Where are the Marxists??

And why we need interdisciplinary Marxist Theory NOW

In this profound period of mounting crises, the self-professed Pro-Working-Class" Marxists, can, it appears, no longer see the woods for the trees!

The very long trajectory of Working Class Politics - from the remarkable Revelations of Karl Marx - to the disappointing political situation we find ourselves in today - has apparently arrived at what seems to be a General Terminal Denouement, with the Climate Crisis and the Ever-Mounting War in Ukraine!

The Soviet Union has long since fallen and China, while purportedly still a Communist State, quietly and undemonstratively chases trade with a still Capitalist Rest-of-the-World, as the Sole Policy for its People. The Socialist Perspective seems to have no place to go!

The World has changed radically to become more like the situation in 1939, when a Nazi-ruled Germany invaded Poland. A new World War is increasingly highly possible now, just as occurred then, but though at that time Britain still had a powerful World Empire, and the Prior Economic Crisis Worldwide was finally fading in a seemingly general recovery.

But NOW there is a Gigantic World Economic Crisis brewing, while both the West, as well as the Hawks in Russia, are itching for a New World War, to supposedly solve the Economic and Political Problems facing the Capitalist Class, along with "The Fruits of Victory", BUT WITHOUT the necessary wherewithal to sustain it, especially as such a Conflict will inevitably vastly speed-up a truly enormous Multi-Sided Cataclysm - not only Economically, but unavoidably also coupled with the mounting Climate Catastrophe too.

And the powers-that-be are already well aware of that eventuality, but because of it, they undoubtedly need to vastly consolidate their Positions and Strength, and to do it while the Working Class still have absolutely NO effective Trades Unions, and NO Revolutionary Parties to lead them in precipitating the necessary Revolution!

For the inevitably coming Crises will certainly change the state of play dramatically! And the Automation that has seemingly replaced the Work Force in much Production, will not mend itself when their minders and fixers are flocking into the Newly Growing Unions, and the rejuvenation of True Marxist Revolutionary Parties of the Working Class begin to grow like Topsy!

The current "seemingly insane" drives of the Ruling Classes demonstrate their obvious realisation of what is increasingly inevitable, and if unprepared-for, could result in their Demise! A Victorious and well-equipped professional Army would be necessary to defeat a rampant Working Class - as the Nazis proved in Germany, after World War One.

The Restricted War, which Putin is waging, doesn't suit the opposing Countries, and today there is evidence that powerful interests in Russia itself feel the same: Remember their Working Class lived in a Socialist country for 74 years before the Victory of the Capitalist Oligarchs. They too will flood-into Working Class Parties when they are necessarily strongly repressed from above!

Russia's army in Ukraine

And who might then be waiting in the wings - China!

(and why is China currently having to deal with a new virulent form of COVID after they dealt so effectively with it when it first emerged? Can you guess how it arrived?)

Now, you would think that there are enough regular commentators around, who call themseves "Marxists" to work on some sort of strategy - but there are in fact literally none who explain things the way I have done here, and what is more, they hardly mention the increasingly important and rapidly changing Contexts, for what is clearly developing totally unhindered!

Yet it had always been the strength of Real Committed Marxists that they also always situate developments in the Delivering Contexts, as they in the end, often, deliver the more unusual consequences! And, the reason for this, is that in them, and even their evident absences within most others:  they have a particular set of preferred outcomes which they strongly signal, while ignoring those that they would rather didn't happen!

Now Richard Wolff is a celebrated "Marxist", but I could find No Trace of a pro Working Class Stance in his comments upon the War in The Ukraine. And a Prior analysis of the way things were developing in the Context involved, should have been what he established FIRST!

As has become increasingly clear, Thinkers upon these matters are always too Single-Discipline based to arrive at a Real Marxist Analysis. They find the same things Marx discovered in History, BUT only within their own Specialist Areas!

And that is never enough!

To cope with the problems of today, both the actual pertetrators AND those seeking Objective Solutions, DID it with their Subject-Blinkers on! And, because of the unavoidable biases involved in both approaches, the problems were NEVER solved, either by the Capitalists in charge, or adequately addressed by the Discipline-limited "professed Marxists"!

For, the cricial limitations of ALL Restricted Approaches, is that by so doing, only a cut-down version of the presently-existing-situation, which occupies ONLY a Single Level within Reality-as-is, will actually deliver a finite solution, BUT always limited to that Precise Context alone.

