MAYDAY 2K ..... WILL IT MAKE HISTORY?

MayDay 2000. Will this day gain some significance in the long history of struggle of the international working class? Is this point in time -- in the wake of Seattle N30, etc. -- going to be seen as a kind of turning point in the historical fight to eliminate capitalism? A turning point between the decline of the class struggle, of solidarity, of militancy, of unity, and of class autonomy on the one hand, and the resurgence of all of these on the other hand?

It would seem that the level reached by the world-wide destruction, devastation, and immiseration of both humanity and the natural environment caused by capitalist global-ization today has made global mass resistence to its dom-ination all but inevitable. But is this resistance just the beginning of a new escalation of working class struggle against global capital? It is, of course, not possible to say yet. In fact, we have not yet seen an explicitly working class expression of opposition to capital and posing of an alternative form of social organization. If in fact we are in the early stages of an escalating global class movement against everything capitalist, then what will be needed in the upcoming period is a clear working class politics appropriate for all proletarians, regardless of nationality, race, gender, age, employment status, work category, etc.

What follows is an outline of one version of a revolutionary global working class political perspective for this new century which goes beyond all 20th century leftisms. We put this perspective forward for consideration and discussion within as much of our class as is possible at this historical conjuncture.

1. All of the major problems and calamities facing humanity today are rooted in the continuing domination of the capitalist social system over the whole world.

2. There is only one alternative to capitalism, and that is communism. Communism, which can also be described as the united world human community, is the antitheis of capitalism. Instead of production for profit and the accumulation of abstract wealth (exchange-value), production is consciously geared to human needs, while accumulation of abstract wealth is made impossible by the elimination of money, markets, and exchange-value itself. Instead of competition and private or state ownership of the means of production and communication, all "economic" activity will be regulated by voluntary co-operation, while the means of production and communications will no longer be "owned" (which implies that they can be "sold") at all, but rather the shared possession of all, under the conscious control of all.

3. Communism is only realizable on a global scale. As long as capitalism remains in existence in one or more countries, communism will not yet exist. Both capitalism and communism are global social systems, and they are mutually exclusive. Thus communism implies the complete elimination of capitalism from the face of the earth.

4. Socialism has never existed in any country. Every so-called "Socialist" or "Communist" or "Marxist" regime is in fact a specific form of STATE CAPITALIST dictatorship.

5. As every country in the world is capitalist, control of each country's economy and political power is in the hands of its national capitalist ruling class. However, there is an international hierarchical structure of nations based on their degree of global economic and political/state power. The more powerful states and ruling classes dominate and exploit the weaker ones -- this is imperialism. The state and the private/corporate elites are inseparably intertwined in the functioning of this world order. And every national ruling class seeks to dominate as many of its "competitors" as it can. Today's globalization process is just the newest phase of imperialist domination, and it will inevitably strengthen existing tenencies to imperialist war if it isn't halted.

6. Socialism can only come into being after the complete destruction of the capitalist state in every country. Communism implies the non-existence of any state.

7. There is only one general route to bringing about socialism. And that is by means of the mass direct action of the vast majority of the working class. By collectively withdrawing their labour from their employers, by spreading and uniting their strikes into one massive general strike against the whole ruling class, the state, and capital itself, the working class provides itself with the means to overthrow these dominating forces; thus enabling the realization of the socialist/communist revolution.

8. All trade unions (and trade union federations and other bodies) are part of the capitalist system and controlled by the ruling class through the state. Trade unions "organize" and divide workers by trade and/or by economic sector, imposing the interests of the national ruling class on the working class "democratically", with the full backing of the state. In their day to day functioning, trade unions provide -- for the benefit of the ruling class and the national capital -- an obfuscating, mediating, bureaucatic layer over workers' struggles concerning their working conditions and level of remuneration. Genuine working class struggle always tends towards workers' collectively organizing themselves and acting directly without regard to legalities or bureaucratic process. Such struggles begin with wildcat strikes outside of, and openly against the union(s), in which workers form their own autonomous strike commitees, and they lead -- when sufficiently developed and extended throughout the class -- to self-organized WORKERS' COUNCILS.

9. Workers' councils are the historically discovered form of the proletarian communist revolution. Such councils are composed of delegates elected directly by all workers who organize themselves in general assemblies at their workplaces. Council delegates are explicitly mandated to defend in the councils the positions and proposals collectively decided -- whether democratically or consensually -- by all the workers participating in the assemblies, after open and thorough debate. Such delegates are also open to instant recall at all times as decided by their electors in the assemblies. By including also unemployed workers and other "non-employed" members of the class, the council system permits the whole of the proletariat to directly control, while at the same time co-ordinating and unifying, its struggle and revolution.

10. Capitalist parliaments and legislatures, and elections to them, hold no promise whatsoever to the struggle for communism. Genuine revolutionaries are completely opposed to them, and they encourage all workers to reject them. Rather, we encourage all proletarians to take mass direct action against the capitalist state, no matter how "democratic" it may be.

