The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-01-06

UpmentS oil productive forces, eX-
cess of supply over demand; over
production, Cutting of markets,
crises every ten years; the vicious
circles-excess there, laborers
without employment and without
means of existence. But these
two levers of production of social
well-being, are unable to work to-
gether because the capitalist form
of production prevents the pro-
ductive forces from working and
the products from circulating un-
less they are first turned into
capital which their very super
abundance prevents. The con-
tradiction has grown into an alb
surdity. The mode of production
rises in rebellion against the form
of exchange"
In a nutshell, the technocrats
and all other bourgeois economists
can at best see only that there is
something wrong with the ex-
change, but blind to the basic cause
of crises which lies in the form
of production relations. Can we
have better characterization of the
present crisis than the brilliant
statement of EngeIs: 1.-THE mode
of production rises in rebellion
against the form of exchanged"
NEARLY 100 YEARS AGO
IN the Communist Manifesto,
L written by Marx and Engels in
1847, we have the best answer TO
the ideas Of democracy, brought
forward in different forms by vari-
GUS petty bourgeois utopians in
those days too. We have the true,
the scientific treatment of the
causes of crises. To quote from the
Manifesto:
Modern bourgeois society with
Its relations of production, of ex-
change and of property society
that has conjured up such gigan-
tic means of production and of
exchange, is like the sorcerer
who is no longer able to control
the powers of the neither world
whom he has called up by his
spells. For many decade past
the history of industry and COM
merce is but the history of the
revolt of modern productive forces
against modern conditions of pro-
duction, against the property re-
latiOns, that are the conditions
for the existence of the bOurg-
eoisie and Of its rule. 1t is enough
to mention the commercial crises
that by their periodical return put
the entire existence of the bour-
geois society on trial, each time
more threateningly. In these
crises a great part not only of
the existing products but also the
previously created productive
forces are periodically destroyed.
In these crises there breaks out
an epidemic Llat In earlier epochs
would have Seemed an absurdity
the epidemic of over produc-
ton"
In Engels' Socialism Utopian and
Scientific" we have most adequate
explanation Of the objective rea-
sons for all these theories of the
technocrats and others, namely.
"The bourgeoisie are convicted of
incapacity further to manage their
own social productive forces" The
ideas of the technocrats reflect the
incapacity OF the bourgeoisie fur
Their to manage their own social pro-
ductive forces and their desire, by
their so-called criticism, to retain
the faith of the masses in the cap
italiSt class.
We have quoted at length from
the MARKHAM classics because there
can be found no better explapa-
ton for the reasons of the present
crisis than in the writings Of Marx,
Engeis and Lenin.
CAN WORKERS
GRASP MARXISM?
In connection with this point 1t
Is interesting to note that the bour-
geoisie, sensing the growing inter-
est In Marxism, is sending out its
own Interpreters of Marxism. A
case in point Is the recent publica-
ton OF some OF the writings Of
Marx In a special book compiled
and edited by Max Eastman. We
cannot In this article <ssal with his