5-25-07, 9:15 am

Corporate globalization and the struggle against it

The globalization of capital and the rapid growth of modern industry, technology, information systems and media have been exploited by capital in an attempt to concentrate the control of resources, capital and wage labor. But this has also created the material basis for the international workers' solidarity exemplified in Marx and Engels' slogan: 'Workers of the world, unite!'

The adoption of the neo-liberal model has aggravated socioeconomic inequality, both within nations and between rich and poor countries, to an unprecedented level, while increasing the numbers of unemployed people, poor workers, women, children and older people living in miserable conditions. In the first decade of the 21st century, wealth continues to be concentrated in the hands of the two hundred largest multinational corporations that is, in the hands of a few hundred billionaires while the majority of humanity is forced to live in precarity, lacking basic necessities such as clean water, food, housing, schools and hospitals.

The US administration continues to sabotage all attempts to reach meaningful international agreement on ways to curtail global warming (the greenhouse effect), thus endangering the very existence of the human race on Earth. The Bush Administration cynically exploits the concept of democracy in an attempt to conceal a cruel policy of conquest, destruction of social rights and impingement on democratic rights within the USA. 'The war on terror' is the latest phase of the US attempt to create a 'new world order'. In this order the US has assumed the right to intervene anywhere, including the Middle East, and change the way public life is organized; this intervention can come in the form of military action as well as the training of security forces in various countries. The US administration continues to inflate military spending, thus spurring the world arms race, which now includes the development of weapons of mass destruction, missile systems and spy satellites. 'The war on terror' declared by the Bush Administration is not a war in defense of democracy, but a war of terror against democracy, civil rights and social safety nets.

Unlike the American administration and those who cooperate with it, our Communist Party can denounce terrorism without hypocrisy. The CPI is among the forces who stand together across the world in principled ideological, political and ethical opposition to terrorism in all its forms, whether state, organizational or individual; we are against the terrorism whose weapons are 'smart bombs' and the starvation and imprisonment of entire peoples and against the terrorism which uses the weapon of suicide. As opposed to state terror, individual and group terror rises from the swamps of poverty, hunger, oppression, exploitation, humiliation and occupation; this is why these swamps must be dried up. This can only be done if the workers and the peoples of the world redesign the world order in such a way that it serves to defend the peoples, the rights of the workers and democracy from the tyranny of gigantic corporations and from the aggressive strategy of the US administration.

The Bush Administration and the occupation of Iraq

In 2003 the Bush Administration began a war of aggression and conquered Iraq. Like the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq was planned to secure high profits, control of natural resources and markets, and a comparative advantage over the foreign competitors of the American petroleum and arms corporations. But the peoples of the world are manifesting a growing opposition to the war. Especially important is the widespread opposition to the war within the US itself and the sharp fall in the popularity of President Bush which has followed it.

The threats the Bush Administration and its allies have been lobbing at Iran and Syria are the third phase of the long-term strategy of the American administration to strengthen its control of the Middle East, even if the price is the destruction of nations and the starvation of peoples. The European Union, playing the role of an imperialist power, has more than once toed the American line. But it is also attempting to counter American power by annexing the nations of the region into a European market controlled by the multinational corporations headquartered in Europe.

In the first decade of the 21st century the American administration continues to maintain an axis of Arab regimes obedient to its policy. This axis, which includes Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Emirates, sometimes also manages to coordinate action with Israel, as was seen during the Second Lebanon War (2006). The alliance between Israel and Turkey is growing closer, despite the rise to power of the Islamic party in Turkey. These two axes form bulwarks of American influence and make it possible for the US to prepare further war.

Under these conditions the CPI will continue to warn the Israeli people and the peoples of the world of the threat posed by the Bush Administration's willingness to use military and even nuclear force to vanquish Iran and pressure Syria. The US pronouncements that it is considering the use of its own nuclear weapons and its uncritical support of the first nuclear power in the Middle East (Israel) expose its current casus belli in the Middle East preventing Iran from procuring and stockpiling nuclear armaments as pure hypocrisy.

Democratic changes in the world

The growing poverty around the world and the continued aggression of the American administration have led to the growth of fundamentalist movements. At the same time, the suicide bombings which have been carried out around the world and the statements threatening the elimination of Israel or the United States have only served to assist the American administration in its attempts to garner support for its wars; thus, they have caused direct harm to the struggle to save the peoples from poverty and the destructive dependency on multinational corporations. In this way imperialism and fundamentalism feed on each other.

But a look at today's world does not reveal only imperialist warfare and colonial occupation. In the last few years important democratic changes have occurred in many countries of Latin America. The peoples of Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile and Argentina have elected presidents who stand opposed to Washington's plans and are acting to carry out social reform and nationalize natural resources.

In the European Union class struggle has flared up against the combined attack of capital and state on the rights of workers and young people. In referenda held in June 2005 the peoples of France and the Netherlands said 'no' to the proposed European constitution and thus prevented its passage, which would have been greatly detrimental to workers' rights.

The resistance to corporate globalization

The growing opposition to globalization has crystallized in recent years in resistance to the US policy of war and to its neo-liberal economic policy, dictated to the countries of the world by the International Monetary Fund.

The wave of struggle and protest against corporate globalization, imperialism, and neo-liberalism and for independence and social justice is of great importance. This wave finds expression on three main planes: 1. The growing resistance of states and governments in the Third World to corporate globalization; 2. Deepening popular struggles in the Third World as well as in the advanced capitalist countries against globalization and imperialism; 3. Workers' struggles in every country against the privatization of water and electricity utilities, media, transportation, education and health.

The World Social Forum, serving as a frame for the global struggle against corporate globalization, meets yearly. The WSF and the Social Fora active around the world are the most visible political and organizational expression of the new generation of social activists, which poses a serious challenge to neo-liberalism. These activists stand opposed to those who place profits above people's needs, the environment and human rights.

The anti-globalization movement is still in its early stages in Israel. The CPI is the only party in Israel that states an unequivocal rejection of corporate globalization and neo-liberalism and campaigns publicly against these. The fact that aside from the CPI and its partners in the DFPE no party represented in the Knesset supports this attitude shows how problematic it is to define Israeli political bodies as 'left'.

The CPI's involvement in the intensification of the struggle within Israel against occupation, privatization and neo-liberal policies, as well as against the alliance with American imperialism, will form a contribution to the global struggle against corporate globalization and the freedom of the workers and the peoples.

--The report of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Israel to the 25th Congress, Haifa, Nazareth, 31 May 2 June 2007