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Sangrami Sangbad Weekly
Digital Weekly in Bengali from CPI (ML) Red Star West Bengal State Committee
Political Comments & Reports on Peoples Struggles
Chief Editor - Com Alik Chakraborty ; Editorial Board: Comrades Sharmistha Choudhury, Sankar Das; Gautam Choudhury & Raju Singh
Sangrami Sanbad Weekly Issue # 7 (vol 1) Dated 12th July 2020
Sangrami Sanbad Weekly Issue # 6 (Vol 1) dated 5th July 2020
Sangrami Sangbad Weekly Issue # 5 (Vol 1) dated 28th June 2020
Sangrami Sangbad Weekly Issue # 4 (Vol 1) 21st June 2020
Sangrami Sangbad Weekly Issue # 3 (Vol 1) dated 14th June 2020
CONCERNING new paradigm of development, we already had a
study class in 2013 on this topic. Further in 2015, a detailed and
well researched paper has been written on this by Com. PJ James and
also articles have been written on this by Com. KN Ramachandran and
others. We need not rehash the same articles in this paper for study.
What we intend to do in this paper is concentrate more on what exactly
is it that we mean when we say an alternate paradigm of development. It
is clear from Com. James’ paper that there can be no alternate paradigm
of development in the capitalist system and it will require the creation of
a socialist system to go towards a new paradigm of development. Comrade
KN’s articles have dealt with what was done in the Soviet Union to try and
make a new model of development. Still, we have to reach a concrete
conclusion of what exactly do we mean by a new paradigm of development.
Let us come to more concrete issues. For instance, take minerals.
Minerals are one of the mainstays of the capitalist production system.
They are one of the main raw materials required in the production. While
energy and water are universal to almost all production under capitalism,
minerals (in which we also include crude oil and its derivatives) are also
required in most production activities. The actual figures for mineral
production worldwide show that the production of minerals has gone up
from around 14.8 billion metric tonnes in 2009 to around 17.3 billion metric
tonnes in 2014 – a growth of around 17% in just three years.1 If we look at
the figures for the different minerals for the period from 2011 to 2014,
Bauxite has grown from 228 million tonnes to 260 million tonnes (14%);
Alumina from 84.2 million tonnes to 107.2 million tonnes (27%); primary
aluminium from 41.5 million tonnes to 53 million tonnes(28%); iron ore
from 2.6 billion tonnes to 3.4 billion tonnes (31%); lead from 4.4 million
tonnes to 5.4 million tonnes (23%); phospate rock from 182 million tonnes
to 245 million tonnes (35%). Even the production of coal has gone up
from 7.4 billion tonnes to 8.1 billion tonnes (9%). The production of even
such well controlled minerals like crude petroleum has gone up. In fact,
we can find that production has gone up in almost all minerals especially
since 2009 in an attempt to scrounge out greater profits since the most
recent economic crisis.
The utter rapacious plunder of the earth’s resources by the big
imperialist mining companies have grown to such an extent that there is
no hope of this being sustainable even in the short term. Take Iron Ore. It
is estimated that the total reserves of iron ore worldwide are about 190
billion tonnes5. In 2006 Lester Brown, of the World Watch Institute had
predicted that iron ore would run out in 64 years at the extremely
conservative estimate that production would grow by 2% per year. As
seen above the rate of growth of production between 2011 to 2014 averaged
over 10% per year. At that rate, the world’s iron ore reserves will be
exhausted in a mere 25 years. The same applies to other minerals. Crude
oil resources are estimated to be able to last from 30 to 50 years. Alumina
reserves are estimated at around 32 billion tonnes. The current production
is around 107 million tonnes. In 2011 to 2014, it grew at about 9% per
year on average. At this rate it is expected to be exhausted in less than
40 years.
All this shows that such production in the mining sector is utterly
unsustainable even in the short term. We will leave the next generation
with a stark world bereft of minerals if we do not mend our ways. As such,
it is required to think of an alternative. Possibly a more efficient system of
recycling all over the world may help in some cases. For instance, even
today, recycled iron ore is more prevalent than new ore in the production
of steel. But this will require centralised planning at the international level
at a scale which can only be achieved under socialism.
Let us consider another resource like water. Water, by itself is still in
such quantities that we can think in terms of infinites. The problem is
with potable water. The production of such water is clearly unsustainable.
Here the problem poses a different problem than exhaustion. Let us look
at the graphic below (next page) :
As we can see, only 2.5% of the water on earth is fresh water. The
other is saline water. Of this 2.5%, only 1.2% (0.03% of the total water on
earth) is surface / other fresh water. Of this only about 24% (0.0072% of
the total water) is in lakes, rivers, swamps and marshes. It is on this
water that all capitalist production usually survives. This shows that there
exists enough water on earth to sustain much higher levels of production.
