Disclaimer: This presentation serves as a general introduction which implies that some simplifications where made.

1. 1
Linkse Socialistische Partij
Why Fighting Capitalism
&
What Alternative
LSP Leuven
Maandag 20 oktober 2014

2. 2
DuckTales
Uncle Scrooge
Oom Dagobert

3. 3
Uncle Scrooge's
money warehouse
Oom Dagobert
Geldpakhuis

4. 4
Uncle Scrooge's
money warehouse
Oom Dagobert
geldpakhuis

5. 5
Some Questions...
● Where did the money come from?
● Is it really Uncle Scrooge's money?
● Is the money used in the best possible way?
● Is this money accumulation not dangerous?

6. 6
Capitalism
in
Decay

7. 7
McKinsey - Debt and deleveraging: The global credit bubble and its economic consequences (Updated analysis)
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/global_capital_markets/debt_and_deleveraging_the_global_credit_bubble_update

8. https://twitter.com/jamestplunkett/status/340409383047553025/photo/1 8

9. 9
The German Miracle
London School of Economics
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2014/01/08/despite-high-employment-rates-germany-is-also-experiencing-increasing-poverty-among-its-citizens/

10. 10
Plenty of other graphs and
numbers available...

11. 11
Enormous increase in debts
We have to work harder, longer
Increased productivity, GDP
Exploding unemployment & poverty
Retreating public services

12. Where the f**k did the money go to?
12

13. 13
Uncle Scrooge's
money warehouse
Oom Dagobert
Geldpakhuis

14. 14
Dow Jones since 1975
Transfer $ 99% → 1%

15. 15
Not only an
economical meltdown...

16. 16
“Neoliberalism has brought
out the worst in us”
“An economic system that rewards
psychopathic personality traits has
changed our ethics and our personalities”
Paul Verhaeghe,
hoogleraar klinische
psychologie & psychoanalyse
Ugent
In The Guardian, 29/09/2014
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/29/neoliberalism-economic-system-ethics-personality-psychopathicsthic
Ethics

17. 17
People with Emotional problems
(Belgian population 15+)
Wetenschappelijk instituut voor Volksgezondheid
https://www.wiv-isp.be/News/Documents/Presentatie_web_NL.pdf
Psycho

18. Psycho
18
Suicides
“Austerity in Greece caused more than 500
male suicides, say researchers”
“[…] every 1% fall in government spending in Greece led
to a 0.43% rise in suicides among men – after controlling
for other characteristics that might lead to suicide, 551
men killed themselves "solely because of fiscal
austerity" between 2009 and 2010. That is almost one
person per day.”
Historically the lowest suicide rate in Europe
The Guardian, 21 April 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/21/austerity-greece-male-suicides-spending-cuts

19. Environ-ment
19

20. Environ-ment
20

21. Environ-ment
21

22. Environ-ment
22

23. Environ-ment
23

24. 24

25. 25
Hey, Stop!
It's not all the fault of
capitalism...

26. 26

27. 27
Question everything!
(even capitalism)

28. 28
Ethical Justification
The invisible hand
“By pursuing his own interest the
individual frequently promotes that of
the society more effectually than when
he really intends to promote it."
Adam Smith
Wealth of Nations
1776

29. 29
The Religion of
The Invisible Hand
(Re)defining the virtues:
Egoism, Greed, Competition
as the natural state of humans
Credibility by simplicity
Use of metaphors
In conflict with &
hostile to science
Intervention by
(God's) hand
Don't question it
It's eternal & untouchable
Resistance is futile

30. 30
The Religion of
The Invisible Hand
(Re)defining the virtues:
Egoism, Greed, Competition
as the natural state of humans
Credibility by simplicity
Use of metaphors
In conflict with &
hostile to science
Intervention by
(God's) hand
Don't question it
It's eternal & untouchable
Resistance is futile

31. 31
Hostile Classes in Societies
Primitive Communism
Slave Society
- Aristocrats possess the slaves
- Slaves have to obey to survive
Feudalism
- Lord possesses the land
- Vasal works on land and ceds part of output
- No classes
Capitalism
- Capitalists own means of production
- Working class sells labour power
???

32. Capitalism
No longer able pull
humanity to a higher level
32
Evolution of Societies
Growth Prosperity Decay time
Note:
Capitalism will not collapse automatically.
A social revolution is required
Lie 1: Capitalism is eternal & untouchable

33. 33
The Religion of
The Invisible Hand
(Re)defining the virtues:
Egoism, Greed, Competition
as the natural state of humans
Credibility by simplicity
Use of metaphors
In conflict with &
hostile to science
Intervention by
(God's) hand
Don't question it
It's eternal & untouchable
Resistance is futile

34. 34
Ethics in Societies
“The ideas of the ruling class are, in any
age, the ruling ideas”
Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
The German Ideology
1845
Stated otherwise
“The dominant ideology is the ideology of
the dominant class”
Lie 2: Egoism, greed and competition
are the natural state of mind of humans

35. 35

36. 36
DuckTales
Uncle Scrooge
Oom Dagobert

37. 37
In summary
Capitalism is...
● NOT natural
● NOT eternal
● NOT untouchable

38. 38
Why is capitalism
unstable?

39. 39
Crisis
Automatisation
Wage Pressure
Austerity
Competition

40. 40
Crisis
Automatisation
Wage Pressure
Austerity
Competition

41. 41
Crisis
Austerity
Wage pressure
Weakening
Market
Declining
purchasing
power
Competition
Wealth transfer
to the 1%

42. 42
Crisis
Automatisation
Wage Pressure
Austerity
Competition

43. 43
Tendency Declining Profit Rate
Fixed capital
Machines, buildings, commodities
Variable capital
Labour
No new value creation
Transfer of value to output
Not a source of profit
New value creation
Source of profit
An average investment
Profit per invested $

44. 44
Tendency Declining Profit Rate
Fixed capital
Machines, buildings, commodities
Profit per invested $
Variable capital
Labour
No new value creation
Transfer of value to output
Not a source of profit
New value creation
Source of profit
An average investment
Recovery profit rate possible by making labour cheaper
This wage pressure weakens the market

45. 45
Automatisation
(1)
Decreasing
labour
intensity
Declining
profit rate
Declining
Investments
in real
economy
Financial
speculation
Bubbles
Crisis
(1)
(1) See previous slide
Weakened
Market
(1)

46. 46
Illustration: Neoliberalism
Privatisation
Deregulation
Austerity
Restored profit rate
Transfer of wealth from 99% to 1%
Weakening market
Possible after successful attack on working class
● '79-81' Fiscal policy of Volker (FED)
● '81 Reagan broke air traffic controllers' strike
● '83 Mitterand changes policy
● '84-'85 Thatcher breaks miners' strike
● '89 Collapse of Berlin wall
Crisis delayed by massive debt accumulation

47. 47
McKinsey - Debt and deleveraging: The global credit bubble and its economic consequences (Updated analysis)
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/global_capital_markets/debt_and_deleveraging_the_global_credit_bubble_update

48. 48

49. 49
Crisis
Automatisation
Wage pressure
Austerity
Competition
Crisis delayed by massive debt accumulation

50. 51
The logic of
fascism

51. 52
Capitalists
Profit
Cheap
Resources
Cheap
Labour
Nationalism
Represssion
Violence
War Racism
Organised working class

52. 53
Capitalists
Profit
Nationalism
Racism
Cheap
Resources
Cheap
Labour
Represssion
Violence
War
Organised
working class
Capitalist class not
strong enough to
atomize the
working class

53. 54
Fascism
Capitalists mobilize
desparate, impoverished
middle classes into violent
physical attacks to break the
organised working class.

54. 55
The organised working class
is the only force that can lift
society to a higher level.
The capitalist class will do
everything to prevent this.

