The living thoughts of Karl Marx : based on Capital: a critique of political economy / presented by Leon Trotsky.

  • Marx, Karl, 1818-1883.
Date:
1940
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The living thoughts of Karl Marx : based on Capital: a critique of political economy / presented by Leon Trotsky. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    own monopolistic clique at the expense of other cHques and at the expense of the entire nation. The crossing of such plans in the final reckoning only deepens the anarchy in the national economy. The crisis of 1929 broke out in the United States one year after Sombart had proclaimed the utter indifference of his “ science ” to the very problem of crises. From the peak of unprecedented prosperity the economy of the United States was catapulted into the abyss of monstrous pros¬ tration. No one in Marx’s day could have conceived convulsions of such magnitude! The national income of the United States had risen for the first time in 1920 to sixty-nine billion dollars, only to drop the very next year to fifty billion dollars, i.e., by 27 per cent. In consequence of the prosperity of the next few years, the national income rose again, in 1929, to its highest point of eighty-one billion dollars, only to drop in 1932 to forty billion dollars, i.e., by more than half I During the nine years 1930- 1938 were lost approximately 43,000,000 man-years of labour and 133 billion dollars of the national income, assuming the norms of labour and income of 1929, when there were “ only ” 2,000,000 unemployed. If all this is not anarchy, what can possibly be the meaning of that word ? E. The “ Theory of Collapse ” The minds and hearts of middle-class intellectuals and trade-union bureaucrats were almost completely enthralled by the achievements of capitalism between the time of Marx’s death and the outbreak of the World War. The idea of gradual progress (“ evolution ”) seemed to have been made secure for all time, while the idea of revolu¬ tion was regarded as a mere reHc of barbarism. Marx’s prognosis was countered with the quahtatively contrary prognosis about the more balanced distribution of the