March to support the Iranian people's upsurge and condemn the Islamic Regimes brutality

It is nearly a month since the start of the Iranian peoples uprising against a backward and medieval Islamic regime that swept the whole country.

The regime, whose pillars have been strongly shaken, has since resorted to all kinds of suppression and repression to contain the peoples rebellions. But they have not been able to put out the fire that the people of Iran started.

In this upsurge, the women have been playing a remarkable role, indicating both the severe oppression the women have been going through in the last 30 years of Islamic rule and the determination of the young women to put an end to the history of an anti-women and anti-people regime.

The recent events in Iran have triggered different reactions from different corners of the world. It is becoming more apparent that US imperialism has moved to save Ahmadinejad- Khamenei's regime in exchange for his cooperation on Irans nuclear issue and also US policy in the Middle-East. As all the big powers are pursuing their own interest and seeking to support one faction or other in the regime, we expect all the freedom loving people and those who hate the oppression and suppression of the people, and the kind of oppression the women of Iran are going through, to stand along side the people of Iran and do all they can to support the Iranian peoples upsurge and help them to keep the fire burning.

We invite you to join the march that we Iranian women along with several other groups have organised, showing your solidarity and support to the Iranian peoples movement and protest the Islamic regimes brutality.

Assemble: Trafalgar Square

(In Front of the National Gallery)

Nearest Underground and train station: Charing Cross

Date: Sunday 12 July

Time: 4.00pm


8 March Womens Organisation (Iran-Afghanistan) - UK

Thousands of Iranians Protest in Tehran

In Iran thousands of protesters defied a ban on demonstrations and marched in Tehran on Thursday. Security forces fired tear gas and charged the protesters with batons. The protest came on the 10th anniversary of a student uprising at Tehran University.

Maoist term government policy document 'hotchpotch', NC dissatisfied

The main opposition Unified CPN (Maoist) has said nothing worthwhile can be expected from the government policies and programs.

Immediately after President Ram Baran Yadav presented the policy document of the government at the legislature parliament on Thursday, giving top priority to peace, constitution-drafting and relief programs, former finance minister and Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai described the government as a 'poisonous tree' and its programs as a 'hotchpotch' which has nothing concrete to give to the people.

Bhattarai said the party strongly opposes the government policies and programs, adding that it as weak as the government that presented it.

The Maoists have also decided to register an amendment proposal at the legislature parliament opposing the government policies and programs.

Meanwhile, main coalition partner Nepali Congress has also said it is not happy with the policies and programs of the UML government.

NC said it was dissatisfied because the policy document doesn't incorporate the party's programmes.

Immediately after President Yadav presented the policy document, former finance minister and NC leader Ram Sharan Mahat met Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and expressed the party's objection to the policy document.

NC Parliamentary Party leader Ram Chandra Poudel later said, "We are yet to discuss and take a position. I don't want to object the policies and programmes but there are issues, which must be addressed."

NC is miffed with CPN-UML as it has incorporated most of its past programmes without bothering to incorporate NC's programmes.

Similarly, the Upendra Yadav faction of Madhesi Janadhikar Forum has said that the gains of the Madhesi movement was "dishonored" in the government policies and programmes, and added that it has nothing new to offer.

Resolving contradictions amongst the People - by Mao Zedong

This democratic method of resolving contradictions among the people was epitomized in 1942 in the formula "unity -- criticism -- unity". To elaborate, that means starting from the desire for unity, resolving contradictions through criticism or struggle, and arriving at a new unity on a new basis. In our experience this is the correct method of resolving contradictions among the people.

In 1942 we used it to resolve contradictions inside the Communist Party, namely, the contradictions between the dogmatists and the great majority of the membership, and between dogmatism and Marxism. The "Left" dogmatists had resorted to the method of "ruthless struggle and merciless blows" in inner-Party struggle. It was the wrong method. In criticizing "Left" dogmatism, we did not use this old method but adopted a new one, that is, one of starting from the desire for unity, distinguishing between right and wrong through criticism or struggle, and arriving at a new unity on a new basis. This was the method used in the rectification movement of 1942.

Within a few years, by the time the Chinese Communist Party held its Seventh National Congress in 1945, unity was achieved throughout the Party as anticipated, and consequently the people's revolution triumphed. Here, the essential thing is to start from the desire for unity. For without this desire for unity, the struggle, once begun, is certain to throw things into confusion and get out of hand. Wouldn't this be the same as "ruthless struggle and merciless blows"? And what Party unity would there be left? It was precisely this experience that led us to the formula "unity -- criticism -- unity". Or, in other words, "learn from past mistakes to avoid future ones and cure the sickness to save the patient". We extended this method beyond our Party. We applied it with great success in the anti-Japanese base areas in dealing with the relations between the leadership and the masses, between the army and the people, between officers and men, between the different units of the army, and between the different groups of cadres. The use of this method can be traced back to still earlier times in our Party's history.

Ever since 1927 when we built our revolutionary armed forces and base areas in the south, this method had been used to deal with the relations between the Party and the masses, between the army and the people, between officers and men, and with other relations among the people. The only difference was that during the anti-Japanese war we employed this method much more consciously. And since the liberation of the whole country, we have employed this same method of "unity -- criticism -- unity" in our relations with the democratic parties and with industrial and commercial circles.

Our task now is to continue to extend and make still better use of this method throughout the ranks of the people; we want all our factories, co-operatives, shops, schools, offices and people's organizations, in a word, all our 600 million people, to use it in resolving contradictions among themselves.

Thousands of Chinese Forces Enter Restive City of Urumqi

In China, thousands of government forces have swept into a restive city in the Xinjiang region amidst the country’s worst ethnic violence in decades. Tensions have flared in the city of Urumqi between China’s ethnic Han Chinese and the ethnic Uyghurs, a Muslim minority. Some 156 people have been killed, more than 1,000 wounded and more than 1400 arrested so far. Both sides blame the other for the violence. Chinese President Hu Jintao has cut short a visit to Italy for the G8 summit, which opens in Italy today

Some three-quarters of the victims of the violence in China's western Xinjiang region were ethnic Han Chinese, the official death toll shows.

Of 184 people known to have died, 137 were Han Chinese, 46 were from the indigenous Uighur community and one was an ethnic Hui, local officials said.

Beijing flooded the regional capital Urumqi with security forces to stem the violence which erupted last Sunday.

Correspondents say some Uighurs believe their own death toll was much higher.

"I've heard that more than 100 Uighurs have died but nobody wants to talk about it in public," one Uighur man in Urumqi who did not want to give his name told the Associated Press news agency.

Uighurs living in exile outside China have also disputed the Chinese figures. Rebiya Kadeer, the US-based head of the World Uighur Congress, said she believed about 500 people had died.

According to the Chinese death toll released by state media, 26 of the 137 Han Chinese victims were female, while all but one of the 45 Uighurs killed were male.

The single death recorded in the Hui community, which is similar to the Uighurs ethnically and religiously, was that of a male.

Maoist Central Committee Meeting begins

The meeting of the central committee of Unified CPN (Maoist) started at the office of the party's sister organisations at Koteshwor Wednesday.

