bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Nationalism: the instrumental passion
Authors: Kitching Gavin
Published: January 2010

Marxists and Communist parties have had difficulty understanding nationalism and dealing with nationalist movements. Neither they, nor Weberian theorists, have been able to understand the ‘passion’ engendered by nationalism—a passion which drives people to die for their nation.

In this review of two books on nationalism, one by a Weberian, the other within the Marxist tradition, Gavin Kitching identifies the beginnings of a materialist theory of consciousness which partially explains the power of nationalist passions.

The two books are: Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism by Benedict Anderson (London, Verso, 1983) and Nations and nationalism by Ernest Gellner (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1983).
Imperialism and decline: Britain in the 1980s
Authors: Spence Martin
Published: January 2010

This article examines the international movement of British capital in an attempt to assess the strengths and weaknesses of Britain as an imperialist power. Based on a Leninist concept of imperialism as the capital export phase of capitalism, it argues that the decline in the UK's industrial base, the flight of British capital to Europe and the United States and the involvement of foreign investment in the restructuring of the UK economy are all facets of the continuing imperialist role of British capital and the British state. The response of the labour movement and socialists should be premised on a recognition of how the working class is also being restructured, and strategies and policies should be reformulated to encompass the changing reality, both internally and internationally.
The Alternative Economic Strategy: a time to go European
Authors: Teague Paul
Published: January 2010

The internationalisation of economic life imposes increasingly recognised constraints on labour movement activities, both at the level of industrial negotiations and in the scope of national economic policy. Part of the answer lies in extra-national initiatives, especially in Western Europe. But it would be wrong to see in European policy an escape from acute problems of policy at national level. This article examines present labour movement thinking on Britain's economic relations with Western Europe,
Industrial restructuring and manufacturing homework: immigrant women in the UK clothing industry
Authors: Mitter Swasti
Published: January 2010

This article argues that recent government and other studies have failed to identify the proliferation of home-work and small sweat shops in the clothing industry in the UK. Swasti Mitter dismisses the argument that recent changes in labour/output ratios can be explained by increased labour productivity in the clothing industry, suggesting instead that an increasing proportion of output is being shifted from factories to the unregulated sector whose workers do not appear in official estimates of the labour force. She argues that the trends in retail organisation and competition have led to subcontracting as a rational strategy for cost minimisation as has occurred in other European countries, particularly in Italy. And that the insecurity of immigrant women within the British state, together with their position within their own communities makes them a suitable source of labour for the 37 unregulated sector where they are vulnerable to exploitative working conditions and pay with little recourse to protection either from the state or trade unions.
Information technology and capitalist development
Authors: Locksley Gareth
Published: January 2010

As the potential for a vast number of new services and products in the wake of IT developments becomes apparent, private capital is moving in to secure its exclusive exploitation for private profits. The article traces the development of existing Information Technologies through the organisational imperatives of the military and multinational corporations. It shows how nearly everywhere capitalist pressure is leading to privatisation of public ownership and control over information systems and how national and international capital is restructuring to exploit IT. In the context of capitalist competition and production for profit the exploitation of IT will worsen class, gender and international inequalities (although in this article the latter two are only briefly touched on). But 81 Gareth Locksley argues that IT still carries the seeds of a more equal society; the left has to rethink and appropriate IT and fight for its development under social control.
Crisis in Greek agriculture: diagnosis and an alternative strategy
Authors: Manitea-Tsapatsaris Vasso
Published: January 2010

This paper is concerned with the impact of Fordism on the development of Greek agriculture. Drawing upon historical and contemporary data, the author argues that the importance of technological change and transformations in the labour process of agriculture production have often been underestimated or seen purely in technical terms. Such one-sided accounts are comprehensively criticised and an alternative account is provided which emphasises broader class, social and political conditions.
Northern Ireland (i)
Authors: Munck Ronnie
Published: January 2010

The signing of the Anglo-Irish agreement on Northern Ireland raises once again the question of the political future of the ‘six counties’. The following two articles provide a critical analysis of the recent accord, from two rather different positions. Ronnie Munck sets the accord in its historical and political context, and argues that it is an inherently unstable agreement which will not necessarily resolve the underlying problems. Paul Bew's lively polemic argues forcefully that the accord is at best a substitute for serious structural reforms in the economic and civil liberties field.
Social Security reforms
Authors: Erskine Angus
Published: January 2010

The government's proposed reform of social security is generally perceived by the left as a means of cutting public expenditure, in order to allow the government to make its long-promised tax cuts. In this article, Angus Erskine shows that the reform of social security may reduce public expenditure, but is, however, designed essentially to further the development of a low wage economy, to extend privatisation, and to alter the relationship between the individual and the state through increasing the influence of the market.
Thatcherism, populist authoritarianism and the search for a new left political strategy
Authors: Atkins Fiona
Published: January 2010

A number of writers from the Left, particularly associated with Marxism Today, have suggested that there has been a shift to more right-wing policies and authoritarian and populist forms of government in advanced capitalist countries and that these can be seen as a response to the current world economic crisis. Fiona Atkins suggests that explanations of the shift towards more authoritarian government must take account of recent changes in economic structures and class relations. In particular she argues that it is necessary to recognise the implications of the increasing internationalisation of capital.