The problem is to make this water available. How to make, for instance,
sea water possible to use in industrial production? How to use ground
water more efficiently? The technology does exist even today to solve
this problem. All the existing solutions though, use too much energy and
are therefore too “costly”. If we could have cheap and abundant sources
of energy this problem too could be solved. The problem of water then is
essentially a by-product of the problem of energy.
Theoretically, energy exists in a magnitude which makes our needs
less than miniscule. Just the energy coming in solar rays is huge. The
total solar energy absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and land
masses is approximately 3,850,000 exajoules (EJ) per year. In 2002,
this was more energy in one hour than the world used in one year.1 If only
this energy could be harnessed for use in production, it could be a solution
to all our problems. The sun itself is, at todays levels of energy
requirements, a sustainable source of energy. Using solar energy also
has other benefits. It is a clean source of energy and harnessing this
energy to other uses will lower global warming. But that is not the only
source available. There are other sources of energy which we have to
explore much more. There is tidal energy which is basically generated by
the gravitational pull of the moon. Nuclear energy, though theoretically
usable is today an unsafe, unclean and costly source of energy. More
research must be put into making it a feasible source of energy.
At the other end is the actual rate of consumption. Today we can see
that the rate of consumption is too great to be sustained. If the whole
world was to consume food grains at the rate at which American citizens
consume them, then we would need four earths just to grow sufficient
foodgrain to sustain such consumption. At the same time, obesity is
growing in the US and is an alarming cause of concern, including infant
obesity. Heart disease is the single main cause of death. In short,
Americans are consuming too much and paying the price by dying of
heart disease.
Our concern is, what is causing humans to hurtle in this mindless
fashion towards oblivion? We have to change our patterns of production
and of consumption. We have to treat the earth and its resources, including
human resources as precious objects and regulate their use. One could
argue that this use is regulated even today in different ways. Different
taxes, tariffs and penalties are levied just for such regulation. Then why
are we still hurtling towards destruction as all indices show? Obviously
there is something wrong in the way in which such use of human resources
is being regulated. How can we change this?
Our first paper on the environmental question in 2013 had put forward
some directions. It said:
- More direct and proximate democratic processes for taking all
decisions on production;
- Free information to all including scientific papers in simple
language being made available for all;
- Fight against religion, superstition, etc. Fight against patriarchy,
brahminism, regional and language hegemonism, etc.
- Sustainable development is the only path – Man as a part of
nature and not Man vs. Nature as the basis of development.
It had talked of these principles being put forward, not as an alternative
to the struggle for socialism but as being in addition to the socialist
principles. In fact, these principles could only be achieved under socialism.
The regulation of production, distribution and consumption under
capitalism is based on the profit motive. The whole of capitalism works
on the principle that the rate of profit in society must increase for society
to prosper or even to sustain. Capitalism is, therefore, essentially short
sighted. If profits are down, if larger profits can be made by “fracking” for
the production of shale oil in the immediate run, then though fracking will
endanger the sustainability of the earth and its environment in the long
run, capitalism will invest in fracking. If the sustainability of profits requires
that more Coca-cola must be sold, then society will be bombarded with
advertisements for coca-cola, no matter what the ill effects in the long
run. Capitalism does not look at the sustainability of the earth and its
environment in the long run, it only looks at the sustainability of profits in
the immediate run. At a certain stage, both these are bound to be at
odds. As Com. James put in his paper, there is an immediate need for
the de-commodification of nature and of labour.
It is not as if capitalism was always bad for the earth and the
environment. At a certain stage of development, capitalism was the only
way forward for the earth. It broke the stranglehold of the monarchs and
the aristocracy over the earth, its produce and over the people. It brought
all of these onto the market place. The market as a regulatory mechanism
which constantly regulated production and consumption of commodities
was a wonderful advance which allowed mankind to advance from the age
of bullock carts to the age of space travel in just a few centuries. But
today, capitalism is facing recurrent economic crises. To recover from
such crises, it has to use quick and dangerous “fixes” to immediately
create profits.
To change this method is not as easy as it seems. The whole earth
today is based on certain infrastructures. These infrastructures pervade
our very way of life upto the minutest degree. For instance, there are
petrol pumps, in every street. If we have to give up fossil fuels, not only
every car, but every petrol pump and every oil pipeline on earth will become
redundant. It is the powers that control such petrol pumps, the manufacture
of cars and the construction of such pipelines who are bound to resist the
change. They have a vested interest in retaining the status quo, no matter
the consequences. It is these very same powers, today, who enjoy
tremendous clout in governments all over the world. They control
governments rather than the other way around.
We have to fight for a new system of regulation. We have to fight for
a system of regulation where the people affected by the use of certain
products will be able to take the decisions on their production. This involves
changes in the system of organisation of society itself. We have to fight
for a system of regulation where the people taking such decision on their
own environment will be able to take a long term view. Where they will be
well informed on the consequences of their decisions. Where they will
not be influenced by factors like religion, caste, language, etc. In short,
we have to fight for a truly democratic society. This is what the new
socialist society will be like. Today, the technology to allow for such
democracy exists. Information is freely available and can be transmitted
and disseminated easily. People’s opinions can be easily polled. We
can easily aim for a new form of democracy where people can directly
take decisions on all matters that affect them.
