DOCSLIB.ORG

Crisis and the Specificity of Analysis

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Crisis and the Specificity of Analysis Review Essay Critical Sociology 37(4) 483 –492 Crisis and the Specificity of Analysis © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0896920510396386 crs.sagepub.com David Calnitsky University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA In and Out of the Crisis: The Global Financial Meltdown and Left Alternatives. By Greg Albo, Sam Gindin and Leo Panitch. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2010. Pp. 144, $13.95 (paper). ISBN: 1604862122. The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences. By John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press, 2009. Pp. 160, $12.95 (paper). ISBN: 1583671846. Zombie Capitalism: Global Crisis and the Relevance of Marx. By Chris Harman. London: Bookmarks Publications, 2009. Pp. 425, $19.39 (paper). ISBN: 1905192533. With each cycle of boom and bust it becomes ever more apparent that to study the history of capi- talist dynamics at the macro scale is to study the history of capitalist crisis. Between the years 1810 and 1920, American institutionalist economist WC Mitchell identified 15 economic crises (cited in Shaikh, 1978). Likewise, the National Bureau of Economic Research identified 11 recessions between 1945 and 2001, a period book-ended by the Great Depression and the current economic crisis (NBER, 2010). The history of capitalism is inseparable from the history of internal shocks and disturbances, that at times generate broad political, social and economic failures which com- promise the system’s ability to reproduce itself. In striking contrast to the actual history of crises, neoclassical economics depicts a highly stylized economic system that is harmonious, efficient, and largely immune to crisis. As Anwar Shaikh (1978) pointed out in his classic review of competing crisis theories, the neo- classical treatment of crisis tends to ground its explanation in criteria that are external to the capitalist system, such as shifts in collective psychology, natural disasters, and political mis- calculations. The economist’s recourse to external means to account for crises that are in fact robust empirical regularities – or differently put, that which ostensibly ought to be a central concern of social science – reflects a theoretical apparatus that is ill-equipped to meet the task of explaining the capitalist system. While each economic crisis tends to be understood as a special case requiring a special explanation of a narrowly bounded economic and political conjuncture, neoclassical economics leaves the general phenomenon of capitalist crisis largely unexplained. Corresponding author: David Calnitsky, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 8128 William H. Sewell Social Sciences Building, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA Email: [email protected] 484 Critical Sociology 37(4) In opposition to this view, Marxists tend to understand each particular crisis in the context of very general sets of contradictions of capitalist production pushed towards their outer limits. In addition to this, it has been argued that the uniqueness of the Marxist understanding of crisis is its internal necessity; that is, crisis is understood to be an essential and persistent feature of capitalism (Clarke, 1994). This essay examines three recent books on crisis coming from different and often contradictory corners of the world of Marxian scholarship. I analyze them next to each other but also in the context of the history of Marxian thinking on crisis. This approach necessarily brings into relief the relationship between theories of the specific crises and general crisis theory. Historically, one can outline three broad and competing theories of crisis often identified with the Marxian political economy tradition (Foley, 1986; Shaikh, 1978; Wright, 1999). First, falling rate of profit theories argue that internal competitive pressures upon individual capitalists lead them to increasingly automate production in order to accelerate accumulation. Paradoxically, this induces a decline in the system-wide rate of profit, which makes the risk of crisis more acute. Secondly, though increasingly rare, theories of disproportionality emphasize the misallocation of capital between consumer and capital good departments of production, where for various reasons a contraction of one department does not correspond to the expansion of the other, generating a broad-based drop in effective demand and hence, crisis. Finally, underconsumption theories of crisis stress the requirements of the capitalist system to rely on an external source of aggregate demand, arguing that the systemic tendency toward increasing inequality in capitalist economies is incongruent with the systemic need to realize investment with profitable sale on the market. This final group of theories, most famously known in the work of Rosa Luxemburg, is often closely tied to theories of imperialism where the absorption of the non-capitalist world into the capitalist center delays the collapse of capital accumulation by relying on a fresh source of effective demand. In the 1960s, Paul Sweezy and Paul Baran developed a theory of ‘monopoly capital’ which descended directly from Luxemburg’s underconsumption theory. The theory argued that a ten- dency toward stagnation prevails in the monopoly phase of capitalism as monopolist producers find it more and more difficult to find outlets to reinvest their growing surplus; thus, inadequate buying power leaves a portion of economic output chronically ‘unconsumed’. The compelling story of capitalist crisis in The Great Financial