Mar xist Journal of the Socialist Par ty Issue 16 l Winter 2022 / 2023
Global Inflation Spiral A Capitalist Crisis
S O C I A L I S T A LT E R N AT I V E is the political and theoretical journal of the Socialist Par ty
BY DANIEL WALDRON2 Socialists & a Sinn Féin Government
BY KEVIN MCLOUGHLINMar x, Capitalism & the ‘Metabolic Rif t ’
BY CHRIS STEWART & KEISHIA TAYLORWoman, Life, Freedom Revolutionar y Upheaval in Iran: A Programme to Win
7
13
BY INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE 17
Escalate, Coordinate and Expand the Strikes! Workers in Britain and Nor thern Ireland Fight Back
INTERVIEW WITH SUSAN FITZGERALD 21
China: Xi Jinping Purges CCP ’s Top Ranks BY VINCENT KOLO 24
How Mussolini Triumphed BY LEON TROTSKY 28
Athena direc ted by Romain Gavras
REVIEWED BY EDDIE MCCABE 32
The Janes direc ted Tia Lessin & Emma Pildes
REVIEWED BY ROISE MCCANN 33
Nothing Compares direc ted by K athr yn Ferguson
REVIEWED BY AISLINN O’KEEFFE 34
Russia: Revolution and Civil War by Antony Beevor
REVIEWED BY MANUS LENIHAN 35
w w w.socialistpar ty.ie / w w w.socialistpar tyni.org
Get a subscription to Socialist Alternative and The Socialist, the monthly newspaper of the Socialist Par ty. Tex t “Subscribe” to 087 3141986
co N tac t t h e S o c i a l i S t pa r t y Nor th: 07821058319 South: 0873141986 info@socialistpar ty.net
The Socialist Par ty is the Irish sec tion of International Socialist Alternative (ISA), a socialist organisation with groups in over 30 countries w w w.internationalsocialist.net carries repor ts of struggles, analysis and a programme for the fight against capitalism.
internationalsocialist.net
No sooner had the worst of the covid 19 pandemic receded than a new crisis emerged to take its place. inflation is surging across much of the globe to levels not seen since the 1970s. the prices of goods and ser vices are spiralling upwards, and the incomes of most workers aren’t close to keeping pace, leading to sharply falling standards of living. Da N i e l wa l D r o N looks at what is causing these price rises and what is the solution for working people.
The cost of living crisis is already out of control. Governments, central banks and other global institutions have proven incapable of halting its advance, and no one can say when it’s likely to end or how bad it’s going to get. It’s having a detrimental impact on the poorest in society and will have real and lasting human costs for countless people across the globe, with the UN estimating that up to 95 million additional people will be pushed into poverty this year alone.
Undoubtedly, it will take little to convince the reader of the scale and depth of the cost of living crisis. In all likelihood, they will themselves be feeling its impact in their pocket, and seeing the effects on their communities In the UK, energy costs increased by a whopping 70% in the year to October,1 while food costs rose by 11 6% 2 While the UK is one of the worst affected economies due to its reliance on imports, similar trends are seen elsewhere In July this year, a survey found that 80% of households in the South of Ireland were struggling to keep up with their bills, while it is estimated that 70% of households in Northern Ireland will be in fuel poverty by January 3
For many who have already been forced to choose between heating and eating, it’s now a case of neither This will lead to widespread malnutrition, deepen the mental health crisis, and cause unnecessary deaths this winter. Women and marginalised communities are being doubly impacted, reflecting the existing inequalities and oppression in capitalist society
Supply changes disruption: from pandemic to new cold war
A number of factors have directly contributed to this crisis Widespread lockdowns in response to the Covid 19 pandemic led to the rapid shutdown of whole
A capitalist crisis that requires a socialist response
sectors of the economy across the globe, with sudden changes in patterns of demand for various goods and services, and equally dramatic changes as lockdowns were ended. This had a stunning impact on many sectors, disrupting supply chains which have often not been able to return to their previous operational capacity.
This has been exacerbated by growing reliance on just in time production In order to maximise profits, major corporations aim to have raw materials, components and goods move through their supply chain as smoothly as possible, arriving at their destinations ‘just in time’ to be used or sold, and thus minimising storage and other related costs
Rising geopolitical tensions and conflict, most sharply reflected in the Ukraine war, have also played their part in driving up prices of many commodities Ukraine is a major producer of wheat and other crops which are staple foodstuffs for people across the globe, particularly in the neo colonial world The disruption of agriculture and trade as a result of the war combined with the encroaching impact of climate change, which is undermining food production in some previously fertile regions has contributed to a 24% rise in the cost of food in sub Saharan Africa, with rising levels of hunger and malnutrition Western sanctions aimed at economically isolating Russia, and retaliatory measures from the Putin regime, have served to disrupt oil and gas supplies to western Europe, contributing to rising prices
More generally, we are witnessing an intensification of the new Cold War between the US and China, with increased competition for geopolitical influence, prestige and access to markets as they grapple for global dominance Despite their already antagonistic relationship, the economic ties between the US and China helped to soften the impact of the 2007/8 financial crisis and prevent the global economy from plummeting into deep and prolonged depression, with a huge economic stimulus package from Obama maintaining a market for Chinese goods and thus for raw materials sources from across the globe. Today, however, a process of economic decoupling between these major powers and their allies is underway, with rising economic protectionism and trade wars.
The globalisation which defined the neoliberal model of capitalism over the last 50 years has been thrown into reverse This has added to disruption of supply chains and limited the ability of the capitalist establishment internationally to respond coherently to the current economic turmoil
Apologists for capitalism will point to these factors as ‘excuses’ for the cost of living crisis more accurately, a cost of surviving crisis for many workers They will say that this crisis is a product of unfortunate circumstances of the pandemic, of climate change, or of war and conflict, rather than being a product of the system itself Of course, all these circumstances are themselves products of the myopic and chaotic nature of the profit system.
It is the drive for profit above all else which has prevented meaningful action to reduce carbon emissions and tackle climate change, threatening humanity’s future; the logic of this sick system promotes unsustainable farming practices and encroachment into natural habitats which increases our exposure to new diseases; and capitalism has competition and conflict built into its DNA, between individual capitalists but also between national ruling elites, laying the basis for war and all the horrors that it brings.
Unsurprisingly, an important factor in the inflation crisis is straightforward opportunistic profiteering
Capitalists never waste a good crisis With a general sense that “everything is rising”, many bosses will see this as an opportunity to bump up what they charge consumers, even if this isn’t reflective of increased production and supply costs There are clear examples of this in the energy market. Suppliers have been quick to pass costs on to consumers when fuel prices have risen, but they have often maintained prices at artificially high levels even when supply costs decrease
War in Ukraine is a key fac tor in the inflation crisis, but not the only one
In the UK, for example, this helped energy suppliers rake in almost £16 billion in profits over the last year. Globally, billionaires with interests in food and energy have seen their wealth increase by $453 billion over the last two years.4 Could there be a more clear cut example of the obscenity of this system?
In response to spiralling inflation, many governments and central banks have begun to raise interest rates in an attempt to “cool” rising costs. This policy has a direct impact on people’s daily lives, and again tends to impact the working class and poor the hardest Due to poverty wages, many working class people are forced to rely on credit just to make ends meet. Raising interest rates increases the price of debt and will make it unsustainable for many This policy has also caused difficulties for those who have purchased homes with a ‘tracker’ mortgage which fluctuates with interest rates, with some seeing their mortgage payments increase by hundreds per month almost overnight
Increasing interest rates carries risks for the capitalist establishment. It tends to stifle investment and economic activity, as well as potentially leading to widespread debt defaults, such as those seen in the “subprime” mortgage market in the US which triggered to 2007/8 financial meltdown. With the world economy already teetering on the edge of a downturn, and some countries already in recession, this can have major consequences both for the profit margins of individual capitalists and for the broader stability of their system
The functionaries of capitalism are attempting to walk an economic tightrope in their fiscal policy, with the potential for a nightmare scenario of a period of stagflation high inflation alongside economic stagnation or recession
In the midst of this crisis, capitalist policymakers and ideologues have warned against significant wage rises for workers Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, has suggested that workers receiving pay rises would “embed” inflation 5 In other words, workers should simply accept a significant fall in their living standards for the interests of the system, even while bosses in many sectors make record profits and continue to swill on huge bonuses and dividends For example, in the UK, BT and Royal Mail both paid out hundreds of millions to major shareholders over the last year, yet they are imposing a real terms pay cut on their staff There is no call for bosses to rein in their profiteering, but workers are asked to sacrifice
It is not possible to credibly argue that wage increases have caused the current crisis, given that the period following on from the 2007 financial crash has broadly been characterised by austerity and
pay ‘restraint’, with wages failing to keep pace with inflation even before the current surge For example, nurses in the UK saw their pay fall by 9% in real terms between 2010 and 2017.6 Most workers have not had any increase in pay to compensate for the surge in the cost of living Only a tiny minority has achieved pay rises which match or outstrip inflation, and those have been won through struggle. And yet the inflation crisis persists
There is no automatic reason why rising wages must result in rising prices. While an individual capitalist may want to recoup profits lost through an increased wage bill, they may calculate that increasing prices would place them at a disadvantage compared to their competitors in the market, and actually decrease rather than increase their profits. If it were the case that pay rises automatically led to price increases, the balance of wealth in capitalist society between wages and profits would remain constant, with pay rises won by workers immediately wiped out. In reality, the share of society’s wealth paid out in worker’s wages, and the purchasing power of those wages, has varied widely across time and in different economies, reflecting the balance of power between the working class and the capitalists in a given context
For example, during the economic upswing in the period following the Second World War, workers increased their share of the economic pie, both in terms of direct wage increases but also in the form of the social wage investment in public services and social security. This reflected the strengthened position of organised labour in this period, and also the capitalists’ fear of revolutionary challenges to their
system, with the Soviet Union despite its Stalinist deformations representing an alternative to capitalism based upon public ownership and economic planning In contrast, the neoliberal era emerging from the economic crisis of the 1970s and characterised by privatisation and attacks on the working class has seen a downward trend in wages as a share of society’s wealth, with the labour movement broadly in retreat
Across the advanced capitalist economies, the share of wealth paid out in wages to workers fell from 54% in 1980 to around 50% in 2014, with much sharper declines in some countries. In the south of Ireland, wages accounted for an impressive 92% of GDP in 1975 By the early 1990s, it was down to 75% By 2009 it had fallen to 55% and in recent years it has hovered around 50%.7
In other words, there is a battle to be fought over whose shoulders the cost of this crisis should fall upon
This year has demonstrated that workers, young people and the oppressed have the potential to take that fight to the capitalists This is reflected in the mass movements which have exploded from Tunisia to Sri Lanka and beyond, movements directly or indirectly connected to the crisis facing ordinary people as the cost of surviving surges In many countries, this battle is finding expression through upturns in industrial struggle In France, determined strike action by workers at oil refineries is now spreading across the economy, with a major clash between the working class and the Macron government on the cards, while the UK is experiencing a strike wave in communications and local government, with disputes likely to emerge in key sectors like health and education
All too often, unfortunately, conservative ‘leaderships’ in the labour and trade union movements have failed to reflect the urgency of the moment and the desire of workers for fundamental change This is perhaps best summed up by the announcement from the Trades Union Congress in Britain, made to much fanfare, that they were calling for a £15 minimum wage by 2030! Meanwhile, some union leaders in the south of Ireland have negotiated below inflation pay deals i e , pay cuts for their members and heralded this as success
This underlines how out of touch some of the heads of the trade union movement are, many of them comfortable on large salaries and used to managing retreats rather than fighting for victories In this context, it is vital that workers themselves discuss what is needed to deal with this crisis and fight for these demands both in their workplaces and within the union movement
The starting point for the workers’ movement must be a refusal to accept any fall in living standards Instead, the burden of this crisis should fall on the shoulders of big business and the super rich. As well as fighting for real terms pay increases in individual workplaces and sectors, the labour movement should also fight for sweeping guarantees that wages, benefits and pensions will increase at least in line with inflation. Measures along these lines also known as the sliding scale of wages have been fought for and won previously in France, Italy and currently exist in Belgium, and have helped to safeguard the purchasing power and therefore the living standards of the working class in the face of inflation, although they were subsequently undermined and attacked by the capitalist establishment when they felt able to move against the working class.
This should be a stepping stone in the struggle for guaranteed living incomes for all, and a fundamental shift in the distribution of wealth in society. Emergency taxes should immediately be levied against the super rich and the major corporations which have made a killing throughout the pandemic and now this crisis, with the wealth used to end poverty and invest in essential public services, renewable energy and sustainable industry, creating jobs and helping to tackle the climate crisis
Food and energy are at the epicentre of the current inflationary crisis The workers’ movement should fight for price controls which keep the cost of the necessities of life at affordable levels for all, with the labour movement setting out independent demands around maximum prices of essential goods and fighting to enforce them. Unlike schemes like the entirely insufficient energy price cap scheme introduced by the British government in reality, a public subsidy for the energy conglomerates which merely shifts costs from workers as consumers to workers as taxpayers the cost of these price controls should come at the expense of profits
Connected to this, the need for public ownership of the energy sector, the major supermarkets and food producers is a clear necessity The concept of public ownership, long ridiculed and regarded as archaic by capitalist ideologues, again has growing support. Indeed, so sharp is this crisis that it has even convinced two thirds of Tory voters in Britain to support nationalisation of the energy sector at least temporarily.8 But why should these sectors which are essential to people’s very survival ever be handed back to the vultures who have profited from misery? These and other key sectors should be brought into public ownership immediately and with compensation paid to shareholders only on the basis of proven need And rather than being run in a top down manner like private companies by faceless bureaucrats, they should be run democratically be elected representatives of those who work in these sectors and the wider working class in order to ensure efficiency and to ensure they function to meet society’s needs.
“ the concept of public ownership, long ridiculed and regarded as archaic by capitalist ideologues, again has growing suppor t. indeed, so sharp is this crisis that it has even convinced two thirds of tor y voters in britain to suppor t nationalisation of the energy sec tor at least temporarily.”