This relation within a Limited Context and its associated useable Rationalities, is, of course, the root if the Problem - and gives the illusion of" Absolute Truth!" But it certainly isn't so! And we must say Why!

The reason is that these Restricted Situations were in the earlier Evolution of Reality-as-is Absolutely Correct: BUT then ceased to be so as New and Different Levels emerged that changed things fundamentally. Yet these were add-ons at Different New Levels, so the old version could even then be taken as an Approximation to the Modified Current Truth.

Needless to say, this always confused early Thinkers, when it was finally updated, and they didn't for a long time realise the Division of Absolute Truth over Several Levels! They didn't even see the Levels, but instead interpreted them as Different Disciplines!

Clearly, the whole range of commentators of the current increasingly critical situation, are, whether supporters of the Status quo, OR perhaps surprisingly, even any avowed "Marxist" Critics - they are all, nevertheless still very far from capable of fulfilling their various, intended, and supposedly-opposite objectives - as both of these opposing groups never really address the problems caused in any way that could lead to a sound resolution.

The once reliable trust that could be put in the Marxian Socialists, is, I'm afraid, more or less dissipated by their current inability to both explain and then direct arrived-at solutions, to what will undoubtedly be inflicted upon us, in the coming period!

And, the reasons for the failures of both intensions of the perpetrators, and the inflicted-upon recipients of what has been delivered, wrongly characterise what was actually involved, and where it would lead! The Perpetrators know only what they can do, and that isn't enough to accurately know what effects it will have! While the recipients using extracted Laws taken from wrongly conceptually considered remedial actions, which, therefore, don't get the expected effects right either!

Both sides use Laws extracted in only partly defined ways, for the recipients, and based upon a very different prior experience, by the perpetrators. For in both sets if actions, Wholly New Emergences, when they will happen for the very first time, are absolutely NEVER predictable: so, what will happen is unknowable!

And, because of a multiplicity of these events, there will be NOT a single outcome, but a range of possible outcomes with different probabilities of each happening!

Now, where have we seen this before? Is it not in Quantum Theory?

And, at this stage of the Mess wrought by a rampant, blinkered Capitalism, the Significant Damages to the Environment, and its resiliance-to-recover from such things, has, by now, gone TOO FAR, and Significant Climate Change is already knocking at the door, simultaneously with such a destruction of its means to recover, that a Major Calamity appears unavoidable.

For the Working Class to re-arm with the very latest Developments in Understanding such Situations AND, of course, intervene in them, there is still much to be done!!

Indeed, without the Significant Extention of what Marx brilliantly initiated, and Lenin further developed, of the profound theoretical basis - we have no way of Understanding the complex dynamic Systems and multiple levels involved. Yet this vital theory could not be both further, adequately and necessarily developed, without the current conscious extensions of these ideas into All The Sciences that Marx and Lenin had never addressed - and are NOW being so-extended by this theorist!

The lack that these omissions inflicted upon this Important Body of Theory, is clearly indicated by the oft applied appellation of the term "Scientific Socialism" to Marxism, which is most certainly Untrue, as neither Marx or Lenin, nor anyone else, ever criticised the means and methods of Science from the correct Dialectical Materialist base to, for the very first time, establish such Laws from a philosophical standpoint - as a Socialist Science!

For Science - as was, could never be competent as a basis for that Fundamental Philosophical Stance. And even before this New Turn, the old Causal Laws, so achieved, were regularly added to, by supposedly New Purely Empirical Laws - with Absolutely NO Causal Explanations evidently possible for them.

All attempts to discover such interpretations met with Total Failure, and this caused most physicists great difficulties - for they profoundly believed that all such Laws MUST have Causal Explanations. But, the Positivists Henri Poincare and Ernst Mach insisted that these Empirical Laws should be given equal status with the preferred Causal Laws, within their Empirio Criticism Approach. And though this, at the time, was rejected, the following vast increase in these Empirical Laws, in the Sub Atomic Realm, persuaded the majority of physicists to agree: it rapidly became the norm for all Science!

Jim Schofield's work on Marxist Systems Theory

The Systems Theory of Everything

And, it was only recently, that the Emergence of what is termed Systems Theory proved that Causal Explanations were indeed possible, but NOT residing at the very same Level: for as they were associated ONLY with Systems-of-these-Processes, they were situated at the higher Level of Systems modifications!

