The neoliberal system is deteriorating under the weight of numerous internal contradictions, historical injustices and lack of economic viability, writes Vijay Prashad.
Boris Mikhailov, Ukraine SSR, “Red,” 1968–1975.
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has now moved the Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has been to the symbolic time of the annihilation of humanity and the Earth since 1947. This is alarming, which is why leaders in the Global South have been making the case to halt the warmongering over Ukraine and against China.
As Namibia’s Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said,
“We are promoting a peaceful resolution of that conflict so that the entire world and all the resources of the world can be focused on improving the conditions of people around the world instead of being spent on acquiring weapons, killing people, and actually creating hostilities.”
In line with the alarm from the Doomsday Clock and assertions from people such as Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, the rest of this article features a new text called Eight Contradictions in the Imperialist ‘Rules-Based Order’ (PDF here).
It was drafted by Kyeretwie Opoku (the convenor of the Socialist Movement of Ghana), Manuel Bertoldi (Patria Grande /Federación Rural para la producción y el arraigo), Deby Veneziale (senior fellow, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research), and me, with inputs from senior political leaders and intellectuals from across the world. The text is offered as an invitation to a dialogue.
We are now entering a qualitatively new phase of world history. Significant global changes have emerged in the years since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. This can be seen in a new phase of imperialism and changes in the particularities of eight contradictions.
- The contradiction between moribund imperialism and an emerging successful socialism led by China.
This contradiction has intensified because of the peaceful rise of socialism with Chinese characteristics. For the first time in 500 years, the Atlantic imperialist powers are confronted by a large, non-white economic power that can compete with them. This became clear in 2013 when China’s GDP in purchasing power parity (PPP) overtook that of the United States. China accomplished this in a much shorter period than the West, with a significantly larger population and without colonies, enslaving others or military conquest. Whilst China stands for peaceful relations, the U.S. has become increasingly bellicose.
The U.S. has led the imperialist camp since World War II. Post-Angela Merkel and with the advent of the Ukraine military operation, the U.S. strategically subordinated dominant sections of the European and Japanese bourgeoisie. The U.S. first permitted and then demanded that both Japan (the third-largest economy in the world) and Germany (the fourth-largest economy) — two fascist powers during World War II – greatly increase their military expenditure.
The result has been the ending of Europe’s economic relationship with Russia, damage to the European economy and economic and political benefits for the U.S. Despite the capitulation of most of Europe’s political elite to full U.S. subordination, some large sections of German capital are heavily dependent on trade with China, much more than on their U.S. counterparts. The U.S., however, is now pressuring Europe to downgrade its ties to China.
More importantly, China and the socialist camp now face an even more dangerous entity: the consolidated structure of the Triad (the United States, Europe and Japan). The U.S.’s growing internal social decay should not mask the near absolute unity of its political elite on foreign policy. We are witnessing the bourgeoisie placing its political and military interests over its short-term economic interests.
The centre of the world economy is shifting, with Russia and the Global South (including China) now accounting for 65 percent of the world’s GDP (measured in PPP). From 1950 until the present, the U.S. share of the global GDP (in PPP) has fallen from 27 percent to 15 percent.
The growth of the U.S.’s GDP has also been declining for more than five decades and has now fallen to only around 2 percent per year. It has no large new markets in which to expand. The West suffers from an ongoing general crisis of capitalism as well as the consequences of the long-term tendency of the rate of profit to decline.
Maksud Mirmuhamedov, Tajikistan, “Hearth,” 2020.
- The contradiction between the ruling classes of the narrow band of imperialist G7 countries and the political and economic elite of capitalist countries in the Global South.
This relationship has undergone a major change from the heydays of the 1990s and the height of U.S. unilateral power and arrogance.
Today, cracks are growing in the alliance between the G7 and Global South power elites. Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, India’s largest billionaires, need oil and coal from Russia. The far-right Narendra Modi-led government represents India’s monopoly bourgeoisie. Thus, the Indian foreign minister now makes occasional statements against U.S. hegemony in finance, sanctions and other areas.
