Marxists debate state of the global economy

Currently there is a very interesting discussion taking place on the marxmail list on the question which has preoccupied the socialist left ever since Marx published Capital - is capitalism still in a state of relative dynamism and growth or have we now entered into the era of senile (or to borrow Mandel’s optimistic phrase “late”) capitalism plagued by insurmountable crises of profitability and over-production?

The current debate follows on from a recent forum sponsored by the US socialist magazine Monthly Review between leading marxist political economists Robert Brenner and Sam Gindin, which is available online in video format here. For those without broadband Louis Proyect has given an overview of the main arguments on his blog Unrepentant Marxist.

Probably the most interesting part of it for me is the argument advanced by Gindin that rather than viewing the current phase of so-called “lean capitalism” as unique in the history of capitalism we should see the period from the 1970s onwards as a return to capitalist normality after the “aberration” of the post-war boom, with growth rates over the last three decades although declining from the high-point of the 50s and 60s still surpassing those of every other historical period.

He also points to the tremendous boost given by the integration of China and the former USSR into the global capitalist system in recent years and the fact that manufacturing productivity has remained at least at constant levels despite huge layoffs in the USA and the rest of the advanced capitalist nations.

An additional factor in the ability of capitalism to maintain growth is the rise of finance capital, which despite its fundamentally parasitic nature in the short to medium term can appear to take on the role of an autonomous sphere of capital accumulation.

Most tellingly, Gindin argues that the mass job cuts and attacks on welfare provisions undertaken by successive governments all around the world since the 1970s far from representing a terminal crisis of capitalism instead represent primarily a political crisis brought on by the failure of the left.

This is certainly a refreshing change from the über-determinist refrain of many dogmatic marxist groups, who in their desire to find an easy shortcut to revolution and inflate their sense of self-importance regularly predict an imminent meltdown of capitalism which will see the masses spontaneously rise up and confront the capitalist class head-on.

Of course periodic crises are inevitable under capitalism, but to expect that these crises mean that capitalism in the 21st century is necessarily living on borrowed-time is in my view simply wishful thinking.

The costs to human life and the planet may be enormous, but absent a massive mobilisation of the working class the capitalists will always find a way to restore their profit margins.