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The world's 447 billionaires today control as much wealth as the yearly income of the world's poorest 2.5 billion people. Never before has the world seen such a polarization of wealth and poverty.
The unprecedented rate at which the rich are getting richer and the poor
are getting poorer is not just a bad thing getting worse. New methods of
production are giving rise to new classes, a new class polarity in the world,
and the battleground for the struggle that can reconstruct society on new
foundations. What we face today is not just significant economic changes,
but economic changes so powerful and profound that they are eroding the
basis for old categories of history.
What is this new class polarity?
The new methods of production and their operation in a global market
are defining a new historical trend. A new class of speculative capitalists
stands opposed to a new proletarian class. Let's look at each aspect of
this antithesis.
Who are these new supranational speculative capitalists?
The relatively few who control the world's wealth and hold the power to set policies that affect the world's people remain a complex and diverse group. But among them, the speculative capitalists are gaining economic and political predominance.
This is a new class in the sense that they stand in a new relation to the means of production. They accumulate unprecedented wealth not so much from buying labor power and extracting surplus value, but mainly through financial transactions that are increasingly removed from actual production. They rake in billions by speculating: trading in currencies, buying and selling debts, betting on the performance of this or that national economy and so on.
At the same time, this class is still a capitalist class. It functions
within a world where the buying and selling of labor power and the production
of value still go on. And capitalist relations - that is, between a class
that privately owns productive property and a class that sells its ability
to work - continue to prevail and greatly enrich this new class.
What is the new global proletarian class?
The new methods of production are also forming a new global class of propertyless. As the rapid and easy flow of capital across national borders draws workers of all countries into the same shrinking market for labor power, it also puts all workers into competition with the robot and drives wages down toward the lowest level available. We can see the formation of this new class in the increase in sweatshop and slave labor, rampant unemployment and job insecurity, and the growing gap between wealth and poverty in the world.
The precarious existence of this new class expresses the incompatibility of today's new productive forces with the old productive relations. The new methods of production are increasingly separating this proletarian class from wages; meanwhile, private property rules that those without money do not eat.
The interests of this new class will not be served by the "winners" in the global game being forced to help out the "losers." Therefore, the program of this new class is not to reform the old system but rather to reorganize society to expel the relation of private property from the way that people relate to one another economically and socially. The actual need of this class - and for all of humanity - is for the wealth produced by society to be distributed according to need. The existence of this new proletarian class is the embryo of the new society, a communist society. In this sense, it is a communist class.
After World War II, neo-colonialism removed the territorial barriers to capitalist exploitation and, in that sense, politically "evened up" the world's proletariat. Today, the mechanism of the global economy in the age of electronics is now "evening down" the world's proletariat economically. The formation of this new global proletarian class challenges the revolutionaries of the world to rise to the demands of a new kind of internationalism. There is a new basis for practical unity. A new level of ideological unity is now possible. (We will explore these implications for revolutionaries in future Rally, Comrades! articles.)
The changes in methods of production that allow for production without labor called forth both elements of this new antithetical class relation, but their interests are exactly opposed to one another.
The existing relations between classes are based on the production of value. The system of exchange rests on these class relations. Under this system of exchange, products are bought and sold according to their values, and only those with money can buy things. But the new classes and the way things are produced are based less and less on the production of value.
The new mode of production is subjected to the old form of appropriation, even though that new mode of production abolishes the conditions upon which the old form rests. On a qualitatively higher level than 100 years ago, the productive forces are incompatible with the productive relations that organize society.
This makes for a great instability which is pregnant with great qualitative change. Whenever something new, that is, something that doesn't arise out of or fit into the existing law system, is introduced into the ongoing operation of things according to the existing law system, the resulting clash of law systems initiates the leap to qualitative change.
The introduction of labor-replacing methods of production into the productive
process is clashing with and disrupting the old relations of production
and old institutions. Now is the time when people can fight out these changes
in such a way that leads to the reconstruction of society in the interest
of humanity.