These demands are, of course, anathema from the point of view of the tiny capitalist class and their political representatives of all shades across the globe But they are also objectively and thoroughly necessary for the working class, young people, the oppressed and,
indeed, the future of humanity That gets to the heart of the issue this capitalist system must go Significant concessions can be wrestled from the capitalist establishment if they are made to fear for the survival of their rule by united and determined working class struggle. But the capitalists will always seek to claw back these gains whenever they can, sometimes through brutal and bloody repression, as we have seen throughout history
Therefore, the fight for immediate demands to address the cost of surviving crisis facing the working class must be tied to a perspective and a struggle for revolutionary socialist change, breaking the rule of the parasitic capitalist elite and placing control over society’s wealth into the hands of those who create it the working class so it can be used in a planned and democratic way to eliminate poverty, suffering, and safeguard the future of our planet.n
1 By Susanna Twidale, 2 Aug 2022, ‘UK energy bills expected to leap again, raising stakes for next PM’, reuters, www reuters com l 2 Lucy Skoulding, 2 Nov 2022, ‘UK food inflation hits record high of 11 6% as prices of basics from tea bags to sugar soar ’ , independent, www.independent.co.uk l 3 Margaret Canning, 2 Aug 2022, ‘ Warning: Almost three quar ters of NI households in fuel pover ty by next year‘, Belfast telegraph, www belfasttelegraph co uk l 4 ru per t Neate, 23 May 2022, ‘Food and energy billionaires $453bn richer than two years ago, finds Oxfam’, the Guardian, ww theguardian com l 5 Mark Sweeney, 5 Aug 2022, ‘ Workers asking for pay rises risk embedding inflation, says Bank boss’, the Guardian, www the guardian com l 6 Mark Dayan, 4 April, 2021, Char t of the week: real terms NHS staff pay from 2010 to 2020’, Nuffield Trust, www nuffieldtrust org uk l 7 Michael O’Brien, 11 Mar 2022, ‘Do wage rises fuel inflation?’, www.socialistpar ty.ie l 8 J. Elgot and P. Walker, 16 Aug 2022, ‘ Two thirds of Tor y voters back temporar y na tionalisation of energy firms poll’, the Guardian, www theguardian com
Sinn Féin could well lead the nex t Government in the South. this would be historic in irish politics but raises many questions, including: would Sinn Féin ac tually deliver the real change that working- class people need and hope for? can Sinn Féin be pushed to a genuine lef t position that marks a radical shif t from previous government policies, or in power will it disappoint? what should be the attitude of socialists to such a Government? here, K e v i N M c lo u G h l i N engages with these questions.
In many polls now Sinn Féin matches the support of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil combined But there are no guarantees of victory, and some of the the most recent polls late October and early November indicated improvements for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and a certain drop for Sinn Fein. However, this post Budget bounce may not last given the challenging economic and social conditions coming down the line, and the decline of the government parties could well re assert itself
Of course Sinn Féin's line in the Dáil is to strongly oppose both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. This helps to bolster the notion that if Sinn Féin does very well, combined with smaller parties and independents it could potentially form the first government without either of the two main parties of Irish capitalism, and consequently, that the prospect of a so called Left Government is a real one
Understandably, calls have consistently been made by people on the left that Sinn Féin should rule out
coalition with both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, with the clear implication that if Sinn Féin was in government with either party it would be forced to compromise on its policies and promise of change However, regardless of the calls, even if Sinn Féin is the clear winner of the next election it remains entirely possible, and perhaps most likely, that it would form a Government with one or other of the traditional right wing establishment parties, most likely Fianna Fáil.
Another implication is that if neither party is involved then Sinn Féin would have the freedom to pursue its own agenda, and could even be pressurised and pushed to the left and into implementing more radical policies
What is implied by these scenarios is that Sinn Féin offers the possibility of real change, that it is politically open, perhaps without a fully fixed position, which can potentially be shaped by outside forces, including those on the left and movements from below But is this an accurate assessment?
Modern Sinn Féin has been on an electoral path and striving towards governmental power for more than 30 years. Abstentionism, the policy of not taking seats in “Leinster House”, was dropped in 1986 and it has been in government in the North on and off since 1999 It is a matter of record that Sinn Féin has agreed to operate within the economic, political and legal confines of capitalism, including its more pernicious neoliberal variant In the North, it has consistently implemented neoliberal policies, including overseeing the privatisation or part privatisation of public services. In the South, as the leadership on many councils, it has not distinguished itself either, adopting similar policies
One journalist recently wrote, “For now, it is the historic level of engagement between Sinn Féin and Ireland Inc that is significant ”1 Reflecting this reality,
Louise O'Reilly, Sinn Féin’s Enterprise spokesperson stated, “I'm very conscious of the fact that there are people with ideas right across the spectrum from the smallest to the biggest businesses and we need to talk to everyone ” Instead of any indication that Sinn Féin is moving to the left, there is a pronounced trend of its representatives meeting business interests, politicians and senior civil servants (including former Tánaiste, Health Minister and neoliberal hawk Mary Harney),2 to develop relations, and reassure them that a Sinn Féin led administration won’t harm their interests Housing spokesperson Eoin O’Broin was even publicly reprimanded by the party and forced to apologise for what was a perfectly legitimate criticism of a senior civil servant and economic adviser to the government 3
As the Business Post put it:“Policies which to date had been too vague or not properly costed are being crystallised sometimes resulting in fierce internal debate while policies that are too populist or too expensive to deliver are being discreetly winched back towards the centre or quietly dropped altogether.”4 Sinn Féin representatives have recently said it may take two terms in office before a “fairer” Ireland will emerge.
Sinn Féin is not just a vessel to be filled. Its leadership has a very developed political position and worked out strategic approach, which is rooted in two main beliefs. One is their desire for power, and their notion that they can achieve improvements based on their ability to run the Irish capitalist economy and state better than Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael The other is their conviction that a united Ireland would somehow magically transform the prospects of Irish capitalism and peoples’ living standards This is despite global capitalism being in such a decrepit state that it is wreaking unprecedented economic and ecological devastation, as well as spawning wars.
This does not mean that a Sinn Féin government in the South would be just the same as the rest. The administrations of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been politically and morally corrupt, slavish disciples of pro corporate policies There is political space for Sinn Féin to adopt a different approach on some issues, while still remaining within the confines of capitalism Clearly it could build significantly more homes than is currently being done it would be hard to build less But it is doubtful that it will reach its target of 20,000 homes a year by relying on the private sector, as its policy does In any case, its overall target of 100,000 over five years falls short of what is needed and would mean many still cannot access affordable housing.
Sinn Féin could also alter the style of government and cut back on the mercs, perks, wages, pensions and trappings of office. But there is a definite limit to how different a Sinn Féin led government will be, because fundamentally it is committed to operating by the logic and within the constraints of the capitalist market, which by its nature puts business interests and profit before people Of course, even a capitalist government has power to intervene to curb the excesses of the market system and challenge inequality, but the indications regarding Sinn Féin are not good.
For example, its recent submission to the Commission on Taxation and Welfare praised Ireland's “domestic tax regime” and said it was a “core element of the state's economic policy”.5 Moreover, it has for years advocated that the corporation tax rate in the North be reduced in line with the pitiful rate in the South Yet low taxes on big business is one of the key reasons why public services in Ireland are way below the quality of other European countries This means that under Sinn Féin the crises in health, education and childcare are likely to remain
There are increasing predictions and many genuine indications of a looming global recession, and if that is the context in which Sinn Féin comes to power then developments could be even more dramatic. Some might think that such conditions, which further expose the bankruptcy of capitalism, might actually force Sinn Féin towards left and socialist policies, in particular if there are movements and struggles in response to the crisis
In such conditions Sinn Féin's rhetoric would undoubtedly change, and in government it could also take measures to mitigate aspects of the crisis. Even Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael changed tack when the pandemic struck, and have yet to revert to the austerity
policies they swore by in the 2010s However, in the final analysis Sinn Féin will resort to capitalist solutions to such a crisis That means trying to recreate the conditions in which capitalists will invest in which they can make more profits and that means attacking workers’ wages and conditions, and the public services they rely on
The crisis that the Syriza led government in Greece faced in 2015 had a significant impact on Sinn Féin This was a left led government that vowed to fight austerity, which came largely as a result of diktats from the Troika of the EU, the ECB and the IMF. In the end, after months of resisting the pressure, with massive support from the Greek working class, Syriza capitulated The lesson Sinn Féin learnt from this was not that you need to be prepared to stand up to these capitalist institutions and break with their system if you want to defend and improve the living standards of working class people, but rather that you need to accept the rules set down by the EU et al, which Sinn Féin has now pledged to do
Yet there will be huge hopes in a Sinn Féin led government and it could experience a honeymoon for an extended time However, its approach will invariably fall short and it won't really deal with the key issues or alter people's lives in a real and qualitative way and disappointment will emerge In that context, Sinn Féin will consciously elevate the national question and the need for a border poll in particular It will say, wrongly, that a united Ireland is the means by which the economic and social problems can be dealt with and in that way try to smother people's class anger in nationalist sentiments
Many working class people have a genuine aspiration for the unification of the country, and therefore attempts to divert attention away from Sinn Féin's failures can have an impact, and will need to be challenged But people in the South are primarily voting for Sinn Féin because they want to see change in their economic and social conditions now, and the likelihood is that significant sections of working class people will begin to judge them harshly if they do not deliver.
It was necessary to deal with the nature of Sinn Féin and the role it will play in order to properly contextualise what attitude socialists should adopt towards a Sinn Féin government
And socialists face contradictions On the one hand, there is the perception of Sinn Féin among a growing number of working class people who have hopes that electing Sinn Féin may represent the easiest way forward And on the other, is the reality that while Sinn Féin might be a means to get Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael out, it does not represent a way forward and instead is likely to create dangerous and divisive conditions for working class people Whether in coalition with Fianna Fáil or with a number of smaller parties and
independents, a Sinn Féin led government will be a capitalist government
This re enforces the argument that what is really needed in Ireland is for working class and young people to get politically active, forming new campaigns, struggles and a broad left party in the process, with the goal of breaking with capitalism There are more than 2.5 million workers in the South and if organised and clear sighted, they would be an unstoppable force
However, it is unlikely that the momentum behind Sinn Féin will be stopped before the next general election, and people will learn mainly from their own experiences of Sinn Féin in power But this poses some serious dangers If a basis isn't laid for the development of the type of movement mentioned above in the next few years there is a real danger that generalised disappointment with Sinn Féin in power could translate into deep demoralisation in society, conditions in which, among others, the populist and far right can thrive At the same time, the left and socialist parties that exist could be weakened, squeezed out of the Dáil if Sinn Féin succeeds in eating into their vote by sucking up the support of all working class and young people. Having an identifiable body of workers, young people and socialists, including having a fraction of TDs in the Dáil, able to provide a genuine left and socialist way forward when Sinn Féin is in power is vital.
The basic approach of socialists to capitalist governments has been clearly established ever since the debates in the Socialist International at the turn of the 20th century, when the revolutionaries, including James Connolly, opposed Alexandre Millerand joining the French cabinet Essentially, socialists should not support, join or sow illusions in capitalist governments, instead they should focus on building up the power of the working class movement and the socialist alternative Rosa Luxemburg pointed towards the pressure and traps that can exist when she said:
“The character of a bourgeois government isn’t determined by the personal character of its members, but by its organic function in bourgeois society The government of the modern state is essentially an organisation of class domination With the entry of a socialist into the government, and class domination continuing to exist, the bourgeois government doesn’t transform itself into a socialist government, but a socialist transforms himself into a bourgeois minister ”6
We would hope there is agreement on this basic principle in the left and socialist movement, and its relevance in the context of a Sinn Féin government However, this does not answer the question of how socialists can successfully stand against the Sinn Féin stream
Clearly, if it is crudely stated that Sinn Féin's support for capitalism and nationalism will lead to major
problems and disappointments, people who at the moment support Sinn Féin would recoil and could understandably interpret such points as sectarian bickering. But at the same time, if the left and socialists remain silent and do not raise any real questions over Sinn Féin's approach, or act to reinforce the illusions in Sinn Féin for fear of being marginalised, that would be a huge problem. Such misdirection can both weaken the distinct identity of the left and socialists and thereby undermine their own base before an election, as well as deepening any subsequent demoralisation when Sinn Féin does not deliver, and thereby serve to undermine the confidence of the working class
It is precisely because there are developing illusions in Sinn Féin that socialists have to be, as Lenin once said, “sufficiently thoughtful, sufficiently attentive, sufficiently intelligent and sufficiently shrewd” in what they say about Sinn Féin.7 But we also should be confident that definite sections of working class and young people are thinking carefully and will understand when we outline the type of policies necessary for real change and, in that context, raise questions either implicitly or explicitly over Sinn Féin's policy and approach
We should not view the support for Sinn Féin as fixed. Socialists should speak primarily to the issues, as well as outline the case for people to organise themselves to fight back and exert pressure; that we can't wait two years for an election (‘wait for the next election’ is the current refrain from Sinn Féin); but crucially, again and again link the issues, like cost of living, housing, health etc , in a definite and detailed way to the need to break with the ‘for profit’ approach that capitalism is based on, which is at the root of all of these issues
If we are able to skillfully and convincingly outline what needs to be done on the issues after explaining how it is FF, FG and the establishment generally who are responsible for the problems that can then be compared to what the other political forces, including Sinn Féin, are saying or doing In that way, without crudely attacking Sinn Féin, we can raise questions regarding its approach without being viewed as sectarian Most people are focused first and foremost on defending and improving their own and their loved ones’lots, which means there is potential for sections to be won to a more fighting and left and socialist position, as the best way of doing that
In the autumn of 2014, virtually all parties and commentators thought that Sinn Féin would romp home in the Dublin South West By Election that its base of support and its lead in the local polls could not be overcome But we did overcome it, because we understood it was not as fixed as some people thought. We focused on the issues, primarily the water charges, showing what needed to be done and contrasting that to what Sinn Féin was saying and doing, or not saying and doing. Of course the support for Sinn Féin today is
broader and also somewhat deeper, and as a result the pitch and tone of how we would raise questions or doubts over Sinn Féin would be different But the underlying approach of focusing on the issues that impact the lives of working class people and having confidence that enough of them will respond to a clearer alternative is very relevant for the next two years
Different approaches on the lef t At the moment it would be fair to say that there are fraternal differences among some on the left, and certainly between the Socialist Party and People Before Profit (PBP), regarding Sinn Féin.
