MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

(Photo: eirigipics )

Although it might be conventional wisdom that Western colonialism no longer exists, this is a dangerous myth. Colonialism persists in the form of the continued oppression of Indigenous peoples worldwide. Moreover, when it comes to the relationship of Europe and the US to the Global South, the old system of direct colonial rule has actually been replaced with financial control over many of the same countries that were colonized. The onerous financial conditions placed on many developing nations through the World Bank and International Monetary Fund -- including austerity measures and spending requirements for goods from developing nations -- represent the colonialist notion of knowing what's in the best interest of other countries. Like colonialism, it also happens to financially benefit the former ruling powers.

The globalization of exploitative labor further reinforces the relationship of capitalism to erstwhile colonialism. The squalid working conditions and meager wages of many workers in the Global South is the focus of a revealing book by John Smith, Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Super-Exploitation, and Capitalism’s Final Crisis, which is this week's Truthout Progressive Pick. Capitalism provides the vehicle for much contemporary imperialism, but is often not perceived as such because it is not as directly visible as, say, an occupying army (although, of course, the US and Europe still occupy countries militarily as well). Colonialism used to be dependent upon direct rule of areas and countries by agents, bureaucracies and militaries representing the colonial power. Now, colonialism largely consists of financial dependencies and labor markets characterized by poverty.

In an excerpt featured on Truthout, Smith reflects on the 2014 collapse of a substandard garment factory building in Bangladesh that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,300 workers:

The collapse of Rana Plaza not only shone a light on the pitiless and extreme exploitation of Bangladeshi workers. It also unleashed a powerful pulse of x-rays that lit up the hidden structure of the global capitalist economy, revealing the extent to which the capital/labor relation has become a relation between northern capital and southern labor -- in no other sector has production shifted so completely to low-wage workers in oppressed nations while control and profits remain firmly in the grip of firms in imperialist countries.

Smith notes that "just 2 percent of the clothing worn in the United States is actually made there." Ultimately, however, this unsustainable economic imbalance of the global manufacturing labor force will implode, Smith argues.

Smith presciently asserts,

Outsourcing has boosted profits of firms across the imperialist world and helped to sustain the living standards of its inhabitants, but this has led to deindustrialization, has intensified capitalism's imperialist and parasitic tendencies, and has piled up global imbalances that threaten to plunge the world into destructive trade wars.

This leads Smith to conclude:

Neither...is the future pre-determined, but that does not mean that there are infinite number of possible futures. In fact, there are just two: socialism or barbarism.

If capitalist production continues to grow more dependent upon the "super-exploitation" of workers in many nations in the Global South, it will lead to a grave international financial crisis that Smith refers to as "a crisis of imperialism." The manner in which profitable corporations such as Apple use competitive sub-contracting to suppress wages and boost profits -- while often giving nothing more than lip service to ensure safe and humane working conditions overseas -- creates a race to the bottom in labor force manufacturing. (Countries in the Global South are hardly getting a "boost" up the capitalist ladder.) After all, as Smith observes, if globalization represented a free market, then why aren't third-world workers paid a livable wage for their generally high productivity? That is because corporations are investing in labor pools that ensure an enormous profit. They are not building up economies in need or paying outsourced overseas workers a livable wage.

Smith describes how a Sword of Damocles hangs over poor nations:

The social power of capital is enforced through the so-called rule of law, which exalts the sanctity of private property and negates the sanctity of human life. Any people that dares to defy laws protecting capitalist property, e.g. by defaulting on debts or by expropriating assets, is subject to the most severe economic penalties, and, if that is not sufficient, is threatened with subversion, terrorism and invasion. The transition from colonialism of yesteryear to the neocolonialism of today is analogous to the transition from slavery to wage-slavery, and merely signifies that capitalism has largely dispensed with archaic, pre-capitalist forms of domination and exploitation, while taking great care to preserve its monopoly of military force for use in cases of revolutionary challenge to its rule.

Colonialism hasn't ended; it has just morphed into a less visible form.