“Crack-Up Capitalism – Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy” by Quinn Slobodian, 2023
It’s rather an odd title but it perceives a trend in modern
capitalism that understands capital does not need any kind of democratic system
or rights. This is not a secret to Marxists,
as Marxists have always held that actual democratic tasks can only be carried
out by the working classes in a struggle against capital. This reactionary authoritarian vision has
been pursued across the world and is picking-up steam, including in the
U.S. It is a form of complete corporate
control under the rule of the dollar/ yuan/ pound etc., backed up by a state
that nurtures that project in specific, usually small geographic areas. It is the dream of neo-liberals,
libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, Republican market zealots and authoritarian rulers
across the globe. It might remind one of
the ‘Seastead’ plans of tech bros like Peter Theil – creating corporate nations
on ocean platforms or desert islands free from all government. After 'defeating communism' for a time, the
next capitalist target is government itself, a form of hated ‘socialism.’ “First
they came for the Communists…”
What this means is in certain geographic locations the elimination of taxes, regulations,
unions, socialists, democrats, communists, liberals, critical newspapers, voting,
elections, independent community organizations, socially-owned land and any
government program that benefits the laboring classes. Any left-over state is only there to
guarantee the laws protect wealth and property, support the currency and fight
foreign capitalists with a military. It is an authoritarian variant dominated
by businessmen - a kinder form of quasi-fascism because it is imposed by money, not so
much by brute force.
The ‘crack’ is what Slobodian calls the many ‘zones’ across
the world that allow intense geographic exploitation to exist – not just on a
national basis. His colorful phrase is ‘pixilated
geographies.’ This is under many names: ‘special export zones’ (SEZs) in
China; tax havens on islands, in U.S. states and small countries; tax-free and
tax-supported real-estate frenzy that is London’s Canary Wharf; ‘export
processing zones’ in Ciskei, Singapore and the colony of Puerto Rico; or ‘tax
free zones,’ free ports, enterprise zones, ‘foreign trade zones,’ ‘duty free’
spaces, gated communities - whatever you want to call them. All point to places were national laws are
suspended.
Hong
Kong and Singapore
According to Slobodian, it all started in Hong Kong, which
Milton Friedman praised to the sky in the 1970s at the same time he was lauding
the bloody Chilean coup. In Hong Kong – to this day – the large landlords and
capitalists are basically allowed to run the city directly, providing a cash
window to China in both directions. They were one of the first to adopt a ‘flat
tax’ for instance. The Chinese SEZs of Shenzhen, which provided long-term land leases
for private corporations, were initially a product of Hong Kong capital. The
Chinese government was inspired by Singapore’s example too, sending hundreds of
groups to study their economy and methods of “Confucian capitalism.” Slobodian considers China to be
‘state capitalist,’ instead of a deformed workers’ state trying to manage a
huge capitalist sector. Even Brexit was
inspired by Singapore, an attempt to make the U.K. an unfettered free-trade
paradise with the British capitalists not burdened by any EU laws. What the
Brexiteers ignored was that Singapore’s state actually planned for the citizen population,
putting 80% in public housing. This does not jive with the Tories desire to
destroy the ‘nanny’ state. Singapore’s treatment does not extend to the huge
immigrant workforce though, which is kept in fenced dormitories, echoing a
familiar legal binary of citizen/immigrant.
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| Neo-Confederate 'protest' |
Fragmentation
is the Goal
Slobodian tracks other Freidmanite paradises – for instance
the Ciskei Bantustan inside South Africa, which was promoted by libertarians as
a site of apartheid ‘freedom.’ It fit into the libertarian ethos of ‘cracking-up’
national states. They celebrated the legitimization
of micro-states like Lesotho, Andorra; Lichtenstein, Monaco and San Marino; the
destruction of Yugoslavia and the USSR; the splitting of Czechoslovakia; the neo-Confederate
plans in the U.S. for a separate racist, anti-labor Republican South or a ‘Greater
Idaho.’ A libertarian goal is ‘the
unlimited right of secession’ - so national division, not unity, is the
plan or hope. It’s anarcho-capitalism
based on capitalist control and ethnic identity, bent to weaken, then end
national and international ‘states.’
