The
1917 October Revolution in Russia inaugurated a new era for humanity: A new
social system, socialism, was established for the first time in the world and
led by the proletariat and its party, the Bolshevik Communist Party. From that
moment onwards, a merciless struggle has been launched between capitalism and
the new system, socialism; international bourgeoisie set itself the task of
destroying the new system. Every means have been employed to that end:
Ideological propaganda, economic blockades, military intervention, etc.
The
world bourgeoisie tries to involve the entire planet in its struggle against
communism, using the most diverse methods. Economic aid and in particular the
"Programmes of Structural Adjustment" (PSA) are one of the special
instruments of the struggle of international capitalism against socialism and
communism.
Far
from being neutral economic instruments, the PSA are the means for the defence
and continuation of one social system, capitalism; the defence and the spreading
of one ideology, liberalism, having as its basis individualism, private property
and might is right. If the economic and social misdeeds of the PSA are more or
less well known today and denounced by ordinary people, this is not through an
understanding of the nature and the ideological role of these programmes. The
world bourgeoisie, by means of its experts in the IMF and the World Bank,
attempt by means of particular vocabulary and technocratic formulae to mask the
ideological and political function of the PSA.
Today
the PSA is sawing the seeds of misery among the proletariat and the peoples of
the entire world. The struggle between capitalism and socialism stands today in
a particularly tragic phase with the unchallenged domination of the capitalist
system across the globe. The communists of the world, in particular those of the
dominated countries, must unmask the real nature and objectives of the PSA
-which are ideological- in order to properly arm the proletariat and the people
in their struggle for a new world of justice and liberty.
For
more than two decades, the world capitalist system has experienced the most
severe crisis of its history. It is a deep and many-sided crisis: economic,
political, ideological and moral. Economic liberalism is in a total impasse; it
has engendered a crisis which is at the same time one of over-production and of
under-consumption: On the one hand, limitless production of goods and services,
on the other hand, the masses possess less and less of the means to gain access
to these goods and services.
To
overcome the crisis, the bourgeoisie is deploying various strategies such as the
destruction of the productive forces, the relocating of firms, economic
integration, and the PSA, etc.
Today
the PSA are legion in the underdeveloped countries and in Eastern Europe (the
ex-USSR and the ex-popular democracies). According to the IMF and the World
Bank, those instruments of big international finance, these programmes will
produce the improvement of the balance of payments, better utilisation of the
instruments of production, an increase in the taxes on economic growth and so
on. One then notes the presence in the economy of an imbalance between Global
Demand (that is to say the sum total of private consumption, internal investment
and public expenditure) and Global Supply represented by the value of internal
production or national revenue; and this involves an increase in the level of
internal prices and/or an increase in the level of external debt.
The
conceptual base of the PSA comes from neo-classic economic theory and can be
summarised as follows:
"The
expenditure of a country measured in goods and services, internal and external,
(private consumption, internal investment and public expenditure) also called
absorption, can be either above or below the value of national production or
national revenue. The difference between national revenue and
"absorption" corresponds to the external trade balance of goods and
services called "current balance". It is in surplus if the national
revenue is more than the "absorption" and in deficit in the opposite
case. An important principle follows from this: One can reduce a current deficit
either by a reduction in the "absorption" in relation to Revenue or by
an increase in Revenue in relation to the "absorption". The entire
macro-economic policy of the IMF and the World Bank comes from this
relationship. As a general rule, in particular in the short term, it is easier
to reduce "absorption" rather than increase production. That is why
when the PSA foresee a rapid reduction in current deficits the measures that
they take in relation to Demand are those which were envisaged in the first
place. When there is excess internal demand from the state and the public sector
(according to the IMF and the World Bank), then the measures which they think
necessary to take consist on the one hand of reducing expenditure in the public
sector (reduction of salaries, privatisation) and, on the other hand of
increasing revenue by means of new taxes, etc. To all this must be added the
devaluation of exchange rates which tends to increase the incentive to produce
goods designed for export or substitutes for imports, and to discourage the
production of non-exchangeable goods at the international level."
