Late Neo-colonialism: Monopoly Capitalism in Permanent Crisis1

This article celebrates the lifelong contribution of Samir Amin by advancing the analysis of the long crisis of monopoly capitalism. It takes issue with reductionist and ahistorical theories of crisis to grasp the nature of the present as a terminal systemic crisis, which has played out in the long transition from colonialism to neo-colonial rule. Kwame Nkrumah had foretold of the destructive nature of this transition for both North and South, and he had astutely seen in it ‘the last stage of imperialism’. Late neo-colonialism represents the stalemate of this transition. Its elements include, on the one hand, the collapse of the Bandung movement and the Soviet system, and on the other, the permanent crisis of monopoly capitalism. The neoliberal assault on the peoples of the South, in particular, has not brought resolution to the profitability crisis. The concentration of capital persists today hand in hand with the escalation of primitive accumulation and war, while national sovereignty continues to fray in the peripheries, where a series of countries succumb to a new semi-colonial situation, whereas others fall prey to fascism. The crisis of monopoly capitalism will only be overcome when genuine solidarity takes root among the North and South and the socialist transition takes hold—as Amin so fervently defended.