The Communist Party of China’s Constitution stipulates that –
“All power in the People’s Republic of China belongs to the people. The National People’s Congress and the local people’s congresses at various levels are the organs through which the people exercise state power.”
In the context of uniting and preparing the international working class for a world socialist revolution and the subsequent overthrow and replacement of capitalist ruling class state powers with united socialist state powers – throughout the entire planet, if for no other reason than the Chinese working class numbering 1> billion, the above CPC statement deserves careful examination cum evaluation by the ICFI/SEP cadre.
There has never been a larger identifiable unit of the international working class than that within contemporary People’s Republic of China (PRC) with an increasing population of 1.4 billion> including a rapidly increasing middle class of 400> million. It is reasonably safe to assume the vast majority of China’s middle class accept and support the above CPC statement. Be that as it probably is, it is the extent to which the above CPC statement is verified, trusted and supported by the 1> billion Chinese working class that should determine if it has any potential as an example of revolutionary development in the context of uniting and preparing the international working class as a whole.
This is an extract from ‘The CPC Its Mission and Contributions’ statement – Aug 2021, on how the CPC expresses its relationship with the Chinese working class in particular and its thoughts on human society and the international system in general –
‘The Communist Party of China is the vanguard of China’s working class, the Chinese people, and the Chinese nation. Serving the people wholeheartedly is its abiding mission.. there is an urgent need for human society to seek out a new philosophy and make the international system and order fairer and more reasonable..’
Following is an extract from the writings of Leon Trotsky – 1939-40, Trotsky was evidently expecting or at least hoping for at least one or more ‘country, colonial or imperialist’ to be further developed in revolutionary struggle and thereby able to set an example for the international working class as a whole.
‘Workers must develop the revolutionary struggle in every country, colonial or imperialist, where favorable conditions have been established, and through this set an example for the workers of other countries. Only initiative and activity, resoluteness and boldness can really materialize the slogan “Workers of the world, unite!”
This too from the leader and mentor of world socialist revolution, strongly suggests that a close examination of whether or not the CPC/PRC in general and the Chinese working class in particular has developed the revolutionary struggle sufficient to set a good example of why and how the ‘Workers of the world’ should unite.
Recent measures of trust and confidence in governments the world over, indicate that the relevant level of trust and confidence the Chinese population has in the CPC is consistently high, hence the formation of ICFI/SEP-IWA-RFCs in China on the basis of industrial disputes are unlikely – at least in the near future. The formation of such IWA-RFCs on the basis of preventing Covid in China is even less likely for reasons that are obvious to the world. The only threat likely to motivate the formation of IWA-RFC’s in China is that of war, a threat that is becoming more serious by the day thanks to an increasingly desperate and aggressive US ruling class.
The ICFI would do well to not only examine the possible relevance of the above CPC Constitutional statement to its program of world socialist revolution, it could also examine what if any common ground and aims might already exist between these two Marxist cum anti war Communist Parties. For example
For the purpose and time being of this exercise let us just set aside for the time being, the fact that our human race is under the influence of a fundamentally flawed global economy, throughout which capitalism will continue to dominate our socio-economic world until such time as we replace it with a more sophisticated form of property relations, governance and productivity.
Consider instead the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) program of World Socialist Revolution and the Communist Party of China (CPC) having at least five important ism’s in common, namely – Communism, Democratic Centralism, Socialism, Marxism and Capitalism. While their revolutionary origins and hence their interpretation cum application of the above ism’s differ, their main aims are very similar, this is some of what their respective leaders have to say about their aims –
Leon Trotsky, during the founding of the ICFI – 1938
‘We are not a party like other parties.. Our aim is the full material and spiritual liberation of the toilers and exploited through the socialist revolution. Nobody will prepare it and nobody will guide it but ourselves.’
The CPC ‘Its Mission and Contributions’ – 2021
‘The Communist Party of China is the vanguard of China’s working class, the Chinese people, and the Chinese nation. Serving the people wholeheartedly is its abiding mission.. there is an urgent need for human society to seek out a new philosophy and make the international system and order fairer and more reasonable. The CPC has proposed building a global community of shared future, with the goal of creating an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity.’
What the respective aims of the ICFI and the CPC have in common is – ‘the full material and spiritual liberation’ of the people, particularly working class people, by lifting them out of poverty and enabling them to enjoy a ‘lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity.’ The common ism’s and similar aims of these two Communist parties are far more important than the fact that they have different origins and objective history. While the ICFI can claim to have stayed true to a superior Trotskyist theory of permenant world revolution and economy since its origin, the CPC can claim to have ruled over a century of revolution, reconstruction and reform during which it has learned from its mistakes, including the mistake of believing that socialism can be confined to one state, to the point where in 2021, – ‘The CPC has proposed building a global community of shared future’.
While the ICFI has applied a superior world revolutionary theory, it is not a ruling state power and is thereby unable to put its theory into practice in the way nor on anything like the scale that the CPC can and does. In 2021 the CPC Constitution stipulates that – “All power in the People’s Republic of China belongs to the people. The National People’s Congress and the local people’s congresses at various levels are the organs through which the people exercise state power.” Even if the ICFI program and party of World Socialist Revolution had 10 million active members and or supporters – which I suspect is a significant overestimate, this would represent a mere 0.128% of the world population, whereas the CPC has 95 million> Party members and at least 1.4> billion constituent supporters representing about 18% of the world population. The CPC is clearly the most successful and influential ruling Communist Party throughout history and should be carefully considered as such.
No doubt there are other political programs that talk about liberating ‘the people’ but not many with the long term political integrity, discipline and rigour as the ICFI and the CPC. My hope is that the above numbers and suggested common ground could inspire some serious democratic discussion among the cadre of the ICFI about the possibility of the PRC working class being a good example for the international working class as a whole.
In her 1916 anti war pamphlet ‘The Crisis of German Democracy‘, Marxist theorist Rosa Luxemburg writes ‘Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to Socialism or regression into Barbarism’. More than a century of objective history, and the present day increasing level of geopolitical tension between nuclear armed states, demonstrates how most of the human race continues to regress into barbarism, hence the contemporary relevance and urgency of Luxemburg’s prophecy cum advice.
As if the contemporary threats of potentially catastrophic climate change and a raging COVID-19 pandemic with its rapidly increasing death toll approaching 5> million as of late 2021 were not compelling enough, for the third time since the first and second world wars of 1914 and 1939, the human race is once again confronted with a similar level of geopolitical antagonisms and tension that gave rise to Luxemburg’s ‘socialism or barbarism’.
