Capital putting its own house in order

US bourgeois politics has been dominated by the multiple legal cases being lodged against Donald Trump. The purpose of this article is to examine the issues that this situation poses for Marxist theory.

Base and superstructure

To do this, we should begin with Marx’s theory of base and superstructure. He outlines it clearly in the famous Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.

In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life.

Marx is saying that the capitalist economic system, or base, cannot function by itself. It requires a whole series of institutions to defend and expand it. Capitalism needs an army to protect it from dangers, both domestic and foreign. It needs a sophisticated legal system to regulate and structure the economic and other interactions necessary for capital’s functioning. It needs a police force to enforce the decisions of the legal system.

The capitalists need a way to adjudicate and mediate disputes amongst themselves. Thus, in Lenin’s words, “the state is the executive committee of the ruling class.”

There must be a governmental apparatus to organize infrastructure, sanitation, transportation, communication, etc. The list of such requirements could go on for some time. They extend to the ideological operations necessary to legitimize capital accumulation and garner popular consensus.

Marx’s main point is that the superstructure is forged in order to protect the valorization of capital. It’s created to serve capitalism’s needs and not the other way around. The superstructure is conditioned by capital’s needs. However, Marx and Engels were concerned that this theory should not be taken too far. Towards the end of his life, Engels wrote a series of letters in which he explained how the theory should be utilized. Economic developments do not have an automatic one-on-one effect on the superstructure. Historical processes are much more complicated than that.

There can be a relative autonomy of base from superstructure. Importantly, the superstructure can in turn reflect back and impact upon the base. There are many factors other than the economy that need to be taken into account when examining a particular conjuncture.

This approach of examining the primacy, but not the exclusivity, of economic dynamics has served Marxism well. It has led to such triumphs of historical writing as The Eighteenth Brumaire, Trotsky’s writings on Germany and his magisterial History of the Russian Revolution, CLR James’s The Black Jacobins, and WEB Dubois’s Black Reconstruction in America.

A dysfunction between base and superstructure

So far, so good for Marxists. But the problem becomes what happens when the superstructure does not serve the base, when the superstructure impedes the base? For some years, the British Marxist Alex Callinicos has been pointing out that we have been seeing a dysfunction between base and superstructure. This is where the political leadership of the ruling class is not serving the economic interests of the ruling class.

Brexit is a perfect example of this. The big majority of the British ruling class wanted to stay within the European Union. The tariff walls and legislative prohibitions of Brexit do not serve their economic interests. Boris Johnson was playing to his rightwing base, not to the needs of the City. This process was captured in Johnson’s famous declaration, “Fuck Business!” Hardly the words one expects from a Conservative Party leader. This situation was intolerable for British capitalism.

In this country, Donald Trump has given many examples of this sort of behavior. Large sections of capital were opposed to his protectionist trade policies. His endless vendettas, scandals, and tangents were an embarrassment to the global image of US capitalism. The big bulk of the ruling class and its institutions were completely opposed to his attempt to deny the peaceful transfer of office after he lost the November 2020 presidential elections.

Trump’s supporters continue to act in a way that is disruptive to the smooth functioning of the capitalist class. To take just one recent example, effective operating of the military is obviously important for capitalism. The Senate generally quickly rubber stamps military nominations and promotions. However Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), a Trump supporter, has now held up 260 such military recommendations. Tuberville says that he will continue to do this until the military ceases leave or paid travel for service members having abortions. This is a clear instance of how Trump supporters hinder the needs of US capitalism.

This whole process was captured when, on August 1, Fitch Ratings downgraded the rating of the United States. Fitch is a premier credit ratings agency. It moved the United States from AAA to AA+. It’s very important for US capitalism that the dollar be seen as a “safe haven”. This facilitates the flow of capital into this country’s economy. Lowering the ratings hampers this flow.

Fitch explained the reasons for its actions. “In Fitch’s view, there has been a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters, notwithstanding the June bipartisan agreement to suspend the debt limit until January 2025. The repeated debt-limit political standoffs and last-minute resolutions have eroded confidence in fiscal management.” Apparently, Fitch representatives also raised their concerns about January 6th in their discussions with the administration.

Attempting to end the dysfunction

Callinicos provides a valuable insight when he draws the conclusion that events of this type show a dysfunction in the traditional relations between base and superstructure. Now let’s take the argument one stage further. What does the mainstream of the ruling class do when they feel that control of parts of the infrastructure is slipping from their grasp? They will not stand back and passively observe a political leadership that they do not believe will further their interests come to office. They vigorously intervene and seek to block that leadership.

That is precisely what is happening in this country at the moment. We have seen a flurry of legal cases against Trump. There are:

The January 6th and 2020 election case. A recent article by Lance Selfa on this site explains the full significance of the indictment.
The classified documents at Mar-a-Lago case.
The election tampering in Georgia case.
The Stormy Daniels hush money case.
The business fraud in New York City case.
The E. Jean Carroll case.

These are not frame-ups. Trump’s actions have given the leading elements in the ruling class all the ammunition that they need to proceed against him.

The arrests of the January 6th Capitol Hill attackers are another example of the capitalists moving against Trump and his supporters. By latest count, more than 1,106 of the attackers have been arrested. 385 of the far right thugs are already in jail. The ruling class is making a full court press in these prosecutions to deter future actions of this type.

The court cases and Capitol Hill prosecutions are precisely the mainstream of the ruling class forcefully seeking to block the progress of Trump and his supporters. In Marxist terms, they are the ruling class trying to bring base and superstructure into relative harmony and overcome the dysfunction between them.