IMPERIALISM
volunteer@leftforum.org
IMPERIALISM
IMPERIALISM, the last stage of capitalism, has several stages; Monopoly capital, parasitic, rotting capital, and-dying capitalism. There are 5 economic spheres that are covered by imperialism; 1-concentration of capital to the degree of monopolies that control every aspect of everyday life 2.- fusion of banks and industry, giving rise to finance capital 3.- the export of capital, as opposed to the export of merchandise, 4.- international monopoly alliances in order to divide the world up among themselves 5.- the end of any possibility of dividing the world any further. Imperialism is given birth to by an enormous increase and concentration of production, that is, corporations take the lion's share of the totality of production, they increase their labor power controlled by a few magnates.
Trusts (holders of property naming shareholders) are a typical form of monopoly. They are the product of the absorption of many companies, the bigger ones swallowing the smaller ones. Well-known trusts in the early days were US Steel , General Electric, of the Morgan group, and Standard Oil of Rockefeller. which at one time held 90% of petroleum products in the US. Free competition gives rise to monopolies, but this does not mean that competition ceases. Competition continues between the monopolies and those companies that have not been monopolized, between smaller and mid sized companies, between small producers, artisans and farmers. This competition leads to a worsening to the limit in living conditions, the intensification of labor, and the low subsistence level of small enterprises.
STOCK SHARES.The concentration of production is accompanied by the concentration and centralization of banking capital. The role of the banks is greatly modified. They go on to become owners of industrial companies, at the same time that industrial capital is encrusted in the banks. This fusion is called finance capital. These share holding companies become the dominant characteristic of empire. Shareholders may sell their shares in the stock market, which is controlled by the sum total of the holders. Each has a vote according to their holdings- one vote, one share. Those who have many share have many votes and can control the society, because many individual capitals become one capital, and this centralization takes over the national economy. Some integration of share holding companies are composed of smaller holders, employees, a small part of workers. These smaller holders can not even attend meetings, since it requires time and money to travel to another city or country. The only advantage is to the big share holders, who make more money the more shares there are , even though many of the smaller ones only get back tiny dividends. The company has control of of a second company, and third, and so on. Thus it can dispose of funds much greater than its own in a pyramid of companies under its control, opening the way to unlimited possibilities of enrichment for a few. Thus they become a financial oligarchy, which take over the key financial positions in the society. Their power resides in their ability to use huge amounts of capital that is not theirs. They might have 3 billion dollars, and control through the holding company 61 billion.
EXPORT OF CAPITAL. Control by a few corporations within a government leads to their eventual control over world finances. The way this is accomplished is by the export of capital, that is, foreign investment with the end of keeping all profits based on the labor of foreign nationals in other countries. Developed countries take advantage of underdeveloped countries and their cheap labor power. Capitalists, instead of investing on social welfare, have a tremendous "excess of capital" that they must invest somewhere, and underdeveloped countries provide the greatest advantage.
Export capital takes two forms 1.- productive capital and 2.- credit. The first is manifested in investments in industry, transportation, commerce etc., while the second deals with government loans, subsidies, credit to other governments and private individuals. The advantages are high profits, low land price, miserable salaries and cheap raw materials. For example, Standard Oil investments in the Middle East and Latin America yielded capital gains six times greater than in the US. 1954 GUATEMALA COUP
1961 CUBA BAY OF PIGS INVASION
1964 BRAZIL COUP
1965 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC INVASION
1973 CHILE COUP
1976 ARGENTINA COUP
1983 GRENADA INVASION
1989 PANAMA INVASION
1994 HAITI INVASION
2002 VENEZUELA ATTEMPTED COUP
2009 HONDURAS COUP
2019 VENEZUELAN ATTEMPTED COUP
Corporations, benefiting from debt, based on loans they give to impoverished countries, and not least the political machinations aimed at backing reactionary forces and gaining military allies. It is only a matter of time until international monopolies are then created. The cartel is just an armistice in the industrial war. This competition between monopolies leads to war. The tendency is for all the trusts to merge into a single giant corporation worldwide, but because of capitalism's internal weakness, and its penchant for competition, the whole thing will fall apart before that is happens, and capitalism will turn into its opposite. At the beginning of the twentieth century 6 great powers occupied 81,5 million kilometers of the earth's 133.9 million kilometers.
The great powers must consolidate in their hands as many raw materials as possible, those in use and those with potential. This explains the appetite for other people's lands seized by the Empire, be they colonized or nominally independent. The US is the greatest colonizer in the world today. By placing capital loans in strategic places, the granting of onerous credits and the signing of unequal treaties, the US controls much of the world's natural wealth. Venezuelan oil until recently, Chilean copper, Bolivians tin, Brazilian steel and coffee are or have been property of the US. Latin America is their backyard containing strategic materials and military bases. US monopolies are owners of 2/3 of Middle East oil, leaving "the camel's ear" to whomever is left. Thus the colonies provide high returns, raw materials, cheap labor power and cannon fodder.
Under these conditions the colonized countries have no hope of development and entering a modern economy,and remain victims of parasitic capitalism. The monopolies put a brake on the development of productive forces and technical progress. When before the capitalist offered competition by means of bettering the methods of production, lowering costs and prices, under this new competition between monopolies, the approach is different. The struggle against rivals is kept going by direct pressure, financial machinations, withholding of credit, and raw materials., boycotts, sanctions, etc.
TECHNOLOGY HELD BACK. Technical progress is held back by keeping prices artificially high and limiting the issuance of selected products. (who killed the electric car?) Technical progress is likewise held back by the monopolists reluctance to bring in new machines, due to the high cost or competition they are unwilling to engage in. Science and technology are held back when they are degraded and rendered useless in the service of profit. The consequences of all this is that humans are separated from productive work, socially useful work, and from the creation of material goods. Companies do not work at their fullest capacity- unemployment increases. Workers are used in non productive jobs such as money circulation, pubic administration, the armed forces, as servants, etc.
In spite of all this, competition can never be totally erased. Productive forces must keep developing. Rivals are done away with. What technical advances there are become the exclusive property of the great monopolies. Parasitism in the imperial phase of capitalism is made clear by the existence of renters, economic practices of monopolization of (physical, financial, intellectual, etc. kinds of property (copyrights), and gaining significant amounts of profit without contribution to society, those shareholders that live by clipping coupons. Hundreds of thousands of industrial companies, banks, railroads and others are under their control. The hold untold wealth and power, and exist within a whole class of sycophants that grows around them, ready to satisfy their every whim. Toward this end public administration. the police and the army grow to protect and serve the ruling class, in the service of monopoly power.
_____________________________
ADVENT OF FASCISM. Capitalism defeated feudalism under the slogans liberty, equality and fraternity. Under imperialism the situation has changed. There is now scarce free competition, instead becoming relations of violence and domination. Once the monopolies control the economy, they reach out to control the political life. To do this they must dispense with 19th century democracy and take on the mantle of reaction, a way of life that controls and keeps tabs on the population so it does not get out of hand. Fascism is the terrorist dictatorship of monopoly ruling class and of the landowners. Fascism is the brutal repression of the workers and farmers movements, the implacable persecution of workers' parties, and other social organizations, the militarization of the country and military adventures abroad.
