Some Preliminary Observations on 15M & OWS
Harbingers Of A New Turbulent Era
The great international financial meltdown of 2007-2008 & subsequent economic crisis thus surfaced since late 2008 is more & more engulfing whole world. This time, the crisis has already created a huge tremor even on the economies of most of the advanced capitalist countries & imperialism is taking every effort to transfer the burden of this crisis of the ruling classes of these countries by way of unleashing all out attacks over their own working population.
As a spontaneous response to these attacks, working class, especially of Europe & America, is hitting the road of struggle continuously during last 2 years. Students of these countries are also coming into the forefront with their struggle. All these protests are being expressed primarily thru' strikes, demonstrations etc.
In this context, we may further note that these sorts of attacks on the working people of Europe & USA have actually started at least 10/12 years back as part of the policies of globalization, & has further been intensified now; we also find that isolated struggles of the European/US working class have also actually started to surface more-or-less since beginning of this century & it has also been further intensified since beginning of 2009. We are actually observing a more-or-less continuity of attacks of the ruling class as well as struggle of the working class in Europe & America since almost last 10 years.
So it appears that though in the eighties imperialism had devised policies of globalization to escape from the economic stagnation brewing since early seventies, this policy started to enter into a phase of further problems since mid/end-nineties, & started to manifest as a general crisis of global capitalist economy since surfacing of present debt crisis. At the beginning, the concept of globalization was essentially 'the old wine in new bottle', i.e., earning super-profit through further intensification of exploitation at the 3rd world countries keeping the working masses of their own countries more or less "privileged"; but, it actually started to transform since mid/end-'90s - since when, the imperialism, in addition to 3rd world, started to intensify its exploitation even to its own working people. Spontaneous resistances of the European/US working class as a reaction to this have also started to emerge since then. So, in the other way we may say that, the more-or-less peaceful collaboration among the ruling class & working population of the advanced capitalist countries that had been continuing since 2nd World war have, for the first time, started to rupture since beginning of this century & present crisis has made this rupture deeper. Not only this, the present economic crisis has already taken such a nature that the possibility of its immediate recovery is appearing more & more remote & it seems that the ruling classes of advanced capitalist countries shall have no other option but to continue the intensive attacks already unleashed on its own working population for a long time. At the other end, since it is also seen that the working population, overcoming the frustrations & inaction that was being seen for a long time, is already taking the path of resistance against these attacks, so it also seems that in the coming days, it would also continue & develop - even if it becomes interrupted somewhere for some reasons, that would only be temporary. So, as a whole, what we are watching is not just isolated resistances, rather rumblings of a new turbulent era.
Another significant evidence of this rumbling is emergence of another type of movement in Europe & US, which first surfaced in Spain in May, 2011 & became popularized as 15M Movement; similar type of movement has also been seen in Greece in the month of June 2011 in the name of "movement of the enraged" & finally blasted as "Occupy Wall Street" movement in US.
How these movements began
In case of Spain, the much heralded short book written by veteran French diplomat & activist St?phane Hessel Indignez-vous! published at the end of 2010 inspired aggrieved Spanish youth; the occupation of Tahrir Square became a particularly inspirational example of resistance; then in March 2011 a "Precarious Youth" appeal was launched on the internet in Portugal and this led to an extraordinary one day demonstration of 250,000 people in Lisbon. All these first led to the formation of J?venes Sin Futuro (Youth Without a Future) which organised a 5,000-strong demonstration in Madrid on 7 April through online social networks under the slogan "Without a job, without a home, without a pension: without fear". The success of the 7 April protest led to call for further demonstrations for 15 May by Youth Without a Future in alliance with the "Democracia Real Ya" ("Real Democracy Now", DRY - another online social networking group). DRY's programme was primarily centred on the need for electoral reform aimed at eliminating corruption in politics and increasing citizen participation. 15 May was chosen to coincide with the run-up to the local elections of 22 May. It is to be noted here that at the beginning, purpose of demonstration of 15 May was different between DRY groups & Youth Without a Future.
