One of the features of the capitalist economy is its destructive
nature. The capitalist economy carries on the destruction of the
productive forces uninterruptedly. It puts an all-round brake on
their development.
The greatest productive force in the capitalist economy is the
working class. The imposition of a high unemployment rate in the
nineties, shows the extent to which the productive forces
are wasted . But this is not all. The number of people on
social welfare or those who lose their lives or get injured as a
result of industrial accidents or who die of diseases which should
be curable, or suffer due to social and spiritual disorders puts
the destruction of the productive forces at an extremely high and
unacceptable level in both qualitative and quantitative terms.
Why is the capitalist economy so destructive towards the
productive forces, especially the working class? The key thing in
any economy is the relations of production, the arrangements
between human beings which are established in the course of
production. These relations, these arrangements, constitute the
economic foundation of the society on which everything else rests.
These relations, these arrangements between human beings
established in the course of production, are at the present time in
all capitalist countries between those who own the means of
production and those who are reduced to merely selling their labor
power as a means of their subsistence.
Those who own the means of production establish their own will
on everything and subordinate all human beings, especially the
working class, to their aim. The essence of the will of the modern
capitalist, the main thing in the will of the financial oligarchy,
is making of maximum capitalist profit. Everyone is compelled to
subordinate to this essence, this main thing of the modern
capitalist.
A member of the class of modern capitalists, on one hand
demands that the entire society be held hostage to the making of
maximum capitalist profit. At the same time, such persons demand
that the society must pay for the rationalization of their
enterprises and for costs involved in the competition into which
such enterprises must enter to survive. This requires that the
capitalist state must be organized to the hilt while governments
interfere in the economy only when the powerful capitalists demand.
It is not fortuitous that the capitalists as a class demand
that the capitalist economy must not be planned. One capitalist
does not have the same interests as another. At the same time, the
same capitalists demand that the state must provide them with
everything they need for the making of maximum capitalist profits
on the basis of collecting trillions of dollars from the hides of
the working class and other working people and other means.
A society which is based on such a capitalist economy will have
turmoil as its main feature because of the relations of production.
Not only do the capitalists destroy the productive forces by
blocking their path of development but they also
introduce their own sentiments into the working class and people.
This includes the sentiment of "individual salvation" and of being
"upwardly mobile" which leads people to undermine their own class
interests and participate in the worst competition against each
other. The working class and other working people, instead of
fighting for new relations, the new arrangements, are pressured
into fighting each other and looking out for a "better deal" for
themselves within the capitalist relations.
The labor aristocracy, a special product of modern
capitalism, makes its living by convincing the workers that their
lot lies not only with capitalism but with world imperialism,
especially with U.S. imperialism which has the "might" to stop any
threat to the old capitalist relations. It has the brutal force at
its disposal to put an end to the new arrangements which are
striving to come into being. This labor aristocracy is the social
prop of modern capitalism, of imperialism, its role is to
manipulate the working class movement behind the aims of the
bourgeoisie.
Class struggle erupts as a result of the capitalist relations.
Such struggle is becoming sharp again internationally, especially
on the question of the anti-social offensive. The aim of the anti-social
offensive is to not only further stagnate the relations between the
capitalists and the workers, between the exploiters and the exploited,
but to also warn the workers to not even think of any way out of the
situation.
What can be concluded from this turmoil in the economy and
society? The only conclusion can be that the old relations of
production must be replaced with new ones in which there is no
capitalist and no wage slave; a society which is planned by the
working class and other working people for their own benefit.
Whether workers do so consciously or not, all their struggles and
the struggles of all working people point towards the immediate
necessity to open the door for the progress of the society.
The task of opening the door for the progress of the society
belongs to the workers themselves. It is they who must organize
themselves to make sure it happens.
Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
