Contradictions of the Agrarian Crisis DISCUSSION ARTICLES Reply to the Discussion Our first Conference more than two years Such an account of the affair as com in our opinion, is the source of the at all solve the contradictions of world is immediately followed by a withdraw must keep tens of millions in a state SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1931 THE MILITANT PAGE the relief campaign, brought to a fore be incorrect to speak of prospects of head by the as a godsend. American capitalism overcoming its crisis Why not add that the party stole a merely on the basis of the process of the money and thus round out the story mustaess cycles operating in the home The agrarian crisis presents itself as capitalist production is the constant in that all its enemies have told?
market. This would entirely ignore the blending of the contradictions of With such a view of party history as fact that its sources of power are spread theoretically pure capitalism with those crease of the speciti kravity of the con stant over the. It must be admitted that the confer kage to the of fakers, to die. ticles it is only logical that he should the world arena that it will seek its fur ment. Here we have before us not only the creating capital. It is this fact sce nothing good in it today and nother field of expansion.
the striking discrepancy between the pro: watch rives to an increased consumption ence discussion material has yielded very sipate and demoralize. What is this Further World Market Expansion ductive forces and the solvent demand of constant enpital the role of the de little either in the way of positive sup but chatter, later repeated the hope for its future. According to his opinion, the American Communist Party plement to the draft thesis of the Na Browder and similars to justify the which never was The majority of the world population but also barriers erected by the backward sive factor in the overcoming of the any good cannut longer ined as seven. absence of any serious attacks on its from repudiating the course of the par sing the potentialities of a mass party kaged in natural economy. To turn tow of capital in the creation of the appear practically entirely in the produce main conclusions although some of them in the Passale strike taking It As in the face of its miserable asupra the peasants into elements of capitalist average rate of proti tom the latter tive process as circulating capital and representa distinct and original contri: whole, we mean, not denying or Justify au fields. Can these rente opposition production, e, producers and consumers to create anteriore e preponderable positioned for the greater part as variable capital.
with tales centres ed. all produce the above mentioned tendency presents ut to the small produc as presented in the American movement for has always maintained that the parimation? Here is sweeping statement portant processes of captialism and has capitalist scale.
the first time may be taken as an in must go back and appropriate some of its indeed, which forbids the party to grow proven one additional means of capitalistler the farm is not an investment but the tinued increase of the importance of indication of the general support of the fruitful experiences. If you will stop regardless of external events.
expansion throughout its history. From very basis for his existence from this ustrial production at the expense of organization for the propositions of the for a moment to compare Passale with National Committee and a forecast of the present strategy in Paterson you no better policy and no better leader det en by Freudalism, first boy lib tween the agrarlau and the industrial the opening up of new markets for con: The Communist Party of Germany bas its very Inception, it began by battering fact there arises the radical distinction agriculture. The determining factor in the action of the Conference in regard ought to see the force of this opinion.
ship If we allow for proportions and to them.
erating the peasants from sert The present agrarian crisis which more Indirectly and to an increasingly limited Our draft has been submitted to an adopted at the First Conference we gave to grow. We should not take the redom, thus creatius new equilibrium.
international discussion, and a beneficial review of the mine strike of 1927 28 sponsibility of prohibiting the American Immense areas and population can stin Immediately receives its capping charae extent affect the agrarian crisis. The very criticism from that source is not yet ex and the subsequent developments.
We party to grow stronger. The facts of wire be developed capitalistically once there to the extension of grain culture of the renses the productivity or agriculture lng cluded. But in the ranks of our own did not spare criticism of the party er will most likely veto the order and dis are the apparently sufficient guarantees Western Hemisphere during the War and dimintshing the importance of agriculnational section the estimation of the rors in the whole campaign for we had credit us entirely. As a matter of fact for return on capital investments. the period of revolutionary upheavalstural products in the productive process, problems and the tasks formulated by waged a heated struggle over them in the recent advances of the National alin The crisis relenses enorinous amounts and crop failures immediately following: diminishes the prospects of greater grain the National Committee have not set the party. But comrade Rose sees only ers Union under party leadership ocor liquid capital seeking new fields of in has its more profound roots fixed in the markets.
been successfully assailed. Critics of the the busk of the nut: the kernel escaped cured since comrade Rose made the first vestments. Such are to be found pri enormous technological improvements him altogether. He laments the Save draft of his document. That fact, and marily in these economically backward (fertilizers, machinery, etc. much of The agrarian crisis can be temporar.
their contributions do not go to the roots the Union movement as the famous many others which can easily be cited, countries, colonies and semi colonies which was applicable oven to small scaleily overcome only through the ency of of the new fasues. They attempt elther movement of unpleasant memories. show how fulse and dangerous it would American Imperialism is again gathering agriculture, to revive questions long settled in our But, my dear friend, the Save the Unbe to accept his view.
calamitles brought about by the workings its breath from the first shocks of the ranks or to obscure the main questions ion movement was the instrument Effects of Return to Normal of nature or social chaos. The first pos with superficial quibbles over minor through which the party came to head False Viewpoints stock market crash and the crisis. It is sibility is that of an international crop points.
The theory that the party was worth preparing to conquer new territories. Ita The return of normal conditions, the failure, which is improbable; the othar Discredited Idea the first time. It is true enough that the less in the past and hopeless for the most emportant weapon will be com rehabilitation of Hustern Europe grain is that of another imperialist war which fields in the face of the huge acreage In must, however, Icad not only to its temComrades Rose and Carter are the party leadership of the present day is collision with the polley toward the party edits and outright loans for the pur the dizzy fall of the wheat bushel; cou. but to the solution of all the contradicport of goods, granting of long term crease in America, could only result in porary solution by higher grain priores, rightful representatives of these tenden turning its back on all that rich experiIn their discussion articles they lence and on the methods which, in spite which the Left Opposition has pursued chase of industrial goods, American Im current with and supplementing the tions of capitalism, to the social revoluonly recapitulate the attitude and point of all the errors. yielded such greater can follow from this premise to with its 420 million population, over hand, whets yet more its edge on the since its inception. Only one conclusion Aperialism has long had its eye on Chin deepened industrial crisis on the other tion, of view they have constantly maintained sults. But why should we emulate them form another party. But this Idea whelmingly peasant in its make up, en attenuated condition of the elty work Society does not travel along lubricated the conflicting positions cannot be re nearly every week in the Milltant for a Left Opposition, in America as well as course, it would not pour in heavy inof ing masses.
rails, as the gradual philistine would conciled and they cannot be because policy which borrows much from the ex on an international scale, that comrade vestments merely to develop sources of they have nothing On the theoretical feld it hammers de have us believe. The historical process common nothing ample of the Save the Union move Rose stops short of the logic of his own production in competition with its own clsively the nails into the coftin of te for individuals but even for the physleal hew its way, having no qualms not only remains but for the National Conferencement, making allowance of course for position and exhausts himself with negild cotton fields, its own copper mines or in dazzling manner the contention of existence of classes. The extermination dogina of Malthus Ricardo, and athirms to pronounce a judgeinent on them and the altered conditions, tive criticism of the tactics of the Na its own steel mills. No: it would enter Engels: Against the competition of the end the disputes. Here wish only to Repeating Slander of the yeomanry in England accompanied tional Comittee which proceed from a primarily to turn the vast field of peasmake a few remarks on the critical ardifferent premise. The content in all of Anta into elements of capitalist producand Indian peasants ground down by significance. The present suffering of the by the unfathomable misery of its vicvirgin prairie noils and of the Russian ticles of the comrades mentioned and to Here again comrade Rose gives a pro his criticisms, accordingly, is indefinite tims, had, however, a revolutionary explain once more why we still hold to minence to the out of all pro ness, contradiction and half formed con tirst of all invest into fixed capital, taxation, the European capitalist farmer farmers can have none such. With wheat the views we have maintained against portion to their actual merits while le clusions.
them.
belittles the achievements of the party.
Comrade Rose renews his long standing According to him the national miners Communist League in this manner. First the investments for promotion of sale el Oje fell definitely out of the competition ly likely that there should be present We cannot determine the line of the factories, machinery, etc. thus making ord rents. portion of the soil of Eur. With a most uncertain future. It is hardfeud with us on three very important relief campaign led by the party ere we must clearly define the premises upon its industrial goods and simultaneously for the raising of grain, the rents tell the incentive for the establishment of tory of the party, on the present status Nothing of the sort. The relle campaign is founded. Tactical conclusions follow super profits. So far, the Chinese worker woes of the landlords from Scotland total outluy involved. The law large capitalist farming with the capland the perspectives of the party: and was organized months before and was from this. It is of course possible oven is already on a much lower level, making Eastern Prussin. Fortunately all prairie makes it very ridiculous to imagine heavy of the toward the party. With us as well as the later entrance of the Into tion of the baste policy. But in that can well enough serve as a complement lands have not been taken under culti: capital investments in the field suffering with comrade atose all three of these the relle situation as a result of the case the disputes are narrowed down to a revival and a new upward conjune vation. There are enough of them lett from the acutest overproduction. The questions are intertwined and also in Colorado strike only served to muddle they can be put concretely and definitely ture of American capitalism.
