Il Partito Comunista 406

For the abolition of capital and wage labor! Long live the dictatorship of the proletariat!

Cities across France erupted in protest at the end of November. There were two sparks that lit the fuse: the National Assembly passed a repressive security law that would criminalize filming the police while allowing greater police surveillance of citizens, the same week that multiple videos emerged of police officers abusing black and Arab workers. Tens of thousands went to the streets in opposition to this reactionary violence and the legislation that seeks to perpetuate it.

As has been the case with so many protests in the past year, the demonstrations in France quickly grew to encompass all the social effects of the pandemic and the economic crisis. It should come as no surprise that the largest demonstrations were combined with the trade union movement. The first Saturday in December is a traditional day of union demonstrations in France; last month these combined with the anti‑police actions. Our French comrades distributed the following text at the demonstrations on December 5.

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Crisis and unemployment are constant elements in the history of capitalism. Crises are experienced chronically, despite (and because) of the immense development of the productive forces.

The pandemic sweeping the planet is a product of capitalism, of its urban and productive development. Obviously, it affects the whole of society, we think especially of small businesses, petty trade, the travel and tourism sectors (which represent 10% of global GDP), and especially the many precarious workers who have lost their jobs. If this crisis affects the petty bourgeoisie and the small employers, it hits the precarious workers even more severely.

Unemployment is increasing in industrialized countries, and it will increase further, because capital no longer succeeds in extracting surplus value through the market, and neither can it do so by other means such as speculation, in which the sum of the profits and losses cancel each other out. The crisis is not due to «incompetent» bosses or «corrupt» politicians, as the opportunist unions and parties say, whether on the right or on the left. Fools and thieves have always existed, just as evildoers have always served capitalist society (crime can also be productive for capital). The bourgeoisie sacrifices us for its national economy, to defend its markets and its production. They tell us that it is important to develop industry through technological innovation, to accept sacrifices to save jobs, etc. There are many examples of workers who have accepted everything for years, including wage cuts, only to see their businesses shut down and find themselves unemployed.

But the only truth is that too many commodities invade a market that fails to absorb them; productivity grows, but with it unemployment increases. Proletarians have always lived in a more or less precarious condition, depending on the economic situation. This precariousness is – and always will be – the condition of millions of human beings. Today, with increasing automation, with a large workforce available, employment becomes a mirage, and a growing part of the population becomes redundant for capital. The prices of goods, and of labor power, collide in a market that has become thoroughly international, the salary of a French worker thus not being able to compete with that of a Polish or African worker. Competition between the labor force of different countries causes the displacement of entire sectors of activity from one continent to another, and becomes the seed of an economic war among the poor.

The capitalists maintain this competition. Unemployment is a weapon in the hands of the bosses and their state, to divide and foment competition between workers. In Marxist terms we call the unemployed the reserve army of labor, from which the bourgeoisie draws according to its needs and which it can use to break the unity of the workers. This reserve army can, however, desert the bosses and help to give strength to the struggle of the proletariat! The class union is a tool to change the role of the unemployed, from an amorphous and passive mass into an army of combative and organized proletarians.

The division of trade unions by labor category must be fought all the more when the general tendency of capitalism is one of increasing proletarian precariousness exacerbated by competition. A territoriality of struggles is imposed by the union leadership, while flexibility, precariousness, and relocation reign in society. Limiting the struggle to a single category, territory, or the company is nonsense, a betrayal which prevents the unity of the workers and deprives them of any truly effective action.

The defense of proletarian interests, their working and living conditions, is a problem of balance of power: trade union organization develops and asserts itself through struggle. It is also a question of the method of struggle, of organization, and of the program of demands and tactics which must constantly seek to unify workers across all divisions, regardless of their professional category, territory, or company.

