Saturday, November 26, 2011

Democratic Struggle And The Struggle For The Environment Are Tied Together

By Fred Magdoff & Farooque Chowdhury
Interview of Professor Fred Magdoff by Farooque Chowdhury on climate crisis
“People's democratic struggle and the struggle for the environment should be intimately tied together. If the environmental issues are brought front and center within the people's struggles it might even result in more support for change”, said Fred Magdoff , co-author of What Every Environmentalist Needs To Know about Capitalism, A Citizen's Guide to Capitalism and the Environment (with John Bellamy Foster. MR Press). I n an interview, first carried by MRzine , Fred Magdoff, professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont and adjunct professor of crop and soil science at Cornell University said: “We should oppose all ‘market oriented' so-called ‘solutions'. They are not actually solutions, but rather just a new way to make money.” Prof. Magdoff writes frequently on political economy. His most recent books are The Great Financial Crisis (written with John Bellamy Foster, MR Press) and Agriculture and Food in Crisis (edited with Brian Tokar, MR Press).
In the backdrop of climate crisis threatening millions of people around the world and their struggle for democratic life, and the coming climate talks in Durban, CoP 17, Fred Magdoff ( FM ) was interviewed in late-November, 2011 on climate crisis by Farooque Chowdhury ( FC ), a Dhaka-based freelancer. Following is the text of the interview:
FC: We know CoP 17 is going to begin in Durban . What issues should the most affected/vulnerable countries raise in the conference?
FM: The most affected and vulnerable countries are clearly concerned about the lack of urgency felt by the wealthy countries. The crux of the issue is to get a commitment from the United States , Europe, and Japan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There is some indication that China is beginning to move in that direction, although its rapid pace of growth may outweigh efforts to reduce emissions. Although effects are already felt in the U.S. and Europe , the most difficult results of climate change have been felt in the poorer countries and among vulnerable people. The sea level rise along with warming is necessitating the transfer of Alaskan villages away from the coast. Seawater intrusion in Vietnam 's Mekong Delta region is causing salinity to develop in some of the rice soils, reducing their productivity. The melting of the Andean glaciers has already resulted in water shortages during the dry season.
FC: There is the debt crisis in Europe . The Great Financial Crisis has not retreated to its den. What will be the probable impact of these on the CoP 17?
FM: The theme that is commonly expressed by those wishing to do nothing is that a movement to restrict greenhouse gas emission would cost jobs. Fewer coal miners, less electricity generated (if coal powered electric generating plants were closed down), and so on. So they say that this is not the time to do something that would cost jobs. Of course, it is just an excuse. If a transition was planned and done well many jobs could be created. Also, what kind of society and economy do we have that would say that we need to continue polluting so people can work? This is not only an irrational economic/social/political system but also a dangerous one.
FC: In the backdrop of conflicting interests of major polluters, which is essentially conflict of interest of related capitals for their accumulation, what should be the negotiating strategy of most vulnerable countries in CoP 17?
FM: Far be it from me to give advice to the most vulnerable countries. They seem to be very well aware of the political problems. They have previously tried a number of innovative strategies and I am sure that they will continue to do so.
FC: Is there any change in the climate crisis negotiation scenario since the CoP 16 in Cancun ?
FM: The position of the wealthy countries has if anything solidified and hardened. There is an Guardian (UK) article of November 20, 2011 that is titled “ Rich nations 'give up' on new climate treaty until 2020” and has as its subtitle: “ Ahead of critical talks and despite pledge for new treaty by 2012, biggest economies privately admit likelihood of long delay.” This, of course, has been greeted by the most vulnerable with dismay and anger.
FC: As a participant, you presented a key note paper in the Mother Earth conference in Bolivia . There is the Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia . A ministry in the country looks after these rights. Have the deliberations and call of the conference, and the step by Bolivia made any impact in today's discourse on climate crisis?
