Imperialism, globalization in crisis and Obama

1
Imperialism, globalization in crisis and
Obamas Middle Eastern empire
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Introduction

• Place of report in the session
• Reporter
• a US
• Jewish
• gay
• anti-imperialist
• in Holland
• Reporters limits
• not an economist
• not an expert on any of these countries

3
Overview of report

• I. Imperialism Lenins classic theory
• II. Neoliberal globalization
• III. Armed globalization and the war on
  terror
• IV. From Bush II to Obama in Iraq,
• Afghanistan, Libya and Palestine

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I. Imperialism Lenins theory

• The Marxist understanding of imperialism before
  Lenin
• Marx and Engels Ireland, Poland, Algeria and
  India
• German social democracy not a man, not a penny
• Cracks in the consensus the Moroccan crisis
  (1911)?
• An outdated vision of capitalism revisionism and
  Hilferdings Finance Capital
• Luxemburgs The Accumulation of Capital
• The shock of 1914

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Basics of Lenins theory

• (from a non-economist!)?
• Laissez-faire capitalism and monopoly capitalism
• Uneven development and export of capital
• Competition for raw materials
• The division of the planet colonial empires
• Spheres of influence and semi-colonies

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Colonial empires 1914
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(Official) division of the world

• PERCENTAGE OF TERRITORY BELONGING TO THE EUROPEAN
  COLONIAL POWERS (including the United States)?
• 1876 1900 Increase or decrease
• Africa.......... 10.8 90.4 79.6
• Polynesia.... 56.8 98.9 42.1
• Asia............ 51.5 56.6 5.1
• Australia..... 100.0 100.0
• America...... 27.5 27.2 -0.3

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(Unofficial) control of the world

• DISTRIBUTION (APPROXIMATE) OF FOREIGN
• CAPITAL IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE GLOBE
• (circa 1910)?
• Britain France Germany Total
• (in billions of German marks)
• Europe.......... 4 23 18 45
• America.......... 37 4 10 51
• Asia, Africa, and Australia...... 29 8 7
  44
• Total........ 70 35 35 140

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Imperialism, 1916-1982

• 1914-20 Re-division German and Ottoman
  possessions become British, French, Italian,
  Japanese and US
• 1936-45 Failed German challenge to re-division
  Italy and Japan lose their colonial possessions
• 1947/1956 Truman Doctrine and Suez crisis mark
  replacement of British by US hegemony
• 1949 Chinese revolution
• 1955 Bandung India, Indonesia, Egypt etc. gain
  autonomy
• 1975 US defeat in Vietnam
• 1979/1980/1982 Thatcher elected Reagan elected
  debt crisis

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II. Neoliberal globalization

• Is imperialism still a relevant framework to
  analyze the post-1979 world economy?
• Claudio Katzs arguments
• Growth of inequality dominant and dependent
  countries
• Terms of trade
• Extraction of financial resources
• Transfer of industrial profits
• Loss of political autonomy

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Distribution of wealth (2005)?

• world pop. world GDP GDP per cap.
• Dominant 14 78 31,000
• countries
• Dependent 80 19 1,410
• countries
• (Figures from CADTM)?

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Debt the poor fund the rich

• Marshall Plan aid to Europe,
• post-WW2 90 billion
• Debt payments from dependent
• to dominant countries, 1980-2004 5300 billion
• Number of total Marshall Plans
• from poor to rich 59

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Terms of trade and repatriation of profits

• Ratio of prices between dependent country exports
  and dependent country imports
• 1980 100
• 2002 48
• Net repatriation of profits from dependent
  countries by multinational corporations,
  1998-2002
• 334 billion

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Multinationals monopoly finance capital
Selected GDP of countries and revenues of
multinational corporations

• Countries (IMF, 2010, billion)?
• 1. US 14,658
• 2. China 5,878
• 5. France 2,582
• 7. Brazil 2,090
• 10. India 1,538
• 12. Spain 1,410
• 16. Netherlands 869
• Egypt 218
• Israel 213
• Iraq 82
• Afghanistan 15

• Multinationals (2010/11, billion)?
• 1. Wal-Mart 422
• 2. Exxon Mobil 370
• 3. Shell 368
• 4. BP 297
• 5. Sinopec 290
• 6. Toyota 242
• 7. PetroChina 222
• 8. Total 213
• 9. Chevron 205
• 10. Japan Post 201

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Autonomy lost - and found?

• IMF/World Bank/WTO one dollar, one vote
• Structural adjustment and conditionality
• Consequences for social spending and debt
  repayment
• Consequences for negotiating positions
• Beyond dependence China, Brazil, India(?)
• Signs of change Doha, Bancosur(?)

