[lbo-talk] Workers of Europe unite, you've only Euro chains to lose

[Wojtek S]

Marv: "My rebuttal, of course, would be that "neoliberal discourse"
would not have gained any traction but for the trade unions, and the
parties based on them, having been gravely weakened by the revolution
in technology and communications and the political transformations in
the fSU and China. These in combination opened vast new markets for
capitalist expansion and profitability and hammered the industrial
working class in the advanced capitalist countries."

[WS:]  I agree that these factors played a significant role, but I do
not consider this a rebuttal of what I said.  These seem to be two
parallel processes working hand-in-hand: opening of the markets and
monopolization of knowledge production by universities and technocrats
that crowded out alternatives.

We may of course ask why the fSU, E Europe, China, and for that
matter, South Africa adopted neoliberalism.  They did not have to,
especially China which still maintains a dirigiste type of the
economy.  I think that the knowledge production system and the rise of
the technocrat class benefiting from that knowledge can travel a long
way in explaining the popularity of neoliberalism in these newly
opened markets.  Methinks that the most zealous proponents of
neoliberalism can be found not in the Etats Unis or the (formerly)
Great ;) Britain  but in China, India, Eastern Europe or Russia,

Wojtek