The Decline of Imperialist Democracy

As explained last month, Donald Trump kept his promise to end the genocidal military assault by the Zionist entity against Gaza. I will not call this a war. He then unveiled his own plan for “post-war” Gaza. Trump plans the permanent removal of 100% of the Palestinians from Gaza.

Who will replace them? Trump indicates that the U.S. itself would own Gaza, not Israel. Trump did not explain what this ownership means. Does it mean that U.S. businesses (including Trump’s family businesses) would build hotels and casinos to take advantage of Gaza’s beautiful Mediterranean climate? Or would Gaza become some sort of U.S. territory? He also implied that U.S. forces would replace Israeli forces, though he later walked that back claiming U.S. forces wouldn’t be needed in a Palestinian-free Gaza. (1 )

Trump claimed Gaza Palestinians would be resettled at some beautiful place nearby, such as in Jordan or Egypt, though there were some stories it might be distant Indonesia. The governments of Jordan and Egypt expressed strong opposition to any forcible resettlement in their countries. His plan also raises questions about the future of West Bank Palestinians. Many of them, as in Gaza, are refugees from other parts of Palestine. Even before Israel began its genocide in October 2023, the Zionist entity was putting pressure on the West Bank — will the next step be to drive Palestinians out of there as well? Will the U.S. own the West Bank as well as Gaza?

World Trade and Crisis Theory

In the last few chapters, we examined an ideal capitalist industrial cycle. To simplify, we assumed the capitalist world was a single country with a gold-bullion-standard currency system. Based on these assumptions, we saw that once capitalism developed to the point where it acquired the ability to carry out sudden expansions of industrial production, an industrial cycle with all its phases of crisis, depression-stagnation, average prosperity, and boom emerged.

The Boom Phase

The boom phase of the industrial cycle is of particular interest for crisis theory. It is only during a boom that capitalist expanded reproduction develops with anything approaching full force. But because it is developing vigorously, so too do its contradictions grow until they again find vent in a crisis.

From Crisis to Boom

The capitalist industrial cycle consists of four major phases: crisis, stagnation, average prosperity, and boom.

Genocide Joe

On Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, five days before Donald Trump took office, an agreement was announced for a ceasefire to take effect the following Sunday, Jan. 19. President-elect Trump sent Steve Witoff, like Trump a New York City real estate magnate, to negotiate — or rather, lay down the law — to the Netanyahu regime.

When Israeli leaders protested that it was Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, Witoff, who is Jewish, swept these pious objections aside. He said that the Netanyahu regime would have to agree to terms established the previous May.

None of the tricks that worked under Trump’s predecessor to stop a ceasefire worked this time. It was an offer the Zionist entity could not refuse.

Concrete and Abstract Industrial Cycles

Section 3: Industrial Cycles

No two industrial cycles are alike, just as no two snowflakes are identical. Each industrial cycle is shaped by numerous non-cyclical factors, including technological, political, and military influences, as well as the discovery of new natural resources unique to that cycle.

Profit and Interest

Chapter 9: Profit and Interest

Some assumptions made in this chapter

In the last chapter, I indicated that when I examine the industrial cycle proper, I will assume initially that only metallic money and credit money exist and bring in token money at a later stage—that is, I will assume a gold standard.

However, in this chapter, it is more useful to assume the existence of not only metallic and credit money but also token-paper money. Here I will assume a paper money system and not the gold standard. The reason is that the laws determining the interest rate only find their full expression under a token money standard.

Money as a Means of Payment

Chapter 8: Money as a Means of Payment

Credit relations separate the act of buying from the act of paying. Therefore, the development of credit gives rise to a new function of money: money as a means of payment.

Syria Falls to Pro-Imperialist Forces

On December 8, 2024, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s government collapsed before an offensive of U.S.-backed HTS rebels. The rebels call themselves Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham [HTS, in English: Organization for the Liberation of the Levant].

Assad was forced to flee the country after the Syrian Arab army put up little resistance to the pro-U.S.-NATO rebel offensive, ultimately finding refuge in Russia. HTS’s central leader is Ahmed al Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammad al Julani. HTS consider themselves Sunni Muslims strongly opposed to other Islamic sects, such as the Shia and Alawites, as well as to other religions, including Christians and Druze. According to the HTS, all these religions and sects worship the “one true God,” in the wrong way.

Previously, al Sharaa was a member of al-Qaeda, the group founded by Osama bin Laden — the same group credited with the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon building on 9/11/2001. The attacks killed thousands of people in the United States and were the declared target of George W. Bush’s “war on terror.” But times have changed, and today, HTS and al Sharaa are pictured by the imperialists and their media as moderates who can bring Western-style democracy and religious tolerance to the Syrian people.

When the media describes a group as moderate, it means they are doing what the U.S. imperialist world empire wants them to do. During the final days of the HTS advance to Damascus, the Israeli air force provided them with air support. U.S.-supplied Israeli forces bombed military bases and the headquarters of Syrian intelligence in the center of Damascus. The Israelis struck bases that housed Syrian troops and stockpiles of weapons that the Syrian army might have used to defend Damascus (this included the Mezzah Air Base).

How money emerges out of the simple exchanges of commodities

Chapter 7: How money emerges out of the simple exchanges of commodities

In Chapter I, Volume I of Capital, Marx presents the following equation of exchange: 20 yards of linen = one coat

For example, say I have produced 20 yards of linen. Under the prevailing conditions of exchange, I can barter the 20 yards of linen for exactly one coat of a given type. The equal sign assumes that, in some sense, 20 yards of linen are the same as one coat. But exactly what is being equated here?