A Spectre Is Haunting Europe: The People Won't Listen!
Written by Leonard Gentle Friday, 11 May 2012 11:42
The Presidential elections in France and the general elections in Greece are seismic events, which have significance way beyond the characters involved. After three years of austerity programmes throughout Europe characterised by billions of Euros worth of public money redirected towards protecting bankers and speculators who indulged in an orgy of reckless bond buying, people are simply defying an elite consensus.This consensus brought together all the politicians, economists and media pundits who simply stigmatised the Greeks as lazy tax dodgers, railed against the “wasteful” expenditure on public services and declared that belt-tightening to satisfy the markets is the only sane thing to do.
Einstein once defined madness as doing the same thing over and over again…and expecting different results.
Venezuela and the ‘Bolivarian Revolution’: Beacon of hope or smoke and mirrors?
Written by Shawn Hattingh Wednesday, 25 April 2012 12:34
For many people on the left, within and outside of Southern Africa, the ‘Bolivarian Revolution’ is seen as a beacon of socialist hope in a sea of capitalist despair [1]. The reason why many leftists feel so strongly attached to this project, and promote it as an alternative, is because they have come to view it as a move by the Venezuelan state towards creating a genuine, free form of socialism [2] or at the very least an experiment that profoundly breaks with the tenets of neo-liberalism [3] [4]. Many articles have, therefore, been written lauding the state’s nationalisation of some industries [5], its land distribution programmes [6], and its attempts to supposedly create participatory democracy in workplaces (through co-management and co-operatives) [7] and in communities (through community councils) [8]. Linked to this, a great deal has also been made of the state using some of revenue generated by the Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to roll out social services such as education, subsidised foodstuffs and healthcare [9]. Much ink has, consequently, been spilt arguing that all of these are socialist inspired moves and passionate calls have been made for other states, like the South African state, to adopt Venezuelan style ‘Socialism for the Twenty First Century’ [10].
The Crisis, Class War and Imperialism in Greece
Written by Shawn Hattingh Thursday, 12 April 2012 11:59
As the crisis in Europe has intensified, class war and imperialism have deepened in Greece. Indeed, the Greek working class has been subjected to further attacks from the local ruling class – comprised of capitalists and high ranking state officials - and imperialist powers. In order to receive the latest ‘bailout’ from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank (ECB), a bailout that goes straight to the banks that own most of the Greek state’s debt, the Greek state was told by the German, French and US ruling classes to once again reduce pensions by more than 15%, to fully privatise public utilities, to yet again cut social spending, and to implement more wage cuts, including a 22% reduction in the minimum wage. By 2014 it is planned that the Greek state would have cut spending, mostly on social services, by a further 12 billion Euros. All of this has come on the back of earlier rounds of austerity measures and the Greek working class has been under severe pressure: homelessness has been growing rapidly and the unemployment rate has shot past 20%.
The 2012 ILRIG April Conference
Monday, 13 February 2012 15:12
The 2012 ILRIG April Conference
Community House, Salt River, Cape Town
20-21 April 2012
Since 2007 when ILRIG hosted the Annual Rosa Luxemburg Seminar, ILRIG has been hosting annual conferences in April – specifically Internationalism, Then and Now in April 2008 and New Forms of Organisation Conference in April 2009, the Global Economic Crisis in 2010 and What is the SA Social Formation in 2011. The next in the series of Annual Conferences will be in April 2012 which is a year of great historical significance in South Africa.
It is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the African National Congress (ANC), founded in 2012 as Africa’s oldest national liberation movement, and thus it is an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of national liberation today, when the ANC is now the government of the day and yet acknowledges that in its own words, and in the words of its Alliance partner – the National Democratic Revolution is still incomplete.
2012 will be the 18th year of the achievement of democracy in SA. But in that time, instead of the mass struggles of the 1970s; 1980s and early 1990s leading to radical transformation we have seen a decline in the extent and depth of those struggles and the triumph of a neo-liberal order. South Africa has joined the BRICS as an aspiring power, South African corporations have become global players, the composition of the ruling class is still overwhelmingly white and we are now the most unequal society in the world. At the same time we have an ex-liberation movement in government, carried there by the struggles of a black working class majority and with a ruling Alliance which includes the biggest trade union federation and a long standing Communist Party.
More recently we have seen the rise of movements and community-based activists who have waged struggles quite relentlessly for some 5-10 years – serving as a source of optimism and renewal on the left and yet not galvanising into a social force capable of speaking in its own name, let alone challenging the neo-liberal order. We have also seen a readiness of some organised workers to strike and test the limits of the partnership that comprises the ruling tripartite Alliance. But is South Africa’s heightened inequality – broadly acknowledged as being along similar racial lines to the apartheid configuration – a sign that the “national question” has not been resolved under neo-liberal capitalism? Is South Africa today a failed national liberation struggle?
These questions assume a broader dimension in the context of uprisings in the North African and Arab world where local tyrannies and monarchies were aided and abetted by imperial forces for many years and which are now experiencing what are called new waves of national liberation struggles. Past such national liberation struggles – notably in Morocco at the turn of the 20th century – were the subject of debates within the pre-WW1 German Social Democratic Party, of which Rosa Luxemburg’s voice was a significant contribution.
The Root of All Evil? The Dollar, the BRICS and South Africa
Written by Leonard Gentle Monday, 02 April 2012 11:52
South Africa (SA) is attending its second meeting of the BRICS group of countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA. The summit, which took place today March 29 2012, in India, is themed "BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Security and Prosperity".
In his address to the BRICS summit, India’s Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh said, “We have agreed to examine in greater detail a proposal to set up a BRICS-led South-South Development Bank…”
A March edition of the Financial Times noted that “During the upcoming BRICS summit, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are due to sign an agreement to grant one another loans in their national currencies…The move is almost certain to weaken the position of the dollar.”
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