Leo Panitch - The World Turned Upside Down? Socialist Register 2019

SOCIALIST
REGISTER
2019

THE SOCIALIST REGISTER

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EDITORS

LEO PANITCH

GREG ALBO

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RALPH MILIBAND (1924-1994)

JOHN SAVILLE (1916-2009)

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COLIN LEYS

ALFREDO SAAD-FILHO

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GILBERT ACHCAR

AIJAZ AHMAD

NICOLE ASCHOFF

PATRICK BOND

ATILIO BORON

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MICHAEL CALDERBANK

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ANA GARCIA

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NANCY HOLMSTROM

URSULA HUWS

RAY KIELY

MARTIJN KONINGS

HANNES LACHER

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LIN CHUN

MICHAEL LOWY

EBNEM OUZ

BRYAN PALMER

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JOAN SANGSTER

MICHALIS SPOURDALAKIS

HILARY WAINWRIGHT

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SOCIALIST
REGISTER
2019

A WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN?

Edited by LEO PANITCH and GREG ALBO

THE MERLIN PRESS
MONTHLY REVIEW PRESS
FERNWOOD PUBLISHING

First published in 2018

by The Merlin Press Ltd.

Central Books Building

Freshwater Road

London

RM8 1RX

www.merlinpress.co.uk

The Merlin Press, 2018

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library

ISSN. 0081-0606

Published in the UK by The Merlin Press

ISBN. 978-0-85036-735-5 Paperback

ISBN. 978-0-85036-736-2 Hardback

Published in the USA by Monthly Review Press

ISBN. 978-1-58367-750-6 Paperback

Published in Canada by Fernwood Publishing

ISBN. 978-1-77363-143-1 Paperback

Printed and bound in the UK on behalf of Stanton Book Services

CONTENTS

CONTRIBUTORS

Aijaz Ahmad is the Chancellors Professor at the Department of Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine.

Elmar Altvater was professor of Political Science at the Otto-Suhr-Institut of the Free University of Berlin and editor of the journal, Prokla.

Nicole Aschoff holds a PhD in sociology from the Johns Hopkins University. She is author of The New Prophets of Capital and on the editorial boards of the Socialist Register and Jacobin.

Marco Boffo holds a PhD in economics from SOAS, University of London. He has taught the political economy of development at SOAS and worked as a research fellow at the Leeds University Business School.

Patrick Bond is professor of Political Economy at the Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Alan Cafruny is Henry Platt Bristol Professor of International Affairs at Hamilton College in New York state.

Ben Fine is professor of Economics at SOAS, University of London.

Ana Garcia is professor of International Relations at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro.

Jayati Ghosh is professor of Economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Sam Gindin is the former research director of the Canadian Auto Workers Union and an adjunct professor at York University, Toronto.

Adam Hanieh is a senior lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Londons School of Oriental and African Studies.

Doug Henwood publishes the Left Business Observer newsletter and hosts Behind the News on KPFA radio. His most recent book is My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency.

Ray Kiely is professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London.

Colin Leys is co-chair of the Centre for Health and the Public Interest in the UK, and honorary research professor at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Lin Chun is associate professor in Comparative Politics, London School of Economics.

Birgit Mahnkopf is professor of European Social Policy at the Berlin School of Economics and Law.

Umut zsu is assistant professor at the Department of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa.

Leo Panitch is Senior Scholar and Emeritus Professor of Political Science, York University, Toronto.

Alfredo Saad-Filho is a professor in Development Studies at SOAS, University of London.

Sean Kenji Starrs is assistant professor of International Relations at the City University of Hong Kong.

David Whyte is professor of Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Liverpool.

PREFACE

S ince the Great Financial Crisis swept across the world in 2008, there have been few certainties regarding the trajectory of global capitalism, let alone the politics taking hold in individual states. A decade on, all that may be said to be clear is that the contradictions of neoliberalism have deepened, especially as these have been intertwined with the class inequalities exposed by the crisis and the ever-growing contradictions of global migration and ecological degradation. And this has opened more and more political space for far right forces challenging not so much neoliberalism itself as conventional liberal democratic norms, as well as key pillars of the global capitalist order which had been built up over past the half century.

There was already considerable disorientation abroad in the face of Brexits aggravation of the ongoing crisis of the European Union, wherein anti-globalist right-wing political movements and policy advisors openly proclaim their attraction to the authoritarian bravado of Vladimir Putins strong state. But even this has now given way to palpable confusion regarding what sense to make of this world in a political conjuncture marked by Donald Trumps Make America Great Again presidency of the United States, on the one hand, and, on the other, Xi Jinpings ambitious agenda to consolidate his position as core leader at the top of the Chinese state. Trumps explicit disdain for the modes of leadership the US exhibited in the making of global capitalism since the Second World War including providing the scaffolding for the institutions underpinning integrated global production and trade, financial flows, development support, international regulatory coordination, and geo-military alliances is daily on full display. Such is todays topsy-turvy world that it is Xi who has offered himself up as the defender of globalization and world capitalism in the face of Trumps trade protectionism and broader distancing from heretofore US-led global institutions. When it is the tensions with allies that now garner the daily headlines, it is hard to envision the US mobilizing anything like the political capacities and administrative dexterity that enabled it to coordinate a global response to the economic collapse a decade ago including from China. If there are good reasons to remain cautious about declarations of a new multi-polar world order, the growing contradictions at the centre of the inter-state system still suggest that a major redrawing of the map of global capitalism is underway.