At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is now obvious that international capitalism is rapidly reverting to the form in which it existed in the nineteenth century. In the "First World" countries, that is, the nations at the top of the imperialist world system of domination and exploitation, the liberal-democratic welfare state is being dismantled at an alarming rate. Important social reforms such as public healthcare, unemployment insurance, legal recognition of trade unions, old-age pensions, minimum wage laws, environmental protection and workplace health-and-safety regulations were instituted after the Second World War through a combination of popular pressure and a recognition by some sections of the capitalist class that having a healthy, well-educated, and docile workforce was good for business. The implicit understanding between the representatives of capital and the reformist leaders of the working class was that in return for these concessions, the demands of the labour movement would be kept within the limits acceptable to the system.
For reasons known best to themselves, the ruling class have now changed their mind. The historical period in which the social-welfare-state apparatus was constructed is definitely over; the capitalist state is returning to its traditional function as purely a machine for the defence of ruling class wealth and power. Capitalist "democracy" has by now been reduced to the meaningless Coke-versus-Pepsi choice between neoliberalism and neoconservativism: two slightly different public relations campaigns for essentially the same program of subjugation and enslavement. The civil and human rights which the majority of the population might use to resist the corporate elite's assault on their conditions of life are disappearing as well. Freedom of speech and association, the right to hold public demonstrations, privacy rights, and trial by jury are being progressively eroded under the pretext of "counter-terrorism".
In the "Third World", the countries comprising three quarters of the world population, whose assigned function in the imperialist system is to provide cheap labour and resources for multinational corporations, the situation is somewhat different; most of these societies never had any significant social welfare programs. Their indigenous populations were essential to the historical development of capitalism; millions were enslaved to work on plantations, mines, railroads, and canals, either when their own countries were colonized by Europe, or when they themselves were transported by force across the oceans to someone else's newly subjugated homeland. Under the pressure of various national liberation movements, and in order to remove the obvious ideological contradiction with their own pretence of "freedom and democracy", the Masters of the Universe allowed a gradual transition from the traditional European model of direct colonial occupation to the American neocolonial model of compliant puppet regimes, supported continually by CIA "covert operations" against popular movements, and only when necessary by imperial stormtroopers.
Here too, multinational capitalism is returning to its earlier form, although the contrast is less than in the imperial homelands. The bipolar geopolitical system resulting from the Second World War, centered around the United States and the Soviet Union, provided a certain amount of room for independent nationalism and economic development in some of the former colonies, which managed to expel the proxy regimes imposed on them by the rulers of global capitalism. With the effective reversion of one of the poles of imperial power to its former status as a semi-colony of the other pole, no further disobedience will be tolerated. National governments which resist, even partially, the role assigned to them in the neoliberal world economy will be targeted and eliminated by force, as has already happened to Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Haiti. Future wars are planned against Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela. The inhabitants of the Third World neocolonies can either endure desperate poverty and oppression at home, or attempt to migrate to the homelands of their imperial masters, where they can serve as super-exploited "undocumented workers", enduring wage rates and labour conditions which the transnational corporations have not yet succeeded in imposing on the domestic working class.
The capitalist economic system originated in northern Europe in the late Middle Ages. The capitalist class attained state power there about two hundred years ago, and conquered most of the planet over the next century. Their ascent to world dominance was not unopposed. Peasants thrown off their land, independent craftworkers, plantation slaves, factory workers, the populations of the colonies, and indigenous societies targeted for genocide, understood clearly what capitalism was doing to them and resisted in any way they could. With few exceptions, they were not successful.
Capitalism is a political and economic system which exploits and oppresses the large majority of society in the interest of a tiny minority. This has always been the case, even in its liberal-democratic welfare-state form, which, seen from the point of view of world history over the last three hundred years, is clearly the exception rather than the rule. The end of this period in the centre of the global capitalist system only makes plain the social reality which has persisted throughout its history.
If this is a correct description of the world we live in, an obvious question is why the working population of the advanced industrial countries tolerates this system? Nineteenth-century factory wage-slaves and modern third-world peasants have consistently rebelled against their exploiters using the much more limited opportunities available to them. If the workers of the industrial countries decided to overthrow capitalism, they could stop the operation of its economy in a day. The state that protects the rich and the corporations would collapse in less than a week. How does the system survive when those who it exploits and oppresses have the ability to destroy it whenever they wish?
There are two answers to this question. The first is that the capitalist ruling class and the state which they control are highly organized and conscious of their interests as separate from the rest of the population. For the majority to overthrow capitalism, a comparable degree of organisation will be required. However, the forms of organisation which currently exist for the defense of working-class interests against capitalism, trade unions and social-democratic political parties, are part of the problem. Their leadership and internal structure are thoroughly adapted for coexistence with capitalism, not its destruction. Without a complete transformation, they will always compromise with the system, and if necessary divert and disrupt a revolution against it. The recent sabotage by the BC Federation of Labour of a threatened general strike is a typical example of this problem. This has happened many times before, in many places, and there is no quick solution. Revolutionary forms of organisation must be created to replace the existing reformist ones.
The second answer partially explains the first. The ruling class controls an enormous apparatus of propaganda, disinformation and mind control, including the mass media, the public school system, and the fake "democratic" parliamentary political show. This apparatus operates twenty-four hours a day, pumping out capitalist ideology in predigested, bite-size globs of brain-rotting, toxic lies. From early childhood, people in capitalist society are taught to understand their lives and the world in a way which obscures and mystifies the way things really work. As long as people believe that capitalism is natural, fair, or inevitable, they will not organize to overthrow it. The credibility of capitalist ideology depends heavily on the existence of parliamentary "democracy", civil rights, and the welfare state. With these features of advanced capitalism being reduced to obvious fraudulence or eliminated entirely, there are now greatly increased opportunities to dispel people's socially-conditioned beliefs about society and expose the system for what it really is.
This will not be an automatic process. All the major institutions of capitalist society, even those that criticize some aspects of the system, are fundamentally committed to its continued existence, and unwilling to demolish the ideology which sustains it. The corporations which control the mass media and the culture industry are the property of the capitalist ruling class, as are all others. The state, along with its phoney "democratic" political system, is effectively a wholly-owned subsidiary of those corporations. The universities, while slightly more independent of the state than the public school system, are heavily influenced by corporate power, and the academics who staff them are sufficiently insulated from social reality that most have little or no interest in biting the hand that feeds them. The bureaucrats who control the trade unions and social-democratic political parties made their accommodation with the ruling class a long time ago; they understand that their relatively comfortable existence depends on keeping dissent and opposition within the limits acceptable to the system. The same can be said of almost all "non-governmental" and "non-profit" organizations. While they serve an important purpose, that of reforming or resisting the worst abuses of capitalist society, a task which social-democracy used to perform but has now largely abandoned, their existence depends on money donated by corporations and the upper middle class, who they consequently cannot afford to permanently offend.
If capitalism is going to be discredited, and proposals for alternative forms of social organization widely discussed, we cannot rely on existing institutions to contribute much to that effort. We're going to have to do it ourselves. Fortunately, "we" are the large majority. The illusion that most people in industrial society are "middle-class", with the rich and poor only at the extreme ends of the social spectrum, is now so obviously in conflict with economic and social reality that it can no longer be sustained. As in the nineteenth century, society is more and more sharply divided between those who own the economy and those who own only their ability to work. It will soon be clear that eighty or ninety percent of the population have no rational reason to want to defend the capitalist system. To make that obvious to everyone, to defeat the ideology which disguises and protects the ruling class, will require an extensive process of public discussion, education, and organizing. This magazine is intended to be a small contribution to that process.