From: Adam Rose <Adam-AT-pmel.com> Subject: RE: M-I: RE: In the last instance - Toyota has spoken Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 07:44:57 -0000 Both Will Brown and Chris Burford objected to me when I wrote: > The choice for the British capitalist class as to whether > or not to join the Euro is the same choice which confronts > Turkeys when deciding whether to vote for Xmas or for > Thanksgiving - they'll get slaughtered all the same. > > The underlying weakness of British Capitalism in relation > to its rivals means that there simply is no "right" answer. > They're not strong enough to go it alone - nor are they > strong enough to win within a highly integrated EU. First, I need to explain what I did not mean. I did not mean that there no internationally competitive British based industries. There are some companies which are able to compete in the top league of international capitalism : British Airways, British Telecom, GEC, ICI ( and "Zeneca" ) , BP, etc. Apparently the British arms industry gets 25% of the world export market - now there's something to be proud of ! Nor did I mean that capitalism in Britain is about to collapse in its own contradictions tommorrow night. Nevertheless, I do think that British capitalism is weak relative to its rivals, and I do think that this weakeness explains the ruling class' inability to get its act together re: Europe. Today, they are confronted with two "wrong" choices : either way they lose out. This contrasts starkly with the choice confronting the EU enthusiast Winston Churchill, who supported the idea of "a sort of united states of Europe". After 1945, Britain appeared to be the only major player left in the ring. The choice between a Europe centered strategy and an Empire centered strategy was a choice between two "right" choices : either way, Britain was the only player in the game. Either way, British capitalism had 20 odd years of relatively trouble free growth ahead. Because of this relative strength ( of course, the long term decline was not reversed but only masked in this period ) , there was no great split at this time. Of course, Capitalism world wide has more problems today than during the 50's and 60's, and this results in more bitter splits within any country, within and between classes. But I would argue that the long term relative decline of Britain in relation to its rivals means that the splits in Britain are that much deeper and that much more insoluble than in many other countries. Again, compare with the immediate post war period. I'm sure that many British companies lost out because of the "loss" of India. Winston Churchill may well have fought to try to keep India. But it was not a life and death issue for these companies : there were other markets where they had a more or less free run. I don't think this is the case today. British capitalism has been doing reasonably well for the last few years - but the main reason for this is that it has been able to cover up its underlying weakness by devaluing ( for a while ). A single currency cuts off this traditional escape route. On the other hand, the terror is that if they don't join they'll be cut off from the single market. Until 1948, Britain could always say to the Europeans : "Keep Europe - we've got India". Until 1956, they could say "Keep Europe - we've got Egypt." Now, they can only say : "Keep Europe - we've got Hong Kong" - and they won't even be able to say that in 18 months time. Britain is in a long term relative decline, in addition to the general world wide problems of capitalism. The last couple of years ( since Black Wednesday ) are a temporary and partial exception to this - for a couple of years, Britain has kept pace with its rivals. It is wrong to be too apocalyptic - but it would also be wrong to be misled by this temporary and partial exception into underestimating the particular problems facing British capitalism. Gordon Brown understands this - and this understanding on his part explains why he's going to try to stick to the Tory public sector pay + spending limits, and use the Tory trade union laws to break the inevitable resistance. Adam. Adam Rose SWP Manchester Britain. --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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