IMPERIALISM'S CRISIS IS THE LABOUR MOVEMENT'S OPPORTUNITY
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The capitalist system worldwide remains on the brink of crisis as a result of the unresolved over-accumulation of capital, in large part dating from 2008. The consequent drive to maximise super-profits and for ever greater monopolisation has brought growing rivalry between the major imperialist powers. This has been accompanied by renewed attacks on the living standards of working people, on the economic sustainability of weaker capitalist states - and on those societies that have sought to challenge imperialist domination, affirm their sovereignty and independence, or pursue a non-capitalist mode of development. In particular, the rise of China as a major economic power, engaged in the primary stage of socialist construction and determined to uphold the sovereignty of its people, has prompted an aggressive response from US ruling circles. At the same time, US imperialism and its NATO and EU allies are promoting an escalation of military conflict in every region - including the militarisation of space strengthening and extending their strategic military positions, spreading instability and insecurity, and placing their economies and societies on a war footing with an increase in military expenditure and the production of new and ever more sophisticated weapons of mass destruction. The struggle against war and militarism and for disarmament and peace can be characterised as one of the most urgent tasks of our time. In the Middle East, the United States remains determined to maintain hegemony over the resources and strategic supply lines of the region. Discovery of huge gas supplies in the Eastern Mediterranean off the coast of Syria has sharpened this resolve. Serious conflict now threatens as the US shifts from its previous strategy of maximising control by multilateral containment, balancing the major regional powers against one another. The US now focuses on intervention - in alliance with Israel and Saudi Arabia and to the exclusion of the EU, Russia and China - to rupture the wider influence of Iran across Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. This has empowered Saudi Arabia to seek full control over the Gulf and Yemen and Israel to threaten its northern neighbours and consolidate its grip on the occupied territories in defiance of international law. Justice for the Palestinian people, in accordance with UN resolution 242 (1967) and subsequent resolutions, in the form of a sovereign Palestinian state, remains a key priority for the Palestinian people and for the peace and stability of the region. In eastern Syria, the US is exploiting the presence of a Kurdish population to promote a territorial division of the country in line with its strategy of using the
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solidarity with anti-imperialist forces overseas, in developing the peace movement and in working to enhance the unity and influence of the international communist movement in its struggle for peace and socialism.
Britain's structural economic crisis
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The minority Tory government elected in May 2017 represents the most powerful sections of monopoly finance capital in Britain, concentrated in the City of London. Thus it has failed to address the major structural weaknesses of the British economy which arise from British imperialism and the predominance within it of the financial sector. These weaknesses include: • the imbalance between investment in industry and manufacturing on one side and financial and property speculation and luxury development on the other; • the resurgence of monopoly in key sectors of the economy such as energy and power, raw materials, high technology, telecomms, pharmaceuticals and retailing with the overriding objectives of cutting costs and eliminating competition; • the continuing low investment in productive industry, transport and energy infrastructure and civilian research and development; • the heavy dependence of the remaining productive industry on armaments production; • the concentration on oil, gas and nuclear fission as primary energy sources instead of investment in safe renewables; • the large trade deficit in goods and services; • the reliance on overseas investment income to prop up the balance of payments; and • the dependence on inward investment and foreign ownership to maintain Britain's industrial base. Instead of investing in safe, renewable energy generation and storage, successive governments have opted for nuclear fission, guaranteeing excessive profits for overseas investors and high prices for domestic and commercial consumers. Instead of pursuing an industrial strategy of planned investment, technological modernisation and balanced, sustainable development, the Tories have prioritised measures to reverse the falling rate of capitalist profit. These have included cutting taxes on speculation, private wealth and corporate profits; privatising public services
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• Carrying forward the process of 'Communist Renewal' to enlarge and organise the party's cadre force of politically educated militants. • Implementing the next phase in the 2017 'Red Wedge' recruitment and retention strategy to create the basis for the Communist Party exercising mass influence in the labour movement. • Projecting Unity!, Communist Review, other Party publications and Manifesto Press titles more systematically within and beyond the Party's own ranks.
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Books from manifestopress
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MONOPOLY
Proud Journey
The Empire and Ukraine
Global education 'reform'
A Spanish Civil War memoir by Bob Cooney
the Ukraine crisis in its context by Andrew Murray
Building resistance and solidarity Edited by Gawain Little
Bob Cooney (19071984) was a prominent antifascist and communist in Aberdeen who joined the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. Published for the first time, Proud Journey is his memoir of those turbulent times. Published in collaboration with Marx Memorial Library & Workers' School with support from the International Brigade Memorial Trust and Unite the Union.
This book draws the lessons needed for the anti-war movement as great power conflict returns to Europe and threatens a new cold war or worse. From his decade long vantage point in the leadership of the anti-war movement Andrew Murray explores the essential links between the crises of contemporary capitalism and war. No political question is more important in contemporary Britain.
Global education 'reform' explores the neoliberal assault on education and the response of teacher trade unions. It brings together contributions by leading educationalists from all over the world at the international conference organised by the NUT and the Teacher Solidarity Research Collective in 2014. Published with the NUT with a foreword by NUT General Secretary Christine Blower.
£.5 (+£.2 p&p) ISBN 978-1-907464-14-0
£.11.95 (+£.I .SO p&p) ISBN 978-1907464133
£.7.99 (+£.2 p&p) ISBN 978-1-907464-12-6
State Monopoly Capitalism
by Gretchen Binus, Beate Landefeld and Andreas Wehr. Introduction by Jonathan White This monograph by Gretchen Binus, Beate Landefeld and Andreas Wehr, originally published in German, revisits the discussions on SMC theory in Germany, France, and the Soviet Union, demonstrating their contemporary relevance. An introduction by Jonathan White considers how a better understanding of state monopoly capitalism would assist those seeking the transformation of Britain in a socialist direction. £.4.95 (plus £.I .SO p&p). ISBN 978-1-907464-27-0