Gramsci: Civil Society and Hegemony

The Socialist Challenge:

Ever since Soviet Union got disintegrated people, all over began to lose their faith in the idea of socialism.  The more and more skeletons started coming out of Stalin’s cupboard people realized that if socialism means this then capitalism is far better.  Many Marxist washed their faces and began to reconcile with capitalism with green colour.  They began to believe that capitalism is here to stay. The left parties never sat on a chintan baithak to review the events that led to the fall of Soviet Union.  They did not issue any statement on their understanding the changes that took place in the Soviet Union.  The left parties in India have transformed themselves into mere opposition parties “left of the centre”.  Not long ago Budhdeb Bhatacharia and Jyoti Bosu made statements that Capitalism has a role.  They were trying to bat for capitalist industrialization of West Bengal with out any success, of course.

But in spite of the faith of many in the permanency of capitalism, capitalism has begun to shake more than ever.

The left parties in India might have gone on the line of the Second International.  The second international and its spokes persons, Kautsy and Bernstine had drawn reductionist conclusions from Marx’s philosophy of historical materialism and the analysis of the development of capitalism.  

When capitalism develops it will develop productive forces and it will also develop the proletariat.  More proletarianization will happen.  With the trade union struggle of the working class for improving their economic conditions and through the intellectual activity of the intellectuals the bourgeoisie will bring about reforms, such as higher form of democracy.  When the contradiction within capitalism matures capitalism will catapult in to socialism.

They did not visualize any role for politics or for ideological struggle or any intervention to bring about socialism.  Nor did they see the need to dislodge the bourgeois rule as it would collapse under its own weight when the contradiction within capitalism would mature.  The democratic reforms of the bourgeois rulers will result in socialism.  The rise of socialism will be spontaneous result of the trade union struggle and democratic reform given the maturing of capitalism and the contradictions within.

This is the essence of what is called “economism”.  This is also called economic reductionism. 

This position of the second international poses problem.  We have seen over the years, almost 100 year from the creation of second international that capitalism has reached a stage of dead end.  The recent massive global economic crisis has exposed the contradiction of capitalism as never before.  There is high level of democracy in America, Europe and in many other developing countries like India.  We have the worst crisis of global warming which has been acknowledged by all and the efforts to contain this have been taking place globally. The limits of capitalism have not been set by the recent crisis the global warming and planet being in crisis.  This is enough to ring the bells telling us that we have come to a dead end.  If on the surface the bourgeoisies have managed the crisis, they have done so through the means that will brew probably a bigger crisis which we will not have to wait too long to see.  But the global warming is the real crisis which is threatening the very existence of the earth.  It has proved that capitalism is not a sustainable path of development. 

The Copenhagen has revealed that the most industrialized capitalist countries are not willing to see the reason and give their cancerous growth mania.  They are not willing to budge from their position.  They want to bribe the poor countries to find space to proceed towards a full blown cancer. 

Democracy and civil liberty at its height has not produced any conditon that will make the capitalism collapse.  The full blown contradictions have not brought down bourgeois rule or capitalism resulting in socialism.

There is a need for political intervention.  What is evident now is that the working class is starved of ideological clarity.  Marxism is in crisis not because it has no message for our world today.  Marxism was never as relevant as it is today.  The working class has not developed its revolutionary consciousness suo generic (by itself).  It has given up any struggle even for economic struggle.

In 1905 and subsequently by Russian Revolution Lenin had effectively fought against the economic reductionism and economism of the Second International.  Bolsheviks had succeed in over throwing the Tsarists autocracy and Russian bourgeoisies.

The second person after Lenin to expose the second international was Gramsci.  While Lenin developed his political theories in the process of successful over throw of the bourgeoisies Gramsci developed his idea through the reflections on the defeat of the Italian revolution.  His thoughts go far beyond Lenin on the kind of political intervention we need to do. 

Now is the time to turn to Gramsci to draw inspirations from him to review our situation today.  What message has Gramsci for us today?  He is even more relevant for us today than he was during his own times.

His thoughts have exposed economism not only of the second international but of the entire left of today, if there is any left is left.  His idea of hegemony is most relevant today for a political intervention.

Gramsci’s concept of civil society and hegemony shows a way for us work for a transformation of society.  His theory of hegemony is far excellent even in comparison to the theory of Lenin. 

The Russian revolution was successful only in the sense that the Bolshevik party captured state power.  But gradually the working class and the masses got alienated from the party.  In order to build socialist industrialization and agriculture Stalin used force rather than consensus and hegemony.  Bolshevik’s and later CPSU’ continuation in power was not backed by the hegemony of the masses.  Both the masses and the Bolsheviks wers replaced by bureaucracy and they began to behave like babus and even like Hilter’s military officers. Bolsheviks did not build hegemony that could keep them in power on the basis of this hegemony, much less the industrialization and collectivization of agriculture.