Crisis by John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff, the heirs to (and current stewards of) the monopoly capital school, is anchored to this analysis. The bulk of the short book was first published as separate essays in the journal Monthly Review, where Foster and Magdoff are the in-house political economists. The theory of monopoly capital, rehearsed in the book’s third chapter, goes roughly as follows: capitalism entered a historically new monopoly phase by the early 20th century that was marked by a rising surplus, which resulted from oligopolistic pricing (i.e. the virtual abandonment of price- cutting war between enterprises) and increasing productivity. An exploding ‘surplus’ was accom- panied by vanishing investment opportunities (largely because investment was now dedicated only to replacing means of production as the main components of industry had already been assembled) and an incapacity of the economy to absorb this surplus through the regular channels of investment and consumption. This theory was conceived as a direct foil to Marx’s ‘tendency of the rate of profit to fall’. Thus, while the falling rate of profit tendency might hold under competitive condi- tions, in light of the new uncompetitive era of monopoly capital, it ought to be substituted for the parallel ‘tendency for the surplus to rise’. These conditions are the key stylized facts of monopoly capitalism; accordingly, its normal state should be characterized by chronic stagnation (Foster and Magdoff: 64–66). The traditional question of the restoration of the profit rate thus shifted to the question of the absorption of the surplus. According to Baran and Sweezy (and later Sweezy and Harry Magdoff) the stabilization of capitalism demanded increasing amounts of waste to soak up a growing surplus it could not absorb on its own – in the absence of these external stimulants Calnitsky 485 capitalism ‘would sink deeper and deeper into a bog of chronic depression’ (Baran and Sweezy, 1966: 108). These external stimulants inter alia could take the form of military spending, advertis- ing, or speculative finance. With stagnation as the normal state of monopoly capitalism the subject of analysis is inverted: it is prosperity and not slump which now demands explanation. Thus monopoly capital theory attri- butes the postwar boom to a few historically specific ‘external’ outlets for surplus including the reconstruction of Europe, the accumulation of wartime consumer savings, the Cold War arms race, the explosion of advertising, and the growth of finance, insurance and real estate (Foster and Magdoff, p. 128). As the stimulus from these specific factors petered out, stagnation returned and the economy became increasingly reliant on military spending and finance to propel the relatively modest rates of growth in recent decades. Following Sweezy and Harry Magdoff’s writings for Monthly Review in the 1980s and 1990s, Foster and Fred Magdoff view the unparalleled explosion of financialization as a general reaction on the part of capital to stagnation in the productive sectors.1 A large part of this money-capital was directed not towards productive capital, but instead was used to purchase financial instruments including futures, options, derivatives, hedge funds, etc. (p. 80). It is then argued that the disproportionate growth of finance to production could not go on forever, as debts must eventually be repaid. In a stagnant underlying economy where real wages have been frozen since the 1970s it becomes more and more likely that debts will be defaulted on. As the outlet of finance implodes, endemic stagnation resurfaces, which reduces the utilization of capital and swells the reserve army of the unemployed. The Great Financial Crisis is entrenched in the core assumptions first made by Baran and Sweezy in the 1960s about the nature of mature capitalism. Six of the seven essays that make up the book remind readers that their analysis is embedded in the view that an economic tendency
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Streeten's Major Writings Paul Marlor SWEEZY
    .... 642 Paul Marlor SWEEZY Paul Marlor SWEEZY 643 I out agreeing with the late David McCord Wright, who once said, 'When It was under these circumstances that acquired a mission in life, not all at once and self-consciously, but gradually and through a practice that had a logic of its people tell me I am fuzzy, I reply, "life is fuzzy'", the heterodox dis�enters own. That mission was to do what I could to make Marxism an integral and prefer, I think, to be accused of fuzziness. They prefer to be vaguely nght to respected part of the intellectual life of the country, or, put in other terms, to take being precisely wrong. It is a matter of taste. The orthodox may say, part in establishing a serious and authentic North American brand of Marxism. 'Reductionism is not the occupational disease of economists, it is their occu­ pation.' But if in the process they throw out the baby instead of the bathwater, In pursuing these interests at Harvard, Sweezy received encouragement the reduction surely loses its point. from the great conservative economist Joseph Schumpeter, whose analysis of the origins, development and impending decline of capitalism revealed a Streeten's Major Writings complex and critical appreciation of Marxist analysis. 17 (1949), 'The Theory of Profit', The Manchester School, (3), September. Obtaining his Ph.D. in 1937, Sweezy took a job as an instructor at Harvard (1950a), 'Mangel des Preismechanismus', Vo//beschdftigung, Cologne: Bundverlag. (l 950b), 'The Inappropriateness of Simple "Elasticity" Concepts m the Analysis of Interna­ until 1939 when he rose to the rank of assistant professor.
