Capitalism misusing oil, Earth: Patnaik

THRISSUR: Marxian economist Prabhat Patnaik has said that third world countries could ward off imperial-capitalist exploitation only when they insulate themselves from the influence of economic power. “In the modern world, capitalism is misusing oil and earth,” he said. He was presenting a paper on ‘Contemporary imperialism’ at a national seminar on ‘Marxism - A Rereading’ at the Sahitya Akademi Hall on Thursday.  He said capitalism had caused a wide gap in the requirement of products.  As a result of the monopoly of economically powerful forces, the requirement of products had been increasing on one side while there was dearth of products on the other side. At the same time these forces, which create disparity in the availability of products, fail to find a solution to this problem. Capitalism had its own instinctive and natural growth.  It would approach every aspect in a friendly manner.  Though it would give way to bring isolated problems to the mainstream, capitalism would obliterate the organisational resistance.