Evidence of imperialism's pull to the right is shown by the militarization of life, economically and politically, and the rise of the influence of the Church ( in the US--prayer breakfasts, K St. etc.), the power of billionaire Evangelists, who claim that Jesus "told them to get rich". The monopolies try to take away all the conquests of the working class, such as the New Deal. This has the opposite effect of mobilizing the workers to protect their democratic gains.
THE LABOR ARISTOCRACY. Imperialists have an interest in setting aside a small group of workers and union leaders so that they do their bidding in opposition to the interests of their members. The domination by monopolies, the export of capital to less developed countries, and colonial policies have all contributed to the formation of the labor aristocracy. They are bribed in various ways; getting higher pay, appointed to better jobs, including public service, subsidies to reformist organizations, etc. This represents opportunism at the base of the working class. The worker's movement is tailored to fit the needs of the ruling class., allowing for collaboration and separation from the movement. By calling for a fake unity, they profess to separate the workers from the class struggle, attempting to "improve" capitalism by means of reforms. They are agents of empire in the ranks of the workers. The workers however are not fooled, since the benefits accrued to the aristocracy make more palpable their suffering.
CAPITALISM IN ITS LAST THROES. Monopoly and parasitic capital is capital in in its death rattle. The monopoly structure that is born under capitalism carries on to become a new socialism. All the internal contradictions have been carried to the limits. Out of the shit of capitalism grows the flower of socialism. When a big company turns into a giant, when it organizes raw materials with everything that it entails, when it transports on that scale, when a central depot contains all the phases of production from start to finish, when the distribution is for hundreds of millions of consumers, then it is obvious that production has been socialized, and private, economic and property relations which are simply an envelope that no longer corresponds to its content, which will rot if it is not gotten out of the way.
Socialism is not capitalism, and the former can only be implanted with the conquest of political power by the workers and their allies, the suppression of private property in the means of production, which are transformed into social property. This cannot evolve, but must pass through the fire of revolution in a great leap for which it is not enough to consider the material premises, but many other objective and subjective conditions as well.
SHARPENING OF CONTRADICTIONS. Imperialism is the lat stage of capitalism. Contradictions are sharpest and brought to the fore, between the social character of production and the private, capitalist form of confiscation. The concentration of production and the rise of monopolies represent a new advance in the development of the social character that they represent. Nevertheless, appropriation remains private. As time goes by, the contradictions become sharper; that of work in the face of capital, between the oppressed people of the world, and the great consortiums that exploit them, and those contradictions between the imperial powers themselves.
Private property, the anarchy of production, and the competitive spirit make it impossible for all capitalist economies to develop in the same way. Some enterprises, sectors and entire countries remain behind, while others forge ahead. This is true in its treatment of individuals as well. By the 20th Century the US had achieved superiority in industrial production greater than that of England and Germany. This was made possible by new technology, and the concentration of production and capital, and by the appearance of the monopolies. After a time these companies started to rot and fall behind, which put a brake on the productive forces.Some countries leapt ahead while others stagnated. The old colonial distribution was no longer in sync with the new relations of power. The countries at the vanguard let loose a series of wars to redistribute the world in their favor. This has the opposite effect and debilitates the imperialist front through a series of weak links. Economic inequality is accompanied by political inequality. this process is different in different circumstances. If the workers are weak in one country, the ruling class can divide them. By the same, if the workers are strong in one country they will take power, even if other countries lag behind.
BEGINNING OF THE CRISIS. Capitalism goes through periodic crises- that is its nature. The general crisis, however, includes all aspects of capitalism within the social system. There is a progressive disintegration, the weakening of its internal economic, political and ideological forces (decadence). These are not simple mistakes nor passing phenomena. It is the inevitable transition in the epoch of decomposition. It cannot keep under its control other countries, such as Cuba and Venezuela, which have freed themselves in liberation movements. Ideologues of imperialism have the idea that if they are able to suppress socialist movements of liberation they will win, but they don't realize that the problem is not socialism, but capitalism itself. They see the socialist movement as being manipulated "from without by foreign agents", not realizing that they are the internal cause of the growth of the movement. The greater the crisis, the greater the resistance. 20th Century wars gave birth to socialist countries such as the USSR, Viet Nam, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba, among others. Capitalism was not the only social and economic system available. Suddenly, markets had conditions they hadn't had before. Not everyone had to suffer under systemic unemployment. Workers could strike and win.
As soon as WWII was over imperialism attacked the socialist countries. The unequal development of imperialist countries made their struggle with greater virulence for the acquisition of raw materials and for world markets. This ushered in more wars, which became the main concern of the monopolies. The result was that capitalism and imperialism gained new critics, and the more they tried to convince populations that they represented "democracy and freedom," the less convinced they were. The population could see that with a prison population of over 2 million, democracy and freedom applied only to a tiny segment of the population- one that was "free" to exploit the rest. The ruling class also experienced changes, falling into depression, pessimism and decadence.
IMPERIALISM TODAY. First, the advent of socialist countries has forced the capitalist agenda to modify itself. Second, contradictions among the imperial powers and the colonies have sharpened. Third, the US came out of WWII stronger and ready to control the world. Fourth, capitalist countries are experiencing revolts and contradictions among their own populations. Today socialist countries take up 35 of the globe, or 1 billion people. By the same token the imperialist camp has experienced reductions. Socialist countries have carefully retained their system making concessions, while at the same time helping exploited countries regain their sovereignty. Class wars have sharpened in the Middle East and Latin America, fighting against the private property involved in production, which hold back the development of the productive forces. The empire can no longer control populations with the same methods as before, and has opted toward a system of government monopoly, which is a way of privatizing the government, and to do the bidding of the capitalist. Where before the capitalist worked with the government for privileges such as low taxes, use of public credit, subsidies, etc., with the appearance of government capitalism, things changed. Now the industrial machinery apparatus is needed to join forces with the enormous power represented by the government in order to continue its supremacy. Capitalism becomes transformed into government capitalism.
A PLANNED ECONOMY vs FREE MARKET. Socialist countries prevented economic disaster and saved socialism by planning the economy. Capitalists took over some of the planning (Keynes) ideas in order to save capitalism. Under the rubric "public works" the government paid for the construction of highways and transportation systems, and electrical systems, in order for the monopolies to save money. Any surplus is destroyed in order to keep prices up and profits coming in. The government grants credits and subsidies to the monopolies so they can sell in other countries at "dumping" prices, which are artificially cheaper. All these measures do is increase the parasitism intrinsic in monopoly capital.
UNIFICATION OF POLITICS AND THE ECONOMY. It was these types of measures that took Nazi Germany to its extreme. Each capitalist enterprise was a representative of public government power. (the revolving door). Private companies distributed favors among corporations, established the prices and distributed the raw materials. The government become the instrument that distributed centralized capital. Small businesses were suppressed, or were swallowed up by the corporations. The fascist government fiercely repressed the worker's struggle and dissolved the unions. It showed its true disgusting face of heartlessness. " Hitler moves quickly to remove the non-Nazis from the driver's seat, making the Party the exclusive master of the government, with an authoritarian government and its police ready to carry out the Nazification of Germany. On May Day, the Nazis organize a massive and enthusiastic worker's demonstration, with the motto, "Honor work and respect the worker." The next day they occupied all trade union buildings with no resistance. Union funds were confiscated, leaders arrested, even if they had pledged to cooperate with the Nazis, and sent to concentration camps (US prisons, Guantánamo and border detention centers). Three weeks later collective bargaining is brought to an end,"labor trustees" are provided by the Party to "regulate contracts and maintain labor peace. (right to work)" ( William L Shirer.)
