The capitalist system today

New Left Current for Communist Liberation - 5th CONGRESS 

New Left Current (NAR) for Communist Liberation seeks a comprehensive strategic response to the barbaric, murderous attack of capital against the working class, against the very existence of the earth. Ahead of us are the battles of a new round of struggles and uprisings. It is a period of transition that requires to rethink all those choices, strategies and tactics that have led the workers and communist movement to the current negative crossroad. On these grounds, an urgent need emerges for a programme, party and political front suitable for the new era of capitalism that will be capable of contributing to the contemporary communist liberation and a victorious workers' political movement of subversion that will open up the paths of revolutionary change.

The capitalist system today

A period of multiple dangers for humanity

1. Multiple dangers - political, social and military - for the peoples are getting more immense, against the background of the manifestation of a structural and multifaceted crisis of modern capitalism. From the wider processes in the capitalist world we observe that we have entered an unprecedented period in which the intensity and extent of exploitation, as well as all the contradictions of capitalism, are exploding, at an important turning point which becomes the starting point for a series of developments at all levels: from the living conditions of the low strata and the problem of survival, the catalytic effects of war, the worsening environmental disaster and climate crisis, the attack on democratic rights and social freedoms to the crisis of human relations. These elements mark the period and lie at the basis of the political crisis of the bourgeois political systems, which manifests itself in multiple forms.

The totality of developments in the contemporary capitalist world demonstrates the importance of our analysis of the characteristics of the stage of Total Capitalism, the main points of which are:

• The total, universal subordination to capital and its conditions of profitability of labour and of human existence as a whole, of nature and of all social and political relations.
• The total, extensive development of capitalist relations all over the planet, in new branches and sectors industrialized in modern ways and subject to capital profitability.
• The total usurpation of both working and free time by capital.
• The curtailment of democratic rights and people's freedoms, with "parliamentary totalitarianism”, the extensive use of violence and state terrorism, which is now a permanent feature of the bourgeois political system.
• The incapacity of capital to connect with a positive vision and inspire historical optimism.

In the face of this situation, the basic task for the revolutionary and communist Left is to build up the scaffolding, foundation and ground for a new broader struggle that will claim "bread, work, freedom, peace, international solidarity of workers and peoples", opposing the sacrifice for capitalist profits, war expenditures, nationalism, the transformation of young people into material for the cannons of capital. In a political period where the capitalist world is polarized in a deadly antagonism, the question of political independence from bourgeois politics and the capitalist blocs emerges as a key issue for the workers' movement, the anti-capitalist Left and the forces of communist liberation.

The global capitalist economy in terminal stagnation

2. Since the 2008 crisis, capitalism has entered a period where anaemic growth rates alternate with recessions and the hopes of bourgeois for a return to its unimpeded and clearly upward course prove to be unrealistic. The recovery of profitability achieved a few years after 2008 was unstable. The COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the climate crisis, the huge economic inequalities and, above all, the persistent and unaddressed post-2009 overaccumulation of capital that can hardly be put to use, has brought the capitalist world into the vortex of a new, multifaceted and totally original 'test'. Technological developments, declining productivity, war, developments in the energy sector and supply chains have intensified this test. Forecasts of growth rates (and capitalist profitability) are increasingly being revised downwards, while there are more and more of those that refer to the possibility of a catastrophic and prolonged recession, which however capital seeks to prevent by making intensive efforts. The situation internationally and in Greece is deteriorating. The global economy is heading for a slowdown, inflation remains high despite its recent fall, industrial production is on a downward trend and China's post-peak recovery has been smaller than expected. The OECD revised downward the growth rate of the global economy to 2.7%, from 2.9%, for 2024, after a sluggish 3% for 2023, while the European Central Bank forecasts that average annual real GDP growth will "close" at 0.7% for 2023, 1% for 2024 and 1.5% for 2025. With the exception of 2020, the year in which the coronavirus pandemic hit, these are the slowest growth rates since the 2008 crisis.