55. Rising tensions
on all levels
58
Capitalism
In summary
Recurring &
deepening
crises
Destruction
of the planet
Declining living
conditions
for the 99%
Repression
Violence

56. 59

57. 61
Our alternative
Democratic Socialism

58. 62
Comparison
Capitalism Dem. Socialism
Representation Can do whatever they
want while earning
shitloads of money
Permanent recall,
average worker's wage.
On the political &
economical level
Ownership of
companies
private Key sectors
in public hands
Organisation of
society
Chaos of competition Planned according the
the needs of the people
Organisation of
companies &
institutions
Top-down
Causes growing
bureaucracy
Democratic,
Bottom-up
In the interest of The 1% Society & planet

59. 63
Historical examples

60. 64
Paris Commune, 1871
Bloodily suppressed by French state

61. 65
Petrograd, 1917
Soviet Assembly meeting
Deformed by war tsarists and capitalist & isolation

62. Betrayed by leadership of social democracy
66 Berlin, November 1918
Revolutionary soldiers in front of Brandenburger Gate

63. Crushed by stalinists & bourgeois government
67 Barcelona, 1936
Public transportation collectivised by CNT

64. 68
Democratic socialist
society is possible
Capitalism will try
to destroy it
(with bloodshed if necessary)
Lessons learned
Never trust
a bureaucrat
An isolated revolution
is a lost revolution
And fortunately, stalinism is dead

65. 69
The power of our class
(or how we can win)
Lessons from
the past
Class unity in action
Revolutionary Party
Solidarity locally
& internationally
More & better educated
We have the real
economic power

66. 70
Unity in action
Freedom in debate
Uniting role of
fighting together
Heterogeneity
of working class
Sharpening of
program & methods
Different programs
tested in practice

67. 71
How Marxists deal with
reformist demands

68. 72
“With the right hand, the capitalist takes
back the double of what he has given with
the left hand.”
Leon Trotsky
The Transitional Program
1938
Right to strike Democratic &
Tax on energy
from 21% to 6%
Rederegulation
of banking sector
qualitative
education
Tax the rich ...

69. 73
“In theory we agree with revolutionary ideas
such as nationalisation of the banking
sector, but it is unrealistic now since people
are not ready for it. Our demands should
match with what people are thinking now.”
No link with socialist transition of society
Creation of illusions in capitalism

70. 74
An example: 15Now, Seattle
Campaign for 15$/hour minimum wage in Seattle
In 2012 considered by many as unrealistic.
Victory in 2014!
15now.org
100.000 out of poverty
Price for business: 3 bln $

71. 75
Grassroots campaign
Active involvement from many workers
No single dime from business
On the basis of collective struggle
No trust in negotiations alone
Need for audacious demands
that can draw people into a mass movement
(Something worth fighting for)

72. Electoral mandate as tool
Kshama Sawant (CWI) elected
Position used to empower the movement
Now everywhere in U.S. on the agenda
Victory after decades of setbacks
76
Inspiring victory
Confidence to workers
Without creating illusions
In capitalism (next slide)

73. 77
“We’re very clear that winning this demand
is not going to be enough. All of this
inequality that you’re fighting against is at
the root—the result of capitalism, and we will
have to keep fighting against this and we
need to build broader movements.“
Kshama Sawant
Seattle Councillor
CWI

74. 78
Transitional Program
(or how marxists deal with reformist demands)
●Formulate audacious, inspiring demands for
better living conditions.
●But link this to the limits within capitalism and
the necessity of socialism
●This will make the organised working class
stronger & prepare them for future fights

75. 79
Internationalism
Capitalism is a global system and should be fought globally.
LSP is part of the CWI (Committee for a
Workers' International),
with section in over 40 countries
and several elected mandates
www.socialisme.be
www.socialistworld.net

76. 80
In summary
Fight with us for
democratic socialism!

77. 81
Question everything!
(even socialism)