Suchergebnisse

The crisis of the neoliberal model of global capitalism is exacerbating the innate contradictions of the capitalist system of production. World GDP growth rates are slowing, socio-economic inequality is increasing, and the scale of protest activity is becoming greater. These contradictions are taking on a particular, specific form on the periphery of the system, as in the countries of Latin America. Here, the problems of dependency and social exclusion are reproduced on a systemic level, and the attempts by a number of countries in the region to solve these problems with the help of traditional models of integration have not met with success. The greatest progress has been achieved by the "Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America" (Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra America). During a particular stage this integration organisation, founded in 2004, made substantial progress in remedying socio-economic problems that had defied solution by traditional integration bodies, whether of the closed or open type. The article analyses the preconditions for the rise of the alliance, its ideological basis, structure and main projects. In the author's view, the successes of the organisation have been linked to the use of planned elements of the economy, and its failures to the contradictions of the socially-oriented model of capitalism to which all the members of the alliance (with the exception of Cuba) have adhered. The future of the organisation depends on the ability of the participants to overcome these contradictions and to move beyond the framework of such a model. Amid the crisis of neoliberalism, this task is becoming more and more urgent.