Making Notes: What is Caribbean Dependency Thought? Part Three

Where does CDT stand?

For Greene (1984) it is classified among the main theoretical streams in Caribbean social science which include cultural pluralism, plantation, and Marxism.

For Bernal, Figueroa, and Witter (1984) it is placed within the “critical tradition” in Caribbean economic thought, locating it as the stage that followed W. Arthur Lewis’ work on Caribbean industrialization and preceded Marxist political economy.

It has also been characterized as:

-An ideology of epistemic and economic decolonization and of economic nationalism. But which values and interests were served by the new ideology, those of the nation as a whole, of the validating elites, or of the dispossessed black masses?

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-An ideology of the first post-colonial generation of Afro-Caribbean males intent on taking political power from the “Afro-Saxon” elites who inherited political power from the colonial authorities, and on wresting the levers of economic control from white expatriates.

-A model of intellectual “creolization” as proposed by Lewis (1983) “whereby [metropolitan] modes of thought were absorbed and assimilated and then reshaped to fit the special and unique requirements of Caribbean society … [giving] birth to an indigenous collection of ideas that can properly be termed Caribbean sui generis.

-An element in a wider global process of counter-hegemonic resistance to Eurocentric thought.

-A connection with broader intellectual currents in the era of decolonization by which the people of the global South asserted the right to their own interpretation of their history, reality, and vision of the future. It is a source of intellectual capital in providing alternatives to the universalistic, context-free, ahistorical, asocial, and apolitical neo-classical economics that underpins neoliberal globalization.

- One of various manifestations of resistance in the behavioural, religious, ideological, and philosophical spheres that such an experience engendered among those who were the objects of that history but who sought to become the subjects of their own history.

-A critical and counter-hegemonic thought in the region and in the global South.

[Notes from Girvan, N. (2006). “Caribbean Dependency Thought Revisited,” Canadian Journal of Development Studies. 27, 3: 328-352.]

References

Amin, S. (1974) Accumulation on a World Scale,New York: Monthly Review Press

Beckford, G.L. [and K. Polanyi Levitt] (2000a) The George Beckford Papers: Selected and Introduced by Kari Levitt, Mona, Jamaica: Canoe Press, University of the West Indies.

Beckford (197/) (1972) Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantation Economies of the Third World,London: Oxford University Press.

Beckford, G.L. and M. Witter (1982) SmallGarden, Bitter Weed: The Political Economy of Struggle and Change in Jamaica,Morant Bay, Jamaica: Maroon Publishing House.

Bernal, R., M. Figueroa, and M. Witter (1984) “Caribbean Economic Thought: The Critical Tradition,” Social and Economic Studies33:2,5–96.

Best, L. and K. Polanyi Levitt (1969) Externally Propelled Industrialization and Growth in the Caribbean,4vols. Montreal: McGill Centre for Developing Area Studies, unpublished MS.

Blackman, Sir C.N. (2003) “Lloyd Best and the Plantation Model: Afterthoughts,” in S. Ryan (ed.) Independent Thought and Caribbean Freedom: Essays in Honour of Lloyd Best,St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago: Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies, University of the West Indies, 397–404.

Frank, A.G. (1967) Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America, New York: Monthly Review Press.

Girvan, N. (1970) Multinational Corporations and Dependent Underdevelopment in Mineral-Export Economies, Social and Economic Studies19:4, 490–26.

Greene, J.E. (1984) “Challenges and Responses in Social Science Research in the English Speaking Caribbean,” in H. Goulbourne and L. Sterling (eds.) “The Social Sciences and Caribbean Society (Part 1),” special issue, Social and Economic Studies 33:1, 9–46.

Lewis, W.A. (1954) “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour,” in Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies22 (May):131–91.

Lewis, G.K. (1983) Main Currents in Caribbean Thought: The Historical Evolution of Caribbean Society in its Historical Aspects, 1492–1900, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Odle, M.A. (1975) “Public Policy,” in G.L. Beckford (ed.) Caribbean Economy: Dependence and Backwardness, Mona, Jamaica: Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of the West Indies, 130–46.

Prebisch, R. (1950) The Economic Development of Latin America and its Principal Problems, New York: United Nations Department of Social and Economic Affairs.

Thomas, C.Y. (1965) Monetary and Financial Arrangements in a Dependent Monetary Economy, Mona, 
Jamaica: Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of the West Indies.

Wallerstein, I. (1979) The Capitalist World Economy,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Making Notes: Critique of the Plantation School Transformation Programme

(1) Idealism which dominated the paradigm. 

Ideas do not transform societies. People do not switch from old (bad) ideas just because they are presented with new (good) ideas. Moreover, even if the idea is valid/correct does not guarantee its implementation. It  is  the  transformation  of  socio-economic  and production relations  which guarantee the elimination  of poverty. The  majority of  the people are  not  motivated  by  elegant  systems of  rational  ideas. They are urged on by their perception of  what  is  in  their interest  and  the  interest  of  what  is  dear  to  them. the  forces  that  defend  the  status quo have  at  their disposal formidable  media  to give their point of  view  and  to reinterpret events  in a way that supports backward  consciousness. The  dissemination  of  ideas  cannot  be general if they are  to  transform  consciousness. Firstly,  they must  be  directed  at  the  most receptive  target  group.  Secondly, they must  be brought to  the people at  the point of experience  and by  persons who  come  to  be  seen  as working on  the side  of  the people.

