A well thought out and exhaustive explanation of the behavior of capital and the crisis of 2008 from a Marxist perspective.
It’s not a surprise that a Marxist critique of the crisis would appear, and be widely considered, since the crisis was such a surprise to so many mainstream (mostly neoliberal) economists.
The dominant narrative of the crash of 2008 was that it was a glitch in the system that would get back on track once corrected (by massive payments to Wall Street from the Federal Reserve at the behest of the US government.) Harvey’s point is no, that’s not a glitch, that is the system. It requires continuous growth and in search of that is bound to exploit labor and consume resources in search of that growth.
The first lesson it must learn is that an ethical, non-exploitative and socially just capitalism that redounds to the benefit of all is impossible. It contradicts the very nature of what capital is about. (p. 239)
The root causes of the crash of 2008 were initiated in the 70s, when the reaction to the successes of the left and the implementation of the social state throughout the west:
The recipe devised was simple – crush the power of labour, initiate wage repression, let the market do its work, all the while putting the power of the state at the service of capital in general and of investment finance in particular. This was the solution of the 70s, that lies at the root of the crisis of 2008-9. (p.172)
What’s to be done about, Harvey prescribes in the last chapter:
Perhaps we should just define the movement as anti-capitalist, or call ourselves the party of Indignation, ready to fight and defeat the party of Wall St. and its acolytes and apologists everywhere and leave it at that…As indignation and moral outrage build amid an economy of depression that so redounds to the benefit of a seemingly all powerful capitalist class, so disparate political movements necessarily begin to merge. p.260
Harvey has his PhD in Geography, and a lot of his approach relies on the elaboration of the varying exploitation of different spaces by capital (he gives a shout-out to my hometown, one of the hedge fund capitals of the world in 2008, contrasting it with less well-developed locales.) One thing notably missing from his analysis is the utopian rhetoric frequently seized as a straw man by critics of Marx and socialism. This angle is usually employed to completely dismiss what is usually a fairly sharp and accurate critique of the excesses of a system that has us on track for a dystopian future of increasing inequality, austerity and privation, except for a select few who have managed to include themselves in a class of insiders.
I don’t consider myself a Marxist, maybe I’m holding out hope there’s some redeeming feature in our system. But it’s hard to argue with much of Harvey’s analysis, looking as I am at the results on the ground.
ianuaditis 