The economic crisis which has crashed down on society has already had and for a long time will have disastrous consequences for the lives of the masses, as every worker can see in his daily life or her work. The bourgeois economists themselves admit it: they do not know what the causes of the crisis are – satisfying themselves by blaming the greed of the bankers or excessive financial deregulation – and they do not know when it will end and give way to the long-awaited “economic recovery”.
The current crisis is the crisis of the capitalist mode of production, incapable of stopping itself, forced to produce always more commodities, at a certain point it comes up against the limits of the market. As Marx says, capitalism produces too much, not compared to the needs of humanity, but in relation to the need of financial solvency. When the goods dumped on the market – be they homes or cars – can no longer be sold at a price ensuring the profit necessary for the continuation of the economic cycle, the productive system enters into crisis: masses of capital evaporate, companies close, workers are thrown into the street. Just as it produces too many goods compared to the existing market, the capitalist mode of production produces too many workers to be able to employ them in a profitable way; for capitalism workers are a commodity like any other, also subject to the laws of market: the overproduction of goods is inseparable from the overproduction of workers!
In capitalist society, it is the bourgeois class which owns the means of production and what is produced, while the non-possessing, those without reserves – the proletarians – are obliged to comply with the laws of the slavery of wage labor in order to live . If, during the period of economic growth, the bourgeois were able to concede to the workers of the richest countries a number of “social benefits”, these are only the crumbs of exploitation, aimed at making their submission to capitalism and its State easier. Ultimately the domination of the bourgeois class and the capitalist mode of production is based on the organized violence of particular armed bodies (police, army) and various repressive institutions, but without the anesthetic role of the democratic political system – whose material basis is constituted by these always leaner social advantages – which causes the proletarian to believe that his vote has the same weight as the boss' and that both of them, as “citizens”, have the same interests, the domination of the small class of bourgeois exploiters never could have maintained itself. In times of crisis, individual owners, like capitalism in general, know of no other means to save the profits which are the driving force of this mode of production, than the intensification of exploitation of workers. So then the capitalists demand that we accept sacrifices on wages, on employment, pensions, of all these “benefits” in the name of a purported “national interest”.
There is no common interest between exploiters and exploited, between bourgeois and proletarian!
In all countries, the capitalists extort profits from the work of the wage laborers, all the while calling the workers to national unity against foreign competition, and in all countries the capitalists are working to weaken the possibilities of the resistance of workers to exploitation by sharpening competition between them: competition between young and old, men and women, between workers in different factories, among the unemployed, under-employed and those who still have jobs, between workers of different nationalities, races or ethnicity, between undocumented workers and “regularized” workers. The high rate of immigration seen in the economic expansion of recent years in Italy or Spain, as has been witnessed for a longer period in the United States, France, Britain or Germany or in other countries in Asia, Africa or Latin America, is used by the bourgeoisie as a scapegoat for the crisis. Since its birth capitalism has caused the migration of workers – and used the antagonisms between workers of different origins to its profit. And from its birth, the working class has responded by class solidarity and proletarian internationalism: the proletarians have no fatherland!
For decades, the reformists and collaborationists of every stripe have tried to make us believe in the benefits of “social dialogue” in the “protective role of the State” and “democracy” to solve the problems of workers. The current crisis demonstrates that this is a lie: that democracy is the mask of the political and social domination of the bourgeoisie, that the state is there to serve the capitalists and that social dialogue signifies abandoning the vital interests of workers. The bourgeoisie is conducting a class war sometimes open, sometimes concealed, but permanent, against the proletarians, as long as they do not respond on the terrain of open confrontation, they will be beaten: to defend themselves, there is no alternative but to return to the class struggle, starting with the struggle for immediate classist objectives:
– Drastic reduction in the length of the working day!
– Substantial increase in wages, bigger increases for the lower paid, in the minimum wage and all social minimums!
– Equal pay for all: men and women, young or old, natives and immigrants!
– No layoffs! Permanent jobs for casual workers, full pay for the unemployed!
– Full rights for all immigrants regardless of status!
– No to discrimination and evictions!
– No to immigration control!
