The strike wave in Europe and the decay of bourgeois democracy

[Bert Bakker]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Toch interessant altijd, die historische artikelen van Anti Doto...



2010/10/20 Antid Oto <aorta at home.nl>

> REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl
>
> The strike wave in Europe and the decay of bourgeois democracy
> 20 October 2010
>
> The growing struggles of the working class in Europe and internationally
> against
> mass unemployment and government austerity policies are exposing the
> reality
> behind the façade of bourgeois democracy. In every country, the government,
> whether conservative or nominally “left,” is cutting jobs and wages and
> slashing
> social programs in complete disregard for the overwhelming opposition of
> the
> population.
>
> Elections, parliamentary debates have no effect on policy. The state does
> the
> bidding of the financial aristocracy, tearing up the living standards of
> the
> masses in the interests of the bankers who are responsible for the economic
> crisis. The financiers and corporate executives are making more money than
> ever
> by exploiting mass unemployment and growing social distress to slash wages
> and
> increase the exploitation of the working class.
>
> Where the best efforts of the trade unions do not suffice to hold the
> workers in
> check and struggles break out that challenge the plans of the capitalists,
> most
> prominently in France and Greece, the state uses its powers of repression
> to
> smash strikes and protests. In France, the Sarkozy government has deployed
> riot
> police to break up workers’ blockades of oil depots and attack protesting
> students with tear gas and rubber bullets, arresting hundreds across the
> country.
>
> In Greece, the social democratic PASOK government, elected with the support
> of
> the unions, deployed the military to break a strike by truckers in August.
> Last
> week, the same government used riot police and tear gas against culture
> ministry
> employees occupying the Acropolis to protest mass layoffs.
>
> Despite these attacks, the resistance of the working class is growing. The
> current wave of strikes and protests in France is the most developed
> expression
> of a new stage in the international class struggle. It marks a shift in the
> world political situation of historic proportions. The working class is
> once
> again entering into battle against the capitalists.
>
> Recent days have seen the spread of the strike movement in France, the
> outbreak
> of a strike in Greece that has paralyzed the country’s rail system, and a
> demonstration of hundreds of thousands in Rome protesting the policies of
> the
> Berlusconi government.
>
> There have been one-day general strikes and mass protests in Spain,
> Portugal and
> Ireland, strikes by workers in Romania, and powerful strikes by auto
> workers in
> China and by workers in India, Cambodia and Bangla Desh.
>
> In Britain, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government is
> imposing
> historically unprecedented cuts totaling 83 billion pounds, which will mean
> the
> loss of at least 500,000 jobs in the public sector and another 500,000 in
> the
> private sector.
>
> British workers have repeatedly sought to resist the government-corporate
> onslaught, but have to this point been stymied by the treachery of the
> trade
> unions, which oppose any serious strike action or social mobilization.
> London
> tube workers have struck against privatization and mass layoffs, prompting
> the
> government to draw up anti-strike legislation. BBC and British Airways
> workers
> have voted for strike action, but the union leaders have refused to call
> them out.
>
> In the US, Obama, who came to power by appealing to the intense hatred
> among
> working people and youth for the pro-corporate, militarist policies of Bush
> and
> the Republicans, is carrying out uniformly right-wing, anti-working class
> policies, shattering the illusions of millions who voted for him. The
> inability
> of the White House and the Democratic Party to in any way distance
> themselves
> from the corporate-financial elite has been underscored by the
> administration’s
> actions over the past week, just two weeks before the congressional
> elections.
>
> The administration has lifted the moratorium on Gulf oil drilling,
> announced
> that Social Security recipients will receive no cost-of-living increase,
> and
> rejected calls for a moratorium on home foreclosures.
>
> The growing opposition of the American working class is finding expression
> in an
> incipient rebellion by workers against the United Auto Workers union, which
> is
> seeking to make the 50 percent wage cut for newly hired workers worked out
> last
> year between itself, the auto bosses and the Obama administration the new
> baseline for the industry.
>
> The contempt of the American ruling class for the democratic will of the
> people
> was summed up in an editorial on the events in France published Tuesday by
> the
> New York Times. The major organ of the “liberal” Democratic Party
> establishment
> acknowledged that there is broad support in the French population for the
> strikes and protests against Sarkozy’s plans to raise the retirement age.
> “Despite the widespread inconvenience and economic losses,” it wrote,
> “public
> opinion has remained sympathetic to the unions.” (French polls show upwards
> of
> 70 percent supporting the strikers).
>
> This did not prevent the Times from insisting, “France’s Parliament should
> give
> final approval to the retirement age reform bill this week,” and adding,
> “Even
> with the age raised to 62, further painful adjustments would be needed
> before
> the end of this decade.”
>
> What is emerging in the experience of hundreds of millions of people around
> the
> world is the incompatibility of the capitalist system with their most basic
> needs. The growth of the class struggle is exposing bourgeois democracy as
> little more than a fig leaf for the dictatorship of the banks and
> corporations
> over economic and political life.
>
> The political conclusions must be drawn. The fight for jobs, decent living
> standards, housing, education, health care and all other social rights is a
> political fight against the capitalist state. It is not a matter of pushing
> the
> state to the left, reforming it, or replacing one bourgeois government with
> another, but rather of replacing it, through the revolutionary mobilization
> of
> the working masses, with a workers’ state, based on social ownership of the
> means of production and workers’ democracy.
>
> The fight for workers’ power emerges organically and inevitably out of the
> struggles of the working class against the attacks by the bourgeoisie. It
> must
> be conducted consciously, in opposition to the trade unions, the official
> “left”
> parties and the various middle-class pseudo-left organizations, such as the
> New
> Anti-Capitalist Party in France, that seek to keep the working class tied
> to the
> existing political setup and prevent it from mounting an independent
> struggle
> for power.
>
> This fight is, moreover, an international struggle. Workers throughout
> Europe
> and around the world are facing the same attacks and fighting the same
> enemy. No
> matter how bitter the conflicts between the ruling elites of the various
> nations, they are united in seeking to impose the full cost of the crisis
> on the
> backs of the working class. International finance capital is carrying out a
> coordinated offensive against the workers. They must fight back by uniting
> their
> struggles across national borders and fighting for the program of world
> socialist revolution.
>
> Barry Grey
>
> http://wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/pers-o20.shtml
>
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