Transnational corporations and the "Restructuring" of the Argentina Automovile industry: change or continuity?

FITZSIMONS ALEJANDRO; GUEVARA SEBASTIAN

Nueva York

Conferencia; Historical Materialism Conference 2015 Returns of Capital; 2015

Historical Materialism

This paper studies the historical development of the Argentine automotive industry since the mid-50s to the present. It argues that, first, the peculiar characteristics of low scales of production, obsolete technology and the resulting low global competitiveness of the local auto industry in its initial stages were determined by the specific form of capital accumulation prevailing in Argentina as a result of its participation in the ?classic? international division of labour (CIDL). This specificity had at its core the process of appropriation by industrial capital of a portion of the relatively abundant ground rent; in this case, by transnational automotive-manufacturers. Challenging the dominant point of view that the development of the New International Division of Labour (NIDL) led to the qualitative restructuration of the Argentinean automotive industry, this paper examines the concrete changes within the labour process and the forms of valorization of capital in the industry. In so doing, the paper argues that, despite these changes, the automotive industry in fact continued its development on the same basis as before; i.e the appropriation by TNCs of a portion of agrarian ground-rent. It is concluded, therefore, that the NIDL did not replace the old form of industrialisation, related to the CIDL.