Imperialist Globalization: The New Stage Of Imperialism
Capitalism doesn't develop linearly, it develops in its own dynamics, in which its internal laws act as a tendency, influenced by objective as well as subjective conditions. In the history of capitalism, there are significant phases in which fundamental changes happened. So Lenin concluded from the developments of capitalism, the emergence of the stage of imperialism, which he characterized essentially as follows “Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun, in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed.“ Leaning on the inner laws of capitalism, monopoly capitalism has also developed.
As a result of substantial qualitative changes beginning with the 1970s and especially after the final collapse of the USSR, the imperialist world system has reached a new stage, the stage of Imperialist Globalization. At this stage, the Internationalization of the production phase, which has already begun in imperialist capitalism, has taken on such proportions that production is now being realized on a global scale, and that labor is being organized at an international level. This means that Internationalization has changed from a general tendency to a characteristic feature of world capitalism. The fundamental contradictions of the capitalist form of production have also become internationalized and became the fundamental problems of the entire world.
While the global economy at the beginning of the 20th century consisted of the firm merger of national markets, today there is an integrated world market. The international monopolies and the 200 world monopolies among them have gained complete control over production, trade and capital export in this world market. The world monopolies are now the basis for the world economy. Obstacles to the movement of goods and capital have been largely abolished in this world market and capital has been centralized and accumulated extremely. Financial capital has consolidated its rule over industrial capital. This has expanded the investment of financial capital and speculative capital. Speculative capital movements have occupied an important position throughout the capital movement and have become a characteristic feature of finance capital. Speculative capital has become one of the fundamental methods for capital gain. The stage of Imperialist Globalization equates to a major expropriation wave.
The competition for the world market within the international monopolies and imperialist states is sharpening. This violent competition is the main dynamic for the war and alliance policies of the capitalist states. In these battles different blocks and regional alliances are built. The state apparatuses have entered the service of world monopolies and international law has been determined accordingly. At the stage of Imperialist Globalization, relations between imperialist states, as well as between imperialist states and their financial-economic colonies, form according to the conditions of the united world market.
The emergence of a new form of colonialism, the financial-economic colonialism, is a characteristic feature of Imperialist Globalization. With financial-economic colonialism, which replaced neo-colonialism, monopolistic capital attacks all limits and restrictions that prevent the free movement of capital. Accordingly, the economic and political systems of the previous neo-colonies were restructured and prepared for the direct penetration of monopolistic capital. The colonial states have accordingly set up the political and economic structures in these colonies. Within this restructuring, i.a. state controls by the financial-economic colonies over economics have been weakened, currency restrictions were lifted, the price of labor was kept to a minimum, and through privatization, state-owned economies were taken over by monopoly capital. The autonomisation of central banks of financial-economic colonies and the control of imperialist financial institutions are also part of the process of this new form of colonialism. This form of colonialism is completely inner to imperialism.
In the stage of Imperialist Globalization, the material basis of the nation-state has also changed. The tendency of the internationalization of production and the integration of the entire economy reduces the material basis of the nation-state, because the economic unification and internationalization of the world is incompatible with national borders and the individual national economies became much more interdependent. In addition, today's levels of monopoly capital accumulation have reached such levels, that they reached the limits of national economies and have already overcome them.
At the same time the current state of monopoly capitalism holds incomparable possibilities and necessities for more wide spread production. The result of this development is that forms of an "international state", that plan together for international social production and smash the obstacles to the development of productive forces, become more and more necessary. But the imperialist world system is still addicted to nation-states. The competition is conducted in capitalism over the nation states. It also prevents the solution of the contradiction between the nation state and the international economy in capitalism.
The fundamental contradiction of capitalism, namely the private nature of property as opposed to the social character of labor, reaches an unprecedented level in Imperialist Globalization. The private quality of capital and production ownership means that the nation-states, that make up international monopolies, are not only protected by them anymore, but also strengthened politically and militarily. The bourgeois nation-states still have the task of guarding the order of private property, of securing the domination of the bourgeoisie against the working class. At the same time, imperialist nation-states must be strengthened politically and militarily for the rivalry for the rule of the international monopolies in the world. The headquarter, the main base of every international monopoly and world monopoly is its country of origin.
The contradictions of capitalism deepen with this stage. While production is organized globally and the productive forces are socialized on a global scale, but private ownership over the means of production is concentrated in the hands of a handful of world monopolies, inequality between classes deepens. The model of monopolistic state capitalism is outdated. The welfare state has become history. Meanwhile, social services such as education and health are increasingly marketed. The bourgeois state plays its role as a guarantor of political class rule even more obvious and more violent.
The working class has also changed essentially. The ranks of the proletariat have widened. The material basis for its international identity has been strengthened. As a result of changes in production, the social difference between hand and brain work has weakened. Oppressed and exploited strata are closer to the proletariat today, which gives the proletariat more opportunities to unite the other oppressed under its program. The exploitation of labor and of nature, as well as the oppression of women are the main contradictions that will determine the class struggle today.
The contradictions between labor and capital, between people and the state are deepening worldwide. This in turn strengthens the conditions for revolutions in the weakest link of the chain as well as the possibilities for regional revolutions and a world revolution. Under the conditions of Imperialist Globalization, various struggles unite. Anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist struggles flow together, the material conditions for a rapid transition from democratic revolutions to socialist revolutions, have matured all over the world.
The insoluble contradictions of the capitalist form of production have sparked an existential crisis of capitalism in the stage of imperialist globalization. After the global economic crisis of 2007-2008, it has become clear that capital has lost totally its ability to develop the productive forces, so it also loses its own historical reason for existence. The existential crisis of capitalism is reflected in the economic, political and ideological crises of bourgeois relations of production. Capitalism has reached its limits, the conditions for revolutions and the world revolution have strengthened, and as soon as possible the period of socialist revolutions under the leadership of the proletariat must be struck. With the call "Workers and oppressed of all countries, unite!" we are preparing to unite all parts of the oppressed and exploited under the leadership of the working class to turn the existential crisis of capitalism in terms of Imperialist Globalization, into a possibility for democratic and socialist revolutions and strengthen our call for a world revolution.
Workers and Oppressed of All Countries, Unite!
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