68/YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!
the nineteenth century the world market and global economy
have been among the biggest obstacles to the Industrialisation
of the Third World, precisely in so far as they act as a brake on
the accumulation of industrial capital. (Mandel, 1968)To understand this brake on development, one also has to take
into account the social structure of societies in the periphery -
clearly analysing this structure with the precise features of each
country and bloc of countries in mind.
For example, there is a world of difference between two large
components of the periphery: Latin America and Africa. Latin
America has had formal independence since the nineteenth
century, the very point at which the colonisation of Africa began
in earnest. Latin America saw the beginnings of industrialisation,
in line with the first phase of the industrial revolution in Europe.
Whatever industrialisation exists in Africa - and in some countries
of sub-Saharan Africa there is none - goes back no further than the
first half of the twentieth century. Latin America's bourgeoisies
have a long history behind them; those of Africa are still in the
process of formation in a number of countries. Indeed, they often
trace their roots back no further than the new state apparatuses
which emerged in the wake of their countries' national indepen
dence in the 1950s and 1960s.
Even between these two continents, the differences are striking.
Yet they have enough in common (along with most of Asia) to
belong to the periphery.
The brake on development does not only stem from the
periphery's subordinate relationship to the centre; it also results
from the class structure of the countries of the periphery, and the
inability of the local bourgeoisies to unleash a cumulative process
of growth involving the development of the domestic market.
With this in mind, one can understand the strategic significance
of the neo-liberal onslaught of the last two decades of the twentieth
century. For the overwhelming majority of countries in the South
and from the former Socialist Bloc, the possibilities for autonomous
development are even smaller than during the previous historical
period. These countries' economies are more than ever before
faced with competition from the goods and capital of the countries
of the centre.