Lenin's Imperialism

[Marxist in Nebraska]

I just finished the first chapter today. I am sure at least a few of you out there have read this. I have a question. Lenin makes reference to "cartels", especially in Germany, in a period from roughly 1870 to 1910. Are these corporations? Trusts? Monopolies? They sound somewhat different... I do not have a great knowledge of European economic history during this time period.

Other than that, what are your opinions about the book in general? Do you have a favorite, or least favorite, part?

[Severian]

Trusts, basically. Groups of companies in the same industry who make an agreement on prices, etc., rather than competing. This was legal in Germany at the time, but of course it happens in countries where it's not legal, too.

I think the stuff about the division and redivision of the world among competing imperialist powers is most relevant today. I also like this bit:

"Let us suppose that a Japanese is condemning the annexation of the Philippines by the Americans. The question is: will many believe that he is doing so because he has a' horror of annexations as such. and not because he himself has a desire to annex the Philippines? And shall we not be constrained to admit that the "fight" the Japanese is waging against annexations can be regarded as being sincere and politically honest only if he fights against the annexation of Korea by Japan, and urges freedom for Korea to secede from Japan? "

And Lenin elaborates on this in the preface:

"In order to show the reader, in a guise acceptable to the censors, how shamelessly the capitalists and the social-chauvinists who have deserted to their side (and whom Kautsky opposes with so much inconsistency) lie on the question of annexations, in order to show how shamelessly they screen the annexations of their capitalists, I was forced to quote as an example--Japan! The careful reader will easily substitute Russia for Japan, and Finland, Poland, Courland, the Ukraine, Khiva, Bokhara, Estonia or other regions peopled by non-Great Russians, for Korea. "

Words to live by, opposing one's "own" imperialists first and foremost.

[Marxist in Nebraska]

Comrade Severian,
There are, of course, accounts of price fixing here in the USA. Of course, such accusations are terribly difficult to prove. Of course, once capitalism has outgrown competition, it becomes all too easy for the corporations/cartels/monopolies to set whatever prices they wish. If the commodity is a necessity (food, shelter, many are desperately dependant on electricity), then the people must buy it at whatever price the capitalists wish to charge for it.

I also enjoy the sections you have quoted. What else do you or any other comrades here have to say about this text?

[Marxist in Nebraska]

I finished the book yesterday. Obviously, I was only able to read it off and on. It is interesting--Lenin talks about how the concentration/monopolization of the means of production is actually setting the stage for socialism. From what I got out of it, once the workers expropriate the monopolized means of production from the ruling class, the economic machinery is in place for democratic centralism. At least that is what I got from it. Perhaps someone who is better versed in Leninism can correct me if I am mistaken.