ABSTRACT
It has never been easy to come to terms with the dynamism of capitalism—the fact that it is an always-moving, revolutionary, and powerfully co-optive force in world affairs. Automation, computerization, and newfound capacities to introduce greater flexibility into production systems and labor markets can be tools in the hands of capital to discipline and further deskill the laborer; but it does not follow that such practices have no role in socialist strategies for the future. The depression of 1973-75 signaled a sea change in the development of capitalism. The twenty-year postwar boom that preceded it produced strong growth rates, relatively low unemployment, relatively controlled inflation, and stable exchange rates and commodity prices in most of the advanced capitalist world. Flexibility has little or nothing to do with decentralizing either political or economic power or everything to do with maintaining highly centralized control through decentralizing tactics.
