The centre-periphery arrangements of the world system, plunder the periphery and enrich the centre, deprive many and provide luxury to a handful, were the general characteristics of the decade… Capital faced criticisms. Even, the staunchest adherents of capital could not sing sweet songs in the face of catastrophe created by capital, writes Farooque Chowdhury as he looks back the decade just gone by in an essay serialised in three parts starting from today.
THE decade 2000s, which has just entered into the chamber of history was, as a rule of nature, full of dialectics: of decadence and of developments, of positives and of negatives. It carried the constant character: change. The forces of change, in economics and ecology, in politics and philosophy, in myths and markets, in states and speculation, in all segments and spheres, were hyperactive.
The decade bore seals of its past: a world system riddled with anomalies, contradictions, and irrationalities. It inherited inequality and injustice. Profit, as usual, was the motive force that drove its dominating interests. Luxury and squander in the decade produced, as the regular feature, deprivation. Enormous wealth produced in the decade stood as evidence of intensive appropriation of surplus value, and plunder of public property. The decade now gone with the wings of time produced poverty, hunger, and starvation. Signature of rebellion was also a part of the decade.
The decade, from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2009, witnessed bubbles and bursts. Crises and fear overwhelmed much of the decade: of the great financial crisis, of ecology and energy imperialism, of the great hunger, of terrorism, of global warming and mad cow disease, bird and swine flues. The empire displayed its reckless power, but the show just exposed its limits.
The dot-com bubble burst came almost at the beginning of the decade (on March 10, 2000) and by the end of 2000, closures were happening at the rate of more than one every 24 hours. The decade concluded with the Copenhagen compromise on climate crisis (December 18). ‘The war on terror’, as defined by the empire, flared two wars, longer than the WWII, and left hundreds of thousands of people dead. The September 11, 2001 attack in the US was the opening salvo of a full-fledged war. The war still continues.
The beginning of the decade saw Enron, ‘America’s Most Innovative Company’ go bankrupt. It was one of the biggest exposures of the corruption-ridden business-political world of capital. George W Bush was declared as elected US president by a controversial Supreme Court ruling after a disputed election that brought ‘hanging charade’, ‘dimple’, etc into the lexicon of ballot. And, one of the most beautiful faces of ugly bourgeois democracy, a democracy of few, was exposed by the court ruling: a verdict not by the people, but by a few judges. Dr Hans Blix, the former UN chief arms inspector, who searched Iraq for weapons of mass destruction and found none, said that he would have changed the re-election of George W Bush in 2004 if he could. The question to him by The Guardian was: If you could change one thing about the last decade, what would it be? With promises for change a landslide victory brought Barack Obama, the US’s first African-American president, to the White House. Environment and climate crises have started to emerge as a promising market to capital as big companies have started to invest in this market, a key element in future geo-politics. Increased Islamophobia in many countries in the last decade showed the dominating capital’s immaturity and helplessness. The decade was full with dominating powers’ wrestling with its former proxy, which was once mobilised to bleed the empire’s Cold War foe.
The decade bore seals of its past: a world system riddled with anomalies, contradictions, and irrationalities. It inherited inequality and injustice. Profit, as usual, was the motive force that drove its dominating interests. Luxury and squander in the decade produced, as the regular feature, deprivation. Enormous wealth produced in the decade stood as evidence of intensive appropriation of surplus value, and plunder of public property. The decade now gone with the wings of time produced poverty, hunger, and starvation. Signature of rebellion was also a part of the decade.
The decade, from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2009, witnessed bubbles and bursts. Crises and fear overwhelmed much of the decade: of the great financial crisis, of ecology and energy imperialism, of the great hunger, of terrorism, of global warming and mad cow disease, bird and swine flues. The empire displayed its reckless power, but the show just exposed its limits.
The dot-com bubble burst came almost at the beginning of the decade (on March 10, 2000) and by the end of 2000, closures were happening at the rate of more than one every 24 hours. The decade concluded with the Copenhagen compromise on climate crisis (December 18). ‘The war on terror’, as defined by the empire, flared two wars, longer than the WWII, and left hundreds of thousands of people dead. The September 11, 2001 attack in the US was the opening salvo of a full-fledged war. The war still continues.
The beginning of the decade saw Enron, ‘America’s Most Innovative Company’ go bankrupt. It was one of the biggest exposures of the corruption-ridden business-political world of capital. George W Bush was declared as elected US president by a controversial Supreme Court ruling after a disputed election that brought ‘hanging charade’, ‘dimple’, etc into the lexicon of ballot. And, one of the most beautiful faces of ugly bourgeois democracy, a democracy of few, was exposed by the court ruling: a verdict not by the people, but by a few judges. Dr Hans Blix, the former UN chief arms inspector, who searched Iraq for weapons of mass destruction and found none, said that he would have changed the re-election of George W Bush in 2004 if he could. The question to him by The Guardian was: If you could change one thing about the last decade, what would it be? With promises for change a landslide victory brought Barack Obama, the US’s first African-American president, to the White House. Environment and climate crises have started to emerge as a promising market to capital as big companies have started to invest in this market, a key element in future geo-politics. Increased Islamophobia in many countries in the last decade showed the dominating capital’s immaturity and helplessness. The decade was full with dominating powers’ wrestling with its former proxy, which was once mobilised to bleed the empire’s Cold War foe.
