neoliberalism

A world on the margin

The diverse social insurgencies in such countries as Thailand, Greece, India and China can also be seen in a common frame, as responses to a global process that produces extreme inequality and exclusion. Read more read

Is Corruption the Cause? The Poverty Trap

The “corruption-causes-poverty” narrative has become a standard tool in the hegemonic discourse kit for leaders in some developing countries - where in fact, Waldon Bello argues, it is neoliberal economic policies that are really to blame for poverty. Thailand’s “Red Shirts” are not, however, being distracted by the “corruption” line the World Bank and IMF are pushing, choosing instead to keep their eyes on the prize - the real answer to poverty - replacing neoliberalism with pro-people economic (...) read

Southern Africa: The liberation struggle continues

Fifty years on from the beginnings of liberation in Africa, John S. Saul finds there is still much work to be done, especially in southern Africa where the final triumph over colonial and racial domination occurred. In each of the five sites of the overt struggle against domination – Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa – there are clear signs of recolonisation, this time by capital. Read (...) read

Politics: In need of revival

The decline of politics and of intellectual discourse is related to the struggle between politics and economics as the arbiter of the moral commons and the role of the developmental state in this fight, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan. ead more read

Chile’s Socialist Rebar

How Allende’s Socialism - not "free-market" dictator Augusto Pinochet - Protected Chileans from Earthquake Fall-out. Read more read

Globalization on the rocks

Corporate globalization in the ‘real’ world economy lay behind what appeared at first to be a strictly financial crisis. It was hooked on debt, a deadly vice which eventually crushes everything in its grip, to the point where no-one knows the value of anything. So it could be that, in August 2007, seemingly marginal ‘sub-prime’ people who started posting their house keys through the letterboxes of loan sharks across the US signalled the shipwreck of a misbegotten ‘global’ enterprise. Read (...) read

Is the Haiti Rescue Effort Failing?

Everyone wants to believe in the best intentions of all involved, but five days after the quake, with so few being helped, we have to ask: how did this get so badly done? Read more Also watch Naomi Klein’s comments on this topic and read CommonDreams.org Haiti coverage read

Crisis of the Capitalist System: Where Do We Go from Here?

Immanuel Wallerstein comments on the global financial crisis from a long-term historical perspective, and on the opportunities it offers for global justice movements (Harold Wolpe Lecture, University of KwaZulu-Natal, 5 November 2009). Read more read

Africa and global finance: potential resistance?

> by Patrick Bond

Far-reaching strategic debate is underway about how to respond to the global financial crisis, and indeed how the North’s problems can be tied into a broader critique of capitalism. At minimum, the ongoing chaos offers new ideological space and material justifications for African finance ministries to re-impose exchange controls and re-regulate finance, and to find sources of hard currency not connected to the Bretton Woods Institutions or Western donors. The 2008 world financial meltdown (...) read

Developing countries face hard times as US recession looms

> by Martin Khor

It is a terrible time for the global economy. The latest sign of this is the deep plunge in the Asian and European stock markets on Monday, 21 January in response to the string of bad news last week in the United States, leading to the conclusion that the US has now slipped into recession. Read more read

DRC: a demonstration of plunder and submission

> by Damien Millet and Eric Toussaint

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a textbook case for those who wish to understand complex notions like the pillage of a country’s wealth, the intolerable loss of a State’s sovereignty, or the concept of odious debt. The manner in which the budget of 2007 was prepared and the orientations of the government led by Antoine Gizenga provide clear confirmation of what the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt and many other social movements have been asserting for a number of (...) read

Morocco : between economic liberalisation and political stagnation

> In "Beyond the Market : The Future of Public Services", Elâabadila Chbihna Maaelaynine and Massimiliano Di Tota, April 2006, 7 p. (pdf)

Given the lack of a project for the democratic modernisation of the state and the construction of citizenship, Morocco is caught between economic liberalism and political stagnation. The public services on offer do not satisfy the basic needs of the population. Recent market-oriented reforms have aggravated the social and political crisis, as shown by the increase in corruption, clientelism, foreign debt, impunity and religious fundamentalism. Read Morocco : between economic liberalisation (...) read

WTO talks on resumption of Doha talks

> Third World Network

http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/twn (...)

Members of the World Trade Organization appear to be in favour of resuming the Doha negotiations, suspended by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy (and endorsed by the Trade Negotiations Committee) in July, and subsequently "taken note of" by the General Council.
At a Lamy-convened ’Green Room’ meeting Friday evening, while delegations generally favoured resumption, opinion was divided whether it should be restarted formally or informally.
Some key countries advised caution, and suggested that there should be informal consultations and discussions on whether there was flexibility in the positions of key members. Others, including several of the chairs of committees, appeared to favour formal resumption of negotiations.  read

Economic Alternatives to Neoliberalism

> Pambazuka News 209: 2 June 2005

http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?i (...)

Any attempt to build economic alternatives to neoliberalism also needs to take account of its ideological and repressive elements. As potentially viable alternatives are developed, the neoliberal system will do all in its power to repress these initiatives. Therefore, as well as being visionary and identifying offensive demands towards realising that vision, attention must also be given to defending the space that is available to develop alternatives. The closing down of forms of expression, passing of restrictive legislation and acts of violent repression must be resisted together with the building of alternatives. Maintaining the space to be able to develop alternatives is thus an integral dimension of the struggle for alternatives.  read

Development Aid Is Driven by Politics, Not a Desire to Alleviate Poverty

> Transnational Institute, Dec 2005

http://www.tni.org/archives/sogge/ai (...)

This article takes a critical look at aid which is based on ’Market Fundamentalism’, looking particularly at the effects this had on states in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The author questions the real motives behind government aid programs, arguing that it is often intended to facilitate trade relations and investment, as oposed to specifically alieviating poverty. The article concludes by proposing a plan of "coherence and democratisation" to overcome this.  read