The global profit rate has stagnated since the Great Recession of 2008 and in 2019 was at a near all-time low before the pandemic recession set in. This confirms that the foundation of the multifaceted crisis of capitalism is the crisis of overaccumulation of capital, the problem of insufficient profit rates, which cannot be solved in a radical way after 2009. Supply chains and the transnational operations of multinationals (on which capitalist profitability was based in the previous decades) are being hit and are being reconstructed. The war in Ukraine and the intensification of the West-China/Russia rivalry are shaping a regime of uncertainty that affects multiple levels of economic and social life. World debt, both private and public, has reached 260% of world GDP - and with the pandemic it has increased further. Public deficits have also increased greatly due to the high public urgent expenses during the pandemic and will increase even more due to new, extended military spending. A new world debt crisis has already begun, with the central banks finally taking action to increase interest rates and the cost of money, plunging the world capitalist economy into a terminal stagnation, being more than ever unstable.

The continuing downward trend for profits in 2022 and 2023, low growth rates and rising inflation increase the risks for global capitalism to face the possibility of an even deeper crisis than in 2008.

A period of intensification of capitalist antagonisms

3. We are in a period of exacerbation of multiform capitalist antagonisms, which are intensified, in a crisis occasion. These antagonisms occur both within countries and internationally, with the geopolitical gaining in importance as the stakes are, among other things, which capitalist bloc will be hegemonic in the international capital nexus.

Capital internationalization took off in the era of Total Capitalism, acquiring at the same time a new quality and forms. It remained a fundamental aspect of the capitalist relations and a basic direction of capital - especially multinational capital - even after the 2008 crisis. Internationalization has remained intense because it is inextricably linked to capital's inherent tendencies to seek reduced labour costs, raw materials, new markets, opportunities to place surplus capital in times of a downward trend in capitalist profit rates - tendencies essential to overcoming any crisis.

But already after the outbreak of the 2008 crisis, before the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, there was a tendency to intensify all kinds of rivalries (internal, international, financial-productive capital), basically as a consequence of issues with profitability. One expression of this intensification was the "return" of capital to the national territory, so that it could claim better positions in the international arena (e.g. Trump's "America First", Brexit). Moreover, processes emerged not for the restriction of capitalist internationalization, but for the redefinition of the form, terms, speed and correlations of power within the international nexus of capital.

The outbreak of the pandemic, however, modified part of the conditions, as some elements that before the pandemic were presented as the strong points of capital, for example, the internationalization of production, proved to be vulnerable, while the geopolitical and economic conflicts of major global players came to the fore with greater intensity.

These developments lead to a major rearrangement, to serious adjustments and changes of correlation within the capitalist internationalization. Although the general historical trend of capitalist internationalization is not being abolished, there are signs of a slowing down and reorientation towards strengthening capitalist blocs of countries with similar interests. The outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the blows to supply chains, the recourse to the "breathing apparatus" of state aid, the conflicts over energy resources and pathways, the uneven effects of the unlimited production, all reflected the strengthening of the tendencies of competition but also the intensification of the struggle for shaping a new correlation.

4. As a result of the intensification of competition and a key point of contemporary developments, as far as the international geopolitical scene is concerned, the capitalist world is polarized into a fierce competition between two basic blocks-poles, around which all states are forced to align themselves, although in a context of instability. On the one hand the bloc of the so-called "Western" powers (USA, EU, Japan, UK), fighting tooth and nail to maintain their hegemony, and on the other hand a heterogeneous but emerging pole of states and economies (China, Russia, BRICS), with China and Russia playing a central role, which claims a share and prospectively hegemony in the global arena. In both blocs, internal competition continues (e.g. US-EU, China-India), often fierce, as to which power will occupy the dominant position.

Chinese capitalism, having combined elements of the Asian capitalist model, such as free, internationalized trade, strong state intervention, an oppressive political regime with the absence of basic political freedoms and the absence of a mass workers' trade union movement, is gradually turning into a huge production machine for the whole capitalist world. It is rapidly upgrading itself in the fields of technology and research, while it appears as the guarantor of capitalist 'good' internationalization and free trade, taking advantage of its strategic alliance with Russia, which is based economically and politically mainly on the export of energy and arms.

The US is steadily losing ground to China on the economic front. Its traditional relations with new capitalist powers such as Saudi Arabia, India, are being disrupted, as they are now claiming larger shares and choosing to develop relations with China in parallel. The US, however, remains for the moment, at the top of the pyramid of the capitalist economy, maintaining almost absolute control of the financial system, while its political and military superiority over China and Russia is enormous.

Against this background, the strong economies of Europe, while being pressured and choosing to eventually side with the US, are being put to an economic and political test, as their economic development is extremely precarious without Russian energy and even more so without expanding (and not curtailing as the US is pushing) their exports to the huge Chinese market.

