Workers!

The recurring economic crises alternating with increasingly feeble recoveries are hitting us harder and harder. To cope with the pressing demands of suffering capitalism, the bourgeoisie attacks our wages and salaries, our living and working conditions, the already frail and inadequate “guarantees” of social insurance and welfare.  By using the strength of the bourgeois, democratic state – the supreme tool of our oppression – and all its organs (the parliament, unions, priesthood, mass media, political parties and pseudo-proletarian associations, etc.) those in command  keep us subdued and make us pay the whole cost of the crises.  And so we are obliged to fight for survival day by day, against precarious employment, unemployment, the high cost of living, the increase in working hours and exploitation, abysmal safety standards, a decline in general living conditions, mass lay-offs to safeguard profits and individual ones to punish the most combative workers, police and legal repression if anyone should raise his or her head.      

Workers!

The bosses continue to demand (but in reality to impose) sacrifices, promising us, in exchange, an improvement in living conditions that is never to come about.Judging by the state of the world economy, we communists affirm that, as has happened over the past ten years, even the slightest hint of economic recovery will be absorbed by the bosses in the form of profits, whilst for us proletarians, our miserable salaries will continue to be throttled. In the meantime, bourgeois propaganda does everything possible to blame the consequences of the economic crisis, for example the growing social decay and progressive impoverishment of the proletarian masses – for which the bourgeoisie and its economic system are solely responsible – on factors that are instead the inevitable effects of capitalist development, such as criminality and immigration, thus encouraging racism, the war of the poor against the poor and divisions at the heart of the proletariat.

The present world situation will continue on this downward trajectory at an increasing pace, with a constant growth in international tension and local conflicts, in a series of ever deeper and devastating economic crises that will lead imperialist States to arm themselves to the back teeth.  In this phase of rearmament there will be the imposition of further heavy sacrifices and more policing, according to the old motto “Keep quiet and work,” coined to “educate” workers to obedience.At the end of this crescendo, the proletariat of all nations will be driven to massacre one another, ranged behind their threadbare national banners and urged on by the fanfare of nationalisms that have been picking up again for some years now. The bourgeoisie in any state involved in the conflict will paint the enemy of the moment as the aggressor, cruel and inhuman, and itself as the victim, good, human and “on the side of god”.  In other words, we shall observe on a gigantic scale the usual choreography of lies that accompanies the outbreak of any conflict and serves to conceal the only real objective of any war: capitalist profit.

The international proletariat alone, driven by events, will be able to avoid the catastrophe of a new world war, ending the wretched bourgeois civilization and the exploitation it has generated. Urged on by capital’s ferocious attack, our class will in fact be obliged to fight in order to defend its living and working conditions, to equip itself with organizations independent of its enemy, the bourgeois State, to overcome all its internal divisions, realising, in the midst of this battle, that only aunited proletarian front can effectively contrast an attack by capital. We communists point to, and will continue to point out to workers the path of open class warfare, with the methods and objectives that have belonged to it for a hundred and fifty years: a sustained general strike, with no warning and no limits of time or space; the organized refusal of any discrimination on the basis of age, gender or nationality; a drastic reduction in working hours together with substantial wage increases, larger in the case of the worse paid categories; a full wage for the unemployed, those who have been laid off and immigrants; the organized refusal of any form of precarious or unofficial employment; the fight against any agreement, compatibility or sacrifice in the name of national economy and interests.

Workers!

Only authentic class politics, aiming to overthrow capitalism, can represent a way out and spare humanity the horrors of a new world war. We know that against these politics the eternal pacifist positions will be ranged, the “anti-imperialist” marches, the exhortations to social peace, and thence military and police repression. But there exists the certainty that the international proletariat, trapped between the never-ending threat of war on the one hand and increasingly unbearable living conditions on the other, will finally be capable of choosing the right path, pointed out and embodied by its revolutionary party: the final overthrow of existing society.

Against the military adventures of the Italian bourgeoisie and its following of pacifists and partisans

As communists and internationalists, we know from memory and from the science of history, that in the age of imperialism every “mission abroad” is a mission of war. Indeed imperialism means more international competition, keen trade wars, the export of sums of capital which inevitably enter into conflict with one another, the control of raw material sources and their routes of transport and thus the attempt to exclude competitors, right up to the uncontrolled explosion of conflicts that are initially local and then, in the long term, and when material conditions are ripe and necessary, worldwide. This is what has been going on for decades (ever since a new economic crisis of surplus production appeared on the scene of international capitalism in the mid-1970s) and regards first and foremost the area starting from the Balkans and embracing the Middle East, up to Afghanistan and Pakistan, the crossroads of more or less approved and legal trade (arms and drugs), vital trade corridors, pipelines carrying oil and gas, oilfields and sources of water that imperialism has always had its eyes and its talons poised on – not last of all Italian imperialism, which has several interests in the area, and not recent ones, and which, in any case, wants to (must) try and carve out its own slice of autonomy and presence.

