The Chinese Revolution and The Theses of Comrade Stalin - Part 40 of 47

Further intervention, in Russia, by imperialism, was deterred, not by the Stalinists adopting a diplomatic and timid response to it, but by the defeat inflicted on it by the Red Army, the strengthening of the workers' state, and, by the growth of revolutionary parties in the imperialist heartlands, taking the fight to it. Weakening any of that could only act to embolden imperialism, and make further intervention more likely. The same was true in China.

“Only a revolution on whose banner the toilers and oppressed write plainly their own demands is capable of gripping the feelings not only of the international proletariat but also of the soldiers of capital.” (p 64)

That is, again, true, in relation to Ukraine and Russia, today. If the camp of social-imperialists that back Ukraine truly sought to protect it from attack, and imperialist intervention, they would abandon their cringing sycophancy to Zelensky, and his NATO imperialist backers, and call for a revolutionary programme, to organise Ukrainian workers against them. If the opposing camp of social-imperialists, backing Putin's Russia, truly fear, and seek to avoid, imperialist intevention in Russia, they would abandon their sycophantic support for Putin, and, instead, propose a revolutionary programme for Russian workers, to oppose Russia's war, and to overthrow Putin's right-wing capitalist regime. That would be a basis to build genuine international workers' solidarity for such socialist rather than nationalist struggles, and to spread that revolutionary movement across the globe, thereby, keeping the imperialists occupied at home.

“The compromising and traitorous leadership did not protect Nanking from destruction. It facilitated the penetration of the enemy ships into the Yangtze. A revolutionary leadership, with a powerful social movement, can make the waters of the Yangtze too hot for the ships of Lloyd George, Chamberlain and MacDonald. In any case, this is the only way and the only hope of defence.” (p 64)

The function of Marxism, Trotsky says, is to foresee what is to come, based upon an understanding of social laws, and how they are currently unfolding in the real world. Einstein commented that the definition of stupidity is performing the same experiment over and over, and each time expecting a different result. Put another way, those who refuse to learn the lessons of history are doomed to relive them. When it comes to leaders of the labour movement, it is not only, or mainly them that suffer the consequences, but the entire working-class. The reformists, opportunists and centrists, of course, always refuse to learn these lessons, because their politics is always based on the idea that each event is unique or discrete and unconnected to other events.

The whole basis of opportunism, or practical politics, is to try to gain short-term popularity, which translates into votes – usually votes in elections to parliamentary bodies, but also in union, student and other such elections – by tailing the prevailing majority public opinion, in the given social milieu. Hence Starmer, the arch-Remainer, of yesterday, becomes the champion of Brexitism, jingoism and sovereigntism, today. It is politics devoid of any anchor in principle, derived from a scientific analysis of social movement. It is also why the opportunist rails against the idea of external interference or criticism of their position, insisting that only they understand the national peculiarities that mean that “this time its different.”

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Zionists Drunken With Blood

"An individual, a group, a party, or a class that 'objectively' picks its nose while it watches men drunk with blood massacring defenceless people is condemned by history to rot and become worm-eaten while it is still alive".

(Trotsky - The Balkan Wars)

The western bourgeois media continually portray the genocide being committed by the Zionist state, as a war of "Israel v Hamas". They and the Zionist/imperialist apologists such as the AWL, Paul Mason et al, continue to frame this in the context of the right of the clerical-fascist, Zionist state to "self-defence"!!!

Yet, the genocidal nature of what is happening in Gaza - and developing in the occupied West Bank - is clearly not focused on Hamas - an organisation that Netanyahu previously fostered - but on all Palestinians, indeed, increasingly directed specifically to schools and hospitals. The scale of the genocide, already exceeds the number of civilian casualties in other recent conflicts.

And, we have become used to the exposition of the shockingly racist, and anti-Semitic nature of the views of many of those opposed to Israel being rightly exposed and condemned, but the Zionists and the apologists of Zionism/imperialism have been less forthcoming when it comes to the openly racist, genocidal blood lust being openly proclaimed by the Zionist regime and its media, as they continue to justify that genocide as being only a question of the right of the Zionist state to defend itself! But, that blood lust is, now, there for all to see.

