RE: [OPE] Britain--parasitic and decaying capitalism: A comment

The social relation was exported no question about that, but my point was to critique the idea that the export of capital was a way of absorbing excess surplus value. It would be more realistic to see late 19th century imperialism as relating to the export of labour. Recall the demographic profile of Germany and the UK as population surplus areas. Canada, Australia and South Africa were sites for exporting surplus population. William, left with the deserts of the Kalahari, the swamps of the Ovango coveted areas more suitable for white settlement -- hence the ambitions for colonisation in South America, from which followed the need to challenge the Monroe doctrine, and fromwhich followed the contingency plans to invade the USA to enforce claims to Venezuela.

It is worth reading the tin. IN 1900 the leading states were all quite open about being empires with territorial claims. The situation today is totally different.

The suggestion that the US intervention in Afghanistan is for economic motives of capital export is total joke. The only capitalist power exporting capital on any scale to Afghanistan is China not the USA. Who is developing the mineral reserves, copper mines there -- China, not the USA.
USA only invaded Afghanistan after 9/11 as a cack handed attempt to strike back at those who attacked it.

Iraq is a rather different matter, here supplies of credit from the Saudis was probably the motivating factor, but that does not fit in to the old analysis of imperialism either.

I feel DY is attempting to apply to the 21st century an analysis that was at best a partial fit to the early 20th.
________________________________________
From: ope-bounces@lists.csuchico.edu [ope-bounces@lists.csuchico.edu] On Behalf Of GERALD LEVY [gerald_a_levy@msn.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 8:45 PM
To: Outline on Political Economy mailing list
Subject: RE: [OPE] Britain--parasitic and decaying capitalism: A comment

> How real then is the idea of capital export as underlying even late
> 19th century imperialism.

Hi Paul C:

If you think of the export of capital as an export and expansion of a social relation (most especially, the class relation between capitalists and wage-workers) then it's quite real (but not without its contradictory aspects).

In solidarity, Jerry _______________________________________________
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Received on Tue Dec 29 18:38:17 2009