Capitalism is plunging humanity into horror

With the outbreak of war in Iran, the resumption of bombing this summer and the spread of the conflict throughout the Middle East, the intensification of the conflict in Ukraine, the further deterioration of the global economy, and the ongoing ecological disaster, the capitalist world is continuing its destructive spiral, which is now taking on a new and extremely serious dimension. This situation confirms that the capitalist system, in and of itself, has only one single outcome to offer: a trajectory towards the ultimate destruction of humanity.

The deadly spiral of capitalism

The war in Iran, which began on 28 February, is not merely the addition of yet another conflict to that in Ukraine – that ‘special operation’ which was itself supposed to last only a short time, ‘a few days’ at most... War has become a permanent feature of the capitalist world, and the conflict in Iran has far-reaching consequences. It confirms what we had already highlighted at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic: “And one of the characteristics of the global situation since the early 2020s is that the calamities befalling the world tend to coalesce more and more, feeding and stimulating each other in a kind of infernal vortex.”[1]. This “infernal vortex” helps us understand the context of this new conflict in Iran, characterised by the simultaneous and brutal deterioration of living conditions across the world – a situation spiralling out of control, which has worsened significantly since this summer. This war in Iran marks a new phase[2] in the system’s decomposition, reflecting the entrenchment and spread of a policy of war characterised by large-scale, indiscriminate destruction and the acceleration of an ‘each against all’ scenario. This new phase stems from at least two key and far-reaching political factors:

- The first factor is the fact that the weakening of the USA is unprecedented; the collapse of its credibility and the rapid exposure of its impotence mean that it can no longer play the role of ‘world policeman’. Without a compass, the United States is no longer able to extinguish the fire it has kindled in Iran, the result of its irrational decisions.

- The second factor relates to the outbreak of a conflict – one that is widely condemned – which is not governed by any rules of international law or the laws of war, and which lacks any objective or credible authority on the part of any of the belligerents. Thus, the conflict in Iran heralds a new era in which the entire international order established after 1945 by the two major powers of the victorious camp – primarily the United States – is now disappearing for good. Following the fall of the USSR and its collapse in the early 1990s, it is now all the remnants—all the increasingly tenuous ties—of the former Western bloc that are vanishing. Former allies are becoming, exclusively and more than ever, rivals.

Today, intense and intractable conflicts are multiplying and becoming bogged down in endless quagmires. Since the outbreak of the war in Iran, the conflict in Ukraine has been characterised by a relentlessness on both sides that is reaching proportions pushing the belligerents beyond any conceivable level of exhaustion. In July, Russia carried out an airstrike on a block of flats in Kyiv (killing 30 people), the deadliest since hostilities began. These Russian strikes have been met with an escalation of Ukrainian strikes deep into Russian territory, resulting in casualties, environmental pollution and colossal material damage. China, whilst being undermined from within by tensions that are being urgently resolved through purges at the very top of the state, continues to pose a threat, particularly towards Taiwan, but is failing to impose its own ambitions on the world. For their part, the US finds itself completely isolated and humiliated, being the primary driver of this fragmentation of the world, in which all competing and rival states now mistrust one another.

Such insecurity continues to legitimise soaring military expenditure, which is weighing down on and exacerbating the contradictions of an already devastating economic crisis of overproduction[3], paving the way for an unprecedented situation, far worse than the crisis of 2008 or that of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Colossal arms expenditure fuels the war economy and fuels the rise of militarism, having the worst possible effects on society – and particularly on the working class – by causing inflation, unemployment and destitution. Symbolically, this economic crisis is regarded in Germany as ‘the most serious since 1945’. Germany, a country that was the very showcase of Western Europe during the Cold War, is seeing the image of its ‘economic miracle’ literally torpedoed, causing a veritable earthquake in its flagship sectors, particularly the automobile industry, which is no longer able to recover, since it was already mired in a ‘structural and social crisis’. Already, Volkswagen plants are planning to cut 100,000 jobs in the coming years; Mercedes is considering extending working hours by 30 to 40 per cent; and Bosch intends to cut 13,000 jobs. As is the case everywhere, further massive cuts are being considered, such as in healthcare or pensions, which are set to rise from 67 to 70 years of age!

