More precarious work, less productivity, more misery, more barbarism
At the heart of the monster, there was a relative and momentary process of economic stabilisation, supported by the increased oppression of workers and immigrants, widespread precariousness of work and increased misery. Thus, embellishing the official indices, Jerome Powell, the president of the Fed (the central bank that most influences the planetary economy), announced that US unemployment fell from 10% in 2009 to 4.1% in 2018, but economic growth barely reaches 2%. Between 2000-2007 growth was 3% per year, which, for the US, is well above the current rate of expansion. Powell acknowledges that:
The difference, of course, is productivity, which grew at more than twice the pace in the early 2000s than it has in recent years. Taking a longer view, the average pace of labor productivity growth since 2010 is the slowest since World War II and about one-fourth of the average postwar rate. Moreover, the productivity growth slowdown seems to be global and is evident even in countries that were little affected by the financial crisis.
The fall in productivity is a generalised factor, “not only in the US but also reflects the disqualification of the generation of new jobs that are increasingly precarious, disqualified, unproductive and that impoverish the consumer market, also weakening the capital movement and consumption of goods. As a measure of the economic war, the Fed has announced that it will raise its benchmark interest rate to 1.75%, a steady rise, which began in 2015 and is expected to continue to rise in the coming years. It is an anti-crisis measure, to guard against capital flight, attracting dollars and speculative investments from the rest of the world. So that it does not affect big US capital, or a recession is created, fiscal stimulus was approved through huge tax cuts of around $ 1.5 trillion, and $ 300 billion in additional indirect government transfers to corporations. But the working class and the petty bourgeoisie will suffer from rising interest rates on credit cards, mortgages, auto and home loans, and other lines of credit that do not have flat rates.
Trump imposed the most severe income tax reform for the middle class in recent years, benefiting corporations, mainly real estate speculation. The internal plunder of the proletariat, the expansion of the gains of the imperialist bourgeoisie and the reconquest of the lost international space for Russia and China in the American continent, allow Trump to ensure a level of political stabilisation within the imperialist superclass to renegotiate with France and Germany and re-establish US leadership on the world stage. The farce of a humanitarian protector is maintained, but now the US collectively demands the NATO partners share the cost of defence and military adventures. In this way Trump fulfils the promises of reducing unemployment, US primacy over others (America First!) and the resumption of the US initiative in the conduct of world politics, with a strategic plan, to defeat Russia and China. The United States feels threatened by the growth of the BRICS. Thus, the Trump era announces the end of rights established after World War II, the elimination of labour rights, social security, humanitarian protections for immigrants. Racial internal warfare is fuelled by neo-Nazi appeals. This is an attempt to shift the attention of the poor white working class from its current chaotic situation.
The capitalist crisis is solved by the entrance onto the scene of fascist elements in the social control that ensures enslavement of the working class. The phenomenon of overexploitation of the labour force, which are paid less than the minimum necessary for its reproduction, is amplified. Wall Street has never made so much money and entrepreneurs are all satisfied. Heroically resisting this capital offensive, in several states, West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona, workers are taking to the streets, with teachers at the forefront, moving toward wage increases, rising welfare education cuts, cuts that have cut classes to four days a week in some schools. Even though strikes were declared illegal by the judiciary, and despite the treacherous policies of the democratic trade union leadership, thousands of teachers were striking red and reviving the class struggle at the heart of the imperialist monster. Each victory of these workers is part of humanity’s victory against barbarism.
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