Thus
posed, the economic policy of the IMF and of the World Bank by means of PSA has
a definite class content:
-
The choice of measures taken around Global Demand is not neutral, it is about
making the workers pay for the prices: reduction of total salaries and reduction
in public services, restructuring of enterprises, mass redundancies, etc.
- The PSA is intended to help the bourgeoisie to overcome the crisis, and to
consolidate the economic base of the bourgeoisie: many-sided aid is given to the
private sector, to savage privatisations, to the deregulation of prices, etc.
- By giving priority to the production of goods designed for export, the PSA has
chosen to satisfy the needs of the international bourgeoisie to the detriment of
the people.
According
to the experts of the IMF and the World Bank, the state must not interfere in
economic activity. The state must now "disengage" itself from the
activities of production, trade and services. From this follows:
-
Privatisations: Industrial and commercial public enterprises belonging to the
state must be passed to the private sector, as well as banks and insurance.
- Reduction of every intervention by the state in public services such as water,
electricity, telephones, etc.
- Reduction in prices guaranteed to the producers and the stabilisation of
prices of those products which have the greatest level of consumption, thus
causing the destruction of those societies, whose job it was to produce those
products.
The
official excuse for the disengagement of the state is that public enterprises
are not profitable. But what profitability are they talking about? The
profitability of an enterprise does not depend on whether it is public or
private. Profitability depends on aims (financial or social), on the motivation
of the workers, and on the competence and independence of the managers. Examples
of profitable public enterprises are the following: SONABEL, the National
Electricity Society of Burkina which has been first several times on the
international plane, GMB, Zama Publicity, etc. And there are also private
enterprises which are poorly managed such as the SOFIB of Barro Djandjinaba, the
UAB, and the OK Enterprise, all of which owe thousands of francs to the state.
The "laisser faire" attitude which seems to be the belief system of
the IMF and the World Bank from the point of view of the method of management of
the national economy has pulled us backwards by a century; it is anachronistic
and unrealistic. In fact, in a country such as ours where there is everything to
do on the economic level and where they do not exist genuine national
enterprises, this policy means quite simply not to wish for the development of
the country but only to seek the disengagement of the state.
The
experience of our country demonstrates that if the state simply crosses its arms
faced with the slogan of "independence" then there will not be left to
it any industrial, commercial enterprise of national significance: FASO FANI in
the textile industry, SOSUCO in the sugar industry, the GMB in flour milling,
the SOVOLCOM in the distribution of products of wide-spread consumption, etc.
are all creations of the state.
Even
in the developed countries the state has been an economic agent of first
importance: Electricity, gas, railways, the big banks and insurance companies,
the automobile companies, etc. are all, in France for example, in the hands of
the state (even if this situation is being challenged today).
In
reality, the hasty privatisations promoted by the PSA have a class ideological
content. In the mind of the bourgeoisie, public enterprise evokes the idea of
collective ownership and of socialism -even though it may be nothing of the
sort. By means of privatisations, the bourgeoisie is stripping all ambiguity
from the private, capitalist character of the means of production while at the
same time suppressing everything that may "resemble" socialism...
A
serious financial crisis has afflicted the world capitalist system since the
1980s. The detonator of this crisis was Mexico which decided to stop paying its
debt because it was crashed by it. The world of international finance was
frightened, since this decision by Mexico represented a grave threat for the
entire capitalist system which could have collapsed at any moment. The IMF and
the World Bank very quickly pushed for financial intervention on an
unprecedented scale towards Mexico and other countries equally heavily in debt,
in order to save the system. Since then drastic conditions have been laid down
not only for the payment of the debts but also for the obtaining of any new
loans.
Thus,
when one looks carefully at the PSA one sees that its primary objective is the
repayment of foreign debt. The "list of measures" (the timetable of
measures to be implemented) only allows for a very short delay in the payment of
arrears of foreign debt; and this is a non-negotiable condition for claiming new
loans. One may note that the paying of internal debt is not a pressing or
necessary aim for the IMF or the World Bank. The package of measures laid down
in the PSA aims to strip the state of its resources while at the same time
prioritising its payment of foreign debt.
The
PSA are instructions to the countries in debt to honour their international
financial agreements; this is a programme to prevent the financial crisis in the
future which could occur if the indebted countries become insolvent.
