New Delhi, 30th
July - THE
Communist Party of India (Marxist) organised a lecture by noted economist Prof.
Prabhat Patnaik on "Capitalism, Inequality and Globalisation" in New
Delhi's Constitution Club on July 30, as part of the Jyoti Basu birth centenary
celebrations.
In his short welcome
address, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said Jyoti Basu symbolised the
working class movement in India and its achievements. He said Basu, who was
first elected to the Bengal Provincial Assembly in 1946 from the Railway
Workers constituency, was an outstanding leader of the Communist movement in
India.
Giving the Jyoti Basu
centenary lecture, in the light of French economist Thomas Piketty's empirical
book Capital in the Twenty-First Century which has attracted much international
attention, Patnaik said "inequality has a tendency to increase under
capitalism", and it is intimately linked to the process of globalisation.
Patnaik argues, though
Piketty's hypothesis that inequality is set to rise in the coming year is
agreeable, his theoretical basis -- the "neo-classical" paradigm --
within which his argument is set is a largely discredited one; and even within
this paradigm his specific position is based on assumptions which are highly
untenable.
The theoretical basis of
Piketty is "wrong" having "dangerous political
implications", he says.
The
"neo-classical" paradigm, Patnaik said, blames trade union activities
for persistent unemployment and advocates for "labour market
flexibility". He says it is a pity that Piketty, despite his concern with
wealth inequality, adopts this theory that only serves the agenda of corporate
capital. He said the votaries of capitalism want to stamp out trade unions
through "free hire and fire", which the BJP government in Rajasthan
is at present trying to introduce.
Patnaik says mobility of
capital in the present age of globalisation and large-scale privatisation have
contributed to the weakening of trade unions. In support of his claim, he says
while, in the USA, 33 percent of workforce in the public sector is unionised,
it is only seven percent in the private sector.
He says the expansion of big
capital across the world and, on the contrary, restriction of workers'
movements to a particular country have further weakened the effectiveness of
trade unions.
Patnaik says while world
wealth and income inequalities are all set to rise sharply in the coming years
as Piketty prognosticates, but, he argues, these are for reasons which are
exact opposite of what the French economist believes.
He argues that the rise in
income and wealth inequalities could not be attributed to, as Piketty has done
in his Capital, the slowing down of world population growth leading to
tightness in world labour markets, but for precisely the opposite reason –
namely that there will be no tightness in world labour markets and no
diminution in world labour reserves.
The programme was well
attended. Veteran CPI leader A B Bardhan was among others who attended the
lecture.