The West does not have the economic and political ability to always provide what power elites in India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey need. This contradiction, however, has not sharpened to the degree that it can be a focal point of other contradictions, unlike the contradiction between socialist China and the U.S.-led G7 bloc.
- The contradiction between the broad urban and rural working class and sections of the lower petty bourgeoisie (collectively known as the popular classes) of the Global South versus the U.S.-led imperial power elite.
This contradiction is slowly becoming sharper. The West has a great soft power advantage in the Global South amongst all classes. Yet, for the first time in decades, young Africans have come out to support the expulsion of French troops in Mali and Burkina Faso in West Africa. For the first time, the popular classes in Colombia were able to elect a new government that rejected the country’s status as a vassal outpost of U.S. military and intelligence forces.
Working-class women are at the forefront of many critical battles of both the working class and society at large. Young people are rising up against the environmental crimes of capitalism.
Growing numbers of the working class are identifying their struggles for peace, development and justice as explicitly anti-imperialist. They are now able to see through the lies of U.S. “human rights” ideology, the destruction of the environment by Western energy and mining companies and the violence of U.S. hybrid war and sanctions.
Zayasaikhan Sambuu, Mongolia, “Survivors,” 2013.
- The contradiction between advanced rent-seeking finance capital versus the needs of the popular classes, and even some sections of capital in non-socialist countries, regarding the organisation of societies’ requirements for investment in industry, environmentally sustainable agriculture, employment and development.
This contradiction is a result of the decline in the rate of profit and the difficulty of capital to increase the rate of exploitation of the working class to a sufficient level able to finance increasing investment requirements and remain competitive.
Outside of the socialist camp, in almost all of the advanced capitalist countries and in most of the Global South — with some exceptions, especially in Asia — there is an investment crisis. New types of firms have arisen that include hedge funds such as Bridgewater Associates and private equity firms such as BlackRock. “Private markets” controlled $9.8 trillion worth of assets in 2022.
Derivatives, a form of fictitious and speculative capital, are now worth $18.3 trillion in “market” value but have a $632 trillion notional value — a value more than five times higher than the world’s total actual GDP.
A new class of information technology-based network-effect monopolies, including Google, Facebook/Meta, and Amazon — all under full U.S. control — have emerged to attract monopoly rents. U.S. digital monopolies, under the direct supervision of U.S. intelligence agencies, control the information architecture of the whole world, outside of a few socialist and nationalist countries.
These monopolies are the basis for the rapid expansion of U.S. soft power in the last 20 years. The military-industrial complex, the merchants of death, also attract growing investments.
This intensified speculative and monopoly rentier accumulation phase of capital is deepening a strike by capital against necessary social investments.
South Africa and Brazil have seen dramatic levels of deindustrialisation under neoliberalism. Even advanced imperialist countries have ignored their own infrastructure, such as the electricity grid, bridges and the railway. The global elite has engineered a tax strike by providing huge reductions in tax rates and taxes as well as legal tax havens for both individual capitalists and their corporations to increase their share of surplus value.
Tax evasion by capital and the privatisation of large swathes of the public sector have decimated the availability of basic public goods like education, healthcare and transportation for billions of people. It has contributed to Western capital’s ability to manipulate and gain high interest income from the “manufactured” debt crisis facing the Global South. At its highest level, hedge fund profiteers like George Soros speculate and destroy the finance of entire countries.
The impact on the working class is severe, as their work has become increasingly precarious and permanent unemployment is destroying large sections of the world’s youth. A growing section of the population is superfluous under capitalism. Social inequality, misery, and desperation are abundant.
Owusu-Ankomah, Ghana, “Bapende,” 1993.
- The contradiction between the popular classes of the Global South and their domestic political and economic power elites.
This manifests quite differently by country and region. In socialist and progressive countries, contradictions amongst the people are resolved in peaceful and varied ways. However, in several countries in the Global South where the capitalist elite has been fully in bed with Western capital, wealth is held by a small percentage of the population. There is widespread misery amongst the poorest people, and the capitalist development model is failing to serve the interests of the majority.
Due to the history of neocolonialism and Western soft power, there is a decidedly pro-West middle-class consensus in most of the large Global South countries. This class hegemony of the local bourgeoisie and the upper stratum of the petty bourgeoisie is used to block the popular classes (who make up most of the population) from accessing power and influence.
- The contradiction between U.S.-led imperialism versus nations strongly defending national sovereignty.
These nations fall into four main categories: socialist countries, progressive countries, other countries rejecting U.S. control and the special case of Russia. The U.S. has created this antagonistic contradiction through hybrid warfare methods such as assassinations, invasions, NATO-led military aggression, sanctions, lawfare, trade war and a now incessant propaganda war based on outright lies.
Russia is in a special category, as it suffered more than 25 million deaths at the hands of European fascist invaders when it was a socialist country. Today, Russia – which notably has immense natural resources – is once again a target for complete annihilation as a state by NATO. Some elements of its socialist past are still present in the country, and there remains a high degree of patriotism.
The U.S.’s goal is to finish off what it started in 1992: at a minimum, to permanently destroy Russia’s nuclear military capacity and install a puppet regime in Moscow in order to dismember Russia in the long term and replace it with many smaller, permanently weakened vassal states of the West.
Taisia Korotkova, Russia, “Technology,: 2007.
- The contradiction between the millions of discarded working-class poor in the Global North versus the bourgeoisie who dominate these countries.
These workers are showing some signs of rebellion against their economic and social conditions. However, the imperialist bourgeoisie is playing the white supremacist card to prevent a larger unity of working people in these countries. At this moment, workers are not consistently able to avoid falling prey to racist war propaganda. The number of people present at public events against imperialism has diminished precipitously over the last 30 years.
- The contradiction between Western capitalism versus the planet and human life.
The inexorable path of this system is to destroy the planet and human life, threaten nuclear annihilation and work against the needs of humanity to collectively reclaim the planet’s air, water, and land and stop the nuclear military madness of the United States. Capitalism rejects planning and peace. The Global South (including China) can help the world build and expand a “zone of peace” and commit to living in harmony with nature.
Victor Ehikhamenor, Nigeria, “Lagos Hide and Seek,” 2014.
With these changes in the political landscape, we are witnessing the rise of an informal front against the U.S.-dominated imperialist system. This front is constituted by the convergence of:
- Popular sentiment that this violent system is the main enemy of the people of the world.
- Popular desires for a more just, peaceful and egalitarian world.
- The struggle of socialist or nationalist governments and political forces for their sovereignty.
- The desires of other Global South countries to reduce their dependence on this system.
The main forces against the U.S.-dominated imperialist system are the peoples of the world and the socialist and nationalist governments. However, there must be space provided for integrating governments that wish to reduce their dependency on the imperialist system.
The world currently stands at the beginning of a new era in which we will witness the end of the U.S. global empire. The neoliberal system is deteriorating under the weight of numerous internal contradictions, historical injustices, and economic unviability. Without a better alternative, the world will descend into even greater chaos. These movements have revived hope that something other than this social torment is possible.
We hope that “Eight Contradictions in the Imperialist ‘Rules-Based Order’” should stimulate debate and discussion and in the broader Battle of Ideas against toxic social philosophies that seek to suffocate rational thought about our world.
Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is an editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He is a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest books are Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism and, with Noam Chomsky, The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power.
This article is from Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
China has a higher Gini coefficient than several countries with capitalist economies, while also inflicting terrible working and living conditions on its labor force. I’d call China and North Korea SINO countries (socialist in name only).
“The Gini coefficient, also called the Gini index or Gini ratio, is the most commonly used measure of income distribution—simply put, the higher the Gini coefficient, the greater the gap between the incomes of a country’s richest and poorest people…. if a nation were to have absolute income equality, with every person earning the same amount, its Gini score would be 0 (0%). On the other hand, if one person earned all the income in a nation and the rest earned zero, the Gini coefficient would be 100 (100%).”
