The
theses of KKE / By Eleni
Bellou.
Source: International
Communist Review, Issue 1, July 2014.
The
international capitalist economy is going through a profound crisis
characterized mainly by its extensive synchronization. It initially
manifested itself in 2007 in the USA, in the construction sector,
with the depreciation of capital in financial companies, due to the
extensive circulation of investment derivatives in securitized
precarious housing loans.
The
danger of collapse of US financial giants -that hold powerful
positions in the international market of money capital- caused a
gradual and generalized large decrease of prices in the most
important stock markets in the world. It was the “tip of the
iceberg” in the manifestation of a generalized crisis of
overproduction, overaccumulation of capital.
An
optimistic version of the current data and assessments of the
international economic organisations pinpoint 2010 as the year of the
lowest point of recession. An increase of the number of unemployed by
25 million has already been registered and it is estimated that
another 40 millions will be added by the end of the year. In
2009, the Gross World Product is expected to shrink by 1,7% according
to the World Bank and by 2,75% according to the OECD. The latter
estimates that the international trade will shrink by 13,2% in 2009.
The
International Monetary Fund estimates the depreciation of money
capital to 4,1 trillion dollars since the manifestation of the
crisis.
The
outbreak of the economic crisis in Greece
In
the Greek economy the crisis manifested itself with a slight delay
compared to the rest of the euro-zone. It entered a phase of
recession in 2009, while in 2008 the GDP expansion slowed down. The
most significant element is that the industrial sector
(Mining-quarrying sector, manufacturing sector, electricity, water
supply, according to bourgeois statistics), that entered a phase of
recession in 2005, shrank by 4% in 2007/2008.
In
2008, all branches of Manufacturing were in recession, except for the
branch of Food industry (1,2% increase).
The
crisis in the Manufacturing sector is reflected in the great decrease
of industrial commodities (approximately by 7%).
The
construction sector has sustained a large decrease (-9,4%).
During
the period 2002-2008 there has been a tendency for significant
production decreases in most of the basic agricultural products –with
the exception of soft wheat, maize and peaches.
According
to the data provided by Eurostat, the real agricultural income
declined by -7,1% in 2008 due to a stagnation in the selling prices
of producers and a large increase in the prices of industrial
products.
According
to Eurostat, the net agricultural income as a correlation of net
value added in relation to the cost was reduced in 2008 to 80,1%
compared to 2000 (=100)[1].
In
2008 there was a large drop of prices in the Athens Stock Exchange.
Its total market value (as a percentage of the GDP) was estimated, at
the end of 2008, approximately at 1/3 of the respective value at the
end of 2007 (December 2008: 28%, December 2007: 86%)[2].
A significant part of this drop was due to the mass withdrawal of
foreign investors in October 2008.
Regardless
of the phase of the crisis cycle, a particular feature of the Greek
economy is its long-term sharpened and deficient fiscal condition.
The slowdown in GDP growth -that accelerated during the second
semester of 2008- worsened dramatically the terms of state borrowing.
The
latest assessments predict a 1% decline in GDP in 2009. The extent of
the recession in the Greek economy will certainly depend on the
course of the crisis:
a.
In Balkan countries, where important investments have been made by
companies based in Greece. This concerns economies with high
capitalist growth rates, such as Romania with a 7,7% growth in 2008
and a prediction of a -1,8% decline in 2009, or Bulgaria with a 4,4%
growth in 2008 and a prediction of a -1% decline in 2009[3].
b.
In international trade, large part of which is carried out through
maritime transport that constitutes a significant source of inflow.
c.
In important European countries, such as Germany and Britain. These
countries are the origin of a large part of the tourists who visit
Greece, not only in absolute numbers, but also in overnight staying
and earnings.
The
effects of the high EU inflows compared to the industrial and
agricultural shrinkage are contradictory.
The
above mentioned facts demonstrate that the outbreak of crisis in the
Greek economy is going to be profound. Predictions are being made
that it will last for 2 years. It will sharpen the existing social
contradictions through the increase of unemployment, part-time
employment and the extension of flexible working relations. According
to bourgeois measurements, poverty has already increased, with a
particular concentration (about ¼) among children up to 15 years of
age, as well as people in the 18-24 age bracket.
Of
course, the indices of poverty reflect solely a part of it; they do
not reflect the fact that salaries and wages fall short of the
incremental growth of GDP and productivity growth in a phase of
extended reproduction in Greece.
