The economic emergency & the class struggle (part 2)
by Gus Hall
This article was reprinted from the February 8, 1997 issue of the
People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All
rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.
(The following is excerpted from the report of Communist Party
National Chairman Gus Hall to the CPUSA National Committee Jan. 25.
Part I appeared last week.)
One of the biggest hoaxes on the American people is that the economy
is in great shape, that things have rarely ever been better, that our
economic future is secure. Clinton's people recite over and over
statistic after statistic to convince us that we never had it so good.
But this is a tough sell to the many millions at the bottom of the
economic life line. The nearly 40 million people who live in poverty
are understandably suspicious of such claims.
The 30 million who earn less than $7.50 an hour also find this hard to
swallow. The millions who are part-time, contingent and contract labor
are skeptical of the good news.
The millions of workers whose paychecks have been stagnant or
declining for two decades are also not yet ready to believe that they
never had it so good. Mothers moving from welfare to workfare are not
buying the notion that the U.S. is a fabulous job-creating machine.
More of the real not-so-good news is that the economic gap between
rich and poor is widening. The 20-25 year decline in real wages
continues, a decline that is now steepest in the higher-paying jobs.
All signs indicate the decline will continue in the new year.
In spite of these facts, the Federal Reserve's Allan Greenspan,
admitting we have just come through a long period of "small wage
increases," warns corporate America: "the central bank sees a strong
possibility of larger wage increases starting to fuel rising prices
later in the year, which the Federal Reserve is determined to
squelch."
Greenspan always keeps his eye on corporate profits. He knows that
keeping wages down means bigger surplus value, bigger profits.
The number of jobs will continue to decline, including basic
industrial jobs. There is no growth in public sector, civil service
government jobs. There will be some increase in welfare-related
"workfare," which will be non-union, below- poverty level, no-benefit,
dead-end jobs.
Appearance & essence
It is true that the economy has been growing for the last two
quarters. It is also true that overall unemployment is now at 5.6
percent, down from over 7 percent. So, on the surface it appears that
the economy is in better shape. But we know that appearance is only
one aspect of reality, which to the unsuspecting eye can hide and
distort the inner essence of phenomena.
Thus, we must penetrate beneath appearances to get at the underlying
processes that are shaping the economy. If we do that we must say that
neither cyclical or structural crises have been overcome.
Economic reality
We can also say that great imbalances and instability exist in the
economy. We must also say that U.S. capitalism has NOT overcome the
long-term slowdown in economic growth that overtook it in the early
1970s.
There have been other moments when our nation's bourgeois economists
claimed that the U.S. economy was entering a golden age. They did in
the late 1920s, in the 1930s and again in the 1960s. But in all these
instances deep crises followed. They were overcome only after the
militant actions of tens of millions.
I am not necessarily saying that a new economic crisis is knocking at
our front door. But I am saying that it is definitely in our front
yard.
First of all, we haven't overcome the last crisis. Despite the
cyclical upswing, many problems from the previous crisis remain
unresolved. Wages lag behind production and profits, a gap that will
grow wider, at least in the short term. And long-term layoffs continue
unabated in nearly every sector of the economy.
I can't resist the temptation to insert here a bitter irony of
capitalist politics. New York Sen. Alphonse D'Amato's special Senate
committee spent some $20 million and two years investigating the
firing of seven White House employees. But not one penny was spent by
any Congressional committee on investigating the downsizing of 40
million jobs.
Laws & contradictions
Our focus as a Communist Party has to be on the longer-term processes
in the economy and the conditions of life of our class, our people.
Capitalism has not overcome its laws and contradictions. They continue
to operate, but in a new setting.
Thus, while we should not ignore temporary and momentary shifts in the
economy which are important especially in a tactical sense, we should
not give them greater significance than they deserve. Nor should we
lose sight of the main direction and underlying trends of the economy,
for example, the new problems arising from processes like
monopolization, conglomerization and privatization (see last week's
issue).
In practice, our focus in the months ahead should be on the economic
issues and struggles: the fight for higher wages; organizing the
unorganized; the fight against gutting welfare and food stamps,
Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security; the fight to save public
education; the fight for the Martinez Public Works Jobs Bill.
The fight for the Martinez bill is even more important with the
passage of the welfare bill. The fight for public works jobs at union
wages and with affirmative action is an offensive response to the
massive cuts in welfare. This bill can potentially win the support of
the majority if organized in a broad way.
The building of a national movement to pass the emergency $250 billion
public works jobs bill has now become a matter of life or death. Only
the passage of this bill can prevent the massive hunger and
homelessness in every area of our country, every sector of our people
- Black, Brown and white - which will inevitably develop as a result
of the cutbacks in welfare and the horrendous anti-immigrant bill.
