Desperate times call for desperate measures by capitalists

When there is panic all around you you have no idea what to do what do you do? This is the question facing leading capitalist leaders in Europe today. 5 years into one of if not the biggest economic crisis in history there is still no solution on a capitalist basis to the economic crisis engulfing Europe and many other parts of the world. Europe is affected far more badly than other areas due to the way it was set up with many less wealthy nations trying to compete on the same level economically as the powerhouses of Germany, Holland and Belgium some of the more northern European nations. But it is becoming increasingly clear to even the capitalists now that Spain will need a full scale bail out very soon and short term ideas at stemming the contagion will just not do. As capitalists think they think short term and long term profit as the Euro crisis burns on engulfing further countries in southern Europe the European Central Bank is coming under increasing pressure to start buying up bad sovereign debt of nations like Spain and to start selling off Euro bonds which are seen as safer investments at this time. These ideas of the ECB stepping in have been held off and held off until now as a fear of using these schemes will create further upheaval in Brussels where German capitalism are reluctant to continue to bail out countries as it is having a affect back home with rising anger as its seen as Germany propping up a very sick Euro. So when times get tough and they re set to this autumn with a warm summer in Spain and Greece turning into a red hot autumn with further strikes, occupations, rising unemployment and further attempts to force through austerity against the working and middle class’s in these nations. Of course I haven’t mentioned Italy and not many have in recent weeks Italy is sure to come back on the menu for needing a full scale bailout at some point. But bail out after bail out will only temper the crisis and provide respite for a time this will not ultimately deal with the real fundamental issues undermining the economies deep down. The ECB will see itself having to play a more hands on roll in the coming months and years as it looks to grapple with the economic crisis does it have the power to prevent a full scale break up of the Euro. I’m not sure it does but when things get desperate desperate measures are often used. We may well see various tactics of short term growth being tried to jump started flagging economies. But and crucially this will have little to no affect as this crisis is not just limited to Europe as I said it’s global. Where will you as a country start trading more with China and the US plummeting southwards too. There really will be no where to turn. As the working class is pummelled into the ground by austerity it is essential in the battle of ideas that Marxist ideas are popularised in the working class and middle class only socialist ideas and the over throw of capitalism can do now for workers. Its going to get to situations where workers may be able to win huge concessions out of the ruling class if the situation gets to the point where the ruling class is faced with reform or revolution capitalists will get desperate when their system is at stake the fact that many of them do not even understand their own system works against them. But as Marx says there is no final crisis of capitalism it must be over thrown you cannot reform it out of existence it will always find a way out of a crisis and that I’m afraid may mean the ruin of the working class. Let’s not see that happen the working class over the globe will have op opportunities to com to power in the coming period. We as Marxists must arm the workers with the ideas of genuine socialism to transform society to meet the needs of the many not just the few.

The rellevance of Trotsky's transitional programme today

In 1938 one of the greatest revolutionary pieces was written by Leon Trotsky. His idea of a programme that can bridge the gap between the current stand point and socialism which is the end goal a class less society based on the needs of the mass's over the profits of a select few.

Here unfolds before us in all its richness the application of the method of Marxism to the historical tasks of the workers' movement. It was written in 1938 in preparation for the Second World War and its revolutionary consequences for the working class worldwide.

But the approach adopted - despite some of the demands not yet being fully applicable today in all situations - is very 'modern' and relevant to the struggles of the workers' movements today.

While it is described as a 'programme', it is not strictly this. It does, in fact, combine programmatic demands of the most important kind with necessary comment, points on perspectives for capitalism and the labour movement which could have been written today.

Take Trotsky's characterisation of the capitalists in 1938 who were "tobogganing towards disaster with their eyes closed".

Is this not an apt description of the capitalists and their spokespersons and commentators who virtually, to a man and woman, hurtled towards the current economic crisis "with their eyes closed"?

Capitalists fall out over crisis
A few capitalist commentators, such as Nouriel Roubini, arrived empirically at the same conclusions as the Socialist Party and the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) that a serious crisis loomed.

But they, alongside Marxists, were considered to be 'anachronisms' in the era of the neo-liberal paradigm. Capitalism - based on production for profit and not need - was the best system possible, described by Francis Fukuyama as the "End of History".

Now, faced with the greatest economic crisis for 70 years - the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, says it is the worst since the First World War - the capitalists swing violently from one ineffective short-term expedient to another.

Fearful of a repetition of the 1930s 'Great Depression', capitalist governments bailed out the banks and the financial system in a colossal exercise in 'state capitalism'.

This represented in the US, Britain and elsewhere de facto nationalisation of big sections of the banking sector. It was a state rescue of the debts of failed private financial moguls.

This then became a burden on the state and, indirectly, on the masses, which is now being paid for with massive cuts, wage freezes and a rise in unemployment, with a tendency for this to become permanent.



The Transitional Programme was written by Trotsky in 1938, in preparation for the coming world war and the social upheavals which would result from this.

In the whole preceding period, and particularly after the victory of Hitlerite fascism in Germany, Trotsky had predicted the inevitability of the Second World War.

Out of the ashes of this world conflagration would come an irresistible revolutionary uprising of the working class in the capitalist states against imperialist barbarism which would be paralleled by the revolt of the Russian workers against the monstrous regime of Stalinism.

Trotsky anticipated that the revolutionary wave which would issue from the war would even put in the shade the revolutionary convulsions which followed the First World War and the victory of the working class in Russia in 1917.

This in turn would shatter the old organisations of the working class - "not one stone upon another of the old Internationals would be left standing" - out of which would crystallise new mass revolutionary organisations and a new mass Fourth International.

The Transitional Programme was conceived as the means of creating and arming mass organisations.

There were not a few, then and today, who dismissed this prognosis, together with the transitional programme, as an example of Trotsky's 'revolutionary exaggeration'.

And yet Trotsky's perspective was in one respect borne out to an even greater extent than even he could have foreseen. From 1943 to 1947 a revolutionary wave swept over Europe which threatened the rule of capital.

The mere announcement that Mussolini had been replaced by Badoglio - Lucifer for Satan - by the Fascist Grand Council in 1943 was enough to bring millions of Italian workers out onto the streets.

This opened the floodgates of revolution in Italy. Similarly, the French workers rose in Paris in 1944 to smash the Nazi occupation forces while the troops of American imperialism and de Gaulle's 'Free French' were 50 miles from Paris.

Fearing a new version of the Paris Commune, de Gaulle was rushed to Paris to be filmed by the news cameras, thus fostering the legend that he was the 'liberator' of the city.

In Britain also, the conviction of workers, particularly the troops, to never again return to the mass unemployment and misery of the 1930s swept the Labour government to power in 1945.

In Africa, Asia and Latin America the colonial peoples set in motion a movement which resulted in the retreat of imperialism from at least direct domination of these areas.

In Eastern Europe also, revolutionary uprisings followed the flight of the quisling capitalists - who had collaborated with the Nazi invaders - and the advance of the Red Army.

But even the most revolutionary theory cannot anticipate all developments. Trotsky did not foresee, and indeed, could not foresee, that the social democratic and Stalinist leaders would be able, in the immediate aftermath of the war, to provide the necessary breathing space for capitalism to recover from the devastation.

Capitalism was saved in Western Europe by the social democratic and Stalinist leaders who entered capitalist governments and undertook to rescue the system from collapse.

In Italy the Stalinists and socialists entered a series of popular front governments, even attempting to screen King Victor Emmanuel, Mussolini's benefactor, from the anger of the masses.

Their French cousins did the same, with 'Communist' ministers like Maurice Thorez sitting in the government that bombed Madagascar and re-occupied Indochina (later Vietnam), which in turn set in train the 30-year horror of the Vietnam war.

The social-democratic and Stalinist leaders laid the political preconditions for the recovery of capitalism from the devastation of the war. From 1947 onwards the conditions sketched out by Trotsky were thus not present, in the advanced capitalist world at least.

Trotsky had spoken and written about the incapacity of capitalism to give large-scale or lasting reforms. The struggle for reforms, and even to defend the gains of the past, was bound up with the idea of socialist revolution, he maintained.

But the beginnings of the world upswing - the causes of which have been sketched out many times by the Marxists in Britain - allowed significant concessions to be granted to the working class.

Twenty per cent of industry was nationalised in Britain; true, only those industries which had been ruined by the capitalists, who received lavish compensation into the bargain.

The National Health Service, one of the most important reforms, was introduced, which put hospital and health care in reach of millions for the first time.

