Globalisation

Globalisation is Good

Channel 4's documentary Globalisation is Good (20 September 2003) certainly lived up to its billing as "controversial" . In fact it could easily have been called "Sweatshops are Good". For instance, the film showed a Nike factory in Vietnam where the boss and some carefully chosen workers said that they thought Nike was a brilliant employer (loans, sports facilities, clean factory, high wages, etc.). The film cut to "anti-globalisation" protests in which No Sweat banners featured heavily, with a commentary which claimed that "this boycott movement" would stop production going to Vietnam. We...

Trade unionism, capitalist competition and fragmentation of bargaining

Discussion notes on the working class in "globalised" capitalism Lash/Urry discussion notes 8: Capitalist competition and fragmentation of bargaining The main theme of Lash/Urry's chapter 8 is the trend for trade-union bargaining to become more fragmented. Company bargaining, plant bargaining, or even departmental bargaining replaces overall national collective bargaining. About the factual trend they are right. Sixteen years after they published their book, there can be no doubt about it. The question for debate is the nature of the forces driving the trend. For Lash/Urry, the trend reflects...

Radicalism, nomadism and working-class communities

Discussion notes on the working class in "globalised" capitalism Lash/Urry discussion points 7: Radicalism, nomadism and working-class communities Part of Lash/Urry's argument is that the diminished "capacities" of the working class arise from breaking-up of previously cohesive working-class communities. An almost exactly contrary view is presented in Negri/Hardt's book "Empire", where they hail "nomadism and miscegenation" as high examples of the "refusal" which is the inner subversive force within "Empire". Below are some notes on this which a comrade sent to me some months ago, and my...

Has politics become fractal?

Discussion notes on the working class in "globalised" capitalism Lash/Urry discussion notes 6: Has politics become fractal? Chapter 7 of "The End of Organised Capitalism", by Scott Lash and John Urry, contains some fairly commonplace comments on recent trends in industry and finance, and then some comments on politics which, for me, provoke more thought. Lash/Urry's basic argument in this chapter is simple, and not very developed. Voting patterns have become more fragmented and volatile. This, for them, indicates that the capacity of the working class to sustain cohesive, continuously...

Sunk in the suburbs?

Discussion notes on the working class in "globalised" capitalism Lash/Urry: discussion points 4. Sunk in the suburbs? The core argument of Lash and Urry in chapters 4 and 5 of their book is that the shift by industry, in the richer countries anyway, to smaller factories and into suburbs or smaller towns, weakens the "capacities" of the working class. There is obviously a strand of truth in this. The breaking up of old bastions of working-class organisation, the shifting of industry to places like the "sunbelt" in the USA or East Anglia and the "M4 corridor" in Britain, will put the working...

The rise and fall of organised capitalism

Discussion notes on the working class in "globalised" capitalism "The End of Organised Capitalism": discussion points 3. The rise and fall of organised capitalism. The importance of chapters 2 and 3 is in prompting us, or giving us material, to think through an account of the rise of nationally "organised capitalism" alternative to the traditional Marxist one. That traditional Marxist account was straightforward. Capital tended organically towards concentration and centralisation, the creation of oligopolies, an increasing importance of credit and finance capital. "Pressure of the productive...

Chapter-by-chapter summary and brief discussion

Discussion notes on the working class in "globalised" capitalism "The End of Organised Capitalism": overall summary INTRODUCTION: CHAPTER 1 The introduction stated the thesis: that capitalism has moved through a "liberal" phase (19th century), then an "organised" phase (late 19th century/ most of 20th century), into a "disorganised" phase (from late 20th century). By "disorganised", L/U say that they do not mean plain randomness and entropy; however, their definition of it is mainly negative. They flag up three main themes: * Though they distance themselves from theories of "farewell to the...

Introduction

Discussion notes on the working class in "globalised" capitalism "The End of Organised Capitalism": introduction The introduction to Scott Lash and John Urry's book summarises their whole argument and raises three questions: a) The basic templates of "organised" and "disorganised" capitalism; b) The role of the "service class"; c) Cultural changes. On cultural changes, the basic argument sketched in the introduction seems to be that with the rise of "disorganised" capitalism: a) culture has become more fragmented and pluralist. This is a direct contradiction to the commonplace argument that...

Writing on the wall

African partnerships Paul Wolfowitz, the new head of the World Bank and prominent neo-con has given support to Blair and Brown’s idea of massive and increased aid to Africa. He pledged to persuade Bush of the necessity and justice of this plan. He also said that “there were real partners [in Africa] with whom the west could work.” That last part is not news. Under the Bush administration the United States has boosted its presence in Africa. The US government has been trying to get the “security” for business to happen. The US is dependent on raw materials from Africa: manganese (for steel...

The working class in "globalised" capitalism

A Marxist discussion group getting under way in Brisbane. Theme: the working class in "globalised" capitalism Time: Monday evenings, 8pm to 10pm. Place: not yet fixed, but should be central. Dates: 21 July to 15 September 2003 inclusive. Issues: Capitalism has changed over the last 20 or 25 years, and the working class has changed too. In the planned nine weeks of discussion we hope to clarify our ideas on these changes and on what political conclusions need to be drawn. Our framework for doing this will be a chapter-by-chapter discussion of the book "The End Of Organised Capitalism", written...

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