General Crisis of Capitalism

The overall crisis of the world capitalist system in the stage of imperialism. It includes not only capitalist economic crisis, but also capitalist political crisis and social crisis.

Marx and Engels scientifically analysed the contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production under the capitalist system, revealed the objective economic laws of the capitalist mode of production, and concluded that the capitalist system must be replaced by the socialist system. Lenin studied the objective economic laws of monopoly capitalism, i.e., imperialism, under new historical conditions, and pointed out that imperialism was the highest stage of capitalism, the eve of the proletarian socialist revolution, and that “the imperialist era will undoubtedly be one of all kinds of crises”. During the World War II and the early post-war period, the national liberation movement flourished. In particular, China and some other countries broke through the imperialist front and successively embarked on the socialist road and divorced from the capitalist world system. Stalin summed up these new changes and clearly put forward the concept of the general crisis of capitalism. He pointed out that: “The disintegration of the single, all-embracing world market must be regarded as the most important economic sequel of the World War II and of its economic consequences. It has had the effect of further deepening the general crisis of the world capitalist system.”

The beginning of the general crisis of capitalism was marked by the outbreak of the World War I, especially the victory of the October Revolution. First of all, the victory of the October Revolution broke through the front line of world imperialism, The victory of the proletariat in Russia inspired the working class of other capitalist countries and created a new era of proletarian revolution in various countries. Secondly, the October Revolution shocked the rule of imperialism in the colonial dependent countries and created a new era of national liberation struggle in colonial countries. The crisis of imperialist colonial rule began. Thirdly, the October Revolution spread the fire of the revolution to the center and rear of imperialism, weakened the power of imperialism, and made the rule of capitalism in crisis. The development of the general crisis of capitalism is marked by the great economic crisis of capitalism in the late 1920s and 1930s. Since after 1929, the most profound and serious economic crisis broke out in the history of capitalism. The crisis not only caused the collapse of the world capitalist economy, but also brought a deep disaster to the broad masses of the people and aroused their strong dissatisfaction. The economic crisis of capitalism develops into the political crisis and social crisis of capitalism.

The outbreak of the World War II was an important symbol of the deepening of the general crisis of capitalism. Although capitalist countries have strengthened the intervention and regulation of economic life, the basic contradictions of capitalism weren’t eased. On the contrary, on the basis of the unprecedented surging development of state capitalism in order to overcome the great crisis of 1929-1933, there were strange monsters of fascism and militarism. The bourgeoisie embarked on the old road of shifting to war and militarism so to overcome the economic and social crisis.

The World War II, with its unprecedented scale and unprecedented destruction, caused a catastrophe for mankind. The outcome of the war further reduced the position of capitalism and weakened its world domination, thus further deepening the general crisis of capitalism.

The root of the general crisis of capitalism lies in the basic contradictions of capitalism. Therefore, it is not a temporary phenomenon, but occurs in various historical periods of monopoly capitalism. It is not a crisis in individual economic fields, such as economic crisis and financial crisis, but a comprehensive crisis from economic base to superstructure. It is not a crisis in a country, but a crisis in the whole capitalist world system including all capitalist countries. Stalin said that the era of the general crisis of capitalism is “an era full of conflicts and wars, attacks and retreats, victories and failures”. No matter what kind of changes take place in capitalism, it cannot change the general crisis trend of capitalism. It is totally wrong to try to deny the objective fact of the general crisis of capitalism by using some mending made by monopoly capitalism in order to maintain its dominant position, or to use the example of the rapid development of capitalism after the war.