Manipulated again!
The emptiness behind the slogan free trade has been pointed out
again and again by numerous NGOs, by Progressive Internet sites
and by individual objectors to the obscene power of the
transnational corporations. It needs however to be stressed
constantly until the corporate empire falls and IN BOLDFACE
CAPITALS, that the free trade concept which the rich countries
are holding forth as the savior of the world from poverty,
increasing unemployment and horrendous inequality is just a
legerdemain, an empty illusion. It is a way of duping all of us into
believing that something positive is coming out of this huge scam.
In particular, the part of the world that is the target of the greed
of the big corporations (represented by the World Trade
Organization) is of course the poor countries in the South,
especially Africa, which is being mercilessly screwed into
becoming helpless buyers of overpriced products from the rich
countries while they are being prevented, through crafty
agreements, imposed by the World Bank, from continuing the
production of what has been their main source of income and
sustenance for hundreds of years. All for the profit of the already
rich countries and corporations, and the people be damned.
Propaganda terms like Free trade, bringing democracy to Iraq,
Pax Americana are all of the same ilk. They mean exactly the
opposite of what they seem to mean.
The so-called Free Trade Agreements, such as NAFTA (North
America), CAFTA, (Central America), and FTAA (the Americas,
specifically South America) have very little to do with free trade.
An agreement to eliminate or reduce trade barriers may sound
like a positive thing. But positive to whom? Who benefits? And
are trade barriers actually reduced? What the WTO is doing in
reality is raising customs duties on products from third world
nations at the same time as they are hugely subsidizing their own
industrial agricultural products in order to be able to dump these
products on the third world countries whom they have deprived
of the capacity of feeding themselves. They achieve this by
forcing new laws to be applied in those countries, laws that grant
new rights to transnational companies at the expense of
traditional farming. Privatization of services and national
resources, most importantly water (Water Privatization: The
World Bank's Latest Market Fantasy, By Maude Barlow and Tony
Clarke), deprives numerous third world countries of their selfsufficiency and causes malnutrition and absurdly high death rates,
particularly among infants, deaths that could have been largely
avoided, had it not been for the obscene greed of the
multinational corporations.
Small farmers all over the world are getting the short end of the
stick. In India, the deliberate destruction of the age-old
agricultural policy via the introduction of the free market system
has radically changed the way of life of millions of small farmers.
Suicides and untold disasters have resulted from the total
inhumanity of the system. See India: free markets, empty bellies
(Le Monde Diplomatique, Sept 2002).
What then is free about the free market? It leaves the rich
countries free to dump their cotton, food products, etc. on the
poor countries, free to move their work force to cheap labor areas
in the third world, free to hide their money in tax havens, free to
enjoy the proceeds of global capital speculation based on the
artificial conditions they themselves are creating, free to screw
the world into believing that the free market economy is the
inevitable solution to all the economic problems on the planet.
And I havent even begun to mention the ecological disasters
created by the free market system. The total irresponsibility and
unaccountability that has been festering like gangrene, increasing
for decades, but taking a quick jump forward when it became
clear that the tragedy of September 11 made any form of
illegality possible under the benign surveillance of the neocons
and their figurehead George W. Bush. Just whisper the word
terrorism and any hideous crime becomes possible. No laws have
to be applied.
The scam and the reality
Eradicating poverty, Tony Blairs pet theme sounds so respectable,
so fair, so altruistic. Do you really think he cares? Or that any
other politicians really care? Oh, there may be a couple of
exceptions, but by and large, politicians are in the service not of
the people who elect them (for lack of a better alternative) but in
the service of the big corporations who feed them generously.
There is, however, some hope today, particularly looking at the
winds of freedom and independence that can be clearly felt in
Latin America. The creation of Mercosur, The Common Market of
the South, in existence since January 1995, to which organization
Venezuela was added at the recent summit in Mar del Plata (Nov
4 - 5, 2005), has become a humane and powerful alternative to
the U.S. corporation-controlled FTAA. George W. Bush who
arrived at the summit in Mar del Plata with hopes of winning over
Latin America for his own FTAA, left Argentina greatly
disappointed.
World Hunger facts (outside the U.S.)
- 852 million people are hungry
Developing nations
- 815 million people are undernourished
- 1.2 billion people live on less than $1/day
Industrialized/developed nations
- 9 million people are undernourished
Transitional nations
- 28 million people are undernourished
The figures speak for themselves.
