Contribution
to the International Communist Seminar
‘Economic Crises and Possibility of a Major World Crisis’
Brussels, 2-4
May 2002
www.icsbrussels.org , ics[at]icsbrussels.org
India
Krishna Chakravortty
Member, Central Committee Socialist Unity Centre of India
Exemplary Working Class, Peasant and Popular Struggles Against the Consequences of the Crisis
Comrade Members of the Presidium and Comrade Delegates,
Representatives from revolutionary and progressive forces over the world are
here at the Eleventh International Communist Seminar under the aegis of the
Workers' Party of Belgium. I bring to you warm greetings from our people and
our Party, the Socialist Unity Centre of India. Let the exchanges on this floor
combine into an ideological struggle to resolve ideological differences, while
we shall remain steadfast to the common objective and shall unite against world
capitalism-imperialism and modern revisionism of all shades.
It is getting clearer by the day, the present imperialist arrangement of a globalized
capitalist market at the disposal of finance capital by doing away with national
barriers in the epoch of moribund capitalism is tying the fates of all capitalist
countries, more than ever before, to the cascading capitalist crisis - not on
a plank of permanent recovery from the crisis. This is inevitable. And this
is why the same US which hoped to reap dividends from the intractable economic
crisis of Japan sees a compulsion in extending advice to the Japanese rulers
on preventing a possible impending economic collapse lest the cascading impact
had gone on to engulf the US economy itself through the network of the globalized
capitalist market. This was evident also during the slide in Singapore, Hong
Kong and South Korea which went on to hit the economies of other more countries,
including the US, to underline the truth that in the capitalistically globalized
market an economic tremor in any one corner was destined to rebound in varying
degrees in other corners, too.
Fundamentally, we all know, the crisis owes its origin to the exploitative system
of profit-making and maximally profit-seeking capitalist economic system that
fleeces the vast masses of people, lowering their purchasing power and effecting
in turn further squeeze and shrink of the market to complete a vicious circle
which has inexorably come to be built in the system in its moribund stage in
the course of operation of the intrinsic law of development of capitalism. Capitalism
has no way out from here. The bourgeois economists and crisis managers, because
of their entrenched class outlook and approach, are incapable of both getting
at this basic truth and accepting its irreversibility. They call it demand recession,
incorrigibly mistaking the symptom for the cause.
Their reform prescription has varied from one end to another - from the Keynesian
economic reform of the state pumping money into economy to augment people's
purchasing power to the present arrangement of globalization, liberalization
and all-round privatization in economy in de-recognition of the concept of the
state's obligation towards society and people. By administration of such palliatives
they could stave off from time to time possibilities of an impending collapse,
every time, however, the clamoured 'turn-around' ending in a deepening of the
crisis further.
First, in the changed situation of the post-Second World War period, they have
sought to create and expand an artificial market through militarization of economy
as the main prop to sustain the crisis-ridden economy. By this either, the crisis
has not been solved. On the contrary, the urge for militarization invariably
creates the compulsion to constantly seek new theatres of war to release the
stockpiles of arms, like the US is on its hop at present from Kosovo to Afghanistan,
and now threatening to leap upon Iraq.
Second, they have resorted to exporting capital throughout the globe which,
too, in the end, has failed to stem the crisis from aggravating.
Third, all hopes for a revamped economy through expansion of the market into
the erstwhile socialist countries in the aftermath of disintegration of the
socialist camp have dashed to the ground.
Fourth, the spurt in technological development in the last few decades having
immensely increased the productivity, total capacity to produce exceeding total
demand i.e. the purchasing capacity of the people, overproduction has further
increased, resulting in further squeeze of profit. On the one hand, the capitalist
rulers are seeking to hold down production levels at the cost of the work force
in various forms, which is leading to still more decline of the purchasing power
of the masses and consequent squeeze of demand and the market. On the other
hand, the imbalance due to increased productivity but decreased demand is resulting
in further and rapid accumulation of finance capital to the extent that the
distended finance capital is increasingly estranging itself from industrial
production to degenerate furthermore into speculative, usurious capital without
commitment in any form to production, labour power and society.
Fifth, pumping money into economy in public spending to artificially stimulate
demand in an attempt to control recession is having only a temporary effect,
while increasing manifold debt liabilities and triggering further rise in prices.
