final workshop in six-week series. Organised by Galway One World Centre

1. Economics As If People Really Mattered
Week Six – Conclusion

3. The purpose of capitalism is self-expansion – capital begets capital – and it does so by monetizing
social value and human labour. This is a circuit of transformation.

4. The purpose of capitalism is self-expansion – capital begets capital – and it does so by monetizing
social value and human labour. This is a circuit of transformation.
“Historical capitalism involved therefore the widespread commodification of processes – not merely
exchange processes, but production processes, distribution processes, and investment processes –
that had previously been conducted other than via a ‘market’. And, in the course of seeking to
accumulate more and more capital, capitalists have sought to commodify more and more of these
social processes in all spheres of economic life.”
Immanuel Wallerstein, Historical Capitalism (London: Verso, 2011), 15.

11. 1. From finance capital to
financialisation
Financialisation sees financial assets not as
representing wealth in the ‘real’ economy,
but as wealth creating investment in their
own right. (p.85)
Leverage became the most important tool of
financial accumulation… debt [or leverage]
piled on a small amount of initial investment
can vastly increase the profit made.
The secret is access and banks were lending

18. “Under its current form, that is
imperialism controlled, debt is a
cleverly managed reconquest of
Africa, aiming at subjugating its
growth and development
through foreign rules.
Thus, each one of us becomes the financial
slave, which is to say a true slave, of those
who had been treacherous enough to put
money in our countries with obligations
for us to repay.
We are told to repay, but it is not a moral
issue. It is not about this so-called honour
of repaying or not.”
Thomas Sankara, 1987

19. “Debt cannot be repaid, first
because if we don’t repay, lenders
will not die. That is for sure. But
if we repay, we are going to die.
That is also for sure.
Those who led us to indebting had We cannot repay because we don’t have
gambled as if in a casino. As long any means to do so.
as they had gains, there was no
debate. But now that they suffer We cannot pay because we are not
losses, they demand repayment. responsible for this debt.
And we talk about crisis. No, Mr
President, they played, they lost, We cannot repay but the others owe us
that’s the rule of the game, and life what the greatest wealth could never repay,
goes on. that is blood debt. Our blood had flowed.”
Thomas Sankara, 1987