In present day society where there is functioning democracy and regular elections to the Parliament and state assemblies the bourgeois parties rely on a kind of hegemony over the civil society.  This hegemony is a forced hegemony, en though the force is operated through electoral promises and cash for vote.  The communist parties ruling in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura have not succeeded in creating hegemony that Gramsci speaks of.  The so called mass base is built on the basis of false hopes and populist development programes that never touch the long term interest of the masses.  One important lessons we need to draw from this is that there cannot be any change without building hegemony. 

Gramsci proposes creating a system of alliances which allows it to mobilize the majority of the working population against capitalism and the bourgeois state – to the extent that it succees in gaining consent of the board masses of peasants, daliths, adivasies and the excluded people.

Lenin had spelt out hegemony in terms of class alliance. Gramsci goes miles further.  He proposes indissoluble union of political leadership and intellectual and the masses.  The moral leadership of the political leaders clearly goes beyond the idea of a simple class alliance.

Gramsci compares the need for hegemony of the working masses to the Jacobins of the French Revolution.  He says, “this was how the Jacobins did in French Revolution.  Not only did they organized a bourgeois government, i.e., made the bourgeoisie the dominant class – they did more.  They created the bourgeois state, made the bourgeoisie into the leading, hegemonic class of the nation.  In other words gave the new state a permanent basis and created the compact modern French nation.”

Bourgeoisie over came their corporate nature and made hegemonic class. They infact force it to widen its class interests and to discover those interests which it had in common with popular sectors.  It was on this basis they were able to put themselves in command and to lead those sectors into the struggle.

This way political moment is situated and is characterized by ideological struggle which attempts to forge unity between economic, political and intellectual objective, placing all questions around which the struggle rages on ‘universal’, not on corporate level there by creating the hegemony of a fundamental social group over the series of subordinate ones.

Hegemony is not simple political alliance but of a complete fusion of economic, political, intellectual and moral objective which will be brought about by one fundamental group and groups allied to it through the intermediary of ideology when ideology manages to spread through out the whole society determining not only united economic and political objective but also intellectual and moral unity.

Hegemonic Class, Gramsci explains is a class which is been able to articulate the interests of other social groups to its own by means of ideological struggle.  This is only possible if this class renounces a strictly corporatist conception.  In order to exercise leadership it must genuinely concern itself with the interests of those social groups over which it wishes to exercise hegemony.  Obviously the fact of hegemony presupposes that one takes into account the interests and the tendencies of the groups over which hegemony will be exercised and it also presupposes a certain equilibrium, that is to say the hegemonic groups will make some sacrifices of a corporate nature.

Hegemony understood as a motor force of a universal expansion of development of all the national energies, general interest of the subordinate groups, enlargement of state – integral state, consisted of hegemony and rule of the oppressed people.  Hegemony involves the enlarging of social base of the state and establishes relation between the state, hegemonic class and its mass base.  It also involves enlargement of the states’s functioning, since the notion of integral state means incorporation of the apparatuses of hegemony of civil society to the state.

Gramsci reject the concept of Hegemony by transformism and expansive hegemony:

By transformation is meant gradual and continuous absorption achieved through cooption of the subordinate classes, social groups and even antagonistic groups for the function of the power of the hegemonic class.

For Gramsci successful Hegemony is “expansive hegemony”, i.e., creation of active direct consensus and genuine national “popular will” by adoption of the interests of the popular classes by the hegemonic class.

 It is a question of to articulating their interests to neutralize them but to promote their full development leading to final resolution of the contradictions which they express.

Originality of Gramsci’s concept of Hegemony is not to be found in purely instrumental alliance between classes through which the class demands of the allied classes are articulated to those of the fundamental class, with each group maintaining its own individuality within the alliance as well as its own ideology. 

Hegemony involves creation of a higher synthesis, so that all its elements “fuse in a collective will” which becomes a new protagonist of political action which will unftion as the protagonist of political action during that hegemony’s entire duration.

Civil Society and the Political System

CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE POLITICAL SYSTEM:

Alex Tuscano

The situation prevailing in the Indian politics deserves a serious reflection on the part of the civil society.  Many journalists say that the ills in the governance at the centre and at the state assemblies affect the civil society who elects these governments.

The description of the present political situation in Karnataka:  

Karnataka has seen governments formed by different political parties.  After the long spell of Congress rule Ramkrishna Hegde formed the first non congress government.  From then on Janatha Dal and Congress have shared different innings.  One peculiar situation about Karnataka is that when there was a congress government at the centre Karnataka had a Janatha Dal government.  And when there was a non congress government at the centre Karnataka had a congress government.  This time also Karnataka has BJP government while at the centre there is Congress led UPA government.

