Chris, that sound all fine, only one string of argument is basically wrong
- and it seems to belong almost to the discussion culture nowadays - the
prediction about "major war" between the "centers". Do you all honestly
believe that America, Japan and Europe will go to war with each other about
Toyotas, soya, computer chips, volkswagen and all? I have tried to argue
all along in my recent works that we cannot overlook the cultural
dimensions and the political sociological dimensions, even if we reject
Huntington or Fukuyama for other and good reasons. My dear friends across
the Atlantic - not the European Union is the element of belligerent
contention in the world system, or Japans capitalism for that matter, but
unequal exchange could force regions like China (still a one-party-state,
much resembling Germany in the late 19th century in its semi- authoritarian
industrialization drive), much of Africa and West-Central Asia into a
contention-trap. I think to recall that here and there are reports about
totalitarian ideologies evolving in that region, aren't they? Or is that
what happens in Algeria merely a daydream? The way that Russia goes could
become more similar to that of Austria in the 19th century - belated and
half-hearted reforms. Does not sound all that much more plausible?
A good issue for debate would be Anglo-French relations in the 19th and
early 2oth century: they rather show, I think, the evolving structure of
Euro-American relations in the 21st century.
Peace
Arno Tausch
----------
> From: christopher chase-dunn <chriscd@jhu.edu>
> To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
> Subject: world party and antisystemic movements
> Date: Dienstag, 07. Oktober 1997 18:26
>
> Thanks to all who have contributed to the discussion of Warren Wagar’s
> short essay about antisystemic movements. The discussion has been civil
> and enlightening. If you want to go back to take a look at the exchanges
> I recommend accessing the WSN mail archive at
> http://csf.colorado.edu/mail/wsn and sorting by the threads. The
> relevant subject headings are: "anti-systemic movements", wagar on
> antisystemic movements, "comrades", "world party" and " world
> government." Alternatively you can sort by date and read most of the
> posts since September 15.
>
> I see two basic issues in the debates:
> 1. What are the appropriate values around which we could mobilize a
> global movement to transform the capitalist world-system into a
> collectively rational and democratic global commonwealth? and
> 2. Should we try to reform the existing system or should we concentrate
> on radically transforming it?
>
> On the values question my approach is mainly pragmatic. Choose and
> believe those values that facilitate the mobilization of those people
> who have the greatest motivation and the greatest opportunity to change
> the system. I agree with Professor Wagar that the values of Left
> Enlightenment are fine. It has not been the values promulgated by the
> powers-that-be that are the source of the problem. Liberty, equality and
> sorority are fine values. These values are found in many non-European
> cultures as well. The problem is to construct social and political
> structures that realize these values in practice, rather than merely
> using them as legitimations for exploitation and domination.
>
> On the second question, I say we need to do both. Reform _and_
> revolution. I would constitutionally prefer revolution, but I see
> reform as a necessary effort under the circumstances. Let me explain.
> The capitalist world-economy in its globalizing phase will probably
> cause either ecological catastrophe or thermonuclear holocaust, or both.
> Seeing that this is true we cannot opportunistically wait to pick up the
> pieces after said holocaust(s). In Wagar’s novel the World Party does
> not get going until the 2030s. The nuclear war that kills off two-thirds
> of the world’s population occurs in 2044. In my projection of
> world-system cycles and trends (Chase-Dunn and Podobnik 1995) the
> window of vulnerability to a future war among core states occurs rather
> in the 2020s. Seeing this now, in 1997, we must do all that we can to
> prevent the two possible holocausts. This means trying to reform the
> capitalist world-system in order to prevent these outcomes. At the same
> time we need to recognize that our efforts may fail, and so we should
> also be building the necessary organizational tools to survive and to
> carry through a revolutionary transformation.
>
> The combined strategies (reform and revolution) require mostly
> overlapping and complementary tasks. We need to form an organization
> that will debate, educate and strategize with the short-run and long-run
> goals in mind. The word "party" seems to cause a lot of difficulty.
> Maybe we should rather call it a "network." We need to do research on
> the structural causes of warfare and ecological degradation in the past
> and construct models of how these causes are likely to work in the
> future. We need to understand the connections between popular movements
> and the changing structures of globalized capitalism and the
> institutions of the global capitalist class. We need to write articles
> and books that explain the world-systems perspective to the broad
> audiences who will need to understand how things work in order to change
> them.
>
>
> It is not too early to start.
>
> chris