In case of OWS, being particularly inspired from the success of 15M movement, in mid-June, Adbusters, a Canada based magazine (claims to be advertisement-free anti-consumerist magazine since mid-1980s, though there are many allegations of irregularities against them), sent a call for "Occupy Wall Street" on September 17 thru' their E-Mail list against "a growing disparity in wealth and the absence of legal repercussions for the bankers behind the recent global financial crisis" & launched a Website under the name occupywallstreet.org. Adbusters suggested Sept. 17 as a starting date to coincide with America's Constitution Day, and the idea quickly spread online with help from the hacker group "Anonymous". Soon, the idea was taken up by the youth & intellectuals of America, different newly developed websites on this particular issue (like, wearethe99percent.tumblr.com etc) as well as Facebook/Twitter were used as a tool not only to orgnaise the programme, but as a vehicle to exchange & debate ideas, to express anger/wrath etc & it spread like a flame on the internet.
Backdrop of the movement
The economic crisis has hit Spain hard. The country's apparent prosperity since 1990s was primarily centred on construction industry and dependent on cheap credit on housing, which came to an abrupt end in 2008. Among most of the EU countries, Spain already had the highest percentage of temporary & contract workers combined with some of the lowest wages and social expenditure. Unemployment, among those under 25, which was already very high with no unemployment benefit prior to this crisis, has now reached to nearly 45 percent. According to OECD, another 15 years is required for Spain to return to the level of employment it had in 2007! Things are made worse by the near complete absence of affordable accommodation. In this situation, in Spain, after bursting of speculative economy based on housing bubble in 2007, an online social networking group, namely V de Vivienda was formed to oppose the same; though it could not create much impact at that time, but this, along with the student protests of 2008-9 against the Bologna Plan (aimed at unifying university education in Europe and making it more market-oriented) provided a nucleus of experienced young activists who acted as a core to the 15-M. In addition, in the mass workers demonstration at Madrid on Dec 12, 2009 & the general strike of the workers on 29 September 2010 a sizable section of youth took active participation. However, since strike on Sept 29, 2010, mass of the workers aspired to go further to resist attacks. However, leaders of CCOO and UGT, two Central Trade Unions did not take further programme & in Jan 2011, they gave their consent to these attacks on a basis of some minor concessions. This made the workers aggrieved further. Sweeping cuts in social spending first by the PP regional government in Murcia and then by the recently-elected right wing Catalan government provoked an upsurge of resistance by workers. In the Catalan case protests turned out to be much bigger than expected with hospital workers ignoring union leaders and blocking roads, causing chaos in Barcelona. Subsequent weeks saw regular protests and marches more or less independent of the main unions. When the CCOO and UGT called a token protest outside the Catalan government headquarters on 14 April, 2011 20,000 workers turned up. Then, on May 14, more than 50,000 working people marched against the cuts through Barcelona. These workers also took part in 15M movement.
