TRCI Statement

May 1st: Let's show the power of the working class around the world

In our day all over the world, we workers must raise our voice against imperialist decay and show the power of the working class.

The Pandemic and Imperialist Decline

This May Day finds us workers fighting a virus and a historical parasite, which is capitalism. Coronavirus pandemic laid bare the capitalist system and its forms of domination. It shows the consequences of the advance of capitalism on nature in an anarchic way. The pandemic sharpens and accelerates the trends of 2008 crisis, leading for sure to a world recession. But it’s important to understand that, although it is a continuity of the crisis of the last decade, this continuity is not necessarily linear; there can be quality leaps in the general state of imperialist capitalism, which consequences will be seen in the medium and long term.

The crisis accelerated by the coronavirus further accentuated the decomposition of the institutions created in the post-war period, a great example being the WHO and its action, the breakdown of inter-state balances, with the EU entering a chaotic situation and an exacerbation of competition between the USA and China as the most important. In this scenario, the possibility of a breakdown of class balances in nation states is not discarded, opening up more acute processes of class struggle.

What is particular in this crisis is the deliberate intervention of States in the sphere of production, in the relationship between capital and labour. That is, on the laws of capital, not to violate them, but to partially deny them.

The reply of main imperialist powers to the crisis is greater statism, i.e., an attempt of a directed economy, intervention with a festival of subsidies to capital, nationalizations of companies in crisis such as flag airlines and taxes on wealth, or aggressive fiscal policies. For workers, this is nothing but an attack on all lines, with mass layoffs, suspensions, wage cuts, and the removal of conquests, among others.

State centralisation can only be reactionary. Quarantine as state policy is to save capital. We could say that quarantine is a preventive policy to protect big capitalists and their class, disorganizing our class with the complicity of union bureaucracy, to preserve their decomposing States, strengthening the military-bureaucratic apparatus to discipline masses. On the other hand, if we were the ones to paralyze everything, we would not only be facing the virus, but we would be organized to face the attacks. The methods of the working class, such as the cessation of activities and strikes to go on general strike, are measures that allow us to preserve ourselves in an organized way, through unions, against the centralized attack of bourgeois and the strong destructive tendencies of capitalist economy in crisis. That’s why we cannot be in favour of the quarantine imposed by the State, since it’s not a "sanitary" measure, but an imperialist line of protecting the branches of production by lowering the value of labour force.

This distortion introduced by State intervention in the sphere of production opens up a host of political crises for the various bourgeois fractions and a different relation with workers, since it acts at the very basis of social relations of production. The importance of labour force in the creation of value and the dynamics of capitalism and its relationship with this labour force become very evident. And in face of the capitalists' attack we must counteract the attack on their capital. The workers, faced with this level of crisis, must reinforce the idea of expropriating the expropriators.

We must combat the fiction of a perished bureaucratic-military apparatus, which has control over what happens on its territory. Only the working class can lead internationally coordinated measures. We put forward workers' control of the main branches of economy, in face of the disorganization of economy, and we stand for the destruction of bourgeois State in a revolutionary way, since it’s impossible for a bourgeois State to respond to our demands.

We can say that we are witnessing a reactionary general rehearsal of capitalist system, amid a historical process of decomposition. It's a great rehearsal of class conciliation of chauvinism. Faced with an anarchic leadership such that of capitalist system, which depends on its armed general staffs to guarantee capital’s reproduction, we struggle for a conscious collective leadership, which prepares the stages of the dictatorship of the proletariat, since the current system generates the material conditions and social forms for the economic reconstruction of society.

Only trusting our own strength

Cynically, the scribes of capitalism try to show Marxism is a mistaken theory, fearing that the undeniable crisis in which the system finds itself will spread the idea of social revolution in the face of the irrefutable demonstration of what the anarchy of capital produces. The attack on Marxism amid a crisis is the desperation of a bourgeois class in decomposition in the face of the more acute scenarios of class struggle to come.

We, the workers, can organize the tasks to face the consequences of the pandemic, stop the attacks and disorganize the bourgeoisie in its base, production. We will do it by imposing workers' control on the most important industries of economy, the sliding scales of working hours and wages, the expropriation of banks, the opening of the ledgers of big companies, are some transitional programmatic points that can show to the whole of the masses the domination of the workers in the administration of things. To intervene independently and with our methods in this crisis is the posed task. There are many examples in the world on how to face this crisis accelerated by the coronavirus. Sectors of workers went on strike against the attacks. Perhaps the most important case is the general strike in Italy, where workers have performed strikes against the government's quarantine decree. In the U.S., the main imperialist power, workers are also striking at their workplaces. The semi-insurrectional struggles of the masses in Latin America, such as in Chile or Ecuador, where they have not succeeded in imposing decisive defeats on the working class and youth, predict the possibility of an irruption of the continent's proletariat to defeat the imperialist plans of hunger and misery. In Argentina, the struggles of the workers of Penta meat packing plant, BedTime and the health system are leading the way.

We, the workers, must intervene in this crisis independently, preparing the conditions for the emergence of a revolutionary vanguard to constitute itself in Party as a revolutionary leadership in the need to rebuild the Fourth International.

Cor Chile - LOI Brasil - Cor Argentina

As the government prepares to extend the quarantine, we want to make some considerations about the situation and how, in our view, we revolutionaries should intervene.

Alberto Fernandez with his group of notables, that is Paolo Rocca (CEO of metal holding Techint, TN), Acevedo, from the UIA (Argentine Industrial Union, leading industrial employer syndicate in the country, TN), and the greatest of businessmen, define the destinies of workers in the name of the health of their businesses. Alberto is carrying out the motto of one of his teachers, Néstor Kirchner, who said "don't give importance to what I say, but to what I do". He calls the businessmen "miserable" , but endorses dismissals in Techint; he says price control, but endorses overpricing in food purchases and he says with actions: between the banks and the  pensioners, I choose... the banks.

It is striking that much of the left is calling for the quarantine to continue and trying to change the content of this state measure. We must be clear, the quarantine is a measure recommended by the World Health Organization, an institution created in the post-war period as part of the new world order after the Second World War. It is clear that any policy that comes from such an imperialist organization, which is responsible for the destruction of health and therefore responsible for the impoverishment of our living conditions, will not be to the benefit of our class.

Therefore, if our conditions of exploitation are at stake, our exploiters will not offer us a favorable outcome. It is with the workers' methods, which are part of our history, such as stoppages, sit-down strikes, strikes, in other words, paralyzing production by imposing a program that confronts the State, that we the workers will be able to face this crisis.

Quarantine is the method that the bourgeoisie has, not to stop the virus, but to guarantee its form of domination in the face of the crisis and to prevent its systems, centrally that of healthcare,  from collapse. The workers' methods, as part of transitional measures are interventions of the proletarian state-power that consciously limit the right of capitalists to dispose of their assets and their desire for profit.

We could say that the quarantine is a preventive state policy, to protect big capitalists and their class, that disorganizes our class with the collusion of union’s bureaucracy, to preserve a semi-state in decomposition, strengthening the military bureaucratic apparatus to discipline the masses. To impose this policy, it uses the monopoly of state forces, with the police, the gendarmerie, even cyber-spying and the army to guarantee this line. If we were the ones to paralyze everything, we would not only be facing the virus, but we would be organized to face the attacks.

