Fascism as a Mass Movement: Translator's Introduction

AbstractThis Introduction to Rosenberg’s essay starts with a brief synopsis of his life, then summarises the key arguments of the essay itself before looking briefly at the twin issues of the social base of the fascist parties (wider than just the ‘petty bourgeoisie’) and the passive complicity/compliance of ‘ordinary Germans’, as the literature now terms whole sectors of the civilian population that were defined by their apathy or moral indifference to the horrors of the Nazi state.</jats:sec

Seasons of Self-Delusion: Opium, Capitalism and the Financial Markets (2012 Deutscher Memorial Lecture)

AbstractTo grasp current trends within capitalism without abandoning the framework of Marx’sCapitalwe need to return to the category of ‘fictitious capital’ and make it central to our explanations. Based on the 2012 Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Lecture, this essay combines reflections on Marx’s account of ‘fictitious capital’; an investigation of the role of bills of exchange; and an analysis of the recent turmoil in British and US banking. It looks at the way the opium trade, financed through the London bill market, integrated a constellation of interests in the City with the labour of peasant households in India as parts of a unified accumulation process. Opium was vital to the fortunes of British capitalism for most of the nineteenth century. The merchant banks that were the mainstay of Britain’s form of capitalism were also the key element in the re-emergence of global finance in the postwar period. The concluding part of the paper deals with the current banking crisis and follows Hilferding in arguing that by providing liquidity to the markets for fictitious capital, speculation plays a crucial role in sustaining profitability for the bigger capitals.</jats:sec

Investor Capitalism and the Reshaping of Business in India

There is general agreement that institutional shareholders have been the major force driving the movement for better standards of governance and accountability in corporate business worldwide. How does this work in an 'emerging' market where foreign institutional investors can establish a dominant market position but need to interact with business cultures run by local promoters and low in corporate transparency? This paper argues that while the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have established considerable leverage over Indian companies, and mounted successful pressure for modernisation of the stock market, their role in corporate governance is unlikely to be as significant as that of the domestic institutions which own substantial chunks of equity in Indian industry. The paper looks at the controversy surrounding the Securities and exchange Board of India's, (SEBI)'s, draft code of corporate governance and suggests that regulators seeking to enforce higher standards of governance in globally integrating markets should reinforce the position of institutional shareholders rather than undermining it.

India: Workers' Rights in a New Economic Order

With traditional forms of collective bargaining failing in the face of rapid corporate restructuring, what perspectives can the unions evolve to ensure their survival and growth? This paper argues that the labour movement has a powerful stake in shaping the agenda of corporate governance, both because implicit contracts are impossible to enforce without a role in strategic decision-making, and in the sense that public corporations can no longer be conceived merely as shareholder domains. However, in a country like India where the majority of wage earners are unorganised, the workers' rights clause will have a major role to play.