A ruling class perspectives document

Socialists have an understandable tendency to dismiss most speeches by ruling class figures. Most of the time, this is a pretty sensible thing to do. These speeches are generally empty rhetoric about “bridges to the new century” or, “our …( fill in the blank with whatever positive sounding noun has happened to enter the speechwriter’s head)… is what makes us great as a people.” However, there can be exceptions where the ruling class speaks openly to itself. Recently, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan did exactly this. He delivered a major address on April 27 to the Brookings Institution. Brookings is perhaps the premiere think tank of the US capitalist class. Sullivan’s topic was “Renewing American Economic Leadership.” The purpose of this article is to explain why Marxists should pay attention to this talk.

Sullivan’s view of the challenges

Sullivan begins by describing some of the main challenges currently facing the US ruling class. It’s worth quoting the article directly: “A shifting global economy left many working Americans and their communities behind. A financial crisis shook the middle class. A pandemic exposed the fragility of our supply chains. A changing climate threatened lives and livelihoods. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underscored the risks of overdependence.”

He then proceeds to list four key problems.

One, “America’s industrial base had been hollowed out.” This point is straight forward. US capitalism needs a stable base of domestic production and capital accumulation if it is to flourish.

Two, “a new environment defined by geopolitical and security competition, with important economic impacts.” This is Sullivan’s way of describing inter-imperialist rivalry with China.

Three, “an accelerating climate crisis and the urgent need for a just and efficient energy transition.” Sullivan accepts the enormity of the ecological emergency caused by climate change.

Four, “the challenge of inequality and its damage to democracy.” This is one of the most important points in the presentation. The decline of industrial manufacturing has had a devastating effect on the working class. The loss of stable, often unionized jobs has left large portions of the working class reeling. This disorientation has created a huge breeding ground for right wing ideas. Trumpism is the obvious US form of this process. The fact that millions of people see themselves as outside, and hostile to, the political system is a real problem for the US ruling class.

Sullivan’s plan of action

Having highlighted four problems, the National Security Advisor then proceeds to outline his four point plan of action.

The first item is, “a modern American industrial strategy.” By this he means rebuilding domestic industrial capacity. This will strengthen the US in international economic competition, particularly with China. It will lead to increased US production of key components, particularly semiconductors. The danger of relying on foreign production of such items was graphically shown during the supply chain bottlenecks of the past few years.

For Sullivan, industrial strategy means some measure of government intervention and support. This represents a break from the absolute free-marketism so common in the ruling class.

The next three proposals all revolve around a common theme, the need for the US to cooperate with its allies and not attempt to “go it alone”.

Secondly, “working with our partners to ensure they are building capacity, resilience, and inclusiveness, too.” Sullivan goes to the heart of his plan when he discusses this point. He very favorably cites a recent statement by Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that said that “bold public investments in our respective industrial capacity needs to be at the heart of the energy transition.”

He reinforces this point when he says: “So we are leveraging the Inflation Reduction Act to build a clean-energy manufacturing ecosystem rooted in supply chains here in North America, and extending to Europe, Japan, and elsewhere.”

Thirdly, Sullivan calls for “moving beyond traditional trade deals to innovative new international economic partnerships focused on the core challenges of our time.”

The fourth and final point is “mobilizing trillions in investment into emerging economies—with solutions that those countries are fashioning on their own, but with capital enabled by a different brand of U.S. diplomacy.”

The last two points require a little explaining. Their objective is to mobilize international support for the initiatives and projects of US capitalism. This is particularly important given the need to prevent potential allies from going to the side of China, or even Russia, in world rivalries and politics. China is making a major push to win friends and influence people with its Belt and Road Initiative. The US has been concerned that countries in the Global South have not denounced the Russian invasion of Ukraine firmly enough. Allies are needed and Sullivan sees increased economic cooperation as a key means of gaining them.

This requires him to walk a tightrope on the question of tariffs. Free trade would seem to be the natural partner of increased international economic collaboration. But Sullivan wishes to protect key elements of the US economy from international rivals. This leads to the policy known as “Small Yard, Big Fence”. This means a very precise and targeted series of protectionist measures aimed at protecting crucial components of the economy such as semiconductors. This is counterposed to an across-the board bundle of tariffs aimed particularly at China.

Sullivan sees spending on green conversions and energy transitions as a powerful motor of economic growth. He approvingly cites Joe Biden: “As he’s often said, when he hears ‘climate,’ he thinks ‘jobs.’” The Advisor sees green spending as being a way of tackling climate catastrophe and as a powerful vector of capital accumulation.

Sullivan’s bottom line

What is Sullivan’s fundamental point? He proposes a massive plan of green and technological spending. He believes that this will accomplish five objectives.

Boost the US economy. In particular, he recognizes that a successful economy needs basic production of new commodities and cannot be based on superstructural financial speculation
Begin to counter global warming.
Strengthen the US in its inter-imperialist competition with China.
Provide a vehicle for collaboration between the US and potential international allies.
By creating new jobs, it will begin winning back dissatisfied Trump supporters. Sullivan correctly sees, from a ruling class point of view, the dangers of the growth of a populist and uncontrollable mass movement. He states this explicitly: “It (his proposal) means providing space for partners around the world to restore the compacts between governments and their voters and workers.”

By my count, this is killing, or least maiming, five birds with one stone! It represents a serious ruling class project. Marxists can learn from this how a sophisticated bourgeois figure sees the situation. His view of the objective situation is strikingly similar to ours in a number of ways: the centrality of the climate catastrophe, the rise of inter-imperialist competition, particularly between the US and China, the effects of the devastation of the industrial heartlands, the growth of the far-right and the belief that financial speculation can only redistribute already existing surplus value, not create more surplus value and thus higher overall profits.

You can’t always get what you want

Before we get too carried away with all of this, there’s an important point to be made. For all its coherence and thought, Sullivan’s plan will, in all probability, never be implemented. Republican obstruction and blocking on Capitol Hill will prevent Biden and Sullivan’s plans from taking place. The fact that these plans represent an intelligent option for the ruling class will not overcome Republican factional hooliganism. The US ruling class is learning that in Mick Jagger’s immortal words, “You can’t always get what you want.”

This reflects an important point about US politics today. The Republican Party is no longer the most important political vehicle for the ruling class. The Republicans have become so involved in Trump’s intrigues, vendettas, and conspiracy theories that a considerable layer have forgotten their responsibilities to bourgeois democracy and to a stable system of capital accumulation. Their aims are the disruption of the Biden administration’s plans and the advancing of their own self-interest, not the long term needs of US capitalism.

For a long time, socialists have said that the Republicans were the “A” team of the US ruling class, while the Democrats were the second or “B” team. We can now reverse that ranking.

And that’s a powerful argument for our complete and total opposition to the Democratic Party.