Intervention of Sitaram Yechury Member Polit Bureau Head, International Department Communist Party of India (Marxist) Dear Comrades, At the very outset allow me to thank the Lebanese Communist Party for not only hosting the 14th International
Meeting of the Communist and Workers' Parties, but also making such
splendid arrangements. The importance of this meeting, held here in
Lebanon, cannot be lost for any discerned observer. We
are meeting here in West Asia (or Middle-East as is commonly referred
to by Western observers), at a time when the region is extremely
volatile. In fact, there is no better place in the world than this that
stands testimony to the imperialist aggression. As we are meeting and
discussing the dangers and threats of imperialism, Palestinians in Gaza
are experiencing it. Reports are coming out on an hourly basis about the
many innocent lives lost in the aerial attacks. Even the injured are
fighting for lives due to the non-availability of medicines – thanks to
the Israeli blockade. Four years ago, coinciding with the elections in
the US, Israel had attacked Gaza, which had resulted in more than
thousand dead and many more injured. Barack Obama, the President-elect
then, condemned the attack. Today, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize,
President Barack Obama, who won the right to be the President of the US
for another four years, is staunchly defending Israel and its 'right to
self-defence'. This illustrates how US and Israel are arrogantly
appropriating the right to execute anyone they want, anywhere in the
world, without any limitations, regardless of how many innocent
civilians they kill in the process. It
is not just Palestine. Just bordering Lebanon, Syria is another example
of imperialist aggression. Now it has been clearly established that
imperialist countries are openly arming and helping the rebels to
destabilise the Syrian administration. As the people are dying in
thousands, imperialist countries are openly planning the distribution of
Syrian resources, once the current regime is overthrown and the rebels
capture power. This was how they had operated in yet another country in
the neighbourhood – Libya. All these go on to show once again that
imperialism is the aggressor numero uno. And all these are
happening even before the blood stains have dried in Afghanistan and
Iraq. Iran is the declared target, on whom the Damocles sword is
hanging. The
reasons for this naked aggressiveness of imperialism cannot be
understood unless we consider the political and economic conditions of
the contemporary world. Imperialism is using all the means at its
disposal – military, economic and political – to come out of the current
global economic crisis and ensure that it retains its hegemony over the
world. Comrades, Starting
from the 10th IMCWP in Brazil, 2008, we had underlined in all our
annual meetings that the world is reeling under the severest recession
since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The global economic crisis is
not a 'one-off' crisis, but a systemic crisis that is deeply rooted in
the intrinsic functioning of the capitalist system. Fours years had
passed and despite the brave claims made by the leaders of developed
countries, the world is yet to come out of this systemic crisis. What we
are now witnessing today is in fact, the fifth phase of the present
crisis. The
raison d etre of capitalism is profit maximisation. In its quest for
maximising the profits and come out of the crisis it had found itself in
the decade of the 70s, capitalism had initiated neo-liberal economic
policies. As a result, the maxim for the State became, 'it is no
business for the government to be in business'. With the setback to
socialism in Soviet Union and East European countries, the apologists
for capitalism propagated that capitalism is here to stay and that there
is no alternative (TINA). End of history was proclaimed and
neo-liberalism as a philosophy was trumpeted. Market dominance, led by
the private corporates was unleashed on the people. This period
witnessed intensified exploitation and increasing inequalities within
the countries and across the countries. As a result real incomes saw a
fall plunging the purchasing power of people into a steep pit. This in
fact is the genesis of the present crisis and can be termed as its first
phase. Capitalism
unable to sell what it had produced, once again found itself in a
crisis. To wiggle out of this situation it had designed ingenious
methods like providing people with what are called as sub-prime loans.
To cover the risks arising from the nonpayment of these loans, new
forms of financial instruments were evolved. Many financial institutions
that were viewed as 'too big to fail', found their books full of these
volatile financial instruments. They in fact sat on a volcano that was
soon to erupt and erupt it did swallowing all those 'big' financial
institutions. This corporate insolvency is the second phase of the
crisis. Now,
when the financial corporates collapse, taking down the stock market –
regarded as a thermometer for market sentiment – it is bound to
adversely affect the interests of capitalism. We find a situation where
private capitalists who were till then shouting against government
interference, at once demanding the government to bail them out. The
capitalist State, true to its class character, came out in defence of
these big financial corporates and bailed them out with huge packages.
States that did not have any monies for enacting pro-people policies
suddenly found trillions of dollars to rescue the financial
institutions. While these financial institutions collapsed sinking the
dreams of millions of tax payers who had invested their pensions and
hard earned savings in them, the very money of these people – taxes paid
to the government – is used to bail out these financial giants and
ensure that they do not lose. This is the third phase in the current
global crisis that rapidly led to the fourth phase. By
undertaking huge and unprecedented bailout packages for those very
corporates who, in the first place, caused the financial meltdown,
developed countries incurred huge amounts of debts surpassing their
GDPs. Thus, global capitalism sought to overcome the crisis by
converting corporate insolvencies into sovereign insolvencies. This, in
turn, has intensified the crisis today plunging the world economy into a
state of uncertainty. Now
we are in the fifth phase of the crisis, where the governments to
wiggle out of the morass they find themselves in, impose what they term
as 'austerity measures'. These are in fact nothing but a naked attack on
the hard won rights of the working people. Retirement ages are raised,
pensions and wages froze, widespread retrenchment became the norm,
accentuating the already severe unemployment prevalent in many
countries. This attack on the economic rights won by the working class
is complemented by an attack on their social and political rights. The
right to organise, strike and oppose the policies of the government are
curtailed. Trade unions are repressed and political parties are painted
black. The formation of 'technocrat' government in Italy, exemplifies
this philosophy. Capitalism
to defend its actions launches an intense ideological campaign.