It is this economic reality that should weigh most heavily in our
assessments of the economy, that should determine our political
priorities and tactics, as well as our policy of working with the new
trade union movement.
Trade union movement
We cannot develop a new policy without taking into account the new
trade union policies and the new level of relations between the Party
and the trade union leadership. There are two sides to these new
relations. We should cultivate both.
On the one side, it is possible to work with the trade union movement
on the level of their struggles. On the other, it is necessary for the
Party to conduct political and ideological struggles that are on a
higher level than trade union struggles, even the more militant class
struggles.
It is true the new 1997 AFL-CIO program is strong, with a few
exceptions. It will greatly increase the potential for political
independence and lay the basis for a labor-led, anti-monopoly party.
It is important for our party to do all we can to help implement this
program.
However, important as this work is, we must not allow ourselves to
become consumed by trade union work to the point where we forget and
neglect the "Communist plus" - our unique contribution in relation to
the role of the working class, the class struggle, our approach to
racism and the struggle for equality, capitalism and socialism.
Thus, besides working with the trade union movement, the Party must
conduct struggles on the level of the Communist plus. If we carry out
our responsibilities in relation to the two sides there need not be
any contradiction between them.
A Communist can, simultaneously, be a good trade union leader, an
advanced strike leader and at the same time an advocate of socialism,
especially "Bill of Rights" socialism.
It should be clear to all of us by now that there is a distinct
decline in anti-communism, especially in the trade union movement,
which makes it much easier to conduct all sides of the class struggle.
However, this does not mean that workers are no longer afraid of
losing their jobs, especially in today's circumstances of no job
security at all.
We have to change how we conduct our work in the new objective
situation. Then, we have to put it into practice. Then, we have to
study how we work, how we carry it out. We have to learn from
experience.
Trade union leaders are much more willing to work with Communists.
However, we should not expect all trade union leaders to adopt all the
policies of the Party. Most of the trade union leaders are not yet
ready to become advocates of socialism. But, they will join with us on
just about all questions related to the class struggle.
We should be aware that workers in general, and trade union leaders in
particular, evaluate our party based on what we contribute to the
class struggle, what we contribute to tactics, to unity, to picket
lines, to election campaigns. Workers will join the Party mainly on
the basis of what we do to make their struggle more effective.
We have to develop special approaches to winning workers to the Party.
It takes more time to convince workers to join the Party because we
have to win them to our politics and ideology.
Communists & communities
There is more than ever a desperate need for local, community
organizing of the unemployed, homeless, hungry people and families.
Millions more, including young children, are facing loss of welfare
checks, food stamps, rent control, health care and continuing layoffs.
They are facing hunger, homelessness, joblessness, illness. They are
desperate and angry. And they are mainly unorganized in their
communities.
They would respond to a call for militant struggle and fightback of
all kinds on a regular, daily basis. There is a crying need for forms
that will bring people together to fight for the right to live and to
work on a local level.
Our clubs should immediately take steps to initiate the formation of
such groups. People in trouble, in poverty and in a state of everyday
crisis will respond to a different kind of organized, united, protest
action that can win local struggles, and at the same time help people
assert their will to fight. There is no organization better equipped
to initiate, help form and build such new, working class kinds of
organizations.
We should take the same kind of initiatives to organize unity in
struggle of the elderly and youth, farmers and agricultural workers.
We should urge unions to initiate alliances between workers, farmers
and agricultural workers.
We should take initiatives in every struggle, wherever we are, to
organize forms of struggle against racism on everyday issues like
racist police beatings and killings, church burnings, anti-immigrant
attacks, affirmative action, etc.
Fight to win
In addition to such community initiatives, we should help the trade
unions, locals and central labor bodies to establish committees that
will go out and organize struggles of the unemployed, hungry and
homeless around immediate, often life-and-death issues. Many of the
jobless and homeless were once workers and members of unions.
All local Party club initiatives could start as just loose committees
that gradually become more organized forms of united people's
struggles on every day basic needs and rights.
These local committees need not be in contradiction or try to
substitute for the work of broad, national organizations in all these
areas. They should complement them, add a local, militant,
community-based struggle ingredient to each area.
In fact, good relationships between the Party and national
organizations should develop as one result of the Party's work. And it
is just such club involvement in organizing people into protest action
on immediate demands that can lead to the very best kind of mass
recruiting.
Such organizing initiatives will make it easier for the Party clubs to
become actively involved and a part of the daily lives and activities
of their communities - if possible, as an open, public, political
party of working class and poor people united in struggle.
Next Week: Part III - The Struggle for Equality and Working Class
Unity
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