We must open a central debate within our class, mainly in the industrial workers' movement,  against official propaganda about the importance of the State in this crisis, its social and control functions. It is imperative to clarify the class content of the concept of State. The class nature of the State is bourgeois, it defends a class that is antagonistic to our own, so we must prepare the material conditions for its destruction.

To allow the government to continue imposing a reactionary centrality with the quarantine, which means a brutal attack on the workers, with suspensions, salary reductions, layoffs and removal of conquests, is - at the very least - to give ourselves up without a fight.

We workers can organize the tasks to face the consequences of the pandemic, stop the attacks and disrupt the bourgeoisie in its base of support, production. By imposing workers' control of the most important industries of the economy, the sliding scale of working hours and wages, the expropriation of private banks, the opening of the ledgers of big companies, are some programmatic points that can show the masses as a whole the domination of the workers in the administration of things. To intervene independently and with our methods in this crisis is the task before us. There are many examples in the world of how to face this crisis, accelerated by the coronavirus. Sectors of workers went on strike against the attacks. Perhaps the most important case is the general strike in Italy, where workers stopped against the government's quarantine decree. In the U.S., the main imperialist power, workers are also striking at their workplaces.

Trusting our own strength is the only way out for us workers.

 ___

First published in Spanish 4/9/2020 at www.cor-digital.org

En momentos en que el gobierno se prepara para extender la cuarentena, queremos formular algunas consideraciones sobre la situación y cómo, a nuestro entender, deberíamos intervenir los revolucionarios.

Alberto Fernández con su grupo de notables, es decir Paolo Rocca, Acevedo, de la UIA, y lo más granado de los empresarios, definen los destinos de los trabajadores en nombre de la salud de sus negocios. Alberto, está llevando a cabo la máxima de uno de sus maestros, Néstor Kirchner, que decía “no le den importancia a lo que digo, sino a lo que hago”. Les dice “miserables” a los empresarios, pero avala los despidos de Techint; dice control de precios, pero avala sobreprecios en las compras de alimentos, y dice con acciones: entre los bancos y los jubilados, elijo a... los bancos.

Resulta llamativo que gran parte de la izquierda reclame que siga la cuarentena e intente cambiarle el contenido a esta medida estatal. Debemos ser claros, la cuarentena es una medida recomendada por la Organización Mundial de la Salud, una institución creada en la posguerra como parte del nuevo orden mundial después de la segunda guerra. Es evidente que toda política que venga de semejante organización imperialista, responsable de la destrucción de la salud y, por lo tanto, artífice de la pauperización de nuestras condiciones de vida, no va ser para favorecer a nuestra clase.

Por eso, si están en juego nuestras condiciones de explotación, no nos ofrecerán una salida favorable nuestros explotadores. Es con los métodos obreros, que son parte de nuestra historia, como los ceses de actividad, paros, huelga de brazos caídos, huelgas, es decir, paralizar la producción imponiendo un programa que enfrente al Estado como los trabajadores podremos enfrentar esta crisis.

La cuarentena es el método que tiene la burguesía, no para detener el virus, sino para garantizar su forma de dominación ante la crisis y que no colapsen sus sistemas, centralmente el de salud. Los métodos obreros, como parte de medidas transicionales, son intervenciones del poder estatal proletario que limitan de manera consciente el derecho de los capitalistas a disponer de sus bienes y su afán de lucro.

Podríamos decir que la cuarentena es una política estatal preventiva, para resguardar a los grandes capitalistas y a su clase, desorganizando a nuestra clase con la complicidad de la burocracia sindical, para preservar un semi Estado en descomposición, reforzando al aparato burocrático militar para disciplinar a las masas. Para imponer esta política utiliza el monopolio de las fuerzas del Estado, con la policía, la gendarmería, hasta el espionaje cibernético y el ejército para garantizar esta línea. Si fuéramos nosotros los que paralizáramos todo, no sólo estaríamos enfrentando al virus, sino estaríamos organizados para enfrentar los ataques.

Debemos abrir un debate central al interior de nuestra clase, principalmente en el movimiento obrero industrial, ante la propaganda oficial de la importancia del Estado en esta crisis, de sus funciones sociales y de control. Es imperioso aclarar el contenido de clase del concepto de Estado. La naturaleza de clase del Estado es burguesa, defiende a una clase antagónica a la nuestra, por lo que debemos preparar las condiciones materiales para su destrucción.

Permitir que el gobierno siga imponiendo una centralidad reaccionaria con la cuarentena, lo que significa un ataque brutal a los trabajadores, con suspensiones, rebajas de salario, despidos y quita de conquistas, es -como mínimo- entregarnos sin dar pelea.

Los trabajadores podemos organizar las tareas para enfrentar las consecuencias de la pandemia, frenar los ataques y desorganizar a la burguesía en su base de sustentación, la producción. Imponiendo el control obrero de las ramas más importantes de la economía, la escala móvil de horas y de salarios, la expropiación de los bancos privados, la apertura de los libros de las grandes empresas, son algunos puntos programáticos que pueden mostrar al conjunto de las masas la dominación de los trabajadores en la administración de las cosas. Intervenir de forma independiente y con nuestros métodos en esta crisis es la tarea que tenemos planteada. Ejemplos en el mundo ante la crisis, que aceleró el coronavirus, hay muchos. Sectores de trabajadores salieron a hacer paros y huelgas en contra de los ataques. Quizás el caso más importante sea la huelga general en Italia, donde los trabajadores pararon en contra del decreto de cuarentena del gobierno. En EEUU, la principal potencia imperialista, los trabajadores también realizan huelgas en sus lugares de trabajo.

Confiar en nuestras propias fuerzas es la única salida que tenemos los trabajadores.

El pasado martes 31 de marzo el congreso despachó la “ley de protección del empleo” que viene a constituir un ataque en regla contra el salario, un precioso regalo dado a los empresarios para que éstos puedan suspender a los trabajadores, o reducir sus jornadas, sin que tengan que asumir los costos de la crisis y por el contrario descargar el peso de la misma sobre las familias obreras.

El desarrollo de la pandemia anuncia consecuencias catastróficas para latinoamérica, dada la deficiente infraestructura sanitaria, si vemos lo que está sucediendo en países imperialistas como España o Italia donde los muertos diarios llegan a bordear el millar de personas. Comparado con otras enfermedades el COVID-19 –si bien tiene una rápida transmisibilidad- posee una baja tasa de mortalidad. Lo que en Chile se ha manifestado momentáneamente muy por debajo de la media mundial debido a que los contagios se han extendidos entre la población de bajo riesgo y además entre los sectores acomodados, de la burguesía y la alta pequeñaburguesía, quienes poseen condiciones privilegiadas de higiene y salubridad. Algo que cambia radicalmente en la medida en que se extiende hacia la población trabajadora, como ya lo muestran los primeros muertos pertenecientes a familias pobres. El drama de la salud no viene del control y respuesta a una nueva pandemia, sino que será el agravamiento exponencial de la crisis sanitaria que se produce todos los años, donde los hospitales colapsan de enfermos, las listas de espera para operaciones o atenciones son interminables, los mínimos implementos de higiene así como los medicamentos escasean; los trabajadores de la salud mal pagos y con regímenes a contrata; etc, etc, vuelven a esta farsa del Estado burgués interviniendo en la salud una parodia de corto alcance y de consecuencias imprevisibles. Así mismo, la intervención de los Estados en el mundo no está destinada a paliar una crisis de tipo sanitaria, sino que está catalizando una profunda crisis estructural del capitalismo, que tiene interviniendo al aparato burocrático-militar en las relaciones sociales, destruyendo fuerzas productivas, saneando la economía y atacando en masa a la fuerza de trabajo, dejando miles de cesantes, cerrando empresas, suspendiendo personal, recortando salarios, y por supuesto, ejerciendo el monopolio de la fuerza, mientras levantan su dedo acusatorio responsabilizando por el descontrol de la pandemia a la población que no acata las resoluciones burocráticas de estos sirvientes del capital. Actúan de forma anárquica y desesperada, recurriendo al centralismo estatista, para salvar al capitalismo de su propia crisis. Esta intervención violenta del aparato de estado en las relaciones sociales constituye un ensayo general reaccionario.

