book & conference notes
Limits to globalisation? by Robert Went Grenzen aan de globalisering?, (Dutch), Het Spinhuis, Amsterdam 1996.
Globalisation is THE hot item for people who go in for economics. Dutch economist Robert Went digs deeper than the usual trendy literature, and uses long wave theory to explain and demystify the phenomenon. His book is a forceful plea for a different economic and social logic, and a valuable tool in the struggle against globalisation's dire consequences. Globalisation is not a natural phenomenon, Went argues, but capitalism's response of choice to its own crisis: a response that, left unchallenged, threatens to drag the world down into barbarism.
Went relies on the long-wave theory of capitalist development. There have only been four such waves in the history of capitalism, each with an expansive and a recessive phase. The end of the fourth (post-war) expansive wave and the beginning of its recessive phase, through which we are now living, constitutes a watershed. The current recessive phase began because of "over-accumulation in the midst of falling profits and slow productivity growth; increased competition among developed capitalist countries, leading among other things to the collapse of the Bretton Woods system; rising inflation in a context of more militant trade unions in a time of almost full employment; fiscal crises that were accompanied with reforms of the welfare state; and rising prices for Third World exports, manifested among other things in the 1973 oil crisis""
This first generalised recession since the Second World War marked the beginning of a fundamentally different period, and gave the signal for large-scale restructuring. Falling back on protectionism was not an option, in light of the disastrous experiences with competitive devaluations in the 1930s. In any event, a conscious choice had been made in the postwar years for expansion and internationalisation of world trade, with international and national policies being shaped to this end. The response chosen was still faster internationalisation. This took place at the same time as another fundamental change: the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of Soviet and East European bureaucracies, which in the early 1990s opened up a gigantic, previously closed market.
Internationalisation is of course not new to capitalism. But it is now taking a qualitative step forward, making use of relationships of forces that have been altered by the crisis as well as of the possibilities created by new technologies. Breaking through and transcending national frameworks, globalisation,
Went writes, is the result of two interlinked but distinct processes: I) the long-term development of capitalism (since 1914), with an uninterrupted accumulation; and 2) the policies of liberalisation, privatisation, dereg-
34 International Viewpoint ulation, and dismantling of social and democratic gains beginning in the early 1980s. Myths and limits
Globalisation is a qualitatively new phase in the internationalisation of capitalism. But Went warns against exaggeration. tendency towards globalisation is not a linear process, and is not leading towards effective homogenisation of the world's economies. In reality we are seeing a vertical restructuring of the world economy around three poles" (the EU, Japan and the US). Even multinationals are only to a limited extent truly wide". Of the 100 largest holding companies, not one is genuinely "global" or "footloose" And national states continue to have a regulatory function, for lack of adequate supra-
It is still too early to say whether a new productive order is taking shape. The end of the downward wave has not yet been reached, but on the other hand the rate of profit began gradually increasing in the early 1980s. There is no new expansive wave, but there is an evolution in the direction of a productive order in which for the first time in capitalist history a higher rate of profit is not leading towards faster economic growth. "The links between accumulation, rising productivity, economic growth and consumption have been broken".
Only a "systemic shock"—a sharp increase in the rate of profit (caused by an even sharper increase in the rate of exploitation) combined with a substantial expansion of the market can lead to a new expansive long wave. This would require a major defeat for the working class and liberation movements and integration of the ex-USSR and China into the capitalist world market. Though big steps in that direction have already been taken. "the final outcome is still open"
Reviewed by Vincent Schlectens The poverty of neoliberalism
Michel Husson
Misère du capital. Une critique du néolibéralisme, (French), Paris, Syros, 1996.
Michel Husson set himself an ambitious goal when he started to write his latest book on the poverty of capital.
• to analyse how capitalism functions today on a world scale;
• to explain why the harmonious expansionist functioning of the 'golden age' (1945-1973/4)
is gone for good, since today's capitalism is leading to more and more misery and bringing us close to earlier periods of its history; and
• to sketch the outlines of a real alternative, a
*modern socialism that breaks completely with the sinister experience of the countries in the East, and rejects (impossible) conciliation with the mechanisms of King Money'.
