The manifestations of American imperialism yan to appear as early as the nineteenth century, relative to Latin American countries, and later in the Pacific zone (expansionism sowards Japan, conquest of the Philippines). Since the beginning of World War 1, American imperialism has extended itself on a global scale. Thus, in the framework of Inter imperialis competition, American imperialism appears as the great victor of two imperialist world conflicts. In point of fact, it is the only victor whose military and economic forces gained from these two wars, All of the principal competitors were enfeebled by either one or both of these confliets.
It is not necessary to examine in delail the causes of this superiority of American imperiaIsen over ber competitors, The principal reasons are well known: immense richness in raw materials; greater equilibrium between industry and agriculture, broader territorial and demographic bases, which permitted the enjoyment of important economies of scale in matters of industrial mass production; the absence of semifeudai vestiges, which allowed the expansion of a purer capitalism than that of the other Imperia list countries, ete.
It must be accentuated, however, that the ascent of American Imperalism towards the position of the first power in the world represents a dialectical process during which the contradictions of the rest of the world have had a tendency to breed, even in the midst of American society. The imperialist American bourgeoisie cannot engage in this expedition towards world domination without at the same time assuming the leadership of the entire capitalist world. In that position they are confronted by anti-capitalist forces which each day grow more numerous and powerful. Because of this fact, American imperialism is often directed in its decisions bv the political imperaLives involved in the global defence of the international capitalist system, a system which at times may enter into conflict with the particular historical interests of American imperialism Itself. The Marshall Plan has to be Interpreted in this light. Far from being an enterprise of the pesforalisation of Europe or of its submission to the will of Washington, historically the Marshall Plan was the initial phase in the reconstitution of an autonomous force in Western European Imperialism that is to say, precisely the recreation of a force competitive with that of the United States.
This decision was not, however, Irrational. It simply reflects a choice between two evils, both of which Washington had to face following the Second World War: either assist in the collapse of West European captalism, or permit the mappearance of a powerful competitor, American imperialism chose the lesser evil, by its lights.
These peefatory remarks are essential in order to avoid falling into economisin, and to present too simple an interpretation of che economic roots of American imperialism.
1. Surplus and Export of Capital The principal economic root of American imperialism remains the one classically defined by Lenin for the whole imperialist era: the existence, in imperialist countries, of a surplus of capital which is poured into other parts of the globe in search of superprofits. The only modineation which should be applied to the Leninist definition is the conclusion that, in the actual historical context of the period following the Second World War, this surplus of capital was no longer directed exclusively, nor even principally, Into colonial or semi-colonial (i.e. underdeveloped) countries, but was spread equally and in increasing proportions among other industrially developed imperialist lands.
This important variant of the Leninist theory can be explained by the following factors: 1. The significant difference in technology and productivity of labour between American imperialism on the one hand, and that of the other Imperialist powers on the other. 2. The difference between the military and political power of the United States and that of the other imperialist powers, a difference which Is even more pronounced than that in the economic sphere. 3. The increasing insecurity welphing upon intestanents in colonial and semi-colonial coun tries, in which there is a growing profusion of revolutionary liberation movements. 4. The contraction of the geographic area in which surplus capital may still be invested with proflt, a contraction resulting notably from the overthrow of capitalism in an expanding porcion of the world, 1 The end result of these diverse tendencies is that the difference between the rate of profit tion of capital into other imperialist countries definitely more appealing than investments in underdeveloped countries where greater Insecurity neutralises the attraction of an even bigher rate of profit.
Certainly, as American capital gradually dis covers outlets in the world, 2 a process of equal distribution and the levelling off of the productivity of labour and technological development will progressively occur between the United States and the other imperialist countries. Such a process will reduce the difference in the rate of profit between them, and will "revalorise" the underdeveloped world as the only area where important superprofits may be acquired.
In the same was, an eventual prolongation of American capital by producing a double self detente between the United States and the Soviet Union will open possibilities although very modest ones of investment of American BANK OF AN capital in countries with a socialist economic base, similar to that already achieved by Plat and Renault in the automotive Beld.