This time around could be ‘third time lucky’ – so to speak, there are several good reasons for being optimistic about us finally taking Luxemburg’s advice and choosing socialism. Unlike the previous two critical historical periods preceding the barbarism of world wars, this time the human race has the distinct technological advantage of a World Wide Web (WWW) capable of providing relevant up to date information throughout the entire planet on a daily basis. Moreover, this time around we have the contemporary example of how and why a Marxist inspired socialism is working and making good progress. The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) represent almost 20% of the human race, and is now well advanced along its chosen pathway of Socialism with Chinese characteristics. It can now be clearly demonstrated as indicated above via the WWW what exactly the CPC/PRC combination has achieved by way of progressing socialism and liberating the Chinese people. This is how the CPC expresses such progress via its Jan/Feb 2020 edition of the bi-monthly Website of CPC Central Committee – Quishi.
‘For the proletariat and the people to liberate themselves from under the capitalist mode of production, they must have their own scientific theories to guide their actions. Marxism was the first theory to reveal the general trend of development in human society that capitalism is bound to fail and socialism will inevitably triumph. It provided the proletariat and the rest of the general public with rational concepts for understanding and changing the world, and pointed out the path for them to liberate themselves and all humanity. It has already been more than 170 years since the Communist Manifesto was published, but the truth of Marxism’s basic tenets is still being proven and becoming more evident.‘ (emphasis mine)
By way of putting the above statement into its Marxist context, consider the following sentence from The Communist Manifesto –
‘The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoise, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the state, ie; of the proletariat organised as the ruling class; and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible’. (emphasis mine)
Over the past 110 years of revolutionary struggle China has applied Marxist theory and economy as advised – ‘by degrees’, to the point where in 2021 the CPC Constitution can confidently stipulate that,
– “All power in the People’s Republic of China belongs to the people. The National People’s Congress and the local people’s congresses at various levels are the organs through which the people exercise state power.”
During 2021, the CPC celebrated its first centenary of revolution, reconstruction and reform, during which it has enabled the Chinese people to recover from being a conquered, impoverished, backward colony, to becoming the largest and most influential productive force in modern history. Following the defeat of the KMT and the formation of the PRC in 1949, the CPC has ‘by degrees’ also wrested capital from the bourgeoise and centralised all of the more essential instruments of production into the ownership/hands of the state. By having a centralised state ownership of the more essential elements of the Chinese economy, the CPC is able to control the extent to which capitalists and capital-ism can continue to play a role in developing productivity mostly from within the less essential periphery of a unique Chinese socialist market economy. Ref; ‘The theory on the socialist market economy’ –
While the eleven decades of revolutionary struggle in China may be described as being a form of ‘socialism in one state’, as a result of applying Marxist theory, the CPC knows better than most if not all other political parties that their chosen pathway to the liberation of the Chinese people in general and the Chinese working class in particular cannot – by any Marxist definition, be confined to a particular nation state. As the CPC said about its decision to be guided by Marxist theory – ‘It provided the proletariat and the rest of the general public with rational concepts for understanding and changing the world, and pointed out the path for them to liberate themselves and all humanity.’
By the time the USSR collapsed in 1991, the CPC had long since distanced itself from an isolated and flawed Stalinist Russia. Having formed the PRC in 1949 the CPC adapted to a rapidly globalising capitalist economy and within a few decades became a major productive force within it. The complexity of this struggle is well expressed by the CPC in its Jan/Feb 2020 edition of Quishi –
‘Marx and Engels believed that socialist revolution would occur in multiple developed capitalist countries simultaneously, resulting in a shared victory. According to their hypothesis, socialism would largely replace capitalism and dominate the international landscape in the future. However, looking at the history of international socialism over the past century, we can see that although the forces of capitalism and socialism have waxed and waned to a certain extent, there has been no fundamental change to the relative advantage of capitalism over socialism in the international arena. Socialist China has thus existed in a hostile environment since its founding, and faced enormous pressure in seeking survival and development. In the face of capitalist containment and suppression, China has upheld its independent foreign policy of peace and maintained unswerving commitment to its own path. Whether closed off by capitalist countries or embroiled in discord between other socialist countries, and whether facing competition between two opposing blocs or unprecedented changes on the global landscape, China has always stuck to its own path. Through this long period of contest and competition between two social systems, China has not only survived, but also kept growing stronger and holding high the banner of socialism, enabling scientific socialism to consistently shine with great vigor in China.’
What then might China’s ongoing progress in liberating the Chinese people including its working class mean for the liberation of ‘all humanity’, for the international working class as a whole? Consider the following extract from ‘The Writings of Leon Trotsky’ 1939-40 – ‘The perspective of the permanent revolution in no case signifies that the backward countries must await the signal from the advanced ones, or that the colonial peoples should patiently wait for the proletariat of the metropolitan centers to free them. Help comes to him who helps himself. Workers must develop the revolutionary struggle in every country, colonial or imperialist, where favourable conditions have been established, and through this set an example for the workers of other countries. Only initiative and activity, resoluteness and boldness can really materialize the slogan “Workers of the world, unite!” (emphasis mine)
Clearly a contemporary CPC/PRC is setting an ‘example for the workers of other countries’ as Trotsky suggests. Not only by virtue of China having fully developed its productive force, but more importantly its ongoing ‘transition to Socialism’, and the liberation of the 1> billion Chinese working class. As of 2021, it can be assumed that a Chinese middle class of 400> million with their increasing wealth are likely to be overwhelmingly supportive of the CPC. Moreover, that the Chinese working class – many of whom must surely be aspiring to become wealthier middle class, have over recent decades consistently demonstrated a relatively high level of trust and confidence in the CPC. As for a Chinese billionaire class of 300>, at this point in time they are being well enough regulated by the CPC to ensure that they do not have an undue influence on political power in China, their role in the context of the CPC deliberately ‘allowing some people to get rich first’ is confined mainly to that of providing sustainable competition, commercial advice and inspiring a so called upper middle class of Chinese millionaires to also become billionaires – its a bit like using obscenely expensive fishing bait. Keeping their billionaire class, monopoly capital-ism and its subsequent social inequality under control, while striving to achieve the goal of a moderately prosperous socialist state that provides the material and cultural needs of the Chinese people as a whole, will be the greatest challenge that the CPC faces in the decades ahead.
Be this as it hopefully may, the CPC/PRC relationship is in stark contrast to that of the lumpen, deformed relationship between the US Congress and the American people, a capitalist socio-economic form of governance and productivity that is already collapsing under the pressure of monopoly capitalism and a US billionaire class that dominates political power throughout the US. The US centre of globalised capital-ism is unwilling and hence unable to cope with COVID-19, having already lost more than 750,000> lives to the virus. This too is in stark contrast with the way that China – with more than four times the population of the US, has been able to restrict its death toll to less than 5,000 over the same period.
The lesson for the whole human race is the stark contrast between two very different ideologies cum socio-economic systems of governance and productivity, one that has resulted in a profit driven imperialist US that is now so desperate to retain its global economic hegemony that is has resorted to goading its main competitors China and Russia into war. Given that such a war between major state powers would almost inevitably be fought for the first time using nuclear weapons, the outcome is impossible to fathom, the human race has not been here before. Suffice to say, the wrong decision this time around could well be our deepest and final ‘regression into Barbarism’. The people who have already made their choice to ‘transition to Socialism’ are our best source of advice.
