Assault on Paradise
Perspectives on Globalization and Class Struggles
Publication Year: 2012
Published by: African Books Collective
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
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pp. iii-iv
Preface
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pp. v-xii
February 2011 went down as a turning point in world history. At the beginning of the month, the Middle East and North Africa were gripped by mass protests of workers and youth that culminated, on February 11, in the forced resignation...
Introduction
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pp. xiv-xxxiv
This book offers an introduction to a class approach to the assault of contemporary capitalism and the resentment it has engendered among its victims. Global capitalism, characterized by “unfettered” markets in labour and natural resources, commodity...
Chapter One: Historical Overview
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pp. 1-22
Historically, social class and class inequality constitute a core area of study in sociology, and the social sciences in general, and are the basis of the study of class relations and class conflict on a global scale, especially under conditions of contemporary neoliberal...
Chapter Two: Contra ‘Post-Marxist’ Critique of Marxist Class Analysis
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pp. 23-60
Marx developed a theory which is both scientific and critical. However, in most interpretations and further developments of his thought either one or the other of these two essential characteristics has invariably been overlooked. Among those who speak...
Chapter Three: The Class Struggle Is Here to Stay
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pp. 61-88
This chapter aims to rethink the contributions of historical materialism to understanding global capitalism in terms of transnational restructuring and the centrality of class struggle in constituting and contesting the contemporary corporatocratic...
Chapter Four: The Retreat from Race and Class
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pp. 89-105
The economic tumultuousness of contemporary capitalism requires a constant turnover of ideological concepts which, on the one hand, displace the fundamental inequality of private property while, on the other hand, replacing the possibilities of true economic...
Chapter Five: Capital, Labour, State & Class Struggle
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pp. 107-155
The transformations or attempted ‘counter-reforms’ of the neoliberal global ruling classes clash with the cumulative social benefits of the working class, and create objective conditions for a new wave of class struggles. The challenge is to unify...
Chapter Six: Understanding Class Analysis: A Marxist Approach
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pp. 157-183
The approach to class analysis that focuses on mechanisms of exploitation and domination is most closely associated with the Marxist tradition, although some sociologists more influenced by Weber also include these mechanisms in their conceptions...
Chapter Seven: Marxist Theory and Capitalist Class Structures
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pp. 185-230
A taken-for-granted feature of most social science publications today, especially those about inequality, is the ritual critique of Marx and Marxism in the process of introducing theoretical alternatives intended to remedy its alleged...
Chapter Eight: Marxism and Contemporary Capitalism
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pp. 231-263
The revival of radicalism in the world today has brought with it a search for a theoretical explanation of what is wrong with the global society. Inevitably, many radicals have turned back to Marxist models of capitalist development. But these older models...
Chapter Nine: Class Struggles against Capitalist Imperialism
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pp. 265-285
The global working class is the motor force of social development and that its historic mission is the abolition of private ownership of the means of production, the exploitation...
Chapter Ten: Class Struggles in the Era of Imaginary Capitalism and Imaginary Democracy
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pp. 287-310
The recent victories of workers in Argentina, Venezuela and Peru, Tunisia, Egypt and Libya in rising up against the neoliberal state—behind which is the multinational coalition of financiers, businessmen and trade unions that are forcibly imposing...
Chapter Ten: The Myth of Passivity: Occupy Movement and Riots
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pp. 311-349
In the enchanted world of capital, the working class itself can be the only force to win the emancipation of the working class. To say this, however, is to make assumptions and raise questions about the relations between consciousness and ideology...
Chapter Eleven: Imperialist World Order: Protests against Misery for Profit
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pp. 351-398
When government officials from more than one hundred countries arrived in Seattle for a World Trade Organization conference in late November 1999, they found more than luxury hotel rooms, gourmet meals, and Courvoisier cognac waiting...
Chapter Twelve: Theoretical Reprise, Summary, Conclusion and Music of the Future
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pp. 399-423
Conflict, or critical, theory is an approach to analysing society that stresses the differences in power among social groups like classes. This can be applied to those classes within societies, be they national or global, or even to countries within the global economic...
Bibliography
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pp. 425-434
E-ISBN-13: 9789956728473
Print-ISBN-13: 9789956727353
Page Count: 470
Illustrations: 2 line drawings, 1 map
Publication Year: 2012
Series Title: History of Everything Series
Series Editor Byline: John Smith, Will Wordsworth
