Class Struggle 121 Winter 2017

 https://www.scribd.com/document/351314439/Class-Struggle-121-Winter-2017

Zizek is NOT the vanguard in Egypt

Typical of liberal intellectuals, Zizek thinks that the great historic events such as the revolution in Egypt are cultural events, sparked by great ideas, in particular the ones that he himself propagates, or that other historic figures embody in their exceptional capacity to 'seize the time' and lead the masses to liberation.

This is a variation on the petty bourgeois infatuation with great leaders sucking up the will of the masses and projecting it like a halo. But great historical events like revolutions are not the acts of superior individuals, reducing the masses to mere amplifiers. Great historical events are enactments of the masses mobilised behind great ideas, yes, but ideas that express their urgently felt needs such as liberty, equality, fraternity, the call signs of the French Revolution, or land, bread and peace the famous rallying cries of the Russian Revolution in 1917.

But the call signs of the bourgeoisie are far from universal. Liberty, equality, fraternity, became the property of the bourgeoisie and was denied to all others. Napoleon notoriously reversed his emancipation of the Haitian slaves. The material conditions for the realisation of these ideas do not exist in capitalist society. One class exploits another and so renders it unfree. So while liberal intellectuals see themselves are the carriers of these noble principles they cannot change the material conditions sufficient to realise them.

The Bolsheviks succeeded in revolutionising these social conditions by overthrowing both the Tsarist aristocracy and the weak bourgeosie that were barriers to change, and making a socialist revolution. For the first time in history the promise of the French Revolution was fulfilled universally, if briefly, in the Soviet Union. But this did not happen as Zizek thinks because the genius Lenin was able to momentarily substitute for the working class and 'seize the time'.

Lenin was not an isolated intellectual but a leader of a revolutionary Marxist party that built its program for Russia on the lessons of all previous victories and defeats of the working class right back to the Paris Commune of 1871. The ideas were drawn from those lessons, but they were not capable of magically transforming the material reality. They could only operate in conditions where the working class could actively intervene to transform the social relations.

These conditions arose out of the crisis of capitalism during the First World War, and the suffering of the masses of Russia at war with Germany. The only class that could rescue the universal promise of the French Revolution and make this real for all, was the starving working class. Because it was workers who produced the main wealth, its alone was the universal class with the capacity to lead the poor peasant producers, to fulfill the bourgeois revolution as a socialist revolution that would open the way to a classless society.

In Egypt, the realisation of the principles of the French revolution - Liberty, Equality, Fraternity - cannot be won unless the working class driven by the need for Liberty, Bread and Land, becomes conscious of its role as the universal class and leads a popular revolution that takes power and socialises capitalist property. For this to happen, the working class has to grasp its historic mission and overthrow not only both US imperialism and its Israel outpost, but also the Egyptian bourgeoisie. It does not need 'great men' or 'great women' who stand above the crowd acting out its 'will', it needs to form councils and militias united in a democratic commune, and elect leaders with the task of taking the revolution to victory, in the same way that the Bolsheviks were elected by the majority of the workers to lead the Russian revolution to victory.

TONGA: The National Democratic Revolution stalls

Protests of ordinary Tongans at the inequity of nobles’ wealth and mass poverty built up to riots in June 2006 when the King reneged on reforms. This has forced the rulers into constitutional change to keep a lid on the movement for democracy. In the recent election the rule by a feudal king and system of lords who self select a parliament has had a face-lift and more seats were elected by commoners (17), than the nobles (9), total =26. The King still gets the power of veto, including the power to sack the government! The Nobles can still bloc with Commoner MPs to keep control of parliament. So what has changed?

Constitutional reform is the legal surface appearance of the ruling class, under which the capitalism maintains its exploitative class relations. Tonga is a tiny Pacific state, dominated by not only the US via its regional allies, Australia and NZ, but increasingly influenced by China. The Tongan economy is capitalist which uses more traditional labour forms based on the family to produce exports of agricultural goods - fish, coconut, vanilla. Yet Tonga's main income is from the thousands of Tongan workers who live offshore, in countries like Australia, U.S. (west coast) and New Zealand, and who send some of their wages home. The Tongan working class is the main export of Tonga, and its strength is outside Tonga. The IMF and World Bank consider Tonga a poor country; 40% population lives below their "poverty line"; and at high risk of failing to pay government debt.

The newly elected government of Tonga may represent a change from a capitalist feudal semi-colony to a capitalist parliamentary democracy (an elected time-limited dictatorship), but it remains a capitalist semi-colony. Semi - as in having the appearance of independence, while a colony in terms of the ruling class acting as a compradors or agents of imperialism, and dependence on a division of labour which sees Tonga export of basic items/raw materials to imperialist or other intermediate countries and a dependence on the import of capital goods (machines etc) and consumer goods from those imperialist or intermediate countries.

The new parliament which includes more 'commoners' is no threat to the rule of capitalism within the constitution. The King and nobles as the capitalist ruling class retain the ability to control parliament and prevent any popular democratic challenge to their class privileges, and the subservience of Tonga to imperialism.

Thus while Akilisi Pohiva and the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands (DPFI) won all 12 of the 12 seats which they contested, 5 independent candidates won the other 5 of the 17 general election seats, and 9 nobles were voted in by 54 nobles. See Matangi Tonga.
The DPFI were never going to rule alone, since they only had 12 possible candidates in a government of 26 members. Even had the DPFI been able to unite all the commoners to get Pohiva elected, he has committed to working within the constitution. However, since Pohiva has long been a thorn in the backsides of the King and nobles, the nobles bought the loyalty of the 5 so-called ‘independent’ commoner MPs to elect Lord Tuivakanō as Prime Minister by a vote of 14 against12 for Pohiva.

Whoever is ruler of Tonga, as such they can only manage capitalism on behalf of a few local owners and the many international capitalist interests. Their ability to manage capitalism and to meet the needs of the working people who voted for them comes second to keeping the King and Nobles in the wealth to which they are accustomed, and continuing to export unemployed workers to Australia and NZ as a reserve army of workers in those countries to be returned home when they are no longer needed.

Thus to keep the profits of international capitalism flowing, ‘democracy’ in Tonga limited as it is, is nothing more than a taro leaf covering the nakedness of the hypocrisy of the ruling class. The economic conditions which leave the masses impoverished and their sons and daughters migrant workers will continue. Wages and conditions will be cut in Tonga to balance the books for international capitalism, and force the next generation to migrate to low paid jobs in Australia and NZ.

Evens if the DPFI had won all 17 commoner seats and a majority for ‘democracy’ it would be forced to rule on behalf of the ruling class and imperialism and expose ‘democracy’ as a fraud before its own supporters. There is no freedom under capitalist rule. Democratic capitalism in Tonga will be as bad as 'feudal capitalism'. Only socialism will bring true democracy and end Tonga’s servitude to imperialism.

For a socialist Tonga as a member of a Socialist Federation of the Pacific!