15.05.2002

Revolutionary answer

Aziz Demir of the Communist Party of Turkey addressed a meeting to launch the CPGB's 2002 fundraising drive

Dear comrades, another year has passed and once more the communists of Britain are starting their Summer Offensive. When we look back, what a year it was. In my opinion, the events of the last 12 months have revealed once more that the working class of the advanced capitalist countries are facing tasks that are very important in the world-historical sense. On the one hand, imperialism has amassed unprecedented financial and economic might, and it is on the march for a redivision of influence over the markets that came relatively recently under its direct sway. In these markets, imperialism is undermining traditional social orders with their obsolete state structures, their backward-looking values and customs. It organises these societies anew, through its local allies, by sculpting them into its vision of a new order for the world capitalist market. This leads to a painful process of dispossession for the people, and a process of subjugation for the previous ruling classes of those countries. And they create deep resentments. However, any resistance to this onslaught brings a massive retaliation on the part of imperialism's vastly superior armed might. In the last year it has not only fought a major military operation afar, but also obtained new military bases that provide a better geo‑strategic military presence. It has also found new allies willing to do its dirtiest deeds. Anybody who dares resist its might is branded a 'terrorist' and condemned to outright extermination by the expeditionary forces of imperialism, or its local allies. Liberal bourgeois opposition across the world is melting away before the openly declared plans of the next military aggression. This worldwide onslaught of imperialism has forced the working classes of the underdeveloped countries to step back. A new world vision has lost its attractiveness, and backward-looking religious fundamentalist viewpoints, as well as narrow nationalist outlooks, have gained ground among new forces. The left in general and communism in particular have lost ground. Under these conditions, the working class of the advanced capitalist countries is the most important force restraining the unbridled aggression of imperialism against the world proletariat. The responsibility of the vanguard of the working class has grown enormously in this sense. On the other hand, imperialism has not got rid of the problems intrinsic to capitalism. Yes, it is becoming all-powerful across the world, but its base in the advanced capitalist countries has suffered from the impact of its success abroad. Despite the massive superprofits of the multinational and transnational corporations, the economies and public finances of the nation-states of the advanced capitalist countries are not in good shape. The Japanese economy is in perpetual recession, while in the US and EU economic activity has slowed down. When the advanced capitalist countries sneeze, all medium-developed countries, such as Turkey and Argentina, catch cold, and are convulsed in deep economic crises. The production base of capitalism is gradually moving out of these areas and relocating in geographically different places. This trend started with the 'dirty' industries first, but today more and more branches of manufacturing industry are leaving these countries. The historical tendency equalising wages across the market is having its effect. The wages of the working people are not determined by those who are employed, but by those who are unemployed. Today this mechanism applies to the international scene. A few years back, when labour was cheap, Mexico attracted US businesses - to the chagrin of US workers. Today those businesses have left Mexico and moved further south, to countries where labour is cheaper. The same goes for Turkey, previously known as a country exporting nothing but immigrant workers to the European countries. Today it too has became a country of immigration from other underdeveloped countries, and its textile industry has been losing ground to Bangladesh, Romania and similar countries, where labour is cheaper. Some arch-supporters of the free market in the advanced capitalist countries have suddenly turned to the old game of protectionism. They have raised import tariffs and imposed restrictions on free trade. They present their protectionism as necessary actions to safeguard jobs. This sop to the working class is actually the herald of a coming attack on wages and standards of living in the advanced capitalist countries. As a consequence of these processes, racism, xenophobia, hostility to immigrant labour and anti-immigrant, rightwing political forces are on the rise. And these middle class ideas are gaining strength within the working class of the advanced capitalist countries. The initial political result of this development has been to force the 'left' to support the right political parties in order to avoid the ascendancy of the far right, as happened in France, or to push social democrats gradually to adopt more and more rightwing positions, as in the UK. Under these conditions, the working class is becoming the direct adversary of every action of finance capital in the advanced capitalist countries. And the responsibility of its vanguard has also grown enormously in this sense. Comrades, let me finish with a passage from the last published work of comrade Yurukoglu, the former general secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey, who sadly died last autumn: "Today, the inadequacy of national-level organisation and activity against the transnational monopolies is clearly apparent. The programme of struggle of the workers of the world is internationalised. "Today what is required, is a joint revolutionary answer against the evolving world capitalist economy, an answer that reflects the general, worldwide interests of the class, not the sectional interests of its contingents. Today the ideological, political and organisational unity of the workers of the world is a vital necessity. There is no other option to win" (R Yurukoglu What is socialism? Alev Publishers, Istanbul 1999). Thank you for your attention.