Abstract
William Robinson is one of the most creative and insightful sociologists of our time. His analysis of the transnational capitalist class has provided breakthrough theoretical insights into the character of contemporary capitalism, and has been the subject of international debate, praise and criticism. But the main concern of Robinson is not academic disputes, but praxis – the unity of theory and practice in service of resistance and revolutionary change. The goal of his new book Into the Tempest is to ask the right questions and seek their answers: ‘What is new about global capitalism? Where are its fissures? What is its structure of power? And what viable forms of struggle from below for system change does this new epoch offer?’ (p. 208).
Into the Tempest is a collection of reworked articles plus some new material. Therefore, the book works as an overview of the main concerns and ideas that Robinson has pursued. It can be read as a whole, or by choosing individual chapters. In either case, the book works well as an introduction to Robinson’s analysis, reading for upper division or graduate coursework, or as a valuable review for those already familiar with his major concepts.
The book is divided into ten chapters, with an appendix that includes an interview with the journal E-International Relations. The first chapter is ‘Nine Theses on Our Epoch’, written in 1999. Here Robinson lays out the ‘principal contours’ of global capitalism, establishing a framework that he has continued to enrich over the preceding two decades. Importantly Robinson, who always includes a wealth of statistics, updates his data throughout the book. Chapter 2 ‘Critical Globalization Studies’ is a passionate essay that argues ‘intellectuals must choose between legitimating the prevailing social order and providing technical solutions to the problems that arise in its maintenance, or exposing contradictions in order to reveal how they may be resolved by transcending the existing order’ (p. 33). If knowledge is power, Robinson asks ‘power for whom?’. The author forces an uncomfortable question on the academic reader – are you an organic intellectual of the working class or capitalist class? Not an easy position for an academic, given the career pressures of university life. But taking a stand on the side of the oppressed is the driving force behind Robinson’s intellectual engagement, and his concern over praxis is consistent whether one is active in social movements or academia.
Chapters 3 and 4 cover Robinson’s major theoretical contributions: ‘The New Global Economy and the Rise of a Transnational Capitalist Class’, and ‘The Nation-State and the Transnational State’. Capitalism has gone through a number of historic eras, from mercantilism to the industrial revolution. Robinson argues that by the late 1970s the nation-state reached its historic limitations, and to escape these restraints the capitalist class built an integrated global system of production and finance. This was accomplished using new digital tools of production and communication. Global capitalism is characterised by massive flows of capital across borders, foreign direct investments, global assembly lines, global stock markets, and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. It also has undercut the national social contract between capital and labour. Capital is now immersed in transnational patterns of accumulation. All this resulted in transforming the character of the capitalist class into a transnational capitalist class (TCC). In turn, institutional governance structures such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization are used to regulate and oversee the new global system. National states also came under the hegemony of transnational fractions, who used their power to reposition political structures to global demands.
In Chapter 5, ‘Beyond the Theory of Imperialism’, Robinson takes on his critics of the various new imperialism schools to show how frameworks using nation-state competition fail to explain global competition. Robinson argues that cross-border financial and corporate integration is far too deep for competition to be understood as national conflicts. The author focuses on the Iraq war to argue his case, using many examples of transnational profit-making, and positioning the US military as the ‘ministry of defense’ of the TCC.
Chapters 6 and 7 turn our attention to contemporary issues of immigration and education. In ‘Global Capitalism, Migrant Labor and the Struggle for Social Justice’ Robinson states that immigrant labour is ‘absolutely central’ to global capitalism, and represents the ‘archetype of the new global class relations, the quintessential workforce of global capitalism’ (p. 132). The author ties the current struggle for immigrant justice to the history of racialised capitalism and class relations. Tracing the slave trade of 20 million Africans forwards to the movement of millions of migrants today, Robinson describes this as the ‘creation of a world labor market’. Later, in Chapter 9, he positions the control of this workforce as a central piece to his argument on the ‘global police state’. Chapter 7 returns us to the struggle over education and ideas. Here Robinson attacks the global effort to divide education into institutions for the elite 1 per cent, technical training for 20 per cent to create the contemporary workforce, while 80 per cent of humanity is assigned a place in the precariat.
The next chapter, ‘Davos Man Comes to the Third World: the transnational state and the BRICS’, turns our attention to the emerging TCC in the Global South. Robinson takes on the argument that Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are new centres of resistance to northern imperialism. Instead he places the southern elite alongside the northern TCC, maintaining conflicts exist over having an equal share of global accumulation, not opposition to the transnational system itself. The author also points to a new geography of poverty that extends across northern and southern borders. This growing worldwide population of surplus humanity, linked with the environmental crisis and overaccumulation, is pushing capitalism toward a police state. This is the focus of Chapter 9, and has been a great concern to Robinson for a number of years. For the TCC to escape rebellion, Robinson sees a new hegemonic bloc in formation – one based in militarised and repressive accumulation. This brings together the security state and military, with new technologies of control, and the financial sector which feeds capital into its expansion and development.
The last chapter works as a summary touching on all the major points of Robinson’s analysis. But here he also writes about the transformative power of social movements, the necessity for political organisation, and the need for ‘ecosocialist forces to advance an alternative vision for global society that goes beyond … global capitalism and toward a just and sustainable future [that] can evolve out of the convergence of radically transformative projects from below and transnational elite reformism from above’ (p. 223). If radical and progressive forces are to move past the current system of global injustice, Robinson’s ideas will help enlighten that path.