Globalisation&Yaffe

Sat, 21 Jun 1997 09:06:10 +0000
Karl Carlile (joseph@indigo.ie)

KARL CARLILE: Below is a short off the cuff comment on what I
believe is a principal feature of this article on Dvid yaffe's
article on globalisation which I made accessible on the list.

DAVID YAFFE: The policies of national governments in capitalist
countries are mainly determined by two important dynamics: the first
is the state of the national process of capital accumulation and its
rel ative international strength; the second is the balance of class
forces both nationally and internationally. It is of little surprise
that the concept of 'globalisation' is being discussed; (1) durin g a
period of stagnating national capital accumulation as excess capital
is aggressively exported or deployed speculatively on the stock
markets of the world to stave off a profits collapse and (2) f
ollowing a dramatic shift in the balance of class forces nationally
and internationally in favour of capital after the successful
counterattack against labour in the 1980s, an attack which highlighte
d the weakness of working class and socialist forces world- wide.

KARL: I want to say, in passing, that the above analysis suggests that
the process of the accumulation of capital in a given country is
primarily national. Implicit in this thesis is a nationalist id eology
with all its reactionary implications.

Not unrelated to the above mistaken understanding of how capital
accumulates your above piece also suggests that the accumulation
process in any given country is an independent process that simply fo
llows its own immanent process of regulation. Consequently any
accumulation difficulties are due to the immanent logic of this
process. What is not recognised here is that the process of
accumulatio n of capital in a particular country and indeed globally
is a process that proceeds in a modified or even distorted way. It is
a process that is modified or adulterated by the statal system. This
sys tem prevents the laws of capital from operating freely.
Consequently accumulation difficulties are unable to freely resolve
themselves in a dialectical way that is immanent to the accumulation
proces s itself such as cyclical crises. In short the accumulation
process cannot not be looked at as if something that operates in an
independent form with the state simply tacked on like the proverbial
mo nkey on one's back.

In many ways the primary difficulty facing capital is the modified,
distorted and restricted form in which capital accumulates because of
the inextricable interweaving of capital and state. The two a re
inextricably interwoven with each other and can be only separated
within an analytical context. The world statal system is entangled in
capital in order to protect capital from itself. In short its
entanglement exists for political reasons. If capital were to operate
freely according to the logic of the law of value it would result in
the revolutionising of the contemporary social system le ading to an
unprecedented massive restructuring of capitalism both internally
among the bourgeoisie and in its relationship to the working class.
Capitalism is neither strong nor confident enough to allow the law of
value to operate in such an unadulterated fashion in the face of the
potential threat posed by the world working class. To resolve its
deep-seated profitability problems, however, ca pital needs to be
able to follow its own immanent logic. This is not to say that there
will not be future circumstances in which it may be compelled to allow
the law of value to proceed virtually un obstructed.

The state strives to straddle two contradictory courses. It seeks to
constrain the laws of capital while contradictorily permitting their
(relative) liberalisation. The establishment of the EU and NA FTA is
evidence of this contradictory process. This contradictory strategy
entails a finely tuned balancing act which, as I have already said,
throws up a variegated manifold of social contradictions which give
modern capitalism its perplexing and confusing character.

Greetings,
Karl

Yours etc.,
Karl

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Yours etc.,
Karl