Bulletin of the Conference of Socialist Economists Spring 74 FOREWORD This issue of the Bulletin contains four substantial pieces with the balance tilted more towards concrete analysis than previously. The discussion of the post war development of German capitalism by Elmar Altvater and his group was a high- light of the January Imperialism Conference, with its use of empirical material within a tight theoretical framework. We hope that Jim Smyth's paper on Ireland, also presented at the January Conference, will spark off an extended debate on this vital subject. Bob Rowthorn's analysis of skilled labour has already been referred to in earlier articles in the Bulletin. We urge non-mathematical readers to take the maths on trust and to persevere with this very important analysis. John Harrison's paper on the U.K. formed the basis of extended discussion at the last Editorial Board. We hope these discussions of current topics will become a regular event at which all CSE members will be welcome to contribute pieces or simply join in the debate (information in Newsletter). All correspondence to CSE c/o Robin Murray, IDS University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RE CONTENTS ON THE ANALYSIS OF IMPERIALISM IN THE METROPOLITAN COUNTRIES: THE WEST GERMAN EXAMPLE Elmar Altvater, Jurgen Hoffmann, Wolfgang Scholler, Willi Semmler (trans. Richard Alexander) 1 SKILLED LABOUR IN THE MARXIST SYSTEM Bob Rowthorn 25 BRITISH CAPITALISM IN 1973 and 1974: THE DEEPENING CRISIS John Harrison 46 CHANGING NATURE OF IMPERIALISM IN IRELAND Jim Smyth 61 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF LUCIO COLLETTI Geoff Hodgson (Book Review) 85 S. CASTLES AND G. KOSACK: IMMIGRANT WORKERS AND THE CLASS STRUCTURE IN WESTERN EUROPE John Lea (Book Review) 87 E.L. WHEELWRIGHT AND B. MCFARLANE: THE CHINESE ROAD TO SOCIALISM Suzanne Paine (Book Review) 91 BOOKS RECEIVED 94 1 ON THE ANALYSIS OF IMPERIALISM IN THE METROPOLITAN COUNTRIES: THE WEST GERMAN EXAMPLE Emar Altvater, Jurgen Hoffmann, Wolfgang Scholler, Willi Semmler (translated by Richard Alexander) I. INTRODUCTION: STAGES OF CAPITAL ACCUMULATION AND THEORIES OF IMPERIALISM In this paper we shall attempt to outline recent tendencies in the development of capitalist industrial states by tracing the developmental stages of capital accumulation in the Federal Republic of Germany and its position on the world market. However, we must first preface out paper with some fundamental re- marks on the traditional political and theoretical discussion of the causes of imperialism. We should also add that we do not intend to summarize each of the various sets of arguments which have been proposed for analysing the phenomena of imperialism. Instead we would like to stress that capital reproduction developed in stages which superseded one another. Each of these stages is separately characterized by particular determining factors, which assert themselves in the individual theories of imperialism within the poli- tical currents of the working-class movement. A. Classical Theories of Imperialism The classical discussion of imperialism, which came about as a result of the conquest of the world market by the industrial capital of the developed European countries, centres on two questions which we will take up and pursue further without reservation: 1. The classical theories of imperialism start out from the movement of capital, that is the capital reproduction in the industrial countries, in order to explain what immanent tendencies within the national process of reproduction drive the national capital into expansion on the world market, whether this is in the form of commodity capital or (investable) finance capital. These theories assign the international market the role of being the prerequisite for the national process of reproduction. 2. The individual arguments for the possibility or impossibility of extending the reproduction of capital in one country are directly related to the splits in the working class and the controversies within the working class political organization. These theories attempt to base the tactics of the working class movement on a materialist analysis of the reproduction of capital. The decades prior to the First World War saw a historical stage of flourishing capital accumulation with an expanding world market and context of reproduction. An increasing amount of inves- table finance capital was employed abroad. This was either a result of the fact that reproduction connections were forced on foreign countries (especi- ally overseas colonies) by the development of the means of production in certain industries; or else particular exchange relations arose as a result of the growing unproductive classes and their consumption habits in capi- talist countries. It is during this period of increasing reproduction and exchange relations that the structure of the international division of labour and the structure of production and demand on the world market originates (a structure which is caused by the export of commodity and finance capital); it is a function of the requirements of the aggregate social process of reproduction in the imperialist industrial states. It must not be 2 overlooked that this economic structure on the world market is made pos- sible, supported and expanded by the political and military machine in the individual countries. The development of the means of production and the consequent decline or rise of certain industries has changed not only the structure of production and demand between industrial nations themselves, but the reproduction relations as a whole between the industrial nations participating in the international market and the colonies. This stage was characterized not only by the ever more dense international relations of reproduction, but also by the increase in the real wages of workers in developed countries and sharper competition between national capitals. The theoretical and political controversy about the ways capitalist industrial nations would go as a result of this historical development was sparked off by the "question of realization", whereby the problem of the national capacity for development of capital was raised - of central importance again today in the context of the indust- rialization of the Third World. The supporters of an under-consumptionist theory (Luxemburg, Steinberg) combated reformism and opportunism before the First World War, by trying to prove not only that the disguise of capital's continuing prosperity was an illusion without immanent limits to accumulation, but also that a violent confrontation between the imperialist states was un-avoidable as soon as the expanded reproduction of capital in the individual countries was no longer ensured by the realization of com- modity capital on the world market. On account of this external constraint national capital would reach its immanent limits and this would have con- sequences for the tactics of the working class movement. In what follows we would like to outline the main points of the "classical theories of imperialism" we have mentioned. We cannot rehearse the detailed arguments here and apologize for the abbreviated presentation. Our intention is merely to bring out the historically conditioned nature of the main positions: 1. The under-consumptionist theory (first formulated in its essence by Sismondi) (Hobson, Luxembourg, Sternberg) sees the necessity for the external expansion of capitalism in the limited capacity for consumption of the masses. Its different variants repeatedly make the same error of ignoring the demand for products from Department I (production goods industry) by the capitalist class itself. Hence the conditions for the expansion of reproduction are inadequately dealt with. 2. In contrast to this a "harmonious" view (Tugan-Baranowsky, Hilferding) asserts that in general the reproduction process will expand continually, without the need for disproportionalities to be overcome by crises and the expansion of the world market. 3. A third theoretical variant is Bucharin and Grossmann's criticism of the above mentioned positions which contains an explanation of the expan- sion of the world market starting from the internal contradictions arising from the process of accumulation. In our view this methodological approach is worth pun, -,iing further. 4. In contrast to this approach, there are attempts to explain the expansion of the world market and the aggressiveness of national capitals on the basis of the rise of finance capital, the growing power of the monopolies and the state apparatus in the industrial nations. These proceed in a selective fashion and do not derive this expansion from aggregate capital reproduction. 3 B. Theories of Imperialism after the Second World War After the Second World War the emphases of the theory of imperialism shift. The reason is to be found in the modified historical conditions of capital accumulation. The Second World War, and the associated enormous destruction of capital, is itself the starting point for a development of the means of production of hitherto unknown proportions, the general growth of industrial production and increasing international integration. To an ever increasing extent the intertwining of the international market is a determinant of the growth of international capitals and in particular of their cyclical decline and fall. In this stage forms of international cooperation are increasingly being set up (GATT,OECD,IMF,etc.). The growing capital and commodity flows between the developed capitalsit nations, without the underdeveloped