Exploitation, Imperialism and Class Struggle here ♦ Letter: Answering Political Economy questions here ♦
Exploitation, Imperialism and Class Struggle
MEXICO, November 12— We are witnessing a bitter war between the capitalist powers of the world: the United States, China, and Russia. Every corner of the world is an arena in which they are fighting this battle. The capitalist exploiters in Mexico and their governments (whether Right or Left) vie for markets, natural resources, and the surplus value extracted from the workers to maximize their profits, whether in a “legal” or violent way.
The US capitalists in Mexico do this through legalistic tricks. They impose governments, with treaties such as NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) or violently through their cartels. Seizing wealth and sowing terror in the working class.
In addition to the army and the police, the drug cartels are the armed wing of these bosses. In many places in Mexico they have taken over the markets, charge fees to merchants, determine laws, impose rulers. At the same time, they have seized natural resources (e.g., mines, forests, water, food production). They have sold and smuggled drugs, and sowed terror in the working class (robberies, kidnappings, rapes, extortion, and murders).
On the other hand, this year Chinese employers are the largest investors in Mexico, after those of the US, without the need for trade agreements.
In a fierce struggle, they fight for markets for the sale of their goods. Chinese companies invest in infrastructure: the transport and extraction of goods and natural resources (e.g., ports, interoceanic corridor, “Mayan train,” mining). As well as in the manufacture, sale, and transfer of drugs, and in the workers’ labor.
However, in this bosses’ war, the loser is the working class. Since the workers are super-exploited, they are the ones who lay the dead. Young people are the victims of drug addiction, and peasants are dispossessed of their territories.
Faced with this fascist situation, the bosses and their rulers face two tasks: 1) To contain the advance of the competing bosses and 2) To contain the discontent of the workers.
The discontent of the working class is evident. Mass demonstrations of teachers, students, peasants, and workers are emerging. ICWP collectives have discussions with friends, family, and acquaintances about how the working class is being subjugated and how we can free ourselves forever. But it is not enough. We have to strengthen our efforts.
For us, the working class, this is an opportunity to show our class siblings that in capitalism we lose no matter which side wins the bosses’ fight. That a communist society based on meeting the needs of our class is the only solution.
We will only win this battle by joining collectives, understanding communist ideas through discussions, and distributing, writing for, and reading Red Flag. We will achieve this in an organized way through an international workers’ party that leads the revolution to bury all bosses forever.
Capitalist terror will come to an end only when the communist revolution triumphs.
Letter: Answering Questions about Political Economy
A comrade asked some useful questions.
“Why can’t machines produce profit for the capitalists?”
Machines do help the capitalists make profit. That’s why they use them. A machine can replace one hundred farmworkers with one or two workers to harvest almonds, for example. The owner sells the almonds and makes a profit. But as all the other almond farm owners get the same machines, and lay off hundreds of workers, their rate of profit goes down. Not their amount of profit at first, but their rate of profit. They have to pay the full price for the machines and then for upkeep and repair of the machines.
The only thing they don’t pay the full price for is workers’ labor power. They only pay the worker enough to return to work the next day; often less. They keep the rest of the value the worker produces as profit. So the more of their capital they spend on machines, and the less on workers’ labor power, the more their rate of profit declines. As a result of the machine, there are many unemployed farmworkers. They can’t afford to buy almonds. More almonds are produced using machines than workers can afford to buy.
“If they could replace every worker with a machine, would they make no profit?”
They can’t replace every worker with a machine. Workers are central, not marginal. They need workers to mine lithium, cobalt, and other elements to make the steel, to make and run the machines, to repair them, to transport material to the factory and the finished products to the stores. They will always need workers.
With more machines and fewer workers, they will make a profit. Their rate of profit will fall. So, they must conquer more and more of the market. Their competition with other capitalists gets sharper.
“Why do capitalists invest in unproductive capital?”
Capitalism is based on exploitation and competition for maximum profit. A capitalist must keep making more profit or lose their business to other capitalists. When the rate of profit in manufacturing has declined, when capitalists have to invest more money in machines to stay competitive and less in exploiting workers’ labor power, their profits in manufacturing go down. Many of them then look for other ways to invest their capital to make money. To them, whether they invest in real estate, cocaine, or stock market speculation, it’s good if they make short-term profit. But it doesn’t create products people need or jobs that help workers survive.
Capitalists have to expand or die. One capitalist kills many. For example, Costco put many smaller markets out of business. Capitalists don’t sit together to divide up the market equally. Each capitalist and imperialist fights for the whole market, or as much as possible.
Communism will be the opposite. Everything will be based on cooperation, not competition. Innovations that help produce things the masses need will be immediately shared among everyone to make our lives better—without profit or money.
—A Comrade