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From The Militant, Vol. VI No. 42, 9 September 1933, pp. 1 & 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The New York Times in an editorial on August 20, issues a warning against any attitude of panic should the NRA not succeed according to expectations. It says: “But it is now evident that the issues of the battle will not be decided by the first shock of attack. A long period of what may be called trench warfare is before the country.”
The main issues of this trench warfare are already discernible – and it will have plenty of new and greater shocks of attacks, covered also by barrages of heavy artillery. First and foremost, in the order of importance, is the onslaught upon the world market to be launched as soon as the home front is sufficiently prepared. In other words we are facing the American imperialist offensive against Europe. Its further fate and even the fate of the recovery program, is bound up closely with this offensive. Conversely that will also influence the trend of the American working class movement in the coming period.
Let us say at the outset that this should not lead to a minimizing of the importance of the domestic market or of the significance of relationship of forces at home. On the contrary. Precisely that aspect must be the starting point of an accurate estimation of American prospects in the world market. The huge domestic market is the stronghold and the reservoir from which proceeds the operations abroad. The extent of this penetration since the world war has already left the American imperialist imprint upon Europe. But now operations are being prepared for a far more formidable scale destined to put all past ventures in the shade.
The American bourgeoisie needs to strengthen its hands at home in order to be able to move with that much more certainty abroad. Efforts toward this strengthening are taking place in three different directions which, however, all fit in to one pattern: Between the various financial and industrial units which make up the national economic structure; in the relationship between capital and labor and finally in the relationship of the government to both. The specific method, or instrument, by which this is hoped to be accomplished, is the NRA.
In regard to the first of these directions named, the most noteworthy factors are the reorganization accomplished in the financial structure of the country, eliminating some of its most antiquated features and immensely strengthening the great metropolitan institutions as well as the reorganization of industry on a much more formidable monopoly basis. Not only is this the monopoly form of the past large enterprises, but it is the addition of a degree of governmental supervision and control through industrial codes which facilitates the elimination of small competitors on a perfectly legal basis. In regard to capital and labor relations the efforts are distinctly to re-establish the old condition of “identity of interests” which was somewhat badly shattered during the crisis. The aim is not merely the “identity of interests” on the old narrow basis of collaborating directly with unions, exclusively craft in composition, and confined to the aristocracy of labor, or through labor banks, labor insurance schemes or stock ownership schemes – the methods of fattening the aristocracy of labor as a means of better keeping the proletariat under control. Such means are no longer sufficient. Moreover changes have taken place in the composition of American labor; the leveling process has not been without effects. Now the idea is to extend the “identity of interests” to an alliance based upon joint interests in recovery, to embrace the working class generally. First among the measures applied is the reorganization of labor power to the productive forces through reduction of working hours in order to blunt the most dangerous edges of the unemployment problem. Secondly, the affirming of the right to organization and collective bargaining which in reality means a tacit agreement to a further extension of the conservative unions for the purpose of cementing the alliance. Wages are, of course, to be adjusted to the needs of capital and its profit incentive. But for the whole it is hoped that the NRA machinery of labor advisory boards and of arbitration will make the alliance complete. Nevertheless the promoters are not at all overlooking its usefulness also as a means of entirely outlawing working class rank and tile resistance. In all of this the relationship of the government to the various component parts of national economy fits and performs its function to strengthen the hands of the American bourgeoisie in the home market. The executives of advanced capitalism and of the backward labor movement, the presidents, Roosevelt and Green, jointly make their appeal to capital and labor. On a vast scale the means of keeping the working class in subjection are being reinforced.
The NRA as such, that is as far as an actual recovery in the country is concerned, is about to face its decisive test. But, judging by surface manifestations, it would appear that its most essential objects enumerated above, are well on the way to being accomplished. In this respect the NRA climaxes the reorganization of American national economy in its present stage. The offensive against Europe can soon proceed full force. American capitalism again proves itself as the most advanced of capitalisms and the full effects of the latest forward steps upon its working class should soon become visible. But this question we leave until a later point in our estimate.
The United States, as we already know, is the world’s principal manufacturer, its principal commodity warehouse and its principal banker. The estimated wealth of the United States reaches above the three hundred billion mark and by far outdistances that of any other nation. Its enormous annual capital accumulation since the war had to seek new fields of investments. A heavy proportion thereof was exported to other countries to be employed at a higher profit rate. It became the means of promotion of the exportation of goods and the acquisition of super profits. The total estimated amount of foreign papers held in the United States, including the items listed under inter-government – runs into $28,000,000,000. But most characteristic of the American intervention in Europe during this period, is the fact that the loans advanced recorded a change from its first form of loans to governments for purposes of stabilization to loans to industrial enterprises. The latter are estimated at about seven to eight billions. American imperialism thus began to lay its hands on the national economy of the European powers. Its general intervention, had the objective of permitting Europe to rise again but within specifically defined limits, to assign to its nations their specific but reduced rations in world economy.
In the United States the annual capital accumulation has suffered an enormous reduction during the crisis. But the masters now anticipate its rise at a vastly accelerated rhythm. And for that the NRA machinery of attempted regulation of class relations is to prepare the ground at home for more effective operations abroad. Even bearing in mind the scope of such operations in the past, we should be prepared for the fact that the campaign of American finance capital for the conquest of the world market will actually in its real magnitude begin only tomorrow.
For this offensive the principal instrument is finance capital backed up by a now more completely organized monopoly, expressed In greater centralization and concentration of finance and industry. One of the initial means is likely to be the advancing of additional large scale loans and credits – influenced by political motives – as a means of promoting the exportation of commodities. But this, in general, will be backed up by the commands of a power of a superior national economy, and with that, heavier political and military preponderance. It is not for the purpose of creation of jobs that the United States naval constructions are now vastly speeded up.
The crushing defeat suffered by the German working class signals a much freer rein for the American imperialist offensive. To the masters of Wall Street it signifies that the danger of a further extension of the Bolshevik revolution has been allayed. They breathe easier. Their responsibility, as the rulers of the strongest world power, for damming up against the extension of October, has become enormously lightened by the bankruptcy of the Stalinist International. They feel that they can now afford to proceed more ruthlessly and more mercilessly against their competitors in the world market. Their consciousness of power, their consequent unbridled expansion, will know no bounds. It is their much more complete world hegemony, as a means of self-preservation, which is at stake. It is the struggle for the maintenance of capitalism as the continued form of social relations. But the further advance will also lay the foundation for much more furious conflicts within the world arena. That, however, is only one side of the problem. Simultaneously with this develops the shifting of gravity of the revolutionary center from Europe to America. It is here in this country that future revolutionary struggles on a more gigantic scale than anything hitherto experienced can be expected.
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