Arup Baisya

The Government policy of unplanned lockdown, the dilapidated health infrastructure, and health facility skewed in favour of the rich and the Government’s lack of intent in the building of mass-awareness and capacity for universal free healthcare facility to contain COVID pandemic for the fascination in promoting Hindutva ideology of the present dispensation had dismantled the banister which the party in power could catch hold of in the slippery slope of Indian economy. The Government allowed the COVID pandemic to snowball into a human disaster prioritizing the Hindutva agenda to pursue over the saving of lives and livelihood. Some observers foresaw the return to Keynesianism in the backdrop of global as well as national human disaster both due to COVID disaster and natural disaster for global warming. Both are the offshoot of the capitalist mode of production that creates a metabolic rift between humans and nature, and this is accentuated by the neoliberal policy persuasions. The so-called golden age of Keynesianism emerged from a human disaster of incomprehensible dimensions, but this time the return to Keynesianism seems implausible, the viable alternatives are barbarism or socialism. In the developing countries like India, the task for the democratization of state and society and to combat the activation of coercive state apparatuses to curtail democratic rights is ingrained within the overarching ambit of working-class struggle. 

The Working Class and the left

In the pre-pandemic neoliberal global economy, we observed a massive extension of the service sector. This was because the capital could no longer be valorised in industrial production. The change and diversification of the consumption pattern facilitated capital accumulation in this sector. The service sector is ingrained in the capitalist production process for exchange for consumption due to the presence of diverse forms of mediation for the circulation of capital for the return of capital in the production process again. But the development of the service sector as an independent sector for profit and accumulation of capital is the latest development of capitalism and this sector recorded a huge boom in the neoliberal phase. The immense rise of the organic composition of capital both in the developed and developing countries due to the rise in fixed capital in comparison to variable capital has transformed a large amount of capital idle. The high rate of accumulation of capital in the few pockets of the capitalist class has a negative impact on consumer demand which leads to the crisis of over-production. When the production of consumer goods is curtailed due to lack of consumer demand, it subsequently also reduces the demand for production of means of production. The idle capital which does not find any profitable destination for investment has been transferred into the service sector which has developed in diverse forms of social and cultural dimensions. The service sectors do not add use-value to the commodities produced by productive labour, but merely add exchange values by the workers in service sectors at different levels to make the products available for the consumption of consumers. The transport sector transfers the commodity from one location to another for consumptions, the service workers add exchange values for the capitalist to accumulate profit at various points in space-time. But it is expected that the growth of service sector would stimulate the demand for the requirement of consumer goods e.g. if transport sector grows, it will create a demand for cars, if service for cultural consumption grows, it will create demand for more TVs, electronic appliances and other related goods. But the transfer of capital accumulated from the service sector to the productive sector has not happened. This accentuated the capitalist crisis and created a situation for both the production and service sector to collapse indicating the collapse of the capitalist economy itself. The left forces neglected the potential strength of the workers in service sectors to transform themselves into a revolutionary class and considered them as a precariat for routinised supportive activities. This is mainly due to the mechanical reading of the communist manifesto. This has become most glaring when the Indian migrant workers revolted against the system through an indirect and primitive form of mass exodus. The left then spelled out a language of criticism against the powers-that-be without formulating a strategy to lead this revolt from the front for a revolutionary transformation. There is another dimension of the left’s role in the present crisis. The old guards of the left circle have lost imagination and imbued with routinised activities and enjoyed satisfaction by glorifying their past deeds. The new guards are confused to think that every popular reaction is anti-systemic and only criticism of the power-that-be from above is the central focus for a revolutionary change.

Monetary and labour policy and its ramification

In this situation of a deep systemic crisis of the capitalist economy, the pandemic and lockdown caused the production and labour process to come to a halt and disrupted even the value chain of the service sector. The Indian Government reacted with the monetary policy of infusing bank credit money into the system. Crisil ratings are optimistic in stating that a slowdown in bank lending may be bottoming out this fiscal, while gross credit off-take may rise 8-9% year-on-year in fiscal 2021 backed by retail demand. The Bank loan may grow at about 6% this fiscal, the rating firm said.           

But at the same time, corporate lending (excluding lending to NBFCs) is expected to remain subdued in fiscal 2020 and thereafter, may witness a slight uptick. Crisil projected a modest 2-3 percent rise in this segment, leading to a fall in its share in total bank credit to 48 percent at the end of March 2021 from 51 percent three summers back.

 “Low capacity utilisation in the economy would keep private investments muted in the near to medium term, and the government’s mega-push to infrastructure will translate into credit growth only gradually,” Crisil said.

This means that the Government policy of extending credit money does not translate into productive investment, rather the capitalists accumulate more capital by selling their stock of products at inflated prices because the credit money flow into the economy caused inflation of consumer goods. The prices of medicines and health equipment along with other consumables are soaring. Consumer Spending in India decreased to 21250.99 INR Billion in the first quarter of 2020 from 21823.52 INR Billion in the fourth quarter of 2019. (https://tradingeconomics.com/india/consumer-spending). But India’s retail inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 6.93 in the month of July as food prices continued to rise due to disruptions in supply chains, data furnished by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed.

This inflationary pressure which facilitates the capitalists to increase their profit margin in the sale of accumulated stocks will further increase the income-inequality, but this does not result in productive investment and generation of employment. This is revealed in the data which shows that India’s industrial production slumped by 16.6 percent from a year earlier in June 2020, following a 33.9 percent plunge in the previous month and compared to market expectations of a 20.0 percent contraction. Manufacturing production shrank by 17.1 percent, mining output was down 19.8 percent and electricity supply dropped 10.0 percent. From April to June, industrial production tumbled 35.9 percent. (https://tradingeconomics.com/india/industrial-production). The monetary credit support in the domestic front even in the imperialist centers or the metropolis dries up the credit money required for promoting international trade. This is the reason why External Debt in India decreased to 558548 USD Million in the first quarter of 2020 from 563938 USD Million in the fourth quarter of 2019. (https://tradingeconomics.com/india/external-debt). Despite the fact that the people are living hungry or half-starved and the domestic demand for consumption of essential commodities are dwindling both due to increase in unemployment and the fall in real income for inflation, the agricultural exports rose 23% to Rs 25,553 crore in March-June this year despite the disruption caused by the pandemic. This indicates the continued flight of capital from India to metropolis for low-priced export in the backdrop of income-deflation of Indian toiling masses.

