G20: Race for Imperialist Domination

Under the veneer of “stabilizing” the world economy, finance ministers and central bankers of the most powerful capitalist powers met in Shanghai, China to maneuver ways to compete against each other for world domination. Known as the G20, the group included China, the U.S., Russia, U.K., France, Germany, Japan and other up-and-coming powers like Brazil, India and South Africa. China’s economy in particular took center stage — representing its growth as a staunch competitor in the race for imperialist domination.
Capitalism Needs Competitions
The worldwide 2007-9 economic crisis of capitalism has never receded. Rather, it has spread from the U.S. to different parts of the capitalist world at different times, much like a row of dominoes in a circle falling down. From Iceland to Greece to Brazil and now to China, the interconnection between capitalist economies all over the world guarantees that the normal “boom-and-bust” cycle of capitalism reverberates far beyond the national borders of each economy.
Of course, each group of bosses is fighting like hell for the interests of the capitalists of “their country.” This is precisely why these thieves can and will never reach full agreement — each one is trying to get a leg up on all the rest. Competition, after all, remains an essential component of the capitalism.
China Looms Large
The Shanghai G20 takes place in the midst of the biggest economic downturn in China since the restoration of capitalism. The great economic boom of the 1990s and 2000s — which relied on the exploitation of former agricultural workers in China’s huge manufacturing centers — has ended since there is no longer a steady supply of cheap labor from the countryside. Many Chinese companies can’t repay loans given by the central government to keep the boom going. The Chinese commercial real estate upsurge has run its course. To keep Chinese manufacturing competitive, the Finance Ministry has devalued the Chinese currency by four percent, making Chinese goods cheaper for consumers overseas buying in dollars and other non-Chinese currency. This puts pressure on producers seeking to compete with Chinese production and is setting off alarms worldwide of the possibility of a currency war (Willem Buiter, Citigroup, 2/26/16).
Some Chinese bosses are looking to the investor tax cut/deregulation regimes of 1980s U.S. and U.K. for inspiration. According to Jia Kang, an economist in the Ministry of Finance, “Thatcher and Reagan are highly regarded … [t]heir spirit was one of boldly taking on challenges and innovating, and that’s certainly worth Chinese people emulating” (NY Times, 3/4/16). Ask tens of thousands of British miners or tens of thousands of U.S. air traffic controllers who lost their jobs then about their bosses “boldness” and innovation.” In other words, Workers in China, beware!
Just as China is building up its military, and especially its Navy, to eventually challenge U.S. domination of South Asian and Mid-East trade routes, China and the U.S. are also fighting each other over who is to be the economic leader of the capitalist world. U.S. Treasury Secretary Lew, for example, demanded the Chinese stop keeping their currency artificially low, making Chinese imports to the U.S. cheaper.
One common refrain from Trump and Sanders is that U.S. capitalism has to gear up for a trade war with China. This cynical pro-worker posturing at the extremes of the electoral political spectrum is an effort to school all the many millions of newly activated voters in the lesson that to make the U.S. a great nation its workers must line up for a confrontation with China. No matter who wins this election that message reflects a long-term need of U.S. capital and will remain a fixture in the policy agenda of the next president.
Workers be on Guard
History shows us that imperialist war is inevitable. The lead-up to World War II, after all, featured currency wars, which led to trade wars and eventually armed wars. The inevitable march towards war can never be stopped by phony “statements of unity” issued after capitalist conferences like the G20.
The “stability” these servants of capital claim to seek only means a future of more efficient and vicious exploitation of labor. Imperialists only relate to each other in two ways: in war or preparation for war. The world’s working class is the only force capable of abolishing this deadly interchange of intense exploitation followed by mass unemployment and the increasing likelihood of major wars. Only under the leadership of the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party can workers achieve the overthrow of bosses’ governments worldwide, finally bringing an end to centuries of misery and bloodshed for our class.