University of Los Andes (ULA) professor Franz J. T. Lee writes: After the collapse of the Soviet Union, are we now facing the 'Big Crash' of the United States of America? Do theories of collapse of the world economic system exist?

For Venezuela, to see the real historic context of the Bolivarian Revolution, and to understand why, more than ever, we have to annihilate capitalism here and everywhere, let us refresh our minds about "crisis theory."

One thing is definite, here and now, in 2006, the true Bolivarian Revolution is really beginning!

The "theory of the collapse of capitalism" or "crisis theory" is already very old. Already the founders of scientific and philosophic socialism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, had predicted a two-pronged collapse of the world capitalist system, from capitalist accumulation and from the split between capitalist production and capitalist exchange, which totally block the full use of the existing global creative and productive forces.

Precisely this is the current dilemma of corporate imperialism, of the very vulnerable economy of the United States. The Croesusian corporate wealth produced and accumulated in a few hands over the previous decades cannot valorize itself anymore, neither in production nor in circulation.

Until now capitalism could still recover from its inherent contradictions, and, with the help of Marx's Capital, could still learn how to overcome its chronic crisis, by globalizing itself. However, in the 21st century, American imperialism is crossing the Rubicon, and is confronted with huge, coming, global, popular rebellion and a total economic breakdown.

At the beginning of the 20th century, crisis theory was very topical and focused itself on the Great Depression and the advent of Nazism and Fascism in Europe. Among its progenitors was the Dutch socialist Anton Pannekoek ("Die Zusammenbruchstheorie des Kapitalismus," first published in The Netherlands, in the 'Raetekommunist,' No.1 of June 1934.)

From another angle, other socialists who treated the theory of collapse of the capitalist system with greater scientific care ... taking it more serious from the point of view of the revolutionary subject, that is, concerning the desire of oppressed classes to make radical social revolutions ... were Bakunin, Rosa Luxemburg, Lenin and Trotsky.

Like today, the question was whether the workers of the world should sit back, fold their arms ... cultivate class reconciliation to overcome boredom, breed reformism, participate in senseless dialogues and whether they should await peacefully the final inexorable breakdown of capitalism ... or whether by revolutionary praxis and theory they should do away with capitalism and imperialism even before its total globalization, before its own inevitable collapse.

Rosa Luxemburg and Anton Pannekoek were convinced that the class-conscious workers, even before globalization, would put an end to capitalism. In general, for most Marxists, especially for Lenin and Trotsky it was crystal clear, that no matter how weak or how powerful the capitalist economic system may become, of how "necessary" its collapse may be "historically," automatically it will not breakdown by itself, it must be overthrown by conscious revolutionary class struggle.

Hence, Bolivarian comrades, wake up, arm yourselves, prepare for the gigantic war to rescue mankind from total extinction, from the "Project for a New American Century." We will not, cannot escape the global confrontation with fascism. It has no intention whatsoever to fade peacefully away into the galactic nothingness of historic oblivion.

Surely, with reference to waiting for Godot, for the automatic collapse of the "Empire," or, contrariwise, to topple it with continental class struggle, the Bolivarian Revolution should consider this imperative issue very seriously. With Christian Socialism of the 21st Century we will not get far, we will not harm a hair of the enemy ... Capitalism already exploited all Christian varieties.

Any true student of human history on this planet could verify that God was always on the side of bourgeois democratic capitalist revolution, from the origins of the alienating, exploitative labor process in Ancient Greece right up to its current globalized inferno. Billions of desperate, tortured, proletarian prayers, looking for divine succor across the millennia, today still echo across the multiverses, are being transmitted by scalar waves to the centers of all galaxies in the Clouds of Magellan, all in vain, they never will know how European colonization and neocolonialism have taken them for a ride, on a supernatural wild-goose chase.

With all due respect for all true human religious feelings and sentiments, however, for the sake of the flowing truth, not even Allah, Vitzliputzli, Tixo or Nkosi could save Iraq from the imperialist tentacles of Bush, will He now save Iran and Venezuela?

Without taking the popular resistance and class struggles in Latin America into consideration, we could never determine the so-called "inevitability of capitalism's decline."

Furthermore, bottomless political exaggerations, for example, claiming that with the victories of Evo Morales and others, now suddenly the whole Latin American continent is on its way to socialism ... to say the least, this is dangerous irresponsibility.

