Class Struggle in Present Day Globalized Capitalism

By James Petras

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Conclusion: Globalization and Class Struggle

Globalization has not ended the class struggle as some pundits on the left and right argued. Rather globalization has changed the classes in conflict, the nature of the issues and the strategies of the antagonists. Above all ‘globalization’ is not the main determinant of the outcome or intensity of class struggle, nor is the level and result of class struggle frozen in time. Neoliberal regimes at the center of the globalization strategy were overthrown by heterogeneous coalitions of class and mass organizations in Argentina 2001, Bolivia 2003, 2005 and Ecuador (2000,2005). In other instances, highly indebted globalized economies in crises like Greece, Spain and Portugal have witnessed repeated general strikes and mass struggles.
Widespread class struggle is unfolding in dynamic industrializing countries such as China, where high levels of exploitation and inequalities and the absence of a ‘social net’ have provoked mass unrest.
On the other hand in globalized economies, center-left regimes, with dynamic growing extractive sectors have been able to limit class conflict to economic struggles among the mainstream trade unions and to isolate the militant class/social struggles of marginalized provincial communities, at least in the present conjuncture.
The intensity and scope of class struggle under conditions of globalized capital varies with the previous success of past class struggles and world commodity prices. Under extremist neo-liberal regimes, declining commodity prices and economic crises, class struggle intensifies. In conjunctures where center-left regimes successfully pursue full employment, wage increases and anti-poverty programs, and are favored by high commodity prices, the class struggle ebbs and is channeled into a collective bargaining framework.
As the current recession in Europe and the US deepens and spreads across the world economy, the Asian engine of world growth slows (China) or stagnates (India). As the depression in Southern Europe spreads north, Germany, France and England enter recession. The economic foundations sustaining capitalist hegemony weaken: global crises, declining commodity prices, radical austerity programs, augur an extension and intensification of the class struggle.The struggles of communities fighting extractive capital may spread to the cities; the decline of commodity prices will lower the margins for negotiated wage settlements among the urban working class.
Class polarization may sharpen as a zero-sum situation undermines the center-left formula of growth and reforms. Globalized crises may put closure on “export solutions”.A ‘new model’ derived from the outcome of heightened class conflict may emerge depending on who wins.A victorious ruling class will savage all social programs and increase exploitation and austerity; a victorious outcome by the ‘classes from below’ can augur a basic transformation of the crises-ridden capitalist system toward greater public ownership and planning under worker, ecologists, peasant and consumer councils."