This division of the world to two major blocs, which was manifested with great intensity on the occasion of the war in Ukraine, is expanding and deepening, as it has neither crystallized nor been completed. But initiatives are developed by forces within the blocs that accelerate and promote their formation at a pace for which we cannot predict how quickly it will develop - with the US being an accelerating factor and the outbreak of the war in Ukraine being an expression of the acceleration for the formation of the blocs.

From a political and class point of view, these are two reactionary capitalist blocs whose aim and means of pursuing their global hegemony is to crush the working class in their country and internationally. That is why a complete independence vis-à-vis both poles of world capitalism is a crucial element for the anti-capitalist Left and the forces of communist liberation. The adoption of the scheme that "the enemy of my enemy is my ally" is a trap for the left and the popular movement at a strategic level. The illusions about "Russia's ally in the framework of the anti-imperialist front against the USA" are dangerous. Putin's full attack on Lenin and the Bolsheviks is revealing, as it underlines that the obstacle to the advance of capitalist barbarism is what October 1917 and the revolutionary communist movement expressed. On the other hand, in the name of "the fight against authoritarianism and the defense of freedoms", other left-wing forces become the sad tail of the other pole. In the end, the "left" becomes a ball between the bourgeois poles, even the tail of "its own" bourgeoisie when it chooses to "negotiate" for bourgeois interests.

Humanity faces a new "age of wars”

5. The war in Ukraine is undoubtedly a turning point and the starting point of a new phase. It develops as a very dangerous miniature global war with a real risk of spreading to neighbouring countries and triggering the multiplication of flashpoints in other parts of Europe (see Balkans) and the planet in general (see Pacific Ocean, Middle East, Africa).

Developments in the Middle East, with the massacre in Palestine, with the visible and constant threat of generalized conflict, confirm and reinforce the assessments that modern capitalism is in a state of generalized instability, with the possibility that humanity faces a new "age of wars". The confrontation in the Middle East reveals, among other things, the inability - so far - of the USA to fully promote its strategy for a new order in the region, based on the canvas of cooperation between the Arab regimes and Israel, putting the Palestinian question in the dustbin of history.

The brutality of the Israeli war machine mobilized hundreds of thousands of people in many countries of the world - especially in the West, where mass mobilizations took place despite the bans from several governments - in a new wave of solidarity and anti-war action, which has partly anti-NATO and anti-imperialist characteristics. Particularly in the Arab world, this wave also had distinct class characteristics, as it came into direct opposition to the interests of the reactionary regimes in the region.

The bourgeoisie in Greece, led by the government of the New Democracy and with the consent of the parties of the bourgeois political system, has taken an active position in the wars. Bases in several parts of the country, such as Souda, Elefsina, Anchialos, Alexandroupoli, are in the service of NATO and Israel. In the case of Ukraine, the Greek government is fully aligning itself with the Western imperialist camp by providing war material to the Zelensky regime, training parts of the Ukrainian army in Greek camps and ensuring all kinds of facilities to the USA and NATO in their confrontation with Russia. The phrase of the Greek prime minister, Mitsotakis, that "we are at war with Russia" highlights the depth of the Greek oligarchy's involvement in the war and its subsequent dangers. On the Palestinian issue the attitude of the bourgeoisie is even more reactionary. It fully agrees with the barbaric policy of the State of Israel and the attempted genocide of the Palestinians, while it participates in the naval blockade of Gaza as part of NATO's plans to provide support for Israel's military operations. Overall, the Greek state's stance in the wars is an expression of the Greek bourgeoisie's choice to claim an expanded piece of the economic resources and energy routes in Southeastern Mediterranean through the special economic zones and other agreements, creating the Greece-Israel-Egypt-Cyprus axis of aggression and playing the role of the US/NATO and EU "good soldier" in the region. This policy has been served by all Greek governments.

Based on these developments, a new phase emerges, in which it seems that military operations will remain active on "regional" fronts, but at the same time the drums of war will be sounding in areas of great interests for the major and minor geopolitical players (e.g. South China Sea, NATO's expansion zone in Europe, Middle East, Africa). As a consequence, there is an explosion in military expenditure, a greater dispersion of military bases, an attempt to familiarize peoples with the possibility of using nuclear weapons in war, and new mass uprooting of refugees.

