Abolish Prisons!

The NZ state announces another $1billion to be spent building another 1800 prison beds. Under capitalism prisons are part of a ‘justice system’ which criminalises workers by locking them up for petty crimes against property and persons while ‘white collar’ criminals if charged often get name suppression and home detention. While some other countries are getting over the war on drugs and punitive imprisonment, NZ is getting more draconian applying the “3 strikes and you’re out” viciousness of “Senseless Sentencing”. We say: organise workers’ power to stop the war on drugs, make jobs or all, pay a living wage, and abolish prisons!

Police and prisons and the (in)justice system all exists to protect the ruling class, to defend their property; “private property” (capitalist property). The overall function of their laws clearly results in the imprisonment of the working class (including unemployed) disproportionately, with youth and Maori particularly “over-represented” = harshly oppressed.

The history of colonisation was the introduction of capitalism in NZ. This included the theft by force from Maori (land wars and colonial laws, including confiscations) of Maori land (part of the means of production in an agricultural settler economy). The effect of losing lands (means of production) was also to turn Maori into a working class: reliant on waged slavery to survive.

The ruling class (capitalists) legal system was wholly to defend the ruling class: including their “entitlement” to lands.

Now a few Maori under Waitangi treaty settlements, are bought out with deals, and so have transformed into capitalists. The promise of tribal trickle-down $ to ordinary iwi members is not to be seen.

Prisons create a criminal class

The suicide rate in prisons is 10 times the general population rate – which for NZ is obscenely high. The harm that occurs in prisons is generally ignored. News media reports about “fight clubs” occurring, is an exception. Inhumane treatment of transgender woman in solitary confinement due to assaults in a men’s prison, is exposed mostly due to the campaigning of the “No Pride in Prisons” activist group. Inhumane treatment of a terminally ill woman, in the Wiri women’s prison is exposed due to the preparedness of family to campaign and speak out on her behalf in public media. The individual cases that make the media are worth of better treatment, however these are the rule in a prison system built on a model of control, punishment and vengeance.

And despite a focus on “reducing re-offending” (goal of 25% by 2017) the so-called “Department of Corrections” (responsible for running prisons and probation services) clearly fails to “reduce re-offending” faster than the state changes law and increases crimes and jail terms.

The recent announcement of needing to build another prison is in-part caused by the popularity of methamphetamine. The cash paydays available in manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine are attractive to anyone tired of working class condition (waged slavery) struggling for a decent reward. And of course, the drug itself provides a direct neural reward (short-term) that is a break from harsh realities of life under capitalist rule. Methamphetamine was re-classified class A (approx. 2003) which meant the (in)justice system has since then dealt out longer prison terms for manufacture and dealing. It also meant an overload in the High Court where Class A drug manufacture and supply cases are meant to be tried. So rather than maintain the pretence of justice, the State tipped the playing field and reduced trials by jury, reduced access to legal aid lawyers, and confiscated “private property” as “proceeds of crime”, without proof of economic gain.

A huge proportion of “crime” is drug related. Drug use itself is a symptom of the failure of capitalist society. Bruce K Alexander, in his 2008 book “the globalisation of addiction” described the rise of addiction with the rise of capitalism – which he calls neoliberalism. http://www.brucekalexander.com/

Capitalism is alienating of the working class, tearing families apart, to deliver workers to capitalists where they want them. Capitalism fails to provide meaningful social connection. Under these conditions drugs are an alternative experience: an attractive escape. Recovery from addiction has been described not as abstinence from drugs but regaining social connection – even the old-school AA can be seen in this context as providing (meetings) opportunities for social connections (alternative to alcohol).

Capitalism benefits from the oppression of the working class through drug laws, and criminalisation of drug consumption. The gangs (and their drug distribution economy) are a socially necessary (for capitalism) counter-point to the existence of police. Gangs (and drug laws) provide a reason for the police to continue to exist; else the true mission of the police to protect capitalist property and the capitalist class would be exposed.

The capitalist state has twisted democracy further, by excluding prisoners from the right to vote. Given the class nature of the (in)justice system this was a blatant attack on the democratic rights of the working class.

