Henryk Grossman on imperialism

Rick Kuhn

Grossman’s first published work, in 1905, was a contribution to the controversy in the European workers movement over the most effective strategy to counter national oppression, which was also an aspect of contemporary discussions of imperialism and colonialism. In an analysis heavily influenced by the Bund, he stressed the importance of the self-organisation of Jewish workers.

As a leader of the Jewish Social Democratic Party of Galicia, Grossman examined the
economic backwardness of Austria-Hungary’s Polish province. This analysis was an element in his higher doctoral thesis, completed in 1914, which dealt with an aspect of imperialism duringan early stage of the transition to capitalism in eastern Europe. He argued against the Polish nationalist orthodoxy that the Habsburg Empire was responsible for Galicia’s backwardness after its annexation. On the contrary, between 1772 and 1790 the mercantilist trade policies of Maria Theresia and Josef II for their new territory had promoted economic development.
Later he endorsed Lenin’s argument that the material basis of reformism was the emergence of a ‘labor aristocracy’, bought off with spoils from imperialism.
What follows, however, only deals with more strictly economic questions, particularly Grossman’s account of the relationship between economic crises and imperialism. It is a first sketch of a section of a larger project.
https://thenextrecession.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/henryk_grossman_on_imperialism.pdf