War is acquiring new characteristics as - more than ever before - it is waged in parallel on many fronts, affecting every aspect of human life and activity, both of direct and indirect combatants, in every corner of the planet. At the same time, a multitude of non-pure means of warfare (e.g. financial, energy, information, culture) will be used with increasing frequency. In this context, economic warfare also develops as a weapon of war, with the sanctions against Russia and similar threats against China, but also with options such as China's so-called "New Silk Road". On the other hand, Russia, through its gas flows, seeks to strengthen social unrest in the countries of Western Europe in particular, in order to put political pressure on them. The "war of propaganda" is also an upgraded weapon in military confrontations. The manipulative role of the dominant media and generally the suffocating control over the flow of information is deepening. The multifaceted propaganda mechanisms, directed 'information' and false news are being reinforced in order to build social consensus and acceptance of the ideologies of the dominant powers - in each country and bloc. The rapid development of artificial intelligence offers the bourgeois system new "tools" in this operation. Truth is the first casualty of war.

An important aspect of the war in Ukraine is the competition for energy (natural gas) and other resources. At the same time, it is a tool for reconstructing old and forming new alliances (see Sweden and Finland's NATO membership) and readjusting relations among capitalist poles (see the US attempt to enlist the EU in its plans by abolishing any tendency towards autonomy).

6. So far, the winner of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is the US, as it has achieved a new rallying of NATO and its enlargement, even with countries (Finland, Sweden) in key geographical positions (close to Russia, competition in the Arctic). At the same time, parts of US capital are also economically benefiting in a direct way, from increasing arms’ orders (which enhance the strong military-industrial complex and the technology sector) to the booming sales of US LNG. Of course, at the same time there are also losses, both because of the economic aspects of the war and the highest inflation in 40 years. However, despite the gains for US capitalism from the conflict in Ukraine, the US is in retreat compared to the past. Its failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, the entry of new major players, such as China, into the geopolitical game and in the field of economic competition have affected the American superpower.

China also benefits, as it emerges even more clearly as the reference point of the pole that is formed as a rival to the "Western" bloc. Developments in the Middle East may also favour China, as the anger against Israel and the USA creates a fertile field for Beijing to promote its plans and strengthen its alliances in the context of forming a 'second pole' in the context of global capitalist competition.

On the contrary, for the EU, the wars seem to exacerbate its existing internal contradictions and crisis, while also intensifying its reactionary characteristics. As a consequence, the European capitalism is losing ground to its direct competitors.

However, the prolongation of the war in Ukraine, with no visible prospect of a "clear" victory for either country, is increasing the economic pressure on the Western countries (even the USA) and sharpening the antagonisms among the capitalist poles, always combined with growing fears of a new economic crisis. The sanctions on Russia are accelerating its alliance with China rather than affecting its economy. In this context, alternative scenarios are launched, even for some compromise with a "freeze" of the war on the existing troop contact line. In any case, however, the ongoing war exacerbates peoples’ problems, precision and economic pressure with wider dimensions, intensifies the one-sided-manipulated information regime, further restricts democratic rights and peoples’ freedoms, increases militarism, and acts as a reinforcing factor for nationalism and racism of all kinds. Increased military spending will trigger new blows to the already low budgets for health, education, peoples’ needs and so on.

There is great anxiety, fear and indignation among the peoples. A large part of the world is not convinced by the narrative of "good NATO and bad Russia", of "good Israel/civilized West and the bad Palestinians and Arabs", of the conflict between “democratic-authoritarian regimes”. On the contrary, they want peace and refuse the military involvement of their countries.

Capitalist integration in a new phase - Reactionary turn of the EU

7. Capitalist integration was in many cases shaken and in others challenged. In some it appeared that the existing level of integration was below their needs, while in others the conflicts among members did not resemble anything like "common house" tenants. However, they have not retreated or dismantled. On the contrary, after renegotiation, their reactionary - for the workers - character is deepening (e.g. NAFTA, renegotiated by the far-right Trump, the liberal Trudeau and the 'leftist' Obrador, in order to strengthen its role to the detriment of the working class in all three countries). Moreover, the new realities after the war in Ukraine make forms of capitalist integration and integration even more necessary.

