Development
and the failed promised of neo-liberalism
Selwyn’s starting-point of analysis is
the total failure of neo-liberal economics and its promise that the magic of
the market ensures the right price and ultimately highest possible welfare for
everyone. Ultimately, he argued, this rationale is based on a big lie,
measuring poverty through the $1.90 a day figure. By setting the barrier of
poverty so low, capitalism would mask its failure. ‘Ending global poverty
through economic growth alone will take more than 200 years (based on the World
Bank’s inhumanly low poverty line of $1.90 a day) and up to 500 years (at a
more generous poverty line of $10 a day)’ (Selwyn, 2017: 3). In short, any more
meaningful measure of poverty reveals that the vast majority of the world’s
labouring classes live in poverty and are likely to do so in the medium- to
long-term future.
Key to these levels of
super-exploitation is the unchallenged power of transnational corporations
(TNCs). In many cases, pay for sweatshop labour is so low that workers are not
even paid enough to reproduce themselves. So-called global value chains, the
way production is organised in multiple processes across borders, should really
be called global poverty chains.
Putting
labour first: an alternative to market-based and state-led development
If we do want to ensure that people
actually benefit from development, we have to put labour first, Selwyn pointed
out. Pro-labour policies by left-leaning governments are good, but in themselves
not enough. If workers want to secure gains, development needs to be
labour-driven, i.e. workers organise and push capital for concessions. Even
more importantly, development has to be labour-led. Rather than hoping that
others would implement policies beneficial to them, workers should improve
their situation by determining themselves the way of how production is
organised and the generated wealth is distributed.
When analysing the exploitation of
labour and the potential alternatives, we need to look at both directly at the
workplace, where exploitation takes place, but equally indirectly at the sphere
of wider social reproduction, which includes those who depend on the income of
the wage earner, but at the same time provide the (unpaid) support for workers,
and thus the capitalist system, to reproduce themselves. Hence, struggles for
development are highly diverse, with different outcomes and objectives. They
include struggles by South African shack dwellers, South Africa’s mineworkers
and metalworkers, rural struggles by the landless workers’ movement and urban
struggles by the homeless workers’ movement in Brazil, mass strikes in East
Asia as well as the numerous examples of occupied factories run by workers,
notably in Argentina, but increasingly also in Europe (Selwyn, 2017: 101-23).
Beyond
Exploitation: Democratic Development.
Importantly, in order to achieve a total
transformation of the current situation, ‘societal reabsorption of the state is
required to subordinate and transform capitalist social relations’ (P.130). In
other words, people need to be empowered so that they can properly participate
in deciding about how to organise their local community in local-level
participatory planning procedures. Hence, democracy needs to be decentralised
and re-introduced into the economic sphere.
When thinking about change, income
re-distribution is an easier start to re-balance the environment and address
the problem of inequality than hoping for continued levels of economic growth.
Further areas of immediate action could be an emphasis on local food
production, agricultural reform, universal basic income, a sharing of resources
at the local level, learning from indigenous people and an emphasis on gender
equality in society. Is this planning? Yes, of course, Selwyn confirmed.
However, considering that there is no such thing as a ‘free market’, it is
better to engage in democratic planning than the autocratic planning by
transnational corporations.
Selwyn’s lecture made clear the
achievement of his book. While he succeeds at providing a total systemic
analysis of the capitalist system, encouraging social movements to go beyond
their particular single issue campaigns, he provides solutions for people to
follow in the here and now at the same time. And while doing this, he is
careful not to tell people what they should do. He only makes suggestions,
realising for well that people themselves, if empowered, have the capacity of
establishing concrete alternatives.
He starts his book with a quote by Louis-Marie
Prudhomme, Révolutions de Paris: ‘The
great are only great because we are on our knees. Let us rise up’. In his
book, Selwyn provides concrete suggestions of what rising up could look like. A
must-read for everyone who is interested in going beyond capitalism.
Andreas Bieler
Professor of Political Economy
University of Nottingham/UK
Andreas.Bieler@nottingham.ac.uk
Personal website: http://andreasbieler.net
1 December 2017
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