The following is a really insightful article by Li Shenming, Director the the World Socialism Research Center of the Peoples Republic of China. Besides its important insights, it should serve as a convincing answer to those who contend that China today is a "capitalist country" and that Marxist analysis has ceased to exist--two major expressions of contemporary capitalist ideology as they seek to revive the old Red Scare ideology in 21st century forms. Unfortunately, the photograph of Li Shenming did not come though the on this blog posting from the original document. I have also edited out the original Chinese text for the convenience of our readers
Norman Markowitz
At the End of Hegemonism and Power Politics Is the Revival of Socialism
Li Shenming
Vice president of CASS and Director of World Socialism Research Center
Since the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008, the world has come into the eve of great turmoil, restructuring and transformation. The wheel of history has steered into the highway of historical development. It is highly possible that the world will witness a series of drastic changes and even leaps from 2008 to 2020, 2030 or the first half of the new century. This is an inevitable outcome of various contradictions that have fermented for a long time.
In a sense, financial hegemony is a manifestation of the economic hegemony of international monopoly capital, military hegemony is a manifestation of its political hegemony, cultural hegemony is a manifestation of its ideological hegemony, while technological hegemony permeates its economic, political, cultural and other hegemonies. If financial, technological and cultural hegemonies constitute the soft power of international monopoly capital, then military hegemony constitutes its hard power. The combination of financial, technological, cultural and military hegemonies is characteristic of contemporary global capital in the era of neo-imperialism.
No doubt, peace, development and cooperation are the strong and universal aspiration of the people of all countries, and mark the direction of attempts made by major countries for objective existence. There is no denying that the western world led by the United States is attempting to dominate the trend and direction of world peace, development and cooperation, so as to control and plunder the rapidly diminishing resources of the earth.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and drastic changes in Eastern Europe, the Western world headed by the United States has been dominating economic globalization and promoting new high-tech revolution to strengthen their financial, technological, cultural and military hegemonies. Some people conclude that the western world is so powerful that the prospects for world socialism look rather grim. Others believe that the international financial crisis is deepening insomuch that a new surge of socialism is awaiting. We would suggest that neither view is wholly correct. And it seems to us that people tend to be pessimistic about world socialism in the short and medium run. However, as pure materialists, we should not only recognize the objective conditions provided by history, but also give full play to the subjective initiative of us communists. So long as we stand firm in our faith, adhere to correct political and ideological lines and strategies, we will get over various difficulties and achieve successes that will be borne by history.
Needless to say, we should learn from America its advantages. We should neither reject nor fear that. Only by strategically despising it and tactically taking it seriously, and by learning its science and technologies, can we achieve peaceful coexistence with the United States. Comrade Mao Zedong said: Imperialism and all reactionaries are paper tigers. He said so because he realized the power of the people, and discerned the inherently insolvable contradiction within imperialism and the reactionaries. Such a contradiction lies at the philosophical foundation of the essence of "paper tiger." Therefore, there is no reason for real communists to fear strategically about the United States. It is probably little expected that the super power of America had been mired in the Iraq War. The Chinese nation had gone through numerous hardships and disasters before it survived time and again, rising like a phoenix from the ashes and creating a series of splendors in world history. Just as classical Western philosophy that emphasizes paradoxes; ancient Chinese philosophy also believes that things will develop in the opposite direction when they become extreme. Real communists are armed with the ideological tools of historical materialism and dialectical materialism. Once we understand and grasp the law, we will gain great confidence, wisdom and strategy. World hegemony is like a boomerang, and nothing can escape the law.
Those communists who are not confident enough about their future often acclaim the high and new technologies that are owned by the western world and that penetrate its economic, political, cultural and military spheres. The opponents of communism at home and abroad also deem these technologies as an important source of pride. Here, let us make a brief analysis of the America's high-tech revolution with the lead of information technology to show how high and new technologies can undermine and even bring disaster to the basic system of capitalism in the future.
Firstly, the new IT revolution led by the US has considerably reduced the number of people employed by capital, and has made products more competitive in terms of price and quality. As a result, the market of products becomes more global. From modern transportation and communications and computer software to life necessities of toothpaste and washing powder, all products are monopolized by a few world international brands. Even ordinary people have equal access to Colgate toothpastes as George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin. The development of high and new technologies and the increase of cheap and good products may lead to the emergence of a large number of unmanned factories, which enables international monopoly capital to accumulate wealth through excessive monopoly profits or small profits but quick turnovers, while rendering ordinary people jobless and significantly reducing effective social demands.
