Imperialismo en el siglo XXI

Abstract

The globalization of production and its spread to low-income countries is the most notable transformation of the neoliberal era. Its driving force is the efforts by companies in Europe, North America and Japan to cut costs and raise profits, replacing relatively well-paid domestic labor for cheaper foreign labor. The gap in global wages, in great part the result of the suppression of the free movement of labor, provides a distorted view of the global differences in the rate of exploitation (simply, the difference between the value generated by the workers and what they are paid) upon which profits, prosperity and social peace in Europe, North America and Japan are ever-more reliant. Thus, neoliberal globalization should be seen as a new imperialist stage in capitalist development, where «imperialism» is defined by its economic foundation: the exploitation of labor in the South by capitalists from the North.