The
PSA therefore does not have the aim of helping the underdeveloped countries to
develop themselves; the aim of these programmes is to defend the world
capitalist system.
One
of the missions of the IMF is the promotion of international trade. Also the
liberalisation of currencies is one of the demands of the PSA. The countries
under adjustment must take every measure to eliminate all the barriers between
their currency and the rest of the world (capitalist): Elimination of customs
and tariff barriers, the ending of quotas, and the removal of regulatory
controls, etc.
Here
the aim of the IMF by means of its programmes is to integrate the underdeveloped
countries (the countries of Europe as much as those of the East) more deeply
into the world capitalist system, to create a single world capitalist market...
It is this aim of globalisation of markets which is envisaged by the abolition
of GATT and the creation of the World Trade Organisation.
The
project of the PSA brings with it transformations and changes in every sector of
life in our society from the base to the superstructure. The essential content
of current changes is the movement of our society from structures having state
elements towards an ultra-liberal society. Privatisation is the necessary engine
of this transformation.
Every
public and semi-public enterprises in the industrial and commercial sector is or
will be put forward for privatisation. Even strategic sectors such as water,
electricity and telecommunications will be privatised as is already the case in
certain countries of the South (Ivory Coast and Senegal).
The
land which was nationalised in 1984 by the National Council of the Revolution,
is in the process of being de-nationalised under the pressure of the World Bank
and the IMF.
The
fundamental consequences of all this in the end is that private property will be
the exclusive base of the economy of the country and it is the bourgeoisie alone
who will decide on production and the distribution of goods.
Public
service will be abolished in sectors such as water, electricity, post and
telecommunications, transport, and the distribution of products of mass
consumption which will no longer be within the reach of the great majority of
the population.
The
operations of privatisation have as their supporters people at the heart of
state power: Director generals, ministers, deputies, etc.; in short, the
bureaucratic-political bourgeoisie which through the use of figureheads
monopolised public and semi-public enterprises. In this way through the
mechanism of privatisation the politico-bureaucratic bourgeoisie is making
itself an economic base and transforming itself into an entrepreneurial
bourgeoisie. The bourgeois family of our country will be enriched by the
addition of a new race: People who, "revolutionaries" yesterday,
nouveaux-riches today, have used their position in the heart of the state
apparatus to enrich themselves and to carve themselves a place in the world of
business. Since our nouveaux riches do not themselves have sufficient financial
means, this is done in alliance with foreign capitalists who "buy" the
enterprises to be privatised or foreign capitals are majority shareholders.
Under
the IMF demands, the government has worked out an investment law and a mining
law extremely favourable for foreign investments. Many adventurers are digging
up every part of the country looking for gold and other precious metals.
The
PSA project therefore leads to the domination of foreign capital in the
commercial and industrial companies and organisations of our country. The
orientation of their activities will of course be based not on national
interests but on the concerns of international capitalism.
In
the country, the slogan of power is "the land to those who are able to work
it" and not "the land to those who are working it". Only those
who have large financial means, that is to say the local bourgeoisie and foreign
capitalists, will be able to take possession of the best lands. The peasants
-because they do not have the wherewithal- will be driven of this land. Then it
will only remain for the poor peasantry either to become agricultural labourers,
or to find poor lands to work, or to emigrate abroad for the sake of the young.
Already
farming developments are taking place on a wide scale in certain regions with
tractors in position.
Through
the bias of the PSA for agriculture, financiers are ready to lend money to those
who already have money to invest in the agricultural sector. But priority is
given to culture of rent and of export; this is in order to incorporate the
countryside into the world capitalist system on the basis of international
trade.
The
project of the PSA for agriculture is to hasten the development of capitalism in
the country, with as its major social consequence, the acceleration of the
process of stratification of rural society in social classes: The still
embryonic rural bourgeoisie will through this have a certain development; the
agricultural proletariat which is at the moment few in numbers will increase
rapidly.