‘According to a more traditional perspective, socialism and capitalism are two opposing systems that are incompatible with each other and locked in an antagonistic relationship. In 1952, Stalin introduced the theory of “two parallel world markets,” which argued that the formation of a socialist bloc would cause the single world market dominated by capitalism to disintegrate, and lead to the emergence of two parallel world markets that would exist in isolation from and opposition to each other. He therefore proposed that all countries in the socialist bloc should work together to resist the capitalist market that was moving toward its doom. The socialist and capitalist blocs remained in a tense standoff for quite some time, until the dissolution of the Soviet Union and dramatic changes in Eastern Europe brought the world socialist movement to a low point. The CPC’s major proposal to build a global community with a shared future is one that transcends disagreement and opposition between different systems. It reflects the Chinese nation’s open-minded outlook of striving to build a just and peaceful world, and serves as a banner under which China will seek to guide global trends and the progress of human civilization‘.
While those of us who are members of the SEP and who daily rely on the WSWS for information thereby have access to the right stuff so to speak, ie the political integrity, courage, discipline and rigour, capable of convincing us that if we as a species are to become fully liberated, global capitalism must be replaced with an ongoing process of world socialism. However, at present we don’t yet have the numbers, far from it, what we do have is the best revolutionary theory – ie Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution, and a blue print for achieving world socialism. Even if the ICFI/SEP had 1 million active members – which it doesn’t, as a percentage of the total international working class it would still be so small that the possibility of the ICFI/SEP uniting the international working class in time to avoid war between nuclear armed states is minuscule. This percentage number could of course increase rapidly in the event of war breaking out between nuclear armed states, especially if people are being killed in their millions. However, by then it might be too late and in any event under such unimaginably horrendous circumstances it would still be a massive and daunting task to unite and prepare the international working class for the overthrow of state power anywhere, let alone throughout the entire planet.
Lets be honest, given the present increasing threat of war between nuclear armed state powers, the best chance we have of avoiding such war and maybe eventually achieving world socialism and peace, is if China continues to develop its capacity to perform sufficiently effective sabre rattling to deter a relatively aggressive US led offensive against China. This on the proviso stated by Xi Jinping during the recent 110 year celebration of China’s first revolution in 1911, – “China will remain a champion of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order, and we will do our very best to make even greater contributions to humanity,” Even if China doesn’t subscribe to the best of revolutionary theories, the CPC/PRC is the only revolutionary communist party and nation state with any intent, the numbers, the political power and the economy sufficient to replace a global capitalism with a more sophisticated and sustainable world socialism. The CPC has more than 95 million members and the Chinese working class population is at least 1 billion, at present both classes have a relatively good working relationship and compared to most other nation states, China is moving in the right direction ie; away from capitalism and toward socialism. For the ICFI/SEP program and party of world socialist revolution, the CPC should not be regarded as a counter-revolutionary force, rather by virtue of its sheer size and the positive influence it is having on at least 18% of the international working class, the CPC/PRC and the Chinese working class in particular could be seen as the strongest contemporary example of how and why every nation state should be is working its way toward a world socialism.
I highly recommend reading ‘The CPC Its Mission and Contributions’ – dated Aug 2021, in which you can read statements like – ‘there is an urgent need for human society to seek out a new philosophy and make the international system and order fairer and more reasonable’. This is the kind of statement we are not likely to hear from Western imperialist leaders, on the contrary it is statements like this that the US ruling class is most concerned about and preparing to go to war over. An honest critique of the above document could pave the way for encouraging the establishment of the ICFI/IWA-RFC strategy among the Chinese working class, ie; on the basis of them forming an anti war movement and needing to keep the CPC true to its somewhat altruistic objectives such as – ‘achieving a modestly prosperous socialist state in all respects’ (ibid).
What would it mean in the context of preparing for world socialist revolution if the government of a particular nation state is already meeting the social and cultural needs of its working class to the satisfaction of that class?
The ICFI/SEP program and party of world socialist revolution should carefully examine the contemporary relationship between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese working class, if for no other reason than the sheer size of the relationship. The number of CPC party members is at least >90 million, the number of Chinese working class is well over >1 billion or about 18% of the total international working class. Even though this relationship between a Chinese ruling class and its working class population is confined within a single nation state that has long since decided to participate in the globalised capitalist market place, the relationship is nevertheless worthy of careful examination if for no other reason than the CPC claiming that – ‘The Communist Party of China is the vanguard of China’s working class, the Chinese people, and the Chinese nation. Serving the people wholeheartedly is its abiding mission. The country is the people and the people are the country. The Party’s struggle to found a new China and develop it is for the people. Of the people, by the people, for the people – this is what has guided the CPC from victory to victory over the past century’. (CPC Mission and Contributions Statement Aug 2021).
An honest and careful examination of the relationship between the CPC and the Chinese working class to determine to what extent the social and cultural needs of not only the Chinese working class but the whole population of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) might now be meeting their satisfaction and if so, for how long? This then could also be a reliable indicator as to what level of trust and confidence exists between the CPC and the Chinese working class and possibly thereby the mood of the Chinese population in general.
When considering the relationship between the CPC and the Chinese population in general, it should be noted that the form of governance is different to that adopted by most if not all other nation states. Formally being identified as a communist party the CPC applies the political principle of ‘democratic centralism’ to its governance of the PRC, which in theory at least enables democracy from the bottom (the people) up, resulting in a form of ‘centralism’ at the top (the central committee, the politburo and its standing committee) that depends on a relatively strict level of discipline throughout (up and down) Chinese society eg; – ‘Since its 18th National Congress, the CPC has set Eight Criteria to ensure that China’s political system is a democratic one that delivers, and these criteria underpin the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.. Instituted by the CPC, the system of people’s congresses is China’s fundamental political system. The Party fully solicits the views of the people and heeds their voices, and formulates its policies accordingly.’ (CPC Mission and Contributions Statement Aug 2021).
NB: This is the same political principle that is applied by the ICFI/SEP program and party of world socialist revolution and presumably would also be applied to the governance of any future Federation of United Socialist States..
When considering the contemporary relationship between the CPC and the Chinese working class in particular, special attention should also be paid to how the CPC is managing the Chinese economy, particularly how it manages what is proving to be its greatest challenge and possibly its weakest link, capital-ism. For example, to what extent is the CPC able to retain state ownership of what it regards as the ‘more essential’ components of the Chinese economy (eg; The People’s Bank of China) and to what extent is it able to mitigate or at least contain the inevitable social inequality and political pressure that comes with allowing private ownership, capital-ism, and the emergence of billionaires, even if such private ownership is restricted to ‘less essential’ components at a so called periphery of the economy?
Even if such an examination of the contemporary relationship between the CPC and the Chinese working class reveals that a gradual improvement has taken place over several decades and that it currently enjoys a relatively high level of satisfaction, trust and confidence, it will be how well the CPC can manage what it refers to as China’s ‘Socialist Market Economy’ and the almost inevitable domestic social inequality that comes with it, that will determine whether or not such a relatively high level of satisfaction will continue.
