NSC Position on the Latest Power Crisis of Capitalism

"Electrification"… A Source of Soviet Strength… Lenin-1917
Imperialist Ongoing Energy Crisis, Wars and Monopolization… Bush-2003
A Question of Who Controls…

Ray Stevenson

Almost five generations ago Vladimir Lenin "prescribed" the future for the new way of life and state that emerged with the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

"Soviet power, plus electrification will equal Socialism", he said. His materialist prognosis was correct and it worked. The population of Russia and, all of the adjoining lands for centuries have languished under feudalist-neo-capitalist and vicious forms of colonial oppression. The population almost universally lived under primitive squalor, totally deprived of individual rights or any semblance of collective security or well-being. By their revolution they had placed their foot steps on the pathway to a new life and unheard of vistas of material well being, the elimination of illiteracy, poverty and control by ruthless state powers that were shared with the state Church and its medieval religious mythology that exercised the most backward superstitions.

The Bolshevik-working class led revolution brought to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the front rank among nations as a highly industrialized country. Increasingly erased was poverty and economic crisis. Provided was universal free education…(a world first)…and universal health care. They developed advanced scientific research and exploration that put men and women into space safely. All of this and much more, socially and culturally became integral to Soviet life as they built Socialism. All these advances came while fighting off bloody and negative results of war and from both internal and external hostility, sabotage, and ideological political subversion. The unending intrigues spawned by the monopolies of the Imperialist world extended into many decades of hostility. Included was the destruction and loss of life at unprecedented levels from WW II and the earlier "wars of intervention" following 1917. More than fifty million of Soviet citizens died in these unprovoked wars and aggressions. While the decision making political and social powers that were inherent in the "Soviets"…(read: people’s elected Councils), plus their heroism and sacrifice was primary, the massive "electrification" programs became an indispensable "tool" in forging their new society. Of course today, and with the advent to power and influence inside the Communist Party by social reformists, anti-Soviet counter-revolutionaries and other opportunistic forces of "competitive competition" --finally in 1991 brought down the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the people no longer wield any significant political or economic decisions or even have any influence on the energy or any other industries. Instead the massive "electrification" facilities and capacity that was built by the Soviets has become a major "dollar-cash-cow" and source of profit for "oligarchs" that "privatized" industries by hostile and concealed, under-handed acts against the Soviet people. They literally stole the electrification…and many other enterprises…from the people. "Electrification" in the fifteen virtually hapless countries that were former Soviet Republics, now serves native and many foreign world buccaneers who profit from the peoples poverty and downgraded lives under a form of barbarism, called "new capitalism".

We cannot say whether the electrification system works better… or worse… than in North America. We can only say that the helpless "consumers" in both instances, already paying through the nose in exorbitant prices per kilowatt hour, can expect to pay more, and experience ever greater costs attached to crisis in delivery of this vital energy. Whether citizens in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal et al know it or not, they have much in common with the citizens of Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad…(St. Petersburg…???). Both societies are being gouged unmercifully by the hidden monopoly tycoons that control the production and delivery of electrical energy. That was proven "beyond a shadow of a doubt" for fifty million Canadian and US citizens on August 14, 2003 when the "lights went out". Life sustaining electrical energy was snatched away in a twinkling of an eye. The results were felt "in their bones". The "privatized" and "deregulated" electrical power grids covering a vast area and major cities and population, including Toronto, New York, Boston and in-between areas of population in both countries fell into the twilight of "de-electrified" life, as the entire system ground down.

Skilled surgeons operating on open incisions were suddenly without light, until their generators kicked-in. Senior "cardiac" patients and fragile seniors in tenuous life support systems…including life sustaining air conditioning gasped for air and life. Families with small children were separated without recourse to communications, public transport, including subways with entrapped passengers and road travel ground to a halt for hours on end. An endless list of actual and potential disasters and calamities, including miners that were trapped underground and people hung up in stalled elevators in high-rise buildings, waited for hours in the "shut down". We do not know what are the details or numbers of actual tragedies and ills amongst the fifty million peoples affected.

Can it happen again? Of course it can…and will. It may very possibly re-occur with deliberate intent to ensure dominance over foreign countries and industries. President George W. Bush, the current chief "hypester" of the "new imperialism" and his gang of "oil buccaneers" has demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt their intent, backed by the trillion dollar military killing machine of USA’s finance corporate power advanced plans to control energy and all oil reserves of the world. This program is already evident in the Muslim former Soviet states, from Azerbaijan to Kirghizia, Latin and South America and all of North America. If oil is the energy component and essential to keep the "wheels" of US and the satellite Imperialist "globalizers" running smoothly, is it possible that the high-tech machinery of war and capitalist "production" can manage without "electrification"? Can life exist without air and water? Hardly so.