    [Show full text]
  • Monthly Review Press Catalog, 2011
    PAID PAID Social Structure RIPON, WI and Forms of NON-PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE U.S. POSTAGE Consciousness ORGANIZATION ORGANIZATION PERMIT NO. 100 volume ii The Dialectic of Structure and History István Mészáros Class Dismissed WHY WE CANNOT TEACH OR LEARN OUR WAY OUT OF INEQUALITY John Marsh JOSÉ CARLOS MARIÁTEGUI an anthology MONTHLY REVIEW PRESS Harry E. Vanden and Marc Becker editors and translators the story of the center for constitutional rights How Venezuela and Cuba are Changing the World’s Conception of Health Care the people’s RevolutionaRy lawyer DOCTORS 2011 Albert Ruben Steve Brouwer WHAT EVERY ENVIRONMENTALIST NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT CAPITALISM JOHN BELLAMY FOSTER FRED MAGDOFF monthly review press review monthly #6W 29th Street, 146 West NY 10001 New York, www.monthlyreview.org 2011 MRP catalog:TMOI.qxd 1/4/2011 3:49 PM Page 1 THE DEVIL’S MILK A Social History of Rubber JOHN TULLY From the early stages of primitivehistory accu- mulation“ to the heights of the industrial revolution and beyond, rubber is one of a handful of commodities that has played a crucial role in shaping the modern world, and yet, as John Tully shows in this remarkable book, laboring people around the globe have every reason to THE DEVIL’S MILK regard it as “the devil’s milk.” All the A S O C I A L H I S T O R Y O F R U B B E R advancements made possible by rubber have occurred against a backdrop of seemingly endless exploitation, con- quest, slavery, and war.
    [Show full text]
  • A Socialist Schism
    A Socialist Schism: British socialists' reaction to the downfall of Milošević by Andrew Michael William Cragg Submitted to Central European University Department of History In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: Professor Marsha Siefert Second Reader: Professor Vladimir Petrović CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2017 Copyright notice Copyright in the text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies by any process, either in full or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European Library. Details may be obtained from the librarian. This page must form a part of any such copies made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author. CEU eTD Collection i Abstract This work charts the contemporary history of the socialist press in Britain, investigating its coverage of world events in the aftermath of the fall of state socialism. In order to do this, two case studies are considered: firstly, the seventy-eight day NATO bombing campaign over the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999, and secondly, the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in October of 2000. The British socialist press analysis is focused on the Morning Star, the only English-language socialist daily newspaper in the world, and the multiple publications affiliated to minor British socialist parties such as the Socialist Workers’ Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee). The thesis outlines a broad history of the British socialist movement and its media, before moving on to consider the case studies in detail.