The assessment of KKE ten years ago
In
order to assess the current crisis and the predictions being made for
an exit from the recession, both internationally and in Greece, we
believe that it would be useful to mention our general assessment of
the crisis that occurred ten years ago. We should also remind our
forecast regarding the period that was to follow that crisis.
In
1998 another recession phase was in progress. It had started in the
countries that until then were considered to be the “economic
miracles” and were characterised as the “Asian tigers”; it had
enveloped the economies of SE Asia, as well as Japan and countries in
Latin America; with a slight time delay, it also manifested itself in
the USA in 2000. Global gross product shrunk by 1%, while
international capital flows for direct investments and international
trade sustained a big reduction.
It
was at that point that, for the first time after the victory of the
counterrevolution in the USSR and the countries of socialist
construction, circumspection was once again expressed regarding the
robustness of capitalism; the bourgeois expressed concerns that at
some point their policies might encounter difficulties in controlling
the workers’ and people’s discontent–reaction to the
consequences of the crisis.
The
various theories on the causes of the crisis were part of the effort
to control the situation from the point of view of the stability of
capital’s power. These theories focused on the way that the stock
markets functioned, emphasised the management-transparency of
high-risk investment funds (Hedge Funds), the terms of IMF and World
Bank lending to the states.
In
other words, they focused on the apparent disfunctions in the sphere
of the circulation of capital in its monetary form.
At
that time KKE estimated that a crisis of overproduction, or else a
crisis of over-accumulation of capital had occurred, as had happened
previously, with the crisis of 1973 being the most characteristic
example. We argued that it was a crisis of over-accumulation of
capital, irrespective of its initial forms of expression.
In
contrast to bourgeois disputes - starting from the IMF itself-
concerning the management measures necessary for a speeding-up of the
exit from the recession or an alleged possibility for the prevention
of a recession in the US and the other capitalist countries, KKE had
predicted that, in one way or the other, the exit from the recession,
the recovery, even the passage to a new upward course of expanded
capitalist reproduction would lead to the outbreak of a new crisis of
overaccumulation, deeper and more synchronized than the previous one.
In
addition KKE had warned that the working conditions, the wages and
the life conditions of the working class in these countries would not
improve, but, on the contrary, that they would deteriorate even in
the phase of capitalist growth.
This
forecast was based on the fact that the shares in the world
capitalist production and market were changing to the benefit of new
developing capitalist economies with large domestic populations and
still very cheap labour force. The counterrevolutionary overthrows,
the opportunist erosion and crisis of the communist movement and in
general the retreat of the labour movement, as well as the
assimilation of trade union organisations to the capitalist system,
have also contributed in a similar direction.
Thus,
under conditions of expanded capitalist reproduction the tendency for
the workers’ income to fall prevailed, in parallel with an increase
in the rate of exploitation.
This
tendency took on the character of unified strategic choices. In the
EU for instance these choices were codified in the Lisbon strategy
that promotes the restriction of workers’ and pensioners’ rights
in order to meet the goal of the so-called “reduction of the labour
cost” in the EU market.
In
the period that followed, the first ten years of the 21st century,
new buyouts and mergers took place; the international interweaving of
capital moved on further, the international capitalist competition
and the formation of more or less cohesive regional alliances and
unions intensified.
The
tendency towards changes among the unevenly developing capitalist
economies strengthened. This leads to the overthrow of the balance of
forces in the international capitalist market that was formed 70
years ago. At the same time, this tendency was expressed through new
state and interstate demands for changes in the international
agreements and co-operations, for instance in the WTO agreements, in
the composition of the IMF and World Bank boards, in the composition
of international foreign exchange reserves, in the currency being
used in the trade of industrial materials and in the expansion of the
G7.
During
the previous cycle of the international capitalist crisis these
developments were only dimly visible. However, during the current
cycle they have become an irreversible tendency. It is on this ground
that the new cycle of the international economic capitalist crisis,
which is in progress, developed; it started in the USA, spread to the
Euro-zone -maybe more deeply- and envelopes at the same time Great
Britain, Japan, Russia, Turkey and countries of Latin America. For
the time being, it impacts China and India via a reduction of growth
rates.