In an article published earlier this year, John Molyneux of PBP and the Socialist Workers Network (SWN) said, “This raises the possibility (probability even) of a Sinn Féin led government after the next election, and poses directly the question of how the far left should respond to this It is clear that this would be a major development which will be fiercely resisted by the Irish political establishment and much of the Irish ruling class Ireland has never had even the semblance of a left government, and there is no doubt that a Sinn Féin led government would be seen in this way, particularly by the working class, who would be hopeful of real change ”8 (Emphasis added)
John’s point about Sinn Féin in government being “fiercely resisted” significantly underestimates its shift to the right and the extent to which it is reassuring big business and the right wing media, and is already being viewed differently by many (For their part, the business and media establishment recognise that Sinn Féin’s support has risen and its position in Irish politics has changed as a result it can’t just be vilified as it once was )
This leads John to talk of the danger of being marginalised if you criticise Sinn Féin, which, as noted above, is a danger that does exist However, basically the approach of PBP is to say that a genuine left government is now possible because of the growth in support for Sinn Féin, and that they would be enthusiastic about being part of that government as long as their core demands were met Specifically, he says that:
“[PBP] is stating clearly that it is campaigning for a left government and will certainly use its votes in the Dáil in favour of Mary Lou McDonald as taoiseach. But PBP wants to see a genuine left government that actually takes on capitalism and will only consider joining the government (that is, taking ministerial posts) if its core demands are met. The exact nature of the demands will have to be determined according to the circumstances prevailing at the time, but they would need to be both radical and popular, making sense to a lot of working class people.”9
This is too vague, and also contradictory, as the eight indicative core demands that he lists as an example do not in themselves amount to a break with
capitalism Also, notwithstanding that John recognises that a Sinn Féin led government would be a capitalist government, and that it would be a “disaster” if PBP rushed to join such a government (presumably meaning without having achieved full agreement on its core demands), the main slant of PBP's position is that Sinn Féin is on the left and that they are open to be in government with them.
In a statement after the General Election in 2020, PBP noted the decline in the votes of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and the ‘Vote Left, Transfer Left’ factor, and said: “The parties who gained from this upsurge, Sinn Féin, Greens, Social Democrats, People Before Profit, have a duty to carry through on this mandate by forming a minority left government.”10 Here too it also listed a series of important issues and demands that such a government could prioritise, but again they are not ones that fundamentally challenge the capitalist system
It did the same in an ‘Open Letter to Sinn Féin’ in May 2020, in which it suggested, “that Sinn Féin, Solidarity People Before Profit, Left Independents, the Social Democrats and others who see themselves on the left in Irish politics, should renew our previously commenced efforts to develop an alternative programme for real change and press forward a campaign for a left government ”11 More recently, when speaking in the Dáil on the legislation that the government forced through regarding the National Maternity Hospital, PBP TD Brid Smith said:
“We are moving forward into a new era. Let us say that Sinn Féin continues to top the polls, sweeps the next general election and trumps all other parties and we attempt to form a left Government That Government, because of this document, will never be able to take full control and ownership of a hospital that was built with public money ”12
(Emphasis added)
Again, Sinn Féin leading a ‘left government’ is taken as a given As it happens, the idea that a genuine left government would be bound by the rotten agreements of previous governments and blocked by legalities from taking necessary measures is completely wrong In fact, it’s an argument that Sinn Féin will undoubtedly use to justify inaction in government, and one that socialists should challenge.
Socialists should not in effect talk up Sinn Féin When those on the left describe Sinn Féin as being on the left or characterise a government Sinn Féin may lead as a ‘left government’, that serves to endorse Sinn
Féin to working class people. Because when it is also said that a left government can solve the housing crisis, some will understand that as the left saying that a Sinn Féin government could solve the housing crisis, whereas the housing crisis is one of those issues that necessitates a break with the logic of capitalism of private ownership and control of land and the construction industry if it is to be really tackled In theory, Sinn Féin could solve the housing crisis if it adopts a socialist approach, but in the real world this is not a real possibility and the role of socialists is to assist people to overcome illusions they may hold, not reinforce them.
the impor tance of a distinc t lef t
It is completely correct to try to connect with people's positive aspirations for change However, there is a huge danger in associating or linking oneself to Sinn Féin thinking that in some way you will benefit from its growth in support In the last election many left TDs were elected on the basis of Sinn Féin transfers The situation is likely to be completely different the next time, when Sinn Féin will stand more than 80 candidates with two candidates in most constituencies and potentially even three in some Last time Sinn Féin didn't have enough candidates to use up all of its votes and many of their votes transferred on to the left Next time it is hoping for even greater momentum and that can pull first preference votes from left candidates Sinn Féin will do no favours for the left, quite the opposite It will go out of its way to insist that its supporters vote 1 and 2 or 1, 2 and 3 for Sinn Féin, meaning its votes are likely to be fully used up and not available to assist the left.
In this context it is actually extremely important that left and socialist candidates cut themselves out as distinct from Sinn Féin and give people very clear reasons why they should give them their first or second
preference votes If a candidate from a smaller party is seen to be generally similar to the candidate from the bigger party that is experiencing a surge, usually people vote for the bigger party as it’s more likely to win This supports the argument that it is not only politically appropriate but necessary to raise questions over and make skillful criticisms of Sinn Féin
It seems very unlikely that PBP really favours going into government with Sinn Féin, but instead believes that it has to approach the issue of the next government ‘positively’. However, in advance of an election it is giving the broad impression that it does favous this, including to its voters and its broader membership and supporters. Perhaps it is calculating that after an election it can enthusiastically engage in negotiations safe in the knowledge that by bringing out some demands that will not be met and it can justifiably withdraw from the process at some point without any damage
“voting to allow an alternative government to come to power is not the same as suppor ting such a government in power from the outside. instead, what should be said is that the tD(s) will vote on all issues and legislation on the basis of how they affec t ordinar y working- class people. if it is positive, then for it; if negative, against. this is a per fec tly reasonable and principled approach that can be understood by voters.”
socialists can say clearly that a vote for them is a vote for an alternative government and against Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. A solemn commitment can be given that after the general election if there is a choice between a Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael government or an alternative government led by Sinn Féin, they will vote to ensure that the alternative government comes to power That is an answer to one of the key attacks that Sinn Féin will make on the left: that a vote for the left is a wasted vote and won't affect the formation of the next government
Voting to allow an alternative government to come to power is not the same as supporting such a government in power from the outside. Instead, what should be said is that the TD(s) will vote on all issues and legislation on the basis of how they affect ordinary working class people. If it is positive, then for it; if negative, against. This is a perfectly reasonable and principled approach that can be understood by voters
However, it may not work out like that Obviously no left or socialist TD is guaranteed to get back in the context of a potentially dramatic swing to Sinn Féin. But after the next election, if the choice is one between a government dominated by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael or one led by Sinn Féin and involving smaller parties and Independents, then the pressure in and around any negotiations would be immense PBP may put forward their demands, but what if they aren't dismissed out of hand but parts of each demand, or watered down versions, are agreed to? In terms of the eight indicative demands mentioned in John Molyneux's article, it could not at all be ruled out that aspects of each of those demands would be agreed to, even as ‘definite aspirations’.
In that context, the fact that PBP has generally stated that it would like to be in government with Sinn Féin, and that Sinn Féin has moved in some way on the issues PBP raised, PBP can come under massive pressure not only from Sinn Féin and the media to follow through on its own stated desires, but also from its voters and its broader membership to take a positive approach to such concessions. At minimum there is clearly a danger of confusion and disorientation on the basis of the political approach taken, but potentially it could be worse. This is combined with the danger of undermining your own base of support in the struggle to get elected in the first place
The Socialist Party advocates a different way of dealing with the formation of the next government, but also taking up Sinn Féin generally Long before the election
At the same time left and socialist TDs should use their platform to help organise and mobilise working class and young people to increase the pressure on the new government to act, which would also dovetail as laying the basis for the building of a new fighting left and socialist movement whenever it becomes clearer that in government Sinn Féin is not capable of delivering real, meaningful change because it is working within the confines of capitalism
A consistent principled approach to taking up Sinn Féin can help ensure that when a vacuum opens up the left and socialists are best placed to seize the initiative and build a powerful working class struggle, strike out the emerging far right, and really challenge the capitalist system n
1 Michael Brennan, 21 Nov 2021, ‘How Ireland Inc is changing tack as Sinn Féin’s path to power opens up’, Business Post, ww businesspost ie l 2 Mick Clifford, 22 Sept 2022, ‘Cullinane consults Mar y Harney about plan for health reform’, irish examiner, www irishexaminer com l 3 Jack Horgan Jones, 3 Nov 2022, ‘Ó Broin sends written apology to senior civil ser vant he said should be fired’, the irish times, www irishtimes com l 4 D Murray & P O’Dwyer, 13 Aug 2022, ‘Power play : How Sinn Féin got onside with Ireland Inc’, Business Post, www businesspost ie l 5 Editorial, 6 Aug 2022, ‘SF proposal to in crease employers’ PrSI ignores financial realities facing business’, Busi ness Post, www businesspost ie l 6 rosa Luxemburg, 1899, ‘ The Dreyfus Affair and the Millerand Case’, cahiers de la Quinzaine, no 11, www marxists org l 7 Lenin, 1920, left Wing communism: an infan tile Disorder, www marxists org l 8 John Molyneux, ‘ What is People Before Profit?’, irish Marxist review, Issue 32, p.27 l 9 Ibid l 10 Statement, 12 Feb 2020, ‘PBP calls on left to form a minority govern ment and mobilise on streets’, www pbp ie l 11 richard Boyd Bar rett TD, 5 May 2020, ‘Open Letter to Sinn Féin’, www pbp ie l 12 Brid Smith TD, 17 May 2022, Dáil debate on ‘National Maternity Ser v ices: Motion [Private Members]’, www.oireachtas.ie
In recent years millions of young and working class people have engaged in protests against the climate and ecological crisis as devastating wildfires, heat waves, droughts, hurricanes and floods have increased in regu larity and intensity around the world. “System change, not climate change!” has become the main slogan, re flecting a sense that we need a fundamental transformation of society to avoid catastrophe
It is no surprise that this has emerged alongside a renewed interest in the ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and their critique of capitalism They argued that capitalism was based on exploitation, both of workers and of nature, and that it would inevitably provoke environmental crises. In particular, Marx’s the ory that capitalism created a “metabolic rift” between human society and nature has re emerged as an indis pensable tool for understanding the crisis we face today.
As a materialist, Marx’s starting point was that human society, having evolved from nature itself, was deeply connected to the natural conditions in which we live “Man lives from nature”, Marx wrote in 1844, “and he must maintain a continuing dialogue with it if he is not to die "1
Studying the cutting edge of natural science at the time, Marx and Engels recognised that human society was dependent on the dynamic and complex systems of nature, made up of delicately balanced natural cycles and circular processes that sustain all life on Earth. These natural cycles have emerged and stabilised over Earth’s geological history Humanity, and human soci eties, has evolved through a “metabolic interaction” with these natural cycles and processes; deriving from them food, shelter, clothing, energy and heat and in turn having an effect on nature itself 2
These cycles are the foundation on which all human society, production and culture develops. The carbon cycle between the atmosphere and the oceans plays a key role in regulating the temperature of the Earth The nutrient cycle replenishes the soils, allowing plant life to continue to grow from which we derive food and other useful things. The circulation of water through the atmosphere is crucial to ensure freshwater is recy cled through the Earth, without which no life could exist.
These are just some of the natural processes that have been crucial to the Earth’s biogeochemistry during the Holocene, the most recent geological epoch in which all of human civilization has emerged. Recognis ing the importance of these natural processes, Marx ar gued that a sustainable relationship between humanity and nature was “prescribed by the natural laws of life it self ” . 3
With the emergence of the capitalist mode of produc tion a few hundred years ago, the way human society interacts with the natural world changed fundamen tally. Even in the mid 19th century, Marx and Engels were able to see the growing contradiction between cap italism and nature
The emergence of industrial capitalism was associ ated with revolutionary scientific and technological de velopments that massively increased human productivity Marx and Engels recognised this system as historically progressive in relation to the feudal system that had come before it. At the same time, however, they identified a number of contradictions at the heart of the system that meant it would quickly become a block on further development creating social, eco nomic and environmental crises.
Capitalism is based on the private ownership of the wealth and resources of the planet by a small number of corporations and super wealthy individuals. While capitalism has created a global division of labour, bring ing together the combined efforts and skills of workers all across the world, these workers have no control over how things are produced. Instead, capitalists direct pro duction based solely on the maximisation of profits.
Profit is made by exploiting the labour power of workers (paying them less than the value they produce) and extracting resources from nature. Under this sys tem nature is treated as a “free gift”4 to business that has no value in its own right until it is turned into raw materials for production
Because capitalists are locked in competition with one another on the market they are compelled to expand, dis rupt, extract and exploit, endlessly commodifying every aspect of our lives The environment is not viewed as having inherent natural boundaries and limits within which humans must live, but as an inexhaustible source of profits, and the system’s growth requires a constantly rising stream of raw materials and fossil fuels
The intensity of competition means that companies have to function on short term profit cycles Companies that cannot keep the profit taps flowing will be beaten out by com petitors and go bust. This means the system is inherently short sighted, not able to see past the immediate drive to increase profits
But this short sighted drive for profits comes into conflict with the ability of nature to replenish itself Engels argued that capitalists tended to ignore or externalise the environ mental impact of production, treating the envi ronment as an endless source of materials to be depleted and a waste ground to be polluted
He was clear that this would inevitably pro voke environmental crises as the pursuit of profit sets off chain reactions in nature, under mining the natural source of wealth: “ let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human conquest over nature For each such conquest nature takes its revenge on us.”5
the metabolic rif t
In recent years there has been renewed interest in Marx’s writings on capitalist agriculture, in which he explained that capitalism’s constant drive to accumulate profits was disrupting the life sustaining cycles of na ture This was creating a “rift” in the metabolism be tween human society and the natural world which, he argued, threatened the very basis of human society.
