South Americans Wage Battle Against Economic World Order

[one...two...tree 2,762]

by Ashifa Kassam

Across South America rages the battle the rest of the world forgot.

It’s a battle for a change in the way that the world does economics. Its symptoms mark the beautiful cities of the continent: In Quito, Ecuadorians protest daily against a proposed free-trade agreement with the United States, while Colombians graffiti their cities’ walls with slogans decrying privatization.

....

At the heart of their protest was not a rejection of globalization, but instead a call for labour, environmental and human rights within globalization. Their collective presence laid the foundation for a movement that captivated the lives of activists around the world.

What brought these activists together was a belief that the current system of global economics marginalizes developing countries and further entangles them in poverty. Much of their protest is directed against the Western-led World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which provide loans to developing countries. The loans they provide are desperately needed to develop infrastructure and stabilize the economies of developing countries, but come at the price of agreeing to follow the rules of these institutions. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund believe strongly in the principles of free markets and demand increased privatization, decreased spending on social services and unfettered free trade in exchange for lending money.

While these demands have sometimes generated conditions that enable countries to escape poverty, more often they have further impoverished countries. The push towards free markets often forces vulnerable domestic industries onto a global market where they are competing with heavily subsidized products from the U.S., Canada and Europe. The institutions advocate a minimal role for governments in countries that borrow money from them, which inevitably erodes local services such as health care and education.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/29/1503/

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Good to know that local corruption bears no responsibility in the plight of many developing and third world nations.