Pursuit of this course now leaves Japan, so long trumpeted as a model economy,
in public debt to the tune of nearly 140% of its GDP. Going back on its earlier
promise, Bush Administration has secured Congressional authorization for public
spending of 50 bn dollars in an attempt to control recession. The presentations
clearly point to the deep-rooted malaise of the US economy since long, although
the US rulers claim the present spurt to be the fallout of the September 11
incident in New York. Painting terrorism as the principal enemy of mankind and
the root cause of the present economic slide is an alibi which the US warmongers
are advancing to enact draconian laws against democratic protests and distract
people's attention away from capitalism's incurable disease.
It is a duality of features of world capitalism today that, on the one hand,
the imperialist powers are set to force open the markets of the economically
backward countries to exploit the cheap labour power and raw materials and sell
their consumerist goods and other commodities, and, on the other, they are arduously
at work to carve out, expand and protect their respective spheres of influence
against each other. The coming together of these powers in the arrangement under
the GATT is a compulsion induced by the crisis, while their regrouping into
separate and contentious power blocs for dominating the globalized market highlights
the other face of the same crisis. The very many contradictions in the capitalist-imperialist
world makes the current arrangement unstable by nature and destined to disintegrate
with the consequent possibility of war breaking out among the imperialist powers.
Being part and parcel of the world capitalist market, capitalism in India comes
under the impact of this crisis of moribund world capitalism and shares the
same features, albeit in a duality of manifestation, because of the particularity
and peculiarity of its historical development in the Indian context.
It should be understood and borne that the historical course of development
of the Indian national capital started quite long back, achieving sufficient
consolidation even before attainment of political freedom from British imperialism.
After independence, under conditions of the third most acute phase of general
crisis of world capitalism, the Indian bourgeoisie took the course to use the
new born sovereign national capitalist state to ensure, in the relative sense,
'freest, widest and speediest' development and consolidation of the national
capital, keeping the Indian market protected from entry of foreign goods and
finance capital. With the same objective, in the sphere of foreign policy, the
Indian rulers took initiative in the Non Alignment Movement (NAM), on the one
hand, to bargain concessions by playing between the imperialist camp and the
then socialist camp, and, on the other, to penetrate into the markets of the
comparatively less developed non-aligned countries. In the whole process, monopoly
capital grew immensely in both private and public sectors and through fusion
of both state capital and private monopoly capital was born state monopoly capital,
and the process of merger of industrial capital and bank capital gave birth
to finance capital and financial oligarchy. The highly centralized finance capital
so developed has become a competitive partner, albeit junior partner, of the
international trust and cartel - a clear indication that the Indian national
bourgeoisie has attained an imperialist character. Not only they wholly own
ventures in the UK, US and some other countries abroad, the Mittals, Pauls and
Hindujas, for instance, are in joint ventures in some other economically backward
countries, they are also participating in joint ventures with foreign MNCs to
exploit the markets of other countries. The imperialist character is manifesting
itself more and more pronouncedly through its big power chauvinistic attitude,
behaviour in dealing with neighbours, as with Nepal and Bangladesh in recent
times, and in expansionist tendencies and moves, on the one hand, and, on the
other, in its increasingly softening of attitude towards the US imperialist
policy of intervention, intrigues and aggression, particularly in West Asia,
East Europe and the Caribbean countries. With the disintegration of the Non-Alignment
Movement, following the dismantling of the socialist camp and being constantly
haunted by the accentuating global capitalist crisis and the growing discontent
among the Indian masses, the Indian rulers have estranged themselves from the
concept and policies of the NAM and are increasingly tilting towards the US
in quest of collaboration with the latter and recognition as a regional superpower
in South-East Asia.
It is a chronic feature of Indian economy that due to abysmally low purchasing
power of the working masses, bled white by exploitation and burdened with staggering
unemployment and spiraling and administered prices and massive taxes, the internal
market has been squeezed and choked and Indian capitalist development has been
shadowed by crisis from the beginning. There is dearth of enough capital in
some spheres of modern heavy industries, while in the other fields of industries
the installed productive capacity remains under-utilized, productive capacity
is in excess of demand, production level is sought to be held down through recourse
to retrenchment, lay-off, closure, or merger and reduction of the work force
and curtailment of labour rights and privileges. The same vicious circle is
in operation here. In a bid to tide over the all-out crisis and protect the
aggregate capitalist interest, the Indian rulers are increasingly resorting
to anti-people policies and measures, leaving the vast masses impoverished,
deprived of health care, housing, education, and other necessaries of life.
