2024 could be considered a dark year. We have continued to suffer what
looks like kamikaze capitalism: for profit, it destroys everything,including life on earth. Worse still, the situation seems to be getting
worse and worse, as if the pit we are being dragged into were
bottomless. ---- In France, we are witnessing a major economic crisis,
marked by massive layoff plans, growing impoverishment, and the
dismantling of the last vestiges of public services. If this situation
is dramatic for many, it is even darker on a global scale: in 2024, no
fewer than 59 conflicts between States have been recorded. Among them
are the genocide in Gaza, accompanied by violence in the West Bank, as
well as bombings in Lebanon and Syria, under the complicit eye of
Western States that give free rein to the far-right Israeli government.
The war in Ukraine is dragging on, causing nearly a million deaths and
fueling the specter of an extension of the conflict and an evolution
towards a nuclear war. Other wars, less publicized in France, cause
hundreds of thousands, even millions of deaths: the conflict in Sudan,
the war in Syria, the war in Yemen, or the armed clashes in the
Democratic Republic of Congo. These tragedies result in tens of millions
of displaced people, many of whom flee their country. The drownings in
the Mediterranean or in the English Channel are only the visible part of
this global violence suffered by tens of millions of people.
All these conflicts find, directly or indirectly, their roots in
imperialism. The armed factions, whether state or not, are financed by
the great capitalist powers and multinationals, always in search of
profits or political domination. This same imperialism is manifested in
the brutal colonialism that continues in 2024, as in New Caledonia, the
Antilles or Mayotte. Added to this are warlike tensions, as between
China and Taiwan.
On the climate and ecological level, the situation is just as alarming.
Global warming is intensifying, under the cynical gaze of participants
in successive COPs. In ten years, 220 million people have been displaced
due to climate disasters. Mayotte is a tragic illustration of this. The
mass disappearance of species, from insects to large mammals, has
reached a critical level. However, capitalism continues, unperturbed,
with extractivism, agribusiness and useless projects that accelerate the
collapse of life on earth.
The political apparatus serving the bourgeoisie seems to come straight
out of a dystopian novel, with Trump being a caricature. In France, the
National Rally is on the verge of power, its program widely implemented
by successive governments alongside Macron. In Europe, the rise of the
extreme right in countries such as Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and
Bulgaria echoes this worrying trend.
Faced with this observation of degeneration, how can we remain
optimistic? How can we believe in the overthrow of capitalism and hope
for a world where life would be good for everyone? Are we inexorably
drawn towards a chaos where the future would resemble the horror of Haiti?
As materialists, we know that if capitalist barbarity increases, a
socialist future - in the libertarian sense - remains possible. Human
history knows moments of rupture where material conditions give rise to
revolts. Of course, there is no guarantee that these uprisings will lead
to an overthrow of capitalism, or even that it is not already too late
to escape this suicidal system.
This issue of Courant Alternatif looks back at an emblematic popular
uprising: the Yellow Vests. Although it was not a revolution, this
movement illustrates how unexpected ruptures can emerge, cross borders,
and shake the highest spheres of power. Six years later, capitalism
shows, through the rise of the extreme right and increased state
violence, that social tensions continue to grow.
As the grievances of the Yellow Vests highlighted, behind the racism and
nationalism expressed at the ballot box or in conflicts, it is the
capitalist system itself that is being denounced. The class struggle is
there, taking unpredictable trajectories. There is no reason to say that
current social tensions will not lead, here or elsewhere, to
perspectives closer to our ideals.
Global capitalism does not care about our happiness. For capitalists,
only profit matters, and they will not hesitate to set the planet on
fire and blood to preserve it. As long as this system is not
overthrown, conflicts will only intensify, posing the need for radical
change tomorrow. The current class war will lead to socialism or barbarism.
Capitalism seems suicidal, dragging the entire world down with it. It
leaves us no other choice: we have nothing to lose by doing everything
to overthrow it. Failing to be certain of winning, nothing says that we
have already lost. In 2025, we will continue to protest, to amplify each
breach, and to carry the idea that the current world is in no way
inevitable and that collective emancipation is possible.
So, happy new year 2025 of joyful fights and collective protest
pleasures against capitalism and its States. We are not giving up!
Brest, December 26, 2024
https://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4333
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