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The 1980s: Drawing Up the Balance

Chapter Ten

 

We have seen how in 1949 Masini advised Cervetto to read Bordiga, and how Cervetto reacted with ‘instinctive’ dissatisfaction to the ‘mighty dollar’ theory. In June 1950, when the Korean War broke out, the watchword was ‘Neither Washington nor Moscow’. September saw the first ‘unitary imperialism’ formulations, which would resurface in February 1951 among the political theories aired at the GAAP conference. In April, Cervetto justified his doubts on the ‘Third Front’ formula.

During a year of study in Argentina, Cervetto went back to Lenin’s Imperialism, making numerous notes. The view from Buenos Aires was different from the European outlook; American and émigré Russian writers in America were turning their gaze on Asia and on the future re-emergence of Germany, Japan and France as great powers. Six months of research and investigation brought no resolution, but laid the basis for an analysis of European imperialism and the relations between the USA and the USSR. Only in 1968 would the circle close, with the scientific discovery of the «true partition» – based on that - material, but now integrating within it the Marxist theory of equilibrium. The genetic reconstruction of Yalta offers a scientific view in three successive stages: Bordiga’s ‘mighty dollar’: GAAP’s two blocs and the ‘Third Front: and the ‘true partition’ carried out between the USA and the USSR against Europe. Here was the application of the mature ‘unitary imperialism’ theory.

In June 1986 ‘Unitary Imperialism’s Clashes and Conjunctions’ provided a final balance sheet of all the preceding issues. In this article (now collected in the book La contesa mondiale – The World Contest) Cervetto takes stock of the new contest which flared up in the 1980s, in Eastern Europe the Warsaw coup d’état; in Central Asia the invasion of Afghanistan; in the Persian Gulf the Iran-Iraq war; in the world economy the acceleration of the liberist cycle.

The context was the slow rise of Japan as a world power, precisely as outlined in the 1968 notes on future developments in the global balance of power. By the mid 1980s it was clear that developments in Asia’s power balance had invalidated the objective bases of the Yalta partition. The new contest was the reaction of the two declining super-powers, the USA and the USSR, to the rise of Germany and Japan. Cervetto had anticipated these trends in 1951 and had clarified his thinking on them in 1968: now, in 1980, they exploded onto the world scene. The Prague crisis had demonstrated the pressure of Germany’s rise on Eastern Europe. The outcome of the restructuring crisis in the key year of 1978, with Tokyo and Peking signing a peace treaty, had shown that the Asian powers were on the move.

The ‘mighty dollar’s’ superimperialism

Cervetto was writing in 1986. Moscow was already in crisis; Washington was anxiously eyeing the rise of Tokyo and debating the decline of American power. The subterranean movements that were pressing on the world balance of power were shortly to signal the end of Yalta on a strategic and political level. The faultline would finally give way in -, leading to the fall of the USSR and the reunification of Germany.

Cervetto wrote that the First World War had been fertile ground for a number of superimperialism theories, and it was inevitable that the same should be true of the Second: «the success of the victorious powers immediately suggests the idea of a dominant imperialism, of a now consolidated superimperialism»:

Amadeo Bordiga held that the economic power of the United States allowed it to rule the world, treating as the poils of war not only the defeated powers, but also the weakened colonial powers and devastated Russia. In this analysis, America becomes a superimperialist power.193

The Stalinist concept of a world divided into two camps, in which «the capitalist market is reduced to an American colony», also saw the USA as a superimperialist power.

The risks of the two superimperialisms theory

As far as Cervetto was concerned, GAAP’s 1950s position, which saw «not one, but two poles of imperialism [...] the world divided into two blocs led by Washington and Moscow» was better than the ‘America as a superimperialism’ view, but didn’t go far enough. Since it failed to define imperialist trends either quantitatively or qualitatively, it risked being considered the view of a world dominated by two imperialisms – American and Russian.

