WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE POLAND - news journal UPDATE - (en) Poland, FA: Between globalization and deglobalization (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 As some statistics indicate, the level of international capital flow has

clearly decreased in recent years. Has globalization collapsed? ---- The
term "globalization" is associated with the intensification of
international trade relations, the exchange of goods and services, the
transfer of capital between countries, also in the form of direct
investment. Corporations from rich countries invested in poorer
countries, establishing or taking over factories, mines, logistics
centers and offices there. They could exploit natural resources and
human labor, and transfer financial profits back to rich countries. In
order to facilitate globalization, many customs barriers and other
restrictions were removed, and international agreements and institutions
such as the WTO (International Trade Organization) supervised the free
flow of capital and goods.

However, as some statistics indicate, the level of capital flow across
borders has clearly decreased in recent years. This was noted, among
others, a year ago by The Economist magazine[1]. This is also indicated
by some data from the International Monetary Fund[2]. Could it be that
the current global exchange system has collapsed?

A lifeline for capital
To answer the above questions, we must return to the year 2008. The
global crisis that broke out at that time led to economic disruptions
and was manifested primarily by the fact that the growth rate of many
national economies began to slow down. A collapse was imminent, and not
only on the stock exchanges. Governments began to take action to save
the world. Trillions of dollars of public money flowed in to save banks
and, for example, the declining automotive industry. The second transfer
to support business took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a
result, countries returned to protectionist policies. Each began to
defend its own capitalism and market.

As a result, among other things, the current global capitalist system
collapsed. On the political level, the ideology of national
particularism, expressed in nationalism, came to the fore. In many
countries, right-wing forces have seized power, and economic rivalry is
transforming into regular armed conflicts before our eyes: in Ukraine,
Yemen, Libya, Syria, Palestine, in African countries, etc. Military
spending has increased. It is currently higher than at the end of the
"Cold War"[3].

Until recently, it was not clear to everyone that globalization and a
certain model of global capitalism had come to an end. Today, it is
difficult to find anyone who believes in the vaunted freedom of trade.
Sanctions and tariffs are multiplying. The US trade war with the rest of
the world is ongoing. However, it began during Donald Trump's first
term, or perhaps even earlier.

Trump vs. globalization
Therefore, unresolved contradictions have accumulated on a broad
economic, but also social and political basis, which are resulting in
increased international and internal tensions. Unfortunately, the
current crisis is having a negative impact primarily on the lowest
classes of societies in many countries. There are growing epidemics,
hunger and malnutrition, ecological degradation, inflation and falling
real incomes. Finally, armed conflicts break out, social inequalities
increase, and social gains are threatened.

Moreover, along with barriers to the flow of goods and capital,
restrictions related to the freedom of movement of people are growing.
Borders were tightened along with the construction of a series of fences
and walls. Hostility towards migrants and refugees has increased. In
short, we are currently observing the greatest destabilization since
World War II. We can therefore speak of a complete retreat from
globalization, i.e. deglobalization.

But in view of the above, should deglobalization be treated as a
phenomenon - from the point of view of the so-called ordinary person -
negative? First, it must be clearly stated that globalization and
deglobalization are just two different regimes of capital circulation
and accumulation. They are two sides of the same coin. The processes of
globalization and deglobalization have already occurred within
capitalism. These are not new phenomena historically.

Secondly, some claim that the current form of globalisation is specific
in that deglobalisation has become impossible. Despite their attempts,
Trump and the US will not be able to destroy it, even if they wanted to.
There is no turning back from international or interstate economic
dependencies. The global order is being built not only by states, but
also by other powerful entities such as international corporations.
Capital no longer has nationality. Therefore, they argue, globalisation
will not collapse, or at least it will not collapse in the way it did in
the past. The entire capitalism will collapse faster.

Bridges and roads instead of liberal values
Thirdly, it must be remembered that globalisation has not been
beneficial to all countries in the world and to all social classes
equally. As Italian leftist researcher Andrea Ricci has argued, the
countries of the capitalist core, the broadly understood West, gained
from capital flows and trade, while others lost. For example, in 2019,
per capita in the West it was plus 3,810 USD, while in the poor
periphery countries lost minus 571 USD per capita in the same period[4].

What is more, globalization was not beneficial even for all Westerners.
The abolition of customs barriers within the WTO allowed entire
industries to be transferred from the countries of the capitalist core
to the southern periphery. Capital could thus realize a higher rate of
profit. But in the West, deindustrialization took place. Millions of
jobs were eliminated. Incomes of many social groups fell. The social
security system was undermined. Trump would now like to reverse this
process by imposing horrendous tariffs on goods and forcing capital to
invest directly in the United States so that the US would once again
become an industrial powerhouse. Is this even possible?

What's more, it is also said that globalization, if it brought any
benefits, has not reached some countries at all. Thanks to China,
African countries have only recently been able to benefit from it -
thanks to the influx of Chinese capital and technology. Paradoxically,
this was best expressed by today's Vice President of the United States
J. D. Vance, who said in November 2024: "We have created[he meant the
USA]a foreign policy based on admonishing, moralizing and lecturing
countries that want nothing to do with it. The Chinese are conducting a
foreign policy based on building roads, bridges and feeding poor people"[5].

Globalization to date has promoted the West and given it not only
economic benefits, but also cultural expansion and political domination.
Economic expansion has been accompanied by the expansion of liberal
values, which, however, on the "peripheries" were perceived as the
dictate of the "white man". China proposes globalization that is to be
based on principles other than Western ones. In his book "Adam Smith in
Peking", Giovanni Arrighi had some hopes for this new model. However,
there can be no illusions - the new Chinese, "Eastern" regime of
globalization and capital accumulation will probably not be less brutal
than the "Western". The mixture of Maoism and capitalism does not bode
well. This is not a recipe for a free, equal and just world, as
postulated by the alter-globalist movement. As fought for today by the
anarchist movement.

Jaroslaw Urbanski

www.rozbrat.org

Footnotes:

[1]https://www.economist.com/special-report/2024/05/03/the-movement-of-capital-globally-is-in-decline

[2]https://enterprise.press/stories/2017/08/24/globalization-in-retreat-capital-flows-decline-since-crisis/

[3]https://www.rozbrat.org/publicystyka/polityka/4899-nowy-wyscig-broen

[4]Andrea Ricci, "Value And Unequal Exchange In International Trade. The
Geography of Global Capitalist Exploitation", Routledge 2021, p. 217.

[5]https://nevillegafa.com/2024/11/06/j-d-vance-about-us-foreign-policy/

https://federacja-anarchistyczna.pl/2025/06/17/miedzy-globalizacja-i-deglobalizacja/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca