The G20 Meeting, the Economic Crisis and the War

Internationalist Notes leaflet

Comrades,

On the 17'h of November 2001, the G20 will hold its annual meeting in Ottawa in an overall situation of world economic crisis and war. This body, created on September 25h 1999 by the G7, gathers the Ministers of Finance and the Central Bank governors of 19 "strategic nations", representatives of the European Union as well as the administrators of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. If we are to believe its press releases, the G20 was founded to "promote a greater participation in the discussion of international financial matters of countries that, by their size or their strategical importance, play a crucial role in the world economy". In fact, the G20 was created in reaction to major events in the intensification of the crisis of the capitalist mode of production. The groundwork leading to its birth are well known: the beginning of the Mexican crisis in December 1994, the first signs of the Asian financial crisis in July 1997, the collapse of the US Long Term Capital Management Fund in September 1998, the start of the financial crisis in Brazil and Argentina a few months later and finally, the Russian financial crisis of the summer of 1999. This weekend's meeting is of great importance to the ruling class because; we can only note that the "greater participation in the discussion" has been of no help to the world economic situation. In Canada, the country is already in recession and has been well before the September 11th catastrophe. In terms of annual rhythm, the gross domestic product was down by one percent in July by reason of a sharp drop in manufacturing production, a strong decline in exports and a downturn in consumer spending. It's the same thing all over the world. Anxiety is high as unemployment numbers rise, "growth" is lagging and the signs of economic and financial destabilization multiply.

Of course, in the aviation sector, the 11 th of September did not help by temporarily discouraging a part of the customer base. But this industry was already in crisis and tens of thousands of layoffs were to be expected. This explains in part the extent of the disaster: more than 100,000 jobs lost in the space of a few weeks in North America alone. But from the beginning of the year, it is by whole tumbrels that millions of workers have been condemned to unemployment in every sector and on every continent. The international institutions and banks, though they plead for calm, keep on revising downwards their predictions of economic growth. Company's profits are crumbling. Financial markets panic or soar in reaction to the slightest rumour or the most recent interest rate cut; and these rates keep on being slashed. Capitalism isn't going so well and, as is its custom, it is about to have us pay for its condition dearly.

A dangerous situation

The falling rate of profit, first analysed by Marx, intensifies the crisis of valorization of capital and encourages the need to compete between firms as well as countries and blocs of countries. This creates a dangerous overall situation and explains the G20 meeting agenda. On the one hand, participating countries will continue to agree as thick as thieves on everything that can harm us and help them revive their profits. This means: cuts in social expenses, deregulations, and all other measures permitting them to hike our exploitation rate. On the other hand, behind the club-like atmosphere and largely consensual declarations, the reshuffling of the cards leading to the creation of new imperialist blocs on the basis of a growing split of the ex-NATO components will accelerate. It's in this context that will be discussed the so-called plan to fight the financing of terrorism. Beyond the hand shaking and the diplomatic smiles at the meeting's end, it must be clear that we will be far away from the unified world government, which is supposed to be the hallmark of globalization. (1) Because the only other way of reviving profits (other than an increase in the rate of exploitation) is imperialist war. And that's why the reality of the soothing speeches of the ministers and specialists as well as the diplomatic banquets of the coming weekend in Ottawa are intrinsically linked to the bloody battles in the mountains of Afghanistan and to the other armed conflicts across the planet. One way or another it's a question of blood, sweat and tears ... a question of business!

After having mobilized us around our supposed national interests at its Economic Summits and other class collaborationist traps, the ruling class is now trying to trap us with even more dangerous ideological campaigns within the context of an open-ended war against an unidentified enemy, with no guarantee of where, when and against whom the struggle will be ended. Afghanistan is no more than an excuse for the conquests of economic and geo-strategic interests. Afghanistan is but the beginning, the premonitory sacrifice of still greater slaughters to come. Knowing this, how can we trust the union and community organisations that make a life out of collaborating with a system that generates war, exploitation and misery worldwide? How can we trust the pacifist organisations. that offer only laughable symbolic actions to protest very real human tragedies? How can we go along with the leftist groups who in the past have been the best supporters of state-capitalist dictatorships in the ex-USSR, China, Serbia and elsewhere; who were the critical supporters of all that was unsupportable?

Comrades,

Hope lies elsewhere. Hope rests on the side of the international working class. Hope is in the revival of its initiative and the creation of its own instruments of struggle. It is conditional to the active and determined opposition of our class to all cutbacks and war policies that capitalism strives to impose on us. Hope is also conditional to the organisation of revolutionaries, of true internationalists. Against the rotten careerist wannabes who want to 'reconstruct a Party of the Left', internationalist communists call on the building of a real International Working Class Party. Not a party which will hover above and aside of our class and its struggles, nor a party which will govern in our place, but a party that will carry the revolutionary program in the midst of our class and will struggle against all compromise with this rotten system. We need a party who will struggle for workers' rule, directly exercised through its councils (soviets), as instruments of transition to a truly human society. This future society, which will have no need for social classes, frontiers, states, armies or money is called communism and it has nothing to do with the state-capitalisms so dear to the Capitalist Left (social-democrats, Stalinists, Maoists or Trotskyites). In this spirit, we support the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party (IBRP) and we call on all workers to -help us in our fight to get rid of this sick society which now generates only exploitation, oppression, pollution and war. Join us!

Against imperialist strikes, we strike!

No war but class war!

Internationalist Notes, November 15th, 2001, supplement to #6.

Contact: R.S., CP 173, Succ. "C", Montreal, Canada, H2L 4K I or lighter@generation.net
IBRP: cwo@ibrp.org or www.ibrp.org

(1) Globalization is a trendy word in the journalistic, political and academic milieu. However, we prefer to use the term imperialism. Imperialism is characterized by absolute domination of finance capital and also by its capacity to distribute throughout the entire planet the different stages of the process of production. Because finance capital is fractioned, this leads to rivalries between the States and the formation of new alliances. Thus imperialism means war.