People's Democracy

FUTURE IS SOCIALISM!

Sitaram Yechury

THE 85th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution comes at a time when millions of people all across the world are in the  midst of grim battles and struggles against the renewed imperialist aggression unleashed by USA.  This is being seen in all spheres -- economic, military, political, social and cultural. The struggles against the economic policies of globalisation are reaching higher levels. The spectacular victory of Lula as the President of the Republic of Brazil marks a watershed in these struggles raging across Latin America during the last decade.  

It is a full ten years since the USSR was formally dissolved on December 21, 1991. Earlier, on August 24, 1991, Gorbachev had liquidated  the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), thus, paving the way for the disintegration of socialism and the dissolution of the mighty socialist bulwark against imperialism -- the USSR.

The ideological campaign against socialism and communism reached a fever pitch following this.  Fanciful  theories such as "end of ideology" and "end of history" gained currency. The eternality of capitalism was being projected on the basis of the following premises:

·        Without the confrontationist and expensive bipolar cold war situation, the world will move into an era of peaceful prosperity benefiting entire humanity;

·        World capitalism will continue to advance rapidly marked by stability and growth; 

·        The former socialist countries will now embark on a speedy economic recovery; and

·        The Left and the communist movement have no future as there is no alternative to capitalism.

A full decade later, it would be worthwhile to examine these propositions albeit briefly.  Before we do so, however, it needs to be reiterated that the CPI(M), following intense inner-Party discussions, resolved in unambiguous terms at its 14th Congress in January 1992 that the disintegration of the USSR and the dismantling of socialism constitute neither the negation of the revolutionary scientific theory of Marxism-Leninism nor the pursuit of the socialist ideal. 

ILLUSORY POST-COLD WAR PROSPERITY

Contrary to the illusions whipped up by the imperialist drumbeaters, the conditions of the vast majority of the world's population sharply deteriorated during the course of the last decade.  According to the Human Development Report 2001, the poorest 10 per cent of the world's population had only 1.6 per cent of the income of the richest 10 per cent. The richest 10 per cent of the US population (over 25 million people) had a combined income greater than that of the world's poorest 43 per cent (around 2 billion people). More than 20 countries in the world have had a lower human development index in 1999 than they had in 1995.  Of these, 10 countries had an index lower than in 1985. The vast majority of the people living in the third world are thus burdened with growing poverty and misery.

During this decade, bursting many illusory balloons, capitalism has once again shown itself as a system that is not only incapable of solving the basic problems facing humanity, but, on the contrary,  mercilessly dehumanises civilisation through its predatory search for profits. Through the current phase of globalisation, what capitalism seeks is the economic recolonisation of the developing world. 

The hopes generated that there would be a reduction in military expenditures following the end of the Cold War  have also turned out to be illusory.  Far from reducing military expense, US imperialism has mounted a new military aggressiveness. Apart from strengthening  and expanding the NATO whose rationale for existence ceases with the end of the Cold War, US imperialism has mounted and conducted expensive military interventions against sovereign independent countries like Yugoslavia and Iraq. 

USA is currently proceeding under the excuse of combating terrorism in the post-September 11, 2001 situation, on an expanded and lethal military programme.  The National Missile Defence (NMD)  programme that take nuclear weapons to outer space and the consequent programmes for  building limited strike nuclear weapons entail greater military spending.  The 2002 defence budget for the Pentagon was the largest in recent years which saw an increase of $33 billion over the previous year.  For 2003, the proposal is for a further increase of $48 billion taking the budget to $379 billion which is the largest in the last two decades. 

Thus, far from the hopes generated that the end of the Cold War will release a "peace dividend" for the prosperity of humanity, the end of the Cold War has  seen just the opposite.  This is the true face of US imperialism.

THE SO-CALLED ETERNALITY OF CAPITALISM

The last decade has reaffirmed, if at all any confirmation were necessary, that capitalism is a system that cannot remain crisis-free and cannot but intensify exploitation of man by man.  The neo-liberal economic policies pursued in the current phase of globalisation have been repeatedly analysed by us as being simply unsustainable. This is because of the simple fact that the purpose of globalisation is to maximise profits. In the process, during the decade, the world has seen the sharpening of economic inequalities both between the rich and the poor countries and the rich and the poor in individual countries. 

As a result of this impoverishment of vast sections of the world's population, serious limitations have been created for the expansion of the global market to sustain capitalist development.  A crisis was inevitable.

Similarly, the huge burgeoning of international finance capital was seen as a balloon that could expand to intensity. Such has been the speculative profits reaped in the name of globalisation that transactions in  the  financial markets averaged around $400 billion annually, i.e., nearly 60 times larger than the value of all global trade in goods and services estimated at $7 billion annually. It was inevitable that  this balloon will burst sooner than later.