As communists and internationalists, we know that those who will pay the price of this will be proletarians and the poor, oppressed and disinherited masses of all countries. And as revolutionary communists and internationalists, our slogans speak clearly against any form of pacifism and nationalist partisan spirit.

• The refusal of any military adventure (however it may be disguised: humanitarian, democratic, civilizing) by our own bourgeoisie
• The refusal to accept sacrifices in the name of the “national economy” (military expenditure is an essential component of any national budget, in times both of war and of peace)
• Organization of the fight to defend the living and working conditions of the proletariat, as a necessary step towards striking a hard blow at the war effort of our own bourgeoisie
• A decided return to the methods and objectives of the class war – breaking with any logic of orchestration or social peace – methods and objectives that for now represent the only real form of internationalist solidarity by the proletariat of imperialist nations with the oppressed proletarian masses.

Only with these basic premises, which imply independent action by the proletariat, will it be possible to organize open revolutionary defeatism, by placing it at the centre of the class strategy, thus making it possible to break and disperse the war front. In this commitment to struggle, who are our allies? Our allies are the proletarians of the whole world and, in particular, those in countries massacred by the imperialist war. They are not – and never will be – this or that bourgeois faction, however armed or “resistant”, whatever its religious or reformist or – even worse – pseudo-socialist façade.

The interventions that have followed one another over the past decade, demonstrate that at this stage the capitalist mode of production has come to the end of the road; that its long agony is merely destructive and that it is therefore necessary to finish it off, in order to finally arrive at a classless society – communism – by violently seizing power and setting up the dictatorship of the proletariat directed by the communist party. Thus the real victory of the contemporary age is the rebirth, spread and firm establishment of the world communist party.

Lebanon: Against the military adventures of the Italian bourgeoisie

And so the soldier boys have departed: another peace mission around in the world, hearts on their sleeves, to help out the weak and the needy… a true people of poets, saints and sailors. This is what we came to.

We do not share this view. As communists, we believe that in the age of imperialism every “overseas mission” is a mission of war. Imperialism does, in fact, mean growing international competition, aggressive commercial wars, exports of capitals that inevitably come into conflict with one another, the control of raw material sources and their routes of transport and thus the attempt to exclude competitors, leading to the unbridled explosion of conflicts, first local and then, in the long term and where material conditions are favourable and make it necessary, worldwide. This is what has been going on for decades (i.e. since a new crisis of surplus production has once again erupted violently onto the scenario of world capitalism) and regards first and foremost the area that, starting from the Balkans, embraces the Middle East up to Afghanistan and Pakistan: the crossroads for more or less legal and admissible “businesses” (arms and drugs), crucial trade corridors, pipelines and gaslines, oilfields and sources of fresh water, that imperialism has always had its sights and its paws on (since the beginning of the nineteen hundreds) – first English, then French, then American and Israeli, without forgetting the Germans, Russians and Chinese … and Italians, whose interests in the area are neither slight nor recent: and who in any case must (under pressure of the economic crisis) try to carve out their own slice of  autonomy and presence.

As communists, we think that the “peace mission” that sees the Italian contingent in the front line and in a position of command within the Unifil forces, is in fact awar mission, in which miserable obedience to the most powerful imperialist force (USA) is entwined with the chauvinist need to claim a respected place at the feast of the imperialist thieves. As in Afghanistan, as in Iraq. The coming weeks and months will make this increasingly clearer, while steps are taken, day by day along the road leading – though not immediately –  to a new world conflict. Those who will pay the price are and will be once again the proletariat of all countries, the poor and disinherited masses.

As communists, what must be our answer?

• the refusal to support any sort of military adventure, however disguised, of our own country’s bourgeoisie
• the refusal to accept sacrifices “in defence of the national economy”, which is always and in any case the economy of capital and therefore exploitation at home and abroad
• organisation in order to defend the living and working conditions of the proletariat, against parties and unions that ceased to represent the interests of the working class over half a century ago
• a determined return to the methods and objectives of open class warfare, breaking all ties with the logic of agreements and social pacts
• work for the rebirth, expansion and establishment of a strong foothold for the world revolutionary party.

