On the eve of this month's World Congress of the GABRIEL MAISSIN discussed the global situation with ERNEST MANDEL, a veteran leader of the Fourth International. MANDEL: Consider the potential for resistance which exists in the working class and in the movement of emancipation in the third world. This potential is a product of the previous period, of the accumulation of forces, reserves and conquests made in the course of the previous expansion.
The capitalist class must decide; up to what point can it push the anti-working class offensive? If it goes too far, it could provoke a very strong response from the exploited and oppressed. The bourgeoisie is divided on this question.
The situation can change in two directions. Today the exploited and oppressed are on the defensive, but if they win some big defensive battles, they could return to the offensive. But the reverse is also true; if there is a new wave of unemployment, a new shameful capitulation of all the official working class leaderships before capital's austerity offensive, there could be a collapse of the capacity of resistance of the working class. And there could be there a real far right menace, not necessarily under a fascist form, but at least a qualitative reinforcement of the strong, repressive state. So there is no place for ultra-optimism, the situation is not good.
Fourth International There is yet another dimension; what we in the Fourth International have called the universal crisis of credibility of socialism. After a long delay, the working class has registered the bankruptcy of Stalinism, of post-Stalinism, of Maoism, of social democracy, of pseudo-progressive nationalism in the countries of the third world. And for the moment it sees no force to the left of all these movements, credible and capable of imposing global anti-capitalist solutions.
At the same time more and more people are saying "those in charge are corrupt and incompetent". Corrupt, every child knows! But incompetent, this is something new. It is still a small minority of the working class which thinks this, but there is a technological factor behind this. Some highly qualified workers have the feeling that they understand the functioning of the enterprise better than the chief engineer, not to mention the director.
An example: in the strike of the German metal workers, the union, the richest in the world, calculated that after six months on strike with three million workers, its financial reserves would be exhausted. Through the initiative of the workers, not the bureaucrats, they found that in a certain number of enterprises, whose production is decisive for that of many other enterprises, some workshops, often employing only 6 or 7 per cent of the personnel of the enterprise, can halt all production. And thus the bosses pay the cost of the strike. The employers replied that they would respond with lock outs, the unions that they would in turn respond with occupations, something not seen since the 1920s in Germany. The workers would not have hesitated. This kind of development is dynamite in the most important capitalist country in Europe. MAISSIN: But the remobilisation of these sectors of the working class is in contradiction with the overall social situation; widespread unemployment and a general feeling that no solution is possible. At the same time, there is this part of the working class which can sense the fragility of the system, but there is also a growing sentiment of impotence about a solution. It is a very particular ideological conjuncture. MANDEL: I repeat: the global situation is bad. We are on the Women enlist with Mexico's 'Zapatistas': "No solution is possible in the framework of the capitalist regime" defensive. But we are not powerless.
And to conclude, I want to touch on the theme of unstinting solidarity. This is the key slogan. I can give The global situation is bad. We are on the defensive. But we are not powerless. many examples; let's take the common front of the workers and the unemployed. In France this movement has been launched, by workers who are still employed, primarily those with high qualifications. It is necessarv to find other mediations to integrate the feminist and ecologist. movements, around precise solidarity objectives.
Multinationals It is necessary to oppose the world strategy of the multinationals, the delocalisation of industries, a global strategy of agreements in common action of workers on a world scale working first for the same multinational, then for the big industrial branches, and so on. It is not easy but it is not impossible. It is the only alternative to the national protectionist approach.
Some object that in this way we oppose the industrialisation of third world countries which currently "benefit" from delocalisation. In fact what we propose is another model of development and modernisation for the third world, based not on the export of cheap labour, but the expansion of the internal market, raising the livng standards of the people and so on. The abolition of the debt, the attempt to oppose the negative evolution of the terms of trade, a whole series of other strategic elements should also be keyed in.
Without these conditions, if there is neither a workers nor a bourgeois In the May-June International Viewpoint, monthly review of the Fourth International: Special dossier on South Africa -a disaster in the making; Vandana Shiva on the World Trade Organisation; Zapatisfas negotiate with the Mexican state; Building Fortress Europe; Crisis in the Philippines Communist Party; Interview with Alain Krivine on the French elections; Global econtranstormation of Britain's La. A disaster in the omy grows into a crisis; The bour Party, and more ... BRITAIN: Send £22 for one year to 'Outlook International', PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU. OR: Send US$60 or 330 French Francs to 'PECI', Boite Postale 85, 75522, CEDEX 11, France. solution to the crisis of the humanity, there will be a prolonged period of crises, of world disorder, in which the two principal social forces seek to impose conditions corresponding to their historic interests, against a background of an increasingly grave threat to physical survival facing the whole human race; the nuclear threat, the military threat, diseases linked to the rise of poverty, linked to world disorder. No solution is possible in the framework of the capitalist regime.
The crisis of humanity demands a new society, a new civilisation.
in Mexico Schengen
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 86 June 24 1995, Page 12
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