[A-List] RE: Iraq and the Problem of Peak Oil (fwd)

[Waistline2 at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/4/2004 11:38:33 PM Central Standard Time, 
_kaliyuga at humboldt1.com_ (mailto:kaliyuga at humboldt1.com)  writes: 
 
>Someone posted recently the fact that the greatest number of  manufacturing 
jobs have been lost, not in the US, but in China!  Forget  about selling one's 
labor......can't barely GIVE it away anymore.<
 

Comment 
 
Agreed.
 
In respect to China an aspect - in my opinion, a very large aspect of her  
currently unemployment and structrual shifts in the economy are not due to the  
bourgeois property relations or "capitalism" . . . but a certain 
rationlaization  of production. To what degree I do not know. 
 
Plus . . . . who is against unemployment in this day and age? Is not the  
question "sovereign credit" or ones right to be provided for regardless of the  
magnitude of labor needed to drive the economy? 
 
According to the material of the China Study Group the broad category  called 
workers account for 72.1% of the GDP and her working class is roughly 350  
million strong with roughly 33% in trade unions. "There are currently more than  
100 million workers now employed in the non-state sector of the economy." 
 
The non state sector apparently means capitalism . . . specially production  
and exchange tied to foreign capital and export. Export in itself is not proof 
 of "capitalism" anyone than the Soviets attempt to export cars to Canada in 
the  late 1950s and early 1960s. 
 
In other words roughly 250 million workers are in the state sector and 100  
million in private enterprises. Is this not proof of what could be called a  
"mixed economy?" Has the growth of workers in trade union increased in relative  
and absolute terms since 1978? Or is there a decrease in the relative sense  
based on measure of the entire working class of 350 million? 
 
Has the living conditions of the 350 million members of the working class  
improved since 1978? What of that of the agricultural sector? 
 
How many member of the CPC are members of the unemployed versus capitalists  
versus members of the trade unions? Here is the class struggle in the flesh 
that  communists from all these categories have to deal with. 
 
Has healthy life expectancy in China risen steady . . . since 1978?
 
I am aware based on my own investigation that the relative wealth of the  
working class or rather industrial sector of the working class has decreased in  
relationship to a segment of "intellectual workers" and capitalists but  
increased in the absolute sense. Capitalism is not what creates the class  
distinction  . . . class distinction is a product and category of history.  Bourgeois 
property exacerbates the inequality based on its form of ownership  rights. 
 
The question of democracy in China is tricky in my opinion. My first  
responsibility is never to enter the political orbit or polarity of my own  
bourgeoisie . . . no matter what! In principle I am not opposed to one party  states . 
. . especially parties with communists within them as a mass. 
 
This issue of unemployment as an index of capitalist restoration - a  
so-called industrial reserve army . . . is not an industrial reserve army of  
unemployed if in fact manufacturing jobs are disappearing faster in China than  the 
American Union. In my opinion this is part of the crystallization of the  world 
communist class. This is the path forward for communists world wide and in  
China. And in China the incremental increase of this communist class  . . .  
which is fundamentally male as opposed to female in America . . . means the only 
 way for communists to win the battle in the market is on behalf of 
protection of  this polarity in particular. 
 
Communist work amongst all segments of the population . . . however there  is 
in fact a way for communist throughout the world to engage each other in a  
principled manner. These are complex issues being reveal more and more each 
day. 
 
Is China capitalist or socialist? 
 
This poses the issue incorrectly. How China will look in 2030 is going to  
depend on lots of factors and the degree to which the communists on the side of  
the lowest strata of the population can prevail. 
 
I believe that China still possesses the largest socialist economy on earth  
. . . at this time in history. Its a mixed bag . . . as the saying goes . . .  
and we communist should understand why we were defeated in the last period 
and  it cannot be reduced to wrong ideology as fundamental in my opinion. When 
people  can actually express their opinion and impact development it is not 
heaven  ordained that we communist are going to prevail. 
 
Melvin P.