Trade and Class Revisited

Abstract

In "Trade and Class: Labour Strategies in a World of Strong Capital," I set out a strategic model which yielded as logical inferences a program including "nationalization, tax penalties for inadequate investment, the growth of a state sector and full employment, boycott campaigns and protective trade legislation - in addition to a concerted campaign against concessions." Further, the argument not only stressed the importance of supporting the struggles of workers elsewhere but also rejected analyses which attributed capitalist crisis to the "weakness" of capital. By reasoning from the weakness of particular national
capitals to that of world capital, such analyses find solutions (such as increased productivity) which strengthen capital - or, at least, particular national capitals. In contrast, I argued the necessity to begin with world capital to understand the weakness of workers and to demonstrate theoretically Marx's insight that when workers compete among themselves, capital gains.