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Video Perspectives for World Revolution - at the IMT World School 2017

Marxist Perspectives · 2017-08-08

Core Argument

The central thesis is that the global capitalist system has entered a period of profound and irreversible instability, characterised by the breakdown of the post-war settlement, the exhaustion of neoliberal reforms, and the decay of bourgeois democratic institutions. Alan Woods argues that the apparent stability of the 1990s and early 2000s was a temporary respite built on the expansion of fictitious capital and the crushing of the working class, and that the underlying contradictions of capitalism have now reasserted themselves with a vengeance. The task facing Marxists is not to seek a reformed capitalism but to prepare the working class for revolutionary power, as the objective conditions for socialist revolution are now maturing across the globe.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis is rooted in the classical Marxist tradition, drawing heavily on Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution and his analysis of combined and uneven development. Woods applies this framework to the contemporary period by arguing that the contradictions of capitalism are now playing out simultaneously in the advanced economies, the former Stalinist states, and the Global South. The talk also draws on Lenin's theory of imperialism, particularly the notion that the export of capital and the division of the world among the great powers leads inevitably to interimperialist rivalry and war. There is a clear debt to Marx's analysis of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, though the argument is presented in terms of the exhaustion of the conditions that sustained the post-war boom and the subsequent neoliberal period, rather than through a technical discussion of the rate of profit itself. The rejection of reformism is not argued for but assumed: the crisis is systemic, not cyclical, and therefore cannot be resolved within the framework of capitalism.

Conjunctural Relevance

The talk was delivered in mid-2017, and it captures a moment of acute political turbulence. Woods points to the election of Donald Trump as a symptom of the decay of American democracy and the rise of a dangerous form of bourgeois nationalism. He discusses the rise of Jeremy Corbyn in Britain as a contradictory but significant expression of working-class radicalisation, while warning that Corbynism remains trapped within reformist illusions. The crisis in the Middle East, particularly the war in Syria and the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, is presented as a classic example of interimperialist conflict masked by sectarian rhetoric. Woods also references the Brexit vote as a manifestation of the breakdown of the European Union project, which he characterises as a capitalist club that has outlived its usefulness. The economic backdrop is the slow recovery from the 2008 crash, which Woods argues never truly ended — the recovery was anaemic, debt-driven, and concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite. The data points are drawn from the general political landscape rather than from specific economic statistics, but the argument is that the objective conditions — falling living standards, political instability, war, and environmental crisis — are ripening for revolution.

Where the Argument Continues

This talk is a broad strategic overview, and it leaves many questions open. The most obvious is the concrete question of how the working class can be won to revolutionary consciousness and organisation in the absence of a mass revolutionary party. Woods gestures towards the need for such a party but does not develop the argument. The analysis of Corbynism is taken up in greater depth in subsequent IDOM articles, particularly those dealing with the Labour Party's internal crises and the limits of the "left" strategy within the Labour Party. The question of the European Union and the left's response to Brexit is developed in later articles and in the Against the Stream podcast. The analysis of Trump and the American situation is continued in Alan Woods' later writings on the Biden administration and the January 6th insurrection. The broader theoretical question of how to understand the current period in relation to Trotsky's theory of the death agony of capitalism is a recurring theme across the corpus, and this talk serves as a useful entry point.

Connections

This talk should be read alongside Alan Woods' earlier work, particularly The History of Philosophy: A Marxist Perspective and Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution, which provide the theoretical and historical grounding for the strategic perspective outlined here. It connects directly to Trotsky's The Transitional Program and The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International, which provide the programmatic framework for the argument. The analysis of the Middle East connects to Woods' articles on the Syrian revolution and the role of the Islamic State. The critique of reformism connects to the broader Marxist tradition's polemics against Bernstein and Kautsky, and to the IDOM articles on the crisis of social democracy. For a more detailed economic analysis, readers should consult the IDOM articles on the 2008 crash and its aftermath, as well as the work of Michael Roberts on the rate of profit.

Key Quotes

  1. "The old order is crumbling. Everywhere we see the breakdown of the old institutions, the decay of bourgeois democracy, the rise of nationalism and xenophobia, and the increasing use of force and violence to maintain the system."

  2. "The crisis of 2008 was not a normal cyclical crisis. It was a structural crisis of the capitalist system itself, and the recovery that followed was the weakest in history, built on mountains of debt and quantitative easing."

  3. "The election of Donald Trump is not an accident. It is the expression of the decay of American democracy, the bankruptcy of the two-party system, and the desperation of a ruling class that can no longer rule by consent."

  4. "Corbynism represents a radicalisation of the working class, but it is a radicalisation that is still trapped within the framework of reformism. The task is not to reform the Labour Party but to build a revolutionary party."

  5. "The European Union is not a progressive institution. It is a capitalist club, designed to serve the interests of the big banks and the multinationals. Its crisis is the crisis of capitalism itself."

  6. "The objective conditions for socialism have never been more favourable. The question is whether we can build the subjective factor — a revolutionary party capable of leading the working class to power."