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Amendments Remitted by the Congress
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World Economy: Processes and Prospects
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Swedish amendment:
In the document on World Economic Perspectives: change all mention of "a period of depression since 1974/75" to "a period of stagnation and organic crisis".
However, maintain the formulation: "a period of depression" in relation to the crisis that has developed since the early 1990s..
German amendment:
1) Delete: In paragraph 12: "The massive growth of the supply of labor ... which led to a fall in the rate of profit." (line 4 - line 15 inclusive).
Insert: "For different reasons there were both in the US and Europe extraordinarily high rates of profit after the Second World War. The US had an enormous advantage of productivity compared to Europe, which allowed extra profits on the world market but not on the US market. In Europe the production capacities had partly been modernized during the war and were not seriously destroyed. This, combined with literally starvation wages, allowed high rates of profit, too. Britain had neither the US productivity nor continental starvation wages; this accelerated the decline of British capitalism. During the postwar upswing, the technology gap between the US and Europe was more or less closed. The US extra profits disappeared and the hidden over-accumulation and squeezed profits, too. Thus, for different reasons but in a parallel process, the rates of profits in the US and Europe fell."
2) Delete: In paragraph 14: "Moreover, the very measures taken to boost short-term profitability have undermined the conditions for sustained growth, particularly in relation to the market" (last sentence).
Insert: "The measures to boost profits reduce the purchase power of the working class and thus cut the market for the capitalists. In spite of this, there is no other way under capitalist conditions to restore long-term profitability. The effect is, that the capitalists have to cut even deeper into the living standards of the working class to make good the additional loss of profits which they have produced themselves."
3) Delete: In paragraph 23: "This has undermined one of the key conditions of the long post-war upswing." (last sentence).
Insert: "This reduces the purchase power of the working class and aggravates the crisis."
4) Delete: In paragraph 24: "It was precisely mass unemployment and low wages which in the 1920's ... However, in response to over-accumulation..." (line 1 - line 8 inclusive).
Insert: "The postwar upswing was not induced by high wages but by high profit rates. But it allowed the capitalists in the advanced capitalist countries to make concessions to the working class. They reacted to the pressure of the working class and also preferred a motivated and highly productive workforce to interruptions of the production process by industrial struggles. But at some stage these concessions engendered profitability. In response to over-accumulation..."
5) Delete: In paragraph 42: "The growth of mass unemployment and poverty have inevitably led to a rise in crime, urban riots, the growth of racist and fascist groups and chauvinist and nationalist tendencies." (last sentence).
Insert: "Because of the shift to the right of the leaders of the traditional workers organizations and their inability to show a way out of capitalist crisis, the growth of mass unemployment and poverty have led to a rise in crime, urban riots, the growth of racist and fascist groups and chauvinist and nationalist tendencies."
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World Relations in a New Epoch
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German amendment: Moved by KB Withdrawn during the Congress. Add to paragraph 120: "As we have often explained, a long period of dictatorship throws back the political consciousness of the working class. But the Stalinist dictatorship had an even worse effect, because the regimes originated in the leadership of the CPs, a part of the labor movement itself, ruled in the name of the working class and abused socialism as their state ideology. With the collapse of the Stalinist regimes and the subsequent exposure of their rottenness, large sections of the working class rejected everything to do with this ideology, embracing bourgeois democracy and the "market economy". Amplified by the bourgeois media this has also confused and lowered the consciousness of the working class in the West. The reformist leaders of the labor movement did not answer this propaganda but joined in; the Stalinist-influenced left could not answer it; the forces of Trotskyism were still too small to reach the ear of the mass of the working class.
German amendment: Add to paragraph 128: "In Germany, the demoralization of left-wing activists in the factories opened up a vacuum which the Marxists are not yet able to fill. This means that spontaneous and explosive movements by the workers have taken place without being generalized. Without a program that goes beyond the bounds of the "market economy" arguments, each factory or industry is divided against another and in most cases doomed to defeat. Thus the course of the first move of battles against the effects of recession has been affected by yesterday's consciousness. |
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The Traditional Workers' Parties
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German addendum to the resolution on the traditional workers' parties and our tactics. Remitted for further discussion to the IS/IEC. Add: "The shift to the right in the last period stemmed not from the class but from the ideological offensive of the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois leadership of the workers' organizations, followed by the collapse or shift to the right of the reformist left. Nevertheless, this then became a factor which affects the consciousness of the various layers of the class. The ideological confusion in all layers of the working class, including the advanced layer, has in the last few years been greater than ever. A process of radicalization has already begun in important sections of the working class, particularly among the youth. So far this has expressed itself in the methods of struggle, but not yet in any clear ideas about the program, strategy and aims. Already a small layer is consciously looking for an alternative system and a corresponding organization. Its up to us to fill this vacuum. In order to reach this layer we have to give our organization a clear profile - through political clarity in terms of program and perspectives, through active participation in class struggles and by offering a framework for building a revolutionary party. But for broader layers of the working class there exists a greater vacuum for reformist or left reformist ideas. The mass of workers would not skip over this stage but Marxists can help shorten it, by participating in and driving forward workers' struggles. We must always be in advance of the masses, ever pointing to the next step forward, but not rushing too far ahead and isolating ourselves. The utter collapse of the old left reformist forces has opened up this large vacuum, which can be filled out rapidly by new lefts. But as the crisis of capitalism offers very little room for reforms, these coming left reformists and centrist tendencies will tend to be unstable and would rapidly exhaust their possibilities. One of the preconditions for the emergence of new left reformist forces will be big class battles and the drawing of political conclusions by important layers of the class. Which organizational forms these new left reformist forces take, whether inside the traditional mass parties or in new formations, is not the most important question for us. Of decisive importance is that we prepare ourselves politically for the coming competition with left reformism, educating ourselves through active participation in workers' struggles. So far no major mass workers' party has completely degenerated into becoming a bourgeois party, though the Italian Socialist Party, a secondary party, is likely to disappear. |
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Racism, Fascism and Prospects for Reaction
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German amendment: Moved by KB. This amendment was remitted to the IS/IEC for further discussion. Add to paragraph 18: "The wave of racism in Europe is also a consequence of the bourgeois triumphalism after the collapse of Stalinism. One inevitable result of the bourgeois ideological offensive was nationalism, of which racism is an expression. This was the case in Germany, with the reunification of 80 million raising the claim of German imperialism to a greater role internationally. The harsh reality of capitalism in recession has dashed the hopes of millions and produced enormous discontent with the bourgeois governments. Now the working class is seeking an explanation. The workers' parties, either themselves carrying out attacks on living standards (Spain, in coalition (Belgium), or effectively under-writing the conservative governments (Germany, Britain, Italy) have neither alternative policies nor a socialist world outlook. With abandoning by all leaders of the labor movement of "socialism" and a class explanation of society, a section of the working class and youth is inevitably going through a stage of looking for an explanation within bourgeois ideology, seeing the ruling bourgeois politicians as "not consistent enough". A strengthening of class-consciousness, with its ideological consequences, is now beginning with class conflicts throughout Europe. |