Capitalism, Late Capitalism and Tendencies towards Post-capitalist World

ANIL RAJIMWALE

Capitalism today is undergoing big changes. The period since the end of Second World War (WWII) has seen drastic and fundamental changes in all the fields of life, society, economy and politics, science and technology, culture, arts, morality and so on. These changes are too drastic to fit in the existing concepts, which fail on many occasions or are insufficient tools to explain events. It is time that we took stock of the situation and drew certain conclusions.

What is capitalism today?

It is obvious that capitalism today is not what it was before the WWII or even three decades ago. The scientific concept of capitalism was developed most prominently by Karl Marx more that 150 years ago. It is clear that the concepts of capitalism cannot remain the same as given by Marx. Many other thinkers also contributed to the development of these concepts. Lenin made the most important contribution after Marx, by developing the concepts of monopoly, imperialism, finance capital etc. Thinkers like Bebel, Luxemburg, Plekhanov, Kautsky, Bernstein, Bukharin, and others also made important contributions.

At the same time, one has to say that we are still working with concepts worked out during the pre- WWII period, basically. In the meantime, a sea change has gripped several fields. Many of these trends go beyond what we have so far termed capitalism. There are tendencies that go beyond capitalism. We will try to identify some of them.

“1. STR and Productive base: The productive base of existing capitalism is not the same as before. The productive base (machines, industries etc) was created during the industrial revolution and the industrial age created by it. There is a shift from heavy industry to lighter industry, fr6m production to communications based upon electronics. This is mainly the result of the STR. Thus, within the sphere of production itself, there is a drastic change in the means of production. There is a historic change from large-scale production to small and smaller scale production. The means of production are growing progressively smaller. This fact has several far-reaching consequences of socioeconomic kind, such as the change in the structure of the capitalist class, composition of the working class, and emergence of new sections in the society. It also affects the nature of revolution and its ways. Marx’s theory of socialism was based basically on large-scale production.

2. This trend towards smaller scales of means of production does not fit in with the nature of capitalism. In its history, capitalism and imperialism has displayed tendencies of concentration and centralization of production. Emergence of smaller means of production and small scale production threatens the existing capitalism by trying to break out of the stranglehold of large-scale capital/production.

3. There is an extra-ordinary outbreak of small scale production, decentralization and a tendency to end the monopoly. Electronics has that inherent nature. Today small scale producers have a greater role to play than ever before.

4. Proliferation of small workshops and individual production has disturbed the production, hold and distribution of surplus value and wealth. There is greater growth of a producer who is a worker himself/herself and a worker who an owner too.

5. Consequently, industrial tendencies have weakened and feel threatened.

6. The size of means of production and communication is in direct contradiction to the nature of capitalism.

7. Rapid fall in prices of electronic goods create systemic problems for capitalist mode of production, particularly monopoly capitalism, as this is against the general laws of capitalism. Capitalism would like to keep prices, and consequently profits, at high levels.

8. These trends threaten monopolization of capital.

9. Information and Communication Revolution (ICR) has resulted in the loss of the domination of production. This is not capitalism in strict sense of term. Information is not a commodity; it cannot be. It is being artificially sought to be maintained as commodity. Communication is something that goes beyond the confines of capitalism. Giant capitalist conglomerates are unable to handle it. Consequently, there are rapid mergers among the monopolies.

10.Growth of communications: some indications: Yale library in the US had about 1000 vols in 1800; in 1938 it had 27 48 000 vols. In 1849 it occupied 1 and a quarter miles of shelves. In 1938 the vols occupied 80 miles of shelves., 10 000 drawers and a staff of 200. In 2040 it would have 20 crores of vols, 6000 miles of shelves, catalogs in 8 acres of land, 3 quarters of a million drawers, staff of 6000.

Electronic data: Sloan Didgital Sky Survey telescope in 2000 in  New Mexico collected more data in its first few weeks than in the entire  human history. In 2010 it accumulated 140 terrabytes of information, one TB being equal to 1000 GB. (American Library of Congress equals 15 GB).uccessor Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will in 2016 will acquire that quantity every five days. Wal-Mart handles more than one million customer transactions each hour, feeding databases at more than 2.5 petabytes (167 times the books in the ALC). 1 PB + 1000TB. The Google processes 1 PB/hr. Average information in world growing at 60% / yr. Experiments in the CERN, Geneva generates 40 TB / sec. In 2008 1200 exabytes of digital data will be generated this year; one EB = 100 PB i.e. billion copies of The Economist. In 2008 American households were bombarded with 3.6 zetabytes (ZB) of information, one ZB = 100EB. There are 4.6 billion mobiles worldwide, 1-2 b use internet. 2013: traffic flow over the internet will reach 667 EB. ETC.

11._The concept of ‘mode of production’ therefore does not fully cover the transformations brought about by the communication revolution. Concepts like the ‘mode of information’ (see Mark Poster) have to be used and evolved.

