Author: Internationalist Perspective

The whole world looked on with astonishment at the events at the US Capitol on 6 January.  The commentators and politicians berated the orgiastic attack on the ‘beacon of democracy’; this attack gave a performance usually associated with other parts of the world (and often paid for by the US government).   However, another thought went through millions of minds:  have Americans gone mad?

This question arose not simply because of the violence on the day but because the participants were unrestrained in expressing their beliefs about what was going on in the US, and crystallising five years’ worth of  tirades about conspiracy and ‘fake news.’    But this was only the tip of the iceberg.   There has been a ready acceptance in a growing proportion of the American population to believe the most bizarre stories about what is going on in their country.   Consider these:   that the ‘deep state’ ruling the country is composed of (Democratic, of course) Satan-worshipping cannibalistic paedophiles; Californian wildfires were started by alien Jewish lasers;  the Parkland school shooting was staged to attack the gun lobby; the Covid vaccination campaign aims to inject Bill Gates’s microchips into the population.   All these went alongside the Trump ‘Stop the Steal’ campaign and the 6 January attack on the Capitol in Washington.    

Read More →

The plague of SARS-Covid-19 that has spread everywhere in 2020 brings into stark relief the natural behaviour of the bourgeoisie which defends only its own class interests and has no inclination to defend the interests of humanity; indeed, its very participation in dealing with the virus heightens the problems we all confront.   The scrabbling for profits or political benefits, the bureaucratic infighting, the competition, the corruption, the drive for centralisation and the maintenance of power structures, the indifference to the needs of populations:  all these facets of bourgeois rule are alive and active in their response to the pandemic.   It could not be otherwise.

Behind the many faces the bourgeoisie presents to its national populations – democratic or authoritarian in varying degrees – is the historic enemy of humanity:  the capitalist socio-economic system which dominates all aspects of human life.   And this system, which has everyone in its grip, gives its ruling class the power to determine how the current pandemic is dealt with.   The nature of the bourgeoisie is shown in its actions and is clearly revealed in its handling of the various chapters of the pandemic story to date.  Indeed, the behaviour of the bourgeoisie in this pandemic highlights why the working class must rid the world of this parasitic system of exploitation which poses an existential threat to humanity.  

Read More →

A failed coup d’etat or a succesful coup de theatre?

Was what happened in Washington on January 6 a failed coup? An armed insurrection against the state? A terrorist attack of the caliber of 9/11? A sacrilege in the temple of democracy? A slap in the face of America like Pearl Harbor? The equivalent of the Nazi Crystal Night? Was it “one of the darkest days in American history”? The media and politicians were not lacking superlatives to describe the event. Even the Murdoch press (Fox News etc.) participated (reluctantly).

But a coup d’etat is something else. If thousands had caught the Capitol by force and taken politicians hostage as part of a coordinated plan to seize power, it would have been a coup attempt. But that was not what we saw on January 6.

Terrorists or tourists?

“Surreal” is a word that comes to mind when describing the circus. Trump set it in motion, exhorting his jamboree of thousands of hardcore followers to go to the Capitol to pressure Congressmen to reject the election results. “I will walk with you!”, he promised, after which he quickly returned to the White House to watch what happened next on TV. But even without him, the Trumpists arrived in an excited and determined mood at the Congress building where the undermanned police could not stop them.  

Read More →

A caste system

Slavery in Roman times was not racial. Slaves were not considered subhuman, not even a different kind of human. Their skin color didn’t matter. It could be the same as their masters or not.They were exploited, obviously, but their workload was limited by the needs of their masters. They, and more so their progeny, could often become ‘free’ citizens. By contrast, in capitalist slavery, skin color was all important, the visual justification of the treatment of people as beasts of burden. Only Africans were enslaved, ‘black’ became a synonym for slave. Profit was the driving force. Unlike slaves in antiquity and the middle ages, the modern slaves were exclusively bought as a means to the production of other commodities. As long as the demand for the products of their labor was high, their workload was only limited by their physical strength and often went beyond it.

And the demand was very high. Capitalist slavery was very profitable and so it expanded. The construction of racism, its indispensable ideology (see part 2), created a rigid caste system in the western hemisphere. It was a complex, blood-based hierarchy of Others that dictated that for each caste member, the ceiling was the floor of the caste above his.  

Read More →