[lbo-talk] "Imperialism"

[Carrol Cox]

We may or may not need the word "imperialism" for agitational purposes,
but I think we should seriously consider dropping it from our analytic
vocabulary. This is NOT because Capitalism has become any less harsh, or
that core capitalist powers have at all ceased to intervene violently
and disruptively in the rest of the world, or that the 'developing'
nations are not still being pumped of wealth. All this continues,
perhaps even more harshly and exploitatively than in the past. But none
of the analyses of imperialism made in the past throw light on this
ongoing horror, nor do they really guide us in our political strategy.
But there is no longer any fundamental conflict among capitalist powers
each defending and attempting to expand its 'empire' or sphere of
influence. Much of that still goes on, but it is no longer fundamental,
and it does not drive world history as it did in the past. Nor does it
conflict with the left obligation to oppose u.s. aggression and
subversion around the world, and to support as much as we can any
nations which attempt (whatevr their internal social/political
relations).

The fundamental drive of foreign policy of the core capitalist states
(including the new semi-members of that core -- Russia and China) is the
drive to keep the whole fucking world open to capitalist expansion,
whether the frims conducting that expansion are French, U.S. China, or
firms from the periphery. India is clearly a vicious capitalist state,
and certainly supports the world empire of capital, but whether it is
with the core yet I have no opinion.)

Ellen Meiksins Wood had several 'credentials' for providing the most
powerful analysis to date of this _Empire of Capital_ (her title and the
best descripton of the current world). Preeminently, she has always
shown a clear grasp of the role of contingency in human history and
therefore was free from the more metaphysical or mechanical Marxist
theories of imperialism and of the context of capitalism within human
activity as a whole. (Thus she was able to grasp Brenner's discovery
that capitalism itself was an accident, not emerging from previous
progressive growth (which was mostly in Asia) but from a little mud spot
on the periphery of world society.)

The U.S. remains the most important disciplinarian of this world empire,
though we must not forget French responsibility for the genocide in
Rwanda or German responsibility for the dissolution of Yugoslavia. And
of course whatever circus-performance they put on for domestic
consumption are all fully-involved in the support of u.s. action around
the world. (Local flare-ups between the major powers will continue, but
there will be no repetition of former "World" Wars to divide the globe.

That has to be the context of theorizing by those commited to socialist
revolution.

Carrol