| Afterword |
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| Written by Ianko Stoianov |
| Saturday, 27 September 2008 22:02 |
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Afterword
If Marx was alive nowadays, he would discover: that his teaching is still true and actual, that capitalism – despite the fact of being at a far higher stage of its development, – is still inhumane and, therefore, as illegitimate as it was in his time, whereas the huge contemporary proletariat, to which today belongs the middle class as well, is still subjected to exploitation, i.e. that his answer of the question he asks "But does wage-labour create any property for the labourer?" is still valid today: "Not a bit. It creates capital, i.e., that kind of property which exploits wage-labour, and which cannot increase except upon condition of begetting a new supply of wage-labour for fresh exploitation. Property, in its present form, is based on the antagonism of capital and wage labour."1 For it is in the very nature of capitalism that the principle of private property of exploiting type gives the capitalists the power to appropriate the whole final product and, in so doing, to appropriate the so called surplus product – the unpaid surplus value, – co-owners of which are the workers as well; the "sacred" private property of the capitalists can exist only due to the ruthless and inexorable exploitation of the private property of the workers; exploitation, which is the supreme end of capitalism and is implacably defended by the private owners of the public good. that his indictment of capitalism still stands; overcoming capitalism's social separation of the producers from the means of production and emancipating human labour power from its position as a commodity are still amongst the main tasks of the modern exploited classes, that not only the bourgeoisie of his time "has at last, since the establishment of Modern Industry and of the world market, conquered for itself, in the modern representative State, exclusive political sway," but even today "The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie,"2 whereas the state "is on the whole only a reflection, in concentrated form, of the economic needs of the class controlling production."3 that "the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas; hence of the relationships which make the one class the ruling one, therefore, the ideas of its dominance."4 that today in an incomparably bigger degree than ever before "The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere. The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country."5 and "It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image."6 that today's world proletariat is as much totally disorganised as Marx's contemporary proletariat had been before he wrote The Communist Manifesto. On the other hand, Marx would be precisely as much certain as he was in his time: that the liberation of the contemporary political proletariat must be performed by the very proletariat, that it must declare its own postulates mobilizing itself under the banner of anti-capitalism and fight to achieve its great and sacred goal: abolition of private property of exploiting capitalist type, abolition of exploitation of man by man, and therefore, the modern proletariat must once again gather its enormous strength for a new onslaught upon the power of the ruling classes and organise itself in a powerful political movement with its own political party in order to lead successful and victorious political fights for its economic and political liberation. Moreover, Marx would certainly reach the conclusion that he has to perform his deed once again and write a new communist manifesto. This is the New Communist Manifesto written in the conditions of the XXI century proclaiming the needs and the desires, the spirit and the will of the people of the third millennium for political communism. What has to be done has been done. Political communism is forever young. That is the reason why it is necessary to quote here a few of the true Marxist theses which are still absolutely actual. A considerable number of yet more theses deserve to be quoted; the continuity of the old and the new communist manifesto must be expressed crystal clear. The political communists have the courage to declare together with Marx, that "the antagonism between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie is a struggle of class against class, a struggle which carried to its highest expression is a total revolution. Indeed, is it at all surprising that a society founded on the opposition of classes should culminate in brutal contradiction, the shock of body against body, as its final denouement?"7 that "All property relations in the past have continually been subject to historical change consequent upon the change in historical conditions. The French Revolution, for example, abolished feudal property in favour of bourgeois property. The distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property. But modern bourgeois private property is the final and most complete expression of the system of producing and appropriating products, that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the many by the few. In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property."8 Yet, unlike Marx, today's political communists acknowledge that the principle of private property is absolutely necessary; however, only its humanist form definitely deserves to be developed and realised in the world of political actuality. Such are the newest volitions of rational political will, which not only has The Neo-Communist Manifesto thoroughly examined and revealed, but also wills to prove and carry out into practice; ideas have to be tested by action in the real world. The neo-humanists acknowledge the right to humanist private property; they decisively reject the egoistic class will of the capitalists to take control over the means of production as well as the final product in the sphere of all industries and services as well as the total political life of the country. That is why with Marx we declare: "You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths. You reproach us, therefore, with intending to do away with a form of property, the necessary condition for whose existence is the non-existence of any property for the immense majority of society. In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend. From the moment when labour can no longer be converted into capital, money, or rent, into a social power capable of being monopolised, i.e., from the moment when individual property can no longer be transformed into bourgeois property, into capital, from that moment, you say, individuality vanishes. You must, therefore, confess that by "individual" you mean no other person than the bourgeois, than the middle-class owner of property. This person must, indeed, be swept out of the way, and made impossible. Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labour of others by means of such appropriations."9 Today Marx's words are as true as they were when they were written almost 160 years ago. The new communists are aware of the fact that willing to ensure the defence of their enormous amassed fortunes, the members of the Big Bourgeoisie create the political reality of their steel will; entering into total possession of the public property – the state, – they privatise it, transform it into private property of their class and unconditionally control the life of the political community. The rejection, the abolition of the domination and dictatorship of Capital over Labour is sine qua non for creating a state which is a res publica of just freedom. The political freedom of all is the alpha and omega for both the public happiness and public virtue of everyone. Only through abolition of private property of capitalist type can the modern proletarians take possession of the social means of production and control them; they are the newest revolutionary humanist class. The nearest goal of the new communists is crystal clear: abolition of private property of capitalist type and abolition of the domination of the ever ruling Bourgeoisie and, therefore, constituting the right of Man of private property of humanist type and the sovereignty of the People. A new epoch is coming in the world. The newest fundamental rebuilding of social life can be done only on the base of the humanist will for just equality, just freedom and political communism. Today it is the new communists who are not only scientific representatives and theoreticians of the modern proletariat but also its practical leaders; their aim is to constitute the principle of public property as well as the principle of universal – common to all mankind – property as a foundation of the newest political actuality of the humanist state, to carry out into practice not only this goal but all their goals and, in so doing, to make politics ethical once again. They are convinced that Man can create states in which the public good and the truth as well as the principles of equality, brotherhood and freedom are amongst the supreme values and virtues of the political community – such is the highest destiny of Man. The political capital – res publica – belongs to the sovereign political community of people; only it must exert the supreme control upon the legislative, the executive and the judiciary powers. It and it only has the right to decide all questions concerning the state order and, therefore, the constitutional government and the constitutional court, only the people has the right to enact and reject laws concerning the constitution in the conditions of genuine direct democracy through the institution of truly free referenda. We regard politics as an absolute end in-and-for-itself and, therefore, as a calling, as the most natural way of life of ethical human beings, whose highest duty and supreme ethical imperative is to look after the public good, and – at the same time, aiming at creating and promoting the virtues of new more human forms of ruling – to continue to create ever better and more humanistic societies. Participation in possessing the common good falls to everyone by right. Every human being has an equal right to public property, public freedom, public happiness and all the ethical duties of a member of a humanistic political community. Precisely speaking, the main objective of a humanist society is not to eliminate the State, but to make it a special apparatus for defending public property since real humanism is possible only in a state built on the foundations of the principle of public property as well as the principle of private property of humanistic type – these are the highest principles of the political communism of the new millennium. The new communists want to diminish first and then radically abolish – once and for all, – the power of the omnipotent bourgeois trade unions, i.e. the political parties of the omnipotent Big Bourgeoisie and, thus, to oust the very Bourgeoisie from its total domination of the stage of politics. At no time is the political programme of the bourgeois parties approximately near the reality of the political community. It always happens: The very ideology of the ruling class does not express and cannot express the ideology of the ruled; these are two radically different worlds. During the elections the rulers hypocritically shout some of the slogans which are dear to the hearts and the ideology of the ruled; this is a time of sham rapprochement, of lies and demagogy, of "poetical"elation and ecstasy of the Bourgeoisie. After the elections always and unavoidably comes the hour of truth – the hour of the bourgeois prose – and ... Finita la comedia: the political community is kicked out, its imaginary one-day sovereignty ceases to exist whereas the real sovereign, the ruling totalitarian class goes back to the vital principles of its ideology and its ends and continues realising them. This is what has invariably been happening so far. Members of the political community, it depends on you whether it will continue to happen. Your task is to do so that the ideology, the absolute ends and interests of the people are the dominating ideas of ruling. Your humanistic constitution takes into consideration first and foremost the interests of the sovereign people and humanity, because not money but Man matters to you; Man is of supreme importance to you. It is easy to bribe and corrupt an uncontrolled politician; it is difficult to bribe the truly powerful political community of the people-sovereign. Willing to change the world with a view to its humanist development through a change of our attitudes, we want a political order in which the economic needs of entrepreneurial people are satisfied but their political greed for entering into possession of the total political space with the sole purpose of constituting the state defence of their thirst for exploitation of man by man is not. Every kind of ownership of government by an individual, by a group or any controlling private power is illegitimate. This is one of the main messages of the Neo-Communist Manifesto. This is what the new communists stand for. All power to the people! – say the new communists. Not