    [Show full text]
  • Excerpted from James Gustav Speth, America, Rising to Its Dream (Forthcoming, Yale U.P., Fall 2012) * How Can We Gauge What
    !"#$%&'$()*%+,)-.,$/)01/'.2)3&$'45))!"#$%&'()*%+%,-)./)01+)2$#'")34/$15&/"%,-()6'7#)89:9()4'77);<=;>)) 6) 7+8)#.9)8$):.1:$)84.')4./)4.&&$9$()'+)1/);9)'4$)&./')*$8)($#.($/).9() 84$%$)8$)/'.9()'+(.<=)>9$)8.<)'+).9/8$%)'4;/)?1$/';+9);/)'+)@++A).')4+8)8$) #+,&.%$)8;'4)+'4$%)#+19'%;$/);9)A$<).%$./B)3+)@$'C/)@++A).').):%+1&)+*).(2.9#$() ($,+#%.#;$/DD'4$)#+19'%;$/)+*)'4$)>%:.9;E.';+9)*+%)!#+9+,;#)F++&$%.';+9).9() G$2$@+&,$9'),;91/)'4$)*+%,$%)3+2;$')H@+#)#+19'%;$/5)I$";#+5)J1%A$<5)K+%$.5) L#[email protected](5)M1"$,H+1%:5).9()0%$$#$B)J4$)%$,.;9;9:)#+19'%;$/N9;9$'$$9)9+')#+19';9:) '4$)O9;'$()3'.'$/N#.9)H$)'4+1:4')+*)./)+1%)&$$%)#+19'%;$/B)P4.')8$)/$$)84$9)8$) @++A).')'4$/$)#+19'%;$/);/)'4.')'4$)O9;'$()3'.'$/);/)9+8).')+%)2$%<)9$.%)'4$)H+''+,);9) .)4+/')+*);,&+%'.9').%$./B)J+)+1%):%$.')/4.,$5)Q,$%;#.)9+8)4./RS) T)'4$)4;:4$/')&+2$%'<)%.'$5)H+'4):$9$%.@@<).9()*+%)#4;@(%$9U) T)'4$):%$.'$/');9$?1.@;'<)+*);9#+,$/U) T)'4$)@+8$/'):+2$%9,$9')/&$9(;9:)./).)&$%#$9'.:$)+*)0GV)+9)/+#;.@)&%+:%.,/) *+%)'4$)(;/.(2.9'.:$(U) T)'4$)@+8$/')/#+%$)+9)'4$)OWC/);9($")+*)X,.'$%;.@)8$@@DH$;9:)+*)#4;@(%$9YU) T)'4$)8+%/')/#+%$)+9)'4$)OWC/):$9($%);9$?1.@;'<);9($"U) T)'4$)@+8$/')/+#;.@),+H;@;'<U) T)'4$)4;:4$/')&1H@;#).9()&%;2.'$)$"&$9(;'1%$)+9)4$.@'4)#.%$)./).)&$%#$9'.:$)+*) 0GV5)<$').##+,&.9;$()H<)'4$)4;:4$/'R) D);9*.9'),+%'.@;'<)%.'$) D)&%$2.@$9#$)+*),$9'.@)4$.@'4)&%+H@$,/) D)+H$/;'<)%.'$) D)&$%#$9'.:$)+*)&$+&@$):+;9:)8;'4+1')4$.@'4)#.%$)(1$)'+)#+/') D)@+8)H;%'4)8$;:4')#4;@(%$9)&$%)#.&;'.)Z$"#$&')*+%)-.&.9[) !"#$%&'()*+$%"$,"-%*+!./)0/&&-%*&")/0"#-)+*-" ! -1$%2"3+*4"*4/"&4$0*/&*"1+,/"/5)/#*-%#6"-*"7+0*4"8/5#/)*",$0"9/%(-0:"-%."