Be this as it may, the ICFI/SEP – IWA-RFC program and strategy of world socialist revolution should not just sit back and wait for any crises to occur in China before initiating the formation of rank and file committees in the Chinese workplace and on campus. The information gained from a careful examination of the relationship between the CPC and the Chinese working class could also provide good reason why the Chinese working class should form such independent rank and file committees eg; to ensure that the CPC remains true to its altruistic claims, to be an example to the whole international working class of how and why a globalised capital-ism must be replaced by a world socialism sooner rather than later, because later will probably be too late.
The historical task ahead of the international working class is probably bigger than we think. Neoliberalism – albeit dead and almost buried, has over the past three decades divided and seriously weakened the international working class while simultaneously transforming the union movement into the equivalent of a corrupt corporate policeman. How can the only political programmed party advocating world socialist revolution the ICFI/SEP increase the momentum of its recent initiative the IWA-RFC to the point where it is uniting a large enough percentage of the international working class to start making a difference?
The task ahead is big, very big, for example using the number 6 billion – probably a very conservative minimum, to represent the international working class as a whole and using the number 1 million – probably an overestimate, to represent the number of active members implementing the ICFI/SEP – IWA-RFC program and strategy, means that the ICFI/SEP – IWA-RFC program and strategy would be having an influence on about <0.017% of the international working class. Let’s be honest, this is a minuscule percentage of the international working class.
Maybe we should consider further what our leader and mentor Trotsky was advising us in his 1939-40 writings when he wrote that – ‘Only initiative and activity, resoluteness and boldness can really materialize the slogan “Workers of the world, unite!”. Clearly the ICFI/SEP has the first parts ie; the ‘initiative and activity resoluteness’ in hand having launched the IWA-RFC strategy, but where is the ‘boldness’ in this strategy? The principle of world socialism and the theory of permenant revolution underpin the IWA-RFC strategy, but how can it gather enough momentum to start making an impression on the international working class as a whole?
While capitalism and neoliberalism are obviously sick and dying, nationalism and fascism are alive and growing. The influence of nationalism and fascism on the international working class is massive, especially when compared to the relatively minuscule influence of the ICFI/SEP – IWA-RFC program and strategy. The task ahead must be even more bold and clever than our leader and mentor Trotsky could have known back in 1939-40. In 2021 the international working class is confronted by the combined threats of nationalism, fascism and artificial intelligence. There is little to be gained and possibly everything to be lost by confronting the vastly superior size and influence of these threats head on, as enemies to be fought against. The ICFI/SEP – IWA-RFC program and strategy does not have nor need the physical resources to fight against such a strong force, what the ICFI/SEP – IWA-RFC program and strategy does have is the blue print and the political nous to use the strength of its opponent to its advantage.
Who or what is the strongest opponent to be taken advantage of – as distinct from an enemy to be fought against? Clearly it is not the people of any nation state, nor is it the government of any nation state, nor is it the capital within capital-ism of any nation state, the strongest opponent to be taken advantage of is nationalism, which can and is rapidly morphing into fascism, this is the combined and greatest threat to the international working class and this is the task ahead.
For example, when considering the sheer size and direct influence that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Communist Party of China (CPC) is having on at least <18% of the international working class there is no contemporary nationalist state equal. Deliberately denigrating the PRC/CPC by referring to it as Stalinist and or capitalist is being unnecessarily cynical about todays PRC/CPC. Treating the PRC/CPC more like an enemy to be fought against rather than the strength of an opponent to take advantage of requires a level of misleading political spin that is beneath the usual high standard of the ICFI/WSWS journalism and political information.
Given the massive difference in active membership and direct influence (ie; 18% – CPC as opposed to 0.017% – ICFI) that each of these two communist programs are now having on the international working class, it must be worth considering the common ground that these two programs have, for example they both claim to be communist, they both claim to be socialist, they both claim to be influenced by Marxist theory, most importantly they both claim to represent ‘the people’. For the ICFI/SEP – IWA-RFC program and strategy of world socialist revolution to make an impression on the 1> billion Chinese working class will require a less cynical and more bold approach in dealing with the PRC/CPC.
We are not a party like other parties.. Our aim is the full material and spiritual liberation of the toilers and exploited through the socialist revolution. Nobody will prepare it and nobody will guide it but ourselves. Leon Trotsky– 1938.
The above ‘aim’ delivered by Leon Trotsky during the launch of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) in 1938, is by definition a profound and difficult aim to achieve, not least because of it being underpinned by Trotsky’s even more profound ‘theory of permenant revolution’ and hence only achievable on an international scale, throughout the entire planet.
The ICFI and its international branches of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) as a programme and party of ‘world socialist revolution’ has take upon itself the task of preparing the international working class for the overthrow of state power and the replacement of global capitalism with a global socialism. Eight decades later, it has become painfully obvious why ‘the full material and spiritual liberation of the toilers and exploited’ is having to be achieved as Marx and Engels suggested it would in The Communist Manifesto – ‘by degrees’.
Quote:
‘The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoise, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the state, ie; of the proletariat organised as the ruling class; and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible..’
The Communist Manifesto including its ‘by degrees’ advice would have almost certainly influenced Trotsky when he later gave us his own revolutionary advice through his writings of 1939-40, not long before he was murdered by a Stalinist thug in Mexico –
Quote:
‘The perspective of the permanent revolution in no case signifies that the backward countries must await the signal from the advanced ones, or that the colonial peoples should patiently wait for the proletariat of the metropolitan centers to free them. Help comes to him who helps himself. Workers must develop the revolutionary struggle in every country, colonial or imperialist, where favorable conditions have been established, and through this set an example for the workers of other countries. Only initiative and activity, resoluteness and boldness can really materialize the slogan “Workers of the world, unite!”
Trotsky was evidently expecting or at least hoping for at least one or more ‘country, colonial or imperialist’ to be further developed in revolutionary struggle and thereby able to set an example for ‘the workers of other countries’. This begs the question which country or countries have developed the revolutionary struggle sufficient to set such an example for the workers of other countries? Or better still, the ‘Workers of the world..’
I put it to my fellow SEP comrades that there is really only one such country that has over the past seven decades become a suitable example of having developed such revolutionary struggle, namely the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). The PRC and its Communist Party of China (CPC) cadre have – albeit unwittingly, taken Trotsky’s advice and helped themselves rather than ‘await the signal from the advanced ones’ and in doing so China is now setting ‘an example for the workers of other countries’ to follow. This year 2021, the CPC celebrated its first centenary of revolution, reconstruction and reform, during which it has enabled the people of China to recover from being a conquered, impoverished, backward colony, to becoming the largest state productive force ever. The CPC is now the second largest – 95> million members, political party in the world and for the past three decades has been having a direct and positive influence on the lives of at least 18%> of the total world population including and especially the Chinese working class. As of 2021 the PRC has consistently registered relatively higher levels of trust and confidence in their government than most other advanced state populations measured by the same international trust barometer.