______________________________
WAR PRODUCTION. Once the ties have been established, they are there as long as government monopoly capitalism persists, even in peace time. Military mobilization becomes a permanent part of the government apparatus. Thus the main production centers have to do with war production. War production consortiums take over government power, taking over cabinet posts and the most important political positions in order to deepen their monopoly hold on power. They are capable of any outrage, any torture, any assassination (Soleimani) in order to get what they want. Competition (freedom) is done away with. Public funds disappear into the gaping maw of private military spending (contractors). Monopoly capitalism is the union between the private and the public, but with the cautionary tale that the government takes a back seat to the wishes of the corporations. The government saves the private companies from taxes and fees, that are paid for by the worker, and it saves them from crashing and going under financially. (bail outs). It increases military sending to protect the empire abroad. Police are enlisted to stop any protests by workers. Corporations take over public finances for their own use, and begin to use the GNP- gross national product- as their private ATM machine. Each time there is more money for them and less for the population. By ordering war materiel at long range, they assure a certain stability of the market, and protection against any fall in the market. This is perhaps the most vivid example of capitalism's parasitism. The production of instruments of death separates the working, scientist and engineering population from producing anything of value for the society, and at the same time it dilapidates natural resources in a sterile way, so that the ecology suffers without reason. The worst of it is that there is no end to the production of war materiel. In addition, the banks get fabulous shares of wealth based on their risk-free handling of public funds.(Obama). When companies collapse because they are no longer profitable, they are closed down or sold back to the government at generous prices.
Other countries that dare to nationalize their industry have a limited period to enjoy their benefit to the population, since it is only a matter of time before the capitalists enterprises re- privatize them. (countries in Latin America). Any attempt by workers to stabilize the process is met with violence, slander and prison time. Strikes are outlawed or made onerously difficult. Exploitation of the workers is demonstrated by the constant rise in prices while wages remain stagnant.
After a war, the monopolies force the government to finance the export of merchandise and to guarantee private and export credit. The imperialist government takes over in the export of capital used to invest in areas where private capital is considered too risky. Thus they arrange for international treaties regarding the exploitation and division of raw materials, for example the metallurgy industry that was composed after WWII of sources from Germany, France, Italy, Belgium Holland and Luxembourg, conveniently morphed into "the Common Market", port of entry that places corporations in a position of unusual privilege. For them, war is a good thing. At the same time international corporations gather together all the right wing elements in the countries they control in order to maintain the colonial system, even under another name, to fight tooth and nail against democracy and socialism, to maintain the cold war in whatever guise, and to prepare aggression against countries that do not toe the line. This is made feasible by the use of offshore deposits such as in the Cayman Islands or Panama. The aim is world domination.
MILITARIZATION OF THE ECONOMY.The monopolist corporations take advantage of their control in order to redistribute the GNP (taxes, loans, control and distribution of resources, etc) and thereby create a gigantic war economy. Since they have a hard time selling their products everywhere, the corporations concentrate of building and selling war, for which there is always a market, which they themselves encourage. These sales no longer go into the millions, but tread onto billion dollar figures. What the corporatists don't understand is that by exterminating masses of people sooner or later they dictate their own death sentence.
The war industry can lead to higher employment, better salaries. Temporarily. Factories are re-opened. Nevertheless at some point the war has to be over. Production decreases. Unemployment soars. The population that has been attacked is pauperized, with millions dead, while at home suicides increase, people are traumatized, without limbs, and unable to work. Liquidity has been drained. The budget has to be covered by by workers and other employees, at the same time that demand goes down. In the countries directly affected by war defense expenditures take over the economy resulting in serious shortages. The darlings of the war business, new machine guns, bombers, electronic equipment, start losing their shine and become junk to be scrapped, often without being used at all. Militarization opens the doors to an exhaustion of the economy which is seriously counterproductive. Inevitably, and civil progress is detained in favor of the war apparatus, and thus the national economy is unable to develop properly. Loans have to be paid back, with interest. The military reaches into the pockets of ordinary citizens to pay for the huge expenditures brought about by the corporations.The result is inflation. The government cannot deal with the expenses of sustaining an army and its weapons, only by means of taxes and loans. The deficit begins to be covered by the issuance of paper money that is greater than the amount required for its circulation (artificially hyped up amounts). In addition , the debt is calculated as a means of payment and guarantee of loans that have been given by the banks to the capitalists, which results in greater money in circulation. In the US the buying power of the dollar was half in 1957 that what could be bought before the war. With inflation prices grow faster than salaries, making the capitalists richer as long as the working population is getting less, while they are forced to work longer hours and often in dangerous conditions.
Militarization of the economy in civil society produces less money for schools, hospitals, etc. Culture is degraded, chauvinism is encouraged, and militarized thinking and bureaucracy take over in day to day transactions. Democracy disappears.
WAR APPARATUS OF MONOPOLY CAPITALISM. State capitalism can fulfill a progressive role under some circumstances, but a monopoly capitalism of the government cannot. The cry from the people to nationalize institutions is based on a hunger for justice, a stroke against oppression and the heavy yoke that privatization represents. Nationalized socialist industry is far superior in efficiency and quality, as opposed to the vagaries of the market, not the least of which is the fact that society can get along very well without capitalists. Breaking up the sacrosanct principle of private property (what gave anyone the right to take land that belonged to no one) forces monopolists to accede to the popular will, their worst nightmare. The monopolies consider the government to also be their property and at their bidding, and the struggle of the working class is often to lessen the stranglehold that the monopolies have over the government, which should be used for social programs, infrastructure,etc., and to make lives better for everyone, instead of just enriching a few monopolies. If the government can freeze salaries, why can't it establish a minimum wage? Why can't the government control inflation, and rents, and prices? Why cant it offer full employment? These things are not decided by God or destiny, but by Congress people and Wall St and the Pentagon. Why cant they be decided by the working, tax-paying population?
Only the bid for power by the working class can bring about the changes necessary to throw off the yoke of the monopolist class that sucks up every benefit provided by the workers and leaves them with precious little, changes which include the masses of workers, led by workers, toward the socialization and nationalization of industry and private property.
______________________________________
REVISIONISM. Keynes had it right when he declared that the capitalist government was in a state of agony, but he erred when he felt that it could be fixed. . Keynes felt that things would straighten out if investment was controlled, credit and interest regulation were kept at a reasonable level, and monetary circulation could be controlled so that workers should not suffer a devaluation of their salaries. The illusion was that this could be maintained forever. It did not count on the venality and greed of those who had nothing but contempt for the workers, and who were determined to sweep up the last penny into their bank accounts, making themselves fabulously rich. The 1980s saw a determined systematic effort to dismantle the Keynesian reforms in favor of government monopoly capitalism out of control (Reagan), bringing in a nightmare only dimly perceived up to that point. The Keynesian reforms went out the window. Some revisionists feel that if Keynesianism were to be carried far enough, it would develop into socialism. Events have shown this to be an illusion, IF the government would stimulate all the means of capitalist investment in production, and established some control that would refrain them from saving and encourage spending, this would level incomes by raising taxes over earnings. . This "planned" economy would result in full employment. This was done in England with the idea of a national social security system and free medical care, something that has been torn down bit by bit by the capitalists that refuse to yield. Monopoly capitalism is rapacious, militaristic, parasitic, prone to crises and unemployment. There is no way these two opposites can be reconciled. Until the government is under the control of the workers, it will remain under the control of the capitalist monopolies, which exercise a permanent dictatorship by the richest and most traditional families in the society. These reforms do not do away with the relations of exploitation, . Under capitalism there can be no actual socialism--the only thing to do is to set the basics for the transition. And that involves the -scientifically proven fact that there must be a transition from private to social property. Otherwise, it's no dice.
