''Socialism or Barbarism'' is a book about
globalism
Globalism refers to various patterns of meaning beyond the merely international. It is used by political scientists, such as Joseph Nye, to describe "attempts to understand all the interconnections of the modern world—and to highlight patterns ...
,
U.S. socialism and
capitalist systems by
Hungarian Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
philosopher and economist
István Mészáros. It was published in 2001 and is composed of two parts, the first part is an expanded version of an essay of the same title originally published in 2000; the second part consists of an interview conducted in 1998.
[Naghd (no. 25, Spring 1999)/ Science and Society, 63:3 (Fall 1999)]
The term "socialism or barbarism" refers to
a quote by
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat party, ...
.
Summary
Mészáros is convinced that the future of socialism will be decided in the U.S. and sees its main obstacle to be the globalization of
Keynesian neo-liberalism. He reckons that the 21st century will coincide with the "third stage of capitalism", which Mészáros characterizes as the barbarous global competition for domination between a plurality of free-market capitalist systems. His examination of the history of American capitalism predicts several eminent ramifications to this struggle:
imperialist driven territorial expansion in the
Middle East, the continuation and increase of
NATO aggression, increased
infrastructure
Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...
weakening with major degradation in the quality of life for the
lower class, and eventually a
proxy war with China via U.S.'s defense treaties with Japan.
Much of the book is devoted to applying Marx's nineteenth century theories to current events, such as the environment:
What Mészáros prescribes is a labor union socialist solution, specifically the
syndicalist
Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the left-wing of the labor movement that seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of pr ...
form of socialism that
Samuel Gompers had abandoned when the
AFL provided the a workforce for the U.S. involvement in
World War I. He advocates a Marxist form of socialism:
See also
*
Alexander Zinoviev
* ''
The Shock Doctrine'' by
Naomi Klein
* ''Multitudes'' by Negri & Hardt
* ''
Hegemony or Survival'' by
Noam Chomsky
*
Anti-globalization movement
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Book Review by the History CooperativeMészáros interview with the Monthly Review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Socialism or Barbarism?
2001 non-fiction books
Books about foreign relations of the United States
Books critical of capitalism
Books about globalization
Communist books
Marxist books
Political books
Political terminology
Works by István Mészáros