Continuing with the long and eventful tradition of Marxist thought and practice,
globalization is seen in this light as an expansion and development of capitalism
over the globe. Like most traditions which fit into the loose framework of anti-globalization,
Marxism cannot be described either as a single movement nor as following a unitary
intellectual practice or theoretical perspective. However, Marxism as a whole
does engage with contemporary phenomena in a similar manner and mindset as it
has done in the past, focusing primarily upon class, political economy, labour,
capitalism, as well as the concepts of socialism and revolution as central axes
or foci of analysis.
With the demise of so-called state socialism/communism in Eastern Europe, as
well as the embracement of market capitalism in the People’s Republic
of China, many have interpreted these historical and social occurrences as proof
of Marxism’s practical and theoretical failure (see for instance Francis
Fukuyama’s ‘end of history’ hypothesis in End of History and
the Last Man (1992)). Though Marxism as an intellectual strain remains vibrant
and powerful, it has almost ceased to be a major concern or threat to the capitalist
nations in the West. Furthermore, opposition within newly emerging industrial
nations that have started to embrace free-market capitalism as the dominant
social, political, and economic ethos within the past twenty or thirty years
(see for instance Indo China, South Korea, Taiwan, just to name a few), is not
wholly dominated by socialist or communist parties or movements.
Regardless of these circumstances Marxism still presents a poignant and painfully
accurate account of globalization in terms of the proliferation of free-markets,
oppressed/exploited labour, modernization, and radical transformations of political
and social systems throughout the world – as Marx and Engels argue in
the Manifesto of the Communist Party: “The need of a constantly expanding
market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the
globe. It must nestle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere.”(1).
Capitalism’s international endeavour as it unfolds today, reveals the
globalizing tendency of capital and a particular need of this economic system
to expand and universalize a particular set of social and political relations.
Endnotes:
(1) Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick (1975 [1848]) Manifesto of the Communist
Party. Moscow: Progress Publishers.
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
Autonomous Marxism
Marxism
Open Marxism
Tariq Ali
Karl Marx
Marxism.org http://www.marxism.org/
Marxist.com http://www.marxist.com/globalisation.asp
A Marxist Critique of Anti-Globalization Activism http://www.geocities.com/wageslavex/mcraga.htm
Monthly Review http://www.monthlyreview.org/