People's Democracy

CALL OF THE CITU SEMINAR IN INDIA SOCIAL FORUM

Sharpen Resistance Against Imperialist Globalisation

UNDERSCORING the fact that the struggle against imperialist globalisation is essentially a class struggle, speakers at a seminar organised by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and Indian School of Social Sciences called for intensifying the resistance against this process. The two clear trends of struggle in the present conjuncture – the anti-globalisation struggle and the anti-war movement – have to be weaved together into a mighty global popular resistance against imperialist globalisation. And the Left must shoulder this task and provide leadership, stressed the speakers.

“Imperialist Globalisation: A Perspective from the Left” was the title of the seminar held at the India Social Forum in New Delhi on November 12, 2006. CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury was the main speaker. CITU secretary Swadesh Deve Roy, AIDWA general secretary Sudha Sundararaman, Centre of Economics, JNU, Professor C P Chandrashekar were the other speakers. Delhi Science Forum activist Prabir Purkayastha conducted the seminar.

Sitaram Yechury said that globalisation, a current phase in the development of capitalism, is definitely helping the aims of imperialism and therefore there is no need for debate whether to call it globalisation or imperialist globalisation. He therefore saw the struggle against globalisation as a class struggle which needs to be sharpened. To undertake this task, one needs to understand the dynamics of this process so as to evolve tactics to strengthen the struggle. 

Yechury went on to show how the present phase of globalisation process is unsustainable. He said capitalism, with the inherent approach for maximising profits, was reducing the purchasing power of the people by cutting jobs and replacing manpower with machines. Consequently there is decreasing possibility of future economic growth. On the other hand there is a massive accumulation of capital due to such policies. He cited UN figures for the last year which showed that the total international finance capital accounted to nearly $400 trillion while the total trade in goods and services was just $7 trillion. With such huge accumulated finance capital, removal of all restrictions on its free flow is the essential condition of imperialism today. Therefore there is a big assault on the economic sovereignty first and then the political sovereignty of developing countries resulting in sharpening of contradiction between imperialism and the third world, said Yechury.

Imperialism seeks to sustain this order by exercising its political and military might to assert its control over economic resources and to make clear that the world has to live under US domination. Therefore the necessary and inevitable element of globalisation is the fashioning and sustaining of unipolarity in the world, he said. The hardships on people resulting from globalisation on the one hand and the relentless effort of imperialism to impose unipolarity through resort to military action on the other are resulting in growing popular discontent across the world. This discontent is reflected in Latin America in the radical Leftward shift in politics, with Left governments assuming power in many countries. It is manifested in the anti-war struggle waged even before the US launched its aggression on Iraq. 

Yechury said the task of communists in this context is to bring together both anti-globalisation struggle and anti-war movement into one single global stream of mighty popular struggle against US imperialism. He concluded by saying that this would help achieve the ultimate aim of replacing the exploitative capitalist system with socialism. He called for continuation of the fight for socialism. 

Earlier referring to the debates in the Social Forum that there should be neither corporate control nor State control over resources but only that of people’s control, Yechury said people’s control cannot be ensured in vacuum. He said it can only be done through socialism and asked communists to engage vigorously in these debates. 

Professor C P Chandrashekar in his speech said the US, despite being the hegemon and lone superpower of the world, is economically in a much weaker position today with large trade and current account deficits. Its economic decline began particularly in the 1990s. However the wealthy of the world are still pouring in money into US despite able to earn less due to low interest rates and a weak dollar. The reason for this huge inflow of reserves is the preference of the wealthy for safety of their money over profits. And the explanation for this perceived safety comes from the political and military flexing of muscle by US imperialism. 

These large capital reserves helped the US in two ways: one, to experience a huge stock boom, making people feel more wealthy than they were; and two, through housing boom. Sections of developing countries benefited from these booms by latching on their economies to US. In return US extracted the necessary concessions from these countries, making them vulnerable and resulting in their economic collapse later. That is why the “miracle countries” kept changing –– Argentina, South East Asian “Tigers”, India etc.

But a strong constituency among the elites of these countries, who directly benefited from association with US, developed and they began promoting and legitimising globalisation as inevitable and necessary for the third world development. Professor Chandrashekar warned the people to be wary of these forces and see through the plunder underlying globalisation.

CITU secretary Swadesh Deve Roy said that the Left has a clear-cut perspective on globalisation and has been consistently carrying on struggles against it on the field. He said there is a major assault on the working class through this process of imperialist globalisation. The banning of the right to strike, increased contractorisation of jobs, privatising of pension funds etc were some forms of assault. The economic and political sovereignty of most of the developing countries is under threat due to this process. In the name of attracting foreign direct investment, most governments were surrendering people’s rights. He mentioned the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) warning about dangers to the people in this “race to the bottom” of the governments which were granting concessions, left and right. He concluded by saying that there is a growing opportunity for intensifying the resistance to globalisation – as seen in Latin America – and the working class must seize the opportunity by unifying the world trade union movement. Roy said the coming December 14 all India strike would be a bigger strike in India than ever before.

AIDWA general secretary Sudha Sundararaman in her speech said imperialist globalisation is a direct assault on the poor of the world by slashing/stopping spending on welfare measures, health, education, food security etc. It was perpetrating a huge fraud on the people by wearing a mask of development while in actuality impoverishing people. The ill effects of globalisation is also seen in our country. She dealt with three aspects of globalisation from women’s perspective: feminisation of poverty; privatisation of social services; and appropriation of women’s access to natural resources. 

Prabir Purkayastha in his concluding remarks expressed confidence that the people of the world would be able to defeat imperialism as the recent struggles across the world, particularly the resistance of Iraqi people, show. Expressing the need for communists to lead these anti-imperialist struggles, Purkayastha said the future indeed belonged to socialism.