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In the June 1997 issue of MR, I wrote an essay, "Globalization is an Issue, the Power of Capital is the Issue." Richard Du Boff and Edward Herman, two economists whose work I respect and whose books I have used in my classes, now polemicize against "Tabb's unwillingness to acknowledge that globalization ... has anything to do with the victories of capital over labor...." I wrote no such thing, as readers can verify for themselves by going back to that June issue. Such a view (which I do not hold) is indeed unreasonable and wrongheaded. They in fact attribute a number views to me which I do not hold. They propose "alternatives" and I agree with a number of these.
I suggested the need for a two part analysis as a way of addressing those who think everything has changed because of "globalization" The first, and the project of my essay, was to describe the continuities in the capitalist system. The second project and the one Du Boff and Herman are interested in (aren't we all) is in how the dynamics of capitalism have changed since the postwar era, and the role of the complex developments, generally lumped together into the construct "globalization." They do not think there is any reason for the first of these tasks because while "Tabb may know some leftists who have swallowed the 'myths' of globalization and believe `there is no alternative"' Du Boff and Herman do not. I'm glad they don't know any such people. I know quite a few and believe that the acceptance, conscious or subconscious, of a view of such inevitability has served to disempower and weaken the left.
They continue that "even if we ever find any we are sure they will be outnumbered by leftists whose first aim is to debunk globalization." What should be debunked? The idea of an all-encompassing all-determining globalization? That is what I set out to do. It should be debunked. But debunk the idea that globalization is happening? I would hope not, because it is occurring. The point is what is not new and what is. Globalization, as they write, and as I argued in my essay, represents...