The EU has experienced successive crises. Since the debt crisis, it has managed, through the memoranda, to integrate the economies of the South much more deeply into its network. Moreover, it has managed to incorporate not only the great wave of social unrest but also the challenge to the EU and the euro itself in the period 2010-2015. Parties such as Syriza (Greece), Podemos (Spain), the 5 Stars (Italy), Sin Fein (Ireland), the Portuguese Communist Party and Bloco (Portugal) ended up reinforcing 'Europeanism' even more, as an option 'with no alternative', for which these parties faced detrimental consequences, as the decline in their numbers and influence in most cases shows. Brexit, although a major blow to the process of European integration, theoretically enables the dominant Franco-German axis to promote its economic and geostrategic options for the EU. The crisis of the European capitalist integration - the most ambitious project of economic and political integration in the history of capital - has been reinforced by the refugee crisis, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, widening existing cracks and causing new ones. However, although the current phase brings to the fore the reinforcement of weaknesses, contradictions and contradictions within the EU, this in no way means that the EU is close to its end and its dissolution. The reactionary turn at all levels - fiscal discipline, immigration and refugee issues with the creation of a fortress Europe, repression and surveillance - are the response of the governments of the EU to the crisis.

For its part, the European left in all its manifestations is crushed, unable to bring forward an anti-capitalist perspective outside the EU. Some of its forces communicate with right-wing Euroscepticism, while others have contributed to the reconstruction process of Social Democracy. These trends are not just about certain organizations, but about broader political and ideological processes. The attitude towards the EU is an element that signals the retreat of most of the left and the impossibility of an autonomous course. It is impossible to have an anti-capitalist perspective without challenging the EU and European capitalist integration. This element is crucial and must be at the heart of the political and ideological debate in the run-up to the European elections in June 2024.

Reactionary restructuring is strengthened

8. The restructuring of capitalism as a whole, with the changes in labour-exploitation relations, the transformation of the productive base (large-scale development of digital services and industries, "green transition", etc.), the concentration of ownership and the universal expansion of commodity relations to the detriment of labour, human relations and nature, as well as the transformations of the bourgeois state to support capitalist profitability have prevented a new major crisis shock since 2008, but they have failed to reverse the general trend mentioned above.

These restructurings, with the withdrawal of the state from its role as the pseudo-guarantor of social cohesion, with the shrinking of public structures and social services of the states, the privatization and commercialization of all social goods, public land, public transport, communications, ports, the invasion of corporations in the whole spectrum of education, health, welfare, research, and culture with the intensive exploitation and construction of public spaces, create a new reactive condition.

The historical changes promoted and directed against working rights lead to the suffocating total control of labour, to the reactionary reconstruction of labour relations (flexibility, remote working), to the replacement of part of the wage with vouchers, the reorganization of the whole everyday life according to the laws of the market, the unprecedented intensification of direct and indirect exploitation and the extraction of surplus value.

Increasing exploitation and widening economic inequalities

9. In recent years the capitalist system has increased the exploitation of the working class with greater intensity by reducing the value of wages, increasing working hours, intensification, and extending precariousness in all countries. The economic situation of workers is deteriorating or, at best, stagnating. Wages are squeezed to levels that form huge zones of underpaid work and living below even the natural survival threshold of the working majority. The loss of income is compounded by the capture of the so-called "indirect wage" and the take-off of indirect exploitation.

At the same time, the deterioration of the living standards of the working class and the poor strata extends from indirect taxation, increase in product prices, successive reactive changes in insurance, deterioration of public, free health, education, welfare and education services, and the general deterioration of living conditions. The level of unemployment remains high. Unemployment, job loss threat and labour precariousness remain top problems for millions of workers.

At the global level, the extraction of wealth of the countries of Africa, Asia, South America by the Multinational Multi-Industrial Monopolies has increased and the North-South divide has sharpened. Millions of people live in extreme poverty and inadequate housing conditions. 865 million people are undernourished and 20,000 people die of hunger every day, while 1 billion people have no access to drinking water. Deaths from communicable diseases, due to inadequate or non-existent health care systems and lack of vaccines, reached 11.1 million in one year. Additionally, by the end of 2021, the number of people displaced by war, violence, persecution and human rights violations had reached 89.3 million, up 8% from 2020 and at least twice as many as ten years ago.

