34 SOCIAL SCIENTIST four different wars rolled into one, of which the war between fascism and socialism became the most prominent and decisive) but also allowed space for third world nationalism and the struggle for decolonisation. By contrast the more recent period has been marked by a degree of common purpose among capitalist powers. How this relative unity has come about need not detain us here: one contributing factor has no doubt been the emergence of internationally mobile finance capital which has precluded the cordoning off of national spaces among the advanced capitalist countries. But the implication of this unity has been a common front against the third world as a result of which the space for third world nationalism, already in crisis owing to its promise being subverted by the urge for primitive accumulation among the bourgeoisie, has become severely restricted. The internationalisation of social, political and economic life mentioned by Galbraith therefore is a process which has two quite distinct components: a process of relative unity as opposed to inter-imperialist rivalry among the advanced capitalist countries; and secondly, a process of common purpose against the third world on the part of the united capitalist powers which denies space to third world nationalism, which breaks down their qutet for economic self-reliance and which coerces them into accepting a global order dominated by these powers. These two components are of course interlinked. And while it would be absolutely perverse for anybody desirous of third world liberation to wish to see a revival of inter-imperialist rivalry to a point where the horrors of war among them are repeated, to pretend that these two components together constitute a progressive advance in the direction of internationalism is patently untenable. Socialists have always stood for internationalism. But to believe that the current multinationalism is a move in the direction of that internationalism, that it represents willy-nilly a sort of half-way house towards that goal is grossly erroneous. What is more, in so far as this multinationalism represents imperialist domination, the progressive forces have to fight for a national agenda in the third world in opposition to this multinationalism. To be sure, in c^ world where inter-imperialist rivalries are muted, fighting for such ah agenda is no easy task. But the current unity among the capitalist powers itself may not last long; and the fight, being for a just cause, has to be joined no matter what the conditions.