Assessments of KKE for the current economic world crisis
It
is expected that the current recession will be of longer duration
than the previous one and that the passage into a new phase of
revitalisation and growth will be more anaemic. More important,
however, are the predictions that we can make about the position of
the working class and of hired labourers in general, as well as of
the larger part of self-employed, during the phase of recovery from
the recession.
We
consider that the same tendency of deterioration that was manifested
during the two previous decades will continue and sharpen, unless
there is a visible ideological-political and organizational
revitalization of the international communist movement, an
emancipation of the trade union movement from the government and
employer-led trade-unionism, its disengagement from EU mechanisms of
manipulation (ex. ESC etc.), an ideological-political emancipation of
wider working forces from the deceiving influence exerted by the
so-called social-democracy, through old or new political formations.
The
inner contradictions of capitalism and the international capitalist
competition have reached a level where the working class, the
salaried laborers that approach it in terms of income and living
standards and the lower sectors of the middle strata can slow down
the deterioration of their position only
if they counterattack,
if they avoid any political traps of compromise, consensus,
acceptance of an allegedly necessary “class collaboration” for
the confrontation of the crisis.
The
labour, trade-union movement looses its features as a movement that
struggles for wages, working hours etc. when its leading organs such
as the Greek General Confederation of Labour (GSEE) reach agreements
with the Federation of Greek Enterprises and Industries (SEB) for a
joint confrontation of the crisis.
The
labour and popular movement can and should regroup its forces with a
clear anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly orientation, an anti-capitalist
orientation. It must utilise in every country any rift, any
vacillation in the bourgeois governance, with a corresponding
ideological-political orientation and organisational readiness.
We
estimate that, when the next crisis cycle reaches its peak, when the
next phase of recession arrives, bourgeois administration will
encounter greater difficulties, it will be faced with successive
unstable governments, the disagreements within the EU will sharpen
and the ideological defence of the capitalist system will be
profoundly shaken.
With
a bit of creative fantasy, but a fantasy based on scientific
analysis, we can say that we are heading towards a new 1929, or a new
1937.
These
predictions are also being made by bourgeois analysts, by imperialist
centres of strategic studies at state or interstate level.
The special role of social democracy in rescuing the system
In
order to safeguard the system liberals and social-democrats, from
Sarcozy and Obama to Braun and Lothar Bisky are promising a “humane,
healthy capitalism”.
International
social-democracy is exhibiting significant activity. It focuses on
the effort to put the blame for the crisis solely on
“neo-liberalism”, on the allegedly ineffective proportions
between market and regulation at state, regional and international
level.
International
social democracy is expending a lot of time in order to convince the
working and popular masses that it has elaborated a new recipe. It
argues that it has found the correct proportion between those
policies (subsidies, tax cuts, etc) that promote the concentration
and centralization of capital, the support of monopolies and the
policies that control the irregularities of the market through one or
several state-owned banks or through the nationalization of certain
enterprises in industry and transportation that find themselves in
financial strains. The notions of “green economy” and “better
distribution” constitute the essential complements to this effort.
Within
the field of social-democracy, that is within that current that
labels as “democratic socialism” the domination of monopolies
alongside with the co-existence of state-owned enterprises, new
political formations, such as the European Left Party (ELP), have
emerged. They argue that they have discovered –more effectively
than previous parties- the right balance between “market” and
“regulation”, between “private” and “state” capital. In
addition, they argue that in order for this recipe to be more
effective the contradictions within the EU should be eliminated
through the strengthening of its structures and the formation of an
EU-wide administration.
In
fact, they are adjusting the old social democratic line of reforms to
the current reality in the EU. In the position of the state monopoly
– servant of the private monopolies – they place a European-wide
interstate monopoly; above the nation-state governmental
administration they place a strong interstate administration,
allegedly capable of expressing the general interests in the EU,
solving the contradictions between its member-states.
They
present themselves as “more catholic than the Pope”, providing a
“left” socialist alibi to the strengthening of the existing
repressive mechanisms and the emergence of new ones.
Their
special role consists in the refurbishment of social-democracy in
order to serve the system more effectively. They serve the
ideological manipulation as they spread the illusion of a EU in
favour of the people, of a pro-people administration on the ground of
the economic domination of the monopolies.
Unevenness and contradictions within EU are inevitable
The
current economic crisis in the Euro-zone has admittedly sharpened the
contradictions between the member-states, even within its hard core.