A quick glance at the "Friends of Venezuela," at Amazonia that Lula's government wants to deforest by half of its total area ... four times the size of Portugal, for the sake of capitalist interests and investments, to produce multinational agriculture and cattle-ranching ... tells the real true story of "class war" in Latin America. The lung of humanity is in danger. Also, the planned industrialization and exploitation of the Orinoco Delta could have similar fatal results for the future of humanity, at least, for the immediate well-being of the indigenous peoples that live in those regions, whom we love so much.

Continuing with the historic background of the "theory of collapse," Bukharin insisted that capitalist decadence logically would swallow up social surplus value, but he saw no way of how to calculate with scientific precision when the whole thing would finally crash.

• For this very reason we must be very careful with our current predictions. The only thing that is a questio facti is that since 9/11, 2001, the collapse of the current world economic system definitely has begun, and that world emancipation has begun.

An article,"The Collapse of US Economy Imminent," published by bellaciao.org, summarizes the factors that we have explained in previous VHeadline commentaries that could lead to a complete collapse of United States hegemony, but not yet to the breakdown of world capitalism and imperialism.

According to it, "the US has exhausted its ability to finance the expansion and the country now faces imminent financial collapse. From all indications, it looks like 2006 will spell the end for America."

Over the last months, we have given our views about this issue, we have made public the scientific findings of world renowned scholars like Thomas Bearden and Michael C. Ruppert, with reference to the "world energy crisis," to the New Conquest, the current violent intra-imperialist economic global wars of the competitors for future hegemony, and to the coming nuclear wars of low, medium and high intensity.

Concerning these coming events, let us just cite some important excerpts from the five points elaborated in the document mentioned above:

Point #1: The US, Great Britain and Israel are preparing to attack Iran. As it appears the main reason for invading Iraq was to stop it from selling oil in Euros, likewise Iran has plans to dump the dollar come March 2006.

Point #2: US Treasury Secretary John Snow issued a warning recently that the US government is on the verge of collapse -- as the statutory debt limit imposed by Congress of $8.184 trillion dollars would be reached in mid-February -- the government would then be unable to continue its normal operations.

Point #3: Considering the current total US debt stands at $8.162 trillion dollars, once the official debt ceiling ($8.184 trillion) is reached, the US government's credit abroad (its borrowing power) is gone ...

Point #4: FEMA has activated and is currently staffing its vast network of empty internment camps with armed military personnel - unknown to most Americans, these large federal facilities are strategically positioned across the U.S. landscape to "manage" the population in the event of a "terrorist" attack, a civilian uprising, large-scale dissent ,or an insurrection against the government. Some of these razor-wired facilities have the capacity of detaining a million people. ...

Point #5: The Patriot Act and the US Senate's vote to ban habeas corpus (November 14) -- along with George W. Bush having signed executive orders giving him sole authority to impose martial law, suspend habeas corpus and ignore the Posse Comitatus Act, have together pretty much destroyed any notions of freedom and justice for Americans..."

We do not hate America or North Americans ... we are in solidarity with the workers' class struggles in the northern hemisphere, but we categorically oppose the cardinal and capital crimes committed against humanity by any super power, whether it is Russia, Europe or the USA. We fight against capitalist dictatorship and imperialist tyranny in all its violent forms, especially against the current United States version of global fascism.

Furthermore, across the last four decades, I have visited the USA several time; my family lives there, I have given lectures in over 30 cities, I even addressed the "United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid" in New York. I know what America is like, what it means to live and to die there.

Currently, strange things are already happening in Iran and Pakistan; Osama Bin Laden has sent out his CIA "menetekel" again, the writing is on the wall, we are heading towards more treachery, more suffering, mote world wars.

• World war was the only way that capitalism could save itself till now, will it be victorious again?

No capitalist class, no parasitic rulers, ever stepped down peacefully from their divine throne, similarly, automatically, capitalism will not collapse in itself, we in Venezuela will have to give it a little push down the Angel Falls.

One thing is sure, if the workers of the world, of the metropolitan countries do not stand up, will not follow the revolutionary paradigm of Caracas, the excellent example of the Bolivarian Revolution, then this planet will be barren within decades.

On the other hand, if the Bolivarian Revolution does not pull itself out of the bottomless, counter-revolutionary pit of corruption, does not wake up from of its current "triumphant" slumber, does not sound its Diana immediately and permanently, we will have no chance whatsoever to get rid of the North American "plague," will never reach the real, true happiness that Simon Bolivar is dreaming about across the ages.