CAPITALISM, PHILOSOPHY AND…
REVOLUTION
Times are changing for the best
MONTRÉAL – « The weapon of criticism cannot, of course,
replace criticism of the weapon, material force must be overthrown by material
force; but theory also becomes a material force as soon as it has gripped the masses. Theory is capable of
gripping the masses as soon as it demonstrates ad hominen, and it demonstrates
ad hominen as soon as it becomes radical. » (Marx, Karl, Introduction to
the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. https://neodemocracy.blogspot.com/2018/12/introduction-to-contribution-to.html?spref=bl).
In regard with the global economy at the beginning of 2019,
« growth is expected to moderate to a more sustainable pace of around 3
1/2 percent in 2019 and 2020. Growth in
the second half of 2018 is estimated to have eased by somewhat more than
forecast in October(2018), due primarily to temporarily factors in the euro
area and Japan. The US economy remained
robust, supported by fiscal stimulus. The global outlook continues to face
important uncertainties. The United
States and China have taken some positive steps but have not yet reached an
agreement on trade issues. (…) Among other geopolitical tensions, the future of
Brexit is unclear as the scheduled date for the United Kingdom’s departure from
the European Union approaches. » (Bank of Canada, Global Economy, Monetary
Policy Report, Ottawa, January 2019, page 1).
« The contest between globalists and nationalists will
be a central theme of world politics throughout 2019, fought out in different
ways in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Amercas.
The terms « globalist » and « nationalist » are, of
course, inexact. But they touch upon a
genuine division that spans societies with very different cultures and levels
of wealth. The most influential
politician to campaign explicitly against « globalists » is Donald
Trump. The American president has used
the term to decry an elite who, he argues, have sold out American workers to
foreign interests. Mr Trump’s economic
protectionism, which gathered strength in 2018, is presented as an effort to
redress the balance of power and interests. (…) Trump voters are concentrated
outside big cities and are much less likely to have gone to university than
their opponents. In this respect, the Trump
coalition was similar to the coalition that voted in favour of Brexit in
2016. » (Rachman, Gideon, The great political divide, The Economist, The
World in 2019, London, November 7th 2018, page 72).
Besides global economy, we have to take in account « that
the planet is in climate crisis », as well there is the « terrifying
rise of hate groups », while the Canadian federal 2019 election « is
less than a year away ». (From a public letter published by The Council of
Canadians, Ottawa, December 6th 2018).
In « the 1970s, government regulatory burdens piled up
as oil prices spiked and foreign competition grew – and profits began
slumping. So began the era of Milton
Friedman, who said the only « social responsability of business is to
increase its profits, » an admonition that became gospel. Customers and employees took a backseat to
the demands of investors. CEOs who were
slow to close plants, lay off workers or trim retiree health benefits were
targeted by corporate raiders, hedge
funds and « activist » investors pushing changes designed to
maximize short-term profits and stock prices. (…) Wall Street’s needs – more revenue, less cost
– are increasingly dovetailing with the needs of workers, consumers and the
public interest. » (McGrath, Maggie, Konrad, Alex, Meet America’s New
Regulator : Adam Smith, Forbes,
Jersey City, December 31, 2018. Pages 62-63).
What echoes this bourgeois press today? Let’s have a glance to a recent past in the
pre-revolutionary Russia. « The
contradictions in Tolstoy’s works, views. doctrines, in his school, are indeed
glaring. On the one hand, we have the
great artist, the genius who has not only drawn incomparable pictures of
Russian life but has made first-class contributions to world literature. On the other hand we have the landlord
obsessed with Christ. On the one hand,
the remark ably powerful, forthright and sincere protest against social
falsehood and hypocrisy; and on the other, the « Tolstoyan », i.e.,
the jaded, hysterical sniveller called the Russian intellectual. » (Lenin,
Leo Tolstoy as the Mirror of the Russian Revolution, Proletary No. 35,
September 11 (24), 1908).
In is major masterpiece, Capital, Karl Marx, wrote (Volume
One, Part II: The Transformation of Money, Chapter Four: The General Formula
for Capital) the following, which is still amd even more accurate than ever :
« The
circulation of commodities is the starting-point of capital. The production of
commodities, their circulation, and that more developed form of their
circulation called commerce, these form the historical ground-work from which
it rises. The modern history of capital dates from the creation in the 16th
century of a world-embracing commerce and a world-embracing market.
If we abstract from the material substance of the
circulation of commodities, that is, from the exchange of the various
use-values, and consider only the economic forms produced by this process of
circulation, we find its final result to be money: this final product of the
circulation of commodities is the first form in which capital appears.
As a matter of history, capital, as opposed to landed
property, invariably takes the form at first of money; it appears as moneyed
wealth, as the capital of the merchant and of the usurer. [1] But we have no
need to refer to the origin of capital in order to discover that the first form
of appearance of capital is money. We can see it daily under our very eyes. All
new capital, to commence with, comes on the stage, that is, on the market,
whether of commodities, labour, or money, even in our days, in the shape of
money that by a definite process has to be transformed into capital.
The first distinction we notice between money that is money
only, and money that is capital, is nothing more than a difference in their
form of circulation.
The simplest form of the circulation of commodities is
C-M-C, the transformation of commodities into money, and the change of the
money back again into commodities; or selling in order to buy. But alongside of
this form we find another specifically different form: M-C-M, the
transformation of money into commodities, and the change of commodities back
again into money; or buying in order to sell. Money that circulates in the
latter manner is thereby transformed into, becomes capital, and is already
potentially capital. » (https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Capital-Volume1.pdf
Altogether, we may say that future is rather bleak for
capitalism. « Global economic
growth is slowing under the weight of feuding politicians, growing trade
tensions and rising interest rates Germany
revealed its output barely grew in the fourth quarter of last year, Britain
stumbled through yet more Brexit-related chaos and the U.S. government remained
largely shuttered as President Donald Trump continued to butt heads with
Congress. Broad measures of what lies
ahead for the global economy paint a downbeat picture. » (McGugan, Ian, As
global economy slows, the smart money is still betting on a modest downshift,
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business, Toronto, Saturday January 19th 2019, page
B1).
Communism is for us not a state of affairs
which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust
itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state
of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in
existence. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/abstract.htm
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