System in Crisis The Dynamics of Free Market Capitalism

The Dynamics of Free Market Capitalism
James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer
In the late 1960s the operating world capitalist system hit a snag, exposing cracks that went to its very foundations. At first, this crisis was viewed as part of a normal business cycle of capital accumulation in which markets become saturated. The reaction created a mass of unemployed workers, reduced purchasing power and consumption capacity which initiated a further downward cycle of disinvestment and recession. The efforts to revitalize the capitalist system included the restructuring of world production, new information?based technologies designed to revolutionize the structure of production, a new mode of capital accumulation and regulatory regime, and a program of policy reforms and structural adjustments.
By discussing the very cracks that neo-liberalism tries to disguise, James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer explain how these reactions attempt to prop up a system that continues to fail the global community. System in Crisis also examines the nature of the class divisions and the political repercussions of the anti-globalization movement. This analysis provides readers with a more general perspective on the broader anti-globalization movement and the possibilities for unifying the diverse forces of resistance and opposition to neo-liberalism, capitalism and imperialism ? and the prospects for an alternative, more human, socialist form of development.

James Petras is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the State University of New York. Henry Veltmeyer is Professor of Sociology and International Development Studies at Saint Mary?s University. They are the authors of Globalization Unmasked (2000).


Contents: Introduction ° PART ONE: THE CRISIS OF FREE MARKET CAPITALISM Dimensions and Dynamics of Systemic Crisis ° Imperialism and Crisis ° 9/11 One Year Later ° Argentina and the Crisis of Neo-liberalism ° From Left to Right: The Crisis of Electoral Democracy ° The Story of Cod: The Ecological Crisis of Industrial Capitalism ° PART TWO: POLITICAL DYNAMICS OF ANTI-GLOBALIZATION Peasants Against the State in Latin America ° Indigenous Peoples Arise: Ecuador on the Move ° The Piqueteros: A New Actor on the Political Stage ° The Dynamics of Anti-Globalization