PARIS, September 28 — The phony expression “anti-white racism” has been getting endless media play in France following its use by Jean-François Copé, the general secretary of the right-wing UMP party. Copé is a candidate in the November election to choose a new president for the party. His rival, former Prime Minister François Fillon, hastened to say that anti-white racism is “a reality.”

By using an expression first circulated by Marine Le Pen, the leader of the fascist National Front party, both Copé and Fillon are currying favor with the far-right element in their party. But this is more than just a ploy in an internal party dogfight. First, it shows that the UMP is moving closer to an alliance with the National Front, making an openly fascist government here a real possibility.

Secondly, Socialist Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has chimed in, saying that “anti-white racism could exist” but that Copé should have been more careful using the expression. Ever since, the media has “debated” whether discussion of “anti-white racism” is politically correct.

The sterility of the media debate contrasts sharply with a comment posted by Mohamed on the Nouvel Observateur magazine website. Does “anti-white racism,” he asks, “lead to discrimination at school, unmotivated police ID checks and a hard time finding a job?” Mohamed says, “Copé is trying to advance racial solidarity (of ‘whites’) to attempt to overshadow class solidarity (of people on the minimum wage) who, in my humble opinion, are more and more aware that they are in the same boat, no matter what color their skin is.”

To understand why the bosses’ politicians and media are whipping up racism, check out the French unemployment figures: over 5 million people are jobless (counting part-timers who want to work full-time) — 16.8% of the active population.

In addition, the Socialist-Green Party governing coalition is about to push approval of the European Budget Pact through the French Parliament, imposing “the golden rule” of no government budget deficit. This will lead to more austerity: higher taxes and fewer government services. It will force the working class to pay for the capitalist economic crisis.

To head off an explosion of class struggle against that oppression, the bosses need to persuade “whites” that their enemies are people of Arab and Middle-Eastern origin (10.2% of the population) and black people from Africa and the Caribbean (3.6%). But communists point to racism as the bosses’ trump card, to reap super-profits from the resulting lower wages and to divide the working class, weakening its ability to fight the bosses’ exploitation.

PARIS, September 30 — Up to 80,000 demonstrators from across France marched here today, shouting “Resistance!” as they protested the European budget treaty forcing the French government to impose austerity measures. 

Workers were outraged at the attacks on their class. Many of the demonstrators were activists from trade unions, associations and political organizations.  “Hollande [Socialist Party president] promised to renegotiate the Merkozy treaty but not a comma has been changed,” said Jordi, a 26-year-old computer technician. [“Merkozy” is a combination of German Chancellor Merkel and former French president Sarkozy, the politicians who drafted the treaty]. The treaty is likely to “anchor austerity in all the countries of Europe,” he added.

Jean-Claude, a 70-year-old retired food processing worker, said “this treaty is going to make people into paupers.” 

Christine, a 58-year-old high school teacher, said, “With the adoption of the golden rule, austerity budgets are going to be voted year after year…. France is going to wind up resembling Spain or Greece.”

Many women marched behind a banner reading, “Women in struggle against austerity, for steady jobs and for solidarity in Europe.”

About 50 workers from the Fralib factory near Marseilles marched. “We are here above all to demonstrate against the European treaty, to say that we don’t agree with this treaty invented by Sarkozy and Merkel,” said the union secretary of the company works council. [See CHALLENGE, 2/2/2011, page 5, for the Fralib workers’ struggle].

The austerity falls most heavily on the Arab and black North African immigrant workers who, because of racism, suffer the lowest wages, highest unemployment and worst working conditions.

The demonstration was called by the Front de Gauche, mainly an alliance of the Left Party and the phony “Communist” Party. Nearly 60 other organizations also supported it but the governing Socialist Party and its junior partner Green Party did not.

The Front de Gauche presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, insisted the demonstration was against austerity policies but not against the Socialist Party and the Greens. Although the leadership of the CGT trade union confederation did not call for participation in the action, many rank-and-file CGT members participated. 

The governing Socialist Party, which paraded as the “opposition” to right-winger Sarkozy, is no opponent of the French ruling class but is in opposition to the class interests of the working class. Workers needs a real communist party to oppose all wings of the ruling class, and have the goal of a communist revolution, the only solution to the austerity-driven poverty and exploitation built into capitalism.

In Michael Klare’s latest book, The Race for What’s Left, he discusses the intense investment and competition to find and exploit the world’s diminishing supply of oil, gas, minerals, rare earth metals and elements. Just as the international appetite for fuel and materials needed for technological development is bounding ahead, the easily recoverable supplies are rapidly being exhausted.