In the backdrop of the emerging signs of a shift from US centric globalization to China centric globalization, Indian Government’s expectation of a transfer of foreign investment from China to India in productive sector is misplaced. Form the global context, the value of labour-power in India is extremely low and it is lower than China. The policy of the Indian Government to further lower the value to attract the investors for a shift in destination from China to India in manufacturing sectors is extremely naïve, because the policy of labour arbitrage of the oligopolistic investors not only rely on the low-value of labour-power but also on productivity of labour. But the productivity of labour is however much higher in China than in India. Why productivity of labour is an important consideration for the investors along with the value of labour-power to make profit can be shown with a quite simple arithmetic. Let us suppose 100 number of items can be produced in a day by 10 number of workers with Rs.100 wage per worker for eight hours of work. It means 100 number of products are produced with a variable capital of Rs. 1000. But with enhanced productivity of workers, if the same number of products can be produced by 5 number of workers with Rs.110 wage per worker, the investment as variable capital comes down to Rs. 550. The productivity is increased with new machinery in means of production and this necessitates additional expenditures for skill development. To offset this disadvantage and to attract foreign and domestic capital investment, the Indian Government is inclined towards increasing the rate of exploitation of workers by increasing the daily working hours from 8 hours to 12 hours and by reducing the minimum wage. That is why Indian Government has proposed the amendment of existing labour laws. But this policy drive of the Indian Government is destined to fail in the backdrop of an overall crisis of capitalism when the investors are not kin on taking risk without being assured of profit and accumulation. This policy of the Government will further dampen the consumer demand and lead the country into further economic downslide.

The policy of super-exploitation of the toiling masses will keep the only option open for the ruling dispensation of transforming the state into an absolutist fascist state for their failure of even achieving the temporary revival of economy and containing the growing discontent in the minds of the people.         

The need, desire, and dialectics

When the economy is showing the sign of deep systemic crisis due to the massive accumulation of capital, increased rate of the organic composition of capital and lack of transfer of credit money as capital to productive sectors for the rise of the average rate of profit by engaging the living labour with the dead labour, it can be presumed that the working class is simmering with mental agony developed from the need to achieve their lost status of living and livelihood. The transformation of this immediate need of the toiling masses into a revolutionary desire for radical change depends on the subjective forces and their strategic goal for the emancipation of the working class. This working class is not classical industrial working class alone, the large section of the migrants, the service workers, and the new technological mental workers who are losing jobs in largescale constitute the revolutionary class.

Jean-Paul Satre said in individual praxis as totalization, “…It is through need that the first negation of the negation and the first totalization appear in matter. Need is a negation of the negation in so far as it expresses itself as a lack within the organism and need is a positivity in so far as the organic totality tends to preserve itself as such through it. The original negation, in fact, is an initial contradiction between the organic and the inorganic, in the double sense that lack is defined in relation to a totality, but that a lacuna, a negativity, has as such a mechanical kind of existence, and that, in the last analysis, what is lacking can be reduced to inorganic or less organised elements or, quite simply, to dead flesh, etc. From this point of view, the negation of this negation is achieved through the transcendence of the organic towards the inorganic: need is a link of univocal immanence with surrounding materiality in so far as the organism tries to sustain itself with it; it is already totalising, and doubly so, for it is nothing other than the living totality, manifesting itself as a totality and revealing the material environment, to infinity, as the total field of possibilities of satisfaction….”

The existing capitalist crisis is not only the Kondratieff long cycle crisis or a deep structural crisis, but it also means the crisis of reproduction of labour and nature depending on which capitalism sustains through profit and accumulation. How the future will unfold itself and how the social relation of production remoulds itself based on the victory of either of the two combatants, labour and capital, will reveal itself in the human consciousness through praxis. It is the human praxis through which the Marxist dialectics become operative, not in a proven theoretical framework but as a process that begins with praxis. The human action is itself the negating transcendence of contradiction and that action in the form of praxis is the negation of transcendence of contradiction. The practicing humans who are part of the present can unveil the present not as totality, but as totalization in the name of future totality, the future is the transformation of the present into the future which again becomes the present as a totalization of another totality. The entire historical dialectic rests on individual praxis in so far as it is already dialectical.

Marxist Strategy 

The formulaic version of Marxism debars the Marxist practitioners from continuously going deep into the changing dynamics of the social relation of production through praxis and act according to the need which appears as totalization to transform it into a desire of the toiling masses through befitting strategic and tactical action. 

The present dispensation in power, while acting in favour of the capitalist through monetary measures, privatization and selling out of the public property to the private capitalists at through-away prices, is missing the bush in search of the trees and will soon lend into a quagmire for policy paralysis or coercive state apparatus by failing to revive the economy. The needs of the toiling masses and new working class thus generated due to degradation of their existing social status and living standard can only transform into a desire for radical change only through struggle and massive collective action which only the left forces can lead only through their deeper understanding of Marxist philosophy of praxis and strategic programme thereon. The left must come out of their reformist mindset and bargaining form of trade unionism for launching collective action against privatization and for socialisalisation of means of production and social welfare and employment.

Arup Baisya

Common sense and collective wisdom

There prevails a commonsense perception that the made-easy version of a complex subject is the best and praise-worthy endeavour of a skillful representation. The easier and simpler are the representation of a complex thing, the deeper the understanding of the presenter. This is a capitalist logic instilled in the minds of the people as common sense, especially among the activists who are inclined to believe that any positive change of reality is the result of only their activities. The logic of the market makes us believe that the question of profit is very simple, it is just market price minus production cost – the world of advertising also modulates our mindset to live in the simple superficial layer of “Buy one, get one free”. But the epistemology derived from the empirical world of interaction and observation becomes complex because it pierces the surface layer and goes on traveling to unveil the reality beneath the surface. So, this power of observation and interpretation thereof is a complex phenomenon that demands deep insight of the observer and cannot be communicated in a made easy version to the observers who lack this deep insight. But at a certain point in time and under certain conditions, the surface layer burst asunder and the existing complex episteme comes closer to the empirical knowledge of the common masses and transforms into collective wisdom. This is simultaneously the moment when a new world of epistemology which is very complex for the common people to understand starts taking shape. This mutually inclusive but contradictory journey of individual knowledge and collective wisdom is the hallmark of the development of human civilization. We can only imagine how this contradiction of individual and collective knowledge will be resolved in a communist society based on the fact that the question of freedom is intertwined with the question of knowledge, but it is now premature to develop a model for it.

