Zombie Capitalism: Global Crisis and the Relevance of Marx Review

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Zombie Capitalism: Global Crisis and the Relevance of Marx ReviewChris Harman's 'Zombie Capitalism' is a closely argued, fully referenced and indexed indictment of Capitalism from it's inception in the late 18th century up to today's current crises.
It starts with a general but detailed round up of Marx's concepts: commodities, labour value, surplus value etc. There then follows a comparison of Marx's ideas with those of his critics - neoclassical, Keynsian and Marxist variations.
Once this grounding is complete, and he has demonstrated the appropriateness of using Marx's analytical tools, he moves on to a discussion of how Capitalism works. This is a fairly generalised approach but lays the foundations for later chapters.
Once these basics are out of the way, Harman moves on to consider how Capitalism has developed since Marx's time and whether Capitalism has moved beyond useful Marxist analysis. He shows, pretty convincingly to my mind, that it has not and that a Marxist approach can still shed considerable light on the workings of the system.
Following on from that, he considers the role of the state. It is clear that states are deeply involved in not just maintaining Capitalism but as active participants. Even in these days of international or transnational corporations, Harman shows how rooted 'capitals' are in the nation state. In this, he echoes Alex Callinicos. Suggestions that nation states have outlived their usefulness are clearly false. However, the state is not simply a provider of currencies, rules, regulations, copyright protection, worker maintenance etc. but is also an active participant in the Capitalist enterprise. Apart from the obvious State Capitalism (in a Keynsian sense), there are the examples of Stalinist Russia and modern China.
The history of Capitalism in the 20th century inevitable starts with the Great Depression of 1929. This is followed by the long boom of the post-World War 2 period (the 'Golden Age'). Harman shows how this was maintained not simply by the recovery from the 'creative destruction' of the war, but also by the 'disposing' of surplus capital in the purchase of arms - Eisenhower's 'military-industrial' complex - helping to maintain rates of profit. But he goes further and considers the effects of this on Russia and the Eastern Block countries.
Then comes the end of the 'Golden Age', the crisis of Keynsianism and the turn to Milton Friedman and Monetarism. Of course, a lot of this is simple history. But Harman provides a thoroughgoing and, to my mind, pretty convincing Marxist analysis of this history. He considers not just the crisis of the Western capitalist economies but also the end of Stalinist central planning.
Part Three starts with 'The New Age of Global Instability' (P227). He suggests that, in many ways, the current era is a return to the period prior to the Second World War - in a sense, back to 'business as usual' (i.e boom/slump). He argues against the prevailing 'globalist' theories, again pointing out the dependence of capitals on nation states - it is simply not that easy to move factories and their necessary supply chains across borders. However, he recognises the increasing mobility of financial capital, as it roams the world, looking for a return on investment but, at the same time, shows the many ways that 'productive capital' and financial capital are closely intertwined. For example, he considers the bubble in the telecoms industry which resulted in a huge increase in cable networks - far more than can currently conceivably be used.
The final section 'The Runaway System' (P307) looks at the likely consequences of the current form of Capitalism and, predictably enough, it is not a happy picture. Environmental degradation, 'Peak Oil', the dangers to the world's food supply are all resulting in a runaway system:
'The runaway world is, in fact, the economic system as Marx described it, the Frankenstein's monster that has escaped from human control; the vampire that saps the lifeblood of the living bodies it feeds off. Its self-expansion has indeed led it to encompass the whole globe, drawing all of humanity into its cycles of competing in order to accumulate and accumulating in order to compete.' (P325)
Capitalism is, quite simply, insatiable.
And finally, he asks, 'Who can overcome?' (P329):
'It is the very development of capitalism that shapes and reshapes the lives of those it exploits, creating the objective circumstances that can turn a disparate mass of people who sell their labour power into an increasingly self-conscious class "for itself". This class is the potential agent for challenging the chaotic and destructive dynamic of capitalism because capitalism cannot do without it.' (P349)
Overall, this is a fascinating book. I have to admit that I found the first few sections of Marxist economics hard going, not having any background in the subject, but once equipped with the basic concepts involved, the analyses presented in the later sections were powerful and persuasive.Zombie Capitalism: Global Crisis and the Relevance of Marx Overview"Zombie Capitalism is both timely and hugely valuable. . . . This book is an essential read."-Socialist ReviewWhile for most mainstream commentators the financial crisis that opened in 2007 signaled the failure of regulation and accountability, Chris Harman describes the ongoing economic turmoil as a byproduct of capitalism's inability to consider anything but the bottom line.Chris Harman (1942–2009) was the editor of International Socialism and the author of numerous books, including A People's History of the World (Verso Books).

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