Bush, immediately following the "black out" and electric shut down called for the search for the "causes" to be given top priority. His alacrity was earlier matched by his "declaration of (eternal war") on "terrorism", the necessity of taking "dead or alive" Osama bin Laden and a little later the declaration of the "right to pre-emptive war" and "regime change" and together with Britain’s Blair, unilateral war in Iraq…or wherever immediate compliance with US Imperial policy and purpose might not be forthcoming or "rears its head". Not for Bush and his crowd shall there be any such nonsense as "diplomacy" except at the end of his "star war" fantasies… or some kind of silver handed six-shooter.

Quite clearly the "war (eternal) on terrorism" is as "crooked" and has more twists in it than the Monagahela River…or even the Mississippi River which Mark Twain assured us was not only "crooked" but had the power to expand its "crookedness" even further, simply by flowing along through the countryside…Perhaps the river created similarity to the current political Imperialist designs "meets the eye."

For example, by August 16^th, two days after the black out, a spokesman for the "Wired Magazine" on ubiquitous (not a swear word) CNN TV informed that while the US-Canadian "electrical grid" now in place would soon become a total North American "electrical grid" and from that vantage point would be extended to cover not only Mexico and Central America, but the entire South American continent… Thus from the North Pole to the South Pole the interests of General Electric et al would be secured. The costs will run into "up to trillions of dollars". We don’ know if the "Wired Magazine" is sponsored by General Electric, Chase Manhattan Bank et al, or not.

But wait… there is much more according to this "insider" viewpoint. The same massive "electrical grids" are also being prepared for the Euro-Asian coverage, ultimately to take in all of Africa in a single "grid". The "dream" stuff…if that is what it is…envisions a total "globalized" electrical grid to cover the entire world…introducing a new element of word control by who ever grips the switches, and "controls" the "master grid"…presumably the corporate monopolies of the USA. The energies of "oil" and "electricity" would then rest universally in the hands of the world’s most virulent Imperialism, together with trillion dollar military machinery…and we assume the full support of Microsoft’s "Bill" Gates…and a tiny elite of "power brokers" and satraps gathered under such a "universally terrifying" umbrella. The stuff of nightmares or dreams???

We suggest it to be of sufficient gravity as to be worthy of examination as the "privatization" and "deregulation" from public and democratic controls proceeds apace, put into effect by Governments dictated by "political kickbacks" of hard cash. Province of Ontario in Canada, where the century old Hydro as a public utility met and satisfied both the industrial and consumer demands is now firmly tied into the US "electrical grid" for reasons nobody can adequately explain, since the Ontario provincial capacity for electrical mega-watt production far exceeds the demand. Stories have emerged even at this early date of direct connections between an Ohio Company "First Energy" of "privatized-deregulated" vintage and the highest "energy commissions" of the Bush Administration. Not only are billions (more likely trillions) dollars at stake…the messianic vapors that come steaming out of the Washington’s Oval Office stand to be verified and fulfilled. Of course, that these vapors include limitless power and self ambitions of the crowd around the President…

Should all of those publicly announced and apparent notions prove unfounded, than the corollary is true: monopoly capitalism-imperialism is not only light-years past any possible claim to serving the people by its avowed ability to produce…it is in fact unable to resolve its own inner developed and ever deepening material crisis. If it cannot prevent electrical energy "black outs", there remains no possible claim for them that monopoly capitalism –imperialism is of any use to humanity and should leave the scene…or be driven out from it. That can only be seen as the emerging outline of impending and inevitable crisis and break down of monopoly-capitalist and imperialist system.

Northstar Compass is not and has never claimed to be a "political party" in form or substance. That does not mean however that we do not have and proclaim political ideas and thoughts. Within itself our Credo is not neutral. Factually an expression of "Friendship, Solidarity and Peace" is unquestionably "political" in the broadest sense. We call for the broadest unity in a united front around such a concept. But as a "non party" entity and formation, we respectfully suggest to all political formations democratically representing the working class and people, such as the current Communist parties, that a more coherent "materialist" and "class" position is now demanded and must be exercised with all possible vigor. We believe that humanity now lives in the most critical and crucial time in all of human history. Not to meet that challenge head-on would mean "walking beside" those forces who have long and repeatedly denied humanity its rightful goals and freedoms. Nobody can stand aside who makes claims to fight and give leadership in the historic class struggles for urgent and immediate material and socials needs of the working people and all humanity.

History has taught us that at the very cutting edge of that united struggle, stands the absolute necessity to bar the wholesale grab of material and energy sources by the ruling monopoly elite, whether by war, or political aggressions. The united democratic hands of workers and consumers of electrical energy must hold the levers of power and exercise their rightful and democratic control.

We must not fail in that future.
"History" would never "absolve" that.

Close this page to return.