He came to this conclusion through the work of Ger man chemist Justus Von Liebig, who warned that in dustrial agriculture in Europe was disrupting the Earth’s nutrient cycle as nutrients in food were trans ported from the countryside to the cities and later washed into the sea as pollution, resulting in the deple tion of the soil and a build up of waste, and an explo sion of disease in urban areas.6 The overuse of chemical fertiliser to compensate for this was destroy ing “the lasting source of fertility” in the soil, i e its or ganic complexity
Modern agribusiness and its commodification of food has replicated on a global scale the kind of meta bolic disruption that Marx observed in the 19th century In the neocolonial world, capitalist agriculture has been one of the key drivers of deforestation and land use change, creating vast landscapes of monocultures such as palm oil plantations or giant cattle farms for compa nies like McDonalds This is triggering extreme drought through impacts on the water cycle, especially in the Amazon where agricultural deforestation is also threatening to release a vast store of ancient se questered carbon, exacerbating climate change 7
The era of capitalist globalisation forced many coun tries to prioritise growing cash crops such as coffee or cotton for export on the world market, even where the climate is ill suited to their growth This has destroyed self sufficiency, led to increased food insecurity, and has been a key driver of soil degradation
Major advances in crop breeding technologies in the 50s and 60s raised wheat yields by two thirds and rice Farm fields yield topsoil as well as potential pollutants when heav y rains occur
yields by about one third in the space of ten years, but did so on the basis of a massive expansion of fertiliser and pesticide use This effort was led by US agribusi ness multinationals as they sought to create spiralling dependencies on their products Intensively promoted in India, Mexico and other neo colonial countries, these methods have led to a collapse in natural fertility, creat ing a total dependency on huge quantities of synthetic fertilisers Now, disruptions in the supply chain of such fertilisers is contributing to a global food crisis
Synthetic fertilisers are not only harmful, but also limited as a resource The Earth’s store of phosphorus nearly 90% of which is used in the global food supply chain, most of it in crop fertilisers is being depleted at an alarming rate At current consumption levels it is es timated we will run out of known phosphorus reserves in around 80 years.8 Capitalism has merely kicked the problem of soil exhaustion down the road, deepening the crisis at every stage.
The same global processes have driven small and medium farmers all over the world into debt, due to ris ing costs of fertilisers and pesticides This has forced many out of business and pushed them into ever ex panding city slums a major factor behind the huge protests of farmers in India in recent years
As Marx said: “all progress in capitalist agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the worker, but of robbing the soil.”9
Control of the world’s food is becoming increasingly concentrated into the hands of a small number of multinationals For example, four corporations control around 90% of the global grain trade, and just ten companies control every large food and beverage brand in the world The food sector is also becoming tightly coupled to the financial sector This is making it more susceptible to cascading failure, which would have ab solutely catastrophic effects for human life worldwide 10
Under this system food is not produced primarily to be nourishing, but to turn a profit This means that millions of people go hungry despite the productive forces existing to comfortably feed everyone. For exam ple, today 828 million people are malnourished and 44 states experience "alarming" levels of hunger, but at the same time wheat is piling up in US and Russian grain silos as speculators are unable to make money amid volatile markets.11
Factory farming of animals is also massively waste ful of resources, including grain and water, and pro duces 18% of total greenhouse gas emissions.12 The commodification of animals requires the most brutal conditions aimed at increasing efficiency Animals are raised in tightly packed barns in cruel and barbaric con ditions They are selectively bred for the most profitable traits, producing almost genetically identical animals that are dosed full of growth hormones so they reach maturity as quickly as possible to increase turnover All of this means factory farms are also huge reservoirs for viruses that can develop and spillover to humans a particularly gruesome metabolic rift that capitalism has created.13
While Marx’s writings on the metabolic rift related to the question of agriculture and soil depletion, the pe riod since his death has seen the rift between human production and the natural processes on which it is based widen immeasurably Capitalism is destroying the earth’s ecosystems Min erals, nutrients and other raw materials have been vac uumed up from nature while pollution has been vomited back out into the ground, sea, and air In re cent decades as capitalism has expanded into every cor ner of the globe it has turned 50% of the earth’s land into agriculture, cities, roads, and other infrastructure, driving land use change that accounts for 14% of all greenhouse gas emissions 14
This has driven a collapse in the planet’s biodiversity. Capitalism has wiped out almost 70% of mammal, bird, amphibian, fish, and reptile populations since 1970 and half of all insect populations are disappearing (leading to a decline in pollinators and, in turn, food production).15 Biodiversity is dialectically linked to the conditions of the climate a stable climate has created the conditions for life to develop and diversify, but the diversity of life has also stabilised the earth system. Without it, the life sustaining natural processes of the planet will be thrown into crisis
This is just one of many epoch making changes that capitalism has wrought on the planet. Climate scien tists refer to the period since the 1950s as the “Great Acceleration” which has seen exponential “hockey stick” (named due to their shape on graphs) increases in: fos sil fuel combustion, CO2 emissions, ocean acidifica tion, species extinctions (and losses in biodiversity more generally), nitrogen and phosphorus cycle disrup tions, freshwater depletion, forest loss, and chemical pollution. Because of this, it is argued that we have left the "Holocene" and entered the "Anthropocene" a new geological epoch in which the Earth's natural sys tems are dominated by human impacts 16
Scientists now warn that at least five of the nine “planetary boundaries” have likely been crossed already These are global environmental conditions that act as a “safe operating space for humanity” When they are crossed a “tipping point” is reached, triggering a cas cade of climate chaos which could bring systematic en vironmental collapse (the kind of collapse that occurred during the Earth’s historical mass extinction events)
The crossing of these boundaries may signal “points of no return” in which the Earth’s systems will be irrepara bly changed, throwing them into crisis until they find some new equilibrium undoubtedly less suited to human survival.17
According to the IPCC, 3 6 billion people are highly vul nerable to the impacts of climate change (especially ex treme heat, heavy rainfall, drought and wildfires) in the immediate future 18 At the same time, the capitalist sys tem increasingly desperate for profits is only acceler ating its destruction of the environment.
Today, all of the contradictions of the system are growing and, increasingly, the crises it creates are inter acting with one another; war, economic crisis, climate breakdown, famine, mass displacement and so on All of these crises stem from the fact that the private owner ship of wealth, resources and industry, and the constant accumulation of profit by the capitalist class, are coming into conflict with the needs of humanity and the planet
Let's take the energy industry as an example Despite their nauseating greenwashing the big banks have poured some $4.6 trillion into the fossil fuel industry since 201519 and oil and gas companies plan to spend some $4 9 trillion in exploration and extraction in new fields by 2030.20 This is because fossil fuels on which an entire global infrastructure is built provide far greater short term profits than undergoing years long productive investment in renewables would
The IPCC says that by 2050 80% of the world’s en ergy supply could come from renewable sources. This would be necessary to keep greenhouse gas concentra tions to less than 450 parts per million, the level scien tists estimate is the limit of safety beyond which climate change becomes catastrophic and irreversible.21 But achieving this is an impossibility for the market Under going this kind of transition would mean investors writ ing off around $20 trillion worth of untapped fossil fuel assets already being traded on the market and held as “futures” by corporations highly profitable from the point of view of the market, but apocalyptic for the planet if they were ever to be realised.22
The capitalist market is totally incapable of dealing with the ecological crisis that it has created On the basis of private ownership of the wealth, resources and indus tries of society, a planned transition to sustainable pro duction is impossible. Short sighted profiteering will only make the crisis worse as it unfolds, as was seen with the Covid crisis and countless extreme weather events
Facing the crisis of the Anthropocene requires noth ing short of revolutionary change, wherein society’s economic and natural resources are taken out of the hands of the big banks and corporations and into dem ocratic public ownership Only then could we the working class majority collectively plan economic production and distribution to meet human needs within the limits of the "planetary boundaries", turning the huge productive power of humanity towards heal ing the metabolic rift produced by capitalism
This would start with massive investment in green energy, public transport, sustainable cities and urban planning, low carbon jobs, restoration projects and cli mate resilient infrastructure while also reducing the huge amounts of waste inherent to capitalism All of this would massively improve human welfare while re ducing environmental damage
In a planned economy, free from the grip of massive corporations and financial speculators, we could feed more people more efficiently using sustainable farming techniques and technologies; matching crops with local climates and ecosystems, using fewer resources, pro viding quality jobs and eliminating waste.
The only force that can achieve this is the global working class, which is highly organised and connected through global supply chains today United, and fight ing in its own interests for a socialist programme, the workers of the world have the power to fundamentally transform society, eliminating poverty, waste and wan ton destruction, thus bringing about what Marx called the “genuine resolution of the conflict between man and nature, and between man and man” 24n 1 Karl Mar x, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, www mar x ists org l 2 Karl Mar x, capital volume 1, www mar xists org l 3 Karl Mar x, capital volume 3, www.mar xists.org l 4 Ibid. l 5 Friedrich Engels, Dialectics of nature, www mar xists org l 6 John Bellamy Foster, 3 July 1998, ‘Liebig, Mar x and the Depletion of the Natural Fer tility of the Soil’, www monthlyreviewarchives org l 7 Claire Asher, 5 Apr 2021, The nine boundaries humanity must respect to keep the planet habitable, www.ncronline.org l 8 MIT, Fighting Peak Phosphorus, web mit edu l 9 Karl Mar x, capital volume 1 l 10 George Monbiot, The banks collapsed in 2008 and our food sys tem is about to do the same, the Guardian www theguardian com l 11 Dan O’rourke, 19 October, ‘Global food crisis: How imperialism is the cause’, www.socialistpar ty.ie l 12 FAO, Tack ling climate change through livestock, www fao org l 13 rob Wallace, 2016, Big Farms Make Big Flu, Monthly review Press l 14 J Brannberg and Bl Ser rano, ‘How bad is It? The acute threat from climate crisis’, www social istpar ty ie l 15 WWF, living planet repor t 2022 l 16 Foster, Holleman and Clark, 1 Jul 2019, Imperialism in the Anthropocene, www monthlyreview org l 17 Stock holm resilience Centre, The nine planetar y boundaries l 18 Adam Vaughn, 28 Feb 2022, Cli mate change causing widespread and irreversible impacts, says IPCC, new Scientist, www newscientist com l 19 Banking on the climate chaos: Fossil fuel finance repor t 2022, bank ingonclimatechaos.org l 20 Global Witness, ‘Entire $4 9 trillion investment in new oil and gas is incompatible with global climate goals’ l 21 IPCC, renewables could provide 80% of global energy by 2050 l 22 John Fuller ton, ‘ The Big Choice’, www capitalinstitute org l 23 ryan Booker, 28 Feb 2021, ‘ Texas: Workers Freeze Due to Billionaire Greed’, www.socialist par ty ie l 24 Karl Mar x, ‘Private Proper ty and Communism’, www mar xists org
Notes
Since the middle of September, Iran’s theocratic and capitalist leaders have been shaken by a mass protest movement from below, unprecedented in its history, with women and young people to its fore. This movement was sparked off by the killing Jina (Mahsa) Amini, a 22 year old Kurdish woman murdered by the regime’s hated ‘morality police’. Its key focus is opposition to the mandatory wearing of the hijab, and echoes the desire of the global feminist wave of the last decade; that women and LGBTQI people will not allow their bodies to be policed. Solidarity protests with the movement in Iran have erupted in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria
The protests have spread from Kurdistan to all the Iranian state’s 31 regions, uniting women, young people and workers, in a multi ethnic, multi national and multi gendered struggle under the slogan of “Woman, Life, Freedom” It is no exaggeration to say that there is an existential threat to the clerics who have ruled Iran for over four decades Revolutionary opposition to the oppression of women has spilt over to that faced by Iran’s ethnic and religious minorities, such as Kurds, Baluchs, Arabs and Sunni Muslims.
Photos and images have gone viral on social media of young women tearing off their hijabs and young school students giving their fingers to portraits of the country’s president, Ebrahim Raisi. The regime has utilised the only weapon at its disposal; repression Hundreds have been murdered in cold blood on the
streets and thousands have been arrested
Significantly, Iran’s powerful working class has moved into action against the repression of the regime.
