In 'NGOs: In the service of Imperialism' (2007), James Petras introduces Neo-compradors as a new class in societies of the Global South: defining it as a vehicle for imperialism's subversive soft power. 

What's most interesting about  Neo-compradors, and what distinguishes them from the traditional forces of reaction (which aim to perpetuate imperialism) is their leftist façade. Unlike traditional forces of reaction, neo-compradors don't triumph imperialism through wars and astride tanks, but rather through color revolutions and from a seeming moral high grounds. 

The Economic Point of Departure 

Imperialism which manifests most iconically in military violence primarily grows out of the capitalist mode of production. (1) Capitalism develops beyond its free-market stage into market monopolies (or more precisely into oligopolies). (2) Capital grows further concentrated through the inception of financial capital where industrial capital is merged with banks (wealth accumulated from the surplus value of labor in industries statically multiplies from interests on loans). (3) Capital-rich oligarchs infiltrate the state where taxation is taken as a new source of wealth; oligarchs become entitled to the money of taxpayers via their affiliates in the bureaucracy of the state (Lenin, 1916).

Exploitation as a Contradiction

Imperialism, like capitalism from which it develops, is conditioned by a contradiction of exploitation. This latent contradiction, as is any other contradiction in the material world, is necessarily comported (or poised) towards resolution. The contradiction of Imperialism is resolved by a revolutionary antithetical force, i.e. the anti-imperialist party. Reactionary forces aim to perpetuate the contradiction of exploitation. Progressive forces aim to hasten its resolution (Mao, 1937). 

What is novel to James Petras and the handful of disciplined anti-imperialist socialist academics is recognizing that the Reactionary forces (actors and tactics) which aim to perpetuate exploitation are dynamically evolving historically to ensure optimal results. The forces of Reaction assume different actors and employ different tactics to approach different demographics.

Read more: Anti-imperialism: the highest stage of class-struggle

The contradiction of exploitation latent in capitalism is extended to imperialism given that the latter is a byproduct of the former. In imperialism, exploitation is internationalized from capitalist vis-a-vis workers to oligarchs (of the core) vis-a-vis nations (of the periphery). The internationalization of exploitation was first executed by direct occupation and/or settlements (i.e. through colonizing armies) then by mediated control (i.e. through comprador bureaucrats) then by co-opting social movements (i.e. through neo-comprador 'revolutionaries').  

Compradors in South West Asia

In their marriage to the state, the oligarchy consolidated the seeds for international exploitation. The armies of Great Britain and France were at the lead in the conquests of colonizing other nations: looting the resources and exploiting the peoples of these nations for their own ends through direct occupation.

European settler colonies slowly crumbled across the world under the plight of indigenous liberation movements but also for being contended by the slowly emerging US empire and being exhausted by the war with Nazi Germany. 

After that hegemony was no longer realized through direct occupation (colonialism), rather it was realized mediately through client regimes (compradors).     

The former colonizer established the local bourgeoisie (and/or feudal lords), who enjoyed close affinity with the latter, as the ruling class. This formula of governance allowed the colonizers to preserve their interests in their former settler colonies behind the façade of self-determination.

The Levant

In Lebanon, liberation from French colonization left in its wake a handful of upper-class urban families in charge of governance. The oligarchs were closely linked to the French due to religious affinity, familial bonds, and most importantly common interests. In Iraq and Jordan, similar to the Lebanese urban families, the Hashemite dynasties succeeded British colonialism. 

The Gulf 

The succession of authority in the Gulf was different. Arabia and Persia weren't colonized but they too fell victim to native compradors with ties to Britain. In Iran, the Pahlavi dynasty overthrew the Qajars in a military coup to rule over the oil-rich central Asian country and established themselves as compradors. Similarly, on the opposite side of the gulf, the Saud clan consolidated themselves as the rulers of most of Arabia by raiding and slaughtering the different tribes of the peninsula and then established themselves as compradors. Rather than being appointed as compradors, the Saud House and the Pahlavi Dynasty consolidated themselves as sovereigns and then became compradors.

Palestine

Palestine is the only exception to the trend of native rulers replacing colonizers: Zionism succeeded British colonialism as the authority ruling over Palestine. Despite being a settler colonialist entity, "Israel" doesn't fall under the umbrella of the international regime of European colonialism, but rather falls under the umbrella of the international regime of Pax Americana Imperialism; whereby "Israel" is popularly understood to act as an "advanced American military base" in the region. 

Defining Neo-compradors in reference to Compradors 

The colonial empires of France and Great Britain were slowly crumbling leaving in its wake a plethora of ostensibly sovereign nation-states. Imperialism in colonialism was succeeded by imperialism through compradors. In parallel, the center of gravity of international imperialism was steadily shifting from Europe to the opposite bank of the Atlantic. The US was set to inherit the domain of dominion of its predecessor European powers.

