The Worker, Vol. 34, Number 20
The Way Out of the Hell of Capitalist Exploitation
The U.S. economy is reeling under the impact of the trade and deficit crises, the stock market crash, the continuing stagnation of production — all brought on by the permanent crisis of overproduction and the anarchy of the capitalist mode of production which is based on the exploitation and oppression of the working masses. So too, the political “crisis of confidence” is deepening as the government and politicians are exposed in one scandal after another.
Capitalist "downsizing" and “restructuring” has not solved but only intensified the grave economic crisis and the exploitation of the American workers who are experiencing massive unemployment, wage cuts and constant shortages of the necessities of life.
The capitalists are scared to death of the sharp class polarizations which are developing. The capitalists see, and are deathly afraid, of the growing revolt of the peoples against exploitation, domination and the capitalist system.
If celestial observers have established that a solar eclipse is to take place at a particular date, the only thing to do is to make the best possible arrangements for observing the movements of the sun and the moon. No one can call off the eclipse itself. Yet the capitalist class has been responding to the objective social developments of history quite differently.
While the workers in the U.S. are suffering under the savage offensive of the superrich which seeks to shift the whole burden of the economic crisis of capitalism onto the workers' backs, the U.S. monopoly capitalist class wants at all costs and is using every means at its disposal to break the resistance and struggle of the working class to assert its political, ideological and cultural independence. The U.S. monopoly capitalist class wants at all costs and is using every means at its disposal to prevent the working class from uniting its ranks and leading the whole society out of the crisis of capitalism and onto the path of social progress.
How should we judge this immediate situation? In the immediate situation, the peoples can and should take heart. The extreme aggravation of all the contradictions of capitalism, which marks its final, imperialist stage, shows the historical inevitability of its downfall.
In these conditions, nothing in the world that the monopoly bourgeoisie does to preserve its domination can save capitalism, which has no historical perspective.
Of course, that does not mean that capitalism will leave the historical arena of its own accord or will automatically collapse under the burden of its contradictions.
The workers and progressive people can take heart at their brilliant victories, in some places winning at least partial recognition of their rights as human beings – that they were more than just labor-power whose only reason for living was to be exploited by the capitalists – and in other places carrying out successful revolutionary struggles, first in the Paris Commune, later in the Soviet Union and Albania and elsewhere. While we can take heart and inspiration in these victories, we must remain vigilant and consistently develop on our path, the main content of which is the transformation of the world from capitalism to socialism through revolution.
The present period poses great challenges and great possibilities for the working class and its vanguard — the historic task to turn things around. Today, the need is for us to focus our energies on the work of helping create the subjective conditions necessary to consolidate the political independence and organization of the workers so that the movement for the emancipation of the working class can activate itself and get organized based on concrete analysis of the concrete conditions required to advance.
Capitalist "downsizing" and “restructuring” has not solved but only intensified the grave economic crisis and the exploitation of the American workers who are experiencing massive unemployment, wage cuts and constant shortages of the necessities of life.
The capitalists are scared to death of the sharp class polarizations which are developing. The capitalists see, and are deathly afraid, of the growing revolt of the peoples against exploitation, domination and the capitalist system.
If celestial observers have established that a solar eclipse is to take place at a particular date, the only thing to do is to make the best possible arrangements for observing the movements of the sun and the moon. No one can call off the eclipse itself. Yet the capitalist class has been responding to the objective social developments of history quite differently.
While the workers in the U.S. are suffering under the savage offensive of the superrich which seeks to shift the whole burden of the economic crisis of capitalism onto the workers' backs, the U.S. monopoly capitalist class wants at all costs and is using every means at its disposal to break the resistance and struggle of the working class to assert its political, ideological and cultural independence. The U.S. monopoly capitalist class wants at all costs and is using every means at its disposal to prevent the working class from uniting its ranks and leading the whole society out of the crisis of capitalism and onto the path of social progress.
How should we judge this immediate situation? In the immediate situation, the peoples can and should take heart. The extreme aggravation of all the contradictions of capitalism, which marks its final, imperialist stage, shows the historical inevitability of its downfall.
In these conditions, nothing in the world that the monopoly bourgeoisie does to preserve its domination can save capitalism, which has no historical perspective.
Of course, that does not mean that capitalism will leave the historical arena of its own accord or will automatically collapse under the burden of its contradictions.
The workers and progressive people can take heart at their brilliant victories, in some places winning at least partial recognition of their rights as human beings – that they were more than just labor-power whose only reason for living was to be exploited by the capitalists – and in other places carrying out successful revolutionary struggles, first in the Paris Commune, later in the Soviet Union and Albania and elsewhere. While we can take heart and inspiration in these victories, we must remain vigilant and consistently develop on our path, the main content of which is the transformation of the world from capitalism to socialism through revolution.
The present period poses great challenges and great possibilities for the working class and its vanguard — the historic task to turn things around. Today, the need is for us to focus our energies on the work of helping create the subjective conditions necessary to consolidate the political independence and organization of the workers so that the movement for the emancipation of the working class can activate itself and get organized based on concrete analysis of the concrete conditions required to advance.
Greater Party Organization Must Be Built Which Expresses and Defends the Interests of All the Working People
Capitalism in the U.S. has reached its final stage, the stage of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.
The severity and unresolvable nature of the crisis of the monopoly capitalist system is sharply reflected in the fact that today, even in the periods of so-called economic recovery – that is, during the boom phase of the recurring economic cycles – the capitalist economy is unable to provide jobs for growing numbers of workers, and the capitalists continue to demand wage and benefit concessions from the workers. The program of "increasing the productivity and international competitiveness of U.S. capitalism" is a program for further shifting the burden onto the workers, increasing their exploitation. Reality proves that today, capitalism cannot utilize aspects of the scientific-technological revolution except through the further destruction of the productive forces. This is reflected, for example, in the on-going processes of corporate downsizing and economic restructuring, which are destroying the livelihoods and economic security of tens of millions.
The root problem is that monopoly capitalism has brought to the bursting point the basic contradiction inherent in capitalism (the contradiction between the socialized productive forces and the capitalist social relations based on private ownership of the means of production). Today, the capitalist social relations stand as a roadblock to the development of the productive forces and the all-around progress of society.
The crisis of the monopoly capitalist system in the U.S. is part of the general, world-wide crisis of capitalism. The U.S. monopoly capitalists also seek to escape the crisis by shifting the burden onto the peoples of other countries. This intensifies the contradictions both between U.S. imperialism and the peoples as well as between the U.S. and rival imperialist powers. This is the source of the aggressive U.S. foreign policy and presents the American working class and people, and the peoples of the whole world, with the grave danger of new imperialist wars.
With the unresolvable economic crisis at the base, the monopoly capitalist class is attempting to save itself and its profit-margins by imposing retrogression on the whole of society. This is expressed in the governmental economic program of stripping away any and every guarantee of workers' and people's rights, of sacrificing needed investments in social programs and the well-being of the people in order to rob the people, so as to maintain and increase the profits of the big monopoly groups. The insistence on "free market economics" is really the program of monopoly capital for removing any and every roadblock to its unbridled exploitation of the workers. The demand that every individual must fend for herself or himself is simultaneously the demand that only monopoly capital can make claims on society; it represents the attempt of the capitalist class and its government to deny any concept of social responsibility and to impose the social-Darwinist law of the jungle on society.
Like feudal lords, the monopoly capitalists seek tribute from the whole of society, bringing into sharp relief the question of whether society is going to guarantee the inviolable rights of the people, including, for example, the right to a secure job and livelihood, to education, health care, pensions and so forth, or protect the privileges of the private capitalist owners.
In order to fortify the capitalist relations based on exploitation of the working class, the monopolists have entrenched a system of political privilege which insures their domination over the state.
While the formal shell of universal franchise exists, the current system of representative democracy does not place sovereignty with the people themselves but rather with the government, which is free to carry out its policies without regard for the will of the people, and which has placed itself above society, unaccountable to the people.
The system of Party government through which the big political parties are given, in law and in fact, a monopoly over the selection and nomination of candidates for office further guards the political power of the capitalist class, undercutting the right to vote and disenfranchising the people from their right to nominate and select government officials as well as from any direct role in governance.
The real political power resides in the Executive branch of government, including the bureaucracy, the police and military forces under the command of the Executive. This executive power, in the manner of the feudal monarchs, acts as an absolute and arbitrary power over the masses of people and is, in reality, the class power of monopoly capital. This class power stands in irreconcilable opposition to democracy – to rule by the people – and relies, in the final analysis, on violence to maintain the system of private property in the means of production and to impose class exploitation and oppression on the workers and broad masses of people.
