These are the times when unthinking workers look for scapegoats, as they did in Germany in the latter period of the Weimar Republic. There the once proud and powerful Social Democratic Party (SPD) were in government; they unwittingly paved the way for the Nazis. Hence, the concern of the political leaders of Western Europe, North America and Japan. They reason as follows.<\/p>\n
The slump of the early \u2019thirties undermined the established regimes in places like Germany and Japan and many other less powerful countries too. Imitative fascist-type parties sprang up all over Europe (some holding power), gaining support from disenchanted workers. In the case of Germany the Nazis gained power through the ballot box in 1933. In Japan the militarists managed to mobilize popular support against the existing Liberal administration because of the economic situation\u2014unemployment and deflation\u2014not, as now, inflation. The new regime began reflation in 1932 and before the bottom of the world slump had been reached Japanese industry began to recover being propelled along by an aggressive drive in export markets.<\/p>\n
This was bad news for capitalist interests whose markets were being successfully penetrated by Japan, e.g. the colonial possessions of the Western industrial states were taking an increasing volume of textiles. This was one of the reasons for \u201cprotectionism\u201d of the 1930s, which the governments now wish to avoid. This encouraged Japanese capitalism, with militarists firmly in the saddle, to possess colonies of their own. In 1937 they attacked China, having as early as 1932 driven the Chinese out of Manchuria without any formal declaration of war.<\/p>\n
War economy<\/strong> Germany entered into trade arrangements with countries in South-East Europe and Latin America. These countries agreed to take more exports from Germany in exchange for imports from them, but their volume was only 69 per cent. above 1929; whereas Britain\u2019s exports were then 83 per cent. above that year. Britain had achieved this advantage by bi-lateral arrangements with various countries. The Commonwealth and Empire countries increased their import preferences for each others\u2019 goods and as mentioned above placed restrictive quotas on textiles from Japan.<\/p>\n In spite of all this, unemployment in Britain was still over 1.3 million in 1937. In the June 1939 issue of the SOCIALIST STANDARD was the following:<\/p>\n “When Hitler for the German capitalists says that Germany must expand or explode, find markets or perish, he meets his opposite in Mr. Hudson. British Secretary for Overseas Trade who said in Warsaw on March 21st [1939] that \u201cwe are not going to give up any markets to anyone . . . Great Britain is strong enough to fight for markets abroad. Britain is now definitely going to take a greater interest in Eastern Europe\u201d. (From News Chronicle<\/em>, March 22, 1939). Fighting that at present takes the form of words, trade agreements, loans, guarantees against aggression etc. may. as in 1914 turn into an armed conflict, and that armed conflict will be yet another war produced by capitalist rivalries.”<\/p>\n This area of Eastern Europe was Germany\u2019s existing and expanding sphere of influence, for recovering territory lost in the previous imperial conflict\u2014the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, Danzig and the Polish Corridor, and Memeland from Lithuania. Germany also had eyes on the Rumanian oilfields (hence the British guarantee to that country in spite of the fascist regime there), and the wheat-growing areas of the Ukraine, in Russia and Poland.<\/p>\n These brief references are to the seeds which helped produce the second world war, and the politicians at the recent London summit conference said so quite openly. By any sense of logic working-class ears should be pricking up at these statements, questions should be asked and conclusions drawn. The Socialist Party does its best to help draw these conclusions and to develop a Socialist awareness.<\/p>\n It was noteworthy that Mr. Fukuda was particularly alive to the dangers of the present slump. He was a young diplomat in London in 1933 at the time of the World Economic Conference which broke up solving nothing, to be followed by \u201cbeggar thy neighbour\u201d policies which were already under way prior to the conference. One of the major factors preventing even formal agreement was America\u2019s refusal to stabilize the dollar; Roosevelt having taken them off the Gold Standard with a view to raising US commodity prices as an inducement for investment by the industrialists. This caused the US dollar to fluctuate wildly in the foreign exchanges. The delegates from the other countries at the conference wanted America to stabilize back on the Gold Standard: this Roosevelt refused to do, being pre-occupied with the domestic effects of the Depression.