It is estimated that 13 percent of the undiscovered oil and 30 percent of the gas left on earth is above the Arctic Circle. Five countries have claims to the sea and land of this area: Russia, Canada, the U.S., Norway, Denmark, and Greenland (which is dependent on Denmark).

Because this territory was formerly not thought to be very valuable, precise international boundaries were never drawn. In fact, when the Russians planted their flag beneath the North Pole in 2007, it was less an act of national pride than an attempt to claim that the continental shelf extending north from Russia belongs to them. All the major oil companies-Shell, BP, Exon, Conoco Phillips, Imperial oil of Canada and Russian state companies are investing billions to explore for oil in this region.

Military capabilities are being increased by all the involved countries as conflicts over boundaries intensify. The hurdles, in terms of cold, violent storms, and icebergs, are huge. The extreme conditions also will make it impossible to rush rescue or leak-stopping equipment to the site of a spill. Ironically, global warming will extend the drilling period by two months each year and make arctic development easier.

Other new sources of gas and oil are in very deep offshore waters, where drilling techniques have not yet proved feasible or safe. One hundred billion barrels of oil are thought to lie under 1.5 miles (2.41 km) of water and 2.5 miles (4.02 km) of salt off the coast of Brazil. Other very deep oil beds exist off the Atlantic coast of northern Canada, far into the Gulf of Mexico, off the coasts of Venezuela, western Africa and in the South China Sea. The latter is disputed by China, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam and is a growing source of conflict.

Lastly, oil is being sought in “unconventional” sites, buried in tar sands, shale, or in an “extra heavy” state.  Canadian tar sands are estimated to contain 170 trillion barrels of oil, but it is thick and frozen. Its recovery requires open pit mining, which not only destroys the land but contaminates downstream water. It can also be recovered by injecting large amounts of steam, but this uses huge amounts of water and is powered by natural gas, thus causing a great release of greenhouse carbon dioxide. The percentage of unconventional oil is predicted to rise from 3 percent in 2009 to 9 percent in 2035. 

Most of the world’s mines for such important substances as copper, tin, titanium, and bauxite date from World War II and are on the decline. New reserves are in the arctic and in potentially rebellious areas of Africa and Asia. Afghanistan may contain some of the biggest mineral resources in the world. The biggest uranium deposits are in Niger. Russia and China are fighting over large deposits in Mongolia. Both governments of developed countries and mining corporations are angling to control new mines in these unstable areas.

Seventeen rare earth elements, such as lithium, are necessary for new “green” technologies like electric car batteries, because they are light, magnetic, and strong. Ironically, obtaining them is becoming more difficult and energy intensive. In fact, China had been allowed to almost monopolize production because they did not care about environmental contamination or worker protection, but the West is now hesitant to allow China’s dominance to continue. Utah and Australia will probably become the sites of new mines, at huge monetary and environmental cost.

In addition to trying to guarantee their access to oil and minerals, the wealthy nations are also exploiting the poor to guarantee themselves food. Saudi Arabia has acquired 750,000 acres in Ethiopia; the United Arab Emirates (UAE) controls 700,000 acres of farmland in Sudan. India and China are buying up huge chunks of land in various African countries. Not only is arable land being sought to feed the populations of these wealthy nations, but it is being promoted as a good investment for rich individuals and corporations. About two thirds of all the land being purchased for food is in sub-Saharan Africa. A 2010 World Bank report concluded that most of these projects leave the local population worse off than before.

Finally, Klare discusses the consequences of this competition for resources. Among the oil and mining companies, only the largest will survive as the costs of exploration and exploitation mount. Government-controlled operations will become ever more important, especially in Russia and China. Military means will be used to protect and secure resources, as with the presence of U.S. troops in Nigeria, the Persian Gulf, and Southeast Asia; Chinese forces in Sudan and Zimbabwe; and Russian troops in central Asia.

Although Klare understands that competition for resources has caused wars for centuries and that we are headed for even bigger conflicts, he holds out hope that humanity can avoid catastrophe by competing to adapt to shortages rather than control the shrinking pie. He hopes that the realization of the depletion of non-renewable resources will spur a focus on new technologies and efficiency by governments and private enterprises.

What we as Marxist analyzers of history know, however, is that capitalist competition demands that profits drive investment and war. As do most liberal societal critics, Klare hopes that common sense and decency will change the economic laws that propel the actions of the capitalist ruling class. He must hope this because he cannot conceive of a mass movement of workers building a better world.  He hopes that the magnitude of the resource problem will force the ruling class to dispense with the laws of capitalist competition and exploitation.

