ABSTRACT
Realistic concepts of alternative change require an understanding of the interaction between internal social relations and the international environment.
The transnationalization of the world economy has been changing all the rules of the political game! All along, the process has been accompanied by an almost unchallenged praise of free trade and free competition. In reality, however, increasing parts of global capital movements, production, distribution, and trade operate outside the sphere of free competition. They are internal transactions of a restricted number of actors, who operate independently of borders and are accountable to no one except their often anonymous shareholders. The situation has been exacerbated by the deregulation of capital movements paving the way for a delinking of financial capital from the productive sphere. The outcome has been “Casino Capitalism,” a system of speculation on a global scale at the expense of often defenseless populations. As a result, an enormous sphere of non-accountability has emerged. Moreover, according to the Egyptian economist, Samir Amin, new forms of control have been produced. Five radical monopolies (those of finance, technology, resourcemanagement, the medias, and the means of mass destruction) have been globally established and today seem to operate as one. One of the effects is a new historical phase of worldwide social polarization (Amin 1994:17). Moreover, urged on by competition, an international division of labor at the level of production is rapidly replacing the former set-up based on the nation-state. This process has conferred to the capitalist class a new bargaining power which is fundamentally changing the balance of class forces (Ross and Trachte 1990:25). Its lever of control is capital movement: the threat or reality of capital flight.