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III. Armed globalization and the war on terror

• Militarism response to and cause of
  disintegration of peripheral states (Katz)?
• Role of US
• Enforcer of neoliberal world order
• Sole superpower 50 of global military
  spending
• Military-industrial complex
• Military supremacy inter-imperialist
  rivalries
• Oil Latin America and the Middle East
• Tools Coalitions of the willing, NATO and UN

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The post-1991 world order

• The first US invasion of Iraq (1991) a decisive
  moment (Achcar)?
• US military return to Gulf region (after 1962
  withdrawal)?
• Demonstration of superior US military technology
• Network of bases and alliances

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9/11 Bushs opportunity

• The intervention in Afghanistan and the US
  presence in Central Asia

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IV. The empire and Obama

• A time of deepening crisis
• In Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Palestine
• Factors in imperial politics in Mideast
• Oil
• Geopolitics
• Alliance with Zionism
• Clash of civilizations
• Introduction imperialism and globalization in
  the Islamic world

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Glory of the Islamic world
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Ottomans (and Safavids)
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British and French
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US imperialism

• 1933 US contract with Saudi king
• 1956 Suez crisis
• 1967 1973 US backs Israel
• 1979 Iran revolution USSR invades Afghanistan
• 1989 USSR leaves Afghanistan
• 1991 First US invasion of Iraq
• 2001 9/11 US invasion of Afghanistan
• 2003-? US invasion and occupation of Iraq
• 2008 Descent into global slump
• 2010/1 Arab revolutions intervention in Libya

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Lessons of Middle Eastern history

• Depth of anti-imperialism
• Oil, imperialism and populism
• Vital interests converging and contradictory
• The Arab despotic exception

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Oil proven reserves (2010)?

• Rank Country Reserves (bil. bbp) of total
• Saudi Arabia 265 19
• Canada 175 13
• Iran 138 10
• Iraq 115 8
• Kuwait 104 8
• United Arab Emirates 98 7
• Venezuela 98 7
• Russia 74 5
• Libya 47 3
• Nigeria 38 3

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Oil reserves by region

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Oil control

• Control over oil depends less on legal ownership
  than on extraction and refining technology and
  profit-sharing
• 1912 Iraq Turkish Petroleum Company founded
  (later Iraq Petroleum Company, European
  consortium)?
• 1933 Saudi Arabia Agreement with Standard Oil
  (US)?
• 1951 Iran Parliament nationalizes oil
• 1954 Iran After coup, shah signs Consortium
  Agreement with Western companies
• 1972 Iraq Baathist regime nationalizes oil
• 1973 OPEC boycott of US and Netherlands
• 2007 Iraq Hydrocarbon law introduced in
  parliament

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Israel imperial liability, imperial asset

• Liability
• Spark of revolutions (1952 and after)?
• Major factor in legitimacy of independent-minded
  fundamentalism (Hamas, Hezbollah)?
• Cost (3 billion per year and trade benefits)?
• A loose cannon
• Asset
• A rock-solid ally
• Source of expertise in spying, assassination,
  torture
• A useful proxy for intervention (in Jordan,
  Lebanon, Syria, Iraq)?
• Worlds fourth-largest military
• at a fraction of the cost of US forces

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The clash of barbarisms

• Islam and Arab identity
• The diversity of Islam Sunni centre and Shia
  crescent
• Petty bourgeoisie and fundamentalism
• The diversity of fundamentalism pro-imperial,
  anti-crusader and undecided
• Women and LGBTs
• Fundamentalism a deadly enemy
• March separately, strike together
• The Arab revolutions fundamentalism sidelined

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Iraq

• Oil (fourth largest proven reserves)?
• Resistance 1920s, 1958, Baathism
• A new Middle East
• US hegemony challenge to Russia, China France
• US power, Iranian influence clash ahead?
• Obamas withdrawal
• Ongoing resistance and solidarity

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Afghanistan

• No oil
• Resistance 19th century (Durand Line, 1893),
  1979, Taliban
• Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan
• State-building? the US (Enduring Freedom),
  NATO (ISAF) and the UN
• Obamas war
• A difficult solidarity

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Arab revolutions/intervention in Libya

• An end to the Arab despotic exception?
• Tunisia the spark
• Egypt the central country (since 1952)
• Imperialism threatened (Bahrain) or marginalized
  (Syria)
• A very unfinished process (tomorrow)
• Libya oil (a bit), history of resistance (since
  1911), shifting relation to imperialism
• The right to assistance - and the danger of
  subordination

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Palestine

• No oil
• Resistance 1929, 1936, fedayeen, Intifadas (1987
  2000)?
• Fatah, Hamas and the left
• The impossible second state
• The assault on Gaza (2008)?
• Obama and the peace process
• Towards a new strategy?

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Palestine the impossible second state
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Resistance and solidarity

• The legitimacy of resistance
• The balance of military forces
• Our globalization linking civil societies
• Fundamentalism and democracy, capital and labour
• Solidarity a political battle
• Solidarity concrete tasks