FM: I think that Bolivia played a very important role following the failure of Copenhagen meetings in December of 2009. Just bringing so many people together in Cochabamba , Bolivia in April of 2010 was quite a feat. The discussion was very good as was the final declaration of the conference. One of small things that happened was the exposure to the large group of how the United States was using a money offer in order to get Bolivia and Ecuador to sign on to the Copenhagen statement drafted mainly by the wealthy countries. A cabinet minister from Ecuador said that she was authorized to tell the assembled people that Ecuador refused the money but was prepared to offer the United States the same amount of money if it would agree to sign the Kyoto protocols. Needless to say, there was plenty of laughter after that statement.
FC: Is there any conflict, but not articulated, between the dominating economic interests and people's interests in the position emerging economies have taken in climate crisis negotiation?
FM: YES! The main conflict is one of the interests of capitalism as a system and of its most powerful representatives. Since at the heart of the issue is the normal way capitalism functions — it has to continue growing or else it's in crisis and has no other goal other than the accumulation of more and more capital. It would take a VERY enlightened leader of one of the leading rich capitalist countries to even attempt to take on the vested interests that are perfectly happy with the way things are.
FC: If “yes”, how to resolve this contradiction or what program should be there from people's perspective in the emerging economies?
FM: This is certainly a very difficult question to answer. Perhaps an equivalent of “direct action” activism is needed by the most vulnerable. Maybe disrupting the workings of the UN or other world organizations might get some positive results.
FC: A portion of capital is now-a-days active to make a climate deal as climate crisis threatens its domain. At the same time, to a section of capital, climate crisis appears a potential market. How to ensure people's interests in this market that is making climate crisis a commodity?
FM: I think that we should oppose all “market oriented” so-called “solutions.” They are not actually solutions, but rather just a new way to make money. They give the appearance of accomplishing something, although they are rife with fraud and do not solve the problem even if well carried out.
FC: What role can people's organizations play in respective countries/societies that can impact climate crisis negotiation? Should these only be confined in raising demands, organizing demonstrations, etc. or along with these, widen public space through mobilizing people in positive, locally practicable approaches?
FM: It is up to the creativity and energy of the people to develop new approaches to the negotiations. It is not clear to me how to negotiate when one group is not really interested. This is something like what is happening in the U.S. Congress where the Republican Party has absolutely no interest in negotiations, whatever the consequences.
FC: Can participatory climate assessment at local level be a tool, a better one than mere forming human chains, etc. for a shorter period, to make people actively aware and to actively mobilize them on the climate crisis issue?
FM: Using a participatory assessment to make people aware of their climate and the implications of changes that are occurring can certainly be useful. It is also important to start discussions and even planning at the local level for sea level rise, droughts, floods, hot weather, etc. — whatever is most relevant to the local or regional situation. There are low-tech ways of lessening some of the detrimental effects.
FC: Will not climate crisis negatively impact people's democratic struggle?
FM: I think that the people' democratic struggle and the struggle for the environment should be intimately tied together. The climate crisis, as well as the other environmental crises that are occurring, should make it clearer to people that these are crises of the system itself. And the only meaningful way to deal with social as well as environmental problems is to organize a new society based on equality, democracy, and care for the environment. So the issue itself provides another argument against the capitalist system.
FC: Should the crisis be viewed as a potential threat to people's struggle for a decent, democratic life?
FM: The way I view it, while making things more difficult for people, climate changes provide another argument against the capitalist system and provides more urgency to seek systemic changes. If the environmental issues are brought front and center within the people's struggles it might even result in more support for change.
FC: Is not there the need to include climate demands in the program for democratic struggle, targeting the global and local climate criminal capitals that are snatching away atmospheric space from people?
FM: Absolutely. This must become a central part of the struggle. And I would broaden the issue to other types of environmental degradation — chemical pollution of air, water, and food; overfishing by factory-size boats causing depletion of fish stocks; soil erosion and degradation; depletion of fresh water supplies; etc.
FC: Can organizing climate crime tribunals at respective levels be a forum for active mobilization and protest by climate-poor?
FM: Yes. I think that this is one of the ways that more attention can be focused on the issues and on the intransigence of the wealthy countries.
FC: Thank you, for the interview.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Europe’s Lost Decade!