Las mediaciones al pie de la cama

Desde distintas organizaciones como la CUT, la Confusam o el Colegio Médico se insistía desde los primeros casos de contagios en la exigencia al Estado de que imponga la cuarentena total. Silenciando canallescamente las denuncias del estado calamitoso en que se encuentran los hospitales y centros de salud municipal. Esto era, y es intermitentemente, presentado casi como la solución de salvación ante la pandemia, llamando al mismo tiempo a dejar de realizar movilizaciones o asambleas sindicales. El mismo Colegio de Profesores llamó al cese de actividades en los colegios sin colocar a debate de los trabajadores docentes las medidas necesarias para intervenir en la crisis. Es así que en muchos lugares de trabajo se comenzó a exigir el cierre o paralización de las obras como respuesta lógica a lo que consideraban una medida de protección sanitaria. Finalmente la intervención del gobierno decretando cuarentena en varias comunas vino acompañada de un exhaustivo listado de las empresas consideradas “esenciales”, que debían seguir funcionando, entre aquellas las que “abastecen a los supermercados”, o sea… prácticamente todas. Para que los trabajadores afectados por la cuarentena no se creyeran con derecho a quedarse en sus casas por resguardo a su salud, se sacó un dictamen de la dirección del trabajo indicando que no están obligados a trabajar, como así tampoco el empleador no está obligado a pagar el salario, pretendiendo esgrimir una igualdad jurídica entre el capital y el trabajador. Este dictamen encontró a los más fervientes críticos entre la oposición burguesa y la burocracia sindical quienes amenazaron con recursos de amparo y todo tipo de escritos legales. Pero el dictamen sólo era el preludio del proyecto de ley de “protección del empleo”.

¿En que consiste el proyecto votado al unísono en el congreso?

El mismo establece que las empresas impedidas de funcionar con motivo de la suspensión por la autoridad recurrirán a que el empleador deje de pagar las remuneraciones, pagando sólo los aportes previsionales y de salud, prorrogables y en cuotas, mientra el trabajador será remunerado por sus fondos del seguro de cesantía en proporciones decrecientes mes a mes 70%, 55%, 45%, 40%, 35…..de la remuneración promedio. Si el trabajador no dispone de fondos hará uso del fondo de cesantía solidario en las mismas proporciones (70% , 55%…) aunque con tope en el tramo alto de $ 525.000 y de ahí decrece del mismo modo. La misma fórmula se utilizará también en aquellas empresas que, si bien no son impedidas por el Estado de funcionar, aduzcan reestructuraciones “para poder mantener su continuidad operacional o para proteger eficazmente la vida y salud de sus trabajadores”, vía un “pacto de suspensión del contrato de trabajo”con el trabajador y/o el sindicato. También podrán hacer uso de esta ley para realizar un pacto de reducción de la jornada laboral hasta la mitad, donde el seguro de cesantía cubrirá hasta el 25% de la remuneración con un tope de $ 225.000.-. Eso sí no todos los trabajadores pueden acceder a esta fórmula, quedan excluidos, aquellos que no tienen un mínimo de cotizaciones (3 continuas en el mismo trabajo, o 2 continuas y 6 en total en el último año) así como aquellos que hayan hecho uso del seguro de cesantía en los último 5 meses. Es decir, que los trabajadores que trabajan en negro, con altos niveles de rotación, en condiciones de alta precariedad laboral, o que hayan salido recientemente de las filas de desocupados, ni siquiera pueden optar por un miserable subsidio de subsistencia. Hay que sumarles que no pueden optar los que reciban algún subsidio por discapacidad o los que tengan fuero laboral. Y como cereza de la torta el trámite lo tiene que realizar el empleador, lo que deja al trabajador en cuarentena a merced de su explotador.

El “seguro de cesantía” fue creado para mantener en la subsistencia al ejército de reserva de la clase trabajadora y fue diseñado de tal modo que “desincentive”, según la lógica de los explotadores, que los trabajadores cesantes quieran mantenerse mucho tiempo en esa situación, brindando una fuente de mano de obra barata a los capitalistas. A este diseño hay que agregarle que el monto que el empleador “aporta” a este seguro (compuesto por aportes bipartitos) lo recupera, con los intereses respectivos en el descuento que realiza de los finiquitos con indemnización por despidos. Una verdadera bicoca servida en la mesa de los patrones.

La intervención de la clase trabajadora es la única perspectiva realista

Los diputados y burócratas que habían vociferado contra el dictamen de la dirección del trabajo la noche previa, terminaron votando y apoyando a mano alzada un proyecto que además incluye (que vuelve ley) el cese temporal de “la obligación de prestar servicios por parte del trabajador y de la obligación de pagar la remuneración y demás asignaciones que no constituyan remuneración, señaladas en el inciso segundo del artículo 41 del Código del Trabajo, por parte del empleador.” Una vez aprobado el proyecto la directiva de la CUT sacó un comunicado en contra diciendo en rigor que no era lo que ellos querían, toda vez que en la víspera los parlamentarios del PC votaron al unísono el proyecto. Es bastante probable que las pymes que su aparato controla, y la de sus grupos de pequeños explotadores allegados, hayan visto como un alivio que no tengan que pagar más salarios durante el cierre de sus negocios. Una vez más se demuestra el carácter reaccionario de esta dirección, que posa de flanco izquierdo en la defensa de la democracia burguesa.

Es necesario que la salida a la crisis capitalista, así como a los efectos de la pandemia, sean impuestos por la clase trabajadora, única interesada en la salud de la población obrera y la única con la fuerza capaz de derrotar los planes de los explotadores y de su Estado. La cuarentena impuesta por el Estado es sólo una política reaccionaria, complementada con los decretos del estado de catástrofe y toque de queda, para desplegar las fuerzas represivas…contra un virus. Nada tiene que ver con las acciones que podemos tomar los trabajadores para proteger realmente la salud de la población. Es necesario que seamos nosotros los que determinemos cuales son las ramas esenciales que deben ser prioritarias, así como levantar un plan obrero de salida a la crisis dirigido a imponer un programa de independencia de clase, formando en los sindicatos comisiones de higiene y seguridad para imponer y vigilar nuestra medidas sanitarias, la escala móvil de horas de trabajo para vincular a los desocupados a la producción, que lejos de plantear exigencias de centralización estatal, se dirija a organizar a la clase trabajadora para imponer el control sobre los medios de producción, a dislocar el aparato de Estado y a coordinar acciones internacionales para confrontar con los explotadores ante esta ofensiva reaccionaria en toda línea.