But all of the investment possibilities cannot change the fundamental fact that during the last quarter of a century the es sential direction of the investment of exported American capital has been into other imperialist countries, rather than to the rest of the world.
It must be remembered that this export of capital admirably suits an economic necessity inherent in the cupitalistic system of monopolies. It represents a response to a double menace: the decline in the average rade of proflt experienced in the principal imperialist citadel. and the massive accumulation of capital which cannot be invested in that citadel without endangering the average rate of profit with a new, serious decline. 2. The Growing Role of the War and Armaments Economy in the U.S. The accumulation of a growing surplus of capital which can no longer be profitably invested in the normal sectors of the economy not only encourages its export but also increases research in new fields of investment shere capital will yield an average profit from the monopolised sectors of the economy without threatening the rate of profit from the monopolised sectors of the economy without threatening the rute of profit from the entire system of monopolistic capital. The production of armaments (and its extension into space production) constitutes a similar "substitative Field of unparalleled investment (to use Rosa Luxembourg's phrase).
The advantages of the realisation of mono. pollatic capital in the area of armaments une obvious. It does not reduce the scope of capital already invested in the rest of industry. On the contrary, it markedly stimulated the production of heavy industry and certain speeille ran materials. It does not become a substitute for other products nonally produced. On the contrary, it creates merchandise whose sole purchaser is the State, and whose only value, in terous of consumotion, is the stanothenina nE the American economy against a return of a catastrophie crisis similar to thut of 1929 (without the power, bowever, to prevent the appearance of periodic recessions which are not, finally, any less grave than the average crises which capitalism has known throughout its history) It brings an automatie guarantee of profit to monopolies in a growing number of sectors (all those related to national defence).
The Increasing Importance of arms production in the American economy is indicated abore ail by the preponderance it acquires in expanding sectors, such as electronics, alreraft, and chemistry. It results in a double symbiosis which stimulates the imperialist expansion of perpetuation. 1. The symblosis of certain areas of the monopolies, and of the production of armaments in these areus, developing a "vested interest" in the maintenance arid expansion of arms production. 2, The symbiosis of certain positions of authority in the armed forces and in the machinery of State, which gives these positions a "vested interest" in the maintenance and expansion of the military budget at an astronomical level.
This double symbiosis is all the more dangerous since it teods to reproduce itself in foreign countries, following the establishment of Ameri- these sources of ra materials involves politica can bases abroad, the military missions in foreign countries and the military "ald" to "Criendly" governments menaced by internal subtersion or by "external Communist aggres sion."
Even fortner President Eisenbower, as conservative as be was at che end of his Presidency, growth of the industrial-military-political establishment. That establishment lives on and pros pers essentially from the continual increase in arme expenditures, and it requires international - TAKE AWAY OUR TREE: conflicts in order to justity this expansion to the American taxpayer.
Nevertheless, it would be foolish to conside the important role the production of armamen plays in the beurt of the American economy as simply the result of manoeuvres by this partici Lar Mafia in the centre of the large American bourgeoisie. The entire bourgeoisie is condemn to practise the polities of permanent rearinament, confronted us it is with a permanent revolution on a wordwide scale and with the industrial and military growth of countries which have already overthrown capitulism. The goal of every one of the disarmament conferences is not actual disarmament but the attemp to rationalise the course of armament, to rende it supportable by the budgets of the USA and The U5SR which are not, after all, unlimited.
In a world divided into two profoundly antagonistic camps, genuine disarmament is utopian. Still more utopian is the idea that monopoly capitalism could morient the sixty o seventy billion dollars it annually spends on arms production to fields of public service. education, health, and aid to underdereloped countries. Such a redirection would first of all require the conversion of the bourgeoisie, the very class devoled to profit motives, into a clas working for the good of the hurnan species. An diffusion of masses of capital outside the areas of disarmament would rapidly menace the Investment of "civil" capital and the rate of profit. It will never bappen.