To some extent the risk was balanced by the stress on internationalist principles. The general anticipation of a «Third World War» at least avoided falling into Karl Kautsky’s ideology of interimperialist agreement between the biggest powers, according to which peaceful partition would limit policies of aggressive expansion. Further, Cervetto considered that the risks of the «two superimperialisms» theory could be easily overcome by analysing trends in China, India, and the Korean War. By not confining himself to imperialism to the United States and the USSR, by extending his investigations to all old and new powers and Asia in particular, his analysis quickly moved beyond any bipolar pattern. Traces of this widening out can already be seen in his 1950 articles.

Drawing up the balance in 1986, Cervetto wrote that unitary imperialism was the dialectical unity of a clash within a system possessing a common social nature. Using the dialectical method to analyse unitary imperialism had allowed him to assess de Gaulle’s 1960s approach to the Yalta partition. Regarding that particular ideological version of domination by an American superimperialism it was no accident that it flourished in a Europe that over the past twenty years had recovered its imperialist strength: in other words, it had become Europe’s weapon in the struggle with the USA. The same went for the Maoist theories that came out of the rise of Chinese capitalism, and which coincided with de Gaulle’s. Rejecting the two superimperialisms theory made space for the theory of unitary imperialism to «grasp the socio-imperialist nature of Mao’s united front» when Peking proposed a front between the Third World and the Second World i.e. with Europe and Japan against the Holy Alliance of the USA and the USSR.

A further step had to be taken at the end of the 1960s. The crisis in Czechoslovakia and the invasion of Prague displayed Russia’s weakness in the face of German penetration into Eastern Europe. Although the dominant ideology was still of a world divided between the USA and the USSR, Moscow was struggling to keep its Eastern European ‘satellites’ within its sphere of influence. A detailed analysis of the division was required – details that were concealed within the bipolar representation. The starting point for analysing real strengths and weaknesses was uneven development, and its effects on the relative positions of the two powers. Cervetto comments that:

The essential was to define the nature of the true partition of the world. An analysis of unitary imperialism disclosed that as world powers Britain and France were in decline, while Germany and Japan were on the rise. To some extent this had reduced US power, but the USSR was too riven by internal dissensions and contradictions to be much strengthened by this.194

The point at issue – which would come up again in - with the fall of the USSR – was that changes in economic strength did not immediately translate into changes in relation to other States: the political relations between the powers remained as established at Yalta.

In 1968, the relative changes in economic strength did not translate into corre sponding changes within the system of States. The true partition of the world, as established at Yalta, came out of a balance of powers: a balance that is always the result of strategic manoeuvres and of objective and unforeseeable events.195

We can return here to the first chapter of this history of ours, where we wrote of the place of the balance of powers theory within the formulations of the mature Arrigo Cervetto. Economic strength is not identical with power position within the dynamic of States: the relationship is a dialectical one, and this dialectical relationship forms an integral part of the concept of unitary imperialism.

We can trace this, step by step, in the 1986 article, which recon structs the stages that led to that scientific result. It may prove useful to compare the article with the original outline from which it developed, a plan for input to a meeting in June 1986. It includes the following note on the theory of unitary imperialism:

Unitary imperialism is a dialectic between the common interest of the robber-barons to exploit the proletariat and developing countries and the competition between them (see Lenin’s theory on the League of Nations, according to which Wilson’s ‘Open Door’ policy is to all appearances Kautsky’s ‘peaceful superimperialism’). The theory of unitary imperialism is based on the general interests of world capitalism (the international bourgeoisies being local fractions of this class) to maintain conditions that mill ensure the production of surplus value, even when competition becomes mar, and world mar (as in our analysis of the Second World War, the German question, etc)196

More on the «true partition»

In the text of the article, for which Cervetto revised his original outline, he writes of «a dialectic between the general and common interests and the particular interests of the international capitalist class: the general interests lead the national fractions of this class to exploit wage labour, while the particular interests cause them to clash over sharing out surplus value».197