Indeed, all of the Sciences were shot through with these systems modifications: reductionist Science was NOT the reliable basis that it used to be assumed to be!

Indeed, the Systems modifications turned out to be many and various and torpedoed the long resorted-to assumption that the tiniest causal relations just were the same but multiplied-up in all bulk situations.

It just isn't true!

AND, most important of all: without the full addressing of ALL the interactions in all bulk situations, the very Natural Stabilities that occur and their Tumultuous Collapses - particularly in Revolutions - will Absolutely Never be understood.

Indeed, even more generally an Important Turn has finally actually been initiated, that had been a very long time in getting to the stage, when Explanatory Theories, across-the-board, could finally deal with their long disabling restrictions, and become more generally applicable!

Marxists must now embrace a holistic Systems approach if they are to deal with any of the problems facing us as a species today. 

Leeds Marxist Society on the Parkinson steps, University of Leeds

Joseph E. Stiglitz and the Trajectory of Chinese Communism since 1980

Stiglitz in China

In a recent Lecture to a Norwegian Business School Conference, Joseph E. Stiglitz (from Columbia University in the USA - he has been advising the Chinese Communist Leadership since the early 1980s, upon a transition to fitting China into a Market Economy globally), was, in his contribution to that Conference, extremely informative, in ways totally unmentioned either by the Citadels of Capitalism globally, OR by the current Left, supposedly opposing that system (including, surprisingly, many of the self-professed the Marxists)!

His contribution was NOT, of course, superior to those critics of Capitalism, but it DID highlight the inadequacies of the current Left's policies for fighting for both the End of Capitalism, in the West, AND, crucially, exactly how to achieve the necessary Revolution, without the major liabilities of the Rise of Stalinist Bureaucracies, as have followed such Revolutions in the past.

Now, immediately prior to the period that Stiglitz covers, the writer of this paper was resident in Hong Kong, as a lecturer in a University there, and had visited Communist China, as an already committed Marxist. So I was aware of the then current fight between the Maoist so-called "Gang of Four" (including Mao's wife) and the "Capitalist Roaders" - led by Deng, so I knew who won that fight, and how they disagreed with Mao's "Cultural Revolution". And, I travelled through the countryside observing how the smaller Country Soviets were working. So I am able to link up Stiglitz's account to its immediate prehistory in the Chinese Communist Party. But I must emphasise, most strongly, that in spite of the great value in studying Stiglitz's account, he is, certainly, no Marxist, nor even a Socialist. He is a Capitalist Economist, who accepts Capitalism, and plots its "best possible" consequent Trajectory economically, as both essential, yet worthy of much better critical study than it is usually accorded.

Indeed, literally all the criticisms of Capitalism, that both inform and energise the Socialist and Communist oppositions to it, are totally missing in Stiglitz: for his account is more like a modern Keynesian critique of current Neoliberalist Capitalism, rather than taking a steadfast position of requiring Capitalism's total termination.

Yet interestingly, Stiglitz was brought in to help, as it became increasingly clear to the Chinese Leadership, that the insertion of some tightly regulated Capitalist enterprises in China, was running into problems with the many country-localities in China, that were not included in the joint schemes, and these leftover-and-leftout town and village "Soviets" were clearly not benefiting from the economic changes, and were beginning to oppose the plans of the Central Bureaucracy, which would ultimately reveal iteself in the Tianamen Square Events: and require a Wholly New Phase, integrating this opposition into becoming part of the New Turn, and economic boom, in what was called the TVE (Town & Village Initiative), but to make it work, any remnants of the "Soviet" nature (which I had observed when I visited China before 1980), just had to go - and this, in time, would again require yet another New Phase!

Photographs from my travels in Communist China, 1979

But, as the reader will have already imagined, the alternatives to be put forward on this blog are most certainly NOT Keynesian criticisms of Capitalism, but, on the contrary, major criticisms of the current Left's opposition to Western Capitalism, as they were surprisingly and increasingly revealed by the experiences in China in the last 40 years, which has revealed a very Marxian Trajectory of differently necessary Phases of development, as what were previously-Working-Policies ran out of steam, and had to be regularly replaced, but, in a very pragmatic - "Crossing the River by Feeling for the Stones" way, as they put it! For, every change in Policy, was NOT occurring within an established Socialist Economy, but now in a mixed Communist/Capitalist Economy, both unavoidably linked to World Capitalism, and thereby guaranteed to engender such Crises regularly, and ultimately, at some point, precipitate a Wholesale Collapse.

