Socialism Today Issue 240 July-August 2020

Malcolm X famously said, ‘you can’t have capitalism without racism’. Assessing the new upsurge in the #Black Lives Matter movement, HANNAH SELL argues that fighting racism does mean a fight to replace capitalism with a new society, socialism.

The brutal police murder of George Floyd has ignited a massive #Black Lives Matter movement, first in the US and now globally. This is not the first global wave of demonstrations in recent years – #BLM first spread worldwide in 2014, as did the women’s marches after Trump’s election. We have also seen a huge global wave of protests on climate change.

The current movement, however, has important characteristics that mark it out as being on a different level than what came before. It has a broader reach. The Washington Post, for example, reports that there have been far more demonstrations in the US than the previously unprecedented 650 women’s marches that took place in 2016. In addition to the big cities, protests have taken place in even the smallest towns, including in places in the south with recent histories of white supremacist activity.

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The following article was first published in 1994 in the August-September edition, No.58, of Militant International Review, the predecessor magazine of Socialism Today. The author was ANDREA ENISUOH, who in 1989 had become the first black woman elected to the National Union of Students national executive committee – as a proud Militant supporter. Andrea sadly died in February this year, at the far too early age of 49.

The early 1990s have seen the issue of race and nationality to the fore in both political and social life. The last few years have been marked by the growth of racism, the re-emergence of fascist parties on a Europe-wide scale, and the development of nationalist wars.

Equally significant, however, has been the development of a fightback against racism and fascism. Many young people in particular, repulsed by increasing racial attacks and murders, are joining the anti-fascist movement.

Yet while the far-right have provided some focus for anti-racist activity they remain a small factor in the development of racism in society. The racist sentiments that the fascists and far-right have been able to play on have to varying extents already existed in many white communities. Far more than any of their more overtly anti-working class policies it is racist rhetoric that has provided them with a platform. While not being the direct cause of racism in society they have used the growth of racism to their advantage.

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TONY SAUNOIS, secretary of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), argues that the covid pandemic has inaugurated a new historical period of capitalist crises and class struggle.

The words of WB Yeats in his poem Easter1916 sum up the current world situation: “All is changed, changed utterly”. Fundamental changes are taking place in the world economy, geo-political relations, and in the colossal polarisation between the classes on a global scale, opening up a new era.

All of the trends we see developing today were present prior to the onset of the Covid-19 crisis. However, they have been razor-sharpened and accelerated at lightning speed. All of the consequences of the dramatic upheavals taking place are not yet fully clear. However, it is certain that capitalism will not be able to go back to the pre-corona situation, much less the situation which existed before the financial crisis of 2007-08.

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CLARE DOYLE reviews a comprehensive account of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and argues that the project is another form of imperialist expansionism.

Belt and Road: A Chinese World Order

By Bruno Maçães

Published by C Hurst & Co, 2020 (pbk), £11-99

“China’s Belt and Road strategy is acknowledged to be the most important geopolitical initiative of the age”, write the publishers of this fascinating book by Bruno Maçães. “It symbolises a new phase in China’s ambitions as a superpower: to remake the world economy and crown Beijing as the new centre of capitalism and globalisation”.

In page after page of detail, the author leaves the reader in no doubt that China is in effect attempting to carry out a massive and meticulously calculated, high-speed, planned form of imperialist expansion that indeed rivals the growth of US, European and Japanese imperialisms over past centuries.

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The covid crisis has once again revealed the incapacity of capitalism to meet society’s needs. The former assistant general secretary of the PCS civil servants’ union, CHRIS BAUGH, who during his term of office held responsibility for developing the union’s policies for combating climate change, draws some lessons for the climate struggle.

The Covid-19 pandemic has taken hold at a point in human history when we face the existential threat of climate change. The scientific evidence available tells us we are in a race against time in limiting the impact and without decisive action this could have incalculable consequences for human life on the planet.

The shutdown of production in all the major economies due to the coronavirus pandemic has led to an estimated 20 percent reduction in global greenhouse emissions. As the lockdown is ended, however, it is expected that greenhouse emissions will return to their previous dangerous levels, showing that simply reducing production is not a solution. This article argues the potential for developing alternative socially useful forms of production. To avert climactic disaster, this will need to form part of a political struggle for system change based on socialist planning using the latest smart technology with new and democratic forms of workers’ and community control and self-management.

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Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America

By Chris Arnade

Published by Sentinel, 2019, £25

Reviewed by Peter Taaffe

This book is a stunning achievement by US photojournalist Chris Arnade. It was written and published in advance of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the recent magnificent movement ignited by the racist brutality of the US police. However, to a great extent this book anticipated the devastating fallout from Covid-19, particularly in the US, because of the rotting of US capitalism which it records in detail.

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