Ep 151 - Invisible Empire w/ Tony Norfield

This Wreckage

Sean KB and AP Andy

Arts, Music

4.2 • 970 Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2021

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sean speaks with Tony Norfield (@StubbornFacts) who worked for decades in international banking and has seen first hand the way capital exploits the world, about the intersection of finance and empire. His book, 2016's The City, is more than just an update Lenin and Hilferding's work on imperialism, it provides a crucial Marxist analysis and critique of the capitalist world system, interest-bearing capital, international institutions, and more.

In this interview we discuss the long duree of Brexit, where the British ruling class fits in the hegemonic world order, the connection between market power and state violence, the rise of 'neoliberalism', and critique the idea that capitalism is being replaced by 'neofeudalism' or 'rentier capitalism'.

Bonus episode on the spicy question, 'is China imperialist,' is also available, so become a patron today at www.patreon.com/theantifada for access to this and more!

Buy the book: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2457-the-city

Articles mentioned in the discussion:

https://economicsofimperialism.blogspot.com/2016/07/value-theory-finance-and-imperialism.html

https://anti-imperialist-action-ireland.com/blog/2020/08/01/china-and-us-power-with-tony-norfield/

https://economicsofimperialism.blogspot.com/2014/09/t-shirt-economics-update.html

Outro: Dirtbombs - Living Just Enough for the City (Stevie Wonder)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the Antifada.
0:05.0	Sean K. B here with one of my occasional solo episodes.
0:11.0	Close observers of the show will recognize what this means.
0:14.0	I have an excellent guest and will be diving deep into history and political economy.
0:18.0	So apologies in advance if you feel compelled to listen to this episode at half speed.
0:23.0	Today I'm pleased to have as our guest Tony Northfield.
0:26.0	Tony worked for decades in international finance and has combined his real world experience in the trenches.
0:33.3	The trenchant marks his critique of the capitalist financial system
0:36.6	in his excellent 2016 book, The City, out from Verso.
0:41.2	His analysis of class power and capitalist imperialism is as relevant
0:45.2	today as it was five years ago, so I'm super excited to have him on. Tony, welcome
0:49.1	to the show. Hi, I'm pleased to do they here.
0:53.0	Really good to have you. I heard you on Cosmo Pod a few weeks ago and I said if they could have Tony
0:58.5	Norfield, then so can we. It was a good episode.
1:03.0	Before we get to the main event, just a reminder to everyone out there that our show relies on your support.
1:09.0	If you haven't done so yet, please become a patron at patreon.com slash the Antifada you'll get access to
1:15.6	bonus content access to our discord server and our undying love and affection so
1:21.8	Tony first off tell us a bit about your book and what inspired it.
1:25.9	Well, basically I've been a Marxist really all my adult life and I was heavily involved in
1:38.8	politics for over 10 years.
1:48.0	Getting on a bit now, that ended around the time of the minor strike in Britain when
1:57.4	the whole thing was falling apart and there basically seemed to be no real grounds for continuing in what I was doing before. Then various other things come along, you know, you need to get jobs and things and whatever.
	...

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