3. Supply of Strategie Raw Materials Unlike most of its competitors, American imperialism was characterised by the fact that It found within its own borders the essential raw materials for modern industry. Even in the period Immediately following World War I, the importation of raw materials remained funda mentally secondary rubber, silk, sugar or tin, products easily replaced by synthetics However, the formidable expansion of Americon industrial production at the end of World War I changed the situation. Today the USA must import increasing quantities of raw materials as essential as petroleum, iron ore, bauxite, copper, mangariese, and nickel. Moreover, America's own resouroes in these areas an rapidly diminishing and, in the case of petrol•eum, could be exhausted by the end of the century. America depends entirely on Imports for chromium, cobalt, and columbarium, indis pensable to iron production.
In other words, three-quarters of a century behind its principal competitors, the USA must now launch a drive for new sources of rum materials in the world; for petroleum, in Latin America, the Middle East, and Nigerla; for iron ore, in Latin America and West Africu; for otbe minerals, in Canada, Austrulia, and Africa, ete. In this search it will collide not only with liber tion movements in rarious colonial and semi-colonial countries, but with the competition of other Imperialist nations like Great Britain, Japan, France, West Germany, Indeed, even Often the appropriation and possession of conflict, coups d'etat and local war (notably in West Africa In the last few years). It may involve the establishment of missions, perbaps American military buses. The need for now sources explains the tenacity with which Ameri can Imperialism clings to countries like Venezuela and Brazil, for they ham become precisely poth or the indistil mistry she cal estable the sourees of supply of raw matertals indispen sable for Big Business in the United States 1. Inter-Imperialist Competition in th Heart of the Third World TO DO, GUANGE
mperialism?
selves. The precious off-shore oil, which could have been about the potential riches of the area in the lale 1930s Although the export of American capital into under-developed countries has been of less volume than the same export into other imperialist countries, nonetheless it has not been negligible. When It concerns important countries, like Indonesin or Brazil, or countries of enormous, scarcely tapped potential, Ilke the Congo, the export of American capital results in growing interference by American imperiaIsim in the internal affairs of these semi-colonial countries. Conflicts develop with other imperialist powers, particularly the former colonial powers which American imperialism is gradually replacing.
In the last twenty years, the most typical examples of the way in which American capital has taken over from former colonial capital are its domination of Indonesia (replacing Dutch capital), Morocco (replacing French capital), and Iran (English capital). Without a doubt, in the Congo we are witnessing the debut of a similar replacement of capital, in this case Belgian, although at this moment it is reflected less in capital Investments than in the reorientation of foreign trade.
All this imperialist substitution was not achieved simply by manoeuviing behind the scenes. It produced acute national and international conflicts, often accompanied by bloodbuths. From the overthrow of Mossadegh to the assassination of Ben Harka and the ascent to power of Mobutu by a coup d'etat, the course of this substitution was marked by murder, conspiracy, and oppressive operations whose victims number in the hundreds of thousands.
In the end, American imperialism will not achieve world domination. The dream of an "American Century" lasted, in fact, only five years, from 1945 to 1950. The dream was destroyed not only by the strengthening of anticapitalist forces on a world scale, but by the law of unequal development which functions Inexorably in the heart of the imperialist world and does not permit any acquired position to last for ever. In comparison with the 1945-50 period, the principal competitors of American Imperialism (with the exception of Great Britain) have strengthened, not weakened, their positions relative to American Imperialism. The Inter-Imperialist competition is more acute than before. There will be no super-imperialism, but rather a continual struggle of imperialist forces to shift the revenue of power in their favour.
However, the battle of inter-imperialist competition is taking place in a new global context: the loes to Capital of a third of the world; the constant extension of new revolutionary forces and movements that threaten to wrest new countriés away from Capital. In these conditions, inter-imperialist competition will dissolve into inter-imperialist solidarity before the vital threats which weigh on the total system. Stalin's hope of seeing the outbreak of new inter-imperialist wars turns out to be in vain (assumIng one disregards local conflicts between various pawns of imperialism in Africa, Cyprus, and elsewhere). 5. The Defence of General Conditions in the Realisation of Capital One of the economie motives appropriate to American Imperialism is that of defending the conditions of realisation of invested American capital when those conditions seem to be deleriorating, or when they are exposed to threat. It is precisely in this sense that the coup d'elat in Guatemala, In defence of the investments of United Fruit, must be understood; or the military mission to Venezuela defending the investments of Creole Petroleum; or the Intervention of the CIA in the military coup d'elat in Brazil in defence of United States Steel Corporation insestments. The same intervention in the military coup d'etat in Greece permitted America's Litton Industries to make huge investments of capital under exceptionally fasourable conditions.
