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Are we approaching “peak America”, where the Republic has failed, and the Empire which put paid to it cannot be achieved?Seasoned political analyst James Petras addresses in broad brush the four major upheavals that loom:1) For the first time, the goal of socialism has been raised in the presidential primaries, backed by tens of millions of voters. The likely Republican candidate leads a mass right wing revolt which opposes globalization, capital flight and the free entry of immigrant labor. The US presidential elections are everything abnormal, with both major party candidates arousing popular revulsion. Not since the New Deal, nearly a century ago, have class relations come into sharpe...
Perhaps no word today is used and misused more than globalization. It generally serves to refer to worldwide epoch-defining changes in the organization of societies, economies and politics. But as Petras and Veltmeyer demonstrate, the term globalization obscures much more than it reveals. In practice, globalization provides a cover for a new form of imperialist exploitation and the institution of US hegemony over a global process of capital accumulation. In the last decade, capitalists in Europe and the United States have created favourable conditions for the takeover and recolonization of economies across the developing world. International capital has managed to restore highly profitable r...
This book concerns the form taken today by US imperialism in Latin America, with reference to the projection of US state power as a means of both advancing the economic interests of the US capitalist class in the region and maintaining its hegemony over the world capitalist system. In Part I the book delves into the complex relationship that exists between imperialism and capitalism as the system that dominates the world economy. Part II elaborates on the economic and political dynamics of imperial power in Latin America and the forces of resistance that these dynamics have generated. Part III focuses on the relationship between the United States and Venezuela, which has assumed the leadership in the anti-imperialist struggle.
This book provides a unique conception of US empire building, linking overseas expansion with: 1) the growth of a police state and declining living standards; 2) advanced technologically driven global spying on adversaries and allies with declining economic competitiveness and military defeats; 3) large scale, long term commitments of economic and military resources to wars in the Middle East to the detriment of major corporate interests, but for the benefit of a pariah state, Israel; and 4) the power of a foreign state (Israel) over US policy via its domestic pro-Zionist power configuration. The interplay of these four specific features of US empire building has no past or present precedent...
This book offers a broad and deep examination of the dynamics of US imperialism. Petras analyzes imperialism not only as economic domination, showing that its impact in the world takes many forms, including cultural, political and historical. He points to the disruptive effects it has on other world regional economies and cultures. Capitalism and imperialism take diverse forms but both are intimately tied to the projection of state power in the service of capital—a strategy designed to advance the geopolitical and economic interests of the US economic elite and ruling class—interests that are equated with the 'US national interest'.
No word today is as much used and abused as globalization. As the authors see it, it obscures more than it reveals about what is going on worldwide. They argue that it provides a cover for a new form of imperialist exploitation and the institution of US hegemony over a global process of capitalist accumulation. In the last decade of the 20th century, capitalists in Europe and the United States managed to create favourable conditions for the takeover and recolonization of economies all across the developing world. In the process, a new and emergent class of international capitalists, mostly located in North America and Western Europe, managed to restore highly profitable returns on their investments and operations, and to create islands of growing poverty and misery. This book provides a theoretical perspective on this process. The imperialist analytical framework, the authors argue, provides a better understanding of what is really going on and points towards forces of resistance and opposition that can be mobilized through political action to bring about needed change.
Chile, which suffering from many of the same social and economic problems that afflict other Latin American countries, has enjoyed remarkable political stability. With the exception of one brief interlude, Chile has been governed by elected rules for half a century. The feature of Chilean development that explains its exceptional nature in contrast to the rest of Latin America is the special role of the bureaucracy, which functions as a broker for the conflicting demands of both the new and the traditional groups. Yet a strong dichotomy is evident between the entrepreneurial and bureaucratic elites, which have benefited and participated in the dominant society, and the peasantry, which has b...
Until its recent revival the term 'imperialism' had virtually disappeared from academic and political discourse. Today, however, the notion of imperialism, particularly regarding the aggressive projection of state power by the Bush administration, has been put back on the agenda. It has begun to replace the notion of 'globalization' as a framework for grasping worldwide economic, social and political developments. This book explores these events. It looks at the transformations in capitalist development over the past two decades, and the global projection of American power. It assesses the forces of resistance against global neoliberal capitalist development and imperialism, and explores the internal dynamics of the 'anti-globalization movement'.