As Progressive Labor Party mobilizes and marches for communism in over 20 countries across the globe on May Day, capitalism is moving headlong into crisis. In a time of global economic turbulence, extreme inequality, and intensifying inter-imperialist conflict, the international system that established U.S. dominance and governing norms after the Second World War is beginning to implode. Richard Haass, president of the main-wing U.S. bosses’ leading think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations, is lamenting “the fading liberal world order” (cfr.org, 3/21).
Liberal institutions, from “free” media to an “independent” judiciary, are under attack in one-time “democratic” strongholds in Central Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Writing in the New York Times to promote her new book, Fascism: A Warning, Madeleine Albright, the bloodthirsty U.S. Secretary of State under arch-racist President Bill Clinton, declared that “fascism—and the tendencies that lead to fascism—pose a more serious threat now that at any time since the end of World War II” (NYT, 4/6). Two days later, the ruling coalition led by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his racist, anti-immigrant, hyper-nationalist Fidesz party swept their national elections to a two-thirds supermajority in Parliament. They are poised to tighten state control over “the media, central bank, constitutional court and nongovernment organizations. European Union leaders have warned those laws would undermine the country’s democracy” (cnn.com, 4/8).
Two faces of capitalist dictatorship
Capitalism is by definition an absolute dictatorship of the capitalists, the ruling class that holds state power—for now—in every country in the world. The bosses control every institution, from the schools to the unions to the cops to cable TV news. When they have a choice, they prefer to rule through liberal “democracy,” which conceals the true nature of their system: ruthless exploitation, murderous racism and sexism, genocidal wars for profit. (Albright is most infamous for asserting it was “worth it” to kill half a million children in Iraq with U.N. sanctions after the first Gulf War.) Phony elections and fake “freedoms” veil the rulers’ daily atrocities. Liberal democracy fosters the illusion that workers have a say in how things are run, and that capitalism can be reformed to serve workers’ needs. It is designed to mislead and pacify our class.
Fascism is a form of capitalism in crisis, when the capitalists can no longer rule in the old way. It typically gains sway when the balance of power among the top imperialists grows unstable—in this case, as a declining U.S. desperately tries to hold onto its shrinking empire against its authoritarian, state capitalist rivals, an aggressive Russia and a rapidly rising China. With ever-wider wars in store, the big powers’ bosses need to impose greater discipline on their own class (see CHALLENGE editorial on Facebook, 4/18). At the same time, they must squeeze workers to fund their war efforts—and to enlist the foot soldiers they’ll need for the coming global conflict. Seeing their vital interests at stake, the dominant imperialist bosses seek to crush resistance by both rogue capitalists and their most dangerous enemy—the working class. Meanwhile, smaller-capitalist bosses do the same as they scramble to find new alignments and protect their tenuous toeholds.
In such a period, the capitalists cast off their liberal mask and reveal the naked brutality of their system. “Democratic” institutions are discarded. The “rule of law” no longer applies. Racism and sexism—always essential to capitalism—become more codified and extreme, and yoked to the poisonous ideologies of nationalism and patriotism.
But while rising fascism and inevitable global war have devastating implications for the workers of the world, they also present our class—and our revolutionary communist Party—with a historic opportunity. They reflect the unsolvable contradictions of capitalism and the essential weakness of the old order. They set the stage for the possibility of a new world. Out of the fascist onslaught of the 1930s and 1940s, the communist revolution in China—one of the two greatest political advances in history—was born. Communist ideas triggered a wave of anti-colonial rebellions in Africa and Asia; a mass communist movement flourished in the United States. Though these advances were eventually compromised and lost in a reversal to capitalism, they point the way to a communist future, when the world will be run by and for the working class. This May Day, we will march to symbolize our commitment to and our confidence in that future. We have a world to win!
Central Europe: return of the Eastern Bloc?