At the beginning of the upheaval, strike action began in Kurdistan, followed by state wide industrial action by teachers, a predominantly female workforce in Iran Since then workers in the oil and petrochemical industry have walked off their jobs. This comes in the wake of not only the recent protest movement but also in the aftermath of a major upturn in strikes in Iran in 2021. Along with the above mentioned groups of workers, nurses, bus workers and workers in the sugar industry have moved into action The impact of sanctions imposed by imperialism and the pro capitalist policies of successive Iranian governments have drastically undermined living standards for the working masses
A key question now is which way forward for this revolutionary movement. How can Iranian workers, young people and all oppressed groups in Iran organise from below to defeat clerical rule and capitalism in Iran? The following statement and programme of demands was produced by International Socialist Alternative (ISA) as a contribution to the discussion of how Iran’s repressive regime can be overthrown and a system of exploitation and oppression can be ended The necessity of building a revolutionary socialist alternative in Iran and throughout this region has never been more urgent
a programme to win
l Justice for all the vic tims of the Mullah regime! For a real investigation into the murders of Jina (Mahsa) Amini, Nik a Shak arami, the fire at Evin prison, the massacres at the universities and all the other cases, by democratically elec ted representatives of the vic tims’ families and of the movement;
l End the repression and state violence: Away with the “morality police”, the revolutionar y Guards and the entire repressive apparatus release of all political prisoners, trade unionists, students and pupils; Police and other struc tures of repression out of schools, universities, work places and communities;
l End the sur veillance and control: Fight all bans on the internet and other communication media;
l Get rid of all discriminator y laws and regulations: Equal rights for women, LGBTQI+ and all religious, national and ethnic minorities Put an end to all religious laws and dress rules: For the full choice of all to wear what they want, that means the right to take off the hijab, but also to wear it if they want;
l For full bodily self determination and independence for women and LGBTQI+: full divorce rights, an end to forced marriage as well as comprehensive, queer inclusive education, health care, with full rights and free access to contraception and abor tion;
l Full rights to union and political organisation: Many workers and youth have organised illegal trade union struc tures in recent decades despite repression these must be expanded and networked to be the basis for rebuilding the workers’ and trade union movement throughout the countr y ;
l For the closing of ranks of students and pupils with the workers’ movement: For an expansion of the movement into all regions, neighbourhoods and work places;
l The workers’ movement needs to play an ac tive role: Workers’ councils, associations and trade unions need to expand the strikes in suppor t of the movement and link their economic demands with those to end oppression;
l The mass demonstrations are enormous and cut into the political base of the regime a nex t step needs to cut into the economic foundations of the regime: Build for a general strike to over throw the regime and occupy state institutions and the enterprises of the state and its suppor ters;
l Build the movement by organising assemblies in the work places, schools and universities to discuss the concrete demands of the movement and democratically elec t representatives to coordinate the protests;
l Build multi ethnic self defence committees to safeguard the movement against the attacks by the state and religious institutions;
l Appeal to the lower ranks of the police forces and to conscripts to refuse to fulfil orders aimed at suppressing the movement Appeal to the ordinar y workers in the different fields of the state apparatus, in the administration, in the state owned industries etc to refuse to administrate any repression For democratic struc tures like soldiers’ committees to defend those rights;
l Such democratic struc tures can link up with similar committees existing and developing in companies, educational institutions and work places, and can be used to organise the distribution of food, water and necessar y goods, they can star t to take over power where the state pulls out and lay the basis for tak ing over key industries and the wealth of the countr y ;
l Build workers’ councils throughout the countr y for the complete over throw of the state apparatus, the revolutionar y Guards and all religious institutions, and to take the democratic control and management of the economy, especially key industries such as the oil industr y. Nationalise all privatised companies under workers’ control;
l Open all company information and the internal information of the central state struc ture and make public where the wealth that millions of work ing class people in Iran have created has gone, who are the representatives of the regime that benefit from it open their accounts and expropriate them;
l Use the wealth for those who produce it For a living wage with no difference in pay between women and men. To fight inflation the prices must be controlled by democratically organised struc tures of the work ing class Wages and pensions must be linked to price rises. End pover ty by expropriating the elite and use the money to fully fund the health and education sec tor, for pensions and those in need;
l Conversion of produc tion to meet needs not profit, and use the resources and wealth to end pover ty, hunger and unemployment That ’s also the basis to end the exploitation of nature that leads to droughts and food shor tages. Only democratically organising and planning the economy and agriculture can rescue small peasants from exploitation by the landlords and multinationals, and ensure the conser vation of species, water and nature;
l The suppression of all ethnic, religious, and national minorities is a tool of divide and rule of the elites in Iran Fight for a multi ethnic state which guarantees fundamental rights such as the freedom to use languages, culture etc. For a united movement of all the workers and the poor, that recognises the right of self determination of the Kurdish people and other
minorities, up to and including the right for separation from the Iranian state if they wish;
l No trust in imperialist powers: The USA and European imperialists strongly suppor ted the brutal regime of the Shah and would also today only see Iran as a source for cheap oil and gas. Their punitive sanc tions have compounded the terrible economic conditions facing the majority China and russia are nothing better, exploiting and suppressing the people in their own countr y and work ing hand in hand with the Iranian regime;
l For the building of an independent, revolutionar y par ty of the work ing class and youth to ensure that after the fall of the regime representatives and corporations of the West or the old Shah’s family do not take over the power and wealth of the countr y ;
l Some reforms to the constitution or the legislation will not bring about fundamental change. In seemingly “democratic ” elec tions for a new Madschles / parliament those who will be able to stand will be chosen by the elites and not by the ordinar y people who are now leading the struggle The current regime must be replaced by truly democratic struc tures that are based on the bodies of struggle that are developing in the work places and communities. Build a complete new democrac y based on the power and the strength of ordinar y people, of workers who run the economy, of women, peasants and youth;
l For a revolutionar y constituent assembly composed
by workers’ councils in the work places and all democratic forces in the movement, excluding all those who have been in the past involved in oppression, discrimination and exploitation, to replace the Mullah regime with a democratic socialist workers’ republic with full rights for minorities and the right to self determination for all communities and full power of the work ing class and the poor over the wealth of the countr y ;
l From Tehran to K abul, from Zahedan to Baghdad: for the expansion of the revolutionar y movement throughout the region towards a voluntar y and democratic federation of socialist countries
l Build an international solidarity movement from below : in work places, schools, universities and neighbourhoods with the women’s, LGBTQI+, youth, workers’ and trade union movement at the forefront;
l Full rights for people from Iran living in or fleeing to other countries their right to stay must not be under any control or influence by the Iranian Authorities, so away with Visa and other restric tions;
l Full access for women & LGBTQI+ to jobs, housing, and social ser vices regardless of any religious influence: The battle for those rights is international and shows who are the real sisters (and brothers) in this struggle: not the rulers who pretend to stand “for women ‘’ while in their own countries attack ing women’s rights as has recently happened in the US Our allies are the millions on the streets in Argentina and Poland, in China and the US who are fighting for women’s and LGBTQI+ rights;
l The trade union movement has a central role to play here: not only because many colleagues come from dic tatorships themselves, but also because overcoming dic tatorships and exploitation improves conditions for workers ever ywhere in the world. Workers’ organisations must use their channels and media to inform and ac tively par ticipate in protests, suppor t them and especially suppor t workers in those
companies that do business with the regime, so as to ensure they do not suffer consequences;
l Stop the hypocrisy : Against arms deliveries by the imperialist states and imperialist wars in the whole region and worldwide This means the full opening of all company documents and their examination by representatives of the workers’ movement at companies trading direc tly or indirec tly with Iran;
l Declare war on the regime’s spy network worldwide: get rid of all diplomatic privileges, no cooperation with the regime’s authorities, the embassies and networks of this terror regime must go! Opening of all company documents, agreements, and contrac ts in order to uncover economic relations, but also to k now which ac tivists are threatened;
l Profits that companies have made by cooperating or tolerating the regime must be taken and used to suppor t the movement and a democratic reconstruc tion. The employees of these companies must not pay for it but only the owners and shareholders;
l The nuclear deal of the rulers is not a solution get rid of all sanc tions that hit the work ing and poor people! A successful revolution is the biggest guarantee for peace, security, freedom and self determination in the whole region;
l “ Woman, Life, Freedom” ever ywhere: for a worldwide movement to over throw the global capitalist system that produces women’s and LGBTQI+ oppression, dictatorships, war, miser y and exploitation and to build a worldwide socialist democrac y n
g p britain and Nor thern ireland. Socialist alternative spoke to S u S a N F i t zG e r a l D, the regional coordinating officer for unite the union and a member of the Socialist par ty on her views on this impor tant strike wave
there's been an impor tant wave of strikes in britain and the Nor th. what do you think are the key driving forces behind them?
SF: I think it is worth considering the scale of the industrial unrest that is happening Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, has said that in the past year Unite has been involved in over 450 disputes. That has been in many different sectors of the economy from manufacturing to bus workers or housing executive workers here. Added to this, we've seen some really powerful and significant disputes, including 155,000 Communication Workers Union (CWU) members in both the postal and BT/Openreach side of the union, and also of course there have been the important strikes of railway workers in Britain.
That is what has happened so far and the ballots currently underway show the likely possibility of other workers taking strike action amid the cost of living crisis. You have the ballot of University College Union (UCU) members balloting to restart their battle around
p carious conditions in our universities which received 81% support for strike action on p and conditions and 84% on pensions. This time the ballot was aggregated but still overcame the high bar in terms of turnout set by anti trade union laws That means in Britain more universities than in the previous years of strike action will have picket lines, and here Unite and NIPSA are balloting their members in Queen’s University You also have the Royal College of Nurses balloting, voting by a significant majority for strike action across Britain and Northern Ireland for the first time in their 100 year history. They will be joined by workers in the main health unions balloting for action So we could see a very important revolt of healthcare workers who have been on the frontline during the pandemic, but received nothing but a clap from politicians in Westminster and Stormont in return
I think people see what is coming down the line, more economic turmoil and even a recession and there is a strong sense of the need to do something now. At the same time, I think what we're seeing is a product of over a decade of bottled up anger With the banking crash in 2008, wages fell and workers lost a lot in terms of pay and conditions. Ten years later, by 2018, they hadn't recovered and pay in terms of real pay was lower
or at a similar level to ten years before Then you started to see a recovery but only for the rich, we started to see profits rise, and a bit of buoyancy coming back, but workers didn't see that in their pay packet, wages stagnated as profits increased
Then we have the situation where we go through two years of unprecedented crisis in the COVID 19 pandemic. This results in massive job losses, other workers being forced to work from home and of course, essential workers in health, transport and retail who are expected to put their lives at risk, often for very low pay So when things started to open up, there was an expectation and an awareness that it was business as usual for a lot of big companies, and some companies had a huge surge in profits in many areas Workers rightly expected that what they had been through would be recognised in their pay packet Instead, however, we just have the next stage in a capitalist system in crisis, which has not been caused by workers' wages, but by greed and profiteering. The figures for this are quite striking in a report commissioned by Unite: profit margins for the UK’s biggest listed companies jumped 73% in 2021 compared with the year before the COVID 19 pandemic. Yet, on the other hand, we have increased talk of destitution and fuel poverty affecting three in four of people in Northern Ireland Is it any wonder workers are having to strike?
you mentioned the massive amount of strikes that have happened, some ver y impor tant victories and significant pay increases. what do you think are the factors that led to workers winning these disputes? and also, how have employers responded to this?
SF: So in the report I mentioned about the number of strikes by Unite, they put a figure of winning 80% of disputes, and as a result there are millions of pounds in the pockets of working people rather than the coffers of big business That says something about the determination of Unite members when they go out to win We would like that to be 100%, but we can also see momentum towards more strike action, especially with the Tories in chaos in Westminster. The governor of the Bank of England is trying to blame workers for inflation, but it doesn’t wash Britain is seeing the highest figure for days lost on strike for 11 years
However, they, as in big business and the ruling class, are nervous about where things will go So they will take steps to cut across it and you see that with the proposal for further anti trade union legislation. Despite the real division between the Tories, they are totally united on that, and they are united on their so called war on ‘wokeness’, which is an attempt to divide workers and knock back the very important movements of women, the LGBTQI community and the Black Lives Matter movement in recent years
It means the bosses are more likely to dig in and it can mean some of the battles we face can be harder. My experience is that earlier in the year the bosses were crumbling a bit quicker I think it hasn't all been one way either as we have seen in the outrageous attack by P&O when it sacked 800 workers and replaced them with agency workers with the Tories and others complicit by their inaction Likewise, in the important dispute in Caterpillar, the bosses dug in and used scab labour against the strike. We can say we didn't win round one, but we don't believe it's finished Likewise in the Royal Mail strike, we have seen management escalate things and put on the table the very future of Royal Mail with their willingness to tear up national agreements and threaten thousands of job losses
What we are seeing is the ‘new normal’, where workers have to fight tooth and nail just to stand still, for basic decency That's the new reality and it's gonna be battle after battle But this is it a context in which workers have important wins under our belt. And we have seen some figures emerge as leaders who are more reflective of the actual mood and anger of trade union members, and workers more generally For us, what is key is how organised the members are and that they come together and discuss how to win their disputes. But having leaders and representatives who stand by those workers and don't just sell them out is vital So the presence of trade union leaders with a significant platform who defend the right to strike, who stand by
their members and who point the finger at the profiteers in this inflation crisis is important, and I think is serving to give workers confidence
a key issue is also that there are so many different strikes, but how do we effectively coordinate action?
SF: I think this is something that is naturally coming up and has been discussed on picket lines, because it is common sense. The message that we all 'strike together’ is powerful So that's being discussed by some trade union leaders and at the trade union conference, but it's more organic at the workplace level I just came from a protest today of striking Housing Executive workers who have been on strike for several months now, in a very serious battle When CWU strikers, came along, it was just obvious that they should speak at the protests It was obvious that they would get a strong and powerful response. When we make the point that we're not alone that's a reassuring message for workers and gives the confidence to push ahead with a dispute
We have also seen some coordination in terms of strike days and there have been protests that have brought several unions together In some sectors, like health, the need to coordinate activities is obvious Coordination shouldn't mean going at the pace set by the most conservative, but what is needed is coordination to be organised by workers themselves, including the building of joint strike committees in workplaces where there are multiple unions.
The point of coordination makes common sense to workers precisely because we are fighting on the same issue Our common struggle is rooted in the common misery we face in this cost of living crisis. It is natural that the strikes should coordinate and I think it would be powerful if we saw activists coming together to make this happen
you're a member of the Socialist par ty yourself, what role do you see Socialist par ty members playing in the different strikes that have happened?
SF: I think socialist politics and this industrial movement that's developing are part of a coherent whole. If you are on strike for 10 to 12 weeks there's a real danger that in the context of complete political instability in Stormont or Westminster, that you are
the collateral That's a political issue If you can't heat your home, but you're seeing energy companies making super profits, that's political. The very act of talking about the priorities in our society is political, be that talking about the very basics of children not being homeless or women having somewhere safe to go after fleeing a situation of abuse. In that sense, socialist policies, which put people’s needs before profits, are not even radical policies for a lot of people in our society Even a majority of Tory voters favour nationalising the energy companies in the context of the current crisis
I think there is an important role for Socialist Party members and socialists in general to play in popularising socialist policies that will more and more seem necessary and rational to people in the context of this crisis, such as demanding wages at least be indexed to inflation, or that the energy companies should be nationalised.