Secondly, the widespread use of the Internet has sharply accelerated the flow of international capital. International capital is separated from real economy and the production link insomuch that one can plunder the wealth of other countries and other people instantly through a gentle mouse-click in finance and its financial derivatives, and achieve geometric growth in his value. In a sense, given the dominance of capitalist relations of production, all stock markets, futures, foreign exchange rates, and various financial derivatives of commodities are part and parcel of a big world casino.
The globalization of products market and high monopoly of international finance has led to a fundamental economic phenomenon: the majority getting poorer and poorer and a few getting richer and richer in the age of economic globalization. Almost all countries are increasing their money supply, which, however, has eventually entered the accounts of a few rich people. In 1976, the richest 1% families in the United States accounted for only 8.9% of the country's total national income. But by 2007, on the eve of the international financial crisis, these families had grabbed a share of up to 25%.[7] In other words, the majority of poor people could not afford further extortion. This is an inevitable result of the contradiction between the globalization of production (including that of financial products) and the private ownership of production means. The worldwide rich-poor polarization represents one of the most fundamental and profound changes that have taken place in the world situation. This change has given rise to a series of other changes.
At present, the international financial crisis is still deepening. In The Capital, Marx pointed out: "The final basis of all real crises is the poverty and limited consumption of the masses as against the urge of capitalist production to develop the productive forces as if their only limit were the absolute consuming capacity of society."[8] Hence the inevitability of the crisis of capital.
Productive forces determine the relations of production, which is the most basic common sense of Marxism. Advanced instruments of production have always been a major material force for the accumulation of wealth and the emergence and development of advanced revolutionary ideas. The evolution and development of production always arises from the evolution and development of productivity, which often begins with the changes and development of productive instruments. In a large sense, the Stone Age determines the primitive social form, the Bronze Age determines the social form of slavery, the Iron Age determines the social from of feudalism, and the age of steam engines and electricity determines the social form of capitalism. Therefore, the rapid development of the high-tech revolution may as well promote the emergence of a new social form on a global scale, namely the social form of socialism and communism. On one hand, the emergence and explosion of high-tech revolution has provided abundant material conditions for the new social form. While on the other, the widening polarity between the rich and the poor in almost all countries has demonstrated more fully the effectiveness of the historical law of "Where there is oppression, there is resistance" asserted by Mao Zedong. This will surely facilitate the innovation and development of Marxism, the most advanced doctrine ever known in human history.
Finally, as a symbol of high-tech revolution, the Internet also facilitates the spreading of advanced revolutionary ideas just as swiftly and conveniently as it does the plundering of wealth of other countries and people. It can piece together the long-scattered "specters of socialist revival" across the world and greatly promote the transition of the working class and other laboring people from spontaneity to consciousness in their revolts, making them more united than ever before. In transforming the former Soviet Union, the western world developed a complete set of techniques and methods. Among others, broadcasting, TV and newspapers played a uniquely significant role therein. Through these media, a large quantity of false or wrong information was hammered into the heads of the Soviet people, and was accepted by many of them. However, the Internet as a new medium in human history features speediness, large capacity and high interactivity between the information publisher and the audience. Once a publisher posts false or fake information, he may be immediately exposed or queried. This interactivity is precisely what is lacking in traditional media such as broadcasting, TV and newspapers. Although the publisher of world cultural hegemonism can restrict such exposure and query for some time or on a certain scale, he cannot control it completely and forever. This is independent of man's will. The birth of the Internet has baffled significantly the world cultural hegemonists' attempts of eroding, westernizing and splitting up the socialist countries. It has opened up boundless possibilities for "letting a hundred flowers bloom and letting a hundred schools of thought contend," although sometimes we find it rather difficult to differentiate good information from bad information. In intellectual contention and exchanges, we can compare, differentiate and improve ourselves, which is beneficial to the enhancement of the general theoretical level of all countries. Viewed locally and in the short run, the Internet has a lot of limitations; but viewed fundamentally and in the long run, the Internet is good in itself. This new instrument of production may bring us ever closer to a complete social form of socialism.