The consequences for all workers are, in fact, incalculable. The crisis is taking its toll and driving the working class ever further into absolute poverty. Across the world, the trend is towards falling wages, social exclusion and increasingly precarious working conditions. In Europe, for example, the cascading explosion of ‘posting of workers’, that is to say, the movement of workers at lower cost, which is widespread amongst subcontractors, is institutionalising a veritable trade in human beings – often undeclared – paid below minimum standards, frequently working beyond the legal maximum working hours, and housed in squalid slums, in the draughty, poorly insulated properties of slum landlords. Workers are becoming increasingly precarious, at the mercy of their employers. According to statistics from the European statistical office, Eurostat, “one in five Europeans is at risk of poverty or social exclusion”. And the regional conflict in the Middle East, which shows no sign of ending, can only exacerbate all the combined effects of the crisis.

The acceleration of climate change, which is progressing faster than anticipated – as evidenced by the heatwave that hit the whole of Europe with full force – has led some commentators to suggest that we have ‘entered a new era’. The first three heatwaves were unprecedented in terms of their early onset and intensity. The record temperatures led to excess mortality, with nearly 10,000 deaths in Germany alone. According to WHO figures, there have been more than 200,000 heat-related deaths in Europe over the last four years. ‘Unprecedented’ mega-fires have accompanied an exceptional drought. A catastrophic situation! Whilst the summer is far from over – at the time of writing – many rivers have run dry and the planet is burning! In France, nearly 130,000 hectares have gone up in smoke: more than 50 per cent more than just a year ago. Even northern countries are affected. In the Mediterranean, fires have been rife for decades, but today they are reaching Dantesque proportions. In Spain, for example in Zaragoza, nearly 13,000 hectares have vanished in just three days and 170,000 hectares have been reduced to ashes across the whole country! The north-east of the United States has been choking on smoke from Canada’s mega-fires, to the extent that the possibility of moving the FIFA World Cup final from New York to another city was even considered. Everywhere, the glaring lack of resources to tackle this unprecedented level of destruction, is accompanied by irrational ideologies, ranging from climate scepticism to unbridled messianism, as evidenced by the hardline rhetoric of figures such as Netanyahu, Pete Hegseth or the American evangelical right, expressions of the obsolescence and growing danger of the capitalist mode of production.

The absolute necessity of revolution

Faced with the current nightmares and those that the capitalist system has in store for us, there is only one way out: the revolutionary struggle of the working class. Because it lies at the heart of production—as an exploited class that generates wealth whilst being deprived of it—the working class is the only revolutionary class capable of uniting across borders to overthrow the moribund system that threatens to destroy all of humanity. To achieve this, the proletariat must fight consciously on its own terms—that is, as an autonomous class—in order to defend its living conditions, which are under attack, and thereby rediscover the path to its forgotten historical experience, reclaim its lost class identity, and move far beyond mere resistance to the attacks of capital. The working class must wage an intense and massive struggle and engage in in-depth reflection in order to overcome the obstacles, particularly those that obscure and hinder the conditions of its struggle; it must reconnect with the full experience of the past[4], to regain its capacity for initiative and the full memory of the best of the experience and traditions of the workers’ movement. Revolutionary organisations, rooted in the tradition of the Communist Left, already have a central role to play – one that is indispensable and vital – in steering the movement and thwarting the traps set by its enemies, the false alternatives; in guiding the struggle along the long road ahead, that of a class which must assert itself to defend the only viable, necessary and still possible perspective: that of communism.

WH (28 July)

 

 

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[1] From the Manifesto for the 50th Anniversary of the International Communist Current, Capitalism threatens humanity: World revolution is the only realistic solution

[2] See our article  The acceleration of capitalist decomposition poses the clear possibility of the destruction of humanity, International Review no. 169 and our articles on the conflict in Iran on our website

[3] See our forthcoming article on the economic crisis in this edition of the Review

[4] See our forthcoming article on the lessons of the 2006 struggle against the CPE – First Employment Contract.