A Supermarket Visit Brought Down the Soviet Union

Re:A Supermarket Visit Brought Down the Soviet Union by sudosysgen on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @02:05AM (#34409858)

Banana republics are exploitative in literally every definition of exploitation, because there was literal military violence involved. And even nowadays, Marxist analysis is far from the only framework in which workers in the global south are exploited. In fact almost any theory of exploitation except for the most radical libertarian/neoliberal would see an element of exploitation.

It turns out that since 1980 there has been economic growth, making the production and shipping of various commodities more affordable.

If banana republics weren't necessary to keep bananas affordable and profitable they would never have existed in the first place.

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Re:A Supermarket Visit Brought Down the Soviet Union by kragen on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @11:05AM (#34414190)

you are reasoning from the implied functionalist premise that forms of domination exist because they are necessary

this is a false premise

forms of domination exist not because they are necessary but because they are achievable—because those who support them are better organized and resourced than those who oppose them

those of us here in the 'global south' are generally not a fan of the term, lumping together as it does botswana, myanmar, the philippines, and argentina under a single rubric; it reflects a cartoonishly shallow analysis of the real social relations in the world system

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