Date: Sun, 3 Mar 1996 22:01:36 -0800
From: James Miller <jamiller-AT-igc.apc.org>
Subject: buchanan, crisis, labor party


BUCHANAN AND CRISIS

   Relating to the discussion Buchanan, Rakesh pointed out:

>Whoever the Republican candidate is I suspect that he will be their
>Mondale, a lifeless career bureaucrat. Ahead is four more years of
>Clintonism; anyways, the problem *is*  human domestication and
>environmental destruction by an global techno-capitalism, not the resugence
>of NAZI parades. 

   While it is true that there is a certain momentum to the
current economic and political climate, the familiar routines
of the past are being more insistently and frequently interrupted
by the new elements of discord and disaster. And these are the
symptoms of the growing crisis.
   The crisis, in my view, is rooted in a strengthened downward
pressure on profit rates (as measured in Marxian terms), which
has caused intensified competition, downsizing, wage cuts and
other cost-cutting measures in most corporations. I won't make
the attempt here to indicate all the difficulties that are involved
in empirically calculating the trend of the Marxian profit rate.
Much has been written about it. Suffice it to say that the
tendency of the rate of profit to fall is something that is
a normal consequence of technological innovation under capitalism.
   But the declines in profit rates force the capitalists to
seek a remedy. In a big upward swing of the business cycle, they
can sell more products and offset the decline in the profit rate
by an increase in the mass of profits. But the crisis of
overproduction has become chronic, and each new round of layoffs
further undermines the purchasing power of the masses.
   What this leads to is a crisis of capital accumulation. There
is no point in expanding the scale of production if you are
having a hard time selling what you are making on the present
scale of production. New investment in plant and equipment,
in most industries, does not expand the scale of production,
but rather improves productivity, so that fewer workers produce
a given amount of goods.
   Capitalists seek a way out by grabbing market share from
rival firms. Intense price competition keeps downward pressure
on prices, and further strangles the rate of profit. World-market
competition exacerbates the national rivalries. We see this
in Europe in the conflicts that arise over Bosnia, etc.
   These are some of the features of the current crisis of
world capitalism. The downsizing in particular affects the
living standards and moods of millions. See the article in
the front section of the Sunday, March 3, _New York Times_.
This promotes desperation and a search for alternative
political solutions. Thus Perot, now Buchanan, etc.
   As I asserted before, we are in a period of transition.
We need to focus on the roots of the change in the nature
of the capitalist system, and the playing out of its
contradictions in daily life. Marx's _Capital_ is still the
most relevant source for understanding the world.

   Responding to my claims about the indications that
Buchanan was a fascist, Bryan Alexander responded:

>Too tenuous.  We need evidence, here.

   This is true. Let each person check into it in accordance
with their level of interest, etc. I can't prove it. I pointed
to some connections which may be significant, but what I said
is not conclusive. I think what is most significant about
Buchanan is the overall pattern of his oratory. This then
has to be viewed in the context of the particular stage of
the development of fascist embryos in this country. But if
people think I might be exaggerating, that's o.k. I might be.
But the main thing is to see that the situation is not at
all stable. Capitalist crisis does generate fascism, and
there are signs of this now.

LABOR PARTY PROSPECTS

   Jon Flanders had some comments about the possibility of
success for a labor party in the US now. Then he argued,

> What Jim says is true, its a judgement call. I think it is worth taking a
>shot at and that the conditions are relatively favorable. I am still left
>confused by the rhetoric in the Militant about Buchanan, fascism and war.

   What's lacking, in this world of crisis and instability, is
a burgeoning, sustainable, political fight-back campaign emerging
out of the masses of the working population. It will take something
like this to provide a foundation for a real labor party in the US.
   There was such a movement in the US in the 1930s. The most
obvious objective sign of it was the massive recruitment of
workers to the Communist Party. But the Communists and other
labor reformists combined to block the formation of a labor
party in the late 1930s.
   Of course, labor party advocates can run a propaganda campaign,
to serve as a call to action, etc., and I would not pass judgment
on something like this in advance. But it won't be a real labor
party. I think that when the time becomes ripe for independent
labor political action, we will see the signs of it. We don't
see those signs at the present time.
   Enough for now.

Jim Miller
Seattle


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