This is a short extract from the conclusion of a longer article written by Tony Saunois, secretary of the Committee of a Workers’ International, on the new era opened by Donald Trump’s election, which “will act as a great accelerator on all the existing trends, contradictions and conflicts unfolding”. The full article is available at socialistworld.net
The prospect of even bigger social uprisings than we saw from 2018 onwards in Latin America, Asia and Africa, is posed in the coming period. Yet the lack of organisation and leadership, and the lower level of political consciousness, than during previous decades means that the character of the social explosions and the direction they can travel in is uncertain.
It will require a series of struggles and mass movements to forge a new generation of workers and youth who begin to draw the conclusions of what is needed to transform society, to take the movement to a lasting victory by overthrowing the ruling class.
As the tragic events in Valencia, Spain, have shown, numerous social issues can trigger mass movements. In Valencia it was the climate crisis, which is engulfing the world, that triggered a mass social movement.
In Spain, the fury was directed at all the political parties, the leaders and the monarchy – much of the key institutions through which capitalism rules. Both the king and the Spanish president were driven off the streets of Valencia by the masses. After the flooding, the masses took matters into their own hands and organised brigades of workers, and especially young people, to organise help and support and to begin to clean up affected areas. Dubbed the “broom and shovel generation”, thousands came forward to support and aid all those affected by the devastation. An embryonic collective social consciousness developed, and local committees organised what the state failed to do. This shows in microcosm how consciousness can be shaped and affected by events, as has been shown in other situations. However, to fully develop to its maximum potential, a party, socialist programme and mass organisations of struggle are necessary and need to be built.
2023 saw the working class in a number of countries move into industrial struggle on a bigger scale than has been the case in the recent period. This was still at an early stage of mass industrial struggles but indicates what can develop in the coming period.
A global political vacuum exists. In the absence of an alternative being offered by the working class and its most politically conscious layers, this can be filled by various unstable and unpredictable individuals and forces, as has already been seen in the US, Brazil, India and elsewhere.
As this new era unfolds, a new layer of young workers, students and the oppressed will begin searching for an alternative to the dystopian era that global capitalism is now in. Support for the ideas of revolutionary socialism and a party, which are more relevant today, can be harnessed and a new generation won to bold Marxist ideas and the struggle to overthrow capitalism. These ideas will be crucial in assisting a broader layer of the working class and oppressed masses to be won to the idea of a socialist alternative. This is the only road to escape the horrors that global capitalism offers today.
