Only in a new geopolitical order will it be possible to overcome current economic and social problems.
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May is one of the most important months of the year. This month several relevant dates are celebrated, starting with Labor Day. May 1st is celebrated all over the world. Among Western nations, this is a time to celebrate the important achievements of workers, such as their labor rights, while in the former socialist bloc the date serves as a reminder to mobilize the masses in the constant struggle between capital and labor.
However, discussions about the nature of work in the contemporary world are becoming increasingly scarce. On the one hand, an atrocious neoliberalism afflicts several nations and accelerates the dismantling of the rights won by workers over decades of intense social struggles. On the other hand, the old anti-capitalist theories, most of them deeply associated with Marxism, no longer seem to have enough strength to deal with the new global economic dynamics.
We are undoubtedly seeing a process of saturation of traditional worker protection structures. In the era of post-financial capitalism, deep computerization and the “uberization” of work, unions in Western countries seem, if not completely useless, then truly co-opted by the “forces of capital”. On the other hand, the radical anti-capitalist alternatives that gained strength throughout the 20th century, such as Marxism-Leninism and its variants, today no longer seem to construct a global alternative consistent with the demands of workers – whether due to a mere lack of mobilization capacity, or due to real material unfeasibility.
In this new era of work and economy, the old Marxist dichotomy of bourgeoisie and proletariat no longer seems deep enough to understand the new class reality. The so-called “precariat” class is exponentially increasing as a totally vulnerable, unprotected social group, without solid employment relationships – which emerges from the process of deindustrialization and the consequent destruction of traditional employment ties. Before, this process was mainly related to poor countries of the former “third world”, which opted for underdeveloped capitalism during the Cold War and suffered the brutal consequences of American imperialism. Now, however, deindustrialization and the precariousness of the masses significantly affect central economies, with countries like the U.S. and European powers becoming increasingly hostage to a chaotic social structure.
In parallel with the precarious, the lumpenproletariat expands. The old social reality reported by Marx in the 19th century reaches a particularly serious level in current times. The large number of unemployed people who tend to carry out illegal or irregular activities in large cities increases day after day. Crime and urban violence have become a brutal reality in many countries, sometimes even creating scenarios similar to those of real civil conflicts.
A central part of this entire problem, as well known, is the migration issue. Immigrants and refugees, already described by many Marxists as the capital’s “reserve army”, assume a central role in the new economic dynamics. Globalization and the development of international “norms” have led the world to a reality of almost completely open borders, where millions of precarious stateless people without any sense of belonging move across continents, often contributing to social disruption in host countries. The result is a confusing and chaotic scenario, with immigrants being marginalized or co-opted by terrorist and criminal networks, while workers native to the host countries engage in extremist and chauvinistic thoughts due to their exaggerated emotions. In the end, there are more and more conflicts, tensions, poverty and widespread instability.
In the midst of all this, there are still the terrible plans of transnational elites to build a technologically integrated and “work-free” global civilization. The objective is to achieve the ultimate consequences of liberal individualism, once and for all cutting off any ties between human beings, forcing them to live in isolation, dependent on computerization and mechanisms such as a “universal basic income” to survive in a deindustrialized world. – described by these elites as “ecologically correct”. Many of these plans were driven by the frenzy of the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is possible to say that they have been held back by the geopolitical effects of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine.
Such effects, in fact, are extremely strong. The Russian Federation drove a global wave of reaction, in emerging countries, to the impositions coming from the West. And perhaps therein lies the hope of a new alternative for workers around the world. The construction of a multipolar geopolitical order will require not only the creation of multiple regional systems of politics and governance, but will also provide for the establishment of sovereign economic policies, disconnected from liberal globalism and centered on material development and the well-being of the people.
More than that, multipolarity, by its very internationalist nature, depending on broad international cooperation, is a great driver of multilateral development. The global development platform for emerging countries led by China through the Belt and Road Initiative is an example of how multipolar cooperation can significantly contribute to achieving long-standing universal goals, such as eliminating hunger and poverty.
It is very common for the economy to be analyzed by biased experts as something outside of geopolitics, but this is a fallacy. In a unipolar world, all nations are doomed to underdevelopment, as any sovereign economic policy will inevitably be targeted by the forces of the hegemonic power. The social catastrophe of recent decades is proof that in the American unipolar order there is no room for human development.
The development of countries, improvements in people’s living conditions and a global environment of greater economic well-being will be natural consequences of a multipolar world.