The struggle also depends on the alignment of forces (fixed employees, unemployed and precarious workers, etc.) at our disposal, and today, in this area, the trade union movements have practical delays, imposed by a union leadership who are in the hands of opportunist parties. Fighting for the class union means a central focus on the organization of the precarious and the unemployed (flexible contracts for precarious production): labor councils, committees of precarious and unemployed workers, which will promote unity across categories. If we want to fight for a real class union, we cannot ignore the precarious workers and the unemployed, who are growing in number every day.

Salaries increase or decrease according to the economic situation, but above all because of the balance of power between classes; however, the rate of employment is historically destined to decrease, according to the law of capitalist accumulation, because it is not jobs that are lacking, but in reality the work, freed by machines and by increasingly automated and streamlined processes. Today there is more unemployment and a greater intensification of work, a sign of the crisis of an outdated economic system in which we are forced to live.

If the class union is necessary, to give strength and organization to the resistance of the proletariat (employed or unemployed) in its daily struggle for survival, it is not sufficient to achieve the emancipation of the workers.

The emancipation of the workers occurs through the overthrow of the bourgeoisie – industrial, financial and landed – by its expropriation and the transition to a communist society, whose economic basis is the large‑scale socialization of the productive forces already taking place under capitalism.

But the indispensable weapon to achieve this goal is the organization of the proletarian vanguard into an International Communist Party, depositary of the communist program, which will guide the proletarian masses towards the final goal.- Fewer working hours and more pay- A salary for the unemployed- For a real class union- For the International Communist Party

— Fewer working hours and more pay
— A salary for the unemployed
— For a real class union
— For the International Communist Party

Currently the UK is in the throes of the expected second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The management of the restrictions on the population has been left to the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, while England is under the control of the central government of Westminster.

The first lockdown in March closed all non-essential businesses and services to restrict people’s movements to curtail the spread of the disease. Measures were rushed through in order to provide income for those workers officially furloughed, while many employers rushed to take part in this government subsidy of their workforce. The state was to pay 80% of their salaries, up to a fixed limit. It was initially set to end in September, then extended until the end of October. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that the new Job Support Scheme would not be so generous, and that laid-off employees would receive only two-thirds of their salaries, mostly paid by the state, but after complaints from employers, the Labour Party, and the trade unions, the furlough scheme was extended until the end of March 2021.

By late summer layoffs were taking place in the aviation, tourism, hospitality, and consumer sectors, as the decline in economic activity led to employment “shakeout” and businesses going bust. Redundancies, and the rise in unemployment, were climbing in their hundreds of thousands.

Conservatives and business interests claimed that the national lockdown was too restrictive, as some areas were not so badly affected, and that some businesses should be allowed to operate. That is where the localized, decentralized approach to travel and personal contact restrictions came in. Each of the four countries of the United Kingdom came up with its own levels of restrictions in tiers – England has three tiers, Scotland has five tiers, Wales opted for a 17 day “fire-break” which ended recently, Northern Ireland is busily enacting harsh restrictions.

The three-tier system in England was initially applied to the Greater Liverpool area, then quickly extended to central Lancashire, then Manchester, and then more generally across the North of England. London and other areas moved into the second tier, with others being added to the list. Then Westminster ordered another four-week Lockdown, which is due to expire on December 2.

Government plans for the furlough scheme to run until the end of March 2021 have been greeted with enthusiasm by all sections of the capitalist establishment, from businesses to the Labour Party and the trade union leaders. Vast sums have been borrowed to keep the economy — that is, employers — in one piece. The state is concerned for the future of these capitalist organizations, and the workers will have to survive as best that they can. The question of who will pay for this economic burden has yet to be answered. Already the Chancellor of the Exchequer has suggested a three-year pay freeze in the public sector, on the basis that there has been a decline in pay levels in the private sector. There will be a push to get the economy working again, with the unemployed being pushed into whatever jobs are open.