11. Capitalist representative democracy is completely reactionary, and the working class has no interest whatsoever in defending it from attacks by "fascists" or other "right-wing authoritarian forces". Democratic "rights" have meaning for workers only insofar as the class at large is either incapable of, or unwilling to, actively defend its own collective interests. Such rights are put into law (constitution, etc.) and upheld by the state, but the state is the main enemy of the working class and its collective historical interests. The purpose -- from the point of view of the ruling class -- of instituting such rights in law is to pacify and tame the tendency of workers to defend their "rights" by means of mass direct action. Whenever these legal rights come into conflict with the interests of the ruling class, the state never hesitates to trample on those rights in the service of defending ruling class interests (which are always characterized as being the "interests of the nation"). Reactionary elements ("leftism") within the working class -- under the influence of trade unionist ideology in most cases -- claim that these "rights" are "lasting gains" or "historic victories" of the class struggle, in order to discourage mass direct action and to encourage support for, and subordination to, the Democratic capitalist state.

12. Nationalism (of every stripe) is inherently a capitalist phenomenon and ideology. The "national interest" is always the interest of the national capital and thus of the ruling class, whose capital it is. On the contrary, the interests of the working class in every country are anti-nationalist; their interests at all times are invariably internationalist or global. Every capitalist, imperialist war -- and in this era every war is an imperialist war, regardless of whether it is a war between states or a "civil war" between different factions of the ruling class within one country -- is impossible without nationalist ideology, which in war-time usually tends towards jingoism and xenophobia; while the interests of the working class in every country are fundamentally opposed to all such wars. In order to eliminate capitalism, the working class must destroy every nation state and unite across all national borders to form a WORLD HUMAN COMMUNITY. Thus, under no circumstances whatsoever are "national liberation struggles" in the interests of the working class within such "oppressed nations". Such struggles, if victorious, only result in exchanging -- usually at much cost to the lives and well being of much of the working class -- one set of gangsters/rulers (the previously "oppressed" bourgeoisie) for another. In all such struggles and civil wars workers must resist both sides, and defend only their own specific class interests.

13. Every left-wing mass political party -- whether it calls itself "Communist", "Socialist", "Marxist", "Labour", "Workers", or "Proletarian" -- is part of the the capitalist system, part of the state, and thus fully under the control of the ruling capitalist class. The objective function of all left-wing political parties -- and all small political groups aspiring to form such parties -- is to deceive the working class into supporting the capitalist state (and in particular, their own party interests within the state structure), rather than destroying it. Leftist organizations -- social democratic, Stalinist, Trotskyist, Maoist, Guevarist-Castroist, etc. -- form the left-wing of the political apparatus of the(ir countries') national capital. They claim to represent and to act on behalf of the working class, and therefore they can only act against the class' tendency to autonomous mass direct action.

14. As far as the working class is concerned, the essence of capitalism lies in the persistence and domination of WAGE LABOUR. Wage labour = workers giving up control over their labour(-power) to their employer in exchange for a wage or another form of remuneration. Capitalism can be briefy characterized, in its essential features, as wage-labour-based generalized commodity production. As long as wage labour persists, socialism does not exist. Wage labour can only be abolished by means of the vast majority of the working class taking united direct control over the means of production, distribution, and communication away from the ruling capitalist class in order to collectively use them to meet their own (collective) human interests, that is, the interests of all humanity, and indeed all life on earth. The autonomous workers' councils, united on a world scale, are the organizational means to achieve this result, which is socialism.

15. While the working class struggle always has and always will give rise to various political organizations (including "parties"), the real purpose for these organizations -- in relation to the struggle for socialism -- is in total opposition to the purpose/function of all capitalist political parties (whether in a representative Democracy or not). Their only purpose can be to educate and raise awareness within the working class about what they -- i.e. the class as a whole -- must themselves do by means of their own councils to overthrow the capitalist state and then eliminate capital (all capitalist social relations) itself. The emancipation of the working class is the task of the whole working class. Their emancipation will never come about as long as the class gives up supreme power (political, economic, social) to a separate organization or to a minority fraction within itself. Self-styled "Bolshevik" or "Leninist" political organizations are completely counter-revolutionary, since they are fundamentally oriented towards "seizing state power", taking over control of the struggle/revolution, and subordinating the class at large to their direction and leadership. Their success can only lead to their forming the core of a new ruling (capitalist) class, while the working class at large remains subordinated to wage labour.

16. Genuine communist revolutionaries provide unreserved support for ALL POWER TO THE AUTONOMOUS INTERNATIONAL WORKERS' COUNCILS. Such is the only road to the permanent abolition of wage labour and capital, and the realization of the associated world human community.

Wage Slave X. MayDay 2k.

Contact: <waslax@hotmail.com>