At the other end, in case of US, Obama came to power creating a huge expectation "for changes" among the masses. However, the bail-out process & the subsequent further slashing of the social security benefits made the masses utterly exasperated & it became more & more apparent to them who were being bailed out & at whose cost. The role of Republicans as well as Democrats in this bail out process also became apparent as a broad daylight. In this context, the comment of Kalle Lasn, co-founder of Adbusters' Magazine & who first made the call of "Occupy Wall Street" in July 2011 was very revealing; when he was asked why it took three years after the implosion of Lehman Brothers' to call for a people's protest, he replied "When the financial meltdown happened, there was a feeling that, 'Wow, things are going to change. Obama is going to pass all kinds of laws, and we are going to have a different kind of banking system, and we are going to take these financial fraudsters and bring them to justice.' There was a feeling like, 'Hey, we just elected a guy who may actually do this.' In a way, there wasn't this desperate edge. Among the young people there was a very positive feeling. And then slowly this feeling that he's a bit of a gutless wonder slowly crept in, and now we're despondent again". (Source: http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/10/07/Kalle-Lasn-Occupy-Wall-Street/)
At the backdrop of present crisis, it also started to reveal to the common people of USA that impact of crisis is no exceptional incident, rather - between 1979 and 2007 incomes of the top 1% of Americans grew by an average of 275%; since 1979 the average pre-tax income for the bottom 90% of households has decreased by $900, while that of the top 1% increased by over $700,000, as federal taxation became less progressive; from 1992-2007 the top 400 income earners in the U.S. saw their income increase 392%, while their average tax rate reduced by 37%; in 2007 the richest 1% of the American population owned 34.6% of the country's total wealth, and the next 19% owned 50.5%; thus, the top 20% of Americans owned 85% of the country's wealth and the bottom 80% of the population owned 15%; after present phase of crisis, the share of total wealth owned by the top 1% of the population grew from 34.6% to 37.1%, and that owned by the top 20% of Americans grew from 85% to 87.7%; it also caused a drop of 36.1% in median household wealth but a drop of only 11.1% for the top 1%, further widening the gap between the 1% and the 99%. In this situation, at the backdrop of the movement of Tahrir Square & particularly of 15M, the call of OWS by Adbusters sparked a flame. The slogan, "We Are The 99%" has become basis of OWS movement.
Particular Features of the Movements:
i. Issues/demands of the movements. We have seen that the particular movements we are discussing are primarily initiated by the students-youths & intellectuals & they are the prime-mover of these movements, though later on, a wider section of the toiling masses, including the workers have started to take part in these struggles. In case of 15M movement in its initial phase, a high degree of spontaneous anger/indignation primarily against government & all electoral political parties is evident - as because according to the vision of these protestors, these are the parties who are working on behalf of & under the dictat of, bankers & industrial houses, creators as well as benefactors of this crisis. But definitely anger of the participants who took part in the 15M movement spontaneously were not unidirectional (i e, against any particular measure(s)/step(s) of the government/parties), rather it was a generalized anger evolved from the experiences of their own lives thru' which they were going on since implementation of policies of globalization, & specially since effect of the debt crisis in Spain. Hence, we saw issues widely divergent in nature have emerged from participants, even in occupation in a single city (be it Madrid, or in Barcelona or in elsewhere), & also in different occupations in different cities. Thereafter, in early June, at the initiative of Economic Working Group of Puerta Del Sol General Assembly, a 22 point Proposals were formulated & finalized at the meeting of a General Assembly at Madrid, in which participants from different parts of country also took part.
On the other side, OWS movement started with the anger primarily against corporate greed/inequality/corruption/unholy relationship of politicians with particularly the Bankers etc. It its first call of "September 17 Occupy Wall Street" made by Adbusters on July 13, it was stated that, "... we zero in on what our one demand will be, a demand that awakens the imagination and, if achieved, would propel us toward the radical democracy of the future ... we demand that Barack Obama ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington." (http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/occupywallstreet.html) In the subsequent Update dated August 11, they further specified that, "Strategically speaking, there is a very real danger that if we naively put our cards on the table and rally around the "overthrow of capitalism" or some equally outworn utopian slogan, then our Tahrir moment will quickly fizzle into another inconsequential ultra-lefty spectacle soon forgotten. But if we have the cunning to come up with a deceptively simple Trojan Horse demand ... something profound, yet so specific and doable that it is impossible for President Obama to ignore ... something that spotlights Wall Street's financial capture of the US political system and confronts it with a pragmatic solution ... and if we then put our asses on the line, screw up our courage and hang in there day after day, week after week, until a large swath of Americans start rooting for us and President Obama is forced to respond ... then