Athens Meeting 18-20 November 2005, Contribution of German
CP-DKP
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From: SolidNet, Monday, November 28, 2005
http://www.dkp.de , mailto:dkp.pv@t-online.de
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International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties
"Current Trends In Capitalism: Economic, Social And
Political Impact. The Communists' Alternative"
Athens, 18-20 November, 2005

Contribution by Heinz Stehr,
Chairman of the German Communist Party DKP

The "new" world order of capital
The collapse and the destruction of the socialist states in
Europe, especially the Soviet Union paved the way for
capital to subjugate all areas of social and cultural life
under its interests. Pre-existing crises have worsened and
new trouble spots have emerged.

Three key features characterise the current changes, which
serve to achieve imperialist aims the world over:

In the economical field, spheres such as culture, education
and health, which, until now were only partially accessible
to capitalist interests, are now dominated almost
completely by them.

In the political and social sphere, the forced
implementation of the aims of big business, especially
those of large, international corporations and banks
through rigorously neo-liberal policies. This is
particularly evident in the destruction of working-class
welfare and political rights which had been fought for by
the working-class movement and the transition to a new
regulation pattern in capitalism. This new regulation
pattern aims to create the best possible conditions for
capital to achieve maximum profits on a national and
international scale.

In the area of foreign and military policy, the doctrines
of a "new world order", "war against terrorism" and
"humanitarian missions" to ensure that the aims of big
business are implemented.

Imperialist Globalisation

Over 150 years ago, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels stated
in the Communist Manifesto that "the bourgeoisie cannot
exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of
production, and with them the whole relations of societyThe
need of a constantly expanding market for its products
chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the
globe."

Today this process has reached a new stage. The trans
national corporations control the world market to a large
extend. The last barriers of national markets are being
swept aside.

It is no longer a mere question of integrating trade and
markets. Today, scientific and technological developments
make the swift, international networking of production
processes and the regulation of the flow of capital
possible. This would be impossible without revolutionising
the forces of production, especially information and
communication technology and biotechnology, alongside the
development of materials.

The result is a new stage of monopolisation. International
corporations and banks have achieved an unprecedented level
of power. Today, their turnovers and profits exceed the
gross national product, or at least the budgets of many
states.

In the area of capital export too, an increasingly large
amount of foreign investment is no longer being used to set
up new production plants for financial, service and trading
business but for buying all or part of plants which already
exist. Regarding the flow of capital, there is another
tendency. 85 to 90 % of all investments by large business
come from the trio USA, EU and Japan. The overwhelming
majority of this investment is being poured into these same
three imperialist centres. Particularly in the field of
modern technology, the rest of the world is neglected. Only
their raw materials and other profitable resources are of
interest

Large mergers in the banking and insurance sector and as a
result the enormous influence of the financial giants on
all areas of economic life have led to states being more
dependent on banks due to their huge national debts. This,
together with the networking of the international flow of
finance and financial speculation means that financial
capital has reached a new level of power.

The dismantling of social and democratic rights

Less and less people control an ever growing portion of
social wealth .They make the decisions on investments and
job losses, about movements of capital, inner- and
transnational laws, about the future of whole countries and
regions, about war and peace.

Transnational corporations are pushing the
internationalisation of labour forward. Various sections of
the working class are made to compete with each other and
the worst social and environmental conditions are to
become the standard for everyone. Wage and welfare dumping
is being imposed on a worldwide scale.

Monopoly capital is seeking to establish a world order
which secures its profit interests.

This effects foreign and domestic policies. Rights within
bourgeois democracy have been hard fought for by the
working class and democratic movements More and more of
these rights are being called into question as are the
constitutions of the majority of developed capitalist
countries.

Restrictive ways for capital to exercise power are either
coming into existence or being tried out. Laws governing
the police are being changed, alongside security checks
within the German civil service, increasing surveillance of
public areas, imitations on the rights to assemble freely
and to strike, the reactionary draft constitution of the
EU, the "Federal Ministry for Public Security" and the
erosion of prisoners-rights in the USA are but few signs of
this. Forms of power which are even more reactionary, some
out rightly fascist are once again being considered.

War and peace

As long as the socialist states of Europe, especially the
Soviet Union existed, they placed a limit on the scope for
aggressive military ventures.

Today there is a common task for the imperialist centres of
power, namely clearing away the last obstacles for a
domination of the world market through trans-national
companies. When economic means and political pressure are
ineffective, the imperialist military machine is set in
motion.

NATO is an aggressive military alliance dominated by the
USA which has consistently disregarded international law,
the first demonstration of this being the war of aggression
against Yugoslavia in 1999. Strike forces, "rapid response
units" and the re-equipping of military forces for
deployment over the whole globe are aiming at securing
access to markets and sources of raw materials.

