CP of Argentina, Contribution to the Athens Meeting 21J2002

By Athos Fava

The new world situation after September 11

Let me begin with a paragraph on Argentina showing the
irrational paradox of on the one hand, children daily dying
of hunger and on the other, Argentina being the leading
food-producing country in the world per c�pita. With a
population of 36 million people it can support 330 million.
This is one of the many faces of globalized capitalism. A
scene of various and innumerable struggles is presented.
New protagonists are emerging among whom the so-called
piqueteros, represented in the National Bloc, stand out.
Their national assemblies number in the many thousands of
delegates. They are workers in and out of work and their
families. The methods of struggle, apart from the
traditional strikes, the occupation of factories, the soup
kitchen, the blocking of roads and motorways, neighbourhood
assemblies and the seizure of supermarkets, are typical.

Through their action they present their political stand
against the IMF, the World Bank, for participatory
democracy, the struggle to free the prisoners (there are
more than 2.500 workers accused). At the same time the
illegitimate government of president Duhalde offers
training to Colombian pilots in our country and in the
Geneva meeting voted subserviently against Cuba for just a
handful of dollars which will eventually be withheld to pay
part of the interests of the enormous foreign debt.

At the time of writing this address, in early May, new
economic restructuring is imminent as is more starvation,
which is always accompanied by even more repression.

A little bit of history

John Adams (1735-1826) second president of the United
States and one of its founders said ( "The people in
Kentucky are avid for business and even though they are not
poor, they have the same desire to plunder which dominated
the Romans in their best times. Mexico glitters before our
eyes. The only thing we are hoping for is to be the lords
of the world". And Mexico was stripped of two million km2
in the war between the United States and Mexico (1846-48).
The Mexican people say ( "We do not cross the border, the
border crosses us." Later the "Manifest Desting" would
come. From the heavens God blessed the United States as the
nation that would lead the crusade of good against evil.

Following in the footsteps of the predator that would later
become the main rival to the proud English colonialists,
imposed in 1823 the Monroe Doctrine. America to the North
Americans, a warning aimed at the European Holy Alliance.
And on the other hand, the entire Latin America and the
Caribbean has come to be considered their back yard. Their
long list of all types of violations, invasions (Santo
Domingo), occupations (Nicaragua), crimes (Gait�n,
Colombia), imposed dictatorships (Pinochet in Chile) and a
series of military bases that have been multiplying during
the XIX and the XX century and continue in the current
century.

Sim�n Bol�var, the patriot of our America, the
internationalist, the liberator of the Great Homeland,
pointed out ( "The USA appears to be destined by Divine
Providence to plunge America into misery in the name of
freedom," which demonstrates the constant imperial politics
of world dominance, as was pointed out by John Adams. How
right was Karl Marx in predicting that capitalism would
disappear from the world scene reeking with blood.

After these brief historical notes we return to more recent
material such as the Santa Fe Documents (City in New
Mexico) which were elaborated by the advisory groups of
those who used to and still govern the USA during the last
decade ( Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton and
George W. Bush.

The first document, which appeared in 1980, elaborates on
the "low intensity" conflicts today recycled as terrorism
and the historical continuity of US politics ( War, not
peace, is the rule that governs foreign affairs". It is a
reality proved by events such as World War I and II when it
was demonstrated that the economic, political and
institutional crisis of capitalism was followed, as if its
own shadow, by war which to quote Clausewitz (1780-1831) is
the continuation of politics other means. Santa Fe IV,
2001, is the most recent one. This document is known as the
nine "D" ( Defence, Drugs, Demography, Debt,
Desindustrialisation, Popular Democracy, Destabilization,
Deforestation and Decline of the United States.

Decline of the USA.

I will begin by quoting the last part of the "Decline of
the USA" document. "The United States is on a slippery
downhill ready to burn in the ashes of history. The rest of
the world watches in amazement how our opponents, who are
adopting a long term strategic approach, are taking
advantage of our need for instant gratification, as has
been articulated in Eugenio Rabines's "The Yenan Way".