It is Europe, neither Italy nor Greece, that is now having a tragic appearance. The “attributes” of tragedy are now in Europe’s economy, politics, institutions, diplomacy, and “democratic” practice, in essence, autocracy of bank capital. Finance and political leaders’ HardTalks are revealing the bitter fact, a fact that bares the heart and brain of capitalism.
The world is going to have a lost decade. The IMF chief has made the warning on November 8. George Soros warned a few days back: Europe may experience a lost decade.
Japan’s and Latin America’s lost decades are old stories. Of Africa? Of the poor? Who knows? Probably, it is lost centuries.
Christine Lagarde, the IMF chief said: “The world runs the risk of a downward spiral of uncertainty.” She has warned that the global economy is at risk of being plunged into a “lost decade”.
Amid fear of the escalating euro zone debt crisis making impact on the world economy the IMF chief said: The crisis has resulted in an uncertain outlook for the global economy. “We could run the risk of what some commentators are already calling the lost decade,” she added.

She forecasts: “There are clearly clouds on the […] horizon, particularly in the advanced economies and particularly so in the European Union and the US.”
Only a few days ago, George Soros, the billionaire financier, warned the EU faces an economic “lost decade”, or more. Citing a combination of a bank crisis and a sovereign debt crisis he expressed fear: “Europe is in […] a very serious crisis.” The crisis, he apprehends, “is a political crisis. The euro is in the process of undermining the political cohesion of the European Union.” “This will lead to a long-term economic depression. When you look at similar situations [like Latin America in the early 80s and Japan slightly later] you had a lost decade... I am afraid that this is the outlook for Europe this is the unfortunate reality”, he concluded.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has warned: The EU was in its “deepest ever crisis”. In an interview with the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung Barroso said that national governments can’t be trusted to take determined action. Setting rules for a stable euro zone could not only be left to the member states. He has suggested: the EU’s institutions need to be strengthened to stabilize the euro zone. He called for more power for the EU's institutions, arguing that it was an “illusion” to think that the euro zone’s economic policy could be coordinated just by the European Council.
Alistair Darling, the former UK chancellor, has said: The economic crisis facing Europe has become far worse than the banking crisis of 2008 and will see the break-up of the euro if it is not resolved by Christmas. “In 2008 we were facing a banking crisis. Now we are facing an economic crisis, and if it gets worse it will turn into a banking crisis that will worsen the crisis”, he said.
He told the Guardian: The G20 summit in Cannes was “a disaster”. The G20 leaders “appeared to gather on a wet Friday, appear mesmerized by Greece and then were away by 3.30, as soon as they possibly could get out of the place. Sometimes it is better to have no summit than a failed summit”.
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, said in her weekly podcast: It would take a decade before the euro zone is in a better position.
Joseph Stiglitz suspects that “we’re going to see a lot of volatility. Whether at the end the euro zone will emerge intact or not, it’s hard at this point to say.” “It all depends on the politics. […T]he political process in some ways is not in tune with the economics. The problems are deep.
I think there is a reasonably good chance that a year from now you would find the euro zone smaller than what it is today”, he added. (“Austerity not the way to go for Europe”)
The macro-scene is grim. Europe’s slow down will bring down exports from the US. Similar fate looms over Asia. The US and the euro zone are the biggest markets for Asian goods. Suffering economies of the US and Europe are slowing down demand for Asian goods. China has already begun experiencing this. A slowdown of Asia’s export oriented economies will have greater negative impact on the global economy.
Not only Asia’s export oriented economies, a few of Europe’s economies are also experiencing the chill. Economists and the Danske Bank are warning that Denmark may be on the brink of a new recession as exports are being affected by the slowdown in Denmark’s traditional trading partners. Danske Bank has reduced its growth forecast for this year to 0.7% from its previous forecast in October of 1.1. The 2012 forecast has also been downgraded to 1.0% from 1.6%. Italy’s financial crisis has yet not showed signs of improvement despite Silvio Berlusconi’s pledge to resign once Parliament passes austerity measures. Markets does not know its reactions to Italian political drama.
