GLOBALISATION AND THE NEO-LIBERAL OFFENSIVE/29of local companies and the national (or regional) economy as a
whole.
Since these pressures are applied in most fields and, for the first
time, in almost every single country, everyone is trying to out-
compete everyone else and to be competitive the world over. In
such conditions, the near-universal ascendancy of competitive
capitalism as a normative system should not come as a surprise.
The bigger they are, however, the harder they fall. (Petrella, 1995)Past Wage Concessions have not Created the Promised
Jobs
The dominant discourse sought to obscure another battle that still
rages today. The holders of capital have launched repeated attacks to
lower wages (and employer payroll taxes) and create more flexible
work schedules - all in order to intensify the rate of utilisation of the
productive apparatus (machines).
In spite of worker resistance, employer attacks have scored
significant victories. Mass unemployment has been created and used
by the dominant classes to roll back social gains in all fields.
The results speak for themselves. The gross profits of the big
industrial houses have increased over the last few years in almost all
the big capitalist countries, thanks to the combined effects of unem
ployment, the downward pressure on wage costs and the
introduction of new methods of production (Serfati, 1996). While it
is not easy to measure the rate of profit, we can take note of the
increase in the rate of capital profitability (to use OECD terminology)
on the basis of studies by official bodies. According to the OECD, the
rate of capital profitability in the private productive sector rose from
13 per cent in 1980 to 15.9 per cent in 1994. According to European
Union (EU) estimates, based on a profitability index where 100 is the
rate registered in the period 1961-73, profitability dropped to 71 in
the period 1974-85, and was back up to 88 in 1994 (Montes, 1996,
p. 142). According to the April 1997 edition oiFortune magazine, the
500 biggest companies in the world are all smiles; their 1996 profits
were up 2 3 per cent from 19 9 5 even though their turnover had only
increased by 8.3 per cent.
The official discourse justified 'today's wage concessions' on the
basis of the 'profits, jobs and prosperity' that were promised for
'tomorrow'. The profits came, the rest did not. The conditions for prof-