New Communist Party of Britain | The developed world's crisis

The balance of economic power is shifting away from the developed world. In 2000 the share of developed countries global GDP was 63 per cent, in 2007 this had dropped to 56 per cent and then dropped again to 52 per cent in 2014.

This shift in the distribution of the world's GDP has been brought about because of the faster growth in the developing world, which has not been interrupted by the economic crisis in the developed countries.

On a country‑by‑country basis, from 2005 through to 2014 GDP has increased by 16% in the US, 9% in France, 7% in Japan, 15% in Germany and 12 % in Britain. These five countries had a combined GDP of $31,000 billion or per capita GDP of $47,000.

Whereas the GDP in South Africa has increased by 35%, Brazil by 37%, India by 102% and in China by a whopping 158%. These 5 countries had a combined GDP of $32,000 billion or per capita GDP of $10,500, less than a quarter of that in the “developed” world.

However, what these figures do should is that the key countries in the “developing” world were not affected by the so‑called world/banking crisis.

With a combination of a decline in share of world GDP and a slowing economy a significant amount of the European Union's capital lies idle with factories either closed or operating below capacity and it has the highest unemployment rates seen in the “developed” world. In November 2014 there were over 24 million unemployed with young people, those under 25, accounting for 5.1 million of the total.

So despite the assertion that the European Union with its unified set of rules and regulations, its minimal regulatory interference unbound by specific state control, has allowed capital to be used more efficiently, has proved to be an illusion.

The main purpose of the EU has always been to strengthen European monopoly capitalism so that it could compete with the United States for world markets and increase the exploitation of the European working class. Since its establishment the rules and regulations have been loosened in the interests of capitalism whilst reactionary laws and draconian measures have been imposed on the working class.

Many of the countries that joined the EU and Eurozone had relatively undeveloped economies when compared to the original members making their economies “uncompetitive”. The rules and regulations that favoured European monopolies meant that national governments' spending to boost investment in jobs and skills was deemed to be anti‑monopoly and illegal. The powers of European national governments have been usurped by the monopolies and the EU commission.

As the crisis of over‑production in the EU progressed much of the internal trade within the Eurozone was based on loans from the main banks backed by the money markets. It is not the so‑called “irresponsible” southern Europeans who have caused the near collapse of the Eurozone but the capitalists and their casino economics that have caused the crisis by flooding the market with goods that workers cannot afford to buy.

The one solution that those who run the EU choose to ignore is to increase wages, the social wage and pensions by transferring the profits of the monopolies to the working class.

The European ruling class were hoping that British entry to the Eurozone would have strengthened European monopoly enabling them to cut wages, social welfare, trade union rights even further, to increase working hours for those still in a job and to reduce job security. It was by this strategy that European ruling class hoped to build a zone that would allow European imperialism to dominate the world.

To a certain extent the TTIP talks has shown that the EU is proving to be a failure for the advancement of the European monopolies. It is this weakness that has forced them to go down the TTIP route.

The New Communist Party

opposes British entry to the Eurozone;
calls for British unconditional withdrawal from the European Union (EU);
calls for the abandonment of the TTIP negotiations.