The General Crisis of Capitalism

Statement

This crisis is combined with the general crisis of capitalism. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the big capitalist countries have developed into monopoly capitalism, imperialism. The monopolies merge with the banks to form finance capital. The export of capital takes precedence over the export of commodities. One of the main features of imperialism is that the whole world is divided economically and politically among the big powers. (This is true even though most countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America are no longer officially colonies, but they are still dependent economically on the big powers.) Because of this the imperialist countries can only expand by encroaching on the colonies and dependencies of their rivals. Imperialism got a temporary breathing spell with the downfall of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. This led to expansion by the U.S. and European Union into the markets of these new areas. But now Russia, together with China, have become the chief rivals of U.S. imperialism.

Militarily the U.S. is the world's only superpower. It has bases in over 150 countries overseas, with 174,000 troops stationed there. In the last decade alone, it has fought and is still fighting two major wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq. Together with its NATO allies, it bombed Libya, causing unprecedented destruction and leading to the overthrow and brutal murder of Moammar Gaddhafi. It is threatening Syria and Iran. And it is making preparations to deal with its major long-term rival, China.

However, economically the U.S. is an imperialist country in decline. Only 1 out of the top 10 banks in the world is headquartered in the U.S. (J.P. Morgan Chase, with assets of over $2.3 trillion); the others are from Germany, Japan, China, Britain and France, and only 6 out of the top 53 banks are from the U.S.

If we once again look at auto production, while in 1992 U.S. companies made 78% of cars produced in the U.S., by 2011 that figure fell to only 47%. They were pushed out mainly by Japanese countries with plants in the U.S. In Mexico, one of the main countries dependent on the U.S., the percent of cars produced by U.S. companies in the same years, 1992 to 2011, declined from 62% to 37%, pushed out by German and Japanese manufacturers. When China produces "world class" cars for export, the percent of sales by U.S. companies (not just within the U.S. but to countries to which U.S. exports) will decline further. In 2009, for the first time China produced more motor vehicles than the U.S. (9,233,000 to 8,673,000). By 2011, China had already produced more than twice as many motor vehicles as the U.S. (18,419,000 to 8,655,000). No wonder the U.S. considers China its main competitor.

This is why the U.S. has begun its Trans-Pacific Partnership, referred to as "NAFTA on steroids." It is trying to unite its historic allies and other countries in the Pacific region to isolate China. It is shifting military forces to the Pacific region, so that by 2015, 60% of its military will be there. Imperialism has nothing to provide the working people except crises, wars and preparations for wars.

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