China’s Socialist Economic Development and the Acceleration of the World Revolutionary Process

Talk by the editorial group of communistcentury.com¹

March 17, 2007

It is our view, that the rapid economic development of the Peoples Republic of China, through the qualitative integration of the global economy, is an economic force for the acceleration of the revolutionary process in all countries.

The content of this process is the contradiction between two contending economic laws.

What then are these laws? Let us refer to someone who knew a lot about Socialist economic development.

In Economic Problems of Socialism, Stalin explained:

“The … basic economic law of modern capitalism might be formulated roughly in this way: the securing of the maximum capitalist profit through the exploitation, ruin and impoverishment of the majority of the population of the given country, through the enslavement and systematic robbery of the peoples of other countries, especially backward countries, and, lastly, through wars and militarization of the national economy, which are utilized for the obtaining of the highest profits.

…

“ The … basic economic law of socialism might be formulated roughly in this way: the securing of the maximum satisfaction of the constantly rising material and cultural requirements of the whole of society through the continuous expansion and perfection of socialist production on the basis of higher techniques.”

These are important concepts because they summarize the economic basis of socialism and capitalism.

Simply put, the BELC is maximization of profit, while the BELS is maximum satisfaction of the material and cultural requirements of all.

These two laws are not in equilibrium, and while they may co-exist for an extended period without necessarily leading to war or requiring resolution through the use of force, Contention between the BELS and BELC is the main feature. Since the BELS operates on a global basis, beyond the borders of Socialist states, they contend in all contemporary societies.

At the early stage of capitalist economic development the BELC comes to prevail. As the productive forces grow the BELC begins to give way and the BELS gets stronger. Out of this contention there comes a ‘tipping point’ when the BELS becomes predominant. That is the moment of the negation of the negation, when quantitative relations give way to a new quality.

This ‘tipping point’ is not simply fixed to a certain level of the productive forces. Secondary non-economic factors can advance or restrain the shift. The seizure of state power by the working class, led by a communist party, in a number of less-developed countries led to the domination of the BELS, although at the time the productive forces may have appeared insufficiently developed and they suffered a lack of capital to drive economic development. The BELC as expressed by commodity/market relations continued to operate in a subordinated fashion.

In developed capitalist countries the situation is the opposite. The productive forces have reached such a high level of development that the relative strengths of the two laws have flipped. The operation of BELS has become or at least is becoming more powerful than that of the BELC, and only the state, the political system and the ideological superstructure provide a barrier to social transformation. Nevertheless, the BELS comes to operate in every arena of economic life, and it is only a matter of time before the political and social systems must adapt.

The decline of the BELC in the developed capitalist countries expresses itself in a number of ways including:

Individual capitalist enterprises have insufficient capital to further development. And lack access to and availability of sufficient quantities of specific qualities of labor-power!

That is why; they need to access the capital that proletarians have accumulated. And why Global and domestic mergers and acquisitions have intensified and will continue to do so.

The capitalist class does not have the capital to move to the next, qualitative, stage of development of the productive forces.

Increasingly, every effort to maximize profit either inhibits absolute profit or accelerates the falling rate of profit.

Protection stifles capitalist reproduction by preserving outmoded forms of production and restricting market access…and

Military production and war squander capital and labor…while

The application of new technologies to cut labor costs accelerates the ‘falling rate of profit’

The bourgeois state stands in the way of the kind of qualitative growth required for further economic development. It diverts vast amounts of capital into the unproductive military industrial complex and the intelligence industrial complex.

Its extremely violent character expresses and reinforces its weakness

It inhibits immigration at a time when capital requires greater access to labor power to fully utilize available capital (liquidity) in Capital formation. That is to say capital will go wanting and dissipate, if it cannot find sufficient labor power to couple with and reproduce value, surplus-value and accumulation. This is true not withstanding the large numbers of workers pulled into the US labor-power market. Those numbers are insufficient.

It is for these reasons that the BELC is gradually pushed aside.

Meanwhile, the revolutionization of the productive forces has laid the material basis for communism, by creating abundance or at least the productive capacity for immediate abundance. This economy of advanced production requires, and demands, a much more materially and culturally developed proletariat, which in turn can become capable of running society.

The need of the US and other developed economies to interact with the economy of the Socialist China, which is now the productive engine of the world, requires reshaping of the former to conform to the BEL that is operative in China. This necessitates subordination to the BELS.

We would like to suggest some ways that Global integration accelerates the revolutionary process:

• Speeds up the elimination of more primitive forms of production and the adoption of advanced means of production.

• Proletarianization of the broadest mass of the world population

• Leads to a greater integration of the proletarians of integrating countries

• and greater political integration in which BELS tends to predominate over BELC

Clearly, these objective processes are very dynamic, however, communists have tended to underestimate their maturity.

Just as in previous periods of rapid expansion and qualitative growth, this moment of Globalization with the BELS operative brings social change.

Every revolution of productive forces implies revolution of productive relations. Consequently old social connections are broken and begin to disintegrate. This throws open all social relations.

In such a circumstance Communists have an opportunity and an obligation.

The capital requirements of further economic development necessitates Capital reducing the surplus allocated for state functions, while seeking out more and more diverse sources of capital including that of workers, and searching the globe for sufficient labor-power of particular quality.

These factors break down old relations and causes crises or even failure of the state functions (Katrina + Iraq).

Together, the breaking of old social relations and the crisis of the state, create an opportunity for taking power…putting power on the agenda.

In this situation, the operation of BELS and the engine of world economic growth that is the PRC can serve to establish favorable ambient conditions in which communists may lead the proletariat to power.

For us, the main responsibility is on US communists, but the main demand is on US workers. If we make no demands on the workers they won’t recognize, even, that there is an opportunity for power. On their own, workers may achieve only a narrow trade union consciousness… and the bourgeoisified US workers have been notably complacent and chauvinistic.

It’s the job of communists to prepare ourselves (self-cultivation), point the way to power (develop a theory of revolution), prepare the proletariat (education + propaganda), and assess each opportunity (develop tactics). In the developed capitalist countries there is only one reason for the existence of a Communist Party, it has only one role, one function, and that is power…leading the proletariat in the conquest of political power.