III. Economic governance: a southern perspective

• Structural Adjustment policy imposed as condition of loans– Very unpopular– Developing countries demand a more

balanced world governance body

Structural AdjustmentSome of the conditions for structural adjustment can

include:• Cutting expenditures, also known as austerity.• Focusing economic output on direct export and resource extraction, • Devaluation of currencies,• Trade liberalization, or lifting import and export restrictions,• Increasing the stability of investment by supplementing FDI with the

opening of domestic stock markets,• Balancing budgets and not overspending,• Removing price controls and state subsidies• Privatization or divestiture of all or part of state-owned enterprises• Enhancing the rights of foreign investors vis-a-vis national laws• Improving governance and fighting corruption

Which of these policies do you think are the most unpopular with developing countries?

Creation of UNCTAD 1964United Nations Conference on Trade

and DevelopmentResponsible for dealing with development issues, particularly international trade – the main driver of development.– 194 member States,– promote the macroeconomic policies best suited to ending

global economic inequalities – Generate people-centered sustainable development.– establish a better balance in the global economy.– offers direct technical assistance to developing countries and

countries with economies in transition, helping them to build the capacities they need to become equitably integrated into the global economy and improve the well-being of their populations.

• Video: The Faces of UNCTAD 2013 Symposium 2’20

Anti-Globalization Movements• The anti-globalization movement, or

counter-globalization movement - critical of the globalization of corporate capitalism. – global justice movement, – alter-globalization movement, – anti-corporate globalization movement, – movement against neoliberal globalization.

• Criticism based on a number of related ideas: – opposition to large, multi-national corporations

having unregulated political power– Opposed to powers exercised through trade

agreements and deregulated financial markets

Anti-Globalization Movements• Corporations are accused of seeking to

maximize profit at the expense of :– sabotaging work safety conditions and standards, – labor hiring and compensation standards, – environmental conservation principles, – the integrity of national legislative authority,

independence and sovereignty. • Misleading term:

– Many anti-globalization activists generally call for forms of global integration that better provide:• democratic representation, • advancement of human rights, • fair trade • sustainable development

The Battle of SeattleNovember 30, 1999

• 2nd major mobilization of the anti-globalization movement, known as N30

• Protesters blocked delegates' entrance to WTO meetings in Seattle, Washington, USA.

• The protests forced the cancellation of the opening ceremonies and lasted the length of the meeting until December 3.

• Large, permitted march by members of the AFL-CIO, and other unauthorized marches by assorted affinity groups who converged around the Convention Center.

• The protesters and Seattle riot police clashed in the streets after police fired tear gas at demonstrators who blocked the streets and refused to disperse.

The Battle of SeattleNovember 30, 1999

• Results: – Over 600 protesters were arrested and thousands were

injured. – Three policemen were injured by friendly fire, and one by

a thrown rock. – Some protesters destroyed the windows of storefronts of

businesses owned or franchised by targeted corporations such as a large Nike shop and many Starbucks windows.

– The mayor put the city under the municipal equivalent of martial law and declared a curfew.

– As of 2002, the city of Seattle had paid over $200,000 in settlements of lawsuits filed against the Seattle Police Department for assault and wrongful arrest, with a class action lawsuit still pending

Anti-globalization protests in Genoa in 2001 and Edinburgh at the G8 summit in

2005

World Social Forum• Created in 2001 supported by the city of Porto Alegre (where it

took place) and the Brazilian Workers Party. • The motivation was to constitute a counter-event to the World

Economic Forum held in Dayton at the same time. • The slogan of the WSF is "Another World Is Possible". • Periodic meetings:

– 2002 and 2003 Porto Alegre - became a rallying point for worldwide protest against the American invasion of Iraq.

– 2004 Mumbai , to make it more accessible to the populations of Asia and Africa. This appointment saw the participation of 75,000 delegates.

– 2006 Caracas, Bamako and Karachi (Pakistan). – 2007 Nairobi – 2009 the Forum returned to Brazil, where it took place in Belém– 2011, Dakar – 2014 in Porto Alegre

World Social Forum• Meeting place for organizations and individuals

opposed to Neoliberalism was soon replicated elsewhere.

