The illegitimacy of capitalism stems from the fact that a small group of capitalists have today captured the State and have decided that in order for them to survive they will allow the whole economic system to sink, noted economist C. P. Chandrasekhar has said.
He was speaking at a seminar on ‘Why Marxism' organised ahead of the State conference of the CPI(M), here, on Saturday. In the U.S., the trillions of dollars pumped into the economy by the government only served to help global finance and its institutions. Large financial institutions which were on the verge of collapse used this cheap money to turn profits and are today laughing all the way to the bank.
The real economy continues to be in crisis. This crisis is expected to hit China and India this calendar year, he said. In essence, the crisis of capitalism is a crisis of global finance. Capitalism does not have the capacity to extricate itself from this crisis.
Absolute poverty
In his address, former vice-chairman of the State Planning Board Prabhath Patnaik said the crisis that had beset capitalism would be a protracted one.
In India, this crisis was accentuated by the problems generated by the nation's inherited social order.
There was an increase in absolute poverty in India over the years, a direct result of accumulation of capital in the country by a few. In 1993, the proportion of rural India below the 2,200 calories/day threshold was 58 per cent. In 1993-94 this became 78 per cent, Mr. Patnaik pointed out.
The capitalist system would not collapse on its own but needed to be overthrown by a conscious act. The nature of capitalism is that it could not be reformed. If one tried to reform capitalism then the system would come to a standstill.
Marxism is essentially concerned with human emancipation.
The need of the hour is a new worker-peasant alliance whose theatre would be the nation. Only such an alliance can help overthrow the capitalist system, he added.