"We will be judged by history and by our grandchildren if
this is not reversed". We also recall that the world
capitalist economy has entered into a process of relative
and structural chronic overproduction crisis since the
1970s - an example is the above-mentioned on Argentina
regarding food and hunger or that of a Filipino worker
producing computers that he will never own. The revival of
the capitalist economy every now and then is no more than
the death throes that some confuse with capitalist
restructuring.

The answer to such relative and structural chronic
overproduction of the most chauvinist and racist sectors of
big business by the United States is that of dissociating
society, fragmenting countries, disorganising or
reorganising them, dispersing them on a world-wide scale.
Regarding Argentina it is argued that from 24 provinces we
should become 8, which would constitute 8 protectorates.
Regarding Brazil, that in view of its inability to protect
the main lung of the planet it should pass to other hands.
The entire Amazonia comprises 4 million km2. State
terrorism - "those who are not with us are against us" -
and the war in the way that the Afghan and the Palestinian
people are experiencing it is a demonstration of the
"endless war of good against evil" of Bush and his hawks as
an answer to the economic crisis without alternative. New
sorcerer's apprentices? An atomic and other extermination
arms war? End of civilization?

Defence.

Regarding this subject they ask ( "But the key issue when
discussing the defence of the hemisphere is( What is the
threat? As was argued in Santa Fe I, II and III, in the
past the United States confronted a relatively defined
threat, easily conceivable by the average American. Today
this threat has become infinitely more complicated and
difficult to define". And further on stresses that "China
is the most awkward, strategic problem the United States is
faced with. It combines all the multiple dimensions that
any serious strategic observer should take into
account"(...) "Even though this is not the place to go over
our historical interrelations, it must be stressed that the
North American people and their elected representatives are
becoming more and more aware of China's presence as well as
its ability to have an effect on our future". Thus was the
issue put forward by W. Bush's advisors, I will now select
three aspects ( The need for bipolarism or multipolarism,
the People's Republic of China and Demography according to
the Santa Fe IV document. I consider that, among other
issues, these three problems plus the economic crisis, get
in the way of the US seeking unquestionable world
dominance.

Bipolarism or Multipolarism.

We stress that bipolarism disappeared with the collapse of
the USSR. I believe that without the existence of a pole or
multipolarism being able to slow down, stop and reverse the
aggressive, warlike and oppressive policy of Yankee
imperialism, the world will find itself in constant danger
of degradation and absolute subordination. How will this
world scene emerge, this pole or multipole? I think that
the first thing to do, as the Arabic proverb says, is to
take the first step, that is, to work for it.

People's Republic of China.

There is abundant information on how the distance between
the US and the Chinese GDP has been reducing. At the end
of World War II the United States possessed 50% of the
world GDP. In 1998 it fell to 27,8% and now it is estimated
at 23%. Regarding the list of the first countries with the
highest GDP the different sources disagree as they don't
start from the same measurement and parameters. Let us see
( The International Correspondence magazine, n0 3, 2001.

Data in 1999

1st United States 7.205 billion*
2nd China 4.851 billion
3rd Japan 2.515 billion

*This figure does not include the financial system, the
industrial production system or other areas outside its
fields.

In Avante, the official organ of the Portuguese Communist
Party, in an article by Miguel Urbano Rodriguez of May 3,
2001, it says that the Chinese GDP comes close to 5
billion, that is, very close to the given figure of 4.851.
And it gives another reference point by saying that it is
three times the French GDP.

The Clar�n newspaper, the one with the highest circulation
in Argentina, in an article on international politics by
Oscar Cardozo, April 2, 2001, pointed to the following data
( since 1952 the Chinese economy has increased by 117% and
in the last two decades its economy increased five-fold and
intends to double its present GDP in 2010. If it continues
its present growth, in 2015 it will have the highest GDP in
the world economy.

