The past XX century and the first years of the 21st century have brought new and immeasurable suffering to the peoples of the world (wars, famine, disease, unemployment, poverty, etc.). But along with these sufferings, despite them, many significant examples have been given of man’s unquenchable pursuit of social justice, freedom and equality.
During this century, the first attempt was made in a number of countries to move to a society in which social and class contradictions and conflicts will remain in the past and unsuspected opportunities for free development will be open to every human being. In the countries where the socialist social order was established, health care, education and the real right to work became accessible to all citizens. There was a powerful industrial boom and large-scale housing construction. Prospects for multilateral development have opened up for young people.
However, for a number of reasons (the main one being the revisionist policies pursued by the ruling communist parties) in Eastern Europe, this first attempt to end social oppression failed. After the former socialist countries became the object of the expansion of transnational corporations, today even more of humanity lives under capitalism.
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It is characteristic of capitalism that the mode of production of the goods necessary for human existence divides society into two groups with opposing interests. On the one hand there is a small (now insignificant) number of people who have property rights over the decisive means of production created by the whole society, and on the other hand there are all those who are deprived of such means – the proletarians. The only way the proletarians can provide for their livelihood is to sell their labor power every day as a commodity of the capitalists. The latter use this social dependence to appropriate added value, ie to make a profit. For each individual capitalist, the constant inflow of profits, ie the inflow of funds for the accumulation of wealth (capital), for the expansion and modernization of production, is a condition without which he could not survive in the relentless competition of the capitalist market. Consequently, the extraction of profits is the immediate goal and driving motive for each individual capitalist, for capitalist production as a whole. It is produced not to meet the needs of society, but, first of all, to constantly increase the amount of private capital. The self-growth of private capital through the exploitation of wage workers is the basic regulatory principle of all social life under capitalism.
Capitalist competition and the introduction of increasingly productive technologies are leading to a constant concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer private hands. This is the logic of the capitalist market – the stronger beats the weaker, the big financial sharks ruin and devour small producers. The so-called “invisible hand” of the market, which supposedly encouraged people’s development by competing their abilities and knowledge, is today in fact the insatiable hand of large financial predators, driven by an unquenchable thirst for more and more profit and comprehensive domination of society. And if at its dawn the capitalist mode of production through free competition has benefited the development of the productive forces and the progressive development of society and individuals, today it has become an obstacle to human progress.
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The current stage in the development of capitalism is characterized by the fact that the major monopolistic unions have brought under their control and distributed among themselves markets and raw materials around the world and the financial oligarchy as a whole has established its dominant position in society. But despite the temporary agreements between the individual groups of financial capital, there is a constant struggle among them to redistribute spheres of influence and to change the balance of power in favor of this or that group.
The competition for maximum profits between giant corporations is the main source of instability in the modern world. It constantly creates disproportion and anarchy in the distribution of public resources between the various branches of economic life, which prepares the preconditions for devastating economic crises and increases the threats to the ecological balance on a global scale. At the same time, it leads to monstrous income inequality, to an irreconcilable conflict between the interests of individual social groups and strata, to bloody social conflicts and wars.
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The state machine of the United States today is the main military-political tool through which transnational corporations defend their interests, their predatory way of life. After the disintegration of the socialist bloc, the United States pursued an even more unceremonious policy of aggression and dictatorship in international relations. The desire of American ruling circles to impose world hegemony is expressed in hostile actions against states trying to pursue an independent course of political and economic development in defense of their peoples from the plunder of corporations.
All over the world, big monopolies impose their interests with the help of the IMF and the World Bank, and where nations and governments refuse to obey these international financial institutions, they are inspired – with the help of “private” foundations and NGOs – “color revolutions” to change of unwanted governments or the sending of imperialist strike forces – the air, naval and ground forces of the United States and NATO.
While the IMF and the World Bank are imposing economic genocide on the country’s people, NATO and the United States are acting directly – brazenly and unscrupulously: “pacifying” the country with cruise missiles and depleted uranium bombs… In all cases, corporations and to provide bridgeheads for crushing popular movements that would dare to oppose imperialist dictatorship.
