]BRASIL]
]BRASIL]
T e m a s
I was not an isolated individual: on that Saturday 26 January over 900 actions took place in over 100 countries all over the globe. Beyond reminding you of your adolescence the banner Make Capitalism History was my
own modest contribution to this week of global action
Jérôme Ollier’s reply to the President of the Brussels Stockmarket, Bruno Colmant, published by Le Soir on page 19 of its 7 February issue with a trailer on its front page
Dear Bruno,
I quite agree with you: we did live a unique moment together. I also have a clear memory of our meeting. In the lift I said: You (meaning "the capitalist class") lost quite a lot earlier this week, didn’t you ? and you answered with something of a smile Yes... 40 billions, under the puzzled stare of the policemen around, surprised as they were by our friendly tone. So you, the president of the Stockmarket, felt disturbed by this act...
You write that you were flabbergasted by coincidences: a global stockmarket krach at the beginning of the week, the World Economic Forum at Davos in its wake, that yearly celebration of capitalism that brings together the most ’powerful’ decision-makers on a global scale. This is in no way a coincidence: the stockmarket krach had been looming for months and the World Social Forum has been held every year since 2001 at the same time as the Davos WEF to try and build a counter-power and show that another world is possible. I was not an isolated individual: on that Saturday 26 January over 900 actions took place in over 100 countries all over the globe. Beyond reminding you of your adolescence the banner Make Capitalism History was my own modest contribution to this week of global action.
But let us come to the essential part of your message. You write The Stockmarket has an indispensable economic function: it establishes values and underlies the call for risk capital.
I will reproduce here a response I received after your oped, which I find quite relevant. It was written by Eric Toussaint, the author, among other books, of Banque du Sud et nouvelle crise internationale,[4] which I strongly advise you should read: “Come on, Monsieur Colmant, the Stockmarket’s main function today is financial speculation. Merger and purchase operations without any industrial project as well as speculation on securities prevail. The sheep-like behaviour of financial markets and the cycles of capitalist economy recurringly entail large-scale stockmarket crises that have deeply detrimental effects on the lives of citizens. In order to ensure that a few who are already very rich acquire even more profit the future of the vast majority of others is put at stake as in a casino. The real estate speculation that recently hit the United States led to the subprime crisis. In 2007 two million US families were evicted from their homes because they could not pay their mortgage. The financial companies that had granted loans at variable rates to already indebted households sold their debt securities to large banks, which found themselves with loads of virtually valueless securities. When they announced losses, stockmarkets plummetted. A large number of citizens could see their life savings jeopardised because of the risky operations of some stockmarket operators. Indeed part of their savings is invested as shares."
Along the same line, you claim that capitalism is the natural order of human societies, and consequently cannot be gainsaid. This is wrong. In its current form capitalism has been around for scarcely three centuries. Civilisations had thrived on all continents for millenia before without any notion of capitalism. Humankind can set up organisations that have nothing to do with capitalism. For instance, if we do not set individual profit as the ultimate goal of human behaviour (and please please do not answer that striving towards individual profit is part of the natural order of things for several anthropologists have proved the opposite) and if accumulating capital is not perceived as the heart of economic activities. But capitalism will not disappear on its own, this is for sure, unless our planet can’t take it any more.
There are other forms of domination too: men’s oppression of women, racism, religious discrimination..., all of them must be done away with. We have to set up genuine alternatives. And these have nothing in common with capitalism, or for this matter with the Stalinian totalitarian regimes of the Soviet era, of Pol Pot or the current Chinese dictatorship.
My climbing onto the roof of the Stockmarket building is not a crime, it is part of the right citizens have to rise up against oppression and express their opinion. Today in my eyes the natural order of human societies would rather be the determination to act so that fundamental human rights be at last guaranteed to all... While there is no cut and dried solution for socialism in the 21th century, this should not prevent us from attempting to build one.
Jérôme Ollier
Activist of the Revolutionary Communist League Belgium, Belgian section of the fourth International (jerome@cadtm.org)
If you go to the newspaper’s website, you will find other
responses after the President of the Stockmarket’s text.
Le SOIR 1
If you wish to see a photo reportage of Jérôme Ollier’s action, you can
click here
On Sunday 10 February 2008 around 12 noon, Jérôme O. was one of the
guests in a public debate on the Belgian French speaking television channel
RTB-F. Among other guests we find the President of the Stockmarket and
Arnaud Zacharie. All these infos are also available on www.cadtm.org