A political-economy in shambles
NONE can escape the profound power of political economy: individuals and institutions, processes and practices, plays and pronouncements. The last decade was no exception. The dominance of speculation economy in the world system shaped many incidents and events in the world stage: states stood on the brink of bankruptcy, fountains of trust in machines of rule ran dry, years of labour of common persons were washed away, and speculation turned albatross around the world system’s neck. The fragile state of speculation capital once again came to light with the Tiger Woods scandal at the end of the decade: it could cost, a study found, the market value lost to companies that had the golfer as a sponsor, $12 billion. It is a story of capital dependent on play, on advertisement, on speculation, not on manufacturing, the decade’s major feature.
The centre-periphery arrangements of the world system, plunder the periphery and enrich the centre, deprive many and provide luxury to a handful, were the general characteristics of the decade. Financial institutions tumbled down, sold, married, and bailed out. Capital faced criticisms. Even, the staunchest adherents of capital could not sing sweet songs in the face of catastrophe created by capital. ‘Only after the crash’, The Guardian said, ‘was the truth revealed. Looking back on the decade, everyone saw that we had lived a lie…. Meltdown was inevitable – and Britain played its part in that global folly.’ The crisis went to its peak in September-October 2008. Finance houses were swallowed up, but when mighty Lehman Brothers crashed, the world held its breath and the frightening vulnerability of the whole system was exposed. The US Congress passed legislation to shore up the system. But the process brought to light one aspect of political problem related to the ruling elites in the US. Many historic sell/buy outs and bankruptcies shook the decade. The decade stood as witness to monumental greed and recklessness of a few and saw financial culprits and criminals creating havoc on the lives of millions. A very few among them were brought to books.
Speculation capital related incidents in the US, asset bubbles, etc, have been mentioned a lot. According to the IMF report The State of Public Finances: Outlook and Medium-term Policies After the 2008 Crash, the government financial sector bailouts as proportion of the GDP (as of February 18) was, among many other countries, the UK 19.8 per cent, Norway 13.8 per cent, Canada 8.8 per cent, US 6.3 per cent, Netherlands 6.2 per cent, Sweden 5.8 per cent, Greece 5.4 per cent. Other countries incurring the cost included Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Portugal, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Hungary, and Australia. On the basis of The Banker and Thompson Reuters it was said many of the ‘world’s banks were sitting on the biggest loan books.’
In Britain, the first time government finances recorded a shortfall in July 2009 since 1996. The government’s net debt was 56.8 per cent of the GDP. In 2000, public debt, as percentage of the GDP, was 39. In 2009, it increased to 71.9. Unemployment in the UK in January 2000 was 1.68 million. In 2009, it rose to 2.47m. Debt as percentage of the GDP, as The Guardian reported on the basis of data from Reuters, ONS, CIA World Factbook, HM Treasury, stood as the following: Japan 170, Italy 104, Germany 64.9, France 63.9, Canada 62.3, US 60.8, India 59, Austria 58.8, Netherlands 57.3, Argentina 51, UK 47.5, Brazil 40.7, Spain 38.5, Sweden 36.5, South Korea 27.2, Denmark 21.8, China 18.4, Australia 15.4 and Russia 6.8. Japan was reeling under a lost decade. California, a state of the United States, struggled with unprecedented budget stalemate for its financial survival. The state also had no water enough for its inhabitants and economy. Eurozone industrial output plunged by a record 18.4 per cent year-on-year in February. The annual drop in industrial output was worst since 1990. Europe was one of the regions worst affected by the great financial crisis. The euro became the currency of members of the Eurozone and, on January 1, 2002, replaced the currencies of 12 of the EU’s 15 members. About two years later, the largest expansion to date of the EU took place, extending the union by 10 member states: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Malta and Cyprus. These two developments express a certain desire of a section of the world capital.
The emergence of China and India as economic power was one of the most significant incidents on the world stage. These two countries and Brazil played important role in trade and economy, and climate negotiations. SCO, BRIC, ALBA, Bank of the South, and left and left-leaning governments in South American countries including Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia emerged as new factors in geopolitics. Call for socialism of the 21st century was made. Struggles against capitalist globalisation and imperialism were waged in different parts of the world. Political developments with the dominance of radical forces in Nepal have created new prospects with far-reaching implications in many spheres including geo-politics in that region. Movements for ecology, climate, peace, and human rights became stronger in many countries. A couple of Latin American generals had to face trial, which was beyond the imagination of many. These incidents signal rise of new social forces. Stumbles in international trade negotiations, the failed Cancun conference and the inconclusive Doha Round, showed capital’s divided camp. G-20 emerged as a global guardian. The geopolitical map, however, began to change in many regions with new energy and trade deals, and changes in market shares.