By referring to third world examples, the author identifies a number of forms of authoritarian regime. The broader frame of reference indicates that a degree of eurocentrism has limited the understanding of authoritarianism in the current British debate.
Labour and the local state in Liverpool
Authors: Allen Paul Thompson and Mike
Published: January 2010

Liverpool City Council led by members of the Militant Tendency took on both central government and ultimately the national Labour Party. Thompson and Allen show that Militant's model of a local state based on direct distribution to clients and political mobilisation excluded participation of the very groups whose interests they claimed to promote, especially council tenants, ethnic minorities and trade union, and contributed to both the failure of their political strategy and the failure to general broad political support.
From the industrial revolution to the computer revolution: First signs of a new combination of material and human productive forms
Authors: Lojkine Jean
Published: January 2010

This essay is a theoretical discussion of issues arising from a recent detailed empirical investigation of new automation and computerisation processes in French manufacturing industry by a team of industrial sociologists and economists. These changes pose fundamental problems for neo-Taylorist forms of management and forms of calculation within the enterprise, and open contradictory possibilities for the restructuring of skill and the redistribution of power and knowledge within the factory. Using Marxist categories, Lojkine attempts to identify the underlying potential of these changes and their implications for the relationship between technical progress and socio-economic change.
Situating migrants in theory: The case of Filipino migrant contract construction workers
Authors: Gibson Katherine , Graham Julie
Published: January 2010

The remittances of overseas contract workers have become a mainstay of many Southeast Asian economies, particularly the Philippines. This article suggests that the growth of contract labour migration in the contemporary global context is of great economic and political significance to both international capital and the nation state, but that migration theory as it currently stands finds difficulty in specifying the particular distinctiveness of this new form of migrant labour.
A note on competition under capitalism
Authors: Burkett Paul
Published: January 2010

The author thanks Fiona Atkins and Michael Cowen for helpful comments, and Debbie Zamparello for typing this paper.
Famine and politics in the Horn of Africa
Authors: Markakis John
Published: January 2010

The attention of the media has in recent years focused on the Horn of Africa as an area blighted by famine. John Markakis attempts to analyse the political responses of the Sudanese and Ethiopian regimes to the famine, the contradictions in their policies and their lack of impact on the underlying problems. He looks particularly at the dilemmas faced by subsistence farmers in the area, as opposed to the urban dwellers who control political power.
Turin Today: Premodern society or postindustrial bazaar?
Authors: Ruggiero Vincenzo
Published: January 2010

At a time when unemployment is a key political issue, but is still generally presented in aggregate quantitative terms (regional or national), it is important to analyse the impact of the crisis in its qualitative and sectoral dimensions—in the workings of the labour market itself. This may be better approached in a comparative perspective. This article looks at the current transformation of the labour market and class composition in a major European industrial centre—Turin, the classic industrial city for Gramsci and the centre of industrial growth in Italy throughout the postwar period. What has changed in social terms? What do these changes mean for the notion of a homogeneous ‘industrial working class’? It is hoped that this type of exploratory study will provoke parallel studies for the UK and elsewhere.
Skilled Labour in Value Theory
Authors: Itoh Makoto
Published: January 2010

This paper reviews various treatments of the skilled labour problem in value theory. It argues that skilled workers' own labour embodies the same amount of labour substance of value as do unskilled workers in a unit of labour time. This is an egalitarian view which impacts on a number of debates. Some of these ramifications are illustrated with discussions of international trade and unequal exchange, socialism and inequality, and the reproduction of labour power under different arrangements for funding the costs of education and training.
GATT and Uruguay
Authors: Ransom David
Published: January 2010

Last December the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) began its latest round of talks in Uruguay. David Ransom here provides a succinct account of the grim realities which have overtaken Uruguay as it turns increasingly towards the local giant, Brazil, itself facing crisis.
After Chernobyl
Authors: Spence Martin
Published: January 2010

After the Chernobyl accident several countries reassessed their commitment to nuclear power, leading to the cancellation or postponement of orders for reactors. Martin Spence examines the impact of these developments upon the world's nuclear industry. Through an assessment of the forces which have promoted nuclear technology, he concludes that the industry is far from being in a state of terminal decline
Manufactured in the UK? Special steels, motor vehicles and the politics of industrial decline
Authors: Hudson Ray , Sadler David
Published: January 2010

