Stalled on the road to the capitalist market East Europe's winter of crisis to it. It is designed not to improve the lot of The consequences of this conjuncture of duced, most noticeably in Poland where the Balcerowicz plan has cut living standards by tions such as the World Bank, The EC, The Development and the OECD. All of the money which they are sending, whether in the form of direct investment or 'aid' has severe anti-working class conditions attached the workers but to pave the way for profitable • austerity programmes are being intro recapitalization and safe investment European Bank for Reconstruction IN DEPTH By Peter Thompson economic conditions is that private capital. "freedom' and an end to the dead hand of those countries made their West, whose bankers held out the carrot of With the whole of the world economy apparently standing at the edge of a serious recession, it is time to look at revolutions in the hope that things would They were encouraged in this belief by the how things stand for Eastern Europe. The generally get better for them once they massive investment and regeneration. As Hel- greater degree of bureaucratized planning. peoples of
of Stalinism. The opportunities that gives for In addition we shouldn't overlook the fact about destroying repressive Stalinist political austerity. If the West pushes the workers too hard, then it will end up having to reimpose repressive rule in order to hold down the very forces which it The greatest thing to have happened to the workers' movement since 1945 is the collapse that the revolutions in Eastern Europe were all rule. They were not massive uprisings for un- Workers' rule employment and capitalist encouraged last year. weaker. • factories are being closed (it is forecast that up to 70% of GDR enterprises will not survive reunification and that unemployment in the GDR will reach at least 50% by the end • and the cohesion of the states themsel ves is under threat, Yugoslavia is well on the On top of all this the Gulf crisis has now dealt a severe blow to any slim hopes that may have existed of riding the storm. As the Czech foreign minister recently pointed out "This crisis will cost us $6 billion in the way to complete disintegration. mut Kohl put it, 'no-one will be worse off and less than honest and that most people in worse off. There are several points to be made economic shake down now pen, and predates the Gulf crisis. There is no doubt that the rise in oil prices will hit Eastern Europe hard. The marketisers will be hoist by their own petard, in that the Soviet Union is now demanding hard currency rather many will be better off. It has very quickly become apparent that these promises were Easter Europe are already considerably going on in the East was always likely to hap Oil prices
workers' self organization and real 'social and economic democracy" is enormous. If politi- cal self-determination can be grafted on to the commonly owned means of production which continue to predominate in the East, then a system of workers' rule could be built which, if it were to link up and encourage a regenera- tion of the Soviet Union and a return to the proletarian democracy of the October revolu- tion, would be a beacon of hope to workers In order for this to happen though, there must be greater coordination between revolu- tionary socialists in East and West. We must His desperate plea to the US that they lend and the fact that the Czech government has now sent a contingent of troops to the Gulf in order to show how willing it is to submit itself to imperialism - are eloquent testimonies to the depth of the impending crisis. However it course of one year, which is more than our earings in hard currency exports. The new democracies of Eastern Europe are just being bor, but the baby can be killed before the another $60 billion to the Soviet Union so that they in tum may buy Czech industrial goods - Desparate plea birth. (Guardian 29.9.90) ing to historically high interest rates and than bartered raw materials for its oil. But the tion of those economies and the terms and conditions being imposed by the West on that posing severe strains on finance capital lead- winter economic crisis facing Eastem Europe Secondly it is important to remember that the Wester economies themselves were not in such great shape before the Gulf crisis. The US budget and trade deficits and the banking and Savings and Loan crises were already im- is one engendered by the nature of the transi- recessionary tendencies.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 28, November 1990 step up our offensive against imperialism and prevent it imposing its economic, social and A revolutionary movement must be built in the East which can convince workers that their interests lie with self-management and dination to imperialist profit motives. As the portunity will increase, but its success is far from inevitable. It could still just as easily end economic democracy rather than with subor- economic crisis deepens in the East this op in barbarism as socialism. It is still up to us. military plans on Eastern Europe. • the US hasn't got a spare $60 billion sitting around - if it did it would use it to fill • it wouldn't lend it anyway until the Soviet Union guaranteed to privatize every- why should the Soviet Union only What does all of this mean for the workers spend the money in Czechoslovakia what it really wants is Western goods? Stranglehold ignores three huge problems: up its own budget deficit, thing in sight; Indications of these trends have been price rises. This capital rationing meant that while Western businesspeople made frequent trips to Eastern Europe to make encouraging noises about buying up everything in sight and regenerating the economy, precious little Any investment which is being made is around since the stock market crash and capi- tal was already being rationed before the oil undertaken by the imperialist financial institu- Little real cash real money has been forthcoming. Page 28
ment. On the human front, cutbacks in have caused increased misery and death for In sub Saharan Africa, 110 million care. This could be largely eradicated health provision, irrigation, and education people are unnecessarily ill; in Asia the figure is 500 million. At least 750 million ing and dying unnecessarily as a direct result of money being cut from primary health tality rate is 16.9%, a tiny 1.94% of the term consequences for economic develop- children across the Third World are suffer- In Bolivia where the infant mor- for a mere $2 extra per child, per year. Cancel the third world debt! budget is spent on health care. millions for workers and peasants. nificantly worsened since the stagnation of The problem of the Third World debt cannot be isolated from the problem of world debt as a whole. While total Third World debt is US $1,190 billion, the US debt is over 8 times that amount, if we in- clude private debt, standing at over $9,000 The US debt is politely termed a budget deficit. It is true that a straight comparison of IN DEPTH By Louise Holloway the capitalist system worldwide. than financial, and should be con- is not the accounts of internation- millions of people who cannot en- dure the the permenant threat of fronted as such. What is at stake "The problem of the Debt is fundamentally political, more repressive measures and un- Archbishop of San Paulo to al creditors but the lives of (From a letter from the employment that bring poverty and death."
Lion debt which consumes over 50% of Western banks have succeeded in min- route has led the dependent developing countries to a dead end. The only solu- is the cancellation of the whole debt and the complete restructuring of the What can be done to bring this priority is the repayment of its $3.7 bil- In Zaire 26% of teachers were sack- Through rescheduling the debt and the imising the risk to themselves; but this tion to end the dependence and poverty ed. 2,500 lost their jobs in Jamaica. many reserves Bolivia's income. world economy. preparing The historic date of the debt when Mexico refused to pay. coming to a head throughout running into problems meeting oil price rises of 1973, when some of crisis is August 13 1982, the day However, the crisis had been with many countries their extortionate interest pay- The origins of the crisis lie in the the countries of the Middle East were able to gain a fairer price for their oil. Much of this money was in- Fidel Castro) 1981-82 ments.
capitalist countries, are meeting in London next July. We should work with the international solidarity campaigns to nationalism is notorious. For all its dire faults, Live Aid demonstrated that concer working class in Britain. We must raise this sentatives of the most powerful broad forces such as