recession of 1974-1975 the world capitalist economy has gone into a recessionary long wave from which there seems no escape. In these selections from a resolution of the recent World Congress of the Fourth International, MAXIME DURAND explains the consequences of capitalist globalisation. The translation, from the Belgian Fourth Internationalist paper La Gauche, is by Duncan Chapel. Phases of the long wave THE 1970s SAW the end of a long expansionary long wave in the capitalist economy.
The generalised recession of 1974-1975 clearly marked this turnaround, sending all the imperialist countries into a crisis which still persists.
The development of several phases within this long wave need to be analysed if we are to clearly idently where we are. The first phase immediately followed that recession: it corresponoco to the pursuit or une Acyncstan pou4. cies after the Second World War.
Simultaneously petro-dollars were recycled to be dished out to Third World borrowers in Neo-liberal turn of the 1980s. around the world.
1990 and 1991. THE INADEQUACY of this therapy became clear with the explosion of the second generalised recession at the start This is the second important turning point. from which neo-Hoeral polies-with fellark ably similar objective and means-spread and so on.
For a few years the Third World counties had served to lessen the slow-down of the world economy. They were then violently hit by the ocot crisis and the rise in increst Tales A period of profound restructuring in the imperialist countries opened, accompanied by the This neo-liberal phase, which we are clearly still in, can be separated out into "sub-periods": the offensive (1980-1986), the apparent success (1987-1990) and the relapse and revival of There was a systematic offensive against workers in the first half of the 1980s pursued under the watchword of "Nexibility". This not only concerned wages - hammered by austrity and the attacks on cost-of-living agree. ments — but more widely, workers overall conditions: social security, the right to work The advance of, and resistance against, neoIberaliam varied, ter the greenalisacion of those policies laid the ground for a new recession provoked by the smothering of the worldwide demand for labour.
World continue to be subordinated to those of the rich countries, their natural and mineral resources plundered, their markes prisco open, tell poopic misuc dispensable units of labour, their exports discriminated against in western markets by protectionist barriers.
We are not in a post-imperialist age. amperaist is ane do kicking 6. Class struggle is not dead THE CAPITALIST CLASS is mercilessly attacking the working class in a class war in which the latter is on the defensive. Much ground has been and is being lost to the advanlage of Capital, the combativity and militancy of the class is fast becoming a memory of the distant past.
However in none of the imperialist countries has the working class suffered such great defeats that it is completely out of the equation. In fact aside from the inherent need of capital to span the globe, the so-called "flying geese" strategy or captat, wacrew i migraics from country to country looking for lower paid workers, bigger tax breaks. non-unionised or repressed labour movemenss poor environmental unable to push down its costs in sis nonse countries below a certain limit. It hasn't given up but it hasn't succeeded yet Socialist strategy ON THE LEVEL of socialist strategy, certain conclusions should be drawn from the analysis above.
These trends suggest that the nation state will remain a terrain of struggle bervom Capital and Labour asd batt locus of political power will for the foreseeable future reside there as well. We are not facing a global state or even at the Wester European level a supernational state.
There has been a redefinition of the state and its functions in the present phase of capital accumulation. It has also become much clearer particularly in the Third World that the state which was seen as a shield against neo-coloni. alism has all along been subordinated to X-W-Hannover it by the local ruling class. class character nor can a workers' govemment aim to change the inequalities of power and wealth in society without confronting and changing the capitalist A radical reduction in the working week is a pre-condition for a democratic, pluralist, self-managing society run by and for a regime of the associated producers state. Important battles will take place class at the level of the state because that is where the tensions are most protied this debate and opened a new phase, marked out by very important retheory+practice 10 • Fighting back for socialism • .. -Workweek must be reduced: Hanover VW workers demonstrate that Saturdays are for "living, loving and laughing"
nounced. Therefore it is also an important lever for chanse and tool for trans formation of society. Campaigas around work must become part of the agenda of the British Left. Our comrades in France have taken up and popularised the slogan of a thirty-five hour week with no loss of pay. We too should use this realistic demand to discuss the nature of work and its potential in a future society where the worker would have time not only for leisure and developing other poitical powerin a socialist gemocracy A radical reduction in the working week is a pre-condition for a democratic pluralist self managing society run by and for a regime of the associated produc Our response to global capital is for global solidarity between the oppressed and exploited.
While this will be second nature to tional, revolutionaries must assimilate even in their national programmes and strategies the international dimension. Of course we give our unconditional support to these struseles but we also need to find ways of co-ordinating these movements and of joint initiatives and discussions Finally, that the labour movement to make usel relevant to te working crass desperately needs to feminise itself. Where new jobs are being created either in the free Trade Tones of Asia or the homeworkers and sweatshops of Europe, it is women who predominate in this low paid, ununionised, casualised sector.
Unless women become leaders and members of trade unions, unless the particular concerns of women workers are integraico into the axenoas and working practices of the labour move. ment, it becomes impotent. certain kind of relation between these three poles. Nothing in this configuration is stable or