The politicians and the media denounce the people-smuggling gangs, but only to cover their own responsibility for the growing number of migrants forced into desperate and dangerous journeys. 

The ICC has published an article on the recent signs of a renewed fighting spirit in the working class in a number of countries: Struggles in the United States, in Iran, in Italy, in Korea... Neither the pandemic nor the economic crisis have broken the combativity of the proletariat!. The struggles in the US are particularly important, and this contribution from a close sympathizer there aims to examine them in more detail.

Second of two articles analysing the fact that USA’s rise to world dominance also coincides with the course of a world system in decline. The Biden administration has now been in power for 8 months and the difficulties of the American bourgeoisie in reversing the effects of decomposition on all levels have clearly been confirmed…

We republish here an article from the ICC’s publication in Belgium, Internationalisme, (no. 188, 1993) which traces the general framework of the history of the Parti Communiste Belge. We will return in later articles in more detail to the different phases of its existence: the struggle for the foundation of the PCB after the betrayal of social democracy, the struggle against the growing opportunism within it and its definitive passage into the bourgeois camp at the beginning of the Second World War.

In the past few weeks we have seen a fragile but real worldwide awakening of workers’ militancy and self-confidence, centred on the USA. In October the strike movement mobilised thousands of workers throughout the US, with the majority of experienced and “protected” workers fighting alongside their young colleagues who work in much more precarious conditions.

Under Biden the USA’s warlike approach towards China has continued and intensified. The explicit goal of the pact between the US, Australia and Britain, AUKUS, is to block the expansion of China in the region. But this circumstantial and ephemeral military alliance only further destabilises the world imperialist situation.

A child soldier in Yemen. The mobilisation of children for war is a growing feature of “modern” barbarism

Wars and instability continue to rage across the Middle East. The region is a free-for-all which the self-destructive dynamic of capitalism is exacerbating at all levels. This is very clear in the cases of Libya and Yemen, analysed here by a close sympathiser.

The withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul to the Taliban showed the decline of the world's only remaining superpower. British imperialism had been a part of the occupation since the invasion of 2001. The failure of the US was shared by the UK, which has been further reduced in its status among the second and third-rate powers.

Low wages and harsh working conditions are pushing HGV drivers out of the haulage industry. Due to the shortage of truckers and workers in other industries, large parts of the country are not being supplied: petrol stations are drying out, restaurants are closing, shelves in supermarkets remain half-empty and abattoirs cannot process meat. Planning by the national state brings no solution to the anarchic nature of the capitalist mode of production.

Albrecht Dürer, The Four Riders of the Apocalypse

The “end of the world” foreseen in ancient and mediaeval apocalypses really signalled the end of a particular mode of production, which was to be replaced by a new mode of production, a new form of class rule. But capitalism is the last class society, and its headlong drive towards the abyss faces humanity with the single alternative: communist revolution or the destruction of humanity.

The Tory government presents itself as the “People’s Government”, committed to a programme of “levelling up” of those workers who have been “left behind” by an economic crisis, which is blamed on “globalisation”. This populist world view is now being revealed in all its poverty and mendacity by the very measures being taken by the same government, which attack social benefits, wage levels, and job security.

C.L.R. James in 1938

In part two of this series on the proletarian struggle against racism in the U.S., we examined the positions in the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) and in the Socialist Party of America (SPA) at the end of capitalism’s ascendant phase. In the third part of the series, we look at how revolutionaries in the US analysed the problem in the period of capitalist decadence opened up by the First World War.

The report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change paints a grim picture of the mounting ecological crisis, but the governments of the world, loyal servants of capitalism, are incapable of addressing the roots of the problem. Faced with a looming catastrophe, competition between capitalist states can only intensify.

In the preceding parts of this series we have highlighted the opportunist weaknesses which were at the base of the constitution of the Communist International (CI), both on the programmatic and on the organisational levels. This part will tackle the final period of the CI as an organisation of the working class.

The global Covid-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across all continents with all states unable to make a coordinated response. Indeed, the main events of the last two months confirm the deadly dynamic into which capitalism is plunging civilisation. Discuss and contribute to the ideas outlined in this editorial at online meetings organised by the ICC – see the information below.

Dates for online discussions:

Saturday October 16th for participants from Asia /Europe, starting at UK time 11am, and on Sunday October 17th for participants from Europe/USA, starting at UK time 6.00pm.

While the Covid-19 crisis has persisted for almost two years with its heavy health, social, political and economic impact on most of the world's states, this has in no way moderated their imperialist appetites. The rise in tensions has been particularly marked in recent months by a clear exacerbation of the opposition between the USA and China, highlighted most recently by the so-called “Aukus” agreement between the US, Britain and Australia, and explicitly aimed at China.

In the face of the looming ecological catastrophe, disquiet and indignation are immense, as shown by the “marches for the climate” in 2019, which mobilised millions of young people from many countries. New protests are now taking place in many countries. At the time, we showed that these marches were situated on a totally bourgeois terrain. This is why we invite our readers to read or re-read the international leaflet we distributed at the first marches of 2019, which remains fully valid.

The first of two articles analysing the fact that USA’s rise to world dominance also coincides with the course of a world system in decline. In particular, it became a global superpower through imperialist war becoming the “way of life” of decadent capitalism.