Capitalism and the bourgeois revolution

Capitalism is a world system where Marx’s law of value derived from Ricardian one and the law of uneven development play the role. What the European Bourgeois revolution means is not very much well defined. What we term as the European Renaissance is more like new enlightenment in the superstructure based on a capitalist social relation of production. Wherefrom this new social relation of production came into being? Why did the enclosure movement was started in 15th century Europe for brute eviction of the peasants to transform them into wage workers by a section of the erstwhile feudal lords themselves? It was because the mode of production based on wage labourers were considered more profitable than the production for consumption based on the peasant-labour bonded to the land and by a religious belief system. The emergence of large factories and the much-touted industrial revolution was the result of technological development and colonial exploitation, the result of a being of capitalist social relations in the process of becoming. All these developments were decided by the direction of motion of a new relation of production marked by the law of value which became operational within the garb of feudalism before enclosure movement. So, the essence of the European bourgeois revolution was the result of a paradigmatic shift, a spatial quantitative expansion to entire Europe sidelining the domination of the church. This expansion occurred both under the sway of Monarchical absolutist and bourgeois liberal democratic rules. History of Japan also tells us that the Meiji revolution and the capitalist transformation occurred under the leadership of the erstwhile feudal warrior class ‘Samurai’. It means that the capitalist and pre-capitalist relations of productions are always intertwined with capitalism in the dominant position by continuously killing the space with time through the dynamic motion of the law of value. The capitalist mode of production, once set in motion, acquires the quality of expansion in space to take the global character. Capitalist development in a Marxist sense is a combined and uneven development throughout its system. 

The global economy and the capitalist crisis

Capital moves from a developed region to a backward region i.e. from the area of the high organic composition of capital to low organic composition of capital in search of and to maximize profit. Capital moves to the area where there exist cheap wage labour and natural resources. The existence of wage labour having earned a certain level of skill, though less than the developed regions entail the development of a certain level of the capitalist mode of production intertwined with pre-capitalist relations. The neoliberal phase of capitalism is marked by the Capital’s global movement and reach. The rapid change of technology and the monopoly competition compels the capitalist to change the fixed capital ingrained in the means of production frequently to expropriate above-average rate of profit. These frequent changes in fixed capital and rapid changes in the product varieties due to intense competition for market share increase the organic composition of capital and destabilize the balance between department I i.e. production of means of production and department II i.e. production of consumer goods. This causes the realization problem of capital and fall of the rate of profit for overproduction despite the increase of surplus-value or intensity of expropriation of labour and fall of the wage rate. Accumulation and concentration of capital in the era of global oligopolistic competition do not find the profitable destination of investment. The restructuring of capital by shifting the entire production units from metropolis to metropolis, from metropolis to low-waged nations fails to complete the process of reproduction of capital and labour to ensure the sustainability of the capitalist system for profit. The equilibrium between the productions in two departments cannot be predetermined and this makes the capitalist system inherently anarchic. The capitalism of post-sixties is inherently subsumed into this crisis of the failure of managing the reproduction process and situation of over-production. The attempt to bypass this anarchic situation of the systemic crisis of capitalism through the speculative financial market of bubble economy made the system more vulnerable and unpredictable and when the last bubble of sub-prime crisis burst in the US, hitherto the pivot of the global economy, the inherent anarchy of capitalist system hit the common sense of the masses to realize. The mass movement and uprising from occupy wall street to the Gilets Jaunes movement to Arab Spring epitomizes the transformation of the individual epistemology to collective wisdom to realize that the capitalist system is fundamentally oppressive and anarchic. This does not mean that capitalism as a dynamic system is unable to restructure itself to establish its hegemonic control over society. But the collective wisdom must rise to a higher plank of consciousness to realize that capitalism can restructure itself only through widespread destruction of civilization. 

This realization of the masses, at the first instance, is not voluntary and autonomous, but it develops through a process of conscious effort of the organizations and the parties which can unveil the here and now before the masses with a futuristic alternative project.

The Pandemic and the new opportunity

The pandemic and the lockdown created an unprecedented situation. The epistemological endeavour must go a long way to predict the definite course, the capitalism takes for its regeneration, and the course of action, the countervailing combatant force of labour to take for an alternative future project. It’s an opportunity as well as a predicament for the combatants, the capital, and labour. New sectors like health, FMCG, etc have opened up for the capitalist to invest for profit. But it’s not an easy task for the capitalist to grab the opportunity when the entire system is in deep crisis and agog with uncertainties. The restructuring for the new sector means keeping the old productive infrastructure of fixed capital idle, huge retrenchment of workers, and huge and rapid investment in R&D for technological research work due to competitive pressure. This initial huge investment engages very few highly skilled intellectual workers. The investment in other sectors also necessitates further automation for reduction of cost of capital and thus the intellectualization of highly skilled workforce for new productive restructuring will make the large section of the unskilled and semi-skilled workforce redundant. Furthermore, the initial investment for R&D does not by itself generate profit, but the winner in this competition will rule the roost and that’s why there is so much effort and claim and counterclaim in the field of COVID medicine and vaccine and packed nutritious diet. This new investment opportunity is a risky proposition for the capitalist amidst uncertainty, though we are witnessing the carmaker giant is also jumping into the fray by converting its factory unit for the production of ventilators. The invention had already become a systematically organized capitalist business in the capitalist production system. The Pandemic has generated a new business opportunity in this sector. One builds a laboratory, installs the necessary equipment, hires qualified personnel, and waits for the results. These like any other product either can be used directly by the same business in which they were made or can be sold to others. 

