Capitalism is in deep trouble - why is it so hard to fight it?

We are publishing here - rather belatedly due to technical issues - a series of texts that have contributed to the public Day of Discussion held by the ICC in London, in July 2013.

The day was divided into two sessions, morning and afternoon: the morning session was titled "Capitalism is in deep trouble. Why is it so hard to fight against it?", and we are publishing three short introductory presentations, followed by a brief summary of the discussion. Our readers can also listen to the audio transcript of the morning session.

The afternoon session was on the transitional period from capitalism to communism, a subject which has long been a matter of intense debate among communists, but also historically between communists and anarchists. This session only had one presentation, this too is followed by a brief summary of the discussion. Sadly, the audio recording was of too poor a quality for us to put it online.

All these presentations and summaries were produced by comrades who are sympathisers or contacts of the ICC. We couldn't have done it without them, and we thank them warmly for their efforts.

Those interested can also see a comment on the day of discussion posted on our forum shortly after the event.

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Two presentations introduced the morning discussion focusing on class struggle and crisis.

The first presentation on crisis by Link put forward a view of the development of an understanding of crises by revolutionaries. It traced, over the period of decadence, militants’ understanding of different phases of crises and growth and posed a number of questions raised by the last two decades of austerity and increased exploitation which were accompanied until recently by a lack of class struggle.

The second presentation by KT discussed the struggles between two classes in the recent period. It reviewed the bourgeoisie’s austerity attacks on the working class as well as its ideological attacks in the wake of the collapse in Russia and addressed the working class response. Neither the apparently passive class in Europe nor the appearance of the violent social revolts in various countries over the past 5 years suggest a historic defeat such as in the 1930s.

A third contribution “Is capitalism in terminal decline? Where is the working class?” by baboon was posted in advance on the ICC discussion forum.