Statement of the RTFI

Reactionary general rehearsal

The corona virus pandemic lays bare the capitalist system and its forms of domination. It shows the consequences of the advance of the capitalist system over nature in an anarchic way.

This global crisis forces imperialist powers, before the high level of losses in their wealth, to accelerate their attacks over the working class at a global level, since, being conscious of the weakness of their domination, they must appeal to a more direct attack.

Imperialist bourgeoisie comes across a problem that is not merely epidemiological, but political-strategical, that has begun as a matter of “public health”, which was at first underestimated. In all cases, they tried to frame it within the trade dispute between USA and China, but in short it brought out the weakness of imperialist States; of the States in process of assimilation -like China- and the state of destruction of the institutions/services (relics) of the welfare State. Let us remember that the welfare State was first conceived to “compete” (after the great defeats that were WWII and the postwar pacts for the working class and its organizations) to the communist bloc, in the aspirations of labor aristocracy and their union representatives. It was a determined way in which one of Trotsky’s forecasts became true, as regards the results of the war: take social contradictions back to the States, speeding up their decomposition.

The pandemic sharpens and speeds up the trends of the 2008 crisis, leading for sure to a global recession. But it is important to understand that, although it is the continuation of the past decade’s crisis, this continuity is not necessarily linear; there can be quality leaps in the general state of imperialist capitalism, which consequences will be seen at the middle and long term.

For the time being, the bourgeoisie is taking advantage of the conjuncture to “clean up” economy and see if can create countertendencies that allow the establishment of new trade blocs and deal with the huge accumulated capital. The competition among bourgeois States to see which deals better with the effects of the pandemic and its general consequences (socio-economic, in particular) has nothing to do with the cynical statements on “saving lives”, but with taking positions before the processes of class struggle that have been developing -like in Latin America- and before the antagonisms among States that are posed. They try to preserve productive forces and better subjugate “their” proletariat to prepare for this confrontation. 

Por ahora la burguesía está aprovechando la coyuntura para “sanear” la economía y ver si puede lograr generar contratendencias que le permitan establecer nuevos bloques comerciales y lidiar con el enorme capital acumulado. La competencia entre los Estados burgueses por ver cuál lidia mejor con los efectos de la pandemia y sus consecuencias generales (económico-sociales en particular) no tienen nada que ver con las declaraciones cínicas de “salvar vidas”, sino con posicionarse ante los procesos de lucha de clases que se preanuncian y los que se han estado desarrollando como en América Latina, y ante los antagonismos entre Estados que están planteados. Buscan conservar las fuerzas productivas y someter mejor a “sus” proletariados para preparar ese enfrentamiento.

Bonapartist tendencies reinforced

We must analyze that the speeding up of global crisis, with the pandemic as an important element, has led bourgeois States to take action by reinforcing the state control elements over social relations of production. It is important to point out this aspect, since Centrism is basing its policy of adaptation to statism on the demand of “State centralization” to better manage this crisis.

This centralization cannot be but reactionary. The quarantine as State policy is to save capital. On the other hand, the methods of the working class, like cessation of activity and strikes towards a general strike, are measures that allow the preservation of our work force in an organized way, by means of unions, to confront the centralized attack of the bourgeoisie and the strong destructive trends of capitalist economy in crisis. This is why we cannot be for a quarantine imposed by the State, because it is not a “sanitary” measure, but an imperialist policy to preserve industries of production, by lowering the value of work force.

We may say that we are witnessing a reactionary general rehearsal of the capitalist system, amid a historical process of decomposition. It is a rehearsal of class conciliation, of chauvinism. Before an anarchic leadership as that of the capitalist system, that depends on their armed Joint Chiefs of Staff to guarantee the reproduction of capital, we fight for a collective conscious leadership, because the current system generates the material conditions and the social forms for the economic reconstruction of society.

The reactionary policy is to discipline by means of repressive forces; more dismissals; wage cut-outs; greater flexibility and labor precarization; attack on union organization in the work place and gains cut-off wherever they can. They try to clean up global economy amid a phenomenal crisis and to establish a new deal between capital and labor; with the difference that now they must do it quickly, in face of the deepening of the crisis. It is not discarded that imperialist countries nationalize industries of economy and reinforce their Bonapartism with greater statism.

For a workers’ wayout

To every state policy we must contest with the programmatic foundations of the workers’ State inherence in capitalist society, that does not stop within the small framework of national borders. We must combat against the fiction of an already deceased bureaucratic-military apparatus, that has under its control what happens within its territory. Only the working class can lead internationally coordinated measures. We advance workers’ control over the main industries of economy, before the disorganization of economy, and we take stance for the destruction of the bourgeois State by means of revolution, since it is impossible that a bourgeois State gives response to our demands.

It is essential that we are not disorganized. Centrism has already helped to demobilize us, by calling off street actions, such as the March 24^th demonstration in Argentina. We cannot afford, given the centralization of the attack, to take isolated actions, even less to let individual resolutions prevail.

We must defend the functioning of deliberative organisms of the working class, such as unions, enterprise workers’ representation, shop stewards’ bodies, in order to prepare ourselves against the effects of this crisis and be able to confront union bureaucracy, governments and imperialism.

The workers must intervene in this crisis in an independent way, preparing the conditions for the upsurge of a revolutionary leadership in the need to reconstruct the IV International.

LOI – Brasil

COR – Chile

COR - Argentina

The global crisis and the pandemic

The development of the crisis opened in 2008 has provided new chapters, showing that capitalism has not been able yet to find a way out to its effects. This has been demonstrated by the coronavirus pandemic, that has exposed and accelerated the processes of the crisis -which have been accumulating over the last years. We must add to this scene the oil crisis, that had begun before the COVID 19 crisis, as a result of the slowdown of global economy, which was heading to a recession with very low growth levels. This is why the pandemic shows how weak the capitalist system and its institution are, amid a scene of imperialist decomposition. Although imperialist powers try to make us believe the fallacy that global economy was doing well and that the proliferation of the virus was the cause of all evil, the epidemic is just a secondary factor within a deeper global crisis.

This does not mean that imperialism will not try to take advantage of this crisis to make the whole of the workers and poor people put up with the effects of it. This is shown in the increasing interference of the State in the control of social relations, not to avoid the propagation of the virus, but to protect the State healthcare systems and their economies from a possible collapse; to reinforce the reactionary centralism of bourgeois States -given their historical weakness- and to avoid -in the worse of possibilities- the contagion of the virus of class struggle.

In the 2008 crisis, the policy of the imperialist powers was to flood the market with more cash flow by central banks, to save big corporation and offer them credit in order to – in a future time- let global economy recover by increasing labor productivity and achieving a more stable growth. A headlong flight that did not reach the expected goals and, even worse, today there is a crisis with similar characteristics and they cannot put into practice the same recipes they used in 2008.

