Introduction

In our earlier chapter we outlined a reading of the present global conjuncture which we characterized as one of “organic crisis.” The term was meant to invoke a paradoxical situation, one pregnant with possibilities for alternative ways in which global health might be improved, yet nevertheless a situation in which new alternatives have yet to emerge, or indeed to be born.

We also noted how the broad-ranging nature of the organic crisis was characterized by a number of “morbid symptoms” such as deterioration in global health and global nutrition associated with the way in which capitalist social forces have come to determine increasingly not only whether we have access to useful and affordable health care, but also what we eat and whether we are actually able to eat. More broadly the deepening and extension of the power of capital – since capitalism is a system of power relations and power structures – has come to determine increasing aspects of social reproduction, our health and indeed the very means of survival for a large proportion of the inhabitants of the planet.

We noted therefore that the global organic crisis involves a global crisis of accumulation, the dominant governmental responses to that crisis which have so far been one-sided, lean in favor of financial interests and big corporations, and how capitalism in crisis and its mode of relentless accumulation intersect with deepening and long-term threats to our social and ecological reproduction.