>>> bradley.mayer at ebay.sun.com 02/09/01 06:47PM >>>
From Doug's speech
>Right now, Kautsky's
>ultra-imperialism seems a like a not-bad characterization of the
>world in the early 21st century, even if he was very wrong about the
>early 20th century.
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CB: Agree that today bears some resemblance to Kautsky's ultra-imperialism. However, it is important to note that it was the Russian Revolution and the existence of the Soviet Union, which Lenin had so much to with, that forced the imperialist powers to reduce their interimperialist rivalry ( especially military rivalry) and unite against the socialist nations. It was that unification against socialism that was a necessary premise for today's ultraimperialist unity.
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I believe that Kautsky projected a transnational superstate. This certainly is not the case today, where all we have is the USA and its dependent network. Like I said, No USA, no Empire - No Empire, no USA.
The paragraph that contains the above then hedges a bit on this statement. the breakup will come, but it won't be like the first World War, as a rivalry between capitalist states. Instead, a significant success of the working class struggle in key countries will begin this process. Not uncoincidentally, the great class struggles of the late classical period (1880's to WWI) also propelled the previous crackup, but this time the class character of this process will have a much higher profile.
And to "Empire's Romes" -- Washington, Wall Street, and Hollywood -- you might also want to add Silicon Valley. But I think we're going to find out that this Empire has only a wannabe Rome - a continent sized nation state making unilateral claim to global governance. It won't last long.
-Brad Mayer
Oh and I'm with Carl on Western "transparancy". Read up on Cisco (and by extension by degree, the whole of S.V.) in Barron's.