The US elections saw the victory of Republican Donald Trump in one of
the most attended electoral rounds since the Second World War. ----Another significant fact of the Republican victory is that relating to
the "popular" vote, where the female, African-American and Hispanic
electorate penalized the Democratic Party by deserting the polls or by
turning their preferences to Trump who, strong in a victory that
guarantees him control of the Senate and the House, is preparing to
achieve what he failed to accomplish in his first term in 2016.
After all, "the morning is a good sign of the day": the need to contain
the largest public deficit in the world, constantly increased by growing
military spending, moves towards the composition of a government team
capable of meeting the needs, so it will be men and women with clear
reactionary intentions who will proceed to implement Trump's electoral
program.
Thus, in terms of bureaucratic simplification, Musk's appointment as
head of the "Department for Government Efficiency" heralds a massive
computerization of the US Public Administration that will produce
thousands of layoffs and a reduction in essential social services, such
as education and healthcare, for the poorest categories. Environmental
protection will undergo a significant reduction, as will labor
regulation; a further reduction is expected in the taxation of corporate
profits; to guarantee internal security, repressive measures will be
increased, while on the immigration front, the largest expulsion plan
ever launched has been announced.
As far as international relations are concerned, Trump's intentions are
to effectively counter China's penetration of the world market.
But the issue is not simple, since China is the second world power and
plays a prominent role in the BRICS, a rapidly growing reality and
destined to compete with the G7 as it represents 26% of the world's GDP,
which potentially rises to 35.6% if we also consider that of the
countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe that have already
submitted their membership to the BRICS.
A reality that is therefore far from being underestimated, being
potentially able to represent 45% of the world's population.
Furthermore, China's foreign policy is also moving towards the Latin
American continent: during the recent trip to Peru by Chinese Prime
Minister Xi Jinping, the large port of Chancay was inaugurated, built
with Chinese financing, on the Peruvian Pacific coast and which will
serve as a fundamental point of reference for trade relations between
China and Latin America, thus directly undermining important US
interests in the Latin American continental area.
It is also possible, then, that the Trump administration will address
the issue of the war in Ukraine in terms of disengagement. The recent
decision by US President Biden to authorize the use of long-range Atacms
missiles on Russian soil sounds like the last act of a defeated
administration that intends to leave a poisoned legacy regardless of the
consequences on world peace: as if the legacy of the two recent and
terrible wars underway in Ukraine on the borders of the European Union
and in the Middle East were not enough.
But this is only one of the interpretations regarding the prospects of
the current imperialist competition that presents unprecedented
scenarios and, in such a context Trump is certainly not a pacifist: he
opposes the cross-party war, in this case the "escalation" in Ukraine,
as he intends to negotiate peace with Russia in order to separate it
from China, thus leaving the economic and political burden of military
aid to Ukraine to subordinate Europe to further weaken it, in order to
better focus on aid to Israel, directly involved in the war in the
Middle East, one of the most critical scenarios on the planet.
Even in the USA, therefore, the conservative right is consolidating in
its most reactionary aspirations.
It is important to underline that, although in the USA we are witnessing
an interesting recovery of trade unionism, both in terms of struggles
and the expansion of trade union organization, entire social areas
affected by the erosion of wages due to inflation have turned their
backs on the Democratic Party. This has not been able to interact with
the weaker social strata, because the only civil conquests separated
from the defense of the material interests of the less well-off classes
do not produce progress, but undermine social awareness by creating the
premises for reaction.
A similar phenomenon has also occurred in numerous states of the
European Union: in Spain with Vox; in Hungary with Orban; in Austria
with the FPO; in France with the rise of Le Pen's FN and in Italy, where
working-class and proletarian strata voted for Lega and FdI, supporting
with their vote the current government majority of clear neo-fascist
extraction.
Also in Germany, the previous electoral rounds have seen the progressive
rise of the neo-Nazi AFD especially in the former GDR states. The German
economic crisis, accelerated by the blockade of Russian gas and oil at
low prices due to the war in Ukraine and by the crisis of the car
market, especially the Chinese one, has then inevitably overwhelmed the
fragile government balance. The political elections of next February
will not be a test for Germany alone, but also for the weak structures
of the entire European Union, which must also face a similar crisis.
