A banger conversation where Radhika Desai challenges common narratives regarding world development communistly. She made a lot of interesting arguments and I took some notes that I’m gonna share here:

  • imperialism is when nationstates manage capitalism’s contradictions at the expense of subordinate territories

  • once capitalism develops in one country, other countries are forced to either become subordinate (buy their excess commodities, surrender resources) or develop themselves (protectionist, state-directed industrialization)

  • maintaining unevenness is imperialism, resisting this underdevelopment is anti-imperialism

  • global development is not the spread of markets, not the rule of successive hegemonies, but the spread of multipolarity

  • golden age of capitalism was after WWII and was actually ruined by capitalism, not caused by it

    • it came about from socialist policies that wringed monopolies: regulations, full employment, welfare, universal education, healthcare, price controls
    • neoliberalism is the rolling back of these measures to protect capitalism, prevent further socialist development

Highly recommend you guys listen in! This video made a lot of ideas click for me.

Btw here’s a free link to her book