the corrupted and uncontrolled representatives of the capitalist class but the sovereign people have to rule. No to the state order in which the bourgeoisie have it all: its total and virtually unrestrained political and economic power allows it to create a bourgeois paradise of totalitarian dictatorship of Capital over Labour while the citizens and their freedoms are nothing. No more parliamentary elections in which the citizens are forced to accept the role of a silent voting flock. The sovereign is bound to start playing its great role. It will certainly start fighting in order to win recognition as the only sovereign ruler capable of building humanist political communities. Abolition of exploitation of man by man is of paramount importance for us to succeed in building a humanist society and a new humanist world order. It is beyond all doubt that "In proportion as the exploitation of one individual by another will also be put an end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will also be put an end to. In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end."10 The expropriation of the proletarians from the product of their indivisible and inalienable labour – from their economic private property – is absolutely illegitimate and will be declared illegitimate from the standpoint of the future humanist constitutions. The task is to create a truly legitimate economic system based on the principle of private property of humanist type, i.e. to create such enterprises which honestly recognise the capital of every man and without allowing the exploitation of man by man are as effective as enterprises based on the principle of private property of exploiting type. The spirit and will of mankind are a manifestation of the absolute rational will, which wills and realises nothing else but itself; being the living absolute will, which realises itself as it knows itself and as much as it knows itself, humanity is in permanent search for the supreme principles and reality of the humanist state. Man always actualises the absolute ends of world rational will; he irresistibly realises its ends knowing perfectly well that its absolute possibilities are objectively realizable. The rise of the spirit and will of mankind for further realisation of humanistic justice and ethics will make it possible to rule better the common for all property; what is absolutely possible will become absolutely actual. We will win. We will win because the world history aims at humanisation, at full conformity of Man with the highest volitions and desires of human nature. Man's passion for development of the world towards humanisation is unstoppable. The absolute and perpetual power of the Great Humanist Revolution has always been irresistible and victorious. It is the reason for the irreversible advance of all humanist values; the notions of equality, fraternity and liberty are permanently refuted and, therefore, developed by ever more concrete humanist equality, humanist fraternity and universal humanist liberty. All people have always had and will forever continue to have the divine will to make the political order, its institutions and the ethics of the societies more and more humanistic and everything they want and do is based on the omnipotence of the absolute rational will. They will nothing else but this divine will which is bound to lead them to abolish the present sham bourgeois democracy, to abolish the power of the bourgeoisie, for the bourgeoisie and through the bourgeoisie because bourgeois democracy is a political order in which the bourgeoisie is "the people", "the demos"; it is democracy in name only. The real people, the real demos is not allowed to take place on the stage of politics. Nevermore! The new communists express the will of our times; they want to replace the bourgeois democracy and will replace it with a genuine universal direct communist democracy based not on the selfish and greedy will of its elite ruling and acting first and foremost on behalf of its private interests but on the will of the whole political community to rule itself in conformity with the principles of humanism. New communism is bound to be in the centre of all contemporary political debates and political events. The ever lasting humanist revolution will continue to make history until its final victory; it is immortal. We will see its power in the nearest future; it will not be late to come on tomorrow's political stage as it never used to be late to come on the political stage in world history. Unlike the Marxists, the new communists want to see the positive side of private rights and private property. Yes, we are not equal – in terms of skills, power of will, talents, stamina, etc. Yet, we are equal in the face of the Nature-God. We all have an equal right to all goods of our planet – clean air, clean water, etc. The Earth is common to all, it belongs to humanity not only to some, i.e. not only to one exploiting class. It possesses and reigns supreme over us, not the other way round. This is the communism of the future: based not on the working class any more – as Marx dreamed, – but on the common ownership of the planet. The Absolute Rational Will has in itself the strongest contradiction of its moments – common ownership and the capitalist type of private property and private entrepreneurship. Now the time is ripe for development of the world rational will, which desires to abolish the unjust capitalist type of private property. Not only is the humanist type of private property a refutation of the capitalist private property but it also is a sine qua non for a civilised public ownership of the planet. This is the Good News of the third millennium. As the Kenyan proverb says: "Treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children." To all apologists of private property, to all servants of the Big Capital and the very representatives of the Big Capital, the capitalists, we say: Down with Adam Smith's unethical and greedy invisible hand of the market for it will destroy the world! Power to the wise rational Will of ethical humanity as well as the new kind of market determined by the genuinely universal – common for all people – Will as well as the institution of private property of humanist type for they are destined to save the world of mankind. The supreme goal of a humanist political community is to live in full conformity with the highest common for all people good and act on behalf of it. New communists from all countries stand up and fight again! To you belongs the future of the Earth and humanity. NOTES:
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