2 x långläsning

Samir Amin skriver om «The Trajectory of Historical Capitalism and Marxism’s Tricontintental Vocation». Han är inte så imponerad av varken reformistiska eller postkommunistiska partier i Väst, eller för den del av västerländska marxister. Hans historiska perspektiv på kapitalismens kriser och inre motsättningar är intressant. Och pekar fram mot ett större intresse för kamper i ”periferin”:

The long history of capitalism is composed of three distinct, successive phases: (1) a lengthy preparation—the transition from the tributary mode, the usual form of organization of pre-modern societies—which lasted eight centuries, from 1000 to 1800; (2) a short period of maturity (the nineteenth century), during which the “West” affirmed its domination; (3) the long “decline” caused by the “Awakening of the South” (to use the title of my book, published in 2007) in which the peoples and their states regained the major initiative in transforming the world—the first wave having taken place in the twentieth century. This struggle against an imperialist order that is inseparable from the global expansion of capitalism is itself the potential agent in the long road of transition, beyond capitalism, toward socialism. In the twenty-first century, there are now the beginnings of a second wave of independent initiatives by the peoples and states of the South.

Fred Magdoff är en västerländsk marxist som Amin nog ändå gillar. Han erbjuder ett ramverk för förståelsen av krisen och den allvarliga situation som västerländska ekonomier, särskilt USA, nu befinner sig i. Han placerar sig i den tradition som Paul Baran, Paul Sweezy och Harry Magdoff arbetat i, där huvudtesen är att normaltillståndet i ”mogna” kapitalistiska ekonomier är stagnation. Analysen pekar fram mot finanssektorns explosionsartade tillväxt som ett symptom på underliggande kriser, inte som regulatoriska misstag vilka utlöste krisen:

As we might expect, when the economy grows at increasing slower rates, capitalists find fewer ways to profitably invest their money in the "real" economy of goods and services -- where commodities are actually produced and sold. So how in the world are they going to use their money to make more money? The accumulation of capital is the very purpose at the root of the capitalist system. Thus in the 1980s capital turned to an old technique -- increasing orienting their activities to make money by using only money, producing no product or service at all. "Something for nothing. It never loses its charm," as Michael Lewis has put it. Thus capitalists began to grow the financial system (that made making money with money possible) and used their influence in government to clear the barriers to making money in this fashion, while making sure that new barriers weren't imposed.

Läs hela: «The Great Recession and Its Aftermath: Causes vs. Symptoms»