Maoist chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal inaugurates the party's central...
Today's meeting opened debate on party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal's political document that was passed by the recent politburo meeting. The 19-page political document stresses on Maoist-led national unity government as the immediate priority of the party.

The meeting will also take decisions on the party's strategies, division of responsibilities to central leaders, management of party whole-timers, integration of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), and the party's general convention.

Party spokesperson Dina Nath Sharma said debate on other issues would start after Dahal's political document is finalised.

Prior to the beginning the central committee meeting, Dahal inaugurated the party headquarters in the new building at Parisdanda, Koteshwor, which covers large area and houses most offices of the party's sister organisations.

Guerrilla TV July 5th 2009 part of MRN Network

The Political Economy of the Current Crisis and the rebirth of Socialism in the 21st Century by Nickglais

Capitalist crisis is not new and has been around since the first general crisis of the capitalist system in Britain in 1825. This first general crisis of capitalism in Britain was a source of study by Marx and Engels and their study of capitalist crisis contributed to the creation of Marxism and a new political economy.

Already Engels wrote in 1877

"We have now since the year 1825, gone through this five times and at the present moment (1877) we are going throught it gain for the sixth time. (Crisies ocurred in 1825, 1836, 1847,1857, and 1866)

Engels - Socialism Utopian and Scientific

There have been numerous capitalist crisis ever since, some severe like the 1929/1930's and some milder, but our task today is to locate the origin of the current crisis to make some an estimate of its depth and impending severity and try to bring forth appropriate responses from working people that will lead to revolutionary transformation of the existing economic system of capitalism to socialism because the continuation of capitalism as a world system into the middle decades of the 21st Century has the very high probability of jepardizing human life on this planet has the economic crisis and the ecological merge into the same problem if they have not already sychronised and become the same.

Background to Current Crisis

At one level a capitalist crisis is a contradiction between the forces and relations of production but we need to go beyond the general level to explain the crisis of capitalist accumulation in a specific case like the current crisis and how the crisis of over accumulation has come about.

There is a debate about the rate of profit and its role in the real economy with many Marxist Economists stating that it has risen due to the neo liberal changes of last forty years, this is the position of Fred Moseley writing in International Socialism who sees this crisis as a Minsky ( neo Keynesian ) crisis or financial crisis rather than a Marxist crisis of the system as a whole.

I would like to draw your attention to the innovative work of Andrew Kliman (1) who demonstrates that those who have claimed a rise in profits have measured it in the wrong way and if Marx's method is followed there has been a long term decline in the rate of profit in the real economy which is why all the speculation of the last decades. Andrew Kliman see's the current crisis as systemic starting in the real economy and not localised to the financial sector.

One of the questions underlying this paper is it possible to postpone a crisis in profitability through credit and neoliberal trade policies ?

The immediate background to this crisis is that of the last major crisis of capitalism in the 1970's when the Post War Keynesian solution to capitalism's problems broke down.

The failure of Keynesian policies to deal with the simultaneous inflation and stagnation of the 1970s-stagflation- basically put an end to Keynesianism as theory, except among ideologues desperate for a progressive alternative to socialism.

Whilst many of us in the 1970's put forward socialism has an alternative to failed Keynesianism we did so in an environment where a crisis in Socialism was emerging consequent upon the rise of modern revisionism which started to use markets in a so called"technical manner" which undermined socialist planning via the route of so called market socialist economy and wrongly -applied the capitalist law of value to Socialist economies.

It was at this strategic moment of confusion in Socialism , that the well funded neo liberal think tanks swung into action to win over the political elites for their alternative to Keynesian and Socialist solutions to the capitalist crisis.

The post coup Chilean economy proved their laboratory read David Harvey and Naomi Klein for all the details in "Brief History of Neoliberalism" and "Disaster Capitalism" respectively..

Reaganism and Thatcherism combined the old Hayekian, Von Mises anti socialist political economy updated by the mathematics of Milton Friedman into mainstream politics from its oddball status of the 1950's and 1960's so that by the end of the 1970's and during the 1980's.it was the dominant economic ideology.

The new neo liberal solution allowed for the reconstitution of capitalist class power that had become eroded due to working class organisational strength and what followed was a massive expansion of the financial sector which was promoted by the state with industry migrating to developing countries in pursuit of higher profit in to what Immanuel Wallerstein calls the semi - periphery and periphery of the world capitalist economy. The new financialsation was to provide a credit underpining to a low wage or restrained wage policy in USA and UK and other countries soon emulated this so called free market model has if it did not depend on the capitalist state for its functioning - the invisible hand has always been the state fist.

Significant de-industrialisation occured in the core countries of the West but principally in the USA and UK

Financial services were seen has wealth creation in themselves according to revised neo liberal economic theory and not charges on productive economy has they has been seen by Ricardo and Marx in Classical Economics.

In fact one could read the whole of neo classical economics what Marx called vulgar apologetics as defence of rent, interest and profit has contributions to and not charges on the real economy has Ricardo and Marx vigourously argued they were..

Milton Friedmann is famous for saying that there were no free lunches in a market economy but his pseudo mathematical economics gave cover for more free lunches of the capitalist class in its entire history and continued neo classical Economics into the late 20th Century..

These financial markets spawned new financial instruments and products and a whole new futures and options industry was born ostensibily to hedge contracts and buy future contracts in commodities and theoretically the neo liberals said a little bit of speculation would provide liquidity for these markets.

Professors of Economics from Chicago to Shanghai and London signed up to this project for a nice fat fee to present papers jusifying the unreal world economics of paper wealth creation.

I can remember reading an article in the late 1980s in Fortune magazine which described these new financial instruments as the nuclear weapons of the capitalist system and Fortune magazine was proved right by Nick Leeson in Singapore who took out options on futures contracts and brought down the centuries old House of Baring Brothers overnight..

By the late 1990's another implosion came this time with Long Term Capital Management with its illustrious economics team including two Noble prize winners for economics - the best and brightest of capitalist economics discovered they were on another economic planet when the real world took its revenge on them and their speculative political economy failed and the US Government afraid of systemic failure came the rescue of LTCM.

However lessons were not learned and this new financial industry at the core of the new dynamic reconfigured capitalism of the 1970's went merrily on from minor to major disasters as regulations like those of Glass Steagal in the USA which separated commercial banking from investment banking were scrapped London of course followed suit or led with its relaxed regulatory regime of the Financial Services Authority and its own Big Bang earlier in the decade...

Now we arrive at the current crisis brought on by the famous credit default swap financial instrument or CDS where we discover a whole host of new derivatives in the credit industry married to the property and insurance markets enabling a fast tracking of crisis across the whole financial system.

The unravelling of the bubble in the property market exposed this link directly into the credit markets and in turn the insurance market making a systemic problem for capitalism in the financial sector of the economy.

There have been property crashes and bubbles before - some economsts foecast an 18 year property cycle but this time was different it was not a property crash alone but the whole financial sector came tumbling down because of the growth of the derivatives market and the new cross links in the financial sector between property,credit and insurance.

