Globalisation

Make sweatshops history!

A month before the big Make Poverty History demonstration in Edinburgh on 2 July, the movement has been hit by a row about the wristbands it sells, for people to wear to show support, being made in non-union, low-wage, sweatshops. This fact was revealed in Solidarity (3/67) as long ago as February, but has now been highlighted in the Independent and the Guardian on 30 May. An audit requested by Oxfam, Christian Aid, and Cafod, three charities within the Make Poverty History coalition which had ordered silicon wristbands from Chinese factories in order to raise funds by selling them, has found...

Mobilise for an alternative to the G8: 2 to 6 July

From 2 to 6 July, there will be tens of thousands of young anti-capitalists in Scotland, protesting at the G8 summit. Read on for some of the details, and for some of the political debates. Our main political idea The main political idea that AWL will be promoting in Scotland will be workers' rights, and international workers' solidarity and struggle, as the counter to the capitalist plans of the G8. Of the other forces which will be there, "Make Poverty History" focuses on trying to persuade the G8 governments to improve (more aid, better trade conditions for poorer countries, more debt...

Left nationalism

Harry Glass reviews “The Politics of Empire: Globalisation in Crisis” , Alan Freeman and Boris Kagarlitsky eds Pluto 2004. Alan Freeman, one of the book’s editors, is a bag carrier for Mayor Livingstone, associated with Socialist Action and the recent ESF. The book reflects these politics. Beneath its urbane pessimism, it is a manifesto for second-camp “socialism” that abandons the central role of the working class. The editors define globalisation as a distinctive historical era between 1980 until 2003. That regime has now broken down, to be replaced by an age similar to classical imperialism...

Security and plunder

Why are the G8 bothered about Africa? A report by the Council on Foreign Relations (a right-wing US think-tank) published last year sheds light on the real issues involved. The report, Freedom, Prosperity and Security, aptly sums up the interests of G8 governments and their business supporters. It says: “Africa’s poverty, marginalisation and security all impinge on the well being and security of the G8 countries”. Security is a primary motive. The report says: “Security concerns are becoming especially important in Africa”. It points to terrorist attacks in 1998 on US embassies in Nairobi and...

Balls on imperialism

Letter to Weekly Worker, from Paul Hampton, AWL John Ball’s uncritical summary of The Politics of Empire (Weekly Worker December 16) rehashes some “anti-imperialist” conventional wisdom but misses the flaws of the book – its distortion of reality and its terrible political conclusions. Alan Freeman, one of the book’s editors, is also a bag carrier for Mayor Livingstone, associated with Socialist Action and the recent ESF. The book reflects these politics. Beneath its urbane pessimism, it is nothing less than a manifesto for second-camp “socialism” that abandons the central role of the working...

Facts and debates about trade

Paul Hampton reviews Gary Buckman, Globalization: tame it or scrap it? , Zed Books, £9.99 This book brings together a huge amount of information on world trade and capital flows, in an accessible form. Firstly, world trade has grown enormously over the last two hundred years. • Between 1830 and 1850 world trade doubled and between 1850 and 1880 it trebled; • World trade expanded by 40% between 1881 and 1913, but only grew by 14% between 1913 and 1937; • From 1945 until the 1960s world trade was growing by 8% per year — nearly doubling every decade; • During the 1970s trade grew at about half...

European Social Forum: You have to be there!

By Joan Trevor Last-minute preparations are being made for the 3rd European Social Forum, less than a month away. While it’s far from being the ESF we — or many others — would have wanted, it will still be an immensely significant and enjoyable event. Taking place mainly around Alexandra Palace in north London, and in the Bloomsbury area of central London, the ESF and fringe events are likely to draw 20,000 people — anti-capitalists, ecologists, socialists, NGOs, trade unionists, pacifists, of all shades of opinion. Readers of Solidarity should be there! The seminar programme, shrunken...

Workers in globalisation

The working class in "globalised" capitalism

Draft review by Martin Thomas of Nigel Harris's book The return of cosmopolitan capital (Rtf file, 53k. November 2003.)


Notes from a Marxist discussion group organised by Workers' Liberty activists in Brisbane, Australia, in July-September 2003, around the book The End of Organized Capitalism, by Scott Lash and John Urry.

1. Introduction

2. Chapter-by-chapter summary and brief discussion

3. The rise and fall of 'organised capitalism'

4. Sunk in the suburbs?

5. Disorganised capital, disorganised labour?

6. Has politics become fractal?

7. Radicalism, nomadism, and working-class communities

8. Trade unionism, capitalist competition and fragmentation of bargaining

Publications
Culture and Reviews
Issues and Campaigns

Marxism and Imperialism



Marxism and imperialism


A seven-week discussion course

Course outline

Week 1. (a) Marx: On The Question of Free Trade

Week 1. (b) Engels on the Mexican-American war of 1846-8

Week 1. (c) Marx: The Future Results of British Rule in India

Week 2. Karl Kautsky: from Socialism And Colonial Policy (1907) (see also the full text and introduction to this text.)

Week 3. (a) Rosa Luxemburg: from Social Reform and Revolution

Week 3. (b) Rosa Luxemburg: from the Junius Pamphlet

Week 3. (c) Hilferding: Finance Capital - a summary, and a review by Kautsky

Week 4. Lenin: from Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism

Week 5. (a) Dependency theory: adapted from Workers' Liberty 28

Week 5. (b) Samir Amin on The Political Economy of the 20th Century

Week 5. (c) Decolonisation. From Workers' Liberty 63

Week 6. Globalisation. From Two Critiques, in Workers' Liberty 2/3

Week 7. (a) The Iraq war and perspectives (from Solidarity)

Week 7. (b) Ellen Wood: Back to Marx


Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 1. Introduction

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 2. The white man as cannibal

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 3. How Britain ruined India

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 4. Looting El Dorado

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 5. The spoils of the Sultanates

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 6. Levelling and uneven development

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 7. The grey revolution

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 8. Three variants

Background: Imperialism yesterday and today 9. Development: whose, and and what cost?

Publications
Marxist Theory and History
Issues and Campaigns

G8 summit

The G8 Summit of World Leaders meets in July 2005 in Scotland. A campaign has started to get the world's leaders to put Fair Trade on the summit's agenda and tackle global poverty. A target of 1,000,000 names by June 2005 has been set. And the organisers want to highlight the following facts: As many as two billion people are living on less than $2 a day. $97 of every $100 generated by exports goes to the world's richest countries. Income in the poorest 5% of nations has dropped by 25% in the past 10 years. Income in the richest 5% has grown by 12%. World trade is estimated to be worth $10...

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