Gini coefficients 2023
Colombia 54.2
Mexico 45.4
U.S. 41.5
China 38.2
Vietnam 35.7
U.K. 35.1
Canada 33.3
Netherlands 29.2
Armenis 25.2
Slovakia 23.2
source: hxxps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality
Very good article on the whole. However, holding China up as a model for a non-imperialist, inclusive socialist state, highlighting its stated desire for a peaceful and equitable world and its lip-service to democracy (with Chinese features, presumably meaning allowing voting for Party chosen candidates, which actually resembles what we have in the US), is perplexing to me. Perhaps you can bypass the assault and ethnic cleansing of Tibet since that brutal invasion occurred almost 65 years ago. But China’s oppression of the Uygurs is ongoing to this day. China itself operates more like a capitalist country with its government and Party elites functioning as the “Corporation.” It is still ruled by the same mindset of capitalist countries in terms of exploiting both natural resources and workers and maximizing profits. True, China does seem to spread its earnings into a larger proportion of the population than Western capitalist countries, to their credit. And i’m very grateful there is at least one country (China) that can stand against the hegemony of the US imperialistic agenda. But right now, I do not see any country in the world that truly embodies a just and equitable socialist ethos.
What is it about China that makes it a good counterexample to the west? Is it actual socialism? Are they leading the way in terms of environmental reconciliation/rehabilitation? Has their military spending shown a significant decline. Are the peasants thriving? I understand it’s different but is it notably better in any way?
If you want to understand how/why China is economically, financially rising, look to Dr. Michael Hudson, the great economist, who explains all this along with the many pitfalls in creating a whole new money system NOT tethered to US Capitalism, and its IMF Loans/World Bank.
hxxps//michael-hudson.com. Hudson is also on Youtube and at Ben Norton’s website. Enjoy becoming educated.
Most every journalist, whether from the Western/Eastern/South parts of the world have to generalize in what they say as shifts going on. They have not studied Economics, or US Finance, in the Western, nor in Chinese Economics. You’ll find in Dr. Hudson, how all these shifts are directly related to Finance & The Economy.
Thank you, Mr. Prashad for showing that there is a definite “shift” going on in our world today. It will happen sooner rather than later. The world is waking up to what is really going on under the guise of “the excepualism of the United States of America.”
Shay
Would Adolf Hitler have opposed the idea of a “Rules Based Order”?
Does not “Rules Based Order” not sound like just another name for fascism?
I think Adolf would have been strongly in favor of a Rules Based Order …. as long as he made the Rules.
On the other hand, Freedom and Rules are opposites. More Freedom means fewer Rules, while more Rules means less Freedom. So, Rules Based Order appears to be the exact opposite of a “Freedom Based Order.”
Just saying ….
“On the other hand, Freedom and Rules are opposites.” Not always. Think of traffic lights at busy intersections, and the rules that go with them. Think especially of those rules designed to protect the weak. Pedestrians against cars in the traffic light example.
I’m all for “Rules Based Order” if the rules are fair, just and wise.
Thanks, Vijay Prashad & Tricontinental, for keeping our eyes on the prize, daunting as it may be.
It gives me some glimmer of hope that multitudes of peoples outside our exclusive western zone are beginning to refuse to follow its hegemonic bullshit any longer, even as many of those insulated within the u.s. realm who could most afford to join in pushing back against the spread of hybrid warfare act like they can’t be bothered.
Still, it seems more like a crapshoot that enough of the world’s people (esp. in the western sphere) will not only come to their senses but also wield enough influence to drive change in a more positive direction before ecological catastrophes overrule the “rules based order”.
I would very much like to see a panel and/or article analyzing the socialist aspects of China’s socialism with Chinese characteristics. It would help me in my debates with people who only see China’s opening to the private sector. Is it only state attempts to control that or something deeper. Many on the Left worry about class stratification increasing in China.
