Gordon Brown Poses as Saviour of
the Old Order at the G-20 Summit

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Gordon Brown Poses as Saviour of the Old Order at the G-20 Summit

G-20 Washington Economic Crisis Summit - TML Daily

Reflections by Fidel Castro on the G20 Summit

Gordon Brown, in the wake of the G20 crisis talks in Washington, is trying to portray himself as the hero of the hour, and the G20 agreement as "historic". The fact is that the imperialist system has been plunged into one of its worst crises since the depression of the 1930s spawned fascism and war. It is impossible that the factors which have exacerbated the crisis can be implemented in a revised fashion to save the day for the socialised economy and the working people of the world.

The proposals are coming from Brown and Darling as ideologues for the Anglo-US monopoly capitalist system, and have as their aim to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for this system. Far from the issue being one of the free-market economy, in the sense of allowing a laissez-faire system to flourish, Brown and Darling are emerging as the champions of state monopoly capitalism. This is their "route map" to so-called economic recovery, to stimulate all economies to "rapid effect". If the cause of the crisis is not addressed, then solutions cannot be found. This being the case, the Prime Minister’s words of triumph must have another purpose. Everything will not be all right with the world, and the people do not believe that it can.

These words are to disorientate the workers on the one hand, to persuade them despite all the evidence that, "By the actions we take, savings are safe, people will be able to keep their jobs, they will not lose their homes in all or our countries. These are extraordinary times and they require extraordinary measures." The implication is that the workers of Britain should once again put their trust in a "Labour Party", and distrust their own experience and their confidence that a socialised economy under their control will have no need of monopoly capital and the politicians who abjectly serve it. At the same time, Brown’s words are a declaration that the world should re-order itself at the behest of international finance capital, and that Anglo-US state monopoly capital must continue to call the shots, and in particular London should remain the world centre for finance capital. It is clear that neither the developing world, the newly resurgent Latin America, nor indeed the other powers of "Old Europe" will accept this dictate.

It is reported that detailed agreements on the reform of the world financial system, including global regulation of the biggest banks and an overhaul of the way the International Monetary Fund (IMF) operates, will have to wait a further G20 summit in the spring of next year. What a surprise! By then, Britain will hold the chairmanship of this anachronistic group and Brown said that the meeting could take place in London. His "road to a new Bretton Woods" is in reality a road to war, retrogression, barbarism and subjugation of the peoples. It is most likely that Brown also has an eye on the President-elect of the United States and the world-dominating alliance he dreams they will forge together. He is reported as saying that his master plan is "very much in line" with the thinking of Obama in this "difficult period".

This monstrous economic and financial crisis has not been called an economic "9/11" for nothing. The events of 9/11, for which US imperialism and its cohorts must be held responsible, signalled reaction all along the line, an assault on the rights of all, and attacks and aggression against those states which Anglo-US imperialism declared were their enemies. The people’s resistance against economic aggression and violence must now be stepped up, in the sense that the governments of the US and the big powers, at the same time as contradictions between them becoming sharper, will again spearhead their attempts at making the working people and the masses of the world shoulder the burden of the crisis.

But the working class must not relinquish its conviction, in these circumstances, that organised as a class with their independent aim and programme, their sense of justice and injustice must and will prevail. This sense of injustice is targeted at the rapacious plundering of the world by the big monopolies, and the squandering by the rich and powerful of the wealth that working people produce, the incoherence and anti-consciousness that they attempt to impose on the world. It is targeted at the wresting of the wealth they produce, by virtue of the private ownership of the means of production, and the domination of the most parasitic finance capital, to make the rich more obscenely rich. This parasitism it is which has become totally unsustainable under the present arrangements.

The workers must use this opportunity to organise that their sense of justice, which is embodied in the public good, the collective, and defence of the rights of all, prevails. To do so means that they must organise for their own empowerment, that the working class movement has to seize the initiative, and do away with the pious words, platitudes and endless diversions that attempt to shackle a ball and chain onto the organisation and ability of the workers to go for a different world in their own image, and go for it now.

