Dublin.
"agrihusiness" sector is emerging which looks for development The crisis of the 1950x relums with renewed force, Though, at the moment, the bourgeoisic has a massive political majority for Its austerity policy, a big shake-up in the politi- cal situation is likely. The beneficiaries of this But it is the split in the bourgeoisie itscif which is the most striking. Historically this has been between the large landed and banking in- terests represented by Fine Gael and the small farmers and small town businesses represented by Fianna Fail, A combination of the failure of the Fianna Fail strategy for cconomic develop- twe, the benefits of which went mainly to the larger farmers, has strengthened the landed sec- tor both within the economy and politically. An ment with the EEC induced boom in agricul спяя could he the left in Ireland. grassland, Irish agriculture could compete suc- cessfully aganst others in the FEC and the resultant cconomic boom would lead to economic development in other sectors, par- licularly agriculture-related. There undoubted- actually reinforced the the major obstacles to dominance within the historically had been economy of those very forces which development: the "...the EEC boom get of the monetarist right is not just the actions. it was such a comerstone of Fianna Fail policy. and the speed with which Haughey has about rumed on the insuc, is a recognition both of the complete fallure of past policy and a massive political problem for Fianna Fail. In the sense that this policy was accepted in the main by all sections of the ruling class in the south, the debt crisis is an index of the depth of the political forts at economic development also reveals something more fundamental about the class of Haughey but the whole policy of public spending and state intervention into the economy which had heen accepted by all governing parties at least since the 1940s. That But a history of the successive failures of ef- structure of the 26 counties and its relationship crisis.
policy, is likely to rely more and more on out- geoise shares a common history with Sinn Fein economic intervention of De Valera, Leinass, to the free market economics of the British Con- servative Party and to the intensive agriculture of the American mid west. It is virilently anti working class and, having nothing to offer along the lines of the Fianna Fail "development" The Fianna Fail wing of the sourthern bour- at least until 1926 and a common social basc: small farmers, rural workers and the small town pelly bourgenisie, who have relied on the and earlier, Humphrey Guts, It attracts more support than all than all the ober parties put fion to hold together and to bring it into the British strategy requires this unstable coali- right repression. ly was an économic boom in the 26 counties following entry to the EEC in 1973, which masked the post-oil crisis depression in the world economy after 1974, and there was a sig But the EEC boom actually reinforced the forces which historically had been the major obstacles to development: the large landed in- The landed interests because the long tem dominance within the economy of those very large landed interests and the banks... nificant effect on agriculture. terests and the banks. to imperialism. Despite the current Fashion for historical revisionism and the downplaying of ment of the economy, it is clear that the hold of the pro-imperialist/anti development elements in the "Free State" was much too strong for the government since 1933. Furthermore, it is precisely these elements in agriculture and finance, politically organised hy the Fine Gael party, which constitute the main hope for socialist republic. If the debt crisis represents the historicul failure of state intervention to promote development in the 26 counties, it is also the failure of more progressive sections of capital to overcome the obstacles placed in the the role of imperialism in the underdevclop- populist republicanism of any Fianna Fail British initiatives at the moment and which rep resent the greatest obstacle to a 32 county path of development by a well entrenched sec-
mainstream of pro-imperialist politics. But the strains inside this multi-class party are such that it scems likely to fragment as Haughey's austerity programme begins to bite. This isboth Page 29 portunity, because of the possibility of winning a significant section of the southem working class away from it allegiance to Fianna Fail: weakness, because it is only recently that Sinn Fein have taken seriously the question of or- ganising in the south. A socialist leadership which grasps the opportunity offered by the crisis of bourgonis rule in the south, will not only frustrate British strategy on the island, but significantly advance the prospect of a 32 Sinn Fein's opportunity and its weakness: op- country socialist republic. effect of EEC subsidies is the very reverse of that which was used to win small farmers to vote for EEC entry, namely to protect small farmers and to redistribule income; the banks, because many small farmers, carried away by the hype during the boom years of the mid- 1970 borrowed heavily from the hanks and found themseives being driven off the land when the boom ran out of steam in the late 1970s. At the same time the goverment became reliant on borrowing as a way of staving off harsh decisions on taxation and spending, but now that too is no longer and option. The politi- cal crisis may well lag behind the economic, but The problem for the southem bourgeoisie, its effects on the political map of the whole is: land are likcly to be huge. SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 11 December 1988/January 1989 tor which derived most of its strength from the markct, non-interventionist stance was just as pendence as it is today. In some ways it can claim to have been vindicated by events, since the failure of state intervention to promote development lends credence to the free In summary, the debt crisis represents the failure of efforts at cconomic development, hut the reasons for this failure must be sought in the balance of forces within the capitalist class in the Free State following the civil warof 1921- 23. The dominant sector of thatclass, which had led fordecades on the relationship with Britain, relationship with Britain and whose free- virulent when it ruled briefly after inde- marketeers of today-