Militarization of economy started in India long back, defence allocation overshadowing
by far the provisions for public utility services in the budget. The Indian
state has earned its place among the top ranking nations in military prowess
with its nuclear arsenal, ballistic missiles and satellite communication system,
while the Indian masses struggle to survive with high infant mortality, malnutrition,
starvation, epidemics, persecution of women, religious fanaticism, fundamentalism
and parochialism which are being perpetrated, fostered, fomented and abetted
by the rulers with the object of perpetuating disunity among the people.
Comrades, it is our task to critically analyze the correlation of forces in
the world today and the class character of different states. In this, we ought
to take note of the specificity and particularity of both the internal and external
conditions of development of capital in each country in the perspective of the
general history of development of capitalism as a world system, and we should
focus on the real determinants in order to understand the significance of the
presenting features in a given national and international context. We might
recall here the teaching of Comrade Lenin in his outstanding analysis of imperialism
as the highest stage of capitalism, where he made it clear that economic dependence
does not necessarily mean political subjugation : ''Finance capital is such
a great, such a decisive, you might say, force in all economic and in all international
relations that it is capable of subjecting, and actually does subject, to itself
even states enjoying the fullest political independence. ... Not only are the
two main groups of countries, those owning colonies, and the colonies themselves,
but also the diverse form of dependent countries which, politically, are formally
independent, but, in fact, are enmeshed in the net of financial and diplomatic
dependence, are typical of this epoch. ... Relations of this kind have always
existed between big and little states, but in the epoch of capitalist imperialism
they become a general system, they form part of the sum total of ''divide the
world'' relations and become links in the chain of operations of world finance
capital.'' (Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism : Seventeenth Printing,
1978 ; PP, Moscow, p. 62 - 82) In his work, The Right of Nations to Self-determination,
he made clear : ''Not only small states, but Russia, for example, is economically
entirely dependent on the power of the imperialist finance capital of ''rich''
bourgeois countries. Not only the miniature Balkan states, but even America
in the nineteenth century was economically a colony of Europe ... but it has
nothing whatever to do with the questions of ... national states.''
In the present intertwined system of globalized capitalist market the imperialist
powers headed by the US are engaged to force open the markets of Asia, Africa,
Central and South America to imperialist plunder, and the latter countries cannot
keep themselves out from associating with it without share and concession for
their own respective national capital in various stages of development. They
have to constantly adapt and adjust their needs and aspirations to those of
the senior and dominating imperialist partners, at times yielding ground, at
other times bargaining out concessions through manipulation and manoeuvre in
diverse forms. What shall we read of it ? Should we allow ourselves not to see
the wood for the trees and be distracted into concluding that these countries
are all to be characterized as 'dominated', meaning they are politically subjugated
to imperialism ? No. The Indian bourgeoisie has its own class compulsion to
be in this global arrangement, opening the internal market to the imperialists
and securing in turn whatever share and concession it can in the global market,
simultaneously carrying on the effort to develop fast into a modern military
power, carve out its own sphere of influence as a regional superpower in South-East
Asia and increasingly collaborate with US imperialism to achieve this end.
Discontent and resentment are brewing among people in every country against
imperialist plunder and fleecing by respective ruling class or classes in collaboration
with the imperialists. Everyday, in multiplying numbers, people are taking to
the streets to protest and resist this exploitation-in-collusion- and-collaboration.
It is taking place in India. It is happening in the erstwhile socialist states.
It is growing in advanced capitalist countries of Europe and America on a scale,
which used to be witnessed formerly in the erstwhile colonial and semi-colonial
countries. We, who have assembled here and those others who are with us but
who could not join us here today, are bound by the historical task to coordinate
and guide the anti-imperialist struggles through mutual consultation and cooperation
on the correct understanding of the significance of the present situation, internationally
and nationally.