The Gordon Browns of this world have nothing to offer the workers and their aspiration to vest sovereignty in the people, and usher in a world fit for human beings. The time to end all the illusions about cure coming from the gods of plague is now. WDIE calls on the working class to take the lead in organising to oppose the monopoly capitalist parasites and the politicians who do their every bidding, up to and including shovelling obscene amounts of produced wealth to prop them up. State power must lie in the hands of the working class, and the people must be the decision-makers!

TML Daily*, Friday November 14, 2008.

Anti-G-20 demonstration in Tokyo Japan, November 14, 2008.

Events are forcing the international financial oligarchy to organise new arrangements

Worker politicians are closely following developments on the international economic front. Leaders from the state monopoly capitalist systems of the Triad (US, Europe and Japan) plus Canada and others are meeting in Washington November 14 and 15 to discuss the current economic crisis. (For full list of participating countries, see note below.) The international economic arrangements dominated by the US Empire that emerged with the end of the Cold War never acquired stability or gained coherence. One crisis after another has occurred with the present one the most severe and widespread. The US state monopoly capitalist system and its strongest ally Britain are seeking to manage the economic crisis in such a way that US hegemony globally is not lost in economic affairs in general and within international financial institutions in particular.

The workers' opposition movement must analyse what the monopoly capitalists discuss and decide at this summit and their subsequent meetings, in particular any agreements to shift the burden onto the working class and peasants and any sharp differences that may arise within the Triad. As the crisis deepens, the threat of war increases as happened during the long depression of the 1930s. Workers must be wary of those who blame the people or leadership of other countries for the economic crisis. For example, the German and French state leadership is vocal in blaming all their problems on the US and the particular neo-liberal policy of deregulation. However, the blame rests squarely with those who control the economy in every country within the Triad, which is the monopoly capitalist class. All of them are to blame for not recognising the socialised economy in their own countries as it presents itself and how that economy is in contradiction with the outmoded property relations based on private ownership, which they refuse to abandon even though it is the root cause of the economic crisis. They behave this way because they benefit from the status quo as owners of capital or well-rewarded capitalist politicians. All the present leaders within the Triad stubbornly refuse to recognise that for the modern economy to avoid recurring crises it needs an empowered working class to bring into being alternative relations based on collective ownership and control whereby the actual producers can exercise control over the direction of the economy.

In this vein of blaming others, Canada's Finance Minister Flaherty never tires of saying Canada's banks are solid and all the trouble emanates from the US. This of course is nonsense as Canada's big banks are up to their necks in the current mess, as they are integrated within the US Empire and the Canadian economy is annexed to it.

For its part, the Anglo/US Empire is desperate not to lose its grip on international economic affairs and the various institutions that it established following World War II such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organisation, or relinquish its control over international currency and trade, which it holds through US dollar hegemony and free trade agreements such as NAFTA and other trading arrangements such as the Softwood Agreement with Canada, all of which embody unequal terms of trade.

The flow of tribute from around the world into the United States, Britain, Japan and the European Union has become unsustainable. The world economy cannot support a system where added-value is torn out of sovereign countries and sent to the Triad as tribute, especially to the United States in various forms of US debt. This added-value derived from the labour-time of workers and peasants worldwide has been stolen from them and their societies and squandered in war spending, luxuries, reckless investments for big scores and US bribery and interference in the peoples' sovereign affairs. The added-value ripped from the peoples' socialised economies has left them weak, in many cases dependent on exports or tourism or unevenly developed, such as Canada's reliance on the primary and service sectors, and without the capacity for self-reliant development from internal accumulation. Within the Triad itself, the working class has been subjected to concessions and layoffs and is increasingly incapable of sustaining any semblance of security. In the United States, forty percent of people's purchases are realised through borrowing money while the banking and credit system as elsewhere is in crisis.

