This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.

Black market in weapons of mass destruction inevitable under capitalism:

Agreed, nuclear proliferation is a worthy problem to solve

Candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry agreed in their debate September 30th on the most important single issue facing the president in the next four years. Kerry called it "nuclear proliferation" and Bush said it was "weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists." They are both talking about how nuclear weapons may end up in the "wrong hands" and Kerry even admitted that U.$. nuclear testing may itself aggravate the situation. Our idea of the "wrong hands" is opposite of theirs, but MIM welcomes these imperialists to the world of serious politics: it's not a bad choice of subject they made.

It's just that Kerry, Bush & like-minded imperialists can in no way solve this problem as MIM can. As Prohibition of alcohol proved and the failed "war on drugs" proves now, black markets are a part of capitalism. Where supply is tight, prices go up. Where there is a ban, the profit margin increases.

Nuclear proliferation is inevitable under capitalism thanks to the same logic of profit for weapons sales, liquor, pornography, cocaine and everything else. Thanks to capitalist motivation, scientists may even invent something new for sale as a weapon of mass destruction before someone becomes the proud new owner of a black market nuke.

Under socialism, we do have law enforcement to crack down on individual transactions just as under capitalism. Such law enforcement is bound to fail on occasion under any system. Not all criminals are caught.

The advantage of socialism is that should a black market transaction succeed, there is no place to spend the money. Large cash transactions are criminal under socialism. It is the fact that capitalism makes so many luxury goods and properties available for cash that makes the black market attractive. It is especially funny to see people like Donald Rumsfeld complain about northern Korea selling nuclear commodities while he is heading up agencies pumping out millions of dollars of capitalist propaganda to northern Korea and elsewhere.

To those who say the economy would collapse without the same motivations of luxury goods and property available to the rich, we would ask them who they are kidding. They should see what will happen to the economy when a few nukes go off in a few cities. If we all had to live under economic conditions similar to Stalin's Soviet Union, before we mastered improving living standards under socialism, it would still be better than the current capitalist alternative which guarantees nuclear and other disasters, as even one of the world's top investors named Warren Buffet has already admitted.(2)

Note:
1. http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/30/debate.transcript.1/index.html
2. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mn/html/mn260.html