reviews "Globalisation: a critique of a new orthodoxy' by Chris Harman in International Socialism 73 CAPITALISM has restructured the world economy since tne mid• 1760s and opened 'a new phase in the history of capitalism, just as the national concentration of capital did at the start of the centurySo says Chris Harman, in attempting to explain how working people can stand up successfully against the powerful global reorganisation of capitalisc production.
Harman aims to place the 'globalieconomy in perspecare, Fie takes on the myth that 'global production lines' free capitalists from national borders and let them produce wherever in the world it is cheapest.
p computes are oni onlie few companies which do produce in this way: for example the 42 microprocessor chips in an Apple I! E will have travelled at least a milion miles before being put together.
However Harman carefully stresses now exceptonal that is. Only one fifth of world output is exported. rowerer word trade nas been growing at a similar pace to hat of the renio expansion of Europe's imperialist powers be. tween 1870 and the first World War. Foreign direct investment grow four times as fast as totte in the mid 1980s : it still grows twice 35 Ac Big multi-nationals have not lost their national bases or starteo to invest evenly across the globe. Instead, explains Harman, big capitalist concerns invest in countries similar to their own -leading to • roon on led an ne ternationalism of capital... Nearly two thirds of the world is virtually written off the map as far as direct Harman's main effort is to undermine the idea that the dominant dyis that of moving their capital ac will to exploit cheap labour power and materials. The Socialist Workers Party, of which Harman is a central leader, developed a theory in the 1960s that capitalism had outgrom hae nin sourite which the capitalist class of the great Powes intenco teocmace over the world by exploiting the resources and the toiling masses in underdeveloped countries.
Harman's article, like a compan51, aims to use today's reality co revise chis 30-year old keystone dogma which has led the SWP to mistaken political positions.
'Permanent arms These include the idea, developed by Michael Kidron that coita! ism can avoid depression by bulding up a permanent arms-based econSimilarly the incorrect view taken by the SWP that the stalinist re gimes were 'state capitalist' was bolstered by the idea that the main form of international capitalism was arms competition. The nuclear arms "proved' to the SWP that the More dangerously, this theory encouraged SWP leaders like Kidron to totally identity the policy of each state with the policy of its ruling class. Because the state promoted tnis permanent arms economy every state policy appeared to be determined by the needs of national Cor s samu on Harman's two articles have taken the SWP's understanding of the world modestly forward, without threatening the mistaken policies which were developed on the basis of these previous errors.
Marman develops the arms econ omy theory by asserting that many nulti-nationals are so dependent on major contracts - such as armis and defence contacts - with governcapitalism can't break free of the national state set up.
Towerer marnian s yhiv otepi underestimates the multi-lateral relatonships that are developing between the capalist casses. Marman notes, for example that three quarters of world investment is directed at Japan, North America and Western Europe.
rowerer ne passes over the way that investment moves increasingly between capitalist classes within these three areas. As Europe's capitalists invest in each other's enterprises, for example, the tendency has developed towards a European trade zone wiweh aims to protect itself from the two other world class economic zones burding up around the USA and Japan.
New order The reflects the SWP's dangerous underestimation of the quite distinct development of a new economc orcer oso on the sel unstable and uneven appearance of a 'triad' of zones of global capitalist For instance, Harman dismisses European economic and monetar integration out of hand as 'in the realm of fantasy Trus mcas che arv fisks standing to one side while the working class fights against chis capitalist assault. Projects like the European marches pose a challenge to the SWP The overwhelming majority of the British far-left are now involved in this crucial initiative. Will supporters of the ave tollow treir instnicts and support workers co-ordination -or will they be hide-bound by the errors of their leaders?