These considerations refer to the real and generalized crisis of
bourgeois democracy in countries with mature capitalism: a crisis that
has been spreading for some time also in Europe and that has proven
capable of contaminating emerging realities such as, for example, those
in Latin America. The crisis of bourgeois democracy does not appear as a
technical crisis of the democratic model, susceptible to being contained
with some partial or total reform of the constitutional references, but
rather as an integral part of the ongoing capitalist crisis, capable of
overwhelming the constitutional institutions themselves. A crisis that
the bourgeoisie tries to stem on the one hand by unloading the costs
onto the weakest and least protected social components and, on the
other, by supporting, or at least not hindering, the emergence of
reactionary political forces, within the framework of a bitter
imperialist competition between powers for the control of the world market.
This last is a fundamental implication that must not be omitted since it
guides the action of the capitalist powers and their States, which move
against each other by concentrating the social wealth produced by the
exploitation of the workforce and directed towards an exasperated
financialization that produces, in turn, the militarization of societies
making credible, for the first time since the Second World War, the
generalization of conflicts localized in about fifty areas of the planet
in a direct clash between powers capable of triggering the Third World War.
Fearing war does not mean spreading alarmism, but warning about the
destructive prospects of the current capitalist model of development
that must be shown in all its brutality.
In this regard, the events of COP 29 recently held in Baku are extremely
indicative, as they see emissions not decreasing but rather increasing
with a generalized increase in the consumption of fossil energy resources.
This does not occur due to an ideological choice or "human
unconsciousness", widespread imbecility or some other accident, but
simply because capital follows its vital needs that are oriented towards
the production and accumulation of profit in an exasperated logic.
And when this profit is enormous, the consequences on the planet's
assets, however dramatic they may be, are completely negligible for capital.
Just as Karl Marx prefigured over 150 years ago, with words that are
still very relevant today:
"Capital - says a writer from the "Quarterly Review" - flees tumult and
strife and is timid by nature. This is very true, but it is not the
whole truth. Capital abhors the absence of profit or very small profit,
just as nature abhors a vacuum. When there is a proportionate profit,
capital becomes bold. Grant it ten percent, and it can be employed
anywhere; twenty percent, and it becomes lively; fifty percent, and it
becomes truly reckless; for a hundred percent it tramples underfoot all
human laws; give it three hundred percent, and there will be no crime
that it will not risk, even under penalty of hanging. If tumult and
quarrels bring profit, it will encourage both. Evidence: smuggling and
the slave trade’ (T. J. DUNNING)." (Karl Marx: quoted in "Capital" book
I, sec. VII, chap. 24)
Capital therefore stops at nothing: neither at war nor at the
destruction of the environment. The "Trump gang", with its billionaires
in tow, is the exasperated and coherent fruit of this historical
contingency that is destined to set a precedent: it is therefore not a
question of madness.
Furthermore, to affirm that US imperialism is the main responsible for
global warming means grasping only a part of the truth: even imperialist
powers such as Europe, China and Russia play their devastating role
towards the planet, in a scenario where the logic of war is absolutely
complementary to that which moves environmental devastation, as both are
direct consequences of the capitalist production system.
The internal situation of Italy is also characterized by government
measures that affect work, the environment, essential services and civil
conquests.
The social opposition finds itself having to deal with liberticidal
measures and behaviors by the established power, in view of a situation
that is becoming heavy: both because there are no prospects for economic
recovery as recent ISTAT data demonstrate, and because it may be
necessary to face an opposition that, although divided and localized,
exists and manifests itself at a trade union and social level.
It should not be underestimated that the change in production structures
and the same class configuration resulting from the great restructuring
processes and technological development have objectively influenced
social cohesion and the willingness to fight of the subaltern classes.
It is necessary to start again with the conflict between "capital and
labor" to win again: defense and protection of the interests and rights
of workers, male and female, and of the subaltern classes; opposition to
war, imperialism, militarism, state repression of dissent and struggles
and fascist resurgences in an internationalist perspective; defense of
the environment from capitalist aggression; defense of individual and
collective freedoms for the general relaunch of the quality of life.
It is on these objectives that it is possible to begin a slow but
essential intervention to unify not only the world of work in all its
articulated components, but also the vast realities of mass youth and
student movements; of pensioners; antimilitarist committees; those for
the defense of the environment, of women and for gender equality and
freedom, in a social class front.
These are the objectives that must guide our political work.
Therefore, follow the evolution of production systems, grasping the
invariance between dominated and dominant, which has not been overcome
by technology and offers the possibility of generalizing the struggles
with social sectors that also act outside the production of goods and
services.
The perspective therefore lies in the ability to generalize the
struggles in an internationalist sense, to avoid subordination to the
respective imperialisms.
But to achieve this ambitious strategic goal, levels of political
organization capable of creating a new generation of class struggle
militants are needed.
http://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/
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