Marx on free trade

Jim heartfield jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk
Tue Sep 28 10:57:44 PDT 1999


In message <19990928151814.19622.qmail at hotmail.com>, Carl Remick <carlremick at hotmail.com> writes


>Au contraire, while people may have a romanticized view of the "sensitive,
>localized capitalism" of yore, I think multinational corporations *force*
>people to recognize how little sway over corporate conduct they actually
>have. People soon realize that combating MNCs -- which are everywhere and
>nowhere at the same time -- is like grappling with a fog bank.

Isn't the point that both responses are one-sided.

The globalisation theorists are saying that all government action is impossible in the face of the world market, and that you should just go with the (capital) flow.

Conversely the protectionists are selling a pipe-dream about an Edenic age before foreigners disrupted the harmonious relation between the 'umble labourer and 'is master.

A complex society throws up many self-mystifying visions. It is better not to be caught in the opposition of one capitalist utopia to another.

PS on Britain's bio-angst: professor Roger Godsen of Leeds University made medical history with his procedure for 'reversing the menopause' (actually, it falls short of that). Godsen said the day after his triumph that he was leaving Britain for Canada, because it was getting to be impossible to do scientific work in his area because of Britain's bio-angst. A terrible sacrifice to the collective stupidity of the environmental movement. -- Jim heartfield



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