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| Sunday, 15 August 2004 |
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P. Kandiah memorial lecture : Socialism in the era of globalization by Sitaram Yechury, Politburo Member, Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Globalization, as the present phase of world capitalist development is known, is a development that can be understood mainly on the basis of the internal laws and the dynamics of the functioning of the capitalist economic system. Karl Marx, in his seminal work Das Kapital, had shown us that as capitalism develops, it leads to the concentration and centralization of capital in a few hands. As a result of this law, huge amounts of capital get accumulated. This, in turn, needs to be deployed to earn profits which is the raison d'etre of the system. Towards the end of the 20th century, more specifically in the decade of the eighties, this process of centralization led to gigantic levels of accumulation of capital. The beginning of the nineties saw the internationalization of finance capital which had grown in colossal leaps. In 1993, the global stock of principle derivatives was estimated to be over $20 trillion. Subsequently, this globally mobile finance capital had acquired unprecedented dimensions. At the turn of the 21st century, the turnover in the global financial transactions was estimated to be over $400 trillion, or, nearly 60 times the annual global trade in goods and services estimated to be around seven trillion dollars. This huge accumulated finance capital requires a world order that places absolutely no restrictions on its global movement in search of predatory speculative profits. Simultaneously, the huge accumulation of capital taking place with the multinational corporations and the assets of some which outstrip the combined GDPs of many developing countries also created conditions which required the removal of all restrictions on the movement of this industrial capital in search of super profits. Similar pressures also developed for the removal of all trade barriers and tariff protection. Thus, the laws of capitalist development by themselves created the objective conditions for the current phase of globalisation whose essential purpose is to breakdown all barriers for the movement of capital and dovetail the economies of the developing countries to the super profit earning drive of multinational corporations. This is sought to be achieved by the global trimoorti , viz, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organisation. The objective that clearly emerges is one of seeking the economic re-colonization of the developing countries or the third world. As this process of globalization was under way came the collapse of the Soviet Union and some of the Socialist countries in Eastern Europe. While it is a matter of a separate discussion to examine whether the process of globalization and the collapse of the Soviet Union were merely coincidental, or, are related in some manner, it is sufficient for us to note here that this convergence at the beginning of the 1990s set in motion a renewed aggressiveness by the remaining superpower, USA. New World Order The visions of a "new world order" under US leadership unfolded. The efforts to impose a comprehensive US hegemony on all global matters was unleashed. The natural tendency in the post-Cold War bipolar international situation was the movement towards multi-polarity. This is sought to be short-circuited by USA and in its place create a world of uni-polarity under its tutelage. These efforts have been intensified further following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. The "war against terrorism" has today replaced the Cold War imperialist slogan of "war against Communism" as the excuse and pretext to militarily intervene in sovereign independent countries to advance US hegemonic interests. The war against Iraq and its occupation by the USA is the most brazen expression of this trend. Thus, under globalization, what we are witnessing today is an effort towards the economic re-colonization of the third world and simultaneously a world that is sought to be dictated and ruled upon by US-led imperialism. While these are the objectives that imperialism seeks to achieve, certain other features of globalization need to be noted. These are important to underline the fact that for the bulk of humanity, globalization means nothing else, but greater misery and exploitation. First, globalisation is accompanied by the utilization of vastly growing scientific and technological advances not for the benefit of the vast masses of humanity but for strengthening the rapacious plunder for greater profits. The nature of capitalist development increasingly is based on such advances which permit constant replacement of human beings by machines. The net result is, while moderate growth is achieved, it is done without generating employment and, in fact, reducing its future potential. This is the phenomenon of "jobless growth". According to the International Labour Organization, while 12 crore (120 million) people were officially registered as unemployed at the turn of the century, there were an additional 70 crore who were under-employed. In addition, 130 crore people live in absolute poverty earning less than a dollar a day, while 300 crore people live on less than two dollars a day. Secondly, this phase of globalisation is accompanied by sharp widening of inequalities. This is starkly illustrated by the fact that the combined assets of 358 billionaires in the world is greater than the combined annual GDP of countries constituting 45 per cent of the world's population, or, 230 crore people. The share of the poorest 20 per cent in the world's population is less than one per cent, down from 1.4 per cent in 1991. Such large-scale impoverishment of the vast majority of the world's people means the shrinkage of their capacity to be consumers of the products that this globalised economy produces. This renders the entire process of globalisation simply unsustainable. This is the third feature. Virtual wealth The enormous growth of mobility of international finance capital had created illusions that this was a balloon that could be inflated to infinity. Burst it did, shattering many illusions created by this "virtual wealth". All the stock markets in the world, including the fancied Nasdaq, suffered major collapse by the middle of 2001. This was before September 11 and hence, it would be only a deliberate effort to try and link the current global recession to the terrorist attacks. If anything, the "war against terrorism" has to some extent bolstered public investment, particularly in the armaments industry, given the aggressive US hegemonic drive. (Signs of recovery, led by the war against Iraq, are now visible. This, however, does not appear sustainable.) The only way imperialism seeks to sustain this unsustainable exploitative order is by intensifying its political and military hegemony. The burdens of the economic crisis will surely be shifted to the people who are already groaning under the globalization onslaught. In this context, it is pertinent to recollect what Marx has said in the Das Kapital: "With adequate profit, capital is very bold. A certain 10 per cent will ensure its employment anywhere; 20 per cent will produce eagerness; 50 per cent positive audacity; 100 per cent will make it ready to trample on all human laws; 300 per cent, and there is not a crime at which it will scruple, nor a risk it will not run, even to the chance of its owner being hanged." Thus, what awaits humanity is a fresh wave of assaults and onslaughts. Unless of course, the people's movement against globalization, which has been rapidly growing in recent years, attains levels that can halt and reverse this process. But that can be possible only if an alternative to the capitalist system emerges as the objective to achieve freedom and liberty. History has repeatedly shown that no amount of reform within the capitalist system can eliminate exploitation which is inherent in the very production process of the system. An alternative socio-economic political system has to be put in place and that can only be socialism. Humanity, thus, has a choice. As Rosa Luxembourg many decades ago and Fidel Castro today put it: this is a choice between socialism or barbarism. Thus, notwithstanding the ideological offence that continues to parrot the so-called invincibility and eternality of capitalism (the Francis Fukuyama variety), its global economy is in a serious crisis and imperialism has embarked on a hegemonic drive to enslave the majority of the world's people. (1 crore = 10 million) (To be continued) |
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