|
July 2, 2002
Leah Wells
The Wedding
Was a Bomb
CounterPunch Wire
Trial of
the SOA 37
Edward Hammond
Bombing
the Mind:
The Pentagon's Drug Warfare
Sam Bahour
Ramallah
Occupied:
Uninvited Guests Become Neighbors
July 1, 2002
Norman Madarasz
Brazil's
Triumph
June 28/30, 2002
Kathleen Christison
The True Story of Resolution
242 or How the US Sold Out
the Palestinians
Cockburn / St. Clair
Death,
Juries and Scalia
Tarif Abboushi
Bush's
Double Standard
on Israel
N.D. Jayaprakash
Seething
with Rage:
The Palestinian Saga
Michael Yates
Taking
the Pledge:
Teachers and the Flag
Stephen Zunes
Bush's
Speech a Setback
for Peace
Walt Brasch
The Pledge
v. The Constitution
Cockburn / St. Clair
Strikers
as Terrorists?
Tom Ridge Calls Longshoremen
June 27, 2002
Ralph Nader
Reclaiming
Our Commons
Neve Gordon
Jerusalem
Under Attack
Robert Jensen
Alternative
Futures
David Vest
Darryl Kile's
Great Day
Gary Leupp
The Loya
Jirga Joke
Rahul Mahajan
Arafat
Says US Needs New Leadership; Calls for Fair Elections
June 26, 2002
Robert Fisk
Sharon as
Bush Speechwriter
Mokhiber / Weissman
Brokerman
June 25, 2002
Dave Marsh
The RIAA,
Library of Congress and the Web Pirates
Uri Avnery
Reform
Now!
Bahour / Dahan
Bush:
Off with Arafat's Head
Walt Brasch
Bush:
the Compassionate Exerciser
June 24, 2002
Bernard Weiner
Talkin'
About the F-Word
David Bates
Portland
Gets Dicked:
Cheney Does Oregon
Jo Freeman
Will
the War on Terror Follow the Path of the Cold War?
Tom Gorman
The Only
Thing "Generous" is the Propaganda
Bezhad Yaghmaian
Caught
Between Borders
in a Borderless World
Ben Sonnenberg
Ted
Hughes' Spell
June 22/23, 2002
Douglas Valentine
Sex,
Drugs & the CIA
June 21, 2002
Norman Madarasz
Brazil
Over England:
The Gaucho's Wild Ride
John Borowski
Stossel
and Disney's Crimes Against Nature
Chris Floyd
Southern
Cross: The US Takes Aim at Brazil
David Martin
Of Lies
and Oil: an interview with Rahul Mahajan
James T. Phillips
Serbian
Reservations:
Kosovo 2002
June 20, 2002
Chris Kromm
The South
at War: a Tour of the US Military/Industrial Complex
Jacob Levich
The War
on Terror is
Not a Suicide Pact
Mark Weisbrot
What
are They Doing to Argentina?
Jeffrey St. Clair
and Alexander Cockburn
Fire
Walk With Me:
Terry Lynn Barton and the Flames of Colorado
June 19, 2002
Gary Leupp
Red Targets in Terror War
Lenni Brenner
The Road
Forward for the
Palestinian Movement
Bernard Weiner
Inside
Cheney's Diary:
Cakewalking Through Minefields
Alexander Cockburn
The
Incredible Shrinking President
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published March 15, 2002
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
|
July
3, 2002
An
Alternative to the G-8 Initiative for Africa
A Global
AIDS Fund and a Living Wage Campaign
by Behzad Yaghmaian
The leaders of the world's industrialized nations
met in Calgary, Canada to formulate a common strategy for the
future of the world, its "security," and its sustainability.
Similar to most international meetings in recent years, Africa
and poverty eradication in poor countries of the Third World
were discussed as important human and security issues. A new
initiative was dislodged for Africa: grants in return for market
liberalization--free trade, cuts in subsidies, and the rest of
the good old neolibearl package.
For two decades the Africans were blackmailed
by the IMF and the World Bank, and "advised" to liberalize
their markets as a condition for new loans. And for two decades,
the Africans did exactly as they were advised. They opened their
borders in hope of increased foreign investment and rising manufacturing
production and exports. But, despite all these reforms, the  conditions of the continent deteriorated.
African nations fell deeper into the abyss of indebtedness. Sub-Saharan
Africa experienced a decline in foreign investment. The continent
remained an exporter of primary goods. Industrialization did
not materialize. Unemployment and absolute poverty increased.
Average income dropped in most of the continent. Having lost
the ability to earn a sustainable living through cash crop production,
millions became internally displaced. Some wandered in the continent
in search of a better life, and other became voyagers in far
away lands hoping to find a new home and economic security.
The Africans never reached their promised
land. The old IMF/World Bank lending scheme became socially and
economically unsustainable. Africa was increasingly unable to
pay back its debt. This was understood by all. A new scheme was
required. Led by the Bush Administration, the G-8 meeting in
Calgary proposed "grants" as a replacement for loans.
But, like the old loan policy, the new "grants" were
conditional. A forceful move towards free market capitalism was
to be undertaken prior to receiving the "grants."
The G-8 meeting in Calgary ended. The
rich returned to their castles. The poor Africans flew back to
their countries waiting for the $10 billion continent-wide "grant"
to arrive by 2006. They had a task to perform: further open their
borders to the free flow of goods and capital, and remove the
remaining obstacles to free markets in the continent.
But, to many analysts and observers,
the new initiative in Africa can only intensify the old problems
of the continent. Ravaged by AIDS, Malaria and other diseases,
environmental catastrophe, and widespread poverty, Africa is
on the verge of extinction. Saving Africa requires a global effort,
but one different from the G-8 initiative.