This was predictable according to KKE’s assessments and
projections.
Despite
the interweaving of capitals, despite the common strategy against the
working class, the nation-state remains the organ that guarantees the
economic dominance of monopolies and serves the concentration and
centralization of capital in competition with similar processes in
other member-states of the EU.
Capitalist
unevenness exists both during the phase of expanded reproduction, as
well as during the recession phase. It is manifested at the general
level of production, at the labour productivity levels, at the
proportions between sectors, at salaries and wages, at the exports
and imports of commodities as percentages in the GDP, at the outflow
and inflow of capital.
This
unevenness is reflected in the fiscal situation of each state, in the
different sizes of public debt and deficits, in the differential
lending rates of the states, as established by the international
market according to the position of every state in the Euro-zone, as
well as in the international imperialist system.
It
is this unevenness that makes the formation of a common fiscal policy
impossible, even under the conditions of a recession. It has been
illustrated in the different proposals (for example, between Germany
and Great Britain) regarding the measures and policy packages
required for the management of the crisis. It has also been expressed
in the formation of interest rates above those of the European
Central Bank.
The
different views regarding the Stability Pact, whether it will lean
more towards fiscal flexibility or towards monetary stability,
express the different needs of the member-states, not a lack of
bodies for an EU-wide administration or the excessive powers of the
European Central Bank, as is claimed by the ELP and SYN/SYRIZA.
Under
current conditions of recession the unevenness has been manifested in
the Greek economy more sharply than in previous phases. Long-lasting
problems, such as the public debt, trade deficit and the long-term
stagnation of manufacturing industry, are intensifying.
The tendency towards a change in the correlation of forces in the international market
The
intensification of uneven development is of course a generalized
phenomenon within the EU and in the international imperialist system.
The
general characteristic of capital depreciation during the crisis does
not manifest itself proportionally in all states, sectors and
enterprises (private or share capital).
Thus,
both recession and the subsequent phases of stabilization and
recovery bring about reshufflings in the correlation of forces
between the various enterprises, sectors and national economies.
However,
important changes and shuffles are often being prepared over a longer
time period that encompasses more than one cycle of economic crisis.
The
current crisis crystallizes the changes in the correlation of forces
that have been brewing-up during the last 30 years, through
approximately 3 crisis cycles affecting most of the advanced
capitalist economies. These changes have been accelerated
during the last decade.
In
the period 1980-2008, the tendency for a reduction of the US,
Euro-zone and Japan’s shares in the Gross World Product (GWP) has
become dominant. In contrast, China’s share has increased
(440% increase in the period 1980-2007) and China reached the third
position after the Euro-zone as a whole. In addition, India’s and
Russia’s shares in the GWP have also increased (110% in the
period 1980-2007 for India and 19,3 % in the period 2000-2007 for
Russia).
The
Euro-zone share has been steadily declining in the period 2000-2007
(by 12,8 %), as has Greece’s share (by 24%, approximately double
the percentage loss relative to the Euro-zone average). The tendency
towards the worsening of their shares continues in 2008 and 2009 for
the USA, Euro-zone (including Greece) and Japan.
The
same tendencies are reflected in the percentage shares in the world
capital inflows/outflows for direct investments, though with some
diversifications; namely, in the period 1980-2006, China, Russia, and
India saw their shares in inflows and outflows growing (with
fluctuations), while the USA saw its shares decreasing. Japan
maintains its share in outflows while the Euro-zone increases its
share both in inflows and outflows, holding the first position
internationally. In the period 1980-2006, the Greek share in inflows
decreased (from 1,22 to 0,41%) while its share in outflows
increased (from 0% in 1990 to 0,34% in 2006). During this period
Greece becomes, therefore, a net exporter of capital.
The shares in the world imports and exports constitute another important index. In the period 1980-2007 the following tendencies are noted:
The shares in the world imports and exports constitute another important index. In the period 1980-2007 the following tendencies are noted:
The
USA had a loss in its share of exports (from 11,1% in 1980 to
8,41% in 2007), as did Japan (from 6,42% to 5,13%). The
Euro-zone almost maintained its share, with fluctuations,
retaining its first position (1980: 30,75%, 1990: 35,05%, 2007:
29,19%). Nevertheless, the 6% reduction in its share during the
period 1990-2007 should not be underestimated. Greece saw a loss in
its share (1980: 0,25%, 2007: 0,17%).