More than that, I think the Socialist Party members can provide an important explanation about why we are facing such economic turmoil and how it is linked to a system facing multiple crises of its own creation. Having a clear sighted analysis can assist you in a struggle, particularly if you understand the system and crucially the power of workers in struggle
I think the biggest antidote to the division in society is working class struggle You know, when you struggle with working class people, particularly when you win, it increases confidence That confidence is so important and has to be built up which means you have to not stop until you win That means you need to have a fighting strategy, like those advocated by socialists and many other activists in the trade unions Recent pay rises that have been won prove that when we stand together, we win n
at the chinese communist par ty ’s (ccp) 20th congress dictator Xi Jinping made a clean sweep of the par ty-state’s top organs including the once power ful Standing committee, but does the purge translate into greater strength or stability? v i N c e N t Ko lo of chinaworker.info analyses the current situation.
It was never in doubt that at October’s five yearly CCP Congress Xi Jinping would be crowned de facto Emperor. He now starts a third term as CCP general secretary and commander in chief of the army, which can be extended indefinitely as long as Xi himself is the one who decides At the National People’s Congress (NPC) in March he will be confirmed again as president, a less important position. Aside from rubber stamping the extension of his rule, the 20th CCP Congress was a giant stage to project Xi’s unrivalled grip on state power.
The “most powerful leader since Mao” was the intended theme, repeated in almost all global media coverage Not really, is our reply Xi’s hold over the CCP machinery and purge of potential rivals is indeed unprecedented But how much real additional power this grants the dictator is an open question given the titanic scale of the crisis facing China today
The economy has entered a Japanese phase of slow growth weighed down by the deflationary collapse of financial bubbles Goldman Sachs estimates next year’s GDP will be a whole $2 trillion lower than the regime’s projections from January this year. The now abandoned 5 5 percent GDP target from the March NPC was the lowest target for three decades, but will be remembered as hopelessly unrealistic
The property crisis that began in mid 2021 shows no signs of bottoming out There is an estimated 7 billion square meters of residential property under construction and unsold. That measures up against 1.76 billion square meters sold in the peak year 2020, before the crash At the same time marriages with a clear connection to house sales have plummeted from 13 5 million when Xi came to power, to 7.6 million last year. Economist Andy Xie says “if every marriage leads to a property purchase and the number of marriages doesn’t fall further, it would still take about 10 years to digest the inventory.” (South China Morning Post, 22 September)
Three years of Zero Covid have trapped society and the economy in a real life version of ‘Groundhog Day’, an ever repeating loop. Since the congress, lockdowns have spread to 28 cities and currently affect 207 million people Urumqi, the capital of strife torn Xinjiang, has been in lockdown since August Censured reports from
Xinjiang say that 13 people died from the effects of disinfectant sprayed in their homes by Covid enforcers (dabai) The death of 27 passengers in a bus accident in Guizhou triggered an online outcry The passengers, part of a group of 3,000, were being forcibly transported from the capital Guiyang to a distant quarantine facility, on dangerous roads at two in the morning (!)
“We’re all on that bus” became a popular online protest slogan Since the start of the pandemic in 2019, only two people have died of Covid in Guizhou province After the CCP congress, a rare protest took place in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, significant also because those protesting the Covid restrictions were Han Chinese migrants not ethnic Tibetans
Also after the congress, Foxconn’s largest factory in China at Zhengzhou, which employs 200,000, saw a mass breakout of migrant workers escaping lockdown. Videos shared online showed thousands trekking across wasteland carrying their bags and bedding from the factory, aiming to get back to their home villages There are unconfirmed reports of paramilitary troops being sent to the Foxconn plant. Another mass escape was attempted by tourists at Shanghai’s Disneyland, which was placed under snap lockdown for the second time this year
How does the power struggle waged inside the 20th Congress relate to the accumulation of suffering and discontent outside? Xi’s mission from the start, in 2012, was to “save the CCP”, to centralise power and to transition from authoritarian rule under a committee, to a form of one man rule which owes more to China’s imperial era than to Maoism Through increased repression and a digital surveillance state that has out Orwelled Orwell, combined with militaristic nationalism and “Western threat” propaganda, Xi has tried to stare down the many social, economic, political and geopolitical crises that have arisen But the next period will provide even more severe tests.
This was reflected in Xi’s almost two hour long work report The most important word he used was “security” which was mentioned 91 times, almost double the mentions from Xi’s speech of five years ago This shows the CCP leader’s fears of social explosions at home as well as external threats “Taiwan” was mentioned 12 times, a slight increase on 2017, and drew the loudest applause from the congress, but that is a Pavlovian reaction and doesn’t tell us so much about what Xi and his team are really planning If anything, the tone of Xi’s speech was more cautious and less bombastic than five years ago What this reveals is that, behind the rhetoric, his regime is feeling intense pressure from the Cold War, and the accelerating decoupling process which is exacerbating China’s economic downturn. Xi wants to
try to de escalate tensions with the Biden administration, to at least place some limits on the pace of escalation
When the 20th Congress closed it became clear that the new 24 man Politburo and its seven man Standing Committee (PSC) were stacked with Xi’s supporters This is “Maximum Xi” proclaimed Foreign Policy magazine. Formerly powerful CCP factions like those led by ex leaders Jiang Zemin (the ‘Shanghai gang’ or ‘Princeling faction’) and Hu Jintao (the ‘Communist Youth League faction’ a k a tuanpai) that were already largely neutralised have now been completely eliminated from these two most important CCP organs.
Many commentators had expected Xi to make a concession to the tuanpai in particular, offering them a small role in the carve up of top seats and, possibly, to retain their hold on the premier’s position. The current premier Li Keqiang who retires in March 2023 is from the tuanpai Li and other leading tuanpai representatives profile themselves as the disciples of Deng Xiaoping’s reform policy (the term used for China’s capitalist restoration)
In the cryptic style that is the norm in CCP politics, Li Keqiang has aimed some muted criticisms at Xi’s policies, for example over the crippling application of the Zero Covid policy and Xi’s completely delusional claim to have “eradicated poverty”
The premier’s portfolio has however been downgraded in importance since the early years of Xi’s reign Traditionally with overall control of China’s economic policy, this has only been very partially the case in recent years. The same could also be said of the Politburo and PSC, which have faded in importance as Xi’s expanding “core” role crowds out everything else Therefore, the speculation about the next premier and the possibility of minor concessions to rival factions, would only have had a symbolic character and not fundamentally affected the political direction of Xi’s rule
Rumours before the 20th Congress suggested Xi had perhaps struck a limited deal with the tuanpai faction, to throw them a bone, within the context of the further consolidation of his grip on power. The logic for any such compromise was not that Xi needed this or that his position is at this stage under threat from the CCP’s continuing power struggle. This is despite the fact that in the real world, Xi’s position has undoubtedly been weakened as a result of the dire economic situation and Cold War setbacks But his strength within the organs of the CCP state shows that the interests of the capitalist system as a whole require an even more rigidly authoritarian regime
As we have pointed out the anti Xi factions lack strength, just as they lack any coherent alternative policy. Their “opposition” is more a mood of alarm over the ruinous direction of the economy especially They see China heading towards increasing international isolation and economic setbacks. The logic for Xi to make any concessions to these forces would therefore only have been to offer some reassurance to the financial markets and private sector capitalists that he was prepared to adjust some of his nationalist policies which have cost the capitalists huge sums of money
According to this discourse the tuanpai are regarded as economic “moderates”, more committed than Xi to continuing Deng’s economic reforms, which offer greater advantages to the private sector Capitalist commentators were therefore anxious for signs from the 20th Congress that Xi would allow some checks and balances, if only very slight ones, as he began his
lifetime rule project This was not the case In the end, Xi opted for a clean sweep of the Politburo and PSC with not even a single seat left to the “opposition”. Xi’s need to demonstrate his power, to show no quarter towards his internal critics, outweighed the rationale for concessions to appease the market.
On Monday 24 October, the day after Xi led the six other members of the new PSC onto the stage to present them, the stock markets tanked The ten biggest US listed Chinese companies, including Alibaba and Pinduoduo, lost $68 billion in a day. These ten firms were valued at $1.6 trillion in February 2021, but now stand at $401 billion It’s hard not to laugh when we read that Alibaba’s Jack Ma lost $900 million during that one day.
For the Hong Kong stock market this was its worst day since the 2008 crisis, with a drop of 6 4 percent Over five days following the congress, Hong Kong’s index for mainland companies suffered its worst result ever. The yuan slid even further against the dollar as financial speculators sold the Chinese currency, which has fallen 17 percent since the start of the year
It didn’t help that the government chose this day to publish its quarterly GDP results, having mysteriously postponed their release during the week of the congress The delay increased suspicions that Beijing was again cooking its books. The reported GDP growth of 3.9 percent for the July September quarter (compared to 0 4 percent in April June), while considerably short of the official 5 5 percent target, still looks inflated
Stock market turmoil has continued, with China’s main CSI 300 Index now down 35 percent since January, adjusted for currency volatility. Measured in dollars the CSI 300 is down 51 percent No surprises then that the capitalists inside and outside China are despondent over the outcome of the congress
Thomas Gatley of Gavekal Dragonomics in Beijing summed it up this way: “Investors were imagining a scenario where Xi basically got his own way, but there would still be some adults in the room with some kind of pro market pushback. Now there won’t be anyone in the room saying, ‘we need to pull back a little bit’ If everyone there is just nodding their heads, there’s nothing to stop share prices falling as far as they can ”
Of course, for working class people and the oppressed masses there are very different implications from the 20th Congress Let the capitalists weep over the stock market The composition of the new PSC, full of Xi’s ‘yes men’, signifies he is doubling down on key policies such as Zero Covid, with its unprecedented level of social control and digitally enhanced repression In numerous but typically cryptic ways, the congress signalled the Zero Covid policy will continue through 2023 and perhaps longer.
“of course, for working class people and the oppressed masses there are ver y different implications from the 20th congress. let the capitalists weep over the stock market. the composition of the new pSc, full of Xi’s ‘yes men’, signifies he is doubling down on key policies such as zero covid, with its unprecedented level of social control and digitally enhanced repression. in numerous but typically cr yptic ways, the congress signalled the zero covid policy will continue through 2023 and perhaps longer.”
stabilized During the congress it was announced that China now has the capacity to conduct one billion PCR tests every day. Shanghai, where a two month lockdown in the spring caused massive discontent, has begun recruiting 1,000 new test and trace operatives on two year contracts hardly a sign of an imminent change of policy
In fact, the Zero Covid policy is also a political tool used by Xi Jinping in the power struggle before the congress Those who slavishly followed the policy have been promoted while those who procrastinated have been purged Chief among those promoted to the PSC is Shanghai’s former CCP boss Li Qiang.
Three articles penned by Zhong Yin, believed to be a code name for the regime, said the country had to continue the Zero Covid strategy, adding that only if the epidemic was under control would the economy be
Li became a detested figure during the city’s epic lockdown, with multiple scandals revealing mismanagement, inefficiency and of course brutality. But as a loyalist and member of Xi’s ‘Zhijiang New Army’ (the name of Xi’s faction, formed mostly from those who previously served with him in the provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian) who brutally stood the course on Zero Covid, Li has been rewarded with the number two spot in the regime and is tipped to become premier next March Also promoted to the PSC were the CCP leaders of Beijing and Guangdong province, Cai Qi and Li Xi Like Li Qiang, they are regarded as trusted members of Xi’s faction
The incident that generated the biggest reaction from ordinary people however was the sensational removal of Xi’s predecessor, the former CCP leader Hu Jintao, from the congress stage on the final day The aged leader who is evidently in poor health seemed to resist being moved and was “helped” out of his seat by two security officials
This has triggered a great deal of speculation Was Hu in some way expressing dissent with the final list of names presented for the Politburo and PSC? A theory is doing the rounds that Hu had only at that moment discovered that his tuanpai protégé “Little Hu” Hu Chunhua had been demoted from both the PSC and the Politburo. Prior to the congress, Hu Chunhua, who is still relatively young at 59, was tipped as a possible candidate for premier by some media Now we know that’s not going to happen
Or did Xi use this incident to deliberately publicly humiliate Hu, the figurehead (now surely retired) of the rival tuanpai faction? We may never know the truth, but that is less important than the backlash this incident has generated, especially among young people. There is a feeling that it was a deliberate act, that Xi did this to demonstrate his total power over the CCP and society The crises that are deepening outside the Great Hall of the People will not be so easily eliminated n
one hundred years ago, the fascist benito Mussolini seized power with the ‘ the March on rome’ on 28 oc tober 1922. this was a coup by Mussolini’s blackshir ts, his fascist militia, which sought to over throw the liberral par ty prime Minister luigi Fac ta. Fac ta ordered a state of siege but was overruled by King vic tor emmanuel iii, who handed power to Mussolini. these events were a result of the failure of the workers’ movement to take power when the oppor tunity existed during the ‘biennio rosso’ ( two red years) of 1919 and 1920, and the betrayal of the italian reformist leaders. to mark these events, we republish extrac ts from the pamphlet Fascism: What It Is and How To Fight It, which is a collec tion of writings by leon trotsky first published in 1932.
I t is essential that the workers’ and socialist movement learn the lessons from histor y. Just a centur y after Mussolini seized power, Giorgia Meloni and her par ty “Fratelli d’I talia” which traces its roots back to Mussolini’s National Fascist Par ty is now leading the I talian government. Although “Fratelli d’I talia” is not a classic fascist par ty, Meloni has been able to take power because of the failure of the Left in past years to build a real alternative to capitalism. But unlike 100 years ago, the basis from which a mass work ing class response to inequality, pover ty and right wing attacks can emerge is still developing
extracts from a letter to an english comrade
What is fascism? The name originated in Italy But were all the forms of counter revolutionary dictatorship fascist or not (that is to say, prior to the advent of fascism in Italy)?
