Capitalist Globalization From A Polish View

Capitalist globalization is defined in different ways. The term derives from "global" – this means "in the whole world". Globalization has many aspects – political, economic, social, cultural, military and those based on home and foreign policies. The political, economic and military subject of globalization is the United States; this expresses itself in the doctrine of the "New World Order". Further continental forms of globalization are the European Union, NAFTA, FTAA., ALCA, ASEAN and others.

Globalization, seen from a historical point of view, is the continuation and the development of capitalism in its imperial stage existing since the 19^th century as Lenin defined and described at the beginning of the 20^th century. With the creation of the Soviet Union and the socialist community, a new opportunity for socialist globalization developed in the 20^th century and with it a qualitative alternative for humanity. Because of its different values, contents, relations and social goals, it was described as social internationalization. Unfortunately at the end of the 1980’s it suffered a defeat, because of different economic, political, internal and external causes.

The real political aspect of globalization is embodied in the USA, to the extent that the interests of other states and regions are subordinated directly to American imperialism. In practice, this capitalism is decadent, parasitic and moribund. It expresses itself in the growth of NATO, of imperial dictates, of the threat to peace and in an increase in wars. Exploitation is increasing internally and externally. Capitalist contradictions are showing new aspects; sharing out the word among the imperialist countries is being continued.

The economic aspects of globalization means quickly accumulating surplus capital by the highly developed capitalist countries, which are able to make greater profits by investing abroad and buying up companies of other countries. Here, the main thing is to make sure that the demand for capital is greater than the need and that the capital subjects can force their demands and conditions on the weaker partners.

The development of capitalism has gone through different phases so far: (1) capitalism of free competition, (2) monopoly capitalism, (3) oligopoly capitalism led by super monopolies,(4) globalized capitalism, that is the introduction of informative economy. The main feature of oligopolists is that they do not only dominate production and the market in an economic sense, but also in a state sense. Duopolists have developed, that is to say, the gigantic groups on a branch level, which with their mergers at the end of the 20oth century (1999) – according to Harpal Brar – achieved the value unimaginable until then of 3.4 billion US dollars. It is estimated that in the year 2000 alone the 1000 richest groups accounted for about 80 per cent of the world industrial output. Here, US companies had the highest turnover value. Whereas the mergers just brought in 1-204 thousand million dollars in 1985, this was already 516.7 thousand million in 1995 and in 1999 one million million dollars. Globalization results in many bank mergers, export capital, neocolonialism and new forms of imperialism. The big sharks are eating the small fry. This can be clearly seen in Poland after 13 years of capitalist transformation and globalization.

Capitalist globalization has also led to a profound change in work relations. Here is not just a case of technological change in production and administration, but also the relationship between capital and labour and of social conditions o the workers and others in employment. Great social uncertainty, and chronic and structural employment, even in rich countries, have appeared. In Poland (with a population of 38.6 million) 3.5 million people are officially unemployed, in addition there is hidden unemployment of a further 1.5 million.

However, the situation is particularly dramatic in the countries of the "Third World." On a world scale, there is lack of more than a billion jobs in industry. Not millions, but thousands if millions of people are starving, are ill or die early – amongst them millions of children. The number of those working only a few hours per week is increasing: the exploitation of women and children is getting worse. The number of those on the move, looking for work is increasing – not only in Europe; throughout the whole world there are more than 200 million migrant workers. The difference between the plutocracy and the majority of the poor, the employed, the unemployed, the starving and even the so-called middle classes are growing.

From capitalist globalization emerged a whole new set of institutions, organizations and systems that enable its further development. This does not involve national but also international groups (so-called "multis", transnational groups). Furthermore, there are also imperialist states and international organizations, such as the IMF and the World Bank, in which the USA is playing a major role. Their main instrument us granting loans as well as providing individual funds which help enforcing economic as well as political dependencies of the poor countries by way of foreign exchange rates, privatization, tax relief for firms with a high company capital. Take Poland as an example after 13 years of counter-revolutionary "reforms": state-owned firms were sold for ten per cent of their actual value. More than 60 per cent of Polish industrial assets, were bought up by Western groups, were laid idle or restructured into assembly plants. Over 80 per cent of Polish financial capacities (turnover) are controlled by foreign capital. Whatever is left of political sovereignty will be restricted even further after the expansion of the EU towards the East.

An important form of capitalist globalization is privatization as mentioned above. Polish firms were exposed to the economic system. Their financial resources (ten per cent of their value) flowed into the state budget as a means of consumption. The national economy shrunk by 50 per cent and was regarded to be part of the international market. Poland’s foreign debt, increased to 65 billion dollars. The exploitation of workers as well as the dependency of a globalized Poland is growing. The working class is being systematically and quantitatively reduced: 5,000,000 unemployed people, which equals one quarter of the employed workers in the year 21001. This is the biggest shame of capitalist globalization. One million young people with university degrees and other diplomas do not have a regular job, 85 per cent of the unemployed people do not receive any allowances. The number of homeless and criminals is rising. Furthermore, workers’ rights are cut and the democratic structures continuously destroyed. The main strategy is not decided upon by the democratic structures, but by secret panels of the big capital. The contradictions between big capital and workers are growing.

From all of this, we can conclude that capitalist globalization means new gains and profits for the big national and international groups. It means continued exploitation of workers and all labourers and the suppression of the poor countries by the imperialist powers. The contradictions between the poor and the rich are deepening; peace is increasingly threatened by the growing risks of wars. In theory, socialist society offers itself as an alternative to capitalist society, its values, its aims and conditions can be seen in practice in the present epoch when looking at China and other remaining socialist countries.

Present Polish regime trying to get Poland into the EU.

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