To
finish our analysis of the economic base of society let us say a few
words on the distribution of wealth. In capitalist society the greatest share of
national wealth is appropriated by the bourgeoisie. The bosses owe millions to
the state in the form of taxes. Many employers are not paying their employees'
social security contributions. This constitutes pure and simple embezzlement by
the bourgeoisie of the national wealth. We
should not forget either the unjust taxes and deductions imposed on the workers
by the state and the employers.
This
unjust system of distributing wealth will be made even worse by the fiscal
reforms such as: the widening of the base of the Single Tax
on Salaries (IUTS); the creation of new taxes such as the one imposed
on the casual sector, and discreetly
named the Contribution from the Casual Sector; the blocking of promotions and
the reduction in scale points of posts in the public sector; the reduction in
the level of the employers' contributions to
the Pension Funds of Public Sector Workers (CARFO); the reduction in export
taxes, etc. It is about finding every possible means to
get hold of the resources to pay the national debt. If one adds to all
this that of course foreign
investors are free to return their profits to their own countries, the result is
that the system
of distribution of wealth is slanted flagrantly against the workers; it
is the local bourgeoisie and international finance which appropriates the
greatest share of the wealth of the country to the detriment of the workers who
create it. The PSA thus has as its
aim -by re-arrangement of the system of wealth distribution- the collecting and
draining of the financial resources of the country into the coffers of big
international finance, with the crumbs being left to the local bourgeoisie. From
this must come ruin, and the inevitable worsening of the poverty of these
countries and their populations.
The
World Bank and the IMF have decided which are the priority sectors of our
country: These are education, health and financial companies. It is only in
these sectors that the IMF is authorising the recruitment of personnel. The
other sectors, industry, agriculture, animal husbandry, water, etc. are not
priorities. Here we have a completely absurd idea. It is not to deny their
importance to say that education, health and finance companies cannot be the
sole bases of the social and the economic development of the country, which is
what is happening in ours.
The
financial structures (public funds, customs, taxes, etc.) will be reinforced in
terms of buildings, equipment and personnel in order to give them the means
better to collect deductions and taxes. No sector of activity will be able to
escape these deductions. Thus ways of surviving such as those in the informal
sector will be forced on them from now on. Helped by the World Bank and the IMF
as the think-tanks behind it, the government is in the process of organising
financial services like a cobweb in order to "trap" and impose on the
entire population and all its activities; but it is the weakest who will be the
most subject to surveillance and who will pay the most. The aim is to make the
populations pay the state's debt.
In
the area of health the slogan is that people must take charge of their own
health. The meaning of this is that everything must be paid for and is
expensive: Consultations, treatments, hospitalisations, etc. Emergency treatment
doe not exist. The high cost of medicine, especially since devaluation and the
deregulation of medicines, has made costs of health unbearable. The result has
been a massive desertion by ordinary people from organised health care, and
their recourse to traditional practitioner and other occult treatments.
In
the area of education it is actually primary teaching with which the PSA is
concerned. The IMF and the WB are not interested in talking about secondary
education and still less about higher education or scientific research. If
underdeveloped countries were to produce their own technicians, scientists and
high level researchers, what would become of the international experts and other
consultants?
We
are supposed to stay for ever under the scientific assistance of the imperialist
countries. It is their experts who must "invent" and
"discover" for us what is needed for the development of our country
and the social progress of our people. For the rest, the reform of the education
system is underway. The basic principle of this reform is to make of every level
of teaching an end in itself, an autonomous cycle giving access to jobs with a
pathway -very narrow however- for the crossing over from one cycle to another.
With the ever greater cost of education, only the children of the rich can
follow their studies through to a high level. So, the children of the poor are
condemned to only basic instruction, sometimes even to illiteracy, so that high
level education will be accessible only to the children of the wealthy. The new
system of education will have as its social function the reproduction and
perpetuation of the present class relationships in our society, the domination
of the owning minority over the dispossessed majority, thus contributing to the
reinforcement of the balance of forces on a world scale in favour of the
bourgeoisie.
Starting
from institutional measures a whole series of rules are being put in hand to
transform the superstructure of society and to make it correspond with its base
which will be exclusively that of private capitalism. It is about putting in
position the juridical, administrative and political personnel of an
ultra-liberal society.
