Overproduction, oil, and war

[Jacob Levich <jlevich@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

David Harvey has reached the same conclusion as the RUPE report on Iraq --
the current imperialist drive is a response to a crisis of overproduction.

jake


Too much of a good thing

Underlying the US drive to war is a thirst to open up new opportunities for
surplus capital

George Monbiot
Tuesday February 18, 2003
The Guardian

We are a biological weapon. On Saturday the anti-war movement released some
70,000 tonnes of organic material on to the streets of London, and similar
quantities in locations all over the world. This weapon of mass disruption
was intended as a major threat to the security of western governments.
Our marches were unprecedented, but they have, so far, been unsuccessful.
The immune systems of the US and British governments have proved to be
rather more robust than we had hoped. Their intransigence leaves the world
with a series of unanswered questions.

Why, when the most urgent threat arising from illegal weapons of mass
destruction is the nuclear confrontation between India and Pakistan, is the
US government ignoring it and concentrating on Iraq? Why, if it believes
human rights are so important, is it funding the oppression of the
Algerians, the Uzbeks, the Palestinians, the Turkish Kurds and the
Colombians? Why has the bombing of Iraq, rather than feeding the hungry,
providing clean water or preventing disease, become the world's most urgent
humanitarian concern? Why has it become so much more pressing than any
other that it should command a budget four times the size of America's
entire annual spending on overseas aid?

In a series of packed lectures in Oxford, Professor David Harvey, one of
the world's most distinguished geographers, has provided what may be the
first comprehensive explanation of the US government's determination to go
to war. His analysis suggests that it has little to do with Iraq, less to
do with weapons of mass destruction and nothing to do with helping the
oppressed.

The underlying problem the US confronts is the one which periodically
afflicts all successful economies: the over-accumulation of capital.
Excessive production of any good - be it cars or shoes or bananas - means
that unless new markets can be found, the price of that product falls and
profits collapse. Just as it was in the early 1930s, the US is suffering
from surpluses of commodities, manufactured products, manufacturing
capacity and money. Just as it was then, it is also faced with a surplus of
labour, yet the two surpluses, as before, cannot be profitably matched.
This problem has been developing in the US since 1973. It has now tried
every available means of solving it and, by doing so, maintaining its
global dominance. The only remaining, politically viable option is war.

More at http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,897766,00.html



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