Chapter II – The Metaphysics of Political Economy,Third Observation

In the real world, things exist before the idea of them exists. For example, oxygen exists, and its only after extensive, scientific research that the idea of oxygen comes into existence, and it is given a name. Before that, the effects of oxygen, for example, on combustion, are noted, but explained not by oxygen, but by phlogiston. Similarly, value exists long before the idea of value exists. Value is labour, and, because Man must engage in labour, value, thereby, exists, even though Man does not give it this name. In fact, as Marx says, the first etymological uses of the word ”value” or “worth” relate not to value or labour, but to use value/utility.

It is the development of value, from being the individual value of the product, to the social/market value of the commodity, and the expression of this market value, relative to other commodities, as exchange-value, and to money, as price, which leads to the idea of value, exchange-value, and price. But, Proudhon works in the opposite direction. He proceeds from the idea of value and other economic categories.

“The production relations of every society form a whole. M. Proudhon considers economic relations as so many social phases, engendering one another, resulting one from the other like the antithesis from the thesis, and realizing in their logical sequence the impersonal reason of humanity.” (p 102)

But, this presents a problem, for Proudhon's method, and, indeed, for all those who consider that value is something that springs into existence, fully formed, with commodity production and exchange, or worse, only with capitalism. The real development of value, in the material world, described above, enables this real development to be reflected in the realm of ideas, but how can you have the development of the idea of price, without, first, the idea of exchange-value; how can you have the idea of exchange-value without first the idea of social/market value; and how can you have the idea of social value without first having the idea of individual value? Marx sets this out, at length, in Theories of Surplus Value, Chapter 20.

“... when he comes to examine a single one of these phases, M. Proudhon cannot explain it without having recourse to all the other relations of society; which relations, however, he has not yet made his dialectic movement engender. When, after that, M. Proudhon, by means of pure reason, proceeds to give birth to these other phases, he treats them as if they were new-born babes. He forgets that they are of the same age as the first.” (p 102-3)

And, this is the problem for all those who argue that value only comes into existence with commodity production/capitalism, and argue that The Law of Value exists only under capitalism, conflating value with exchange-value. Its like arguing that oxygen only comes into existence after scientists isolated it and named it. This method is typical of bourgeois ideology, and deals with phenomenon as simply a series of discrete things, or events, like a series of still photographs, rather than a moving film. It operates on the basis of formal logic, rather than dialectics.

“Thus, to arrive at the constitution of value, which for him is the basis of all economic evolutions, he could not do without division of labour, competition, etc. Yet in the series, in the understanding of M. Proudhon, in the logical sequence, these relations did not yet exist.

In constructing the edifice of an ideological system by means of the categories of political economy, the limbs of the social system are dislocated. The different limbs of society are converted into so many separate societies, following one upon the other. How, indeed, could the single logical formula of movement, of sequence, of time, explain the structure of society, in which all relations coexist simultaneously and support one another?” (p 103)

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The Chinese Revolution and The Theses of Comrade Stalin - Part 39 of 47

In the stages theory, all of the institutions and organisations of bourgeois-democracy, created under pressure from the ruling-class, constitute a great historical stage, to which the policy must adapt, even though all of these institutions represent a “barrier for the revolutionary class movement.” (p 62) For the opportunist, they represent ends in themselves, much as with the bourgeois demand for national self-determination, and means by which the workers obtain breathing space, rather than acting to derail and divert the actual revolutionary movement.

And, the tailist nature of this opportunism is reflected in the fact that it sees this breathing space as necessary for as long as the workers have, themselves, not gone beyond it, to a revolutionary consciousness, as though this is something that materialises spontaneously, at some future appointed time, rather than being something that is generated by the interaction of the masses and their material conditions, with the revolutionary party, and its programme.

“Once we set out on this road, our policy must be inevitably transformed from a revolutionary factor into a conservative one. The course of the Chinese revolution and the fate of the Anglo-Russian Committee are an imminent warning in this regard.” (p 62)

By accepting the idea of non-interference, the Stalinists strengthened all of the backward and reactionary sentiments, not only in the global labour movement, but in the USSR too. Its no wonder that, given the travails of Russian workers in the previous decade, a certain war weariness set in. The concept of building Socialism In One Country appealed to it. Stalin said, basically, if imperialism will leave us alone, we can get on with the job of building Socialism, here, in the USSR. Of course, that was not true, but also required a big if, in that imperialism would not leave them alone. But, the response to that was, the, we shall do whatever is required to discourage it from doing so, and give it no excuse for doing so, by being as timid as possible, and building diplomatic relations.

However, that was the reverse of the policy required.

