NEW BOOK: CAN GLOBAL CAPITALISM ENDURE? / William I. Robinson

WILL THE GLOBAL ELITES SEEK TO SAVE THE SYSTEM WHILE ABANDONING THE MASSES? Global capitalism is facing an unprecedented crisis. The global economy is mired in prolonged stagnation. The worldwide social fabric is in decay. Civil strife and social upheaval are tearing up political systems and, in some cases, leading to the collapse of states. The planetary ecosystem is breaking down. Millions are fleeing, displaced by climate change, transnational corporate land grabs, wars and political persecution. How far into the future can global capitalism endure? In this urgent new study, sociologist William I. Robinson presents a "big picture" snapshot of the crisis of capitalism and the battle for the future of humanity. Drawing on 30 years of scholarship and activism, Robinson applies his original theory of global capitalism to the emerging digital age. He shows how global elites have pinned their hope on economic reactivation through the application of radical new digital technologies and financial strategies to the global economy and society. The rulers will turn to enhancing a global police state to contain mass rebellion as humanity enters a season of chaos and global civil war. THERE IS AN EVENTUAL TURNING POINT The capitalist class and privileged strata of humanity may be able to survive collapse for decades to come even as a majority of humanity faces desperate struggles for survival that lead many to perish in the coming years. But there is eventually a terminal point to capitalist expansion as mass extinction and the radical alteration of the natural environment make life for our species and most others impossible. The only solution is a reversal of escalating inequalities through a radical redistribution of wealth and power downward as a first step in replacing the capitalist system, with its relentless pursuit of private profit at all cost, by an ecosocialism that prioritizes social need and harmony with the rest of nature. Theoretically sophisticated and engaging, this concise study will be satisfying to scholars yet accessible to a broader public concerned with the urgent political affairs of our day. "William Robinson offers a concise, authoritative, and persuasive account of the ills, economic, ecological, and geopolitical, afflicting global capitalism, and shows that they are potentially fatal to both humankind and the system itself – compelling reading for anyone who wants to decipher the gathering storm clouds."  ALEX CALLINICOS, Professor of European Studies, King's College, London "Few scholars are better qualified than William I. Robinson to summarize the Marxist economic critique and to apply it to the current terminal crisis of the capitalist system."   KEES VAN DER PIJL,  States of Emergency:  Keeping the Global Population in Check "Every paragraph of  Can Global Capitalism Endure? sizzles with insights. Here is William I. Robinson at his best: empirically sensitive, theoretically original, politically committed".  JASON W. MOORE from the Foreword William I. Robinson William I. Robinson is Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Global Studies, and Latin American Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Among his many award-winning books are Latin America and Global Capitalism (2008), Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity (2014), The Global Police State (2020), and Global Civil War (2021). He has written hundreds of articles, commentaries, and book chapters on politics, economics, world affairs, and globalization, and has worked for many years with social justice movements in Latin America and the United States.