The landslide re-election of Hungary’s Viktor Orban—the champion of “illiberal democracy” and an open admirer of strongmen like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Erdogan—signals the rise of fascist policies in this front-line state between Russia and Western Europe. Orban’s program includes the destruction of liberal institutions, an executive-controlled judiciary, and the scapegoating of immigrants and refugees. Similar policies are being embraced by the Czech Republic, Poland, and some of the Balkan states (Washington Post, 4/12)—all members of the Soviet bloc during the Cold War. No less ominous to the U.S. bosses are pro-fascist opposition mass movements in Western Europe, notably Alternative for Germany, Golden Dawn (Greece), the National Front (France), and the League (Italy).
U.S. politicians are concerned that Central European allies are abandoning both liberal democracy and the orbit of U.S. imperialism as they seek better deals with U.S. rivals: “ Hungary sits right on the edge of a declining European Union and a resurgent Russia….Centralizing power will improve Budapest’s negotiating position for what Orban sees as an inevitable opening to the East” (Stratfor, 10/11/13). The Russian state-owned company Rosatom, chosen without competitive bidding, has been engaged by Orban to expand Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant, with Putin extending a $€10 billion loan to facilitate the project (Politico, 2/1/2017).
In January, after President Milos Zeman was re-elected in the Czech Republic, Putin “praised Zeman’s ‘authority,’ and Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized the [two countries’] ‘strategic partnership’….[In]the coming years Zeman will concentrate on sealing strategic business deals with Russian and Chinese state-owned entities” (dw.com, 1/31).
In Asia, U.S. bosses losing ground to Russia, China
The U.S. has dominated the Philippines’ economy and political system since granting independence to the Pacific regional power after World War II. Now, with Chinese and Russian imperialists seeking leverage in the South China Sea, President Rodrigo Duterte is welcoming Russian hardware to shore up his repressive regime. In October 2017, during the first-ever visit by a Russian defense minister, the two countries signed a military logistics deal. A leading military figure noted, “We still prefer U.S. and Western equipment but they are very expensive. If the Russians and Chinese equipment can be comparable in quality, then they can be excellent alternatives” (Reuters, 11/10/17). China has been even more assertive in wooing the Filipino ruling class. When Duterte visited Beijing in October 2016, he was gifted with a $24 billion business deal (ASEAN Briefing, 4/10/2017).
Turkey, poised on the edge of the Middle East conflagration, is also pivoting toward Moscow. Despite its strong trade ties to the U.S. and European Union, half of Turkey’s gas resources come through the Blue Stream pipeline from Russia across the Black Sea, with a second pipeline already approved. Meanwhile, Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) is set to build a $20 billion nuclear power plant in southern Turkey, to be operational by 2023 (Brookings, 10/4/2017). Despite threatened penalties, Erdogan has flouted U.S. sanctions by purchasing Russia’s S-400 surface-to-air missile defense system. Since the S-400 cannot be integrated into NATO’s common defense system, it represents a potential fracture of NATO’s military coordination (Reuters, 4/4).
Liberal fascists the greatest danger
While the likes of Putin and Viktor Orban—or Racist-in-Chief Donald Trump—are obvious harbingers of fascism, the greatest danger to the working class has historically come from the liberal fascists who mislead our class to slaughter. In France, for example, Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron has vowed to tighten state control over the internet “to protect [our] democratic life” (rt.com, 1/4). His regime has decimated the country’s labor protections. In the name of anti-terrorism, it has installed a surveillance state with expanded police powers that would be the envy of the National Front (Financial Times, 10/2/17).  
In the U.S., such “friendly faces” as Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren are capitalizing on Trump’s unpopularity to usher disaffected workers back into the Democratic Party. But beware: These are the same figures who will strive to unify and mobilize the population for war and fascsism in the interests of imperialism. As revolutionary communists, we have a different job. Our task is to expose the liberal misleaders and prepare our sisters and brothers to turn the guns around. As world war draws closer, our challenge is to prepare for class war against racism, imperialism, and the bosses’ fascist crimes.
R. Palme Dutt, a prominent communist theoretician in the 1930s, argued that as a global capitalist crisis destabilizes society, there can only be one of two outcomes: socialism (communism) or a descent into barbarism. Around the world, that descent is well underway. This May Day, join PLP to fight for workers’ power instead!