USA and its healthcare system showed the real face of capitalism. Now, the USA are debating if they cut taxes, not only as a measure for enterprises, but also for workers, so they can poor that money in consumption; or to get money into the pockets of the population by increasing unemployment fonds or subsidies to wages, in face of an imminent close down of plants and life shortage. This is statism, performed by the main imperialist power.

In the EU, with epicenter in Italy and Spain, we can see a great crisis in their healthcare systems. For some nostalgic, the cause is the dismantling of the welfare State and a product of the defeat of the workers after the postwar period. It is very important to follow closely the so far incipient strike processes that are taking place, especially in Italy, in many factories and health workers’ sectors.

Any way out to the crisis -that has speeded up- will be reactionary. Global bourgeoisie is aware of its weakness, but also of its counterrevolutionary historical role. That is why, those who believe that capitalism is showing its humanitarian face in the crisis of the coronavirus, because of their demagogic speeches, should know that those are only provocations to our class, that due to its crisis of revolutionary leadership cannot respond in a centralized way; but we will be forced to give that response given the deepness of the crisis. We must support ourselves in the different processes of class struggle opened at global scale. At a regional scale, there are many countries in Latin America where these processes are going on; the most radicalized is Chile.

The anarchy of capital can be seen in all its dimensions. Before the disorganization of economy, revolutionaries must advance -not a demand on bourgeois State and its institutions like the Congress, but- the need to organize economy over new foundations. For this transition it is vital the workers’ control of the most important industries, to show the force of the international working class at the administration of things. We must deploy a transitional program to develop a vanguard within our class.

These are urgent historical tasks.

A pandemia do Covid-19, o coronavírus, acelerou os processos desencadeados pela crise econômica de 2008. Atingindo as economias já fragilizadas pelo baixo crescimento e pela queda em nível mundial das operações de comércio internacional e produção industrial nos últimos períodos, a epidemia carrega a ameaça de um novo ciclo recessivo. O crescimento mundial já foi revisto de 2,9% para 2,4%, podendo chegar a 1,5%, segundo a OCDE, puxado pela redução do crescimento das principais economias mundiais.

Dentro da decomposição histórica do imperialismo, a pandemia do coronavírus escancarou as tendências abertas pela crise estrutural do capitalismo, impondo ainda maiores dificuldades aos países imperialistas, pois devido ao acúmulo da dívida interna, a aplicação da política do “dinheiro barato” não produzirá os resultados esperados para alavancar crescimento. A proporção da dívida global em relação ao PIB atingiu uma alta histórica de mais de 322% no terceiro trimestre de 2019. Por se tratar de uma crise de superprodução, as medidas de juros baixo e crédito barato não tem efeitos significativos na tendência geral de queda de lucros, mas impulsionam ainda mais a especulação financeira.

A crise tem obrigado os Estados a intervirem, ainda que em sua debilidade histórica como forma de dominação burguesa, não apenas na economia, mas também no fluxo de pessoas, no fechamento de fronteiras, nas relações sociais entre capital e trabalho. As principais potências anunciam medidas de diminuição de impostos, aumento do crédito para fomentar o consumo e subsídios, não apenas para as empresas afetadas pela crise, mas também aos salários dos trabalhadores prejudicados por afastamentos. Com isso, buscam não apenas evitar o colapso das economias, mas principalmente, a radicalização dos processos de luta de classes. Isso não impede, contudo, que abandonem medidas que transferem o custo da crise e da manutenção do aparato estatal para os trabalhadores.

A crise brasileira parece não ter fim

No Brasil, isso está exposto com muita clareza. Como país semicolonial, os efeitos da crise econômica mundial se fazem sentir de forma mais perversa. A queda acentuada da produtividade, o aumento do desemprego e precarização do trabalho, a desvalorização da moeda, a fuga de capital estrangeiro, a queda nas bolsas, podem ser medidos em índices que batem novos recordes todos os dias. Contudo, por trás destes índices, existe uma crise social e política imensurável.

Com o anúncio do crescimento do PIB de 2019 de 1,1% (já carinhosamente apelidado de “pibinho”), o mais baixo dos últimos três anos, a expectativa com a recuperação da economia pelo governo Bolsonaro e o super ministro Paulo Guedes foi frustrada, pois ainda não houve recuperação das perdas de 2015 e 2016. Bolsonaro, cumprindo o papel de braço do imperialismo no Brasil, tem implementado uma política de reformas estatais que beneficiam o grande capital, cortam direitos sociais e trabalhistas e repassam aos trabalhadores os custos da crise econômica. Contudo, não o faz sem dificuldades, já que extremamente débil. A ausência de “resultados” do governo contribuiu para a maior fuga de capitais estrangeiros do país que resultam em maior queda da produtividade, mesmo com a aprovação da Reforma da Previdência e a abertura de terras para a mineração, que, segundo o governo, seriam responsáveis pelo aumento da projeção do PIB para este ano, o que também já foi revisto para baixo.

A emenda constitucional 55, aprovada em 2016, instituindo o corte de investimentos em serviços públicos, especialmente na área da saúde, juntamente com a crise econômica e social instaurada propiciaram todas as condições para que a pandemia mundial atingisse o país de forma catastrófica. Sem políticas efetivas de contenção e acompanhamento dos casos de contaminação, o que se apresenta pelo governo são subnotificações de pessoas doentes e mortes causados pela epidemia, já que apenas 20% dos casos suspeitos estão sendo efetivamente testados. Os trabalhadores e população mais pobre estão largados à própria sorte. Com o aprofundamento da reforma trabalhista, poucos conseguem realizar o isolamento, sem prejuízo do salário, orientado pelos agentes de saúde para evitar um pico muito grande de disseminação da doença, o que deve ocorrer nas próximas semanas. Somam-se a isso os mais de 300mil casos de dengue apenas neste ano.

Os processos abertos pela crise econômica e acentuados pela pandemia também acirraram a crise política no país, especialmente as disputas entre o governo Bolsonaro e o Congresso, que atua para pautar a agenda de reformas propostas, especialmente a reforma fiscal e a reforma administrativa. Frente a crise epidêmica, Paulo Guedes iniciou uma campanha no congresso para acelerar a aprovação das reformas e pacotes de privatização e foi publicamente criticado pelo presidente da Câmara, Rodrigo Maia, por não apresentar nenhuma medida econômica que intervenha diretamente nesta crise. Maia, por outro lado, impôs ao Congresso seu próprio ritmo de condução da aprovação destas reformas (ontem, dia 17, por exemplo, encaminhou a aprovação do relatório sobre a MP da carteira verde e amarelo, que aprofunda ainda mais a reforma trabalhista) enquanto Guedes teve que apresentar um pacote de medidas para a crise do coronavírus.

Ao mesmo tempo, o governo Bolsonaro atua de forma a aparelhar o estado na defesa de seus próprios interesses e de sua família, toda implicada em práticas de corrupção e envolvimento com milícias e forças paramilitares, o que também tem gerado incertezas e inseguranças no Congresso e STF. Para demonstrar força frente ao Congresso, bem como agradar sua base eleitoral, Bolsonaro participou das convocações de atos por todo o país, no último dia 15, que exigiam o fechamento do Congresso e do STF. Bolsonaro não só participou dos atos, como quebrou os protocolos de saúde, já que o próprio é suspeito de contaminação por coronavírus, após viagem e reunião com Trump, nos Estados Unidos (15 pessoas de sua comitiva estão infectadas). Bolsonaro minimiza e desdenha da pandemia, enquanto o Ministério da Saúde busca alinhar-se às recomendações gerais da OMC, causando desconforto na base governista. O caso agravou ainda mais a crise política entre os diferentes poderes. Nesta terça-feira foi protocolado um pedido de impeachment de Bolsonaro na Câmara que deve se utilizar da prerrogativa, não para afastar o presidente, mas para discipliná-lo em relação à política de ajustes e reformas a ser seguida.

