Opinion View from the LEFT

Other than the public utterances,the mouthpieces of the CPM and CPI also pitched for an alternative to capitalism. Despite reporting extensively about the Communist conclave,People’s Democracy carried an article about the 12th party congress of the Communist Party of Brazil,which it said called capitalism a historically exhausted system.

There is also talk about the necessity for strengthening the Left bloc to take on capitalism and assertions that irrespective of how the current crisis is overcome,a major systemic crisis for world capitalism is in the offing.

Still in crisis mode

With world leaders and financial organisations claiming that the financial crisis is showing signs of ending,the Left,which had all along opposed bailout packages to corporates,has also concluded that the turnaround is only visible in the financial sector and not in the real economy.

In fact,the Left view is that the turnaround in the financial sector,which was responsible for the crisis in the first instance,has been faster and more noticeable than that in the real economy. It says the turnaround is worsening the imbalance in the distribution of global reserves that was seen as being a medium-term influence that triggered the crisis. An article in CPM mouthpiece People’s Democracy argues that the financial recovery has resulted in a revival of capital flows to emerging markets since March,even while the flow of credit to the real sector in the developed countries is still limited.

It says that surge in lending by Asian banks could pose a problem since such credit has hiked private consumption and private investment,particularly in real estate. According to estimates about 40 per cent of the private investment undertaken in the first eight months of 2009 went into real estate,it says.

“Needless to say,a credit surge of this kind encourages speculation,leads to asset price inflation and runs the risk of fuelling a bubble based on loans of poor quality. This not only questions the sustainability of the resulting recovery but makes the growth process partially one that rides on a bubble,” it notes.

The Afghanistan mistake

An article on the Afghan presidential polls,titled “tainted elections”,says the manner in which Hamid Karzai was elected has left him and his western backers with very little credibility. It notes that the Afghanistan’s Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) had conceded that more than a million votes that were cast in presidential election were fraudulent.

Moreover,it argues that the election fiasco which played out for more than two months has left the incumbent president more isolated and his foreign backers in a state of confusion. “Key western leaders no longer even accord him the respect due for a head of state,” it says and notes that the US president had publicly upbraided him on the corruption that characterised his earlier stint in office.

The crux of the argument is that the Barack Obama administration is coming under tremendous pressure to stop supporting a tainted administration and withdraw the US forces from Afghanistan. “American commentators and scholars opposed to the war have urged president Obama to stand up against the pressure being mounted by the military,the right wing and the media in the US to escalate the war in Afghanistan. Their refrain has been that history has shown that Afghanistan has “been the graveyard of empires,” it says.