The World Bank was trying to understand what was gong on, the neo liberal IMF with its best and brightest were confounded but the Central Bankers Bank the Bank of International Settlements knew exactly what was going on and actually issued warning to banks about derivatives exposure - but to no avail - after all they were all making money !

Then finally they published the liabilities of the derivatives industry has a result of the mushrooming of financial instruments and they were staggering 600 trillion dollars by end 2007 and by 2009 they were a thousand trillion dollars. These claims were only backed by between 15 -25 trillion dollars of real assets, nobody knows for sure..

For the first time we source and discover the depth of the crisis

Against what can we measure this figure to get some perspective on these astronomical figures.

The size of the world economy annually is appoximately worth 60 trillion dollars.

By October 2008, the amount of losses in this international speculative, mortgage, banking and stock market crisis was already four hundred times higher than in the deepest world economic crisis up to now in 1929. according to Stephan Engel(2) of the MLPD in Germany.

This overproduction of capital by a capitalist system should come as no surprise to us and Marx himself noted it and saw the periodic crisis as a means of the purging of this fictitious capital - but what Marx nor Lenin forsee was the extreme to which it could go under late capitalism..

A comrade of mine Mike of Serve (3) The People Blog in Australia in an article which he recently wrote on the on the Bank of International Settlements derivatives figures published on my Political Economy Research Blog makes the following observations .

Lenin wrote, “It is characteristic of capitalism in general that the ownership of capital is separated from the application of capital to production, that money capital is separated from industrial or productive capital, and that the rentier who lives entirely on income obtained from money capital, is separated from the entrepreneur and from all who are directly concerned in the management of capital.

Imperialism, or the domination of finance capital, is that highest stage of capitalism in which this separation reaches vast proportions. The supremacy of finance capital over all other forms of capital means the predominance of the rentier and of the financial oligarchy; it means that a small number of financially “powerful” states stand out among all the rest. The extent to which this process is going on may be judged from the statistics on emissions, i.e., the issue of all kinds of securities.”

In fact Lenin was only touching the surface of what would emerge from the creativity of the “best and brightest” of this financial oligarchy. He might never have guessed how limited and infantile his phrase “all kinds of securities” might appear from the vantage point of the 1970s and onwards.

To quote Stefan Engel of the MLPD again " The dimension of the present international speculative, financial, stock market and banking crisis is a new phenomenon unprecedented in the history of capitalism".

Solutions to rescue capitalism ?

Neo Keynesian Solutions : already we have people like Eric Hobsbawn heralding the reurn of Keynes and the left social democrats wants to resurrect this dead and discredited school of zombie political economy.

Here is what Andrew Kliman (4) writes about this school of capitalist thought

There’s an ideological return to Keynesianism, there has been for some time, among some on the left. They’ve given up on the possibility of socialism, so they desperately cling to the quasi-Keynesian notion of a “rising tide that lifts all boats” as something that can make people’s lives better within capitalism. I think the historical record speaks clearly here. Welfare-state capitalism failed miserably. Its supposed gains were unsustainable once the postwar boom ended. The failure of Keynesian policies to deal with the simultaneous inflation and stagnation of the 1970s-stagflation-basically put an end to Keynesianism as theory, except among ideologues desperate for a progressive alternative to socialism.

The quasi-Keynesian notion that, by raising wages, governments can stimulate spending and create such prosperity that even the capitalists will be pleased with the results-rather than triggering a flight of capital to the Third World and other low-wage regions-has been disproved in practice. It’s also far-fetched theoretically. Capitalists make more profit when they pay lower wages, not when they pay higher wages. To the extent that Keynesian policies were ever able to work at all, if they did indeed ever work, it is because, as Keynes himself recognized, we had “closed economies” shielded from international competition and international financial markets. But we live in different times.

Or mabe for a more succint statement about Keynesianism here is from our Indian comrades in the CPI Maoist in Peoples Truth .

But this Keynesian alternative is no real solution; it is a mere palliative to give immediate relief. The social democrats and the CPI/CPM type socialists may harp on these alternatives but they will have to explain the earlier failures of the Keynesian model of the 1960s resulting in the crisis which began in the 1970s, and still continues. Also they will have to explain the collapse of the Soviet Union (after capitalist restoration) and those of the then East European countries — all of which were built on a powerful state sector.

This Keynesian solution to the crisis has the greatest influence in the Labour and Liberal parties in the United Kingdom.

The New Right Solutions : These are the characters which encompass anarcho capitalists and the new right politics in USA exemplified by ex Presidential candidate Ron Paul they are sometimes called economic Populists and just like in the 1970's when we underestimated the Hayeks and Friedmanites because they were oddballs we are in danger of underestimating the right wing fight back of so called free market populists today.

These characters paint the corporate welfare system of Neo Liberalism has Socialism !

Here is David Morris(5) in Counterpunch ridiculing their ideology.

"The contradiction between the stated aims of deregulation and its real consequences couldn't be clearer. Deregulation leads to wild speculation in which financiers make big bucks and industries get destroyed, and then the public gets stuck with the bill.

Conservative Republicans have effectively cultivated and based their power on the mass delusion that every man is an island, reaping the rewards of his own hard labor.

But in reality, most of their primary constituents are corporate welfare kings, grown fat, lazy, and corrupt on risky bets, riding around in Cadillacs secure in the knowledge that a big-government safety net is there if anything goes wrong."

Why Joe the Pumber is a Socialist by David Morris in Counterpunch

Here is Ralph Nader (6) punching holes in the new right :

Indeed, the right-wing pundits and the revisionists in Congress are spending an inordinate amount of time falsely claiming that our nation’s current financial disaster stems from the Community Reinvestment Act, a law passed by Congress and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. The primary purpose of this modest law is to require banks to report on where and to whom they are making loans.

Community organizations have used the data produced as a result of this law to determine if banks were meeting their lending obligations in the minority and lower-income communities in which they do business. Congress passed this law because too many lenders were discriminating against minority borrowers. “Redlining” was the name given to the practice by banks of literally drawing a red line around minority areas and then proceeding to deny people within the red border home loans – even if they were otherwise qualified.

The law has been in place for 30 years, but the right-wing fringe claims it somehow is responsible for predatory lending practices that date back just to the beginning of this decade.

Notice what these revisionists are not mentioning.

No “thank you” to former Senator Phil Gramm for pushing the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. This law was passed in the wake of the stock market crash of 1929 - and designed to separate banking from securities activities. In 1999, when Congress passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and in so doing repealed Glass-Steagall the banks strayed into rough waters by looking for fast money from risky investments in securities and derivatives.

As predatory lending mushroomed out of control, the regulators -- key among them, the Federal Reserve and the Office of Comptroller of Currency -- sat on their hands. The Federal Reserve took exactly three formal actions against subprime lenders from 2002 to 2007.

Bloomberg news service found that the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, which has authority over almost 1,800 banks, took three consumer-protection enforcement actions from 2004 to 2006.

No “tip of the hat” to the Bush Administration for preempting state regulators and Attorneys General from using state consumer laws to crack down on predatory and sub-prime lending by national banks.

