The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-01-28
OUR BOOK REVIEWS

The Foundations of ImperiaIist Policy. By
Michael Pavlovich. course Of lectures de-
livered in 1s1s-Is19. (The Labour Publish
ing Company, Ltd, London.)
This splendid book clears up many
erroneous conceptions regarding i'm
perialism. Before one has read
twenty pages the bourgeois liberalist
conception of imperialism is shatter-
ed by irrefutable logic. Pavlovich,
one of the teachers in the workers
and soldiers schools in Soviet Russia
and a revolutionist of wide exper-
fence, takes to task those bourgeois
sentimentalists who see in every form
of aggression known to mankind the
germs of imperialism and exposes
their puny mentality and their total
inability to deal with facts of history.
This part of the work is particularly
valuable as we'll as timely in the
United States where we have been
sorely afflicted with myriads of ex-
preachers and bourgeois liberal pro-
fessors writing twaddle about impe-
rialism without taking the pains to
understand the modus operandi of
history. Pavlovich shows that there
was no such thing as Imperialism in
ancient Greece, that there was no
such thing as an "imperialist democ-
racy" in Sparta, that neither Caesar,
Alexander nor any Of the other heroic
figures of the past were imperialists,
for the simple reason that imperial
ism never existed until this era of
capitalist production.
In this criticism of bourgeois and
yellow socialist professors Pavlovich
is on solid ground and quotes as his
authority the foremost leader of the
world revolution, both as to theory
and practice, N. Lenin. He shows
imperialism to be definite economic
phenomenon arising from a definite
stage of economic development, then
he quotes Lenin: Imperialism is the
last stage in the development of
capitalism"
The book is also valuable because,
while it adds nothing new to the
MARKHAM conception of Imperialism
so well known to all advanced revo-
lutionists, it comprehensive presents
the fundamentals of the muddled
ideas of Kautsky and Hilferding re-
garding Imperialism and then blasts
them with the work Of Lenin on the
same subject.
While the book is valuable for
students and for student classes there
is one chapter that contains a grave
error that is positively astounding,
considering the high standing of the
author as teacher of economics, and
one that must be emphasized so that
students will not fall into the same
error in fundamental economies. On
page 124, while discussing the or
ganic composition of capital, Pavlo-
vich says:
Capital consists of two parts-of
the so-called parts of constant and
of variable capital. Constant capital
is that part of capital which has been
invested in the factory building, in
machines, benches, instruments and
other implements of production--in
one word, of all that which bears a
constant character. Variable capital
is that part which has been invested
in that which is quickly used up in
the process of production, in raw
wool, and so on. Wages also belong
to the category Of variable capital"
(EmpnaSiS m1ne.-H. NJ. WI
Now every Marxist knows that con-
slant capital consists of all buildings,
machinery, benches, raw material
and every auxiliary except labor
power. 1t is called constant" be-
cause in the process Of production its
value remains constant, that is, 1t is
not increased, but simply transferred
to the completed commodity. Labor
power Is the one and only value-creat-
ing element in production. When APP
piled to production labor-power not
only transfers its own value to the
finished product but creates an addi-
tional value greater than itself, hence
wages, that part Of capital used Ia
purchase labor-power, is the only va.
riable capital.