Can the United States allow this? Can it give China the
necessary time to level up its economy with the American
one in global terms? We recall the final part of Santa Fe
IV, the Decline. "We will be judged by history and by our
grandchildren if this is not reversed".

That a country, with a population five times greater an
inexhaustible workforce and with racial, cultural and
historic homogeneity and renewed national pride, might
enhance their power ( this new concern of imperialism is
extremely logical..

Demography.

First of all, we stress that population growth is more and
more marked by xenophobia and racism as was demonstrated by
Le Pen during the last elections in France. I consider
another necessary clarification the difference between
Samuel Huntington's theory of "Civilization Clash" (1993)
in which this clash is found fundamentally in the cultural
and religious field and not basically in class struggle. We
are committed to a world change of civilized content.

Having clarified this let us have a look at the Santa Fe IV
document.

The above document is full of demographic statistics and
how the world population would develop. It particularly
deals with the aspect of birth-rate in the United States
and Europe and the needs of the immigrants in these
countries "so as to support the economy and provide funds
for the social work programmes (retirement, pensions, etc).

Regarding Germany, it is argued that "it has received a
constant internal flow of foreigners and that now Berlin is
the second most densely populated "Turkish" city. It
predicts that in 50 years its population of 82 million
Germans will decrease to 60 million and its labour force
from 41 to 26 million. Italy's population of 58 million is
expected to be reduced to 52 million by 2020 and to 41
million by 2050.

Santa Fe IV says "consequently if the present projection of
the population continues, the Islamic band that extends
from Morocco to Iran - where the figures have increased
from 71 million in 1950 to some estimated 500 million in
2030 - will be the one increasing and offering a labour
force to Europe and Russia".

Regarding the United States it alerts to the fact that "in
the next decade the Census Bureau foresees that the
Hispanic population will become the largest minority in the
United States..." and sounds the alarm by asking ( Are we
going to let this "swarming" continue? "Will this flow be
absorbed and integrated in North American culture and
society? "Or will it serve as an involuntary instrument of
disintegration and economic and social chaos?"

Political Affairs, n0 1 of 2002 comments on the fact that
millions of immigrant workers of Our America in the United
States - particularly Mexican - are struggling for their
rights to work and trade union organisation. In reality,
maybe without being fully aware of their contribution to
shaping a multiracial and multiethnic North American nation
with the contribution of the Black population and the other
immigrants. And the cruel cultural issue is thus put
forward the Gramsci way ( "As culture is changed, political
and economic change is virtually guaranteed" (Santa Fe IV).

I consider it important and very necessary to give some
views on the events on September 11, which we have
condemned and have declared our solidarity with the pain of
thousands of innocent victims in their majority of Latin
American origin.

Fidel Castro making statements on Cuban TV in September
2001 stressed, ( "I do not share the view that the US
objective in Afghanistan was to look for oil. I relate this
to a geostrategical conception. No one commits such an
error trying to look for oil...".

The Beijing magazine published in its n0 10 issue an
article by associate professor Ge Lide, of the University
of Chinese National Defence. I will select from a number of
elements only one "Finally the current terrorists against
the United States have given them the opportunity to expand
globally. The Four-year Defence Report published by the
State Department on September 30, 2001, reflects the policy
of the Bush administration that gave the same priority to
Europe and Asia, now it is moving its strategic centre
towards the East. Even though Europe is the traditional US
field, both the quantity and quality of its troops in the
Asian-Pacific region have exceeded those in Europe. In the
past, the United States placed emphasis on winning two
regional wars, on the Korean Peninsula and in the Middle
East, but the new report makes clear that the United States
should be ready for a more important war. The so-called
rival of the United States, is evidently more powerful than
before," states professor Ge Lide.

For his part, Akahata, March 9, 2002, stresses ( "The
recent joint exercises of the United States-Japan military
alliance, have been conceived in order to prepare against
possible attacks on Japan". Could, by any chance, Korea,
classified by Bush as one of the terrorist countries, be
the attacker? This lacks solidness and is totally
unrealistic, the more so if we compare the possible
aggression against Japan and the re-scheduling of the
announced attack on Iraq in 2003. Re-scheduling, as if the
divine right to punish a country could be re-scheduled like
the launching of a commercial product, which demonstrates
precisely the US disdain towards humanity.