Natural disasters including cyclone Nargis, and hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike, worst heat waves in Europe in recorded human history, Indian Ocean earthquake causing tsunami, and the Kashmir, Sichuan and Bam earthquakes exposed the utter inefficiency of the world system capitalism has constructed over centuries, and the misuse of science and resources capitalism has made. It was the warmest decade since records began in 1850. The resulting political fallout of Katrina was severely damaging to the Bush administration because of its perceived failure to act promptly and effectively.
NONE can escape the profound power of political economy: individuals and institutions, processes and practices, plays and pronouncements. The last decade was no exception. The dominance of speculation economy in the world system shaped many incidents and events in the world stage: states stood on the brink of bankruptcy, fountains of trust in machines of rule ran dry, years of labour of common persons were washed away, and speculation turned albatross around the world system’s neck. The fragile state of speculation capital once again came to light with the Tiger Woods scandal at the end of the decade: it could cost, a study found, the market value lost to companies that had the golfer as a sponsor, $12 billion. It is a story of capital dependent on play, on advertisement, on speculation, not on manufacturing, the decade’s major feature.
The centre-periphery arrangements of the world system, plunder the periphery and enrich the centre, deprive many and provide luxury to a handful, were the general characteristics of the decade. Financial institutions tumbled down, sold, married, and bailed out. Capital faced criticisms. Even, the staunchest adherents of capital could not sing sweet songs in the face of catastrophe created by capital. ‘Only after the crash’, The Guardian said, ‘was the truth revealed. Looking back on the decade, everyone saw that we had lived a lie…. Meltdown was inevitable – and Britain played its part in that global folly.’ The crisis went to its peak in September-October 2008. Finance houses were swallowed up, but when mighty Lehman Brothers crashed, the world held its breath and the frightening vulnerability of the whole system was exposed. The US Congress passed legislation to shore up the system. But the process brought to light one aspect of political problem related to the ruling elites in the US. Many historic sell/buy outs and bankruptcies shook the decade. The decade stood as witness to monumental greed and recklessness of a few and saw financial culprits and criminals creating havoc on the lives of millions. A very few among them were brought to books.
Speculation capital related incidents in the US, asset bubbles, etc, have been mentioned a lot. According to the IMF report The State of Public Finances: Outlook and Medium-term Policies After the 2008 Crash, the government financial sector bailouts as proportion of the GDP (as of February 18) was, among many other countries, the UK 19.8 per cent, Norway 13.8 per cent, Canada 8.8 per cent, US 6.3 per cent, Netherlands 6.2 per cent, Sweden 5.8 per cent, Greece 5.4 per cent. Other countries incurring the cost included Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Portugal, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Hungary, and Australia. On the basis of The Banker and Thompson Reuters it was said many of the ‘world’s banks were sitting on the biggest loan books.’
In Britain, the first time government finances recorded a shortfall in July 2009 since 1996. The government’s net debt was 56.8 per cent of the GDP. In 2000, public debt, as percentage of the GDP, was 39. In 2009, it increased to 71.9. Unemployment in the UK in January 2000 was 1.68 million. In 2009, it rose to 2.47m. Debt as percentage of the GDP, as The Guardian reported on the basis of data from Reuters, ONS, CIA World Factbook, HM Treasury, stood as the following: Japan 170, Italy 104, Germany 64.9, France 63.9, Canada 62.3, US 60.8, India 59, Austria 58.8, Netherlands 57.3, Argentina 51, UK 47.5, Brazil 40.7, Spain 38.5, Sweden 36.5, South Korea 27.2, Denmark 21.8, China 18.4, Australia 15.4 and Russia 6.8. Japan was reeling under a lost decade. California, a state of the United States, struggled with unprecedented budget stalemate for its financial survival. The state also had no water enough for its inhabitants and economy. Eurozone industrial output plunged by a record 18.4 per cent year-on-year in February. The annual drop in industrial output was worst since 1990. Europe was one of the regions worst affected by the great financial crisis. The euro became the currency of members of the Eurozone and, on January 1, 2002, replaced the currencies of 12 of the EU’s 15 members. About two years later, the largest expansion to date of the EU took place, extending the union by 10 member states: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Malta and Cyprus. These two developments express a certain desire of a section of the world capital.