12.Shift from production to communication: Due to the STR and some other factors, production is losing its primacy, and is giving way to the information and communication, which is growing faster. The communication and service sector is becoming comparatively bigger than the productive sector. This is happening for the first time in human history. The social development has taken a new turn. The question arises as to what is the nature of the society based upon information and communication? This is something that needs deep going analysis.

13. Role of market: A lot of discussion is going on today about the market and the market forces. Is market good? Does it destroy or exploit the individuals and the common people? Is it exploitative? Etc. There has been a phenomenal growth of the market in the last 3 or 4 decades because of a number of factors. Some people are under the mistaken belief that market is something very ‘bad’, and it should be done away with or it should be seriously restricted. But we should take a realistic point of view. It has to be realized that market is an inseparable part of the society and our life since ages. Society and economy cannot function without a market, even in socialism. Market is essential for both the sellers and the buyers. And today the commodity production has increased as never before. Therefore market is needed more than ever before.

1900—daily foreign exchange trading was in millions of dollars.

1992—820 billion dollars a day

1998, April---one trillion dollars a day.

In 1900—private capital flows from the developed to the developing countries=in hundreds of millions of dollars;

2000—hundreds of billions of dollars.

The question before us is for whom the market should function, whom should it serve? People or the handful of monopolists? Therefore the question is not whether the market should be abolished; the real theoretical and practical question is how to democratize the market in favour of the common people. So the democratic revolution takes on a new aspect or nature.

14.So globalization means what? It was there earlier too. But today it is quantitatively and qualitatively different. Reasons: technology—the previous era of globalization was built around faster transportation e.g railways etc. People could go to places cheaper and faster, see new places, trade, set up enterprises etc. today’s globalization built around falling communications costs e:g due to microchips, satellites, fiber optics, internet etc. A 3 minute call (in 1996 dollars) between New York and London cost 300 dollars in 1930; and today? Almost free. So the developing countries are no more receivers of raw materials alone. They are today competitors in production and world market.

Other reasons too: explosion of market; political etc.

15.Globalisation as an objective economic process and as an American and imperialist policies. The two should not be confused. In fact, globalization better be called internationalization. ICR and STR contribute to the objective process of globalization/internationalization. Capital and money flows. Huge world market, interconnected. 5 times increase in trade turnover in the last two decades.

Example of the European Union (EU).

16.Nature of imperialism: Is imperialism the same as before or has it  changed? What is the nature of the changes? Is Lenin’s theory of imperialism still valid/ These and many other questions have to be answered. One thing is clear' there have been lot of changes. One of the most important concepts needs to be clarified and modified. Earlier it was thought, and this concept was sought to be proved, often Correctly, that capitalism and imperialism had become moribund and a hindrance to the growth of the productive forces, and that imperialism had become a parasite. This is no more applicable. There has been an

extra-ordinary growth of the productive forces after the WWII in form of the STR, electronics, computers, mobile and so on. there has even more astonishing growth of the information and communication sectors, particularly in form of the internet, which in turn becomes a new productive force.

Even countries like China, Vietnam and some others do not mention the

concept of imperialism. China has given it up, but it has not clearly

explained any new one.

Greater role and importance and potentials for the small scale production

and communications. Today, they constitute a growing competition to the

monopoly and imperialist sector and therefore have an immense

revolutionary role.

Imperialism today is not moribund; it is not parasitic. It has concentration

and centralization of capital. It is monopolistic, it is certainly exploitative and finance

capital driven. At the same time, within contemporary capitalism there are strong

decentralizing and non-monopolistic tendencies. World market is considerably affected,

even dominated by finance capital. But there is simultaneous growth of non-monopolistic

capitalism and small individual production. There is increasing realization, at the same

time, of the separation between speculative and financial capital. There is a possibility of

growingly emphasizing the dominant role of production e.g. statements of China, India,

Brazil etc. Imperialism is not able to destroy the developed and other economies; the

others can utilize the potentials of growth, particularly made possible by the new

technology and the world market. There are new entrants in the world market from the

developing Cs, giving a tough time to the west and the MNCs. Greater possibilities and

role for the small-scale industries, whose capacities and role has increased. Economic

cycle and its crisis does not affect those areas much where there is state sector and state

intervention. Role of public sector, a crucial new factor. These are new features of world

capitalism and imperialism.

It does not mean that imperialism today does not destroy productive and

communicative forces, and that it has totally lost its parasitic and moribund nature. But

this is not its main feature. It continues to follow militarism and destroy other countries

e.g. Iraq.

But the STR gives new confidence to the non-monopoly sectors, hands over to them

new weapons of growth and struggle. In the market not everything is in favour of

imperialism, which is now on the retreat (e.g. world economic crisis, world market,

WTO, BRIC etc). Balance going against imperialism.

