Brad’s Reviews > The Structural Crisis of Capital > Status Update
Brad
is on page 87 of 218
"Capital, when it reaches a point of saturation in its own setting and...cannot find outlets for further expansion through the vehicle of imperialism and neo-colonialism, has no alternative but to make its indigenous labour force suffer the grave consequences of the deteriorating rate of profit."
The ambiguous "point of saturation" depends, in part, on a presence or absence of political impediments to expansion...
— Jan 05, 2026 11:16AM
The ambiguous "point of saturation" depends, in part, on a presence or absence of political impediments to expansion...
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Brad’s Previous Updates
Brad
is on page 151 of 218
In contrast to overemphasizing quantitative development of productive forces, or consumer goods market saturation with the West as comparative metric. Hakim mentions this in a video.
— Jan 06, 2026 07:25PM
A genuine socialist planning process is unthinkable without overcoming the fetishism of the commodity...To be really meaningful, the criteria of socialist planning must be defined in qualitative terms.
In contrast to overemphasizing quantitative development of productive forces, or consumer goods market saturation with the West as comparative metric. Hakim mentions this in a video.
Brad
is on page 147 of 218
Istvan Mészáros, January 2003
— Jan 06, 2026 05:29PM
No doubt, those who refuse to contemplate the very idea of meaningful change will continue to try to wipe out the time of Latin American radical leaders appearing on the historical stage. But equally beyond doubt, such leaders are bound to rise, again and again, for as long as the profound historical reasons for their arrival are not positively attended to.
Istvan Mészáros, January 2003
Brad
is on page 132 of 218
— Jan 06, 2026 03:56PM
Given the massive inertia generated by capital's vested interests in the privileged capitalist countries and reformist labour's consensual complicity in their self-serving development, a triggering social upheaval is much more likely to take place in Latin America than in the United States or Western Europe, with far-reaching implications for the rest of the world.
Brad
is on page 121 of 218
"The task of restructuring the economy turns out to be primarily political and social, and not economic."
This is because the "economic" is narrowly perceived. Think of the temporary payments during COVID. For Mészáros, the historic task is sustained organizing to insist the lessons learned reverberate beyond the containable logic of adaptation to crisis. Don't let the old logic reassert itself.
— Jan 06, 2026 01:29PM
This is because the "economic" is narrowly perceived. Think of the temporary payments during COVID. For Mészáros, the historic task is sustained organizing to insist the lessons learned reverberate beyond the containable logic of adaptation to crisis. Don't let the old logic reassert itself.
Brad
is on page 109 of 218
"Western capital has become far more dependent on the Third World---for raw materials, energy, capital outlets, and eagerly repatriated super-profit---than the other way around."
Especially if Western capital presumes direct control in the periphery and throws potential compradors under the bus as political liabilities...
— Jan 06, 2026 11:28AM
Especially if Western capital presumes direct control in the periphery and throws potential compradors under the bus as political liabilities...
Brad
is on page 106 of 218
"The force of circumstance, tragically constraining and determining the character of a transitional effort as a holding operation, is one thing; the necessity of a radical transformation on a global scale is quite another. Today, the need for a comprehensive theory of transition appears...in the perspective of the socialist offensive."
— Jan 05, 2026 09:35PM
Brad
is on page 92 of 218
"the real problems of a socialist transformation cannot be grasped without fully acknowledging that capital and commodity production not only precede but also necessarily survive capitalism; and they do not do so simply as a matter of 'Asiatic backwardness'...but as a matter of innermost structural determinations."
Coming from Mészáros the 'Marxist humanist', but music to my inner Althusserian's ears!
— Jan 05, 2026 08:41PM
Coming from Mészáros the 'Marxist humanist', but music to my inner Althusserian's ears!
Brad
is on page 92 of 218
"The crucial criterion for the assessment of partial measures is whether or not they are capable of functioning as Archimedean points: i.e., as strategic levers for a radical restructuring of the global system of social control."
— Jan 05, 2026 11:41AM
Brad
is on page 81 of 218
— Jan 05, 2026 10:24AM
The blind 'natural law' of the market mechanism carries with it the consequence that the grave social problems necessarily associated with capital production and concentration are never solved, only postponed, and...transferred to the military plane.
...When the local limits are reached there is no way out except by violently readjusting the prevailing relation of forces.
Brad
is on page 50 of 218
Cautionary:
— Jan 04, 2026 06:17PM
People who speak of, and attach so much significance to, the alleged decline of the U.S. as a hegemonic power seem to forget that such possibilities---i.e., the many ways of imposing astronomical U.S. indebtedness on the rest of the world...are available only to one single country, in view of its practically undisputed...hegemonic power within the capitalist world.