China’s shares have exhibited a spectacular increase by 890% (1980: 0,89%, 2007: 8,81%), taking the second position, ahead of the USA.
China’s shares have exhibited a spectacular increase by 890% (1980: 0,89%, 2007: 8,81%), taking the second position, ahead of the USA.
Russia
and India also have rising shares in exports, but these are still
quite small (in 2007 Russia : 2,57% and India :1,05%).
The
following tendencies are observed in the shares of world
imports:
The Euro-zone holds first position in the imports’ share with a downward tendency (1980: 34,28%, 2007: 28%). Greece remains at the same level with certain fluctuations (1980: 0,51%, 2007: 0,53%). Japan’s share has declined (1980: 6,81, 2007: 4, 41%), while that of the US has grown, with the USA holding the second position in imports. Likewise, China’s share has increased and it now occupies the third position internationally. Furthermore, Russia and India record a limited increase in their shares.
Reshufflings
are also taking place among private or enterprise capitals.
According to the list of the 1000 richest individuals in Britain,
published in the weekly edition of the “Sunday Times”, half
of the top ten in the list have increased their wealth in the midst
of the crisis by 1,054 billion euros (by 43%), while the other
half have faced a shrinkage of their wealth by 33, 738 billion euros
(-242%).
Under
conditions of a recession, while the number of loss-making companies
is increasing, there still exist enterprises that are accumulating
profits, either at reduced or even at increasing rates. In the later
category we can include, for example, the German enterprise Siemens
which, in the first trimester of 2009, showed profits of 1,01 billion
euros, compared to its first trimester of 2008 profits of 412 million
euros (a 145% increase), with a 5% sales increase on an annual basis.
Similar
phenomena also apply to the Greek economy. The profits of the 8 major
banks (National, Alpha, Eurobank, Pireaus, Cyprus, Marfin,
Agricultural Bank of Greece, Emporiki) during the first trimester of
2009 are estimated at 610 million euros, compared to 1,195.9 million
euros during the first trimester of 2008, that is a 50% decrease.
Reshuffling
of shares is also taking place within subsectors of the economy, such
as in air transport, among the Olympic Airways and the Aegean
Airlines. These reshufflings are also being promoted through
acquisitions, such as those made, for example, by the Marfin Group
(Vivartia and Olympic Airways) and through new mergers of financial
enterprises that are being prepared in Greece.
This
trend is obvious in the international market, particularly in those
sectors where the crisis of overproduction was initially manifested,
such as the automotive industry.
It
is thus that a new cycle of centralisation of capital, that has
depreciated during the recession phase, is being prepared, in order
for it to enter a phase of self-increase through the production
process, the process of exploitation of labour power.
The
exit from the recession is being made with the goal of attaining
additional profit through the conquest of new markets. Competition
increases, old regulations are being put into question and new ones
are being established, even by taking advantage of conditions created
by imperialist wars.
These
tendencies can be codified as follows:
- The USA remain the primary force in the Gross World Product, but with a deterioration in all other indices.
- The rise of China is impressive, although it is stll lagging behind in overall (per capita) productivity.
- The competitive position of the commodities of the Euro-zone has improved (instead the position of Greece has deteriorated). The position of China has improved dramatically, while, on the contrary, the deterioration of the competitive position of the USA and Japan has become apparent.
- The competitive position of India and Russia remains low though with a tendency towards improvement.
- The position of Greece is exhibiting a more contradictory outlook. On the one hand, its share in the GWP is decreasing and its position with regards to exports is deteriorating, characterized mainly by a relatively lower share than its share in the GWP, while, on the other hand, the position it holds in the outflow of capital has improved.
The
index “net international investment position” (sum of Direct
Investments, Portfolio Investments, Derivatives, other investments,
Exchange Reserves) remains negative for Greece, at 183,944 million
euros in 2008, though it declines as percentage of the GDP (2006:
-83,6%, 2007: -94%, 2008: -75,7%)[4].
In
combination with the progress of other economic indices already
mentioned, we can conclude that during the period of its
incorporation into the EEC –and particularly within the Euro-zone-
the Greek economy has sustained losses with regards to the
competitive position of domestic industrial production (mainly of
Manufacturing), but, at the same time, it has exhibited an increase
of capital accumulation and its export in the form of direct
investments.