Drug laws provide a mechanism for the capitalist class to oppress and discriminate against working class. The majority of people use drugs. It is much more likely that Maori, Poor and Unemployed will be convicted and sentenced more harshly: Compared to the Richer, Whiter, and those who can find an employer to vouch for their connection to capitalist production. CWG reviewed our position on drug laws and decided that drug (laws) should be under the control of the working class; not the capitalist class through their laws.

http://redrave.blogspot.co.nz/2014/06/a-marxist-review-of-capitalism-and-drug.html

We have no confidence in capitalist laws being anything but a means for the capitalist class to oppress and control the working class. The criminalisation of people, forces many into unskilled jobs, poor wages (or subsistence wages with on-call work, casualization, “the precariat”). Few skilled jobs will accept anyone with a criminal conviction. This of course makes the easier money of criminal activities are more attractive earning options, which can perpetuate “re-offending”.

Socialist solutions

A goal of socialism would be to abolish prisons. There may be some offenders so damaged by abuse in their personal histories that they need a highly-structured environment like prison. However, they would be an exception rather than the norm. Most crime is property related, and if real work (socially necessary) is justly rewarded then much of the motivators of crime will be diminished.

Other crime is complex however social inequality and real relationships between people are more likely to rehabilitate faulty beliefs: than systems of punishment and vindictiveness. There may be a few capitalists, who don’t want to share their ill-gotten gains, that may need to be detained. However, a programme of real work and participation in socially necessary work programmes for the good of all people may be able to rehabilitate either of these groups of anti-socialists.

Restore the democratic rights of prisoners!

Abolish prisons!

Real Jobs with living wages for All!

Public works to build public transport by renewable energy!

Reduce the working week until there is full employment!

1917-2017: Happy Bolshevik New Year!

 

 

New Years celebrations are bitter sweet, reflecting past failures and future hopes. Except New Year today has lost its significance. It is a cultural hangover alienated from its origins as the celebration of mid-winter. While observing Matariki (literally the 'eyes of god') in Aotearoa celebrates the mid-winter as recognition of the renewal of life, it is as a cultural ritual detached from economic reality. We are no longer a society of hunter gatherers or subsistence agriculture that has to ritually appease the gods to get a good crop. Society today is based on capitalist cropping that destroys rather than worships nature. Such is the harm done to nature, capitalism has exhausted the limits of our species ability to live in harmony with nature at the cost of our impending extinction.

If we are to return to celebrating the essence of nature why not make that a cause for reflection on our failures to overcome our alienation from nature and ourselves and on our plans for returning to nature?

Let's take the long view of capitalism as the most advanced society ever but one that now threatens mass extinction including the human species. How do we overcome denial of this threat, understand it, and work out what is to be done?

Four Standpoints

There are four broad standpoints on this question. Free market fundamentalists blame the ills of capitalism (where they are not in denial) on state intervention in the market. Liberals and social democrats blame the power elites that manipulate the markets to their advantage. Radicals argue that there is no such thing as a free market and capitalism always used state power to plunder and accumulate wealth. Marxists argue that capitalism is based on the exploitation of labour-power by the owners of the means of production.

What hopes spring from such standpoints? The marketeers proscribe more free market to free individuals to make rational economic decisions by getting the state out of business. Liberals claim that it is necessary to use the state to correct for the inequalities of individuals that dominate the market. Bank bailouts should be redirected to boost wages and stimulate a return to productive growth. Radicals have no confidence in using the state to correct for capitalism's unequal relations. Build socialism from the grass roots based on direct democracy. Marxists know capitalism is doomed to make more and more wars and ultimately the destroy human society. Organise workers into armed soviets that can replace the capitalist state with a workers state, now!

In our New Year resolutions how do we decide which of these scenarios we should support. For myself, the decision is easy. Each standpoint can be put to the test of practical experience. What better way to do this than by demonstrating that the Marxist standpoint alone has any record of success.

The Bolshevik Centenary

2017 is then centenary of the Bolshevik Revolution. Why should we celebrate it? Because it was and continues to be the most important event since 1917 and in embodying 'living Marxism' has shaped the fate of capitalism up to today. What are the lessons of this living Marxism?

