Coni Ledesma
Member, NDFP Peace Negotiating Panel
Head of the NDFP Office for the Special Protection of Children
March 28, 2024
Dear comrades and esteemed delegates,
Warm proletarian greetings to all of you and welcome to the International Theoretical Conference on the Economic Crises of Imperialism organized by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). This theoretical conference serves as a follow-up to the first NDFP theoretical conference last October on the topic of imperialism and wars.
Last year, we engaged in fruitful exchanges and found common ground in the importance of the proletarian class leading our common struggle to defeat imperialist wars of aggression. In the same spirit, we invite all of you to take part in critical and open discussions to collectively sharpen our analysis on the current character of the crises generated by imperialism and intensifying inter-imperialist competition.
Over the next two days, our discussions will focus on three main themes:
- First on the crisis of overproduction where we aim to look at current patterns in capitalist production including the impacts of technology, the rise of so-called global value chains; and the new modes of exploitative labor relations and its impacts on migration flows and labor demographics across the globe.
- Second, we aim to look at the financial crisis and trade wars exploring the current state of the financial oligarchies and their control over entire economies, new flashpoints of financial crises as well as the re-alignment within imperialist-dominated economic organizations such as the IMF and World Bank, the BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the likes.
- Lastly, we also give attention to the interlinked planetary crisis generated by monopoly capitalist greed including how the climate crisis is affecting the neocolonies, how imperialist countries supposedly intend to “solve” the climate emergency, and the current state of climate justice mass movements.
In the tumultuous landscape of today’s global economy, a theoretical conference focused on the current economic crises is not just relevant; it is imperative. The grip of imperialism on the world’s economic systems has never been more pronounced, as wealth continues to be concentrated in the hands of a select few while the vast majority grapple with poverty, inequality, and exploitation.
The economic crises we face today are not accidents of fate – they are the deliberate machinations of the moribund monopoly capitalist system at the edge of total collapse. In its impending demise, imperialism desperately tries to revive itself through neoliberal onslaughts at the expense of overshooting planetary boundaries, and at the expense of people’s rights and welfare across the world. Imperialism, with its insatiable appetite for profit and power has ravaged nations, plundered the resources of the underdeveloped world and left millions languishing in poverty and despair. From the sweatshops in India and Bangladesh, the destructive open pit mining sites in the Philippines and in Argentina, to the unbridled plunder of natural resources of African nations, the tentacles of imperialism stretch far and wide, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.
But let me be clear: this is not the time for despair. In fact, this is the time for resistance: the conditions are ripe for the resurgence of revolutionary fervor. The economic crises of imperialism are the result of conscious choices made by the ruling class. And just as imperialism is a human creation, so too can it be dismantled by human hands, and by this we mean the proletariat.
As Karl Marx clearly stated, capitalist crises are a “violent explosion” of the basic contradiction between the advance of the forces of production and the rotten means of production which remain controlled by the capitalist class. This inherent contradiction of the capitalist system inevitably leads to a crisis of overproduction where too many commodities are produced than what can be sold in an attempt to claim a share of an increasingly narrowing margin of profit. At the same time, the further development of production becomes impossible within a capitalist framework and becomes the target of revolt. Eventually, Marx explains, these contradictions will produce revolutionary conditions that serve as the “midwife” of socialist revolution.
The task of revolutionary workers and socialist parties then becomes clear: it is to expose the lies and illusions perpetuated by imperialism and its defenders – the myth of trickle-down economics, the rhetoric of development through exploitation and the false promises of neoliberal dogma. Our task is to organize the working-class people in our own countries to wage anti-imperialist struggles for national liberation, democracy and socialism until we reach the ultimate goal of communism.
ONWARD TO VICTORY!