Editorial

The Significance of the WTO Impasse

The impasse that continues to grip the World Trade Organization (WTO) is an indication that the relative strength of the big powers and regional powers within the world of international capital is undergoing profound changes. The economic power of the United States has been steadily declining over the past two decades while that of the emerging capitalist economies, especially those of China, India and, to some extent, Brazil has been rising. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the bi-polar division of the world the policy of U.S. imperialism has been to use its military power to establish a unipolar capitalist world under its dictate. Today, that policy is clearly in difficulty and a multi-polar world is emerging despite all of the efforts of the Americans to prevent it.

Further complicating matters is the fact that international capitalism is currently experiencing the greatest crisis of overproduction in history. This crisis is a direct result of the anarchy and uneven development of capitalism and is being exacerbated to the extreme by the rapid industrialization of China and India. History shows that this crisis can only be resolved through the massive destruction of the surplus productive capacity or through the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist system.

Destruction of surplus productive capacity can take place in various ways. One way is for the most powerful monopoly blocs to simply shut down rival factories, as was done to south Korea, Russia and other countries following the stock market collapse in 2000. Other ways include global depression and war. During the current round of WTO talks the United States and European Union (EU) have been pursuing a policy of shifting the main burden of the economic crisis onto their rivals and especially onto the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. However, the growing economic power of China, India and Brazil, as well as the growing resistance of the people in various countries, has blocked those efforts. At the same time, neither the emerging capitalist countries nor the resistance of the peoples are yet powerful enough to force significant concessions out of the Americans and Europeans.

If the WTO had failed to reach any agreement in Hong Kong the entire structure could have collapsed, ushering in a period of unbridled trade wars. Such an occurrence would exacerbate the crisis of overproduction and could quite possibly precipitate a global economic depression. Clearly, neither the old capitalist powers nor the emerging powers are willing to risk such a collapse at this time. Therefore, they have settled for a sham agreement within which they can jockey for position.

However, this will not be the case forever. The monopoly capitalists in every country realize that a global depression is not only inevitable, but absolutely necessary for the survival of the capitalist system. The only issue is which groups of monopoly capital will perish and which will survive and emerge on top. When one or another monopoly capitalist bloc feels that it is sufficiently powerful to emerge victorious, it will not hesitate to precipitate a global crisis, hoping to trade short-term profits for long-term hegemony. The continuing impasse at the WTO thus signals that the inter-imperialist and inter-monopoly contradictions are becoming sharper. Within such a situation the working people of all countries must step up their resistance and take measures to defend their own interests in the face of the disasters being organized for them by the monopoly capitalists, both domestic and foreign.

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