The collapse of capitalism: a racial revolution sweeps the world

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Russkaya Vesna received the text of a statement by the Executive Committee and the Political Council of the United International Anti-Imperialist Anti-Fascist Front (EMAAF) in connection with protests against racism and racial discrimination in the United States and other countries.

In the last days of May and the first days of June, the world witnessed unprecedented events that had not happened for a long time: massive racial protests and riots swept the United States and most of the Western countries: Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Denmark and even Australia, t that is, the most advanced Western capitalist countries, most of which were formerly colonial powers.

The protests began in the United States and were prompted by the death of an African American George Floydafter being harshly detained, it happened on May 25th.

Floyd, 46, was detained on suspicion of using counterfeit bills. One of the cops, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee on his throatignoring Floyd's words that he can't breathe. This episode made it onto video. Floyd died in the hospital a few hours later. The four police officers who made the arrest were fired.

Chauvin was arrested and charged with murder on May 29. Three other former police officers who participated in the arrest were charged with aiding and abetting murder.

Independent forensic experts concluded that mechanical asphyxia was the cause of Floyd's death.

After the appearance of information about the death of Floyd protests began in Minneapoliswhere he died, then protests swept all over America. There are no states or cities left in the United States that would not join these protests. The actions were often accompanied by pogroms, looting and clashes with the police.

More than four thousand protesters were detained, five were killed. Curfews have been imposed in 40 cities across the country, including Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, Nashville, Portland, Cincinnati, Milwaukee and others, to many the city introduced the national guard. But this did not help Trump, moreover, it only exacerbated the situation.

The National Guard did not intervene in the protests, and often sided with the protesters.

Trump's actions were not shared by many governors and mayors of American cities, which led to the further development of protests in these states and cities. It got to the point that Trump temporarily had to hide in an underground bunker during the massive protests at the White House.

From the side of the protesters, there were demands to the authorities - to disband or abolish the police.

Such statements, by the way, are also inherent in all "Maidan technologies", we saw this in Kiev in 2014, to which Donald Trump replied that the US authorities will not abolish the police or cut its funding.

American officials are concerned that mass protests in various states could trigger a new outbreak of COVID-19.

The wave of protests that began in the United States spread to the whole world - photos and videos from London, Bristol, Paris, Marseille, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, Brussels, Copenhagen, Melbourne, Brisbane, Vancouver appeared on social networks, where thousands of people went to protests against racism.

The highest peak of events in the United States reached during the funeral ceremony for George Floyd, who died during his arrest by the police.

The funeral took place on June 9 and was striking in scale: they said goodbye as a national hero. A gilded coffin on a glass carriage with the body of Floyd, who had 6 convictions, was first put up for farewell in Minneapolis, then in Floyd's homeland in Raford (North Carolina), and on the third day was transported to Houston (Texas), where the solemn funeral took place. For the farewell ceremony in Houston, Texas, ex-vice-president and now presidential candidate Joe Biden flew in specially. Even among black Americans, there is an opinion that what happened that day in Houston was completely absurd.

Currently, many political analysts and ordinary citizens in different countries are wondering how to assess the latest events in the United States and in other regions of the world.

As always, political scientists were the first to give assessments, who have a "conspiracy theory" ready for all cases, as if "some forces" specially organized everything in the USA, Europe and other countries. However, they do not always give a clear answer: who did it and why.

True, US politicians always have an answer.

For example, Susan Rice, ex-national security adviser to former US President Barack Obama, suggested that Russia could be involved in the unrest, for example, in terms of using incitement on social networks.

Official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova called this statement propaganda … The Kremlin said that Rice's point of view was wrong.

In the service of the bourgeoisie, there is now a large group of political scientists who consider the entire history of mankind from a civilizational point of view, that is, all events are reduced only to the struggle of civilizations and individual individuals endowed with power, leaving out of brackets what is in every civilization where there are rich owners and poor citizens selling their labor, there is a class struggle that ultimately comes out on top in history. At the moment, these "civilizational politicians" generally shrug their shoulders, they have nothing to say.

The same can be said about high-ranking officials of the world elite, for example, about Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, who, when asked who is to blame for the protests, replied: "Nobody is to blame for this crisis." Of course, she is cunning, she knows everything well, but she will not tell the truth.

And the main truth is that the current world imperialist system is completely rotten.

The general crisis of the world imperialist system continues, despite the temporary defeat of socialism in the USSR and the countries of the socialist camp, because the main contradiction of capitalism between the social nature of labor and the private property system of appropriating its results remains. This leads to an extremely unfair distribution of wealth in any civilization where there is private ownership of the means of production.

