Imperial fascism and the communist politics
25 April 2006
We have stated before that we have entered into a very significant political process in terms of history of class struggle since determination of the date to start negotiations with the EU, and that the power centers were waiting for determination of the date for starting negotiations to start to speak in relation to new developments and hence in the next 10-15 years, we would pass through a very tense and severe period of reconstitution of the powers and power relations. The fascist movement reacted first. It is observed that fascism has been introduced again in order to suppress and terrorize the libertarian forces and exclude them as a political force from the political process.
This phenomenon cannot be considered as conjunctural. It signifies a political operation in the context of reconstitution of powers and power relations. The concept, the subject matter and timing seem to be well planned. It was not accidentally that the flag of Turkey was pulled down in Mersin during the Newroz celebrations. Addressing to one of the most sensitive concern of the society, it is apparently aimed to kill two birds with one stone. The main purpose is to restructure all social and political dynamics within the category of nationalism. Upon this purpose, the Kurdish question as the most sensitive issue in the EU process is preferred. One is either separatist or nationalist! We are aware that this is a well-known discourse. However, we are also aware that this official discourse has partly eroded although it sometimes worked well before. The important point that should be considered, implying a serious threat is that the fascist movement has been employing the anti-imperialist discourse. Discussions on whether the fascist movement employs the anti-imperialist discourse sincerely or not do not touch upon the strategic aspect of the matter. It is really necessary to consider the fact that the fascist movement argues against the Kurdish movement with an anti-imperialist discourse transcending the discourse of separatism. In this sense, the main purpose seems to be the reconstitution of social-political dynamics with an anti-imperialist discourse against the USA, EU and the Kurdish movement with reference to the concept of nationalism.
Imperial Fascism and Nationalism
There is no distinction as the inside and outside of the expanded production and reproduction process of capital accumulation. In any part of the world, it is not possible to maintain labor productivity and exploitation in the global competition and hence surplus value production without being organically articulated with global capital. In other words, capitalism orders global capital to subsume labor under its domination all over the world. Concentration of global capital is founded upon dissolution of national capitals. This means declaration of global sovereignty. Nation state is disciplining labor within borders. This means declaring, “Exploitation of labor within the national borders is now subsumed under the sovereignty of global capital”. In this sense, global sovereignty is a challenge against sovereignty of nation state as a form of sovereignty. The main tendency of the capitalist empire is the disintegration of the sovereignty of resisting nation states by means of war and re-disciplining them according to the notion of global democracy as well as commodification of all social relations by global capital. The nation states are relocated in the hierarchy of the capitalist empire. In other words, the national sovereignty is restructured in a postmodern manner. We call this new form of sovereignty that capitalism has come to adopt as “imperial fascism”.
Imperial fascism breaks sovereignty of the capital circles that have been dissolved by concentration and centralization of global capital. Nationalism is the response to this break. The powers and power relations shaped through the imperialist era of capitalism has been redesigned in the era of capitalist empire. This crisis of sovereignty among capitalist powers is the crisis of representation in the post-modern era.
The first and second republicans
The first Turkish Republic was founded upon the external threat of imperialism and internal threat of Kurds, Sharia and communism. The Independence War of 1919-1922 is the continuation of the First World War in our geography. In other words, the first republic has evolved through the First World War. The Ottomon Empire headed by the Unionists is one of the substantial actors of the First World War. The Ottoman Empire had not been considered as a small power, but instead as a weak but an imperial power decisive in the movement of history. The fact that it was allied with the Central Powers would not change it. Therefore, the first republic is the representative of the cultural heritage of the imperial history of 600 years. In this sense, the constitution of the sovereignty of the first republic should be considered beyond the matter of democratic nationalism; and an imperial nationalism inspired by the debacle in the First World War has been always present in the spirit of the state and society. Nationalism in our social and political history has been still constituted within the discourse of power to conquest, empire and world state, domination and power rather than within a bourgeois democratic discourse that puts nationalism of the oppressed against that of the oppressor. The clash between the political Islam and the first republic is not a matter of secularism but of power split. Political Islam is a political power inhering the heritage of the empire. It claims to have a share in power. The AK Party (Party of Justice and Development) as the initiator of liberalization of Islam tries to seem closer to imperial actors determinative in the global power mechanism and to solve the clash between the political Islam and the first republic relying on the EU process. And it has proceeded a long way in this attempt.
