http://melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=42384&group=webcast
Globilisation Unmasked a Book Review by SA Millar
by Simon Millar 4:40pm Sun Feb 16 '03 (Modified on 11:28pm Mon Feb 17 '03)
article#42384
I strongly recommend that people get a hold of 'Globilisation Unmasked'
by James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer. You can obtain it at readers feast
in Melbourne on the corner of Bourke and Swanston St. Read below for
review.
Globalisation Unmasked (2001) by James Petras & Henry Veltmeyer
Book review
By Simon A Millar
Globalisation Unmasked is an attempt at a Marxist analysis of capitalist
globalisation. It is a succinct and extremely valuable book which
provides a concise outline of both globalisation and it's effects. But
unlike most literature on the subject it attempts to provide a solution
to the devastating effects of global capitalism.
It begins with an argument in favour of replacing the word globalisation
with imperialism. The word globalisation is both a description and
prescription. Globalisation describes the widening and deepening of
international flows of trade, capital, technology and information within
a single integrated market. As a prescription, "globalisation" involves
the liberalisation of national and global markets in the belief that it
will produce the best outcome for growth and human welfare.
Existing theories and range of analysis from both the right and left are
outlined. Most see the process as inevitable and a qualitatively new
development. Numerous left perspectives on globalisation describe
Trans-National Corporations (TNCs) as effectively ruling the globe
through a super state run by the IMF and World Bank that overrides the
nation state. Petras and Veltmeyer pull this analysis apart with the
help of a Marxist class analysis and up to date statistics.
They point out that the vast majority of the world's most powerful TNCs
are American owned, followed by Europe and then Japan. Out of the top
500 TNCs the U.S. accounts for 244, Japan 46, and Germany 23. Europe
combined has 173, while the rest of the world accounts for 26. Looking
at the 25 largest TNCs in terms of wealth, the dominance of the U.S.
becomes clearer. 70% are U.S., 26% are European and 4% are Japanese.
These figure combined with a close look at the economic and political
processes that have been shaping the world economy demonstrates the
fundamental role of nation states and in particular the U.S.
There is an outline of the systematic impoverishment and exploitation of
the third world and the figures are stark. In areas like sub-Saharan
Africa per capita income has fallen by 25%. The global output of the
world's richest 20% countries went up from 70.2% to 82.7% while the
poorest 20% shrank from 2.3% to 1.4%. According to UN statistics the
disparity between rich and poor countries has risen from 11:1 to 17:1 in
eight years. A conservative estimate put world unemployment at 140
million.
These figures are of no surprise to most of us on the left but the
strength of the book lies in the use of official statistical data to
provide a clear picture of the inner workings of the global economy.
The book explains the key role of the U.S. in forcing through GATTS,
NAFTA and other free trade agreements. The picture is of imperialism and
the authors stress the importance of using this term and combating the
imprecise and politically obscuring term globalisation. They also
challenge the notion that the nation state has been fundamentally
weakened. In fact they point out that in key areas tied to managing and
securing profits the state in the U.S. has been strengthened. The fact
that most capitalist states have been cutting back responsibility for
health and welfare doesn't correspond to the weakening of the state and
its key role in economic management.
While more than ever before leading corporations gain their profits
offshore, the majority of profits are still made within national
borders. Even offshore profits are still largely generated within first
world countries themselves.
They detail significant changes in the form and means whereby the TNCs
and the U.S. are generating staggering profits for themselves offshore.
They point to important economic shifts from using loans and debt
repayments to direct capital investment. This leads to an excellent
overview of the privatisation process and the buying up of third world
infrastructure or failing third world corporations by first world,
predominately U.S., corporations and financial institutions.
They also describe the important role of the U.S. military in gaining
access to new markets, installing compliant regimes, violently
destroying leftist and nationalist movements which threaten U.S.
hegemony as well as being a key factor in the U.S. economy in its own
right.
The book goes a long way to reveal and make comprehensible what can
appear overwhelmingly complex. It highlights the pivotal role of the
clash of classes and rather than some global conspiracy, it reveals a
world entangled in competing companies, nations, individuals and classes
struggling for their own interests often producing results that were
neither planned or foreseen. The book explains the dynamic between the
real economy and the speculative or what is often called the virtual
economy, where billions of dollars which has no real value impacts with
often disastrous consequences on the real economy.