First, the revolution took place because global capitalism in 1914 had exhausted its capacity to grow and develop without major crises, depressions and wars. This proved that the market had failed not as a result of state intervention but that imperialist states were forced to go to war to defeat their rivals and plunder the resources of the whole world.

Second, liberals and radicals sided with their capitalist monopolies to send workers to fight one another in the name of profits. The German Marxists (SDP) betrayed their working class supporters by voting to finance the war and then joined forces with the fascists that killed Luxemburg and Leibknecht. Those Marxists who condemned this betrayal created the Zimmerwald Left and called on workers in every country to turn their guns on their own ruling class.

In Russia the Bolsheviks adopted this stand for the defeat of the Tsar in the war with Germany. The strike of women textile workers in February 1917 led the fall of the Tsar and creation of a liberal bourgeois government that continued the war. The Bolshevik agitation against war and campaign for 'peace, land, and bread' rallied mass support for workers, poor peasants and soldiers soviets that were able to take power in October and build a workers' state.

This was proof that the time for socialist revolution was ripe, and that the market, liberal reforms, and radical betrayals were inevitable when it came to a showdown between the capitalist ruling class and the proletariat. So damning was this proof that all the imperialist countries rallied fascist gangs, and co-opted liberal democrats and radicals, even some anarchists, to go to war against Russia to defeat the revolution. The result was the defeat of the revolution in Germany, the invasion of Russia and the 5-year civil war.

While all the capitalists and their hangers on ganged up on the Bolsheviks, workers everywhere were inspired by the revolution. And despite the counter-revolution the Soviet state survived. The degeneration of the revolution into a bureaucratic regime under Stalin had nothing to do with the Bolsheviks and everything to do with the fear and loathing of the imperialist reactionaries facing the threat of the spread of "Bolshevism".

The Legacy of Bolshevism in 2017

The capitalists were right to fear Bolshevism and the spectre that hangs over them still today. What they fear is the power of workers who are conscious of their class interests and what must be done to defeat capitalism. That is why the imperialist powers ganged up on Russia in 1917 and after the Nazi threat was stopped (mainly by Russia) and Stalin had renounced world revolution, ganged up against it again from 1948. Even after the Soviet Union was destroyed in 1991, the ghost of Bolshevism refused to go away.

The reason for this is that Bolshevism was the revolutionary expression of the proletariat as the gravedigger of capitalism unable to overcome its worsening crises. Capitalism can stagger on over the corpses of billions of workers, but it cannot survive a class conscious revolutionary proletariat. Yet that proletariat does not become revolutionary by passing New Year Resolutions. The Resolutions that count are those of the masses of workers organised into independent organs of class struggle - workers councils or soviets - as the basis for workers' power.

Bolshevism embodied the program for revolution in the vanguard party. The essence of the party is its program. And the key to making sure the program is correct in any given situation is democratic centralism - the means by which the program for revolution is tested in practice. The party program states what is necessary for revolution and organises its members to fight for it. It applies the program by passing resolutions in democratic congresses to take action, and then organises to fight as a disciplined single force to test that program in action. If the program is found to be wrong, it is changed by passing new resolutions.

The legacy of Bolshevism is that it was the key to the only successful socialist revolution in history and remains the key to revolution today. In 2017 we can begin the new year by passing a resolution to become Bolsheviks. The first step towards that end is to celebrate the centenary of the Russian Revolution by becoming conscious that the '10 Days that Shook the World' has continued to shake it for 100 years, and will continue to do so until the failing capitalist system is replaced by a world socialist system.

John Key – Agent of Finance Capital

Emmerson - NZ Herald 6 December 2016

Prime Minister John Key’s sudden resignation has created a flurry on the surface of NZ politics. Left, Right and Centre are writing political obituaries about his “legacy”. Legacies refer to what politicians have done to establish their reputations in history. But what are the hidden assumptions behind the evaluations of political reputations? Unless these assumptions are tested and critiqued, John Key’s actual historic role as an agent of the international finance capital cannot be understood.