The political system and the state are reconstructed in a reactionary way

10. A situation of political crisis is taking shape, the expressions of which are:

a) The great political instability, volatility, the difficulty of governability, stemming from political distrust, disillusionment, disaffection, distancing of the 'bottom' (hence the reduced participation in elections in many countries) and from the crisis of traditional parties of governmental management (such as disappearance of the Gaulists-Socialists in France, the shrinking of PASOK in Greece), the pulverization of the political map and the emergence of new parties (which also find it difficult to stabilize).

b) The limited possibility of management solutions that satisfy social needs to some basic degree.

c) The particularly dangerous trend of the rise of the far right in a number of countries, which often becomes a battering ram of the bourgeois system of power in order to subordinate the "class" to the "national". This rise is an expression of capital's aggression against labour, social and democratic rights, immigrants, everything that is ‘different’, and is the result of the terrible sharpening of capitalist antagonisms, of capital's "return" to the national arena and of its ability to offer an illusion to the poor of each nation that "national politics" can somehow cover their social nakedness.

Within bourgeois politics today three main currents can be observed:

a) a current whose main element is the promotion of anti-labour restructuring on a neoliberal basis, with emphasis on full freedom of markets, "individual rights", cosmopolitanism, scientism, proclamations against discrimination and 'inclusion'

b) a far-right neo-conservative current, with emphasis on 'traditional values', nationalism/racism, misogyny and irrationalism

c) a current of bourgeois-transformed social democracy

These currents are not strictly separated. By principle, they all serve the values of profit, property and exploitation, despite their minor differences. Moreover, each current 'adapts' to the extent required by circumstances and the balance of power, and there are cases where they either co-govern or coexist in the same party. All these currents contribute to the reactionary reform of the bourgeois political system.

11. The attempt to overcome this political crisis leads to the reactionary reform of the entire political system and the state. Reinforcement of totalitarianism in a parliamentary cover, dominant role of the political leader in relation to the party, "emergency" situations, swelling of repressive mechanisms, militarization of the police, prohibitions and persecution, reactionary legislative framework. Apart from these, the 'legalisation' of the interception of communications and social media by state and private actors endorse a regime of constant surveillance and control of political and other activities, but also the commercial exploitation of information. The control of the media and social media is increasing, while freedom of expression and circulation of ideas is being persecuted. A whole industry of persecution is also in operation against individuals, collectives, institutions and trade unions for their militant and political actions.

The question of democratic freedoms and rights is being raised with intensity, as a modern "iron heel" is emerging, imposed on peoples and struggles. Collective and individual freedoms are being curtailed seeking to restrict social and political struggle of the working class and the oppressed strata (e.g. bans or restrictions on demonstrations, emergency regimes due to pandemic or war, control and restriction of rights to trade unionism and strike). The period of the pandemic (with the bans, fines, surveillance) was used for an extensive "experiment" of generalized repression, control, bans, which in many cases had no sanitary logic, but aimed at mass control and the crushing of movements.

The democratic/representative elements of bourgeois democracy are downgraded in favour of the centralized administrative apparatus and decisions taken "from above", from the core of the state, to "below", with less and less possibilities of peoples’ intervention. The puzzle is completed by the transfer of strategic decisions to supranational institutions (such as the EU, NATO, ECB) and the rigid obligation to comply with EU and market policies and strategies.

These intersections are not basically an anti-democratic aberration, an "exception regime" or the "wrong line" of some political, "neoliberal" or extreme right-wing circles, but the outcome of changes in objective on the basis of modern capitalism and the conditions of profitability, which require constant expansion, implying no room for "class compromise".

Overall, the reactionary change in the bourgeois political system further transforms the institutions of representation into an empty shell and the political system into a "single party" of capital, further consolidating its political domination. It is therefore necessary to develop the struggle for contemporary democratic freedoms, as it is impossible for these breakthroughs to be addressed in substance by the world of workers without the existence of strategic responses that move beyond the capitalist framework and in clear conflict with it.

Environmental disaster and climate crisis

12. The environmental catastrophe and climate crisis are directly related to the structural features of the capitalist mode of production, to the model of life promoted by modern total capitalism and the policy of destructive, energy-consuming speculative 'development' of capitalism in the USA, the EU, China and other developed capitalist states. The now uncontrolled environmental destruction, of which climate change is a major manifestation, threatens to wipe out the basis of life on the planet. Extreme weather events, water scarcity, mega-fires all over the world, the constant and widespread reduction of biodiversity, desertification are generating disasters, pandemics, ecological refugees and the risk of famine. Climate change is exacerbating energy poverty and the food crisis created by market forces. All the above issues are systemically linked: none of them can be resolved if all the others remain untouched and, above all, if the cornerstones of the capitalist mode of production remain unchanged.