It will be seen that in this clash between «local or national fractions» the political power of States and how this is reflected in the balance of power and political equilibrium become crucial. The States are in the grip of warring industrial and financial groups, whether these are engaged in protecting their own imperialist prominence or whether they are attempting to resist the imperialist prominence of competing groups. The expression local or national fractions is embedded in the very flesh and blood of the laws identified in Capital, where the concept of fractions links to the division of surplus value between industrial profit, commercial profit, interest and unearned income. Here is the Mont Blanc of concrete facts of capitalism’s socio-economic formation. The clash between groups and fractions is in the nature of imperialism, and uneven development is the result of this clash: groups and fractions pursue their international political-military struggle by seizing States and their systems. Capital cannot be defined by its nationality, but partial shares of social capital, and individual groups and sectors of unitary imperialism, compete and clash with each other using every means, including their relations with the political and juridical systems within which they operate.

The true partition matured as a result of the unitary imperialism theory and the analysis of the actual relations that came out of the Yalta partition. It reconstructs the dialectic between economic and political forces within a specific international political analysis that makes a particular use of equilibrium theory, as applied by Marx and Engels, to the international panorama of the time.

These specific tools are used to investigate the dialectical relationship between the strength of an economy and the strength of its State: in other words, the degree of non-correspondence between economic importance and political importance. As Cervetto notes, understanding this dialectic avoids basing action on an inaccurate assessment that would place undue importance on other factors. It also prevented one from falling into the psychological time trap – the gap between the objective wait for a crisis and maximalist impatience:

The concept of equilibrium in the relations between powers [which Marx and Engels had evolved in fifty years of studying international relations: editor’s note] has provided a valuable tool to prevent us falling into either simplification or prophecies of doom and gloom. If we examine international politics we will often be led to questioning the non-correspondence between economic strength and political and military importance.198

Along with equilibrium theory, the outline contains Friedrich Engels’ well-known parallelogram of the forces. Since the balance of power analysis is an international analysis of a parallelogram of the forces of States, the tight conceptual relevance is clear.

As Cervetto advanced through the stages of his thinking, the analytical issue of how to interpret Yalta combined with perfecting his theory. In order to analyse the real situation, the theoretical tools – unitary imperialism, Marxist use of equilibrium theory – had to be developed and perfected, but this was the theoretical side of a political battle: theory evolved and was perfected as and when the battle demanded it. This observation concluded the 1980 introduction to Unitary Imperialism and in 1986 it was again applied to the partial summing-up of the «new contest»:

The new imperialist contest reminds us of the vital need for continuity of our strategic planning which has already given a response to such issues in decisive moments.199

This 1986 article brings together both continuity of method and analytical structure; it’s essentially an ordering of previously formulated theory and concepts in the light of the new battles that were looming on the horizon. With these same tools Cervetto would tackle the collapse of the USSR in - and the end of Yalta by combining recognition of bipolarism’s decline with an analysis of the multipolar dynamic’s parallelogram of forces.

Ronald Reagan’s rearmament, involving an exceptional level of investment in military hardware – including the anti-missile Strategic Defense Initiative or ‘Star Wars’ – was aimed at maintaining US advantage over all the other powers: in appearance a warning directed at the USSR, in reality it was also intended to deter Europe and Japan, powers that by the 1980s were challenging American supremacy.

As Cervetto notes, this rush to rearm was to have the unintended consequence of breaking up the USSR and freeing Germany from the bonds of Yalta, thus opening up the way to reunification. Using Marxist equilibrium theory, the true partition and its end, Yalta and the end of Yalta, were revealed for what they really were.

