THE initial stages of the G20 talks in China were yesterday dominated by the world crisis of capitalism, the sharpening antagonisms that this crisis is creating between the G20 countries, and within them, and the fear of revolution – Brexits as it were, with arms in hand.
PM May left a message for the BBC as she flew off to China that Britain needs to be prepared for some ‘difficult times’ ahead, but that Brexit ‘will not be kicked into the long grass’. One thing that the unelected PM, appointed by the 1922 Committee, has learnt from Brexit is to be very suspicious of elections or referendums, as she ruled out ‘a snap election’ in the UK before 2020 or a second referendum.
President Obama told May when he met her that he would carry on interfering and that the US would ‘consult closely’ with the UK over Brexit negotiations to ensure there were no ‘adverse effects’ in the US-UK trading relationship. In other words she is to be policed by the USA!
With US aircraft carriers in the China Sea, Obama could not expect to be greeted with open arms, in China, but yesterday he urged reporters ‘not to over-crank the significance’ of the treatment of his entourage when he arrived for the G20 summit in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.
There was no red carpet welcome for him and more tensions broke out at the West Lake State House, where Obama met President Xi Jinping. White House aides, protocol officers and Secret Service agents became embroiled in a row with Chinese officials as to how many Americans should be allowed into the building before Obama’s arrival. At one point there were fears the confrontation could become physical, the New York Times reported.
Xi Jinping the Chinese leader in his welcoming speech, meanwhile, urged leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies to avoid ‘empty talk’. Putin added to May: ‘Clearly, you and your team are facing complicated tasks, but we all are facing complicated tasks. We wish you success and hope we shall be able to bring our bilateral relations to a level higher than today.’
Late last week, his deputy PM Dvorkovic assured the world that Putin in fact opposed Brexit as it weakened the EU and that he wanted to see the EU united and strong to make a proper negotiating partner. Brexit has weakened Europe and created uncertainties about its future,’ Dvorkovic said.
However, EU colleagues are difficult to find. As he spoke the news emerged that the Hungarian police are advertising for 3,000 ‘border-hunters’, who will reinforce up to 10,000 police and soldiers patrolling a razor-wire fence built to keep refugees out.
The new recruits, like existing officers, will carry pistols with live ammunition, and have pepper spray, batons, handcuffs and protective kit. Putin is looking for strong EU partners while within the EU its right wing is on the march against refugees, the labour movement and against Russia.
Putin, however, has been going out of his way to make good relations with the UK to the point of inviting 15 Eton schoolboys, regarded as future rulers of the UK, to talk to them in the Kremlin. However, bourgeois friends of Russia are in very short supply. At his joint press conference with May Obama remarked: ‘We have grave differences with the Russians in terms of both the parties we support but also the process that is required to bring about peace in Syria.’
Yesterday’s enemy, Erdogan, who supported shooting down a Russian plane earlier this year, has posed as a friend of Russia since the attempted coup. Using this posture he has been able to invade northern Syria despite the objections of the Syrian government, without any response from Russia. The only real friend that Russia has is the working people of the world!
The foreshocks of the greatest crisis that capitalism has ever seen is what is agitating the G20 meeting. The bourgeoisie knows only one way out of this crisis, that is to crush the working class at home and smash the Russian and Chinese revolutions!
The only solution to this crisis is to make 2017 (the Centenary Year of the 1917 Russian Revolution) the year in which the working people of the world rise up to smash capitalism and imperialism to establish a World Socialist Republic. To carry out this task sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International must be built in every country.