I think Brendan M Cooney of Kapitalism101 on the Internet has the best summation of this right wing line of thought as follows :

"Surely, this is what was most fascinating about the Ron Paul phenomenon: how Ron Paul fused the libertarian and conspiracy causes.

If we take libertarianism to be the basic ideological distillation of modern economics isn’t it revealing how close the bourgeois theories of crisis coincide with the conspiratorial notion of an evil, outside force destroying the fabric of society- governments, the FED, jews, aliens.

Neither can see that capitalist crisis is indistinguishable from capitalism itself".

Has I have already stated because their right wing ideology may strike us as stupid it does not mean we should dismiss it. We have to take time out to systematically expose it has it has already found its way into Conservative Party ideology in the UK as well as informs some of the populist economics of the fascist British National Party.

Whatever eclectic mix Capitalism finds it can reconfigure itself again out of this crisis in the absence of a socialist alternative - at a political and social cost we may find has terrifying has they find the derivatives black hole at the centre of the capitalist financial universe.

The only Systemic solution to the problems of Capitalism is Socialism.

An economic system that periodically lays waste vast human and material resouces through devaluation of real and ficticious capital is no answer to the probems of the resource hungary 21st Century and we again reminded once again that real human labour value in the real economy is important and that the value theory prized by Ricardo and eliminated of its contradictions by Marx is a useful tool when examining the anatomy of capitalist crisis.Measuring the real wealth of production and the unreal paper wealth is the capitalist problem of the hour and we have the conceptual tools to do it

The fictional capital of today is the offspring of Neo Classical Economics which concerned itself primarily with prices ignoring or denying the validity of the underlying law of value as a deteminant in the economic process.Neo Classical Economics is as mechanistic as the grandfather clock in a world of dialectical contradiction.

The new political economy of socialism in the 21st century must go beyond the law of value of capitalism and accumulation for accumulations sake and never agan take the road of revisionist political economy as in the 20th century..

It should draw on the work of the Professor of Political,Economy at University of Utah the Marxist Leninist Maoist Minqi Li who outlines the necessity of the transformation of the world economy to Socialism in the 21st Century.Here he is addressing the the dematerialisation arguement for a sustainable capitalism based on service sector..

Minqi li (7) writes

"In the core states of the capitalist world economy so called services account for some two thirds of GDP. Some argue that has the economy moves towards services capitalism becomes increasingly dematerialised which would allow capital accumulation to take place without rising consumption of material resources.

In fact some services such as transportation and telecommunications are extentions of material production sectors and are highly capital intensive, some services like such as wholesale and retail , trade finance and real estate are non productive sectors in the sense that their income arise from the redistribution of surplus value from other sectors and cannot produce surplus value independently"

Thus the operation of these sectors require material inputs such as buildingss office equipment and office supplies and energy for business operations as well as material consumption for their work force.

The expansion of the service sectors cannot take place without the expansion of material production sectors moreover the dematerialisation in the core states reflects to a large extent the relocation of industry to the perifery and semi perifery and the redistribution of surplus value from the semi perifery and perifery to the core.

Therefore the drive for capitalist accumulation inevitably leads to rising consumption of energy and other material resources.

The Global capitalist economy currently depends heavily on non renewable resources for energy and raw materials and is clearly unsustainable

Our task is to make a popular proof that socialism is the only possible societal alternative by both criticising the alternatives and laying out a positive vision of socialism

I recommend you all read Minqi Li's Between the Realm of Necessity and the Realm of Freedom - Historical possibilties of the 21st Century for that positive vision of Socialism.

The British Economy in the World Capitalist System

The British Economy is currently in free fall and it shrank 1.9% in the first three months of 2009 and forecasts show a continuation of the contraction of the British Economy - with uncertainty as to when it will end.

What does the British Economy look like sector wise at this time :

6.3% agriculture
13% manufacturing
2.7% mining
1.6% electricity
31% financial and business services
18.2% Public administration and Education
14.4% Distribution
6.9% Transport
5.2% Other

Has a result of the neo Liberal policies of Thatcher and New Labour the manufacturing base of the United Kingdom underwent a massive decline and the financial sector rapid growth and this leaves Britain amongst the countries most exposed by the collapse in the financial markets and the current world economic crisis.What is particularly worrying is that the small UK industrial sector is also declining once again in this crisis has finance capital sucks industrial capital dry..

It is disingenious for Conservatives to blame New Labour for the dominant neo Liberal economics as they are its authors under Thatcher and if Thatcher was the mother then Brown was the father of this vulgar economics of the late 20th century.

The reconstituion of a socialist and communist movement in Britain and seizure of State power by working people would bring forth the possibility of an economic programme for a new Green Industrial Revolution with a National Recovery Authority to help plan and design ecologically sound industries for the new mid 21st Century world economic system of socialism.

If we fail this time capitalism will reconfigure itself out of the crisis by a massive concentration of financial and industrial corporations all reciepients of tax payer largess or corporate welfare while whole swathes of the population just like following the Thatcher years will never find full time employment again except this time because the crisis is bigger the pain inflicted on working people will be proportionately greater than we have yet experienced in our lifetimes..

Fightback - Lessons of the Past innovations of the Future.

We should have no illusions about the depth of this crisis and our current weakness to fight back

We are not in the 1930's with the Soviet Union and the Comintern and mass communist parties in some capitalist countries or even small communist parties as in Britain which managed to have considerable postive impact on the fight back during the Depression with the National Union of the Unemployed Workers under Wal Hannington's brilliant leadership.

Resistance in the 1930's took the form of tenants organisations which fought evictions today we need to address evictions of tenants and homeowners and need to identify which Banks or Building societies or Property companies are evicting the most people and target them for direct action.

With the Government attack on benefits and Welfare Reform we have a direct link to the attack on National Assistance that took place in the 1930's with the dreaded visit from the National Assitance officer to assess what benefit you could get or loose..

There must be a national campaign and direct action against Welfare Reform - Labour in the 1930's pushed more people off National Assistance than did the Tory Government - feeding people will also become part of the battle against Welfare Reform with exposure of Supermarket Price rip offs and Supermarket eat ins as recently started in France.

Of course these are only defensive economic measures but we need to revive culture so people can have a vision of socialism - the anarchists with their street theatre can teach us something here - cinema provided the capitalist vision in the 1930's we must provide an alternative media via the Internet or on the Street with DVD's.

Communists in the 1930's spend considerable effort in the Trade Union Movement fighting wage cuts and lay offs and with innovations like stay down strikes in Pits and Plant sit ins - we need to be just as innovative today to resist plant closures and loss of jobs.

We should also wary of merely being the hunting dogs in the Unions for Trade Union bureaucrats just providing bigger reformist Trade Unions we need to organise to end capitalism inside Trade Unions not be its labour lieutenants.

