Ulhas: >1. How does one know this without having studied in depth each social >formation in the periphery so-called?
Good point. That is why read over 2000 pages on Argentina in order to prepare a series of posts. In general, there is far too much blather on the internet about such questions, even from academics who supposedly are trained in scholarly rigor. >2. Does the ruling class always rule through domination? At least Gramsci >did not think so. I believe he was talking about classes within a given country. When it comes to colonialism (or neocolonialism), naked domination is more often the norm. >3. Cuba is subjected to trade embargo by the US,but not by the EU. China >doesn't face a trade embargo, but enjoys huge trade surplus with the US. >Surely, the so-called Centre has a flexible set of economic policies? The issue is not embargos, but class relationships. Even without an embargo, coffee producing nations are being systematically plundered by imperialism which takes advantage of the tendency of commodity prices to fall under the world capitalist system. As the WSJ article pointed out, times are harded today in Nicaragua because of this than they were during the contra war. >Everyone knows that the US balance of >payment deficit an engine of growth on the Asia-Pacific region and China is >biggest beneficiary there. What domination/subordination model is involved >here? The domination/subordination model kicked in when Nixon visited China. Essentially the country made a decision that economic growth would come from the capitalist sector. I think that a Cuban type alternative was possible, but the Chinese CP was too badly corroded by that point. Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org