Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index

Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive


New International, July 1948

 

Homer Paxon

Marshall Plan: Road to Conquest

Analysis of the American Way of Imperialism

 

From The New International, Vol. XIV No. 5, July 1948, pp. 138–143.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.

 

The Marshall Plan or the European Recovery Program has to be regarded how the viewpoint of (a) the internal contradictions of US capitalism, (b) World War II and the destruction wrought in it, and (c) preparation for World War III.

For over 30 years US capitalism has been exporting far more than it has imported. World War I saw the most rapid transformation of the US from a debtor nation to a creditor. Fundamentally the change to a creditor nation – i.e., one exporting more capital and capital goods than it imports – was only an indication of the expansion of US industry and finance to a dominant position in the world.

World War II accelerated this process of expansion. American industry experienced an enormous increase in plant and equipment (financed by the government), necessitated by the tremendous demands placed upon it by the requirements of the total war.

With the end of military hostilities the limitless market, created by war itself, ceased. The ravenous demand of the greatest imperialist war machine the world has ever seen suddenly became but a small child’s appetite when Germany and Japan surrendered. While US capitalism had to export prior to World War II in order to maintain a growing economy, now – with a far larger productive capacity – the drive to export has become a dominating force of US capitalism’s attempt to prevent disaster both at home and abroad.

In the first two years following World War II, the US has exported a total of 30 billion dollars worth of goods (twenty billions in aid, ten billions military supplies). [1] This is more than the whole period from 1930–1940 inclusive! Now the ERP contemplates another $7½ billion, exclusive of military aid, during the next four-year period.
 

Picture of Destruction

In addition to the pressure of US production, part of which the ruling class is forced to export, there exist the other two factors mentioned in the last paragraph. As a result of the unprecedented destruction wrought by World War II and the great imperialist rivalry of the two former allies, there exists a tremendous need for US production. This has two aspects:

  1. to rehabilitate those parts of the world which suffered great destruction during the war, and
     
  2. to build a bulwark of –friendly” and subordinated capitalist countries in order to prevent their absorption into the Russian orbit and to prepare them for their part in the coming struggle for domination of the world.

Destruction of the European economy was most severe. In Italy 30 per cent of industry was destroyed, 40 per cent of the railroads were wrecked, and shipping was reduced to 10 per cent of its pre-war size. In France war losses and damage are estimated at $21 billion. Industrial production was reduced 10 per cent and one building out of every twenty-two was destroyed or damaged.

Similar destruction and loss occurred throughout the European continent. In addition the displacement of peoples and the demoralization of whole nations of peoples, plus millions slaughtered by war, have created economic and political problems of enormous magnitude.

The heating of homes and buildings and the provision of hot water in cities have already been reduced below the levels necessary for maintaining health. [2]

Production of coal is at a very low level and is one of the essential items of export in the Marshall Plan. Coal production has declined for numerous reasons:

  1. Loss of miners and no replacements since young men were all drafted.
     
  2. No replacement of machinery during the war.
     
  3. Inadequate food, clothing, and shelter have de-creased the productivity of the miners.
     
  4. Some of the richest coal veins were exhausted during the war.

In Germany the calculated policy of dismantling the factories has added to the lack of production throughout the continent.

The division of Europe resulting from the war has only added to the crisis. Western Europe has lost one of its major coal producing areas – the mines of German Silesia – to Poland, and the products of these fields are not available to Western Europe to the same extent as before the war. The interruption of German production and trade and its disastrous effects upon European economy are easily seen.

Italy formerly received 50 per cent of its coal supply from Germany. and now receives only 10 per cent. To pay for coal Italy used to export to Germany fruit, vegetables and wine; now she exports none. German workers need the food. Italian industry needs the coal, but the trade is virtually nil, causing suffering to both.

Such is a small part of the European picture following World War II: a hideous picture of starving peoples, crippled industries, lack of exchange – capitalist and Stalinist debauchery at its worst.

The third factor behind the Marshall Plan is preparation for World War III. The capitalist rulers of the US are, of course, consciously preparing and planning for it. Eastern Europe is being feverishly prepared in every way to play its part in the Stalinist camp; likewise Western Europe, through the Marshall Plan, for its part in the US camp. Both the rulers in the Kremlin and the dominant section of the American capitalist class are perfectly aware of their –mission” to lead their respective peoples and satellite allies into a death struggle with the hated rival.

The preparations for World War III, which are an integral part of the Marshall Plan, will be explained in great,er detail as we look at the realities of the plan. It is enough at the moment to recognize that the preparation for World War III is the overall, dominant policy of the American ruling class.

