The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-03-14

Marx and Engels the founders OF
scientific socialism, in Analysing the
fundamental laws Of capitalist devel-
opment, clearly explained the causes
Of crises. They showed how the
social nature of production and the
private appropriation by the capital
lists Of the products produced by the
working class is the, source of all the
contradictions OF the capitalist sys-
tenn
Thus, Marx in Capital states: -
THE last cause of all real
crises always remains the poverty
of restricted consumption of all the
masses as compared to the tendency
Of capitalist production to develop
the productive forces in such way
that only the absolute power Of
consumption of the entire society
would be their limit"
Lenin, the greatest Marxist OF the
present age, applied and further de
veloped Marxisn in the epoch of i'm
perialism, emphasizing that the basic
contradictions of capitalism are here
accumulated and that the epoch Of
imperialism ushers in the period Of
proletarian revolutions. In discussing
the program of the BolSheviks in
19l7-18 Lenin, to combat certain err
roneous conceptions on the develop
ment Of imperialism, states:
In its present version the general
part of the program contains a
description and an analysis of the
more substantial characteristics of
capitalism as a sociai-econonic or
der. These characteristics have es-
sentially not been changed by i'm
perialism, the epoch of finance cap
ital. Imperialism constitutes con-
tinuation of capitalist Development,
its highest stage which is in GER
tain sense transitional toward So
cialism."
imperialism in reality does not
and cannot reconstruct capitalism
from the bottom up. Imperialism
complexities and sharpens the con-
tradictions of capitalism, makes
muddIe of freedom of competition
and monopoly, but cannot do away
with exchange markets, COMPETE
ton, crises, ETC."
But not SO the theoreticians of the
Second International. The revision
ism and distortion of Marxism by
Bernstein who emphasized gradua
Improvement of the conditions of the
working class with the further de-
velopment of capitalism, alongside o!
a harmonious development of capital
ism, meant, denial and a rejection
of the teachings of Marx and Engek
on the fundamental causes of capital
list crises.
! "Organized Capitalism"
Basing themselves on revisionism
the leaders of the Second Internati.
onal, overwhelmed by the rapid de-
velopment OF productive forces which
was characteristic of the post-wa'
period of capitalism, after the defea
of the revolutionary struggles of tn,
European proletariat and the victor.
of the proletariat of the S. U. owe
the forces OF intervention, developed
the theories of organized capitalism
which they claimed eliminated tn
anarchy Of capitalist production ant
crises.
At the height OF the prosperity
period of American capitalism, at tn
highest point in the expansion ant
development of productive forces, tn
Communist International meeting a
the Sixth World Congress IN 1872
foresaw the breakdown in the relatiy
sterilization of capitalism, openini
up period of acute crises, wars ant
revolutions. But on the eve OF tn
present crisis, and even when tn
crisis had already broken out, expos
ing fully the anarchy. of capitals
production, the Socialists as well a
: the renegades from Communism still
: spoke about TIE strength of capital
ism and denied the basic causes o
capitalist crises.
, In 1923, Naftali, one OF the "theo
! rists" of the Second Internationa
+ stated:
''The cyclica1 development under
! which there was a regular success
sion of prosperity and crisis Of
which Marx and Engels wrote ap-
, piled to the period of early capital
/ ISM"
Similarly, Hilferding, one of TIN
foremost leaders of the Second In
, ternational pointed out:
! "The period Of free competition
when capitalism was mastered by
u the laws of blind forces, is left be-
! hind, and we have at the present
time capitalist organization of
economy. In. other words, economy
: built on the free play of forces, has
turned into organized economy"
Indeed, according to the ingenious
FORESIGHT of these leaders of the Sc
cond International, the world has no