New classes overturn old systems
This situation is the current confirmation of what history has proved: an existing social order cannot be overthrown by a class within it. New methods of production destroy existing classes and give rise to new ones. Then, a new class, one outside the existing social relations, can overturn the old social order.
The Industrial Revolution destroyed old classes based on handicraft and hand manufacture. Out of that destruction, there arose both the modern industrial working class and capitalist class. The struggle of each of those new classes for the reorganization of society around them was expressed in an explosion of literature, art, philosophy, in short, revolutionary new ideas and ideologies. These struggles reached conclusion in the political revolutions of that epoch, which reorganized all of society around the buying and selling of labor power. Even the socialist revolutions, which came later but were nonetheless political revolutions of that epoch, could not entirely disregard the law of value as an operating law.
Today, new methods of production are destroying old classes. The creation of the new communist class dooms capitalism to destruction. The wonders of electronics promise a world in which goods can be produced without labor and therefore without value. It is impossible to go backward in development. This historical moment of social and political instability offers the people of the world the opportunity to take the next step ahead, to overthrow private property and reorganize society in alignment with the new methods of production.
The emancipation of this new communist class from the shackles of private
property is the only way to save the earth and its people from destruction.
It will be a revolutionary act of self-emancipation and will require a very
broad consciousness of cause and consequences.
New polarity changes the parameters of the thinking of the people
The new global order is destroying the foundations of old ideas and consciousness. The following is how this is being described.
"Country isn't as important in this era.... [T]he whole sense of nationhood is a bit confused right now. (A conclusion of the Pew Research Center's recent study of American public opinion. Chicago Tribune, March 4, 1997.)
"We are forced to face the question of whether we will be able to go forward together as a unified society with a confident outlook, or as a society of diverse economic groups suspicious of both the future and each other." (William McDonough, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, November 1995)
Today, polarization of wealth and poverty more and more sets the parameters for the thinking and struggle of the masses of people.
The technological and economic changes that are re-ordering the world are eroding the significance of the nation - a defining element of the last few centuries' history - and its impact on people's thinking. The nation as a historical category is a product of the epoch of rising capitalism. The rising capitalists required the definition and protection of their markets; this need gave rise to nations and nation states. Today, the expansion of capital requires its free flow across national borders.
The material and ideological bonds that held society together in the past period were shaped by national identity and rooted in a particular economic reality. Then, there was an objective basis for all-class unity - that is, the ideological and political unity of the working class and the capitalist class - whether that unity be against an imperialist competitor, against an imperialist oppressor, or in defense of super-profits and bribery.
During the time when the dominant polarity in the world was national, society's "middle" grew and prospered. This economic and political middle element bound together opposing classes in society.
The new global economic order is beginning to reorganize the social and political struggle throughout the world around a new class polarity. It is destroying the middle element, signalling the stage of polarization in society, and opening the way for social and political revolution.
This is not to say that the old polarities of nation, national oppression
and national liberation simply cease to exist. In fact, these forms of the
ideological struggle often become sharper, and the brutality and violence
intensify. But the material basis today is different, and these old polarities
are not at this time the organizing polarities in the world.
How are these changes playing out within the U.S.?
Basically the same as in other so-called "advanced industrial countries" - through what is known as neo-liberalism. In the U.S., it's "welfare reform," turning Social Security funds over to Wall Street investors, privatizing education and the prisons. These are not just the rantings of out-of-control, right-wing ideologues. Speculative capital needs restrictive monetary and fiscal policies, such as keeping interest rates high, balancing the budget in the U.S. and meeting the Maastricht Treaty criteria in Europe.
These are not policies that a government can simply select or reject. Any national state that deviates from these "responsible" economic policies risks punishment by currency markets and bond holders who simply and very quickly move their money elsewhere. At the same time, non-elected, supranational institutions and agreements (like GATT and the WTO) set policies that supersede the authority of national governments. These are the political steps that bring domestic politics and economics into brutal harmony with the new global economy.