A study of the crisis of the special steels sector in Sheffield reveals major weaknesses both in traditional strategies for restructuring such as nationalisation and in new ones such as local economic strategies. Strategic choices in the sector are constrained by interdependence with sectors like the automobile industry and by the political and economic restrictions of the EEC. Meanwhile creeping privatisation continues. The authors argue that any alternative strategy must operate at each of these levels to be effective.
Scientific management and planning
Authors: Nyland Chris
Published: January 2010

Drawing upon a wide range of historical sources, Chris Nyland argues that the Taylorist system of work organisation has been too hastily dismissed by Marxist and other commentators from the left. The author thus suggests that socialists should re-evaluate the potentialities of scientific management, and hat the techniques of planning and systematic work scheduling for the benefit of the working class.
Resisting economic conscription
Authors: Gray Ann
Published: January 2010

The British left's response to the Tory government's labour market strategies has been piecemeal and ineffective. It has been severely compromised by the historical involvement of the Labour Party and the TUC in the MSC. The adherence of the labour movement to the work ethic, the idea that each should be paid according to labour contributed rather than to need, has become a stumbling block. Gray argues that a left labour market strategy must first protect the weak, the growing part-time, temporary and casual ‘under-class’, and enable them to refuse low-paid work. The present mood of defeatism, of demanding jobs at any price, must be challenged. With workfare on the state's agenda, the ‘right to work’ is the wrong emphasis; what matters is the right to an income.
Gerbil: The Education Reform Bill
Authors: Corrigan Paul
Published: January 2010

Market mechanisisms and social engineering
Social volcano: The Philippines revolution
Authors: Jagan Larry
Published: January 2010

Neither economic progress nor social advance has yet come of the political revolution in the Philippines. Death squads, social reaction against land reform and malnutrition plague the lives of the poor. Yet organisation among workers and peasant labourers is persistent and challenging.
Value for money in the public services
Authors: Kaser Greg
Published: January 2010

Based upon trade union experience of new management systems in the public services, the author argues that the defence of public services by specialists should face up to the challenge of ‘value for money’ accountancy.
The Great Bear, post-Fordism and class struggle: A comment on Bonefeld and Jessop
Authors: Holloway John
Published: January 2010

Holloway focusses on the relation between structure and struggle which he sees as the central question raised by Bonefeld's article on the reformulation state theory rejecting Jessop's treatment of the issues as inadequate. It is suggested that the unresolved tension between structure and struggle in relation to the reformulation literature was present already in Hirsch's contribution to the state derivation debate.
Inside the machine: The left and finance professionals in Local Government
Authors: Clarke Alan , Cochrane Allan
Published: January 2010

The authors argue that the left ‘has underestimated the significance of the treasurer in local authorities’, the authors warn against the lure of ‘creative’ accounting.
Unconditional benefits: misplaced optimism in income maintenance
Authors: Alcock Peter
Published: January 2010

In this article the author critically examines the arguments for and against universal, unconditional social benefits.
Financial innovation, Crises, and the contradictions of central bank policy under capitalism: The case of investment fund money
Authors: Burkett Paul
Published: January 2010

This timely contribution to Marxian monetary theory focuses on investment fund money and explains its implications for financial markets, capitalist crisis and central bank policy.
Perspectives on the Central American crisis: ‘Reactionary despotism’ or monopoly capital?
Authors: Borjas Patricia Howard
Published: January 2010

This article critically assesses the analysis put forward by John Weeks that the Central American crisis is due to ‘reactionary despotism’. Borjas proposes that the crisis has its roots in monopoly capital.
The construction of social communities in work: The case of a Nigerian factory
Authors: Adesina Jimi
Published: January 2010

Adesina discusses the construction of social communities in work, identifying the significance of ‘vertical’ and ‘lateral’ communities in the workplace.
The new US class struggle: financial industry power vs. grassroots populism
Authors: Bond Patrick
Published: January 2010

In a complementary article to Cleaver's discussion of the debt crisis in Capital & Class 39, Bond considers the explosive growth of debt in us finance and the populist campaigns ranged against this new financial power. Bond suggests that the bases of new local, national and international coalitions to refuse the imposition of the costs of devaluation onto exploited groups can be seen in these campaigns.
Unfair dismissal law and the legitimation of managerial control
Authors: Denham D J
Published: January 2010

After reviewing, briefly, Marxist theories of the law, Denham examines the operation of recent unfair dismissal law; finding that few rights for workers are included to counter the enhancement of managerial decision making and ideological control.
Welfare State struggles, consumption, and the politics of rights
Authors: Harrison M. L.
Published: January 2010