we just might have a crack at creating a decisive moment of truth for America, a first concrete step towards achieving the radical changes we all dream about unencumbered by commitments to existing power structures." (http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/occupywallstreet-update.html). On Sept 12, i.e., just before the Occupation programme, again it was clarified that, "The people coming to Wall Street on September 17 come for a variety of reasons, but what unites them all is the opposition to the principle that has come to dominate not only our economic lives but our entire lives: profit over and above all else. Those that do not embrace this principle: prepare to be out-competed." (http://occupywallst.org/article/why/). From all these, it appears that unlike Tahrir or Spain, the initial organizers/propagators of the OWS movement had some specific perception in mind regarding the direction of the movement - separating US politics from finance capital; for which specific demand/s would be finalized much later, thru' active participation of huge number of protestors; this perception, as we understand, is further strengthened thru' their formal declaration made in their website that "Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. ... This OWS movement empowers real people to create real change from the bottom up." (http://occupywallst.org). And till this day OWS movement have not yet formulated any specific proposals/demands & according to the official website of OWS, their formal position is against formulation of any specific demands. Till now, only a "Declaration of NYC General Assembly" made on Sept 29, 2011, has been generally accepted as Declaration of the movement; but here no set of demands has been brought forward, only to let 22 facts be known to all regarding the role of "Corporations", who "do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power", which "place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality" (Source: http://www.nycga.net/resources/declaration/).
Here, we must take note of few significant aspects. Whether issues/demands/proposals are formulated or not, a wide range of issues are surfaced from among the protestors, as is being evident from online discussions etc. Even such sort of issues are also surfacing which are not achievable in the arena of capitalist system, like some Proposals of 22 Point Proposal of Economic Working Group of Puerta Del Sol General Assembly [For details, see: http://takethesquare.net/2011/08/26/open-proposals-of-the-economics-working-group-sol-camp-15m/] etc. Online discussions/comments among the participants of these movements further reveal a spontaneous ideological quest towards a solution/way out from these perils. It also needs to be mentioned here that this spontaneous ideological quest for solution is pushing a section of protestors towards socialism, more & more youths & intellectuals are getting interested to learn Marxism. From all these it appears that, starting from the aspiration of venting out the anger against the attacks initiated during present phase of crisis as well against policies of globalization, as surfacing spontaneously in the consciousness of the protestors from the experiences of their own lives, & the slavery of these policies by the existing political parties, in the course of the movement this aspiration is sometimes being extended to cross the limits of the existing system, though spontaneously & in its embryonic form.
However, even after saying all these, we must recognize the fact that since both the movements are primarily dominated by the bourgeoisie-petty bourgeoisie sections of the society, finally the solution of the problems/issues surfacing in both the movements is being groped within the arena of existing socio-economic-political system; the question of overthrow of whole capitalist systems, which is the actual solution of the issues surfacing thru' it, is not being the cry of the movements. We can also not expect the same as because due to the particular heterogeneous class character of the participants. So, finally, the perception of the protestors is still remaining limited for some sort of reforms within existing system.
ii. Leaderless Movement/Horizontal Structure of Organisation. Since movement of Tahrir Square & subsequently also in 15M & OWS movement, we are watching that movements are developing spontaneously from below, spontaneous initiative of the protestors is very high & they are also trying to establish their own control on the struggles. All these are being expressed with the terms like "Leaderless Movement", "Horizontal Structure of Organization" etc, & in action, it is being expressed thru' the evolution of "General Assembly" - in which, at every evening, all the protestors are assembled at the central point &there day-to-day developments of the movement were discussed & necessary decisions were taken thru' open discussion among all the protestors. Not only that, during course of movement different Committees are formed for execution & monitoring different types of activities to be done for smooth functioning of occupation - however, decisions taken by these individual committees are to be ratified at the General Assembly. Protestors of Spain made further advance on this issue. There, in early June, not only the occupants at a single plaza, rather that of the different plazas across the country, attended the General Assembly in Puerto Del Plaza at Madrid & took active part to take the decision on the proposals of Economic Working Group of Madrid Assembly. Here, what is most important is that, here the protestors themselves are trying to solve the issue of organisation, it has emerged spontaneously from below solely at the requirement of the movement & thru' this form of organisation, protestors are trying to exert high level of democracy in its functioning.