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 11 December 1988/January 1989 Up to now, the official argument that China tion of the total output value of state-owned enterprises in the national cconomy fell from 83 per cent in 1978 to 67 per cent in 1987. The present trend is that the private economy is developing to the detriment of the state-owned enterprises. China is going further away from socialism, and the factors for developing socialism are being more and more under- October Review may be contacted at GPO Committee, by the end of 1986 there were al- 12.I1 million individual enterprises employing 18.4 million people - about 14 per cent of the total of workers employed in state und collective enterprises. His article said that these figures did not include enterprises that operated on a part-time basis, or not formally or usually in operation, Therefore the figures is still practising socialism has been that the outpul value of state-owned enterposes con- stitutes the majority of the country's total out- However according to Lei Dong, the propor- Fujian Province the overwhelming majority of per cent of all output valuc: in Chuangzhou director of China's Industrial Economy As- sociation, up the the end of 1987 there were 15.15 million rural enterprises, cmploying 79 As for the development of individual enterprises, according to an article by Yuan Zhang, member of Jiangsu Province Planning constituted less than one percent of industrial Wuchuan in Guangdong Province, where the output value of privale enterprises constituted ing county it was 35 per cent: 38 per cent in southern regions of Jiangsu Province; in the Wenzhou region, the weight was ahoul 60 per cent in industrial output. 58 per cent in pas- senger transport volume and 65 per cent in freight transport volume; in Shishi City in rural enterprises are already in private hands. Shishi City belongs to Jinjiang County where the output value of private enterprises was 61.4 Rural enterpriscs have also developed rapid- ly in the past few years. According In Lei Dong, The official claim that private enterprise output value is also unbelievable. Of course there is unevenness in development among dif- examples included 48 percent of that in the whole county; in Kaip- are much lower than the actual situation? original published in October Review, journal of the Hong Kong section of the Fourth International. County it was 67.4 per cent. Box 10144, Hong Kong: ferent regions; but Licensed, employed in enterprises above or below eight persons, and gave the figure of 30 seriously underestimate the actual dimension of enterprises" includes both employers and the in the private economy, Professor Ge Lin of workers, whether they were licensed or un- figures show 17,294 private enterprises. Bur ang Region (one of the ten regions of the Province there were already 27,000 enterprises The official term of 'persons engaged in the exploited workers, thus covering up the relationship of wage employment While the official figure was 3.6 million people engaged Nanjing University took into account all imously agreed that the official statistics cconomy was not very developed, official dividual and private economy in the city has a 33 per cent in the commercial sector and about (People's Daily June 19, 1988). How can such In Hebei Province, where the private economy. Yet in terms of exploitation or there is no qualitative difference hetween an enterprise employing over eight workers and about official reaction, tending to report figures For example, let us look at Wenzhou City, Less than ten private enterprises are registered with the Industrial and Commercial Bureau, whereas the deputy director of the local CCP Policy Research Bureau pointed out that in- weight of 41 per cent in the industrial sector, two thirds in communications and transport. economic activities be those of jusi ten enterprises Yet the figure is the basis for com- In June, a national conference on the study of the private economy was convened in Fuz- hou: about 200 officials, theoreticians and rep- resentative private entrepreneurs almost unan- findings by scholars showed that in just Hand- total industrial output value of the country was In fact the above figures were faire, aiming to cover up the real situation. Only enterprises employing more than eight workers were con- sidered to be part of the private economy: those with less were deemed to be the individual private ownership of the means of production, Worse, the official figures were based on where the private economy is most developed. reports from employers, who were (based on thie same official criteria). million by the end of 1987. far below the real situation. one employing only sic piling official statistics, the private economy- Ices than one percent. Private enterprises in the whole country. gress to revise some articles of the constitution But to what extent had the private economy grown before it was made legal? Probing this question can help predict developments after employing 3.6 million workers (on average 16 wotkers per enterprise); their proportion of the proletariat, whereby the majority of the people exercise democratic management of the state, and the producers directly manage production. was not introduced. On the contrary, there was For several years, however, the CCP has al- lowed the private economy to develop in China, in violation of the prevailing constitution. Last March, a resolution was adopted at the First In fact what China practised for 30 years had bureaucratic dictatorship and severe social in- Session of the Seventh National People's Con- - in order officially to protect the legal develop- would advise you not to practise socialism, or developed. (Wen Hui Bao, Chinese CP publi- The two leaders were Deng Xiaoping and Zhan tice was in their view basically wrong, and nothing in common with socialism as advanced throw of capitalism, the dictatorship of the reliahle source that a leader of the CCP. when Since their advice to other countries is not lo therefore China should develop a private by Marx and Engels, In China, after the over- decades China practised fake socialism, blame was put on socialism and state Almost at the same time, another CCP owned economy as China did in the past; in- When this met with dismal failure, the ownership, while a eulogy was sung to the vitality of capitalism and the private The Chinese News Agency reported 'from a he interviewed the head of state of an African country, said: "from China's experience, 1 leader, when interviewing this leader of a black state, also advised him not to develop a state- stead more private economy should be The CCP did not deny or clarify this report. practise socialism, it means China's past prac- Under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), for over three at least not to practise gencral sociulism.* cation in Hong Kong, June 6, 1988). ment of the capitalist economy.
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