Aabid Firdausi

The Indian IT industry has been regarded as a success of neoliberal economic reforms, driven by private initiative and export-oriented growth. Accordingly, employees of the IT industry that are symbolic of the 'new India' are seen as the aspirational new middle class, 'different' from the traditional working class. This article critically examines these claims. Firstly, it is argued that the development of the IT industry should be situated in the context of the larger development of capitalism in India. Secondly, through an analysis of narratives from interviews with workers during a period of industrial restructuring due to geopolitical concerns and technological change, the article attempts to understand workers' perceptions of industrial dynamics as well as possibilities of collective resistance against the logic of capital.

Available at: https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/blog/asian-garment-labour-movement-identifies-urgent-shifts-to-redistribute-profits-regulate-global-garment-supply-chains/
(Co-authored with Ashley Saxby, Anusha Lall, and Kheetanat Wannaboworn)

The short essay takes note of the shocks that Asian garment suppliers  face during COVID-19 and the implications for labour. We argue why this is not a sudden crisis, but a structural one.
Available at https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/global-garment-industry-torn-apart-by-covid/article32374570.ece

Most economists suffer from misplaced optimism about the oncoming Fourth Industrial Revolution. Some reskilling here and there would suffice to spread its benefits to all workers. They ignore how capitalism invents and employs technology for profits, not people. Automation is controlled by the capitalist class and not by consent of the workforce

Published: http://www.socialisteconomist.com/2018/10/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-wont.html

The euphoria around international trade and the general consensus regarding capitalism's inevitable sustenance among countries of the Global South is at least partly due to the absence of an alternative after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The politics of capitalism, with its expansionary dynamics, has assumed a truly " global " avatar by aggressively pursuing a neoliberal globalization agenda. Thus, we see much hype around the numerous trade treaties that governments around the world sign, claiming they would boost economic growth and create jobs. However, a critical examination of mainstream trade theories reveals several insights as to why there has been a hegemony of thought when it comes to attitudes around globalization. The idea that " free " trade and globalization imply mutual benefits and prosperity for all the parties involved is simply accepted as common sense. Mainstream trade theories argue that if nations engage in international exchange, then all parties will be better off. Although this seemingly innocuous assumption is based on an unrealistic worldview, it has deep implications when translated into practice. This article provides a basic understanding of some of the areas that theories in mainstream international economics conveniently ignore.

Published with The Minskys (January 2018). Available here: https://theminskys.org/international-trade-globalization-benefits-truly-mutual/

This paper reiterates the merits of understanding capitalism from a class-based perspective and how concepts employed by Marx are still useful for such an analysis. The paper concludes by stressing that the crises that are endemic to capitalism cannot be sustainably solved within the system, which necessitates the need for system-transcendence.

Capitalism, undoubtedly, has been the dominant social order around the world. One of the often hailed virtues of the capitalist system has been its ability to adapt to changing conditions. This dynamism materialises by a violent process of accumulation and expropriation. Contemporary capitalism takes the form of neoliberalism that results in the subjugation of the conventionally perceived interests of the state (for example, general welfare and national sovereignty) to the diktats of capital. The application of neoliberal policies cuts across all social orders from free markets to state capitalist countries and from dictatorships to democracies. Contemporary India, for example, has a peculiar brand of economic neoliberalism carried out along with fostering hyper-nationalistic sentiments that are otherwise conventionally understood to be contradictory. This realisation of neoliberalism as a multidimensional highly adaptive ideology is essential for counter-hegemonic movements in the contemporary geopolitical context. At the heart of the capitalist system lies the inevitable existence of inequalities. Thus, the question is not about the presence of inequalities, but the extent of the same. Worsening inequalities due to the inherent tendencies of the capitalist system for concentration of capital jeopardizes the egalitarian ideal of democracy that would inevitably lead to social unrest. The study examines these various dimensions of neoliberalism and implications of the same. The feasibility of worker cooperatives as an alternative mode of the enterprise is also examined towards the end.