The Iraq war in 2003 was an attempt was an attempt by the
US to take a further step in establishing a so called new
world order by force under its political and military
leadership.

Once again it was made clear that the USA is prepared to
breach international law and use the full weight of its
military might, regardless of the consequences, in order to
impose its authority on the world. The wars against
Afghanistan and Iraq were not only attempts to hold grip of
the oil- and gas resources there the aim was also to secure
political-military control over the Middle East.

At the same time the Iraq war established and maintained
the US strategy of "preventive war". Due to policies like
this war has become a permanent sate of affairs
internationally.

Current US government policies reveal the aggressive nature
of imperialism. However, other imperialist centres have
done nothing to stop the implementation of these policies.
They are pursuing the same aims. However they do not yet
possess comparable instruments of power which means they
often recourse to different tactics.

The next wars are already being planned. They threaten the
lives of millions of people indeed the lives of the whole
of humanity. Iran, Syria, Cuba and the Democratic People �s
Republic of Korea have already been named as enemies. The
People �s Republic of China is regarded as a strategic
competitor to be fought against.

The imperialist centres, especially the USA and the EU are
in extreme competition to each other This shows in the form
of trade limitations and contrary concepts of how to
control international markets. Though there is no acute
danger of war between the imperialist centres, it cannot be
excluded for the future.

Current developments within capitalism are characterised by
common interests, antagonisms and rivalries between the
imperialist centres of power. As a consequence we are
witnessing the dismantling of social and democratic rights
everywhere, in the economically stronger capitalist
countries too. The results are militarisation and war and
an increasing destabilisation and barbarisation of all
aspects of society.

The Europe of monopolies

The European Community has developed into an independent
political and military centre alongside the USA. The EU is
dominated by the interests of financial capital, by
trans-national companies and large banks operating in the
EU states. The EU enables international corporations to be
active on a unified market freed from national borders and
regulations which put limits on capital. In recent years
the EU has been extended to form a "political union" with
supranational institutions and supranational power.

The western European countries are in a position of
strength which enables them to launch assaults on other
markets. Under the EU-flag the economically strongest
countries, particularly Germany are attempting to increase
their importance in world politics and their influence on
international markets. The EU has officially announced that
its aim, formulated in Lisbon in 2000, is to become the
world �s leading economic power before the year 2010,
thereby reaching a position in world politics which is at
least equal to that of the USA.

The single European currency means that highly productive
core-regions gain in economic strength whereas
underdeveloped areas are further marginalized. Generally
the gap between the rich and the poor regions will get
wider. In Germany this affects the eastern federal sates in
particular.

Alongside its further economic and political development,
the establishment of the EU as a military power in its own
right serves the aim of consolidating the union into a
globally active imperialist world power. Its strategies
include the forming of a rapid response force which can be
deployed up to 4 000 kilometres outside Europe.

The setting up, consolidation and extension of the European
Union mean that fundamental decisions concerning economic,
social, domestic and foreign policies are being moved
further and further away from the people and transferred to
EU bodies. A system covering the whole of the EU has been
created for registering and monitoring the population by
networking the police, the secret services and the
judiciary under the guise of tackling crime. Regulations
regarding immigration and asylum rights have been set as
low as possible and this is being followed up by the
forming of "fortress Europe" against undesirable
immigration by centralising the border police.

With the "convergence criteria", the "stability pact", the
creation of the Euro and many other EU-directives,
coordinated policies have been accelerated. They aim at
reducing social rights, deregulating employment conditions,
reducing real wages, introducing an extended cheap-wage
sector and privatising national companies. In all European
states people have been confronted with the destruction of
all the achievements of the welfare state and with
reactionary economic, social and welfare policies.

The European integration process is not only an area of
competitive struggle and political disputes between various
elements within the bourgeoisie, but particularly between
various classes. The fundamentally imperialist character of
the EU makes it an illusion to expect that the "European
Union" could become a counterpoise in the world which
stands for peace, democracy and social progress unless
there is a fundamental break with the current relations of
power and property.

For a change towards democratic and social policies

Shift the balance of power!

The working class and the trade union movement

The working class remains the decisive force for achieving
political change in Germany and internationally.

Social progress is only imaginable today and in the future,
when people act in united fronts and in alliances. It is
both necessary and possible for workers of all kinds, civil
servants, German and foreign colleagues, those organised in
socialist, social democratic and communist parties, those
without party-affiliations and Christian workers to act
together.

The DKPs basic principle is to support this unified action
with full commitment, to emphasise on what unites all
participating groups and to organise common action with
patience and openness.

United action of colleagues in companies and in trade
unions is of crucial significance in order to achieve
social and political aims successfully. This cooperation
has another aim which is that of encouraging the necessary
discussions in order to gain better insights.

