and Cuba in particular.
It is our considered hope that given the importance of this debate, seminar and the common assessment of the global situation we will also issue a joint declaration from this meeting.