Capital globalization

Author: (American) Fran?ois Chatelet
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-09-01
Features: The French edition of this book has attracted the attention of two types of readers: the first are teachers and young scholars, who have read in this book an explanation of globalization and a preliminary description of the development stage of capitalism's "international industrial economy"; the second are political activists, union members, or activists of other associations, who strongly agree with me and "those who, instead of adapting to the existing order, debate as clearly as possible to understand it and ultimately outline other paths different from the current one" (French edition, p. 31). However, has this debate made the expected progress? I believe it has not. Viniane Forester and I had to admit that we are deeply troubled by a cruel "shortcoming" at present. This shortcoming does not lie in the lack of any form of struggle, but in the absence of any critical debate or organized response from the intellectual community (The Great Economic Terror, p. 164). In November and December 1995, the large-scale strikes and demonstrations against the policies of the government of Alain Juppé (which some say were a form of resistance to globalization) could have—and should have—marked the beginning of a debate. However, due to various political and social reasons, this did not happen. Therefore, it is necessary to wait for more intense activities or more severe events than in 1995. In the meantime, it is essential to continue enriching and deepening this line of thought. In 1994, when I wrote this book, I started from the premise that, in essence, the globalization of capital constitutes a new stage in the international movement of productive capital. I also added two chapters to explain the rise of financial power. However, although the instability of finance and the role of real positive interest rates were discussed, the explanation of the overall movement of world capitalism and the analysis of the decline in the 1990s were more based on the movement of industrial capital rather than financial capital. Now, things are different. The main ideas behind this revised edition are two. First, to understand the contemporary movement of world capitalism, one must start from the financial sphere, not just the operations of industrial capital. Second, we are facing a new way of operating capitalism, or a new "accumulation system." In this accumulation system, the creation of wealth has become noticeably slower, while the bourgeoisie's demands for income distribution have become unprecedentedly intense and forceful. The demands of stock and bond holders (which belong to the "lending capital" described by Marx in Volume 3 of Capital) are particularly urgent. Usury capital was criticized by Keynes. Will capitalism guided by usury capital still be viable in the medium term—or at least in the short term? Keynes believed it would not. Based on the political and social context of the 1930s, he was deeply pessimistic about the political and social consequences of usury capitalism. As the century turned, would usury capitalism have an alternative path? Such speculation is entirely unfounded. So, the question now is: should we wait for the system to reach a dead end, or should we seize the opportunity to immediately seek an alternative path based on different political and social foundations, a system that prioritizes other needs above all else. Today, those who bear the heavy burden of the new accumulation system are the permanently unemployed, young people living like prisoners (who are in the industrial reserve army in various parts of capitalism and face the worst conditions), the undocumented, the homeless, and those stripped of their rights. Clearly, these people cannot wait. Can the employed, organized working class wait? At the 1995 strikes and demonstrations, some public sector workers expressed serious doubts about this possibility. Unfortunately, they failed to move their leaders. If our hypothesis is correct, then what is being questioned should not be the ongoing "technological revolution," but the various driving forces of the new accumulation system. In this case, there is no real issue of a "labor apocalypse," but rather the social and political foundations of the system, because under this system, the creation and distribution of wealth no longer start from meeting the basic needs of millions or even tens of millions of people. To endlessly divide employment due to "insufficient" jobs without seeking the reasons for the lack of wealth creation is merely another, less obvious form of "must adapt" for a system that is expanding insufficiently (or relatively contracting). From a global perspective, the issue has become extremely urgent. Given the ongoing debate about globalization, the introduction of this book has been rewritten for this revised edition. Based on the hypothesis of the pillar role of the financial sector, Chapter 10 of the French edition has been changed to Chapter 2 in this edition, with some substantive revisions to the content. The final chapter has been entirely rewritten and provides an overall introduction to the new accumulation system.