A DEMOCRACIA burguesa é uma DITADURA de classe!

Diante das convocações de Bolsonaro para atos pelo fechamento do Congresso, foi proposto pelo conjunto das centrais e partidos políticos de oposição ao governo, bem como correntes e organizações reformistas e centristas, a ampliação da pauta do dia 18 de março, prevista inicialmente como um dia de Greve Geral da Educação, para um “Dia Nacional de Paralisações em Defesa dos Serviços Públicos, Empregos, Direitos e Democracia”. Desde então, surgiram artigos, panfletos e palavras de ordem pela democracia em contraposição à ditadura, principalmente nas organizações trotskistas e que se autodenominam “revolucionárias”; uma discussão feita de forma rasa e oportunista, pois mascara o caráter de classe das ditas formas de dominação.

A democracia burguesa não serve aos trabalhadores, é a ditadura de classe do capital, é a democracia da ínfima minoria, a democracia dos ricos! O fechamento do regime, alentado por Bolsonaro na forma de uma ditadura, tem implicações sérias na organização dos trabalhadores e no aumento de repressão, mas não muda o caráter de classe da democracia burguesa. As liberdades democráticas nunca impediram o massacre diário da classe trabalhadora, nem a utilização das Forças Armadas para reprimi-la nos processos abertos de luta de classes. Como defenderia Lenin, a liberdade que não é capaz de emancipar a classe trabalhadora da opressão do capital, não é liberdade, mas pura demagogia.

À ditadura não se contrapõe a democracia burguesa, porque ambas são expressões da forma de dominação da burguesia. À ditadura do capital é preciso contrapor e impor a ditadura revolucionária do proletariado, única forma possível de dominação da classe trabalhadora. No cenário de decomposição imperialista, as tarefas que se colocam para os revolucionários são imensas e, neste sentido não se pode admitir titubeações conciliatórias. Aos ataques e ameaças advindos do governo, é preciso contrapor um programa operário de saída para a crise, que não será resolvida nos marcos da democracia burguesa, nem na ampliação desta!

Por uma saída operária para a crise!

O dia de hoje é um exemplo claro do papel que cumprem as burocracias sindicais e direções do movimento para a classe trabalhadora. Em sua traição às demandas históricas que se colocam para a nossa classe, se apresentam como verdadeiros inimigos dos trabalhadores que precisam ser extirpados de nossas fileiras. O 18 de março que iniciou-se com uma convocação de Greve Geral chega hoje como uma “greve de pijama” cujo ápice será um “barulhaço” na janela por “Fora Bolsonaro”. À desmobilização recorrente realizada pelos sindicatos e centrais, somou-se a orientação de evitar aglomerações e, na sexta-feira, os atos e assembleias foram cancelados. Contudo, os trabalhadores seguem trabalhando, apesar da pandemia, sem nenhuma proteção ou direito ao isolamento recomendado. É imprescindível que os trabalhadores sejam afastados dos locais de trabalho imediatamente, sem nenhum prejuízo de salário ou emprego.

A única quarentena possível para nós, trabalhadores, é a Greve Geral por tempo indeterminado, que paralise cada posto de trabalho, cada planta, cada serviço e meio de transporte. É preciso, portanto, dar uma batalha no interior de nossos sindicatos, enfrentando não só a burocracia traidora, mas também o centrismo adaptado. É urgente romper com o imobilismo das centrais e defender um congresso nacional de delegados mandatários e eleitos na base para discutir um programa operário de saída da crise.

Partió marzo con el llamado de Piñera a un gran acuerdo nacional, al que se apresuraron a firmar un centenar de gerontes de la vieja guardia del establisment semicolonial, en un intento reforzar el acuerdo del arco Piñera-Boric por el orden público y la reforma del Estado. Y este fue el puntapié de inicio de una ofensiva represiva sistemática que en apenas una semana dejó cientos de detenidos, nuevas mutilaciones oculares, 3 asesinados por carabineros y cientos de heridos incluso de bala. Mientras esta masacre contra los trabajadores, el pueblo y la juventud se perpetraba en las calles, en el congreso la charlatanería parlamentaria seguía desarrollando la línea de unidad nacional para salvar al gobierno, y a ellos mismos, y al mismo tiempo se proclaman como los “abanderados” de un “nuevo Chile”, de representantes de un nuevo “pacto social”, intentando estatizar demandas y movimientos sociales como con la paridad de la constituyente, que no cambiará un ápice las condiciones de opresión y explotación de la mujer trabajadora. Un desgarbado pacto social para conciliar clases sociales, de un semi-Estado en crisis por la descomposición imperialista, que surgirá sobre la represión sistemática sobre las masas y las nuevas generaciones, que ven con atino inconclusas las tareas que planteara la semiinsurrección del 18-O.

Y este preanunciado “se viene marzo” encontró eco en cientos de manifestaciones y acciones en todo el país, con los estudiantes volviendo a salir de las aulas a bloquear calles y evadir en el metro, enfrentando y resistiendo la embestida, desde un “superlunes” de manifestaciones y barricadas hasta un viernes de masivas concentraciones, y un pronosticable 8M donde el día Internacional de la mujer trabajadora resonará con una fuerza inusitada.

Actuando como agente de la burguesía y pata izquierda de la democracia para ricos, la burocracia sindical de la CUT o el CdP, se vuelcan con esmero en este proyecto de salvar al Estado, a “trabajar con los partidos” por el plebiscito según lo han definido, y así tratar de contener que intervenga la fuerza organizada de la clase trabajadora, la que volvió a pulsionar con fuerza el 18-O con varios paros y la histórica huelga general del 12N. Se postulan para fortalecerse como mediación en un Estado que fragmentó y atomizó las organizaciones de la clase trabajadora para así mejor apoyarse en el imperialismo y mantener su dominio fortaleciendo sus organismos represivos en franca descomposición.

Las formas de la lucha de clases deben pegar un salto en organización obrera. Es necesario que todas las expresiones de lucha se dirijan a la destrucción del aparato burocrático-militar del Estado semicolonial y para ello se debe desplegar una militancia activa para levantar y recuperar sindicatos expulsando a la burocracia y promoviendo a luchadores a sus puestos dirigentes. Es preciso que las organizaciones obreras impulsen un Congreso de Delegados de base de la clase trabajadora con fuerte presencia de trabajadores de los centros neurálgicos de la producción, portuarios industriales, forestales, mineros, etc. Un Congreso que puede conformar una Central Única, discutir un programa de independencia de clase y levantar un plan de lucha junto a la juventud explotada y oprimida.