Marx highlighted the fact that money as a universal equivalent can quite
often represent the price of something that has no value in the sense it
is not the product of human labour power. The book argues successfully
that nothing qualitatively has changed, we are simply living under the
most ravenous and exploitative form of imperialism in world history. The
book though is optimistic, constantly showing that the victory of neo
liberalism is not inevitable. Neo-liberalism and globalisation have been
struggled against and in places overcome.
A very informative and politically helpful part of the book is the clear
analysis of the real role of NGOs as tools for blocking and sidetracking
the development of broad mass movements of workers and peasants. They
describe the co-option of academics within the framework of NGOs funded
by TNCs and their role in micro-economic management. NGOs channel the
political responses of the exploited classes into micro-economic forms
which neither challenge nor provide a macro-economic strategy capable of
overthrowing neo-liberalism.
There are over 50,000 NGOs receiving $10 billion in funding from
international financial institutions. The heads of these NGOs often
receive perks and salaries comparable to corporate CEOs. There have been
few left critiques of the negative impact of NGOs and the key role they
have played in displacing and destroying organised leftist movements.
Using a populist rhetoric and attending countless international
conferences with progressive banners NGOs battle for funding based on
their ability to control significant popular groups. They talk about a
'third way' between "authoritarian statism" and "savage market
capitalism", seeing themselves as the vanguard of "civil society"
operating in the interstices of the "global economy". They use terms
like "civil society" to obscure the class division, class exploitation
and class struggle that polarizes contemporary society.
NGO collaborate with big business. The NGOers' "civil society" rhetoric
is a ploy to attack comprehensive public programs and state institutions
that deliver social services. When millions lose their jobs and poverty
spreads to significant portions of the population, NGOs engage in
"survival strategies", not general strikes, they organise soup kitchens,
not mass demonstrations against food hoarders, neoliberal regimes or
U.S. imperialism.
The traditional ideology and strategic orientation of the left is
depicted as irrelevant and backward by the NGO ideologues. The strength
of the book is that it constantly points to the importance of gaining a
concrete understanding of existing imperialism as a crucial weapon for
human liberation. They point to the importance of alternatives being
grounded in the existing mass movements, a class analysis and the
partial successes of existing mass movements such as the FARC in
Colombia. They also stress the vital need of the exploited classes to
build mass organizations conscious of political tasks in the short term
and which are firmly grounded in the long term goals of overthrowing the
capitalist class and beginning the construction of a socialist economy.
They end their analysis by discussing the relationship between
capitalism and democracy, rejecting both the view that capitalism tends
inevitably towards dictatorships or democracy. Rather they posit that
that which maximises profits while protecting vested interests and
property rights determines the form of government. They argue that with
the decline of mass socialist parties in Central America, dictatorships
with U.S. support have given way to democracies who are the preferred
form of capitalist state as they are cheaper to run and generate larger
and more stable markets. They also highlight the various strategies and
tactics used by the right in different periods from terror to strikes.
The strikes organised by bosses in Venezuela today are a classic example
of the right using a tactic typically associated with the left to bring
down a government that is pro working class.
The book's final chapter called Socialism in the Age of Imperialism,
attempts to provide an alternative socialist economic model. It is a
very useful chapter and it is socialism's greatest strength in that it
has a practical and achievable alternative to capitalism. It is
refreshing to read a chapter such as this in an academic piece.
Solutions are usually absent from most of the big names in
anti-capitalist critique such as Noam Choamsky or John Pilger. The
chapter is unfortunately flawed as it describes socialist economic
solutions while leaving out the methods of and problems confronting, any
mass movement that attempts to bring about a socialist economy.
This gives the last chapter both a utopian and reformist character. This
does not detract from what is otherwise a truly terrific book, the best
contemporary book on globalisation I have read. It has a wealth of
useful and eye opening information presented in a clear and objective
fashion. The fact that they cover such a large amount of material in
only 175 pages without simplifying or overlooking any key factors makes
it a must read for the serious anti-globalisation fighter who not only
wants to understand the world we are in but who wants to know how to
change it for the better. This book left me feeling that replacing
capitalism with democratic socialism was not only necessary but achievable.
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