Campbell

I begin part two of my examination of the political economy of the global sports industry and the realistic options that are open to the various social classes in Jamaica/Caribbean - in light of the globalisation of capitalist production - by responding to a brief note sent to me by Professor Hilary Beckles, via the columns editor.

Here is the note: "Please bring to Campbell's attention the existence of the following book: Hilary Beckles, The Development of West Indies Cricket; The Age of Globalisation (UWI Press, 1998) which addresses fully the post-Jamesian paradigm he considered Beckles unaware of."

Let me thank Professor Beckles for bringing his book to my attention and I do look forward to reading it. However, let me suggest this to the good professor: we should not automatically assume that because a person uses the term globalisation, that he has a scientific and analytical grasp of the process of capitalist accumulation that drives that process, and the characteristic features of the process of capitalist globalisation.

I issue this caution based upon the following statement by Professor Beckles, which I quoted in part one of this article:

"What we are seeing here is a clash of the traditional values of national representation with the new ultra-individualism unleashed by economic globalisation. The new ideology is citizen first and nation second; cash before country. West Indies has the most vulnerable cricket culture in the global arena because the West Indian nation as a political construct is weakest, and therefore most at risk. Unless there is civic renewal among the youth, and a recommitment to the values of nation building, cricket and country will crash as a failed project.

"In this cash-driven instance, striking players represent that section of youth society that has lost its way; it is misled, misguided, and in need of re-education and political orientation in respect to the legacy of cricket."

It is clear to me that, in spite of the inclusion of the word globalisation in the title of his book, the professor's understanding of capitalist globalisation remains at the level of the ideological, and, as such, he is not able to fully appreciate what the material reality of capitalist globalisation concretely implies for the economic and social reproduction of individuals and the social classes to which they are connected.

DEFINING GLOBALISATION

In a document summarising a seminar on globalisation which we gave at the UWI's Mona School of Business in 2002, Reginald K. Nugent and I attempted to make clear that globalisation is not some kind of subjective policy that was concocted and implemented by the political and business leadership of a couple of powerful nation states. We stated that it was an objective historical process, reflective of the fact that the modern productive forces have outstripped the social relations that are bound up with national or regional geographical boundaries. We pointed out that globalisation is an integral part of an economic revolution that has its material base in the ongoing scientific revolution, specifically the process the process of digitisation.

The consequences of this process are becoming more evident each day. This revolution is radically reshaping all aspects of economic and social life in the modern world, and is compelling organisations of all types to restructure themselves in order to remain viable. Constant innovation and flexibility have become the necessary ingredients for survival in this unpredictable and rapidly changing economic and social environment. Inasmuch as economic, social and cultural life is increasingly becoming globally integrated in this era of telecommunications and modern transportation: entrepreneurs, managers, educators, labour, political and community leaders - in whatever region of the world they reside and work - are being compelled to develop a deeper appreciation of what these processes imply for their own survival in this intensely competitive world. In other words, globalisation completes the process of the capitalist integration of the entire world, and, in the process, it has essentially created a global bourgeoisie along with a global working class - a class which includes the highly trained professionals. The vast majority of the world's professional athletes, as well as the scientists and technologists - irrespective of the size of their incomes - are to be found in the ranks of this global working class. What they are selling on the world market - to the class that owns the modern means of production - is their labour-power (their physical or mental energy).

Locating the Caribbean capitalists and workers in the global sports industry

Neither the Caribbean capitalists nor the working class in the region is directly involved in the making of the means of production, the athletic equipment, or the articles of consumption (apparel, etc.) that constitute various parts of the global supply chain of the globally integrated enterprises. Participation in these spheres of economic activity would require research and development facilities that are tied to the needs of modern industry, and are organised accordingly. Whether it is in the area of R&D or manufacturing, capitalist industries are not sustainable unless they have ready access to a sizeable surplus of both skilled and relatively unskilled labour-power (this surplus is called the reserve army of labour). And, of course, these activities require an enormous outlay of capital.

Global supply chain

The only thing of any significance that the Caribbean supplies to the global sports industry is the labour-power of its athletes in the following sectors: track and field, cricket and soccer. The Spanish-speaking Caribbean, particularly the Dominican Republic (and to a lesser extent Puerto Rico) is a major supplier of labour-power to the professional baseball leagues in North America. The continent of Africa is supplying a significant amount of labour-power to the major soccer leagues throughout Europe. The corporations that are located in the Caribbean and Africa primarily provide sponsorships to individual athletes, but mostly to some of the teams (particularly the national teams) as part of their advertising/marketing strategies for the consumer-oriented commodities that they either make or import into the region.

So, how does the class of Caribbean-based entrepreneurs broaden their participation in the global supply chain, within the various sectors of the global sports industry?

illusion

The first thing that they have to do is to shed the illusion that there are such things as "nationally organised industries" or "national economies" anymore. This obsolete form of thinking has become a major drag on the energies and the resources of all of the social classes in the Caribbean. One of the critical questions facing the modern entrepreneurial leaders and the scientific-minded intelligentsia in the Caribbean is whether the productive forces can be developed on the basis of the national or even regional market. Based upon our continuing daily studies of the process of global economic integration, Reggie Nugent and I (and several of the other scholars who are connected to the 'Caribbean Dialogues' forum, ( such as David Wong and Hilbourne Watson) have concluded that this is absolutely not possible. No country in the modern world can develop on the basis of the national market, not the United States, not Germany, not China. Any thought of a development strategy for Jamaica/the Caribbean that is based on the "national" market or even the regional market is profoundly utopian. To begin with, the region does not possess a sector that produces the modern tools that are used in industry. These tools can only be purchased with the foreign exchange that is earned from a significant amount of exports. In other words, engaging in economic activities that are efficiently and competitively organised in order to qualify as participants in the global supply chain (including the export of labour-power) is the only realistic option. The only social group that benefits from the petty-bourgeois forms of thought that encourage a fixation on the national or regional markets is the self-serving bureaucrats and their academic colleagues at the local and regional levels.

Now, here is an interesting paradox: The more the phenomenal exploits of Usain Bolt propel him into the stratosphere as a mega-salesperson for the most sought-after consumer goods, the less attractive, as sites the manufacturing for these commodities, places like Jamaica and the Caribbean become, for the simple reason that the level of expectations for the "good life" (as advertised by homeboy Usain) will compel the youth in the Caribbean to demand higher wages for whatever energy they expand on behalf of employers. There is no getting around this aspect of the class struggle between the buyers and sellers of labour-power in capitalist economy. One of the things that attracted companies that made balls for the North America-based baseball league was the extremely wretched conditions of the Haitian worker. So, we had the situation where one part of the island of Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic) was producing labour-power for the baseball industry while the other part of the island (Haiti) was producing the baseballs.

central points

Let me conclude by restating some of central points that I made at the beginning of this two-part article. The business of sports cannot be understood outside of the overall structure of the contemporary capitalist economy and the imperatives of the capital accumulation process. Capital accumulation has nothing whatsoever to do with nation-building.

All the organisational efforts that are being envisioned - including the restructuring of the governing bodies of the various sports - will have to be carried out with a much clearer understanding that the only viable way of using the sports industry to develop the productive forces in the region is to deepen the region's integration into the global supply chain of the globally integrated corporations that organise the global sports industry.

Nothing that I have said here is intended to suggest that globalised capitalist production is free of economic crises. What I am insisting, however, is that the solution to these crises is not to yearn for a return to a world that never was.

Trevor A. Campbell does research on and teaches the political economy of science and technology in capitalist society. He moderates the online forum 'Caribbean Dialogues', and can be reached at tcampbell@eee.org.