The process of building mass movements would be enormously aided by the creation of initially an organisation or as soon as practical a party based upon Marxism Leninism Maoism the summation of 20th century communist experience has the absence of such a party from the British scene which can organise and connect up mass struggles and initiate the struggle for State power is a weakness that cannot be tolerated any longer..


sources

(a) Engels : Socialism Utopian and Scientific

(1) On the Roots of the Current Economic Crisis and Some Proposed Solutions
by Andrew Kliman, Author of Reclaiming Marx’s “Capital“: A refutation of the myth of inconsistency
(2) "A new tactical starting situation" Interview given by Stefan Engel, chairman of the MLPD, to the "Red Flag" of the MLPD December 29, 2008

(3) Mike of Serve the People Blog - Derivatives and the Over Production of Capital

(4) Andrew Kliman on Keynes on Political Economy Research Blogspot.com

(5) David Morris in Counterpunch Joe the Plumber was a Socialist
(6) Ralph Nader leads the counter attack on new freemarket fundamentalists on Political Economy Research Blogspot.com
(7) Minqi Li - The Rise of China and the Demise of the World Capitalist Economy - Pluto Books

Unified CPN (Maoist) allows the House to resume after two months of obstruction

The normal session of the legislature parliament resumed Monday evening following an agreement between the ruling CPN (UML) and the main opposition Unified CPN (Maoist). The House has resumed after two months of obstruction.

As per the agreement reached at a meeting of the senior leaders of the two parties, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal will address the parliament today on the Maoist demands. He has also agreed to define the powers of the President and the Prime Minister within one month.

The House session was to begin at 3 pm but was delayed by hours as the leaders of the major parties were busy in internal discussions. Earlier today, a brief meeting of the central secretariat of the Unified CPN (Maoist) held decided to allow the legislature parliament to resume its regular proceedings.

Meanwhile, speaking at the start of the session, Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal accused the Prime Minister of being ‘remote controlled’ from outsiders and that the new government was established against the spirit of the people's mandate expressed through the CA election. He said his party is now fighting for civilian supremacy and is fully committed to peace process and constitution-drafting process.

He said his party has decided to allow the House proceedings as a reply to those who are trying to subvert the very essence of the parliament.

Dahal also said he resigned as the Prime Minister to avert a major confrontation and keep in tact the peace process and constitution-drafting process.

MRN Network - Maoist Rebel News

The RCP, USA and its New Synthesis (Part1) by Fahad Zaki

Freedom is won by the people through struggle; it is not bestowed by anyone as a favour.

(Mao, On Coalition Government, Selected Works, Vol. 3, p. 243)

Since the defeat of the proletarian revolution in China in 1976, there has been continuous struggle of workers with numerous sacrifices of the masses and communists around the world. During the last decade, powerful revolutionary movements under the leadership of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (please see http://www.cpnm. org) and The Communist Party of India (Maoist) (http://www.bannedth ought.net) have advanced and the Revolutionary Communist Party, Canada (http://www.pcr- rcp.ca ), the Maoist Communist Party of Italy (http://www.prolcom. altervista. org ), the Communist Party of France (Maoist) and the Communist Party of Bhutan ( Marxist-Leninist- Maoist) have been established.

Building a revolutionary movement is a very complicated task and takes a long time. Indeed, such a tortuous process can only develop when practice is guided by a correct theory. However, there is no evidence that the majority of genuine communist parties and organisations which were established during the 1970s and 80s have been able to build and develop an effective movement, especially in the imperialist countries. What is clearly evident is that the proletariat has not been able to lead the masses to carry out a successful revolution and seize power in any country.

The last 34 years has been the longest period of relative stagnation of the world proletarian revolution. The stagnation of the revolutionary movement in different countries requires analysis of the objective and subjective conditions in each country. With the exception of few, none of the communist parties either in the oppressed nations or in the imperialist countries have made major breakthroughs, let alone achieved their strategic goals. The majority of the experienced parties have not been able to build a significant movement and more new parties have not been established. In addition to many other factors, the stagnation indicates that practices overall have not been guided by a correct theory.

Despite favourable objective conditions and many opportunities, communist parties have not adequately advanced to lead the masses to rise in revolution. Indeed, there is a dialectical relationship between practice and theory: practice-theory- practice. Synthesis of practice develops to theory, then practice in turn is guided by theory, and most importantly, theory is grasped and developed through practice. What then is the main reason for the general stagnation of the world proletarian revolution?

The RCP and revolution in the US

During the last three decades the world has considerably changed, but the monopoly capitalist relations of production still dominate the world. Consequently, the era of imperialism and proletarian revolutions is not over. Among communists, one answer to the above question is that Maoism as the third stage of the development of Marxism, that is Marxism-Leninism- Maoism, has not been grasped. Particularly, the lessons of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China have not been correctly synthesised and applied to develop parties and mass movements in the objective conditions of different countries.

However, the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, RCP, believes that it has correctly synthesised Marxism-Leninism- Maoism. For them, the reason for the stagnation is that the foundations of the communist ideology have not been made on a fully scientific basis. Now, Bob Avakian, the RCP's Chairman, in his New Synthesis, has fulfilled this task. Accordingly, Bob Avakian's New Synthesis is universally applicable and should be grasped by all communists around the world and implemented in all countries.

This is the first of a series of articles discussing some important ideas put forward in the text of a speech entitled: 'Re-envisioning revolution and communism: what is Bob Avakian's new synthesis?'
( www.rwor.org, Revolution #129, May 18, 2008). The speech was delivered by the RCP in various locations around the US in 2008. For more than three decades, the RCP participated in the class struggle in the US and defended many struggles around the world. This party played a significant role in building the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), especially affecting those organisations which joined or supported the RIM.

Certainly, the central task of the communists in the US is to apply Marxism-Leninism- Maoism to the concrete conditions of the country and develop a powerful revolutionary movement for the working class and the masses to seize power. From this point of view, the practice and theory of the RCP need to be analysed and synthesised. Communists need to find answers to the question to why this party after decades of political activity has remained an extremely marginalised force incapable of influencing the class struggle in the US. There are already valuable struggles going on along this line; Kasama ( www.mikeely. wordpress. com ) and Mass line (www.massline. org ) are cases in point.

This is also an important struggle for communists in other countries, because today the US imperialist ruling class is the main enemy of the working class and the masses in the world. It is true that the US Empire is in decline, but still through the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation, the United Nations, and many other institutions, it exercises considerable control over the world economy and politics. Furthermore, the US has a direct military presence in 132 countries and its intelligence services operate all over the world. Moreover, the ideological, social, cultural, political and other capabilities of this global reactionary force are pivotal for all imperialist and reactionary states to suppress the struggle of the masses to sustain their power.

In addition to these factors, building a revolutionary movement in the US would accelerate forming similar movements in other countries, and undoubtedly a successful proletarian revolution in the US would shake the foundation of the whole imperialist system in the world serving many other proletarian revolutions to defeat the imperialist system. In this light, the development of a powerful movement in the US could have a tremendous historical implication for revolutions in all other countries.

The purpose of these articles is to analyse the latest ideological development of the RCP presented as Bob Avakians New Synthesis, and you are invited to participate in this important debate.

Who are the makers of history?

