Michael Perelman wrote:
>I don't know what the biggest risk is for capitalism: Third World upheavals,
>financial implosion, global warming, overcapacity, or resource constraints.
None of the above -- the tendency to overaccumulation inherent in
capitalism, supply bottlenecks created by neoliberalism, ecological
strains on the conditions of accumulation, etc. -- in itself is a
_terminal_ risk for capitalism, nor will be the combination of any or
all of the above, I think. As long as there is no political force to
abolish capitalism & establish socialism, capital can always turn a
"risk" into a new opportunity for further accumulation. Stagflation
of the 70s was solved by union-busting in the North & debt deflation
& deindustrialization in the South & the newly capitalist East, as
well as by displacing the formerly partially socialized costs of
reproducing labor-power back onto the working class. Another crisis
brewing now can be no doubt solved in favor of capital again (e.g.,
socialization of costs to write off bad loans in Japan), unless we
build unified political agents to reject the anti-working-class
solutions (including war & fascism) that capital inevitably presents
to us.
Since the neoliberal solution included debt deflation &
deindustrialization in the South & the East, naturally we want to
reverse them, thereby stopping massive capital outflows from the
South & the East to the North which has helped the ruling class. In
the North as well, the working class need to learn to demand more of
all goods: higher wages, more free time, more social programs, more
environmental cleanups, etc. The job of the working class, in the
North or South or East, in short is to demand more, not because doing
so is a viable long-term goal under capitalism, but precisely because
it isn't. The more the working class organize themselves to make
demands energetically, the more likely capitalism enters into another
serious crisis -- in other words, the working class, by organized
demands, must create a crisis & turn it into its favor (= an
opportunity to fight for socialism from the position of strength).
Yoshie
