World War I’s state interventions emboldened workers to reject a return to capitalism

Evidence

Following the economic interventions of their governments during World War I, the working classes of Britain and Italy were uninterested in a smooth reintroduction of capitalism. By 1919 the old system was in fullblown crisis, and its component parts— workers, union leaders, and economic experts— were all announcing the end of the old order. Postcapitalism, whatever its form, was on its way. … What was the basis for this conviction, which was mirrored by a sense of apocalyptic panic among the bourgeois establishment? Capitalism was strongly contested at its very core. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 455

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to modern austerity debates where war and crisis state intervention likewise seeds post-capitalist expectations. — connects to: State intervention during wartime made capitalist exploitation overtly political and vulnerable to resistance — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 173; Postwar workers explicitly rejected the treatment of labor as a commodity — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 185; War had broken laissez-faire’s grip, allowing postwar reconstructionists to repoliticize property and wages (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• World War I shattered working-class belief that capitalism was immovable. #corroborates (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 112
• State intervention made capitalist exploitation political and thereby threatened capitalism itself #corroborates (0.82) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 173
• State wartime intervention exposed the natural order of capitalism as a political choice #corroborates (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 169
• Postwar workers rejected labor as a commodity and demanded democratic control of production #expands (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 185
• Working-class freedom demanded economic not merely political democracy after World War I #expands (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1667
• World War I proved production relations could be deliberately changed #corroborates (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 174