“Episodes” like this, and above all the many and increasingly serious ones that will follow, also demonstrate that the capitalist mode of production has been at the end of the line for a century now;  that its prolonged death throes are merely destructive and increasingly so with each year that goes by (suffice it to think of what it has been like in the past fifteen years!); that it is therefore necessary to put it out of its misery, to finally attain a classless society, communism, by means of the violent seizing of power and the instauration of the dictatorship of the proletariat directed by the communist party.

First may 2008 That the red flag fly again, A symbol of class war, Not of class conciliation 

Proletarians, comrades!

For thirty years (everyone acknowledges this now) the capitalist mode of production has been in a tunnel of economic crisis, alternating periods of recovery and resounding crashes. Following the repression (democratic, fascist, Nazi and Stalinist) of the proletarian masses, first during the war and then in the post-war period, the contradictions in the capitalist mode of production have gradually become more intense and explosive: hundreds of local wars, tens of millions of deaths sacrificed on the altar of profit, increasingly bitter recessions, environmental ruin, the degradation of social life. Today the overall economic crisis (first and foremost in production, and then in finance and credit) clearly reveals the dramatic and urgent need for the revolutionary transformation of society. The scenario that is being prepared is, in fact, that of a new world conflict of gigantic proportions: the phases of recession have become more and more frequent and those of expansion weaker and more artificial, and all this makes the commercial war between imperialisms more bitter, making military conquests necessary at strategic points for the defence and winning of markets or for the control of the transport routes for raw materials. This is the key to interpreting the United States’ massive gatherings of troops and military intervention in the Mediterranean area, the Caucasus, the Balkans and Afghanistan, closely followed by the lesser, but no less virulent imperialisms (Germany, Japan, Russia, China). American economic predominance is increasingly threatened by the attacks of its competitors: it can no longer get back on its feet and produce a new phase of expansion and what prevent this are the huge internal and foreign debts it has run up, both public and private, the excess production capacity and surplus production which, over the past five decades, have led to fierce commercial competition worldwide. But the whole of the capitalist world is in the midst of a crisis, as demonstrated by the crash of the big banks (German and English, as well as American) and the precarious situation of Japanese and Chinese banks. On the other hand, the dramatic situation in the Middle East proclaims that the whole area – of fundamental importance for international capitalism –  is dynamite.

Proletarians, comrades!

The great upheavals described by Marxism ever since the Communist Manifesto of 1848 are approaching. Capital, in its various national segments, is preparing for this in the only way it can or knows how to: cutting social spending, dismantling “guarantees” (obtained by fighting for them), exasperating technological innovation and getting rid of labour, restructuring and privatizing, militarizing society in a more or less clandestine manner, fuelling divisions and contrasting positions amongst workers, spreading the moral virus of patriotism and nationalism, laying the foundations for ever wider and more violent conflicts – all in the name not of the private or personal interests of one puppet or another, but of the survival of its own mode of production. At the direct level of production, capitalist dynamics are having devastating effects on the living and working conditions of the proletarian masses: increasing the pace of work, with an increase in “accidents”, extension of precarious employment and flexibility, longer working hours, a direct or indirect reduction in wages, etc. After eighty years of democratic, fascist and Stalinist counterrevolution (which also allowed quite obscenely capitalist regimes to be passed off as “communist”), our class is scattered and disoriented, a victim of the bourgeois illusion that the future will be rosy, and even its most combative sectors remain isolated and are thus easily defeated. Localism, the fragmentation of struggles, joint agreements, skilfully fuelled by corporate political and union organizations, end up by quelling or deviating any sign of an independent class struggle spontaneously resuming.

And yet, under the pressure of material factors and the social tension produced by the worsening crisis, proletarians all over the world will be obliged to return to the path of their traditional claims and traditional methods of struggle. They will be obliged to shake off the weight of parties which, having for some time now positioned themselves to defend capital and being ready to serve its vital interests on all occasions, consider them exclusively as a source of votes; and of unions that for some time now have been proclaiming in their words and deeds that the “national economy is the only common interest”, to be defended in every way – by cutting pensions, by agreements and self-regulation of strikes, by isolating and indicting combative workers, and so on. They will be obliged to recognize the emptiness of any reformist and gradualist, “amicable” or “joint agreement” prospects, as well as of confused and contradictory “movements” that consume their energies in demonstrations without prospects, dominated by pacifist and clerical ideologies, if not openly reactionary and nationalistic ones. They will beobliged to resume the fight, with their usual weapons (pickets, the stoppage of production and provision of services, the constitution of strike funds, the creation of economic defence organisms that bring together the employed and the unemployed, native and immigrant workers, a general strike without warning or limits of time and space), for the following objectives:

