THE STRUGGLES OF THE WORKING CLASS AND PEOPLES,
AND THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST DISPUTES
The prolongation of the war in Ukraine, which has now lasted more than a year and a half, is the main evidence of the intensification of inter-imperialist contention. Russia, the United States and NATO all have in this conflagration the location of the most important projections of their future in international geostrategic control.
To this corresponds the extraordinary investment of economic, military and human resources, and that is still not enough for them and they insist on the need to raise them in all meetings and forums on both sides.
But this war is not the only one in the world, nor the only form of inter-imperialist contention. The trade war is intensifying and subsiding as the situation favors one or another power, one or another economic or military bloc, without the struggles and strife between the members of the same bloc disappearing, as is the case with the countries that make up NATO.
This feverish dispute is spreading to all corners of the earth, it manifests itself in the fueling of local conflicts, the encouragement and support for bloody coups d'état, such as what happened in Niger and Gabon on the African continent, the scene of various and recurrent conflicts.
"We are living in a world conditioned by the ups and downs of the confrontation between the imperialist powers and their economic and military blocs and pacts ," said the ICMLPO in the May 1 Manifesto . The inter-imperialist war that is taking place in Ukraine is an expression of this, but it is not its only manifestation. Localized armed conflicts are under way in other countries, trade wars, military apparatuses and armies are being strengthened, there are disputes for economic and political control of the entire planet. The inter-imperialist struggles, particularly the one between the United States and China, warn us of the danger of a world-wide conflagration."
The repercussions of this intensification of inter-imperialist contention are manifold. In the economy, in addition to the serious effects on the countries directly involved in the armed conflict, its repercussions are evident on a global scale.
The economic downturn is seriously affecting China, with major repercussions on its exports and imports, which have an impact on the international economy.
The harmful combination of economic stagnation with high inflation rates is another effect, present mainly in the United States and Europe, but also in several countries in Latin America and other regions of the world.
However, the main impact is suffered by the workers and peoples, mainly in the countries of the imperialist NATO bloc. The increase in war budgets and "aid" to the Zelensky regime, public subsidies to the financial sector to prevent its bankruptcy, among other aspects, have impacted and continue to impact the economy of those at the bottom, with the increase in energy prices and the fall in the purchasing power of wages. The precariousness of work, the dismantling of public services and the regressive reforms to social security have been some of the consequences of the actions of the imperialist bourgeoisie, to place the cost of its war on the backs of the workers and peoples.
The working class and peoples are responding to the offensive of capital
The most important struggles in the world that have taken place in recent times have been led by the working class and broad working masses.
"Now is our time!
“In all countries the demands for higher wages and better working conditions have begun to grow: mobilizations, strikes, demonstrations have increasingly become the way to impose themselves on the bosses. It is a tendency, with different levels and rhythms, that can be seen in all countries; the class struggle, the strength of the workers when they fight together, the importance of the working class, have become more and more affirmed", says the Communiqué of the European section of the ICMLPO. It is referring to the powerful actions of struggle developed in France where, under the slogans: "No to 64 years", "Enough is enough, this time it is no", "No to exploitation, no to work to the grave", were promoted since the beginning of this year against the increase in the retirement age of workers.
But also there were repeated actions that took place in Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Turkey, etc.
Meanwhile, in England, on February 1, a media outlet described:
"Schools closed, trains were paralyzed, officials were absent from multiple ministries. On Wednesday, the United Kingdom saw its largest day of strikes in eleven years with stoppages in many sectors, united by the demand for higher wages against an inflation rate of 10.5%.
“Some 20,000 schools in England and Wales were affected by the first of seven days of strikes called for February and March by primary and secondary school teachers , adding to protests that began months ago in many other sectors.”
Even in the United States, countless workers' strikes were joined by writers, screenwriters and actors in the lucrative film industry.
In Latin America, multiple and repeated actions are developing throughout the region.
The popular rebellion in Peru stands out for its magnitude, in response to the parliamentary coup that removed Pedro Castillo from the government and replaced him with Dina Boluarte. It reached great levels of breadth, radicalism and persistence for a period of 2 months. Only the ferocious repression that claimed the lives of more than 60 combatants, together with the blatant support of US imperialism and the right-wing governments of the region could – momentarily – break the rebellion.
In most countries of the region there have been multiple expressions of protest in which the role of the working class has been clearly highlighted, but they have also had the incorporation of broad sectors of the popular camp.
Ecuador, scene of great class battles
Our country is facing an acute economic, social and political crisis. The impossibility of the bourgeoisie as the ruling class to provide an solution and respond to the fundamental needs of our peoples has led to the increase in poverty and extreme poverty, high unemployment and the accelerated concentration of wealth in the hands of the big bourgeoisie.
The presence in Ecuador of the most important international drug trafficking cartels, connected at different levels with State institutions, has precipitated an unprecedented institutional crisis, political instability and the increase in crime and insecurity in the country.
