Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Super-Exploitation, and Capitalism’s Final Crisis

383 Pages·2016·6.21 MB·English

by  John Smith

The Paul a. Baran – Paul M. Sweezy MeMorial award
John Smith’s book, Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century, is the
inaugural winner of the Paul a. Baran–Paul M. Sweezy Memorial
award. This award, established in 2014, honors the contributions of
the founders of the Monthly Review tradition: Paul M. Sweezy, Paul
a. Baran, and harry Magdoff. it supports the publication in english
of distinguished monographs focused on the political economy of
imperialism. The aim is to make available in english important work
written in the tradition of Paul M. Sweezy, Paul a. Baran, and harry
Magdoff, broadly conceived. it will also apply to writings previously
unpublished in english, and will include translations of new work
first published in languages other than english.
Paul M. Sweezy co-founded Monthly Review in 1949, and, with Paul
a. Baran, developed the fundamental analysis of accumulation under
monopoly capitalism. Baran’s The Political Economy of Growth, pub-
lished in 1957, set the template for understanding imperialism in the
latter part of the twentieth century—an argument that was to be fur-
ther developed in Baran and Sweezy’s Monopoly Capital (1966). harry
Magdoff, who would become the co-editor of Monthly Review, carried
this project forward in The Age of Imperialism (1969) by investigating
the historical trajectory of imperialism and tracing the contours of
monopoly capitalism as a world system of exploitation. Their collec-
tive effort helped form a current of independent socialist thought of
increasing importance on a global scale.
Today, the struggle continues against a global capitalist system that
has created conditions of increased exploitation in the countries of
the global South, alongside a vast transfer of wealth to imperialist
centers of the global north. while untold profits accrue to imperial-
ism’s ruling elite—the 1 percent of society at home and abroad—the
99 percent of the world’s population experience greater hardship
and misery. The imperial system of the twenty-first century is one
marked by growing uncertainty, instability, and ecological disaster.
The promise of national emancipation through independence has not
been fulfilled in general. Capitalist globalization is in fact imperialism
without colonies.
Please visit our website for complete details of the award.

i M P e r ia l i S M
in the Twenty-First Century
Globalization, Super-Exploitation,
and Capitalism’s Final Crisis
John Smith
MonThly reView PreSS
New York
Copyright © 2016 by John Smith
all rights reserved
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Smith, John Charles, 1956–
Title: imperialism in the twenty-first century : globalization,
super-exploitation, and capitalism’s final crisis / John Smith.
description: new york : Monthly review Press, [2016] | includes
bibliographical references and index.
identifiers: lCCn 2015046537 (print) | lCCn 2015050017 (ebook) | iSBn
9781583675779 (pbk.) | iSBn 9781583675786 (hardcover) | iSBn
9781583675793
(trade) | iSBn 9781583675809 (institutional)
Subjects: lCSh: Capitalism—Poltical aspects. | neoliberalism. |
international trade. | Globalization—economic aspects. |
imperialism—economic aspects.
Classification: lCC hB501 .S636155 2016 (print) | lCC hB501 (ebook) |
ddC
330.12/2—dc23
lC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015046537
Monthly review Press
146 west 29th Street, Suite 6w
new york, new york 10001
monthlyreview.org
Typeset in Minion Pro
5 4 3 2 1
Contents
list of Figures and Tables | 6
1. The Global Commodity | 9
2. outsourcing, or the Globalization of Production | 39
3. The Two Forms of the outsourcing relationship | 68
4. Southern labor, Peripheral no longer | 101
5. Global wage Trends in the neoliberal era | 133
6. The Purchasing Power anomaly and
the Productivity Paradox | 167
7. Global labor arbitrage: The Key driver
of the Globalization of Production | 187
8. imperialism and the law of Value | 224
9. The GdP illusion | 252
10. all roads lead into the Crisis | 279
notes | 316
index | 372
List of figures and tabLes
Per Capita gdP (PPP$*) by nation | 7
figure 2.1: developing economies trade in Manufactures | 53
figure 2.2: developing nations share of developed nations Manufactured
imports | 53
figure 2.3: Manufactured exports as a Percent of Merchandise exports,
by region | 54
FIGURE 3.1: North-South Flows of FDI and Profits ($bn) | 77
tabLe 3.1: total exports, by Product Complexity | 87
tabLe 3.2: Complexity ranking | 89
figure 3.2: annual growth in Manufacturing Value-added Percent for selected
developing nations | 97
figure 3.3: MVa vs. Manufactured exports, 1980–2007 | 99
figure 3.4: MVa growth and export growth, selected nations | 99
figure 4.1: global industrial Workforce | 103
tabLe 4.1: Migrants in imperialist Countries, by Countries
of origin (millions) | 111
figure 4.2: global economically active Population (eaP) | 114
figure 4.3: Waged and salaried employees as a Percentage of eaP vs.
gdP growth rates | 115
tabLe 4.2: informal employment | 119
figure 5.1: the soaring Price of food, 2000–2012 (food Price index: international
Price of Major food Commodities) | 141
figure 5.2: Purchasing Power anomaly vs. gdP per Capita | 143
figure 5.3: the Purchasing Power anomaly, developing nations,
1980–2015 | 145
figure 5.4: share of World Labor income in World gross output,
1980–2011 | 149
figure 5.5: output/Worker—developed and developing Countries | 157
figure 5.6: Hourly Wages, textile Production Workers | 159
tabLe 5.1: Hourly Wages, textile Production Workers, 2008 | 161
tabLe 5.2: real per Capita gdP growth | 165
figure 6.1: Labor Productivity and Labor Cost, 1995–1999 | 181
tabLe 6.1: Value-added vs. Labor Cost, 1995–1999 | 183
FIGURE 10.1: Japanese Deflation | 284
FIGURE 10.2: The Descent into Deflation | 285
.
ion according to standard data, 50% of global gdP is produced by nations to the left of the dotted vertical line, containing 90.7% of global population and 50% by nations to the right, with 9.3% of global population. the position of this line has shifted to the right since 1980, when it stood at 89.2%.
t
a
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b