After the term of S.M. Krishna’s government there has been instability in Karnataka.  When there was a hung assembly with BPJ coming number one, followed by congress and Janatha Dal being third,  the Congress and the JDS formed an unholy alliance to keep BJP out.  After a while the power hungry Kumarswamy broke this alliance and joined BJP to become a chief minister. There was an agreement that while Kumarswami would be a chief minister for the first twenty months Yeduarappa would be sworn in as the next chief minister for the remaining 20 months.  But when Kumarswami’s term got over the sabotaged the chance of BJP to form the government under the leadership of Yeduarappa.  In the subsequent election the Karnataka voters taught the JDS a lesson and pushed JDS to the third position with a much reduced number of MLAs.  BJP got sympathy vote but not good enough to form a government.

BJP was forced to pay heavy price to win the independent MLAs to their side to form a government.  But that did not provide enough number of seats to ensure a stable BJP government.  Yeduarappa resorted to Operation Lotus.  He got eight congress MLAs and six JDS MLAs to resign the assembly seats and get elected under BJP banner.  The parties whose MLAs were poached were waiting for their chance to teach BJP a lesson.  When Yedurappa went in for second reshuffle of the cabinet it gave rise to discontent among the BJP MLAs.  There was a prolong political crisis in Karnataka which led to a very ugly situation with dirty politics played by JDS as well as Congress!  After winging the second vote of confidence BJP is back in power.  But to save the government BJP again planned to resort to operation lotus.  BJP (the state president) shamelessly and boldly stated that they had no other option.  Politics going to the lowest ebb! 

The outcome of the Taluk and Jilha panchayat again has made the BJP to apply operation lotus to gobble majority at the local level governments.  While the BJP has absolutely no respect for democracy and elections, the elected members see themselves as commodities that could be sold and purchase like what we see at the red light area.

Then there was another scam, the land scam.  The scam ridden minister Katta had to resign.  But the matter did not stop there.  The chief minister Yeduarappa himself was in the thick of the land scam.  He denotified prime lands in and around Bangalore and allotted to his son and his son in law.  What is amazing is that in spite the general demand for his resignation, even in the BJP circle he managed to convince his bosses and continue in office.

The Situation at the Centre: 

The situation at the Centre is not very different, if not worse.  The absurdity of the high growth mode of our economy is being exposed day by day and in bits and pieces.  The economists do not seem to be humoured. The apparent situation does indicate very serious problems at the political and economic front.  The prices are rising to an extent that the common man (aam aadmi) finds it very difficult to live from day to day.  The government seems to have no clue on the cause of the problem and is unable to control prices.  The agricultural minister, Sharat Pawar has gone old and is incapable of raising himself to cease the problem.

There are scams all over.  The Common Wealth Games, the Adarsh scam, the 2G spectrum scam, the appointment of CVC and to add to all this, the Bofors scam has risen its head once again.  The latest trouble for the government has been from the black money stacked in the Swiss Banks.  The German government has given the names of 26 persons who have secret bank accounts in a very small country.  But the UPA is not willing to reveal the names for some reason.

The opposition parties are united in making the life of the ruling coalition even harder.  They have been demanding JPC inquiry in 2G scam.  Congress party in particular and the UPA in general has been stubbornly opposing this idea.  The result was that the opposition party completely washing out the winter session of the Parliament.  All the MPs and the parliament session ate up the huge sum of public money for not doing any business.  This too is not such a small scam.

The opposition is waiting for the fall of this government.  It is not that they have any solution to the rising prices or they are any way beyond scams, scandals and corruption. Except for opportunism the opposition has no other programme to offer to solve the ills of the nation.

There are economists like C P Chandrashekhar who interpret these corruption as the necessary side of the “primitive accumulation”.  After all primitive accumulation for the inception of capitalism was also large scale loots of the wealth of the common people. He has a point but it should be dealt in a separate article.

There has been a view that the people get the government they deserve.  If the people elect corrupt politicians then they will get corrupt government. 

This is only a half truth.  In the present election system and the representative democratic system the civil society has no option.  The same discredited parties will be in the fray and the same corrupt politicians will stand for elections.  The people have to choose the least corrupt among the most corrupt politicians. 

In order to overcome this situation we have to find a way out so that gradually we can eliminate the corrupt politicians and bring sanity to the political system.  There should be no horse trading.  If there is horse trading then the parties that indulge in horse trading should be punished.  The civil society should have a way to do that.

To my mind there are two ways we can adopt to put an end to this present criminal situation.