NO, what I intend to extract from those twisted-temporary-experiences in China, is a much better Theory, extracted from and among Real 21st century Marxists, intended to guarantee the Success of Socialist Revolution in the West!

For, a comprehensive, all-areas-applicable Marxism (more properly described as Dialectical Materialism) was not sufficiently fully defined by Karl Marx - for though his contributions were Truly Revolutionary, they were not soundly applicable when not limited only to Marx's completed work: indeed the absolutely crucial area of The Sciences, was not significantly addressed, comprehensively, until the second decade of this century, with the various critiques of the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Theory published in SHAPE Journal and elsewhere on the Web, by 2019.

And, in addition, the now available extensive range of lectures by David Harvey, all now on Youtube, both on Marx's Kapital and the Grundrisse, have brilliantly revealed aspects of Marx's method and begun to make them more generally applicable, BUT ONLY if tackled in the same way as Marx had worked, and in addition by scientifically-trained-experts, not only covering the specialist ground, but also, and crucially and necessarily extending the Marxist Method.

Indeed, though he didn't realise why it was necessary, Stiglitz, in his account of the trajectory in the last 40 years of Communist China, clearly identified the various key Crises, in the sequence of required changes, which could alternatively be explained using Harvey's interpretations of Marx's Method, but extended beyond what Marx had access to.

Now, the most important re-application of these methods is NOT primarily in addressing the failures of the Stalinists in China, but, in the far more important criticisms of the truncated appreciations of Marxism currently available, and unavoidably incorrectly applied to the necessary political agitations NOW, against Capitalism in the West! For, no matter what they all call themselves, the various Left political elements are NOT equipped with the 21st century Marxism that I am talking about: and hence, necessarily, their "Theory" leads to both Strategies, Tactics and Propaganda, that are all doomed to result in failure!

And, if Proof is required, they should all be pressed to explain both the various Phases that have been forced upon the Stalinists in China, AND, even more importantly, exactly how those same analyses can be effectively applied to their own current positions and policies - for there definitely are similarities, indicating what inexplicable-to-them failures they will most certainly encounter, and hope to understand enough, to be able to plot paths around them.

And, if they cannot do it, redirect them to both Harvey and Marx's original works to effect a radical change in what they consider to be MARXISM!

For, no-one on the Left seems to be aware of the Revolutionary Situation they are careering towards at some considerable speed, and are ALL at a loss to see what transforming Transitional Demands they will undoubtedly need, to orient themselves and Their Class to what must be done!

Have they read "Ten Days that Shook the World" by John Reed?

Do they not know why the slogan "Bread, Peace and Land", was their cry, and that it worked, and why it did so?

What should our demands be?

Coronavirus and Capitalism

What are governments putting first, the health of key workers, or the health of the economy?

What the COVID19 crisis tells us about the Capitalist State

and The People - and how the response could be conducted differently...

THE ESSENTIAL PREMISE:

Remember, the UK is a Capitalist State, run by a right-wing, strongly pro-capitalist Tory Government. A vast crisis, such as this current Coronavirus Pandemic, cannot but increasingly reveal their priorities in running things primarily in their own interests - the interests of the capitalist class.

And that isn't in the interests of the majority of the People!

Their primary motivation is ALWAYS keeping their own wealth and Power.

The major issue in this serious Pandemic boils down to the main key roles of the State, the Crisis and maintaining the status quo. There can be no doubt whatsoever that State controls will be necessary in fighting the pandemic: but it really depends upon what kind of a State is involved in making those decisions.

For depending upon the Economic System currently instituted in an affected country, government policies pursued can be very different indeed, for they will depend exclusively upon what the role of the State is considered to be by those in charge. And a Capitalist State will have very different objectives from those of a Socialist State. And in a bureaucratic Stalinist State, like China, it will react very differently to a Socialist State with real Democracy.

For, as the Pandemic is certain to be limited in duration, those policies, on the one hand, will most certainly be to protect the people from the Pandemic, but they will also, most certainly, on the other hand, be very differently determined, depending on what kind of State will emerge "after the deluge"! Will the State relinquish emergency powers as quickly as it adopted them? What about during a subsequent economic crisis??