The emergence of China and India as economic power was one of the most significant incidents on the world stage. These two countries and Brazil played important role in trade and economy, and climate negotiations. SCO, BRIC, ALBA, Bank of the South, and left and left-leaning governments in South American countries including Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia emerged as new factors in geopolitics. Call for socialism of the 21st century was made. Struggles against capitalist globalisation and imperialism were waged in different parts of the world. Political developments with the dominance of radical forces in Nepal have created new prospects with far-reaching implications in many spheres including geo-politics in that region. Movements for ecology, climate, peace, and human rights became stronger in many countries. A couple of Latin American generals had to face trial, which was beyond the imagination of many. These incidents signal rise of new social forces. Stumbles in international trade negotiations, the failed Cancun conference and the inconclusive Doha Round, showed capital’s divided camp. G-20 emerged as a global guardian. The geopolitical map, however, began to change in many regions with new energy and trade deals, and changes in market shares.
Natural disasters including cyclone Nargis, and hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike, worst heat waves in Europe in recorded human history, Indian Ocean earthquake causing tsunami, and the Kashmir, Sichuan and Bam earthquakes exposed the utter inefficiency of the world system capitalism has constructed over centuries, and the misuse of science and resources capitalism has made. It was the warmest decade since records began in 1850. The resulting political fallout of Katrina was severely damaging to the Bush administration because of its perceived failure to act promptly and effectively.
Myths demolished
CAPITAL-controlled academia and mass media manufactured many myths: market knows best, market’s benevolence and efficiency, market is the best healer, smallest possible state, state should stay afar from running enterprises, end of contradictions, capitalism is the best political economic expression of democracy, democracy of minority social class ensures transparency and accountability of state machine, household based production or service unit is the path to liberate the poor, a number of persons designating themselves as protector of civil and political rights, although in actual terms these guys have no constituency, can fill in the political vacuum made by inaction, cropping up from historical-socio-economic reasons, of social and political forces, globalisation is a new phenomenon, globalisation’s Midas touch, and many more. The past decade exposed these propagandas. Albania or Algeria, Ecuador or Estonia, Nepal or Nigeria, Poland or Pakistan, the US or the UK, and many others were afflicted with either of these myths and demystification. The reality that gradually evolved throughout the decade turned a hot potato to dominating interests and their underling theoreticians. The decade experienced exposures of capital’s criminality that broadly affected this planet with about 6.8 billion human souls. The decade saw the pundits in the service of power for status quo turn piss artists.
The global fact of life
ALL the high-pitched songs of capitalism with human face, sung by a section of pundits, were nullified by capital itself, by capital’s karma and its juggernaut journey: millions were out of work, the great hunger was there with its big jaw open. More than one billion people, the Food and Agriculture Organisation estimated in its annual hunger report 2009, ‘went to bed hungry every day as the deadly combination of a severe food shortage and one of the worst global financial crises in living memory shrunk food aid to an all-time low.’ ‘The combination of food and economic crises has pushed the number of hungry people worldwide to historic levels…,’ said the report produced in collaboration with the World Food Programme. Most of these starving populations lived in the developing world: about 642 million in the Asia-Pacific region, 265 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, 53 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 42 million in the Near East and North Africa. The world’s rich country was the home of 15 million people who were suffering from chronic hunger.
But the ‘great’ globalisation stood inactive in front of the suffering humanity and thus it exposed it profit seeking farcical face. ‘We have the economic and technical means to make hunger disappear, what is missing is a stronger political will to eradicate hunger forever,’ FAO director general Jacques Diouf said. Henry Kissinger long ago pointed out that the world had the ability to end hunger, and failure to do so would reflect not inability, but a lack of political will. The decade exposed the absence of political will of the existing world order. The last decade found that poor people around the globe had to spend most of what they earned to feed themselves as the cost of basic food staples rose steeply. Food riots were major incidents in the later parts of the decade. In 2008, FAO reported that 37 countries faced severe food shortages. There were reports from Port-au-Prince that starving Haitians were eating mud to quell their hunger pangs. The steep rise in food prices unnerved governments everywhere, and riots occurred in dozens of countries.