For example, 40% of the wealth of the United States belongs to one percent of its citizens, half of the territory of England belongs to less than 1% of its population, 3% of the richest Russians own 92% of all time deposits and 89% of the country's financial assets (Russia is a champion in inequality).

While in general in a state of general crisis, the world imperialist system in the process of development goes through stages of relative stabilization, which are then replaced by a spiral of intensification of the crisis. The most recent economic crisis hit most of the world's countries in 2008, and began with the US mortgage crisis.

Even before the global pandemic of the coronavirus COVID-19, many analysts had already predicted another wave of the crisis, the pandemic (COVID-19 only accelerated and intensified it. During the crisis, there is a decline in production, trade is reduced and unemployment is increasing, for example, in the United States it is now 14, 7 % (the number of unemployed exceeded 40 million), the worst result since the Great Depression These are the birthmarks of capitalism that are tearing America apart!

The crisis is also accompanied by an increase in racism and chauvinism, which has happened recently in the United States. Racism has long roots in the United States, despite the defeat of the slave states in the American Civil War of 1861-1865. and the adoption of the famous 13th amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery throughout the country, true equality between whites and blacks has not yet come. Racial discrimination and social inequality in the United States has only increased in recent years.

In the “land of equal opportunities,” blacks get a quarter less than those with lighter skin colors. Unemployment is higher among African Americans than among whites, therefore, crime is higher (the United States has the largest number of prisoners in the world, there are more than two million people in prisons, that is, 25 percent of all prisoners on the planet). The educational level of African Americans also lags behind the educational level of their white fellow citizens.

All this discontent has been accumulating over the years, which periodically turns into protest explosions, the current one was the strongest in recent years.

George Floyd became an accidental catalyst for an explosion of mass discontent when the bowl of patience was finally overflowed.

White citizens of the United States also participated in the protests, who, firstly, supported the protests against racism, and secondly, the last crisis significantly worsened their financial situation, as mentioned above.

It should be noted that the largest US oligarchs also tried to take advantage of these speeches for the internal political struggle among themselves. They paid for the burial of George Floyd on a grand scale.

In the United States, presidential elections are scheduled for November 3, 2020. It is planned to elect the 46th President of the United States. The fight is between two candidates: the current President Donald Trump wants to be re-elected from the Republican Party for a second term, and Joe Biden from the Democratic Party.

From the point of view of foreign policy, there is not much difference in their plans: both Republicans and Democrats advocate US hegemony in the world, a build-up of NATO forces, the suppression of national liberation movements, and the maximum obstacle to the development of Russia and China.

In terms of domestic politics, Trump represents the interests of the national bourgeoisie, which is trying to return industrial production to the United States, which was previously moved to countries where cheaper labor and more profits. Trump has repeatedly said that the implementation of his plan will create new jobs for Americans and strengthen American industry, he has achieved something in this.

Biden represents more the interests of the American financial oligarchy, which forms the basis of the international financial oligarchy and is making its plans to continue exporting capital to other countries. That is, D. Biden represents the interests of, relatively speaking, the most parasitic clan of the American bourgeoisie.

Both candidates sought to exploit the anti-racist protests in their campaigns, although both are by no means true supporters of African Americans.

The shutdown of enterprises, an increase in unemployment, protests lower Trump's rating and strengthen Biden's position, it was not for nothing that he flew to Floyd's funeral.

The fact that the situation has become critical is evidenced by the fact that American generals and US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper refused to obey Trump to fulfill his demand to use the army to disperse protesters.

Summarizing the above, the Executive Committee and Political Council of the United International Anti-Imperialist Anti-Fascist Front (EMAAF) declare:

1. We strongly support the just struggle of the citizens of the United States and other countries against racism and racial discrimination as an integral part of the struggle against imperialism and all its abominable manifestations

2. We categorically oppose the violent suppression of anti-racist protests by the police and the army using methods that threaten the life and health of the protesters

3. We demand a full investigation into the murder of George Floyd and a thorough trial and punishment in accordance with American law

4. We demand that the US leadership develop and pass legislation aimed at preventing the use of methods that pose a threat to the life and health of protesters

5. We condemn acts of pogroms, looting and robberies that were committed during protests against racism and racial discrimination in the United States and other countries. These abhorrent actions discredit fair protests

Our call remains the same: "Down with imperialism!"