下面节译发表的两篇文章,第一篇“这是美国现在发生的事”,是美国“纽约邮报”记者费尔恩·马利亚所写的报道,载于1960年2月22日至27日该报上。第二篇“长期萧条的地区”,则是载于1960年5月14日出版的一期英国“经济学家”杂志“美国调查”专栏中的一篇评论。前一篇文章用生动显明的事实来说明在资本主义周期性经济危机不断冲击下,美国劳动人民日益贫困化和生活的悲惨处境。这里所反映的,不仅是西弗吉尼亚一地所发生的情况,而且是普遍地发生于美国许许多多其他地区的情况。后一篇文章是说明代表美国垄断资本利益的美国政府提出这样那样的计划、法案,以图改变这种状况,然而,英国“经济学家”也不能不承认:“萧条地区的困境”,垄断组织“所拥有的传统补救办法,对此是无能为力的”。因为它是资本主义制度本身具有的不可医治的痼疾。由此证明,最近几年来,资产阶级的辩护士和现代修正主义者大吹大擂的所谓“人民资本主义”和种种美化资本主义社会的滥调,在这些事实面前彻底破产了。他们胡说什么资本家与劳动者之间的界限由于“收入平均化”已经消弥等等鬼话也彻底破产了。列宁早在四十八年前在一篇题为“资本主义社会的贫困化”的文章中就痛斥机会主义者所谓“资本主义社会没有发生群众的贫困化”的谬论,指出在资本主义制度下,工人的相对贫困化和绝对贫困化都在发生着。他说:“工人的贫困化是绝对的,就是说,他们简直愈来愈穷,生活更坏,吃得更差,更吃不饱,更要挤在地窖和阁楼里”;“工人的相对贫困化,即他们在社会收入中所得份额的减少更为明显……因为百万富翁的财富增加得愈来愈快了。”目前也有这样一些人。他们承认在资本主义国家,例如美国,工人阶级的相对贫困化,却不承认工人阶级的绝对贫困化。关于相对和绝对的问题,在列宁“谈谈辩证法问题”的一篇文章曾经这样指出:“主观主义(怀疑论和诡辩等等)和辩证法的区别在于:在(客观的)辩证法中,相对和绝对的差别也是相对的。对于客观的辩证法说来,相对中有绝对。对于主观主义和诡辩说来,相对只是相对的,是排斥绝对的。”列宁这段话对于正确认识相对贫困化和绝对贫困化的关系会有帮助。无论如何,今天在美国西弗吉尼亚及其他地区所发生的事,可以证明这个真理。——编者 Two articles published in the following section, the first of which is “This is what is happening in the United States now”, is a report by Fern Malia, a reporter for The New York Post, published in the United Kingdom from February 22 to February 27, 1960 On the newspaper. The second “Long-Depression Area” is a commentary contained in a column entitled “U.S. Surveys” by the British “Economist” magazine published on May 14, 1960. The previous article vividly illustrates the tragic situation in which the working people in the United States are becoming increasingly impoverished and living under the constant impact of the cyclical economic crisis in capitalism. What is reflected here is not only what happened in West Virginia, but also in a great many other parts of the United States. The latter article shows how the U.S. government, which represents the interests of monopolistic capital in the United States, has proposed such a plan or act in an attempt to change the situation. However, the British “economist” can not but acknowledge that “the dilemma of depression” monopolizes The traditional remedy owned by the organization “is powerless to do.” Because it is an untreatable disease that the capitalist system itself has. This proves that in recent years the so-called “people’s capitalism,” which the bourgeois apologists and modern revisionists have been making a great deal of trumpets, and the flagrant assortment of landscaping capitalist societies, have been bankrupt in the face of these facts. They talk nonsense about the boundary between the capitalist and the laborer as the “income averaging” has been eliminated, and so on, and completely went bankrupt. As early as 48 years ago, in an article entitled “Poverty of Capitalist Society”, Lenin denounced opportunists as saying that “the impoverishment of the masses has not occurred in capitalist society.” He pointed out that in the capitalist system workers The relative and absolute poverty are happening. He said: “The impoverishment of workers is absolute, that is, they are getting poorer, their lives are worse, they eat worse, they are more hungry, and they are squeezed into the cellar and attic.” “The relative workers The impoverishment, that is, their share of social income, has been even more pronounced, as the wealth of millionaires has increased faster and faster. ”There are people at the moment. They admit that in the capitalist countries such as the United States, the relative poverty of the working class does not recognize the absolute impoverishment of the working class. As for the relative and absolute question, an article in Lenin on “Problems of Dialectics” once pointed out: “The difference between subjectivism (skepticism and sophistry, etc.) and dialectics lies in the fact that in (objective) dialectics, the relative and Absolute difference is relative.For objective dialectics, there is relative absolute.For subjectivism and sophistry, relative is only relative, absolute exclusion. ”Lenin’s words for the correct understanding of the relative poverty and absolute Poor relations can be helpful. Anyway, what happened today in West Virginia, the United States and beyond, can attest to this truth. --editor