The first one is “The Right to Reject”.  This means just as we vote for candidates and the parties we feel should be elected (an acceptance vote) we can exercise an option to reject all the candidates and the parties fighting elections (a rejection vote).  Here people can exercise their voting power to reject the criminal and corrupt candidates who stand for election.  This makes it possible for the people (voters) not to elect even the least corrupt among the most corrupt.  If the rejection vote is sizeable enough then the parties should be asked to field candidates with impeccable integrity who would be acceptable to the people.  It will be up to the parties to find good candidates.  This could lead to a process of thinking among the parties to ensure that they field good candidates and provide good governance to the people.  In the process the criminal politicians and corruption will be eliminated.

The second option   is “Right to Recall”.  This means that after a period of time the voters can move a motion to demand withdrawal of the candidates they have elected on the ground of their corrupt practices, bad governance or lack of performance.  The electorate can call for a process to register their lack of confidence in such MPs and MLAs and force them to resign and hold another election to replace such politicians.

In order to exercise these two options a lot of ground work needs to be done.  Here the civil society organizations which have political independence have to play a major role.  This role will be political but not party political.  The electorate need to be educated and there needs to be a regular forum to express people’s opinions and grievances.  We have an institution of Gram Sabha in the rural panchayat context.  This can be an effective forum which will help people to decide on the process of recalling the elected members of the parliament or assemblies.  Similar forums should be created in the urban and semi urban areas where there are Municipal corporations.

This will result in emergence of enlightened electorate.  People will develop confidence in their ability and power to reform the political system and purify the institutions.  Money will not play ultimate role in making and unmaking a government.  The political parties will not be able to fool the people.  The elected members will not change their colour or forget their people after election.  We will not only weed out corruption but institute efficient, responsive and responsible government.

The issue before us is who will enlighten the civil society?  Often people get wedded to one or the other political party and fail to look at all the parties in an objective way.  Most often they are used by these parties as vote banks.  There has to be an end to the vote bank politics.  

We cannot expect present political parties to undertake this task of enlightening the civil society.  One should rightfully look at the left parties to perform this role.  The left parties were born for this purpose.  But they are so concerned about gaining power or retaining political power just as the other parties are that they have forgotten their mission.  We have to look at the civil society organisations which stand for secular, democratic, just society to take up the task of awakening the people to new spirit of citizenship.

WOMEN AND THE 12TH FIVE YEAR PLAN:

WOMEN AND THE 12^TH FIVE YEAR PLAN:

 Our country has gone through 11 five year plans.  In all these plans it no attention has been given to the discriminatory status of women.  This amounts to gross injustice to women.

Thanks to Dr. Ambedkar and the dalith movement, the daliths have got some mention in the five year plans.  This is an admission of the fact that our society had practiced a wrong kind of reservation policy where the upper caste enjoyed all the benefits by oppressing the daliths.

When we come to women we have identical situation.  While men enjoy all power, position and privileges women were treated as second rate and lower human species.  The theory of patriarchy puts the question of women in a proper perspective.

Just as planning attempts at abolishing poverty and caste discrimination, in the similar manner and with greater determination planning should try to abolish the discriminatory status of women in the society.  Mind you women constitute 50% of the population.  If their proportion to men is coming down then it is a discriminatory planning on the part of the society to abolish women or reduce their number, as if they are probably necessary evil in the society and therefore less they are in number the better.

In the context of this unwritten principle ruling in the society, women should be recognized at least now while preparing the 12^th five year plan.

If you ask me what issues should be addressed in the 12^th five year plan to correct the status of women then I should say we should review women’s movements and try to understand their demands as legitimate and overdue since the beginning of humankind.  Women should get equal right to the property.  No stretch of imagination can deny that this is a central to granting the women equality with men in the society.  This right should be seen in action.  When we speak about equality of women with men it does not mean that there are no differences.  Differences should not result in the lower status for women.  The biological difference between women and men and therefore the biological role of women should give women greater consideration and status.

 The 12^th five year plan should work for giving women opportunity for education, nutrition and health care so that they can live and work in the society shoulder to shoulder with men.  Coming to the basics the nutrition of women is a matter of concern for all women in all levels of the society.  Similarly health care is of prime importance.   Given their biological role they should be enjoying a privileged position in health care.  It is often the opposite.  Women’s work at home should get due economic recognition as adding value to the national production.

The 12^th five year plan should ensure monitoring of implementation of programmes so that it will guarantee that women get these fundamental rights.  By the end of the 12^th five year plan a quantifiable change should be achieved in the position of women.

One very important requirement to achieve these objectives is the political empowerment of women.  This should not be the goal only of women’s organizations and movements but also a goal of the government.  Women then will ensure that they are in the centre stage in the planning process along with men.  Women are not just ‘planned for’ but they actually plan.  They will plan not just for themselves but for the society.  Because when women enjoy equal status with men it is then men become and the society becomes a sane society.  Women should be given equal role and responsibilities in the political, administrative and judiciary functions of the state.

