The Inexorable Crisis of Capitalism Spreads Misery and War

Profit rates are tending to fall everywhere whilst the mass of misery in the world grows, as capital struggles to render the processes of its mode of production internationally competitive. The enormous concentration of capital in the dominant monopolistic companies forces them to churn out huge quantities of goods, while the most elementary needs of half of humanity remain unsatisfied. Wages, especially for those who find nothing but precarious work, and charitable subsidies for those without employment, are the only source of an imaginary "income" ... Capital tries everywhere to produce plenty and at low costs (this is the shared thesis that also unites the programmes of ... national-socialism!), while the share of capital destined for the wages of the workers inevitably falls alongside the same technology-driven increases in productivity.

This is because the inability to obtain sufficient profit, the "commercial competition" - which the bourgeois right and left incessantly crow about – becomes more and more ferocious, taking the form of military conflict as the only means to which the bourgeoisies of individual countries or imperialist centres cling to in order to escape a threatening situation both for their present and future interests. And we are now only at the stage of an intensification of localised wars, that is short-term strategic deals, to be followed by the formation of opposing imperialist blocs for the purpose of large-scale conflict. A conflict which inevitably arises for the control of the flow of raw materials (including energy) essential to maintain the transport of goods to sell on international markets.

An inevitable reckoning is approaching for a capitalism which can only be imperialist. Only a revolutionary overthrowing of the true causes of this unavoidable condition of social barbarism will be able to block the ferocity of capital’s attacks on the most disinherited masses of the planet.

In this "global" context it would be a deadly illusion to assign "liberating historical content" to national struggles that may claim to be outside to imperialist manoeuvring and the interests of world capitalist domination. Concepts such as independence, autonomy and self-determination clash (and launch… missiles) alongside the development of financial capital and an intensification of the exploitation of the workforce, taking place in every corner of the planet. This agonising historical phase in which capital spreads the logic of war is simply the application of capitalism’s only means to survive; robbing surplus value and accumulating parasitic rent. To call upon the proletariat, under false pretext, to sympathise with these objectives means to undermine the very foundations of the class struggle of each proletariat against its own capitalism and its own ruling class.

Without the active and autonomous presence of the revolutionary forces and a political organization that represents and guides them – internationally – there can be no anti-imperialist struggle. In no case must the communists help the national ruling class to consolidate the foundations of their power, but they must strive for the utmost clarity among the proletarian and semi-proletarian masses, so that they do not let themselves be dragged into a consolidation of becoming political and economic props of their own exploitation, so strengthening the chains that bind them to capital.

The task of communists is to deepen, with all the means at their disposal, the split that divides the interests of the exploited masses from those of the national ruling class, and the international monopolies. We need to clearly indicate the programmatic lines of the proletarian revolution, in total opposition to exploitation and war, rejecting any distinction between just wars and unjust wars, wars of defence or aggression, all belonging to the totality of the imperialist system, and agitating against any such distinction with revolutionary defeatism. Every distinction and surrender to the tactics of the “least bad”, the “lesser evil”, or to subtle interpretations of this or that inter-imperialist movement, means a retreat in the face of the class enemy. Wars do not… “disturb” imperialism, whatever guise it adopts: war is the historical outcome of capitalist development. Imperialism’s manoeuvres (political, economic and financial) are stained with the blood of a tormented proletariat following the most reactionary bourgeois ideologies, including religious ones.

For our part, we affirm that being a communist today means committing oneself to and fighting hard for the communist revolutionary programme and for the constitution of a secure political guide, a solid point of reference and coordination of proletarian struggles. Without its party, the proletariat remains at the mercy of the manoeuvres of capital and its many foolish servants. And above all, it will not be able to stop war by following that wholly idealistic "trend", that is pacifism, which, ignoring the class nature of war, hopes for the possibility of peace under the rule of capitalism. Instead, we must overcome false or illusory expectations; join our efforts so that the internationalist propaganda of communism can attain the widest circulation. Our criticism, our political positions offer the most aware part of the proletariat the right answers to the complex events of the reality in which it lives, in the face of the theoretical and political confusion of many, too many, groups that falsely assume the role of “opposition”.

And we must never forget that the proletariat is the only force capable of putting an end to the barbarism of capitalism.

D.C.