This is the background of the Marshall Plan: the contradictions of American capitalism coupled with the destruction of World War II and the preparations for World War III. Specifically the ERP was concocted following the breakdown of negotiations between Russia and the US, negotiations which were conducted in the hope of arriving at a joint rehabilitation of Europe and a joint oppression and exploitation of the peoples of that continent – negotiations which were doomed to failure before they began due to the irreconcilability of the imperialist contenders’ rivalry.
 

Master Plan of Imperialism

The most common misconception of ERP is that its applications are confined to Europe.

Technically speaking, the plan and the subsequent bill passed by Congress did indeed define it as economic aid to Europe in the interests of human welfare, world peace, national self-interest and other noble purposes. However, even Congress has recognized that military aid is an essential of the program and has now virtually made it so. Aid to China also was discussed and passed simultaneously and in conjunction with ERP.

Most important, however, are the facts bared by congressional committee reports – not all of which have been made available – revealing clearly and unmistakably the world-wide implications of ERP and the designs and plans of American imperialism to dominate and exploit no less than three-quarters of the world’s resources, markets, and peoples. –To the victor belong the spoils” and –He who pays the piper calls the tune” are old saws as applicable to the world perspective of American capitalism as they are to capitalist morality in general. US capitalism emerged victor in the war, and it intends to cash in. US capitalism is to pay for rehabilitation, and it intends to call the tune.

The Marshall Plan in actuality is perhaps the most comprehensive and conscious expression of the course of imperialism, both as to the present and the near future, as was ever devised by a ruling class. The actual mechanics of this imperialist master plan are only too clearly outlined in the committee reports on ERP.

Roughly ERP can be divided into four parts:

  1. What must be sent to Europe and where will it come from?
     
  2. Provisions for administration and conditions attached to the expenditure of funds.
     
  3. Payment and security for the money loaned.
     
  4. Cost to the US and its effect on US economy.

All four points are germane to an understanding of ERP and its implications for the American working class. Western Europe’s most urgent needs may be classified as follows: (1) Foodstuffs, fuel, and fertilizers. (2) Commodities to he processed and certain types of specialized equipment (agricultural machinery, etc.). (3) Capital goods and equipment.

Foods, fuel, and fertilizer rank first both in urgency and in the dollar cost of acquisition. As stated by the Paris Conference of the sixteen European countries, they constitute about 50 per cent of the required imports from all dollar sources for the four years. Without the maintenance of an adequate food ration, there is no possibility of expanding production. Without increased coal to turn the wheels of industry, output will remain too low to provide any flow of exports to balance import requirements. [3]

Petroleum is also vital to industrial activity and fertilizer to the famished soil of Europe, for agricultural production. It is planned to ship into Western Europe about $600 million worth of petroleum and petroleum products a year for the next four years.

Incentive goods such as clothing and tobacco will constitute about 5 per cent of the total. These goods are to be distributed to –key” workers in order to increase their production. (–Feed the horse more hay and you can work him harder” is the meaning content of the term –incentive goods.”)
 

Whole World in Network

Where the goods to be sent to Europe will come from is another story. Obviously the major portion will come from the US But not all of it can come from this country, and this entails the coordination of the Marshall Plan with other nations outside of Europe which can produce a surplus in certain articles.

Certain countries other than the US which are in a position to supplement a program of aid, which have the same incentive as we to do so and which enjoy access to US supplies, should be expected to cooperate each in relation to its respective capacity. [4]

The nations of the Western Hemisphere are thereby brought into the plan for two reasons. First, their food and petroleum products are needed. Secondly, they too are receiving –aid” from the US and must pay for it. One of the purposes of the recent Bogota Conference was to establish the part that South America would play in ERP. The conference established a military and anti-Russian alliance but had to postpone, probably till fall, a decision on ERP.

An additional reason, and one of stark economic necessity, why the US must include other nations in the supply program is that all European requirements cannot be met by this country.

For instance, Europe’s requirements for food cannot be met wholly from US agricultural production. Hence South America must help. Petroleum, a product of prime necessity for Europe, is imported by the US in order to meet its own demands. Obviously petroleum for Europe must come from sources outside of the US The plan does in fact make provision for this.

This naturally does not mean that oil coming from foreign countries will not benefit American capital. In fact, quite the contrary. To quote but one example:

... it is reported that an Italian company has entered into a contract with Venezuela for one million barrels of royalty oil to be delivered over a period of two years at a bonus of 20½ cents per barrel over the base price. This will net the Venezuelan government a quarter of a million dollars which it would not have received had the oil been sold to the producers, who were most likely in large measure US companies ... There is obviously a need for more careful screening than this procedure affords and for a control of competitive purchasing of petroleum and its products ... [5]

Clearly the Venezuelan government will not be allowed the profit from the oil produced in the country; the profits must go to the US capitalists who –produce” the Venezuelan oil.

Another aspect of the supply problem involves petroleum and steel and concerns Germany. The world demand for petroleum products is outstripping the ability to produce petroleum equipment and the means of transporting it, primarily tankers.

Unless European and particularly German steel and petroleum equipment capacity is brought into early and all-out use there is a danger of persisting world shortage that may make impossible the realization of any such program as is anticipated by the CEEC. The limitation on petroleum available to Europe may be one of the most difficult factors limiting European recovery. [6]

After having originally proposed to make of Germany first an agricultural nation and then a No Man’s Land, the American bourgeoisie here finally recognizes that the most advanced and largest industrial nation on the European continent is needed in a modern economy. This is at least a part of the explanation for the present policy of rehabilitating, instead of dismantling, German industry. (The other part of the explanation is undoubtedly the urge to use Germany and German industry in the coming battle with the rulers in the Kremlin.)

Another source of petroleum and its products is the cheapening of petroleum products now being produced for US consumption. But more on this in connection with the cost of ERP.

Capital and capital goods will be supplied almost wholly from America. Steel and coal will be supplied by the US to the utmost of its ability. Coal, which Europe needs most direly, will come from US mines, supplemented by European coal to whatever extent possible.

Though a steel shortage continues to persist in the US, that is primarily due to the already large exports of this commodity, exports which will continue under ERP. The supplying of steel to Europe will continue the shortage in the US and thereby help maintain the high price. The shipping of steel to Europe creates an additional drain on the steel industry in that much needed scrap will not be forthcoming from steel which is exported. Needless to say, the US is the only nation which can export capital at the present time.
 

Question of Repayment

Under the Marshall Plan loans will be made on various bases so that the sixteen nations of Western Europe can pay for what they receive. The programs for repayment of the loans, and the security which the European countries receiving aid must provide, constitute one of the most intriguing and ruthless imperialist plans ever devised. The administration of the plan, the provisions and conditions attached to it, and the repayment of the loans are the essence of the Marshall Plan. An examination of them will clearly reveal the world-wide imperialist, aims of US capitalism and its preparations for World War III. Before any elaboration of the conditions attached to the Marshall Plan and the repayment of loans can be considered, two facts must be understood. The act of Congress providing funds for Europe contains only a broad outline of general policy. The details and actual workings of the plan are left to the administrator, Paul Hoffman, a representative of big industry.

Secondly, some of the most important aspects of the plan will emerge only in the form of the treaties which will be negotiated with each of the recipient countries. What these treaties will contain we cannot state unequivocally. Nevertheless, sufficient material has been published in the form of congressional committee reports to give a clear outline of the implications of the ERP.

Some of the committee reports are not yet published and the treaties themselves may never be published. Much of the material which follows is taken from preliminary reports of the Select Committee of the House (Herter Committee). Other material is taken from the Harriman Committee report and the report of the Committee on Foreign Aid. Newspaper and periodical material on these aspects of the plan is purposefully scarce. [7] Voluntary censorship can be as effective as the legal type when the interests of the bourgeoisie are at stake.

The preliminary condition placed upon the European nations are well known. The demands made by the US government that the Western European nations form an economic union, that they agree to exchange and cooperate with each other, that trade barriers be reduced to a minimum, and now the pressure for military alliance – all this is too well known to warrant great elaboration. Their significance is equally obvious and needs only an additional word of explanation.

No European country is self-sufficient. The need for an economic union was recognized decades ago by the revolutionary socialist movement and was expressed in the slogan –For a Socialist United States of Europe.” Hitler also had to unify the continent economically, in his own way, in recognition of an obvious economic fact. Now, in order to rehabilitate Western Europe and make of it an effective buffer zone against Stalinism, US imperialism likewise demands the same end.

The free exchange of goods not only supplements this but also fills an obvious need of American capitalism, namely, the need to export. American capitalism can now flood the European market and meet little or no opposition in the way of tariffs, quotas, etc.
 

Tying Europe to the Dollar

The ERP Act itself requires all participating nations to abide by the terms of the act and the treaties under which they will receive aid. This is backed up by the power given to the president to shut off aid at any time. The very fact that the aid upon which these countries are dependent for their existence can be shut off at any time that the US cares to do so – this constitutes a weapon in power politics of tremendous magnitude.

It underlines the state of European economy today and the overshadowing power of US capitalism. Europe is shoved toward the position of a starving bondsman who, unless he pleases his master daily, may have even his crust of bread denied.

The ERP Act itself provides that each country receiving aid must set aside a fund of its own currency equivalent to the amount which it receives in the form of aid in American dollars. This fund is to be used for purposes mutually agreed upon by the US and the country receiving aid. Given the relationship which exists – i.e., one of overlord and subordinate – one does not need to press his imagination too hard to understand just how –mutual” any such agreement will be with respect to the use of this fund. US capitalism is in the dictator’s seat.

In conjunction with this is the demand that the European countries stabilize their currencies. Stabilize them with what? With the pound sterling or the French franc or the Japanese yen? Naturally not: with the gold dollar.

With their currencies stabilized with the dollar, and with a reserve fund set aside to be used for purposes of –mutual interest,” let us see what is going to happen. According to the Herter Committee reports on ERP, industries which will be of mutual benefit to both the US and the recipient nation should be developed. This means, among others, the armament industry – which will certainly be of –mutual benefit” when the war with Stalinist Russia begins!

Again, the coal industry of Western Europe will probably ‘come in for some development – Hitler-style. The problem of supplying coal, albeit a profitable one, is still difficult, and US capitalism would like to alleviate the difficulties. Lot us look at just two of their solutions for solving the European coal problem by –developing the European coal industry.”

In England it is planned to require the British coal industry to turn to strip mining in order to increase coal production. In addition, a third shift of miners is to be put on in order to work the strip mines. If British workers do not want to work a third shift or to flock into the mines, they will in all likelihood be –gently urged” by the Laborite government.
 

Hitlerite Solution

Here is another solution – truly a Hitlerian one, complete with population shift, etc. I quote in full:

There are approximately, at the present time, 85,000 Germans working in the French and Belgian coal mines, 50,000 in France and 35,000 in Belgium. These mines produce approximately 65,000 tons of steam coal per day which cannot readily or efficiently be used for coking purposes, as the productivity of labor is greater in the Ruhr mines than in France or Belgium. The military authorities propose that the German prisoners of war be returned to the Ruhr as soon as possible, where they can produce about 100,000 additional tons of coking coal. France and Belgium would be compensated for the loss of 65,000 tons of ordinary steam coal per day by receiving from Germany 65,000 tons per day of coking coal, a far more desirable grade of coal. There would remain in Germany an additional 35,000 tons per day of coking coal or a total of approximately 9,000,000 tons per year which would greatly assist the recovery of German industry, to the ultimate benefit of the whole of Western Europe. If France and Belgium could replace the German miners with Italians and Poles and other Eastern and Southern Europeans, they might be able to continue the production of the 65,000 tons of steam coal per day which would be lost by removal of the German prisoners of war and thus enjoy an actual gross increase in coal supplies equal to the 65,000 tons of highly necessary coking coal to be imported from the Ruhr. [8]

Send the German miners back to German mines, drag in as replacements Italians, Poles or anything else you can get your hands on, and a big step forward has been taken in –solving” the European coal problem. It is noted elsewhere in these same committee reports that, despite the heavy overpopulation of Italy, the Italians are reluctant to migrate. The reasons: (a) the restrictions placed upon their emigration, and (b) the lack of incentive offered by countries which desire them.

What incentive would be offered to Poles, Italians of others going to work in French and Belgian coal mines? Of this the Herter report says nothing. We do know that This entire recommendation comes from the military, and we do know from well-established precedent that the incentive ordinarily offered by the military is more often than not something closely resembling involuntary servitude.

And so goes the Marshall Plan with its rehabilitation of Western Europe for capitalism.

Let us look at another side of the same question – development of industries which will be of mutual benefit. Suppose the small-time European capitalists want to develop some of their industries which, when developed, would offer competition to the same industries in the US? Will they be permitted to go ahead with their plans?

The answer is clearly given if we take but a brief look at the Herter Committee comments on the proposals for steel production made by the CEEC. For 1948 the CEEC made estimates for the export of steel from Western Europe, excluding Germany, as follows: 1.47 million tons more than in 1938 to outside countries and 990,000 tons to colonial territories – 660,000 tons more than in 1938.
 