Similar reforms were introduced in education, social services, housing, etc. Undoubtedly, the absolute living standards of the working class began to rise (one of the factors being a big increase in overtime working and women going out to work).

Rather than undermining the reformist leadership of the mass workers' organisations this led to a temporary consolidation of their position.

Leon Trotsky also wrote during the 1930s' crisis: "The world political situation as a whole is chiefly characterised by a historical crisis of the leadership of the proletariat." However, the difference today and then is that it is not just a crisis of leadership that we face but also of organisation, or a lack of it of the working class, as well as a clear programme.

This is a consequence of the move towards the right in the aftermath of the collapse of Stalinism in the early 1990s by the leadership of the workers' parties - such as the Labour Party in Britain - and the trade union leadership.

Socialism was relegated to the margins and even the class struggle was conjured away by the 'miracle' of the 1990s' boom until its exhaustion in 2007.

The present economic, social and political situation is unprecedented in its scope.

Never in history has the gap - the 'scissors' - between the objective situation of capitalism in crisis and the outlook of the working class, its absence of organisation, particularly political mass parties, been so evident.

Given the relentless propaganda barrage, the reality of neo-liberal policies over 30 years and the absence of a political and economic alternative, it is inevitable that there is still, despite the severity of the crash, a residual acquiescence to the 'market', even amongst the working class.

Many are stunned by the economic collapse. There is even a lingering view amongst many workers that the present crisis is temporary, that it will all be over soon and we can then return to the sunny, economic uplands.

This is reinforced by right-wing, timid trade union leaders who seek to hold back the legitimate class anger of workers. Therefore, while demanding a democratic, socialist planned economy, as a crowning idea in the programme of socialists and Marxists, it is necessary to put forward fighting transitional demands in the current situation.

This is vital if the confidence of the working class is to be built for the trials ahead.

In pre-1914 social democracy, such an approach - the transitional method - was considered unnecessary. Its programme was divided between a maximum programme, the idea of socialism, and a minimum day-to-day programme.

That decisively changed with the onset of the First World War which led to the revolutionary explosions in Russia and the mass struggles and revolutionary waves which detonated in the aftermath of the 1917 revolution throughout Europe and the world.

In this changed situation, the struggle for basic reforms and even the defence of past gains came up directly against the limits of the system of capitalism itself.

The Bolsheviks therefore formulated a transitional programme as a bridge - taking into account the day-to-day demands of the working class - proceeding from the existing level of consciousness to the idea of the socialist revolution.

This was necessary even during the Russian revolution because of the differing and changing outlooks of the different sections of the working class. This was summed up in Lenin's wonderful pamphlet, 'The Threatening Catastrophe and How to Avoid It'.

Following in Lenin's footsteps, Trotsky formulated for the revolutionary Fourth International the Transitional Programme: 'The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International'.

But today, even in France, which with Greece is still politically in the vanguard of the workers' movement in Europe, there are important differences in the outlook of the French working class between 1968 and now.

Paradoxically, the economic situation is far worse for capitalism today than it was in 1968 when the greatest general strike in history took place against the background of a continuing boom.

Then, there was a broad socialist and even a revolutionary consciousness amongst workers and students. Given what has transpired in the last three decades combined with the capitulation of the leaders of the workers' organisations to capitalism, the mood is initially bound to lag behind that of 1968.

There is a mixed outlook and political confusion.

There is, undoubtedly, generalised bitter class hatred throughout the advanced capitalist countries for those who are seen as the main authors of the present economic catastrophe, namely the financiers and bankers.

Semi-public trials have unfolded in the British parliament and US Congress. But this has not as yet developed into a broad, pronounced anti-capitalist consciousness.

It is therefore necessary to take up the partial demands of the working class both at the level of wages and conditions but also involving governmental action or inaction.

The capitalists have allowed the state to step in to rescue them through massive bailouts. They can accept state rescue, so long as it is then run completely along capitalist lines and with the prospect of returning the 'nationalised' industries in the future to the very same private interests which ruined them in the first place.

Consequently, even the demand for nationalisation is not as popular as in previous periods. However, through experience, this idea has gained support in Greece as the banks, financiers and bond markets are seen as having brought the country to its knees.

