Brazil Landless Workers leader on the crisis & the task of the Society and workers
The Crisis Will Be Profound and Prolonged .
By João Pedro Stedile
It’s been several months since the crisis of capitalism was unleashed on
the international level, with its epicenter in financial capital and the
US economy. Now we have more evidence that this crisis will be profound
and prolonged, affecting all the peripheral economies — including Brazil.
Many analyses of the crisis have been published in academia and the
media. There are all sorts of positions and ideological currents. But
they all converge on this diagnosis: it is a profound crisis, worse than
the crisis of 1929. It will affect the entire world economy, which has
been increasingly internationalized and controlled by fewer than 500
companies. It will be worse, because it combines an economic crisis, a
financial crisis (of the credibility of currencies), an environmental
crisis, an ideological crisis due to the failure of neoliberalism, and a
political crisis due to the lack of alternatives on the part of the
dominant class at the center of capitalism or the governments of the
periphery.
In the history of crises of capitalism, the dominant classes, owners of
capital, and their governments have adopted the same prescription to
exit them.
First, they need to destroy a part of (over-accumulated) capital
(lacking demand) to make room for another process of accumulation. In
recent months, over 4 trillion dollars in paper money have gone up in smoke.
Second, they call for wars. War is a way of destroying goods (weapons,
munitions, materials, facilities) and getting rid of the social tension
of workers. And it does so in such a way as to also eliminate the
industrial reserve army. Thence the First and Second World Wars, and
then the Cold War. Now, given the fear of atomic bombs, they stir up
regional conflicts instead. The attacks on the Palestinian people by
Israel, the provocations in India, and the threats against Iran all fit
in this strategy as well. The strategy is to increase military spending
and destroy goods.
Third, magnify the exploitation of workers. That is to say, in crises,
lower the average wages, and bring down the living standards and thus
the costs of the reproduction of the labor force, in order to restore
the rates of surplus value and restart accumulation. Hence also the
expansion of unemployment, which keeps multitudes surviving only on the
basic baskets of goods, etc.
Fourth, a greater transfer of capital from the periphery to the center
of the system. This is accomplished by the direct transfer from
enterprises in the periphery to their headquarters, as well as through
the manipulation of the dollar exchange rate, the payment of interests,
and the manipulation of prices of goods sold and bought in the periphery.
Fifth, capital goes back to using the state as the manager of the
savings of the population to shift these funds for the benefit of
capital. For this purpose, capitalists again valorize the state, not as
the caretaker of the interests of society, but as the steward of their
interests, to use its compulsory powers and thus collect money from
everyone, through taxes as well as savings deposited in the banks, in
order to finance their way out of the crisis.
We are witnessing the application of these classic measures, reported in
the press every day — here in Brazil, in the center of capitalism, and
in the rest of the world.
But, as with everything in life, there are always contradictions. For
each action of capital, the government, etc., there will be its
contradiction, which society and workers can recognize and exploit to
change the situation.
The historic periods of crises are also periods of change. For better
or worse, there will be changes! Crises create openings and rearrange
the positioning of classes in society. In Brazil, we are still
apathetic, amorphous, listless, watching the description of symptoms of
the approaching crisis on television. There was hardly any reaction or
feedback from nearly 800,000 workers who lost their jobs just in
December 2008. Nor are there comments on the IPEA research showing
that, of the 17 million poor families in Brazil in the general register
of beneficiaries of government programs, 79% of them are unemployed!
For they received some benefits, they are not seeking more jobs, and
they are left out of even the statistics of unemployment.
It is vital for the organized sectors of society — in all existing
forms, whether in churches, trade unions, schools, colleges,
universities, the press, social movements, or parties — to do something
about the crisis. The first thing to do is to debate the nature of the
crisis and find ways out of the crisis, from the point of view of
workers and the majority of society. It is urgent to encourage all
manner of discussions in all arenas. Paraná Educational TV’s initiative
to promote this kind of public debate is welcome. But it is still
insufficient. The crisis will be long and deep. We need to involve the
largest possible number of militants, politically conscious men and
women, to discuss the situation, so we can collectively build popular
alternatives. Without mobilization and social struggles, there will be
no way out for the people — except for capital.
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João Pedro Stedile is a member of the national coordination of the MST
and Via Campesina. The article first appeared in English in
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/stedile130309.html
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