--- Vikash Yadav <vikash1 at ssc.upenn.edu> wrote:
> Thomas,
>
> Although I think the role of the Soviets in the
> creation of the Eurodollar
> market cannot be discounted, there is alternate
> account of the creation of
> this market
I dont know either...the Soviet story is the one that I have heard, but your account may be the correct one or they might both be correct.
> Correct me if I am wrong but are Hardt and Negri
> recounting a linear
> narrative in which capital defies imperialism over a
> narrow historical
> moment?
Perhaps I am not understanding your question, and forgive me if my answer seems inappropriate. However, I guess that their statements are made when comparing the general trend over the past 30 years with the previous system of keynesianism/fordism. In other words, I dont think they would say that capital has NEVER tried to elude the state, but that the tendancy is much stronger in this period when compared with the keynesian period. As outlined in Empire there are numerous reasons for this, not least of which was the rise of national liberation movements and the struggles waged within the imperialist countries by workers movements.
>
> I don't think that the idea of "stateless" money is
> at all new; this is not
> the first time that "big capital" has come to the
> conclusion that working
> outside the confines of the state is pretty
> profitable.
Like I said, I dont think Hardt and Negri would argue this, however I appreciate that you pointed this out to me.
> There is an ebb and a flow to capitalist history,
> our age of globalization
> does not carry universal historical significance.
Have you read Arrighi's "The Long Twentieth Century"? I agree in part and disagree in part with your statement. The autonomist tradition, of which Negri is part (and the one I feel most identified with at this time) emphasizes the role that the working class has in causing capital to react to its movements. In the main , I agree with this; it is certainly true that a lot of marxist literature sees working class as reacting to the crises of capitalism. However Arrighi seems right, to me, in positing that their are trends within capital. His cycles are not inevitable though...they can be snapped by revolution.
On the other hand, I disagree with you, if you are saying the is NO historical significance to the present situation. The genoese may have eluded the the State, but could they move so much money so fast througout the entire world as todays electronic herd can?
Anyway, Vikash, you certainly have given me some food for thought. Thank you.
Thomas
===== "The tradition of all the dead generations
weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living"
-Karl Marx
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