The ostensibly sovereign nation-states are ones ruled by compradors. The comprador class is the bourgeois class that was coopted by imperialists to act in their stead. Descending from feudal families, these compradors were naturally rich and influential. Their authority over their kin was further consolidated through their commitments to their offshore handlers.

The neo-comprador class, in contrast, isn’t conditioned necessarily by a bourgeois character (i.e. a neo-comprador isn't necessarily a shareholder of the means of production). Neocompradors are the intellectual strata of the middle to lower classes. They climb up the hierarchy of social classes through the influx of foreign capital funneled to them by their offshore handlers.

NGO leaders

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James Petras identifies neo-compradors as the leaders of NGOs sponsored by Western funds/ organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and other variants of it like the Open Society Foundation, the National Democratic Institute, US Agency for International Development, the International Republican Institute, Middle East Policy Institute and the European versions like the European Endowment for Democracy which primarily serve as fronts for covert governmental funding for non-governmental organizations.

Oppressed people proudly wave the American flag in protest of their tyrannical regimes.

We are a global symbol for LIBERTY and FREEDOM. pic.twitter.com/Gw3gDAckrU

— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) July 13, 2021  

Interestingly, the NED fund was established by American President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s during the Cold War’s ideological battle between the US and the USSR as an alternative to CIA covert funding. After it was revealed that private newspapers and parties in Eastern Europe were receiving funding from the CIA. President Johnson, to avoid diplomatic escalations with communist countries in international fora, opted to reframe this sponsor-recipient overseas relationship into a private-private mechanism instead of a public-private mechanism by establishing the NED.

Read more: NGOs in Lebanon: The new drones of US imperialism

The NGOs in question whose leaders constitute the neo-comprador class are specifically those engaged in shaping and introducing narratives into the political discourse i.e., party-type or newspaper-type NGOs, certainly not NGOs like Doctors Without Borders.     

Unproductive Class

“The NGO leaders can be conceived of as a kind of a neo-comprador group that doesn’t produce any useful commodities but does function to produce services for the donor countries- mainly trading in domestic poverty for individual perks” (J. Petras, 2007, p:430).

NGO work is unproductive useless labor. While many NGO leaders may present themselves as full-time human rights activists, this is neither productive nor necessary labor nor is it political work. It is, as Petras described it, capitalizing on the poverty of their kinswomen and kinsmen to garner popular support for their movements which aim to promote the security and economic interests of imperialism in return for steady and hefty salaries that allow them to climb up the social hierarchy despite not being part of the national bourgeois.

Intellectuals Employing Leftist Discourse 

Another characteristic feature of neo-compradors that Petras points out is the intellectual background and the type of discourse that they employ to mobilize people.

"The NGOs co-opt the language of the Left: 'popular power' 'empowerment', 'gender equality', 'sustainable development', 'bottom-up leadership', etc. The problem is that this language is linked to a framework of collaboration with donors and government agencies that subordinate activity" (J. Petras, 2007, p:434).

By establishing these networks of neo-compradors, Imperialism presents itself as the savior: wishing to save the masses of the third world from the very conditions enforced by imperialism (social injustice, poverty, wars, unemployment, corruption, etc.).

In utilizing such discourse, the neo-compradors capitalize on the people's frustration of the conditions of imperialism to promote the agendas of imperialism, ironically. 

"The growth of radical socio-political movements and struggles provided a lucrative commodity which ex-radical and pseudo popular intellectuals could sell to interested, concerned and well-financed private and public foundations closely tied with European and US multi-nationals and governments." (J. Petras, 2007, p:432). 

Imperialism's need for neo-compradors turned political activism into a job market. Whereby, unemployed intellectuals and undisciplined leftists compete to sell their revolutionary potential to imperialist interests.

The neo-compradors sprout at times of crisis to assume antagonistic positions to the government. They preside over the social movements that arise in opposition to the government and start shaping the discourse in favor of their handler's economic and security interests.  

The more charismatic neo-compradors are tasked with the more noble pursuit of shaping the counterdiscourse. They often present themselves as human rights activists brandishing popular causes like feminism, queer liberation, and/or anti-racism.  The less charismatic neo-compradors serve as native informants: picking out the targets for their handlers’ sanctions.

In brief, neo-compradors constitute a new socio-economic class that rises as a byproduct of late-stage imperialism. It alleviates intellectuals from their lower-middle-class status.   

Read more: US diplomat: US-backed Lebanese opposition self-centered, narcissistic

In Contrast to Compradors 

"Western funding of the NGOs as critics was a kind of buying insurance in case the incumbent reactionaries faltered." (J. Petras, 2007, p:432).  

While the neo-comprador class is comparable to the earlier comprador class, it differs in essence. In the case of compradors, the bourgeoisie is prompted towards collaborating with imperialism motivated by the need to preserve their national interests from potential revolution.  

In the case of neo-compradors, what prompts intellectuals towards collaborating with imperialism is their dire economic conditions. They themselves are victims of imperialism and the neoliberal economic model that it enforces. They save themselves the anguish of neo-liberalism by 'revolting' for hefty paychecks. 

The compradors are part of the bourgeois class i.e., they own means of production or service. The neo-compradors don’t own means of production, their primary source of income is from their overseas handlers.

Nevertheless, both compradors and neo-compradors act as agents of imperialism. Both aspire to realize the economic and security objectives of Imperialism. The former does so through the state apparatus while the latter does so in opposition to the state apparatus. The compradors typically employ authoritarian tactics to discipline the population in line with the objectives of imperialism while the latter employs populism to neutralize any potential anti-imperialist anti-capitalist revolution by coopting national dissent in favor of imperialist objectives. 

The neo-compradors "engage in complementary activity at the bottom neutralizing and fragmenting the burgeoning discontent resulting from the savaging of the economy." (J. Petras, 2007, p:440)

Comprador and Neocomprador dynamics: Contrasting the Cases of Iran and Lebanon

Neo-compradors typically arise as a substitute for the compradors in the case of a popular revolution. In Iran, for example, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi the last Shah of Iran, wasn't simply a national local comparador, but he had served as the leading comprador of the US in the Middle East during the Cold War commanding one of the largest militaries to police the middle east against the influence of communism and Arab nationalism.

The Shah made sure to crush any coalescing anti-imperialist movement not only in Iran but in the Middle East at large. In Lebanon back in the 1950s for example, the Shah offered extensive support to Chamoun's right-wing government against the democratic opposition: which was constituted by unionists, students, and workers in addition to a range of leftist and Arab nationalist parties. The Shah assisted Chamoun in quelling the opposition movement through direct assistance even establishing a headquarters for the SAVAK (Iranian National Intelligence and Security Agency) in Beirut. Furthermore, in Oman, when a socialist revolution was burgeoning against the Sultanate, dubbed the 'Dhofar Rebellion', the Shah went as far as deploying troops to the opposite side of the gulf to quell the socialist movement on behalf of the weakened Sultanate. 

After the Shah was forcefully overthrown in 1979 by the Islamic revolution which consolidated an anti-imperialist government to rule over Iran, compradors (i.e. the bourgeoisie collaborating with imperialism) were mass executed in revolutionary courts. 

After the revolution, the Iranian government was filtered from any and all compradors. Thus US imperialism incepted neo-compradors to propagate its security and economic objectives in Iran by undermining the now anti-imperialist government.

Typically, the inception of neo-compradors comes as a substitute for the compradors however in some cases they coexist. 

In Lebanon, for example, NGOs had started mushrooming after the 2006 July war after Hezbollah managed to fight back a large-scale Israeli invasion and enforce a deterrence equation. Hezbollah grew to be a more prominent threat to American security interests and simultaneously more Lebanese parties started calling for the disarmament of the Lebanese resistance movement.

Initially, the parties of the 14th of March coalition spearheaded this agenda. The 14th of March coalition was constituted of compradors. Most of them being part of the Lebanese bourgeoisie: owners of banks and gas stations and shareholders in many companies. Together with the 8th of March coalition parties, they ran the Lebanese government for 18 years. The 14th of March coalition manifestly failed to realize the US's security objective of disarming Hezbollah however they weren't ousted from the government. Hezbollah continued to cohabitate the 14th of March parties given the confessional consociational nature of the Lebanese political system.

Read more: Hezbollah, Anti-imperialism, and the Compatible Left

In 2019, large-scale protests erupted all across Lebanon against the exploitative neoliberal policies employed by the Lebanese government and banks. The protests were expressly directed at the "establishment" at large. This atmosphere of a radical socio-political movement served as the perfect breeding ground for US neo-compradors.  What initially started as dissent against the Lebanese Banks' Ponzi scheme and the government's neoliberal policies, was warped by Western-funded parties and media platforms into calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah.

Even in the rare cases where they coexist the neo-compradors and compradors are presented as rivals. The latter is typically part of the ruling elite i.e. the oligarchy while the former is organized in NGOs, small opposition groups, or "alternative" media. 

"The mass of NGOs have co-opted most of what used to be the 'free-floating' public intellectuals who would abandon their class origins and join the popular movements. The result is a temporary gap between the profound crises of capitalism and the absence of significant organized revolutionary movements." (J. Petras, 2007, p:440)