 But, this does not resolve the inherent intense contradiction arisen from the disequilibrium of capitalist production and the situation of overproduction. The rapid automation in the productive system already created a reserve army of labour beyond the threshold of its limit. Further privatization and automation for reduction of cost of capital due to competitive pressure will exacerbate the crisis of overproduction. The Government of India may privatise the coal sector, but the production of coal can only be ensured when its utilization as fuel is assured in other productive sectors. So, privatization does not automatically ensure the participation of private capitalists and their investment for generating employment. And without generating new employment, the political dispensation in power also remains vulnerable and amenable to face public wrath. Few crony capitalists may get engaged in the coal sector to start production, but it will remain amenable to closure again in the backdrop of an overall economic recessionary situation. The deep-rooted anarchy and uncertainty in the global economic situation which was arisen from the crisis of realization and reproduction have been deepened by the Pandemic and lockdown. Further automation in the ongoing rapid change of fixed capital through digitalization by Robotics and AI will exacerbate the recessionary crisis due to the replacement of human labour by machines and as such, further automation is no more an option for capitalists for a revival of the economy. So, this moment becomes another moment of emancipation for the working class and the people who internalize the idea that the existing system does not have any remedy to any of the existing problems, be it unemployment or natural disaster. This moment of history is the opportune moment to transform the individual episteme into collective wisdom to a higher plank.

Pre and Post-Pandemic Indian Government policy

Economic survey website of Government of India reveals that the Government has been pursuing the policy of “Assembly in India for the World”. It means that the global multinational giant will shift their final production units where the parts produced in diverse countries will be transported here in the Indian production center to assemble for final products that will be exported to the world market. As per Government projection, the export of Network Products (NPs) expected to equal $7 trillion worldwide in 2025, the incremental value added from exports at $248 billion in 2025 and the projected job creation from this export-led growth is 4 crore well-paid jobs by 2025 and 8 crore by 2030.

As per Economic Survey Report 2019-20: Statistical Appendix, the Gross National Income (Projected Estimate in current Price) is 11.3% in 2018-19 and 2019-20 is 7.6% (First Advance Estimate). Gross value added in all sectors (Projected Estimate) is 6.2% of GDP in 2018-19 and 4.9% in 2019-20 (First Advance Estimate). Gross Fiscal Deficit (Projected estimate) is 6.2% in 2018-19 and 5.9% in 2019-20 (Budget estimate). Rate of change of Export and import in 2018-19 (April – December) are 9.6% & 14.3% respectively and -2.0% & -8.9% respectively in 2019-20 (April – December). Though the trade deficit has reduced marginally from 148229 million US $ to 118100 million US $, the gap between the import and export is huge. These statistics reveal that the Indian economy was in doldrums before the Pandemic and there was limited scope in export-led growth. When the Pandemic and lockdown has created the major disruption in the global value chain, the Government is hoping against the hope to attract investment through shifting of production units from China to India in search of cheap labour and natural wealth and pursuing the same policy of pandering the investors and privatizing the public sectors. The present dispensation in power does not have the guts to tread the path of nationalist economic policy to promote domestic production and demand because the global oligopolists and their Indian capitalist hangers-on may destabilize the government and will not extend the support for electoral victory. This alternative bourgeois path of partial self-reliance necessitates the resurgence of the Indian people behind the ruling dispensation on democratic and secular values which is antithetical to the core ideology of the Sangh Parivar. This contradiction between the inward-looking economic policy of self-reliance at least by giving some credence to the nomenclature and the core ideology of the ruling dispensation puts this Government in a dilemma.

Defence Production and fascism

When the capitalists face the realization problem for over-production and anarchic situation due to the disequilibrium between the department I & II and when this crisis is exacerbated by a major disruption like Pandemic and lockdown, the capitalists allow the Government to increase defence expenditure and investment in defence production by raising taxes. This money collected by Government as taxes is also transferred from the values created in other sectors of machines and consumer goods production. Furthermore, as the defence production employs very few people, the rate of increase of investment in means of production soon increases the organic composition of capital and causes the rate of profit to fall. The continuous increase of tax for military investment will dampen the market for lack of demand for shrinking of purchasing power and deteriorating standard of living of common masses. The fall of the rate of profit below the average and exacerbation of anarchic disequilibrium in the production system cannot be arrested for a long period by emphasizing defence production. The rate of profit to increase above average can only be ensured by fascistisation of state and by creating huge incarcerated bonded labour by disenfranchising large sections of people through a meticulously planned NRC process and primitive accumulation. 

 Rosa Luxemburg in her analysis of arms expenditure wrote, “Some of the money circulating as variable capital breaks free of this cycle and in the state treasury it represents a new demand. For the technique of taxation, of course, the order of events is rather different, since the amount of the indirect taxes is actually advanced to the state by capital and is merely being refunded to the capitalists by the sale of their commodities, as part of their price. But economically speaking, it makes no difference. The crucial point is that the quantity of money with the function of variable capital should first mediate the exchange between capital and labour-power. Later, when there is an exchange between workers and capitalists as buyers and sellers of commodities respectively, this money will change hands and accrue to the state of taxes. This money, which capital has set circulating, first fulfills its primary function in the exchange with labour-power, but subsequently, by the mediation of the state, it begins an entirely new career. As a new purchasing power, belonging with neither labour nor capital, it becomes interested in new products, in a special branch of production which does not cater for either the capitalists or the working class, and thus it offers capital new opportunities for creating and realizing surplus-value. When we were formerly taking it for granted that the indirect taxes extorted from the workers are used for paying the officials and for provisioning the army, we found the ‘saving’ in the consumption of the working class to mean that the workers rather than the capitalists were made to pay for the personal consumption of the hangers-on of the capitalist class and the tools of their class rule. This change developed from the surplus-value to the variable capital, and a corresponding amount of the surplus-value became available for the purpose of capitalization. Now we see how the taxes extorted from the workers afford capital a new opportunity for accumulation when they are used for armament manufacture. On the basis of indirect taxation, militarism in practice works both ways. By lowering the normal standard of living for the working class, it ensures both that capital should be able to maintain a regular army, the organ of capitalist rule, and that it may tap an impressive field for further accumulation.” (Rosa Luxemburg, The Accumulation of Capital).  