Arguing for a fresh approach to the welfare state which focuses on the politics of consumption and the rights of consumers, the author contends that the management of consumption and household welfare creates potential communities of interest capable of forming bases for collective action and resistance.
Seeking a Way out of Fordism: The US Steel and Auto Industries
Authors: Scherrer Christoph
Published: January 2010

Abandoning a macroeconomic survey for a mesosectoral analysis the author seeks an empirically based, but also historical and theoretical, answer to the important question of what sort of restructuring the US economy is undergoing: ‘Casino Capitalist’ asset stripping or the introduction of ‘New Production Paradigms’.
Industrial Restructuring in the US Economy: A Value Analysis
Authors: Shakow Don M. , Graham Julie , Gibson Katherine D.
Published: January 2010

As an alternative to macro-social theories of economic restructuring, the authors provide a framework for theorising restructuring at the industry level. They analyse the uneven development and restructuring of US manufacturing industries between 1958 and 1982, using Marxian value analysis to associate restructuring with changing levels of exploitation.
The Reorganisation of Large Firm Subcontracting: Myth and Reality
Authors: Rainnie Al
Published: January 2010

This article brings into sharper focus an aspect of the restructuring debate: namely the post Fordist orthodoxy which seeks to emphasise the centrality of the locality and the role of small and medium sized firms. Drawing on evidence from empirical examples, including the Hertfordshire study, Rainnie demonstrates that whilst the functions of large firms may be decentralised, with units taking on local appearances, control still resides in the hands of a distant and global management, often overiding local concerns.
Crisis of Theory: Bob Jessop's Theory of Capitalist Reproduction
Authors: Bonefeld Werner
Published: January 2010

Bonefeld assesses and criticises Jessop's dialectic between structure and strategy. He argues that Jessop equates class struggle with capitalist strategies, thus destroying the Marxian notion of a contradictory constitution of social relations.
A Note on Marx's Analysis of the Composition of Capital
Authors: Saad-Filho Alfredo
Published: January 2010

Saad-Filho draws on Marx to make clear that there are three distinct compositions of capital: Technical (TCC); Value (VCC); and Organic (OCC). He demonstrates that the distinction between them can be traced back to the relations between the spheres of production and circulation, and argues that it is central for an analysis of capital accumulation and technical change based on the labour theory of value.
Value and Consumption: Prolegomena to the Theory of Crisis
Authors: Rosenthal John
Published: January 2010

What constitutes the barriers to demand against which the accumulation of capital collides in periods of crisis or stagnation? The prevailing Marxist common sense suggests that such barriers derive from the limited purchasing power of the wage. The author takes issue with this common sense in order to prepare the way for a more adequate answer to the question posed. As analysis of the practical logic of exchange reveals, under capitalist conditions the ultimate source of all effective demand in the economy is the capitalist class itself.
On the Political Economy of ‘Post-Fordist’ Telecommunications: The US Experience
Authors: Lüthje Boy
Published: January 2010

The article examines the impact of deregulation in the US telecommunications industry on communications workers and unions. The erosion of the traditional telephone monopoly is explained as part of the crisis of the postwar US economy's Fordist mode of development. Theoretically, the analysis draws upon a critical reception of French regulation theory and the so-called state-derivation debate among West-German Marxists.
Labour Migration from Turkey to Western Europe (1960–1974)
Authors: Akgündüz Ahmet
Published: January 2010

By joining the migratory labour movement to Western Europe in the early 1960s, Turkey for the first time in its history became a country of large scale economic emigration. It is here argued that the growth of the number of Turkish workers in Europe during the recruitment period, and their development as the largest of the foreign labour contingents in Germany and the Netherlands, was due to the exhaustion of south European countries' labour reserves. Taking into account other viewpoints and discussing their inadequacies, the emergence of conditions for external migration and the specific ‘push’ factors are explored on the basis of Turkey's socio-economic structure. The characteristics of Turkish migrants are likewise addressed according to these issues.
Flexible Production and the Capital/Wage Labour Relation in Manufacturing
Authors: Smith Tony
Published: January 2010

According to some writers, the Fordist model is replaced by ‘Flexible specialisation’, while according to others by ‘neo-fordism’. The author believes that neither of the alternatives are appropriate and proposes a ‘flexible production’ model. According to this model, the recent process of transformation of the organisation of labour and production has not eliminated the fundamental antagonism between capital and labour.
A Growing Divide: Marxist Class Analysis and the Labour Process
Authors: Carter Bob
Published: January 2010

In an extensive survey, Carter examines the changing emphasis within Marxist class and labour process theory, arguing that the explicit and implicit movements towards an orthodox Marxist two class model fails to identify the significance of workplace changes, rendering Marxism formal and abstract. Conversely, a reintegration of class and labour process theory, within a framework which acknowledges the role and functions of the new middle class, promises to revitalise analysis and provide perspectives for understanding the fluid relations of class.
Marxism, Post-Marxism and Development Fetishism
Authors: Kiely Ray
Published: January 2010

