The Economy: Liberation or Dependency?

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Originally published in Spanish, this contribution attempts to elucidate basic ques tions such as: what is the concrete expression of dependency in Argentina today?, how does imperialism maintain its domination?, who are its local allies?, which forces are cap able of sustaining a struggle for liberation? Peralta Ramos characterizes Argentina as a country in which capitalist relations of production are dominant but which at the same time is thoroughly enmeshed in a network of dependency relations. This distinguishes her analysis from two opposite positions — one that reduces Argentine conflict to that of any capitalist society; the other stressing exclusively the neo-colonial nature of the economy and society. Peralta Ramos maintains that the pole of resistence against imperialism lies with the urban and rural masses, under the leadership of the industrial proletariat. She also holds that the most powerful sectors of the bourgeoisie have long tied their interests to American monopoly capital, while other sectors of the bourgeoisie have been displaced and subordinated. It is the latter that are now directing economic policy, however. Perón ism tries to modify the relationship of forces within the bourgeois camp in favor of nation al capital and the state. Such strategy, Peralta Ramos contends, cannot produce a signifi cant break with imperialism. That can only be the task of a class coalition in which the proletariat assumes the leadership. Her essay locates Peronism yesterday and today in a sequence of stages of capitalist accumulation under conditions of dependency. Her central thesis is that present objective conditions make it impossible for national liberation to take place without a socialist revolution. Mónica Peralta Ramos does research and teach es sociology in Buenos Aires. Her doctoral thesis, written at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes of Paris, has been published in Spanish under the title Etapas de acumulacion y alianzas de clases en la Argentina (1972). The translation is by Rosa Méndez Gonzalez of the University of California, Irvine.