• The first European Social Forum (ESF) was held in November 2002 in Florence . The slogan was "Against the war, against racism and against neo-liberalism“

• Discussion behind the movement about the role of the social forums:– a "popular university", an occasion to make many

people aware of the problems of globalization.– the coordination and organization of the movement

and the planning of new campaigns. • often been argued that in the dominated countries

(most of the world) the WSF is little more than an 'NGO fair' driven by Northern NGOs and donors most of which are hostile to popular movements of the poor

Video: The Isle of Flowers:

• How does this film reflect the ideas of the world social forum and anti-liberalism?

Occupy Wall Street Movement 2011• Peaceful protest movement denouncing the

abuses of financial capitalism.• began Sept 17, 2011 with 1000

demonstrators near Wall Street in NYC. • A portion of the demonstrators set up

temporary camp in Zuccotti Park, occupying the place in a sort of sit-in.

• Over the next few weeks, several hundred demonstrators lived and slept in the park.

• The movement also spread to other locations around the U.S. where they tended to congregate in public parks.

Statement of the 99 Percent“We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.”

Influences of the anti-globalization movements

• Strongly influenced by Pacifist and anti-imperialist traditions

• Several influential critical works have inspired the anti-globalization movement. –No Logo, the book by the Canadian journalist

Naomi Klein –criticizes production practices of multinational

corporations and the omnipresence of brand-driven marketing in popular culture– "manifesto“ of the movement–Video: An Introduction to Naomi Klein’s No

Logo 7’24

Vandana Shiva – Biopiracy – Indian ecologist and feminist, – natural capital of indigenous people and

ecoregions is converted into forms of intellectual capital, which are then recognized as exclusive commercial property without sharing the private utility thus derived

– “Biopiracy (is) biological theft; illegal collection of indigenous plants by corporations who patent them for their own use.”

– Video: The Corporation: Chapter 8 Mindset 7’30

–The writer Arundhati Roy is famous for her anti-nuclear position and her activism against India's massive hydroelectric dam project, sponsored by the World Bank.

Le Monde Diplomatique and ATTAC

ATTAC (Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and for Citizens' Action)

advocates the antiglobalization cause Ignacio Ramonet Spanish journalist and writer – his

editorial brought on the creation of ATTAC• Movement originally created against currency speculation• now devotes itself to a wide range of issues related to

globalization, monitoring the decisions of the WTO, the OECD and the IMF

• attends the meetings of the G8 with the goal of influencing policymakers' decisions

• recently criticized Germany for what it called the criminalization of anti-G8 groups.

Aims of ATTAC• to produce and communicate information, and to

promote and carry out activities of all kinds for the recapture, by the citizens, of the power that the financial sector has on all aspects of political, economic, social and cultural life throughout the world. Such means include the taxation of transactions in foreign exchange markets (Tobin tax).

• Not an anti-globalization movement, but it criticizes the neoliberal ideology that it sees as dominating economic globalization. It supports globalization policies that they characterize as sustainable and socially just.

• Slogans:– "The World is not for sale", denouncing the “merchandisation"

of society.– "Another world is possible" pointing to an alternative

globalization where people and not profit is in focus

Susan George of the Transnational Institute – long-term influence on the

movement, as the writer of books since 1986 on hunger, debt, international financial institutions and capitalism–Video: Susan George on using the

financial crisis to tackle other crises 4’05 European Social Forum – Sweden 2008

3 Sociologists having detailed underdevelopment and dependence in a

world ruled by the capitalist system – Jean Ziegler:• Swiss sociologist, politician, writer• "A child who dies from hunger is a murdered

child.”– Christopher Chase-Dunn: • American Sociologist educated at Stanford,

specializing in cross-national quantitative studies of the effects of dependence on foreign investment

– Immanuel Wallerstein:• American Sociologist, educated at Columbia focus

world system and emergence of capitalism, especially their effects on India and Africa

–Critics of United States foreign policy such as Naom Chomsky, Susan Sontag, and anti-globalist pranksters The Yes Men are widely accepted inside the movement.

–Video: Utopia Susan Sontag, Naom Chomsky 1’25–Video: Naom Chomsky agrees with

Ron Paul on foreign Policy 6’55–Yes Men - Bhopal Disaster BBC spoo

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HomeworkReading Material

Articles– FDR on IMF to Congress– John Maynard Keynes– Keynes vs. White at Bretton Woods– The Legacy of Bretton Woods– “It’s China’s World, we’re just living in it”

Mastering Modern World HistoryChapter 9 The United Nations pp. 181-189