ANARCHIST THEORY:

AN ANARCHIST ANALYSIS OF CAPITALIST FINANCIAL MARKETS:

Molly wants to alert her readers to a great new article over at the Anarkismo board. With the title above the writers attempts to provide a primer to the rather opaque world of financial markets, from commodities to derivatives. What is especially refreshing is that, unlike the usual leftist dreck on such subjects, this article is actually objective. just the facts ma'am. No speculation on how many labour values can dance on the head of a pin. The article provides a factually based description of the operation of present day markets, and he then goes on to speculate about what this means for class struggle and socialism in our age. The state-based socialism of the authoritarian left comes out as being more than wanting. Here's the first two paragraphs of the article....

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An anarchist analysis of capitalist financial markets

by Paul Bowman - WSM - RBR

Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction
This is the first part of a series of articles investigating the capitalist financial markets from a critical perspective. With such a large topic it is tricky finding a route into the subject and a plan of enquiry. The chosen road is to start with a look at the financial markets, particularly focusing on the mechanics of some of the instruments that have led to a momentous transformation of the workings of global financial markets in the most recent decades.

At first sight, this approach may seem odd, perverse even, like examining the internal workings of a clock as a prelude to discussion the social relations of time. However this "inside-out" approach is justified by the fact that as well as a system of social relations, capitalism is also a system with internal mechanics. Those mechanics evolve in response to the historical development of struggles over exploitation, but what new directions the new mechanics make possible in terms of capitalist strategies, in turn, shape the new struggles of today and tomorrow. The next article in the series will place these market mechanics in their fuller historical context. But for now let's start by investigating the mechanics of capitalist financial markets.

READ MORE HERE.