Isn’t petroleum an international business? Standard Oil of New Jersey (now known as Exxon), Royal Dutch/Shell, Gulf. This has been the case with petroleum since 1973. Nor is the straitjacket magically broken when some raw material manages to escape from the curse of low prices. In the last analysis it is the German Volkswagen concern that has considered it more convenient to export cars to certain markets from its Brazilian affiliate: the low production costs and cheap labor are Brazilian, the high profits are German. The global organization of inequality is not affected by the fact that (for example) Brazil now exports Volkswagens to other South American countries and to the distant markets of Africa and the Middle East. There the multinational corporations impose their dictator ship – multinational (as Paul Sweezy explains) because they operate in many countries, yet highly and assuredly national in ownership and control. (Image: Monthly Review Press)The international market remains one of the master keys to this operation. Monopoly capital reaches its highest peak of concentration, and international domination of markets, credits, and investments makes possible the systematic and growing transfer of contradictions: the outposts pay the price for the prosperity of the centers. With the passage of time methods of exporting crises are perfected.
The international Moloch-machine has kept on grinding: countries at the service of commodities, people at the service of things.
That is recognized by the documents of specialized international organizations, in whose aseptic vocabulary our oppressed territories are “countries in process of development” and the pitiless impoverishment of the working class is “regressive income distribution.” The system has multiplied hunger and fear wealth has become more and more concentrated, poverty more and more widespread.
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