Global capitalism: a utopian solution
Socialist Resistance in print2000sScanned print read by OCR, and not yet proofread: expect run-together words, dropped letters and, where a piece began partway down a page, a few lines of its neighbour. The printed page is the authority.
reviews Green Alternatives to Globalisation: A Manifesto by Michael Woodin and Caroline Lucas, published by Pluto Press Green Alternatives to Globalisation is a useful presentation of Green Party politics.
The book is not official Green Party policy, but is described by the authors as drawing heavily on it, the distinction is therefore rather academic. In any case Lucas and Woodin are the two elected 'Principal Speakers' of the Green Party - the nearest thing the Greens have to a party leader.
It makes the book a good opportunity to take an up-to-date look at the politics of the Greens as they are confronted by Respect in the election campaign.
It quickly reminds you, if you need reminding,, that the Greens are not an anticapitalist party, something which is not • • .
left audience.
Lucas and Woodin say at one point that they could accept the label 'anti-capitalist, but make it very clear that this is not a
particular globalised capitalism we are faced with in the present period As a critique of the ravages of global capitalism, the book has lots of good stuff, but the alternative it advocates is not only a capitalist one but is completely utopian. concept of the working class as such does not appear) and does not see the working class as an agent of change. Against stage of capitalism. level. It is where capitalism started. Localisation would be achieved by tion from the outside world. tionist import controls with nationalist always clear
past you are asked to understand, but when Green Party members speak to a
- termed by Colin Hines, who helped ism'.
production. The book has no class analysis (in fact the
globalisation they advocate localisation
- in effect a return to a much earlier
They call for a capitalism of small and
medium size enterprises trading at local
national governments imposing import authors envisage.
controls to protect such local producThese would not be the old protecovertones which stoked up trade war in the import controls with a progressive purpose develop the theory, as 'the new protectionhave to say.
There is a sense in which socialists fully want goods crisscrossing the globe, burning up fuel and fuelling global warming, with all its consequences, when they can be pro duced locally. We are in favour of localised A switch towards local production, however, is not going to be achieved in the way reside there. Lucas and Woodin advocate - through the a United Nations-led plan to reform the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank to facilitate localisation, and the abolition of the multi-national corporations. This is a completely utopian proposal.
In any case there is nothing to say that small-scale localised capitalists will be the kind of benign ethical employers which the The reality is that such a restructuring of production from global to local could only be achieved under a socialised and planned
Globalisation is a product of the process of development of capitalism itself, and to challenge it is to challenge capitalism itselfsomething which is absent not only from this book but from everything the Greens
In fact even the word nationalisation or
If the film has a weakness it's linked to its
original premise - it was originally conceived
as a documentary about oldest son David, a
professional clown. It is David's voice that
we hear most of and his is a voice completely supportive of his father and hating of his
David came across to this viewer as misogynistic and self-obsessed. He has never been
angry with his father for anything that's happened - stressing that his father was always
supportive of him in his chosen career.
His reasons for hating his mother are less
clear - although her lack of support for his
father is clearly central. We are given the
sense of 3 boys and a father existing in a
world separate from the mother who is 'not
one of the gang'. David's description of his
mother as 'manipulative' and his father as book. The social basis of production is not the issue - just its scale and location. The book reflects the left stance that the Green Party takes in England and Wales in order to place itself to the left of new Labour, and seek the potential votes which
This is particularly the case with the EU and the issues surrounding it. Unlike the European Green Party, of which they are a part, the authors are against the proposed EU constitution, and would vote no in a referendum on the Euro.
The book has lots of valuable information as to the effects of both the constitution and the Euro, but politically all it calls for is a reform of the capitalist system not its abolition or replacement.
It does not address the coalitions and alliances the Greens have been prepared to make with social democratic parties or with the Lib Dems in Britain - or explore the Party's stubborn opposition to any alliance with the socialists of Respect
Nor does it reflect the European Green Party of which they are a part, or its rightwing manifesto, which supports the Euro and is at best ambivalent on the new EU
'pussy-whipped' do little to endear him
the feminist viewer.
From mother Elaine's perspective Arno
a man she can't trust, who has never be
honest with her and with whom she's n
had a proper relationship, "There was I
ing between us but the children we yell
at", she says in retrospect. The documentary format piles irony or irony. We hear Elaine on a family video ing, "I'm most thankful to my husband" we see pictures of Arnold's arrest. There is also a sense of her disbelief an wish to cling to the 'normal' as she says had a good family, right?" We're invited interrogate the concept of the 'good fa and ponder the secrets that in this case perhaps in most, lie beneath the 'happ) veneer.