This is a lot for one 257-page book, but the author succeeds in what he set out to do. Misère du capital is an excellent work with many new ideas and arguments; it should be translated into English and Castillian for the many activists and researchers who don't read
In a recent issue of Foreign Affairs" Ethan Kapstein, Director of Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote: *The failure of today's advanced global capitalism to keep spreading the wealth poses a challenge not just to policy makers but to modern economic "science' as well. For generations, students were taught that increasing trade and investment, coupled with technological change, would drive national productivity and create wealth. Yet over the past decade, despite a continuing boom in international trade and finance, productivity has faltered. Inequality in the United States and unemployment in Europe have worsened."!
even many economists who officially adhere to the neo-classical paradigm are cynical about the theoretical and empirical underpinnings and usefulness of what the overwhelming majority of economists 1s
In the first part of the book, "The crisis and Its regulation" , Michel Husson shows concretely how a non-dogmatic, creative Marxist approach provides a superior understanding of the contradictory development of capitalism since the end of the last century. He makes use of the non-mechanical long-wave theory developed by (among others) Ernest Mandel, introducing some new considerations on the dynamics and arithmetic of the rate of profit. Taking up the debate with the Regulation School among economists, he explains how capitalism today has increasing difficulties in assuring that what the people want to consume (education, health, housing, public transport) corresponds to what capitalism sees as profitable and therefore wants to produce. The connection with the high levels of unemployment, one of the major themes running through the whole book, is obvious: "Capitalism is an economic system that prefers not to produce... rather then to produce without profit".
The second part of the book deals with globalised capitalism. "The Maastricht trap' spells out the dynamics, contradictions and social consequences of capitalist European integration. And "The planetary fracture"
analyses some contradictory and uneven developments in the processes of globalisation:
the changing role of the state, North-South relations, and the growing importance of the financial sector.
The last part of the book is oriented towards the future, with chapters on the changing role of work, full employment
*Why is what was possible twenty years ago no longer possible in an economy that has kept growing in the meantime?*), the emancipation of labour, the 'socialist hypothesis', and finally the central place of the fight for a shorter workweek in today's radical project.
It says on the cover that this series is meant to stimulate debate. The last three chapters are clearly written with this goal in mind. Husson offers us important debates (old and new) with people like Andre Gorz, Alain Lipietz and
Philippe Herzog. As well as discussing the debate in the socialist movement over the place of the market and planning) and the debates in social movements over protectionism and "new internationalism."
The final section, "Towards a concrete alternative", is a good summary of the book's main argument: "To lay the basis for a contemporary anti-capitalism, it is no longer necessary to ask for the moon. It is sufficient today to demand, stubbornly, and without getting lost at the cross-roads, the possible."
Michel Husson sees the French strikes in
November and December last year as a first sign that the tide is turning and that at least some sectors of the social movements are going from a defensive attitude towards positive formulations of demands addressed to the system and its way of functioning
Reviewed by Robert Went
1. Ethan Kapstein, "Workers and the World
Economy" in Foreign Affairs, May/June
1996, p 16. Conference note Ernest Mandel and Marxist Theory
Ernest Mandel died last year, on the 20th of July 1995. The first anniversary of his death was commemorated by the first seminar organized by the Ernest Mandel Study Centre in Amsterdam from July 4 to July 6.
The seminar was intended as a tribute to a man who will certainly be remembered as one of the great intellectuals of this century. It was also an occasion for a critical examination of several aspects of Mandel's work. In doing so, the organizers were convinced that they were faithful to Mandel's legacy: his libertarian conception of democracy applied to the very ranks of the movement he led, which can be singled out among all brands of organized Marxism for the high tolerance for debate and divergence that it exhibited under Mandel's
Thus, the best tribute to the democratic example set by Ernest Mandel is that this is perhaps the first time that the key leader and theoretician of a political movement is not sanctified by his followers and co-thinkers right away after his death. Instead, his important intellectual achievement appraised and discussed in a truly critical manner. For Marxists, this is the only real way of grasping and testing the validity of theoretical production.
The seminar was a gathering of scholars sharing a common interest in the many issues in Marxist thought to which Mandel made a lasting contribution. Members of the Fourth
International, former members and non members alike squeezed together in the packed conference room of the International Institute for Research and Education in Amsterdam.
Over two and a half days, they listened to eight presentations and discussed them in a way which, on the whole, achieved a delicate balance between an academic seminar and a meeting of political activists.