New Moment of collective wisdom

But the Pandemic and lockdown has already lowered the standard of living of the workers and simultaneously created massive disruption in the production and labour process. This caused workers’ disillusionment about the reactionary imagined nationalist project of Sangh Parivar. Further accentuation of the standard of living of the working class will unveil the moment of the emancipation of the workers against the system. The moot question is how the revolutionary forces articulate the concrete situation for concrete analysis and set the strategic and tactical direction before the workers to resist. The hegemony of the existing system over the society is dwindling; the workers will rapidly rise to their collective wisdom provided the revolutionary philosophy of organizational praxis unveils the state character before the masses and set an immediate and long-term task before the working class without beating the bush. The broad outline of the immediate task is to resist the economic development model of the present dispensation in power at the center to defeat fascism and the long-term task is to build a new state where the coercive apparatus of capitalist class rule like standing army is dismantled.

Arup Baisya

Control for Super-profit

There is a big debate on how capitalist social relations of production came into existence. There are diverse opinions on this question. But I am inclined to go with the proposition that around five/six hundred years ago capitalist law of value started in a remote corner of Europe fundamentally from within the old social relation of production — the external factors like ancient or international trade had its impacts on it. What were the new characteristics that marked the new social relation of production for a qualitative change of space-time? Firstly, but not primarily, the production for use value and only for consumption was changed to the production for exchange value or consumption through the exchange of commodities. Every exchange of commodities for use meant extraction of a part of the value as profit for a certain small section of people. Secondly, but primarily, the power of doing work within the living human being was transformed into a commodity for exchange, for selling and buying. This new commodity which resides within the living body of human being can only be utilized only for the transformation of the wealth of nature’s gifts into commodities for exchange by expropriating or looting nature. The utilization of nature’s wealth and its transformation into commodities are dependent on the advance buying of the labour-power and its utilization. Nature and labour thus metabolically segregated and both become the source of profiteering. The diverse and complex chain of exchanges of production, distribution, and consumption now operates globally after a prolonged period of circulation of capital, — and this is what we now call neoliberalism. This global chain and the extraction of profit or super-profits from every point of exchange cannot be controlled by states which have limited boundaries for operation and control mechanism in place, — and state-powers have to be subservient to the oligopolists who impose their diverse control mechanism for super-profit.

States in the forefront

The virus, the most primitive first life on the earth, gets intermittently activated fundamentally due to the above-mentioned metabolic rift between the labour and nature which are unabatedly expropriated and plundered. In a metaphorical sense, both labour and nature are prone to take revenge. The rapid spread of the Coronavirus and the imposition of lockdown in large parts of the world suddenly disrupted the production and the global value chain. This enabled the state to come to the forefront to save lives and to save the economy. Now how the future of the social and natural world will unveil itself primarily depends on how the states play their roles. Based on the specific social reality, the balance of forces, and the past legacy, different states have responded differently. Germany has a large state sector and welfare schemes for the workers in place, and Germany has extended the welfare measure to protect its economy from going bankrupt. Spain has nationalized its health sector for arresting the siphoning-off of money from Government exchequer for insurance payment for private profiteering. On the contrary, India’s employment and wealth-generating scheme MGNREG was stopped due to lack of Government funding before the Pandemic though it is restarted now with limited scope. The Indian people faced a drastic demonetization measure. The large portion of money commodity in the hands of common masses for enabling them to exchange for the commodities of daily livelihood was suddenly obliterated. Most of the economists are now advocating direct cash transfer in the hands of the people to raise consumption demand and to save lives. 

The demand for nationalization of the health sector has been raised from diverse quarters. There is numerous other demand on workers’ and peasants’ rights, minimum wages, civil rights and justice and against privatization of Government property. All these demands are important for a people’s movement under the leadership of workers’ and for such mass movement to emerge, the emancipation of workers as an organized class is the precondition.

Capital Vs. Labour

The decrease of wage through replacement of minimum wage by floor wage or through increasing the daily labour-hour by coercive means of obliterating certain commodities from the list of consumption of workers and by denigrating the standard of life of the workers will be counterproductive. The part of the wages which was hitherto taken out of the pockets of the workers as rent for dwelling houses by the landlord capitalist is a super-profits extracted from labour through different means and this must be stopped forthwith with free housing accommodation.

If the capitalists find ways and means to reduce the cost of capital by avoiding the expenditure to be incurred for transportation with assured facilities for combining the machines and materials i.e. dead labour with living labour of the migrants for restarting of the production process, the migrant workers who have already been disillusioned of the fascist project of imaginary new India will not mentally accept it. The union must take stock of the mental status of the migrants and rapidly unionised them to build physical subjective force which was hitherto used by the fascist for their evil design. The unions must come out of the tokenism and must utilise this advantageous situation for them despite the existence of an advantageous situation of the excessive reserve army of labour for the capitalist, because it is not the ideal situation for capitalists too due to disruption of the production process itself wherefrom super-profits is extracted during the existence of reserve army of labour within a threshold, — beyond a threshold far away from production site is also a crisis for capitalist for lack of consumption-demand and increase of cost of capital. But the workers are also vulnerable because they live their lives on wages.

So, it’s a battle of nerve and expediency. Will the unions understand it and launch a movement for workers’ fundamental rights for the empowerment of workers? If they procrastinate and do not go beyond tokenism, capitalists are going to restructure the production process, maybe in new sectors too, to ensure profit and super-profit. How the balance of force redefines itself now depends on what role the unions and political forces play.