This article examines the impasse in development studies and takes issue with the contention that the roots of this impasse lie in the work of Marx. It does so by examining orthodox and structuralist versions of Marxism, and argues that these determinist approaches actually fetishise, in Marx's sense, social reality. This argument is outlined by an extended examination of the historical and social significance of the transition from feudalism to capitalism in England. It is also argued that post Marxism, in replacing a theoretical determinism with an atheoretical empiricism, has not necessarily transcended the impasse. Finally, some suggestions are made for transcending the impasse in development studies.
Testing Marx: Some new results from UK data
Authors: Cockshott Paul , Cottrell Allin , Michaelson Greg
Published: January 2010

Analysing UK economic data over an extended historical timespan, from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth centuries, the authors use ‘quantitative’ or ‘empirical’ Marxist techniques to test key Marxian theses and categories. They argue that Marxian economics has nothing to fear from a confrontation with empirical data.
Marx without equilibrium
Authors: Freeman Alan
Published: January 2010

New emerging currents are questioning the assumptions of the traditional formalisation of Marx's value theory initiated by Ladislaw von Bortkiewicz in 1905, which has led three generations of economists to conclude Marx's theory was fundamentally flawed. The challenge comes from two directions characterised as ‘sequentialist’ and ‘non-dualist’. Freeman shows that the fusion of these two insights leads to a completely general, coherent, non-equilibrium account of Marx's value theory in which the traditional allegations of inconsistency and error cease to exist.
From Production Prices to Reproduction Prices
Authors: Carchedi G. , de Haan W.
Published: January 2010

This article argues that Marx's transformation procedure has been turned into a nonexistent transformation ‘problem’ by abolishing time, i.e. by implicitly applying the methodology of neo-classical general equilibrium theory. It then depicts the real transformation process from individual into social values both when technological change is abstracted from and when it is explicitly taken into consideration. Finally the article ends with a critique of the thesis according to which value is created in the act of exchange.
Continuity or Change in Employment Relations? Evidence from the UK's Old Industrial Regions
Authors: Cumbers Andrew
Published: January 2010

Recent years have seen a considerable degree of change in the nature of employment relations, nowhere more so than in the UK's older industrial regions where new forms of work have partially replaced traditional activities. The author argues that such changes cannot automatically be read off as part of a wider transformation, but need to be firmly embedded within particular local social relations. Recognition of such complexities is necessary if suitable socialist strategies are to be developed.
The Theory of Rent: From Crossroads to The Magic Roundabout
Authors: Kerr Derek
Published: January 2010

The Theory of Rent has been the focus of heated debate over a number of years—prompted in part by the swing from boom to bust in commercial property markets in cities such as London. Kerr analyses different strands in this debate, revealing that in fact they have much in common. He argues for a return to Marx in order to understand the real dynamics of urban property markets.
Turning Resistance into Rebellion: Student Movements and the Entrepreneurialization of the Universities
Authors: Ovetz Robert
Published: January 2010

Ovetz argues that higher education worldwide is becoming ‘entrepreneurialized’ as universities are forced to organize themselves increasingly as profit-oriented businesses. This involves commercial partnerships with private capital and the State; and the growing exploitation of both teaching staff and students. However, there is also growing resistance to this trend from students, staff, and local communities. Ovetz illustrates his argument by detailed reference to the USA, and especially to the University of Texas at Austin.
The Russian Miners' Strike of February 1996
Authors: Borisov Vadim , Clarke Simon
Published: January 2010

Simon Clarke and Vadim Borisov have been researching the workers' movement and the restructuring of the Russian coal-mining industry since 1991. The research on which the present article is based has been funded by the ESRC and by the Westminster Foundation. Further information, including reports and working papers, are available from our World Wide Web site: http://www.warwick.ac.uk/WWW/faculties / social_studies/complabstuds/complab.htm
Testing Marx: A Note
Authors: Maniatis Thanasis
Published: January 2010

This article discusses a number of issues related to the empirical methodology for testing Marx's main arguments. It argues that a recent article in Capital & Class is plagued by methodological and empirical errors and that empirical examination of the validity of Marxian theory has to be based on a more unified and consistent methodological framework similar to that developed by Shaikh and Tonak (1994).
Exploitation: The Original Saint Simonian Account
Authors: Cunliffe John , Reeve Andrew
Published: January 2010