We
must note at this point that among the thousand magnates with
economic activity in Great Britain are included 10 Greeks, 4 of whom
are among the first 100 (D.Leventis, M. Laimos, F.Niarchos, St.
Hatziioannou).
These
data confirm the assessment of the 18th Congress
of KKE that the Greek economy holds an intermediate position in the
international imperialist system, maintaining the same –penultimate
position- in the Euro-zone, though with an enhanced position in the
Balkan market.
On
certain bourgeois interpretations of the crisis
All
of this uneven and contradictory capitalist development in Greece, in
the EU, in the USA and internationally has no relationship whatsoever
to the theories concerning “casino-capitalism”,
“over-consumption”, etc.
On “casino-capitalism”
It
is a theory that lays the blame for the crisis and for the slump in
industrial production on the financial system. In the best case
scenario, it blames the existing structures and regulations of the
financial system at an international level, among which are included
the IMF, the World Bank, the organisations (practically enterprises)
ranking the credit-worthiness of state institutions – Credit Rating
Agencies (CRA’s).
The
isolation of parasitic phenomena and their characterization as either
“casino – capitalism’ or as distortions in the financial system
at an international level is, at least, a case of oversimplification
– if not an outright deception.
It
is not by chance that the Bretton – Woods Agreements collapsed
during the 1971-1973 crisis.
The
decay and the parasitism (e.g. the fact that in 2008 economic
derivatives internationally were equivalent to 976% of the
international gross product) is a product of capitalist development
at its monopoly stage, a product of shareholder ownership of the
means of production, a product of the merger of industrial and
banking capital; that is of finance capital. This is the basis for
the existence of fictitious capital (e.g. the known “toxic bonds”)
or the fictitious stock-exchange prices of industrial and commercial
capital. This is the basis of parasitism.
It
is not a surprising phenomenon that the over-accumulation of capital
makes its appearance through the financial companies that function as
a center for the accumulation of all unused income (of capitalists
and of working people) and its transformation into capital.
The
tendency towards over-production and over-accumulation of capital is
within the very nature of capitalism, as is the tendency towards an
expansion of fictitious capital and the obligatory cessation of
over-production and the devaluation of capital.
Credit
pushes towards over-production and over-accumulation of capital,
until the inevitable moment when over-production or expanded
capitalist production comes to a halt. It will be interrupted when it
has been pushed to its extremes and when the consequences of the
anarchy and decay (fictitious capital) of capitalist production, the
contradiction between capital and labour power will have intensified.
On the “over-consumption distortion” of capitalist development
Certain
theorists project the need for a “new model” for the Greek
economy. They assert that the extremely rapid development of Greece
during the period 2000-2008, according to UN standard-of-living
indices (Greece was in 24th place
out of 175), was the result of an over-consumption and
over-indebtedness of the state, of households and businesses. They
claim that this “model” has exhausted its potential, while a new
model will be necessarily more controlled, more productive, more
austere. The statements made by the Chairman of the Bank of Greece
are in the same vein.
This
viewpoint consciously attempts to revamp capitalism in peoples’
consciousness. The direct dependence on the banking system
(mortgages, consumer loans, and credit cards) and the so-called
“over-indebtedness” (and not “over-consumption”) are
characteristics of developed capitalism. This is evident if we look
at the over-indebtedness in the USA, which has taken the form of a
mass use of plastic money.
The
theory of over-consumption, or reversely that of under-consumption,
disregards the motive of capitalist production which is profit, the
appropriation of surplus value and not the production of use-values
for the satisfaction of social needs. It conceals the fact that
initially the anarchy and unevenness are expressed among the
capitalists themselves who buy and sell to each other commodities
which are then used in capitalist production, as well as the fact
that the anarchy is expressed between the branches of industrial
production.
The
anarchy and unevenness of capitalist reproduction are first and
foremost expressed, on the one hand, in the exchanges between
capitalists within the category of production of means of production
and, on the other hand, in the exchanges between the former and those
capitalists engaged in the production of means of direct consumption.
At
a secondary level, the anarchy is expressed in the sphere of the
circulation of commodities of direct consumption, in the portion that
concerns the exchange between the consumer and the businessman. That
is, it is only secondarily that it is expressed as a weakness in
consumer spending of the working class income, whose aggravation is
of course directly related to the degree of exploitation.
