James Petras is Binghamton University, New York Professor Emeritus of Sociology whose credentials and achievements are long and impressive. He’s a noted academic figure on the left and a well-respected Latin American expert. He’s also a prolific author of hundreds of articles and 64 books including his latest one titled “Multinationals on Trial: Foreign Investment Matters,” co-authored with Henry Veltmeyer, and subject of this review.

 

Henry Veltmeyer has collaborated with Petras before on previous books. They include “Globalization Unmasked,” “Social Movements and State Power,” “A System in Crisis” and others. He’s Professor of Sociology and International Development Studies at Saint Mary’s University, Canada and Universidad Autonoma de Zacatecas, Mexico. He’s also Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of International Development Studies and, like Petras, is a prolific author of many books and articles focused mainly on Latin American issues, globalized trade, alternative models and approaches and progressive social movements.

 

“Multinationals on Trial” deals with a core issue of our time – the economic power of giant corporations, their dominant role as agents and partners of imperialism, and the way they plunder developing nations. The book is a powerful indictment of unfettered “free market” capitalism and how foreign direct investment (FDI) is its main exploitive tool. Below is a detailed review of its compelling contents.

 

The authors state upfront how controversial corporate giants are, especially with regard to their “type of capital,” how they use it operationally, and “the conditions associated with it.” Specifically, the book deals with foreign direct investment (FDI) and debunks the following commonly held notions:

 

— that it’s “indispensable” to accessing essential financial resources;

 

— that it brings with it “collateral benefits” like “technology transfers” and job creation; and

 

— that overall it’s a “catalyst of development” and thus an “indispensable” vehicle of growth and way for developing nations to integrate into the “new world economic order.”

 

Rather than aiding these nations, the authors call FDI “a mechanism for empire-centred capital accumulation, a powerful lever for political control and for reordering the world economy.” They offer an alternative approach in the final chapter, free from FDI imperial bondage.

 

Chapter 1 – Empire and Imperialism

 

The oldest empires go back centuries before the better known ones in ancient Rome, Persia and the one Alexander the Great built, but the authors deal only with the modern post-WW II era dominated by the US. Imperial Britain was shattered, colonialism was unraveling, Soviet Russia was devastated, and America stood alone as the world’s preeminent economic, political and military superpower with every intention to keep it that way.

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