Texts

Foreword

We have insisted more than once that, if the evolution of trade unions in the modern, imperialist phase has transformed traditional union structure into an authentic organ for the economic and social control of the proletariat, this certainly does not mean that the need for economic defence has disappeared, or, indeed, the radical, potential antagonism of the proletariat towards capital. The advance of the economic crisis itself, the contradictions it opens up and the consequent social issues inevitably drive workers in all imperialist States onto this battleground and will oblige them to equip themselves once more with new stable defence structures, an authentic class organisation. And it will also be one of the battlegrounds for the clash between communists and the variegated front of the bourgeois reformist enemy (see: our publication For the Uncompromising Defence of the Living and Working Conditions of Proletarians – Forms of organization and methods and objectives of struggles). This, to put it very briefly, is the path that will involve the whole of our class once again taking up the battle on a purely trade-union and social basis: a path that not only is not linear, and never will be, but one which feeds, and will increasingly feed, on transitory organizational experiences – a little like an accumulation of potential energy before an explosion.

Confronted with the new bloody attacks in Paris, let us not waste our time by asking ourselves “who is behind them” – whether they are really the work of the so-called Islamic State or of some other organisation that makes use of its cover for terrorist activities in the service of this country or that. Rather, let us ask ourselves whether all these attacks are not a further step forward in the ideological preparation of a new world slaughter: the most powerful imperialist States, with their following of obedient, weaker ones, will be obliged – by a situation of systemic economic crisis – to fight each other, on the basis of the principle, rust-proof in the capitalist universe, of “mors tua vita mea” (“your death, my life”).

The proletarian class is under attack in all countries. The measures taken by the various national bourgeoisies in the attempt to “exit the crisis” (a vain attempt, since these same measures merely favour the approach of new, even more catastrophic ones) are dealing the class a hard blow. Unemployment is high everywhere and destined to grow, apart from momentary, illusory dips. Working conditions are getting worse day after day due to more intense exploitation, the race towards even greater productivity, the high pace of work, causing stress, illness, fatal accidents. Living conditions are deteriorating, as all types of welfare (in any case paid for dearly by proletarians at the times of economic boom) are dismantled. Growing and increasingly vulnerable sectors of the proletarian population (young people, the elderly, women) feel the whiplash effect of the crisis more keenly day by day.

As the vile stream of cold-blooded murders of young black people by repressive U.S. (state and federal) bodies continues, to the extent that it’s hard work keeping up with all the episodes ¹, a demonstration was held in Ferguson (Missouri) in memory of Michael Brown, killed on 9 August 2014. There were clashes with the police in their anti-riot gear, who used tear gas and other deterrents to break up the crowd, and there was shooting: a young man fired at the policemen and was then seriously wounded by them.

The social situation is tense throughout the United States, where news of economic recovery and a (relative) decrease in unemployment is certainly not enough to change the basic reality, which sees the more disadvantaged and exploited (and numerically greater) sectors of the U.S. proletariat – first and foremost blacks and Latinos (Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Central- and South-Americans), but also growing segments of poor whites – under constant attack, endless repression, both by the “legal” forces of repression and by “illegal” armed bands.