The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-01-13
l. The Economy of World Capitalism and the
Sharpening Of the FghJ for Foreign Markets.

( which we must start.
Does all this mean that the stabili
zation of capitalism has become a
firm and lasting fact? Naturally not.
On the occasion of the XIV Party
Congress the report pointed out that
capitalism might reach and surpass
pre-war averages and that it might
rationalize it's production, but that
this would not mean that the stabili-
zation of capitalism would thereby
become any firmer or that capitalism
! would regain it's predominant pre-war
stability. On the contrary, this stab
ilization, the very fact of the growth
of output and trade, the fact that
technical progress and the possibili-
ties of production are increased, while
the world market with it's limits and
with the spheres of influence of the
individual imperialist groups remain
more or less stable-just these facts
entail very acute far-reaching crisis
of international capitalism, pregnant
with new wars and endangering the
existence of all stabilization.
Partial stabilization entails the ag-
gravation of the crisis of capitalism,
which in it's turn annihilates stabiliza-
tion. Such is the course of develop
ment of capital at the present his
torical moment.
(b) The most characteristic thing
about this growth of the production
and trade of international capitalism
is the fact that the development pro-
ceeds unequally. The development
does not ensue in the sense of a
smooth and uniform advance of the
capitalist countries, one after an
other, without mutual disturbance or
collisions but rather in the sense that
some of the countries are ousted and
ruined while others become prominent
and rise, all this in a life-and-death
struggle among the different conti-
nents and countries for the hegemony
on the market. The economic center
is shifted from Europe to America,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Thereby the specific weight of Amer
lea and Asia increases internationally
at the cost of Europe.
Some figures in illustration of the
above: Whereas in 1923 the share of
Europe in the foreign trade turnover
of the world stood at 58.5 per cent,
that of America at 21.2 per cent, and
that of Asia at 1928 per cent, the
European share had fallen by 1925 to
so per cent, while that of America
had risen to 26.6 per cent. and that
of Asia to 16 per cent. Beside the
countries of vigorously progressive
capitalism Omitted States and partly
also Japan, we see countries under
going economic decline (Great Brit
ain). Alongside the increasingly
powerful capitalism Of Germany and
the rise of countries which have of
late come to the fore, such as Canada,
Australia, Argentine, India, ana
China, we have countries with stab
ilizing form of capitalism, such as
France and Italy. The number of
competitors on the selling market in
crease, the possibilities Of production
grow, the supply of goods is en-
HANGED, but the absorbing capacity of
the markets and the boundaries of
the spheres of influence remain more
or less stable.
That is the basis of the growing
irreconcilable contradictions within
the capitalism of today.
(c) This contradiction between the
growth Of productive possibilities and
the relative stability of the markets
forms the basis of the fact that the
market problem has now come to rep
resent the crucial question Of capital-l
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