The speech on the New Synthesis includes five major parts:
Part 1: Humanity needs revolution and communism.
Part 2: A philosophy to understand-and change-the world.
Part 3: The new synthesis: political implications- the international dimension.
Part 4: The new synthesis: political implications- dictatorship and democracy.
Part 5: Strategic implications- making revolution

In part 1 the speaker representing the RCP states,¦ what I hope to do is to give you a sense of a whole new way of approaching human emancipation and fundamental change, building on the best of what's gone before but taking it to a new level.(Emphases mine)

The RCP claims that its understanding of socialist revolution has developed beyond Marxism-Leninism- Maoism and has reached a new level. The RCP correctly believes that the International Communist Movement is in crisis. However, it excludes itself from the crisis and claims that the party is chartering a whole new way of thinking, which has a vital universal value. Thus, the RCP believes that the fate of socialist revolution and humanity is hanging by a thread. And that thread is Bob Avakian!

Here, we can observe a serious ideological deviation from the principle that the people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.(Mao, On Coalition Government, Selected Works, Vol. 3, p. 257, Emphases mine) There is a fundamental ideological principle that the working class and the masses are the makers of socialism and communism and not the communists. It is true that without a communist party armed with Marxist-Leninist- Maoist theory and method it is impossible for the people to defeat imperialism and build socialism.

It is also true that communists are the most advanced section of the working class. But most certainly, it is not true that communists are above the masses. Communists need to learn from and utilise the boundless creative power of the masses and on this basis lead and help to organise themselves and fight consciously for their class interests. Communists cannot make revolution on behalf of the masses, rather they lead them to build a revolutionary movement preparing to seize power.

After overthrowing the old state, communists should not rule on behalf of the masses. Instead, they lead them to rule the socialist society by continuing to fight for the working class interest against the new bourgeoisie. However, the essence of the New Synthesis shows a serious deviation from these principles; deviation from the fact that defeating imperialism and building socialism primarily depends on the working class and the conscious and organised struggle of the masses. Most certainly, these are not bestowed upon them by any great saviour of humanity. We should bear in mind the famous line of the Internationale:

'We want no condescending saviours
to rule us from a judgment hall..'

Having faith in the vanguard party is essential, but not enough. Communists must also have faith in the masses. The RCP's New Synthesis shows that this party overvalues its faith in the Party, and especially its chairman, while not having enough faith in the masses.

The New Synthesis pays all its attention to the experience of the International Communist Movement before 1976. But it does not pay any attention to the struggle of the masses in the US. What knowledge has been gained from the history of the class struggle in the US? What has the Party grasped about questions relating to building a revolutionary movement in the USA? The fact is that every time the RCP has been put to the test of class struggle, it has failed. Instead of marching at the head of different movements in the US, it has in actuality trailed behind them, and in many cases gesticulating at and criticising the masses.

Is the New Synthesis a real rupture

The New Synthesis correctly states that this whole first stage of the communist revolution [the Paris commune in 1871, the 1917 Socialist Revolution in Russia, the 1949 New Democratic Revolution in China, and the 1966-76 Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China] came to an end in 1976.... Today there are no genuine socialist countries in the world. And people all over the world feel, and struggle with, that weight every day- whether they know it or not.

But, it also states, “so, how do we go forward in the face of that? How do we embark on a new stage of revolution?

In this situation, Bob Avakian has led in defending, upholding, and building on the monumental achievements of those revolutions and the illuminating insights of its greatest thinkers and leaders. But he has also deeply analysed the mistakes, and the shortcomings in conception and method that led to those mistakes. And on that basis, he forged a coherent, comprehensive and overarching theoretical framework- that is synthesis. While this definitely comes out of and builds on what has gone before, this advance has also involved real ruptures with the past understanding and experience as a crucial element, which is why we call it the new synthesis.(Emphases mine)

The RCP was established in 1975, and its literature shows that from 1976 the Party had already realised that people all over the world feel, and struggle with, that weight every day because “there are no genuine socialist countries in the world. So, why did the RCP embark on the new stage of revolution 33 years later, in 2008?! Why did the RCP not “go forward in the face of that� many years earlier?

Embarking on revolution means establishing a communist party and mobilising the working class and the masses to build a revolutionary movement. So, why does the RCP not deal with this fundamental question and synthesise its failure? The RCP states that Bob Avakian has led the RCP in defending the previous socialist revolutions. But has the party been able to go further and transform its understanding of socialist revolution into a considerable material force in the US?

The New Synthesis claims that Bob Avakian has also deeply analysed the mistakes, and the shortcomings in conception and method that led to those mistakes. But if the RCP has deeply analysed and overcome those mistakes, has it been able to apply them to develop the class struggle in the US? The New Synthesis claims that Bob Avakian has forged a coherent, comprehensive and overarching theoretical framework. If during the last three decades any aspect of this universal theory has been tested in practice and proven to be correct, where are the examples?

A real rupture with the past understanding and experience of the International Communist Movement requires a major two-line struggle within each communist party as well as the existing International Communist Movement. But, has such a major two-line struggle taken place? In fact, there is no evidence that the leadership of the RCP has allowed any major inner-party two-line struggle to be carried out at all. Furthermore, the RCP has not produced any serious self-criticism nor rectification campaign.

Not executing any major two-line struggle shows that the RCP has not grasped the fact that, opposition and struggle between ideas of different kinds constantly occur within the Party; this is a reflection within the Party of contradiction between classes and between the new and the old in society. If there were no contradictions in the party and no ideological struggles to resolve them, the Party's life would come to an end. (Mao, On Contradiction, Selected Works, Vol. 1, p. 317, Emphases mine)

Ideological struggles within a communist party are inevitable. When there is a major ideological struggle within a communist party, it should not be kept as a secret. Ideological struggle between classes within the Party is an important aspect of the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie, and therefore, assists the international proletariat. Also, the struggle between the new and the old within the Party helps the masses to transform their outlook. This is one of the most important lessons of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Thus, not only should major two-line struggles within communist parties openly involve the working class and the masses nationally, but also internationally.

However, without going through a major two-line struggle, the RCP claims that it has reached a new ideological height. This declaration shows that the RCP does not have a correct grasp of the method of two-line struggle. Not involving the working class and the masses in the US as well as the international proletariat, shows that the RCP has not understood the method of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. It also shows that the RCP considers itself above two-line struggle, the International Communist Movement and the masses.

Moreover, without building a revolutionary movement and advancing class struggle in the US, the RCP claims that Bob Avakian's New Synthesis has advanced communist theory. This claim shows that the Party does not have a correct understanding about dialectical relations between revolutionary theory and practice. It also illustrates that the RCP considers itself above practice.

Philosophical foundations of Marxism

Part 2 of the presentation of the New Synthesis starts with a simple definition of philosophy and correctly explains why everyone has a philosophy and the role of philosophy in everyone's actions. However, it states, 'Well, communism also encompasses a philosophy. And at the very heart of the new synthesis has been Bob Avakians work to critically interrogate, or analyze, the philosophical foundations of communism- and to put those foundations on a more fully scientific basis.' (Emphases mine).