Capital's response to environmental disasters and climate change express the commodification of nature and its protection, based on the dominant view that the capitalist system itself and its mechanisms -which have caused the environmental problems- are the solution to the problems they created. Capital turns the environment into yet another sector of profitability through the deeper exploitation of natural resources, while at the same time opening up new fields of exploitation and profitability through its interventions for its supposed protection. Typical is the absurd logic of capitalism, which makes everything a 'market', turning even greenhouse gas emissions into a financial product to be sold and bought at a price determined by the games of the multinationals.

The very model of the 'green transition' is characterised by the reactionary pursuit to protect profit and market mechanisms, thus reinforcing the spiral of capitalist 'growth' and its serious environmental consequences (e.g. biofuels, deforestation, electrification, destructive mining, overexploitation of natural wealth). With the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the dominant powers that supported the 'green transition' model are readjusting and turning more intensively to lignite, fossil fuel extraction and exploitation in general, to the definition of SEZs - intensifying competition between large private interests and states - and to nuclear energy.

All forms and relations of oppression are reinforced

13. Racist violence and exploitation intensify both at the "borders" and within the countries themselves. This can be seen in the increased mortality rate of Afro-American from COVID-19, the state racism at the border with murderous push-backs, the ghettoization and deprivation of rights and freedoms of refugees, the targeting of Roma people by the Greek state and the media, the conditions of brutal double exploitation of migrants. Racism is nothing but the method of capital to always orientate the most vulnerable part for the most brutal exploitation. The over-exploitation of migrant men and women around the world, the undeniable fact that women are paid lower wages and are more vulnerable to unemployment reveal that exploitation and poverty are intertwined with a series of inequalities and discrimination based on colour, origin, ethnicity, religion and gender. Such discrimination, whether they come from the past or are newly created, are necessary for capitalism, since they divide the working class and naturalize over-exploitation.

14. The double oppression and exploitation of women (in the workplace and in the fields of reproduction) is intertwined with the bourgeois ideology of property, violence, with the effect of total capitalism on human relations, leading them to a deep crisis, the domination of the economic element, dehumanization, impoverishment, the inability to have meaningful human ties. Nowadays, there is an increase in abusive behaviour (especially against women and children), a dramatic rise in femicide, discrimination, prejudice and often violence against LGBTQ+ people. Trafficking of children, refugee children and women increases.

The rise of these phenomena is a consequence of the reactionary nature of total capitalism, its multifaceted crisis, and especially of the depth of capitalist exploitation, the imposition of specific models of behaviour and culture of life and work, which create a new grid of exploitation, control and discrimination. Social relations in total capitalism are intertwined with sexist discrimination, which co-exist with relations of dependency, oppression and sometimes violence, i.e. patriarchal relations - either by the state and its institutions, or in the family and society, whether institutional or informal. These phenomena testify that, in conjunction and interaction with the fundamental exploitative relationship of capitalism (capital-labour), there are also relations of exploitation, oppression and discrimination related to gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, beliefs, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation intertwined with both the workplace and the wider socio-cultural environment.

Many of these relations operate informally or implicitly as 'spontaneous' behaviour and practice despite the institutionalized equality of citizens, regardless of gender, colour and religion and the neoliberal 'faith' in the individual-citizen and his/her freedom. They are not only residuals from the exploitative societies of the past - although such elements exist and are strong - but are reproduced and fed by the framework of relations of contemporary total capitalism, swelling and transforming within this framework, reinforcing the exploitative and oppressive function of the system as a whole. Yet these relations of oppression, exploitation and discrimination, themselves and especially as embedded in the contemporary capitalist framework, 'produce' arenas of conflict - and therefore fields of potential radicalization - within and to a large extent beyond production. A characteristic example is the rise of the contemporary women's/feminist movement and especially its more radical and working class oriented tendencies. Overcoming such relations or distinctions presupposes the abolition of the structural relations of capitalism (although this alone is not enough) and can be achieved in the context of a universal anti-capitalist movement for social emancipation, rather than movements confined to particular themes or identities, but in connection with a broader emancipatory framework of rights claims that is not embedded in liberal or reformist projects. Overall, human relations can only acquire their essential dimension in the context of a revolutionary and emancipated society moving towards communist liberation.