Thus, for the international monopoly bourgeoisie, the high-tech revolution and economic globalization led by the United States becomes a double-edged sword. On one hand, they have boosted the social productivity of capitalism, thereby easing the basic contradiction inherent in the capitalist society for some time. But on the other hand, we should also become aware that with the further development of economic globalization and high-tech revolution, the contradiction between the socialization of production and the capitalist private ownership of production means will not be eliminated, but will be intensified. And with that, other contradictions between capitalist production and consumption, between the monopoly bourgeoisie and proletarians and other laboring people, between western developed countries and developing countries, and between developed capitalist countries themselves, as well as other global issues such as ecological deterioration, will also become intensified. These contradictions and problems cannot be resolved within the capitalist system itself. The strengthening of hegemonism and power politics will only aggravate these contradictions and issues. As put by Marx some 156 years ago, "In our days, everything seems pregnant with its contrary: Machinery, gifted with the wonderful power of shortening and fructifying human labor, we behold starving and overworking it"; "This opposition between modern industry and science on the one hand, and modern poverty and decay on the other, this opposition between the productive forces and the social relations of our time is an obvious, overwhelming, undeniable fact." Therefore, for the capitalist society, "Steam, electricity and the self-acting mule were revolutionists of a rather more dangerous character than the very citizens Barbes, Raspail and Blanqui."[9] [10]
The above discussions have deepened our understanding of the alternation law of social forms as revealed by the founders of Marxism. That is to say, the rapid development of economic globalization and high-tech revolution will necessarily lead to an ever widening polarization between the rich and the poor in the whole world, produce a rising number of thinkers, theorists, statesmen and revolutionaries who are more dangerous than the very citizens Barbes, Raspail and Blanqui, and will advance the development of the working class and other laboring people armed with advanced theories. And with the growth of the grave diggers of the bourgeoisie, it is not difficult to predict what the future holds for capitalism. It is in this sense that we say the rapid development of economic globalization and high-tech revolution, in terms of the general tendency of history, is not distancing us away from socialism and communism, but is bringing us ever closer to them. But of course, this will be a fairly long process involving major twists and turns.
Capitalism and the bourgeoisie are pinning their hopes of western stability on the growing number of the so-called middle class, i.e. the middle-income class. Our assertion of the inevitable victory of socialism is based on the fact that the middle-income class in capitalist countries will undergo increasing split-ups in accord with the deepening of the international financial crisis. That is, more and more people within the class will be reduced to absolute poverty. According to the US Federal Reserve statistics, due to a plummeting of housing price and stock markets, the median net worth of American families shrunk by 39% from 2007 to 2010, and 50% of the "middle class" witnessed a slight or significant drop in their economic status during the economic recession.[11] As the rich-poor polarization continues to deepen steadily, as the purchasing power of the majority of ordinary people decreases to a certain degree, as a large number of enterprises go bankrupt one by one, as the middle-income classes are thrown into the depths of absolute poverty, and as the sovereign debts of different countries exceed the unbearable bottom limit, massive social unrests and turmoil will follow suit, and the working class will grow and develop in the struggle. Moreover, the middle class we are talking about here is largely comprised by "white-collar workers," who are characteristically young, highly educated, and well-versed in variety of high techniques. Once these people are thrown into the depths of poverty, they will get united with the already poor "blue-collar workers," and will present a totally different scenario of struggle in both form and effect. On September 17, 2011, thousands of demonstrators took to the street in New York and launched the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. The angry people shouted slogans of "Revolution Now!", "We Are The 99%!", and "The government should be run by the people, not by the rich." The root cause for the movement consists in the polarization of wealth possession and income distribution. The movement also offers us with some clues on the struggling forms of the working class and the proletariat. It is no stretch to say that if all other major countries can correctly address the deepening international financial crisis, the United States will face further deterioration in its domestic and foreign debts, ever widening polarization between the rich and the poor, and a widespread outbreak of many deep-seated contradictions in the coming years. In a certain sense, the "Occupy Wall Street" movement has just begun. Since 2010, massive demonstrations and riots have occurred in the central regions of capitalism, such as the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Israel and other countries whose boast a relatively stable economy and society. This phenomenon merits our attention and study.