Slobodian ties together the Mont Pelerin Society; the von
Mises Institute; Ron Paul, David Freidman, the Neo-Confederate League of the
South and various libertarian, ‘paleo-libertarian,’ ‘paleo-conservative,’ racist,
fascist and Alt-right ideologues. They
are based on survivalist, gold-standard economics; a geography of city-states
and villages a la the Middle-Ages; the ideas of small business, clan law and mercenary
greed wrapped in a stateless fantasy. Universal suffrage and labor are invisible to
them, while (white) identity politics are key to their plans for unity in the
U.S. The neo-Confederate dream is based
on the real movement of capital south looking for higher profits on cheap labor, corporate welfare from states and lower taxes – to Memphis, Louisville, Atlanta, North Carolina, Dallas and
the rest of Texas.
Gated
Communities and a Gated ‘Country’
Slobodian takes a look at private gated communities in the U.S. South and West; the archaic country of Liechtenstein and the atrocity that is Dubai; the situation in Somalia and the popes of Silicon Valley and their ‘metaverse.’ For Slobodian these are all examples of the current ‘crack-up’ of national boundaries - a ‘soft-secession’ so to speak. Some of the theorists he cites desire to go back to pagan tribal or Medieval law, not national laws. You might see echoes of this in the current glut of Teutonic, Celtic or Viking pagan historical fiction on streaming or green ‘deep ecology’ and survivalist thinkers. “Back to the Past!” is their slogan. The rules of segregated gated communities – blooming in the West and South - were developed by lawyers, property developers and insurance companies, not by ‘free individuals.’ Company towns and company stores are the ‘modern’ result…even child labor and forms of slavery. "I owe my soul..."
Liechtenstein is a medieval ‘principality’ ruled by a billionaire
monarch enthused about libertarianism.
It is in a tiny European mountain valley and one of the largest tax
havens in the world. It provides complete
secrecy, tax evasion, money-laundering and security for a roll-call of
dictators, famous people and criminals.
Corporations also find it beneficial.
Liechtenstein imports its workers every day, like so many other wealthy
enclaves. This principality is beloved
of knuckle-draggers, perhaps because they can cosplay royalty. In certain ways it’s very similar to Dubai –
the tiny size, the royal family, a homeland for the rich and the every-present imported
workers, who make up the vast majority of the Dubai population.
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| The creepy emirate of Dubai |
Somalia,
Dubai
Failed states are actually not so horrible to the far
libertarian right, which seems to make sense given the Republican ‘Freedom’
Caucus vow to shut-down the U.S. government.
According to Slobodian they were enthused about the Somali state
breakdown in the 1990s, which forced the country into competing ethnic enclaves
and Islamist violence. A libertarian
ideologist developed a plan to create a ‘White Clan” in northern Somalia
running a ‘free port’ on the ocean, which would become a business hub, with
rules laid down by his ‘clan.’ That
fantasy failed, like so many others. The
unrecognized Somaliland Republic in the north of Somalia already had a key
trading port at Berbera. They did economically better than the rest of the
country, with the massive help of Dubai and an actual local government.
Dubai is a monarchy, a multi-billion emirate sitting on the
Persian Gulf, part of the UAE. In the 2000s its economy grew at an average of 13%
a year, faster than China. It has been called the poster child for capitalism
without democracy. The emirate is run by
a sheikh with a council of unelected business heads, as Dubai, Inc. There are no elections, labor unions,
political parties, income taxes, a free press or anything that might impinge on
capital. It is built based on oil-wealth and the exploitation of the labor of
hundreds of thousands of workers imported into the tiny enclave in the Kafala
system. This has created a vast and
absurd city playground for the rich, Islamic and not. Even the idiotic movie “Sex and the City 2” had to visit.
If you think that a capitalist faction dreaming of ending
democracy is some kind of silly scare show, this book might set you right. You could also try to turn a whole country into an ethnic free fire zone for capital, like Modi is doing in India. The book doesn’t get to the level of looking at
fascism either, as Slobodian ignores that possibility, but that is another avenue that
capital can take in its quest to crush the proletariat. I think the latter is
much more likely due to the opposition that will – and is – developing against authoritarian capital. But these enclaves tell a tale about the present
goal of the wealthy.
Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box,
upper left, to investigate our 16 year archive, using these terms: “Marxism
versus Libertarianism,” “Who is Ron Paul?” “RFK Jr. the Libertarian,” “Anarchism
and its Aspirations,” “Slave States,” “Modern DeFacto Slavery,” “The Wealth
Hoarders,” “Monument,” “The Neo-Confederate States,” “A Confederacy of Dunces?” “A Minnesota Yankee in King Trump’s Court,” “Against
the Fascist Creep,” “Shrinking the Technosphere” (Orlov).
And I bought it at May Day Books!
Red Frog
September 20, 2023
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