There is no need here to go into individual items of the planning where by these above mentioned goals are achieved.  The women’s movements have done a better job in this.  One just needs to go through their demands over the history of the movement to get suggestions.

COURT, JUDGES, JUDGEMENTS AND CONTEMPT OF COURT.

COURT, JUDGES, JUDGEMENTS AND CONTEMPT OF COURT.

I had not been a frequent visitor to the courts or sitting in the court halls in front of any judg.  Altogether it might have been only three times that I had been to the lowest courts.  I learnt a lot during these three visits.  What I noticed is the courts and the judges are treated as most sacred institutions.  When a judge enters the court hall all stand and show respect to the judge.  If one passes from one side of the court to another side he/she bows down to the honourable judge and go to the other side of the court hall.  While sitting on  benches you should take care not to put your one leg over the other.  Many of these observances are not practiced in the mosques, churches or in temples. 

All over the world the courts have been held with highest respect and any derogative statement against the court or a judge is considered as contempt of court and a punishable offence.  This is a noble spirit that all the citizens of this planet should imbibe.  All believe that judges and courts always and per se uphold the truth.  The law makers whose laws are applied to pass judgements also pay highest respect to judges and the seat of judgement.

P Chitamberam states, “Dr. Sen has been convicted by a court of law; many persons have said the trial court judgement is unsatisfactory; it may be, but the only way to correct it is by filing an appeal.”  “Those who respect democracy must also respect the process of democracy, and those who respect law must also respect the process of law.” 

The editorial of The Economic Times on Tuesday, 4^th January 2011 has raised many questions.  I quote some of the most salient points from it.

The former law minister Shanti Bhushan said that eight out of sixteen Chief Justices of India were corrupt.  Now allegations have surfaced against the brother of former CJK G. Balakrishnan, suggesting the Supreme court may have erred in singling out only the Allahabad High court for its famous comment,‘something is rotten’.  Clearly there is much that is wrong with our judicial system. . .”

“In November three member judicial committee set up by the Rajya Sabha chairman which found Calcutta High Court judge Soumitra Sen guilty of misappropriating ‘large sums’ of money clearing the way for his impeachment.  Justice Ramaswami before him should have been impeached but he was not and Soumitra Sen might not be impeached.  Earlier we had the farce of the former Chief Justice of Karnataka High court, P D Dinakaran, being allowed to take over as Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court, while he was facing impeachment proceedings in the Rajya Sabha.”

When it is stated that the judges corrupt and the courts “rotten” does it not mean that the courts and the judges are blamed as courts and judges.  There is no assumption that the moment the court commences the proceeding and judges sit on their seat of judgement there is a metamorphosis and the courts as institutions and the judges become objective and non corrupt.  When Shanti Bhushan states that eight out of sixteen chief Justices of India were corrupt he means to say they were corrupt as judges and they passed unfair judgement and the guilty escaped and the innocent suffered injustice at the hands of the judges. 

I would like to add another dimension to the corruption.  It is not when one takes money to favour the guilty but it could also be for political reason or social reason making a judge to pass unfair judgement.  We have heard of A. Raja trying to pressurise a judge in giving bail to one of Raja’s associate in Tamilnadu.

Now we come to another dimension of justice.  It is the police force in India.  Corruption in police force and police violating human rights, police atrocities against the civilians, police under the control of politicians are some things that do not come as rare occurrences.  There have been frequent debates on the nature of investigations done by the prime investigating agency called CBI; be it in Bofors’ case, or corruption cases against the people in high offices.  The opposition parties whoever get their turn will continue to cry over the lack of independence of CBI.  For two years we hear about the 2G spectrum scam where A Raja is involved.  He was allowed to continue as a minister till the Supreme Court asked the CBI to investigate into the scam.  

Now when we put together these facts we need to know what would be the quality of justice that is handed down to the citizens? 

The country had been waiting for several years to hear a judgement on Ayodhya case.  The judgement that came out and the ground on which this judgement was passed are not beyond question.

We have a reported case of a very low ranking government servant charged with imprisonment for taking bribe of Rs. 50/.  More than 17 years after he was caught accepting a bribe of Rs 50, the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the one-year sentence imposed under the Prevention of Corruption Act on a municipal body employee of Tamil Nadu. 

Kootha Perumal, an employee of Pudukottai Municipality, was caught on August 23, 1993, by Anti Corruption Bureau sleuths for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 50 from the complainant Nayinar Mohammed, for issuing a tax certificate to enable him obtain a loan from a finance company.  "We are of the considered opinion that the trial court as well as the high court have analyzed the entire evidence and clearly held that a demand was definitely made by the appellant for delivery of the tax certificate," a bench of justices B Sudershan Reddy and Surinder Singh Nijjar said in their judgment. 