Three interpretations of Yalta

The outline on which the 1986 article is based is part of a file that deals with those first years of the new contest, and contains a number of notes reminiscent of those Cervetto made in his 1982 notebooks – the scientific discoveries of 1968 and their confirmation. The list of points begins with:

  • «TWO INTERPRETATIONS OF SUPERIMPERIALISM:
  • 1°) METROPOLIS DOMINATES OTHER METROPOLISES, COLONIES AND SEMI-COLONIES.
  • 2°)  INDUSTRIAL CAPITAL ASSERTS ITSELF OVER FINANCIAL CAPITAL, LIMITS THE OPTIONS FOR IMPERIALIST POLICIES AND CREATES THE CONDITIONS FOR NON-IMPERIALIST INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT [peaceful division].

Arrigo Cervetto, ‘A Partial Balance of the New Contention’, 9th June 1986.

(9/6/1986)

A PARTIAL BALANCE OF THE NEW CONTENTION

TWO INTERPRETATIONS OF SUPERIMPERIALISM:

  • 1.  ONE METROPOLIS DOMINATES OTHER METROPOLISES, COLONIES AND SEMI-COLONIES.

  • 2.  INDUSTRIAL CAPITAL ASSERTS ITSELF OVER FINANCIAL CAPITAL, LIMITS THE OPTIONS FOR IMPERIALIST POLICIES AND CREATES THE CONDITIONS FOR NON-IMPERIALIST INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT [PEACEFUL PARTITION].

SUPERIMPERIALISM AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR [or: INTERPRETATIONS OF YALTA]

THE ‘MIGHTY DOLLAR’ THEORY (BORDIGA =

US SUPERIMPERIALISM) (STALINISM [VARGA] TWO MARKETS THEORY. THE CAPITALIST WORLD: AS US COLONY)

3rd FRONT THEORY: NEITHER WASHINGTON NOR MOSCOW

(Initial formulations of UNITARY IMPERIALISM THEORY, a type of THEORY of TWO SUPERIMPERIALISMS.

But with CHINA and INDIA (1950) and KOREA (-) the analysis was faced with the struggle between OLD and NEW IMPERIALISMS).

UNITARY IMPERIALISM IS A DIALECTIC BETWEEN THE COMMON INTEREST OF THE ROBBER-BARONS TO EXPLOIT THE PROLETARIAT AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, AND THE COMPETITION BETWEEN THEM [SEE Lenin’S THEORY ON THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS, in which WILSON’S ‘OPEN DOOR’ POLICY presents as KAUTSKY’S ‘PEACEFUL SUPERIMPERIALISM’].

The THEORY of UNITARY IMPERIALISM is based on the GENERAL INTERESTS of WORLD CAPITALISM (of which INTERNATIONAL CLASS, [national] BOURGEOISIES are LOCAL FRACTIONS) to maintain CONDITIONS that will ensure the PRODUCTION of SURPLUS VALUE, even when COMPETITION becomes WAR, and WORLD WAR (as in OUR ANALYSIS of the SECOND WORLD WAR, the GERMAN QUESTION, etc.)

  • 3.  TRUE PARTITION OF THE WORLD THEORY (vs MAOIST UNITED FRONT of 2nd and 3rd world against 1st WORLD HOLY ALLIANCE and vs GAULLIST THEORIES of the YALTA PARTITION)
  • OUR GENERAL ANALYSIS OF UNITARY IMPERIALISM IS BASED ON:
  • •  DECLINE OF BRITAIN AND FRANCE (DECOLONISING) [OVERESTIMATED]
  • •  RISE OF GERMAN FEDERAL REPUBLIC AND JAPAN [vs ‘US COLONIES’ THEORY]
  • •  FAILURE OF RUSSIAN RISE [vs PROPAGANDA VARGA AND KHRUSHCHEV]
  • •  AMERICAN DECLINE [vs AMERICAN DOMINATION THEORY]
  • WHY DID 1968 HAPPEN?
  • WHY DID THE CHANGES IN THE ECONOMIC POWER RELATIONSHIP NOT TRANSLATE INTO A CHANGE IN RELATIONS WITHIN THE SYSTEM OF STATES?
  • OUR INTERPRETATION OF YALTA
  • [ENGELS: PARALLELOGRAM OF FORCES MARX AND ENGELS: EQUILIBRIUM THEORY -]

