[lbo-talk] "Imperialism"

Patrick Bond pbond at mail.ngo.za
Thu Nov 26 19:45:24 PST 2009


Carrol Cox wrote:
> 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.

That's because you're intent on using Lenin's conception of interimperial rivalry.


> 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.
>

You haven't read Luxemburg? Or Harvey on Luxemburg?

Here's why in South Africa some of us we definitely think the Luxemburgist (and locally, Wolpeian) view of capital exploiting non-capitalist spheres as an imperialist process of uneven/combined development requires retention of the word and associated anti-imperialist strategies: http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs/files/RL%20Capital-africa.pdf



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