Globalizing the Caribbean: Political Economy, Social Change and the Transnational Capitalist Class by Jeb Sprague (review)

Contemporary Caribbean political economy debates are mostly centered on national cases or how national economies are asymmetrically integrated into global markets. Globalizing the Caribbean: Political Economy, Social Change and the Transnational Capitalist Class offers a convincing argument for why the Caribbean's political economy of today must be examined from a transnational perspective. Jeb Sprague examines the changing political economy of the global era in the context of the Caribbean. He argues that a reconfiguration of social, economic, and political relations is taking place, rooted in the ruthless competitive processes of global capitalism. Therefore, he considers the Caribbean should be studied from a transnational perspective that describes the diverse structural and social processes that link regions and nations more organically with the global economy. Sprague argues that under global capitalism, social processes take place across countrywide frontiers in an integrated manner. Therefore, the amalgamations of different factors and agents associated with capital accumulation are instituted through their joint operation beyond core and peripheral nation-states.

The book argues that a transnational capitalist class (TCC) oriented toward transnational accumulation has emerged in the global era. Sprague offers an empirically account of the inner workings of these TCCs in different economic sectors in the Caribbean. One proposition is that 'going global' allowed capitalists to do away with labor regulations or struggles as they could tap into an ever-growing global pool of marginalized workers. Chapter 4 shows how Cruise Ship corporations operating in the Caribbean use flag of convenience to avoid enforcing labor standards rules to keep their transnational labor force in vulnerable positions. In this chapter, he also reveals how Cruise Ship firms are intertwined with global financial flows via Initial Public Offering (IPO). In 2013, global investments firms controlled over a third of Carnival's stocks, including investments firms such as Thornburg, Black Rock, Artemis, and some asset managers such as UBS and J.P. Morgan (135). Transnational capitalists, incorporated in one country and operating from others, have geared towards a transnational accumulation contingent on the Caribbean's natural beauty. Cruise ship companies have also gained unprecedented power in the Caribbean because of global competitive pressures and the local need for investments. A recent modality is that companies lease ports to own the shops and tours companies set at ports to capture tourist spending outside the Cruise Ships. These retail sales were one of the niches where small local businesses could profit from Cruise Ship visits. But completive pressures from a global market persuade domestic political elites to surrender their ports to Cruise ship companies.

Sprague also offers in chapter 6 a stimulating account of how domestic capitalists have been incorporated into these TCC through Export Processing Zones (EPZ). The Dominican Republic became an important base for EPZs related to textiles in the 1990s. Sprague shows how domestic capitalists from the Dominican Republic and Haiti were integrated into transnational capital accumulation dynamics through their participation in EPZs. Global textile industries are integrated into demand-driven global value chains, where global brands hire local firms to produce their products. Gildan Activewear operates from Haiti and is owned by a Haitian as a contract manufacturing firm with sales above 1.9 billion dollars. Gildan sub-contracts production plants in Bangladesh and Honduras to supply their diversified global clientele. Some financial investors in Gildan are global hedge funds such as Fidelity Investments and Janus enterprise.

Gildan illustrates how former national capitalists have become part of a TCC oriented towards transnational capital accumulation. Grupo M in the Dominican Republic is another good example. As a subcontractor for global brands such as Levi Strauss, Fruit of the Loom and Nautica, employing 3,600 workers in the Dominican Republic and 7,000 in their factories in Haiti. Local, transnational networks have emerged from their organic integration into global accumulation.

Although this book makes an important contribution to the Caribbean's political economy research, some...