Hunger and bankruptcy
HUNGER and insolvency are not only a poor country phenomenon. The last decade boldly made this statement. In the world’s richest country, the US, one measure of poverty is the number of people receiving food stamps. In West Virginia more than 16 per cent of the population was on food stamps, according to the US Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. Highest of all was the US capital, Washington DC with over 17.1 per cent in January 2009. It was 15.1 in January 2008. Mississippi (15.0 per cent in January 2008 and 16.6 per cent in January 2009), Missouri (14.8 per cent and 16.8 per cent) and Tennessee (14.5 per cent and 16.6 per cent) made up the rest of the group. But the sharpest increase in the numbers of people on food stamps over the past year had been in states such as Idaho, where there was a 32 per cent rise. The number of people on food stamps in Nevada, Utah and Florida were all up by about 29 per cent. The decade saw ‘food insecure’ and ‘very low food insecure’ groups in the US population to emerge. They literally had no money or credit to buy the basic amounts of calories needed to survive. The world witnessed: thousands stood in line, as San Francisco Chronicle reported in the last days of the decade (December 26, 2009), to receive a Christmas meal of ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans and carrots. In the last decade in the US, as poverty increased since 2000 nutrition assistance jumped from $34 billion to $53 billion. Tens of millions of Americans, the decade saw, became too poor to buy enough food to survive. The book Breadline USA: The Hidden Scandal of American Hunger and How to Fix It tells this story. About 32 million Americans received government food stamps. Texas alone has approximately three million people on food stamps. It was estimated that at least 10 million poor people were there in the US who don’t receive the food stamp aid though they need it. It should be mentioned that the maximum a person on food stamps could receive was about $50 per week, slightly more than $2 per meal. Staff with food pantry around the US had two observations: they never saw so many people in line for free food and fewer people were donating food to the pantries. Desire for a decent life with adequate food was a fact of life in the US in the last decade. Similar tales from poor countries need no mention. Poverty and hunger took a globalised face, one universal identity. Bangladesh was not any unique case, not the only ‘basket case’.
In the UK, The Guardian said: The number of insolvencies has increased by 28.2 per cent over the past year. One in 60 people in Britain faced insolvency and there was a 50 per cent jump in company failures. The economic decline in almost 30 years led to 19,100 people being declared bankrupt, a 22 per cent increase on the fourth quarter of 2007. A further 10,000 people took out individual voluntary arrangements, under which interest on debt is frozen in exchange for set repayments each month. The level was higher than during the recession of the early 1990s. Nick O’Reilly, president of the insolvency professionals’ trade body R3, said: ‘[I]n 2008 we saw a staggering 350 people becoming insolvent in the UK every day. For 2009 our members believe this number will reach in excess of 430 people a day for the whole of the UK.’ Alan Tomlinson, partner at licensed insolvency practitioners Tomlinsons, said: ‘I have been an insolvency practitioner for over 25 years and have never seen so many companies, from all sectors, going to the wall.’
HUNGER and insolvency are not only a poor country phenomenon. The last decade boldly made this statement. In the world’s richest country, the US, one measure of poverty is the number of people receiving food stamps. In West Virginia more than 16 per cent of the population was on food stamps, according to the US Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. Highest of all was the US capital, Washington DC with over 17.1 per cent in January 2009. It was 15.1 in January 2008. Mississippi (15.0 per cent in January 2008 and 16.6 per cent in January 2009), Missouri (14.8 per cent and 16.8 per cent) and Tennessee (14.5 per cent and 16.6 per cent) made up the rest of the group. But the sharpest increase in the numbers of people on food stamps over the past year had been in states such as Idaho, where there was a 32 per cent rise. The number of people on food stamps in Nevada, Utah and Florida were all up by about 29 per cent. The decade saw ‘food insecure’ and ‘very low food insecure’ groups in the US population to emerge. They literally had no money or credit to buy the basic amounts of calories needed to survive. The world witnessed: thousands stood in line, as San Francisco Chronicle reported in the last days of the decade (December 26, 2009), to receive a Christmas meal of ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans and carrots. In the last decade in the US, as poverty increased since 2000 nutrition assistance jumped from $34 billion to $53 billion. Tens of millions of Americans, the decade saw, became too poor to buy enough food to survive. The book Breadline USA: The Hidden Scandal of American Hunger and How to Fix It tells this story. About 32 million Americans received government food stamps. Texas alone has approximately three million people on food stamps. It was estimated that at least 10 million poor people were there in the US who don’t receive the food stamp aid though they need it. It should be mentioned that the maximum a person on food stamps could receive was about $50 per week, slightly more than $2 per meal. Staff with food pantry around the US had two observations: they never saw so many people in line for free food and fewer people were donating food to the pantries. Desire for a decent life with adequate food was a fact of life in the US in the last decade. Similar tales from poor countries need no mention. Poverty and hunger took a globalised face, one universal identity. Bangladesh was not any unique case, not the only ‘basket case’.
In the UK, The Guardian said: The number of insolvencies has increased by 28.2 per cent over the past year. One in 60 people in Britain faced insolvency and there was a 50 per cent jump in company failures. The economic decline in almost 30 years led to 19,100 people being declared bankrupt, a 22 per cent increase on the fourth quarter of 2007. A further 10,000 people took out individual voluntary arrangements, under which interest on debt is frozen in exchange for set repayments each month. The level was higher than during the recession of the early 1990s. Nick O’Reilly, president of the insolvency professionals’ trade body R3, said: ‘[I]n 2008 we saw a staggering 350 people becoming insolvent in the UK every day. For 2009 our members believe this number will reach in excess of 430 people a day for the whole of the UK.’ Alan Tomlinson, partner at licensed insolvency practitioners Tomlinsons, said: ‘I have been an insolvency practitioner for over 25 years and have never seen so many companies, from all sectors, going to the wall.’