The  nature  of disengagement from imperialism and  the extent  to  which  the  Caribbean  could  be  self-reliant  was inadequately understood. 

(2) Un-Grounding with my brothers

The radicals tended  to disseminate  their  ideas generally and if they  targeted  any group it  was  the intelligentsia,  despite Beckford's  view  that  the intelligentsia had  the  "most  colonized  minds." Is this rift what led to the break down of the New World Group? For more read Robert Hill's  "From New Word to Abeng: George Beckford and the Horn of Black Power in Jamaica, 1968-1970"

They did not  work  sufficiently to build  the  link  between  their  ideas and  a  social movement  of  those  classes  and groups who  would  be  best able  to accept and  advance  them  in  the way in  which they were  conceived.

(3) Interest defined as power ignored

Their programme was devoid  of  careful analysis  of,  firstly, which types of ruling alliances  could adopt a policy of  nationalization and, secondly, whose  interest  would  be  served by such policies. E.g. Burnham's  nationalization  of  bauxite  where  the  nature  of  the  alliance  in power meant  that  a policy on  nationalization  did  not necessarily benefit  the nation  as  a  whole  nor  the poor in particular. 

Their programme underestimated  the difficulty of  the  transformation  process and  the  extent  to  which  imperialism would react.

The  need  to  continue  the struggle with imperialism to maintain  relations  on  a  more equitable basis  even  while building  up new  relations  within  the region and  with  other  Third  World  and  Socialist  countries  was  not grasped  adequately.

[Notes taken from Bernal, R., Figueroa, M., & Witter, M. (1984). Caribbean Economic Thought: The CriticalTradition. Social and Economic Studies, 33(2), 5-96.]

Making Notes: The Plantation School of Thought

 Key Thinkers 

Lloyd Best

Most influential work "Independent thought and Caribbean freedom" (1967)

Considered as his best-known article, Best takes a pan-Caribbean vision, derived from the historical influence of the plantation system. He attempts to critically assess the region’s economic dependency with a particular focus on the government industrialisation strategies of the day, whilst simultaneously rejecting the metropolitan imperialism of both Western and Eastern economic orthodoxies. His central argument is that social change begins with ideas and through ‘independent thought’ Caribbean freedom can be attained.

George Beckford

Most influential work"Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantation Economies of the Third World" (1972)

Beckford's central focus  was  on  the  persistence  of  underdevelopment which he posited is perpetuated  by the deeply  entrenched  social,  commercial  and cultural  systems  established  by  systems of enslavement, formulated  under  the  plantation system.  Beginning with an outline of the main distinguishing features of plantation systems and societies that encompass interrelated political social and economic patterns from a cross-national comparative perspective, its organizational and institutional features as well as a systematic attempt to diagnose the features of plantation systems which retard and arrest development. Drawing heavily on the work of Lloyd Best and the writers at the New World Group, Beckford significantly departs from this body of thought by explicitly attempting to move away from an exclusively West Indian frame of reference, providing a wider framework which could be applicable to other non-Caribbean societies.

Kari Levitt

Unit of analysis: 

"Plantation America", plantations within the Caribbean, Southern United States. Modern plantations in the form of multinational corporations (MNCs) e.g.  mines,  hotels  and  factories.  

Central issue:

What are the mechanisms for perpetuating the underdevelopment of the subsistence sector for the development of the capitalist sector.

Norman Girvan

Policy Recommendations made by the Plantation School

(1) They saw as fundamental to the process  of  change,  the formation  of ideas.

(2) They favoured localisation of decision-making

(3) Regional  integration was  a  main programatic  position.

(4) The  use of land  was  to  be  rationalized by  breaking the stranglehold which  the  MNCs  and  the  mono-crop  had  over this  vital  resource.

(5) Industrial development was  to  be  based  on  the fullest development  of backward  and forward  linkages with agriculture,  manufacturing,  mining  and  tourism.

(6) Banks and financial institutions were to be nationalised.

(7) Major  programme  of social reform was  to be  launched  in the areas of  education,  health,  nutrition,  housing and  other social  amenities.

(8) The policy of accumulation  centred  on  the development  of national production, the capturing  of a greater share of the surplus and  the  elimination of waste.

(9) The  state  was identified as playing the leading role  in directing the  economy  through  fiscal and monetary  policy and  where necessary  by direct participation in production.

References

Beckford, G. L. (2000). Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantation Economies of the Third World. Kingston: University of West Indies Press.

Beckford, G. L., & Levitt, K. (2000). The George Beckford Papers. Kingston: University of the West Indies.

Best, L. (1967). Independent thought and Caribbean freedom. New World Quarterly, 3(4), 13-34.

Girvan, N., & Jefferson, O. (Eds.). (1974). Readings in the Political Economy of the Caribbean. New World Group.