“An unavoidable temporary weakening of the revolutionary positions is in itself a great evil. It can become irreparable for a long time if the orientation is wrong, if the strategic line is false. Precisely now, in the period of a temporary revolutionary ebb, the struggle against all manifestations of opportunism and national limitedness and for the line of revolutionary internationalism is more necessary than ever.” (p 63)

The imperialist armies had attacked Russia, when they thought it was weak, in 1918, but had been defeated by the Red Army, and retreated. In China, the CP had cavilled and compromised, assuming a timid and diplomatic approach, but the consequence had not only been Chiang Kai Shek's coup, but also British and other imperialist warships up the Yangtse, and the attack on Nanking. The Royal Navy sent a heavy cruiser, the appropriately named, HMS Vindictive, and the light cruisers HMS Carlisle, Caradoc and Emerald, the minesweeper HMS Petersfield, the gunboat Gnat, and the destroyers HMS Witherington, Wolsey, Wishart, Veteran, Verity and Wild Swan. The gunboat HMS Aphis arrived toward the end of the engagement, and HMS Cricket was also involved in the naval operations at the time. Five American destroyers were also sent to engage the NRA; including USS Noa under Roy C. Smith, William B. Preston, John D. Ford, Pillsbury and Simpson. The Italian Regia Marina sent the gunboat Ermanno Carlotto.

The imperialist navies began a bombardment of Nanking where the nationalist forces had started to occupy, having taken on the forces of the local warlord Zhang Zongchang. The imperialist forces also landed marines to fight against the nationalist forces. Later the Japanese sent the gunboats Hodero, Katata, Momo and Shinoki. The Italians sent the gunboat Ermanno Carlotto, the Dutch sent the light cruiser Hr.Ms. Sumatra and the French sent aviso La Marne for the evacuation of their citizens in Nanjing. Chiang Kai Shek, despite the appeasement of the Chinese Stalinists, in any case used the events to blame the CP for having provoked the intervention.

“There is no doubt and there can be none that now, after the new defeats of the international revolutionary movement, the theory of socialism in one country will serve, independent of the will of its creators, to justify, to motivate and to sanctify all the tendencies directed towards restricting the revolutionary objectives, towards quenching the ardour of the struggle, towards a national and conservative narrowness.” (p 63)

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Forward To Part 40

Chapter II – The Metaphysics of Political Economy, Second Observation - Part 2 of 2

Having used a stone to throw, it is not a huge leap to find more efficient means of using it, as a projectile, using a sling or catapult, for example. Having used it to cut, its not a huge leap to notice that some cut better than others, and so, first to use these, and then, to create them, by shaping them. In each case, Man does develop an idea, and manufacture the world around him, but it is an idea that itself originates from things that already exist, including existing, previously developed ideas, and products, in the real world. Without stones there are no stones as tools or weapons, and so no evolution of those tools and weapons to more efficiently meet Man's own material needs.

At each stage of his social evolution, therefore, Man confronts an already existing material world whose ever changing nature he must continually categorise and analyse, in order to understand its own laws of motion. It is the existing material world he must contend with, and which determines his ideas, and constrains his ability to change that world. Just as without rocks there are no stone tools, so, too, without electricity there are no electronic computers. And, the development of these ever improving tools and technologies is not driven by ideas, but by The Law of Value, the requirement to continually meet Man's material needs, the production of use-values, using the least amount of labour/value.

But, as Marx demonstrated, this development of technology, driven by The Law of Value, also has consequences for Man's social development too, because the technology that Man uses, and is able to use at any stage of development, also determines how he goes about that production, which creates changing relations of production and distribution, which, in turn, creates new social relations.

“M. Proudhon the economist understands very well that men make cloth, linen, or silk materials in definite relations of production. But what he has not understood is that these definite social relations are just as much produced by men as linen, flax, etc. Social relations are closely bound up with productive forces. In acquiring new productive forces men change their mode of production; and in changing their mode of production, in changing the way of earning their living, they change all their social relations. The hand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill, society with the industrial capitalist.

The same men who establish their social relations in conformity with the material productivity, produce also principles, ideas, and categories, in conformity with their social relations.” (p 102)

The bourgeois-idealist sees a material world that has been consciously manufactured by Man, starting first with ideas, which are then transformed into reality, and concludes that it has always been thus, and always will be so. Indeed, the petty-bourgeois socialist sees things in a similar way, believing that it is only necessary to construct a set of ideas, based upon how a fair and egalitarian society would work, and to construct schemas for their realisation, in order to then proceed to their to their construction. Such, for example, was the method of the Narodniks, described by Lenin. But, as Marx explains,

“... these ideas, these categories, are as little eternal as the relations they express. They are historical and transitory products.