each case, the conclusions have a system the situation and polson the atmosphere The attempt to work out a common tacatic character. They are mutually ex with reactionary slander about misaptic when the premise is contraditory capitalistically. although To develop such backward countries and the small ones into the bargain. sages: they realize well that a portion culsive and cannot be joined together. propriation of funds.
doomed to fallure from the start. This means of expansion for a time, does not offering a (Vol. III, page 842. of the payments is better than none. We In Industry a fall in commodity prices have reached a stake where capitalism ago spoke very decisively on these points. rade Rose offers is false to the core, In our opinion the Second Conference and provocative as well.
other You will never comrade Rose outlines in his articles, vokie cand confusing proposals which capitalism, nor of any of its component al of capital from the affected lines and of desolate vegetation. As with should reaffirm the judgment and put a get the Left Opposition to accept the period to contentions over them. JAMES CANNON.
parts. On the contrary, it vastly in its relnvestment in a more profitable remnants of pre capitalist society. so Comrade Rose first fault, from which consider such an expression as this version of party history. Just creases these contradictions. But to sphere. This process, regarded by Smith also can capitalism not supersede small (The second article by comrade Cannon draw from that a conclusion based upon and the other economists as another in scale agriculture by farms on a capitalthe others flow, is his grossly distorted The party pounced upon this movemeat week. in reply to discussion will appear next the absolute inability of American capital stance of the unerring machinery of Ist basis; here we have the revolution view of the history of the party. This ism to extricate itself from this present Providence flagrantly ceases to function permanence.
is not without valid reasons. During all crisis a simply ridiculous.
in the case of small scale agriculture.
the years of the party formative period America Role in the World Market The farmer will not only continue after Revolutionary Force and its emergence as a dynamic facter his investment yields him no return, he Amertean imperialism won the wor. will persist after he works for a return in the class struggle at the head of the Our thesis breathes not one particle of hands of one imperialist power the Un. It established its world hegemony. tt ridiculously below living minimum. historical data arrives at the conclusion Marxism beginning with unquestionable conscious workers movement he stood spirit of a coming Victorian age for ted States.
aside from the party and took no part American Imperialism in the Lovestonian intervened in Europe in 1923 to defeat This tendency originally due to the in that the peasantry can play no indepen in the making of its history. He learned, sense. Nor does it project the possibility upon which our general strategy is based German capitalism. It intervened again is more substantially reinforced at the however, excuse at all the tendency all To substantiate the possible variants the German proletariat and stabilize grown instinct of the petty bourgeoisie, dent revolutionary role. This does not about the party from the scandal sheet of a Victorian age for American Im it must be proved whether, despite this in 1031 to postpone the German revolu present period when the city holds for too prevalent among certain Communista and kitchen gossip of its enemies. On perialism parallel to the development of general crisis period, room for expansion tion and to put that basis he serves up an account and British Imperialism in the nineteenth at least for single capitalist powers canis intervening now In England. In this breadline.
screws on France. It him the unquestionable fortune of the to overlook the agrarian exploited.
interpretation of the party past that century. But we do give the reasons still be found. One of Marx dictum process of interventions, it has poured Truly did Kautsky remark that in the bears very little relation to actual fact. which are still effective enough to war: reads: There is no such thing as a millions upon millions into Europo be And in part, by the concessions he courant its ability to extricate itselt out of permanent crisis. Lenin never tired of cause its hegemony demands a certain Attempts at Organization same degree as agriculture recedes in favor of Industry does the peasantry gain tinually makes to the standpoint of the its present crisis by shifting the burden emphasizing that: There is no situation mensure of stability of the capitalist The unbridled anarchy of the worla in political importance. Not only in the captive, his exposition of purty history home but upon the nations of Europe, for the bourgeoisie. Both are still true ments are made also for the promotion well as in industry attempts at organiza In America does the peasantry present an anti party sects who still hold him as al of it not only upon the working class all for which there is absolutely no way out equilibrium. While such capital invest. market calls forth both in agriculture as backward agricultural countries but even is somewhat provocative.
without even excluding the possibility today. And it depends decisively upon of exportation of goods, they are above form of trusts, cartels, etc. which, betion. In the latter sphere these take the enormous revolutionary potentiality.
