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[ex-ussr-left] Workers World - Çíàé ñâîåãî âðàãà! ×òî òàêîå èìïåðèàëèçì!!
----- Original Message -----
From: WW <wwnews@wwpublish.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 3:35 AM
Subject: [WW] Know your enemy: What is imperialism?
> -------------------------
> Via Workers World News Service
> Reprinted from the April 25, 2002
> issue of Workers World newspaper
> -------------------------
>
> KNOW YOUR ENEMY: WHAT IS IMPERIALISM?
>
> By Greg Butterfield
>
> The word imperialism is used a lot by people in the
> progressive and revolutionary movement. What does it mean?
>
> Some people think imperialism is just a cuss word radicals
> use to put down rotten government policies. But it's more
> than that.
>
> Imperialism is rooted in a particular economic system,
> capitalism, and benefits a particular class, which Marxists
> call the bourgeoisie or ruling class. The bourgeoisie is the
> super-wealthy class of corporate owners, bankers and big
> landlords.
>
> Progressives know that the United States acts in an
> imperialist way. The U.S. government, which represents the
> ruling class, imposes its will on other countries by
> economic, political and military means.
>
> But imperialism is not a government policy put forth by one
> administration or political party. It's the economic system
> underlying all U.S. government policies, liberal or
> conservative, Democratic or Republican.
>
> Most people are taught that imperialism simply means a big
> country bullying a small country. Sometimes that's true, but
> it's not a complete definition. In the wrong hands, this
> common-sense definition can be dangerously misleading.
>
> The U.S. government often accuses other governments of
> "imperialist" behavior. Washington takes advantage of the
> common, but incomplete, idea of bigger country vs. smaller
> country to turn public opinion against socialist and
> progressive nationalist countries trying to maintain their
> independence.
>
> For example, when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, George Bush
> the First called the Iraqi government imperialist. Bush
> neglected to mention that Iraq was responding to
> provocations from the U.S.-controlled Kuwaiti monarchy,
> which was stealing Iraqi oil.
>
> He didn't explain how Kuwait had been arbitrarily carved off
> from Iraq under British colonial rule, or how the Iraqi
> people made a revolution in 1958 to be independent of
> U.S./British domination.
>
> IMPERIALISM = MONOPOLY CAPITALISM
>
> Not every capitalist country is imperialist. In fact, most
> of the world's people live in poor, underdeveloped
> capitalist countries like Iraq that are exploited by the
> imperialist powers of the United States, Canada, Western
> Europe, Australia and Japan.
>
> Capitalism developed first and reached its most advanced
> stage in those countries. Imperialism exists by keeping the
> rest of the world enslaved and dependent on its
> institutions, including the World Bank and International
> Monetary Fund.
>
> V.I. Lenin, the Russian revolutionary leader of the early
> 20th century, gave the most complete, scientific definition
> of imperialism in his 1916 booklet, "Imperialism: The
> Highest Stage of Capitalism."
>
> He wrote: "If it were necessary to give the briefest
> definition of imperialism, we should have to say that
> imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism."
>
> Using economic statistics and historical facts, Lenin showed
> how capitalism's early, free-market phase led to the
> creation of giant industrial and banking monopolies.
>
> Cutthroat competition constantly bankrupted businesses. More
> successful rivals gobbled these businesses up, until two,
> three, four, or even a single monopoly dominated whole
> industries.
>
> This process of concentration into monopolies continues
> today on a much bigger scale. Now giant monopolies absorb
> other giant monopolies. Some recent examples are AOL Time
> Warner, Walt Disney/ABC, ExxonMobil, DaimlerChrysler and JP
> Morgan Chase.
>
> BANKS DOMINATE
>
> As industrial monopolies grew, so did their hunger for
> profits. They fought monopolies from the other imperialist
> powers for the right to dominate poorer countries.
>
> Rather than just exporting goods to these underdeveloped
> countries, the monopolies started to export capital-that is,
> they built factories, hired local labor, and began to
> produce goods at much lower cost and higher profit than in
> their "home" countries.
>
> Bosses tossed extra crumbs to some workers in the
> imperialist countries to keep class peace at home, while
> promoting racism and national chauvinism to stop workers
> from uniting across borders.
>
> The big banks came to dominate the expansion process. Banks
> control the flow of money to the monopolies. Their
> representatives sit on the boards of most big industrial
> corporations and exert decisive influence over business
> decisions.
>
> Lenin said these five characteristics define imperialism, or
> monopoly capitalism:
>
> "1) the concentration of production and capital has
> developed to such a high stage that it has created
> monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life;
>
> "2) the merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and
> the creation, on the basis of this 'finance capital,' of a
> financial oligarchy;
>
> "3) the export of capital as distinguished from the export
> of commodities acquires exceptional importance;
>
> "4) the formation of international monopolist capitalist
> combines which share the world among themselves;
>
> "5) the territorial division of the whole world among the
> biggest capitalist powers is completed."
>
> Epoch of war and revolution
>
> This territorial division of the world among the
> imperialists inevitably leads to war.
>
> As the fortunes of each imperialist country rises or falls,
> those with the most power want to expand the proportion of
> the globe they control. Those whose grip is weakening hold
> on for dear life.
>
> Rather than eliminating competition, monopoly capitalism
> raises it to a higher and deadlier level.
>
> Sometimes the imperialists fight each other directly. That
> was the case during World War I, when Lenin wrote his
> booklet on imperialism, and World War II.
>
> At other times they fight for domination through local
> proxies, like the U.S./German rivalry that tore apart
> Yugoslavia. But both imperialist powers united to destroy
> the Milosevic regime when it resisted their plans.
>
> Finally, there are the wars of conquest fought to control
> strategic countries like Afghanistan, or against governments
> and popular movements that resist imperialist domination,
> like Iraq or Colombia's FARC-EP.
>
> But just as inevitably, the concentration of wealth and
> political power into fewer hands leads to rebellions and
> revolutions. Imperialism contains within itself the seeds of
> its own demise.
>
> SOCIAL PRODUCTION VS. PRIVATE OWNERSHIP
>
> By expanding capitalist production all over the globe,
> imperialism has created a huge working class with nothing to
> lose and everything to gain by fighting for power.
>
> Imperialism has made production social. That means thousands
> of workers, often from dozens of countries, are involved in
> the production, distribution and exchange of a single
> product or service.
>
> Yet the fruits of this collective labor are robbed from the
> workers. The bosses, who own the factories, stores, etc.,
> take it for themselves in the form of profit. Wages paid to
> the workers often don't cover the basic necessities of life.
> Others just get by, while millions go jobless.
>
> But as Lenin pointed out, the monopolies are ripe for the
> workers to take over and run themselves-to create social
> ownership in harmony with social production.
>
> Ultimately, that's how imperialism can be defeated: by
> targeting the diseased economic system, not just its
> political symptoms.
>
> It's not enough to change a government policy or the party
> in power. The whole system must be overturned and replaced
> by one that puts people's needs first.
>
> - END -
>
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>
>
>
>
>
>
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