Monopoly Capital [antikvár]

PREFACE Early in 1962 Robert F. Kennedy, then Attorney General in his brother's administration, traveled around the world as a sort of good-will ambassador of the United States. On his return he addressed the annual luncheon of the Associated Press. In his talk, printed in the New York Times of April 24th, he related the following incident: I was introduced in Indonesia to another large student body and a boy at the end of my speech got up and asked a question. In the course of this question he described the United States as a system of monopolistic capitalism. And when he said that expression, half the student body applauded. So I said, "Well now, I'd like to find out. I am a representative of the United States here. What is it that you mean by monopolistic capitalism. What is it that defines that description in the United States? You said it in a derogatory sense. What is it that meets the description in the United States? What do you mean by monopolistic capitalism?" And he had no answer. And I said, "Well now, anybody who clapped, anybody who applauded when this gentleman used that expression—what is it that you understand by monopolistic capitalism?" And not one of them would come forward. If Kennedy thought that the refusal of his audience to debate the subject of monopoly capitalism indicated a lack of knowledge, he was surely very much mistaken. Indonesian students, like their counterparts in the underdeveloped countries all over the world, know a great deal about monopoly capitalism, having seen its ugliest face and suffered the consequences of its global policies in their own lives. But it is hardly surprising if they feel that it is too serious a subject for glib definitions or clever debating points. Kennedy's questions remain, however, and we may pay him the compliment of assuming that they reflect a state of genuine ignorance which is shared by most of his countrymen. This book