Consciousness from above – Necessary Evil

This is the immediate and expedient task of the workers’ unions and parties. But the working-class parties should bear in mind that this does not by itself a revolutionary idea. Revolutionary praxis cannot become a reality without a revolutionary idea. But does this talk of a revolutionary idea corroborate the Lenin’s formulations of ‘consciousness from above’? This is misleading because Lenin also emphasized the role of purposive workers like Gramsci’s organic intellectuals. According to Lenin, the workers movement creates purposive workers in great numbers. They learn purposive ways while leading the diverse forms of workers’ movement including the strikes. Lenin wrote, “When all purposive workers become socialists – that is, when they strive towards a liberation (of the whole class) – when they emerge (organizationally) among themselves throughout the whole country in order to spread socialism among the workers, in order to teach the workers all the means of battle against their enemies – when they constitute a socialist worker party, fighting for the liberation of the whole people from the oppression of the Government and liberation of all labourers from the oppression of capital – only then will the worker class completely join itself to the mighty movement of the workers of all countries that unites all workers and lifts up the red banner with the words: ‘Proletarians of all countries unite!” But this idea of purposive workers does not go much beyond Lenin’s formulation of consciousness from above. Lenin’s formulation is very important for building the working-class movement and to build a vibrant revolutionary working-class party. But this bears an inherent risk of hindering the vibrant revolutionary praxis within the garb of class struggle or transformation of the revolutionary party into a static debating club when the working-class movement enters the ebb after a tidal wave. The working-class movement against the domination of Capital and the state must be visualized as a continuous process within which there are occasional leap or quantum jump of consciousness of the class as a whole when the movement reach to a certain stage and the contradiction within the social relation of production sharpens. It moves ahead in the direction of socialist consciousness with more and more empowerment of the working class through the ownership of means of production and control over the state apparatus through its decentralization and abolition of coercive apparatuses. The one-dimensional and deterministic idea of consciousness from above was perhaps the driving force for the Bolsheviks in considering Kornstad’s rebellion of the workers fundamentally a counterrevolution to be contained with a heavy hand.

Fulfilling the task of other classes 

The working-class movements, under certain circumstances, fulfill the incomplete task of other classes. Thus through the continuation of this process, the class rises to the occasion of completing the task of human liberation. The revolutionary parties can intervene, modulate, educate to expedite the process of achieving the final goal, but cannot take control of it. But revolutionary parties must have a goal for revolutionary transformation; otherwise, the party itself may become the agent for reformism within a bourgeois rule or involuntarily becomes the agent of revisionism. Marx commented on the French revolution as follows: “In France, the petit-bourgeois does what normally would have to be done by the industrial bourgeoisie, the worker does, what normally would be the duty of the petit-bourgeois. And the task of the workers, who resolve that? This obligation is not discharged in France; it is merely proclaimed in France”. 

Can it be discharged only because there is a party that can instill consciousness from above or a party of purposive workers or organic intellectuals serves this purpose through their campaign of socialism? Socialism means in simpler term justice for all i.e. a journey towards a just society — and equality for all, a journey towards a communist society. A journey towards a just society begins with an initial question, Cui Bono, who benefits? A journey towards communist society begins with an initial question, who controls? The answer to these questions is visible, determinable, and computable. But whether the immediate future of the social world is socialism? Society will determine its future course of development and in that sense, it is deterministic. But can we compute when and how? The answer is no. But conscious humans can modulate and expedite the process of the future development of society in a certain direction.

Reductio ad absurdum

In ordinary ‘common sense’ terms, the law of the excluded middle may be regarded as a self-evident truth: if it is false that something is not true, then that thing is surely true! This law is the basis of the mathematical procedure of ‘reductio ad absurdum’. Godel’s theorem states that the concept of mathematical truth is only partly accessible by the means of formal argument. Why in social science too, we cannot reach to the truth only by using formal argument? Because the initial condition from which its future course of movement is to be ascertained cannot be computable in static coordinates. The observer is placed within the space-time defined by continuously changing coordinates in motion. The coordinates of a particular moment are this moment itself, but at the same time shifting away from this moment. 

It is argued above how Pandemic and Lockdown accelerated the process of bringing the states at the forefront of having control over the production system. The neoliberal logic for the revival of capitalism began losing ground much earlier from its internal dynamics which reached its peak post-Sub-Prime crisis, but the Pandemic and lockdown acted as an external shock of complete disruptions. How the state now acts will determine the future.

The role of the Indian state 

When the Indian state suddenly declared lockdown, the Government directed the owners of factories and service-providers to pay the wages of the workers. But when the capitalists defied the directive and small owners failed to make the payment for lack of cash, the Government remained silent. This led to the exodus of migrants and humanitarian crisis. The state neither ensured payment of full wages and decent livelihood and shelter nor took any punitive action against the willful capitalist defaulter. The workers became disheartened and ventilated their anger through spontaneous sporadic protests, but the established unions failed them by avoiding any nationwide organized protest to support their cause and to compel the state to act in their favour. But their spontaneous protest and their tenacious and arduous journey for return to their residential abode defying the appeal from the Government to stay put at their worksite sends a message to the powers-that-be that they are disillusioned of the project of the Sangh Parivar of the imagined reality of religious nationalism. The State betrayed their cause. But Government packaged their economic plan of action to woo the mental workers and the middle class through monetary measures in the name support to the entrepreneurs and small businesses. All kinds of migrants who constitute almost one-fourth of the Indian population indirectly fought the battle of the middle class and mental workers whom the Government in power strived to isolate from them. The disunity and maintenance of social and mental distance between the mental and manual workers ensure the influence of the capitalist class over the state. Primarily, the role of the organized unions and the value system of casteism to a certain extent helped the Government in power to act in favour of the capitalist in the initial stage of emerging and sharpening contradiction between capital and labour. But this formal argument does not explain everything and set the rule of future development. The retrenchment of permanent labour, job loss, and privatization is going unabated and this is also shifting the coordinates of the space-time for the workers to fight back and rise again with a higher level of consciousness. 

Rule of the game

The capitalists are demanding a bail-out package for them and stringent labour law for reducing wages and the cost of capital. On the contrary, the disillusioned workers are losing faith in the system and expecting a guarantee from the state for their wage and social security. The power-that-be is in a dilemma. The state’s role entirely in favour of the capitalists may lead to anarchy. The anarchic situation which can only be handled by a police state can satisfy the political class in power, but not the capitalist class. The advantages of an economic situation which favoured the Nazi regime to increase the GDP for capitalist profit at the initial phase of the fascist role is not available for the present dispensation at this moment. In a situation of uncertainties and changing dynamics of balance of forces between capital and labour, one prediction can safely be made that the heroic role of the organized unions and the building of the conscious subjective forces of purposive workers can lead the people’s movement to defeat fascism for socialism. It is to be seen whether the left and revolutionary forces rise to the occasion or fade away within bitter petty skirmishes to leave the space-time for the capitalists and ruling classes to occupy through fetishization of the reality and establishing the hegemony over the state and society once again. The present people’s movement in the US is reminiscent of the people’s movement of the sixties. But the rule of the game in the history of time is not cast in iron.

