Views of Global Political-Economic Struggle

Here is a comparison of selected statements on global political-economic struggle by 7 leading leftists. There are differences in emphasis and phraseology. However, all authors in the table (below) combine the ideas of economic justice and democracy on a global scale and believe that political struggle for those goals is required. The broad goals are highly convergent, the terminology, analysis and preferred strategies may be divergent. An historical parallel can be found in the European age of “reformation” (16^th century), when many started to reject the power of the Roman-Catholic church. The various protestant leaders of the reformation did not agree on doctrinal issues and their respective churches have ideological differences to this day, 500 years later. A clever phrase is used by the commandante of the Zapatistas – “revolutionary pluralism” (from an interview in a German newspaper).

	First World Intelligentsia			Third World Intelligentsia
	Wallerstein	Chase-Dunn and Boswell/ Chase-Dunn	Chomsky	Shiva	Bello	Amin
Formulation	“enormous political struggle between two large camps”	“globalization from above” versus “globalization from below”	“defend the overwhelming majority of the world's population from the attack on fundamental human rights, and to move on to break down illegitimate power concentrations and extend the domains of justice and freedom.”	'Globalisation of the economy is a new kind of corporate colonialism visited upon poor countries and the poor in rich countries.'	“The battle against the global corporate agenda will be largely decided by the tactics adopted by the world's non-government organizations (NGOs).”	For “global socialism”
Description of topdogs	“those who wish to retain the privileges of the existing inegalitarian system”	Leader, Rules and organizations of global governance	“illegitimate power concentrations”	Corporations	Global corporations	Capitalism (global), “ruling classes” (in 3W) p 151
Description of underdogs	“those who would like to see the creation of a new historical system that will be significantly more democratic and more egalitarian”	“movements” in periphery, semiperiphery, core of world-system	“popular forces” from richer and poorer countries”	“Poor countries and the poor in rich countries”	World’s NGO’s	“popular classes” p 152
Description ofconflict	“Political struggle”	“contest”, “revolts”	“protest and public opposition”, “defend”, “attack”	“colonialism visited upon”	“battle”	“struggle” p150
Terms for antagonists	“camps”	“movements”, “institutions of global governance”	“popular forces”, “power concentrations”	Corporations, countries,people	NGO’s, Global corporations	“classes”
Key issues of antagonism	Global democracy, global income distribution	Global democracy, global income distribution	Human rights, global power concentrations	Global power, wealth distribution	Power of global corporations	Class Power, global wealth distribution

QUOTATIONS / REFERENCES:

Amin 1997

“Capitalism in the Age of Globalization” 1997

Bello Feb 2001

“The battle against the global corporate agenda will be largely decided by the tactics adopted by the world's non-government organizations (NGOs). And these tactics in turn depend not only on the balance of forces, but will turn even more fundamentally on our answer to the key question: Should we seek to transform or to disable the main institutions of corporate-led globalization?”

Boswell/Chase-Dunn, Spiral 2000

P243 “Global movements must contest the rules and organizations of international governance.”

P245 “A cluster of revolts in the semiperiphery, when matched with demands from core social movements and peripheral states … No world leader. . . will move toward global democracy unless pushed by the disenfranchised. The force of the push depends on the extent that we can organize globally.”

Chase-Dunn 2001

“Globalization From Below: Toward a Collectively Rational and Democratic Global Commonwealth” in Kohler/Chaves, forthcoming

Chomsky in “Why Porto Alegre?” 2000

“Not surprisingly, the phase (2) effects have led to substantial protest and public opposition, which has taken many forms throughout the world. The World Social Forum offers opportunities of unparalleled importance to bring together popular forces from many and varied constituencies from the richer and poor countries alike, to develop constructive alternatives that will defend the overwhelming majority of the world's population from the attack on fundamental human rights, and to move on to break down illegitimate power concentrations and extend the domains of justice and freedom.”

Shiva, 1990s

'Globalisation of the economy is a new kind of corporate colonialism visited upon poor countries and the poor in rich countries.' Vandana Shiva

[quoted by Rojas databank]

Wallerstein 2000

writes in "Globalization or the Age of Transition? A Long-Term View of the Trajectory of the World System," International Sociology, vol 15, no 2, June 2000, p.265:

“We can think of this long transition as one enormous political struggle between two large camps: the camp of all those who wish to retain the privileges of the existing inegalitarian system, albeit in different forms, perhaps vastly different forms; and the camp of all those who would like to see the creation of a new historical system that will be significantly more democratic and more egalitarian . .it is a moment at which we need to unify knowledge, imagination, and praxis. Or else we risk saying, a century from now, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. The outcome is, I insist, intrinsically uncertain, and therefore precisely open to human intervention and creativity.”

With greetings from Canada,

Gernot Kohler