What does it signify? We have to keep in mind that these movements are emerging at a time when, it has already been apparent to the working class as well as to the toiling masses that the old "red" parties on whom once they had put their fullest trust & dependence, who once led their movements, have already been degenerated, they have dedicated themselves at the service of Capital, & are now taking active role to unleash latest phase of attacks. At the other end, till now no new true Communist party/organization (both at national as well as at international level) on whom they can keep faith, depend; though a good number of small communist/ socialist groups are operative in all the countries, most of them are basically alienated from the masses & not at all in position to take a lead in these struggles. Under the circumstance, when severe attacks of the latest phase are pushing the masses towards the path of struggle, is it not natural that these struggles would emerge from below, deserting old parties/organizations, without any established leadership & primarily at the initiative of struggling masses? Tahrir Square-15M-OWS etc, along with workers' movement emerging at different parts of the world, all are bringing forward the particular aspect of present day movement that right now the issue of the organisation of struggle is passing thru' a transitional phase, when old communist parties have degenerated & the new one is yet to emerge, hence the problem of organization of these movements is being, & will also be, addressed for some more time, thru' such particular forms, which are essentially transitional in nature.
But, at the same time, the struggling masses themselves are also handling one more aspect of the problem of organization. It is seen that in these movements deserting the old parties & taking initiative by the masses from below are not the only phenomenon; in addition, masses are also trying to establish its own control on the struggles, trying not to allow any individual/group of leaders emerging from the struggle to take control of the struggle. Here, we must realize that behind this attempt of the masses they have one more spontaneous assimilation of past bitter experiences of betrayal - they have seen that the past leaderships betrayed their struggles & the masses could not resist the same as because they remained solely dependent on the leaders. Though these betrayals were primarily made by the old established parties, masses have also taken the lesson that unless they establish their own control over these struggles, once again they would be betrayed. The formation of General Assembly & taking all the decisions related to struggle from this body is also the evidence of this attempt on behalf of the struggling masses.
Here, while we must hail these attempts of the struggling masses, at the same time, should we, and can we, neglect the significance of the necessity of genuine leadership in the struggles? We can not ignore the historically proven fact that, in the face of unified, centralized attacks & conspiracies of the ruling classes & their allies, keeping the whole struggling forces united & leading them to next higher stage are very important & here the significant role of leadership, strong with a conscious ideology, can not be brushed aside. The issue is particularly more important when the class character of the struggle is heterogeneous in nature, like the struggles we are discussing here; in these struggles, due to the variance of interests of different classes, establishing the leadership of a specific class in the struggle becomes much more important. Since in the era of imperialism, it is only the working class who alone can this role, unless leadership of working class is established on these struggles, it would not survive & develop to the next higher level. Keeping this perspective in mind, what we need to understand is the partial & incomplete nature of the spontaneous assimilation of the masses which we have referred earlier - what the struggling masses actually need to get rid of is not the leadership, rather of its bureaucratic role in the past struggles & organisations, which had evolved essentially from the revisionist/opportunist politics of old communist parties. So, thru' the question of "leaderless movement"/"horizontal structure of organisation", objectively the struggling masses are striving spontaneously for that particular form of organisation, thru' which they would be able to resolve the problem of bureaucratic control of the leaders over the struggle & organisation; & the formation of "General Assembly" is a transitional result of this striving of the masses. It can not remain limited here, as because the whole problem of emergence of a true organisation which can truly represent the aspiration of the struggling masses, keep them united & lead them to a correct direction would not be resolved properly only by this & in all probability not, only by spontaneous struggles. So, while we must hail this spontaneous attempt & striving of the struggling masses, if we consciously attempt to establish it as a permanent form of organisation (as is being done internationally by some organisations who claim themselves as Marxist, but by doing so, are denying the rich lesson of international communist movement), it would not only be a grave mistake, but would also be harmful for the scope & possibility of future advancement of this spontaneous journey of the struggling masses in a correct direction, who are right now passing thru' a transitional phase.