Brilliant analysis, printing it out to study and also sending it to several lists. Regarding the suggestion about having a conversation with several leading analytical lights including Michael Hudson and Pepe Escobar. I got them together a year ago for their first in person conversations. They had been reading from and highly respecting each other previous to these conversation posted here: hxxps://theiu.org
Michal probably is clearest about what to do to get out of USA imperialism. Although he deeply understands both the land money problems and that of “rent seeking” he has not yet envisioned how to put these in place. The networks I work in are for: Public Banks, tax shift to Commons Rent (aka land value taxation and socializing rent of all domains), radical decentralization with minimum necessary global governance. If interested you can contact me at: alannahartzok (at) gmail.com
Some will surely consider this a “side issue,” but to realistically assess out situation, our more fortunate would have to bypass their class elitism and recognize the consequences of the war on our poor. America is firmly middle class vs. poor, workers vs. those left jobless, in a country where job losses long surpassed job gains. They estimate that at least 10 million Americans are left jobless, many with no incomes, though we no longer have a way to get a good count. It is no longer possible to build the sort of mass “people’s movement” seen in the 1910s, 1930s and 1960s, precisely because we were so successfully divided. Most low-wage workers know that they’re potentially one job loss from losing everything, and are far more inclined to align with those who already did. Not with the more fortunate. I really don’t think today’s middle class understands how much has changed.
Not enough acknowledgement of our shared ecological catastrophe. Not only has the militarized capitalism ‘colonized” or perhaps more accurately enslaved humans far and wide under the control a a narrow self-serving elite, they have colonized and enslaved a biosphere that on its own creates abundance by means of fostering and filling niches that increase overall interdependence and resilience.
The worst damage of human civilization comes as it fills itself with arrogance over the cleverness of the machinery of destruction. China may have created a zone of cooperative and relatively non-violent peace in the economic and military sphere but it has not created a “zone of peace” with regard to sustainable harmony with nature. In the end some lesser evil version of industrial civilization is not enough. We need new models that are truly sustainable in the way the rest of nature is sustainable.
I agree. For me there is only one overriding contradiction and that is that capitalism demands exponential growth on a finite planet. It is the logic of the cancer cell. It must expand, multiply, and metastasize, along with its handmaidens: militarism and imperialism, until it fully consumes and ultimately kills its host.
Excellent comment.
I couldn’t agree more Joseph. This 3 and half minute animated video epitomises humans’ attitude towards the planet and nature. This video has been viewed over 60 million times. The music is Evard Grieg:
hxxps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WfGMYdalClU
Yes, indeed. Spearheaded by China, an immense zone of economic/diplomatic partnerships are emerging throughout Eurasia and the Global South. BRICS, BRI and several new banks have been instituted to facilitate massive economic agreements. …..all negotiated in a spirit of mutual respect and cooperation. ———– And yes, a ‘better’ capitalist system is still a death cult. It would not alter the trajectory of biosphere collapse. ————-However, having much of the world engaged in peaceful trade could perhaps, over time, spur the critical mass of consciousness needed to advance beyond capitalism. This might not be for decades, when climate chaos/ecological destruction are less an abstract issue and more real for everyone on earth. I dunno. Maybe it’s unrealistic to think that centuries of capitalism now thoroughly internalized by the world over would ever be dispensed with.
———– Ultimately, there must be a global transition to eco-socialism. ALL resources – natural and scientific knowledge – must be distributed in an equitable, rational, humane and scientific manner to benefit ALL the people in the world.