But experience of partial nationalisation in Britain and de facto in the US has perhaps temporarily alienated mass public opinion. The boards of these partially nationalised companies remain unreconstructedly capitalist in character, for example the payment of large bonuses to the top bankers who still continue to run them.

There were no celebrations when the state stepped in similar to those which greeted the taking over of the mines in 1948 by the Labour government of the time, with the flying of red flags and big hopes of a better future for the working class.

Northern Rock's state takeover was 'celebrated' with increased repossessions of homes, the sacking of thousands of workers and lavish bonuses for the capitalist crew who remain in charge of this and other banks.

This is a form of state capitalism, not a step in the direction of socialism, as advocated by even reformist socialists in the Labour Party in the past.

The need for a transitional programme in this era arises from the mixed consciousness of working-class people. This consciousness will be shaken and changed by the march of events.

But the development of a rounded-out socialist consciousness, firstly of the most politically developed layers and then of the mass of the working class, can also be enormously facilitated by a transitional approach and programme.

This provides a bridge from the consciousness of working people today to the idea of socialist change. Sectarians have no need for such a bridge because they have no intention of passing over from the study, armchair or sideline to engage with the working class and, together with it, helping to change consciousness and increasing identification with socialism.

We have entered an entirely new period for the working class of Britain, Europe and the world. Obama in the US and Brown's New Labour government managed to put a partial cushion under capitalism through the stimulus programmes.

But this in turn, as we have now seen, has created a new problem: 'sovereign debt'. The world economy will consequently experience anaemic growth with the stubborn maintenance of mass unemployment.

This, like fatty tissue in the body, is a symptom of a declining organism. Capitalism, however, will not disappear from the scene of history automatically.

It is necessary to forge a powerful mass weapon which can provide the helping hand for this failed system to make way for socialism.

Without such an approach, there is the danger that it will not be immediately evident to working people, even faced with economic catastrophe, that socialism is the alternative.

Indeed, because a mass socialist alternative and party has not yet been established, the far right has been able to occupy the political vacuum in a number of countries in Europe.

It is necessary to combat the far right but also to skilfully use events to make the case for socialism to working-class people.

In the car industry, for instance, where wages were slashed at the beginning of the crisis due to mass layoffs and short-time working, there was an instinctive understanding by workers that there was 'no market' for their present products.

But, given the high technique and skill that exists, it would take very little to convert the car industry, faced with massive overproduction and a glut, to the production of useful goods, including green, environmentally-friendly vehicles.

These are urgently needed for the world's population, in the context of a sustainable, environmentally-friendly transport system. Such a switch in production was achieved at the outbreak of the Second World War - in this case from peaceful production to products for war.

It would be much easier today to switch production to environmentally friendly and useful goods.

The gap between the increasingly worsening objective situation and the consciousness of the working class will close in the next period. Events - and explosive events at that - will help to ensure this.

On the edge of an abyss, the mass of workers will confront the capitalist system - sometimes without a clear idea of what can be put in its place. The journey to a socialist and revolutionary consciousness can, however, be shortened considerably if the working class embraces the transitional method and a transitional programme linking day-to-day struggles with the idea of socialism.

A distinct lack of genuine political debate

In todays modern fast moving ever changing society we find ourselves in a state of low class contiousness due to a lack of struggles up till now as we had been part of a boom time. Things are changing but i wanted to touch on something which has become increasingly clear to me.

The lack of genuine political debate is very evident to me. The fact that all political parties the main ones i mean Labour, tory and Lib dems are very similar in their nature and similar in the system they support. The exploititive system of capitalism. Some support it more than others but be under no doubt none want to do away with it or even begin to discuss if there is a better way for all of us.

There is multiple reasons why i think this is. They all wish to manage capitalism the best and each election they battle with eachother on tiny differences in who can manage capitalism better than the other. New labour did do a good job of this from a capitalist point of view they helped the rich get even richer than ever before giving tax cuts to the rich and deregulating the banks.

The lack of a genuine voice for workers and working class people and the poor is very striking i feel. Not that a mass workers party would find it any easier to get their ideas out ther as the mass media is still owned and controlled by the rich capitalist barons.

