As Trotsky described, imperialism transfers the same processes of competition, centralisation and concentration from the economic sphere into the political sphere, and relations between states. But, in the economic sphere, capital is not centralised all at once into a single monopoly. It develops into a series of large firms, oligopolies, that continue to compete with each other, as well as engaging in co-operation, and alliances. In Nature, gravity pulls all matter together, but, it also leads, to clumps of matter, be it planets, stars, or galaxies. The same kinds of processes for the world economy, means that, capital clumps together in separate politico-economic blocs, such as the EU, NAFTA and so on.
As a result of the processes described earlier, as capital, in developed economies, was diverted into gambling and speculation, and the inflation of asset prices, creating a delusion of paper wealth, whilst the locus of real industrial capital accumulation moved to China, Asia, Latin America, the former Stalinist economies of Central and Eastern Europe, and, more lately, Africa and the Middle East, so the power of the main beneficiary of that development, China, grew, especially as it made alliances with other rising economies in BRICS+. What had been a short-term solution for western capital, to its labour shortages of the 1970's, and source of profits, increasingly became a threat to the global power of US imperialism, and its subordinates.
Even fifteen years ago, and less, Chinese manufacturing and construction businesses were seen as a saviour for western economies, as, in Britain, for example, David Cameron and George Osborne looked to them to build the new nuclear power stations, telecoms infrastructure and so on, required. And, in the EU, Chinese companies spent huge amounts, in Spain, for example, on new construction work.
Currently, in Georgia, there are large scale demonstrations against the right-wing populist governments new laws requiring organisations that receive more than 20% of their financing from overseas to declare it. The Georgian government, undoubtedly seeks to utilise this law to attack those organisations critical of the government. However, it is also undoubtedly true, and is a matter of public record, that the CIA and other western powers, have, in the past, funnelled billions of dollars into these countries to influence their political development. But, what is also true, is that whilst the liberal media rightly criticise the actions of the Bonapartist regimes in Georgia, they seem to accept as read that it is quite acceptable, now, for the US government to ban Tik-Tok, or to place other such restrictions on Chinese companies operating in the West, companies who, in the last couple of decades, they were welcoming!
Across the globe, it is China that has the industrial capital capable of direct investment in developing economies, as western imperialism has spent the last 40 years, using profits to simply gamble on the prices of various assets, in order to benefit from capital gains on those assets. Where, US imperialism engaged in destructive wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, leaving nothing positive in its wake – unlike, even, the direct investment that British colonialism engaged in in India, in the 19th century – China has acted, more like that 19th century, British imperialism. It has engaged in actual direct investment, and, in the process, extended its global strategic influence. The deal it struck between Saudi Arabia and Iran, was an indication of it.
Forward To Part 19Forward To Part 19
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