Mon, 12 Nov 2001 07:45:09 -0500
>I'll ask instead whether weakening U.S. hegemonism will accomplish very
>much if Capital prevails regardless, which it seems very likely to do
>however the present American adventures turn out. Yes, the fat cop may be
>demoted; but their are other cops in the precinct, some of whom may be
>even nastier than f.c.
>
>-- Gordon
Let me respond to Gordon's question this way:
We have to eat a meal mouthful by mouthful. In terms of practical power relations it seems impossible now for socialism or even social democracy to prevail in one country alone. The untamed turbulent forces of international finance capital are such that they can apparently sweep away all barriers. Russia was crushed into trading in potatoes. Turkey and Argentina are shown no mercy despite their extraordinary political loyalty.
We need to addres first the taming of global finance capital on a global basis. That is the economic struggle which is in fact on a continuum with the struggle for socialism and perhaps for communism too. The social regulation of finance capital as it progresses, so proportionately it contrains the private character of capitalist ownership.
The political agenda has to be to advance institutions of global government which are to some extent susceptible to the pressure of the multitude, the masses, the international working class, working people, intelligentsia, and democratic bourgeois forces.
That requires the US to coordinate its intiatives and accept the constraints of working in a wider global framework.
While I like their optimism and their emphasis on global struggle, one of the features of Hardt and Negri's perspectives on Empire, that I find most difficult, is the failure to highlight as a main target of struggle, US hegemonism.
Hardened US leftists will oppose every overseas action of their government. However that is not dialectics and it is perhaps not good practice either. The main stream of US opinion, even though privileged on a world scale compared to the rest of the population of the world, can understand arguments about fairness and about the advantages of the US being seen as a fair country.
From this point of view the weakening of US hegemonism is a subset and a necessary contributing feature of the struggle to establish internationally accountable imperial government structures. It is not the goal itself.
And leftists within the USA will in fact be more successful if they do not present themselves as being against the US government by definition, but by appealing, as they have done over the current Afghan war, to a mixture of ethics and self interest.
All this could arguably weaken US hegemonism faster than a direct assault on US hegemonsm.
Chris Burford
London