We have now the case of Dr. Binayak Sen charged with sedition and given life imprisonment.  There are statement to the contrary about the so called the evidence of passing letters from the Naxalite prisoner, as Dr. Binayak Sen did not visit the Naxalite prisoner without the presence of prison guards and whatever document that the court says was found with Dr. Binayak Sen did not contain any material that would cause any alarm.  There are so many goof ups in the evidence against Binayak Sen: his link with ISI of Pakistan and contacting a person called Fernandes, the location of his arrest, the documents seized from him, to mention a few.  Do these indicate ignorance or bad will, asks Rev. Fr. Walter Fenandes, S.J., former director of Indian Social Institute (ISI), Delhi.

If someone possesses assets disproportionate to the known source of his/her income is deemed corruption then what would we call a judgement that is disproportionate to the evidence at the disposal of the court?

On August 26, 2009 Dr. Manmohan Singh addressed the CBI exhorting the agency to aggressively pursue corruption at high level and change the perception that while petty cases were quickly tackled, the “big fish escaped punishment.  I must tell the honourable prime minister that what he calls the ‘perception’ is not perception but a reality.

Thinking Together: Painfully Slow

Thinking Together: Painfully Slow: "“PAINFULLY SLOW”Barak Obama has claimed that the economic recovery in America is ‘painfully slow’. The rate of unemployment has gone u..."

Painfully Slow

“PAINFULLY SLOW”

Barak Obama has claimed that the economic recovery in America is ‘painfully slow’.  The rate of unemployment has gone up to double digit.  He has announced number of measures to speed up the recovery and create more jobs.  He wants to withdraw tax benefits to companies that give business to Bangalore rather than to Buffalo. Another action he has proposed is to bring about steep hike in the cost of H1B visa from $2,300 to $ 4,300.  The state of Ohio has gone even further and has planned to ban off shoring.  Many are calling it foul.  And foul it is!

It is a double standard of American administration.  On the one hand Americans have been clamouring for putting an end to protectionism but when there are economic problems in America it tries to introduce protectionism.  Soon after the great economic crisis George Bush made a declaration that these crisis should not result in protectionism.  Probably he was afraid that the rest of the world will introduce protectionist measures. 

For America, it seems, Globalization has only one meaning, namely, the American interests get globalized.  Many have claimed that the mishandling of the Economy by the American Federal Reserve was the cause for the Wall Street meltdown and the entire world was forced to pay the price. 

Surprisingly for the American the Indian economy is doing excellently well and China is leading.  The Americans tend to think that these two countries are doing well at the expense of American unemployment and sluggish growth.. 

But America should take note of a few things:

1.      How many of the American companies are operating in China and in India, not to speak of the rest of the world?  These companies are taking advantage of cheap raw material and labour to earn high profits from these countries.  Apart from earning huge profit for the Americans many a time these companies have resulted into industrial disasters, like Bhopal Gas disaster and Kodaikanal mercury poisoning the hill station.

If we analyse the growth of Indian economy one will realise that the major beneficiary of this growth is America. One has to find out how much of the American interests are served in this growth by virtue of their investments in India. The following figures of growth show it amply clear. “The consumer durable goods production has gone up to 22.1%.” The group of industries listed under ‘machinery and equipment has shown the highest growth of 49% and 24.9% in transport equipment and parts” (Times of India, Sept 11).  The areas of growth that would serve the interests the Indian people would be in power generation and agriculture. These are growing at less than 4% and 0.2% respectively.  America should realise that if they want to prevent professionals from countries like India from coming to America then will they take back the capital that exploits India?  Just because America is the biggest economy the developing countries do not have the courage to challenge America’s unfair trade practices and expose their double standard on globalization and free trade.

2.      America should realise that they have contributed to the miseries of scores of people in the developing countries principally in Vietnam, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.  To hunt down the Al-Qaida George Bush brought the entire Afghanistan into war and had done more than what it accused Soviet Union of doing.  There was no presence of Al-Qaida in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s rule.  In fact Iraq was known for its secular credentials during his regime.  Fortunately the weapons of mass destruction supplied to Iraq by America to fight against Iran had been eliminated by Saddam Hussein and that prevented high cost of American aggression both for the American troops and the people of Iraq.  

All these misdeeds of America have come at a very heavy price for the Americans as well.  The Americans were made to live under fear psychosis of repeat of 9/11 so that they could they would not oppose the madness of the government of America.  If the Americans wanted oil from Iraq then one must say this was the most absurd way of trade.