These elements in the East and West - Afghanistan and Iraq
- of Chinese territory are aspects of a geostrategic policy
of the North American Empire which, for its part, works
feverishly in order to impose its policy on the North and
South of China, a very complicated issue. But we recall the
above-mentioned that the bipolarism or multipolarism that
could confront the Empire don't exist any more.

The events taking place in Palestine territory are part of
the US war escalation and serve its objectives in the Near
East of dividing the world into "goodies and baddies", into
terrorists and freedom-fighters. What is taking place here
is a new September 11. Yankee imperialism is going to
produce new September 11s. The United Stated will make use
of all just struggles for national liberation (like the one
in Colombia) in order to "gather water in the million" of
the global and endless war" and establish a global military
dictatorship.

Going back to Fidel Castro and his speech in Monterrey,
Mexico, March 22, 2002, he stressed, "The present world
economic order constitutes a system of such plunder and
exploitation as has never existed before in history. The
gap is getting bigger, not smaller. (...) It has reached
such extremes that the three richest people in the world
possess assets equivalent to the GDP of the 48 poorest
countries put together. (...) We cannot blame the poor
countries for this tragedy. It is not they who have
conquered and plundered for centuries entire continents,
nor have they established colonialism, nor have they
re-introduced slavery, nor have they created modern
imperialism. They have been its victims".

As you are all aware, the IMF formulas have aggravated the
social situation now threatening to turn itself into social
commotion, from this it's just a thin line between those
struggles being classified as terrorism. Now enters the
Plan Colombia category now renamed Plan Andino.

It is said that God blinds those he wants to be defeated.
Bush's threats remind me of the final part of the New
Testament, Revelation and the battle of the good against
the evil Armageddon (chapter 16).

They will be able to make progress with their objective of
a global dictatorship( their proconsuls will be able to
impose formulas like those of the IMF, impose civil or
military dictatorships. Along this path the only thing the
United States will achieve is dig its own grave as no
arsenal of whatever type of weapon can do away with
poverty, hunger, ignorance and illnesses. All this and much
more could never kill the powerful ideal coming from the
depths of human history that man is a friend to man.

What is being established is the increase in anti-yankee
feelings translated into resistance of the peoples turning
into anti-imperialist conscience, into organisation and
struggle against their barbaric plans.

Will the Bush administration and Bush himself be able to
fully understand towards what they are pushing the world
and their country? Towards a world more and more complex
and ungovernable. Do they think that all the countries and
the peoples have knelt before them or that they have put
their hands up, giving themselves up?

This North American way of thinking, of foolishness mixed
with arrogance is that which places humanity (that has
never committed suicide, that has always found a way out)
in a dilemma as to its subsistence, its continuation.
"There is no hope for the world unless it follows a line of
peace and international cooperation," Fidel Castro,
November 2, 2001.

I have the feeling or the dream that the People's Republic
of China will turn, by force of events and with the help of
time, into the heart of a Nations and Peoples Bloc. Nations
and Peoples of different systems, cultures, religions,
various ideological, philosophical and political thinking
but with the common objective that the world continues to
revolve and to prosper.

I have the feeling or the dream that the best, most
advanced, most progressive, most democratic forces in the
world are going to unite in this bloc (including the North
Americans themselves), and with them the whole powerful
movement against capitalist globalisation and their Supreme
actions in Seattle, Geneva, Barcelona and in the Porto
Alegre World Social Forum and with them the whole
revolutionary movement.

Our planet is in need of urgently reactivating or creating
a powerful peace movement against the Empire's aggressive
war and global dominance.

Dear comrades ( this is the time for joint action of all
the revolutionary forces and in particular of communist
education.

For a world worthy of the human being.