tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13622622.post8912449938511451385..comments2023-12-22T08:44:24.389-05:00Comments on threewayfight: New Stuff from an Old Guy - Part 3Matthew N Lyonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15664330735255207352noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13622622.post-31005321631429105602018-11-21T15:07:40.815-05:002018-11-21T15:07:40.815-05:00This is a follow up to the comments I made on Part...This is a follow up to the comments I made on Part I. Thanks again, Don for this analysis. <br /><br />Based on my contention that the global capitalist system is in a classic crisis in which the system is unable to reproduce itself and is generating a mass of people whose basic needs can not be met by the system, I would contend that Don’s “most likely outcome” that would allow “a few decades of relative stability for sectors of the capitalist system” is not very likely. The option of the collapse of transnational capital and the emergence of “various barbarisms” seems more likely to me as some of these are already underway around the world. I posited the idea of “exterminism” in my previous post which is one of those barbarisms. <br /><br />There are many other possible outcomes but I will point to one here that is presently emerging in many parts of the world that is a broader context for “exterminism.” That outcome is the development for a new form of “primitive accumulation” reminiscent of the very beginnings of capitalism. In large parts of Asia, Africa and parts of South America there is a massive seizure of land from peasants and traditional peoples, forcing them into waged labor by the development of large scale agriculture, the building of hydro electric dams, and various extractive industries including oil pipelines, mines, fracking etc. This activity could be used to develop other kinds of manufacturing and developments using cheap energy from seized and exploited lands to employ the surplus population as waged laborers. Look right now to India, China and Africa where this is currently under way and this may also be the future of Brazil.<br /><br />Such a development is spawning new national alliances. This seems to be the basis for the BRICS alliance (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) who meet regularly and have established their own bank. The U.S. is specifically excluded but given “observer status” from time to time. There are other such formations in the works.<br /><br />To the extent that this becomes a coherent direction it will have great implications for the fortunes of the various political forces Don discusses here. In India, for example, there is a rise in violence against Dalits (who used to be called “untouchables”) by higher cast Hindus and they seem to be doing so with impunity. India’s President Modi is associated with anti Muslim fundamentalist Hindus—a fundamentalism that strengthens the caste system and may explain the rise of caste based violence. We could think of similar ventures by the “populist right” in other nations as well. <br />Dave Ranneynoreply@blogger.com