Labour under pressure
CAPITAL tried to put its burden on people, especially on labour. The global financial and economic meltdown, the International Labour Organisation warned in its Global Employment Trends 2009, could leave over 50 million more people unemployed by the end of 2009. That could raise the world’s jobless total to 198 million, or 230 million people in the worst case scenario. In 2007, about 179 million people were out of work. By the end of 2008, the number of jobless was 190 million. In 2008 alone, around the world 11 million jobs were shed off. The crisis could also push another 200 million workers into extreme poverty, the ILO predicted. That would swell the ranks of the ‘working poor’ to 1.4 billion; just under half of the entire world’s working population. Forced or coerced labour costs workers worldwide over $20 billion annually, the ILO’s The Cost of Coercion said.
CAPITAL tried to put its burden on people, especially on labour. The global financial and economic meltdown, the International Labour Organisation warned in its Global Employment Trends 2009, could leave over 50 million more people unemployed by the end of 2009. That could raise the world’s jobless total to 198 million, or 230 million people in the worst case scenario. In 2007, about 179 million people were out of work. By the end of 2008, the number of jobless was 190 million. In 2008 alone, around the world 11 million jobs were shed off. The crisis could also push another 200 million workers into extreme poverty, the ILO predicted. That would swell the ranks of the ‘working poor’ to 1.4 billion; just under half of the entire world’s working population. Forced or coerced labour costs workers worldwide over $20 billion annually, the ILO’s The Cost of Coercion said.
No Farewell to Arms
NUMEROUS international organisations have warned of the trafficking consequences of the ongoing global financial crisis. Seventy per cent of unemployment in South and Southeast Asia was in the informal sector, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The region is home to 77 per cent of the world’s forced labour victims, according to the ILO. In Eastern Europe, international organisations and local authorities reported a rise in victims of labour exploitation. The global economic downturn of the decade was exacerbating this trend. In Belarus, more than 800,000 citizens were believed to be ‘missing’, presumed to be working in Russia. In Moldova, Europe’s poorest country, one-quarter of the population has migrated. The ILO’s May 2009 report on global forced labour trends noted that the number of identified victims of forced labour in Ukraine now surpassed that of sex trafficking victims. UN officials said the worldwide rise in this form of modern-day slavery was a result of a growing demand for cheap goods and services. They expect the impact of the crisis to push more business underground to avoid taxes and unionised labour. And they anticipate increasing use of forced, cheap, and child labour by multinational companies strapped by financial struggles. A globalisation of the decade’s contribution indeed!
A rise in protests among migrant workers in the last decade was a sign that the exploitation of workers was intensive. Employers facing a credit crunch were ceasing payments or coercing workers to accept less agreeable conditions. Chinese workers in some parts of Europe experienced labour exploitation. Press in a Middle Eastern country reported 111 per cent rise in complaints of non-payment of wages among foreign workers in late 2008, compared with the same period in 2007. In China, approximately 20 million of the 130 million migrant workers in the country had already returned home by February 2009 due to lack of work. The ILO estimated 9,000 factory closures before spring and thousands more after. In the Philippines, economists and labour officials predicted a loss of up to 800,000 jobs in 2009.
On the other hand workers protested and resisted: in the US, Gibraltar, Egypt, France, Mexico, Chile, Russia, India, Greece, Bangladesh, and many other countries. A number of struggles by labour were unprecedented and heroic. Even, there were incidents of protests by white collar employees in advanced capitalist countries.
A rise in protests among migrant workers in the last decade was a sign that the exploitation of workers was intensive. Employers facing a credit crunch were ceasing payments or coercing workers to accept less agreeable conditions. Chinese workers in some parts of Europe experienced labour exploitation. Press in a Middle Eastern country reported 111 per cent rise in complaints of non-payment of wages among foreign workers in late 2008, compared with the same period in 2007. In China, approximately 20 million of the 130 million migrant workers in the country had already returned home by February 2009 due to lack of work. The ILO estimated 9,000 factory closures before spring and thousands more after. In the Philippines, economists and labour officials predicted a loss of up to 800,000 jobs in 2009.
On the other hand workers protested and resisted: in the US, Gibraltar, Egypt, France, Mexico, Chile, Russia, India, Greece, Bangladesh, and many other countries. A number of struggles by labour were unprecedented and heroic. Even, there were incidents of protests by white collar employees in advanced capitalist countries.