A State's primary purpose will always be determined by exactly what, and therefore also, who, in that society, it is primarily designed to serve! If it is Capitalism - or even Stalinism - and therefore, its directing practitioners, who consider themselves primary, it will pursue very different set of policies, in addressing the Pandemic, to the exactly opposite situation that which would pertain, if it were, instead, addressing the circumstances of the vast majority of the population, and hence the Working Class.

For, such a crisis could clearly expose both gross inequality and the purposes of the Capitalist State all too overtly, and if not managed strictly in ways to purposely-hide its directing intentions. So, any policies about testing for the Virus, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) will be vital!

Getting proper protective equipment out to all key workers should be the number one priority of any State working in the interests of the people

Who will get tested and when?

And, who will receive the necessary PPEs?

And will they be isolating or protective PPEs?

And crucially are the PPEs intended for the detected-infected or for the as-yet-uninfected?

But, with the insistence upon hand-washing, where are they getting infected from?

For some countries seem to be spraying possible sites, where the virus could settle! What then would be used in those circumstances?

Now clearly, there are other ways of combating the Pandemic by using the above means in very different and better ways! We have to ask why did they choose the ones that they did?

Were their reasons medical or political?

Why have right wing populist governments such as USA and Brazil (and the UK if we're honest), dragged their feet and been so much more reluctant to lock down than their equivalents in Social Democratic countries?

The former are obviously NOT currently terminating the Pandemic: in fact they are purposely extending its duration! And, with the very clear pressures for early partial or temporary reductions in the extents of the Shutdown, could not this elicit second or even more waves of the Pandemic!?

How many of the old and infirm will survive these waves?

For, the biggest collections of deaths are in populations within care homes.

Why is that considered to be a good policy? And why are those figures not published home by home?

For answers, you only have to look at the political advantages for the powers-that-be!

Why wasn't a testing of the population organised, with those having the Pandemic being isolated, at home but with isolating facemasks until they were clear (this would in the end effectively deal with 80% of the detected infections who get a 'mild' version of the disease). They would then be monitored, and if it intensified in any they would be immediately transfered to Hospital. All others tested and found to be OK, would get a protective face mask and be released.

All travel, particularly from aboard, but also, initially, at home travel would still be banned as they are now! So, extractable zones would be systematically sectioned off and treated in these ways, gradually clearing increasing areas, within which tested clear individuals would be allowed free movement, and could meet and socialise with others similarly OK'd, but must wear their protective aids.

Workplaces could be targeted, particularly those directly serving the public, such as shops.

Everyone else would be under similar conditions to now, but would get their turn as their zone was arrived at via constant extensions.

A General Shutdown would be gradually and systematically lifted.

From restriction to our homes, areas of locally restored free movement would be gradually be increased, until well-defined and increasing areas would allow gradually re-instituted local travel!

Instead of the total shutdown of all free and unmonitored social protest: such would be made available in all the released areas. And these MUST always start in the most highly populated districts in towns and cities, and only last-of-all in the sparsely-populated estates of the privileged!

THE VITAL POSTSCRIPT:

And, how should the system, described above be organised?

Should it be by the police or army?

NO!

It should be by the People themselves, within the successively released enclaves, each of which should elect their own Area Council to do the organising, and whose meetings should be open to the public! For, as has been shown by the discipline of the majority of the People in the Shutdown, by their are highly responsible and evident clapping-and-helpful support of the NHS, and who, along with the appropriate resources, will do an infinitely much better job than any Tory Government of Billionaires could even imagine!

For, unlike a top-down rigorously imposed control, the maximally democratic monitoring by everyone, and immediately-responsive actions of the local People's Councils will straight-forwardly implement the maximally fair outcomes, with the energetic and guaranteed support of their People.

One Global Economy, Two Giants

The Significance of China in the Global Economy

Mondragon: Cooperatives without Socialism?

After listening to a very interesting account of the splendid Mondragon System of Worker Cooperatives in Northern Spain, by an actual participant in that system of Worker Coop Enterprises, I was not only able to see the clear advantages over the alternative of privately owned Capitalist enterprises, but also got a clear idea of its limitations. For, in spite of its remarkable successes, such enterprises cannot change the World!