The Saint-Simonians were the first to present a theory of ‘exploitation’ using that word itself. Their theory incorporated an unresolved tension between a narrow and a broad view of the concept. The narrow view restricted exploitation to the economic sphere; the broad view included the exploitation of women by men. Both aspects were traced to a transmitted history of force, and condemned as ‘slavery’. The Saint-Simonian prescription envisaged the disappearance of ‘economic’ and gender exploitation. The original Saint-Simonian account of exploitation can be seen as setting a research agenda which still continues, or as creating a tangle of confusion which still remains.
Which Path to Paradise? Andre Gorz, Political Ecology and the Green Movement
Authors: Strange Gerard
Published: January 2010

In this article Gerard Strange examines Gorz's development of political ecology around the notions of self-limitation and autonomy. While endorsing his humanist articulation of political ecology, Strange criticises Gorz's advocacy of what is identified as a productivist model of transition from capitalism to post-industrial socialism. The productivist model is contradictory since it breaks with the Green imperative and alienates increasingly important non-productivist interests and the new social movements.
Coming to Terms with Quality: UNISON and the Restructuring of Local Government
Authors: Fitzgerald Ian , Rainnie Al , Stirling John
Published: January 2010

The authors argument is that current quality initiatives are managerially driven and coincide with the development of so-called ‘new right’ politics in the public sector. They criticize those those who argue that quality is simply imposed on a quiescent workforce and suggest instead that the process is mediated through workers and their representatives. They use case study evidence from a local authority to analyse trade union responses and locate this within a discussion of the ‘union renewal’ thesis.
From War Profits to Peace Dividends: The New Political Economy of Israel
Authors: Nitzan Jonathan , Bichler Shimshon
Published: January 2010

Since the late 1980s, Israel has been undergoing a profound transformation, characterized by reconciliation with its Arab neighbours and attempts to reintegrate into the regional economy, a transition from a militarized economy to open markets, and a decline of the collectivist ethos in favour of liberalism and free enterprise. This transition, we argue, is part of a world-wide shift from the ‘depth’ to the ‘breadth’ of accumulation and the parallel globalization of ownership. In order to survive, the large Israeli corporations must substitute outward expansion for the old protectionism of a militarized economy, and give up domestic control in return for global alliances.
Striking Smarter and Harder at Vauxhall: the new industrial relations of lean production?
Authors: Stewart Paul
Published: January 2010

“[We aim to] form a partnership between all the Vauxhall people, working together to win, by focusing on customer satisfaction through teamwork and continuous innovation and improvement” (Working Together To Win: Luton Plant Agreement, 1992)

“They don't understand that we ore taking action because of the situation they have created. They can't see that its their lean production that has pushed the fads to if. I tell you this though, we are definitely playing if smarter now. Anyhow, people are voting with their feet and clocking off early on Fridays”. (Vauxhall-GM shop steward December 1995 in response to spontaneous action by assembly fine workers)
China: Labour Reform and the Challenge Facing the Working Class
Authors: Lau Raymond W. K.
Published: January 2010

Labour reform in China has resulted in the creation of a fast-maturing labour market at enormous costs to urban workers. As labour-management relations have replaced labour-state, workers' responses have been expressed in previously unknown forms of industrial dispute. The regime has taken every precaution to forestall social explosion, whilst pushing further ahead with the reform. Whilst daily struggles have proliferated, they have also been ‘sectorized’, in addition to remaining spontaneous, unorganized and economic in character. Intermittent small-scale union activities have all been suppressed; while ideologically, most labour-oriented activists accept the logic of the reform, with many seeing a private capitalist market economy as ‘just’.
Two of a Kind: Hegel, Marx, Dialectic and Form
Authors: Fraser Ian
Published: January 2010

In this article the author argues that the dialectic of Hegel and the dialectic of Marx are the same. The mysticism that Marx and many Marxists have imputed to Hegel's dialectic is shown to be mistaken. The article illustrates how both Hegel and Marx share an emphasis on analysing forms in society. This is accomplished through general and determinate abstractions for Marx which find a direct correspondence in Hegel's universal and particular concept.
The ‘New Industrial Relations' and Class Struggle in the 1990s
Authors: Danford Andy
Published: January 2010

This author's ethnography of shop-floor struggle against the introduction of new management techniques at a South Wales-based brownfield manufacturing plant questions the emergence of a ‘new industrial relations' characterised by worker co-operation and commitment. The article describes the impact on shop-floor social action of such factors as the suppression of independent shop steward organization, worker divisions, job insecurity, militant customer interventionism and the state's employment legislation. Although these can critically constrain effective collective resistance the article highlights how management-labour conflict and struggle remain inherent in the capitalist labour process.
Can we make our own history?
Authors: Durand Jean-Pierre
Published: January 2010

Can we still make our own history? Continuing our series of POLEMICS, Jean-Pierre Durand considers the continuing relevance of Marx's concept of the dialectic for explanations of contemporary social and economic changes. In particular, he argues that while Marx's dialectic is crucial for explanations of social contradictions and crises today, it is not an adequate guide to social and political action.

