Global Division of Labor

  1. Workers-Control-Over-Prod
    Workers-Control-Over-Prod
    Since the creation of the world market, goods have constantly increased in their global circulation. The current absolutely absurd and unrestrained capital-ist global division of labor driven by the drive for higher profits through more "efficiency", are naturally unsustainable besides their internal contradictions and domestic social impacts.

    The United States' exports went from 40,000 Million US Dollars a month in 1992 to 190,000 Million dollars a month in 2012. The Brazilian counterpart has also nearly quadrupled its exports within the last twenty years. Germany's exports went from 68 Billion Euros a month in 2006 to 100 Billion Euros a month in 2012, while its former (and i say this lightly) colony Namibia went from 4,000 NAD a month in 2006 to 8,000 NAD in 2012. This is a global, expansionary, explosive process individual to that of growth rates. It in fact gives the appearance of a monopolisation process that Marx and Lenin described, a monopolisation of countries economies to focus on the efficient production of certain economic sectors. This is Lenin's theory of monopolisation brought on a global national economic scale.

    Since the dawn of Capitalism, colonies have served as suppliers of raw materials for western Industry, and sadly not much has visibly changed since then. These are lists of the main exports of countries:

    D. Republic of the Congo: gold, copper, cobalt, diamonds, wood products, crude oil, coffee
    . . .compare with
    Belgium: machinery and equipment, chemicals, finished diamonds, metals and metal products, foodstuffs
    The country of Belgium used to claim colonial ownership of the Congo, eradicated half of its population during hundreds of years of occupation and exploitation.

    Bolivia: natural gas, soybeans and soy products, crude petroleum, zinc ore, tin
    Mexico: manufactured goods, oil and oil products, silver, fruits, vegetables, coffee, cotton
    . . .compare with
    Spain: motor vehicles; foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, medicines, other consumer goods
    Nigeria: uranium ore, livestock, cowpeas, onions; Nigeria: petroleum and petroleum products 95%, cocoa, rubber
    . . .compare with
    France: machinery and transportation equipment, aircraft, plastics, chemicals, pharmaceutical products, iron and steel, beverages
    European Union: machinery, motor vehicles, aircraft, plastics, pharmaceuticals and other chemicals, fuels, iron and steel, nonferrous metals, wood pulp and paper products, textiles, meat, dairy products,
    USA: capital goods (transistors, aircraft, motor vehicle parts, computers, telecommunications equipment) 49.0%, industrial supplies (organic chemicals) 26.8%, consumer goods (automobiles, medicines) 15.0%

    The west still exploits raw materials and tries to keep third world countries in their submissive position to feed western industrial capitalism. Raw materials are brought from the third world, such as Oil from Nigeria, to be processed into "fuels" in Europe and sold back to Nigeria from European refineries for the Africans to power their western produced cars...

    In Lenin's "Imperialism as the highest Stage of Capitalism" he says that the return of capital is the one and foremost goal of monopoly capitalism. But the individual monopolies of the west are very conscious in keeping down the submissive national economies, i.e. will "invest" in (more like occupy) Nigerian oil fields to sell it to their own refineries in Europe, to fuel their industrial economies. Essentially, it is of course still all about bringing back capital from the third world, but it has a clear dimension of national economic suppression.

    The monopolisation of national economies due to increased socialisation/productivity of labor is as well phenomenon which is so blatantly seen in the Imperialist world of today. Even though farm workers in Germany who grow cows for meat produce a surplus on milk, it is not bought because its production is not "efficient". Milk is to 30% bought from foreign national economies although the cows (and the milk!) exists nationally, soy beans are produced in Brazil that are destroying soil nutritiousness while there is no demand for soybeans in Brazil and people are dying of starvation there. Wheat is produced in the western States (#1 USA, #2 France, #3 Canada, #4 Australia..) because it is more profitable and is globally exported wherever there demand. These contradictions are glaring anti-human realities to the people of the third who see (or plant) coffee to export it to western industries (Germany is the world's largest coffee manufacturer, because the processing of coffee is where the money is made) while they are starving.

    This absurd sought for efficiency is a figment that capital seeks in its pursuit of profitability. It is unsustainable. The productive forces have advanced to such a degree (see Computers, see 3D printers [an innovation signalling the end of the factory] etc.) that human labor to produce humanity's material needs is not needed anymore. Communism seeks the end all divisions of labor. The localisation (and eventual de-centralisation/end of the division of labor) of the economy is a necessary prerequisite to communism, and that is now a possibility. The only obstacle in the way is the class enemy, Workers of the World Unite!
  2. Positivist
    Positivist
    Great post! This focuses on the most pressing issue of capital for the last 100 years, Imperialism. I usually refer to it as exporting oppression to make our (western industrial) exploitation more comfortable.

    An important feature of neocolonization today is a phenomenon explained to me by another member on here called capital market liberalization. It is the process in which imperialist economies lend to underdeveloped ones at a very high interest rate, and then reccomend the country taking the loan to set a reserve equal to the loan. Though, the interest rates on the loans are significantly higher than those being paid on the reserves, leaving the loaning country with substantial profits, and the country receiving the loan with mounting debt.

    Furthermore as a result of the accumulating debts, a form of transnational indentured servitude arises, where western corporations are able to take control of national industries as part of the collection of the national debt. Ultimatley this is an elaborate scheme of the rich getting richer, and the poor getting poorer.
  3. Workers-Control-Over-Prod
    Workers-Control-Over-Prod
    Thanks. A reason i wrote this is because Lenin's theory of Imperialism has to be further expanded upon now. He did not go into detail that imperialism further suppresses industrial development and contrary to modern "Empire" theorists, Imperialism in fact still remains in the mentality of the national state. Where Lenin should be critised now (due to new scientific findings) is that over centralisation vs. decentralisation. If one is for centralisation, then one necessarily gives in to the capital-ist dogma of "efficiency". Our productive forces have advanced to such a point that the profit seeking chase of commodities around the globe is no more necessary, Capitalism and Socialism are hindrances to real progress for the west. For one, increased globalisation of capital means increased sought for "efficiency"/centralisation/"professionalisation", a focus of certain national economies on certain sectors which the climate can produce more profitably, and increasingly so. This is naturally unsustainable (nutritious soil and resource depletion to ship the commodities around the world) and contrary to a communal control over production. The future for workers governments (in the west) needs to be to start with the "communalisation" or "localisation" of the economy with the energy sector, subsidising communes to build renewable energy plants, subsidising private households to install solar panels etc. That by itself will force western corporations to leave fossil fuel rich neo-colonies, give the third world space to in the future build self sustaining economies as well.

    Companies and R&D centers that build 3D printers should be subsidised to get rid of the industrial factory as fast as possible, i.e. further localise the production of commodities from its current global Sisyphus. This might come with costs, but the need for the end of the global division of labor is very important for the sustainability of modern production.

    The capitalists know precisely how much they want governments to be indebt. An Administrator in the Reagan Administration said that they ran up the debt up to such a level that they can then cut all the social programs they don't like, that is what is happening in the west right now with austerity, and the US government seems to look towards getting rid of social security.