La vanguardia juvenil que es la avanzada en la lucha contra el Estado, debe discutir también un programa revolucionario, la necesidad de una juventud revolucionaria internacionalista, para que las nuevas generaciones sean el actor principal en volver a levantar el partido mundial de revolución social, la IV Internacional reconstruida

Por un Congreso de Delegados de base de la clase trabajadora

Libertad y desprocesamiento a los que luchan

Juicio y castigo a los represores

Fortalecer los comités de autodefensa y ligarlos a los sindicatos

Abajo Piñera

Por un gobierno obrero

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For the defeat of Imperialism in the Middle East

Stop USA’s war machinery

 COR Argentina - January 2020

Thursday 2nd January at dawn. Assassin drones sent by Trump under the advise of the Yankee military high command shoot on the Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, who dies along with several collaborators. Soleimani was in Baghdad and was executed with no previous trial, like many others under imperialist fire. But in this case, we are talking about an officer of a foreign State and within the territory of another State –in the papers independent, although it is clear that the occupation of Irak on behalf of the Yankees has never ceased.

Trump hesitates. His policy was to withdraw the American troop out of the Middle East, including Afghanistan and Iraq. He wants to take advantage of the fact that the USA don’t depend so much on the oil of the region, thanks to the “fracking revolution” within their own territory and an eventual “recovery" of Venezuela. But the high commands of the Pentagon convince him of responding to the attack on the American Embassy in Iraq, that took place the last day of 2019. This attack had peculiarities: it was a popular demonstration against the American presence in Iraq. Trump accepts that its necessary to respond and orders the assassination of the Iranian General. It is an act of war against another State, outside any umbrella of imperialist international legality. It is a brutal demonstration of force on behalf of the imperialist Power that leads the world.

But the killing actually shows the weakness of the US. Of course, not from the military point of view, where its supremacy is uncontestable, at least in the mid-term. It is a weakness of its position in the State system, configured as superstructure of global capitalism. It is a structural weakness, due to the deepening of imperialist decomposition, and it’s as well determined by the dangerous cracking of the postwar balance. The attack against Soleimani was not included in any action plan. The events that happened later show it. The Iraqi Parliament voted a request for the Prime Minister “in charge” (a definition itself) Adel Abdul Mahdi –that had given up the job under the pressure of the popular demonstrations in November- to start the process of American troops out of the country. The high command of American forces in Iraq answered in a letter that they would get out, but they requested that they did it in order. Then the Pentagon discredited they command “in the field”, denying any initiative of troops withdrawal. Of course, that withdrawal would ultimately configure a resounding victory for Iran and a huge defeat for the USA.

Mass processes

The American weakness doesn’t contradict the weakness of the Iranian government itself. Obviously, it is a semi-colony that cannot confront imperialism in an open war. But this weakness also finds its roots in the situation of national sub-bourgeoisies within the capitalist crisis, who receive the pressure of imperialist aggressions, on the one hand, and, on the other, of mass mobilizations –that in Iran took were very strong in November, in the frame of a regional process that also crosses Lebanon, Iraq and, at the same time, there are class struggle processes going on in Latin America and the Caribbean, Hong Kong, Africa, Europe, etc.

The element of mass processes is qualitative to analyze the ongoing conflict. If we go back to the previous processes (2010-2011) that took place in the region after the economic outburst of 2008, with the downfall of many dictators that governed their countries with iron fist (Ben Ali in Tunisia, Gaddafi in Libya, Mubarak in Egypt) we may see how those processes leaded to several failed way outs –from the coup in Egypt to the Tunisian semi-democratic semi-Bonapartism. But what predominated was the decomposition of the States in their most brutal way: civil war in Syria and the upsurge of ISIS, an actual anti-State. This decomposition blocked out the paths for mass processes through cooptation by counterrevolutionary bourgeois or petty bourgeois leaderships. Once again, the crisis of revolutionary leadership of the proletariat has appeared as the crisis of humanity. The confusion of aims of the new generation of fighters in this crisis situation determines the tortuous element of the process.

Now, the upraise of ISIS and the civil war in Syria forced imperialism to agree with old enemies in order to try to stop the threat of this monstrosity, against the very idea of nation-State, that is the form of class domination of the bourgeoisie. So, the anti-ISIS fronts and the compromises with Russia (and Iran) are born to limit this. In the middle, there are other very important events like the failed coup in Turkey and the development of autonomic experiences in Kurdistan, which we will not deal with in this article. It is important to underline that the current stationing of American troops in Iraq happened under the pretext of this war against ISIS. In 2019 imperialist forces announce the end of ISIS. But with its defeat, any of the contradictions in the region have been closed and this is proved by this current military escalation with Iran.

Vietnamization

A lot has been said about this term to describe Iran’s policy in the region in the last years. Superficially, it is described as an asymmetric war policy between a military weak State and the main world Power, only considering the field of tactics. Vietnamization so understood would be the use of guerrilla war or “proxy” confrontation (through others). Without denying this tactic element, Soleimani was the General in charge of a more complex challenge: to unify the different ethnic and religious factions in Iraq and, in a more general way, of the whole region with the only aim of freeing it from the “great Satan" that is America. In fact, that is the official line that Iran has made public with the declarations of Ayatollah Jamenei. So we are talking about a policy that aims to give a national liberation goal to the religious movements by building up the so called “resistance front", that includes Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and other bourgeois or petty bourgeois groupings. This policy on behalf of Soleimani, and its relative success, could be one of the most important motives for his assassination, above all, taking into account the immediate cause that lead to it was the demonstration against the American Embassy in Baghdad, that made the American administration evacuate its diplomatic staff. Now, the Iranian’s government policy does not aim national liberation of the peoples of the Middle East, but rather the strengthening of a semi State able to bargain with imperialism, using as cannon fodder the heroic resistances of Palestine and Iraq, and supporting without hesitations one of the main war criminals in the region, Al Assad, only after Trump, Obama and the Israeli  governments. The negotiations for the nuclear plan are a good example of the class character and the counterrevolutionary nature of this policy.

The quagmire in Iraq resounds like the situation in Vietnam, that is real. As we said before, even with a Trump administration looking forward to leave the occupation behind, it can´t be done now, nor any way put can be found to withdraw without that being understood as a huge defeat for imperialism. Therefore, now it is possible that the ongoing conflict continues to escalate. Specially now, after the first Iranian response, that consisted in a bombing of two military bases in Iraq on Janury 8th, that although quite limited were still a humiliation for the US. Trumps response has limited to minimize the damage caused by these bombardments and to announce new economic sanctions; while he asks the rest of the imperialist Powers to commit to isolate Iran and abandon the nuclear agreement by imposing sanctions, and request the NATO a more active intervention in the region.

Uncertain scenario

A lot has been said about the American domestic front as a reason for the attack. We mean the consideration regarding the impeachment process against Trump and the presidential elections. Although this might have an influence, the strategic elements (or of weakness of this strategy) we believe are more important so as to develop a characterization of the possible new war of American imperialism. And here there exists a determining factor of the so-called domestic front, which is the inability of the imperialist State to win over a solid social base –in which the labor aristocracy must play a role- to launch a large-scale military offensive. We think that the conquest of such a social base, which was one of Trump’s aims, has not been achieved, as we can see in the development of a variety of labor conflicts in industry, services and public workers, and as it is also shown by demonstrations against an intervention in Iran that took place the first weekend of January, immediately after Soleimani’s killing, in many cities of the US. For the time being the demonstrations have not been massive, but they open the possibility of the development of a mobilization against a greater imperialist intervention.