China is not a socialist country. It might still have a ‘mixed’ economy, on the one side, we have what remains of state owned nationalised property – but that does not make it socialist – because this requires workers self management, as opposed to top-down decision making. But the biggest sector of the economy is under private property relations. However, the whole economy is managed by the state, ie. the CCP and the PLA, as well as local militias and the police. When there is a problem, such as a real estate bubble or falling wages/rising cost of living, need for more investment in the social sector, the state/CCP can take immediate action to deal with the situation. The latter is committed to raising its people out of poverty. In this regard, some planning is involved, investment is redirected to improve the lot of the people, especially if there is social unrest. There is also investment in order to clean up the environment. But all this is contradicted by the laws of capitalist development. For example, large areas of the environment have been severely degraded by mining companies. The party-run state tries to deal with this by periodic crackdowns on corruption. It also has a more benign approach to the export of Chinese capital abroad. In return for the valuable minerals which China needs, it will invest in local infrastructure, whereas US imperialism doesn’t. That is why non- aligned countries in Africa and elsewhere are turning to China and its BRI. BRICS+ continues to grow and challenge the US hegemon. To go back in history: post the Tianneman Square massacre, the Stalinised Chinese CP made a pact with the west, to restore capitalism and its market, in return for US investments. Whilst profits flowed out of China back to Wall Street, there was still enough capital to finance the third Industrial Revolution in China, in record time, making it the second biggest advanced economy on earth. China has become an alternative imperialist power. But, given its hybrid form of capitalism, it has emerged as a major threat to a declining US hegemon. Yet it still cannot escape the inherent contradictions within the capitalist system, over which it presides. Therefore, even if it does replace the US hegemon, how long would Chinese imperialism last? The only solution is a renewal of the social revolution everywhere. But unfortunately, the working class is unable to act with sufficient resolution. Every advanced country has its own MICIMAT!
Great analysis from Prashad. “…..the end of the US global empire”. It can’t happen soon enough, for the sake of peace/stability around the world. Let’s just hope the US goes out with a whimper instead of a (nuclear) bang. ……….. it’s way past time for the US to behave like a normal country, dealing with other countries with mutual respect and cooperation in diplomatic and economic matters.
In the long run, the world world will have to transition to an eco-socialist model of global organization. The management of all natural resources must be harnessed for the betterment of all in the world. Distribution of resources should be done in a humane, rational and scientific manner. The staggering inequality must be reversed. The billions in ill gotten gains must be expropriated for social needs.
…….. The collapsing biosphere will make this transition inevitable – either that, or the human species will eventually be headed for extinction.
sigh——looking at world history we see how often all greedy nations end in similar ways. There is the belief that only WE know the way—but sadly there are many ways in the world, and it seems that arrogance and wars bring harm to the”greatest” number of people. A person would hope that world history would teach us all the same lesson. But—somehow , each thieving nation thinks that it will be different and soon control the world. How much kinder this world could be if Biden, Blinken , Nuland and the military industrial complex actually had a clue as to what our own history soon will be.
very well said
bless you
“Rules based order” — no one knows what in the heck it is or what it means, except for the militarist empire builders in Washington, and even these bloodthirsty clowns make it up as they go along.
International law, imperfect as it is, is the rock on which global relations must stand, otherwise we have despotism based on Washington’s dictates.
The polycentric world that’s slowly emerging with China and Russia at the forefront scares the daylights out of our ruling class in the U.S., which is why they’re coming up with this Dean Wormer double-secret probation “rules based order” claptrap.
I thought it was only me Drew who didn’t know what the hell that “claptrap” RBO meant. But looks like a “Quatorze Juillet” is slowly encroaching on the empire builders/warmongers/capitalists of the west.
Indeed!
Stay strong Valerie.
We know what “rules based order” means for America firsters. You make agreements with other nations, and if you see them as not benefiting America you end the agreement. Think of Donald Trump and the Iran nuclear agreement. A Viennese law professor I knew repeatedly stressed the importance, for peace in the international community, of the principle “Pacta sunt servanda” (agreements are to be kept). What nation will want to make agreements with another nation that treats agreements as mere conveniences to be revoked unilaterally if doing so appears suitable to its interests?
Vijay Prashad says “Without a better alternative, the world will descend into even greater chaos.” Chaos, or self-destruction. Is global capitalist imperialism a suicide death cult? Apparently so.
Maggie T said “There is no alternative”. But of course there are ALWAYS alternatives.
Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson have a new series on geopolitical economy that also talks about these issues. It would be awesome to see a panel with Vijay, Radika, Michael, Joe Lauria, John Pilger, Pepe Escobar and others appear on CN or linked. A united front against this madness
Rosa said “Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism.” That seems as relevant, or more relevant, than it did a century ago. We have alternatives, anyone who says otherwise is either bone ignorant or has a twisted agenda to push.
Thank you CN for posting work from folks who are censored by the Mass Media Cartel