Many analyses, ideas and suggestions are now floating on the finance-politics stage. There are talks of hyper-deflation, “kick-starting” the economy, turbo-capitalism that dislikes any regulation inhibiting financial markets’ growth, turbo-Keynesianism, turbo-capitalism’s more accommodating twin, etc. Bankers are encroaching sovereign space of states. Democratic practice is being infringed by bank capital. Suggestions for immediately recapitalizing Europe’s banks are there. The mainstream assumption that financial markets are capable of taking care of all their “good” work now stands wrong. That was an imagination without any roots in reality.
The specter of crisis, “financial crisis”, “economic crisis”, “banking crisis”, and other crises – political crisis, interstate crisis”, institutional crisis, crisis in formation of state, crisis in visualization of EU founding fathers – are now haunting the continent overwhelmed with advanced capitalist economies. Euro, according to Soros, is “an incomplete currency: it had a central bank but no central treasury.” (“The European Union’s Catalogue of Failures”, July 18, 2011) European leaders, Stiglitz said, “didn’t do anything in the 10 years before there was a crisis.” (op. cit.) There are now many similar ideas and concepts in the market of mainstream discourse.
But, what are the roots of the crisis? The MSM simply skips the answer. The MSM constantly declines to look at the base of the crises. As the causes creating these crises the MSM finds “leaders’ lack of farsightedness”, “institutional weakness”, “stubbornness or weakness of this leader or that leader”, etc. But does a leader act according to own choice or preference or whim or knack? Can a leader act on own wishes and can an institution play role on the basis of its own wisdom? Where from the wishes and wisdom enter into head or decision making process? On these, and similar other questions, the MSM stands on a void base, an absolute void.
The MSM has to provide answer to the burning questions: why lost decade visits this country and that continent? Why their wisdom and analytical prowess visit them always after a crisis calls in, and why they fail to identify root cause of all the crises?
The MSM is concerned with securing banks, finance, credit-credibility. Why it fails to put people, their suffering before finance, etc.?
Stiglitz finds politics will determine the euro zone’s shape. No, capitals shaping politics will determine euro zone’s shape. Capitals’ contradictions within itself will determine its accommodating/co-opting capacity and power. Its conflicting interests will shape euro zone, euro zone’s institutions, and politics, democracy and sovereignty in countries in the zone.
Because of limitations imposed by interests of capitals involved in the crisis the dominating capitals will stand against people in respective countries, and as a whole in the entire zone, and squeeze their life to squeeze out all the surplus peoples in these countries are capable of generating. This will sharpen contradiction between the peoples and the capitals in the crisis dominated zone influencing politics in the zone. The sharpening contradictions pose a burning question to the peoples in the continent: will the coming days bring only suffering to them or struggle along with suffering? Answer to the question and actions by them will influence politics of bank capital in the zone.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Dance: Language Of Protest

Protest has its own language. And, protest has its many languages. Silence sometimes speaks as protest. Dance also. In countries, protesters, in group or individually, have danced as protest.
In Chile, student demonstrators took to the streets of Santiago. They danced as protest in June, 2011. Dressed as goblins and ghouls from Michael Jackson’s iconic “Thriller” video they protested, as they described, the country’s “rotten” and “dead” education system. The protesting students re-created Jackson’s moves in front of presidential palace. They said: the zombie motif was an appropriate metaphor for the country’s education system.
One student said: “Public education is dying so we took this Michael Jackson creation and we united to this movement that is dying, the zombies.”
A 72-year-old woman on the floor of a George Washington University dance studio, a 39-year-old Maryland woman in her apartment, a 38-year-old dancer in Charlottesville, and many others danced to draw attention to refugees, particularly the Iraq and Afghan wars refugees. They, the 31 solo dancers, took humanity’s problems seriously while millions turned busy with New Year celebrations. (Washington Post, “31 Dance Performances Protest Results of Wars”, Jan. 2, 2009)
The Maryland woman danced for 24 hours. “It’s not about being radical for the sake of being radical,” said the dancer before commencing her in-home performance.
