Megacities, capitalism and the left

(Paper for Workshop on India’s Path to Socialism, 27-30 December 2011, Hyderabad)

Anil Rajimwale

1) Marxism is the product of industrial capitalism, which involves creation of industrial cities, machine-based society and generally a modern world. It is the most advanced thought-system covering a whole era from capitalism to communism.

2) Marx visualized socialist and communist revolutions in the advanced capitalist countries first because material conditions were emerging there. This historically logical because socialism is the stage next to and higher than capitalism these countries were: Holland, England, Belgium, Germany etc. He and Engels even visualized peaceful revolutions due to a number of objective and subjective factors. Germany had a powerful and widespread social democratic workers’ organization and movement in the urban as well as rural areas, which is an example for us in the present context. For example, the German SDP ran 107 (one hundred and seven !) daily newspapers at the beginning of 20th century.

3) Subsequent revolutionary movement took a different historical turn, and the revolution occurred in Russia first, in an era of imperialism, which is analysed by Lenin and some others. Since then, revolutions have been taking place in relatively backward countries for a number of historical reasons.

Communism and the Left in India

4) The communist, left and Marxist movement in India were born in colonial conditions. They emerged and developed in the industrial centres like Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and many others. They also spread among the educated sections, poor and landless peasants, students etc. At the time of independence India had a strong left and Communist movement, so much so that the CPI emerged as the first opposition and the second largest force in the first general elections of 1952. We need not narrate the subsequent history here.

Today, the left and the communist movement faces crisis of sorts. The crisis extends to the general trade union and political activities also. Why the left is shrinking? Why is it not able to attract the youth? Why its appeal is weaker? These theoretical and practical problems have arisen particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Failure to grasp the new

4) The world and India have changed drastically in the meantime. Objectivity changes according to its own laws, not according our wishes. Unfortunately, many people want to forget this, and thus want to forget the laws of historical materialism.

5) We are going through another revolution, greater, deeper and more fundamental than the industrial revolution. It is the STR and ICR. Many or most the concepts need to be changes in the light of this revolution, in the way Marx himself did. The left and the communist movement, and the existing Marxism, failed to anticipate it, and then refused for a long time to recognize it. For example the very introduction of computers was opposed at first. Now of course gradually it is being recognized and the mistake to certain extent being corrected, though not satisfactorily.

6) STR/ICR are creating new working class and working masses, shifting in favour of information and communications. The very composition of the working class/masses in our own countries is undergoing rapid changes. Is the movement/parties adjusting to these changes? Unfortunately there is a huge gap between the electronic workers and electronic world and the left and the communists. This is n unfortunate reality

7) The social composition of the society is shifting its spectrum towards information and services, and away from production. This is happening for the first time in history.

8) Urbanisation is proceeding rapidly in our country. Causes are several, but the general direction of result is one. The communist and left needs to re-orientate itself towards this new direction of social development. The movement is still working on the momentum of the past, of the old and outdated concepts. The mentality is still semi-rural, there is hesitation to deal with the urban population.

9) Among the most dramatic results of modern and late capitalism (in India-like countries) is the creation/emergence of giant mega-cities and megapolises, unprecedented in scale, extent and population. These cities are countries in themselves! Their growth is faster in developing countries than in the developed ones. More than half of Indian Chinese population now lives urban areas, whose centres are the giant mega-cities. They are the centres of the future.

10) Has Marxism and left paid attention to this fact? Do they realize that in near future they going to have to deal with preponderantly urban mega-giants? They are NOT industrial cities, despite their massive sizes. They are the very concentrated expressions of the modern, POSTMODER and POST-INDUSTRIAL life centres, where information production and services play a decisive role.

11) Where is the left in these giant urban conglomerations? What is their strength? Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of Thousands? Even that is not enough. All the left together is no more than tens of thousands. Nowhere do they reach a lakh! Then how can one talk of any social change? The cities are growing so fast that even if the left has a fixed substantial number, it is actually falling behind in proportion. There is virtually no left organization/movement in the residential areas of modern cities.

12) This is because the left is working with old tools of knowledge and outdated concepts, which must be given up quickly. The left must target the new middle class, electronic personnel, office goers, youths, students, women etc, in addition to the working class. Even in the working class the left is getting weaker because the working class itself is changing. The social composition of these giant cities is not the same as earlier.

13) The traditional TU, Communist and left movement was centred in the textile, spinning and weaving composite mills, engineering, big industrial factories and plants, etc. Today, such factories have virtually disappeared. For example, for miles together one will not across a composite textile mill. Now we find an abundance of new types of productive, service and information units. Similarly, the residential, market, financial, banking etc areas have all changed. But there is hardly a trace of left movement and organizations in such places. This is a serious picture.

14) It is obvious that the changing skylines and productive base, and emergence of urban giants need a. fundamental reorientation of the strategy and tactics, and methods of work by the Marxists. They have to plan for the future and transform themselves accordingly. They cannot afford to ignore categories like the consumers, information and service workers, worker-engineers, journalists and media persons particularly those in electronic media, new small entrepreneurs as a result of availability of small electronic machines and so on. Now every kind of work is getting computerized, and this has deep impact on social composition.

15) If Marxist movement does not take these realities into account, it will fall father behind.