The body of the text is organised in three points, under the title ‘Superimperialism after the Second World War [or interpretations of Yalta]’. It may be that this tide was a provisional one, however, interpretations of Yalta form the thread of the whole outline:

  1. «1. THE ‘MIGHTY DOLLAR’ THEORY

    (BORDIGA:

    US SUPERIMPERIALISM) (STALINISM [VARGAJ TWO MARKETS THEORY THE CAPITALIST WORLD AS US COLONY)

  2. 2. 3RD FRONT THEORY: NEITHER WASHINGTON NOR MOSCOW (Initial formulations of UNITARY IMPERIALISM THEORY, a type of Theory of TWO IMPERIALISMS. But with China and India (1950) and Korea (-) the analysis was fared with the struggle between old and newimperialisms).

Here follows the passage previously quoted on the definition of unitary imperialism. Then comes the third interpretation of Yalta.

3. TRUE PARTITION of the WORLD THEORY (vs Maoist United Front of 2nd and 3rd world theories against 1st world Holy Alliance and vs Gaullist theories of the Yalta PARTITION.200

We will not here reprint the entire text of the outline, which in essence constitutes the published article, and the documentary material reproduced earlier. The most interesting aspect is the order of the «interpretations of Yalta»:

  • 1)  Bordiga
  • 2)  Third Front
  • 3)  The «true partition».

As we have traced through the - sources, and in Cervetto’s references on successive occasions, this order is in the nature of a genetic reconstruction of the concept.

The genetic concept of unitary imperialism

To summarise: Bordiga and the 3rd Front theory in the 1986 outline, and the identification in the 1968 true partition article on the strategic inadequacy of ‘the coming war’ all clarify the conceptual links in the evolving concept of unitary imperialism, which came about thanks to Marx, Engels and Lenin having retrieved the concepts of uneven development and balance of power.

Over the years, it was these concepts that Cervetto added to his initial 1949 and 1950 thinking. It’s revealing that this was the direction of his thinking even at that time, and that this was the area in which his differences with Pier Carlo Masini began. The ‘Third Front’ issue was a stage in this scientific progress, but our interest in the ‘genetic’ reconstruction of this concept goes beyond the theory of imperialism.

The central point, and ultimately the meaning of what we have examined so far, is the link with the theory of the party. When we analyse the documents and the events of those first GAAP years, it is immediately evident that the need for theoretical and strategic clarification was called forth by the practical tasks of recruiting and training revolutionary cadres and establishing the points of reference that would avoid them being exposed to the influence of other forces or becoming disheartened.

In this sense the - debate provided the hard core of Class Struggles and the Revolutionary Party, our What Is to Be Done?, written in 1964: here we see how, in the course of the live political struggle, recruitment via strategy is the key to the development of the revolutionary party.

This concept was confirmed in the true partition of 1968, in the face of the Prague invasion, when it became clear why the party could not have existed in the early 1950s: there was no accurate strategic vision. Instead, an inaccurate cognition of the times and of the forces of the struggle between the imperialist powers led to a mistaken view of the timescales and the tasks of strategic and tactical action, and exposed both militants and their spheres of influence to be used or taken over by other forces. Such forces ranged from an Atlanticism mobilising against the USSR (as happened to a number of anarchists) to the social-democratic variations of European imperialism (Masini’s fate) or the maximalist expression of the PCI and the Russian line (those who from 1945 on began to move back to the PCI).

The scientific view of strategy is achieved via hypothesis, correction and extrapolation. The core principle is Marx’s 1853 insight: One ought to know with whom one is dealing.

To be independent of the forces of capital is a principle that we must defend tooth and claw. This is the secret of the strategy-party.

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