The former dictatorship in Spain of Primo de Rivera, 1923 30, is called a fascist dictatorship by the Comintern Is this correct or not? We believe that it is incorrect
The fascist movement in Italy was a spontaneous movement of large masses, with new leaders from the rank and file It is a plebian movement in origin, directed and financed by big capitalist powers It issued forth from the petty bourgeoisie, the slum proletariat, and even to a certain extent from the proletarian masses; Mussolini, a former socialist, is a “self made” man arising from this movement
Primo de Rivera was an aristocrat He occupied a high military and bureaucratic post and was chief governor of Catalonia He accomplished his overthrow with the aid of state and military forces The dictatorships of Spain and Italy are two totally different forms of dictatorship. It is necessary to distinguish between them Mussolini had difficulty in reconciling many old military institutions with the fascist militia
This problem did not exist for Primo de Rivera
The movement in Germany is analogous mostly to the Italian It is a mass movement, with its leaders employing a great deal of socialist demagogy. This is necessary for the creation of the mass movement
The genuine basis ( for fascism) is the petty bourgeoisie In Italy, it has a very large base the petty bourgeoisie of the towns and cities, and the peasantry. In Germany, likewise, there is a large base for fascism
It may be said, and this is true to a certain extent, that the new middle class, the functionaries of the state, the private administrators, etc., can constitute such a base But this is a new question that must be analyzed
In order to be capable of foreseeing anything with regard to fascism, it is necessary to have a definition of that idea What is fascism? What are its base, its form, and its characteristics? How will its development take place? It is necessary to proceed in a scientific and Marxian manner.
From What next? vital Questions for the German Proletariat
At the moment that the “normal” police and military resources of the bourgeois dictatorship, together with their parliamentary screens, no longer suffice to hold society in a state of equilibrium the turn of the fascist regime arrives Through the fascist agency, capitalism sets in motion the masses of the crazed petty bourgeoisie and the bands of declassed and demoralised lumpenproletariat all the countless human beings whom finance capital itself has brought to desperation and frenzy.
From fascism the bourgeoisie demands a thorough job; once it has resorted to methods of civil war, it insists on having peace for a period of years And the fascist agency, by utilizing the petty bourgeoisie as a battering ram, by overwhelming all obstacles in its path, does a thorough job After fascism is victorious, finance capital directly and immediately gathers into its hands, as in a vise of steel, all the organs and institutions of sovereignty, the executive, administrative, and educational powers of the state: the entire state apparatus together with the army, the municipalities, the universities, the schools, the press, the trade unions, and the co operatives When a state turns fascist, it does not mean only that the forms and methods of government are changed in accordance with the patterns set by Mussolini the changes in this sphere ultimately play a minor role but it means first of all for the most part that the workers’ organisations are annihilated; that the proletariat is reduced to an amorphous state; and that a system of administration is created which penetrates deeply into the masses and which serves to frustrate the independent crystallisation of the proletariat. Therein precisely is the gist of fascism... * * *
“ when a state turns fascist, it does not mean only that the forms and methods of government are changed in accordance with the patterns set by Mussolini the changes in this sphere ultimately play a minor role but it means first of all for the most par t that the workers’ organisations are annihilated; that the proletariat is reduced to an amorphous state; and that a system of administration is created which penetrates deeply into the masses and which ser ves to frustrate the independent cr ystallisation of the proletariat. therein precisely is the gist of fascism.”
Italian fascism was the immediate outgrowth of the betrayal by the reformists of the uprising of the Italian proletariat From the time the [ first world] war ended, there was an upward trend in the revolutionary movement in Italy, and in September 1920 it resulted in the seizure of factories and industries by the workers The dictatorship of the proletariat was an actual fact; all that was lacking was to organise it and draw from it all the necessary conclusions. The social democracy took fright and sprang back After its bold and heroic exertions, the proletariat was left facing the void The disruption of the revolutionary movement became the most important factor in the growth of fascism In September, the revolutionary advance came
to a standstill; and November already witnessed the first major demonstration of the fascists (the seizure of Bologna) 1
True, the proletariat, even after the September catastrophe, was capable of waging defensive battles But the social democracy was concerned with only one thing: to withdraw the workers from combat at the cost of one concession after another. The social democracy hoped that the docile conduct of the workers would restore the “public opinion” of the bourgeoisie against the fascists Moreover, the reformists even banked strongly upon the help of King Victor Emmanuel. To the last hour, they restrained the workers with might and main from giving battle to Mussolini’s bands It availed them nothing The crown, along with the upper crust of the bourgeoisie, swung over to the side of fascism Convinced at the last moment that fascism was not to be checked by obedience, the social democrats issued a call to the workers for a general strike. But their proclamation suffered a fiasco. The reformists had dampened the powder so long, in their fear lest it should explode, that when they finally with a trembling hand did apply a burning fuse to it, the powder did not catch.
Two years after its inception, fascism was in power It entrenched itself thanks to the facts the first period of its overlordship coincided with a favorable economic conjuncture, which followed the depression of 1921 22. The fascists crushed the retreating proletariat by the onrushing forces of the petty bourgeoisie But this was not achieved at a single blow. Even after he assumed power, Mussolini proceeded on his course with due caution: he lacked as yet ready made models During the first two years, not even the constitution was altered. The fascist government took on the character of a coalition In the meantime, the fascist bands were busy at work with clubs, knives, and pistols Only thus was the fascist government created slowly, which meant the complete strangulation of all independent mass organisations
Mussolini attained this at the cost of bureaucratising the fascist party itself After utilising the onrushing forces of the petty bourgeoisie, fascism strangled it within the vise of the bourgeois state Mussolini could not have done otherwise, for the disillusionment of the masses he had united was precipitating itself into the most immediate danger
ahead Fascism, become bureaucratic, approaches very closely to other forms of military and police dictatorship It no longer possesses its former social support. The chief reserve of fascism the petty bourgeoisie has been depicted Only historical inertia enables the fascist government to keep the proletariat in a state of dispersion and helplessness
In its politics as regards Hitler, the German social democracy has not been able to add a single word: all it does is repeat more ponderously whatever the Italian reformists in their own time performed with greater flights of temperament. The latter explained fascism as a postwar psychosis; the German social democracy sees in it a “Versailles”, or crisis, psychosis In both instances, the reformists shut their eyes to the organic character of fascism as a mass movement growing out of the collapse of capitalism 2
Fearful of the revolutionary mobilisation of the workers, the Italian reformists banked all their hopes of the “state”. Their slogan was, “Help! Victor Emmanuel, exert pressure!” The German social democracy lacks such a democratic bulwark as a monarch loyal to the constitution. So they must be content with a president “Help! Hindenburg, exert pressure!”3
While waging battle against Mussolini, that is, while retreating before him, Turati let loose his dazzling motto, “One must have the manhood to be a coward.”4 The German reformists are less frisky with their slogans They demand “Courage under unpopularity” (Mut zur Unpopularitaet) which amounts to the same thing. One must not be afraid of the unpopularity which has been aroused by one’s own cowardly temporizing with the enemy
Identical causes produce identical effects Were the march of events dependent upon the social democratic party leadership, Hitler’s career would be assured
One must admit, however, that the German Communist Party has also learned little from the Italian experience
The Italian Communist Party came into being almost simultaneously with fascism. But the same conditions of revolutionary ebb tide, which carried the fascists to power, served to deter the development of the Communist Party It did not give itself an accounting as to the full sweep of the fascist danger; it lulled itself with revolutionary illusions; it was irreconcilably antagonistic to the policy of the united front; in short, it was stricken with all the infantile diseases. Small wonder! It was only two years old. In its eyes, fascism appeared to be only “capitalist reaction” The particular traits of fascism which spring from the mobilisation of the petty bourgeoisie against the proletariat, the Communist Party was unable to discern. Italian comrades inform me that, with the sole exception of Gramsci, the Communist Party would not even allow for the possibility of the fascists’ seizing power. Once the proletarian revolution had suffered defeat, once capitalism had held its ground and the counter revolution had triumphed, how could there be any further kind of counter revolutionary upheaval? How could the bourgeoisie rise up against itself ! Such was the gist of the political orientation of the Italian Communist Party Moreover, one must not lose sight of the fact that Italian fascism was then a new phenomenon, just in the process of formation; it would not have been an easy task even for a more experienced party to distinguish its specific traits 5
The leadership of the German Communist Party today reproduces almost literally the position from which the Italian Communists took their point of departure; fascism is nothing else but capitalist reaction; from the point of view of the proletariat, the difference between diverse types of capitalist reaction are meaningless This vulgar radicalism is the less excusable because the German party is much older than the Italian was at a corresponding period; in addition, Marxism is enriched now by the tragic experience in Italy To insist that fascism is already here, or to deny the very possibility of its coming to power, amounts politically to one and the same thing. By ignoring the specific nature of of fascism, the will to fight against it inevitably becomes paralyzed
The brunt of the blame must be borne, of course, by the leadership of the Comintern. Italian Communists above all others were duty bound to raise their voices in
alarm But Stalin, together with Manuilsky, compelled them to disavow the most important lessons of their own annihilation.6
We have already observed with what diligent alacrity Ercoli switched over to the position of social fascism i.e., to the position of passively waiting for the fascist victory in Germany 7n
1 The fascist campaign of violence began in Bologna, November 21, 1920 When the social democratic councilmen, victorious in the mu nicipal elections, emerged from city hall to present the new mayor, they were met by gunfire in which 10 were killed and 100 wounded. The fascists followed up with “punitive expeditions” into the sur rounding countr yside, a stronghold of the “red Leagues” Blackshir t “action squadrons”, in vehicles supplied by big landowners, took over villages in lightning raids, beating and killing leftist peasants and labor leaders, wrecking radical headquar ters, and terrorizing the pop ulace Emboldened by their easy successes, the fascists then launched large scale attacks in the big cities l 2 The Versailles Treaty, im posed on Germany after WWI; its most hated feature was the unend ing tribute to the victorious allies in the form of “reparations” for war damages and losses. The “crisis” referred to in the above paragraph was the economic depression that swept the capitalist world after the Wall Street crash of 1929 l 3 Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg (1847 1934), Junker general who gained fame in World War I and later became president of the Weimar republic In 1932, the social democ rats suppor ted him for re election as a “lesser evil” to the Nazis. He ap pointed Hitler chancellor in Januar y 1933 l 4 Filippo Turati (1857 1937), leading reformist theoretician of the Italian Socialist Par ty l 5 Antonio Gramsci (1891 1937): a founder of the Italian Communist Par ty, imprisoned by Mussolini in 1926, he died in prison 11 years later. He sent a letter from prison, in the name of the Italian par ty ’s political committee, protesting Stalin’s campaign against the Left Opposition Togliatti, then in Moscow as the Italian representative to the Comintern, suppressed the letter l 6 Dmitri Manuilsky (1883 1959): Headed the Comintern Executive Committee from 1928 to 1934; his removal heralded a switch from ultra leftism to the op por tunism of the Popular Front period Later appeared on the diplo matic stage, as delegate to United Nations l 7 Ercoli Comintern pen name of Palmiro Togliatti (1893 1964) Headed Italian Commu nist Par ty after Gramsci’s imprisonment He sur vived all zigzags in Comintern line, but after Stalin’s death he criticized Stalin’s rule as well some of its continuing
For its exhilarating 11 minute opening sequence alone, which culminates in the defiant stand of a youth rebellion in the tower blocks of a banlieue as it ominously awaits confrontation with the French police, athena is well wor th watching
The fast pace, long shots and jerky camerawork continue throughout the film, and are combined with an operatic score that give an epic feel to this Greek tragedy centered around four brothers of Algerian origin, and their conflicting roles during an uprising sparked the brutal murder of the youngest brother, 13 year old Idir Footage of the killing has gone viral, showing a gang of uniformed but unidentifiable police as the culprits.
In a French society riven by social tensions, and in the wake of numerous similar incidents of police brutality, a social explosion is ignited
The three other brothers are Abdul, a soldier in the French army whose aim is to tr y to keep the peace in his community of Athena; his younger brother Karim, a sor t of community leader who’s leading the rebellion demanding justice for Idir and the identity of the killers by exacting revenge on the state suspected of shielding them; and their older brother Moktar, a violent drug dealer whose sole concern is for his criminal enterprise
As they pursue their own ventures, and as the tumult engulfs the high rise buildings that house their community, the brothers cross paths and clash, with devastating results
The film, written and directed by romain Gavras, is of the genre of urban French films such as la Haine (1995) and les Miserables (2019) In fact, Ladj Ly, who wrote and directed les Miserables co wrote the screenplay with Gavras. Naturally the two films will be compared. Both are stunningly produced, well cast and depict a revolt of young people from deprived Parisian suburbs against a repressive and discriminator y police force
Whereas les Miserables builds up tension towards a gloriously climac tic uprising, athena launches us into it from the off, albeit with a catapult Unfor tunately, however, while it tries to keep up the momentum, and does a decent job, it doesn’t get better than the opening, and the ending is incredibly disappointing.
As a depic tion of real social issues, and the lives of people in such neighbourhoods, les Miserables clearly has more depth to it, and insights about societ y, struggle and justice. With athena, although the plight of the brothers who are used to represent different layers of work ing class, immigrant societ y is quite engrossing, the political content is much more super ficial
And these are highly political films, par ticularly relevant and even more power ful coming in the wake of real life high profile cases of police brutality and resistance to it in recent years, from France itself, to Nigeria, but especially to the US and the Black Lives Matter movement.
For anyone who has been impac ted or inspired by these movements, and whose instinc t is to side with (and enthusiastically cheer on, as I do) an uprising of young people who’ve been historically oppressed and repressed by the capitalist state, as they use their collec tive power and daring to turn the tables, even if only fleetingly, these films are a breath of fresh air.
That said, par ticularly as far as athena is concerned, there are problems that do sully the experience
One issue is the depiction of the movement itself Although there’s a lot that ’s done well, the active par ticipants are exclusively young people, and almost exclusively young men Some of the older men based in the local mosque are seen discussing what to do, but mainly from a point of opposition to the rebellion, and their conclusion is simply to tr y to evacuate ever yone. The broader community, then, plays no role in either suppor ting the young people or attempting to steer them in a more productive direction.