From
now on industrial and commercial activities will have an adequate juridical
environment. In effect the law on investments has been revised in order to offer
very tempting advantages to oversees private investors: Exemption from taxes on
initial equipment and materials, exemption from taxes on profits for a long
period, the free transfer of profits to their own countries, etc. A new mining
law guarantees the interests of entrepreneurs in gold and other precious
minerals to whom the state has allowed vast territorial concessions.
The
total deregulation of prices has been guaranteed. The commission for the
regulation of prices has been abolished, the organisations which stabilised the
prices of certain products of mass consumption have been liquidated or
redirected in their activities. The Chamber of Commerce, Industry and
Agriculture has been put entirely under private control, a new juridical sector
will be put in place with the creation of tribunals for commerce, special
arbitration arrangements in commercial litigation, and the setting up of experts
in commercial and business law.
The
regaining of a position of prestige for private law in our country corresponds
to the proclamation of the reign of the private property which from now on will
be legally protected in all its attributes: To use to benefit from and to abuse
(usus, fructus, abusus). The right of the owner to use his wealth, to use the
fruit of his wealth and even to go on to abuse it. That is to say, for example,
the rich have the right to throw away food to one side while there are those who
are dying of hunger. This is what is happening.
The
law on work has been revised with the aim of liberalising the labour market,
making strikes almost impossible, and reinforcing the powers of the boss in
matters of hiring and licensing.
This
entire legal arsenal is being put in place everywhere in the world under the
pressure of the IMF and the WB in order to put into effect globalisation of the
economy through the free circulation of labour, capital and commodities on a
planetary scale. There are four main consequences for our country:
1)
In the best case, our country will b e invaded by foreign capital and will never
be capable of independent national development.
2) Our country will be faced with under-investment as existing businesses may be
tempted to reorganise and relocate to countries with the most favourable
conditions.
3) Our country will be the dumping ground for commodities form developed
capitalist countries since production by our local industries will not be able
to compete on the international market.
4) Our country will be condemned to maintain always a pool of labour power for
the South of the region and also for other countries.
As
far as concerns the superstructure, the state apparatus will go through some
profound changes. The calling of a national assizes is expected to redefine the
role and function of the state. The reform of the administration will put an end
to the automatic promotions of civil servants and will set up a system of
advancement on "merit". It is also envisaged that from now on new
employees recruited in to public administration will b e employed on a new
contractual basis. Thus we see that what is going on is the aim of abolishing
the status of professional civil servants within public administration and
replacing it with an administration run by contract workers, an American type
administration... This will make these new public servants vulnerable in their
posts, since their carrier and future will depend on the will of their bosses,
and will have the effect of producing a docile, amenable and humble work force
who will have no idea about struggling for their just demands.
To
sum up, one of the major aims of the Reform of Public Function and the revision
of the code of labour is to prevent social struggles in the country and to
protect the government from social conflicts.
It
is not only public finances which are affected by the reforms. In fact, a new
budgetary system has been put in place, imposed by the IMF, whose chief object
is to guarantee the IMF's complete control of the state's resources and those of
the country. It is in relation to this that the finance law (State Budget),
which should be the particular arena of state sovereignty, must now be approved
by the IMF and Washington before being presented before the honourable deputies
of our country.
The
chief pillar of the power of the state, the army, has not escaped reform. The
ideas implicit in the PSA require an "apolitical" army not
"budgetary". The reduction of its forces is on the order of the day.
Its elite units (gendarmary and presidential guard) will be given the means to
ensure that "democracy is not put at the mercy of any student type
revolution", according to M.
Debre, French ex-minister of co-operation. The army has to guarantee the
stability of the system in being put in place by the IMF and the WB; in order to
do that it must be prepared to crash social struggles which will certainly
explode within the system.