THE LEADING WORK OF MARX has a sub-title: A Critique of Political Economy. I believe that Marx was one of the best thinkers of capitalism. Capitalism is not dead, even though it has changed greatly in a century and a half. I shall therefore show, in the second part of this paper, how much the discoveries of Marx can still be of use to us and how they remain essential for a scientific approach towards contemporary capitalism. On the other hand Marx, supported by Lenin and others of his spiritual offspring, has led the revolution he advocated and the societies in which capitalism is developing… towards capitalism itself. I shall not dwell here on the specificities of those peasant, or simply rural, societies, nor in fact on the history of real socialism, but merely on the question of Marx as militant: in other words can one be both a militant and a scholar and, in particular, both a good militant and a good scholar?
Maximilien Rubel, 1905-1996, Libertarian Marx Editor
Authors: Anderson Kevin
Published: January 2010

One of the century's greatest Marx editors, Rubel placed Marx's critique of the modern state on an equal footing with Marx's critique of political economy. An erudite scholar who in his Marx Oeuvres I-IV (1963-1994) pointed repeatedly to differences between Marx and Engels, he became a thorn in the side of Stalinist Marx editors, especially in France. Volume IV of Rubel's Marx Oeuvres, published less than two years before his death, offers a good vantage point from which to measure his overall contribution.
Working Schoolchildren in Britain Today
Authors: Rikowski Glenn , Neary Mike
Published: January 2010

In the scary media world of abused childhoods, child labour has become a major journalistic event. The news headlines record children working in conditions thought to have been abolished by social democratic reform. In spite of this mounting documentary evidence—supported by research undertaken by trade unions and pressure groups such as the Low Pay Unit—Tory ministers argued that child labour was not a problem. The Government's interest in youth was not the demoralisation of young workers at work, but the insubordination of youth, expressed as, among other things, crime, drug-taking and classroom disorder. The problem for conservative policy is the remoralisation of young people through the imposition of a new authority and the production of guides to the virtuous life.
Production without Empowerment: Work reorganization from the perspective of motor vehicle workers
Authors: Lewchuk Wayne , Robertson David
Published: January 2010

This paper examines the relationship between new forms of work organization and worker empowerment from the perspective of workers. The data is drawn from a survey of 5,635 Canadian automobile workers. Workers were asked questions about their work-load, health and safety conditions, empowerment, and relations with management. It examines what it is like to work in plants organized according to the principles of lean production and compares empowerment in lean plants and traditionally organized plants.
The EMU, Monetary Crises, and the Single European Currency
Authors: Carchedi Guglielmo
Published: January 2010

After a few introductory notes on the relation between production of value, productivity, economic crises, and inflation, this article submits a theory of exchange rates, revaluations, and devaluations in terms of tendential (and counter-tendential) international distribution of value both among individual countries and between the imperialist centre on the one hand and the dominated block on the other. This framework is then used to examine the process leading towards the EMU and the Euro and the conclusion is reached that, in spite of the different EMU countries' divergent interests, their common advantage is that the costs of this further step in the process of European integration will be paid by Europe's labour. Next, the relation between the DM and the Euro on the one hand and the US dollar on the other is clarified and the link is established with monetary crises. The 1994-95 crisis is then used as an illustration.
An Alternative Reading of the Transformation of Values into Prices of Production
Authors: Saad-Filho Alfredo
Published: January 2010

This article analyses the transformation of values into prices of production from the point of view of differences in the organic composition of capital. Marx's transformation has two stages. In the first, the value of the means of production used up is irrelevant; in the second, the economy is analysed at the level of price. The transformation helps to explain the distribution of labour and surplus value across the economy, and substantiates the claim that value is produced by labour alone. However, it does not allow the vector of prices of production to be calculated.
‘Happy Families?’: Single Mothers, the Press and the Politicians
Authors: Atkinson Karen , Oerton Sarah , Burns Diane
Published: January 2010

FOR THOSE OF US who have been following how lone parents are represented in media and political debates over the last few years, the shift was all too apparent. By Spring 1997, the political scapegoating of single mothers as being responsible for tearing apart the moral fabric of society had become less frequent; tabloid headlines which screamed ‘family breakdown’, ‘scroungers' and ‘welfare benefit crisis' appeared less often; and many politicians had started to project themselves as, at the least, concerned about the welfare of lone parents and their children. Surprising really, that is, until we remember the backdrop—the UK General Election and 1.3 million UK lone parent voters. By April 1997, a growing backlash against the more extreme and pathologising accusations against single mothers had rendered explicit vilification unacceptable. To pull votes a different sort of language had to come into play—one which didn't risk turning off the electorate but would still allow a freezing or cutting of welfare spending on lone parent families. Since it was now politically inexpedient to engage in vitriolic attack, there emerged a new discourse—one which reappropriated and redefined lone parents as chief targets of government aid. Close scrutiny of the texts circulating from 1992 to the time of the General Election offers insights of how policy agendas, political rhetoric and news interweave to construct a definition of lone parents which bears little resemblance to how they may see themselves.
Caribbean 2000: No Place in the Sun
Authors: Harrison Michelle
Published: January 2010

