The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South by Vijay Prashad (2012)

Book Review #2

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Vijay Prashad:

An Indian-born Marxist historian and journalist who’s taught at multiple universities in both the United States and abroad. He has authored thirty books throughout his career, including the soon-to-be released Washington Bullets (2020). He currently is the executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and the Chief Editor of LeftWord Books

Summary

Prashad takes an in-depth look at the global south from his unique Marxist perspective. Literature has been scarce on the relations between the north and south in terms of the influences advanced capitalism has had on so called developing nations. The book is fast paced and a relatively easy read for beginner Marxists who are looking to understand the role that the global south has played. He gives a background of neoliberalism’s failures and how Washington forced neoliberal “reforms” onto nations in the global south. While referencing titular events like the Brandt Commission or Bretton Woods, he also provides excellent background to how those key decisions shaped the world we see today. Because the west is so insulated in their individualistic capitalist model, Prashad is able to critique capitalism from a harsher angle not often discussed in Keynesian economics classes.

The Meat

Prashad begins by looking at the demise of what he calls “North Atlantic liberalism”, that came out of the postwar era and the decline of European colonialism. By focusing on the early 1970’s with the collapse of the petrodollar and the Brandt Commission, he sets the stage for what the global economy would be after this period of chaos. He notes:

“The Brandt Commission formed at a crucial time in the twentieth century. During the 1970s, a battle raged, not only between east and west, who’s Cold War had become hotter during that decade, but crucially between the advanced capitalist states, led by the United States and the Third World.”

This hegemonic framework is important for Prashad because he is trying to present not just how the bi-polar world between the USSR and Washington worked, but how the third world factored into their interests. He continues by briefly referencing some of the proxy wars the two sides engaged in over those tumultuous years (i.e. Angola, Rhodesia, Ethiopia etc..). However within this time period, Prashad explains how the cutting of the dollar loose from the gold exchange standard, changed everything for the future. By this time, the third world project had become a lot stronger and challenged the existing international order. It was no longer enough for Washington to engage in proxy wars, they felt that they needed to change the rules of the game and reshape capitalism into a more globalized economy. Prashad steers away from how technology made that become possible, because he doesn’t want to focus on globalization in this book. Liberal voices from the New Deal era were getting shut out and the new neoliberals (who are basically laissez-faire capitalists), tried to re-establish the power of the global north. Prashad notes, “The periphery needed to be put in its place.” This was a major inflection point in world history and leaders like Julius Nyerere, Indira Gandhi and Fidel Castro knew it. This new type of “global Keynesianism’ was going to keep the global south as permanent service sector economies and riddled with foreign debt.

Throughout the next three chapters the book focuses on the initiatives of social movements, members of the intelligentsia and various left-wing governments that have pushed to provide alternatives to the neoliberal model. Agencies like the South Commission were used throughout the 1980s to try and define a clear strategy to subvert neoliberalism. Many of the oppressive Washington-backed regimes would impose austerity and use force to keep the lower classes down. These meetings would only prove to provide marginal improvements and by the 1990s, globalization had completely taken over. The countries that were developing, service sector economies would remain that way and those who bent toward more free market reforms (i.e. China), would “catch up” to the other capitalist nations. The emergence of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in the 2000s would be an example of how those who embraced neoliberal economic reforms, wouldn’t draw any ire from Washington. It was basically either a play or pay dynamic. If you recognized your spot in the Washington-led global order, you would be left alone. If you challenged that order you would have propaganda campaigns and even coups levied against your country.

Conclusion

Prashad concludes the book with providing the reader with his “dream history of the global south.” It’s his way of laying out the damage neoliberalism has caused and the alternate paths that could have been taken with socialist and Marxist-Leninist movements. The suppression of third world voices also let to the disintegration of a united front against the neoliberal, western model. Without strong leaders, nothing fundamental could change. In the early 1990s, the harsh effects of neoliberalism were so stark that everyone could see them. Even the UN was seen in the global south as a vehicle in which aid was provided from the west but in return for foreign debt accumulation and thus creating a third world reliance on first world “charity.” Prashad notes:

“The conditions against which this bitterness festered and these rebellions developed were well organized by the UN’s family of organizations. By late 1992, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) had found that over 780 million people, mainly in Africa, South Asia and Latin America, do not have enough food to meet their basic daily needs for energy and protein.”

This stark reminder of how poverty continued to grow in the third world, would lead to even more financialization of the economy and a reliance on liberal aid from the west. It was easier to ignore the background forces involved and just keep sending older soccer jerseys to kids in Africa. Throughout the rest of this chapter, Prashad decides to highlight examples of what “could have been” in the global south. Movements against neoliberalism and specific trade pacts like NAFTA, from those like the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). They arose out of the anger of Mexican farmers in the state of Chiapas who were losing their land and their independence to farm as they please. With these liberation movements, Prashad has some hopes for what the future holds. The book is not all bleak and it does offer some solutions. If I had a bone to pick with Prashad though, it’s in the title he chose. The “poorer nations” does not delineate between the global south and the global north. This is because there are also service sector economies in the “global north.” They mainly consist of the former eastern bloc countries of the old USSR, who are undeveloped as compared to the rest of Europe. Overall, I enjoyed the book. And I would certainly recommend as a precursor to this book, Prashad’s other work, The Darker Nations (2007), which highlights the accomplishments of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and their influence on de-colonization and the strengthening of the third world in the 1950s and 60s. Both provide an excellent background to creation of the capitalist world order we know today.

5/5