_________________________________
PERIODIC CRISES. The government tries to maintain the economy on an even keel by producing huge quantities of armaments and strategic materials . Also, it regulates banking credit , where the explosion usually starts. In a crisis of overproduction,in order to prevent panic withdrawals of bank accounts, and crashing the banks, the State takes upon itself to guarantee the shortfalls. (Obama). The result is an attempt to palliate the crisis by raising interest rates, encouraging farmers to reduce their crops, etc. as well as trying to convince consumers to reduce their credit buying of cars, machinery, furniture, homes, etc. Those who defend the system assure that capitalism is then under control, that unemployment will be a thing of the past. In the US, under so-called reforms, in the years 48-58 there were 3 production collapses, with a decrease of 10.5 % reaching into 57-58 with a decrease of 13.7%. Instead of full employment, unemployment has increased by the millions. This includes statistics relative to war production. If that is taken out of the equation the result is much greater. The crisis results in making a few rich people even richer, while draining the economic energy of the country and making lives worse for the population. The government drains the people's resources by raising taxes and devaluating the money, with the result that demand grinds to a halt. When the economy starts up again, it is only to start the cycle all over again. The crisis is often so deep that it drives people overboard, and the result is an offensive by the reactionaries, the introduction of fascism and the drums of war. In order to prevent this, those who fight for the workers and the people in general, must provide raising salaries, making commerce advantageous for everybody, not just the seller, the organization of great infrastructure projects (where is the bullet train, or the great damns, or the millions of houses fr the homeless, the construction of new schools and hospitals, unemployment as a living wage, the reduction of taxes and housing rents?). These reforms are not aimed at making capitalism palatable, but rather at paving the way for the socialization of property- socialism.
___________________________________
THE WORKING CLASS AND CAPITAL. As the general crisis of capitalism advances, worker exploitation gets worse, and work is intensified, with attendant accidents and sickness that are the result of the tension suffered by the workers. In some assembly lines they are not allowed to go to the bathroom and have the keep pee bottles with them while they work). Work intensity provokes the rapid waste of the organism and the lessening of worker efficiency. The result for the capitalist is enormous wealth, while the workers are plunged into deeper poverty. The crisis does not take into account the fall of incomes vis à vis the value of labor itself. First, there is the intensification of work. The greater the intensity the greater the need to recover one's strength. Second, people have different needs in comparison with centuries back. Cities have grown at a dizzying pace. workers live farther away from the workplace, making transportation costs an important part of their expenses. More women are in the workforce. Even with a bigger salary, costs outrun income, with home conveniences, machines that help with housework, more expensive food. Health care and medicines are an important increase in terms of cost. Children's education, often out of reach, has nevertheless become essential. This means that the value of the work force is greater than the volume of real salaries. If a working family were to live solely according to what they earn, the would be living below the poverty line. Add to this the millions of unemployed and partially employed and you have a population in misery. Even those who have jobs are mired in instability and anxiety for the future. It is not only fear of losing a job, but fear of accidents, illness, or intensive tension that leads to an early old age, without resources or pensions. Worker instability is accentuated by being forced to buy on credit and making time payments. These debts are in the billions of dollars. Missing a payment can mean bankruptcy. In order to cope with greater and greater discontent the bosses have come up with stark measures such as blacklisting, or police at the workplace. The ruling class will use any measure to prevent a strike, or a worker's rebellion.
The working class has increased its capacity to organize, to be conscious and to struggle effectively. The fall of fascism in Europe, the successful socialist countries, the liberation of colonial countries, have created conditions that are ripe for the struggle of workers in capitalist countries. As long as the contradiction between labor and capital exists, there will never be peace at the workplace. There is no social peace while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
______________________________
THE MIDDLE STRATA. There are other strata of society that must be taken into account., namely farmers, artisans, small business owners, intellectuals and employees. These strata, far from doing well under capitalism, also have to face the ruin of bankruptcy and unemployment at a rapid rate. Those who are owners are reduced in numbers, and those who were owners are thrown on the market to sink or swim. Even those small business owners who may fancy they are independent are nothing of the kind, since their lives are owed to the banks, have prices and credits regulated against them, and are eventually totally subordinated to big capital.
On the other hand, big capital demands a set of intellectuals, technicians, and employees that do its bidding as much as possible. The number of technicians, scientists, office workers, specialists in commerce, and publicity, the media, education, etc are all put into the service of big capital. The actual volume increase of these strata results in lower salaries (teachers are insultingly badly paid) and in being replaced if they don't fit in with the capitalist agenda. They lose their ability to think independently so that lawyers, doctors, scientists , artists, etc. become contracted workers, to be directly exploited and controlled by the corporations. From a previous privileged position they are thrown without further ado on the heap of the proletariat while forced to become apologists for the system that pays them by having to toe the line, sign loyalty oaths, etc. A small fraction of these obtain high positions in the society and are the darlings of the right wing fascists. They are in the uncomfortable position of exploiting others whom they hire, while being oppressed and skimmed by the all powerful trusts and monopolies.
_________________________________
LATE CAPITALISM. Late capitalism is characterized by fewer cases of tangible property and it is being substituted by stock shares, numbers on a computer, that represent absolutely nothing but can create great wealth- on paper. Apologists propagate the idea that this democratic capitalism- that anyone can buy shares. that anyone can become rich. The reality is that each time a greater number of shares are bought up by fewer and fewer people, so that we have the phenomenon of a handful of multibillionaires having more money than all the rest of the world. A great part of their accumulated wealth is hidden away in tax havens, so that very little of that money is ever used for social programs. There has not been a single case of a capitalist going broke because of taxes, nor a single case whose material goods have been passed on for the good of society.
Things have evolved to the point that a few imperial monopolies control all other monopolies, in addition to controlling the working and middle strata of society. Ordinary mortals are prevented from joining their ranks of the great trusts, since the top owners have become a hereditary proposition as rigid as a monarchy. A few monopolists, with zero responsibility, and always the same families, base their activities upon a narrow circle of corporativists, who represent the bureaucracy and the armed forces.
___________________________________
THE LAST RUNG OF THE LADDER. Each stage is the result of a previous stage and the harbinger of a subsequent stage. Once the general crisis of capitalism starts, it will fall with a fury, including police brutality, wars, assassinations, etc. in a futile effort to preserve itself. There is a saying in Spanish "Mientras más the empinas más el culo se te ve. " The more you bend over the more your ass shows. In socialist countries there have been no schools closed, no health benefits denied, no lack of attention to world peace, no neglect of the environment, while in capitalist countries these things become more and more sharply defined as failures of the system. The more the capitalists try to use the government for their purposes, the more convinced is the working class and its allies that there lies the enemy. The ass is there for all to see.