    [Show full text]
  • Globalisation - to What End?*
    GLOBALISATION - TO WHAT END?* Harry Magdoff By the end of 1990, foreign direct investment - that is, investment in manufacturing, real estate, raw materials extraction, financial institutions, etc., made by capitalists of all lands outside their national borders - reached over $1.5 trillion. Actually, this official estimate grossly under- states the case because it is based on book values. But even as a minimum estimate, what is significant about this number is not only its size but the unprecedented speed with which it has grown in the last two decades: the amount directly invested in foreign lands nearly tripled in the 1980s alone. Moreover, this investment went far beyond manufacturing and the extrac- tion of raw materials. To an ever larger extent foreign capital spread to such fields as finance, real estate, insurance, advertising, and the media. This upsurge and diversification of globalisation has been introducing new economic and political features in the countries of both the periphery and the core. In the periphery, foreign capital has penetrated more widely and deeply than ever before. In the core, the change of direction has helped produce in the world's key money markets an extraordinary spiralling of credit creation, international flows of money capital, and speculation. This new stage of globalisation has meanwhile given rise to questions about its longer-run significance. A widely accepted theory visualises the erosion of national sovereignty at the centres of capitalism, presumably to be replaced by an 'international' of capital that will make and enforce the rules of international relations. The more thoughtful members of the ruling capitalist class are well aware how chimerical the notion of a rising international of capital is.
    [Show full text]
  • Chris Harman
    How Marxism Works Chris Harman How Marxism Works - Chris Harman First published May 1979 Fifth edition published July 1997 Sixth edition published July 2000 Bookmarks Publications Ltd, c/o 1 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QE, England Bookmarks, PO Box 16085, Chicago, Illinois 60616, USA Bookmarks, PO Box A338, Sydney South, NSW 2000, Australia Copyright © Bookmarks Publications Ltd ISBN 1 898876 27 4 This online edition prepared by Marc Newman Contents Introduction 7 1 Why we need Marxist theory 9 2 Understanding history 15 3 Class struggle 25 4 Capitalism—how the system began 31 5 The labour theory of value 39 6 Economic crisis 45 7 The working class 51 8 How can society be changed? 55 9 How do workers become revolutionary? 65 10 The revolutionary socialist party 69 11 Imperialism and national liberation 73 12 Marxism and feminism 79 13 Socialism and war 83 Further reading 87 Introduction There is a widespread myth that Marxism is difficult. It is a myth propagated by the enemies of socialism – former Labour leader Harold Wilson boasted that he was never able to get beyond the first page of Marx’s Capital. It is a myth also encouraged by a peculiar breed of academics who declare themselves to be ‘Marxists’: they deliberately cultivate obscure phrases and mystical expressions in order to give the impression that they possess a special knowledge denied to others. So it is hardly surprising that many socialists who work 40 hours a week in factories, mines or offices take it for granted that Marxism is something they will never have the time or the opportunity to understand.
    [Show full text]
  • Capitalism Has Failed — What Next?
    The Jus Semper Global Alliance In Pursuit of the People and Planet Paradigm Sustainable Human Development November 2020 ESSAYS ON TRUE DEMOCRACY AND CAPITALISM Capitalism Has Failed — What Next? John Bellamy Foster ess than two decades into the twenty-first century, it is evident that capitalism has L failed as a social system. The world is mired in economic stagnation, financialisation, and the most extreme inequality in human history, accompanied by mass unemployment and underemployment, precariousness, poverty, hunger, wasted output and lives, and what at this point can only be called a planetary ecological “death spiral.”1 The digital revolution, the greatest technological advance of our time, has rapidly mutated from a promise of free communication and liberated production into new means of surveillance, control, and displacement of the working population. The institutions of liberal democracy are at the point of collapse, while fascism, the rear guard of the capitalist system, is again on the march, along with patriarchy, racism, imperialism, and war. To say that capitalism is a failed system is not, of course, to suggest that its breakdown and disintegration is imminent.2 It does, however, mean that it has passed from being a historically necessary and creative system at its inception to being a historically unnecessary and destructive one in the present century. Today, more than ever, the world is faced with the epochal choice between “the revolutionary reconstitution of society at large and the common ruin of the contending classes.”3 1 ↩ George Monbiot, “The Earth Is in a Death Spiral. It will Take Radical Action to Save Us,” Guardian, November 14, 2018; Leonid Bershidsky, “Underemployment is the New Unemployment,” Bloomberg, September 26, 2018.