They have to survive, in the interstices, within a worldwide dominant system that is not only economic but actively political-and-belligerently-coercive, and has a frequently-used solution to challenging problems, via not only local, but indeed World Wars of devastating proportions. Indeed, that now-dominant, alternative economic approach too was once itself a challenger to a prior system, and only brought about the transfer, via a series of bloody Revolutions, resulting in the establishment of a very different political system - conducive to its preferred capitalist economics.

It wasn't merely a matter of choice! Every status quo is the result of the victory of one dominating Class over the rest: and to achieve Power politically they have always to have the resources and the alliances with other, also repressed Classes, to have any chance of bringing off the solution they require.

You can no longer find local solutions economically! For, production and consumption are now not only unavoidably social, but already global too, acting upon a truly world scale. And, how that is organised and controlled are unavoidable questions.

Indeed, several important revolutions have occurred to kick out the capitalist owners, and replace them with a Socialist State. After the Second World War, the whole World was dominated politically, by what has been termed the Cold War between the emerging Socialist States and the still dominant Capitalist States. And a series of hot, local wars have been undertaken by the Capitalist Powers to prevent further Socialist Revolutions. Clearly, despite the achievements of the Cooperatives, the building of such enterprises alone cannot change the World in this regard.

Abandoned: Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society Department Store

In the United Kingdom the Cooperative Wholesale Society (CWS) after being a dominant service to the Working Class has been defeated and dismantled by its capitalist competitors via undercutting prices by super exploitation in Third World countries.

It isn't a "level playing field" at all!

So, I'm afraid all the purely non-political routes are certain to fail. For, once the "powers-that-be" decide that they present a real challenge to their dominance and wealth, they will be dealt with.

So, the nettle must be grasped!

But what kind of Socialism is actually required? Is it like Russia used to be, or China is now, or even North Korea?

NO! For it hasn't worked! Three vital questions just have to be seriously addressed:-

ONE: What kinds of political parties must be built to fight for the Change?

TWO: What must be their objectives to achieve the necessary transformation?

THREE: What kind of State will be the desired result?

Mankind has been trying to address these questions for 200 years, and none of their means, from Democratic Socialist Parties, to even those fighting for violent Revolution have been effective.

Social Democratic Parties have achieved only very temporary gains, while Revolution, necessarily requiring nationwide organisations, and even armies, have inevitably produced powerful, self-maintaining and self-empowering Bureaucracies, while the lot of the mass of people has remained one of powerlessness!

Clearly, these Cooperatives are addressing powerlessness in the workplace, but not yet the other vital political questions.

The informing historical equivalent has to be the Failure of the Trades Union Movements, for in spite of growing to prodigious proportions (even in the USA) they did not address the vital political questions either, and they are now powerless to even do their admitted task of defending jobs or even working conditions.

The political tasks are vital! But do we agree what they are?

Disposable?

Dormitories at an abandoned Apple factory in China

There is a persisting and perplexing problem in attempting to explain the historical trajectory of Capitalism over its fairly short life!

It concerns the swift growth of human populations in the towns and cities, which infers that they must have come for a better life than they had endured previously, and also that they must have, initially at least, experienced one, in order to both stay and grow in such numbers. It therefore appears that work in the factories of the employers was indeed delivering an improvement in living conditions, at the time.

Yet, the most evident state of many of those city populations, was that they always seemed to be barely surviving, and in the direst poverty. Why on earth did leave their existences in the countryside to commit themselves to descend into the hell of such cities? And, why did they not return to their countryside jobs, when life in the city hit rock bottom for them?

The trouble was their old jobs were long gone!

The farmers were mechanising, and no longer needed the vast army of labourers of the past. And some farms found sheep far more profitable than arable farming - again requiring less labour. And, in the Highlands the villages were being cleared to deliver ever more "pastures and playgrounds-for-the-rich". There were no jobs, and also no homes there any more.

It is, therefore, less of a contradiction, when the major driving forces are exposed. But, nevertheless, for along time there seemed to be a shining light which still appeared to deliver the promise of a better life.

In what later became the USA, such situations were rarely as bad: indeed, such workers, who generally were immigrants, escaping from desperate conditions in Europe, entertained an ever rising standard of living, pretty well constantly for over 150 years! What was going on?

Workers in the USA were afforded a better quality of life

The new economic system did both promise a better life, but simultaneously put every single worker onto the unavoidable task of enriching their employers. And, these are contradictory objectives!

Whilever things were going well for the employer, the life of the worker also was better. But any setbacks for the employer always changed things dramatically for the workers. The employer would sack workers, and maybe employ others at lower wages, gradually forcing down the quality of life of all those employed. And, if the company failed and couldn't sell what it made, it would be shut down, throwing all the workers out without any means of subsistence.

Indeed, such failures were common, so there was ever the threat of unemployment to aid employers in keeping wages as low as possible. 

Workers at Apple factory which has now been shut down

In addition, this system of Capitalism was inherently unstable, and every few years had Depressions when many were thrown out of work, and Booms when things picked up again - but never in exactly the same forms.

Many firms vanished in the slumps, and new ones were created in the booms, but these ups and downs acted most strongly against workers, so even within a steady situation there would always be unemployed workers, who by their presence as such, were enabling the effective control of those still employed. Any trouble from a worker and he or she could be replaced by one of the unemployed!

Now, though conditions vary at an amazing rate, the contradictory state of the Capitalist Economic System has remained essentially the same - it has accelerated and globalised if anything.

Though workers organised into Trade Unions and even developed their own political parties, these contradictions were never removed, and every change benefiting the ruling Capitalists would be energetically pursued until it too ran out of steam.

Occasionally, there would be a Revolution which dispossessed the Capitalist class, but as the dominant Capitalist system became truly global, it could both effectively and severely limit those "socialist" countries from any real success, and by war, boycotts and eventual assimilation, even those attempts were reversed.

Clearly, unless and until the working classes, on a World scale implement many successful revolutions, they will remain both dispossessed and disposable to their capitalist enemies, ever more powerfully in charge!

Empty dormitories at former Apple factory

Rise of the Oligarchs

How Nationalised Services Became Private Empires

A trajectory which is never explained is "how could a Socialist State, with Nationalised property relations and State-owned Industries and Public Services. turn back into a Capitalist State once more, with most industries back in the hands of private owners?

Theoretically, there should have been nobody left within such a State, with enough prodigious wealth to ever buy these back! So, how was it achieved?

It wasn't an armed Counter-Revolution, so it must have been organised by a new, democratically-elected Government, with such as its "winning policy", promised in an election! But, why did they win, and what forces within Society were strongly in favour of such a radical change?

It wouldn't be the workers, unless, of course, they had been lied-to - for example, by promising, "More Freedom", "More Democracy" and "Less Corruption"!

But then, what section of Society would make such promises, while also wanting industry to remain in their hands, but, now primarily, for their own profit? It could only be one already privileged group - The Bureaucracy! They had been running the Nationalised Industries, ostensibly "for the people", and had got a taste for the even better life they could lead, if they got much-increased rewards for what they already were doing, but no longer as "privileged servants", but instead as owners! 

But, how could this possibly be organised?

Simply giving everything back to the pre-revolutionary Capitalists was not likely to be popular, so, could they be sold at a "knock down" price to "the best" of those who had been running things for the people for so long? Who else could it be? The prior state media would have been extolling the virtues of particular Public Servants, and the People would, most certainly, "have their favourites": no-one else would even be nationally known, at least politically.

NOTE: It is interesting how certain entertainers can also "fit the bill", in such situations, and head up "new parties" too! But who, among these well-known figures, were the known perpetrators of Corruption, and who could be trusted to continue to serve the people?

That was easy!

All those who were known to have actually extorted the backhanders, were the "baddies". While those "never-evidently-involved", and were now condemning such things, and from the higher echelons of the Bureaucracy; were they the "goodies"? So, in the rising political tumult, the easily-identified baddies would be out, while those they had actually been working for, and who had amassed the money needed to buy - they would be in!

The new government of ex-bureaucrats sold the Nationalised Industries at knock down prices to those with the money, and used that money to finance various projects that "proved which side they were on!" How else could the State owned industries have been sold-off?

And, how else could the billionaire Oligarchs have arisen so very quickly? It just had to be "Privatisation-on-steroids" - no wonder the new powers-that-be considered drugs-for-athletes a legitimate way forward! 

So, this analysis doesn't only fit the Failed Socialist States such as Russia and its Empire, but even Modern China - ostensibly still Socialist!

So what is all this anti-Russian, anti-China and even anti-Iran propaganda promoted by western politicians all about?! For their "dreaded enemies" are no longer threatening the End of Capitalism, but are energetically subscribing to it!

It is clearly the new inter-Capitalist rivalries. Remember, such rivalries caused both World War I and World War II!