Unequal Exchange and the Prospects of Socialism

by Communist Working Group

A searing indictment of global capitalism—and a blueprint for revolutionary solidarity from inside the imperial core.

Originally published underground in 1986 and long unavailable in print, Unequal Exchange and the Prospects of Socialism is one of the clearest, most uncompromising anti-imperialist texts of the late 20th century. Written by the Communist Working Group (CWG) in Denmark, the book offers a sharp and accessible analysis of how global capitalism extracts value from the Global South through unequal exchange, and how that extraction shapes class complicity within the imperial core.

This new edition from Iskra Books restores the original text—complete with Arghiri Emmanuel’s introduction—alongside a new prologue and epilogue by longtime anti-imperialist organizer and CWG member Torkil Lauesen, and a fresh preface by Henry Hakamäki and Nemanja Lukic. Together, these excellent additions situate the text in its historical moment while clarifying its relevance to the contradictions of global capitalism today.

Far more than a critique, this book is a call to action, challenging revolutionaries in the Global North to confront their material position in the imperial order—and to take seriously the kind of politics demanded by real solidarity. Unapologetically internationalist and rooted in material analysis, Unequal Exchange and the Prospects of Socialism remains essential reading for anyone serious about dismantling empire from within.

Genres: Economics, Politics, Nonfiction, History, Theory

223 pages, Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Nemanja · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is unique in many ways. First of all, it deals with the theory behind the unequal exchange as formulated by Arghiri Emmanuel (who also wrote the foreword), or as Samir Amin would call it the "imperialism of trade". Unequal Exchange theory is by itself a complicated and controversial concept, and this book represents it in a more down-to-earth way which is easier to grasp by non-academic readership. The book was written by activists and for the activists, but without reductions and simplifications.

Beyond just the explanation of inner workings of the value drain via unequal exchange, this book also dedicates a significant amount of space to the analysis of the social consequences of such wealth flow: the vested interest of the working classes of the Global North in maintenance of such world order which provides them high standard of living on the one hand, and on the other permanent incapability of the Global South to move out of its misery.

However, this book has to be understood in the historical context it was written: Keynesian redistributive welfare state was still dominant form of state organisation.

[Will L · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book- recommended to anyone looking for an easy introduction to marxist-third worldist economic theory. Includes discussion of the political implications (in the view of the authors)

[beejay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finna hit a lick and split it with my guys (global south liberation movements)

[Alfie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bitter pill to swallow for socialists living in the imperial core

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty unimpeachable book on the foundations of unequal exchange and the implications for communists in the Global North. For a book that is nearly 40 years old, its relevance and applicability is astounding. The emphasis they put on excluding socialist nations from the analysis (as tangential to the capitalist world-system) has improved its ongoing relevance but also compounds what a loss the Soviet Union was (reading "Migration as Economic Imperialism" as a follow up feels apt in this regard).

It's at its best in elucidating unequal exchange in an easily digestible manner. Its prescriptions are important, though it may disengage some with the dour TWist view of most Global North political action and organisation - I found it provoking.

[tõnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Põhjalik ülevaade ebavõrdse vahetuse (unequal exchange) teooriast, mis selgitab senini püsivat globaalset"rikaste" ja "vaeste" riikide jaotust. Ekspluateerimise tõttu ei saa arenevad majandused kunagi rikkaks, samas kui arenenud majandused naudivad kõrgemat elatustaset, mis võimaldab töölistele maksta kõrget palka. Heaoluriik tugineb ebavõrdsel vahetusel, muutes töölised töölisaristokraatiaks (labor aristocracy), mistõttu ei ole neil klassina soovi imperialismi kukutada.
Seepärast on kapitalismi kummutamiseks ainuvajalik ebavõrdse vahetuse (ja seeläbi imperialismi) lõpetamine, sest ilma viimasest tingitud hüvedeta suundub klassivõitlus arenenud majandustes tagasi oma ajaloolisesse rööpasse, mida ei saa minimaalsete hüvedega hägustada.

[holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

An honour for this to be my 60th book of the year! Had to drop a star because I'm a maths hater and there were too many tables and maths things in the original text (I read the Iskra reprint). The new prologue and epilogue were spot on, Torkil Lauesen is simply phenomenal at writing about communism is a sober yet inspiring way

[Ryan Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/10

From the United States, the conclusions of this book strike me as extreme and profound. While I have spent much time seeing the world from the angle espoused in this book, reading about it head on is still striking. As consolation, US liberals and college students once fighting against the Vietnam war, and now being the largest Zohran constituency, larger than whatever part of New York City working class supports him, gives me some hope, though this is off topic.

Unequal Exchange is a simple phenomenon: there is a discrepancy in the transfer of value, or trade, between developed and underdeveloped nations. This discrepancy, though created largely by the old Western colonial conquests, has maintained itself in the modern era, now exemplified by two worlds, a small rich one and a much larger poor one. This difference is one more of nations than classes: A greater difference between rich and poor nations than that which exists between the rich and poor within nations. Further, the exploitation of rich nations by poor nations is a sort of collective act: the masses of rich nations benefit from the poverty of the masses of poor nations. An easy way this is demonstrated: the price of things in the United States. The price of basic things, such as a t-shirt or food, comes because of our high wages and, by extension, depressed wages of those of third world countries. By buying a cheap shirt made in China, we are consuming the labor of whatever Chinese person made that shirt, said person woefully underpaid, so that we may have that shirt for cheap. What this means is simple: The workers of western countries, to say nothing of their populations overall, are on net more exploiters than exploited, and an equitable global development plan would mean some sort of tangible fall in Western living standards.

There is more to this book, I especially like their summary of Marxist theory, history of flows of investments and development, and policy prescriptions for third world nations, but that is the jist. What I will do with this overall idea, how it will inform my action, I do not know.

[Joshua Steiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent exposition of Arghiri Emmanuel’s theory of unequal exchange in a less technical fashion. Through the framework of dialectical materialism, the authors explain how globalized capitalism has polarized the entire world into wealthy nations and poor nations. Instead of the primary contradiction being between the capitalists and workers of each nation-state, the workers of the First World have aligned their interests with imperialism to maintain their high standards of living against a super-exploited global proletariat. This effectively prevents socialism from ever being realized in the Global North. Thus, the real revolutionary subjects are the national liberation and proletarian movements of the Third World and must be materially supported by revolutionaries in the First World

The version of this book I read was recently republished by Iskra Books and includes a new introduction and epilogue by one of the book’s original authors, Torkil Lauesen

[Brag Iyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recently read the new reprint of this work, the newer version has a great prologue that is both invigorating and inspiring, setting down principles that are relevant for organisers today. The work itself remains still relevant, and easy to understand, highly recommended for anyone who wishes to understand unequal exchange.

[Abe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful abbreviation of Emmanuel's text capturing the essentials of the theory and empirics as best as one can. Clarified certain bits of UE I was unclear on my first go around (he drops some bits in Emmanuel that seem less influenced by Marx/more sui generis for the better in my opinion. Problems I had with the original text show up here to some extent. Some further explanation of why in principle wages cant reflect productivity would have been nice (not that I'm inclined to believe it does but just good to hear the arguments). The South Africa example seems less than ideal in some ways since UE is not a function of prices of production but of straightforward discrimination. Its not obvious to me that OPEC recycles dollars in the US because of its consumer market a lot of these are speculative flows in the FIRE sector which has an unusual relationship to consumer demand (they buy up land in Africa now too). In general Emmanuel’s defense of foreign investment is preposterous but I’ll get to that later. But in general I evaluate this as a summary text and judge it to be more than suitable to that task.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really incredible. It explains Unequal Change in a way that is very understandable, and always in connection not just with the historical development of capitalism, imperialism and class struggle, but also with the question of political practice.

Lauesen's comments at the end about the 'subjective forces' of socialism in the present-day, with the growing multipolar world order, are especially eye-opening and optimistic.

I'm going to be reading a lot of this guy in the near-future, for sure. Love him to bits.

[Haku Hikawa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A damn near infallible book. The book is able to explain unequal exchange in a very easy to understand manner and answers most questions as to why our movement has failed over and over again in the first world. Necessary reading for all who call themselves Communists/Marxists.