Trade unions are the largest progressive force and
organisation of the working class. One of the important
features of communist policies has been and will remain
active work in the unions for the rights and interests of
the working class.

On the one hand plans are being made to misuse the unions
for a modernisation coalition, with the aim of creating
attractive conditions for investment and production by
foreign and domestic capital. On the other hand there are
plans to destroy the trade unions ability to fight back, to
weaken the resistance to reactionary re-structuring of
society.

As communists we are working in companies and in the unions
to form resistance. This is the most important field of
political activity. It is vitally important that the DKP
proves itself to be the party of the working class.

At the same time we are participating in the process of
gathering forces such as the left wing of the trade union
movement, who recognise class-antagonisms in our society,
who are orientated towards union resistance rather than
social partnership. Together with all class-conscious trade
unionists who are prepared to fight, we are doing
everything we can to achieve the original aim of the unions
and to work against situations where workers compete
against one another.

It is also up to us and the whole of the left to contribute
to strengthening the idea of autonomous, class-orientated
union policies and to make sure that ideas critical of the
system and socialist ideas are brought into the debates.

Trade union cooperation on European and international level
must be intensified in order to prevent workers in each
country from being played off against one another and to
allow workers to act in unity.

The beginnings of new social movements

Since the World Economic Summit in Munich in 1992 there has
been a movement against imperialist globalisation in
formation.. It operates partly alongside, partly together
with the working class movement. It opposes the inhumane
politics of the World bank and the IMF. It also denounces
the role and responsibility of the G7 for living conditions
all over the earth, it also denounces the politics of the
EU summit meeting, the introduction of reactionary changes
to the social and political system of both member and
non-member states The movement also organises congresses
and demonstrations, new organisations are influencing it.

The movement represents various political and social forces
and unites people with different ideologies who are
prompted to act by the consequences of imperialist
globalisation which can be directly experienced.

This supranational movement and its networking appear to be
a new quality of resistance. The movement has the potential
to become the answer and counterpoise to the developments
of imperialism to the development of imperialism from wide
sections of society.

However the effectiveness of this movement will depend on

how far it is possible to strengthen the revolutionary part
of this movement orientated towards social change and how
far it is possible to develop extra-parliamentary
opposition which discusses social perspectives and
alternatives which they are able to put forward in
effective campaigns

how far it is possible to connect international class
struggles with various actions against the consequences of
imperialist globalisation

whether it will be possible to discuss and develop new
forms of struggle which are able to achieve political
demands (e. g. internationally-networked strikes)

Closer cooperation between the anti-war and peace
movements, the movement against the dismantling of the
welfare state, the ecological movement and international
solidarity groups is necessary as well as those movements
which aim to defend basic democratic rights. The beginnings
of this cooperation can already be seen.

It is the task of the communists and their parties

to cooperate with these movements as an element of them, to
be a partner in campaigns and discussions; to bring in
views, analyses and suggestions on perspectives and
alternatives and to develop new initiatives. It is our task
to contribute towards bringing these movements closer
together.

To make a contribution towards forming those movements,
carrying in opinions centred around class struggle and our
alternative for a society socialism.

To contribute towards networking movements and towards
effective, unified international campaigns. It is less and
less possible to limit resistance to one company, one
region or even one country.

The call of the Communist Manifesto "workers of the world
unite" becomes more important in connection with the
current social and political debates. This demands new
forms of cooperation between communist and revolutionary
parties in order to be more effective within the broad new
social movements.

The DKP supports cooperation with other left-wing parties
in Germany, Europe and the world in a spirit of equality
and solidarity. At the same time we consider cooperation
between elements of the Marxist left communist and workers
parties to be necessary in Europe and worldwide. In Europe
we suggest the formation of a network of communist and
workers parties . Previous channels of communication should
be developed further into coordinated cooperation.

The future socialism

The alternative to the current capitalist system is a
society in which ownership of the most important means of
production is replaced by social ownership.

The revolutionary break with current relationships of power
and property must be the result of struggles of wide mass
movements. The task must be to build a new society in which
the wishes and hopes of all for a socially just and
peaceful world is made reality, a world in which people
live in solidarity with each other.

The DKP believes that this is only possible in a society in
which, through overcoming the profit-principle the results
of production serve to satisfy the need of all, which are
regulated by the whole of society. This society is
socialism, a society which removes the exploitation of man
by man. Socialism will not be achieved while the important
means of production are in private ownership.

The power of the working class, its labouring allies and
all anti-capitalist forces will replace the rule of
capital. Conditions must be created right from the
beginning which make socialist democracy the permanent
basis of the new society.

The competing interests of individuals will be replaced by
peace, global responsibility, international solidarity,
respect for human rights, democracy, the planned use of all
the forces of production and the possibility for the
individual to develop freely.