It is true that scientific laws are prone to change, and they are further refined by creative application of these laws to the objective reality. Human knowledge advances through a spiral of practice-theory- practice, where putting theory into practice is the principal aspect in the whole process. Proletarian revolutions in Russia and China have proven that the science of revolution also advances by the conscious struggle of the masses.

The knowledge of class struggle mainly improves through a process of advancing the class struggle, and not just thinking and talking about it. Development of the science of revolution depends highly on building a movement, where theories are continuously tested in practice. And a successful revolution is the ultimate proof of these theories. Marx wrote that 'the question whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question of theory, but is a practical question.' (Theses on Feuerbach, Marx & Engels collected works, Vol. 5, p.6, Emphasis mine)

The RCP claims that the philosophical foundations of Marxism, i.e., dialectical materialism, have not been adequately scientific and Bob Avakian's New Synthesis has put those foundations on a more fully scientific basis. But the content of the New Synthesis, particularly on philosophy, shows that the RCP has not grasped the kernel of dialectical materialism - 'The principal contradiction and the principal aspect of a contradiction' developed by Mao. Without understanding the kernel of dialectical materialism it is not possible to apply the Marxist philosophy, let alone develop it.

Does the RCP's practice show that Bob Avakian and his New Synthesis have put the foundations of dialectical and historical materialism on a more scientific basis? It is true that the RCP has persistently defended Marx, Lenin, Mao, and particularly Mao, against the revisionist line of the Communist Party of China led by Deng Xiaoping.

However, since its formation, the RCP has not been able to apply the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism- Maoism, and particularly the lessons of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, to the concrete conditions of the United States. Where is the RCP's scientific class analysis of US society? Obviously, a communist party cannot build a revolutionary movement and advance without having a Marxist class analysis.

If the RCP had grasped Marxist philosophy properly, it could have discovered the particularities of the class struggle in the US. It would have been able to carry out a scientific class analysis of the US society and identify the most advanced section of the working class, the motive force of revolution in the country. On the same basis, the party would have been able to identify the main strategic ally of the proletariat as well as its secondary class allies. The questions of identifying our friends and enemies are fundamental for making revolution in any country. Despite producing tons of literature, the RCP does not have any proper answers to these questions.

Without a revolutionary movement there can be no revolution

The RCP actively participated and even led international campaigns through the RIM to defend real communism against the phoney communism of Soviet social imperialism, especially during and after the collapse of the Soviet Empire. But it has not been able to mobilise workers and the masses in a qualitatively and quantitatively developing revolutionary movement in the US, which is its central task.

The silence of the New Synthesis on the role of the working class in revolution reveals the RCP's orientation. In fact, for the following questions:

What is the role of the working class, particularly industrial workers, in the class struggle in the US?

Has any section of the tens of millions of workers in the numerous and massive industries been organised under the leadership of the party?

Has the RCP been able to mobilise workers in the working class towns and cities such as Detroit, the heartland of the car industry?

Does the RCP have any influence among the industrial workers at all?

One would not find any answers. Therefore, it is not clear at all, how a socialist revolution can be carried out in the most advanced industrial country in the world without the participation of the industrial workers. It is important to note that any reference to workers, industrial workers and the working class has nearly vanished from the RCP's literature, including the New Synthesis.

Exposing the US ruling class and insisting that it should be overthrown is essential, but not enough. What is also needed is a clear revolutionary strategy. A communist party, on the basis of the concrete conditions and particularities of the class struggle in the US, should develop a strategy for the masses to seize power. The RCP has neither been able to develop a clear strategy to solve the fundamental contradiction between the working class and the ruling class, nor has it been able to analyse different objective situations at various times to identify the principal contradiction at each stage, and find correct tactics to serve the strategy.

It is true that developing a powerful revolutionary movement takes a long time. In fact, successful proletarian revolutions in Russia and China took 23 years, from 1894 to 1917, and 28 years, from 1921 to 1949 respectively. However, communist parties in these two very different countries and world situations were able to grasp Marxism and build a successful revolutionary movement. They were able to analysis their concrete conditions, carry out major two-line struggles and develop an independent ideological- political line and a correct strategy.

On these bases, communist parties in Russia and China were able to recognise and respond properly to various demands of the working class and the masses. They identified and relied on the advanced section of the masses to mobilise other sections. At each stage, these parties identified the principal contradiction and worked out suitable tactics to unite the people and divide the enemies of the people to advance the revolution. These successful revolutions proved that without a revolutionary movement there can be no revolution.

Indeed, these parties understood their central task and the particularities of their societies, without which they would have not been able to develop a powerful revolutionary movement to smash the old state and build a new society. It is true that US society is very different to Russia and China in those periods, and also that the world situation has considerably changed. However, after 34 years of political activities, the RCP is still stuck in the first bend of a long and tortuous road, and yet is still negligent of the fact that it cannot play any tangible role in the class struggle in the US society.

Proletarian revolution in the most powerful imperialist country in the world is undeniably very complicated. It is true that the RCP has been able to sustain its organisation and political struggle, and train many valuable communists. Furthermore, the party has been able to initiate or participate in many struggles against the oppression of women and national minorities, opposing Christian fascists and supporting science against obscurantism.

Indeed, this is an experienced party, but it has not been able to integrate itself with workers and the masses, identify their just demands, and develop a correct mass line. It has not been able to identify and mobilise the most advanced sections of US society, and on this basis mobilise others in a broad united front against the ruling class. A communist party is a unity of opposites: a vanguard aspect and a mass aspect. Generally, the vanguard aspect is the principal aspect. But the mass aspect is absolutely necessary.. The vanguard is like the sharp cutting edge of an axe, while the heavy rear side represents the mass aspect, both essential to split the firewood. However, with the RCP's blunt edge and a very light rear side, splitting and defeating the working class enemies in the US even tactically has not been possible.

Mass movements and lost opportunities

In 1992, at the time of the mass rebellions due to Rodney King’s beating by the police, the RCP had 17 years of experience. But it was not able to mobilise a considerable number of African-Americans and Hispanics as well as progressive white workers against the white-supremacist ruling class.. What about since then? Has the party in any effective way been able to influence struggles of the national minority workers and the masses against the racist state?

The restoration of capitalism in China, the demise of the Soviet Empire and the economic crisis in Japan were some important factors creating a huge opening for the circulation of western monopoly capitals and its global expansion. These capitals, particularly from the US, penetrated, restructured and subjugated the oppressed countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America at unprecedented levels. Globalisation under the leadership of the US, not only intensified the super-exploitation of billions of workers and peasants around the world, but severely accelerated the rate of destruction of the environment at a global scale.

These factors created massive anti-globalisation, anti-capitalist and anti-environmental destruction movements. These movements correctly targeted the heads of the most powerful imperialist states, wherever they gathered. In 1998 in Seattle, hundreds of thousands of people, especially working class youth and students, staged a massive show of force. They acted with rage against the G7, super-exploitation of workers and peasants in the oppressed countries and destruction of the environment. These movements have overall shown a marked level of anti-capitalist as well as internationalist spirit. But has the RCP been able to influence any section of these huge movements and unite with them?