In what follows I will suggest a possible
alternative to the G-8 initiative for Africa and other Third
World countries.
AIDS, Free
Markets, and the African Drama
Despite the dispute about the exact number
of infected Africans, HIV/AIDS remains the biggest treat to the
sustainability of life in the continent. AIDS is devastating
Africa. The continent is unable to deal with this human drama
with its own resources. There is no African solution to the HIV/AIDS
crisis. A concerted global effort and approach is needed.
Free markets have failed the Africans.
The experience of the past two decades demonstrate clearly that
the ability of the continent to deal with the epidemic has progressively
declined. Africans will die in rising numbers while we debate
the merits of free market capitalism, and wait for the kind-heartedness
of pharmaceutical firms to lower their prices for distribution
in Africa. Private charities, even if they are guided by good
intentions, cannot make a dent into this problem.
There is no private solution to the AIDS
crisis in Africa and other poor nations of the world. A new outlook
and policy paradigm is needed. Given the scope of the problem,
the only viable solution to the crisis seems to be found in approaching
AIDS/HIV as a global public good problem. This requires the formation
of a global and public fund for research and development, production,
and distribution of drugs.
The project can be financed by the imposition
of a universal tax on financial transactions--a Tobin Tax of
some sort; a small income and tax; and a marginal tax on profits
in industrialized nations and wealthy emerging markets. The taxes
need to be specifically designated for the Global AIDS Fund.
The fund must be managed by the United Nations and its affiliates.
The fund will not replace private efforts
towards the development of a cure for AIDS. It will supplement
them. The global and public fund will reduce the cost of production
by putting together medical and technical resources from around
the world. I t will dramatically lower prices by eliminating
profits.
Healthcare is a right recognized by the
International Declaration of Human Rights. The Global AIDS Fund
will be an important step towards the realization of the declaration.
Sweatshops,
Child labor, and the Global Campaign for a Living Wage
Though not reported by the mainstream
media in the U.S., the G-8 meeting was protested by the anti-globalization
forces. Fleeing to a protected resort did not stop the protesters
from voicing their discontent and rage. The protests in Calgary
were the most recent manifestation of the rising consciousness
in the West about the plight of those negatively affected by
globalization and its dominant policy, neoliberalism.
Boycotting or calling for a ban on the
import of goods made by child labor or under sweatshop conditions
have become a cornerstone of the anti-globalization protests.
The demand is meant to protect the children and laborers of impoverished
Third World countries, including Africa. But, although noble
in its intention, the ban on imports will not change the problem
of poverty in Africa and elsewhere. It will not replace child
labor with high-paid jobs for adults.
Africa and other poor nations of the
world need more globalization and not less. But, they need a
different type of globalization, different policies and relations,
and a different approach by the progressive civil society in
the West. They need more investment, technology, production and
exports, and jobs with a living wage.
The boycott and import ban are not welcomed
by those in Africa and other Third World countries who see a
chance to labor, even under the most inhumane conditions, preferable
to not working at all. This is an unfortunate fact of life in
much of the Third World. Many in poor countries view the boycott
and import ban as disguised protectionism in the West. To be
effective, the movement for global justice needs a new outlook
and new demands.
The demand for the boycott goods made
in sweatshops and with child labor should be supplemented with
a universal demand for the payment of a living wage by Transnational
Corporations (TNCs). A living wage can be calculated and approximated
for all countries. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
and other similar UN agencies, along with NGOs from Third World
countries and the West are perfect institutions for this task.
The living wage campaign will be operationlized by passing into
law a surcharge and tax levied on TNCs in cases of payments of
wages below the living wage. That is, that TNCs and their affiliates
and subsidiaries, and the local producers they subcontract with
will be held accountable by the global civil society and a new
international law. The tax charged to the TNCs should exceed
the difference between the living and the actually paid wages.
It should be collected by the countries where the TNCs parent
companies are registered, and contributed to a UN fund for development
in the Third World.
The benefits of the new policy are clear.
The payment of wages lower than the living wage will lose economic
rationality. The TNCs will lose the ability to threaten and blackmail
the capital-poor nations of the Third World with capital flight,
forcing them into a destructive wage competition and race to
the bottom. There will be no escape for the TNCs and their subcontractors.
The mandatory payment of a living wage will end the existing
downward spiral of wages. It will narrow the global wage disparity
by bringing up wages in poor countries. This will not dissuade
the TNCs from investing or sub-contracting production in Third
World Countries. The living wage in the Third World will still
be below those in the West. Investment in the Third World will
remain advantageous for certain products and activities.
The campaign global campaign for a living
wage is not a retreat from globalization. It is a specific call
for a different globalization, one that is less exploitative.
The campaign will help the attempts towards building international
labor solidarity and remedy the existing south-north rift between
workers.
The campaign could only succeed if it
is articulated, advocated, and fought for by the global civil
society and the movement for global justice. Opposition to neoliberalism
is growing around the world. The emerging movement needs an open
discussion of its policies and demands. To become a truly transnational
movement, it needs to address the needs and aspirations of its
diverse constituencies. The campaign for a living wage will be
an important step towards this end.
Behzad Yaghmaian
is the author of Social
Change in Iran: an eyewitness account of Dissent, Defiance and
a New Movement for Human Rights.
He can be reached at: behzad_yaghmaian@hotmail.com
Today's
Feature
Norman Madarasz
Brazil,
the Workers' Party and the Financial Times
Leah Wells
The Wedding
Was a Bomb
CounterPunch Wire
Trial of
the SOA 37
Edward Hammond
Bombing
the Mind:
The Pentagon's Drug Warfare
Sam Bahour
Ramallah
Occupied:
Uninvited Guests Become Neighbors
Dave Marsh
John Entwistle's
Heaven and Hell
Norman Madarasz
Brazil's
Triumph
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|