Page 154 - Culture Society and Economy

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ALTERNATIVES

Once the division of labor has reached its current level, it is not possible
for value to be realized on other than an international scale. Markets or
exchange relationships on a global scale are an expression of this division
of labour not the cause of it. It is also the case, that without such global
markets it would be impossible to distribute savings and investment across
the various branches of the worldwide economy. Any feasible socialist
alternative would in fact require the extension and intensification of global
exchange relations. For the foreseeable future, the bulk of this global exchange
deriving from the global division of labor would be market exchange,
although not all of it. Some parts of global exchange needs to take the form
of directly administered exchange. Moreover, it is abundantly clear that
global market exchange is in need of public control and regulation if
current inequities and volatility are to be reduced.
The case of the powerful Chinese impact on world markets clearly
demonstrates that the reduction of poverty in the world cannot be achieved
otherwise than by large increases in human productivity. Human pro-
ductivity in India and China cannot be increased without their current
access to the world market. This is the only way to provide the global
effective demand (world markets) on the scale required to absorb the pro-
ductivity increases. The same is true for Africa. Africa too needs to be
more fully integrated into this selfsame world market in much the same
way that China and India are coming into their own, for these same rea-
sons. At the same time, access to the vast markets of Europe, the United
States, China and India (and, in the near future, Latin America and
Africa) is vital to reduce poverty in all parts of the developing world. The
accumulation of huge trade surpluses in countries aggressively pursuing
export-led development has extremely serious implications for high rates
of global unemployment and lack of liquidity in the international finan-
cial system. The development of a much more balanced global trading
7
regime is essential. That this has major implications for the privileged
position of the populations in the currently developed economies, goes
without saying. That it also has major ecological implications is incon-
testable. But solutions to both of these problems can be found which are
mutually beneficial. One thing seems undeniable: large-scale reductions
in human poverty require large-scale increases in human productivity
which, in turn, requires further development of the division of labor
on an international scale. There is no other way. One should forget about
any localization program that attempts to abolish exchange relations
or the market. How we have to approach these issues is not from the
viewpoint of negation but with a view to the ‘sublation of bourgeois
Gesellschaft’. 8

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