There is a continual movement of growth in productive forces, of destruction in social relations, of formation in ideas; the only immutable thing is the abstraction of movement – mors immortalis.” (p 102)

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Forward To Third Observation

The Chinese Revolution and The Theses Of Comrade Stalin - Part 38 of 47

At this time, in 1927, Trotsky still characterised as “mistakes”, rather than “betrayals”, the actions of the Stalinists. In part, that is because he thought that, under the impact of such great events, in a revolutionary period, the possibility existed not only to correct them, but also to return the CP and Comintern to a revolutionary perspective. After all, to characterise such actions as “betrayals”, as with those of the Second International, in 1914, would imply a split, the need to build a new party and International, a conclusion that Trotsky did not arrive at, for several more years.

In fact, the appraisal of the underlying material conditions was itself wrong. The period of long wave uptrend that had led to rapid growth of the international labour movement, began around 1890. Its “boom” phase ran from around 1902-1914. From 1914 to around 1926, it entered the crisis phase, characterised by more intense class struggle, wars and revolutions, as described by Trotsky in Flood Tide and The Curve of Capitalist Development, associated with these conjunctures from one phase to another. But, the period from 1926 to 1939, was already a period of stagnation. That period of stagnation, seen previously between 1875-90, and later between 1986-99, is one in which the working-class is pushed on to the back foot, because capital responds to the crisis, resulting from a squeeze on profits from increased wages, due to relative labour shortages, by engaging in a new technological revolution to replace labour with fixed capital.

In 1875-90, it revolved around the introduction of electric power in place of steam, in 1926-39, it was the introduction of mass production assembly lines, using that same combination of electric power, as well as the introduction of internal combustion engines in place of steam-power, and horse-power for transport. In 1986-99 it is the introduction of the microchip and its associated technologies. All of these base technologies are developed in the preceding crisis phase, as a response to rising wages/labour shortages. The Innovation Cycle, for example, peaked in 1935 and 1985.

In the stagnation phase, capital accumulation is characterise by intensive accumulation. That is, rather than additional fixed capital and, consequently, labour being employed, to produce a larger gross output, existing fixed capital is replaced, as it wears out, by new, more efficient fixed capital, to produce more or less the same level of gross output. One new machine replaces two or more older machines, and so, now, only one worker is required to operate it, making 1,2 or more existing workers redundant, so increasing labour supply, and reducing wages.

As wages fall, profits rise, due to an increase in the rate of surplus value. The new fixed capital is relatively cheaper, and also brings about a moral depreciation of existing fixed capital. So, both the mass and rate of profit rises, net output rises, relative to gross output, and creates the conditions for the new upswing. So, around 1926, as this stagnation period proceeds, workers were already put on the back foot by capital. Material conditions had moved against them, and in favour of capital, just as had happened in 1875-90, and 1985-99. Its why, in both periods, workers go down to serial defeats, as compared to the relative victories in the previous period.

Consequently, Trotsky's hope that this was still a revolutionary period was mistaken and forlorn, and the strategy should have taken that into consideration. The “mistakes” and “betrayals” of the Stalinist, bureaucratic-centrists and other opportunists, were an ideological reflection of this change in material conditions, and the defeats of workers were not solely a consequence of those mistakes and betrayals, but also of the change in material conditions, which weakened them, relative to capital, in the productive process, and the social relations based upon it. In these conditions, both the petty-bourgeoisie and the backward layers of the proletariat are strengthened, and, given the “chvostism”, or tailism, of the opportunists and centrists, this presses down on them. Trotsky notes this effect in Russia itself.

In this context, the errors of the Stalinists, centrists and opportunists, in relation to the Popular Front with the bourgeoisie/petty-bourgeoisie, also, cannot be divorced from its “stages theory”, and Socialism In One Country, in opposition to the Marxist theory of permanent revolution.

“The chvostist theory of “stages” or “steps” repeatedly proclaimed by Stalin in recent times, has served as the motivation in principle for the opportunist tactic. If the complete organizational and political independence of the Chinese Communist Party is demanded, it means that steps are being skipped over.” (p 62)

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Forward To Part 39

Northern Soul Classics - Standing On Solid Ground - Sidney Barnes