Minority Resolution presented at the July 2009 Congress of the
International Leninist Trotskyist Fraction (IFLT)
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Introductory Note:
This resolution was
not adopted by the majority at the IFLT Congress. Only HRS and the Communist Workers Group of New Zealand (CWG) supported it. The Congress agreed to continue the debate on China publically, before the global workers’ movement, pending further discussion at a future congress. As of this writing (August 30, 2009), the majority resolution on China is not yet available in English in final form.
Update (February 2010):
Click
here for an overall introduction to the China debate, and links to other related documents.
Minority Resolution on China
1. The comrades of the CWG and the HRS agree that when they defend their position that China has a dual character, of an emerging imperialist nation and a semi-colonial country with its proletariat super-exploited by both foreign finance capital and that of its own emerging bourgeoisie; they center their argument on the incremental advance in accumulation of capital into the bosom of the new Chinese capitalist class who have no choice but to seek profit sources beyond their own borders. The HRS and CWG contend that the most significant factor in Lenin´s characterization of an imperialist nation is the export of finance capital.
2. We do not claim that China as an imperialist country means that capitalism is still progressive and it is still capable of developing the productive forces. We are not revising the basic position of Trotsky and Lenin on capitalism in the imperialist epoch. Neither Lenin nor Trotsky ever said that no new imperialist country could emerge in the imperialist epoch. But clearly it could do so by repartition the global economy at the expense of existing imperialist powers. Nor did Lenin or Trotsky say that that a new imperialist country if it emerged from a state of being a relatively independent semi-colony must develop the productive forces and therefore make capitalism "progressive".
3. The fact that in the imperialist epoch capitalism cannot develop the productive forces does not mean that capitalism cannot develop technology. Technology in the imperialist epoch is characterized by intense drive for profit as the rate of profit continue to decline, hence the workers the great majority of human beings and well being of the planet are expendable. Therefore, we see mass death from injury and health problems (cancer for example was not a big health threat in the 19st century) as technology "advanced". Technological advancement in the period of imperialist decay leads not only to environmental disasters but unless there is a socialist revolution, capitalism/imperialism despite the advancement in technology is likely to destroy the entire planet, since it develops technology for one reason: profit, and the destruction of civilization via the advanced military means of the imperialist countries.
4. Any development of a new imperialist country will only contribute to the destruction not the advancement of the productive forces and the well being of the working class and humanity. China is not an exception. Since we live in an era of dramatic increase of imperialist decay on the international scale, any new imperialist country can only function as the rest of the imperialist countries: increase the rate of exploitation and oppression wherever it sets its foot prints. In the current imperialist epoch China cannot become an imperialist country by progressing the standard of living of the Chinese workers and masses in China and the rest of the world, quite the opposite by driving the masses into living in hellish conditions. This is so, because in the current state of imperialist decay, this is the only way that a country can become an imperialist country and try to compete with the rest of the imperialist gangs. It is easier for a person to jump to the moon, than it is for a new imperialist country to build its "empire" by elevating well being of the masses in the current unstoppable decay of the international imperialist epoch.
5. For us the dual character of China (for HRS it is a still a semi-colony, and for CWG an Independent country, but is becoming imperialist), which means that Chinese workers suffer from one of the worst conditions for workers in the planet, regardless if they work for Western or Chinese companies. Many of them live in places that can only be characterized as cages not homes. Millions have been cast out of their jobs back into the country to stagnate. What progressive about this? Of course, this only manifests life under imperialism in its last stage of decay.
6. Chinese export of capital overseas along with the attempts to develop Chinese sphere of influence manifests the "destructiveness" of Chinese imperialism, not its “progressiveness”. In Chad China delivers mass weapons (including soldiers and workers) to inflame the genocidal war so that China can control the area and plunder the oil there. What is progressive about this? In Congo they build mines for their electronics factories in China and like the rest of the imperialists they muddle in the country affairs. The results: The intensification of the civil wars over the mines that kill millions and created huge areas with refugees. And in Iran the Chinese, who of course are interested in the oil there, have a special connection and influence on the regime who as we know just killed hundreds and is torturing (many time to death) the protests' prisoners.
