State Transformations: Classes, Strategy, Socialism

399 Pages·2020·3.037 MB·English

by  Greg Albo, Stephen Maher, Alan Zuege

State Transformations
Studies in

Critical Social Sciences
Series Editor
David Fasenfest (Wayne State University)
Editorial Board
Eduardo Bonilla- Silva (Duke University)
Chris Chase- Dunn (University of California- Riverside)
William Carroll (University of Victoria)
Raewyn Connell (University of Sydney)
Kimberlé W. Crenshaw (University of California, LA, and
Columbia University)
Raju Das (York University)
Heidi Gottfried (Wayne State University)
Karin Gottschall (University of Bremen)
Alfredo Saad- Filho (King’s College London)
Chizuko Ueno (University of Tokyo)
Sylvia Walby (Lancaster University)
volume 189
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ scss
State Transformations

Classes, Strategy, Socialism
Edited by
Greg Albo
Stephen Maher
Alan Zuege
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: Nature Upended. Courtesy of Elaine Whittaker, 2020.
The Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available online at http:// catalog.loc.gov
LC record available at http:// lccn.loc.gov/2021017445
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issn 1573-4 234
isbn 978-9 0-0 4-4 5914-4 (hardback)
isbn 978-9 0-0 4-4 6226-7 (e- book)
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Contents

A cknowledgements vii
L ist of Figures and Tables ix
N otes on Contributors x
I ntroduction: State Transformations 1
Greg Albo, Stephen Maher and Alan Zuege
part 1
State Theory and Capitalist Democracy
1 F rom the Canadian State to the Making of Global Capitalism 17
Clyde W. Barrow
2 B eyond the Impasse of State Theory 59
Martijn Konings
3 W orking- Class Politics Matters
Identity, Class, Parties 76
Dennis Pilon and Larry Savage
part 2
Imperialist Restructuring and Global Capitalism
4 G lobalization as Internationalization of Capital
Understanding Imperialism and State Restructuring 101
Sebnem Oguz
5 T he State and Imperialism in International Relations Theory 132
Ana Garcia and Caio Bugiato
6 B ringing Class Back In
The State, the ‘Pink Tide’ and the Case of Argentina 148
Ruth Felder
vi Contents
part 3
From Neoliberalism to Political Crisis
7 T he Rebirth of Nationalism and the Crisis of the European Union 165
Frank Deppe
8 T he UK’s Organic Crisis 185
Colin Leys
9 T he Coronacrisis
A Body Blow to the Rotting American State 208
Doug Henwood
10 T he State, Trade Union Freedoms and the Impasse of Working- Class
Power in Canada 223
Charles Smith
part 4
Transforming Class Politics and the State
11 T ransformative Agency from a Time of Revolt to a Time of
Pandemic 249
Hilary Wainwright
12 C lass Politics and Strategies for Party- Building 274
Michalis Spourdalakis
13 N otes toward a Plausible Socialism 293
Sam Gindin
14 B etween the State and the Streets
A Study in Socialist Sobriety 316
Bryan D. Palmer
P ostscript 328
Greg Albo, Stephen Maher and Alan Zuege
R eferences 335
I ndex 375
Acknowledgements

