MONOPOLY ON THE MARCH
Coleman, Mcalister
Monopoly On The March PRIVATE MONOPOLY, THE ENEMY AT HOME, by David Lasser. Harper and Brothers. $3. Reviewed by McAlister Coleman IN this hard-hitting study of capitalist planning (plotting...
...He correctly analyzes the unquestioned trend of neo-Communism towards the setting up of an Authoritarian State here and abroad...
...He has the courage to present a program of his own for the peoples' recapture of their economic, political, and social freedoms...
...Though you may be familiar enough with the general outlines of the recent history of monopolies, cartels, and dictatorial, financial imperialism, I know of no other book than this that tells so authoritatively and dramatically the tragic story of monopoly's offensive against the democratic peoples, beginning after World War I when bankers and industrialists rode out to do battle under the delusive standards of "free enterprise...
...It is intended," he says, "to suggest the whole range of power exercised by a few corporate groups—industrial and banking—which has extended from control over the individual industries to efforts at control over the entire economy, and now threatens domination over the social and political life of peoples everywhere...
...Reviewed by McAlister Coleman IN this hard-hitting study of capitalist planning (plotting would be a better word) against the welfare of the people, David Lasser knocks the ineffable Hayek and his theory—that if the people plan, they become serfs—clear out the window...
...He then proceeds to show us clearly the face and form of this monopolistic breeder of wars, revolutions, panics, and plagues...
...In every fateful between-wars crisis Lasser shows how the hypocritical propagandists for "free enterprise"—meaning freedom to gouge us without governmental interference-have consistently upheld the dictators, stabbed democracy in the back...
...IN his last chapter Lasser shows how such peoples' control of society for decent ends can only be effected here by new political alignments...
...When you have finished Lasser's well documented indictment the very words "free enterprise" will be a stench in your nostrils...
...Lasser's conclusions point to the immediate organization of a new, grassroots, mud-sill political party...
...In Italy, Germany, Austria, France, and Spain this was the sinister role played by those at the levers of the productive machinery and it was so, and is so today in America (note the monopolists' attempt to destroy the British Labor Government...
...He suggests as an alternative to Communism a la Stalin or monopoly a la Alcoa, a modified democratic socialization of "the bastions of monopoly," the providing all of us with jobs, security, and a decent standard of living, the genuine support of foreign democratic forces, and the inculcation of "the idea of Fraternity as the spiritual concept of democracy...
...Having made his indictment, and made it stick, Dave Lasser is not content to let it go at that...
...What are we waiting for...
...Lasser uses the word "monopoly" to cover a multitude of capitalist sins...
Vol. 9 • November 1945 • No. 47