3.      The third thing American should realise is that it is the biggest supplier of weapons to the world, particularly to the poor countries.  American economy has benefited from the war economy.  It has suffered because of its military power.  If America had avoided war against Afghanistan and Iraq it would have save the misery for all, principally for America.  If America seriously works for disarmament then it will have the best way to solve its problems of economic growth and unemployment.    

Barak Obama wants to take up infrastructure development to boost employment and the economy.  He wants to tax the industrialists to raise money for this.   He does not realise that the kind of chain effect it will have in further pushing the economy into recession.   Does he realize that the unemployment it faces might be different from the employment the project like infrastructure development will generate?  But the politicians have to fool the people with false promises particularly in view of elections.

4.       Will America learn from the experience of its war on Afghanistan and the way it has brought democracy to Iraq.  It has not learnt anything from the war in Vietnam and its politicking in Iran which led Iran into the hands of the Muslim fundamentalists.  American leaders and the people are, by and large, introvert.  If one has to learn one should go and reach out to others.  America must realise that its greatness is nothing if it is not the part of the greatness of the world.  But Americans think that it is a great nation and the greatness of the world is because of America’s greatness.  If the American economic growth is painfully slow it is because the learning process of the American leaders and the people in general is painfully slow.

                                                                                             Alex Tuscano

Climate Change, Profits over Life

The Copenhagen Summit did not take the right path?

                                                                                                                     Alex Tuscano

 “When the last tree is cut down, when the last fish is caught, when the last river is polluted then the humankind will realize that it cannot live by eating money.”

The heads of the states had been fighting among themselves at the meeting in Copenhagen last year  to make tough decisions about who will be willing to cut how much of carbon emission.  All are concerned and see that there is an urgency to save the planet from falling apart.

If the heads of the states restrict themselves to cutting down the carbon emission and preventing the rise in the global warming or trying to take decisions to reverse the climate change then it will be a poor show and no problems will be solved.   After a period the planet will land up again in Crisis.  Just as capitalism lands up in crisis periodically, one larger than the previous the same way the plant too will continue land up in crisis.

The fundamental question before the international community is not the climate change; it is not about global warming.  The fundamental question is about the destiny of human kind; it is about the path the humankind has chosen to follow.  There have been several indications to tell humankind that the path they have taken is wrong and therefore the solutions they will find will be ineffective.  The only solution is to change the path of development.

The humankind has seen two world wars.  The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and what happened after that did not prevent the humankind from building nuclear arms. It had piled up nuclear arms enough to destroy this earth twelve times over.  It has been waging wars even after the disastrous consequences of the world war two.  America did not learn anything from the lessons of Vietnam War.  Their wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have solved no questions.  The world community at large with massive power is powerless in solving the problems in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Terrorism has gripped the entire world and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.  Because the world community leaders have no intellectual honesty to recognize that the real problem is the path of development we have followed.

The world witnessed the global financial melt down and economic crisis.  It was rated to be worse crisis compared to the crisis of 1930ies.  What was the meaning they saw in this crisis?    The kind of solution they came out with and are trying to apply is bound to build up another crisis.

The world is facing the father of all crises, called the global warming, or climate change.  The world community sees all these crisis as separate and independent and is trying to find independent solutions.  One solution will not have any link with another as one problem is seen in isolation from the other.

The humankind essentially is facing the crisis of the purpose of collective life.  This civilization has seen great religions with very lofty ideals.  There have been great philosophers and saints on this earth.  Every nation has given birth to great leaders.  But collectively the humankind has failed to itself.  Humankind has lost sight of their destiny.

Humankind has removed themselves from the centre of their lives.  They have brought in a particular politics and economics in the centre.  They are busy gaining and retaining power so that they can use this power to maintain their supremacy in economic sphere.  What is economics is all about.  It is about production, consumption and finally making profit.  Profit sounds very innocent word but it the most explosive reality.  It defies all human values.  If the entire purpose of production is to make profit and if there is no profit in any production then that production will not take place.  People will produce those things that will give them maximum profit. As a result, the humankind not only produces useless things which will not solve the most central needs of their fellow people, like food, clothing, shelter and health care, but they have indulged in production of arms of the most deadly nature that will destroy themselves and the earth.

In the name of security they have produced arms of mass destruction and in the pursuit of profit they destroy the nature and environment that to day the earth is in danger.  The private property and private profit has left the common property resource to the mice.  There is no concern for the protection of environment.  In the production for profit what is counted is what they pay for.  The environment is no one’s property and no one pays for it and hence it is not any one’s concern.  But it has a cost.  It will cost the producers to ensure that while in the process of production if they are destroying the environment then they should ensure that they restore the environment or employ methods of production that will safeguard the environment.  This would mean that the producers have to incur costs for protecting the environment because they are the single largest agency that destroys the environment.  But this would mean cutting on their profit level.  To maximize the profits they employ means which are most disastrous to the environment.