The process of membership to the EU is the constitution of the second republic. It represents a process through which all the powers and power relations would be reconstituted. This process has been considered from a very inward-looking perspective. The anticipation that the democratic demands of Islamic, Alevi and Kurdish powers would be resolved has also brought with itself a severe deadlock. This deadlock may drive the political and social process into a melee difficult to resolve. The political Islam has tended towards resolution of the problem with the first republic. Resolution of this problem depends upon constitution of the second republic. The army and the AK party are the constitutive forces of the second republic. However whether these powers could take steps or not depends upon an adequate strategic reading of the constitution of empire as the new form of sovereignty of capitalism and executing their forces in accordance with this reading. Turkey is located in the center of a geography where capitalist empire is constituted through war. It does not seem possible to bypass the process by daily politics. The wait-and-see politics has been deadlocked since the Kurds demand to be the constitutive power of the second republic.
The growth rate was recently announced to be 9.9%. It was the highest rate attained during the history of the republic. However no one mentioned about the rate of poverty. This growth rate is indicative of capital concentration; that is, centralization of capital through dissolution of small production. The big capital has deepened organic integration with global capital. The global economic and political process has weakened the sovereign power of the state. The state tries to bypass the reform process through preserving its sovereign power. It tries to preserve its sovereign power relying on either the USA or the EU. However it is clearly seen that both the USA and the EU has a common strategy in terms of imperial concept of capitalism. The state has been through a crisis of representation and sovereignty. It has to make a change in its political conception. The provocation of an attack against the Turkish flag was organized within this political deadlock. The social and political dynamics are reconstituted on the basis of the nationalism of the fascist movement. And the fascist movement has been extending the notion of nationalism as to include anti-imperialist and Kemalist discourse. The social and political powers are divided between Yes and No to the EU. The “yes” camp has adopted the political line of the second republicans whereas the “no” camp the political line of the first republicans. The first republicans have been considered to be nationalist, anti-imperialist, Kemalist whereas the second republicans are declared to be traitors. This crisis of representation and sovereignty of capitalism and capitalist powers is not our own crisis. Those stating, “Okay, it is not our crisis, but we should pursue daily politics” would find themselves on the same ground with the nationalist camp.
The Crisis of the Empire and the Communist Politics
Capitalism has been driven into a new crisis of sovereignty while undergoing through constitution of a new form of sovereignty. It is a crisis of representation and the nation state as a form of representation. The global capital has been challenging against all forms representation impeding its limitless expansion. It is the crisis of the passage from national sovereignty and the nation state based on representative democracy to territorial states structured with global notions of imperial democracy. This is the dissolution of the form of sovereignty of modernism. This crisis can only be governed by imperial fascism. The crisis of national sovereignty produced by imperial fascism leads to local nationalisms. Imperial fascism drives humanity into barbarism promoting discourses of nationalism, war and religion. It is impossible to response to this crisis of sovereignty of the capitalist empire with the modernist discourse of nationalist left based on national borders and nation state.
The class struggles cannot be confined within national borders. The nationalization of politics of labor is an interdiction put forward by limitless capital without a nationality against labor. The class struggle has been globalized. The politics of labor can be liberating to the extent that it can initiate a global politics. The only way to avoid being a side in the war of sovereignty among capitalist powers is a global politics. This is the revolutionary possibility offered to communists by the crisis of empire. Just as the parole of “turn the imperialist war into a civil war” has served a revolutionary function, “globalize the politics of labor everywhere” constitutes the parole of the revolutionary politics today.
Communists are bearers of senses of conscience, dignity and justice of humanity. Opposition against war with an anti-militarist discourse is today a communist politics. Claiming that all national and international armies are abolished and the arsenals are closed is immediately a communist demand. Opposition against all forms of sovereignty based on representative democracy is a communist politics. Refusing the state adopting war, nationalism, religion and representation as the politics of sovereignty is a communist demand. The borders serve to the sovereign. The politics of abolishing borders is a communist politics. The claim for world citizenship is a communist demand. Communists struggle for values, cultures and freedoms. For communists, it is not powers but labor itself that produces values. Therefore communists do not idolize powers as a value. Their politics and freedom consist in their respect towards the lands on which they live, the water they drink and the bread they eat, the language they speak and the culture they live in.
For those who consider power in terms of representation and state, these demands may seem utopian. However the responsibility of communists today is to revolutionize the concept of revolution.
OTONOM No. 10 (May-August 2005)