On November 27, the New York Times reported that in the first 10 months of 2020, the online sales giant Amazon had hired 427,300 workers, bringing the number of employees to 1.2 million. From about 350,000 in 2017, this growth is impressive, taking the company to third place in the world after Walmart, which employs about 2.2 million workers, and China National Petroleum with 1.3 million. These numbers should be enough to refute those who claim that the working class no longer exists. Amazon is listed on Nasdaq, the New York technology stock exchange, with a capitalization of $1.3 billion. In the list of GDPs of the various states it would be in thirteenth place, close to Spain, Australia, Russia, South Korea, and Canada. Yes, the stock market is just a big lottery for the rich, a house of cards that the spark of the crisis of capitalism will reduce to ashes, but here it is only to give a sense of proportion.

Such a giant inevitably raises tides, which sweep the world economy up in various emotions, resentments, and ideologies.

The last of these is represented by the French «petition» #NoëlSansAmazon («Christmas without Amazon»), in which consumers are asked not to use Jeff Bezos’ company for the purchase of gifts, favoring neighborhood shops instead. The list of signatories is long, from the “socialist” mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, to various intellectuals of the French “left” and personalities from the world of culture and politics. Among the signatories there is also José Bové, the leader of the French «anti‑globalization» movement who became famous twenty years ago for his fight against McDonald’s.

The populists on the other side of the Alps could not miss the opportunity: the reactionary Matteo Salvini posted a survey on Facebook and Twitter where he asks followers if it is «right» to boycott Amazon. «I buy gifts at home, rather than with a click», he said. Maurizio Gasparri of Forza Italia agrees with the idea «totally». The ex‑fascist Giorgia Meloni called for «a Black Friday for our entrepreneurs, let’s buy Italian».

But even in Italy the «left» are on the same wavelength, with too many adherents to list here. Aid to the petty bourgeoisie, in fact, holds appeal across the political spectrum.

The economic laws inherent in the capitalist system of bring the middle classes to ruin, as predicted by Marxism. If we accept capitalism we must accept this phenomenon, which cannot be separated from this mode of production. The centralization of production, and consequently of distribution, do not occur by chance or by the greed of individuals, but are the products of the laws of competition and cost reduction.

If it is true that in certain phases of the economic cycle, and in certain countries, strong growth has allowed the proliferation of the petty bourgeoisie, crises, such as the one that began a few decades ago, unleash unbridled competition that allow bigger companies to suffocate the small ones.

The need for capital to accelerate value creation has pushed the economy towards ever larger and more effective logistics and distribution organizations. Amazon is an excellent example of this process, and proof of the Marxist description of capitalism.

But, removed from any sentimentality and idealism, for Marxism the development of the productive forces is an objective fact, which it observes and describes. Its effects, even its tragic consequences, are ultimately positive because they create the conditions for the proletarian revolution. The socialization of the productive forces, which increases everyday under capitalism, cannot be contained by the old relations of production, and pushes for new forms.

This transition took place through a continuous historical process. The future communist society will also be able to take advantage of the technological progress that has taken place under capitalism, which will no longer used to infinitely increase the accumulation of profit, but to favor the satisfaction of the needs of the human species in a more full, satisfactory, beautiful, complete, and complex way.

This transition will not be automatic – it requires a political transition, the revolutionary seizure of power and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Today the technologies that Amazon uses are applied only for the unbridled search for profit. But in them the future society is already ready, at hand. The development of communication systems such as the Internet, of logistics in distribution as in Amazon, the increased use of robotics in production and distribution processes, already prefigure a communist society. Even if today, in the hands of the bourgeoisie, they are nothing but infernal tools that crush the international working class.

We communists therefore do not get lost in the petty-bourgeois slogan of «boycotting Amazon», in a defense, however desperate, of small business. Instead we aim to defend the living and working conditions of those who work in that company. Precarious contracts, crazy rhythms, perennial blackmail are typical of the hellish world of Amazon. Communists are turning to those workers to organize their defense, which is the same as the workers at Walmart and China Petroleum, as well as the world working class.

Because communists know that there will come a day when the proletariat will find itself having to face this system more and more combatively just to improve its living and working conditions. This process, under the leadership of its class party, pushes the entire capitalist system towards its overthrow.