One more question remains, this new system of organisation for
production will entail changes which will affect not only the big corporations
who will lose not just their profits but their whole infrastructure but will
also affect the workers. One might say that the petrol pump owners losing
his assets can be justified on the basis of what he has already made as
profits. What of the workers at the petrol pump? If mining must be stopped,
what of the mining workers? Actually this can also be clearly settled. All
mining workers be given an appropriate rehabilitation package. This means
that they should be paid their wages till the age of retirement or till they
find better employment. This is not unfeasible. The number of mining
workers all over the world are estimated to be around 3.7 million. To be
precise, the ILO reported that there were 1.5 million people employed in
the mining sector in 2010 in the developed countries and 2.2 million people
in the developing / emerging nations.
On the other hand the profits of the major mining companies in the
year 2010 were $110 billion ($132 billion in 2011). If only one year’s profit
of these corporations are given to the workers they will have an average of
$ 30000 to $ 35000 each. A simple calculation will show that this amount,
if invested at 8% per year, will be sufficient to pay each worker $ 300
each with an increment of 5% per annum for around 20 to 25 years with
sufficient amounts left over to provide for terminal dues. This will be more
than the wages paid to workers in most of the neo-colonial countries. To
pay miners in advanced countries, some more will be required. In other
words, the amount of just a few year’s profits of these massive mining
companies, can suffice to rehabilitate all the mining workers all over the
world by continuing their wages till they find better employment.
To recapitulate:
- The earth and the environment can no more take the level of
exploitation that we are subjecting it to;
- Capitalism today is more concerned with the sustainability
of its immediate profits and not with the sustainability of the earth
and of mankind on this earth;
- We have to create a system where nature and labour are no
more commodities but are seen as resources to be regulated in a
sustainable manner;
- Such a system will have to be based on a more democratic
organisation of society where people are directly involved in decision
making for matters concerning them;
- Such a system is today feasible with the technology available
for the dissemination of information and the polling of opinions;
- The creation of such a system will involve resistance from
forces that have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo;
- While creating such a system we have to appropriate from
the big industries immediately a sufficient amount to pay for the
rehabilitation of all who are displaced by the change.
We will have to refine and further develop all the above points in
actual practice but these seem to be the only way to allow for this earth
and human society to exist beyond a few decades from today.
Reference
Sangrani Sambad- Organ of CPI (ML) Red Star West Bengal State Committees
Bengali Monthly
To read Sangrami Sambad, please visit below links:
Sangrami Sambad - May 2020
Sangrami Sambad - April 2020
Sangrami Sanbad - March 2020
Sangrami Sangbad - February 2020
Sangrami Samvad - November 2019
Sangrami Sangbad August - September 2019
Sangrami Sangbad June - July 2019
Sangrami Sangbad February 2019
Sangrami Sangbad January 2018
Sangrami Sangbad July 2017
Sangrami Sambad May 2017
Sangrami Sangbad November 2016
Sangrami Sangbad August 2016
Sangrami Sangbad April 2016
Sangrami Sangbad March 2016
Sangrami Sangbad January 2016
Sentharagai (Red Star) - Organ of CPI (ML) Red Star Tamil Nadu State Committee
Tamil Monthly
Sentharagai (Tamil) - July 2020
Makkal Janakeeyam (Tamil) – May 2019 Special Issue
Makkal Jananayakam (Tamil Monthly) - November 2015 Issue
Sakhavu Monthly (Malayalam)
Organ of CPI (ML) Red Star Kerala State Committee
സഖാവ് മാസിക
സി പി ഐ (എം എൽ) റെഡ്സ്റ്റാർ കേരള സംസ്ഥാന കമ്മറ്റി മുഖപത്രം
സഖാവ് മാസിക – ജൂൺ 2020 (ഗൾഫ് പ്രവാസി പതിപ്പ്)
സഖാവ് മാസിക – ജനുവരി 2020 ലക്കം
സഖാവ് മാസിക – നവംബർ 2018
സഖാവ് മാസിക – സെപ്തംബർ 2018
സഖാവ് മാസിക – ആഗസ്റ്റ് 2018
സഖാവ് മാസിക – ജൂലായ് 2018 ലക്കം
Janamargam (Poeples Path) - Organ of CPI (ML) Red Star AP & Telangana State Committees
Telugu Monthly
Janamargam - February 2019
Janamargam - August 2015
Dudime - Organ of CPI (ML) Red Star Karnataka State Committee
Kannada Monthly
To read Dudime, please visit below links:
Dudime November 2015 Issue
Dudime September 2015 Issue
Dudime August 2015 Issue
Dudime July 2015 Issue
Dudime May 2015 Issue