The economic crisis has exposed the international arrangements dominated by the US as lacking coherence and consistently failing. But what is to replace this failed system? What alternative system and coherence can emerge without the leadership of the working class, without worker politicians and their allies developing and implementing modern definitions of international trade and commerce based on self-reliance, mutual benefit and the concept of cherishing the well-being of all humanity? The French and German leaders of their state monopoly capitalist systems have made it clear they want new arrangements that merely replace US hegemony with European hegemony, such as using the Euro instead of the US dollar for international settlements and as a reserve currency. This is not a solution nor does it bring any coherence or modern definitions to international economic relations. Without confronting the imperialists and fighting for a genuine alternative led by the working class, the sovereign rights of peoples and nations to build self-reliant economies that guarantee the rights and security of all their members will continue to be trampled on and threatened with military and other forms of intervention. Without an alternative, economic crises and big power contention will continue, becoming even more violent and protracted. Nothing good will come from this summit dominated by the monopoly capitalists; workers must be vigilant and critical.

The responsibility for organising an alternative rests with the working class, worker politicians and their allies in sovereign countries throughout the world and that means settling accounts with one's own monopoly capitalist class and restricting its rights and space and expanding the space for workers and their right to a say-so and control over the direction of their economy. It means reversing the harmful effects of annexation and building sovereign nations united with other nations and peoples as one humanity.

For Canadians, accountability for bringing an alternative into being begins at home. It is up to the Canadian working class, worker politicians and progressive middle strata of this country to organise themselves and bring an alternative into being, a self-reliant economy that guarantees the rights and security of all and defends the sovereignty of Canada, Quebec and First Nations from the attacks of the domestic monopoly capitalists and their allies within the international financial oligarchy.

Workers and their allies organised into committees for democratic renewal should discuss and criticise the G-20 summit on the economic crisis, in particular Prime Minister Harper's participation and comments.

Note: The G-20, which is meeting in Washington, is comprised of the United States, Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Britain and Canada, the European Union, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the Republic of Korea (south) and Turkey. Spain, although only an indirect member of the G-20 through its membership in the European Union, has been invited to participate directly in the summit.

* The Marxist-Leninist Daily is the on-line newspaper of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)

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The fact is that the Summit’s final declaration was worked out by previously chosen economic advisors, very much in line with the neoliberal ideas, while Bush in his statements prior to the summit and after its conclusion claimed more power and more money for the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other world institutions under strict control of the United States and its closest allies. That country had decided to inject 700 billion dollars to bailout its banks and multinational corporations. Europe had offered an identical or even higher figure. Japan, its strongest pillar in Asia, has promised a 100 billion dollars contribution. In the case of the People’s Republic of China, which is developing increasing and convenient relations with Latin American countries, they are expecting another contribution of 100 billion dollars from its reserves.

Where would so many dollars, euros and pound sterlings come from if not from the deep indebtedness of new generations? How can the structure of the new world economy be built on paper money, which is what is really circulating in the short run, when the country issuing it is suffering from an enormous fiscal deficit? Would it be worthwhile travelling by air to a place on the planet named Washington to meet with a President with only 60 more days left in government and signing a document previously designed to be adopted at the Washington Museum? Could the US radio, TV and press be right not to pay special attention to this old imperialist game in the much-trumpeted meeting?

What is really incredible is the final declaration adopted by consensus in the conclave. It is obviously the participants’ full acceptance of Bush’s demands made before and during the summit. Some of the attending countries had no choice but to adopt it; in their desperate struggle for development, they did not want to be isolated from the richest and most powerful and their financial institutions, which are the majority in the G20.

Bush was really euphoric as he spoke. He used demagogic phrases which mirror the final declaration.

He said: "The first decision I had to make was who was coming to the meeting. And obviously I decided that we ought to have the G20 nations, as opposed to the G8 or the G13. But once you make the decision to have the G20 then the fundamental question is, with that many nations, from six different continents, who all represent different stages of economic development, would I be possible to reach agreements, and not only agreements, would I be possible to reach agreements that were substantive? And I’m pleased to report the answer to that question was, absolutely."

"The United States has taken some extraordinary measures. Those of you who have followed my career know that I’m a free market person –until you are told that if you don’t take decisive measures then it’s conceivable that our country could go into a depression greater than the Great Depression."