The hope for a saving solution
In the final analysis, our great hope is peoples power. Is it really
possible in the long run to go on starving a huge part of the
population of the world and getting away with it, in the sole
interest of a handful of shameless and already obscenely rich
corporations?
Also the forward march of South American unity, a powerful
example of peoples power, offers maybe the greatest hope for
democracy to be rekindled in the fight against the U.S./corporate
fascist empire.
Do remember Bolivias Water war in the fall of 2000. See Bolivia's
Water War Victory
Also see:
South American Unity May No Longer Be a Distant Dream: The
Regions Left-leaning Governments Strive for Integration as
Washingtons Plan to Isolate Venezuelas Chávez Fails (Monday,
11 April, 2005)
(This analysis was prepared by COHA Senior Research Fellow
Seth R. DeLong, Ph.D. - COHA Council on Hemispheric Affairs)
The propaganda value of free trade agreements is fading, along
with the failure of the scheme to provide any of the goals it
promised to fulfill, even though, not surprisingly, there seems to
be total silence on this matter in the U.S. mainstream press. Only
the mega-corporations are thriving.
Opposition Delays Free Trade Implementation By Brendan Coyne
(from The New StandardNews)
"As CAFTA member-nations struggle to comply with the free trade
pact's requirements, opponents of the deal say the delays show
how unpopular and undemocratic the mandated reforms are.
Stubborn opposition to provisions of the Central American Free
Trade Agreement (CAFTA) will keep the pact from going into
effect on the first of the year as planned by the Bush
administration. The delay has enlivened efforts to undo the deal
by groups who fear the pact could have a crippling effect on
workers, small farmers and the economies of the nations
involved."
"The problems associated with implementing CAFTA demonstrate
what we've been saying all along: this agreement goes beyond
trade in requiring dramatic changes in domestic laws that grant
new rights to transnational corporations at the expense of
working people," the Quixote Centers 1) Tom Ricker said."
The con game
There is plenty of negative news as well on the future of NAFTA
(North American Free Trade Agreement):
The high price of 'free' trade
NAFTA's failure has cost the United States jobs across the nation
(by Robert E. Scott)
"Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was
signed in 1993, the rise in the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and
Mexico through 2002 has caused the displacement of production
that supported 879,280 U.S. jobs. Most of those lost jobs were
high-wage positions in manufacturing industries. The loss of
these jobs is just the most visible tip of NAFTA's impact on the
U.S. economy. In fact, NAFTA has also contributed to rising
income inequality, suppressed real wages for production workers,
weakened workers' collective bargaining powers and ability to
organize unions, and reduced fringe benefits." (from EPI Economic Policy Institute)
The much vaunted free trade agreements are doing what might
be irreparable damage to an indefinite number of mostly thirdworld countries. They are opening the way to installing corrupt
regimes all over the world, primarily in Africa, which is fast
becoming a failed continent due to free trade policies.
See Christian Aid
The cost of 'free trade' to Africa's poor $272 billion /20.06.05
"Africa is a massive $272 billion worse off as a result of free trade
policies forced on the continent as a condition for receiving aid
and debt relief.
According to new research from Christian Aid, poor countries in
sub-Saharan Africa have lost billions of dollars worth of business
over the past twenty years after being forced to open their
markets to imports. The amount Africa has lost is equivalent to a
sum large enough to wipe out all Africas debt and enable every
child in the world to be sent to school and vaccinated.
The report, 'The Economics of Failure: The Real Cost of Free
Trade' stands on its head the traditional pro-market argument
that free trade automatically leads to growth and a way out of
poverty."
It is high time for the world to see through the shameless greed
and hypocrisy that are ruining innumerable countries on the
planet, primarily developing and transitional countries,
manipulations which are also threatening, to a lesser degree, the
wellbeing of the already industrialized countries. It is time to
wake up and get mass movements going to fight the corruption
and stop the steady walk to the edge of the cliff with the massive
collapse we are now headed for.
This is not just an enormous threat for third-world disaster. We
are all concerned, you and I and everyone you know and love.
1) a nondenominational humanitarian organization
Copyright 2006 by AxisofLogic.com
Siv ONeall is an Axis of Logic columnist, based in France. She can
be reached at [email protected]