Patrick Bond writes:> I had some long discussions about these problems about 8
weeks ago with > Samir, but didn't find a way to dislodge his support for
South-South > alliances no matter how much of a stretch (the current most
ridiculous > one is Venezuela-Zimbabwe). I reply: Well, does it not seem that
one key and underscrutinized issue is determiningwhat distinguishes a decadent
Bandung I regime from a protean Bandung IIone? And hence figuring out the
criteria separating rotten Bandung I trade/investment/diplomacy/etc. alliances
from promising Bandung II ones? Perhaps this is unfair, but despite my deep
respect for Amin's work too often it feelsas though his analysis is long on
acclamation (very impressive acclamationindeed!) and short on analysis. I guess
he is first and foremost a theoretician. Patrick Bond writes: >Much else of
that interview is fantastic, especially the orientation to explaining >global
capitalist crisis not momentary financial bubble burst. I reply: Well of
course Dr. Overaccumulation himself would lend his endorsement! But isn'tthat
just Marxism 101? It gets you through the door but not out the other end ofthe
passageway. What I find to be a more deft theoretical move is Amin's attempt--
the analysis is not terribly well-developed -- to intermingle analysis of the
over-accumulation of capital, the concentration of capital, and imperialism. If
I'm not mistaken a major portion of a recent big book of his revolved around
the theme ofhow the big powers are engaged in a fraternal competition to win
superprofits inthe leading sectors of global capitalism and jointly committed
to keeping the oldmachinery of uneven development chugging along. I suppose
upon reconsideration it seems to be a rather abstruse updating but not a
fundamental reconstruction of
hoary dependencia theories, the added features being a convinction that global
capitalism is ever more overripe (in part because of previously unappreciated
ecological crises) and a conviction that socialism is one country is ever more
illusory.
Maybe Amin hasn't made any dramatic new moves since 1991, which is not to say
that his perspective lacks potency for it. Regarding Amin and China, an irony
just occurred to me. Perhaps it is the very failure of the CCP to achieve one
self-proclaimed goal -- that is, to have the opening up andmarket reform
policies yield a crop of PRC-based, high value-adding Global Fortune 500firms
-- that accounts for Amin's refusal to admit the PRC to the collective
imperialists'club. I would develop this point further were my homemade
spaghetti sauce not boilingover, but I think you can grok the irony here...
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