Labor and Capital in the Current Crisis

Abstract

The supremacy of fictitious capital together with the contraction of average growth rates and the global economic production system have plunged capitalism into severe crisis. The crisis is not simply a contradiction between real and speculative economies, as these are merely manifestations of the difficulties that confront productive expansion and the valuation of capital. At this point, timid state intervention and exchange rate regulation are insufficient policies to calm the profound crisis being experienced by Europe and the United States. While it may not spell the end of the capitalist system, it does mark depletion of its progressive phase and its capacity to sustain further development of the productive forces. This signifies a contradictory phase of structural stagnation as the planet’s natural resources and ecological systems become incorporated into a massive chain of exploitation, thus redefining the historical context in which the global working class must organize and struggle.