IMPERIALISM
IMPERIALISM, the last stage of capitalism, has several stages; Monopoly capital, parasitic, rotting capital, and-dying capitalism. There are 5 economic spheres that are covered by imperialism; 1-concentration of capital to the degree of monopolies that control every aspect of everyday life 2.- fusion of banks and industry, giving rise to finance capital 3.- the export of capital, as opposed to the export of merchandise, 4.- international monopoly alliances in order to divide the world up among themselves 5.- the end of any possibility of dividing the world any further. Imperialism is given birth to by an enormous increase and concentration of production, that is, corporations take the lion's share of the totality of production, they increase their labor power controlled by a few magnates.
Trusts (holders of property naming shareholders) are a typical form of monopoly. They are the product of the absorption of many companies, the bigger ones swallowing the smaller ones. Well-known trusts in the early days were US Steel , General Electric, of the Morgan group, and Standard Oil of Rockefeller. which at one time held 90% of petroleum products in the US. Free competition gives rise to monopolies, but this does not mean that competition ceases. Competition continues between the monopolies and those companies that have not been monopolized, between smaller and mid sized companies, between small producers, artisans and farmers. This competition leads to a worsening to the limit in living conditions, the intensification of labor, and the low subsistence level of small enterprises.
STOCK SHARES.The concentration of production is accompanied by the concentration and centralization of banking capital. The role of the banks is greatly modified. They go on to become owners of industrial companies, at the same time that industrial capital is encrusted in the banks. This fusion is called finance capital. These share holding companies become the dominant characteristic of empire. Shareholders may sell their shares in the stock market, which is controlled by the sum total of the holders. Each has a vote according to their holdings- one vote, one share. Those who have many share have many votes and can control the society, because many individual capitals become one capital, and this centralization takes over the national economy. Some integration of share holding companies are composed of smaller holders, employees, a small part of workers. These smaller holders can not even attend meetings, since it requires time and money to travel to another city or country. The only advantage is to the big share holders, who make more money the more shares there are , even though many of the smaller ones only get back tiny dividends. The company has control of of a second company, and third, and so on. Thus it can dispose of funds much greater than its own in a pyramid of companies under its control, opening the way to unlimited possibilities of enrichment for a few. Thus they become a financial oligarchy, which take over the key financial positions in the society. Their power resides in their ability to use huge amounts of capital that is not theirs. They might have 3 billion dollars, and control through the holding company 61 billion.
EXPORT OF CAPITAL. Control by a few corporations within a government leads to their eventual control over world finances. The way this is accomplished is by the export of capital, that is, foreign investment with the end of keeping all profits based on the labor of foreign nationals in other countries. Developed countries take advantage of underdeveloped countries and their cheap labor power. Capitalists, instead of investing on social welfare, have a tremendous "excess of capital" that they must invest somewhere, and underdeveloped countries provide the greatest advantage.
Export capital takes two forms 1.- productive capital and 2.- credit. The first is manifested in investments in industry, transportation, commerce etc., while the second deals with government loans, subsidies, credit to other governments and private individuals. The advantages are high profits, low land price, miserable salaries and cheap raw materials. For example, Standard Oil investments in the Middle East and Latin America yielded capital gains six times greater than in the US. 1954 GUATEMALA COUP
1961 CUBA BAY OF PIGS INVASION
1964 BRAZIL COUP
1965 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC INVASION
1973 CHILE COUP
1976 ARGENTINA COUP
1983 GRENADA INVASION
1989 PANAMA INVASION
1994 HAITI INVASION
2002 VENEZUELA ATTEMPTED COUP
2009 HONDURAS COUP
2019 VENEZUELAN ATTEMPTED COUP
Corporations, benefiting from debt, based on loans they give to impoverished countries, and not least the political machinations aimed at backing reactionary forces and gaining military allies. It is only a matter of time until international monopolies are then created. The cartel is just an armistice in the industrial war. This competition between monopolies leads to war. The tendency is for all the trusts to merge into a single giant corporation worldwide, but because of capitalism's internal weakness, and its penchant for competition, the whole thing will fall apart before that is happens, and capitalism will turn into its opposite. At the beginning of the twentieth century 6 great powers occupied 81,5 million kilometers of the earth's 133.9 million kilometers.
The great powers must consolidate in their hands as many raw materials as possible, those in use and those with potential. This explains the appetite for other people's lands seized by the Empire, be they colonized or nominally independent. The US is the greatest colonizer in the world today. By placing capital loans in strategic places, the granting of onerous credits and the signing of unequal treaties, the US controls much of the world's natural wealth. Venezuelan oil until recently, Chilean copper, Bolivians tin, Brazilian steel and coffee are or have been property of the US. Latin America is their backyard containing strategic materials and military bases. US monopolies are owners of 2/3 of Middle East oil, leaving "the camel's ear" to whomever is left. Thus the colonies provide high returns, raw materials, cheap labor power and cannon fodder.
Under these conditions the colonized countries have no hope of development and entering a modern economy,and remain victims of parasitic capitalism. The monopolies put a brake on the development of productive forces and technical progress. When before the capitalist offered competition by means of bettering the methods of production, lowering costs and prices, under this new competition between monopolies, the approach is different. The struggle against rivals is kept going by direct pressure, financial machinations, withholding of credit, and raw materials., boycotts, sanctions, etc.
TECHNOLOGY HELD BACK. Technical progress is held back by keeping prices artificially high and limiting the issuance of selected products. (who killed the electric car?) Technical progress is likewise held back by the monopolists reluctance to bring in new machines, due to the high cost or competition they are unwilling to engage in. Science and technology are held back when they are degraded and rendered useless in the service of profit. The consequences of all this is that humans are separated from productive work, socially useful work, and from the creation of material goods. Companies do not work at their fullest capacity- unemployment increases. Workers are used in non productive jobs such as money circulation, pubic administration, the armed forces, as servants, etc.
In spite of all this, competition can never be totally erased. Productive forces must keep developing. Rivals are done away with. What technical advances there are become the exclusive property of the great monopolies. Parasitism in the imperial phase of capitalism is made clear by the existence of renters, economic practices of monopolization of (physical, financial, intellectual, etc. kinds of property (copyrights), and gaining significant amounts of profit without contribution to society, those shareholders that live by clipping coupons. Hundreds of thousands of industrial companies, banks, railroads and others are under their control. The hold untold wealth and power, and exist within a whole class of sycophants that grows around them, ready to satisfy their every whim. Toward this end public administration. the police and the army grow to protect and serve the ruling class, in the service of monopoly power.
_____________________________
ADVENT OF FASCISM. Capitalism defeated feudalism under the slogans liberty, equality and fraternity. Under imperialism the situation has changed. There is now scarce free competition, instead becoming relations of violence and domination. Once the monopolies control the economy, they reach out to control the political life. To do this they must dispense with 19th century democracy and take on the mantle of reaction, a way of life that controls and keeps tabs on the population so it does not get out of hand. Fascism is the terrorist dictatorship of monopoly ruling class and of the landowners. Fascism is the brutal repression of the workers and farmers movements, the implacable persecution of workers' parties, and other social organizations, the militarization of the country and military adventures abroad.
