A Brief Note on the Prospect for Anti-Political Resistance Against the Fascist State
I recently read this post Anarchism’s Promise for Anti-Capitalist Resistance, on GonzoTimes and have some ideas for a response which I will prepare in due time. I want to throw some notes out there to get any feedback people might have.
Let’s begin with the public debt crisis:
People think the US is on a path to insolvency, i.e., to an inability to pay its obligations. This is wrong. In fact, the US has not paid its obligations since 1971.
But, from Washington’s point of view, this is not insolvency; it is a growing stream of surplus value whose source are the exports of every other nation. The question is not one of insolvency but of the capacity to absorb this mounting surplus value in a manner consistent with its production.
The debt crisis is merely a problem of Washington going through the fiction of “borrowing” this surplus value, rather than “purchasing” it outright.
“Purchasing” it is placed in quotes here because the means of purchasing, the money, is created out of nothing — it is a fiction. The “insolvency” of the US is simply its unwillingness to entertain getting rid of the fiction of federal public debt. However, the fiction of federal public debt consists entirely of its role in disguising the process of creating money out of nothing. By pretending to borrow money, the US is actually creating money out of nothing through issuance of fictional debt instruments. These debt instruments are themselves created out of nothing — there is self-evidently nothing with which to repay them, except more debt.
The discussion of insolvency cannot begin with the discussion of public debt, but presupposes a mass of surplus value which cannot be realized without this increased debt. The growth of public debt presupposes a growing mass of surplus value which cannot be realized — of goods that cannot be sold — except on condition of new debt issuance. But, this new debt issuance is nothing more than the thinly disguised creation of money out of nothing.
If, on top of the consumer debt crisis, which began in 2008, we now reach a point where the issuance of public debt is also constrained, this has global implications. We are talking about a sudden uncovering of the absolute over-abundance of capital world wide; a condition which implies further deepening of the current depression.
The authority to issue of new debt constitutionally lies with Congress, actual creation is accomplished by the Executive. During the Civil War, Congress authorized the creation of Greenbacks — a purely fictional expansion of the money supply to fight the war. This authority was withdrawn at the end of the war(?) And, the greenbacks were withdrawn from circulation over several years. The logic of the situation appears to require resurrection of this authority and granting the Executive unlimited money creating power. This same act, however, would abolish constitutional government and the Republic. Short of this, Congress could authorize creation of a given amount of new money by the Executive. This would lead to abolition of limited government as well — but a fig leaf would remain. Annually, the Executive branch would hand out its shopping list, Congress would roll its own bribes into this and authorize it.
If this seem like the farfetched speculation of a damaged mind, I need only state this is the Modern Monetary Theory policy prescription. MMT assumes the only limit on government expenditures is the existence of resources (unsold commodities) that can be purchased with ex nihilo money. If the entirety of the surplus value created world wide is superfluous — cannot function as capital — all of this can be so “purchased”.
Here is the rub: In Marx’s model, this purchase must in no way increase the absolute value of the total social wages. While the distribution of total social wages may change over time, the total value of the social wages must fall. Which is to say, the portion of the total social labor day devoted to creating surplus value must constantly increase. It also means the rates of creation of new fictional money must constantly increase; and, therefore, prices must constantly increase. All of this is expressed in a constantly expanding Fascist State.
In Marx’s model, the only basis on which this entire process can be brought to a standstill is by enforcing a reduction in hours of labor.
A movement to reduce hour of labor is the sole avenue to anti-politics, a politics of resistance, a politics that stands outside the State. If the Fascist State is entirely composed of surplus labor time, and increases with it, limitations on hours of labor is necessary. Moreover, until hours are limited until freely associated productive activity replaces labor as the MAIN source of wealth, communism (a stateless society) is not possible.
Until all or most of necessary labor is replaced by free voluntary associated productive activity, value producing labor cannot be abolished. The condition for the abolition of labor and of the Fascist State are identical: abolition of all labor in excess of socially necessary labor time.
This is what Marx calls a communist movement of society: the act of the individual as an individual reclaiming her productive capacities. The individual is reclaiming these capacities from value producing activity. And, exercising them in association with the rest of society.
The answer to ex nihilo money, Modern Monetary Theory, and the ceaseless expansion of the Fascist State is a movement to cut hours of labor. This movement must be a global movement; a movement of individuals as individuals; a movement against ALL classes in present day society.
