CB: Here's my proposal for defining a qualitatively new phase of imperialism:
1) The scientific and technological revolution especially in transportation and communication "machinery" has resulted in Marx's "cooperation" turning into its opposite, being overcome by machinery. The capitalist do not have to group large numbers of workers in large factories to maximize the extraction of relative surplus value( See Marx's discussion of relative surplus value and the factory system in _Capital_ I). This technological development allowed the capitalists to geographically and territorially scatter the points of production., undermining the classic Leninist factory scenario , the workers' direct sensing of their strength in numbers , working class ghettos 2) The military interimperialist rivalry, world wars between imperialists of Lenin's day has been turned into its opposite , a relative military unity and alliance due to the imperialist response to the Soviet Union, and other socialist and nationally liberated countries, i.e. the imperialist hot and cold wars against them. AND the collapse of the Soviet center of that system. 3) The Mark Jones thesis of crisis in production of the strategic resource, oil.