Evidence of imperialism's pull to the right is shown by the militarization of life, economically and politically, and the rise of the influence of the Church ( in the US--prayer breakfasts, K St. etc.), the power of billionaire Evangelists, who claim that Jesus "told them to get rich". The monopolies try to take away all the conquests of the working class, such as the New Deal. This has the opposite effect of mobilizing the workers to protect their democratic gains.
THE LABOR ARISTOCRACY. Imperialists have an interest in setting aside a small group of workers and union leaders so that they do their bidding in opposition to the interests of their members. The domination by monopolies, the export of capital to less developed countries, and colonial policies have all contributed to the formation of the labor aristocracy. They are bribed in various ways; getting higher pay, appointed to better jobs, including public service, subsidies to reformist organizations, etc. This represents opportunism at the base of the working class. The worker's movement is tailored to fit the needs of the ruling class., allowing for collaboration and separation from the movement. By calling for a fake unity, they profess to separate the workers from the class struggle, attempting to "improve" capitalism by means of reforms. They are agents of empire in the ranks of the workers. The workers however are not fooled, since the benefits accrued to the aristocracy make more palpable their suffering.
CAPITALISM IN ITS LAST THROES. Monopoly and parasitic capital is capital in in its death rattle. The monopoly structure that is born under capitalism carries on to become a new socialism. All the internal contradictions have been carried to the limits. Out of the shit of capitalism grows the flower of socialism. When a big company turns into a giant, when it organizes raw materials with everything that it entails, when it transports on that scale, when a central depot contains all the phases of production from start to finish, when the distribution is for hundreds of millions of consumers, then it is obvious that production has been socialized, and private, economic and property relations which are simply an envelope that no longer corresponds to its content, which will rot if it is not gotten out of the way.
Socialism is not capitalism, and the former can only be implanted with the conquest of political power by the workers and their allies, the suppression of private property in the means of production, which are transformed into social property. This cannot evolve, but must pass through the fire of revolution in a great leap for which it is not enough to consider the material premises, but many other objective and subjective conditions as well.
SHARPENING OF CONTRADICTIONS. Imperialism is the lat stage of capitalism. Contradictions are sharpest and brought to the fore, between the social character of production and the private, capitalist form of confiscation. The concentration of production and the rise of monopolies represent a new advance in the development of the social character that they represent. Nevertheless, appropriation remains private. As time goes by, the contradictions become sharper; that of work in the face of capital, between the oppressed people of the world, and the great consortiums that exploit them, and those contradictions between the imperial powers themselves.
Private property, the anarchy of production, and the competitive spirit make it impossible for all capitalist economies to develop in the same way. Some enterprises, sectors and entire countries remain behind, while others forge ahead. This is true in its treatment of individuals as well. By the 20th Century the US had achieved superiority in industrial production greater than that of England and Germany. This was made possible by new technology, and the concentration of production and capital, and by the appearance of the monopolies. After a time these companies started to rot and fall behind, which put a brake on the productive forces.Some countries leapt ahead while others stagnated. The old colonial distribution was no longer in sync with the new relations of power. The countries at the vanguard let loose a series of wars to redistribute the world in their favor. This has the opposite effect and debilitates the imperialist front through a series of weak links. Economic inequality is accompanied by political inequality. this process is different in different circumstances. If the workers are weak in one country, the ruling class can divide them. By the same, if the workers are strong in one country they will take power, even if other countries lag behind.
BEGINNING OF THE CRISIS. Capitalism goes through periodic crises- that is its nature. The general crisis, however, includes all aspects of capitalism within the social system. There is a progressive disintegration, the weakening of its internal economic, political and ideological forces (decadence). These are not simple mistakes nor passing phenomena. It is the inevitable transition in the epoch of decomposition. It cannot keep under its control other countries, such as Cuba and Venezuela, which have freed themselves in liberation movements. Ideologues of imperialism have the idea that if they are able to suppress socialist movements of liberation they will win, but they don't realize that the problem is not socialism, but capitalism itself. They see the socialist movement as being manipulated "from without by foreign agents", not realizing that they are the internal cause of the growth of the movement. The greater the crisis, the greater the resistance. 20th Century wars gave birth to socialist countries such as the USSR, Viet Nam, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba, among others. Capitalism was not the only social and economic system available. Suddenly, markets had conditions they hadn't had before. Not everyone had to suffer under systemic unemployment. Workers could strike and win.
As soon as WWII was over imperialism attacked the socialist countries. The unequal development of imperialist countries made their struggle with greater virulence for the acquisition of raw materials and for world markets. This ushered in more wars, which became the main concern of the monopolies. The result was that capitalism and imperialism gained new critics, and the more they tried to convince populations that they represented "democracy and freedom," the less convinced they were. The population could see that with a prison population of over 2 million, democracy and freedom applied only to a tiny segment of the population- one that was "free" to exploit the rest. The ruling class also experienced changes, falling into depression, pessimism and decadence.
IMPERIALISM TODAY. First, the advent of socialist countries has forced the capitalist agenda to modify itself. Second, contradictions among the imperial powers and the colonies have sharpened. Third, the US came out of WWII stronger and ready to control the world. Fourth, capitalist countries are experiencing revolts and contradictions among their own populations. Today socialist countries take up 35 of the globe, or 1 billion people. By the same token the imperialist camp has experienced reductions. Socialist countries have carefully retained their system making concessions, while at the same time helping exploited countries regain their sovereignty. Class wars have sharpened in the Middle East and Latin America, fighting against the private property involved in production, which hold back the development of the productive forces. The empire can no longer control populations with the same methods as before, and has opted toward a system of government monopoly, which is a way of privatizing the government, and to do the bidding of the capitalist. Where before the capitalist worked with the government for privileges such as low taxes, use of public credit, subsidies, etc., with the appearance of government capitalism, things changed. Now the industrial machinery apparatus is needed to join forces with the enormous power represented by the government in order to continue its supremacy. Capitalism becomes transformed into government capitalism.
A PLANNED ECONOMY vs FREE MARKET. Socialist countries prevented economic disaster and saved socialism by planning the economy. Capitalists took over some of the planning (Keynes) ideas in order to save capitalism. Under the rubric "public works" the government paid for the construction of highways and transportation systems, and electrical systems, in order for the monopolies to save money. Any surplus is destroyed in order to keep prices up and profits coming in. The government grants credits and subsidies to the monopolies so they can sell in other countries at "dumping" prices, which are artificially cheaper. All these measures do is increase the parasitism intrinsic in monopoly capital.
UNIFICATION OF POLITICS AND THE ECONOMY. It was these types of measures that took Nazi Germany to its extreme. Each capitalist enterprise was a representative of public government power. (the revolving door). Private companies distributed favors among corporations, established the prices and distributed the raw materials. The government become the instrument that distributed centralized capital. Small businesses were suppressed, or were swallowed up by the corporations. The fascist government fiercely repressed the worker's struggle and dissolved the unions. It showed its true disgusting face of heartlessness. " Hitler moves quickly to remove the non-Nazis from the driver's seat, making the Party the exclusive master of the government, with an authoritarian government and its police ready to carry out the Nazification of Germany. On May Day, the Nazis organize a massive and enthusiastic worker's demonstration, with the motto, "Honor work and respect the worker." The next day they occupied all trade union buildings with no resistance. Union funds were confiscated, leaders arrested, even if they had pledged to cooperate with the Nazis, and sent to concentration camps (US prisons, Guantánamo and border detention centers). Three weeks later collective bargaining is brought to an end,"labor trustees" are provided by the Party to "regulate contracts and maintain labor peace. (right to work)" ( William L Shirer.)
