By : The activists of movement to abolish wage labor

1. Capitalism in no era, even during the cancerous growth of its profits on the one hand and the strong rebellion of the labor movement on the other hand, is not even able to tolerate a level of welfare and human rights for an average percentage of the working masses of the world. If somewhere, it is forced to retreat in front of the workers, it will reciprocally impose the costs of each retreat in larger dimensions on the level of livelihood and fundamental rights of working people.

2. Democracy and minimum social welfare are not the achievements of the struggle of the labor movement, but it is proof that the working class of some countries has been surrendered to the desires of the bourgeoisie to shut down the class struggle in exchange for an improved livelihood.

3. The bourgeoisie pays for its retreat ( democracy and welfare ) and the simultaneous suspension of the class struggle of a percentage of the workers, not from its golden profits, but through the terrifying intensification of the pressure of exploitation of the working masses of other countries.

With this compact summary, let’s move on to our discussion. Capitalism has long since lost its capacity to trade democracy and social welfare forever. In the last days when this capitalist system had the ability to pay for the shutdown and burial of the class struggle of workers in several countries, the annual gross product of the world did not exceed 10 trillion dollars. The total amount of capital in the world did not reach 40 trillion dollars. Today, the first figure has been replaced by 100 trillion dollars and the second one by about 1000 trillion dollars. The world is amazingly saturated with capital. ​​If the majority of African countries lack advanced industry, if labor productivity is low in many societies, the competitiveness of their social capital is low, the average organic composition of their capital is low, and the share of the country’s capitalism in global surplus values is not significant and it has no conflict with the astonishing and legendary saturation of the world with capital. Capitalism, by its nature, is an obstacle to self-development and expansion, and as it exists, it carries with it this insolvable contradiction without any solution. The existence of Guinea and Gambia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Sierra Leone next to America, China and Japan, Germany and Scandinavia is a forcible phenomenon of the nature of capitalism. Comparability of homogeneity of these countries is absolutely impossible under the rule of capitalism. Global capital, in the process leading to the volume of accumulation, productivity of work and organic composition of capital, has greatly increased that part of capital that does not produce any penny of value or surplus value, and the other part of the capital, or the variable component, which is the only source of the total production of surplus values, has become relatively smaller and smaller. Capitalism, in this regard, has brought the dimensions of internal crisis of its own nature to the peak, and it has raised continuously the rate of surplus values, and it has pushed the rate of profits even steeper downward slope. Capitalism, despite all the achievements of human knowledge, inventions and discoveries, industrial and technical advances, has added all of them into the basis for intensifying exploitation and raising the rate of surplus values, but the upward trend of the volume of additional capital over the years is to such an extent that the rate of accumulation has exceeded the rate of production of surplus value and the sudden outbreak of the crisis has become a routine and ubiquitous issue of the largest part of global capital. The harsh reality of coercion that has wrapped the humanity of the present age in its coil, it is that billions of workers, men and women and children, young and old, simple and technical, industrial and agricultural and service workers, work day and night, and they create a galaxy of surplus values, but all these surplus values are not enough for the profit rate required by the cycle of reproduction and self-increase of global capital. 

The capitalist system has entered this phase and the continuation of its reproduction is suffocating and breathtaking. Crises continuously and in wavy-like hit the foundation of its existence, but for the daily and urgent challenge of its dilemma, it has only one way forward, and crises continuously and in wave-like hit the foundation of the existence of capital, but capitalism, for the daily and urgent challenge of its dilemma, it does have not more than one way in front of itself, and in all corners of the world, including in the countries, which are the center of bargaining of the class struggle of the working masses with some welfare and democracy it would start uninterrupted butchering of the livelihood of the working masses. Wage and livelihood, medicine and treatment, education and health, the health of the environment and food, clothing and drinking water and breathing air, along with the most basic rights and freedoms, become the targets of the worst attacks to the extent possible. Historically, capitalism has reached this phase of decline without any return, the root of this irreparable degeneration or cancer without any treatment, is in the womb of existence of capital, in the process of producing surplus value. This process is under the crushing blows of the rate of capital accumulation which exceeds the rate of production of surplus value. The process that arises from the depths of the existence of capitalism and remains until this system becomes more crushing and unstoppable. Capitalism has reached here through a process and trapped in this swamp in different stages of economic development and social expansion, which during times has discovered the most effective levers to challenge the crisis to apply the mechanisms which impose crisis burden on the working class. 

The capitalist mode of production and relations has fallen into such a quagmire, if it has not been overthrown and destroyed yet, the only reason is the helplessness of the labor movement, and the derailment of this movement from the anti-capitalist class campaign. In such a situation, one indicator is more obvious than all other ones, and pondered.  That, the period of tolerance of the bourgeoisie for trading with the labor movement, the period of bearing the lowest cost of dealing by the capitalist class, and the era, when the capitalists and the capitalist government, of one or more countries, they were willing to pay a price for shutting down of the working class from  anti-capitalist struggle, it is over forever and everywhere in the world. The bourgeoisie anywhere in the world neither has the ability to bear these expenses, nor need to do them. Because, the bourgeoisie is not capable of it, because the amount of surplus value that capitalism use to for the reproduction and self-increase of capital is so huge and galactic, that even the working masses of the world, even with a terrible exploitation rate of thousand percent,  are not able to produce and realize it. Firstly, the bourgeoisie does not see any need to pay and bear this cost, because it is practically not facing the rising waves of radical anti-capitalist struggle of the international working class. Secondly, right reformism, social democracy, bourgeois camp communism, nationalist left-wing anti-imperialist, militant populism , all of these together, divided or united or hostile, during the 20th century, have removed the danger of such movement to capitalism. The latter is terrible, and the radical Marxian critique of it, is a precondition for the reconstruction and flourishing of the anti-capitalist movement of the proletariat. The first one is also a reality that the labor movement must study and understand with class consciousness and make the result of its radical autopsy as the basis of refining its disastrous historical illusions towards a democratic and peaceful parliamentary or militant reform of the wage slavery system. The era of the bourgeoisie bargaining with the working class and paying the lowest price for the shutting down of the class struggle of the workers is over. This is not an ideological judgment, rather, it is the objective evidence and the living experience of every worker who wants to look at the society and the current conditions of the world with their class consciousness. It is not necessary to look at the life of the majority of the world’s working masses in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, so let’s look at what happened to the workers of Germany, England and Scandinavia during the last three decades (despite the democracy and social welfare of capitalism). In Germany, more than 14 million people of the working class struggle with the problem of livelihood and basic necessities of life, and about 20% of children suffer from poverty and most of them are subjected to insufficient nutrition. 

In England, 10 million adults and 4 million children live in hunger and lack of food, and in Sweden, where the bourgeoisie all over the world refer to its “social welfare”, and especially “children’s paradise”, they consider it a document of honor of “human rights” of capitalism !! According to the announcement of the social assistance department of several cities, a significant population of school children are unable to concentrate on their studies at the beginning of each week, and the reason is poor nutrition during the holidays. The same government institution adds that about 10% of Swedish children suffer from obvious food poverty. 

In France, we are constantly witnessing widespread riots of millions of marginalized people who are pouring into the streets under the pressure of hunger, unemployment and poverty. The situation is much worse in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and elsewhere, and there is no year that has not worsened compared to the previous year. In all the above countries, the last three decades have been the years of continuous slaughter of healthcare, educational and social assistance facilities for the elderly, children and the disabled. 

Naser Paydar

Jan. 2023