If it was a mistake in the first place of another boom.
Marxism, in contradiction to other to organize the party, if it was wrong to belong to the party since its foundt variant for the immediate future which cover from the crisis or whether it will to put cach of the European powers on olutionary in content, Insofar as they objective eye it adjudges cach social This we believe, is the most likely tariat to what extent capitalism can rehegemony and thereby serve constantly inc based on the highest developed tech ideologies, can have no desire to set barnology, are up to a certain point rertion, it the circles of word radicalism can be quite well substantiated by the proceed more rapidly in its decline. In a more limited ration in world economy. consolidate the economie foundation for phenomenon by the criterion of hindering rlers up to the historienl process. With which conducted a venomons fight against present economic and political trends. this respect, the proletarian vanguard the party since its inception were correct But at the outset let us remember that unfortunately shows great weaknesses least fear the consequences to its own culture, the most ambitious of such at Evidently. Wall Street does not in the the next mode of production. In agri: or advancing the social development. all this were so, comrade Rose, this question is closely bound up with throughout the capitalist world.
approach to the question would have the perspectives of the world revolumarket within these competing powers tempts is the Canadian Wheat Pool. In fact that small scale production 19 but a certain justification. Needless to say tionary movement. It will be of decisive The Basis of Possible Revival by limiting their rations or even cruab volving largely small scale farmers, at The law of uneven development of caping them as competitors. That will not foeting only distribution and leaving the tive mode, we must declare ourselves a decaying remnant of a previous produce we do not share such a view nor the importance whether it progresser new scute phase of this crisis is overcome, available. But it will relatively streng Wheat Pool must be appraised as a retoward conclusions deriving from it.
Italian holds no possibility, after the reduce the size of world market sti sphere of production untouched, the categorically opposed to any demanda new victories or whether it Distorted History serious defeats.
Take a few samples of comrade Rose Hence, our thesis does not at all draw tries. But this very uneven development, and its struggle for re division of the like all such, foredoomed to shatter on the preservation of small property has of a business revival comprising all counthen further its imperialist hegemony actionary petty bourgeois Utopia, and serving the purpose of retarding the dis.
history at random: In each Instance we any conclusions based upon the ability which is more pronounced under the im world.
find them to be distorted, one sided and of American capitalism to solve its prob perialist epoch, holds precisely the possiSo far, however, these forecasts have process. It may be well said that the of the reactionaries in the rocks of the inexorable historical always been one of the cherished resorts false. The native proletarian elements lems or to overcome its contradictionability of the stronger power emerging taken into account only the possibilities Wheat Pool presents the same caricature against the rising proletarint. Our aptheir struggle round the were at first It proceeds from the inevitable fotens from the crista, passing through depres of American capitalism extricating itset of a capitalist industrial trust as Stalin proach to the farmer must be such as to neglected by this rising movement (the fication of these contradications to holafon party. But this is presented as solely out prospects of struggle which will inson to revival, at the cost of the weaker out of the present crisis in connection adventurist 100 collectivization, based bolster not his petty bourgeois instinct Crises are the periods of capitalist with its possible further expansion ou on primitive ploughsbare offers of Soc but to awaken the proletarinn halt of the fault of the as yet groping and crease in breadth and depth and will forcible adjustments of the relative over the world market. Yet each step in this falist agriculture.
The industrial crises in the past have course of the leaders in fom variant of an upward conjuncture of purely economie aspects by a restriction furious conflicts of capitalist state re been by their very nature cyclic in char The most deplorable failing in the enting antagonism to the Communist American capitalist economy.
of output, diminution of stocks on hand lations as well as of class relations, and, acter. Even the present crists, which thesis is the utter Inck of an analysis of movement and this was the really de Fundamentals of Present Crisis by a falling price level, thus releasing as far as the latter are concerned not may be considered the first of the down the agrarian crisis, which is offered but cisive element in the situation is left The capitalist system of society as a money for renewal of fixed capital, which the least at home.
out of account. Finally, he says, there whole has reached its period of decline means production of means of production, problem so important for our perspec: lowed by a partial revival at least in it is untouched. That diMculties pre came an appeal to the from the The crisis which followed the short pe factories, machinery etc. re employment tives of coming sharpened struggles It America. With the agricultural crisis sent themselves in its elaboration is no Communist International over the heada culative post war boom marked a bretot labor and increases of variable capital will be necessary to leave for another this is not 80. The reasons for this are excuse for such flagrant negligence. The of the American Communist leadership ginning of a period of crises for capital. Apparently, however, there is as yet in article.