<\/p>\n Crisis capitalism<\/strong> The journal The Round Table<\/em> declared, some months before the Conference at the time of the Imperial Economic Conference at Ottawa, that “within a few months, conclusions must be reached in the financial and economic field, the effect of which will probably be decisive for or against the happiness of at least one generation of human beings all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n In September 1933, two months after the conference broke up, the same journal commented: “The great international conferences have come to little. The pulse of the Disarmament Conference is beating feebly (which began in June 1932) . . . The World Economic Conference has failed to reduce the obstructions to international trade, or even to make a tentative approach to agreement upon a solution of the world\u2019s monetary problems\u201d.<\/p>\n In the Daily Telegraph<\/em> of May 9th, 1977, the day after this year\u2019s conference, in an Economic Commentary article \u2018\u2018Best view of the summit in few months\u201d the author, Rodney Lord, stated: \u2018\u2018It is idle to expect any great progress on persuading countries to regulate their economies for the general benefit of international stability. Politicians look first to the interests of the people who elected them.\u201d The latter part of that quotation cannot go unchallenged of course\u2014but we know what he means.<\/p>\n Politicians are the custodians of nation-states in a competitive world\u2014that is, custodians for the capitalist class of their particular countries. At the same time they depend on the working class to go along with the arrangement, and have to try to placate them when it is necessary.<\/p>\n Conflicts of \u2018national interest\u2019<\/strong> There were reports of a fire in an oilfield in Saudi Arabia which supplies over 30 per cent. of Japan\u2019s crude oil imports. Prices fell on the Tokyo stock market and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry assured the Press that the fire would probably not have a serious effect on Japan\u2019s supplies in the long run.<\/p>\n At the same time Mr. Fukuda, the Prime Minister, told a meeting of business leaders that the government is to press the case for Japan to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. He said that at London he had the \u2018\u2018strong impression\u201d that it will be difficult to get America\u2019s approval because of President Carter\u2019s \u201cdeep-rooted opposition\u201d. However, Mr. Fukuda assured the businessmen that he was \u201cmost determined\u201d to negotiate the issue with the US independently of other countries. The Japanese, apparently, have been shocked by the American President\u2019s nuclear energy policy (from a report in the Daily Telegraph<\/em>, May 13th).<\/p>\n An indication of Japan\u2019s problems\u2014even though being currently the world\u2019s most successful economy\u2014 is the news that from the end of 1971 to the end of 1976, 30,000 shipyard workers lost their jobs. It is estimated that another 25,000 will go before the end of 1978, which is nearly the total workforce in British yards. (From the AUEW journal for May 1977.)<\/p>\n On May 9th the Daily Telegraph<\/em> reported that British TV manufacturers were protesting to the Government that Japanese TV manufacturers were \u201cbent on destroying\u201d the British industry. This was in response to the plans of the Hitachi Company to build a factory at Tyne and Wear.<\/p>\n Commercial \u2018aggrandisement\u2019<\/strong> No wonder Mr. Fukuda and the other statesmen are worried.<\/p>\n F. S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" These are the times when unthinking workers look for scapegoats, as they did in Germany in the latter period of the Weimar Republic. There the once proud and powerful Social Democratic Party (SPD) were in government; they unwittingly paved the way for the Nazis. Hence, the concern of the political leaders of Western Europe, North … <\/p>\n
\nGermany from 1933 onwards pursued a twin policy of re-armament and so-called “economic self-sufficiency\u201d. Unemployment decreased (although it was still above 1 million in 1936) and the armaments industry and its adjuncts, like the new autobahns and airfields, increased. Many workers were employed on the work connected with numerous Nazi rallies; the 1936 Nuremberg Rally alone cost \u00a32,000,000 to stage. To limit imports, license schemes were introduced and synthetic materials developed, partly to deal with Germany\u2019s balance of trade problem and also geared to their \u201cwar economy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nThis was and is crisis capitalism. Predicament\u2014the conflict between national economic interests and the stability of the international trading and monetary systems. This was recognized well enough in 1933. <\/p>\n
\nThis conflict of national interest and international stability, with its inherent dangers, was demonstrated in Tokyo only four days after the end of the Economic Summit.<\/p>\n
\nThe British businessmen said that there was already over-capacity in the industry. 1,751,000 sets were made in 1976 as against 3,000,000 in 1973, and Hitachi\u2019s arrival would increase to 400,000 the number of Japanese colour sets made in Britain. Two other Japanese companies are already established here. Many more jobs would be lost\u2014up to 6,000\u2014than would be created, it was claimed. Hitachi had already a 20 per cent. interest in a Finnish company which is expected to export to Britain for assembly a substantial part of 800,000 total output of colour tubes. It is part of a policy of \u201ccommercial aggrandisement\u201d in Europe, say the British capitalists.<\/p>\n