Although some puny efforts may be made to develop green technology, no capitalist country can forego its immediate need to produce and sell more than its rivals and control its sources of raw materials and markets.  Moreover, the capitalist class is willing to sacrifice the lives of millions of workers, including citizen workers, in order to maintain economic and military superiority.

Only an international communist society — an egalitarian society based on maximizing workers’ quality of life, would enable the long-term planning for adaptation to shrinking resources and the development of new modes of production. To create that communist society we must build a mass international movement to destroy the capitalist rulers who, if allowed to survive, will lead us all to a debacle of death and destruction. Be part of that movement by joining and building the Progressive Labor Party around the world.

The city of Jakarta, Indonesia, is one of the largest of the growing number of megaslums around the world. In Jakarta 28 million people live in tightly-packed slum housing consisting of unstable tenements and improvised shelters. Forty percent of the population lives on less than $2 per day and average wages are only $113 per month in a city where apartment rents hover around $500 per month (Reuters, 3/12/12). 

Workers in Indonesia now have a new hardship to worry about. Of the estimated 400,000 commuters riding Jakarta’s dilapidated public trains during peak hours, many are forced to hop the trains and ride on the roof. This practice, called “train surfing” in Jakarta, is a necessity in a city where wages are too low to cover rising train fares. 

The Indonesian government, eager to collect these fares, has long fought train surfing by greasing the roofs of train cars and hanging large concrete balls over the tracks to knock riders off. Now they are embarking on a plan to lower the power lines of the trains to electrocute those that risk a ride to work. This murderous plan is being implemented alongside a 40%  fare hike, guaranteeing that millions of workers will be forced to risk their lives to work in Indonesia’s sweatshop economy (BBC, 7/27/12). 

But Indonesia did not have to be a growing megaslum where workers get poorer every year while millionaires are minted at the rate of 16 a day on the backs of the working class (a figure lauded by capitalists; it indicates the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of the few at the expense of the growing poverty of the many). Between 1945 and 1965, a coalition nationalist government, pushed along by a massive “communist” party, experimented with some aspects of social democracy that saw rising wages, increased literacy and improved health rates, alongside the development of the public infrastructure. 

The Indonesian “Communist” Party (PKI) was once the largest in the capitalist world with a membership of 3 million in 1965. But they made the mistake of thinking that they could ally themselves with “good” capitalists and peacefully evolve into a socialist state without violently taking state power. This delusion would prove fatal when General Suharto, backed by the U.S. CIA, began a murderous campaign against the PKI in 1965. 

Between 1965 and 1968, when Suharto officially took power over the country, an estimated 500,000 to 1 million communists and communist sympathizers were systematically murdered by death squads. At the time the New York Times praised the massacre as a “gleam of light in Asia,” a “savage transition” that would not have been possible without U.S. aid and the American invasion of Vietnam (NYT, 6/19/66). 

The Suharto regime, always the obedient vassal of the U.S., went about turning Indonesia into a third world slum that would be fit for exploitation by Western corporations seeking the lowest wages in the world. Public programs were gutted or eliminated, the urban infrastructure was allowed to deteriorate and labor organizations were viciously liquidated. Now trains, not renovated since the 1950s, regularly derail; boats and ferries sink; airplanes disappear from radar; shacks are buried in mudslides or destroyed by floods; and the Jakarta slums swell as the city grows (from 1.5 million in 1950 to over 28 million today). 

Indonesia is praised by many capitalist economists as a model economy, showing the economic development promised by free markets. Indeed their tiny capitalist class is seeing an unparalleled growth in their personal wealth. Yet for the millions of Indonesian workers, capitalism is a killer.

Journalist Andre Vltchek described the conditions of the Jakarta slums, “One turn off from the main streets and the real Jakarta exposes its wounds: filthy narrow alleys, channels clogged with garbage, makeshift stores selling unhygienic food, children running barefoot; thousands of big and small mosques, but not one decent playground for children. Garbage accumulates at every corner and polluted air penetrates throat and eyes. Little girls are offering themselves for a pittance, while boys are sniffing glue from plastic bags.” (Japan Focus, 2/5/08)  

This is the victory of capitalism in Indonesia. The bosses have everything, while the workers hope that they don’t get electrocuted on their way to work. The lessons from the destruction of the PKI for communists everywhere were hard-learned. There are no “good capitalists” and there can never be any allegiance between the working class and the capitalist class. The struggle between the working class and the capitalist class is a life-and-death struggle. The fight for communism is not a national struggle as the PKI thought, but an international struggle against the exploitation of capitalism everywhere.