IT IS ONLY FOUR YEARS since the final resolution of the so-called Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), but the machinery that drives the world trade talks, now re-christened as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), is already cranking into gear for the next season of protracted discussions. The name may have changed, but once again, the major trading blocks are set to carve up world trade amongst themselves for the next century. Such is the time-lag attached to the international policy stage, however, that the losers from the 1993 resolution—those countries from the South who are dependent upon international markets for the sale of their primary commodities—are still awaiting the full consequences of this official organisation of inequality. (Watkins 1992)
Death of a Princess
Authors: Kirby Mark
Published: January 2010

THE DEATH OF PRINCESS DIANA in the early hours of the 31st August 1997 and its aftermath have led to a number of propositions being aired in the Press, two of which are notable. First, it is argued that Princess Diana was in some way a radical/progressive figure, and second, following on from this, that the large number of people involved in the events surrounding the aftermath of her death were also in some way radical or progressive. This rather contradictory outpouring was a massive phenomenon and something socialists cannot ignore.
Resisting the Rise of Non-unionism: the Case of the Press Workers in the Newspaper Industry
Authors: Gall Gregor
Published: January 2010

This article considers the experience of press workers in the newspaper industry in Britain to examine how workers can rebuild their collective organisations to resist and supplant the increasing prevalence of non-unionism. Taking the press workers at Wapping firstly and then press workers in general, the re-composition of the labour process is considered to show that new spaces and opportunities for worker resistance are continually provided even within inhospitable environments. As such workers' power is socially constructed and mobilised rather than technologically determined.
Labour and the Defence Industry: Allies in ‘Globalisation’
Authors: Lovering John
Published: January 2010

One of the least noticed inheritances of the new Labour government is Britain's military bias. The British economy has long born the imprint of Imperial levels of military spending, and it still hosts an exceptionally large defence industry (Fine and Harris 1985, Edgerton 1989,Wulf 1993). It is not only large, it is also changing radically. Labour has come to power at a crucial stage in the restructuring of arms production. It has adopted a strategy for the defence-industry which was developed largely by the industry itself. This article sets out the background and offers some suggestions as to the likely impact of the Blair government on the post Cold War reconstruction of the arms industry.
‘Work-Welfare'and the Regulation of the Poor: The Pessimism of Post-Structuralism
Authors: Mizen Phil
Published: January 2010

Through a concern with disciplinary power, post-structuralists have recently turned their attention to the discursive force of welfare in constituting the poor as docile and subservient populations. Far from representing a new and fruitful mode of radical analysis, it is argued that the idealism of the post-structuralist position produces a rigid determinism. Using the recent example of ‘work-welfare’ in Britain, the pessimism of this position is rejected by pointing to the continuing importance of resistance and opposition, while considering their wider significance for the analysis of welfare provision.
2nd Encounter For Humanity & Against Neoliberalism, Spain 1997
Authors: Angelis Massimo De
Published: January 2010

We present reports on the intercontinental meeting of around 4000 people, also known as the 2nd Encuentro, held in Spain in the summer of 1997. We have included here: (1) an ‘Introduction’ to the event, its history, inspiration and underlying politics, written by Massimo de Angelis; (2) the report of mesa (‘table’ or ‘workshop’) la, Work and the Means of Production, and lb, Creating Conditions for a Life with Dignity; and (3) a declaration presented at the gathering's closing session, the so-called Declaration of El Indiana.
The Australian Wharf Lockout
Authors: Svensen Stuart
Published: January 2010

THE AUSTRALIAN WATERFRONT DISPUTE between the union movement on one side, and the federal government, the National Farmers' Federation (NFF) and Patrick Stevedores on the other, is arguably the most important Australian industrial struggle this century, and has significant international implications. This paper outlines the historical background to the fight, and the strategies and tactics employed by each side. The Australian government and its allies were clearly engaged in a coordinated effort to debilitate the union movement, and to enforce the introduction of individualised working arrangements within the stevedoring industry, and more generally. Although this attempt failed, the government and the company have argued that ‘waterfront reform’ has been advanced by concessions wrung from the union. It is forecast that the words in the agreement will prove less important than their implementation, and that further turmoil on the wharves is likely as the parties strive to advance and defend their positions.