File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-02-08.012, message 66


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.



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