Anarchist Communist Statement On The Global Economic Crisis And G20 Meeting

From Anarkismo

International anarchist communist statement on the global economic crisis and G20 meeting, endorsed by Alternative Libertaire (France), Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici (Italy), Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group (Australia) and Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (South Africa).

1.The current crisis is typical of the crises that regularly appear in the capitalist economy. "Overproduction", speculation and subsequent collapse are inherent to the system. (As Alexander Berkman and others have pointed out, what capitalist economists call overproduction is actually underconsumption: capitalism prevents large numbers of people from fulfilling their needs, and so undermines its own markets.)

2.Any solution to the crisis prepared by capitalists and governments will remain a solution within capitalism. It will not be a solution for the popular classes. Indeed, as in every crisis, the workers and the poor are paying – while financial capital is being bailed out with huge sums. This is likely to continue. No change within capitalism can resolve the problems of the popular classes; still less can such a solution be expected from individual politicians, such as Barack Obama. The most such politicians can do is play a part in offering the capitalists a way out, and perhaps in throwing the working class some crumbs.

3.The bank bailouts show not only whose interests the state serves, but the hollowness of capitalist commitment to free markets. Throughout history, capitalists have stood for markets when it suits them, and state regulation and subsidies when they need it. Capitalism could never have existed without state support.

4.In the US, the UK and elsewhere, the bailouts have taken the form of nationalisation of troubled financial institutions – with the full support of capital. This shows that capitalists have no fundamental problem with state ownership, and that nationalisation has nothing to do with socialism. It can also be a method of screwing the working class. We ourselves, not the state, need to take control of the economy.

5.Owing to the globalisation of capital under neo-liberalism, the ruling class recognises that the solution must be global. The G20 is meeting from 15 November to discuss the crisis. This is significant. The rulers of the US, Europe and Japan are coming to realise that they cannot handle the crisis on their own; that they need, not only one another, but other powers, notably China (which is emerging as a top industrial producer, and is on its way to becoming the world's third-biggest economy). India, Brazil and other "emerging" economies will have seats at the table. This may mark a recognition – under discussion for some years – that the G8 alone are no longer the world's economic decision makers. It is likely to signal a shift in the running of the global economic system.

6.We place no hopes in the inclusion of new capitalist powers. China's rulers may claim to be socialist; others, such as Lula of Brazil and Motlanthe of South Africa, may present themselves at times as champions of the poor. But in fact, all are defenders of capitalism, exploiters and oppressors of the people of their own countries, and, increasingly, imperialist or sub-imperialist exploiters of the people of other countries.

7.If the crisis is to lead to anything other than complete defeat for the global popular classes, poverty, exploitation and war, the popular classes must mobilise. We must demand bailouts, not for the capitalists, but for us. We anarchist communists will fight for those who got homes on subprime mortgages to be bailed out and keep their homes. We will continue to engage in and support struggles for jobs with better wages and shorter hours, housing, services, health services, welfare and education, protection of the environment. We fight for an end to imperialist wars and to repression of our class and its struggles.

8.We present these demands in response to the G20 meeting, and will continue to present them in the future. Through such demands, and through direct action to bring them about, we will work towards building a global movement of the popular classes that can put an end to capitalism, the state and the crises they create.

Signed:
Alternative Libertaire (France)
Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici (Italy)
Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group (Australia)
Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (South Africa)

Related Link: http://www.anarkismo.net

More shallow pseudo-analysis

More shallow pseudo-analysis from the Platformist robots at Anarkismo.net. "Neo-liberalism" is a false target. "Globalization" is not simply a new development *within* the framework of Industrial Capitalism, but a shift to an entirely new post-industrial epoch. And what is this crap about making "demands" of global capital? Wolfi Landstreicher has a very apt term for this making of "demands": it is "militant begging." Those who succumb to it have more in common with liberals than with anarchists.

Q: what do you get when you cross left-anarchist ideologues with an economic crisis that cannot possibly be explained in the language of their own ideology?

A: Amateur pieces of writing such as this.

This shit is fucking child's play.

-postnihilist

Too right. MEMO 1A:

Too right.

MEMO 1A: Socialist ideological jargon that sounds like a computer generated it from a series of samples of Bolshevik propaganda is not adequate to describe absolutely everything that occurs or exists.
MEMO 1B: Obsessively orthodox, self-congratulatory socialist jargon is not adequate to describe anything. Please note that Memo 1A is henceforth absorbed a fortiori by this memo.

--ανομος

Q: What do you

Q: What do you suggest?
Words on a computer screen?
Vandalizing a symbol of state authority?
More pseudo-analysis from an ideology that can not explain itself?

A: Self defeatist militant bitching.

2TJ

An ideology cannot explain

An ideology cannot explain anything. "Itself"? An ideology is not a person. And how is a statement of analysis (the initial piece) not self-defeating militant bitching? Creating a manifesto is not the beginning and end of revolutionary activity.

Beginning or end does not

Beginning or end does not matter; At least a "manifesto" is/was being created, a revolutionary action other than doing nothing but bitching, which is not revolutionary and only defeats the bitcher!

I suggest an admission of

I suggest an admission of FAILURE on the part of the anarchist left. Once that's taken care of, we can THEN start to pick up the pieces.

-postnihilist

Sorry I failed so much OOhh

Sorry I failed so much OOhh omnipotent, perfect, one.

Tell us what to do lead us all powerful Nihilist....

all hail the mighty

all hail the mighty Post.
post left, post modernist, post nihilist, and post relevant.

I suggest smoking pot,

I suggest smoking pot, having sex, and reading books. :P

-postnihilist

Obviously the analysis is

Obviously the analysis is superficial. It would take a tome to cover it. But I think the summary is pretty dead on.

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