17.New relations between the developed and the developing countries. Today, the developing countries are no more just the poor dependent ones. They are now giving increasingly tough competition to the developed countries. Their productive base is changing. They are catching up in communications. And their growth rate are far higher than those of the developed ones: 8-10 % for China and India, compared to 1-4% for the advanced countries. The developing Cs are thinking in terms of parallel currency at par with dollar, pound ete.

Groupings like the BRIC, SCC etc. the balance of forces is certainly changing. Change from productive to service sector worker: Today’s worker does not directly work with the object or the ‘job’ as it is called. He/she works with the images, on growing scale, and therefore it is a different kind of work. Electronics impart a basic change in the nature of work. Nature of work. Besides images, there are several other new aspects. How do we define work and labor? Can just pushing a button or a key be called work or labor? Such a worker not really a ‘worker’ or “laborer’ and does not participate in labor process, but stands beside it.

It is argued, and is true also to an extent, that “press and go away’ or press and forget kind of work is possible because of social nature of labor and of socially necessary labor. It is quite correct to say that high income of some of the most automated labor is possible simply because vast sections of mass of labor is highly exploited.

That does not answer the basic problem of the change in the nature of work/labor process and the laborer. Is pressing a button and then simply overseeing, ‘work’/ labour? If no, then what are the repercussions?

New section of consumer plays a crucial role today, dictating terms in many ways and influencing the quantity and quality of production e.g. customized production.

Role of bar code, its significance. 5 billion bar codes are codes are scanned world over each day.

Nature of Working Class

There is a historic shift from productive to communicative and service section within the composition of the working class. It has great deep implications for the future and methods of workers movement. This is for the first time in human history.

Changing Social Composition

For the first time in human history, the society is about to become urban agriculture becoming not only secondary, but a thing of past. In the developing countries though it is still important but with lessening emphasis. In the US it is on the verge of extinction. Great implication. The nature of movement, thought, organization, capitalism, socialism etc different. Is it classical capitalism? It is late capitalism with trends to grow  out of it.

New social forces in the urban giant conglomerates in the driving seat with

 initiatives to bring about step by step shifts in the composition of the civil society. Importance of civil society far greater. New Gramscian terrain. New kind of democratic revolution.

Late capitalism

Certain authors (see for example Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin: Global Capitalism and American Empire”, 2003, 2010) opine that full scale or proper or real capitalism has begun only now; and this is so to say an early stage. In certain senses, for certain countries it is true. Though capitalism developed full scale in the west, it is developing elsewhere only now. And in the west some or many features are developing only now mainly because of the STR, ICR, world market. Heilbronner writes in detail about ‘Late Capitalism’.

Nation-state in transition: both the nation and the state and their mutual relations are changing. EU, other regional groupings. EU an example of the changing nature of nation’ and ‘country’.

Revolution in the structure of the working class: instead of the industrial worker, the increasing predominance of the professional, information, service and technical sections.

Consumer instead of producer. Communication/service work instead of production. :

Role of Internet/information in the present and the future society.

So capitalism and late capitalism transit into post-industrial society, which includes features of capitalism, but not all, and which acquire new features.

Many features and laws of capitalism are suspended temporarily or permanently. For example, the electronics/computers/internet etc do not accord strictly accord with the nature and laws of capitalism. Falling prices of commodities, for example, do not accord with the nature of capital/capitalism. So what does it do? Constantly and artificially create new models etc of goods and objects and commodities. It is in general difficult, even impossible, to determine value/price of e-information. So it gets artificially fixed. It is a violation of the capitalist econon1!C laws and of the its political economy .

Therefore there are tendencies of post capitalism.

Where it all is going? The Future. 

Market is an inalienable part of modern society. It has to be democratized and freed of the MNCs or their domination.

Prolonged democratic shifts in the socio-economic order. Great role of the democratic institutions. Information a crucial democratic factor, cutting across nations and countries and the state. More people connected with information than ever before in history.

Better and more just distribution a crucial plank of the democratic transformation. Increased role for the small production and business in the new society.

Role of the information creating and distribution centres. Middle class. Media. Women. New sections of the society.

A post-industrial, post-modern role for the political parties.

Post-modernism, a thought process of the future. Mark Poster talks of the ‘mode of information’. Subject/object relation. Role of the subject; creation, structure and constitution of the subject. Qualitatively new subject is being created. This is a distinguishing feature of the post-industrial and post- modern society. New, quantum philosophy.

Post-modernism is the thought system and cultural/philosophical structure corresponding to post-industrialism.

A new world is the result of the new technological revolution, as it was during the industrial revolution, but on a higher level. We have to understand it, interpret and struggle for it.

(Paper presented at the Workshop on Capitalism Today, 26-29 December 2010, CR Foundation/ NRRRR Centre, Hyderabad)