All power to global capital!

Cammack, Paul (2009) All power to global capital! In: Papers in the politics of global competitiiveness. Discussion Paper. Papers in the politics of global competitiiveness. ISSN 1755-6740

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Abstract

It is one of the key precepts of the 'political economy of reform' that every crisis is an opportunity to be exploited to drive reform forward. True to form, the international organisations and their G-20 allies have used the current crisis to their advantage. They have greatly reinforced the power of the IMF in particular, with the intention of tightening further the disciplinary power of capital, in line with a project under way for two decades. In this context, proposals to introduce an unconditional IMF Flexible Credit Line and to democratise the Bretton Woods institutions are traps for the unwary. Rather than empowering the poor in the developing world they legitimise and intensify mechanisms that subject them to closer control and exploitation by capital. The response of the IFIs to the global crisis – highly successful so far – has taken the form of a carefully staged illusion dependent on the magician's art of misdirection. However, their own recent publications, analysed here, give their secrets away. As a general rule, the more progressive these proposals for reform seem to be, the more dangerous they are.