Adopted by the 10th Congress of the Worker-communist Party of Iran – March 2017
1-The riseof the far right in the West(the election of Trump, Brexit and the increasing influence of racist parties in several European countries) is a consequence of the crisis and lack of perspective of the world bourgeoisie, and, specifically, the discrediting of the bourgeois system of government in the West. In a situation when Friedmanism and neoliberalism have reached their dead-end and Keynesianism and the welfare state have long passed their relevance, the most right wing and reactionary parties and personages of the bourgeoisiehave found an opportunity to emerge. The rise of the farright is a sign of the intellectual impasse and bankruptcy of bourgeois doctrines, and the political disgrace and discrediting of traditional and conventional parties of the ruling class and the entire existing system of governmentfor themasses of the people in Western societies.
2- With the rise of the far right, the last vestiges of any claims to human rights, the defence of democracy and civilisation, and even the thesis of mosaic societies and “tolerance for other cultures” are openly brushed aside by parts of the intellectual and political elite and governmental authorities of the bourgeoisie, and the discourse of superiority of oneself and one’s own culture and race and country is spreading within the ranks of the ruling class. The bankruptcy of liberalism led to postmodernism and neoliberalism, and, now, with the impasse and bankruptcy of neoliberalism, neo-fascism is being pushed forward. This is the beginning of a new phase and paradigm in the bourgeois camp in the West, and, therefore, in the entire capitalist world;it is the period of coming to the fore and strengthening of open fascism and national chauvinism. In the discourse and doctrinal system of Western bourgeoisie, Eurocentrism and the doctrine of the superiority of the white, Anglo-Saxon race once again become prominent.
3- From the intellectual and doctrinal point of view, the newly hatched racism emerges as the extension of postmodernism and as its logical continuation. By retreating from civil society and civilisation and replacing it with mosaic societies consisting of various religions and ethnicities, postmodernism prepared the ground and intellectual context for the far right and Trump-like racism. Racism and postmodernism coincide in their negation of universal human values. The difference lies in the fact that while the one asks for tolerance and the dialogue of civilisations, the other wants the war of civilisations. Racism is postmodernism whose tolerance has come to an end.
4- In its political view and orientation,the far right represents ultra-reactionary tendencies and positions in relation to social and political issues. National and racial supremacy, misogyny, enmity towards immigrants, and altogether foreigners, opposition to protection of the environment, opposition to homosexuals, etc. are the basis of far right identity and politics. These positions and policies stand against the tendencies, wishes and humane aspirations of the 99% of the people, and even against the existing level of civilisation in the West.
5- From the point of view of the system of government, the far right strives to establish a certain kind of fascism and police state. Spreading fear and insecurity in society, Goebbels type propaganda and entirely false claims, attacks on the mass media and publications, driving back and limiting civil freedoms, religious-racial divisiveness in society, and populist agitation and mobilisation of the masses based on national, racial, and religious prejudiceare the basis of this dictatorship. The Trump government has provided a glaring example of this system of government.
6- Political Islam that was used towards the end of the Cold War period as a means of confronting the “threat” of communism and the Soviet camp, and, later, as the axis of evil and the military target of the American bourgeoisie to enforce its hegemony in the post Cold War period, is now presented by Western bourgeoisie as the main enemy of Christianity and Anglo-Saxon culture. In the doctrine and strategy of the new racism, Islam and Islamism are the symbol and embodiment of an enemy standing against the home religion, nation, and race. In this confrontation, both these ultra-reactionary forces prepare the ground for each other, and justify and feedoff each other.
7- From the economic point of view,the far right represents protectionism and economic nationalism (concentrating on the inner market, domestic investment and similar policies). This is part of the xenophobic orientation of these forces. They try to pass off foreigners (both foreign workers and governments and capital) as the cause of the problems issuing from the capitalist crisis. Brexit and opposition to the European Union by the far right in Europe, as well as Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and opposition to international free trade and treaties, are part and parcel of this orientation.
8- Personalities and forces from the traditional left and the left that has emerged from Western bourgeois parties also support economic protectionism. They arrive ateconomic nationalism via opposition to globalism and the sway of finance capital (the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the European Union, etc.).
9- Under present-day world conditions,protectionism and economic nationalismis a mereillusion. World capitalism is incapable of continuing to make profit by denying the relations and division of labour formed internationally between different parts of capital, and by returning to the internal market. Returning to “homeland” is not going to reduce the crisis of globalised capitalism—it intensifies it manifold. For the workers and the masses of working people, economic nationalism holds nothing other than harsher economic austerity, poverty and economic insecurity.
10- Neither politically nor economically is the far right a strategic alternative and a practical solution for the world bourgeoisie. It is, rather, a reaction to the impasse and lack of perspective of capital; a “solution” that would ultimatelyonly intensify the crisis of the bourgeoisie. Socially, also, racism and national chauvinism inthe twenty first century, the century of the globalisation of capital and the globalisation of the struggle against capital, the century of social media and the transformation of the world into a global village, cannot be a lasting and effective alternative for the bourgeoisie ensnared in its impasse.The far right, from the point of view of the Western bourgeoisie, can only work as a catalyst. The bourgeoisie is hoping that Trump-like governments can buy time for the ruling class. They hope that dragging society backward, retracting the achievements of the working class and progressive movements from the past and reducing the expectations of the people will open the way for the return of the more conventional bourgeois parties to power.
11- The presidency of Trump and the strengthening of far right parties in Europe have been confronted by a wave of social protests and upheavals, and this wave is increasing in strength. The 99%of society will not tolerate the intensification of economic austerity, misogyny, racist hatred and the denial of their political, civicand social rights. This opens up the way for the emergence of a radicalleft movement with a socialist perspective in the West.
12- The present situation has turned radical criticism of capitalism, and socialist humanism and love of freedom and equality, into a current discourse among the social left and the masses of the people. But this radical social tendency is not represented by the organised left in the West. Traditional left parties and trends are marginal and entirely irrelevant to current politics and issues of society, and cut off from the protests and movement of the social left. Meanwhile, the criticism and protests of forces and personalities such as Sanders and Corbin who, by making claims to socialism and opposing the 1% have succeeded to gain social influence and popularity in the current anti-capitalist climate, go no further than the framework of the capitalist system. These forces do not represent socialism or even the existing social left. They are, rather, merely a reflection of the presence andpower of the social left in the ranks of the political elite in the West.
13- What shapes the developments of this period and will determine the fate of the people of the world is not conflicts within the ranks of the bourgeoisie between traditional parties and extremist parties or between liberalism and neoliberalism and neo-fascism, but, rather, confrontation between the two poles of labour and capital, between the camp of the 99% and that of the 1%. In the opposite pole to racism and national chauvinism stands socialism—the socialism that is represented by our party, i.e. the party of worker-communism. To “the war of civilisations” we counterpose universal human values and civilisation; to the racist criticism of Islam and Muslims the atheist, secularist criticism of Islam; to xenophobia and hatred against immigrants the defence of equality and equal rights for all in society; to national chauvinism internationalism; and,to crisis-ridden capitalism socialism. These are the main fronts of the class war at the present moment and the core tasks of communists who in a world turned into a swamp by the bourgeoisie, struggle for equality, freedom and socialist liberation, for humanity and for the return of the will to the human being.
Be the first to comment