Arup Baisya

Capitalism and Uncertainties

During the entire phase of neo-liberal restructuring of both production and labour process pre-pandemic situation, the character of the working class had changed. A big chunk of factory jobs was wiped out by technology, while the service workers had grown. In the past few decades, the number of workers in precarious jobs had risen. But it did not reveal that the antagonism between the contending classes of capital and labour receded, rather it intensified though marked with sporadic and incoherent character. What about the project of the Marxist proletarian revolution then? The absence of numerically decisive organized working class or the proletariats in a Marxist sense placed a large section of left ideologues in a lurch. The trade unionism with white-colour privileges instilled a sense of pure classes in the minds of Marxist imagination. The link of the new working class with the rural countryside had bemused them and distracted them from undertaking any revolutionary agenda without digging into the historical fact of the link of the European working class with the countryside. But the deviation from a communist ideology had mentally prepared them for taking “the neoliberalism for granted” and the epistemological endeavour diverted from the core Marxist understanding of capitalism and expropriation of labour towards diverse schools of culturalism, subalternism, post-modernism and so forth. There were moments in history when ruling class hegemony was established primarily by cultural means and secondarily by economic or physical (coercive) power. Marxist praxis enables us to focus on the hegemonic aspect with an analysis of the material base. The rise of Hindutva forces and its hegemonic control especially during post-Babri Masjid episode was primarily a cultural one. But this does not mean that we should lose sight of the Marxist premise of the inadequacy of the existing social relation of production to contain the immense development of the productive forces (both labour and machinery), and the resultant contradiction sets the dynamics of social tension and conflict into a motion of the nature of the revolutionary situation. The cultural revolution spearheaded by Sangh Parivar on the premise of an ‘imagined reality’ of building a ‘New India’ was the passive revolution from above in the Gramscian sense of the term. But in the Indian left practice, either the neoliberalism was taken for granted or mixed the Marxian episteme with other thoughts for a cocktail. Gramsci’s tactical use of the word ‘subaltern’ was taken out of context to the extent of voluntarism. But this author thinks that Spivak is closer to the reality than Gramsci when she raises the issue of mediation between subaltern and hegemonic domains of politics of insurgent scholars who resist the incorporation of subalterns within hegemonic practices, of NGOs that make an effort to link the subalterns ‘indigenous democratic structure’ to parliamentary democracy, and of non-Eurocentric social movements who are pushing globalization towards a subaltern front. For this part, she argues that new social movements of subalterns have challenged notions of ‘democracy’ and bring into the sphere of the political, their ideas of well-being, justice, and so on. But all these ideas of subaltern democracy and justice are destined to fail if it is not part of the Marxist concept of human liberation, working-class emancipation, and transcending capitalism. The revolution is a moment of the continuation of the process of Marxist praxis. This praxis begins with the concept of proletarian ideology and of the party which embodies this ideology, not from the numerical strength of the proletariat. The transformation of capitalist production and the emergence of the new working class were ignored by the left practitioners during the entire phase of neoliberal restructuring and the faith on any revolutionary project based on numerically decisive emerging social classes was dwindled, and this marginalized the left in the political spectrum. There is another imminent paradigm shift during this Pandemic crisis amidst uncertainties and if the staticity of mindset of the left practitioners blurs their vision to keep an eye on this changing dynamics to formulate a strategy for a radical transformation of society, the capitalism will once again stabilize itself from within the doldrums of massive disruptions to ensure an above-average rate of profit for the aim on which capitalism only survives. In this uncertain situation, every ruler of the world including Mr. Modi is prone to vacillation under pressure from the rising working-class militancy as Marx predicted the vacillation of Russian Tzar due to the emancipation of serfs. The news is pouring in from within the US, the citadel of capitalism, that there are instances where workers are taking over the control of the factories and production.

India’s economy and global capitalist activities

From the perspective of capitalists, India’s economic situation due to global pandemic and lockdown is grim, but they are hopeful of recovery from a global context and this recovery in the sense of capitalism means to reach to a stage where the above-average rate of profit for an accumulation of wealth is set in motion. Economic growth and accumulation indicate the rate of surplus-value or profit. The Indian economy expanded 3.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020, it is the slowest GDP growth since quarterly data became available in 2004, as the country imposed a nationwide lockdown from March 24th aiming to contain the spread of the coronavirus. On the expenditure side, faster declines were seen for gross fixed capital formation (-6.5% vs -5.2% in Q4) and exports (-8.5% vs -6.1%) while imports fell at a slower pace (-7% vs -12.4%). Also, both private spending (2.7% vs 6.6%) and inventories (0.5% vs 1.1%) slowed sharply. On the production side, output fell for manufacturing (-1.4% vs -0.8%), the third straight quarter of contraction and construction (-2.2% vs 0%) and slowed for trade, hotels and transportation (2.6% vs 4.3%), finance and real estate (2.4% vs 3.3%) and public administration and defense (10.1% vs 10.9%).

(Source::  https://tradingeconomics.com/india/gdp-growth-annual)

The report, a special edition that builds on the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Risks Reports, examines the views of nearly 350 senior risk professionals, who took part in the COVID-19 Risks Perceptions Survey. Two-thirds of respondents identified a prolonged global recession as a top concern for business. One-half identified bankruptcies and industry consolidation, failure of industries to recover and disruption of supply chains as crucial worries

The World Economic Forum’s report reveals that collaboration between the public and private sectors to date has helped solve some of the most urgent business and economic challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and they will become increasingly more important as the world rebuilds and adapts to a ‘new normal’.

The nature of the product and business involvement of the global business tycoons underlines the future course of action of the capitalist recovery. E-commerce giant JD.com has delivered essential goods across China to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. With the support of the local government, JD deployed drones to conduct ground surveys, design flight corridors, request airspace access permission, and conduct final flight tests in China.