However, it would be false to see this imperialist intervention in too restricted a way. that is as merely the defence of capital alresdy Invested. Additionally, imperialist intervention is a question of preserving-future opportunities and avolding the danger of a chain reaction which would menace strong positions in one country by events in another.
For example, direct investments of American capital in South Vietnam ure very modest. But there are more important insestments in Thailand, and considerably more important ones in Malaysia, in Indonesia and India. By intervening with a counter revolutionary war of aggression in the civil war in Vietnam, American imperial: ism covers capitalist positions in all the neighbouring countries and attempta to preserve its future opportunities in the easter part of tbe Asian continent, Today, the imperialist strategy: is unavoidably a global one. Necessarily, the properly called, strong areas.
That is why an analysis of the global, economie moving forces of American imperialism can come to only one conclusion: to be effective, anti-capitalist forces must oppose the interationul counter-revolutionary strategy of Big Capital with a corresponding, world-wide global strateSYAMSCO BELF THAILAND WRIOR CALIF TENNECD WEST SUMATRA This map demonstrates with extraordinary vividness the way in which the giant international oil companies have bought South East Asia, and carved it up among themused to provide the energy and proteins to raise the living standards of the peoples of South East Asia, has been cynically hawked to the highest bidders, so that they mav keep these two cars in the American middle-class garage on the road. The oil men swarm all over South Fast Asia today. Singapore, without oil itself. but the hub of the administrative and servicing side, has almost a hundred oil or oil related companies resident in its boundaries today. The employees demand and get all kinds of "amenities"
the local culture. But the local elites have cause for rejoicing: Singapore makes millions a month from providing everything the business man wants. Pertamina, the Indonesia oil monopoly run by corrupt Gen.
Sutowo, charges ludicrous fepr NOTES: 1. An investigation by a firm of management consultants in Chicigo in 1960 revealed that 35 large American truste had a net rate of profit (corporate profits after taxesl or 9.2% in the USA and 14.2% abroad. (B.S. Newsend World Report, 1 Jen. 1962, and Newsweek, & March 1965, arrived at anatogaus conclusions.) 2. Direct foreign investment by American corporations went from 7.2 billion dollars in 1946 to 40.5 billion in 1963 and 54.4 billion in 1966. 3. According to Harry Magdott, American Imports of CAMBODIA VIETNAM ESSO ARIP MALAYSIA CORDCO CONTIMENTAI FRONTIER SINGAPORE GULF HAPCO JAVA , which violently outrage amountino to millionest when Americs invaded Vietnam in farne and narthramr certain raw meterials evolved in the following mann in terms of percentage of their production in the United States. 1937-39 1966 Iron Ore 3% 43% Copper -13% 18% Lead 1UTH Zinc 140% 113% 638% Petroleum ESSE ALPA SABAH TERSEXI SU SHELL BRUNEI!
SARAWAK KALIMANTAN KISSES CUL CITIES SEWIC bottomless coffers of the competing oil companies Expectation is that South East Asia will become the oil area of the world in the 1970s. The Dutch already knew Despite their self-regarding secrecy, the news leaked out to the Americans. This greatly strengthened their determination to have South East Asia at any costincluding wars in Korea and Vietnam. For both Vietnam and Korea were key defensive points in protecting South Bast Asia. Both, incidentally, have also recently been shown to have offshore oil-a fortunate bonus for the United States of America. Words cannot convey the tragedy of all these heroie people who have died in Asia for their land and their future, murdered by the mercenaries of selfish imperialists who cannot imagine life without a Chevrolet or two powered by the oll robbed from the poor of the earth at the point of a gun. The ires year in realising imperialist aims was 1965after Burgos,
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