Dialectical Materialism Against Imperialism

A Unified Critique of Capitalism’s False Scarcity, the Limits of Monetary Reform, and China’s Path

Jul 13, 2025

The ruling class thrives on myths. One of its most potent is the lie that wealth is a "fixed pie"—that if workers demand more, someone else must lose. This zero-sum dogma, repeated in boardrooms and economics textbooks, serves a single purpose: to justify exploitation. But history and materialism expose it as fraud.

The Zero-Sum Lie and the Reality of Plunder

Capitalism’s apologists claim resources are scarce while presiding over unprecedented hoarding. In the United States alone, $50 billion is stolen annually from workers through wage theft—a figure that dwarfs all petty crime combined. Meanwhile, imperialist looting drains the Global South; the Democratic Republic of Congo has lost an estimated $24 trillion in minerals since 1885. These aren’t signs of scarcity, but of organized theft.

The Soviet Union demolished this zero-sum myth in practice. Between 1928 and 1941, through collectivized agriculture and five-year plans, it transformed from a peasant society into an industrial power—its GDP growing fivefold even as the West collapsed into depression. China’s revolution proved it again: land reform and mass mobilization ended famines that had killed millions under feudalism, despite U.S. embargoes. The lesson is clear: scarcity is manufactured by property relations, not nature.

Modern Monetary Theory: A Capitalist Weapon in Disguise?

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) correctly identifies that fiat currency is a political tool, not a natural phenomenon. But divorced from class struggle, its insights become weapons for empire. The U.S. Federal Reserve prints trillions to bail out banks and fund forever wars, while claiming "fiscal responsibility" to deny healthcare and housing. This isn’t a technical failure—it’s the logic of capital.

Petrodollar imperialism shows the stakes. When Libya proposed a gold-backed African currency in 2011, NATO reduced its cities to rubble. Iraq faced invasion after switching oil sales to euros. The dollar’s dominance isn’t maintained by economic "laws," but by aircraft carriers. MMT’s liberal proponents ignore this violence, dreaming of a kinder capitalism where taxes on landlords (Land Value Tax, or LVT) could tame speculation. History laughs: Britain’s 1909 LVT did nothing to halt colonialism, and Australia’s modern version hasn’t stopped rents from soaring 40% in a year.

Real solutions require breaking capital’s power, not tweaking its accounting. China’s 1949 land reform—executing landlords and redistributing soil to peasants—created decades of housing stability. Cuba’s nationalized healthcare delivers First World outcomes at a tenth the cost. These weren’t monetary tricks, but revolutions.

China’s Anti-Imperialism: A Dialectical Model

China’s rise offers the most damning rebuttal to both zero-sum capitalism and reformist MMT. By retaining state control over 70% of its economy, it has avoided the housing bubbles that plague the West. Its "dual circulation" strategy systematically reduces reliance on dollar trade, while its infrastructure projects in Africa build railways instead of military bases.

This isn’t altruism—it’s smart anti-imperialism. When China restricts rare earth exports, U.S. weapons factories stutter. When it trades in yuan, the SWIFT system weakens. And when it purges corrupt officials (4 million disciplined since 2012), it proves that capitalist roaders must be fought internally, not accommodated.

The Only Pivot That Matters

The task ahead isn’t to beg for better taxes or smarter monetary policy. It’s to study these contradictions—between capital’s artificial scarcity and socialism’s proven abundance, between imperialism’s fake "laws" and liberation’s concrete victories—and act.

As Mao warned, "There is no construction without destruction." The pie isn’t too small; the bakery is occupied. Time to seize it.

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