______________________________
WAR PRODUCTION. Once the ties have been established, they are there as long as government monopoly capitalism persists, even in peace time. Military mobilization becomes a permanent part of the government apparatus. Thus the main production centers have to do with war production. War production consortiums take over government power, taking over cabinet posts and the most important political positions in order to deepen their monopoly hold on power. They are capable of any outrage, any torture, any assassination (Soleimani) in order to get what they want. Competition (freedom) is done away with. Public funds disappear into the gaping maw of private military spending (contractors). Monopoly capitalism is the union between the private and the public, but with the cautionary tale that the government takes a back seat to the wishes of the corporations. The government saves the private companies from taxes and fees, that are paid for by the worker, and it saves them from crashing and going under financially. (bail outs). It increases military sending to protect the empire abroad. Police are enlisted to stop any protests by workers. Corporations take over public finances for their own use, and begin to use the GNP- gross national product- as their private ATM machine. Each time there is more money for them and less for the population. By ordering war materiel at long range, they assure a certain stability of the market, and protection against any fall in the market. This is perhaps the most vivid example of capitalism's parasitism. The production of instruments of death separates the working, scientist and engineering population from producing anything of value for the society, and at the same time it dilapidates natural resources in a sterile way, so that the ecology suffers without reason. The worst of it is that there is no end to the production of war materiel. In addition, the banks get fabulous shares of wealth based on their risk-free handling of public funds.(Obama). When companies collapse because they are no longer profitable, they are closed down or sold back to the government at generous prices.
Other countries that dare to nationalize their industry have a limited period to enjoy their benefit to the population, since it is only a matter of time before the capitalists enterprises re- privatize them. (countries in Latin America). Any attempt by workers to stabilize the process is met with violence, slander and prison time. Strikes are outlawed or made onerously difficult. Exploitation of the workers is demonstrated by the constant rise in prices while wages remain stagnant.
After a war, the monopolies force the government to finance the export of merchandise and to guarantee private and export credit. The imperialist government takes over in the export of capital used to invest in areas where private capital is considered too risky. Thus they arrange for international treaties regarding the exploitation and division of raw materials, for example the metallurgy industry that was composed after WWII of sources from Germany, France, Italy, Belgium Holland and Luxembourg, conveniently morphed into "the Common Market", port of entry that places corporations in a position of unusual privilege. For them, war is a good thing. At the same time international corporations gather together all the right wing elements in the countries they control in order to maintain the colonial system, even under another name, to fight tooth and nail against democracy and socialism, to maintain the cold war in whatever guise, and to prepare aggression against countries that do not toe the line. This is made feasible by the use of offshore deposits such as in the Cayman Islands or Panama. The aim is world domination.
MILITARIZATION OF THE ECONOMY.The monopolist corporations take advantage of their control in order to redistribute the GNP (taxes, loans, control and distribution of resources, etc) and thereby create a gigantic war economy. Since they have a hard time selling their products everywhere, the corporations concentrate of building and selling war, for which there is always a market, which they themselves encourage. These sales no longer go into the millions, but tread onto billion dollar figures. What the corporatists don't understand is that by exterminating masses of people sooner or later they dictate their own death sentence.
The war industry can lead to higher employment, better salaries. Temporarily. Factories are re-opened. Nevertheless at some point the war has to be over. Production decreases. Unemployment soars. The population that has been attacked is pauperized, with millions dead, while at home suicides increase, people are traumatized, without limbs, and unable to work. Liquidity has been drained. The budget has to be covered by by workers and other employees, at the same time that demand goes down. In the countries directly affected by war defense expenditures take over the economy resulting in serious shortages. The darlings of the war business, new machine guns, bombers, electronic equipment, start losing their shine and become junk to be scrapped, often without being used at all. Militarization opens the doors to an exhaustion of the economy which is seriously counterproductive. Inevitably, and civil progress is detained in favor of the war apparatus, and thus the national economy is unable to develop properly. Loans have to be paid back, with interest. The military reaches into the pockets of ordinary citizens to pay for the huge expenditures brought about by the corporations.The result is inflation. The government cannot deal with the expenses of sustaining an army and its weapons, only by means of taxes and loans. The deficit begins to be covered by the issuance of paper money that is greater than the amount required for its circulation (artificially hyped up amounts). In addition , the debt is calculated as a means of payment and guarantee of loans that have been given by the banks to the capitalists, which results in greater money in circulation. In the US the buying power of the dollar was half in 1957 that what could be bought before the war. With inflation prices grow faster than salaries, making the capitalists richer as long as the working population is getting less, while they are forced to work longer hours and often in dangerous conditions.
Militarization of the economy in civil society produces less money for schools, hospitals, etc. Culture is degraded, chauvinism is encouraged, and militarized thinking and bureaucracy take over in day to day transactions. Democracy disappears.
WAR APPARATUS OF MONOPOLY CAPITALISM. State capitalism can fulfill a progressive role under some circumstances, but a monopoly capitalism of the government cannot. The cry from the people to nationalize institutions is based on a hunger for justice, a stroke against oppression and the heavy yoke that privatization represents. Nationalized socialist industry is far superior in efficiency and quality, as opposed to the vagaries of the market, not the least of which is the fact that society can get along very well without capitalists. Breaking up the sacrosanct principle of private property (what gave anyone the right to take land that belonged to no one) forces monopolists to accede to the popular will, their worst nightmare. The monopolies consider the government to also be their property and at their bidding, and the struggle of the working class is often to lessen the stranglehold that the monopolies have over the government, which should be used for social programs, infrastructure,etc., and to make lives better for everyone, instead of just enriching a few monopolies. If the government can freeze salaries, why can't it establish a minimum wage? Why can't the government control inflation, and rents, and prices? Why cant it offer full employment? These things are not decided by God or destiny, but by Congress people and Wall St and the Pentagon. Why cant they be decided by the working, tax-paying population?
Only the bid for power by the working class can bring about the changes necessary to throw off the yoke of the monopolist class that sucks up every benefit provided by the workers and leaves them with precious little, changes which include the masses of workers, led by workers, toward the socialization and nationalization of industry and private property.
______________________________________
REVISIONISM. Keynes had it right when he declared that the capitalist government was in a state of agony, but he erred when he felt that it could be fixed. . Keynes felt that things would straighten out if investment was controlled, credit and interest regulation were kept at a reasonable level, and monetary circulation could be controlled so that workers should not suffer a devaluation of their salaries. The illusion was that this could be maintained forever. It did not count on the venality and greed of those who had nothing but contempt for the workers, and who were determined to sweep up the last penny into their bank accounts, making themselves fabulously rich. The 1980s saw a determined systematic effort to dismantle the Keynesian reforms in favor of government monopoly capitalism out of control (Reagan), bringing in a nightmare only dimly perceived up to that point. The Keynesian reforms went out the window. Some revisionists feel that if Keynesianism were to be carried far enough, it would develop into socialism. Events have shown this to be an illusion, IF the government would stimulate all the means of capitalist investment in production, and established some control that would refrain them from saving and encourage spending, this would level incomes by raising taxes over earnings. . This "planned" economy would result in full employment. This was done in England with the idea of a national social security system and free medical care, something that has been torn down bit by bit by the capitalists that refuse to yield. Monopoly capitalism is rapacious, militaristic, parasitic, prone to crises and unemployment. There is no way these two opposites can be reconciled. Until the government is under the control of the workers, it will remain under the control of the capitalist monopolies, which exercise a permanent dictatorship by the richest and most traditional families in the society. These reforms do not do away with the relations of exploitation, . Under capitalism there can be no actual socialism--the only thing to do is to set the basics for the transition. And that involves the -scientifically proven fact that there must be a transition from private to social property. Otherwise, it's no dice.