Attempts to rewrite history, malign communism as a theory by equating it
with fascism, trying to negate the achievements of socialism are all
part of such ploys. They thus intend to rob the working class of its
historical legacy and deny it the ideological weapon to fight capitalist
system. But as history had repeatedly shown and recent events once
again testify, working class will not be fooled forever by such
trickery. The 'austerity measures' introduced in many of the countries
are indeed an attempt by the ruling classes to transfer the burden of
the crisis on to the shoulders of the working class and common people.
As the burden of sovereign debt in the name of 'austerity' is passed on
to the common people, their purchasing power correspondingly declines.
Combined with the growth of unemployment, this leads to a sharp
contraction in domestic demand. Further, this global crisis has
drastically reduced global trade. With the contraction of domestic
demand in all the major economic powers, the contraction of GDP is
inevitable. This, in turn, will lead to a contraction in governmental
revenues, imposing further debt. The servicing of this would lead to
imposing further burdens on the people. This vicious cycle has been set
in motion. Reports
are already emanating that Europe is now in double dip recession. It
was officially accepted by European Union officials when they announced
that the Euro zone was officially back in recession after a 0.1% fall in
output in the third quarter. This follows a 0.2% drop in gross domestic
product in the second quarter. For the first time, the reports also
point out that this phenomenon was not confined to the 'southern'
countries and 'peripheral' economies. Germany's growth rate has slowed
since the start of 2012. France's economy is stuttering, earning it the
sobriquet that it is 'the time-bomb ticking among the European
economies' from The Economist. But the most important and
serious observation that the recent data provides is that the 'triple A'
rated Netherlands too saw a sharp 1.1% quarterly fall in GDP, which was
more than five times the expected drop. Austria too is following a
similar path. All these, apart from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and
Cyprus which saw their economies contract in the third quarter, shows
that the contagion is spreading from the periphery to the core. On
the other side of the Atlantic too the situation is not rosy. The USA
and, indeed, the global economy are bracing itself to face the
consequences of what is called the US “fiscal cliff”. If both the
Republican and Democrat lawmakers do not arrive at any agreement, as it
appears to be, the newly re-elected President Obama would be helpless.
The levy of new taxes and automatic spending cuts are set to take effect
from the beginning of 2013. This will lead to a severe contraction of
the US economy. The impact would be devastating leading, according to
some analysts, to as much as 4 to 6 per cent decline in the US GDP. Such
a falling of the 'cliff' would push not only the USA into prolonged
recession but lead to a global economic devastation. The Fitch, a rating agency, says that this would push the global economy into recession and “halve the rate of global growth in 2013”. On
the top of these two catastrophes awaiting to happen – the double dip
recession of the EU and the US fiscal cliff – in 2014 Greece, Portugal
and Spain have to re-service their debts. This, they cannot. In order to
adhere to their promises made to the international funding agencies
like the IMF and ECB, they will be forced to accept further more
conditions and increase the burdens imposed on their people. This will
adversely affect the livelihoods of the people by further impoverishing
them. Convergence of all these three elements is what is making this
global economic crisis more acute and whatever efforts capitalism is
making to come out of the current crisis are bound to fail. It is in
this background that imperialism is becoming more and more aggressive –
to bring under its control all the major pockets of natural resources,
trading routes and world market. The military aggression in Middle-East,
attempts to scuttle the popular uprisings, increase its military
presence in Asia-Pacific, establish military bases across the world,
particularly in Latin America are all part of this game-plan. But
as the global developments point out people are not taking the attacks
on their livelihoods and aspirations lying down. They are coming out in
big numbers and forcing changes worldwide. The popular protests that we
had witnessed in West Asia/North Africa; the strike actions, protests,
demonstrations in Europe and other parts of the world; and the recent
re-election of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, all point to the mood of
resistance amongst the people. It is this urge to resist and change the
world for better that needs to be harnessed by us, Communists. As
Marx had taught us and Lenin had subsequently proved in practice,
capitalism will not collapse on its own. It has to be overthrown. This
requires the united action of all the exploited forces, led by the
working class. It is only through adherence to Marxism-Leninism – the
only theoretical weapon that guides the working class in the struggle
for systemic change – and 'concrete analysis of the concrete
conditions', as Lenin had taught us, can we strengthen the subjective
factor for the overthrow of capitalism. There is no better time than now
to change the world. Socialism is the future, let us bring it now!
Long Live Marxism-Leninism.