The idea for a book on state theory and the modalities of ‘state transforma-
tions’ was originally sparked by a two- day conference held at York University in
October 2017, ‘Transcending Pessimism, Reimagining Democracy’, in honor of
Leo Panitch’s retirement from York. In December 2020, shortly after delivering
the manuscript to our publisher, Leo tragically passed away after contracting
Covid- 19. Now, sadly, this book is not only in honor of Leo’s retirement, but
also in memory of Leo’s intellectual legacy and lifetime of socialist activism.
Leo was our teacher, our colleague, our friend, our comrade. His passing is a
tremendous loss for socialists everywhere.
It is not possible to put together a conference and a volume of essays w ithout
the support and collective effort of a large array of people. The organization
of the conference benefitted enormously from the practical and conceptual
assistance of Frederick Peters, Saeed Rahnema, Kamilla Petrick, as well as the
support of the staff in the Department of Politics at York University, in partic-
ular Carolyn Cross and Margo Barreto. We would also like to acknowledge the
financial support for the conference from the Centre for Social Justice as well
as the Department of Politics, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies,
and Office of the Vice- President at York.
In bringing this book to completion, several people provided us with invalu-
able advice and assistance, notably, Mathew Corbeil for his help with the bibli-
ography and more, Jim Young for help with the index and more, David Fasenfest
as the General Editor of the Studies in Critical Social Science Series at Brill, the
Centre for Social Justice once again for financial aid, and Elaine Whittaker for
allowing us to use her startling and transformative image for the book cover.
Finally, we want to extend thanks to the vast network of Leo’s friends and com-
rades who, in addition to the writers in this volume, contributed in one way
or another to the conference and book – Scott Aquanno, Pat Armstrong, Amy
Bartholomew, Dick Bryan, Avishai Ehrlich, Bryan Evans, Judy Hellman, Steve
Hellman, Adam Hilton, Ursula Huws, Lorraine Minnite, Ananya Mukherjee-
Reed, John Peters, Frances Fox Piven, Chris Roberts, Stephanie Ross, Byron
Sheldrick, Sean Starrs, Bhaskar Sunkara Donald Swartz, Rosemary Warskett and
Reg Whitaker.
The essays in this volume have many sources. Some were delivered ini-
tially as presentations to the York conference. Others were solicited for this
volume. A few were published elsewhere in an earlier form and then substan-
tially revised and extended for the volume. For this last group we would like to
acknowledge the generous permissions to reproduce portions of the following
essays: Ana Garcia e Caio Bugiato, “Repensando o Estado e Imperialismo nas
viii Acknowledgements
Relações Internacionais: as contribuições teóricas de Leo Panitch,” Revista de
Estudos Internacionais, 10:2, 2019; Sebnem Oguz, “Rethinking Globalization
as Internationalization of Capital: Implications for Understanding State
Restructuring,” Science & Society, 79:3, July 2015; Charles Smith, et al. “Back-
to- Work Legislation Roundtable,” Labour/ Le Travail, 86, Fall 2020; Bryan
D. Palmer, “Leo Panitch: Political Passions and Socialist Sobriety,” Studies in
Political Economy, 98:3, 2017; Sam Gindin, “Socialism for Realists,” Catalyst, 2:3,
Fall 2018; Doug Henwood, “We Have No Choice But to Be Radical,” Jacobin, July
30, 2020.
Figures and Tables

Figures
9.1 N et fixed investment, government sector 220
10.1 T otal strikes in Canada, legal and illegal, 1946– 2019 238
Tables
4.1 S pace of capital and space of the state in Marxist theory 122
4.2 C ircuits of capital and international accumulation 124
4.3 M arxist approaches to the relationship between space of capital and space of
the state: Implications for imperialism theories 128
Notes on Contributors

Greg Albo
teaches political economy in the Department of Politics, York University,
Toronto. He is co- editor of the annual Socialist Register, the most recent volume
of which is Beyond Digital Capitalism: New Ways of Living. He also co- edited
Empire’s Ally: Canada and the War in Afghanistan and Divided Province: Ontario
Politics in the Age of Neoliberalism.
Clyde W. Barrow
is Chair and Professor of Political Science at The University of Texas Rio
Grande Valley. His most recent books are The Dangerous Class: The Concept of
the Lumpenproletariat and Toward a Critical Theory of States: The Poulantzas-
Miliband Debate After Globalization.
Caio Bugiato
is Adjunct Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Federal
Rural University of Rio de Janeiro. He has recently published in Revista de
Estudos Internacionais, Critica Marxista, and Latin American Perspectives.
Frank Deppe
is Professor of Political Science at Marburg University, Germany, and a member
of the Scientific Council of the Rosa- Luxemburg- Foundation. His recent books
include Niccolo Machiavelli, Der Staat, and Revolution & Gegenrevolution.
Ruth Felder
is an Assistant Teaching Professor in Political Science at Ontario Tech
University, Canada. Her research focuses on the political economy of devel-
opment in Latin America, and she has recently published in Review of Radical
Political Economics and Journal of Labour and Society.
Ana Garcia
is Assistant Professor at the International Relations Institute of the Pontifical
Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, and the Graduate Program in Social
Sciences at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro. She is co- editor of
brics: An Anti- Capitalist Critique.
Sam Gindin
is former research director of the Canadian Auto Workers. He is co-a uthor
of The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire,