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Perspectives
From The Militant, Vol. VI No. 34, 8 July 1933, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Although American capitalism is entering, or has entered, the upward swing of a new cycle, it is reasonable to assume that the perspectives of the near future point to a growing radicalization of the American masses.
While it might seem as if the United States stands as a refutation of Marxism, due to the fact that it possesses both the most highly developed forms of the capitalist mode of production and the least (or near the least) developed revolutionary working class, in reality this contradiction is no refutation at all. On the contrary, it can be understood to its fullest extent only by means of an analysis based on the larger content of Marxism.
The political lag of the American working class is the result of peculiarities of national development. In the past the consciousness of the American workers as a class rose to a certain level as a result of various stages of American economic development only to subside under the influence of a subsequent period of comparative “prosperity”. American historical development (with the opportunity of the frontier and the possibilities of individual escape from the working class by means of a limited success as a farmer, small merchant or professional man) operated as a safety valve preventing the rise of the American proletariat as a political factor in the social life of American capitalism. The American wage earner viewed himself as a potential capitalist rather than as a member of the working class. His ideology was that of the petty bourgeois and he failed to recognize the desirability of acting as a mass.
But today the peculiar historical conditions which drilled the philosophy of individualism so deeply into the minds of the American workers are no longer present. They are succumbing, or have succumbed, to the march of economic development. The frontier is closed. No longer is it possible for any appreciable number of workers to rise out of their class by becoming small farmers or by entering the permanently over-crowded professions. The small farmer has been reduced to the economic status of the “poor peasant” of Europe. American schools and colleges are turning out thousands of young persons, trained for professional service, for whom there is no employment. The possibility of a success as a small merchant has been reduced to the neighborhood of zero by a rise in the minimum amount of capital necessary “to start in business for oneself” and by the invasion of large scale capital (with its superior technique, greater control over sources of supply and similar advantages. into such hitherto neglected fields as retail distribution, to such an extent that in 1929 it made a total of 21.5 percent of all retail sales.
At the same time, American workers are beginning to realize that their interests and those of the capitalists represent two antagonistic poles. They are becoming aware that a rise in productivity does not necessarily result in a corresponding rise in their so-called share of the national profit. And to this the fact that a cyclical recovery will not bring a substantial restoration of the depressed American standard of living and it is easy to believe that the awakening process will continue.
Labor power is a commodity. As such its true value is determined by the value of the physical minimum of requirements necessary to reproduce that labor power from day to day plus certain requirements dictated by natural conditions and by the particular social level of the United States. However, by reason of its being a commodity, labor power is amenable to the invisible laws governing all commodities. It is influenced by the factors of supply and demand, being forced below or carried above its true value according as the available supply of labor power is above or below demand. But with the tremendous technological advance of production in recent years there exists a permanent and relatively growing over-supply of labor power. While a cyclical recovery would cause them to rise slightly above their present level, as a result of the absorption of a part of the over-supply of labor power, from that point they would once more recede.
Thus we are led to believe that the period of “prosperity” existing between 1923 and 1929, as far as the workers are concerned, has passed never to return. It is estimated that improvement of productive technique has progressed to the point where a return to the production levels of 1928–29, which is not likely, could be made today with the re-employment of not more than 50 percent of the 16 million American workers unemployed at present. Thus, the United States will enter any period of cyclical recovery with a permanent industrial reserve army of at least 8 million persons. Nor will this army shrink. On the contrary, it is reasonable to presuppose its further growth. The technological displacement of workers will continue. Each year an influx of young persons who have attained “working age” will swell the ranks of available workers. So take it, all in all, it may be said that the American period of high wages is a thing of the past.
In 1929 the United States definitely joined Europe in a condition of general capitalist decline. Its industrial activity, held up by the export of capital between 1923–29, permanently slackened. The general crisis of capitalism laid it by the heels and today America is confronted by an accumulation of surplus capital seeking investment, excess plant capacity, over-capitalization in expectation of high monopoly profits, restricted markets and other phenomena characteristic of the period of capitalist decay.
However, this does not mean that cyclical variations are excluded. On the contrary, one is beginning to take place now. But all phases of the business cycle – lull, average production, boom and crisis – from now on, will occur on a generally descending curve in contradistinction to a formerly ascending one. They will take place within a restrictive circle dictated by the present stage of development of the international economic and social relationships of world imperialism. Booms will be extremely short-lived and succeeded by crises of unusual length and depth.
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