UC Santa Barbara UC Santa Barbara Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Caribbean and Global Capitalism Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1nq246wg Author Sprague, Jeb H. Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara The Caribbean and Global Capitalism A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology by Jeb H. Sprague Committee in charge: Professor William I. Robinson, Chair Professor Kevin B. Anderson Professor Christopher McAuley September 2015 The dissertation of Jeb H. Sprague is approved. ____________________________________________ Christopher McAuley ____________________________________________ Kevin B. Anderson ____________________________________________ William I. Robinson, Committee Chair July 2015 The Caribbean and Global Capitalism Copyright © 2015 by Jeb H. Sprague iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For Helen iv VITA OF JEB H. SPRAGUE July 2015 EDUCATION Bachelor of Arts in History, California State University, Long Beach, May 2004. Master of Arts in History, California State University, Long Beach, May 2007. Master of Arts in International Political Economy, University of Manchester, December 2008. Master of Arts in Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara, September 2011. Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara, July 2015. PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT 2008-2015: Teaching Assistant, Department of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara. 2013-2015: Instructor of Record, Department of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara. v PUBLICATIONS Globalization and Transnational Capitalism in Asia and Oceania. (London, UK: Routledge, 2014), 336 pp. Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti (New York City, NY, USA: Monthly Review Press, 2012), 400 pp. “Empire, Global Capitalism, and Theory: Reconsidering Hardt and Negri,” Current Perspectives in Social Theory. Vol. 29. (2011), 187-207. AWARDS Highly Commended Paper, Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence, 2015. Distinguished Graduate Student Award, California Sociological Association, 2011. Project Censored Award, Department of Sociology, Sonoma State University, 2008. vi ABSTRACT The Caribbean and Global Capitalism by Jeb H. Sprague As a new epoch in the history of world capitalism, global capitalism is shaping every region of the planet. One of these regions is the Caribbean, among the first outside of Europe to be integrated into world capitalism through colonialism five centuries ago. In recent decades, as the Caribbean’s population has become entwined with global networks of production and finance in extremely unequal ways, scholars have begun to document shifting social patterns. While Caribbean societies throughout their history have exhibited many differences and continuities, the sweeping changes characteristic of globalization compel us to examine the region’s changing political economy. With much of the Caribbean’s population based in the Greater Antilles island chain (containing Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico), this geographic area will be referred to most often in my research. As many studies have been done on contemporary Puerto Rico (as an associated part of the U.S.) and on socialist Cuba, the case studies of this dissertation will focus on Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. In looking at these three countries, case studies will examine how their national economies have fragmented and become penetrated by global chains of accumulations. I will look at this specifically through the context of major global economic sectors (cruise vii ship tourism, mining, export processing, and the role of migration and reverse flow of remittances). My introductory chapter reviews, synthesizes, and interprets existing sources and accounts on the development of capitalism in the Caribbean. Especially useful are a number of scholarly studies on the shifting modes of production in the Caribbean, from slave labor to wage labor and from European colonial mercantilism up to industrializing monopoly capitalism and into capitalist globalization albeit with the U.S. as the major hegemonic power in the region. Such studies are useful in helping to understand the history of social formation in the region. I also have read reports and data gathered by key political and economic forums active in the Caribbean and specifically with regard to some of the major global industries. This information is central for gaining a detailed understanding of the shifting material and social relations taking place in the region. In addition to the archival research, this dissertation’s research is backed up by a multi-sited case study of the Caribbean region through ethnographic observations and interviews. This dissertation has aimed more precisely to synthesis my theoretical approach with my research findings. Rather than be chained to a rigid social experiment, I have moved back and forth between the questions I formulate and the data I collect. The methods I’ve outlined are not necessarily carried out in sequence, but rather according to the needs of the project. This flexibility has been necessary for a project of this scope. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction to the Caribbean and Global Capitalism .............................................. 1 II. The Caribbean Cruise Ship Industry and the Emergence of a Transnational Capitalist Class ........................................................................................................................... 50 III. Migrant Labor Remittances, Transnational Integration, and Accumulation in the Caribbean ................................................................................................................... 87 IV. Export Processing and Globally Competitive Production in the Caribbean ..... 123 V. From International to Transnational Mining in the Caribbean ........................... 161 Conclusion: Transnational Processes and the Restructuring of the Caribbean's Political Economy .................................................................................................................. 207 References ................................................................................................................ 216 ix ! Chapter I Introduction to the Caribbean and Global Capitalism As a new epoch in the history of world capitalism, global capitalism is shaping every region of the planet. One of these regions is the Caribbean, among the first outside of Europe to be integrated into world capitalism through colonialism five centuries ago (Mann, 2011). In recent decades, as the Caribbean’s population has become entwined with global networks of production and finance in extremely unequal ways (Klak, 1997; Watson, 1985), scholars have begun to document shifting social patterns (Gowicharn, 2006; Knight & Martinez-Vergne, 2005). While Caribbean societies throughout their history have exhibited many differences and continuities (Mintz, 1989), the sweeping changes characteristic of globalization compel us to examine the region’s changing political economy. We need analytical tools to make sense of the changes taking place through globalization. In this dissertation, I use the term “transnational processes” to describe a diverse array of structural, institutional, and organizational phenomena that link regions and nations more organically with global society and economy. Transnational processes should not be confused with national and international processes. Whereas national processes occur within the frontiers of the nation-state, international processes transpire across borders. Transnational processes, in addition to occurring across borders, take place through cross- border functional integration. Functional integration refers to how amalgamations of different components (or agents) are constituted through their joint operation. Here, I want to draw our attention to the nature of this integration as something completely new in the history of our species. Processes that take place across frontiers in this functionally 1!! ! integrated manner alter the very ways in which space and geography are implicated in material and social production. We can identify this distinction between international and transnational processes in relation to the world economy: “Internationalization involves the simple extension of economic activities across national boundaries and is essentially a quantitative process that leads to a more extensive geographical pattern of economic activity,” whereas “transnationalization differs qualitatively from internationalization processes, involving not merely the geographical extension of economic activity across national boundaries but also the functional integration of such internationally dispersed activities” (Robinson, 2004, p. 14). This dissertation focuses on the nature of this new era of world capitalism and the sweeping transformations that it has ushered in. It investigates the changing political economy in the context of the Caribbean basin. I have sought to understand how changes in material (economic) relations are connected with social changes, such as the relationships among capitalists, labor, middle strata, and social groups such as state policymakers. I argue that structural changes associated with the emergence of global capitalism are rooted in new formations and fractioning