The
PSA is not only economic; it is just as much political. For freedom of
enterprise, it is also necessary to have the corresponding political freedom
(freedom of opinion, freedom of expression and freedom of association). This is
why democratisation is demanded of countries under the PSA by the Western powers
who are even making it a condition for the receipt of aid. For the West,
democratisation means a multi-party system, the existence of an opposition, of
an independent press, of parliament, of an independent justice system, etc.: In
other words, the political system that the West is imposing on other countries
under its Programmes is that of bourgeois liberal democracy. Here, in Burkina,
the mechanism of democratisation was put into motion in 1990, precisely at the
moment when the authorities entered into negotiations over the first PSA. Today
everything is in place: A constitution, numerous political parties, journals,
free radios, a parliament, etc.; but our democratic multi-party system functions
in exactly the same way as the one party system. At the level of political
parties, the party with an overwhelming majority, the party to which the state
leadership belongs has undermined all the other parties which are only shadows
of themselves. The Executive is controlled by the President of the
Republic;Parliament dominated by the party of the state leadership translates
into law the wishes of the President of the Republic. The press is under top
level surveillance from the Supreme Council of Intelligence, which itself is
under the authority of the Presidency of the Republic. This is to say that if it
is not already the case, our country is moving towards a closed democracy, a
political system in which the personnel and structures of democratic
institutions are enclosed in their ideas, initiatives, etc. in the closed arena
of the will of the President of the State.
The
PSA has its theoretical basis in the economic doctrines and philosophical ideas
of the founding fathers of economic liberalism (from the 18th to 19th
centuries). According to this doctrine, there is a "natural order"
whose laws regulate societies in an automatic and harmonious manner. Here is
what one of these physiocrats says (Dupont de Nemours): "In order to form
society, men have an aim which is an essential part of their nature; and the
means for the realisation of this aim are not arbitrary because there cannot be
anything arbitrary in the physical acts tending towards a determined end.
Therefore, there must be an essential natural and general order which informs
the constituent fundamental laws of all societies. There exists a natural
society which predates any conventions among men, an this natural society is
founded on their natural constitution, their physical needs, and their obviously
communal interests." (Concerning the Origin and Progress of a New Science,
Nouv. Edit. Paris, 1910, p.7 and 11)
Still
according to this liberalism, the collective interest is the sum of individual
interest and the pursuit by each of his personal interest coincides with the
realisation of the interests of all. Adam Smith, considered to be the father of
political economy, wrote that: "The constant and uninterrupted effort of
every man to improve his condition
is the principle from which is derived in the last analysis national and public
wealth as well as private wealth." (p.80-81)
He
continues: "Since every individual does everything that he is capable of to
use his capital in national industry and to manage that industry in such a way
that he produces the greatest possible product, every individual of necessity
works to make the annual revenue of society as great as he can... In doing this
he has no aim other than his own profit and is, in this as in many instances,
led along by an invisible hand to fulfil an aim which does not play any part in
his intentions." (A. Smith, quoted by Jean-Claude Antoin in Introduction to
Macro-Economic Analysis, pu. 1953)
Here
one finds oneself in the realm of metaphysics in the explanation of economic
phenomena; here we have equally the philosophic basis of "let it be, let it
happen" which is erected as a dogma by the ultra-liberal economists of
today.
At
the same time as this theory which says "let nature take its course",
liberalism also affirms the liberty and sovereignty of the individual in his
search for his own well being. Each individual is the sole judge of what is good
for him. Thus, on the theoretical and philosophical plain, liberalism finds
itself facing a contradiction: On the one hand the necessity of letting nature
take its course, and on the other hand the exaltation the liberty and free
judgement of the individual.
Today,
neoliberalism considers the state its enemy in economic matters and its slogan
is "less of the State". The ultra liberals have not invented anything;
they have simply gone back to origins. In fact, in 1961 sir Dudley North wrote:
"No people ever became rich through the intervention of the State, rather
it is peace, industry and liberty, nothing else, which brings trade and
wealth." (A Selection of Old English Writings on Commerce, London 1956,
p.510-11)
If
the state has a role, according to the ultra liberals, it is simply to make
property respected. This is what was said already by Dupont de Nemours in his
address to the sovereigns:
"You
will see how simple and easy is the exercise of your sacred functions, which
consist principally in not hindering progress which happens by itself and in
punishing, through the ministry of Magistrates, the small number of people who
lay claim to the property of others."
Property
has always been at the centre of class struggle. For David Hume labour is the
basis of property. But while he admits the existence of inequalities in the
division of property, he nevertheless justifies this inequality. According to
him, any egalitarian measure in this domain will have the result of greatly
lowering production by the diminution of competition.
"When
a man takes great trouble in labouring over an object which did not belong
beforehand to anyone... the changes which he renders in the object create a
relationship between himself and that object, and naturally lead us to attribute
to it a new nature which we call property.
"We
must also admit," he continues, "that when we move away from this
equality, we deprive the poor of many of the satisfactions that we procure for
the rich, and it is often at the expense of a large number of families, and even
of entire provinces that a single man contents his frivolous vanity...However,
even if one puts as much equality as one can into ownership, this will soon be
destroyed by the different levels in the arts, sciences and industry; and if you
put obstacles in the way of virtues (the active qualities of individuals) and
the way they express themselves, you will soon reduce society to the direst
poverty and, in order to prevent a small number of men from falling into
poverty, you will plunge the whole of society into it." (A. Schatz, The
Economic Work of David Hume, Paris 1902, p.116)
Sir
Dudley North, previously quoted, has already formulated the idea of the single
world market in these terms:
"From
the point of view of trade, the entire world is not composed of single nations
or single peoples but is one whole..." (ibid. p.510-11)
Cournot
calls on Darwinist theory of the struggle for life and of natural selection. He
writes: "Join to this the understanding that socialist solidarity, in
whatever way it is practised is of itself a cause of the weakening of national
forces; since its function is always to hand over those members of society who
are the most worthy, the most active, the most farsighted, the most economic to
the members of society who are the most stunted, the most lazy, the most
careless, the least worthy physically and morally; those who natural selection
in the hard rigour of its operation will have to sacrifice in order to give back
to the race the superiority which is natural to it.
"Socialism
does not consist of partial applications, which may be contained by a superior
force, and in the same way the principle of economic freedom (which is nothing
other than the principle of economic destiny and which, for this reason alone,
is subject to the laws of science) will take precedence in all the organised
nations, in their internal organisation as well as in their mutual support.
" (Treatise on the Connection Between Fundamental Ideas, Paris 1911) The
role of workers in economic development is bound to the profit of the individual
possessors of capital. Thus, according to J. Schumpeter, in his theory of the
"dynamic entrepreneur": "It is the owners of business, the
inventors, the traders who promote growth."
To
sum up, the fundamental thesis of liberal economic doctrine founded at the end
of the 18th century, can be formulated since the beginning of the 19th century
as follows: Free competition between individuals, enterprises and nations
guarantees "the greatest degree of satisfaction" to individuals
considered in isolation".
Such
is the belief of the economists of the IMF and of the WB who are the salesmen of
the PSA.
All
the Programmes of Structural Adjustment have a definite ideological content:
Bourgeois ideology; they are an integral part of the strategy for the struggle
of the world bourgeoisie against the socialist system, of the integration of
every country into capitalism, and of the establishment of the capitalist system
as the only social system on a planetary scale.
Through
economics and politics these Programmes express the class ideology of the
bourgeoisie, liberalism, and impose the reality of the social system of the
bourgeoisie, capitalism. In this way with their programmes the IMF and the WB
have the aim of forming within the intelligentsia of our country a layer of
bourgeois ideologists, of creating intellectuals who are ideologically committed
to the capitalist social system and hostile to socialism and communism.
And
in fact, all the political groupings who put on the mantle of communism in
support of the "Revolution" of the 4 August 1983 have since removed
the word "communist" from their acronyms to replace it with the
"Party of Progress", "Party of Social Democracy", etc.
Official discussions on development make the same apology as the private sector
that it is "irreversible", that it must be the "motor of
developments", etc. And bourgeois commentators never miss an opportunity to
denigrate communism and celebrate liberalism... Many theses on liberal economic
doctrine have been discussed even among the partisans of economic freedom. But
since the 1980s, bourgeois intellectuals have revived the most extreme theses of
economic liberalism, first of all using as their excuse the
"difficulties" of socialism since the "death of communism".
