MARXISM 21

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MARXISM 21
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MARXISM 21 VOL. 16

Feature: Ideas and Organization of Alterglobalization movements

Economic Localist Alternative to Neo-liberal Globalization
Economic Localist Alternative to Neo-liberal Globalization has a merit to emphasize the effects of not only liberal finance, but also of liberal trade and international corporations on the peoples in world and to try to resolve the problems which not only laborers but also ecology and local communities face. But it see the problems of Neo-liberal globalization primarily as problems of large corporations, thus having limits not to understand that those problems are of capitalism and capital as such. Keywords: Alter-globalization, localization, local business, ecology, agriculture, small firm, food sovereign..
(Chang-Keun Kim)

A Critique of Social Movement Unionism
This article aims to contribute to building a more ‘comprehensive’ theory of the alter-globalisation movement by engaging with theories and practices of social movement unionism (SMU). Arguing against the old labour movement’s industrial workerism, male-domination, bureaucratic nature, nationalism and isolation from other social movements, SMU suggests many strategies alternative to the union movement. Indeed, it seems true that as an alternative ‘strategy’ of the labour movement in the globalising and expanding circuit of capital, SMU has been increasingly influential to unionists and activists.
(Dae-Oup Chang)

A Study on the Globalization of Capital and the International Framework Agreement
The increased mobility of financial and productive capital have confined the activity of the trade unions in world-wide that is remained in the frame of nation state. Especially, the globalization of capital have reduced the social role of trade unions as a counter power, because of the investment competition betweenthe national states. The international framework agreement (IFA) is the first step to the intervention of international working class in the neoliberal globalization beyond the politics of nation state that is subjected the logic of capital.
(Seung-Hyeob Lee)

A Critique on the Antonio Negri’s Project of the Multitude
Antonio Negri’s Project of the Multitude represents a prominent work to reformulate Marx’s historical materialism and communism on the basis of immanent ontology. But the result is very poor and even dangerous. The main weakness of his project consists in the fact that it disregards Marx’s problematic of the social antagonism and thus it does not provide us a theoretical apparatus enabling us to think an emancipatory politics. Negri presents the project of the exodus as an alternative to the marxian project of the transformation and the deleuzian project of flight
(Gwan-Mo Seo)

What is the Materialist Conception of Politics? : Toward a Politics of the Outside
In this paper, I define materialist politics as ‘activation of the outside.’ This definition would entail three aspects. First, it involves the conceptualization of the masses as a ‘flow of material,’ which forms ‘the primary process’ of the politics. The masses are here differentiated from the crowd in that they are characterized not by mere numerical largeness but by the line of flight. The masses are outside of all given orders..
(Jinkyung Yi)

Marx and Keynes’s Theory of Money and Financial Crisis
This article attempts to develop an alternative perspective and theoretical framework on the recent financial crisis beyond the explanations such as “moral hazard” and failure of states or markets. For this purpose, the article reinterprets Marx and Keynes’s theory of money. As is wellknown, there is a certain similarity in Marx and Keynes’s economic and political thought. Marx and Keynes both emphasize the inherent instability and crisis of capitalist development
(Choon-Kweon Koo)

Some Myths on the Dacha : Meaning of Economy and Rest in Contemporary Russia
This paper explores the meaning of the dacha in contemporary Russia, which is known as a Russian way of taking rest on weekend, away from troublesomeness of the city. In practice, many Russians claim that the foremost significance of working in the dacha lies with its function as an economic means to compensate for scanty income. However, it is argued here, based upon fieldwork mainly with factory workers in Siberian cities, that the economic significance of the domestic agriculture in the dacha may be found as a safeguard against a rainy day
(Youngho Nam)

Ssangyong Motor’s Strike in Korea Ends in Defeat and Heavy Repression
From May 22 until August 5, 2009, a core of 1000 worker militants at the Ssanyong Motor Company in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, occupied their plant and withstood a 77-day siege in a failed attempt to prevent mass layoffs. The employers used police, thugs and scabs in a quasi-military attack on the plant, which the workers repeatedly repelled with slingshots, crowbars and Molotov cocktails. The Ssangyong strike was the most militant worker action in South Korea in many years.
(Loren Goldner)

Conception of Caste in Marx : A Reconstruction
This paper makes an attempt at a reconstruction of conception of caste in Marx based on certain specific observations he made in several of his works including the last and important work Capital. It derives the conception of caste from a set of relevant economic categories such as use value, exchange value, mental labour, manual labour, labour power, etc. It explains as to how castes rest on a particular kind of division of labour. The paper makes relevant observations with regard to the ‘freedom’of lower castes to choose the occupation of their choice.
(B. R. Bapuji)