But having a mass party of workers organised in trade unions too all standing up for workers and popularising other ideas like socialism and socialist ideas such as a shorter working week with no loss of pay, a mass affordable house building scheme to tackle our shortage of affordable homes for all, nationalisation of the commanding heights of the economy and major utilities including energy water etc. All of these ideas could be given a mass hearing if a new workers party was formed.

The fact is we have to try doubley hard to get our ideas out ther to people. People still read papers like the sun and the daily mail sadly it is not about condemning them for daring to read such papers that is their choice but about us engaging with them and steering their ideas in a friendly socialist manner. Asking them questions and engaging in real debate is waht is needed.

Take BBC question time on a thursday night meant to be the highlight of the week and the height of political debate. I frankly do not see any debate on there at all anymore. You have lib dems, tories and labour all argueing who can screw over the poor the most. None of them speak up for ordinary workers and any questions an audience asks they are baffled with science and fobbed off. This is not good enough and a change is needed.

Such ideas of socialism and trade unionism have been down trodden for years and years and it will take a while to get the ideas back into peoples minds. Big struggles like strikes on november the 30th and more like that will do wonders to increasing peoples understanding and contiousness of the unfair world around us that we live under.

Having our own media will be a start i feel. In the socialist party we produce our own weekly paper produced by working class people for working class people not for a profit but to spread the ideas of our party and to popularise ideas that can improve the situation we all live under.

The wealth is there in society we in Britain are one of the worlds richest nations i simply do not accept there is no money left. There is if it is distributed fairly among all in society not concentrated among a elite few.

How we can raise socialist transitional demands in todays society

I've been reading several marxist and trotskyist pieces one of them that interests me greatly is the one of Leon Trotsky wrote on the transitional program which helps us understand and bridge the route between capitalism and socialism and how we can go about getting there. It is a great pice that is well worth reading if you can.

The Transitional Programme by Leon Trotsky is, essentially, a handbook on how to build socialist consciousness, how to go about getting support not just for individual campaigns against issues that make us all angry, but how to link that with the bigger fight.

It's not gospel, and, being written in 1938, a lot of what Trotsky writes about is dated. But what Trotsky offers us in The Transitional Programme is an indispensable tool kit. This is why today, after the second world war, after the fall of Stalinism, in a world that seems very different to the one that Trotsky was writing in, The Transitional Programme is still vital reading.

THE ROOT cause of many problems we face are the result of capitalism, of a society run to create obscene profits for a minority at the top, not in the interests of the billions of ordinary people across the planet.

Low pay, attacks on public services, undermining of our pension rights, war and racism all stem, fundamentally, from the economic base of capitalist society. That's why, as socialists, it's not enough to just campaign on these individual issues.

As well as fighting against the bosses' attacks and for as many reforms as we can claw from them, we need to link this to the need to change society as a whole.

Trotsky shows the use of 'transitional demands', staging posts in consciousness firmly grounded in the day-to-day struggles of the working class, but pointing a way forward and demonstrating the need for socialist change.

By their very nature, these demands are inextricably linked to the period they come from. Some demands that Trotsky puts forward are not practical now, either because workers have won what is demanded or because of a change in the general political consciousness.

But it's not the specific demands that are important about this text; it's the method. Trotsky lays out clearly the method that Marxists have used from the time of Marx himself right through to the Socialist Party and CWI today.

We are currently involved, for example, in campaigns across the country to defend the NHS, one of the greatest victories won by the British working class through major struggle in the period after World war Two.

But Cameron, Clegg and Lansley and their cronies are hell-bent on stripping away these reforms through privatisation and major job cuts. The Socialist Party doesn't just campaign to end job cuts and privatisation.

We demand a reversal of the privatisation already brought in through the back door, but also we demand the nationalisation of the major pharmaceutical industries that make gross profits from people's sickness. These demands lead on to the idea of removing capitalism from society all together.

The Transitional Programme shows how with the correct approach, workers can be won over to socialist ideas by starting with today's solutions and pointing to a future where society is run by working-class people to meet the needs of all.

The direct relevance and practicality of Trotsky's theory makes The Transitional Programme important today. I would urge all socialists and trade unionists, to read this relatively short work, just don't look at it as a set of commandments, but as a method and approach.


I will come back to look at these demands and the transitional program individually in time no doubt but if you wish you can have a read of the full text that Trotsky wrote in 1938 which is very interesting here from the marxist internet archive .
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/tp/index.htm