These changes dismantle the reforms made possible by the past period of capitalist expansion and super profits. They bring domestic labor down toward the world's lowest levels and pauperize more and more of America. They open up the state sector to private accumulation. They minimize the government and unleash private property.
All this has tremendous ramifications for revolutionaries in the U.S. We already see how the new economy is creating the sameness of poverty that will be the objective basis for a new level of class unity. Yes, the black poor and the white poor are each beginning to reject the bourgeois influences within their own social group and unite where there is equality of poverty. But the new global economy also destroys the basis for the all-class national unity. Thus, not only the unity of each social group, but also the unity of the country as a whole under the ideological and political domination of the capitalist class are undermined.
This is the global context and objective basis for the impulses toward political independence, class identity, and the unity of action of people in the same situation. Class identity, or social consciousness, means an understanding that society is made up of classes, that our problems are caused by an enemy class. People are, in fact, entering into political activity, and, in the Labor Party, they are forming and building their own political party for the purpose of fighting their rulers not just economically but also politically.
Class identity is an indispensable stage of the struggle. Revolutionaries
fight for the completion of this stage and each stage. But that is not our
unique contribution. At all stages, revolutionaries also prepare for the
future of the movement. What then are the unique responsibilities of communists
at this moment?
Unite the revolutionary new class with its ideology
Change begins when something new is introduced into the old set-up and begins to disrupt it. Just as the serfs could not overthrow feudalism, so too, the mere intensification of the struggle between the classes that make up the capitalist system cannot bring that system down. Today, the formation of a new class of proletarians makes possible the destruction of the old social order. It is the same with ideas and the revolutionary movement. We will not get revolution without revolutionary ideology; and revolutionary ideology doesn't just grow out of the intensification of the struggle for reforms. Revolutionaries have the responsibility to add the intellectual and moral element, that which poses the solutions to all the current social struggle but which does not arise automatically from that struggle itself.
The ideology of the new proletarian class is inspired by a vision of a world without want, a world without child labor or homelessness anywhere, a world where everyone has nourishment for the spirit as well as for the body. Its outlook is to do whatever is necessary to achieve that vision. This ideology is based on the understanding that the solution to the problems of the day lies in reorganizing society without private property relations. It is the recognition, therefore, that the aim of the struggle is to gain the political power to do that.
This ideology can guide anyone who wants to participate in the struggle, no matter what their position in society. Ideology rests on an understanding of underlying causes, but it is also the spirit that compels you to fight, to crusade for what's right.
Uniting the revolutionary class with its ideology takes an organization
of revolutionaries structured for and dedicated to that program. Such an
organization creatively and boldly conducts communist propaganda to show
how private property is the cause of each of the particular problems facing
the people. It takes advantage of the need for and instances of practical
unity against the system to develop the revolutionary ideology and politics
of that unity.
Crusading for cause
How will this new ideology be forged in this country? Let's reflect for a moment on the current situation by examining it in the mirror of the history of this country. Prior to and during the Civil War, the Abolitionists waged a courageous crusade to win the American people to the cause of freedom for the slaves. But it wasn't until a combination of economic, political and military events put the self-interests of the northerners on the line that the anti-slavery morality could unite with the self-interests of masses of people. Anti-slavery ideology was forged into a material force against the slave power. The anti-slavery crusaders could not have achieved this outside of a certain objective context; but without them, the history of this country could have been very different indeed.
Much like during the Civil War, we are now in the midst of a world-wide
economic and social revolution. At this historical moment, it is possible
for the ideology of communism to grip the American people on a massive scale.
For that to happen, a group of revolutionaries must be committed to this
purpose. To the comrades of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America,
let us rally to this cause. To others who are also committed to this purpose,
let us combine and thereby strengthen each of our endeavors.