• Considerable wage increases for the worst paid categories
• Full wages to the unemployed, paid by the State or by private owners
• Drastic reductions in working hours for the same wage
• Refusal of overtime and long shifts motivated by the “needs of the company or the national economy”
• Opposition to mobility, flexibility and any form of insecure work
• Unrelenting defence of the weaker categories of workers most exposed to blackmail
• General refusal of child labour
• Refusal of any sort of dismissal and lay-off, whatever the motivation
• Refusal of all racist ideology, of all legislative or police measures designed to divide the proletariat
• Refusal of all patriotism or nationalism, however disguised as “common and superior interests”
• Refusal of any imperialist war, however disguised as “defence against outside aggression”, “democratic” or “humanitarian”.

When they finally occupy this ground, the ground of open class warfare, workers from all over the world will also be obliged to acknowledge that this defensive battle is indeed necessary but is insufficient. Within the world of capital, of the search for profit at all costs, of the competition of all against all, there are no acquired rights, no lasting gains, no lasting victories. The truly great result of these fights will be that of sealing the union of workers in a single class front, independent and autonomous of the State and whoever supports it. However, this is not enough, either: a political battle will be necessary. Above all, the revolutionary political party will be needed, able to direct, guide, bring together these struggles beyond the limits of time and space and of local and generational interests, with the objective (naturally a long way off today but inevitable and indispensable) of ending once and for all a mode of production that is solely destructive. And, under its guidance, to open up the way for a classless society, without exploitation or repression, without wars or misery: the society of a fully realized human species. 

Gaza 2009 – Imperialist butchery against the proletariat

Fellow proletarians and comrades!

For weeks now the butchers of the Israeli army have been ploughing ahead with their decade-long criminal demolition job: using the pretext that Hamas must be destroyed, yet another horrific blood bath of Palestinian proletarians has occurred. To a greater or lesser extent, all States within the area (idle words and pathetic declarations count for nothing) and all the bourgeois factions – both lay and fundamentalist – responsible for this tragic Middle-eastern cul de sac (be they supporters of Al Fatah, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood or the theocratic Israeli state – it matters not) closed a blind eye to what has been going on.

The dreadful truth of the matter is that no-one wants Palestinian proletarians: in peacetime they are exploited for their labour, and in wartime they are a rich source of cannon-fodder for war-hungry imperialist powers. That is all: the obscene truth of the matter.

As long as the suicidal logic of national and nationalist bourgeoisies prevails, there will never be a solution to the Middle-eastern puzzle (one of the most poisonous of all post-war imperialist legacies). There will be no peace for as long as aggressive bourgeoisies – more or less a direct expression of north American imperialism (Israel), or those in a strong bargaining position as a result of spiralling oil revenues (all Arab states, ‘moderate’ and non; or ‘extremist’ states like Iran) – continue carving out areas of influence in the annual carnival of carnage served up by rival imperialist powers. There will be no lull in the veritable holocaust of the proletarian and proletarianised masses in the entire area as long as the horizon is dominated by abominable nationalist and religious ideologies and as long as world capitalism is allowed to pursue its insanely destructive course.

The Gaza massacres – and the blood of hundreds of proletarians – only serve to confirm that the obscene monster called capitalism must be destroyed. Only the proletariat – the class that has no reserves and recognizes no homeland, the class whose claim to liberation is human, and human only – can accomplish this. And it can do so only by openly resorting to a classist – not nationalist – perspective, a class struggle against all bourgeois factions, a drastic boycotting of all war efforts, in order to shatter once and for all the damnable vicious circle of proletarian massacres. Only the dictatorship of the proletariat, established at long last after centuries of domination by blood-drenched capital, will be able to sweep away the tragic consequences and problems wrought by a century of imperialist devastation. But this will only be possible if the proletariat of European and north American metropolises finally succeeds in breaking all ties with its own national bourgeoisies; and if it once again wages an open class struggle, independently of any bourgeois or nationalist formation, under the determined lead of its own party, newly exhumed after decades of frightening counter-revolution – and then manages to finally seize power and establish its own class dictatorship, a necessary bridgehead towards a classless society, a society which is at last human: communism.

International Communist Party

(International Papers - Cahiers Internationalistes - Il Programma Comunista)