We do hear from radio repor ts that cities across the countr y are witnessing similar revolts, but we can only gather that they look the same as the one in Athena The clear problem with this (only young men) depic tion is that this is not what any of the real life movements against police brutalit y have looked like, and there’s no real reason to think they would ever look like this even in a situation of violent confrontation on barricades. Current events in I ran with young women and girls leading a burgeoning revolution sparked by a police k illing only
emphasise the incongruous absence of young women in Athena
Worst of all, however, (spoiler aler t here again) is the ridiculous twist at the end. All the more annoying because it ’s not only unnecessar y, but also more unrealistic As the filmmakers are all too aware, the killing of young people (par ticularly young people of colour) by police, is a relatively common occurrence in today ’s world Indeed, this is presumably a major factor
the Janes, a recently released HBO documentar y, follows the political journey of the Jane Collec tive, a radical underground net work of women in Chicago providing abor tions from 1968 1973 while it was illegal in most states in America With the over turning of roe v Wade this year, “trigger bans” on abor tion have already began to take effec t in states all over the US. The film is instruc tional, demonstrating the barbaric realit y of criminalised abor tion and the fight back needed to win the right to an abor tion again
The Jane Collec tive began as an organisation when its founding member, Heather Booth, helped her friend’s sister to access an abor tion through civil rights organiser and surgeon T r M Howard Before long, Booth, using the pseudonym Jane received calls from many more who were desperately seek ing abor tions and began to recruit volunteers from feminist ac tivist groups
I t is estimated that in the 1960s any where bet ween 200,000 and 1.2 million illegal abor tions occured anually Those seek ing a back alley abor tion were exploited by the criminals who could charge over $1,000 for a procedure, by inexperienced providers who of ten botched abor tions, or by abusers who offered to conduc t the procedure in return for sexual favours
I t was in these conditions that the Janes provided abor tions for those who could not afford to travel to states in which abor tion was legal, albeit increadibly restric tive These are the same layers of societ y who are most at risk of losing access to abor tion in the US today ; work ing class and poor women and pregnant people, and in par ticular women and people of colour
The Janes rejec ted patrichal discrimination within the medical prac tice; where those seek ing abor tion would have faced the degrading experience of having to plead their cases to mostly male doc tors to prove danger to their life. O f ten the procedure was rejec ted.
in their decision to explore this theme in their work The decision to add a far right conspirac y of staging police killings to fur ther inflame social tensions just comes across as a cop out that lets the police (which ever ywhere contains its fair share of far right members) off the hook
The twist definitely takes away from the better aspects of the film, and there are other problematic issues, even so athena is wor th checking out n
I nstead, the Janes not only aided pregnant people in procuring abor tions, but also offered counselling ser vices in the face of an information void
I t was only af ter discovering their main abor tion provider was not a doc tor as he had claimed, that members of Jane began to prac tice abor tions themselves Members were taught how to safely carr y out surgical abor tions by a registered gyneacologist, at the time risk ing their career to affiliate with Jane, echoing the recent repor ts of doc tors withholding abor tion care while their patients are in danger of losing their lives, for fear of committing a felony while doing their jobs.
Today, early abor tion can be accessed with abor tion pills, requiring ver y little medical exper tise or assistance and a lifeline where abor tion is banned (available via Women On Web / Aid Access via the internet & post) I t ’s inspiring that Jane’s young women so audaciously taught themselves how to carr y out the surgical procedure, as par t of their radical ac tivism decades before.
Armed with the k nowledge of how to conduc t an abor tion themselves, members of Jane were able
engage in a sustained campaign of civil disobedience, providing around 30 abor tions per day in the homes of members and suppor ters O f the 11,000 abor tions that were carried out through Jane, there were no fatalities.
I n 1972, the Chicago homicide depar tment raided one of the Collec tive’s apar tments look ing for a male doc tor. Upon finding that it was the members of Jane who were providing abor tions, seven members were arrested and charged with 11 counts of abor tion and conspirar y to commit abor tion Each woman faced up to a maximum of a 110 year prison sentence, with 1 10 years possible on each count. Af ter the Supreme Cour t ruled on roe v Wade, which legalised abor tion in the US, all charges were dropped against the “Abor tion 7” and the Jane Collec tive disbanded.
While Jane disbanded, issues of inaccessibilit y still existed par ticularly for those in rural areas, and systemic racism within the medical establishment meant that, then and now, maternal mor talit y rates for Black women are almost t wice as high as for white women Significantly, right wing fundementalist groups began their decades long lobby to over turn roe.
As members of Jane note in the documentar y, their
work was a “drop in the ocean” when it came to meeting the demand for abor tion care Their impac t through their campaign of civil disobedience spanned much fur ther, revealing the inherent cruelt y of abor tion bans Tia Lessin, one of the direc tors of the film said, “ We show really clearly in the film what happens when abor tion is legal in one state and not legal in another… We saw who’s able to make the trip and who gets lef t behind I t ’s ver y cut and dried I t ’s along racial lines, it ’s along economic lines we saw it then and we’re seeing it right now, and we will see it on steroids in the coming years.”
The fight for bodily autonomy including free and readily accessible abor tion and gender affirming healthcare must be inter woven with an anticapitalist and socialist perspec tive that fights the inequalit y, class division, sexism and racism of the system at its root r ight now, our siblings in the US in Socialist Alternative have been energetically seek ing to build an urgent fightback against the ravages of roe’s defeat, advocating for a mass work ing class struggle for abor tion rights and access, spearheading protests, and helping to win any and ever y mechanism for increased abor tion rights possible n
Direc ted by Kathr yn Ferguson Showtime Documentar y Films, reviewed by Aislinn O’ Keeffe2022
nothing compares opens with a young Sinead O’ Connor in 1992, suppor ting Bob Dylan in concer t, in front of a roaring audience with half the audience cheering, the other half booing Weeks of demonisation and mocker y by the media had done its job and O’ Connor was now a pariah and the butt of a cruel joke to many.
A couple of weeks earlier, Sinead had torn up a photo of Pope John Paul II on live television in protest of the cover up of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. This brave act of resistance epitomises the authenticity and uncompromising nature of O’ Connor ’s principles Principles for which, as many warned or threatened, she would face consequences These consequences came in the shape of a campaign of vilification and mocker y by the mainstream press which left the young ar tist isolated and over whelmed by sadness Unsurprisingly, the Catholic Church did not face any official consequences for its actions, though it has lost critical public suppor t in recent years. O’ Connor has been unofficially vindicated
The ar tist ’s immense talent and incredible vocals, at times a whisper at others a roar of defiance, carr y the
viewer through the ar t and interior world of probably the greatest musical ar tist that Ireland has produced. Often absent from the capitalist media, but amply utilised here, the ar tist ’s own voice guides us on a journey through her oeuvre and her influences both personal and political, both of which are never quite separate. As second wave feminists have pointed out the personal is political
The deleterious effects of Catholic Ireland marred O’ Connor ’s childhood in the form of her mother ’s violence and abuse Sinead is uncompromising in linking her mother ’s abuse to the oppressive nature of the Irish capitalist state theocrac y which produced her We learn that her music is a vehicle with which she can deal with this trauma and exorcise it, also becoming a vehicle for her to speak out against injustice.
nothing compares does not shy away from the politics that are foisted upon young women in the music industr y and elsewhere. The young star is pressured by music industr y executives to conform to their limited view of popstar femininity long hair, shor t skir t, high heels The ar tist responds by staking her claim to herself and her own autonomy by shaving her hair off entirely. Executives do not stop there, when she becomes pregnant with her first child there is an attempt to manipulate her into having an abor tion, telling her that she ‘owes it’ to the record label. Again, Sinead resists and eventually gives bir th to her son Jake. Having escaped the par ticular brand of misogyny of Catholic Ireland, she was faced with it again and again in the form of the for profit music industr y and the capitalist press.
Despite the pillor ying that Sinéad received from all angles of the press and music industr y, she remained steadfast in speaking truth to power in a meaningful way. She is as much an activist as she is an ar tist. O’ Connor has protested and been vocal on abor tion rights in Ireland, against racism, the killing of black men by
I n late 1917 and early 1918 several thousand armed men gathered by the Don r iver in russia They were almost all militar y officers, and their aim was to over throw the first work ing class regime in histor y, installed by a popular revolution in Oc tober 1917. These officers were the first White Army, and they were about to begin three years of bitter conflic t Antony Beevor, in his new book russia: revolution and civil War, comments that these right wing officers wanted to “save the russian people from themselves ” This attitude toward ‘the russian people’ is consistent throughout the book : again and again the author quotes something to the effec t that russian peasants and workers were stupid, violent and even inhuman
racist police, and against the Gulf War to name just a few While it deals mainly with the years 1987 to 1993, the film brings us right up to the recent victories in Ireland on marriage equality and repeal and hints at the role that pioneering figures such as O’ Connor played in helping to achieve these goals In a recent inter view director Kathr yn Ferguson says “Ireland has changed and a lot of that ’s from young, energised, collective activism” It must always be re stated that the sea tide of change we have seen in Ireland has been a result of such collective organising and brave voices such as O’ Connor ’s which have been met with resistance ever y step of the way from Church and state While we approach the 10th anniversar y of the death of Savita Halappanavar as a result of misogynistic anti abor tion laws and the recent attacks on abor tion rights around the world, not least in the US, Sinead O’ Connor is a renewed figure of inspiration and resistance for a new generation of activists.
In all, Ferguson’s documentar y is a masterclass in how to treat its subject, par ticularly when that subject is an incredibly talented, beautiful woman whose narrative has been commandeered by the media. rather than shying away from the exploitation and trauma experienced by the titular protagonist, nothing compares grabs these issues by the horns yet maintains Sinead's agenc y, dignity and personhood throughout, ultimately capturing her indomitable spirit in the face of the most intense witch hunt by the capitalist press n
The author tells this stor y mostly from the point of view of wealthy or affluent people. For example, instead of being present with the people in the streets during the Februar y revolution, the narrator is mostly in back rooms with generals and counts and ministers as they send ner vous telegrams to one another. I n a few lines he dismisses the Soviets, the democratic workers’ councils, as a farce He focuses, for page af ter page, on the failed attempts to get the Tsar ’s brother to become the new Tsar.
The First World War is described in gruesome terms. But quick ly we move on to the mutinies and deser tions which brought the war to an end, which are described in terms even more gruesome. Beevor treats the land question with the same hypocrisy. He briefly ack nowledges how terrible things were for the russian peasants But when the “repulsive” peasants rise up against the landlords (p 53), he is outraged.
Elsewhere, he writes as if he cares deeply about democrac y This is difficult to take seriously when he defends the landlords, and thinks a different Tsar would have been the solution.
But the remark about ‘saving the russian people from themselves’ is also a back handed way of admitting that the revolution enjoyed the suppor t of a vast mass of the russian people.
Many people today assume that Lenin and the early
Soviet regime were c ynical, brutal and corrupt, like the regime of Stalin and his successors. I n fac t, the early Soviet regime and the early Bolshevik / Communist Par t y were fundamentally different, and emerged out of a mass popular revolution
This book does not admit of any difference bet ween the t wo regimes. Any mention of Lenin is hedged with hostile words We have ‘c ynical,’ ‘frequent rages,’ ‘vile obscenities,’ ‘contempt,’ ‘obsessive’ and that ’s all just in one paragraph (p 62). Whenever Beevor cannot avoid mentioning something admirable or positive that Lenin did, the narrative is weighed down with far fetched explanations of why this was bad, ac tually, or else a strange exception to the rule. The author also has a bad habit of presenting his own far fetched interpretations of Bolshevik polic y and ac tions as if they were the straight fac ts
The leaders of the White Ar mies are never subjec ted to the same scrutiny. They should be; they made the choice to r ise up in ar ms against a popular revolution A major reason why they lost was because they could not recruit and retain soldiers. B y their own admission, the people were ‘infec ted ’ with ‘B olshevik ’ ideas And without foreign inter vention the White cause would not have been viable at all The unimaginable suffer ing and mass mor talit y of these bleak years should be blamed squarely on the White Guards and the Allies Want to guess who B eevor blames it all on?
An ex treme and chaotic situation developed over the course of 1918 Most of russia was occupied by White armies, backed by hundreds of thousands of foreign troops. Famine, growing since 1915, was now rampant. By late August 1918 many thousands of workers and communists had already been k illed in waves of White Terror The ‘socialist experiment ’ was carried out in a burning laborator y. This was the contex t in which many of the promises of the revolution could not be delivered, and it helped to lay the foundations for Stalinist counter revolution to develop at a later time.
Beevor sees things in a more simplistic way. As far as I can make out, he believes that ever ything the Soviets did was par t of a master plan to cause as much miser y as possible. To what end is unclear.
The early Soviet regime made impor tant mistakes and no wonder, in such a vast countr y and in such an ex treme situation The Chek a, the securit y police, grew out of control, leading to many injustices and provocative outrages. But Beevor gives an utterly false impression that the Chek a was unleashed, full force, immediately af ter the revolution, in a cold blooded projec t of mass murder. I n realit y, the Chek a was ver y small at first, and its size and powers grew only as the Civil War escalated and the securit y situation grew truly dire
The Soviet invasion of Poland in the summer of 1920 was a disaster. Many Soviet leaders such as Trotsk y warned of this, and others such as Lenin were quick to ack nowledge it af ter wards But Beevor ’s
account is one sided Blink and you’ll miss the crucial point that the Polish state star ted the war by invading Soviet Uk raine and seizing Kyiv as par t of a grandiose plan to create an empire Naturally, Beevor finds a way to blame this, too, on Lenin Compared with other hostile accounts of the russian revolution (there has never been any shor tage), russia: revolution and civil War is unusually crude I ts other chief distinc tion is the sheer volume of graphic descriptions of violence which it has marshalled bet ween t wo covers. But it has some value. When Beevor is caught up in his narrative, the book is quite readable He had help from a number of researchers, so a large par t of the book consists of details and anecdotes which you will not come across in other English language sources This makes it a wor thwhile read and a useful resource But in relation to the Civil War there are far better books than this on the market in English speak ing countries.
Beevor quotes a young red Guard as writing: ‘Compared to the enemy, we had a great advantage We believed in the cause of universal justice as opposed to personal class privileges’ (p 163) But such moments, when he shows the reds as human, are ver y rare I n 500 pages, he says nothing good about a revolution which redistributed land, emancipated women and minorities, opened up education, provided free healthcare, and much else besides But since the book mostly takes the point of view of the rich, and since, for the rich, nothing good came out of the revolution, this makes a k ind of sense n
w w w . s o c i a l i s t p a r t y . i e w w w . s o c i a l i s t p a r t y n i . o r g