Today
we see the bourgeoisie trying to impose throughout the world a completely
integrated version of liberalism. But in order to do this, and so that this
integrationist liberal doctrine may be translated into the political and
economic terrain, it is necessary that its defenders have political power in
their hands. This occurred with the accession to power of Margaret Thatcher in
Britain and Ronald Reagan in the USA in as much as they were genuine political
representatives of integrationist liberalism within the world bourgeoisie. They
revealed themselves as champions in the defence and promotion of the rich and
strong, and without any sympathy towards the poor and the weak who were to be
abandoned to their fate.
The
programmatic platform of the world capitalist bourgeoisie whom the liberal
integrationist experts of the WB and the IMF are charged with carrying out, can
be summarised as follows:
- The absolute reign of the "free" market as the exclusive law of
economic life;
- The denial of the role of the state in any activities of economic and social
development;
- The dismemberment of public service;
- The abolition of social protection.
This
is a platform for the defence and protection of capital and of the imperialists
against labour and workers.
In
reality, the dogmas of ultra liberalism are only weakly effected. In fact, the
big capitalist countries do not hesitate to use the state to intervene in
support of the private sector of the economy when it is in difficulty, to take
measures to protect their markets, to expel foreign workers, etc.; that is when
the interests of the bourgeoisie demand such action. Furthermore, we have to
demystify the "market" which integrationist liberalism idealises, and
presents as something abstract and neutral. Behind and through the market are
concrete class forces, too great class blocks which confront each other. On the
one side, the bourgeoisie: individuals or groups of individuals, businesses or
groups of businesses, nations or groups of nations; on the other side, the
proletariat and people whose actions and means of action are the following:
Trade unions, political parties, strikes, street demonstrations, etc.
The
camp of the bourgeoisie has at its disposal vast means, both open and hidden:
economic power, political power, corruption, espionage, the mafia, Masonic
Lodges, assassins, military aggression, etc.
However,
even within the camp of the bourgeoisie there are ruthless battles taking place
between various groups over the share of markets on a world scale. Every power
-economic, political, military, etc.- being in the hands of the bourgeoisie, it
is they who determine supply and demand; the famous law of the market is
therefore nothing other than the law of the bourgeoisie, more exactly, the law
of the strongest (individuals or groups) within the heart of the bourgeoisie. To
sum up, it is monopolistic power and not an abstract impersonal market which
decides what to produce, when and in what quantity; what to sell, when and at
what price. That is the free capitalist market.
The
PSA are an integral part of the means by which the international bourgeoisie is
attempting to overcome or to take the world capitalist system out of its present
crisis. They are a means of expanding capital, enlargening and deepening it in
the sphere of the realisation of capitalist surplus value, and as a result, the
means of fighting against the tendency of a falling rate of profit in world
capitalism.
New
contradictions are going to emerge in the bourgeoisie of our country with the
application of the PSA. In fact, the bureaucratic bourgeoisie wants to get hold
of the entire cake of privatisation. They want to use their position within the
state apparatus to take over the businesses and to get rid of the old comprador
bourgeoisie which is still at the base of the economy of trade.
Since
the putting into place of the PSA, above all since the devaluation, the peoples
of our country have fallen into a grave poverty: Poverty is affecting more and
more people haunting them with the prospect of hunger, famine, and mental
suffering... Moreover:
- the ruin of small businesses and of small traders must follow the total
opening of our markets to international competition;
- redundancies following on restructuring and privatisation;
- eviction of peasants from their lands in the country;
- the increase in unemployment among trained and qualified people (graduates on
the rubbish heap) is another factor in the growing proletarianisation of the
masses.
Thus,
alongside the application of the PSA we see coming the acceleration of the
bipolarisation of our society, creating at the same time the objective
conditions for the intensification of class struggle in our country.
The
PSA being in the last analysis an instrument of political struggle by the
bourgeoisie against the proletariat, it is through political struggle that the
proletariat must defend itself. For the proletariat and the people, the
alternative to PSA is the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of
socialism which will radically change things in their favour. But in the short
term our people must struggle for:
- an end to the PSA,
- popular control of the management of public wealth
- real political freedom;
and against:
- cut price selling off of the national wealth; and
- the hijacking of public goods and services.
Revolutionary
Communist Party of Volta