The first presentation on "Mandel's
Revolutionary Humanism" was by Michael
Lowy (Sociologist, CNRS, Paris) who examined the philosophical stand underlying
"revolutionary grounded in an "anthropological optimism"
combined with a powerful optimism of the will". Lowy highlighted Mandel's humanistic axiomatic principle, and the ethical categorical imperative of fighting injustice that stems from it. He also showed how Mandel's fundamental optimism spilled over at times into over-optimistic expectations, despite his adherence to the "prophetic" view that if it does not achieve socialism, humanity will fall into barbarism.
Kobın Blackburn (Editor of New Left
KevIew, London) discussed "Mandel's
Politics and Late Capitalism" taking up some basic tenets of Mandel's politics. He questioned the relevance for today of the classical revolutionary Marxist view of the break from capitalism through dual power superseding of bourgeois representative institutions by organs of workers power. Blackburn stressed the importance for socialist activists in today's "grey capitalism" of addressing the issue of pension funds as one of the main keys to controlling the economic process.
Jesus Albarracin and Pedro Montes (Economists at the Bank of Spain and prominent activists in Izquierda Unida and the left wing of Comisiones Obreras, the country's largest trade union) reviewed Mandel's magnum opus, Late Capitalism pretation of Contemporary Capitalism" offered a rounded presentation of the book, putting it in the framework of Mandel's brand of "open Marxism", his classical Marxist emphasis on the economic analysis of and the boldness with which, starting from Marx, he tried to grasp the specificity of post-WW2 capitalism. They ended with a discussion of Mandel's assessment of the present protracted crisis of global
Francisco Louca (Economist, University of Lisbon) gave a brilliant talk on *Ernest Mandel and the Pulsation of History" presenting the theory of the long waves of capitalist development and Mandel's role in reviving interest in it since the mid-sixties, as well as his key contribution to a Marxist interpretation of this theory. He highlighted the epistemological postulates underlying Mandel's views, the richness of his overall conception of the historical economic process and the limits inherent to any prediction of the evolution of such a complex system as
Louca's presentation was followed by an additional talk by Alan Freeman (Economist, University of Greenwich) on "Mandel's Contribution to Economic Dynamics". Freeman emphasised the key role of Mandel in rescuing the Marxist analysis of the dynamics of capitalism against both neo-classical and Marxist academic orthodoxy. His talk however was marred by very misplaced polemical assaults on Mandel and the Fourth International from the standpoint of the British splinter group to which Freeman belongs.
Catherine Samary (Economist, University of Paris IX) discussed The Transition to Socialism in Mandel's View". She assessed Mandel's analysis of the countries of the former "actually existing socialism" as
"bureaucratically degenerated workers states", following the tradition set by Leon
Trotsky. In making a balance-sheet of this theoretical model of interpretation, she examined how it stands up to the process of unfolding restoration of capitalism in these countries. The second part of her paper dealt with Mandel's own vision of the transition to socialism and the respective roles of the plan, the market and workers democracy in that respect. She described the evolution of his views on this issue, and sketched her own conception.
Charles Post (Historian, City University of
New York) dealt with "The Marxian Theory of Bureaucracy" surveying Mandel's writing on the bureaucratic phenomenon in parties and trade-unions within capitalist social formations, as well as his sociological interpretation of the ruling bureaucracy in postcapitalist societies. Post underlined Mandel's analysis of the social roots of bureaucratic conservatism and his explanation of the evolution of labour formations and of the class struggle in Europe. reviewed and polemics against divergent theories of the nature of Soviet bureaucracy, pointing to Mandel's emphasis democratic self-organisation of the working class.
The last presentation was that of Norma
(Philosopher, University of Manchester), which he entitled Trotsky Deutscher, Mandel: Marxists before the
• Geras reviewed Trotsky's prediction of the "physical extermination Jews and the contrasted attitudes of Deutsche and Mandel in dealing with the Naz genocide. He criticized Mandel's tendency a relativise the Holocaust, instead of stressing its historical uniqueness, and his reductions explanation of it as a mere product alber extreme and verging on irrational of the barbarism inherent in capitalism. Mander: attitude, he suggested, was influenced bo ins internationalist rejection of Jewish pur ticularism, in the vein of Rosa Luxembury s attitude to the oppression of the Jews.
The major presentations will be published as a book, alongside some lesser-known texas by Mandel, in several languages by eary 1997. The success of this first semanar hus also convinced the directors of the Emes Mandel Study Centre (EMS) bo organ: a similar seminar every year. with the partspation of socialist scholars of vars opinions. Possible topics for nett vearseminar include the transition ao socalism and long waves of capitalist development. *
Salai Jate September 1996 ·290 25