In the Preface to the 1920 French and German editions of Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916), Vladimir Lenin summarised the result of “imperialism”:
> > Capitalism has grown into a world system of colonial oppression and of the > financial strangulation of the overwhelming majority of the population of > the world by a handful of “advanced” countries... > > > It is precisely the parasitism and decay of capitalism, characteristic of > its highest historical stage of development, i.e., imperialism. As this > pamphlet shows, capitalism has now singled out a handful (less than > one-tenth of the inhabitants of the globe; less than one-fifth at a most > “generous” and liberal calculation) of exceptionally rich and powerful > states which plunder the whole world simply by “clipping coupons”. Capital > exports yield an income of eight to ten thousand million francs per annum, > at pre-war prices and according to pre-war bourgeois statistics. Now, of > course, they yield much more. > > > Obviously, out of such enormous superprofits (since they are obtained over > and above the profits which capitalists squeeze out of the workers of > their “own” country) it is possible to bribe the labour leaders and the > upper stratum of the labour aristocracy. And that is just what the > capitalists of the “advanced” countries are doing: they are bribing them > in a thousand different ways, direct and indirect, overt and covert. > (1920, pp. 639-40; emphasis added) > The text of the “pamphlet” (1920, p. 636) aims to determine or define the essential features of imperialism. That is, Lenin aims to set out the differentia specifica of imperialism as a stage of capitalism that mark it out as, and cause it to be, a world system of oppression and “financial strangulation” of the “colonies and semicolonies” (1920, p. 637). He seeks these features in the necessary development of the capitalist economy and not in accidental aspects (for example, that capitalists from different economic spheres may have overlapping board memberships and connections to the state). The above quotation gives the reader some of the clues, but it will serve us well to follow Lenin through his exposition. It will also serve well to consider each stage of Lenin’s argument with a critical eye. Continue reading at https://links.org.au/lenins-imperialism-critical-survey-economic-arguments -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#34790): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/34790 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/110769444/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [arch...@mail-archive.com] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