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*
$
P
P
P
(

P
D
G

a
t
Per Capi Key each dot is a country, arranged from poorest to richest. Luxumburg and other tax havens are ex- cluded since their per capita gdP is off the scale. the gap from one dot to the next is popula- tion size; the first large gap represents India, the second China, and the relatively large gap on the right is the united states. Perfect equality, i.e. 100% “convergence,” would show all countries lying on the horizontal line: in 2012, at $8,200 per betweencapita. this graphic only shows inequality nations. since elites in poor countries keep much of their wealth, including second homes, etc., in rich countries, this should, arguably, be removed from the calculations of per capita gdP. bank, World development indicators. wer Parity.
d o
Worlng P
ource: Purchasi
s*
Instead of the conservative motto, “a fair day’s wage for
a fair day’s work!” . . . the revolutionary watchword,
“abolition of the wages system!”1
1
The Global Commodity
The collapse of rana Plaza, an eight-story building housing sev-
eral textile factories, a bank, and some shops in an industrial
district north of dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, on 24 april 2013,
killing 1,133 garment workers and wounding 2,500, was one of the
worst workplace disasters in recorded history.2 This disaster, and gar-
ment workers’ grief, rage, and demands for justice, stirred feelings of
sympathy and solidarity from working people around the world—and a
frantic damage-limitation exercise by the giant corporations that rely on
Bangladeshi factories for their products yet deny any responsibility for
the atrocious wages, living, and working conditions of those who pro-
duce all their stuff. adding to the sense of outrage felt by many is the fact
that, the day before, cracks had opened up in the building’s structure and
an initial inspection resulted in its evacuation and a recommendation
that it remain closed. next morning a bank and shops on the ground
floor obeyed this advice, but thousands of garment workers were ordered
back to work on pain of dismissal. when generators illegally installed on
the top floor were started up the building collapsed. Jyrki raina, gen-
eral secretary of industriall, an international union federation, called it
“mass industrial slaughter.”
The screams of thousands trapped and crushed as concrete and
machinery cascaded down upon them unleashed a full-spectrum shock-
wave, amplified by the anguished howl of millions around the world.
The calamity made instant headline news. Consumers of clothes made
in Bangladesh’s garment factories were confronted by their palpable con-
nection to the people whose hands made their clothes, and about their
miserable existence on this earth. like an intense x-ray beam, the shock-
wave from rana Plaza lit up the internal structure of the global economy,