200th Post

Free Trade : Leftism : Class struggle

..according to the ever unreliable blogger dashboard, that is. Considering I was stuck on 76 for aaaages, I'll take this particular anniversary with a pinch of salt.

I was recently flicking through The travels of a t-shirt in the global economy :an economist examines the markets, power and politics of world trade /Pietra Rivoli. Hoboken, N.J. :John Wiley & Sons,c2005.ISBN 0471648493.

Cut to the chase - her conclusion was instructive - free markets are not free, the state intervenes in America as it does in China as it does everywhere - the index of wealth, though, was closely linked to power - the amount of power and influence people could exercise.

For instance, freeing up market entry for cotton growers and peasant farmers, giving them the control of their own economic partcipation was as liberating and enriching as the empowerment of farmers in the US who can and do lobby the government for support.

The traditional left/right split between free or state organised markets is a misplaced and illusory one. The reality is power and its exercise.

My point here is, generally, I think why it is possible to see why the sort of world advocated by Kevin Carson (the ultimate free marketeer) and myself - the ultimate in communisticity can in fact come so near.

We aren't disputing, eally over the basics, but like the right and left of capital disputing - rationally - the way to go about workers empowerment.