This is precisely what happened from mid-2000, i.e., much before the terrorist attacks in the USA. All the stock markets in the world collapsed  dramatically wiping out trillions of dollars of market  capitalisation. Since March 2000, the share values in the US economy have  reportedly come down  by a staggering $7 trillion. It is in the very nature of speculative capital to fraud the common investor.  That such a gigantic fraud could take place has now been nakedly exposed by the bankruptcies of multinational giants like Enron, Worldcom etc. 

Simultaneously, a serious economic crisis has engulfed all the major centres of world capitalism.  The OECD comprising the world's richest 30 countries is expected to grow by a mere 1.2 per cent in 2002.  Economic recession, bankruptcies, stock market crashes, have  become the order of the day.  Capitalism, thus, far from reaching a consolidated sustainable growth trajectory, as advocated by the bourgeois pen-pushers, is exposing itself in its true colours as a predatory system that can maximise its profits only by imposing  further burdens on the people.  In the current stage, US imperialism would seek to emerge out of this crisis by imposing further burdens on third world.

ECONOMIC DECIMATION OF THE FORMER SOCIALIST COUNTRIES

The process of capitalist restoration in the former socialist countries has led, far from economic prosperity, as noted  by us earlier, to a colossal economic devastation unknown in human history in the 20th century. This has resulted in a decline in population in absolute members.  This  has never happened at peace time in the 20th century. The average poverty in these countries has increased from about 2 per cent to over 21 per cent in the nineties.  Unemployment is rising sharply. In the Russian Federation alone, it is estimated to be over 30 per cent.    The real wages were less than one-third in 1999 of what they were in 1989. 

It is after such a bitter experience that the people in these countries are, once  more, reposing their faith in the communist parties.  The former communists were returned to power in Poland, in Mongolia, in Maldivia, etc. They are  the largest elected force in Russia. They are advancing in almost all other former socialist republics. Thus, as we have entered the 21st century, the people in these countries are now in struggles against the process of  restoration of capitalism  in their countries.

FUTURE IS SOCIALISM

The developments of this decade have resoundingly vindicated the relevance and validity of the scientific theory of Marxism-Leninism in not only understanding the present-day capitalist developments, but in also sharpening the struggles against its inhuman role. 

The massive anti-globalisation upsurge that is seen today in Latin America is a reflection of this.  The massive popular struggles in these countries such as in Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay etc have forced international finance capital to soften, if not halt, its predatory  march. 

The US-inspired coup in Venezuela was checkmated.  Since the days of its gruesome ousting of Allende and his socialist government in Chile in 1973, the USA had  foisted  many coups to advance its interests.  The significance of the  triumphant return of Hugo Chavez as the President of Venezuela foiling the coup attempt, in this  stage of world developments which see an aggressive US hegemonic drive, is significant.

Many countries in Europe have also seen massive working class actions against the neo-liberal economic policies. Italy, this year, saw the largest participation of people in a national strike since World War-II.  The farming community in many European countries are on the streets to protect themselves against the attacks through the WTO.

In many third world countries, including India, the working people have taken to streets in protest against such policies. The World Social Forum has gained in terms of participation over the last three years. And, today, this is emerging as an important anti-globalisation movement. Many social and political forces are seeking to come together in this struggle against globalisation. Such efforts of bringing together these forces have also gained momentum in recent years.  The Sao Paulo Forum, for instance, brings together all the Left and progressive forces  in Latin America annually to sharpen the struggle against globalisation. This process is now being enlarged to include forces from other  continents as well.

In the meanwhile, the communist parties and movements led by them have also increased the efforts at coordination in such anti-imperialist struggles.    The regular annual meetings at Athens during the last few years have seen the attendance of larger number of parties in seeking to build a coordinated international struggle against globalisation.  The recently held international symposium at Beijing on Socialism in the 21st Century is yet another effort in this direction.

Clearly, what we see a full one decade after the dissolution of the USSR is the inescapable fact that the path charted by the October Revolution of establishing socialism as the only alternative to capitalism continues to be the direction in which humanity is seeking to advance.  

Though many of these struggles are today defensive in nature, i.e., protecting the  existing rights from being eroded by the globalisation process, these nevertheless constitute the core of the growing struggles in the future against the rule of Capital. 

These billions of people, through their struggles, are today sending an unambiguous message that the only way to achieve freedom, liberty and dignity is by overthrowing this exploitative system and in its place, establishing a system that is free from exploitation of man by man, i.e., socialism. 

The bourgeois ideologue advances the favourite and the by now infamous TINA (there is no alternative) factor as the guarantee for the eternality of capitalism.    The growing struggles world over are resoundingly echoing that the alternative to TINA is SITA -- socialism is the alternative.