_________________________________
PERIODIC CRISES. The government tries to maintain the economy on an even keel by producing huge quantities of armaments and strategic materials . Also, it regulates banking credit , where the explosion usually starts. In a crisis of overproduction,in order to prevent panic withdrawals of bank accounts, and crashing the banks, the State takes upon itself to guarantee the shortfalls. (Obama). The result is an attempt to palliate the crisis by raising interest rates, encouraging farmers to reduce their crops, etc. as well as trying to convince consumers to reduce their credit buying of cars, machinery, furniture, homes, etc. Those who defend the system assure that capitalism is then under control, that unemployment will be a thing of the past. In the US, under so-called reforms, in the years 48-58 there were 3 production collapses, with a decrease of 10.5 % reaching into 57-58 with a decrease of 13.7%. Instead of full employment, unemployment has increased by the millions. This includes statistics relative to war production. If that is taken out of the equation the result is much greater. The crisis results in making a few rich people even richer, while draining the economic energy of the country and making lives worse for the population. The government drains the people's resources by raising taxes and devaluating the money, with the result that demand grinds to a halt. When the economy starts up again, it is only to start the cycle all over again. The crisis is often so deep that it drives people overboard, and the result is an offensive by the reactionaries, the introduction of fascism and the drums of war. In order to prevent this, those who fight for the workers and the people in general, must provide raising salaries, making commerce advantageous for everybody, not just the seller, the organization of great infrastructure projects (where is the bullet train, or the great damns, or the millions of houses fr the homeless, the construction of new schools and hospitals, unemployment as a living wage, the reduction of taxes and housing rents?). These reforms are not aimed at making capitalism palatable, but rather at paving the way for the socialization of property- socialism.
___________________________________
THE WORKING CLASS AND CAPITAL. As the general crisis of capitalism advances, worker exploitation gets worse, and work is intensified, with attendant accidents and sickness that are the result of the tension suffered by the workers. In some assembly lines they are not allowed to go to the bathroom and have the keep pee bottles with them while they work). Work intensity provokes the rapid waste of the organism and the lessening of worker efficiency. The result for the capitalist is enormous wealth, while the workers are plunged into deeper poverty. The crisis does not take into account the fall of incomes vis à vis the value of labor itself. First, there is the intensification of work. The greater the intensity the greater the need to recover one's strength. Second, people have different needs in comparison with centuries back. Cities have grown at a dizzying pace. workers live farther away from the workplace, making transportation costs an important part of their expenses. More women are in the workforce. Even with a bigger salary, costs outrun income, with home conveniences, machines that help with housework, more expensive food. Health care and medicines are an important increase in terms of cost. Children's education, often out of reach, has nevertheless become essential. This means that the value of the work force is greater than the volume of real salaries. If a working family were to live solely according to what they earn, the would be living below the poverty line. Add to this the millions of unemployed and partially employed and you have a population in misery. Even those who have jobs are mired in instability and anxiety for the future. It is not only fear of losing a job, but fear of accidents, illness, or intensive tension that leads to an early old age, without resources or pensions. Worker instability is accentuated by being forced to buy on credit and making time payments. These debts are in the billions of dollars. Missing a payment can mean bankruptcy. In order to cope with greater and greater discontent the bosses have come up with stark measures such as blacklisting, or police at the workplace. The ruling class will use any measure to prevent a strike, or a worker's rebellion.
The working class has increased its capacity to organize, to be conscious and to struggle effectively. The fall of fascism in Europe, the successful socialist countries, the liberation of colonial countries, have created conditions that are ripe for the struggle of workers in capitalist countries. As long as the contradiction between labor and capital exists, there will never be peace at the workplace. There is no social peace while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
______________________________
THE MIDDLE STRATA. There are other strata of society that must be taken into account., namely farmers, artisans, small business owners, intellectuals and employees. These strata, far from doing well under capitalism, also have to face the ruin of bankruptcy and unemployment at a rapid rate. Those who are owners are reduced in numbers, and those who were owners are thrown on the market to sink or swim. Even those small business owners who may fancy they are independent are nothing of the kind, since their lives are owed to the banks, have prices and credits regulated against them, and are eventually totally subordinated to big capital.
On the other hand, big capital demands a set of intellectuals, technicians, and employees that do its bidding as much as possible. The number of technicians, scientists, office workers, specialists in commerce, and publicity, the media, education, etc are all put into the service of big capital. The actual volume increase of these strata results in lower salaries (teachers are insultingly badly paid) and in being replaced if they don't fit in with the capitalist agenda. They lose their ability to think independently so that lawyers, doctors, scientists , artists, etc. become contracted workers, to be directly exploited and controlled by the corporations. From a previous privileged position they are thrown without further ado on the heap of the proletariat while forced to become apologists for the system that pays them by having to toe the line, sign loyalty oaths, etc. A small fraction of these obtain high positions in the society and are the darlings of the right wing fascists. They are in the uncomfortable position of exploiting others whom they hire, while being oppressed and skimmed by the all powerful trusts and monopolies.
_________________________________
LATE CAPITALISM. Late capitalism is characterized by fewer cases of tangible property and it is being substituted by stock shares, numbers on a computer, that represent absolutely nothing but can create great wealth- on paper. Apologists propagate the idea that this democratic capitalism- that anyone can buy shares. that anyone can become rich. The reality is that each time a greater number of shares are bought up by fewer and fewer people, so that we have the phenomenon of a handful of multibillionaires having more money than all the rest of the world. A great part of their accumulated wealth is hidden away in tax havens, so that very little of that money is ever used for social programs. There has not been a single case of a capitalist going broke because of taxes, nor a single case whose material goods have been passed on for the good of society.
Things have evolved to the point that a few imperial monopolies control all other monopolies, in addition to controlling the working and middle strata of society. Ordinary mortals are prevented from joining their ranks of the great trusts, since the top owners have become a hereditary proposition as rigid as a monarchy. A few monopolists, with zero responsibility, and always the same families, base their activities upon a narrow circle of corporativists, who represent the bureaucracy and the armed forces.
___________________________________
THE LAST RUNG OF THE LADDER. Each stage is the result of a previous stage and the harbinger of a subsequent stage. Once the general crisis of capitalism starts, it will fall with a fury, including police brutality, wars, assassinations, etc. in a futile effort to preserve itself. There is a saying in Spanish "Mientras más the empinas más el culo se te ve. " The more you bend over the more your ass shows. In socialist countries there have been no schools closed, no health benefits denied, no lack of attention to world peace, no neglect of the environment, while in capitalist countries these things become more and more sharply defined as failures of the system. The more the capitalists try to use the government for their purposes, the more convinced is the working class and its allies that there lies the enemy. The ass is there for all to see.
posted by ANTONIO at 11:27 AM
<< Home