Inter-imperialist collusion, was Re: the euro

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Fri Nov 30 12:59:13 PST 2001


Seth Ackerman wrote:
>
> [clip]. . . this Kautskyite idea of inter-imperialist collusion,
> [clip]
>
> The US ruling class doesn't like being made to do things by external forces.
> They prefer being the external force that coerces other people into doing
> things. They like their hegemony, and they like having the sole reserve
> currency.
> [clip]

There could hardly be a more important issue for leftists to debate among themselves. I would assume that, despite periods of relative collusion and/or harmony (e.g., solidarity against an external enemy) and/or peaceful competition capitalism remains fundamentally anarchic. amd that some form of war between Western Europe and the U.S. is more or less inevitable, though when would be utterly unpredictable. One of my reasons for dismissing out of hand Dennis Redmond's theories on u.s. vs japan and/or europe is that u.s. loss of hegomony will become a possibility only when u.s. troops depart europe and japan (and probably all of eurasia), which will not occur peacefully.

Perhaps we need a newer label than "Kautskyite," since that label tends to denote not only an error on the nature of imperialism but class-collaboration with one's 'own' bourgeoisie. There is a tendency for the two errors to be connected, but the link is only potential, not certain in individual cases.

Carrol



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