A deep and structural crisis of capitalism defines our world

The overall crisis of the capitalist mode of production has manifested itself in a social crisis that has deepened inequalities and increased poverty, hunger, precariousness, and the destruction of rights for the working class. The crisis has manifested itself in an environmental crisis, driven by capital’s aggressive relationship with natural resources; it has culminated in a political crisis of bourgeois forms of democracy produced by a neoliberal hollowing out of the State.

The social crisis of capitalism reveals itself in the decline and worsening living and working conditions throughout the world. Employment is less and less feasible, and unemployment defines the labour market. Capitalist agribusinesses eliminate small farmers and peasants, while automation and high productivity rates reduce the industrial and service workforce. It is a crisis that ranges from the dispossession of the peasants from the land to the dispossession of the urban poor from housing. This growing crisis is reflected in the ever-increasing number of people facing hunger and migration. The social crisis is crises of energy and the climate, environmental crises and food production.

From the standpoint of the capitalists, the crisis manifests in terms of declining profitability. Capitalist accumulation cannot generate sufficient profit for capital owners, who move their financial property into asset bubbles of all kinds. This avalanche towards finance reinforces finance capital domination over the entire system, finance capital that speculates for more profit and seeks to collect rent.

It is a crisis of Western and Eurocentric civilisation, evidenced in the collapse of its political institutions and its form of a liberal-republican and bourgeois State. Within their representative and liberal form, democracies are strongly restricted to express projects of profound and radical transformations that respond to the people’s problems. In many cases, through a hybrid war strategy, they even use large sectors of society to oppose the fundamental rights that the peoples have conquered. Including democracy

The United States’ imperialism subjects our peoples to hybrid and unconventional wars: It sends subversion packages disguised as humanitarian and development aid projects, intervenes in electoral processes to ensure access to our common goods, intends to couple our territories to their reproductive system, sanctions and blocks our sovereignties and resistance. The United States’ imperialism subjects our economies to illegitimate and unpayable debts and denies any possible contribution to the fundamental problems of our people.

The geopolitical tensions indicate the deepening crises produced by the decreasing United States’ power and the ending of its imposed unipolarity, China’s rise and the appearance of a new multipolar landscape. China is slowly becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world. Trade wars are a consequence of this change in economic power. Despite these economic changes, the United States maintains its military hegemony over the world. It remains the country with the greatest military might, even though its economic and ideological power continues to erode. Domination is not a substitute for hegemony.

The contradiction between the United States’ economic collapse and its military supremacy poses great dangers for the planet. The Covid-19 pandemic has acerbated China’s dominance as a global economic power as the inability of imperialist economies such as the United States to sustain its workforce and model under “new norms” has seen large scale unemployment.

The emergence of neofascism is a way for big capital to control the State by imposing authoritarian far-right governments to carry out its program against the people. This form of government is a severe threat to reason and social justice.

Capitalism cannot sustain itself. Its current political framework, neoliberalism, has demonstrated its limits.
The crisis of capitalism begets a crisis of values: increased individualism and consumerism, contempt for life and nature.

For years, new forms of international coordination have been under construction, in different spaces, and continents.

For example, in Latin America, ALBA Movements and the São Paulo Forum have convened movements to a regional coordination; the World March of Women, La Via Campesina and others have provided a global platform for movements.

In Africa, the 2016 Pan Africanism Today Lusaka Conference laid the foundation to build a strong unity across the continent, which is ideologically clear in socialist values and praxis. This event led to the development of multiple political education processes, the successes of the Tunis (2017), and Ghana (2018) Pan Africanism Today Conferences. Consequently, there has been the rapid growth of coordinated efforts to fight imperialism and build a socialist Pan Africanism across Africa.

In this process, and for years, we have brought together political and social movements into the International Peoples’ Assembly. This formation convenes organizations and movements without seeking to replace any of them.

Through discussion and debate, we are building a common political platform that helps us face the dilemmas of humanity and the crisis of capitalism.

The discussion and debate process is dynamic because capitalist contradictions and the correlation of forces are dynamic. The dynamic nature of the system forces us to keep updating the issues and the political platform. Hence, this document is an instrument for building a political and ideological understanding amongst our various partners; it is a dynamic document which changes based on the changes in the class struggle. It is not a finalized document, but a one that provides the basis for debate and the convergence of ideas.

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What is to be done?

We are living uncertain times for the future of humanity and our planet. The challenges are great. The multiple resistances that are developing in all the latitudes of the world are our hope and motivation. Our people’s permanent solidarity and their everyday struggle against the injustices this system generates is our strength.

We accept the challenge of creating solidarity to advance the cause of humanity. The struggles of our peoples show us the way.

Unity is our horizon to advance a great popular will that builds a just, egalitarian, and worthy world to be lived in by all and in harmony with our mother earth. The moment is now.

We aim to strengthen our connections through concrete practices and common actions. We do not intend to build any kind of bureaucratic or vertical international organization. We want to strengthen international linkages from our national experiences with each organization, party, union, popular movements.

Our objective is to build a network that helps us know each other’s struggles, collaborate concretely, and expand our work through common actions. We need to build our unity based on our widely shared ideas of justice and equality, based on our mutual respect for our work and the common actions we will take to strengthen our will and power.

Capitalism will not die a natural death. Although the contradictions between the concentration of wealth and the people’s increase every day, capitalism will not become a victim of its contradictions. Our time’s intense tensions could lead either to neo-fascism or to the overcoming of capitalism. Advancing towards the latter requires a strong organization of our peoples, with organizational unity, mass strength, and ideological clarity about our current situation and future.

To that end, it is necessary that in each of our countries, we carry out our respective strategic evaluations to build powerful popular, democratic, and revolutionary forces and promote the radical social transformation to face this crisis. We have to develop our strength to overcome the toxic present and move to human emancipation.

The international platform for unity that we present should only be treated as a text for debate to deepen and strengthen the proposals of militants on the need for structural changes at the global level. Movements within each country are always strengthened when they have strong ties to movements across national borders.

Networking on an international scale allows us to expand our work and provide tangible solidarity to our efforts. Our Assembly process seeks to build a global network to strengthen our battles at the national and international levels. Our network will help us share information and analysis. It will provide a global unitary action platform to amplify our positions and our power. .

Without mass mobilization, we can’t accumulate forces against capitalism.

Without political education, we can’t wage the battle of ideas.

Without political struggle, ideas do not advance!

Our real strength is in the ability to organize our people to fight, in a unified and massive way, for a different world.

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