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, where more than 70% of the population is African-American. The hurricane destroyed the city, especially the run-down working class areas. Hundreds of thousands of people, particularly African-American workers, lost their homes and did not even have access to clean drinking water, food, sanitation and electricity. At first, the US rulers concealed the scale of the disaster. However, opposition and resistance grew very rapidly. Many people stormed the supermarkets, and some people had taken up arms to fight the armed police who were guarding the supermarkets and preventing people from getting food and water.

At this stage, George W Bush ordered the National Guard to move into the area, crush the resistance and protect private property. And today, thousands of these workers are still homeless and live in caravans. Where was the RCP at that time? Why after three decades of its existence did the RCP not even operate in a city with such a large working class population?

The US war on Iraq

In 2001, US imperialism, with the most powerful army and economy, initiated its strategic offensive to establish an undisputed empire for the 21st century. However, even before the occupation of Iraq, millions of workers and the masses poured into the streets opposing the US ruling class preparation to attack the oppressed nation of Iraq. Yet the RCP's concept of 'Crusading McWorld versus Reactionary Jihad', which will be discussed in part two, clearly undermined the role of the Iraqi people in the conflict, and served to equate the two sides (US imperialism and the resistance of the oppressed nation against it) as mutually reinforcing.

Hence, after a few years of confusion and failing to identify US imperialism as the principal enemy, the RCP eventually launched a campaign to 'Drive Out the Bush Regime'. This campaign aimed at putting pressure from below on the US ruling class, especially on the Democratic Party to impeach Bush. The organized mass upsurge to drive out the regime, along with the still unorganized but widespread and increasingly intense mass anger against Bush and the yearning to see him go, has been another important factor forcing the hand of Democratic Party leaders. (The Word Surfaces: New Openings and New Challenges, Revolution #30, January 15, 2006, Emphases mine)

Despite a massive anti-war movement and surge of political activities among all sections of the masses, particularly the advanced, all the party could do was to aim at mobilising the backward sections around the question of regime change. Besides the conflict at the top, there has also been a movement from below forcing the question of regime change.(Ibid, Emphases mine)

In the section of 'Waiting for November [Presidential Elections in November 2006] Won't Do!' of the same article, the RCP emphasises impeaching Bush as an urgent and a determining factor to build a mass movement, and states, 'Look: there will be no impeachment without mass upsurge. Even if you pin your hopes on the top Democrats for this, you have to recognise that they will not act unless and until they fear that their base is getting beyond their control.'(Emphases RCP's)

Well, which section of the masses pins their hopes on the top Democrats? Obviously, the backward. The RCP urges these sections of the masses, particularly the supporters of the Democrat Party, to put pressure on their leaders.. The RCP hopes that the leaders of the Democrat Party can be persuaded to impeach Bush only if they are pushed far enough. Frankly, this is creating an illusion among the masses that tailing one faction of the reactionaries against another is for the benefit of revolution.

Tailing one faction of reactionaries under the pretext of using contradictions among different factions of the ruling class is old reformist politics. However, this time it is theorised by the RCP like this: 'So it may not be bad when thieves fall out, not bad at all … if their victims seize on it to do something good.' (Ibid, Emphasis RCP's) Historically, such a dependent line has been the main cause of the failure of mass movements.

Even when powerful working class and mass movements were under the leadership of communists, e.g., in France, Italy, Greece, Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, etc., they failed because communists could not develop an independent ideological- political line. Consequently, the whole movement became futile, and in many cases a large number of communists and people were slaughtered. In the imperialist countries such as the US, the source as well as the content of the line of labour aristocracy and this line are the same, where both strive to limit the struggles of working class and the masses within the framework of the existing system.

In this case, instead of drawing a clear anti-imperialist line against the whole ruling class and its reactionary war on the oppressed nation of Iraq, the RCP's campaign strived to mobilise the backward sections of the masses to unite with some factions of the ruling class who were opposing Bush. Here, the RCP's political stance shows that the party did not recognise that the antagonistic contradiction between US imperialism and the Iraqi nation was shaping the class struggle in the US society. Therefore, the working class and the masses in the country should be mobilised to support the Iraqi nation and its armed resistance against the US.

The RCP states, 'The White House and Congress need to look out and see that country is overwhelmingly polarized against them and they need to seriously fear that if they don't put a stop to this whole direction that they are going to lose the allegiance of millions of people.'(Daring to Change Minds and Move Millions: The Case for Impeachment Now, Revolution #75, January 7, 2007, Emphases mine)

The RCP states that the 'country is overwhelmingly polarized' against the ruling class, but instead of putting forward a revolutionary political line to overthrow the imperialist state, the RCP warns the ruling class that they would lose people’s support if they do not change their direction. This is certainly not the way to raise the masses political consciousness, who were overwhelmingly and in colossal numbers defying the ruling class. Hence, with such a reformist line, the RCP was unable to mobilise the advanced section of the people to build a revolutionary movement.

Moreover, after the occupation of Iraq, the vast majority of the working class and the masses continued to actively oppose the Bush regime's atrocities in Iraq. Even many people who used to hang the US flag outside their homes, openly declared that they were ashamed of being American. Instead of mobilising these people in the US to support the just struggle of the Iraqi nation, the RCP condemned the Iraqi people's resistance movement against the occupation of their country by the US forces. Clearly, such a political line was not anti-imperialist, and therefore could not mobilise the advanced section of workers and the masses in the US.

During the last two years of the discredited Bush regime, a huge political crisis developed within the ruling class. In this favourable situation, due to the absence of a thoroughgoing anti-imperialist line, communists were marginalised and the revolutionary alternative remained extremely weak. Therefore, the ruling class was able to create its own alternative without having any serious opposition. This is one of the reasons that even after years of political legitimacy crisis during the Bush regime, the ruling system in the US could mobilise large sections of the working class and the masses behind Obama.

Conclusion

Alas, once again, the RCP failed the test of class struggle and history. It is ironic that the Party did not criticise its line and the campaign at all. Perhaps because Bush was driven out by the Democrats after all! In any case, the RCP did not analyse its serious shortcomings in using such a great opportunity. Instead, Bob Avakian criticised the masses who voted for Obama for not having a scientific understanding of racism! (On Obama, Redemption and the Need for a Scientific Understanding, Revolution #148, November 2008 )

Is this the role of the Party, or should the masses themselves develop a scientific understanding of this complex phenomena? Well, with this kind of spontaneous thinking, encouraging the masses to tail a faction of the ruling class and practically having nearly no effect on the class struggle even during a period of intense polarisation of the society, can anyone accept that the New Synthesis has put the foundations of Marxism-Leninism- Maoism on a more fully scientific basis?!

The practice and theory of the RCP and the content of Bob Avakian's New Synthesis show that they are based on serious deviations from the science of revolution. Now, the main question is: is the ideology guiding the RCP's political practice still Marxism-Leninism- Maoism, MLM? Some communists point out that the party is in the process of dropping MLM. Others say that the RCP has already abandoned MLM. And the RCP and its New Synthesis imply that the proletarian ideology has "advanced" to Avakianism!

Source: http://www.wprmbritain.org/wp/