central mystification of the post-Gulf war 'new Iworld order' is that we are in an epoch of the peaceful resolution of disputes to bring about 'democracy'. The 'forward march of democracy' thesis is based on the idea that democracy is making tenleague strides in eastern Europe and in the so-called 'third world', all this propelled by the good offices of the United States. It is true that the US sees stability being ensured in some coun tries by toppling old dictatorships - for example in Zaire, Malawi and Haiti. But this is entirely contingent and tactical. It does not apply, for example, to the army dictatorship in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country; nor does it apply for the people of Kurdistan, whose democratic right to have their own state is fiercely opposed by the US. Dozens of similar examples could be given.
We are not living in a new hey-day of bourgeois democracy, we are living in a world of deepening crisis, of militarisation, of growing racism and xenophobia and widespread attacks on democracy and democratic rights. And we are living in a the harshness of the international class struggle is deepening, precisely because of the depth of the eco nomic crisis of world imperialism, now in the grips of its longest-ever economic crisis.
The tactics of the imperialist rulers in this period are varied and experimental: they are in uncharted waters. Every form of capitalist rule combines repression and concessions with an ideology designed to secure the 'consent' of the oppressed. 'Democracy' and the 'peaceful resolution of conflicts' are key weapons in the ideological arsenal of imperialism because they correspond to key needs and demands of ordinary people-freedom and peace. Socialists of course are partisans of peace and democracy. It is precisely for this reason that we are opposed to any historic compromise with imperialism which is inimical to both.
But the assertion of this point in propaganda is inadequate. The slogans of peace and democracy have to be appropriated by the working class and the oppressed in action. And this involves fundamental ideas about forms of struggle and alliances.