Back to main newsA World in Turmoil - current shifts in the world balance of forces
Tue 13 May 2008
Author: John FosterIn the lead-up to its 50th congress, JOHN FOSTER runs through the Communist Party of Britain's international resolution.
CURRENT shifts in the world balance of forces will provide a central focus of discussion at the forthcoming 50th congress of the Communist Party.
It will host international guests who, in different ways, reflect key aspects of these changes. They include representatives of the Cuban and Irish Communist Parties, the Czech Communist Youth Union and Hanna Amireh, executive member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the politburo of the Palestine People's Party.
The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) executive committee's international resolution has four main themes
- the threat posed by Britain's complicity in US war plans,
- the threat to humanity posed by capitalism's rape of our planet,
- the threat to democracy and workers' rights posed by the European Union and
- the urgent necessity to raise the struggle for peace and against imperialism in the Middle East.
The dominant international position of US imperialism has received a significant check over the past two years and the general crisis of the capitalist system has deepened and become more complex.
"Economically," the resolution argues, "the rise of China to become the world's third-largest economy, the control exercised by Russia over oil and gas and the growth of India all present long-term challenges to the United States dominance of the world's banking and currency systems.
"The financial crisis which began in August 2007 reflects the immediate imbalances - the unprecedented scale of capital accumulation, the inability to maintain previous rates of profit and the unregulated use of fictitious capital to sustain demand by the poor. It also reflects the US abuse of its currency to pay for military interventions and the unprecedented scale of its external borrowing."
However, the challenge to US dominance is not just economic. The CPB identifies a growing confidence among those seeking to challenge imperialism internationally.
In the Americas, a significant grouping of countries has emerged which, to a greater or lesser degree, reject US dominance. The Cuban people, who will celebrate the 50th anniversary of their revolution at the end of this year, have demonstrated to the rest of the world the humanitarian achievements of socialism.
In Europe and Asia, the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation has consolidated an alliance for peaceful development between China, Russia and central Asian states.
It is precisely to preserve its long-term world dominance that the US has embarked on its new programme of nuclear rearmament. The resolution warns: "The current moves by Britain and the US to replace and upgrade their nuclear weapons, along with the US development of a missile defence system with components based in Europe, has the potential to plunge the world into a new nuclear arms race.
"Already, Russia has begun to respond to the threat of an enhanced US first-strike capability. The social, economic and human costs of another nuclear arms race cannot be underestimated."
The resolution contrasts the massive resources spent by the imperialist powers on armaments and on military interventions with the paltry steps so far taken to reduce carbon emissions and reverse climate change. This constrasts with socialist Cuba, which has reduced carbon emissions by 40 per cent of their 1990 levels and is recognised by the United Nations as the only country to have achieved sustainable development.
One statistic highlights this difference - total world spending on energy-related research is equivalent to approximately 2 per cent of the US annual military budget. The US priority is clear. It is not to develop effective carbon-free sources of energy, but to control other people's energy resources by force.
The key areas of struggle over these resources remain the Middle East and central Asia. The resolution demands the immediate withdrawal of British forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and stresses that there can be no peace in the Middle East without justice for the Palestinian people - the implementation of UN resolutions for the withdrawal of Israel to its 1967 borders, the right of return for refugees and the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state with its capital in east Jerusalem.
The British trade union and labour movement is asked to step up its solidarity with the Palestinian people and, in particular, to maximise pressure for the demolition of Israel's apartheid wall and its illegal settlements and an end to the Israeli military and economic presence in the West Bank.
The CPB also warns of the dangers posed to democracy and trade union rights within the European Union by the Lisbon Treaty.
Its congress will hear from the Communist Party of Ireland on the campaign to secure a No vote in a referendum in Ireland, where the tradition of anti-imperialism and neutrality has resulted in a powerful movement on the left against the treaty. By contrast, in Britain, the government has been able to renege on its promise of a referendum.
The resolution stresses the need to end the illusions that still paralyse the Labour movement when it comes to EU.
Too often, it says, the EU is seen as a neutral organisation for economic co-operation that provides a counterbalance to the US and promotes social values that can benefit working people.
Developments since the resolution was drafted have underlined the dangers of this approach. The EU Court of Justice's decisions in the Viking and Vaxholm cases have already been used by employers in Britain to challenge the legality of industrial action, even when it is taken in accordance with restrictive British industrial relation legislation as in the recent British Airways dispute.
"The treaty," argues the resolution, "is anti-working class. It extends to many new areas the power of the EU Council of Ministers and the EU Court of Justice to attack all forms of social provision, labour safeguards and collective bargaining. It is anti-socialist. It writes a binding commitment to the free market into the treaty protocols. It is imperialist. It provides a new legitimacy to EU interventions elsewhere and a military structure by which to do so."
From within the boundaries of the "social democratic" EU, the delegate from the Czech Communist Youth Union will report on the current legal prosecution of its leadership. It is for defying the legal ban imposed two years ago on the grounds that the YCL advocates the social ownership of the means of production. This prosecution follows that of the leadership of the Hungarian Communist Workers Party over the last year and the even more draconian legal proscriptions in the Baltic states.
The EC argues that this wave of anti-Communist propaganda, which is by no means confined to eastern Europe, has to be understood in the context of capitalism's deepening crisis and the growing influence of the world Communist movement.
"Capitalism's general crisis continues, deepens and broadens ... it extends to democracy, the environment, living standards throughout the world, education, culture and the individual's sense of purpose in society.
"Only socialism can secure humanity's future."
John Foster is international secretary of the Communist Party of Britain, whose 50th congress takes place between May 24-6.
Back to main news
