Sunday, January 28, 2018

The World Socialist Movement

This blog sometimes comes across thinkers who may not hold identical positions to ourselves but reflect much of our own thinking. Lea Ypi writing on the London School of Economics website brings to attention some much-needed focus.

"...Capitalism is capitalism as much as it used to be. It is transnational as much now as in the past. And it is in crisis, a crisis of production but importantly also of values, and arguably one of the worse in its history. One does not need to wonder whether any of this is still true: the capitalists have been telling us for quite some time. But anticapitalism can’t even find a name for itself. And international coordination seems to be nobody’s priority..."

"...British workers cannot save themselves if German workers are doomed. And if German workers win at the expense of Greek ones, all remain losers and the crisis is only postponed. Neither loss will turn into a gain, however many fences and walls one builds around one’s borders. Capitalism has no borders and neither should labour. Capitalists are united and so should anticapitalists be. The left needs to rediscover its cosmopolitan roots and build a new International..."
"...socialist parties around Europe seem resolved to continue competing for national attention. That can only be a limited first step. They should call for shared rallies, shared days of strike, a shared constituency. They should construct the same electoral programme and build shared electoral platforms. They should call together for Europe-wide taxation and ultimately much more. They should challenge capitalism as a system and challenge it internationally..."
 "...The world has to be made by those skeptical of capitalism. They have to coordinate, mobilise, and fight internationally. Now, as in earlier times, capitalism gives us a name for that fight and the means to conduct it. It gives us instant messaging and social networking, the tools which make rebuilding a world of international solidarity easier than ever before. But capitalism will not give us the will to fight it. It cannot make a shared world for us..."
The core of Lea Ypi's criticism of those we consider fake socialist parties is why we emphasise our anti-nationalism and why we concentrate on promoting world socialism. We may not have yet achieved our goal of transforming the World Socialist Movement into a new International but we have set the right course towards it.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I apologize for posting an anonymous comment. When given the option to post a comment anonymously or with a linked account, I almost always choose the latter.

Are we all in agreement that there no longer exists a true left wing, and that whatever is promulgated from such groups alleging to be left leaning is no more than the filtered voice of the capitalist class?

When on the verge of complete hegemony by the capitalist class over the working class, sexual assault/rape acting as the foremost topic of discussion of left-leaning groups is a splendid smokescreen paid for by those who have the most to lose from the dismantling of their economic principles by true left-leaning socialist groups.

-Travis

ajohnstone said...

Travis, the SPGB and its companion parties because of the reason expressed very well by you- "no more than the filtered voice of capitalism" - has always tried to distance itself from the label "left-wing".

We also try to disassociate ourselves from the strategy of identity politics which merely creates a league table of various oppressions rather than explaining the one oppression that we all share in common equally - economic exploitation, and the one main means we have of resisting - the class struggle and the one solution to all the social problems we have to endure - ending capitalism and building socialism.

It makes our politics very unpopular but perpetuating delusions that we can oppose capitalism by various single issues campaigns is self-defeating