Another important factor are the economic consequences of the war, that could accelerate the entrance in a recession of the global economy, which has been forecasted and, up to now, is being retarded. Geopolitical instability has shaken financial and commodity markets. This instability becomes uncertainty and it is pointed put by the withdrawal of some NATO allies of their troops in Iraq, the European lack of definition in face of the events and even Israeli hesitations towards the assassination of Soleimani. If for some time we have been assessing the contradictions of Trump’s policy at implementing a turn of imperialist policy, today come up some doubts about the possibility of a failure that leads the cracking of the postwar balance to a much more chaotic world situation.

Out imperialism of the Middle East

Iraq has been military occupied for the last 17 years. Palestine, since 1948, by the Israeli creature that responds to the imperialist needs of control over the Middle East. Imperialist plundering of the region has been going on for a long time, but the ongoing imperialist decomposition, worsened by the global crisis, accelerates the situation of unbalance of the system of States and the decomposition of the nation-State. In face of this, mass responses have not missed. They have come out in a spontaneous way and with confusion of aims, which allowed counterrevolutionary leaderships to lead the different national processes to dead ends. But imperialism has not been able to close the crisis and, therefore, the processes open up again placing before revolutionaries the main challenge to intervene decisively in them, so as to draw lessons from the previous defeats and make them useful to develop a transitional program between the current capitalist decomposition and the socialist future of humanity. The centrality of the working class in these processes is marked by the need to dispute bourgeois and petty bourgeois leaderships the leading role against imperialism. For that, internationalist policy and leadership are needed, working for the unity of the proletariat of the region, centered in the oil workers, along with the working class of the imperialist countries, especially the USA. Therefore, it is necessary that revolutionaries fight for the American and European unions to declare the stoppage of the imperialist war machinery, by occupying factories and blocking the supply of troops established in the region and Israel. In the Latin American countries, besides developing street demonstrations and denounce the complicity of Fernández, Bolsonaro, Piñera and other sepoys, we must propose the stoppage of imperialist industries against the intervention in the Middle East. This struggle is linked to the fight against the IMF’s reforms that those governments intend to apply in our region. We must develop the organization and the struggle to force all the imperialist troops to withdraw from the Middle East and the other semicolonial countries. For the military defeat of the US in Iraq and Iran. For the destruction of Israel. For a Federation of Socialist Republics in the Middle East. For the reconstruction of the IV International.

   Si algo hizo virar la coyuntura política después del 18 de Octubre, fue la intervención de la clase obrera mediante una huelga general el 12 de Noviembre pasado. Y es que a la dictadura de las calles; al enfrentamiento constante de jóvenes y distintos sectores sociales con la represión, a las masivas manifestaciones ciudadanas, se sumó la clase trabajadora con una acción que no se había visto en décadas desde el retorno a su forma democrática de la dictadura del capital. Y es que el poder de la burguesía reside en la producción. Esta intervención hizo tambalear el piso sobre el que se yergue el Estado burgués, en particular del parlamento. Presurosos salieron a salvar al gobierno de Piñera con un acuerdo reaccionario para salvarse ellos mismos.

   Desde entonces, se han sucedido golpe a golpe una represión sistemática, y se ha ido cocinando la trampa constituyente para intentar cooptar con fuegos de artificio, el profundo malestar del pueblo trabajador y la juventud. Si bien lograron que amplios sectores vieran en un cambio constitucional un horizonte de mejora a la situación de penuria de las masas, la experiencia dicta que es poco probable que los mismos de siempre, los representantes del poder burgués, de la dominación del imperialismo, otorguen alguna mejora significativa en su miserable “agenda social” sin que descarguen sobre las espaldas de la población la crisis por ellos generada. Que mejor ejemplo de esto que el aumento exponencial de la desocupación y la caída abrupta del salario a niveles paupérrimos.

   La burocracia sindical, que supo - para salvaguardar sus privilegios- una y otra vez escindir y debilitar las ya escuálidas organizaciones sindicales, formó la Mesa de Unidad Social para intervenir con un frente único superestructural que fue un referente de dirección de un movimiento espontáneo. Parcialmente lo consiguió centralizando las acciones a nivel nacional, buscando galardonarlas con un programa de corte reformista, para reforzar el reaccionario aparato estatal. Es así que la burocracia, si bien no entró inmediatamente en el acuerdo de Piñera-Boric, exigió ser reconocida como la interlocutora sentándose con el gobierno el día 2 del acuerdo a negociar en una clara orientación de conciliación de clases. Es decir, el PC y el PH quienes influencian mayoritariamente a la CUT y al Colegio de Profesores, sirvieron de “quinta columna” del régimen reaccionario.

   Hoy, disolviendo en los hechos la Mesa de Unidad Social, despliegan banderas para “trabajar con los partidos” por el plebiscito del 26 de abril, levantando comandos por el apruebo, preparando el terreno del engaño de una convención burguesa.

   La mentada convención constituyente (de salir aprobada) será un parlamento paralelo, una comisión ad hoc para, en el mejor de los casos, intentar refundar el Estado semicolonial, sin tocar un ápice la relación con el imperialismo (como ya acordaron, tratados como el TPP o TLC’s no se tocan por ej). ¿Es verdaderamente posible que una reproducción del parlamento burgués para la redacción de una carta magna logre doblegar el brazo de los capitalistas para que decidan rescindir parte de la extracción de la plusvalía, de la expropiación constante del trabajo ajeno?. Si de lo que se trata en realidad no es afectar las ganancias capitalistas sino limitarse a reformar el sistema democrático, consiguiendo alguna que otra migaja en un plan de redistribución de la miseria, bastaría dar un vistazo a la región donde la pobreza aumenta sideralmente, los despidos y ajustes dictados por el FMI son moneda corriente, en el marco de una ofensiva feróz del imperialismo norteamericano sobre su patio trasero.

   Nuestra principal debilidad es la falta de organización de nuestra clase. La fragmentación y atomización de los sindicatos legado genuino de la contrarrevolución pinochetista. Organizaciones como la CUT se encuentran en manos de la burocracia que aspira a hacerse parte del botín del Estado como fue en el gobierno anterior.

   En marzo la fuerza de la juventud volverá a expresarse en las calle y los colegios, en miles de formas de lucha y organización. Expresarán la caja de resonancia de las contradicciones de clase. La burocracia sindical pretenderá encorsetar toda lucha para restringirla al acuerdo constitucional, sujetarlas a la charlatanería parlamentaria de sostenedores del gobierno. Será necesario romper este cerco político. Las fuerzas reaccionarias que bregan por el rechazo no se derrotarán en la urnas. La justicia hará su labor reaccionaria en la trastienda de la represión; llenando las cárceles de presos políticos.

   Será necesario que los sectores de vanguardia no sucumban a los engaños de la democracia semicolonial y se aboquen a la tarea militante para que intervenga la clase trabajadora de forma decidida.

   Impulsemos un Congreso de delegados de base de toda la clase trabajadora para poner en pie una Central Única que levante un programa de salida a la crisis, un programa dirigido a conquistar la independencia de clase. Esta tarea será una tarea fundamental de los revolucionarios, parte de superar la crisis de dirección revolucionaria, una tarea verdaderamente internacional.