iii. "Occupation" of the local parks/plazas. Since beginning of OWS, it is being projected by some progressive sections as a new form of movement; however, for all practical purpose, till now "occupation" to this section means a one day assembly to a general assembling point in a city, where some sort of mass meeting/picketing/demonstration is would be done. On the other hand, in case of Tahrir square, from where this "occupy" type of movement originated, we shall see that the issue of overthrowing Mubarak from power were initially voiced by the students & educated youths - the mixed composition of protestors & the nature of issues raised by them itself determined the form of the movement, i.e., the permanent "occupation" of Tahrir Square. In case of 15M, at the beginning there was no declared programme of any occupation, rather the declared programme of one day demonstration on May 15 spontaneously transformed into permanent "occupation" of Puerta Del Sol Plaza at Madrid & spread in the subsequent "occupations" at different parks/plazas all over the country, taking particular inspiration from occupation of Tahrir Square. However, within a very few days, the question of the efficacy of this particular form of movement surfaced, again spontaneously, among the protesting masses - particularly since, during course of movement, the protestors started to realize that unlike protestors of Egypt, they have no Ben Ali or Mubarak to be overthrown, no reason of keeping the squares occupied till fall of any particular regime, or so and so - they started to learn spontaneously in their own way that for them, the enemy is not a political dictatorship, rather dictatorship of capital in a democratic form, and hence, struggle against it can not be chained in any particular form. Hence, the programme of occupying the parks & streets was withdrawn at the beginning of June after series of open discussions & debates among the participants. Since then, at the local level one main focus of activity became opposition to, and sometimes prevention of, the frequent evictions that have been the sequel to the bursting of the housing bubble; and another one was support for strikes, for example of health workers in Barcelona. In addition, on June 15, the central programme became blockade of the session of the Catalan parliament, on June 16, nationwide general rally & demonstration, on July 25, rallies from different parts of the country converged to Puerta Del Sol etc.
However, in case of OWS, in the very first call for OWS propagated by Adbusters on July 13, the programme of permanent occupation was declared; there, it was stated that "On September 17, we want to see 20,000 people flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months." (Source: http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/occupywallstreet.html). It is also fact, since first few days occupation of Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park) at New York was the only programme. So it is apparent that initially "occupation" programme was brought forward as a form of movement from above. However, once OWS movement started to draw attention of the angry youths not only in different cities of USA, but that of the different parts of the world & spontaneous initiative among the protestors started to surface, the character of the single programme of occupation started to transform into rally-demonstration-picketing-boycott of purchasing the Corporation-made consumer goods & MNC financiers etc. After participation of Oakland Dock workers into OWS movement, strike programme surfaced. In addition, the intensification of state terror on the movement itself also is forcing the protestors to strive for newer forms of movement.
In this situation, when the concept of "occupation" is propagated by various progressive forces, including some of the international communist revolutionaries as a "new" type of movement, it appears that they, are missing a vital lesson emerging also from these particular movements that how the spontaneity of the masses can change the course of a particular movement. In this context, it also needs to be remembered that this particular form of "occupation" has emerged primarily due to the mixed, heterogeneous character of the protestors. Had the industrial workers been the dominant force of these struggles, the centre of struggle would naturally be the factories & strikes/occupation of factories would have been natural form of struggle & in participation of other working people it would have taken the character of general strike. It is very tough for these struggles to strike the government in its present form.