US Steel and –Mutual Benefits”

Thus total exports to outside areas will exceed 1938 levels by 2.13 million net tons, or roughly two-thirds of the prospective adverse impact of CEEC demands as indicated above. The Paris Conference Steel Report does not provide any justification for the increased rate. Again:

In this connection a review of the major steel expansion programs under way in the United Kingdom, France, and several other nations would seem appropriate. Such programs are large consumers of home-made steel as well as of scarce equipment to be supplied by the US Can they be afforded at this time and what sort of world steel picture will they present when completed? Before building up export steel capacity for the future in Europe at very heavy cost to production for consumers’ steel today, is there not a real need to look at the prospects for marketing the capacity that will result and its probable contribution to a lack of world balance harmful to all concerned? [9]

One must be pretty nearly blind not to be able to understand that the European steel industry is to be severely restricted so as to leave the world market to the tender mercies of the US Steel Corporation.

It is worthwhile to note that, while it is definitely planned to limit European steel production, steel is not the only industry which will be restricted. Certainly the automobile and petroleum industries and others will have their say on that.

It might be interesting to point out in this connection that the oil industry plans not only to limit European oil production but actually to decrease it, thereby making Europe more dependent on US capitalism than heretofore. This will be done by the virtual expropriation of foreign oil holdings of the European bourgeoisie.

Moreover, the simple restriction of the European steel industry by itself is like a clamp on the very life blood of any modern industrial economy. So necessary are both steel and oil to industrial production that both can be used as indexes of production. The implications of the Marshall Plan multiply as we examine its details.

Taken as a whole, the conditions attached to the ERP constitute an attempt to impose a straight jacket of control over the European economy, a control which is designed to ensure not merely the partial recovery of European economy, in the hopes of saving it from Stalinism and preparing it for the Third World War, but a control designed to ensure the continued predominance of US capital on the European and world markets. The actual administration of this program of control over the European economy will be carried out by the –roving ambassador” and his staff of assistants and inspectors.

In Europe these economic dictators will swing more weight than the wealthiest bourgeois or the most royal of the royally. To kiss their feet may mean the difference between business success or failure.

The payment which the capitalist class of the US will receive for the services rendered to Western Europe must be commensurate with the power and prestige of the wealthiest and most powerful ruling class in the world today. Anything less would be a travesty on justice and a violation of all laws of profit held dear by that class.
 

Payoffs and Stock Piles

The Herter Committee reports are most enlightening in respect to this matter of payment. Like a small child who suddenly finds himself alone in a candy store, so the Herter Committee suddenly awakens to the realization that the possibilities of repayment are almost limitless if you look around alertly. I shall quote extensively on this subject for it is here that the world-wide imperialist character of the Marshall Plan most clearly reveals itself.

Here too we will obtain a glimpse of the stockpiling program for –national defense.” Obviously most of the sixteen European countries cannot pay in cash for the aid they receive. But payment in kind for stockpiling purposes is found very acceptable. The act itself provides for stockpiling, through the agreements which each recipient country must sign

... facilitating the transfer to the United States by sale, exchange, barter, or otherwise for stockpiling or other purposes, for such period of time as may be agreed to and upon reasonable terms and in reasonable quantities, of materials which are required by the United States as a result of deficiencies or potential deficiencies in it? own resources ... [10]

A rather broad provision which can be interpreted as broadly as the demands of US capital require! To transfer by sale, exchange, barter, or otherwise can certainly include any conceivable method, including expropriation, as we shall see. To supply materials which are deficient or potentially deficient can mean everything with the exception of sunshine and air. For stockpiling or other purposes also gives more than ample room for the broad interpretive powers of US capitalism. This is the section of the ERP Act under which a large part of the payment and security for US loans will be negotiated.

It is this section of the act which will legally give to the US the predominant position in the world which its victory in World War II and its overwhelming economic superiority demand for it. Let us see how the Herter Committee reports fill in the vacuum of the broad phraseology of the act.

The Herter Committee reports, speaking of the replacement for commodities exported under ERP, say:

What form ought such replacement take? A few examples of such possibilities may serve to indicate the line that should be systematically explored in making every master agreement through whatever agency the Congress sets up to implement the foreign-aid program. The first is iron ore. Very high-grade deposits of iron ore are known to exist in Labrador as well as in neighboring Quebec. Labrador is a portion of Newfoundland, which in turn is a colony of Britain and not a dominion. Present efforts to arrange for a change of Newfoundland to the dominion status or to a partnership on federal terms with Canada might be made the basis for negotiations through the United Kingdom so that some participation in these resources be allocated as security against a US loan to Britain. Similar treatment might well be considered in connection with the British Shell holdings in Venezuelan oil. A systematic review of world resources on this basis would produce astonishing results in terms of possibilities of repayment. New Caledonia, a French possession in the Pacific, has rich nickel and chrome deposits. We are pouring out our own resources to aid these countries. An equivalent guarantee of repayment through stockpiling or participation is only a fair return. When it is inexpedient politically or otherwise to attempt this direct solution of acquisition of mineral rights, a combination of American private capital for development under government partial guarantee plus stockpile deliveries over a 25-year period would go far towards repaying some of the Marshall Plan program loans and possibly securing interest coverage on previous advances. [11]

Again from the Herter reports:

Because the production of strategic metals and minerals in Western Europe is. considerably less than the over-all requirements of that area, Western Europe itself can make little contribution to the stock piles. If, however, the colonial territories controlled by the countries of Western Europe are included, a very respectable total can be shown. Therefore the ideal arrangement would be for the colonial governments involved to undertake a firm commitment to supply a stated annual tonnage for a period of several years – ten to twenty years being an ideal period for assuring a normal return on capital without either undue profit to the producers or unwise use of scarce equipment for developing and exploiting mining properties. If the US agrees to take such a stated annual tonnage the colonial governments could then in turn make similar agreements with the individual producers [etc.]. [Ibid.]

And even more:

Provided that necessary safeguards are established there is no question that in the mineral field at least, American capital is available to take over or supplement European investments in many colonial areas. US capital is already heavily invested in Rhodesian copper, Canadian nickel and aluminum, and Surinam bauxite. The new lead-zinc deposits in Morocco are being developed in part with American capital. Given a stable government, American capital would probably undertake the re-equipment of the important lead-zinc deposits in Burma. It is difficult to measure in terms of dollars just how far this might go ... [etc.]. [Ibid.]

And these are only preliminary reports! The full reports are not yet available.
 

The American Way of Imperialism

Surely this material needs little comment! US imperialism has never had need to operate in the traditional manner of the British, French or German imperialisms. These countries had to acquire direct political possession of the colonial areas in order to control, subjugate and exploit them. American imperialism, with its overwhelming capacity to produce, has always used economic penetration as its main weapon of gaining economic and political control over another country.

As Marx said in the Communist Manifesto, –The cheap prices of its [the bourgeoisie’s] commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians’ intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate.” It is with the cheapness and plentifulness of its commodities that US capitalism invades not only the –Chinese walls” but the walls of its capitalist competitors, the nations of Europe. Needless to add, US imperialism is in no wise averse to the use of arms to assist its economic invasions if necessary.

It is certainly clear that the Marshall Plan or ERP is revealed as the master plan of the American capitalist class to control the economies of Western Europe and to control and exploit without question a major portion of the colonial world. The exploitation of the colonial world is planned as –payment” or –security” against the loans made to Europe. The loans to Europe provide the levers to control European economy. This is the plan sold to the American workers under the guise of a plan primarily to rehabilitate Europe.

American private capital aims not only to supplant European capital but proposes to get assistance by –partial government guarantee” in its exploitation of the colonial areas. This is cost-plus extended to the world imperialist scale. American capital, through the vehicle of the Marshall Plan, plans to reign supreme as the economic overlord of the world, controlling, with the inclusion of China and Japan, no less than three-quarters of the world – everything outside of the area mastered by Stalinist Russia.

These are the realities of the Marshall Plan. These are the plans and this is the face of US imperialism today.

 

Footnotes

1. Senate Economy Committee Report, released November 1, 1947. This same committee estimated that there were several billions more spent on foreign aid but unaccounted for.

2. Select Committee of the House, Preliminary Report on coal.

3. House Select Committee, Preliminary Report No. 8.

4. Ibid.

5. House Select Committee, Preliminary Report No. 5.

6. Ibid.

7. Of all the newspaper and magazine articles examined in connection with this study of ERP, I found only one brief article in one issue of the New York Times in reference to the material which I will cite on this aspect of he plan.

8. House Select Committee, Preliminary Report on Coal Requirements and Availabilities. Emphasis mine.

9. House Select Committee, Preliminary Report on Steel.

10. Text of Foreign Aid Act (ERP), p. 17.

11. House Select Committee, Preliminary Report No. 10. Emphasis mine.

 
Top of page


Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index

Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive

Last updated on 8 July 2017