{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"4a3d22bd-c5b9-47a4-a022-bd35d44d9bfe","title":"Zombie Capitalism Global Crisis and the Relevance of Marx","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781608461042","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"4a3d22bd-c5b9-47a4-a022-bd35d44d9bfe","id":"4a3d22bd-c5b9-47a4-a022-bd35d44d9bfe","uuid":"4a3d22bd-c5b9-47a4-a022-bd35d44d9bfe","title":"Zombie Capitalism Global Crisis and the Relevance of Marx","normalized_title":"zombiecapitalismglobalcrisisandtherelevanceofmarx","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781608461042","isbns":["9781608461042"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":426,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/4a3d22bd-c5b9-47a4-a022-bd35d44d9bfe","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Zombie%20Capitalism%20Global%20Crisis%20and%20the%20Relevance%20of%20Marx","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/4a3d22bd-c5b9-47a4-a022-bd35d44d9bfe/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/4a3d22bd-c5b9-47a4-a022-bd35d44d9bfe/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/4a3d22bd-c5b9-47a4-a022-bd35d44d9bfe","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/4a3d22bd-c5b9-47a4-a022-bd35d44d9bfe/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/4a3d22bd-c5b9-47a4-a022-bd35d44d9bfe/search"},"page":{"printed_page":243,"pdf_page":243,"physical_index":243,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"bd7b5bab256ae3a98d123fa056fd89142c24dc5a893d718fc6af69d997ea9dac"},"chapter":"Zombie Capitalism Global Crisis and the Relevance of Marx","content":"30 percent of air conditioners and televisions, 25 percent of washing machines and 20 percent of refrigerators.36 Chinese cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou or even Xian in the interior no longer bore much resemblance to Third World stereotypes. The forests of skyscrapers in Beijing or Shanghai made London's much vaunted Docklands development look like Toytown, while the vast industrial developments around Shanghai had few comparisons in Western Europe. Dramatic changes were taking place in what was previously assumed to be a \"backward\" country of limited economic significance to the world system.\n\nChina, like most other industrialising Third World countries, had suffered a crisis just as the long boom was coming to an end in the West. A quarter of a century of what Marx had called primitive accumulation had transformed tens of millions of peasants into wage workers and built up some of the bases of modern industry-but this industry was no match in terms of efficiency for that in many other parts of the world system. The sheer scale of exploitation of the mass of the population led to all sorts of pressures building up from below, while the inability to keep up the pace of industrialisation led to repeated crises within the ruling group. These culminated in massive political upheavals in the years 1966-75 (from the \"Cultural Revolution\" to the rise and fall of the \"Gang of Four\") which were only finally resolved after Mao Zedong's death in 1976.\n\nThe resolution of the crisis consisted of ad hoc moves to a new structure of accumulation. A series of reforms pushed through in 1978-81 began with relief for peasants through a raising of the purchasing price paid by the state for their produce. The peasants were now free to decide how to use some of the surplus left after (just about) feeding themselves. There was a huge rise in agricultural production, and the increased incomes provided a market for some of the under-utilised industrial capacity. A loosening of state controls allowed it to satisfy this demand, and overall output soared ahead.\n\nIncreasing social diferentiation within the peasantry led some to accumulate a surplus and then to use the new freedoms from state control to invest in establishing locally based \"village industries\". Formally owned by village governments, in practice these provided a means of self-enrichment by those with connections to the local party apparatus. A new market capitalism grew up in the south east of the country alongside the old state capitalism centred mainly in the north, and the regime allowed the new industries to link up with overseas Chinese capitalist interests in Hong Kong and elsewhere.\n\nThe Years of Delusion\n\n243","previous_page":242,"next_page":244}