7. Are we revising the theory of the permanent revolution which says that only the working class can lead the completion of the national tasks by making a socialist revolution? Since the 1980's there has been some big changes in the functions of imperialism that do not change the essence of the permanent revolution but it forces us to deal with new living contradictions. And it is these changes that eventually made it possible for China to become an imperialist country 30 years later. In the super-exploitation of the semi-colonies since 1980 the rise of the proportion of the proletariat has given more weight to the working class in taking the lead in completing the national revolutionary tasks in a socialist revolution.
8. The new Chinese bourgeoisie has not resolved any national tasks. It has pushed these tasks backwards by privatizing worker´s property and by re-enforcing the prison house of nations. It retained some political independence from the period as a degenerate worker´s state. It was this independence based on both a strong state apparatus and a strong state owned sector of the economy that allowed the new bourgeoisie to become an imperialist ruling class. The consequences for the permanent revolution are these: the Chinese revolution won national independence and the bureaucratized planned economy allowed the forces of production to develop but insufficiently to compete with the most backward imperialism. Its degenerated form meant that it did not complete the national tasks. The restoration of capitalism has put this independence in question and it and the other national tasks such as the rights of national minorities can only be resolved by a socialist revolution led by the working class.
9. With the outgoing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) exceeding incoming FDI for the first time in 2008 – and the acceleration of this trend in 2009 – a quantitative threshold has been crossed and China is emerging onto the world stage as an imperialist gangster in its own right, despite its finding itself at the bottom of the pecking order of imperialist powers down with other lesser imperialist countries (particularly in Scandinavia) with export FDI/import FDI amounts and ratios similar to China’s.
10. The HRS and CWG further contend that China is not in an economic or military position yet to contest in a conventional war for control of markets and sources of raw materials. At this stage in its development it will bluster loudly but scramble to avoid direct military conflict with the major imperialist powers as it knows it is not prepared to confront the military might of the USA and any head on war could quickly degenerate to a nuclear exchange. This does not exclude the possibility of China intervening militarily on its own behalf to advance or protect its interests in other semi-colonies unless it can get the comprador bourgeoisie to protect its interests as Alan Garcia did in his murderous attacks last month on the indigenous people trying to reclaim their lands.
11. At this stage the main danger of war involving China comes from the USA or Japan (not to exclude the unlikely possibility of other powers) seeking to contain China, break open its markets, access its raw materials and labor force. The intention of such a war would be to drive China from its emerging duel character back to its prior condition of having the sole character of a semi colony and open its doors for further imperialist plunder and subjugation. The HRS and CWG contend that such a war would be characterized as an imperialist war of subjugation not an inter-imperialist war. In the event of such a war both the HRS and the CWG would call for the military defense of China and the military defeat of the USA, Japan or proxy power which may be used by the major power in their stead.
12. The HRS and CWG are aware that Obama mania is continuing the anti-China chauvinism and xenophobia which has been building in the imperialist centers for years to mobilize workers against the perception of a rising power in China. To a large extent the anti-communist hysteria which has been used against China since 1949 in the west never let up as the transition to capitalism brought an unending stream of products, produced in China by the trans-nationals, to the West where workers buy with distain the products they no longer produce knowing that an enslaved population has been forced by threat of starvation to produce these products only westerners can afford to buy but can no longer afford to produce.
13. This is the material foundation for the anti-Chinese hysteria western capitalists (in particular the media in the USA) try to whip up, all the time hiding the fact that it is the US trans-nationals who have deserted the American worker to drive down the cost of production and maximize profit leading to the immiseration of both the Chinese and American worker.
14. The HRS and the CWG in their economic theses and propaganda show the working class their real enemy is the barons of Wall Street who perpetuate this process and are driving the world toward, wars and counterrevolution an who must be militarily defeated in any confrontation and who must be overthrown by force of proletarian revolution to prevent the coming catastrophe.
15. It is with this understanding that the CWG the HRS and the FLTI enter into an open debate before the public in our press and before the workers of the world clearly stating that we stand shoulder to shoulder against military threat against China by the other imperialist powers or their proxies.