samedi 19 janvier 2019


CAPITALISM, PHILOSOPHY AND… REVOLUTION


Times are changing for the best

By Daniel Paquet                                              dpaquet1871@gmail.com

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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