Between 2021 and 2049 (the next 28 years), providing the CPC/PRC can avoid going to war against other so called major powers, avoid or at least mitigate the negative impact of a collapsing global capitalism and above all, continue earning the trust and support of its 1.4> billion population, it is most likely to be celebrating the first 100 years of the PRC (1949-2049) having reached their well planned objective of becoming a ‘modern socialist state that is moderately prosperous in all respects’.
This is how the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee expresses it in their August 2021 ‘Mission and Contributions Statement’ –
Quote:
‘The salvoes of Russia’s October Revolution in 1917 sent Marxism-Leninism to China, and the CPC came into being. The Chinese people were awakened, and a torch was lit for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation..
The CPC is dedicated to the people and forever puts their interests first. It follows the underlying trends of social development and respects the people’s principal role in making history. It pursues the lofty goal of working for the wellbeing of the Chinese people; and does everything in the interests of the people.
The CPC is rooted in the people. It was born in 1921 in the great struggle against feudal rule and foreign aggression, at a time when Marxism-Leninism became integrated with China’s workers movement. From the very day of its creation, the CPC has represented China’s working class, the Chinese people, and the Chinese nation. It has no special interests of its own, nor does it represent any interest group, establishment group, or privileged social group. Its only goals are to deliver happiness for the people and achieve national rejuvenation..
Over the past hundred years, the CPC has grown from a small party with just over 50 members into the largest governing party in the world, with more than 95 million members in a country of more than 1.4 billion people. It is a party of major international standing.
It has governed the world’s largest socialist country for more than seven decades. It has led the Chinese people onto the path towards national rejuvenation and modernization, and it enjoys extensive support from the Chinese people..
By carrying out the socialist revolution in China, they brought to an end several thousand years of feudalism – a system exploitative and repressive by its very nature and established socialism as China’s fundamental political system. In the course of building socialism, they overcame subversion, sabotage, and armed provocation by imperialist and hegemonic powers, and brought about the most extensive and profound social changes in the history of the Chinese nation. This great transformation of a poor, backward and populous country in the East into a modern socialist China created the fundamental political conditions and laid down the institutional foundations necessary for realizing national rejuvenation.’
If the working class of China are deemed by the ICFI/SEP not to be a worthy example for the international working class as a whole of a country and people who have developed revolutionary struggle to the point where they can now be a positive example of how we might yet achieve world socialism, then there has never been such a country, nor government, nor people since Trotsky gave us his revolutionary instruction eight decades ago and Trotskyists might have to receive The Communist Manifesto’s ‘by degrees’ as being more like ‘by centuries’.
If the working class of China were deemed to be an example befitting Trotsky’s 1939-40 instruction, then this could provide a whole new incentive to the formation and development of the ICFI/SEP strategy of International Workers Alliance of Rank and File Committees (IWA-RFC). Rather than just reacting to social crises before forming such RFCs, the ICFI/SEP/WSWS could start to encourage the forming of RFCs among the 1> billion Chinese workers and students on the basis of them being empowered to make sure that their CPC stays on track to keep its promise to the Chinese people of them being able to share a ‘common prosperity’ within a ‘modern, moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2049′. Moreover, to make sure the CPC reduces the gap between China’s highest and lowest income quintiles to a minimum that is acceptable to the Chinese working-class and that the private ownership of production is gradually reduced to being strictly limited to non essential (luxury type) goods and services on the periphery of China’s centralised socialist market economy.
IWA-RFCs throughout the rest of the world could be encouraged on the basis of – watch this space called China.
The ICFI/SEP program and party of world socialist revolution either refuses or at least is reluctant to accept that the governance of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is communist and or socialist, usually referring to China as being Stalinist and or capitalist. This ICFI/SEP categorisation of China is not in keeping with how the vast majority of Chinese people and the world in general identify and name the governance of the PRC.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) clearly identifies itself as being a communist party. More importantly, the people of China not only accept their ruling party as being communist, they evidently have a relatively high level of trust and confidence in their rulership. During recent years a reputable international barometer has ranked China among the top two or three populations in the world when measured for levels of trust and confidence in their respective governments. In 2020, around 604,000 people were disciplined by China’s top anti-graft body, the resolute fight against corruption has resulted in surging public support. According to a survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics, 97.3 percent of the respondents expressed satisfaction with the improvement of Party conduct, the working practices of government officials, and social morality.
This relatively high level of trust and confidence among the general population of China for the CPC is consistent with a country that for the past 7 decades has enjoyed an average annual growth of disposable income of 6%>. Besides income increases, during the last three decades Chinese people have also enjoyed other benefits, such as access to better education, medical care, improved living conditions and a safer environment. China now has the largest social security system globally, with basic medical insurance covering over 1.3 billion people and basic old-age insurance covering about 1 billion. The average life expectancy of the Chinese has risen to 77.3 years. As of 25/08/2021 China has all but defeated an outbreak of the Delta variant of COVID-19, that began one month earlier. China’s relatively proficient management of the pandemic from its earliest months in 2020 is not only providing better protection for its people, it will also increase an already high level of trust and confidence among them for their government.
As China embarks on the next stage of its journey toward a 2049 centennial celebration of what the CPC refers to as becoming a – ‘moderately prosperous socialist state’,
their leader Xi Jinping will be sharing his thoughts on how China intends to get there through what he calls ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’, this by way of having Xi’s thoughts included in China’s formal educational curriculum. Given the success of China’s program of ‘national rejuvenation’ over the past seven decades and providing it can continue making similar progress over the next three decades using Xi’s Socialism with Chinese characteristics, there is little or no reason to doubt that the concept and use of the word ‘socialism’ will be just as readily accepted and related to by the people of China as is the concept and use of the word ‘communism’.
In addition to the 1.4 billion Chinese population, most of the world population recognise the PRC as being governed by a communist party – the CPC, this for better or for worse depending on one’s political perspective and preference. When informing and preparing the international working class for world socialist revolution, there is little or no merit in the ICFI/SEP reporting via the pages of WSWS – a daily online source of political information that is second to none, that the CPC is not communist or socialist and worse still by referring to China as ‘Stalinist’ and or essentially ‘capitalist’. Trotskyists should keep in mind that the PRC includes about 20% of the total international working class, for those Chinese working class who do get around to reading ICFI/SEP/WSWS reports on China, they are more than likely to be offended by such unnecessary political spin.
Deliberately denigrating the one and only nation state that publicly claims to be influenced by a Marxist inspired communism, that also happens to now be the largest and most successful communist party throughout modern history, could well be a counter-revolutionary act.
Most of the other than Chinese international working class – about 80%, are constantly being fed anti communist, anti socialist, propaganda by their respective capitalist cum imperialist governments. For decades the real crisis in revolutionary political leadership has been the struggle against such propaganda in an effort to win over the international working class.
