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PARTISAN REVIEW
of labor and large-scale industry, without having monopolies. The
whole thing is a practical impossibility; it is the wish of the dying
to live their lives all over again. Their hopes merely serve the
ideological needs of monopolistic capitalism in its struggle against
the totalitarian states.
A competition that serves as a "regulator" of capitalistic
production and distribution can be revived only in the fascistic
manner, that is, by breaking up the monopolistically-determined
stagnation through still greater monopolization. Formerly the
competitive struggle was waged simultaneously by competitive
enterprises among themselves, by monopolistic enterprises among
themselves, and by competitive against monopolistic enterprises.
Likewise today the whole of the capitalist world is engaged in the
competitive struggle, whether still largely competitive, outspokenly
monopolistic, or already completely state-controlled. Just as pre–
viously the "initiative" was on the side of the strongest capitalists,
that is, on the side of monopolies and was "ended" in their favor,
so today the "initiative" is on the side of the totalitarian state as
the stronger monopolistic force. The result will be the victory of
fascism independent of the question of whether or not the present
fascist states will be victorious in the current war. Because the
fascist state is able to revive a forceful competition
it
is the true
representative of present-day capitalism.
It
operates with all the
competitive weapons at the disposal of capitalist society simultan–
eously and in a co-ordinated manner in both the sphere of produc–
tion and the sphere of distribution. Its competitive attack is all–
inclusive: economic, political, and military. In short,
present-day
competition is total war.
The Decisive Factor: The Labor Market
At present the plight of capitalist society is blamed on every–
thing except the real cause--the capitalist system of production.
Liberal economists make the appearance of state-controlled econ–
omies responsible for all the woes of the world. The "elimination
of the market" in the totalitarian state and the destruction of
"international free trade" they see as the beginning of the end of
all civilization. Blaming extra-economic factors for the disturb–
ances in their economy, they never seemed to notice that just as
many of those factors were operative when all went well.
If
for-
