Capitalist crisis will come¶
Core Argument¶
This chapter, titled “Capitalist crisis will come,” advances a starkly deterministic argument: the post-war economic boom is a temporary illusion, and Britain is hurtling toward a catastrophic crisis of overproduction. The core narrative thrust is that the Labour government’s project of reforming capitalism from within is a fatal delusion. The author insists that capitalism operates according to its own iron laws; the boom cannot last. Once Britain’s productive apparatus—both privately owned and state-controlled—is overhauled, the market will collapse under its own weight. The crisis will not be one of shortage but of glut, and Britain, having lost the advantage of its closed imperial market during the war, will be unable to compete with American productive capacity.
The chapter draws heavily on the historical precedent of 1931, when a Labour government presided over a slump and imposed cuts on working-class living standards. The author argues that the same pattern will repeat, only this time Labour cannot plead lack of a parliamentary majority as an excuse. The export drive, pursued in traditional capitalist fashion, is presented as a futile remedy. The only capitalist solution to the coming crisis will be to drive down wages, dismantle social reforms, and cut unemployment pay. The Labour leaders are accused of living in a “fool’s paradise,” blind to the impending catastrophe, while the capitalists prepare.
The theoretical context is orthodox Trotskyist: capitalism is inherently crisis-ridden, and reformism is a betrayal. The chapter’s polemical target is the Labour leadership, which is charged with lulling the workers into false security and pursuing a policy that will ultimately serve the capitalists. The alternative offered is the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism, modelled on the Russian Revolution of 1917 under Lenin and Trotsky. Nationalisation, the author insists, must be genuine expropriation under working-class control, not a form of state capitalism. The chapter concludes by urging revolutionary communists to fight alongside Labour workers, supporting progressive measures while criticising reactionary ones, in order to build consciousness that only the Revolutionary Communist Party’s programme can lead to a socialist Britain.