Globalization

1
Globalization
2
Call it Democracy

• Call it Democracy
• Padded with power here they come International
  loan sharks backed by the guns Of market hungry
  military profiteers Whose word is a swamp and
  whose brow is smeared With the blood of the poor
• Who rob life of its quality Who render rage a
  necessity By turning countries into labour camps
  Modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom
• Sinister cynical instrument Who makes the gun
  into a sacrament -- The only response to the
  deification Of tyranny by so-called "developed"
  nations' Idolatry of ideology
• North South East West Kill the best and buy the
  rest It's just spend a buck to make a buck You
  don't really give a flying fuck About the people
  in misery
• IMF dirty MF Takes away everything it can get
  Always making certain that there's one thing left
  Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt
• See the paid-off local bottom feeders Passing
  themselves off as leaders Kiss the ladies shake
  hands with the fellows Open for business like a
  cheap bordello
• And they call it democracy And they call it
  democracy And they call it democracy And they
  call it democracy
• See the loaded eyes of the children too Trying to
  make the best of it the way kids do One day
  you're going to rise from your habitual feast To
  find yourself staring down the throat of the
  beast They call the revolution
• IMF dirty MF Takes away everything it can get
  Always making certain that there's one thing left
  Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

3
What is globalization?

• Heiner
• a social, political, and economic revolution as
  profound and tumultuous as the Industrial
  Revolution. (p. 166)
• Global capitalism is sweeping over the world
  like a juggernaut and we are told that it is
  uncontrollable. (p. 168)

4
What is globalization?

• McWorld (vs. Jihad Barber, 1995)
• coming together under market imperatives
• vs. ripping apart under retribalization
• what ideal alternative does Barber offer (328)?

5
(No Transcript)
6
What is globalization?

• WalMartization
• 20 cents/hr. making 200 shoes
• dictating terms to national economies (China)
• Neo-liberalism
• Cf. classical liberalism http//www.belmont.edu/l
  ockesmith/essay.html
• free markets, less government involvement in
  economy, reduced social programs, free trade
  http//web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/neolibe
  ralism.html

7
What is globalization?

• Roots in colonialism
• 16th-20th century conquest by military and
  political power for economic gain
• European powers, led by (and eventually dominated
  by) capitalist centers for expansion of capitalism

8
What is globalization?

• 20th century developments
• World wars (Lenins term imperialism)
• Anti-colonial struggles
• Post-WWII Cold War
• Growth of corporations, becoming TNCs
• Increase in role of the State
• Regulation in economy
• Social welfare programs
• Post-Cold War U.S. hegemony
• information age

9
What is globalization?

• P. Marcuse (2000)
• a nonconcept
• a particular form of capitalism, an expansion of
  capitalist relationships both in breadth
  (geographically) and in depth (penetrating
  ever-increasing aspects of human life).
• Two connected, yet distinct aspects
• Developments in technology
• Developments in the concentration of power

10
Whats the problem?
11
Whats the problem?

• Development of underdevelopment
• Colonialism distorted economies in colonies
  (extraction of natural resources, exploitation of
  labor)
• Some former colonies able to develop somewhat
  (e.g., Brazil, Asian tigers), but unevenly
  hard times now
• Others left behind, especially in Africa

12
Whats the problem?

• Today
• ¾ known mineral resources in Third World
  controlled by rich corporations
• Poverty rising in 3rd World, even with shift in
  manufacturing
• 3.3 billion live on less than 2/day
• 1960s 301 ratio, richest 20 to poorest 20
• 2000s 601

13
Whats the problem?

• Debts pressure developing countries to sell
  natural resources to service debt
• Neo-liberal policies of IMF (lender of last
  resort) SAPs (structural adjustment programs
  cutbacks in social welfare, development projects)

14
Solutions

• Anti-globalization movement (movement for
  global justice) different groups have different
  solutions
• Reject globalization (sometimes linked with
  right-wing movements like nativism, jihad)
• Overlap with other left movements
• Advocate democratization of globalization
  http//www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/wsf/
  portoalegre2005/index.htm
• This is what democracy looks like!
• Using technology to mobilize global movement
  http//indymedia.com