From: Patrick Bond Charles Brown wrote: CB: Generally, Marxists see "globalization" as laying the groundwork for socialism, just as capitalist monopoly lays the groundwork in another way. Marx conceived of Communism as a world system, a "centralized" or holistic world economy and as retaining the One World, One Species aspects of "capitalist globalization" .
Patrick: Can I try this, instead?: Generally, Marxists see "globalization" and "imperialism" as delaying the groundwork for socialism, ^^^ CB: Well, no. As I just wrote, classical Marxists, which is a big section of "Marxists in general", following the thinking of both Marx( as in the penultimate chapter of _Capital_ Vol. I) and Lenin see imperialism as creating a worldwide socialization of the labor, worldwideweb of labor, which is the basis for socialism, not a delay of socialism. ^^^ just as globalization delays the establishment of a "One World, One Species" capitalism, ^^^ CB: That wouldn't be until socialism. Can't get that with capitalism ^^^ thanks to uneven and combined development, which immiserises by maintaining aspects of the non-capitalist world that are profitable for superexploitation. ^^^ CB: That's what we get rid of with world socialist revolution. It's a contradictory process ( In general, Marxists are dialecticians) . Socialism is a sublation or overcoming _and_ preserving of capitalism. In some ways, capitalism prepares the way, in some ways it , of course ,prevents the way to socialism. ^^^^^ ^^^ According to Marx, The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the turning of Africa into a commercial warren for the hunting of black skins signalled the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production. These idyllic proceedings are the chief momenta of primitive accumulation. On their heels treads the commercial war of the European nations, with the globe for a theatre.[1] ^^^ CB: Yes, agree wholeheartedly on the importance to colonialism and slavery as the chief momenta of primitive accumulation of capitalism. But the _primitive_ or the original accumulation of capital is not the main aspect of imperialism, the last stage of capitalism; although I agree that there are virulent vestiges of the primitive accumulation process in modern imperialism, as Luxemborg, you and Harvey argue. By the way, if you check the archives of this list, you will see that I have posted the section on colonialism and slavery as the chief momenta of the primitive accumulation here about a dozen times. My formula is : Capitalism = wage-labor x specially oppressed labor (See the archives) In any case , for an update , see Lenin's _Imperialism_. And the relevant section of Marx on capitalism's positive contribution is here: As soon as this process of transformation has sufficiently decomposed the old society from top to bottom, as soon as the laborers are turned into proletarians, their means of labor into capital, as soon as the capitalist mode of production stands on its own feet, then the further socialization of labor and further transformation of the land and other means of production into socially exploited and, therefore, common means of production, as well as the further expropriation of private proprietors, takes a new form. That which is now to be expropriated is no longer the laborer working for himself, but the capitalist exploiting many laborers. This expropriation is accomplished by the action of the immanent laws of capitalistic production itself, by the centralization of capital. One capitalist always kills many. Hand in hand with this centralization, or this expropriation of many capitalists by few, develop, on an ever-extending scale, the co-operative form of the labor-process, the conscious technical application of science, the methodical cultivation of the soil, the transformation of the instruments of labor into instruments of labor only usable in common, the economizing of all means of production by their use as means of production of combined, socialized labor, the entanglement of all peoples in the net of the world-market, and with this, the international character of the capitalistic regime. Along with the constantly diminishing number of the magnates of capital, who usurp and monopolize all advantages of this process of transformation, grows the mass of misery, oppression, slavery, degradation, exploitation; but with this too grows the revolt of the working-class, a class always increasing in numbers, and disciplined, united, organized by the very mechanism of the process of capitalist production itself. The monopoly of capital becomes a fetter upon the mode of production, which has sprung up and flourished along with, and under it. Centralization of the means of production and socialization of labor at last reach a point where they become incompatible with their capitalist integument. Thus integument is burst asunder. The knell of capitalist private property sounds. The expropriators are expropriated. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch32.htm ^^^ CB: Notice: " Centralization of the means of production and socialization of labor at last reach a point where they become incompatible with their capitalist integument. " That is centralization of production , which as Lenin demonstrates is monopoly, continues after capitalism, which is in socialism. So, does "socialization of labor" which is worldwide socialization of labor that has developed in imperialism, the last stage of capitalism. ^^^ Generalising upon this insight, Luxemburg observed, Force, fraud, oppression, looting are openly displayed without any attempt at concealment, and it requires an effort to discover within this tangle of political violence and contests of power the stern laws of the economic process. Bourgeois liberal theory takes into account only the former aspect: ‘the realm of peaceful competition’, the marvels of technology and pure commodity exchange; it separates it strictly from the other aspect: the realm of capital’s blustering violence which is regarded as more or less incidental to foreign policy and quite independent of the economic sphere of capital. In reality, political power is nothing but a vehicle for the economic process. ^^^ CB: Sure. On the state as special repressive apparatus by which the ruling classes dominate exploite and oppress ruled classes, including of course in imperialist colonies, see _The State and Revolution_ and _The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State_. This is the more exact sense in which " political power is nothing but a vehicle for the economic process. " ^^^^ The conditions for the reproduction of capital provide the organic link between these two aspects of the accumulation of capital. The historical career of capitalism can only be appreciated by taking them together. ‘Sweating blood and filth with every pore from head to toe’ characterizes not only the birth of capital but also its progress in the world at every step, arid thus capitalism prepares its own downfall under ever more violent contortions and convulsions… ^^^^^ CB: Concretely, this aspect is not to the fore right now if the reference to "violence" is to use of violence by the special repressive apparatus, the state ( In Luxembourg and Lenin's day WWI was the expression of the imperialist crisis that was to the foreground) The crisis and "convulsion" right now in almost 2009 is in the "peaceful" realm of Wall Street, in the very House of the Financial Oligarchy. That is where imperialism's contradictions are erupting most drastically at the moment The capitalist crisis is in finance capital not militarism. ^^^ Militarism fulfils a quite definite function in the history of capital, accompanying as it does every historical phase of accumulation. It plays a decisive part in the first stages of European capitalism, in the period of the so-called ‘primitive accumulation’, as a means of conquering the New World and the spice-producing countries of India. Later, it is employed to subject the modern colonies, to destroy the social organizations of primitive societies so that their means of production may be appropriated, forcibly to introduce commodity trade in countries where the social structure had been unfavourable to it, and to turn the natives into a proletariat by compelling them to work for wages in the colonies. It is responsible for the creation and expansion of spheres of interest for European capital in non-European regions, for extorting railway concessions in backward countries, and for enforcing the claims of European capital as international lender. ^^^ CB: All very true. Bravo Red Rosa. But right now the pertinent classics are those that examine the elementary structures and crises in the _financial sector_, not the military, or even the colonies and neo-colonies. There is no crisis of colonial debt repayment _right now_. There is a crisis and _bankrutpcy_ among Biggest Banks, the Monopoly Creditors, the Financial Oligarchy. The Emperors themselves are naked. The "free" market is exposed as a monopoly system, dependent on "government" largesse, really large. The economic objective state's ends are not meeting. These objective tendencies of capitalism toward socialism, these "immanent laws of capitalism itself" are leaping to the fore. Ironically. it is US bourgeois politicians and media commentators who have suddenly in the last few months seen the return of the "Spectre of Socialism" in the explosions in the financial sector. And the US government _objectively_, through the operation of an immanent law of capitalism itself, by nationalizing some of the biggest banks _is_ laying the groundwork for socialism. As Engels and Marx included as part of the preliminary program for "Marxists in general" in _The Manifesto of the CP_ "5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. " ^^^ Finally, militarism is a weapon in the competitive struggle between capitalist countries for areas of non-capitalist civilization.[2] [1]. Marx, K. (1867)[2005], Das Kapital, available at http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch31.htm. [2]. Luxemburg, R. (1968)[1923], The Accumulation of Capital, New York, Monthly Review Press. See www.marxists.org/archive/ luxemburg/1913/accumulation-capital/, from which these citations are drawn. This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