During
the crisis the expanded capitalist reproduction is abruptly
curtailed.
It
is through the recession that a partial and temporary restoration of
the extreme disproportions is effected, in order to begin a new cycle
of the anarchic expanded capitalist reproduction.
Summing up on the crisis
What
is occuring today, that is the devaluation of capital in whatever
form (commercial, financial) and the devaluation of labour power (as
a commodity), has occurred repeatedly in the past, with its first
appearance at the beginnings of the 19th century;
it will again occur in the future as long as capitalism exists.
The
inevitability of crises is found within capitalism’s DNA: it is
found within the contradictory commodity character of capitalist
production, in its anarchy and unevenness, in the tendency to
initially achieve a supplementary capitalist profit through the
introduction of new, more productive machinery, as well as through
the export of industrial capital to countries with cheap labour
power. These factors sharpen the capital – labour power
contradiction, the contradiction between the social character of
production and the private appropriation of its products, due to
private ownership over the means of production. It is the hunt for
supplementary profit that determines the tendency for the rate of
profit to fall.
The
capitalist economy entails a motive to push capitalist reproduction
to its extremes, to accumulate immense profits, that is to give a
monetary speculative form to the appropriation of surplus value from
the working class. It means that these immense profits, expressed in
different forms of capital, particularly in the sphere of its
circulation (mutual funds, bonds, stocks in financial institutions
and financial fund companies for capital management, Hedge Funds), in
order to be reproduced as capital, as a self-increasing value, must
re-enter the production process: must suck up new unpaid labour, like
a vampire, must transform it into a commodity, which through its sale
will be expressed as new profit.
The necessity of social ownership and central planning
Fronts of struggle
The
source of the crisis can be dried up only with the abolition of
capitalist ownership, with the extinction of the anarchy of
capitalist production, with the central planning of a proportional
expanded reproduction, having as its goal the production of use
values for the ever-increasing satisfaction of social needs.
It
is only on the basis of socialist industry that the distribution of
labour force, of the means and materials of production, of social
wealth can be changed. That agricultural cooperative production can
be supported, that money can lose its substance as the form of value,
and as a means of distributing surplus value, that the speculative
character of the Central Bank can be abolished.
This
is the future; the people’s, socialist economy, the real
alternative to capitalist barbarity.
This
present-day necessity is denigrated, either directly from liberal
bourgeois forces, or indirectly from self-styled “democratic
socialist” forces, distorting and maligning its first historic
expression in the Soviet Union.
However,
it is a historical fact that during the 1930s there existed two
worlds: the capitalist one that was wrought by competition and
crisis, and the socialist one that was characterized not only by
impressive rates of industrial production, but, more importantly, by
impressive rates of development in social prosperity.
The
historically confirmed truth is that social ownership and central
planning were defeated when the class struggle did not have the
knowledge and the strength to proceed towards the extinction of all
forms of private property, of all sources of private accumulation of
wealth.
Due
to its positions regarding the different course of social production
and organization of society, KKE is accused of deferring the
satisfaction of the immediate needs of the working people to
socialism.
It
is a conscious lie of the bourgeois and opportunist parties.
KKE
was, is and will continue to be firm in its support of the rights and
demands of the working people, of the youth, of the pensioners, with
consistency between its words and its deeds, because it has a shining
compass, a strategic course.
It
is for this reason that it is able to consistently defend the right
to full-time, stable work, the socially-guaranteed protection of the
unemployed, of maternity, of working higher education students, the
trade union rights, farmers’ incomes, the rights of small business
owners, of immigrants and political refugees, the exclusively-public
free education, healthcare, pensions, the protection of the
environment, the struggle against the anti-popular consequences
stemming from Greece’s accession into the EU and NATO.
The
political empowerment of KKE means the strengthening of a force which
can struggle for rights, a force of resistance against the new
anti-worker – anti- people attacks by the employers and the
government, as well as a force to wrest new gains, a force for
workers’ and people’s interests today and in the future.
*Eleni Bellou is member of the Politburo of the CC of KKE
[1] Eurostat
Statistics in focus, 18/2009.
[2] Report
by the Governor of the Bank of Greece for 2008, p.36.
[3] Source:
Bank of Greece, p.67.
[4] Report
by the Governor of the Bank of Greece, p. 157.