Elite interests
Just a few years ago, powerful corporate and political elites appeared to be having things their own way. Economic globalisation was proceeding apace and anyone who questioned ‘free trade’ was one of the ‘loony left’, an ‘eco-warrior’, or an outdated ‘protectionist’. But things have changed. There is now a mounting backlash from the civic sector - an astonishing alliance of overlapping public movements - and the battle lines are being drawn for the greatest conflict of the twenty-first century: the protection of people and nature from the forces of global capitalism that are attempting to privatise the planet.
Simply put, ‘economic globalisation’ describes the increasing integration of national economies and transnational flows of investment around the world. Political leaders are continually exhorting us, the citizens and voters, to play a part in helping our respective nations become ‘internationally competitive’ in the ‘global market place’. They talk of the importance and benefits of ‘free trade’, of lowering ‘barriers to trade’ and sharing the benefits with the poor. Opposing free trade, in their eyes, is akin to opposing motherhood and apple pie.
But the first thing we must grasp is that ‘free trade’ is anything but ‘free’. It is an Orwellian term - akin to calling a national war machine the Ministry of Peace - of such monstrous proportions that, until recently, most people did not even question it, thanks to a largely uncritical and deceptive mass media. This book attempts to show that free trade is actually forced trade, depending as it does on the coercive efforts of powerful corporate and political elites in the rich countries of the north to prise open the economies of the south, and gain access to their plentiful natural resources, including cheap labour. There is also nothing ‘free’ about a system of trade which systematically degrades the environment and widens the gap between rich and poor.
This is why campaigners have taken to talking about ‘rewriting the global rules of trade’ and advocating ‘fair trade, not free trade’. I do not argue against trade between nations - far from it. There is a strong argument in favour of allowing developing nations greater access to international markets as a stepping stone to poverty reduction, but it ought to be on terms which honour ecological and social values. Ironically, it has been the rich nations who have restricted access to their own markets, even as they have insisted on entering the fragile economies of the south, at the same time trampling on human rights and the natural environment.
Just another 'anti-globalisation' book?
Much of my basic argument, though not all the examples, may well be familiar territory to some cognoscenti, and will no doubt be dismissed by some mainstream critics as ‘yet another anti-globalisation book’. There are at least two pre-emptive strikes that I feel compelled to make here. First, consider the following conventional viewpoint in today’s consumer society. Mainstream politicians, corporations and the mass media constantly broadcast the notion that, barring a few problems here and there, the present global economic system is fair, democratic and successful. Communism is a failed experiment and capitalism has won, goes the argument. Moreover, ‘there is no alternative’; in Margaret Thatcher’s oft-repeated phrase. The possibility of organising society differently just does not appear on any serious agenda. The more often that this astonishing presumption is challenged, the better. Dissidents should try constantly to propagate their views, if only in an attempt to counter the constant barrage of mainstream propaganda.
Second, there is a pressing need for dissidents and activists to maintain and raise awareness of the links between their concerns, as well as their campaigning objectives, practical strategies, and political and corporate targets. There is a danger in separating, or even ignoring, issues that are fundamentally related. Environmentalists ultimately have the same goals as anti-poverty campaigners, for example. Opponents of the arms trade, as well as green activists, ought to be aware of the extent to which western foreign policy has pursued a neocolonial agenda of domination over people and natural resources in the ‘Third World’. Campaigners of various hues could usefully bring to public attention the degree to which government policy is skewed towards the interests of big business.
There is a tendency for campaigning groups to over-specialise, or to address the symptoms, rather than the underlying causes, of societal and environmental breakdown. This tendency, if left unaddressed, could scupper attempts to oppose and supplant the current system of economic globalisation. I have attempted to counter this in the book by tackling issues that at first sight may appear somewhat disparate, though they are, in fact, all interlinked. This simply reflects the deep-rooted nature of the economic, environmental and social problems that afflict us. Moreover, all the topics covered here impinge on the daily lives of each and every one of us - from our efforts (or lack of them) to combat global warming, to the food that ends up on our plates.
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