The next central concern of the humankind after profit is growth.  They want to accumulate their profit to make their capital grow.  There is a great debate on the growth of the economies.  Growth is a growth of private entity, growth of private capital.  The growth is not measured in comparison to the harm done to the earth.  It is not measured in terms of poverty, starvation prevailing on earth.  It is not measured in terms of terrorism that is growing on earth.

The world is admiring the highest growth China has been able to achieve.  But what is the track record of China.  China is using cheap labour in their country and sells their product to the rest of the world cheap.  It is shutting down the businesses of the poor countries. Scores of people are loosing on their business.  They are becoming unemployed.

The Republic of China began with a noble goal of building socialism in China, to ensure that all have three square meals, clothing, shelter and health care.  The Republic of China had founded its nation with the sole objective of providing prosperity to the majority of the people in China.  The Republic of China did not talk about profit, growth.  It was even reaching out to the poor nations to help them bring about change so that these nations too could follow the foot steps of Republic of China to eradicate poverty and bring about equity and justice in their society.

To day China has gone the ways of the main stream world.  The Republic of China of 21^st century has gone all the way to exploit and plunder the poor and the weaker nation for their own growth.  “China has adopted an aggressive policy of extracting Africa's natural resources. China is giving aid and loans to African countries and obtaining rights to exploit the natural resources. t China National Petroleum Corporation is the single largest shareholder in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, which controls Sudan's oil fields. China has invested $3 billion in refinery and pipeline construction in Sudan since 1999. Beijing extended a $2 billion loan to Angola in exchange for a contract to supply 10,000 barrels of crude oil per day. PetroChina has concluded an $800 million deal with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to purchase 30,000 barrels of oil per day for one year. China National Offshore Oil Corporation purchased a 45 percent stake in a Nigerian offshore oil and gas field for $2.27 billion and promised to invest an additional $2.25 billion in field development. China is reported to give huge bribes to the leaders and officials to obtain the rights to extract resources. A report in the New York Times tells that a Namibian public service commissioner was arrested after a Chinese company deposited $4.2 million in the account of a consulting company she set up. "China is using this financing to buy the loyalty of the political elite... It is a very effective tool of soft diplomacy. But it is bad for the citizens who have to repay these loans for graft-ridden contracts."

Mankind is called the crown of the universe, the glory of evolution.  All material forms culminated and reached its perfection in the birth of humankind that stands tall with its mind and spirit, with its rationality and spirituality.  That crown and the glory of the universe has turned into its opposite.  It has become the enemy of the universe, the destroyer of the earth.  This stems from the most irrational matter called capital, profit and growth.

Politics has been turned into its opposite.  Instead of coming to the rescue of humankind, of the rational mind and spirituality, to the unity and collectiveness of humankind it has become a question of acquiring and exercising power – power to protect and defend capital, profit and growth which divides, separates and casts aside the great majority of humankind. Nay, it dominates and subjugates the great majority of humankind to slavery of wage labourers, uses them as mere tools to make profit, accumulate and grow. The people have been removed from the centre of their national goal and Growth has become their national goal.   Plato has been proved wrong.  Politics, for him was meant to be in the hands of philosophers who understand the dignity of humanity, who would nurture this humanity.  But it has gone to the hands of the demons (vulchers) who want to exploit and extract profit and torture humankind and even put them to death.

I think the time has come to recognize that the real need is to put the humankind, the majority of the humankind in the centre of all pursuits.  All plans and development should be focused on the well being of the maximum people.  There is an urgent need to fight poverty, hunger, disease and homelessness. This well being will also mean the protection of the home of the humankind, our Mother Earth.  There is no need to produce arms and nuclear bombs.  In the climate change summit they will talk about helping the developing and the least developed nations to implement carbon reduction.  This talk is again to make sure that the developed world will continue to exploit the rest of the humankind and maintain its position of supremacy in economic development and political power.

The earth belongs to all who are born on this earth.  They have right to this earth and should enjoy this right.  Capital, profit and growth of a few cannot deprive the humankind of their rights.

We need to question the path of development on which the most powerful nations are controlling the earth.  Some where Marx was right and the bloodless Russian Revolution had probably set on the right path. But the capitalists saw that it was defeated.  America’s war in Vietnam was principally aimed to checkmate Socialist path of Communism.  It is still holding Cuba under the universal boycott.  One can say that the socialism was turned into demon by Fascist war and the capitalist blockade. There is a need to rethink our priorities.  Look back on our history and take a path different from capita, profit and growth.

Was not the communism immediate out come of the Resurrection of Jesus and descending of the Holy Spirit on the followers of Jesus?  Does “The Acts of the Apostle” tell us a lie?