[R-G] The globalisation illusion

[Suzanne de Kuyper]

really good .................suzannedk at gmail.com

On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 8:49 PM, Sid Shniad <shniad at sfu.ca> wrote:

>
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/10/globalisation-monbiot-stiglitz
>
> The Guardian 10 June 2009
>
> The globalisation illusion
>
> Like past imperialism, the idea of globalisation is unsustainable and kept
> unchallenged to insulate us from reality
>
> Hugh Goodacre
>
> Much of the coverage of the current political storms in this country gives
> the impression that it all takes place in isolation from the rest of the
> world. It is consequently refreshing to read George Monbiot pointing out
> that "the revolutions and reforms experienced by almost all other developed
> countries have been averted in Britain by foreign remittances. The social
> unrest that might have transformed our politics was instead outsourced to
> our colonies and unwilling trading partners."
>
> In the days when colonialist ideals were unblushingly stated and upheld by
> Britain's government and business interests alike, Cecil Rhodes readily
> admitted that it was precisely this "outsourcing" of social unrest that was
> the underlying goal of his enterprise in Africa. He recalled how in 1895, he
> witnessed a meeting of the unemployed in East London, where "wild speeches"
> called for "bread! bread!". This led him to conclude that the only way to
> save this country from "a bloody civil war" was to "acquire new lands to
> settle the surplus population, to provide new markets for the goods produced
> in the factory and the mines. If you want to avoid civil war, you must
> become imperialists".
>
> Well, you can't become imperialists nowadays, or not of the old colonialist
> type anyway. Rhodesia has long since become Zimbabwe, and, as Monbiot shows,
> the chickens are now coming home to roost. Social unrest will, from now on,
> "transform our politics".
>
> Monbiot cites a number of authors who have addressed this issue (Hamza
> Alavi, Ralph Davis, Eric Hobsbawm, John Newsinger and Mike Davis). However,
> he leaves one rather obvious omission, namely, Lenin, who, some months
> before the 1917 October revolution in Russia, memorably quoted Rhodes's
> words in his pamphlet, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism .
> Rhodes's frank admission of his motives fitted neatly into Lenin's argument
> that the contradictions underlying capitalism in its imperialist phase are
> ultimately insoluble and must inevitably end in its overthrow – an argument
> of increased force today when the former colonies have long been advancing
> towards greater levels of independence. Lenin also ridiculed the idea that
> imperialism had overcome its contradictions and that a less conflictual
> "ultra-imperialism" had emerged – that being a buzzword of his day, just as
> "globalisation" is of ours.
>
> Monbiot concludes that "the government can no longer insulate us from
> reality". But his prescriptions for what we are to do are limited in the
> extreme. To find how our "small, densely populated country which produces
> very little supports itself", he recommends the works of Joseph Stiglitz,
> author of such works as Globalisation and its Discontents and Making
> Globalisation Work.
>
> It is ironic that these are precisely the works that have been endlessly
> quoted by Gordon Brown, who liberally peppers his speeches with remarks
> about the "discontents" of globalisation and his "determination to make
> globalisation work". The following comment from a November 2006 speech to
> the CBI, in particular, could almost have been taken word for word from
> Stiglitz:
>
>
> Globalisation is a fact and here to stay. The real question not whether it
> exists or not, but whether it is well managed or badly managed, and one of
> my themes today is that it is for us to be evangelists for globalisation,
> taking on the anti-globalisation and protectionist forces who fail to
> recognise today's economic truth that free trade, open markets and
> flexibility are preconditions of modern economic success across our global
> economy.
>
> Well, does globalisation work? Surely the evidence of recent months is that
> it does not and cannot. Indeed, it is more reasonable to conclude that it is
> precisely by seeking to sustain the illusion that globalisation can work
> that the government has done most to "insulate us from reality".
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