These factors have determined a complex scenario in which the class contradictions between the bourgeoisie and the working class and other exploited and oppressed classes are expressed and exacerbated, as well as the inter-bourgeois contradictions that have acquired particular significance.
In this scenario, the popular camp, with the action of the working class, broad strata of non-proletarian workers, the indigenous movement, youth, women and sectors of small and medium producers, has played a fundamental role in multiple and significant actions of struggle.
On June 13, 2022, the popular indigenous strike began and lasted for 18 days, winning a victory with a decrease in the prices of gasoline and diesel, the non-expansion of the oil exploitation, the prohibition of mining concessions in protected areas, among other gains.
"The massiveness of the struggle was accompanied by its combativity," says comrade Guido Proaño in the pamphlet: The June strike, eighteen days to win a victory. The mass movement has learned from its own struggles and this was expressed in the struggle in the streets, in the building of barricades, the use of mechanisms and instruments of protection and self-defense, mass actions in the cities, the seizure of governorates and institutions, the closure of main roads to affect the productive apparatus. the blocking of cities taking over key points, the organization of relays, the assembly of logistics to sustain the fighters in the capital."
This momentous battle was not the only one. In multiple and repeated days of mobilization and struggle, the working class, mainly grouped in the organizations that make up the United Workers' Front, has shown its opposition to the attempts of the neoliberal regime of Guillermo Lasso to impose privatizations of strategic areas and social security, of wanting to implement labor flexibility, as a supposed pillar to confront unemployment.
The day of mobilization on May Day 4 months ago took place in 50 cities of the 24 provinces of the country, reiterating the firm position of the working class, leading the popular camp in the complex scenario of political and institutional crisis that confronts Ecuador.
Of course, the camp of the social and political struggle in our country has incorporated multiple sectors affected by the action of the big bourgeoisie in power. Rice producers, dairy farmers, banana growers, Popular Front organizations, peasant social security, university students have been involved. Of particular importance was the struggle promoted by the teachers grouped in the National Union of Educators, who broke the arrogance of the government and won the right to equal pay.
The very episodes of the development of the political crisis, with the impeachment of President Lasso, the declaration of cross-death [in which the president can dissolve the assembly] and the early elections, have not only been expressions of inter-bourgeois contradictions, but also a consequence of the high and persistent levels of combats of the working class, the indigenous movement and other popular sectors.
The struggle in the streets and squares, the strikes and roadblocks has been combined with the presence of the electoral contests.
In opposition to the different alternatives of the bourgeoisie, the revolutionary left and the popular forces have contested the different areas of representation in local governments, in parliament and even in government with their own alternatives.
In the recent early elections, in addition to the 6 presidential candidacies of the bourgeoisie representing different tendencies of the right and so-called progressivism, the popular and left alternative was presented by Yaku Pérez for the Presidency, with the alliance "Claro que se puede" [Certainly we can].
We were in the front row of the contest until the terrible assassination of candidate Fernando Villavicencio. This reprehensible event shook the political scene and favored the two alternatives of the bourgeoisie, which will contest for the government in the second round. Neither of them are an alternative for the working class and peoples of Ecuador.
By way of conclusions:
The revival of the struggle of the working class at the international level affirms the validity of the fundamental contradiction between capital and labor, between the working class and the bourgeoisie.
The recent experiences of struggle of the working class confirm Lenin's theses of the obligation of revolutionaries to participate and get involved in the big trade unions or trade union federations and to fight for the consciousness of the great working masses.
It has also been shown that in the multiple battles, the working class does not act alone, that broad strata of working people are incorporated who, without being strictly part of the working class, are victims of the capitalist system and of the policies of the imperialist bourgeoisie and its natural ally, the big bourgeoisie in the dependent countries.
In several Latin American countries , indigenous peoples are playing an important role in driving the social and political struggle.
A prominent role has been played by youth and women, who are incorporated and involved with determination in all these struggles.
However, the multiple actions of struggle carried out on an international scale also reveal their limitations that prevent this potential from being projected in a meaningful way to the struggle for revolutionary transformation, for the overcoming of capitalism.
These limitations are seen, on the one hand, in the weaknesses in mechanisms of coordination and unification in the most important moments of the struggle.
The lack of a clear political goal that articulates and projects these struggles is one of the most important and evident limitations, which prevent this struggle from being linked to a project of change, to a revolutionary channel.
Of course, when we speak of these limitations it would be wrong to hold the working class and the working masses responsible for them. It is necessary to take up the new and great challenges that are presented for revolutionaries, for Marxist-Leninist parties, to improve and expand our activity to place ourselves at the height of the current development of the class struggle, and to lead that process and lead the social struggle into the revolutionary channel, to the struggle for political power, for the revolution and socialism.
August 1, 2023
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