Thus, while wealth and power accumulate at one pole of the society in the hands of a tiny minority of monopoly capitalists, misery, poverty and powerlessness grow at the other pole amongst the great mass of the society. The working class – the class which has no way to live except to sell its labor-power day in and day out to the capitalist owners – is the special product of modern industry and constitutes the overwhelming majority of the society.
The domination of the capitalist class rests secure only so far and so long as it can maintain competition amongst the workers. But the entire history of the working class shows that it overcomes the competition fostered in its ranks through common organization and collective struggle, coming out as a class for itself to fight for its emancipation.
The severity and unresolvable nature of the crisis of the monopoly capitalist system is sharply reflected in the fact that today, even in the periods of so-called economic recovery – that is, during the boom phase of the recurring economic cycles – the capitalist economy is unable to provide jobs for growing numbers of workers, and the capitalists continue to demand wage and benefit concessions from the workers. The program of "increasing the productivity and international competitiveness of U.S. capitalism" is a program for further shifting the burden onto the workers, increasing their exploitation. Reality proves that today, capitalism cannot utilize aspects of the scientific-technological revolution except through the further destruction of the productive forces. This is reflected, for example, in the on-going processes of corporate downsizing and economic restructuring, which are destroying the livelihoods and economic security of tens of millions.
The root problem is that monopoly capitalism has brought to the bursting point the basic contradiction inherent in capitalism (the contradiction between the socialized productive forces and the capitalist social relations based on private ownership of the means of production). Today, the capitalist social relations stand as a roadblock to the development of the productive forces and the all-around progress of society.
The crisis of the monopoly capitalist system in the U.S. is part of the general, world-wide crisis of capitalism. The U.S. monopoly capitalists also seek to escape the crisis by shifting the burden onto the peoples of other countries. This intensifies the contradictions both between U.S. imperialism and the peoples as well as between the U.S. and rival imperialist powers. This is the source of the aggressive U.S. foreign policy and presents the American working class and people, and the peoples of the whole world, with the grave danger of new imperialist wars.
With the unresolvable economic crisis at the base, the monopoly capitalist class is attempting to save itself and its profit-margins by imposing retrogression on the whole of society. This is expressed in the governmental economic program of stripping away any and every guarantee of workers' and people's rights, of sacrificing needed investments in social programs and the well-being of the people in order to rob the people, so as to maintain and increase the profits of the big monopoly groups. The insistence on "free market economics" is really the program of monopoly capital for removing any and every roadblock to its unbridled exploitation of the workers. The demand that every individual must fend for herself or himself is simultaneously the demand that only monopoly capital can make claims on society; it represents the attempt of the capitalist class and its government to deny any concept of social responsibility and to impose the social-Darwinist law of the jungle on society.
Like feudal lords, the monopoly capitalists seek tribute from the whole of society, bringing into sharp relief the question of whether society is going to guarantee the inviolable rights of the people, including, for example, the right to a secure job and livelihood, to education, health care, pensions and so forth, or protect the privileges of the private capitalist owners.
In order to fortify the capitalist relations based on exploitation of the working class, the monopolists have entrenched a system of political privilege which insures their domination over the state.
While the formal shell of universal franchise exists, the current system of representative democracy does not place sovereignty with the people themselves but rather with the government, which is free to carry out its policies without regard for the will of the people, and which has placed itself above society, unaccountable to the people.
The system of Party government through which the big political parties are given, in law and in fact, a monopoly over the selection and nomination of candidates for office further guards the political power of the capitalist class, undercutting the right to vote and disenfranchising the people from their right to nominate and select government officials as well as from any direct role in governance.
The real political power resides in the Executive branch of government, including the bureaucracy, the police and military forces under the command of the Executive. This executive power, in the manner of the feudal monarchs, acts as an absolute and arbitrary power over the masses of people and is, in reality, the class power of monopoly capital. This class power stands in irreconcilable opposition to democracy – to rule by the people – and relies, in the final analysis, on violence to maintain the system of private property in the means of production and to impose class exploitation and oppression on the workers and broad masses of people.
Thus, while wealth and power accumulate at one pole of the society in the hands of a tiny minority of monopoly capitalists, misery, poverty and powerlessness grow at the other pole amongst the great mass of the society. The working class – the class which has no way to live except to sell its labor-power day in and day out to the capitalist owners – is the special product of modern industry and constitutes the overwhelming majority of the society.
The domination of the capitalist class rests secure only so far and so long as it can maintain competition amongst the workers. But the entire history of the working class shows that it overcomes the competition fostered in its ranks through common organization and collective struggle, coming out as a class for itself to fight for its emancipation.