Recently Making It Plain (MIP) had a discussion with Dr. Horace Bartilow (HB), Professor of International Economy at American University, Washington DC. The discussion covered a number of critical issues including the global economy and developing countries, Pan-Africanism, and non-capitalist development.

This week in Part 3 of our series Prof. Horace Bartilow addresses further the social and environmental impact of the capitalist mode of production and its unsustainability.

November 22, 2021

MIP: So, professor what are some of the other negative social impacts of capitalism, which are less obvious?

HB: If you think that this capitalist order is ok and, you do not have to be a Marxist to know that it is not. In fact, what has been largely ascribed to Lenin’s work “Imperialism The Highest Stage of Capitalism” and people ascribe this to Marxism, that it is a communist work. But Lenin is not the originator of that idea, it is a man by the name of A. J. Hobson a British doctor, a liberal, who went to then South Africa observing the Boer wars. The Boer wars is what we now call the white Afrikaners who were trying to get independence from Britain; and in observing that whole conflict, A. J. Hobson developed this idea how British capitalism needed colonies. And that same basic idea is what Lenin used to develop the idea in his book and most people say oh well, this is Lenin’s idea, but it was A. J. Hobson's idea; he was not a communist ok. So, my point is you do not have to be a communist to see this.

So even if you said to yourself that I do not have a problem with capitalism and  all this stuff, even if you think it is a fine perfect system; it cannot last and here is why. It is operating within a global environmental system where it is direct and dialectically in contradiction to the environment and why? Capitalism is based on perpetual profit, perpetual growth. If the global capitalist system is not growing, then it is dying. It always has to grow; you always have to give dividends to the shareholders. You cannot give them the same dividends as you gave last year, even if they are not losing. So, it is a system that is based on perpetual growth, operating in a global environment where growth is infinite for capitalism. There cannot be enough growth, but it is operating in an environment where environmental resources are finite, and so we wonder why we are having environmental chaos.

At some point either we change our thinking about how we organize our economics on the planet, or we will be forced to leave the planet or die on this planet. That is the choice, that really is the choice. Now someone would say, well, you are lashing out about capitalism, so you are a socialist. I am not a socialist, I am a capitalist; look like that is a contradiction; no, it is not a contradiction. I live in a capitalist world; I drive a car that is made by a capitalist company; I live in a house that is financed by a capitalist bank. I work at a university it is a private university, it is capitalist. I go to the supermarket and buy food from a private capitalist grocery store, the clothes on my back are made by private capitalist companies; I cannot escape it. It is almost as Jesus said being in the world, but you do not have to be of this world.

So even though I live in a capitalist world, and I operate in a capitalist world; my money is in a capitalist bank; but I also have the good sense to know that this system, which I cannot change is unsustainable. The only reason we still live in the way that we do is that humans have not been able to imagine a world without capitalism as it is structured. In other words, some of us can identify some of the problems of capitalism but, until we are able to develop a better ‘mousetrap,’ something better, something that will resolve all the problems that it has caused, we are stuck with it.

People are unhappy where they work, do you notice that people are unhappy with their jobs? Right here in the United States some people are just walking off their jobs. It does not matter if people are working for big private companies making lots of money. Right here at the university people have conversations about this. People are not happy because they feel that other people do not really respect them, and these are conversations that are happening all over the United States and all over the world. And I have to remind someone and say do you know what it is called? I said do not look at this as if you are working with people who are just mean, they are just insensitive. I said no, it is not just that, maybe some of it but it is not just that.

You have to look at the structure in which people work and it is called alienation, we are alienated from each other in different ways. In the capitalist mode of production, the production of capitalist goods and services, it naturally produces alienation. It is intended, It was designed to separate people. To understand that you have to go back to its origin, Its white supremacist origins; so that is what we are dealing with, and it does not matter. You could have black people running a company that used to be white, all they are doing is reproducing it, just putting a Black face on the beast.

MIP: Brother Malcolm spoke about the same thing; substituting the white bourgeoise with a Black bourgeoise.

HB: Yes. The same thing, you are not making any difference; you have to change the entire system. You have to burn out the whole thing and start from scratch. And that is where the rubber hits the road my brother. Because when you start to talk that way even black people like yourself, becomes your enemy.