We can thus well predict that the international financial crisis that originated in 2008 is far from finished; it is still evolving, and may herald the beginning of a more severe crisis ahead. Accordingly, the socialist countries will face graver challenges in this regard. No doubt, the road to socialism will be a tortuous one, but the prospects will be bright and brilliant. The inevitable victory of socialism over capitalism as proclaimed by Marx and Engels in The Communist Manifesto is sure to come.
Not long ago, John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, pointed out: "We await a modern Marx who can shake up the Left just as surely as the Right with a trenchant critique of the current economic orthodoxy and a game plan for transformation," "If the next Marx is out there somewhere scribbling away, the future might be an entirely different economic system altogether."[12] Some people argue that we needn't await a modern Marx, for Marxism is not yet outdated. We agree on that, and believe that there have emerged numerous Marxists who will take over Marx's pen and follow his heels in every corner of the world. With the deepening of the international financial crisis of capitalism, the Marxist doctrine that represents the fundamental interests of the vast majority of people and ultimately all mankind will surely turn over a new life across the world.
The revival of world socialist theories foreruns the revival of world socialist movements. This is exactly why Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao have repeatedly urged the cadres at all levels, especially those senior cadres of the party, to seriously study the classics of Marxism.
If we take a glance at the smoking history of World War Two and the history of democratic liberation movements in the world between 1950s and 1960s, we will find the names of many outstanding thinkers, statesmen, revolutionaries and strategists. It can thus be anticipated that with the upsurge of world socialist theories and movements, and with the maturity and growth of the working class, we will embrace a new pool of all-powerful world leaders.
The benefits, wisdom and efforts of the vast majority of people in the world calls for and creates world-class thinkers, statesmen, revolutionaries and strategists, who will lead the majority of people to fight for the civilization and progress of mankind. The masses are the final determining force of historical development, although we do recognize the important role played by some leading figures in the course of historical development. Lenin's theory about "leader, political party, class and the masses" will have eternal power before the realization of communism.
Translated by Wang Wen'e
（王文娥 翻译）
[1] （美）古拉姆·拉詹：《经济衰退的真正教训》，美国《外交》杂志2012年5/6期。
[2] 《马克思恩格斯全集》第25卷，第548页。
[3]布朗基是19世纪法国反对封建君主制度的伟大旗手，同时又是早期无产阶级政党的"领袖、头脑和心脏"（马克思语），坚决反对资本主义剥削制度和财产私有制度。他在76岁的生涯中，多次领导起义，多次失败，曾两次被判为死刑，其中有36年在30所监狱中渡过。布朗基主张通过政治革命推翻资产阶级统治，但其基本策略是少数人的起义或阴谋手段，这与马克思主义主张的依靠广大人民群众的力量 夺取政权是根本不同的。1870年，巴黎公社革命成功，他缺席被选为公社名誉主席。1881年1月1日布朗基去世后，巴黎20万群众自发为其送行。
[4] 《马克思恩格斯选集》第1卷，人民出版社1995年版，第774-775页。
[5] 叶·伦《美联储说，美国人财富在2007年至2010年期间缩水40%》，美国《华盛顿邮报》网站2012年6月12日。
[6]（美）约翰•费弗：《下一个马克思》美国外交政策聚焦研究计划网站2012年1月31日。
[7] Ragburam Rajan, "The True Lessons of the Recession," Foreign Affairs, May-June, 2012.
[8] The Collected Works of Marx and Engels, Vol. 25, p.548.
[9] Louis Auguste Blanqui was a great French champion in the 19th century who stood strongly against the feudal monarchy. Marx described him as a "head and heart of the proletarian party in France." In his 76 years of life, he led numerous uprisings but failed time and again. He spent 36 years in 30 prisons. Blanqui advocated the overthrowing of the bourgeois rule by means of political revolutions. However, he relied on the uprisings and conspiracies by a few people. This was fundamentally different from Marx's advocacy of relying on the masses to seize the power. In 1870, Blanqui was elected honorary president of the Paris Commune in his absence. He died in 1881, with over 200,000 people seeing him off in Paris.
[10] Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Vol.1, People's Publishing House, 1995, pp.774-775.
[11] Jeff Kearns, "Americans saw wealth plummet 40 percent from 2007 to 2010, The Federal Reserve Says," The Washington Post, June 12, 2012.
[12] John Feffer, "The Next Marx: We Stand at the Verge of a New Financial Era," January 31, 2012.
