Amin on global keynesianism (quotes) (fwd)

As it is written, Amin is in favor of reforms that may restructure
international institutions from within (IMF/World Bank/UN). In
that respect, he seems to subscribe to "global keynesianism" somewhat
implicitly. Redistribution of world income in "favor of peripheries" is a
vital necessity, but Amin does not "terribly" tell us how to achieve this
goal if global keynesianism is a capitalist project. On the other
hand, i partially agree with Amin. There are merits in reforms however
hopeless they seem in the first place. Given our circumstances,
oppositional forces should not give up the struggle to "press" demands on
these institutions. 

Mine


>Here are some quotes from Amin's article.
>REFERENCE:
>Samir Amin, "Fifty Years Is Enough", _Monthly Review_, vol.. 46, no. 11
>(April 1995), pp.. 8-50


In a section with the heading "Reforming Bretton Woods" (starting on p. 44)
Amin writes:

(p.45) "In this last era, there is no lack of ideas. The most radical
proposals call for a return to Keynesianism, this time on a world scale -- a
redistribution of income to the benefit of Third World peoples and workers
in every region of the world (a megaeconomic stimulation, as Walter Mead
says). According to their advocates, these proposals imply major reforms
affecting the international economic institutions: (1) The transformation of
the IMF into a genuine world central bank with the power of issuing real
currency (similar to the SDRs) that would replace the dollar standard,
ensure certain stability of exchange rates, and provide developing countries
with the liquidities needed....(2) The transformation of the World Bank into
a fund that would collect surpluses (from countries such as Japan and
Germany) and lend them not to the United States, but to the Third World.
This operation ... would simultaneously force the United States to reduce
its deficit. ... (3) The creation of a genuine international trade
organization (ITO) ... (4) Consideration of environmental issues might
become an internalized feature of the World Bank's loan system. One might
take this even further by setting up a world tax on energy, non-renewable
resources, etc. ... (5) Reform of the economic institutions would be
accompanied by a heightened political role for the United Nations...."

p. 47 "In my opinion, this is a very fine project for reform of the world
economic and political system. It proceeds from a central idea that strikes
me as incontrovertible -- the idea that development can only be revived by a
redistribution of income both at the global level (in favor of the
peripheries) and at the social level (within centers and peripheries, in
favor of workers and popular classes), and that world trade and capital
movements must be subordinated to the logic of this 'demand-side approach to
trade,' as Walter Mead calls it.
       Yet it must be recognized that reforms of this scope clash with the
interests of dominant capital...."

p. 48 "The project is thus a kind of rediscovery of the fact that a
different social order--socialism, to call it by its name--is objectively
necessary and must be worldwide. ..."

p. 49 "The priorities for action that I am suggesting are therefore
different from those outlined in the project under consideration. I
emphasize ... (1) Constructing Third World regions ... (2) Reviving the
European left .... (3) Reviewing the financial and commercial relations
between Europe, Japan, and the United States in a direction that would
permit a relative stabilization of exchange rates and force the United
States to give up its structural deficit ... (4) Reconstructing the UN
system ... (5) Reforming the IMF ..."

p. 50 [last sentence of article:] "The strategy of creating a world
socialism necessary to avoid barbarism focuses on defining the paths most
likely to lead to evolution in the direction of this objective."
[ note: there is no "R" at the beginning of "evolution". Whether that is a
printing error by the otherwise infallible _Monthly Review_, I cannot
determine.]

GK