INTRODUCTION

The article reproduced below takes its present form for several reasons, two of which I shall mention here, one immediately, the other towards the end of this introduction. The first would be revealed were the reader to ask why the article says so little about Germany and why I refer to the 20th century as if it were America’s. The second part of this first question will, I hope, be answered by the article itself –at least in part.

The first part demands some explanation not addressed by the article itself. The role of Germany in World War I is dealt with in a paper presented by Nick Beams which appeared on the World Socialist Web Site: “World War I: The breakdown of capitalism”. But when I read it I wondered why Beams had so little to say about America. Certainly, the First World War took place in Europe, though because of the (imperialist) extension of Europe’s economies throughout the world it had worldwide economic repercussions, and was from the start nothing less than a world war. And even though the United States didn’t actually get involved in the fighting until 1917, that country played a key role in supplying the Entente Powers from the first year of the war.

A belief that should have been quashed long ago is that America, in supplying the British and French war effort somehow did so at the “behest” of Britain, or because the two countries were linked by like principles (as opposed to Germany), by a common culture and language, were united in a semi-clandestine alliance against the rest of the world, and so on. Nothing could be further from the truth and I hope the relevant sections in my article will contribute to a better understanding of the true relationship between these two capitalist States.

America (under the leadership of its dominant social classes) got into the First (and Second) World War for its own reasons –reasons, in fact, which might appear to have had little to do with the “breakdown of capitalism”, and more to do with its own vital strength, its expanding powers. Not enough work has been done on this, in my view, and I therefore decided to concentrate on America’s place in the First World War, as the initial step taken by that State to become the leading economic, political, cultural and military force during the 20th century –notwithstanding the breakdown of capital and the material establishment of socialism throughout extensive regions of the world. If that meant neglecting Germany’s role, so be it –at least for now. Perhaps we now have two positions: one that overemphasizes European capital, the other that overemphasizes American capital. This should lead to further study and hopefully a synthesis.

I have no qualms in admitting that the reader will be sure to find shortcomings and many loose ends in the article. I entered a vast territory hardly aware of its size, its ramifications or its full significance. But it was necessary to take the plunge, and face the consequences –to publish and be damned.

To a certain extent, it has been strung together as a result of work done on several aspects at different times, starting around 2002. I therefore apologize for any incoherence in it, and would be interested to hear from readers about anything of this kind. Apart from the neglect of Germany, my economic data (so far) focuses mainly on the United States –what has happened to the profit figures for Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Turkey, Japan, and so on? The reader could ask a hoard of questions in that regard and my present reply to this would be twofold: on the one hand, I wanted to focus on the largest State (America –though it was not in 1914 the most powerful), while, on the other hand, American economic statistics are fairly easy to get, whereas obtaining the same for other countries is less easy (at least from where I stand).

The reader may ask some more theoretical questions, which my article does not entirely answer. For instance, is a war policy a sign of weakness or strength? What kind of weakness? What kind of strength? (And surely this depends on several factors, so that there is no single answer to it.) Does America’s present policy really demonstrate the decline of the American Empire? Or are we, perhaps, entering a new phase in human alienation? Who are the major groups behind this war on humanity? What is their ultimate goal? Or is America, in some sense, now “the world”? Has the new Europe the potential to tip the scales? Or will China (Asia) become the new powerhouse? Or can some more far-reaching combination occur to thwart America’s ambitions in the “Old World”?

So what was the second reason this article has taken the form it does with all its focus on U.S. profit? About a year ago, I had a brief altercation with someone who, defending his position and seeking to silence me from his superior Marxist position, quipped that I had better recall that what lay behind capital’s policy was profit (which it appeared I had forgotten). I decided to take him literally, not with the intention of silencing him or injuring his Marxist feelings, but because it suggested an interesting angle anyway, and something which may have been neglected recently –a history of profit, a history of the world seen from the point of view of profit. There is much more work to be done here I think.

I wanted a long-term perspective on the profit system. This article is the result –hence the use of the word “sketching” in the title. There is little material here on the so-called “Cold War”, or on one of its growing features, the “food war”, and one that continues to characterize the world we live in today. More central to my inquiry was whether profits rise or fall (or just stay the same) during war. And even if profits rose (and maybe they didn’t for all countries) during the two World Wars, were they really its “cause”? I doubt whether I have answered that question to everyone’s satisfaction. The reader can draw his/her conclusions, and is, of course free to investigate further –indeed I hope this matter will be brought to light more and more. My article, then, is really just a beginning for me.

Ernest Brown, February, 2006

N.B. This is a continuing project. We welcome comments, corrections, suggestions, criticisms from readers.