There has
been no levelling off of the global economy, as economists predicted. Although
industrialisation has expanded to lesser-developed countries, it has generally
been along lines determined by global corporations based in advanced capitalist
countries. From colonialism, we have moved into the age of multinational
corporate domination. Will Roche looks at the rise of monopoly capitalism.
The holy trinity of ideological concepts for the modern capitalist age
are neoliberalism, globalisation and financialisation. Of these three concepts
financialisation occupies a position akin to that of the holy ghost, as the
least understood and least discussed of the three. Financialisation is a
reality under modern capitalism. Marxists need to examine how much it has
changed capitalism, and how far the system remains fundamentally the same.
The crisis of world capitalism is unfolding
relentlessly and with gathering speed. First came the financial crisis (the
so-called credit crunch), but now the second phase has begun - the crisis of
the real economy - and it is accelerating as each day goes by. This is leading
to sharp changes in consciousness, rising working class militancy and the
beginnings of polarisation within the labour movement itself.
The big corporations in North America, Western Europe and Japan are moving
more of their factories abroad in search of lower wages. But in the process they
are tying the interests of the international working class more closely
together. In global companies like Ford, the interests of a section of workers
on almost every continent are directly linked. The answer to capitalist
globalization is to link up workers’ struggle
worldwide.
"Neoliberalism", sometimes called "market
fundamentalism", i.e. the policy of non-intervention by the state in
the economy, has been the dominant ideology of the bourgeoisie for close to
three decades, involving widespread privatisation and all the
other policies that go with it. The present economic meltdown,
however, is forcing governments to intervene, regulate, and even
nationalise firms because they have no choice. So is "neoliberalism"
dead?
Socialist Appeal
The British section of the International Marxist Tendency
There has
been no levelling off of the global economy, as economists predicted. Although
industrialisation has expanded to lesser-developed countries, it has generally
been along lines determined by global corporations based in advanced capitalist
countries. From colonialism, we have moved into the age of multinational
corporate domination. Will Roche looks at the rise of monopoly capitalism.
The holy trinity of ideological concepts for the modern capitalist age
are neoliberalism, globalisation and financialisation. Of these three concepts
financialisation occupies a position akin to that of the holy ghost, as the
least understood and least discussed of the three. Financialisation is a
reality under modern capitalism. Marxists need to examine how much it has
changed capitalism, and how far the system remains fundamentally the same.
The crisis of world capitalism is unfolding
relentlessly and with gathering speed. First came the financial crisis (the
so-called credit crunch), but now the second phase has begun - the crisis of
the real economy - and it is accelerating as each day goes by. This is leading
to sharp changes in consciousness, rising working class militancy and the
beginnings of polarisation within the labour movement itself.