At the same time, in the conditions of escalating capitalist crises and deepening contradictions, nationalist and fascist tendencies are intensifying – not only in Europe and around the world, but also in our country. The experience of recent years unequivocally shows that the West is ready – in pursuing its interests – to morally, materially and militarily support the activities of groups that openly support Nazi ideology, as well as to assist obscurantist and fascist regimes.
But along with the economic and political enslavement of our country, actions are underway aimed at the spiritual enslavement of the Bulgarian people. With the help of financial control over the information space (the media, cultural and educational institutions) working people in our country are forced to believe that the disasters caused by capitalism are normal and inevitable, that capitalism has no alternative. The same task of instilling slavish reconciliation is being pursued by all sorts of “private” foundations, which are in fact funded by the United States and some Western European governments.
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Today it is clear that, as a result of the restoration of capitalism, our country has become a neo-colony of the imperialist states, led by the United States. But robbery, lawlessness and violence give rise to the need for resistance and counteraction. Therefore – as a direct response to economic ruin, mass unemployment, growing misery and degradation, as a protest against US and NATO military aggression, in which Bulgaria is forced to participate due to its vassal status – the September 23 Movement emerged.
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We, from the September 23 Movement, are convinced:
– that, in modern conditions, the capitalist social system increases the suffering of billions of human beings with each passing day and becomes more and more an immediate threat to the existence of life on the planet;
– that today the abolition of private property relations is the key to overcoming social evils: social inequality and oppression, poverty, unemployment, wars, moral degradation and crime (alcoholism, drug addiction, prostitution, etc.);
– that the enormous productive force at the disposal of society (but which is at the disposal of the privileged strata and, above all, the financial oligarchy) would be able to ensure a dignified existence and free development for every human being – the only necessary condition for achieving this goal is to use resources, technology, and public labor in accordance with the priorities of human development, and not to extract capitalist over-profits;
– that the objective vital interests of the vast majority of humanity, as well as the interests of preserving life on the planet, require the replacement of capitalism with communism (whose initial or lower phase is socialism) – a society without human exploitation, where:
-the means of production will be the common property of all people, of society as a whole;
-the balances and proportions between the different branches of the production activity will be regulated in a planned way;
-the immediate goal of production will be to meet human needs (not profit);
-the distribution of the means of subsistence will take place according to labor – during the first phase of the development of the new society, and according to the needs – during the second phase;
-that in modern Bulgaria, as in most countries of the world, the abolition of social privileges and the transition to a classless society is possible only through a comprehensive and massive deployment of the struggle of wage workers against the dictatorship of the big capitalist owners;
– that in connection with all this at the present time in our country the primary historical necessity is to proceed to the construction of a revolutionary organization, which in the future to take the role of vanguard in the struggle for liberation, helping to unite and organize workers – regardless of their ethnic and religious affiliation – from the individual enterprises, industries and regions of the country in defense of their common vital interests.
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The September 23 movement adopted Marxist-Leninist theory and studied the accumulating new historical experience of revolutionary and resistance movements around the world.
We see our most immediate task in working to build a successive revolutionary organization. Our goal is for the September 23 Movement to grow as a cadre organization capable of organizing workers’ resistance to capitalist oppression. For this purpose, it is necessary to attract like-minded people who will dedicate themselves to the struggle for freedom and a just future of the Bulgarian people. In this regard, we intend to participate in protests and rallies, to organize and conduct subscriptions, discussions, screenings.
An important place in our activity will be occupied by the printed editions, the distribution of literature and the maintenance of the website “septemvri23.com”. Through our activities we will strive to help increase the number of people who are critical of the messages and manipulations of propaganda expressing the interests of the oligarchy.
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All of us who are aware that today capitalism leads to the multiplication of the misery and suffering of nations, to the outbreak of aggressive wars and the starvation of millions of human beings, accept as our moral and civic duty to raise the flag of struggle in Bulgaria. Today, the only worthy choice for us, for the sons and daughters of our people, is to seek and find our place in the struggle for the liberation of humanity alongside all the fighters in the world. The sooner we get involved in the common cause of working people around the world, the better prepared we will be for the coming battles.
And the longest journey starts with the small first step…
THERE IS NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR CHAINS!
AND THE WHOLE HUMANITY WILL WIN!
OUR CAUSE IS RIGHT, VICTORY WILL BE OURS!