No Farewell to Arms
THE decade saw terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and in Mumbai, bombings in Bali, Madrid, London, and Amman, US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, toppling down of autocrat Saddam, rise of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, South Ossetia War, followed by de-facto independence of South Ossetia, Russia’s campaign in Chechnya, slaughter in Darfur and war in Congo, escalation of violence in Pakistan. These carry deep geo-strategic significance. There was dramatic rise of pirates off the coast of Somalia. North Korean and Iranian nuclear programmes of the last decade remain unresolved. Failed and weak states were the critical factors stimulating violence. At the same time, these phenomena brought to light the world system’s failures, collaboration between a section of multinational corporations and a number of armed actors, cracks within the system, and its inabilities to ensure a safe domain even for appropriation and plunder.
Global arms production, according to SIPRI, increased. ‘Arms sales by the 100 largest arms-producing companies in the world (excluding China) … amounted to $315 billion in 2006, an increase of 9 per cent in nominal terms and 5 per cent in real terms. Forty-one US companies accounted for 63 per cent of the combined arms sales of the Top 100, while 34 West European companies accounted for 29 per cent.’ Russian companies also had a high growth rates in 2006. ‘There were’, SIPRI said, ‘53 significant mergers and acquisitions in the North American and West European arms industry in 2007. Three of these were cross-border deals within Europe and 16 were transatlantic deals. Almost all the transatlantic mergers and acquisitions were between British and US companies….There was a continued political push within the European Union in 2007 to promote a more integrated intra-EU arms industry and market. The European Defence Agency agreed two strategy documents, one on building a European defence-technological and industrial base and the other on a military research and technology strategy. …Russia …continued to consolidate the arms industry into large state-owned conglomerates.’ This very brief fact on armaments industry shows links between investment and geo-politics, tensions, and conflicts that shadowed the entire decade.
Total world military expenditure from 1999-2008, according to SIPRI data, increased 45 per cent. In Africa it was 40 per cent during the period. In North Africa it was 94 per cent while in Sub-Sahara it was 19 per cent. In the Americas the increase was 64 per cent; Central America 21 per cent ($4.5 b in 2008), North America 66 per cent ($564b), South America 50 per cent ($34.1 b). In Asia and Oceania it was 52 per cent. By sub-region East Asia had 56 per cent, Oceania 36 per cent, South Asia 41 per cent. In Europe the increase was 14 per cent. While it was 174 per cent ($43.6 b in 2008) in Eastern Europe the west and central Europe had 5 per cent ($277b). In the Middle East it was 56 per cent. The top 10 military spenders in 2008 were the US, China, France, the UK, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and India. The 10 biggest spenders in 2008 are the same as in 2007, although some rankings have changed. In particular, in 2008 China was for the first time the world’s second highest military spender and France narrowly overtook the UK. On the basis of purchasing power parity exchange rates Russia would move up to third place, India to fourth and Saudi Arabia to sixth, after the UK. While the US would still be far ahead, its relative dominance would diminish. Global military expenditure in 2008 was estimated to be $1464 billion. This represented an increase of 4 per cent in real terms compared to 2007, and of 45 per cent since 1999. Military expenditure comprised approximately 2.4 per cent of global gross domestic product in 2008. All regions and sub-regions have seen significant increases since 1999, except for Western and Central Europe. During the eight-year presidency of George W Bush, US military expenditure increased to the highest level in real terms since World War II, mostly due to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Spending increased across most of Asia. China, India, South Korea and Taiwan accounted for the bulk of the increase.
In 2007, according to SIPRI, 14 major armed conflicts were active in 13 locations. There was major decline of the global number of active major armed conflicts in 2002 and 2004 but an increase in 2005. In 2008, 16 major armed conflicts were active in 15 locations including Burundi, Somalia, Sudan Colombia, Peru, US, Afghanistan, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Israel, and Turkey. Civilians were direct and intentional targets of the armed conflicts. Counterinsurgency campaigns by states increasingly relied on government-aligned militia. Weak and dysfunctional states, an offshoot of the present world system, appeared as threat to human rights and peace. The Darfur and Sri Lankan civil wars that continued for nine and 16 years respectively reflected the system’s links to profit and subjugation.
The Global Peace Index of SIPRI ranks 144 countries by their relative states of peace using 23 indicators. In 2009, New Zealand ranked 1, Denmark 2, Norway 3, Iceland 4 while Sudan 140, Israel 141 and Somalia 142. Capital tries to impose conflicts and bloodshed in far away places, if possible, to have a peaceful, happy life in home!
‘The Iraq invasion led by an overconfident and trigger-happy US administration,’ Dr Blix told, was the most significant event of the decade. Obama’s election as the president of the US, he told The Guardian (October 17, 2009), was the high point of the decade while ‘US mistreatment and torture of thousands of persons suspected, often on flimsy evidence, of links to terrorist activities’ was the low point. He told: Global environment was the greatest loss of the decade. To the question: How will this decade be remembered? he answered: ‘As the last period when a major power engaged in a big war; the period when electronic communications linked us all together; the period when Asia rose to become an economic giant and when Europe stumbled on to unification.’