All these immediate demands can only be obtained by real class struggle and by the classist self-organization of workers: the class-collaborationist politics of the existing unions and their apparatusses of labor compradors will always lead to the surrender of the workers to the capitalists' interests. We must defend all forms of authentic workers economic associationism: (which through their very existence challenge the domination of capitalist lackeys among the working class.)
For class-struggle organization of all the workers!
But this crucial fight of economic defense will take on its full meaning only by becoming the first step towards the international revolution to overthrow the capitalist system which plunges humanity into crises and wars.
Workers of all countries, unite!
International Communist Party
In capitalist society, it is the bourgeois class which owns the means of production and what is produced, while the non-possessing, those without reserves – the proletarians – are obliged to comply with the laws of the slavery of wage labor in order to live . If, during the period of economic growth, the bourgeois were able to concede to the workers of the richest countries a number of “social benefits”, these are only the crumbs of exploitation, aimed at making their submission to capitalism and its State easier. Ultimately the domination of the bourgeois class and the capitalist mode of production is based on the organized violence of particular armed bodies (police, army) and various repressive institutions, but without the anesthetic role of the democratic political system – whose material basis is constituted by these always leaner social advantages – which causes the proletarian to believe that his vote has the same weight as the boss' and that both of them, as “citizens”, have the same interests, the domination of the small class of bourgeois exploiters never could have maintained itself. In times of crisis, individual owners, like capitalism in general, know of no other means to save the profits which are the driving force of this mode of production, than the intensification of exploitation of workers. So then the capitalists demand that we accept sacrifices on wages, on employment, pensions, of all these “benefits” in the name of a purported “national interest”.
There is no common interest between exploiters and exploited, between bourgeois and proletarian!
In all countries, the capitalists extort profits from the work of the wage laborers, all the while calling the workers to national unity against foreign competition, and in all countries the capitalists are working to weaken the possibilities of the resistance of workers to exploitation by sharpening competition between them: competition between young and old, men and women, between workers in different factories, among the unemployed, under-employed and those who still have jobs, between workers of different nationalities, races or ethnicity, between undocumented workers and “regularized” workers. The high rate of immigration seen in the economic expansion of recent years in Italy or Spain, as has been witnessed for a longer period in the United States, France, Britain or Germany or in other countries in Asia, Africa or Latin America, is used by the bourgeoisie as a scapegoat for the crisis. Since its birth capitalism has caused the migration of workers – and used the antagonisms between workers of different origins to its profit. And from its birth, the working class has responded by class solidarity and proletarian internationalism: the proletarians have no fatherland!
For decades, the reformists and collaborationists of every stripe have tried to make us believe in the benefits of “social dialogue” in the “protective role of the State” and “democracy” to solve the problems of workers. The current crisis demonstrates that this is a lie: that democracy is the mask of the political and social domination of the bourgeoisie, that the state is there to serve the capitalists and that social dialogue signifies abandoning the vital interests of workers. The bourgeoisie is conducting a class war sometimes open, sometimes concealed, but permanent, against the proletarians, as long as they do not respond on the terrain of open confrontation, they will be beaten: to defend themselves, there is no alternative but to return to the class struggle, starting with the struggle for immediate classist objectives:
– Drastic reduction in the length of the working day!
– Substantial increase in wages, bigger increases for the lower paid, in the minimum wage and all social minimums!
– Equal pay for all: men and women, young or old, natives and immigrants!
– No layoffs! Permanent jobs for casual workers, full pay for the unemployed!
– Full rights for all immigrants regardless of status!
– No to discrimination and evictions!
– No to immigration control!
All these immediate demands can only be obtained by real class struggle and by the classist self-organization of workers: the class-collaborationist politics of the existing unions and their apparatusses of labor compradors will always lead to the surrender of the workers to the capitalists' interests. We must defend all forms of authentic workers economic associationism: (which through their very existence challenge the domination of capitalist lackeys among the working class.)
For class-struggle organization of all the workers!
But this crucial fight of economic defense will take on its full meaning only by becoming the first step towards the international revolution to overthrow the capitalist system which plunges humanity into crises and wars.
Workers of all countries, unite!
International Communist Party
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