    [Show full text]
  • MONTHLY REVIEW VOL. 71 NO. 6 an Independent Socialist Magazine Founded in 1949 by Leo Huberman & Paul M
    NOVEMBER 2019 MONTHLY REVIEW VOL. 71 NO. 6 An Independent Socialist Magazine Founded in 1949 by Leo Huberman & Paul M. Sweezy John Bellamy Foster, Editor ◊ Brett Clark, Associate Editor ◊ Camila Quarta, Assistant Editor ◊ Martin Paddio, Business Manager ◊ Gordon Beeferman, Circulation ◊ R. Jamil Jonna, Associate Editor for Communications & Production Former Editors: Harry Magdoff (1969–2006) ◊ Ellen Meiksins Wood (1997–2000) ◊ Robert W. McChesney (2000–2004) 134 W. 29th Street, Suite 706 Editorial: [email protected] New York, NY 10001 Circulation: [email protected] tel: 212-691-2555 MR Online: [email protected] REVIEW OF THE MONTH On Fire This Time John Bellamy Foster 1 The Angler and the Octopus: Kim Jong-un’s Ongoing Peace Offensive Tim Beal 18 The Trial of Thomas Hardy: A Forgotten Chapter in the Working-Class Fight for Democratic Rights Ian Angus 41 Endgame Marxism (and Urbanism) Andy Merrifield 47 REPRISE U.S. Weakness and the Struggle for Hegemony Immanuel Wallerstein 54 POETRY This is our legacy Marge Piercy 61 REVIEW Race and Mystery in Cape Cod Nicholas Powers 62 Notes from the Editors Immanuel Wallerstein, the celebrated world-systems theorist and longtime contributor to Monthly Review and Monthly Review Press, died on August 31, 2019. Wallerstein first achieved international fame with the publication in 1974 of his The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century (the first in a four-volume masterwork on the Modern World- System, which was to continue with volume II, Mercantilism and the Consolidation of the European World-Economy, 1600–1750 [1980]; volume III, The Second Era of Great Expansion of the Capitalist World-Economy, 1730s–1840s [1988]; and volume IV, Centrist Liberalism Triumphant, 1789–1914 [2011]).
    [Show full text]
  • Approaching Socialism
    Approaching Socialism HARRY MAGDOFF AND FRED MAGDOFF 1. Can ‘Human Nature’ Change? Among the arguments against socialism is that it goes against human nature. “You can’t change human nature” is the frequently heard refrain. That may be true of basic human instincts such as the urge to obtain food to eat, reproduce, seek shelter, make and wear protective clothing. However, what has usually been referred to as “human nature” has changed a great deal during the long history of humankind. As social systems changed, many habits and behavioral traits also changed as people adapted to new social structures. Anatomically modern humans emerged some 150,000 to 200,000 years ago. Over the tens of thousands of years since, many different kinds of social organizations and societies have developed. Initially, most were based on hunting and gathering, while for about the last 7,000 years many have been based on agriculture. These societies were organized as clans, villages, tribes, city-states, nations, and/or empires. Anthropologists who studied “primitive” societies found very different human relations and human nature than the highly competitive, dog-eat- dog, selfish characteristics that have dominated during the capitalist period. The economics of these early precapitalist societies often took the form of reciprocity and redistribution. Trade existed, of course, but trade between tribes was not for personal gain. Agricultural land was neither privately owned nor could it be bought and sold, instead, it was generally allocated and reallocated by village chiefs. Much of the food collected by the chiefs was redistributed at village ceremonial feasts. There were wars and domi- nation by local tyrants—these were not perfect societies by any means—but they had different values, social mores, and “human natures.” As Karl Polanyi explained in 1944: “The outstanding discovery of recent historical and anthropological research is that man’s economy, as a rule, is submerged in his social relationships.