As usual the Left is wallowing in superficial chatter. Key’s reputation is as a smooth operator who kept a fragile coalition majority lined up over a 3-term government. Therefore, his departure becomes an opportunity for the opposition to improve their chances of winning in 2017. Little has to “step-up” and Labour-Greens plus a rejigged Mana/MP combo, and even a ‘populist’ NZ First, could combine to form the next coalition government.

Much of the Left’s animus is directed at Key as if he was personally responsible for the failure of the left to win support and remove National from power. The left failed because they could not put up a leader who could compete with Key’s popularity. This is because the left sees their failure as the direct consequence of his success. Yet Key’s success can only be explained by the way he represented the interests of his class, not his personal attributes as such. And that can only be explained by first acknowledging what those class interests are.

Of course, this is equally true of the Left’s representation of certain class interests. And we have always argued that the true difference between Key and his various Labour, Green and NZ First leadership rivals, is that Key understands and knows how to serve his capitalist class masters, while the Left continues to subordinate the interests of working class to those of the capitalist ruling class by appealing to a classless “middle NZ”. We will develop this point in the section ‘Left Opposition in Capitalist Politics’ below.

Economics determines politics

As we have argued in Class Struggle before, bourgeois democracy is a false representation of reality. It presents capitalism as based on the equal opportunity of sovereign individuals who delegate their sovereignty to their political representatives in parliaments or congresses where they legislate to manage the economy in the supposed ‘national’ interest. Thus, the exploitative capital relation based on a fundamental class inequality in the ownership of property, and the conflict and crises that result, are obscured by the fetish of ‘representative democracy’ based on the will of sovereign and equal individuals.

Politics therefore is an extension of economics, where parliament is no more than a “committee to manage the affairs” of the ruling capitalist class. The best capitalist politicians are ‘selected’ (trained, co-opted) to manage those ruling class interests. They do this in two ways. The first is the use state power to advance, protect and subsidise private property and the production of profits. Second, is the role of political leaders to manage the destructive social consequences of capitalist economic policies.

In simple terms the success of Key in managing capitalism then comes down to his performance in advancing the conditions for economic growth as the basis of profitability, and presenting the growing social inequality arising from this as no more than the failure of individuals to make the best of their opportunities in the market. The radical critique of “crony” capitalism does not penetrate this veil because it poses a “non-crony” or egalitarian capitalism as the Left alternative to the ‘capture’ of capitalism by “cronies”.

To assess Key’s performance in serving not just his “cronies” but internationalist finance capital, we have to understand both the place of the NZ economy in the world capitalist economy and the state of the world economy as a whole. These structural conditions determine the tasks of managing NZ capitalism, and Key’s success or failure, as with all politicians, as a political manager. For an analysis of why Trump cannot overcome the Terminal crisis of capitalism or suppress the social conflict it creates without turning himself into a Louis Bonaparte-type dictator, see our article “Trumped, Stumped and Dumped”.

NZ: Neo-colony in global Terminal Crisis

The difference between the US and NZ is that the former is an imperialist state while NZ is a semi-colony of the US and, in the 21st century, of China. China, along with Russia, is now part of an emerging imperialist bloc in competition with the US-led bloc. In relation to the US and China, NZ has an economy that is integrated into the global economy as a producer of mainly primary produce and tertiary services open to foreign investment, ownership and control. Trump’s task to overcome the decline in US imperialism means making weaker imperialist powers such as China, and the neo-colonial countries like NZ pay for the crisis. This is turn determines the task of neo-colonial or “comprador” capitalists like Key to act as the agents one or other imperialist countries.

When most of the NZ Left shares the superficial view that NZ is a minor imperialist power, why do we insist that NZ is a neo-or semi-colony? We can only summarise NZ’s capitalist evolution here. For a fuller Marxist account see the Development of Capitalism in NZ. NZ from its settler colonisation has always been some form of colony dominated by imperialism. The extraction of surplus from agriculture etc., and export of raw materials consigned the colony to underdevelopment, rising inequality, and finally a shift from protectionism to neoliberal counter-revolution from the 1980s to today. Rogernomics called for a new comprador class that rejected economic nationalism as no longer in the interests of international finance capital. From that point on, NZ deregulated its protected market to open it to the global capitalist economy.

A new set of politicians committed to neo-liberalism or its left variant “third way”, or Blairism, were now thrust forward to manage the deregulated economy. So, John Key inherited the neo-liberal legacy of managing a neo-colony a full 20 years after the neo-liberal turn in 1984. He was uniquely suited to that task as no other National Party leader had his background in international finance. This is why some of the conspiratorial Left has seen him as an agent of Wall St, and may well be behind Winston Peter's response to Key’s resignation that he jumped ship before the ship hit the fan. Key represents international capital and knows that NZ is not a healthy, Rockstar, capitalist economy and that the global economy is about to crash. It is a fragile, dependent economy for which Terminal Crisis will pose a new set of tasks, complementary to those of Trump, of making NZ neo-colonial workers pay for the crisis with their livelihoods and lives.

Left Opposition in Capitalist Politics

Instead of basing its strategy on the demise of Key freeing up the “middle ground”, the Left Opposition should rethink its bourgeois assumptions about politics. If Key is an agent of international finance capital, and performed well in advancing its interests, then the Left Opposition policy should counter-pose the interests of those who work for a living and produce a program that fights finance capital. We don’t mean ‘finance capital’ as Wall St speculators, but the Marxist definition of the fusion of banking and productive capital. Instead of playing its classic role of boosting illusions in a reformed capitalism, the Left should understand that the coming economic crash fused together with abrupt climate change has exhausted the potential for capitalist reforms. In the face of Terminal Crisis, we need a Left Opposition that turns to socialism to solve the crisis.

The Left has to give up on the failed utopia of Social Democracy, and more critically, bourgeois democracy serving all citizens and nations equally. The history of bourgeois democracy is that it acts to defend capital and prevent the independent mobilisation of the working class internationally. Worse, it softens workers up for fascism and imperialist war. The delusion that class can be legislated out of existence has to be exploded. The Left has to overcome its failed legacy of reforms now destroyed by the neo-liberal counter-revolution, and go forward towards the working-class majority building its own organisations outside parliament, and increasingly committed to overthrowing the capitalist state and the ruling class it represents. This is what we mean by Survival Socialism!

For a Workers’ Government, capable of expropriating capital and building a socialist economy and society as part of a Pacific Federation of Socialist Republics!

Climate Crash: The case for Survival Socialism.

 

Climate is crashing

The recent news about the lack of ice in the Arctic has “shocked” mainstream climate scientists even if a few have been predicting such abrupt changes for years. Paul Beckwith is one of the latter. His work focuses mainly on the Arctic only because the changes there are critical to whether we can stop a climate death spiral or not. As he says “What happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic, unlike Las Vegas.”

So, we face a climate change emergency that could end the existence of the human species. Why is it an emergency, and why is Beckwith’s Three-Legged Barstool strategy a logical response? Will it work? Who can say until it is tried. But it won't be tried until we have overthrown capitalism and created a new society based on restoring a harmonious relationship with nature.

Now that climate science is catching up with events, it is time to look more closely at Beckwith’s proposals on how to stop it. It becomes clear that even to try to implement his geoengineering solutions, we have to overthrow the capitalist system which has no interest in spending the billions needed to try out these solutions. So, let’s assume that everyone now agrees that abrupt climate change is upon us and we are about to “fall off the cliff”.

We should all know by now why the Arctic ice is critical to climate change. If not watch Beckwith’s video. Beckwith “builds the scientific case for being in a climate change emergency.” The build-up of CO2 and Methane in the atmosphere and oceans is occurring at an increasing exponential rate”. The consequences are the slowing of the jet streams that allow warm air to reach the pole in winter which melts the ice and creates a positive feedback system that creates more global warming. He predicts the end of Arctic ice by 2020. The resulting breakup of climate patterns around the globe is what is causing the dramatic increase in extreme weather events.

Can we stop it?

Responses to the threat of climate change are now less about whether it is happening, and how fast, but what to do about it. These responses fall into three broad categories:

(1) The dominant capitalist discourse, of leave it to the market. A good example is the shift from coal to Natural Gas (methane). Far from a ‘clean’ alternative Methane is several times worse than coal in rapidly raising global warming. Under market rule, not until the costs of climate change threaten already weak profits will any significant shift from burning carbon take place. China is a case in point. Now a global capitalist power competing on with other imperialist powers, China has moved to cut coal burning. But this is far short of what is needed to stop rising CO2 in time.

(2) The second response is to recognise that climate change is abrupt (posing the possibility of human extinction with decades), and that short of a total collapse of industrial/capitalist society, cannot be stopped. Those who take this view divide into those who pin their hopes on such a collapse and those who hold no such hope. Guy McPherson (currently touring NZ) is an example of a ‘maverick’ early-warning scientist who thought that the GFC of 2008 might bring about a collapse of industrial society. When the banks were bailed out he gave up that hope and now argues that there is nothing we can do to stop human extinction, so it is best to prepare ourselves for the inevitable ‘going dark’.

(3) The third response is that abrupt climate change can be stopped by emergency geoengineering techniques that slow down and reverse global warming before it is too late. Of those who think this is possible there are those who look to capitalist society to leap into action to implement urgent solutions, and those who think that capitalism is part of the problem and will have to be removed before any solutions are tried. Beckwith falls into the first category but has doubts about how capitalism can respond in time. Let’s look at his ‘Three-Legged Barstool” metaphor for a geo-engineering strategy to see if his pessimism is justified. For Beckwith, the three legs of the stool each stand for a major intervention to (a) stop carbon/methane emissions; (b) restore Arctic (and Antarctic) ice in winter; (c) reclaim carbon from the atmosphere and oceans. If you want to know what these interventions involve, check Beckwith’s explanation here.

Reform or Revolution to fix the climate?

Like Beckwith there are those who share his optimism that such interventions could work, and that they would require a major transfer of GDP from military and other budget items into emergency climate rectification programs. They also share his pessimism about whether they can be funded in time by the existing capitalist economies. Marxists understand that the capitalist market does not produce commodities unless it can make a profit. The market cannot respond to a global climate emergency, nor can capitalist governments which serve the capitalist ruling class act collectively for humanity when its own class interests are paramount.

Beckwith argues we need a new Manhattan program or Marshall plan to mobilise the resources. But war is not a good analogy because of its proclaimed defence of national interests from which the arms industry profits. So, it is not a question of fatalism of the ‘doomers’ or the pessimism of climate activists like Beckwith that is critical. The question becomes, if not capitalism, what social system can be created in time to act against climate collapse?

Let’s see what would have to happen to stop climate change in time. The capitalist ruling class will not allow their profits confiscated to fund climate action. Its motivation is to protect and increase its historic accumulation of capital. So not only are capitalists living off centuries of stolen wealth, they will risk the destruction not only of the climate, but the habitability of the planet necessary for the working class to survive to create the surplus-value needed to maintain and increase their wealth.

Would a social- democratic majority government make any difference compared with those of right wing deniers like Trump? No. The political program of social democracy is to nationalise the private property of capitalists only as a subsidy to all capitalists. What social-democratic government would implement taxes against the rich or against polluters to raise the billions necessary for emergency climate action? Even if such a government was elected it would be on the basis of defending a threat to private property posed by a rising mass workers’ mobilisation to take power.

Survival Socialism

This is why more and more Marxists, and leftists in general, see socialism as the only road to human survival. First, to stop abrupt climate change bringing a destruction of nature and society and with it human extinction within decades, it will be necessary to expropriate the wealth of the ruling class, in particular the big banks and corporations, to pay for climate correction.

Second, since the ruling class will not agree to expropriation by legislating higher taxes etc., and will stage coups to remove leftist governments, it is necessary for the vast majority of workers to mobilise as an organised movement to take power; removing the capitalist ruling class and creating a workers’ state. A workers’ state that is based on the democratic will of the working people would immediately use the expropriated wealth to fund the massive geo-engineering interventions that are necessary.

Even if these desperate measures do not work in time, or only mitigate climate change partially, a socialist society is the only way to prepare for meeting the challenges of living in a post-capitalist world by prioritising what is necessary to ensure the conditions for human survival over the interests of warring nations and gangs of mercenaries, collapsing economies and social destruction. Better Red than Dead!