iv. Non-violence as a form of movement. We know that "Indignez-vous!" (English name of the book is "Time for Outrage!"), the much heralded short book written by veteran French diplomat & activist St?phane Hessel published at the end of 2010 initially inspired Egypt youths & subsequently it spread like flame among European & US youths; in this book, non-violence as the form of movement was projected very forcefully. It is also the fact that non-violence has been propagated very strongly in all the "occupation" type of movements. However, we have seen that in Tahrir square, in front of army tanks non-violence served good to neutralize the army; in case of Spain, on June 15 demonstration in front of Catalan Parliament, when some of the protestors threw spit & sprayed paints to the parliamentarians spontaneously, right-wing politicians and sections of the media launched a witch-hunt against the movement with the very specific aim of discrediting the movement and undermining mass demonstrations planned for June 19; some right-wing commentators referred to the planned march in Madrid as the "march on Madrid" (as in Mussolini's 1922 march on Rome); in this background, the protestors, particularly in Barcelona, once again reaffirmed its commitment to non-violent protest to defuse this offensive & it was done once it appeared as a strong opinion from the mass participants including even from the participating workers. In case of OWS also, non-violence is being propagated very strongly since very beginning of the movement. But here also, we are observing sporadic violence occurring spontaneously from among the participants of OWS at different corners of USA.
From Marxist viewpoint, the question of violence/non-violence is exclusively a question of tactic & depends exclusively on the stage of movement. We can never agree with such propagation of non-violence as an exclusive mean for any movement.
An End Note
Protestors of 15M have been able to formulate their "proposals" they wanted to raise thru' their movement, how much vague it may be; central proponents of OWS are yet to formulate the demands/proposals/goal - however, mass participants of this movement are raising hundreds of issues in their own way as they feel relevant. From the issues thus surface thru' this type of movement & also thru' the parallel movements of the workers of imperialist countries, it is now apparent that, not only the working class, but a large section of the toiling masses, including unemployed youths & students of the imperialist countries are, from the experiences of their own life, are spontaneously learning the lesson of how much exploitative the rule of imperialist capital is, how the existing political parties are intricately tied up with the industrial houses & bankers, how they are profiting from wars/speculations etc, how they are becoming more & more devastating to the environment etc etc. In a word, it is now apparent that, in the face of present phase of crisis, imperialism is now more and more exposing its multi-faceted fangs in the experiences of its own people who were being "privileged" for a long time with the help of opportunist political parties.
That is, in the other way, we may say that after a long time, objectively imperialism, thru' its multi-faceted attacks, are forcing the working class & the different sections of the toiling masses to throw away the prolonged frustration & inaction & to stand again on its own feet - they are trying to stand on their own initiative, without any leadership/organisation - struggle of the workers in European countries-USA-Egypt-India etc as well as 15M-OWS etc are all evidence of this - it indicates that the era of gigantic defeat of 1st phase of their journey towards socialism is finally reaching its end - the way the struggles are emerging indicates further that in it, the struggling masses are reflecting their own assimilation of past experiences (how much partial/incomplete it might be). However, we must not forget that the issues/problems raised by these movements can be resolved only thru' the forced overthrow of the rule of capital & establishment of a new society free from all exploitations/dominations, i.e., socialism. But to achieve the same, true Communist Organisations (both at national as well as international level) with a strong belief on Working Class Hegemony & also with a strong base among the industrial workers, are needed, which can truly incorporate the varied forms of struggles of youths/students/intellectuals expressing spontaneous anger against the rule of capital & be able to bring these struggles under the working class leadership. But, we know that till now, no true international organisation of communist revolutionaries exists for a long time, even no communist party in a single country with a true Marxist-Leninist perspective & a strong base among the industrial workers is still seen in the horizon. In this situation, until & unless this true communist organisation is emerged & holds the banner of these struggles in its own hand, these struggles would only be able to represent the inherent aspirations of the toiling masses, but its realization would remain unachieved.
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