Socialist globalisation and united nations

by K Vijayachandran

BOOKLET ON SOCIALIST GLOBALISATION
EPILOGUE: CONCLUDING SECTION

Bourgeoisie ideologues look at Science and Technology (S&T) and all other knowledge systems as products of market competition, and treat them as private property of business classes who had drawn and re-drawn the political maps of not only Europe but also the entire globe, through numerous local and regional wars, as well as two global wars inflicted on humanity by imperialism and global finance capital.

League of Nations and the Soviet Union were thus, the byproducts of First World War: Second World War led to the establishment of a United Nations Origination (UNO) and the liberation of China, India and other Afro-Asian countries from imperialism. At the time of Soviet revolution, many among the Russian intelligentsia and even revolutionaries had argued that socialism in one country in isolation was mere utopia. However, Bolsheviks led by Lenin challenged these views and continued with the socialist project and the building up of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR), an altogether new historical experience.

The numerous nationalities, big and small, liberated by Bolsheviks from Tsarist oppression, were encouraged to establish a socialist union under the banner of a revolutionary union: They continue to exist even today as sovereign republics under the banner of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), despite the dissolution of USSR. The vast experience of this mutual cooperation and working together of diverse nationalities and nation states had helped USSR to establish even much larger networks of economic and cultural cooperation like the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) and several other bilateral and multilateral institutions.

Counter revolution by the intellectual classes of USSR led by Gorbachev, Yeltsin & Co in the name of Glasnost and Perestroika could not wipe out the cultural, political and material gains registered by humanity at large, under the revolutionary initiatives of proletarian classes and progressive movements spanning the seven continents. Globalization drive initiated by socialist China in more recent years is an integral part of the big changes that was sweeping the globe for several decades under the banner of socialism: These globalization efforts, unlike the imperialist globalization under capitalism during the past couple of centuries were inspired by socialism, socialist traditions with Chinese characteristics.

Socialism with Chinese characteristics as professed by the Communist Party of China (CPC) today, is not a new invention by the present leadership of that party. The concept had come into vogue and evolved during the days of Mao himself, during the hay days of Cultural Revolution as evidenced by the interviews with Han Suyin by N Ram, as published by the Frontline Vol 29 issue 23: Nov 17-30 2012 as well as the numerous writings of this Chinese scholar and novelist. In fact, the stress on cultural diversity among nationalities and independent nation-states dates back to the Bolsheviks, to the era of Lenin and Stalin who had built genuine and functioning unity among diverse nation states, nationalities and races that constituted USSR, nearly a century ago.

True, there are numerous stories about East Europeans being harassed and dictated on by Lenin and Stalin: They were mostly fabricated or exaggerated by the intellectuals of bourgeoisie classes and hardly stand rigorous scrutiny. As an Indian engineer trained in socialist Czechoslovakia and living in that country for two years and working with Czechs, Slovaks, Germans and other East Europeans for more than four years, I may say that such stories had their origins in the stupid cold war environ that was forced on by bourgeoisie ideologues and political propagandists.

The special relationship that continues to exist among the peoples of CIS and former CMEA countries as well as the former Non Alignment Movement (NAM) of developing countries within the UN System, are proof enough for the warm non-antagonistic relations that had been developing among them for several decades, after the cultural revolution of China: This has now matured into a global phenomenon and philosophy with a coverage of around 90 percent of humanity, today. These diverse cultures and nationalities are not strangers to each other, any more.

The game of divide and rule should end with the melting away of an absurd cold war, forced on humanity by the imperialists: Even South Korea and North Korea have turned friends and are shaking hands under the initiatives of China and other socialist countries but it is sad that the numerous institutions created under UN initiative like the, UNDP, UNIDO, FAO, WHO, IAEA, WMO and several others remain under-utilized or non-utilized: There is no dearth of hunger and poverty but there are no takers even for the best of anti-poverty technologies.

Rapid developments in Science and Technology, especially Information Technology, provide plenty of comfort and encouragement to individuals to belong to larger and larger collectives that are, possibly, far more intelligent than the best of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that could be conceived by isolated individuals. A multicultural multinational platform would help mankind to transcend even the natural constraints of Time and Space: It is time for mankind to liberate itself from technological pessimism forced on it by three centuries of global capitalism, two global wars and the long years of cold war that was even more destructive.

China the leading socialist country of our times and the most populous among the comity of nations is destined to play a key role in speeding up of the century old socialist globalization initiated by the Soviet Union. And the nineteenth Congress of the Communist Party of China held in October last, seems to be a bold step in that direction. Website on the latest Congress of CPC as quoted below gives a detailed account of the present system of governance in China as well as the guidelines for its future development:
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/special/19cpcnc/latestnews.htm

Programs and plans based on these principles have led to a leap forward in the S&T capabilities of China and rapid growth of nearly all sectors of its national economy, leading to a vast expansion of its foreign trade in volume as well as value. Chinese leaders, during their visit to the UN Head Quarters in Geneva, last year, had proposed that the UN institutions should start playing a much larger role in global trade and development. The IMF-IBRD-WTO combine or the so-called Bretton Woods solutions of the sixties have lost most of their relevance, under the rapidly changing economic situation (1).

The vast experience of CMEA and the systems and institutions developed by the erstwhile socialist block in the expansion of bilateral trade and development as well as international monetary settlements, and later inherited by the UNCTAD (2) and, now followed by the BRICS and other China-led institutions have turned out to be far more relevant and significant under the rapidly changing global scenario, today (3).

There are hardly any takers for the theory of End of History mounted by the bourgeoisie intellectuals during the hay days of perestroika: The era of Socialist Globalization ushered in by Soviet Revolution continue to provide material and spiritual comfort for mankind under the UN umbrella, for quite a few centuries to come.
Notes and references:
1. A Plan to save the WTO-Lead article in the Economist of July21st 2018.
2. See my paper under Section 5 of this book: World Trade Organization: the failure to deliver

3. See the Soviet Book -Two Worlds-Two Monetary Systems- by A. Atchkassov and O. Preksin –Mir Publishers – 1986

EOD/24-10-2018