The last day of the decade, it was reported, was ‘blessed’ by a blue moon. Billions of people around the world now know that the world system produced a blue moon of shattered hopes and dreams drenched with sweat and blood in the last decade.
Global arms production, according to SIPRI, increased. ‘Arms sales by the 100 largest arms-producing companies in the world (excluding China) … amounted to $315 billion in 2006, an increase of 9 per cent in nominal terms and 5 per cent in real terms. Forty-one US companies accounted for 63 per cent of the combined arms sales of the Top 100, while 34 West European companies accounted for 29 per cent.’ Russian companies also had a high growth rates in 2006. ‘There were’, SIPRI said, ‘53 significant mergers and acquisitions in the North American and West European arms industry in 2007. Three of these were cross-border deals within Europe and 16 were transatlantic deals. Almost all the transatlantic mergers and acquisitions were between British and US companies….There was a continued political push within the European Union in 2007 to promote a more integrated intra-EU arms industry and market. The European Defence Agency agreed two strategy documents, one on building a European defence-technological and industrial base and the other on a military research and technology strategy. …Russia …continued to consolidate the arms industry into large state-owned conglomerates.’ This very brief fact on armaments industry shows links between investment and geo-politics, tensions, and conflicts that shadowed the entire decade.
Total world military expenditure from 1999-2008, according to SIPRI data, increased 45 per cent. In Africa it was 40 per cent during the period. In North Africa it was 94 per cent while in Sub-Sahara it was 19 per cent. In the Americas the increase was 64 per cent; Central America 21 per cent ($4.5 b in 2008), North America 66 per cent ($564b), South America 50 per cent ($34.1 b). In Asia and Oceania it was 52 per cent. By sub-region East Asia had 56 per cent, Oceania 36 per cent, South Asia 41 per cent. In Europe the increase was 14 per cent. While it was 174 per cent ($43.6 b in 2008) in Eastern Europe the west and central Europe had 5 per cent ($277b). In the Middle East it was 56 per cent. The top 10 military spenders in 2008 were the US, China, France, the UK, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and India. The 10 biggest spenders in 2008 are the same as in 2007, although some rankings have changed. In particular, in 2008 China was for the first time the world’s second highest military spender and France narrowly overtook the UK. On the basis of purchasing power parity exchange rates Russia would move up to third place, India to fourth and Saudi Arabia to sixth, after the UK. While the US would still be far ahead, its relative dominance would diminish. Global military expenditure in 2008 was estimated to be $1464 billion. This represented an increase of 4 per cent in real terms compared to 2007, and of 45 per cent since 1999. Military expenditure comprised approximately 2.4 per cent of global gross domestic product in 2008. All regions and sub-regions have seen significant increases since 1999, except for Western and Central Europe. During the eight-year presidency of George W Bush, US military expenditure increased to the highest level in real terms since World War II, mostly due to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Spending increased across most of Asia. China, India, South Korea and Taiwan accounted for the bulk of the increase.
In 2007, according to SIPRI, 14 major armed conflicts were active in 13 locations. There was major decline of the global number of active major armed conflicts in 2002 and 2004 but an increase in 2005. In 2008, 16 major armed conflicts were active in 15 locations including Burundi, Somalia, Sudan Colombia, Peru, US, Afghanistan, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Israel, and Turkey. Civilians were direct and intentional targets of the armed conflicts. Counterinsurgency campaigns by states increasingly relied on government-aligned militia. Weak and dysfunctional states, an offshoot of the present world system, appeared as threat to human rights and peace. The Darfur and Sri Lankan civil wars that continued for nine and 16 years respectively reflected the system’s links to profit and subjugation.
The Global Peace Index of SIPRI ranks 144 countries by their relative states of peace using 23 indicators. In 2009, New Zealand ranked 1, Denmark 2, Norway 3, Iceland 4 while Sudan 140, Israel 141 and Somalia 142. Capital tries to impose conflicts and bloodshed in far away places, if possible, to have a peaceful, happy life in home!
‘The Iraq invasion led by an overconfident and trigger-happy US administration,’ Dr Blix told, was the most significant event of the decade. Obama’s election as the president of the US, he told The Guardian (October 17, 2009), was the high point of the decade while ‘US mistreatment and torture of thousands of persons suspected, often on flimsy evidence, of links to terrorist activities’ was the low point. He told: Global environment was the greatest loss of the decade. To the question: How will this decade be remembered? he answered: ‘As the last period when a major power engaged in a big war; the period when electronic communications linked us all together; the period when Asia rose to become an economic giant and when Europe stumbled on to unification.’
The last day of the decade, it was reported, was ‘blessed’ by a blue moon. Billions of people around the world now know that the world system produced a blue moon of shattered hopes and dreams drenched with sweat and blood in the last decade.
(The Age of Crisis)
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