Volkswagen Group, the German Carmakers, is sourcing the materials in China, with distribution in Germany handled by public authorities. The company is also using its facilities to produce medical equipment for areas in need –3D printing mountings for face shields, among other things.

The Mahindra company’s manufacturing facilities are making ventilators, and the Mahindra Foundation is creating a fund to assist the hardest hit across the value chain. They have developed respirators for patients.

The world’s leading 3D printing manufacturers – including HP, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, Royal DSM, and others – have come together through the Forum’s 3D Printing COVID-19 Rapid Response Initiative to address equipment shortages and rising medical demands due to the ongoing pandemic. Carbon and its partners, in the US, are producing PPE for medical workers and patient sampling swabs. Linde plc is offering combined 3D printing (metal and plastic, design, and software) and medical equipment capabilities in Germany and the US. In Italy, Roboze is printing in-house and with its partners – valves, adapters, connectors, splitters, face shields, and durable thermoforming tools for faster manufacturing of N95 masks. Airbus is employing its fleet of aircraft as well as its industrial resources to support governments fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The company is flying millions of facemasks and thermometers from China into Europe.

Leading global brewer AB InBev is working with partners, the company is both packaging the disinfectant alcohol and hand sanitizer. Two of the world’s biggest vaccine makers, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Sanofi, are collaborating on a COVID-19 vaccine. The pharma giants are aiming to get a treatment on the market in the next 12 to 18 months. Biopharmaceutical leader Takeda is working with the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance to accelerate the development of a plasma-based treatment that could treat people suffering from coronavirus.

International banking group Standard Chartered launched a $50 million global fund to help people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Group has already provided $25 million to support emergency relief in countries where the number of COVID-19 cases has soared, and healthcare facilities are under significant pressure. The additional $25 million will help communities and businesses recover from the economic impact of the pandemic.

Besides, the Group is committing up to $1 billion in loans, import/export financing, and working capital for certain companies fighting COVID-19, and support industry leaders who are adapting production resources to help fight the pandemic. Companies in the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare providers are set to benefit most from these funds, but Standard Chartered will also support non-medical companies that have responded to the crisis by adding the capability to their manufacturing plants. Goods within this scope include ventilators, face masks, protective equipment, and sanitisers. (Data Source: World Economic Forum Website). Big Pharma executive and a four-star General have just been appointed by President Trump to lead a “Manhattan project-style effort to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus.” The effort, called Operation Warp Speed, has set a goal to create 300 million doses of a non-existent vaccine by January.

Capitalist Recovery 

From the above data, it is amply clear that the Capitalists are temporarily restructuring their production units to meet the demand for the needs of the people for new consumer goods in Pandemic time. The Banks are infusing liquidity for capitalist production, striking off bad-debt, and providing loans to the buyers and distributors. The Indian Govt’s package of 20 lacs crores can be seen in this light. The chief means of reducing the time of circulation is improved communications as Marx observed a revolution in this field during the industrial revolution of the latter half of the 18th century. But circulation is disrupted due to pandemic and lockdown. Govts are promoting e-commerce and digitalization. 

But the Capitalist cannot go on producing commodities based on the need of the people. If it is so, it no longer remains capitalism, it gets transformed into socialist production. Because once the value chain is reestablished through collaboration, the competition will set in for-profit and this will once again lead to the crisis of over-production and over-accumulation without any scope for further investment and accumulation in these particular branches of production. 

Marx writes on the production process, “Precisely the productivity of labour, the mass of production, the mass of the population, the mass of the surplus population, which are developed by this mode of production continually create, through the release of capital and labour, new branches of business in which capital can once again work on a small scale and once again go through the various developments until these new branches of business are also carried on on a wide scale. This process occurs continually. At the same time, capitalist production tends to conquer all those branches of the industry over which it has not yet gained the mastery, which it has only formally subsumed. As soon as it has gained mastery over agriculture, the mining industry, the manufacture of the main materials for clothing, and so on, it takes hold of still further spheres, where its control is still only formal and where there are still even independent artisans.”

Socialism and Democracy

It does mean that it is in the interests of the capitalists to force workers back on the job to produce value, even if some of them die, for opening up new branches of production. Though the massive reserve army of labour due to unemployment is congenial for the capitalist, it is in the interest of the working masses to stay home and stay safe and alive. To stay home and stay safe mean for the working class to demand indigenous production, revamping agricultural production, need-based production, and free ration, health, and other welfare measures from the Government in power and this is fundamentally a class-struggle in the direction of socialism. But it becomes clear that this struggle also entails a struggle for democracy when we look back on the process of productive restructuring in Nazi Germany. 

The increased expenditure on armaments cannot in itself generate a long-term acceleration of accumulation, and that a continual increase in arms expenditure cannot ultimately overcome the limits of the valorization of capital.The Nazis successfully achieved the ‘German Economic Miracle’ by lowering the value of labour-power by smashing the trade union and all other worker’s organizations. The shifting of the balance of power decisively towards capital against the labour enables the increase of the rate of profit much above the average more by prolonging the working hours than by increasing the productivity of labour through technological improvement. The disunity among the anti-fascist forces for intensification of working-class struggle gave the space for the fascist forces to rise.

The New Initiative for Radical Change

The precarious condition has sparked the working-class resistance not seen since the post-World War II strike wave. In the various advanced countries including the US, every sector of the working class has become engaged: fast-food, retail, health care, education, food processing, automotive, agriculture, construction, and more. Most noteworthy at this moment is the statewide strike of low-paid fruit processing workers, most of them migrant workers of color in Washington state. If the present mass-uprising in the US gets directed from a working-class perspective, it will set a spectre of working-class emancipation globally. In India, like all other world leaders, when the ruler vacillates, it’s not a perfect case of prisoner’s dilemma of Game theory. Here, if both the ruling dispensation and the working-class organisations keep quiet, the rulers have the advantage – if working-class organisations become aggressive and the rulers keep quiet, the working class has the advantage – if both become aggressive, the Game Theory collapses, there is a revolutionary crisis.  Everything is now dependent on how working-class organizations unite themselves to unite the workers and the people at large and how the new agenda for radical change is formulated by revisiting and reconstructing the Marxism once again