"[ ] we just started on the $700 billion fund to start getting money out to our banks."

"[ ] we all understand the need to work on pro-growth economic policies."

"Transparency is very important so that investors and regulators are able to know the truth."

The rest of what Bush said goes more or less along this line.

The final declaration of the summit, which takes half an hour to read in public due to its length, is clearly defined in a number of selected paragraphs:

"We, the leaders of the G20 have held a first meeting in Washington, on November 15, in the light of serious challenges to the world economy and financial markets"

"[ ] we should lay the foundations for a reform that will make this global crisis less likely to happen again in the future. Our work should be guided by the principles of the free market, free trade and investment."

"[ ] the market players sought to obtain more benefits failing to make an adequate assessment of the risks and they failed"

"The authorities, regulators and supervisors from some developed nations did not realise or adequately warned about the risks created in the financial markets"

"insufficient and poorly coordinated macroeconomic policies as well as inadequate structure reforms, led to an unsustainable macroeconomic global result."

"Many emerging economies, which have helped sustain the world economy, are increasingly suffering from the world brakes."

"We note the important role of the IMF in response to the crisis; we salute the new short-term liquidity mechanism and urge the constant reviewing of its instruments to ensure flexibility."

"We shall encourage the World Bank and other multilateral developing banks to use their full capacity in support of their agenda for assistance"

"We will make sure that the IMF, the World Bank and other multilateral developing banks have the necessary resources to continue playing their role in the solution of the crisis."

"We shall exercise a strong monitoring of the credit agencies through the development of an international code of conduct."

"We pledge to protect the integrity of the world financial markets by reinforcing protection to the investor and the consumer."

"We are determined to advance in the reform of the Bretton Woods institutions so that they reflect the changes in the world economy to increase their legitimacy and effectiveness."

"We shall meet again on April 30, 2009, to examine the implementation of the principles and decisions made today."

"We concede that these reforms will only be successful if they are based on a serious commitment to the principles of free market, including the rule of law, respect for private property, free trade and investment, efficient and competitive markets and effectively regulated financial systems."

"We shall refrain from erecting new barriers to investment and trade in goods and services."

"We are aware of the impact of the current crisis on the developing nations, especially on those most vulnerable."

"We are certain that as we advance through cooperation, collaboration and multilateralism we will overcome the challenges and restore stability and prosperity to the world economy."

This technocratic language is beyond grasp of the masses.

The empire is treated courteously; its abusive methods are not criticised.

The IMF, the World Bank and the multilateral credit organisations are praised despite the fact that they generate debts, enormous bureaucratic expenses and investments while supplying raw materials to the large multinationals which are also responsible for the crisis.

This goes on like that until the last paragraph. It’s a boring declaration full of the usual rhetoric. It doesn’t say anything. It was signed by Bush, the champion of neoliberalism, the man responsible for genocidal wars and massacres, who has invested in his bloody adventures all the money that would have sufficed to change the economic face of the world.

The document does not have a word on the absurd policy promoted by the United States of turning food into fuel; or the unequal exchange of which the Third World countries are victims; or about the useless arms race, the production and trade of weapons, the breakup of the ecological balance and the extremely serious threats to peace that bring the world to the brink of annihilation.

Only a short four-word phrase in the long document mentions the need "to face climate change."

The declaration reflects the demand of the countries attending the conclave to meet again in April 2009, in the United Kingdom, Japan or any other country that meets the necessary requirements --nobody knows which- to examine the situation of the world finances, dreaming that the cyclical crisis with their dramatic consequences never happen again.

Now is the time for the theoreticians from the left and the right to offer their passionate or dispassionate criteria on the document.

Form my point of view the privileges of the empire were not even touched. Having the necessary patience to read it completely, one can see that is simply a pious appeal to the ethic of the most powerful country on earth, both technologically and militarily, at the time of economic globalisation; it’s like begging the wolf not to eat up little red riding hood.

Fidel Castro Ruz
November 16, 2008
4:12 p.m.