13.01.2005

Make charity history

Millions, shocked and horrified by the damage done by the Asian tsunami, have dug deep these last few weeks. In Britain alone, people have so far donated well over £140 million. It would be very wrong for socialists and communists to sneer at this effort, says Tina Becker. In fact, it is encouraging to see how many are profoundly concerned for the plight of their fellow human beings. It gives a glimpse of the kind of solidarity that would happen in a socialist world. But communists also have a duty today to show that in reality most aid is channelled through government-sponsored charities and is very likely to reinforce the power structures that keep much of the world's population in dismal poverty

What, asks Dave Douglass in last week's Weekly Worker, is wrong with giving money to charity? - "Giving aid through charity, it seems, is a distraction - from what? Class consciousness? I can't see why the two are so totally mutually exclusive. Supporting Oxfam, for example, is not the political answer, is not the long-term solution, but it'll save a few kids right now "¦ While we work to change the whole bloody system, people are dying now and assisting them is a simple act of solidarity" (Letters, January 6). In one sense, comrade Douglass is, of course, right: abstract calls for 'the revolution' will not feed the starving and orphaned child in Sri Lanka. But what comrade Douglass - and so many others on the left - fail to see is that the way we respond to disasters like the tsunami is thoroughly linked with our fight for a truly democratic and socialist society. It is no surprise that so many people have donated money to bourgeois charities like Oxfam or the umbrella Disasters Emergency Committee - they are mentioned on all the TV channels and in the newspapers. The moral pressure is overwhelming. But advanced workers and the organised left must explain that more is needed. Communists and socialists must begin to campaign to channel financial and political support to trade unions, communist and socialist groups and women's and peasant organisations in the affected countries. Supporting the self-organisation of the oppressed is, in fact, the only way to bring to an end the social and political inequality in those countries being transformed again and again into human calamity. Drop the debt? Politically, the demands of the mainstream charities do not even touch on the problem of global inequality and poverty. The three demands of the Make Poverty History campaign (now supported by the Socialist Workers Party and Respect) are: 'trade justice', 'drop the debt' and 'more and better aid'. Of course the system of debt and debt repayment is thoroughly obscene. In 2003, so called low-income countries spent $39 billion on servicing their debt, and received $27 billion in new aid. Indonesia spends $17 billion per year on debt repayments - equivalent to 25% of its total exports. The figures are similar for India, Thailand and Sri Lanka. What we should fight for is the repudiation of these debts from below - that is what the Bolsheviks achieved in October 1917. Without thorough-going democracy and working class self-empowerment the demands of MPH can only reinforce the illusion that capitalism can bring about the end of poverty through the vague but seemingly radical notions of justice and equality. Yet, the fact of the matter is that trade and aid under capitalism can only mean exacerbating uneven development and supplying the elite with even more opportunities to stash away unearned fortunes. The whole approach of MPH thereby plays into the hands of top capitalist politicians eager to play up their humanitarian credentials. Gordon Brown's much vaunted 'Marshall plan' is covered in the same syrupy phrases as MPH. He has promised to work for "better trade terms to help poor countries to build up their export capacity, while rich countries dismantle their protectionist barriers"; called for "debts owed by the world's poorest countries, including Sri Lanka, to institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund" to be written off; and suggested "a doubling of aid to $100 billion (£55 billion) a year" (The Guardian January 7). As with the response to the Asian financial crisis in the mid-1990s, Brown wants another round of debt cancellation for a list of 'heavily indebted poorer countries'. Once interest charged has caused debt to soar to unmanageable levels, a portion is simply written off amidst claims of saintly generosity. And some of the 'better off' countries would be given a one-year moratorium on interest repayments. The intention is to ease the burden and therefore crisis potential of the poorest countries. The original 1945 Marshall plan aimed to stabilise war-torn Europe for world capitalism: "It was to create a western Europe rich enough and democratic enough to hold communism at bay," comments Michael Portillo (The Sunday Times January 9). Capitalism can only exploit people when they are no longer contemplating revolution. And remember in the recent past IMF financial 'aid' was linked to an austere economic programme which includes cuts in social spending, wages and public investment, along with wholesale privatisation. It is of course workers and the poor who lost their jobs and bore the brunt of these disastrous policies. Such neoliberal programmes are fundamentally inhuman. They serve dead labour, not living labour. And of course they do not work. Honduras was granted a moratorium after Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Today it pays more for debt servicing than before the catastrophe. Similarly, if G8 governments decided tomorrow to cancel all the debts of the 'third world', it would not be long until their system produced similar sized, new burdens for the poorest of the poor. Social order The approach of modern charities, NGOs and their uncritical supporters on the left owe everything to the practice of the monks of the Franciscan order of the medieval catholic church, nothing to the practice of the Comintern and its International Red Aid (see below). Founded in 1206, the impoverished Franciscans distributed alms to the poor. The self-sacrifice of penniless monks was aimed at proving their dedication to the penniless Jesus. But in effect their role was to help maintain the social order - not just of the church, but feudalism as a whole. Everybody is taken care of, so there is no need to challenge the power of the ruling elite. Franciscan self-sacrifice, muslim zakat, the modern NGO - while many people support them out of a real desire to help fellow human beings - have one thing in common: they preserve and positively strengthen the exploiting social structures, which condemn the many to utter poverty. For example, how will the money and material aid be distributed in the affected areas of the Indian Ocean? They will in all likelihood end up utilising the local and regional power structures - be it the imam, the tribal chief, the company that employs most locals or the military commander. These will make sure that their own loyal cronies get the most and the best of the aid - after they have filled their own pockets, perhaps. The 'troublemakers' will in many cases be last in line: trade unionists, women's activists, uppity peasants - in short, all those who speak up and fight back. Just as the tsunami in general affected the urban and rural poor in their flimsy huts far worse than their exploiters, the charity effort, too, will see a distinction between the haves and the have-nots. That is why we must demand that all aid given be open to scrutiny. Trade unions, workers' and peasant organisations should insist on the right to supervise the distribution of aid. The government and aid organisations cannot be trusted to simply 'do the right thing'. International Red Aid International Red Aid Poster Communists and socialists should reject charity-mongering and instead turn to our own rich history when it comes to solidarity. In 1922, the Soviet leadership set up a number of international campaigns and organisations, amongst them the International Red Aid to Fighters of the Revolution (also known under its Russian initials MOPR). Red Aid was formed initially to organise worldwide worker relief efforts for victims of counterrevolutionary white terror unleashed after the Red Army's withdrawal from Poland. It later assisted the Bulgarian victims of white terror after the failed 1923 insurrection. Its strongest arm was the American affiliate International Labor Defense (ILD), whose first leader was James P Cannon. ILD, together with MOPR, rallied millions from Shanghai to San Francisco in support of the anarchist workers, Sacco and Vanzetti, who were framed up on rape and murder charges and ultimately executed in 1927. Under the overall leadership of Clara Zetkin, Red Aid organised financial and in-kind donations for revolutionaries subjected to counterrevolutionary terror in east Europe and for besieged Nicaragua when the US marines invaded it in the late 1920s. For a short list of working class and progressive organisations that are in some way helping the people in the Indian Ocean region combat the effects of the tsunami, visit the CPGB website.