Trotskyists know better than most why a world perspective is superior to a nationalist perspective and why Trotsky’s theory of permenant revolution should have prevailed over Stalin’s socialism in one country. The fact that it didn’t is a historical no brainer, more appropriately described as a ‘crisis of revolutionary political leadership’. The cost of such weak political decision making and leadership over the past century in terms of lives lost, property destroyed, human expertise, skills and money wasted on wars defending antagonistic nation states and failed revolutions, is almost unfathomable. These two critical political concepts while coming from very different perspectives and being so politically opposed to each other, nevertheless had at least one thing in common – ‘Socialism’.
For the international working class to achieve world socialism, the revolutionary political leadership of the ICFI/SEP will need to gain the approval of and thereby be able to prepare the international working class for world socialist revolution. As things stand in 2021 the size and political influence of the ICFI/SEP program and party of world socialist revolution is minuscule when compared with the size and political influence of the CPC. The program and party of world socialist revolution cannot afford to alienate 20%> of the international working class because it is being unnecessarily cynical toward a political party that has clearly already gained the trust of its working class.
The ICFI/SEP cannot afford to depend on responding to catastrophic events to pave the way for establishing rank and file committees within China and internationally. Maybe us Trotskyists can start healing our crisis of revolutionary political leadership by learning from a country and people that has enjoyed many an epoch as the world’s most advanced culture, without needing to be an imperialist coloniser. In terms of world status the past two centuries has been an aberration for China, a nation state that has literally ‘been there, done that, got the teeshirt’ several times over. The ICFI/SEP should seriously consider taking some Chinese medicine, even if it is a bitter pill to swallow.
Life is beautiful, may future generations cleans it of all evil, oppression and violence and enjoy it to the full.
Leon Trotsky– Mexico 1940.
Since his brutal murder at the hands of a Stalinist thug in 1940, Trotsky’s future generations have yet to cleans our planet of the evil, oppression and violence he understood and wrote about all too well. More than eight decades later, human life is now confronted with the possibility of its own self inflicted premature extinction. Be it the death and destruction caused by the pandemic COVID-19, or the death and destruction caused by more frequent and intense floods, droughts and wildfires, or the death and destruction caused by increasing poverty and wars, however we look at it, as a species we are in trouble and the time left for doing something about it is rapidly running out.
The level of political, social and spiritual consciousness required for a critical mass of us humans to take the necessary action to avert these threats to our very existence, must be increased sooner rather than later because later will probably be too late. The amount of information available to us for our survival is to say the least, limited. On the other hand, the amount of information available to us that threatens our survival is readily available and abundant. There are literally thousands of mind numbing advertisements that appear daily via main stream and social media, some of which are specifically designed to entice intelligent yet gullible young men and women into the defence forces. Hopefully an increasing number of the more intelligent and less gullible young men and women are able to see for themselves what is happening, who and what the problem really is and thereby avoid being seduced by the mega commercial and war machines. Be this as it may, the youth of today need all the help they can get to raise their political, social and spiritual consciousness in preparation for making revolutionary change at both the personal and planetary levels.
The underlying problem is contemporary global capitalism and those who have now become its profit crazed elite ruling class owners – a relatively small minority group who in recent decades have morphed into being the strongest ruling class in history. Nation state defence forces throughout the entire planet including and especially those with nuclear weapons, exist for the sole purpose of defending the privately owned wealth of their respective ruling class owners. Just a casual examination of how and why the first and second world wars started will confirm the role of the respective antagonistic nation state ruling classes, none of whom were remotely capable of resolving their profit crazed geopolitical conflicts without resorting to war. The same can be said about the threats of catastrophic climate change and rampant death dealing pandemics such as COVID-19, it is capitalism and the extent to which its ruling class owners prioritise the accumulation of their privately owned wealth over and above meeting the most basic social, cultural and ecological needs of human society and planet Earth’s ecosystems.
What can and should we do about this? To whom and or what do we turn for information that will enable us to cultivate the level of political, social and spiritual consciousness necessary to take the action that might avert or at least alleviate these threats and prolong our survival? Capitalism has long since become a globalised social dynamic, hence the problem it poses is a global problem, hence the solution to solving this problem must logically be global. Global capitalism must be replaced with a global socialism, socialism confined to a single nation state can exist in name only and by definition has never become well enough developed to compete with or replace global capitalism. The only political program and party that places its emphasis on being able to meet the basic social and cultural needs of human society and the ecological needs of planet Earth is the party of world socialism, an international revolutionary Trotskyist party.
We are not a party like other parties. … Our aim is the full material and spiritual liberation of the toilers and exploited through the socialist revolution. Nobody will prepare it and nobody will guide it but ourselves.
Leon Trotsky– launching the ICFI, 1938.
There is only one political program and party advocating and preparing for the overthrow and replacement of global capitalism, that is the party of ‘world socialist revolution’ known as the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) – launched by Leon Trotsky in 1938, and its associated international branches of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP). The main task of the ICFI/SEP is to raise the political and social consciousness of the only political and productive force capable of uniting to overthrow and replace capitalism and its ruling class owners, namely the ‘international working class’.
The Trotskyist ICFI/SEP political program and party of world socialist revolution and its day to day source of revolutionary information the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), is the only international socialist party with the necessary political integrity, discipline, courage and rigour essential for preparing the international working class for the overthrow and replacement of capitalism and its ruling class owners with a more sophisticated, scientific and sustainable form of global governance and productivity that is more compatible with our beautiful life supporting planet Earth.
It is fitting that our revolutionary leader and mentor should have the last say on this story.
“Once he has done with the anarchic forces of his own society, man will set to work on himself, in the pestle and the retort of the chemist. For the first time man will regard itself as raw material, or at best as a physical and psychic semi-finished product. Socialism will mean a leap from the realm of necessity into the realm of freedom in this sense also, that the man of today, with all his contradictions and lack of harmony, will open the road for a new and happier race..”
Leon Trotsky – ‘In Defence of the October Revolution’ 1932.
For better and for worse, todays information sharing technology makes it so much more evident that the human race is primarily a story telling species, everything we do and say, all our thinking and behaviour is almost entirely influenced by the stories going on between our ears, be they fact or fiction, be they well intended or otherwise, stories are our primary and most influential source of information. So, it is with this grand philosophical premise in mind that I offer you My Uluru story – Ngayuku puli-pulka tjukurpa, this by way of celebrating NAIDOC 2021, here on the traditional land of the Wakka Wakka people (S.E. Queensland Australia).
This is a story of how I was literally re-minded by such a remarkable place – Uluru, and its indigenous custodians – the Anangu, about the importance of our relationship to place and family – walytja or kin. Thanks to its indigenous Anangu custodians, over millennia the landscape and rock formations of Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park has invoked stories cum lessons that I believe are of potential value for the whole human race, especially now that our relatively advanced information sharing technology is being deliberately used in so many subtle and not so subtle ways to divide and separated us from our sense of place, from each other and all too often, from reality.
‘Uluru-Kata Tjua National Park, an isolated tiny patch in Australia’s vast arid zone at the very centre of the continent, is the symbol for a special, almost intangible quality of the continent’s interior but also for the co-operative human spirit. It is one of the most remarkable places on earth. From the start I was determined to find out as much as I could about it’.
Uluru Looking After Uluru Kata-Tjuta ~ The Anangu Way
Stanley Breeden 1994.
Life among the Anangu.
From 1990 until 1995, it was my privilege to have lived and worked with the indigenous Anangu of Central Australia (Northern Territory) at Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park and then from 1995 until 1998 on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands (South Australia). Uluru Kata-Tjuta is a World Heritage Area National Park, listed for both its natural and cultural values. During my time there I had the rare opportunity of being able to work closely with its Anangu custodians while re-nominating the park for World Heritage Area listing based on its cultural values, it was already WHA listed based on its natural values. During the same 1990-95 period, Anangu and Piranpa park staff along with various professional consultants and builders worked on the design and construction of the Uluru Cultural Centre. The early 1990s was when the award winning author of natural history Stanley Breeden was given permission from Anangu to produce a book about the park, particularly about the nature of the park, its flora and fauna, but also about the Anangu and Piranpa – whitefellas, who were working together to manage Uluru ‘the Anangu way’. This too was a most valuable opportunity for Stanley and us Piranpa park staff to learn more about the depth of knowing about and relatedness to their place that Anangu possessed.
‘We commend this book to you, and affirm its accuracy and value. We Anangu are strongly committed to our culture, and we believe this book shares in our commitment’
Tony Tjamiwa – Traditional Owner in forward to the book –
Uluru Looking After Uluru Kata-Tjuta ~ The Anangu Way
(Stanley Breeden 1994).
I believe I can safely say that for most if not all park staff the period 1990-95 was a particularly valuable period to have been living and working at Uluru, it was a time when the Anangu traditional owners were settling into the management of their sacred land which had been formally and conditionally returned to them by the Australian Commonwealth Government in 1985. The condition of return being that the park would immediately be leased back to the Commonwealth for 99 years. Nevertheless, the following decade was a particularly productive period during which the leadership of tjilpi – senior Anangu man, Tony Tjamiwa and his Piranpa liaison officer Jon Willis enabled Anangu to become more confident, assertive, capable and generous in expressing the more public and appropriate for sharing components of their Tjukur(pa) – their Lore. This was also a significant period when a new emphasis on sharing Anangu Tjukur(pa) and culture was in effect a maturing of the relatively early days of ‘joint management’, that is the management of the park by both the Australian Nature Conservation Agency and the parks Anangu traditional owners.
In addition to the above mentioned more prominent projects, several less publicised park management initiatives took place during this period, including placing a new emphasis on Pitjantjara language classes for us Piranpa staff. These classes were conducted by Anangu rangers and the few Piranpa staff such as Julian Barry and Jon Willis who were fluent speakers of the Pitjantjatjara language. As a result of these Anangu led language classes a healthy number of Piranpa rangers – mostly female I might add, became fluent Pitjantjara speakers, this too contributed significantly to the maturing of joint management. Another similar initiative was that of an Anangu led basic cultural training course cum certificate designed to enable visiting and local tour operators – particularly bus drivers most of whom until then were making up their own stories about the park and Anangu, to gain a more appropriate and approved understanding of the park and how it was now being managed, ‘the Anangu way’. While some bus drivers initially balked at the idea, at the end of such training sessions most of them had enjoyed their face to face interaction with Anangu and their better understanding of Anangu culture.
Back in 1994 I was highly motivated by Stanley Breeden’s chapter thirteen entitled ‘To climb or not to climb’ in which he writes –
‘Anangu find the compulsion to climb, to conquer, Uluru incomprehensible and also think that it shows disrespect by strangers for another people’s land.. They want people to understand Anangu and Uluru Kata-Tjuta. Understanding is everything. Once people understand, Anangu are convinced mutual respect will follow.
Tjamiwa expresses it.. We want tourists to learn about our place, to listen to us Anangu, not just look at the sunset and climb the rock..’
Nganana tatinja wia – we never climb, the Anangu traditional owners of Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park reluctantly tolerated people being allowed to climb Uluru. Unfortunately, even though Anangu had made it very clear how they felt about the climb, the pressure from the tourist industry and to a lesser extent the Piranpa agency involved in joint management of the park continued to resist its closure for too long a period. For some years in my role as the senior Piranpa staff member, I advocated for the closure of the climb having made various unsuccessful submissions to my supervisors in Darwin and Canberra. On reflection, my persistence over this issue cost me too much lost sleep and a few casual friendships. However, about 25 years later on Sunday 26th Oct 2019 Anangu and probably millions of us Piranpa celebrated the closure of the climb at Uluru.
From my relatively well informed perspective – albeit decades later and from afar, the closure of the climb at Uluru in 2019 was a well overdue move in the context of managing the park ‘the Anangu way’. Uluru is now being respected and protected in a way that better reflects its universal significance as a sacred site.
‘It is directly and tangibly associated with events, living traditions, ideas and beliefs of outstanding universal significance, and it is a potent example of imbuing the landscape with the values and creative powers of cultural history through the phenomenon of sacred sites.’
Renomination of Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park
Department of the Environment, Sport and Territories 1994
On reflection I often think about the eight years I spent in Central Australia with my then partner Marian Hill as a kind of pilgrimage. Our original intention was to experience what we thought might be ‘the real Australia’ rather than the sanitised version were were both immersed in an urbanised Victoria. Nowadays I do reflect on my time with Anangu in Central Australia as a pilgrimage into a time and place that gradually changed my mind, for the better and for ever.
Finding my own story stone.
My partner and I lived along with other Piranpa and the more permanent Anangu residents at a place called Mutitjulu, a small community within the park and just a few kilometres from the base of Uluru. Much of my recreation time was spent roaming and exploring the surrounding landscape and rock formations of Uluru and Kata-Tjuta. On one such occasion I stumbled upon what would eventually become my most influential symbolic story stone. Only after many visits and spending much contemplative time at its resting place did I eventually become sensitive enough to receive and relate to this stone as ‘ngayuku puli tjukurpa’ – my story stone. It is rectangular in shape with proportion similar to that of a standard matchbox and I estimated its weight to be close to a metric ton, far too heavy to have been moved by human hands. Therefor, I imagined it to have been shaken from its place of origin at a time when our Earth Mother – Gaia, was rumbling deep within her great Southern belly, probably in response to some powerful tectonic force. Since then and probably for millennia, it has rested on just two of its diagonally opposite edges, exposing itself to be observed, felt and related to through each of its six rustic faces. Almost three decades later my story stone continues to inspire me to imagine, study and write about the significance of relating to place at both the personal and cosmic levels. During such periods of contemplation I can imagine how the first Anangu hunters and gatherers, who having evidently produced some nearby cave art, received this impressive looking stone in their own unique indigenous way.
Once I felt comfortable about relating to my story stone in this way, it marked the beginning of the most creative personal journey of my adult life, a journey that released me from decades of entrapment in relatively ordinary, dominant states of consciousness, a journey that eventually reminded me of a time and place – Penarth, Wales 1944-50 the first five years of my life, when like many a young Anangu, I too was being nurtured by my mother to enjoy and cultivate our relationship with place, Self, other and all-that-is. The storying and importance of relatedness in general and relationship with family or kin in particular was literally brought home to me when a group of mapla tjilpi – friendly senior Anangu men, realised I had not been home to visit my kin for about 26 years – since leaving Wales in 1967, they thought I must be a bit sick in the head. Not long after this friendly shame job cum wake up call I returned home to Wales where I enjoyed relating to my family members – including young ones whom I had never met, in what for me was a new and healthier way. At the time I was in effect being reminded about and grown up by Anangu to the importance of my own Welsh place, heritage and kin.
‘Bob’s admiration for Anangu takes a somewhat different direction from that of the other Piranpa I spoke to.. He continues: “..I’m pretty sure that my upbringing had something to do with it. My mother was a very nice and gentle person who was close to nature, and she influenced me..”
Uluru – Looking after Uluru-Kata Tjuta~The Anangu Way (1994: p183)
Life back in mainstream Australia.
My story stone, and I are now physically separated by about 3,000 kilometres of mostly Australian desert landscape, to and from a place where it rests safely inside a small cave at the base of the northern face of Uluru in Central Australia. Nevertheless, since the year 2000 my story stone continues to inspire me to embark on exciting, new spiritual and political journeys.
One particularly influential story that came to me while living and working among the Anangu of Central Australia is about how and why it was not likely or even possible for Anangu men or women to form a centralised group within their tribe or community for the purpose of having power and control over the rest of the community. Prior to being colonised by European invaders who had already perfected such a practice, Ananguku tjukurpa – lore, their way of being and relatedness to place and other – including the other than human beings within their place, was such that there were no words in their Pitjantjatjara language that could so much as give rise to thoughts of power and control over each other, let alone the more extreme thoughts of forming a centralised group for such a purpose. Moreover, the initiation of young adolescent Anangu boys and girls into adulthood was particularly important for maintaining the level of maturity and cooperation that was essential for such indigenous hunter gatherer communities to thrive.
Such an extreme contrast between the forms of community, economy and productivity being practiced by the Anangu of Central Australia – prior to being invaded and divided, with that being practiced by their European invaders is a most pertinent and valuable story, not just for contemporary Australians but for the whole human race. Traditional Anangu society was a relatively free, cooperative and egalitarian society, when compared to their European invaders who were of a society that was deliberatively divided, unequal and mostly imprisoned. The indigenous Anangu of Central Australia had no need for standing armies, gunships or police forces, their relatedness to place and each other was demonstrably more mature, sophisticated and peaceful than that of their invaders. Unfortunately and maybe inevitably, in more recent times some Anangu leaders – usually men, have adopted their European coloniser’s practice of centralised power and control with a bit too much relish.
Not long after returning to live in main stream Australia, my Uluru experience aroused in me a new curiosity that soon had me doing some relevant academic study. In an effort to try and make some sense of what for me was an obvious and annoying lack of understanding and empathy toward the socio-economic circumstances of indigenous Australians among Australians in general, I enrolled to do a Social Ecology Masters degree at the University of Western Sydney (UWS). During my time at UWS I met another like minded story teller, Glenys Livingstone with her own emerging story, ‘PaGaian Cosmology – A Re-inventing of Earth based Goddess religion’. Glenys and I both graduated on the same day in 2003, Glenys gaining her Doctoral degree and me my Masters degree with a distinction. Several decades later we are still just as passionate about our storytelling together as we were on the day we met.
Since the year 2000, Glenys and I have been much inspired by the teachings of Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme both of whom authored ‘Canticles to the Cosmos’ 1990 and ‘The Universe Story’ 1994. Both of these works together with our ongoing practice of seasonal celebrations that are mostly informed and inspired by ‘PaGaian Cosmology’ 2005, – (the book form of Glenys’ doctoral thesis), have enabled us to deepen our appreciation of planet Earth’s biosphere as being an awesome creative event. ‘Canticles to the Cosmos’ is based on Thomas Berry’s twelve principles of a ‘functional cosmology’, principle number twelve convinced me that if we are to develop our full personal and human potential, we will need the emergence of something close to what Thomas describes as –
an‘Ecozoic era of Earth development’, an era during which we ‘activate the inter communion of all the living and non living components of the Earth community..’
Such was my new found appreciation and experience of creativity and beauty throughout an otherwise increasingly troubled world, that it soon prompted me to search for a compatible political story. I had almost given up on my search and politics in general when I came across these two particular passages –
“In this world, at this point, no political revolution is sustainable if it is not also a spiritual revolution – a complete ontological birth of new beings out of old. Equally, no spiritual activity deserves respect if it is not at the same time a politically responsible, i.e; responsive, activity… The only meaningful political direction left now is synonymous with the only meaningful spiritual direction left now: towards the conscious re-fusion of the spirit and the flesh… This time it will be a global consciousness of our global oneness, and it will realize itself on a very sophisticated technological stage; with perhaps a total merger of psychic and electronic activity.”
Barbara Mor – ‘The Great Cosmic Mother’ 1987.
“Once he has done with the anarchic forces of his own society, man will set to work on himself, in the pestle and the retort of the chemist. For the first time man will regard itself as raw material, or at best as a physical and psychic semi-finished product. Socialism will mean a leap from the realm of necessity into the realm of freedom in this sense also, that the man of today, with all his contradictions and lack of harmony, will open the road for a new and happier race..”
Leon Trotsky – ‘In Defence of the October Revolution’ 1932.
The above quotes inspired me to revive and pursue the development of my political consciousness, hence I am now convinced that providing we can survive global capitalism and replace it with a global socialism, we could enable the emergence of Thomas Berry’s ‘Ecozoic era’, and maybe eventually aglobal communion with the wisdom of Ngapartji-Ngapartji, yet another inspiring indigenous Australian story. Like an onion, as you peal away the layers of this particular Ananguku story it reveals deeper meanings. For example, the outer layers of this story reveal a relatively simple ethic of reciprocity or fair exchange, then maybe that of the ‘golden rule’- doing unto others as they would do unto you. Closer to the core of this Ananguku story reveals a more empathetic relationship whereby we do unto others what they would have us do unto them, a more organic understanding that does not distinguish between receiving and giving, an understanding whereby giving and receiving are one and the same.
Until this day, learning from the place and people of Uluru enables me to continue cultivating a more balanced sense of place and relatedness, it is also enabling in me a deeper spiritual and even political consciousness than I otherwise might have.
All thanks to having found Ngayuku puli tjukurpa – My story stone.
another malpataffy.com story 