The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-24
Capitalism After Fire Years of
Economic Crisis

And during the five years of this crisis, espe-
cially during the period under review, the Pc
Rod since the Sixteenth Party Congress, there
have been both structural changes in the world
capitalist economy and shiftings in the CORE
lation Of the forces of the capitalist powers
among themselves and in their relations with
the U,S.s.R. there has been a strengthening of
the forces of proletarian revolution, coupled
with rallying of the forces Of bourgeois re-
action in each individual state-shiftings, that
is to say, which determine the conditions for
the growing over Of the general crisis of capt.
talism into revolutionary crisis of the capt.
talist system.
Before the crisis, the world capitalist system,
albeit with great interruptions in the working
of its mechanism achieved q certain restora-
ton of economic connections which had been
undermined by the imperialist war of 1914-18.
Now, as result of the devastating effect of
the world economic crisis and of those measures
which have been taken by monopoly capital
and its governments in order to extricate them
selves from it (the offensive against the work
ing class, the forced development of the war
industry, Ottawa, economic autarchy, imitation,
economic and currency war;, world capitalist
economy has been still further broken up into
individual state fractions, resulting in an out
burst Of rabid ctauvinism in the capitalist
countries, such as occurred in the early days
of the war of 1914.
Before the crisis the process of the centralisa-
ton and concentration Of capital was already
going on, the swallowing up of smaller-scale
trusts by larger-scale monopoly trusts coupled
with the ruination of small and middle-sized
N AZ Of tI,o &c
cesses have taken on hitherto unprecedented
dimensions, preparing on the one hand the
economic conditions for the fascist centraliza-
ton of state power, and on the other hand
creating huge army of DECEASED elements
from the petty proprietors of yesterday, who
represent ready made cannon fodder for fas-
cist adventures
Before the crisis the decline of agriculture
was already going on, steadily running the main
masses of the peasantry, putting them under
the bondage OF the usilrers and the banks. Now,
as Comrade Stain has shown we can observe
the degradation of agriculture, coupled with the
transition from machine to manual labor, from
tractors to horse power, from r1ination to mon
strous pauperisation Of the peasantry.
Before the crisis, as a consequence of the
carrying out of naturalization measures. the
poSluon on the working class was growing worse;
now there is sharp, startling leap downwards
The new living standard Of the working class
in number of capitalist countries which have
been most shaken by the crisis approaches ever
more closely to the colonial level.
For example, according to the data of the
economist Kucsinsl the average wages of the
German workers in 1882 had fallen by "a per
cent in comparison with 1923, and only COW
cred half Of his subsistence minimum And
since then, during the period of the fascist
dictatorship, the bourgeoise has robbed the
German workers of another three and half
milliard marks by means of further lowering
of the wages and curtailment of social insur-
ance. And this monstrous lowering OF the liv-
ing standard of the workers in the capitalist
countries has been combined with process by
which the cheaper and less highly organized
labor Of women and children has been drawn