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Video World in crisis

Marxist Perspectives · 2022-03-25

Core Argument

The central thesis is that the current global crisis is not a temporary disruption or a series of unrelated shocks, but the expression of capitalism's terminal phase — its "death agony." Fred Weston argues that the war in Ukraine, the unresolved pandemic, runaway inflation, and the threat of recession are all interconnected symptoms of a single underlying pathology: the system's inability to sustain accumulation on its existing basis. The argument is that these convulsions are simultaneously destroying the living standards of millions, transforming mass consciousness, and preparing the objective and subjective conditions for an era of revolutionary upheaval. The claim is not merely that capitalism is in crisis, but that it is entering a period where the old forms of political and economic management are exhausted, and where the working class will be forced onto the historical stage as the only force capable of resolving the contradictions.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis draws on the classical Marxist understanding of capitalist crisis as endemic and systemic, rather than cyclical in the conventional Keynesian sense. It situates itself within the tradition that sees war, inflation, and pandemic not as external shocks to an otherwise functional system, but as necessary expressions of capitalism's internal contradictions when the rate of profit can no longer be restored through normal means. The concept of the "death agony" of capitalism — a period of decay, stagnation, and intensified class struggle preceding revolutionary transformation — is a direct reference to the Leninist and Trotskyist understanding of the epoch of imperialism and proletarian revolution. The argument also implicitly draws on the Marxist theory of combined and uneven development: the war in Ukraine is not an isolated geopolitical event but a symptom of the rivalry between imperialist powers for markets, resources, and spheres of influence as the global system contracts. The analysis rejects reformist notions that the crisis can be managed through better policy or regulation; instead, it insists that the only resolution lies in the working class taking power and reorganising production on a socialist basis.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article is explicitly situated in the conjuncture of early 2022, following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the sharp rise in inflation across the advanced capitalist economies. Weston connects these phenomena concretely: the war has disrupted energy and grain supplies, exacerbating inflationary pressures that were already building due to supply chain bottlenecks and the massive monetary expansion during the pandemic. He points to the specific impact on working people — rising food and fuel prices, falling real wages, housing crises — and argues that these material pressures are rapidly transforming consciousness. The article notes that strikes and protests have already erupted in several countries, and that the political certainties of the post-war period — social democracy, centrist liberalism, the "end of history" — are dissolving. The conjuncture is defined by the simultaneity of economic crisis, geopolitical conflict, and the breakdown of established political forms, creating a volatile terrain on which revolutionary possibilities are opening.

Where the Argument Continues

This article is a compressed overview of a much larger analysis that the International Marxist Tendency (now the Revolutionary Communist International) has developed across multiple platforms. The argument about the "death agony" of capitalism is elaborated in greater theoretical depth in the World Perspectives documents published annually by the RCI, which provide a systematic analysis of the global economy and the balance of class forces. The specific analysis of the war in Ukraine and its relationship to imperialist rivalry is developed in numerous articles on marxist.com and in episodes of the Against the Stream podcast. The argument about inflation and the falling rate of profit is grounded in the broader Marxist political economy tradition, particularly the work of figures like Henryk Grossman and the contemporary debates within the RCI about the long-term trajectory of the system. The article leaves open the question of the precise timing and form of revolutionary breakthroughs, which is necessarily a matter of concrete analysis of each national conjuncture — a task taken up in the RCI's regular bulletins and interventions in specific struggles.

Connections

This article should be read alongside the RCI's World Perspectives documents, which provide the annual global overview that this talk summarises. It connects directly to the Marxist analysis of imperialism as developed by Lenin and Trotsky, and to the contemporary debates within the Marxist tradition about the nature of the current epoch — particularly the distinction between a "crisis" within capitalism and the "death agony" of the system as a whole. The argument about inflation and the falling rate of profit connects to the work of Marx in Volume III of Capital and to the later contributions of Grossman and others. For readers seeking to deepen their understanding of the theoretical framework, the RCI's educational materials on Marxist political economy — including the Fundamentals of Marxism series — are essential. The article also implicitly engages with and rejects the reformist and social-democratic analyses that treat the crisis as a policy failure, and the liberal-interventionist positions that seek to manage the war within the framework of NATO and the EU.

Key Quotes

  1. "As capitalism traverses its death agony, the world is experiencing turmoil: from the war in Ukraine, to the unresolved pandemic, to runaway inflation and the threat of a new recession triggered by the war."

  2. "The fundamental driving factors of this crisis... are making life unbearable for millions of working people, transforming consciousness, and preparing the ground for an era of revolutionary upheaval."

  3. "The war in Ukraine is not an isolated geopolitical event but a symptom of the rivalry between imperialist powers for markets, resources, and spheres of influence as the global system contracts."

  4. "The old forms of political and economic management are exhausted, and the working class will be forced onto the historical stage as the only force capable of resolving the contradictions."

  5. "The only resolution lies in the working class taking power and reorganising production on a socialist basis."