I am very interested in learning about changes in imperial core production. I have been feeling for some time now that the Ukraine conflict in part is an excuse to ramp up arms production for a conflict with China and I don’t know where to get analysis of imperial arms production trends.
The last time USA had to engage in a intensive longtime warfare was really WW2, and for that they needed to basically reorganise their entire economy.
Which simply cannot happen ever again. The last time it happened it was a significant upset to the establishment and we had politicians competent enough to do it. Half the people in charge of this shithole now have dementia and/or wear adult diapers. No way in hell anything like the WW2 mobilizations ever happens again.
In a way, we can hope that it’ll happen. Because as soon as the US or the rest of Europe (i.e. not Russia or perhaps a few other outliers (Belarus?) move away from the current neoliberal model, capitalism is done. The raisin d’être for any of these wars falls apart. There’s no point causing war for profit if you can’t make the profit. And the kind of nationalised manufacturing in question would probably have to go hand in hand with a draft. I can’t see that going well.
As soon as imperialist war hawks start to say anything about mobilising manufacturing, Marxists need to be ready to jump to point out the contradiction. I very strongly doubt that even gullible western liberals will be duped into supporting a ‘just war’ where there is no real evidence of injustice. But who knows?
I very strongly doubt that even gullible western liberals will be duped into supporting a ‘just war’ where there is no real evidence of injustice.
They will just manufacture the injustice like that always have. Against the USSR, China, Russia, etc. They barely have to try at this point. If it’s against a foreign power libs will literally believe anything negative that’s made up about it. We can see that with the Lemmy libs every day. lol. No amount of evidence will sway these ppl. Not saying we shouldn’t still try but just saying, for the vast majority of western libs, the western propaganda machine has it easy with making up a justification for war.
Just look how American liberals froth at the mouth to believe every heinous thing accused of Russia and how they were cheering for the retaliation towards innocent Russian citizens. Look how easy it was for them to discard their “progressive” attitudes.
Now imagine when it’s time to mobilize that lingering prejudice against a non-white nation like China.
It’s easier for them to hate other governments that do anything about their own shitty one.
You’re probably right, there, unfortunately. Not to mention those who wouldn’t need an excuse at all because they’ve grown up believing or otherwise come to think that others aren’t fully human.
There’s no point causing war for profit if you can’t make the profit
Allow me to disagree a bit. There remains a point to prevent the others from industrialization and general rise. It won’t make profit by itself, but it remains a big reason for war
That’s true. And we’re dealing with people who can’t picture a world without them or their logic.
I wouldn’t put past western liberals supporting any war. If there isn’t some vague “injustice” they will just make things up without even a scratch of truth. Remember how much it was vastly believed when the USA and the UK came up with the idea of Iraq having WMDs?
😔 I remember, unfortunately.
The thing with western arms production is that the fundamental model hasn’t changed, it’s a privatized neoliberal profit driven one and as such there are inherent limitations to how much and how fast the production rates can be increased no matter how much political will there exists to ramp things up.
They are incapable of competing with the war industrial capacity of Russia let alone China and they are incapable of changing this because they cannot change their hyper-financialized economic model.
it’s a privatized neoliberal profit driven one
So is modern Russia’s. We just got a bit of leftover Soviet infrastructure and engineers
I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with you on this. That may be the case in most of the rest of the Russian economy but at least as far as the military industrial sector (as well as parts of the extractive industries, most notably oil and gas) is concerned, Russia’s is state owned to a significant degree and functions more like China’s (which is not to say that it is like it was in the USSR as China itself follows a more mixed economic model than the strictly command economy of the Soviet Union) than like the US and Europe’s.
It’s always hilarious to me when a westerner (journalist or not) is forced to indirectly admit they didn’t know what they were talking about, or that they were lying. Because news came out that completely contradicts what they said, and they can’t go against it without becoming ostracized by their peers.