    [Show full text]
  • A People's History of the World
    A people’s history of the world A people’s history of the world Chris Harman London, Chicago and Sydney A People’s History of the World – Chris Harman First published 1999 Reprinted 2002 Bookmarks Publications Ltd, c/o 1 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QE, England Bookmarks, PO Box 16085, Chicago, Illinois 60616, USA Bookmarks, PO Box A338, Sydney South, NSW 2000, Australia Copyright © Bookmarks Publications Ltd ISBN 1 898876 55 X Printed by Interprint Limited, Malta Cover by Sherborne Design Bookmarks Publications Ltd is linked to an international grouping of socialist organisations: I Australia: International Socialist Organisation, PO Box A338, Sydney South. [email protected] I Austria: Linkswende, Postfach 87, 1108 Wien. [email protected] I Britain: Socialist Workers Party, PO Box 82, London E3 3LH. [email protected] I Canada: International Socialists, PO Box 339, Station E, Toronto, Ontario M6H 4E3. [email protected] I Cyprus: Ergatiki Demokratia, PO Box 7280, Nicosia. [email protected] I Czech Republic: Socialisticka Solidarita, PO Box 1002, 11121 Praha 1. [email protected] I Denmark: Internationale Socialister, PO Box 5113, 8100 Aarhus C. [email protected] I Finland: Sosialistiliitto, PL 288, 00171 Helsinki. [email protected] I France: Socialisme par en bas, BP 15-94111, Arcueil Cedex. [email protected] I Germany: Linksruck, Postfach 304 183, 20359 Hamburg. [email protected] I Ghana: International Socialist Organisation, PO Box TF202, Trade Fair, Labadi, Accra. I Greece: Sosialistiko Ergatiko Komma, c/o Workers Solidarity, PO Box 8161, Athens 100 10. [email protected] I Holland: Internationale Socialisten, PO Box 92025, 1090AA Amsterdam.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Santa Barbara Dissertation Template
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Defining the Monster: The Social Science and Rhetoric of Neo-Marxist Theories of Imperialism in the United States and Latin America, 1945-1973 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Christopher Cody Stephens Committee in charge: Professor Nelson Lichtenstein, Chair Professor Alice O’Connor Professor Salim Yaqub June 2018 The dissertation of Christopher Cody Stephens is approved. ____________________________________________ Salim Yaqub ____________________________________________ Alice O’Connor ____________________________________________ Nelson Lichtenstein, Committee Chair April 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I had the benefit of working with many knowledgeable and generous faculty members at UCSB. As my advisor and the chair of my dissertation committee, Nelson Lichtenstein has ushered the project through every stage of its development, from conceptualization to defense. I pitched the idea of writing a seminar paper on Andre Gunder Frank in his office roughly four years ago, and since then he has enthusiastically supported my efforts, encouraged me to stay focused on the end goal, and provided detailed feedback on multiple drafts. That is not to say that I have always incorporated all his comments/criticisms, but when I have failed to do so it is mostly out of lack of time, resources, or self-discipline. I will continue to draw from a store of Nelson’s comments as a blueprint as I revise the manuscript for eventual publication as a monograph. Alice O’Connor, Mary Furner, and Salim Yaqub also read and commented on the manuscript, and more broadly influenced my intellectual trajectory. Salim helped me present my work at numerous conferences, which in turn helped me think through how the project fit in the frame of Cold War historiography.
    [Show full text]
  • A Brief History of Rank and File Movements
    Middlesex University Research Repository An open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk McIlroy, John (2016) A brief history of rank and file movements. Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory, 44 (1-2) . pp. 31-65. ISSN 0301-7605 [Article] (doi:10.1080/03017605.2016.1173823) Final accepted version (with author’s formatting) This version is available at: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/20157/ Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this work are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners unless otherwise stated. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. Works, including theses and research projects, may not be reproduced in any format or medium, or extensive quotations taken from them, or their content changed in any way, without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). They may not be sold or exploited commercially in any format or medium without the prior written permission of the copyright holder(s). Full bibliographic details must be given when referring to, or quoting from full items including the author’s name, the title of the work, publication details where relevant (place, publisher, date), pag- ination, and for theses or dissertations the awarding institution, the degree type awarded, and the date of the award. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Middlesex University via the following email address: [email protected] The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated.
    [Show full text]