From the November-December 2018 issue of News & Letters
by Gerry Emmett
Seven years ago, the Arab Spring and the U.S. Georgia prison strike began a world historic movement that shook bourgeois society to its foundations. As the rulers now deceive themselves that they have effectively drowned human freedom in blood, we see the next stage of bourgeois politics taking shape.
This is becoming clear in relation to the economic and political alliances of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the European Union (EU).
Pressured to respond to the horrific state murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Donald Trump, against his own will, spoke the truth of the current relationship between the U.S. and the Saudi monarchy: “They have worked closely with us and have been very responsive to my requests to keeping oil prices at reasonable levels.”
The commodity, oil, is once again seen as the ultimate ruler over humanity. This has already been carried to the point of outright genocide in the counter-revolutionary wars waged by Saudi Arabia and Iran in Yemen and Syria.
What has changed now is also implicit in Trump’s statement. The recent creation of OPEC+ is an opening for the oil market to be manipulated by the three biggest producers, the Saudis, Russia, and the U.S. As Trump (like Obama before him) enables the Saudi role in Yemen, Prince Salman agrees to ignore Vladimir Putin’s genocidal war in Syria—which the Prince had claimed to oppose—and this new cartel comes into the world dripping with blood, filth, and ruling class hypocrisy.
In Europe, the rise of Far Right parties and governments fed by anti-immigration sentiment has continued. These Rightists have capitalized on the exploitation and counter-revolutionary massacres that fuel immigration from Africa and the Middle East, as well as European racism.
RACISM RISES IN EU
Hillary Clinton, against her own will, also spoke her ruling class truth when she told The Guardian: “I think Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame… Europe has done its part, and must send a very clear message—‘we are not going to be able to continue to provide refuge and support.’”
With the declining political fortunes of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, the EU establishment in Brussels has begun to reach out to the Far Right.
The European People’s Party has named Manfred Weber (of Bavaria’s right-wing Christian Social Union) as its candidate to replace Jean-Claude Juncker as President of the European Commission. Weber’s name was entered only after consultation with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a key leader of the Far Right.
THE BOSS OF ALL BOSSES
It is a strategic choice. If the Far Right makes the kind of gains it expects in next year’s European Parliament elections, Brussels will be able to find accommodation with it.
None of these bourgeois politicians and rulers are their own bosses. They are compelled to follow the objective pull of capitalism’s laws of development.
In Syria, in Yemen, we see the future of humanity if the logic of capitalism is followed to its conclusion.