Chinese revolutionary

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For world rivalry between powers, tending towards war. All are different forms of expansion of the nation-state.

In a series of geometric diagrams, he discusses how the "imperialism' of various powers at various times has moved between these four poles.

The gist of this argument seems to be Arrighi's thesis that the finance capital of the earlier 20th century and the multinational corporations of today produce different movements between the four poles.

High finance, he argues, was ted by excess savings at home (because of 'underconsumption' JOHN HARRIS Lenin

Concepts

Arrighi's argument seems to me to be too far from concrete analysis - he has a selection of empirical facts, five or six general concepts to slot them into, and nothing in between. But he does open some questions to think about.

His conclusion is that Lenin's theory of imperialism is "irrelevant" today - precisely because it predicted trends in its own time so well, and those trends (inter-imperialist war, national liberation struggles) have now changed the world.

Arrighi's focus on change is useful: Wallerstein. in contrast, sees the shape of the world economic system as essentially unchanged since the 16th century or thereabouts. The basic structure of core and periphery is the same: everything else slots into that.

This, perhaps, is the central flaw of Wallerstein's theory. Undoubtedly his theory does give some picture of the facts of the world economy - and does show up the classical Marxist view of capitalist development in the Third World as rather simplistic, unilinear and 'over-optimistic' But Wallerstein focuses on the relatively timeless contrast of rich and poor, rather than the dynämics of class relations -which show the possible paths and agencies of revolutionary change.

Arrighi points to change. But his conclusion that the capitalist world today has moved outside 'over-ripe' and (owing to the backward state of agriculture and the poverty of the masses) capital cannot find a field for 'profitable' investment."

Some people have taken this to be the gist of his theory. If they are right, then Lenin's theory is largely irrelevant after World War 2 - and, moreover, unless some compensatory fundamental change in capitalism is shown to have happened (for Arrighi it is increased state spending), then it is impossible to explain why decolonisation and the geographical contraction of the capitalist world market after World War 2 did not lead to US/West European capitalism choking on its uninvestible riches.

Expansion

But also in Lenin's 'Imperialism' - and, with much less addition of the 'glut of capital' theory, in Bukharin's writings - is the idea of the root process being the expansion of the productive forces to the level where nation-state units have become outdated and too small.

That idea is certainly not "irrelevant" today. An analysis of how the contradiction between productive forces and national frontiers has developed could perhaps give substance to Arrighi's 'geometry' It could also create a broader synthesis, embracing Lenin's theory of inter-imperialist rivalry and integrating elements from the Wallerstein theory of underdevelopment into a framework of class, not populist, analysis. Garth Frankland reviews a valuable autobiography The autobiography of Wang Fan-hsi - 'Chinese Revolutionary. Memoirs 1919-49' • published in 1980 by Oxford University Press - is now available in Remainder Shops throughout Britain for around £2.50.

The book, which originally cost £15, did not achieve the wide sale that its importance merited. In contrast, Chinese, German and Japanese editions have sold many thousands of copies.

Wang joined the Trotskyists while at the 'Communist University for the Toilers of the East' in the USSR during 1928. From then he never waived in his determination to defend the interests of revolutionary Marxism. Despite years in jail under the Kuomintang and the massive repression caused by the Japanese invasion of China, he continued to fight to build a revolutionary Marxist organisation in China.

Despite the enormous difficulties in carrying out a struggle simultaneously against the Stalinists, the Kuomintang and the Japanese invaders he and his comrades built an organisation of several hundred cadres.

They were dogged by the splits and divisions of the sort that plagued the rest of the world Trotskyist movement. But of course these divisions were those of small harassed groups of comrades trying to face up to huge events.

Wang himself deals with some of the theoretical problems otsky on S The classic Marxist analy of Stalinism is Leon Trotsky's 'Revolution Betrayed: What is the Soviet Union and Where £2.50 plus 50p postage. involved in these intra-Trotskyist disputes and comes up with some new insights which may be of value in today's struggle.

But although challenging some of the 'orthodox' positions of the Chinese Trotskyists he rooted his politics deeply in the theory of permanent revolution.

Comrades should go out now and buy this book. There are many things to be learnt from it.

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