Innate in the nature of the commodity task of the Opposition is not that of reNot so. It was the lelegation of the ism, within which the business cycles this country no diminution of stocks on ARNE SWABECK.
produced, and in the form of the produc peating ready made formulae, but it is party to the Comintern that drafted the still operate but are changed to the hand. According to Survey of Current tive process.
we as the vanguard of the vanguardo appeal and the whole party supported degree that the general perfod has Business for Feb. 1931, the following coin it.
changed. This period also marks the be parison of stocks on band is shown: Above we have briefly sketched the ef whom rests the tasks of forging new OUR INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN Comrade Rose speaks of party mem ginnings of the development of a new sys.
fect of small scale farming on the prico weapons for the movement. It is essen.
December 1928 1920 1930 bers sent in to capture or destroy the tem of economy represented by the Soviet Total Raw The International Bulletin of the Com level, and it directly follows that the tial that the agrarian question be put Who were they and when Union which, of course, will play its serlMaterials 195 munist Left Opposition which is publish crisis would be of a more permanent on the agenda of the coming Conference was such an instruction ever given out ous part in any future perspective. Each Total Ind. Fined in French and German by the Internature than the industrial crisis The most fundamental tendency KREHM.
by the party? We read about it in the new cycle becomes a historical step in ish. Products 122 119 121 ternational Secretariat, and an English papers in their campaign to capitalism, bringing It nearer to its end.
Prior to the war, the American produc munist League (Opposition. is now beedition of which is published by the Compoison their members against Commun. The increasingly planetary character of ism, and nowhere else. By such criti the conjunctures of capitalist economy tion cycles were based almost exclusively ing put on a subscription basis which isms of the party comrade Rose only has become particularly expressed in the on the home market, by continuous ox: will considerably facilitate its publicasucceeds in giving away his sources of more uniform and more universal phase pansion of national market, by extending tion and distribution. The annual subSPANISH REVOLUTION Information about it.
The Revolution in Spain. 100 We have always been under the though not uniform in the rising booms and by turning a constant stream of im scription is one dollar.
The Bulletin contains reports of the Impression that the Passaic strike This testifies to the growing intensity and migrants. In addition to the growing The Spanish Revolution in Danger. 15c was a landmark in party develop scope of crises as a part capitalist population, Into producers and consum work and the views of the Opposition These two pamphlets will give the reader an invaluable analysis of the ment, that it was handled on a economy. At the beginning of this crisis, ers. They became particularly expressed groups throughout the world, and is the national scale with considerable skill France was still to some extent an ex in the extension of railroads. The port main channel for the exchange of opin.
present situation in Spain and the prospects of the further development of the revolution. The standpoint of the Opposition, in contrast to that of and that it signalized the party supception to the extent, mainly, to which war boom of 1921 1929 was still hasodions in the Left Opposition and for the all the other groups Involved in the present Spanish situation (the official remacy in the radical labor movement. her economy is still made up of smal mainly on the home market. It became discussion of disputed questions.
But what does comrade Hoge see in this seale and pensant economy. Also this expressed mainly in the renewal of fised six issues of the English edition have Communist party, the Maurin group, the syndicalists, and others. is presented with the exceptional clarity and pentration for which the author event? He sees the slowness of the crisis particularly records as a universel capital for railroad material, machinery already been issued and the future num.
is so well known, party leadership to accept the gage of phenomenon within capitalism the grow and bullding which had been practically bers will appear even more regularly.
battle some of Weisbord absurd gosing standing army of unemployed on the at a standstill during the war, as well as All comrades and readers of the Miu.
Sand Orders and Funds to the Stp retailed five years later to glorify one hand, and on the other, a growing by the spurt in the automobile industry. tant are urged to subscribe to the In PIONEER PUBLISHER 884 East 10th Street, New York, himself. Again. The collective party abundance of credits seeking new markets Meanwhile, however, American Capitalism ternational Bulletin. 00 for 10 issues.
wladom could find no better road than for investment. However, the latter in had entered the world market and worla Money orders, checks or bills should be to bend over these workera bag and bag its overwhelming preponderance is in the affairs on a large scale. It would there sent to the Militant, 84 East 10th St. Problems of Our Perspectives him.
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