Reasking Imperialism: The Age of Transnational Capital and Class Exploitation
Source
Imperialism, Anti-Imperialism, and Transnational Class Exploitation
Why this was selected
The theoretical core of a 12-part serial translation of the special symposium on imperialism from the Marxist journal *Science and Society*. Robinson judges Lenin's theory of state monopoly capitalism as 'not wrong but outdated,' and proposes the transnational capitalist class (TCC) framework as an alternative. He concretizes the proposition that 'the exploiting is a class, and the exploited is also a class' through the case of Rwandan-Congolese cobalt mining, and directly criticizes the Manichaean anti-imperialism of 'America vs. the rest' — that is, the leftist trend that ends up pro-Russia and pro-China. It simultaneously meets three criteria: theoretical sophistication, alignment with reality (the US-China hegemonic rivalry and tariff war phase), and the only complete Korean translation of the symposium.
Context
This article directly converses with our site's current 'Imperialism Reorganization 2026' series (episodes 1-7). While the series tracks the structure, facts, and impact of the US-China rivalry on the Korean Peninsula, Robinson asks what theoretical language should be used to read that rivalry. Reading it alongside the series brings out a productive tension in the analytical framework. The symposium also includes opposing positions from Callinicos (inter-state competition still valid), Lapavitsas (economic competition leads), and Valdez (imperialist origins of democracy), all of which can serve as a reading guide for the series.