One of the dancers “chastised the United Nations in particular for maintaining its ‘impressive composure’ in a world soiled by ‘war, starvation, refugees, pornography, slavery, you name it.’” Others planned to bring to notice the “plight of Iraqi refugees, the bombing of Gaza and the scourge of war in general”. One of the dance-protest participants said: “You know you want to do something. You become like an antenna for an idea, and an antenna for a value system. … It’s saying, ‘Hey, let’s think, let’s move, let’s consider.’ It’s a lot about tapping into basic human things like compassion and memory”.
The plight-protest-project was conceptualized by New Yorker Miguel Gutierrez. Miguel described it as an “endurance-based action”. “It was either art, depending on your view of such things, or a political protest, or both.” The idea was of having dancers around the country to “make a social-justice statement for the new year by wearing blindfolds and earplugs, denying themselves food and letting the world watch their improvisational performances via the Internet.”

In 2008, a group of persons gathered at the Jefferson Memorial to dance in silence. They were dispersed and one woman was arrested on misdemeanor charges. A year later, a judge affirmed a ban on dancing at the memorial, “in order to maintain an atmosphere of calm, tranquility, and reverence.” The charge against the arrested was demonstrating without a permit.
Reports across the internet inform, on a late-May afternoon, five protesters were arrested by US Park Police in the Jefferson Memorial for dancing in silence. Titled as “civil danceobedience”, the dancers were there protesting the court decision in early-May that upheld a ban on dancing within the memorial.
Dance Anywhere, an annual, conceptual public art performance, invites people to stop and dance on a specific date and time. By co-opting art into daily public spaces and demonstrating audiences to dance, DA “transforms perceptions of where and how art can occur, demonstrating that art does not need to be exhibited in a gallery, and dance does not need to be performed on a stage.” The initiator, a professional dancer, conceptual artist and printmaker exhibiting nationwide for 30 years, is “committed to changing the world through community service and art.”
DA is an open invitation for people to stop and dance at a specific time around the world. Participants are encouraged to document their experience through photography and video, which is shared on the DA website. In 2010, it was March 26.
DA tries to engage people, many in number, in a global public art performance, to build community and change the world through dance and art, inspire audiences to reconsider art, public space, and community, make art accessible to all by bringing dance to public spaces.
Why do people dance? At certain age, under 16, Dr. Peter Lovatt says, “dancing is for fun.” At other stages, “dance has different meaning and motive, drive and desire.” Dr. Lovatt, principal lecturer in psychology at the University of Hertfordshire and known around the campus as Dr. Dance, found reasons behind dancing is related to age, gender and genetic makeup. He has completed a research into dance, analyzing 13,700 people’s responses to issues related to dancing. Lovatt says: “Some dance because they are told they have to, and it has been used to show strength and fearlessness”. (Guardian, “Why do people dance? And what makes some more confident than others? Dr Dance has the answers”, mid-Dec. 2009)
Many ethnic groups, studies have found, use dance in their regular activities as a way to keep communities and larger population together. Dancing help societies keep younger generations within guidelines. But, dance cannot transcend socioeconomic condition in the society it performs. It reflects the divide that economy imposes on society. Under-classes fail to accept dances of upper-classes. To the under-classes, dances of upper-classes that tell stories of only the upper-classes appear abstract. Dance also turns into tool of the upper-classes to perpetuate their hegemony. Then, people, depending on their level of learning, develop their own domain of dance. Hegemony doesn’t allow people to have their own dance. This leads hegemony to narrow down people’s space for their dancing. That’s done by lengthening people’s working hour, increasing hardship in life, and by making language of dance imperceptible by people.
Dance “may reflect or challenge the social, cultural, even religious traditions and values of their root cultures.” (Michael Crabb, “Why People Dance, Dance & Dancing: Just Doing What Comes Naturally”)
Why do people protest? Science provides the answer. Luxury of arrogance or indulgence with ignorance or denial of undeniable rights produces protest. Is it possible to torpedo the reasons behind protest? It is also science that provides the answer. It is a nay, an emphatic no. Protests look for language within limits of reality. Protest denies power. Protest disobeys authority. But it can’t deny reality. Dance with delicate steps, with complex expressions extends parameter of protests. But it can’t restrain reality. These, dance and protest, live within reality, evolve within reality. Pace and speed of dance and protest depends on reality. That’s its strength.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

A Drama In Disarray: G20 Summit In Cannes

The G20 summit in Cannes has concluded in disarray and without details in “agreements”. Leaders were unable to agree upon financing the IMF to help advanced capitalist countries in distress. No G20 state is willing to participate in the euro zone bailout fund.
However, one “achievement” is there instead of a total failure: interventions in two democracies – Greece and Italy – appeared close to coup although a G20 leader disagreed. So, all should agree with the leader: These are not coups de grace, but a mere attempt to change government or press government to listen to interventionists for the sake of markets. Italy and Greece have been made to submit to creditors’ dictation.
The Cannes Crisis Festival, considered a flop by some commentators, saw little progress on resolving Europe’s debt crisis. The leaders, as Angela Merkel acknowledged, had failed to interest any of the G20 state in investing in a new initiative. From her statement it appeared that China and Russia bargained a bit. Russia and China demand IMF to secure their investments. A strange symptom within a world structured along a NATO-WB-IMF-WTO design.
But Cannes summit has failed to raise market confidence. Stock markets in New York, Frankfurt and Paris initially expressed their reaction by moving down.
The continuing eurozone debt crisis dominated summit had the hope to increase IMF resources by $250bn to more than $1tn. But the hope has not touched this material world. The hope has been kept suspended for G20 finance ministers with the hope to be materialized in next February.
The summit communiqué made commitment to move “more rapidly” towards greater exchange rate flexibility, agreed to give IMF more money, welcomed Italy’s “wisdom” to invite the IMF to monitor its reforms, and called on countries with strong public finances to take steps to boost domestic demand.
“Dark clouds, Ban Ki-moon warned at an event with main stream labor leaders in Cannes, “have gathered once again over the global economy. […M]any people cannot even see the light at the end of a long, long tunnel.” With a similar mood, David Cameron said the crisis was having a “chilling effect” on his country’s economy. He hinted at worse to come, describing this as only “a stage of the global crisis”. The UK leader felt that in the interest of his country the eurozone crisis should be sorted out as rapidly as possible.
For playing down failure to make progress on major issues Nicolas Sarkozy tried to appear as a warrior for the cause of Robin Hood tax. Sarkozy expressed his willingness to “fight to defend Europe and the euro” as he said in a post-summit press conference.
Sarkozy said: We cannot accept the explosion of the euro, which would mean the explosion of Europe. He has assured that the G20 had agreed to boost the IMF. He made a forecast: G20 would agree by February. The French leader denied the demands on Silvio Berlusconi represented almost an IMF coup: “We never wanted to change governments, either in Greece or in Italy. That is not our role; that is not our idea of democracy.” However, he said that George Papandreou’s decision not to tell fellow EU leaders about plans to hold a referendum was “shocking”. Barack Obama reminded Greek and Italian parliaments to take decisive action. The US leader praised increased scrutiny of Italy as a step in the right direction.
The summit deliberations showed Britain’s inability to take burden. Cameron admitted that the G20 summit had failed to resolve the eurozone debt crisis. He went on: “I’m not going to pretend all of the problems in the eurozone have been fixed, they haven’t.” Cameron feels, “[t]he problem is that not all of the details... have been put in place.” He assured British taxpayers that increasing UK contributions to the IMF would not put their “money at risk”, and the money would not support a eurozone bailout. He revealed a fact: Contributing money to support the IMF was, as a trading nation, “in our interests”. He also suggested that the issue of increasing contribution to the IMF would not be put on a vote in the Commons. It appears that UK capital does not have interest in euro bail out, but in expansion of global business.
The Greek drama annoyed the Cannes festival as Papandreou announced to hold a referendum on austerity package being pushed through Greece’s throat. The political move panicked markets around the world and the G20 leaders. But dominating capital’s dictation made Papandreou step back. He threw away referendum plan to seek people’s mandate on the austerity plan that includes sell-off of public property. The Papandreou government sought confidence in parliament after alleged horse trading and survived a confidence vote.
Italy with its near-nonexistent growth was an amazing player in the Cannes show. Rome now threatens to carry Europe’s debt crisis up to a level that can fall on the entire earth’s capitalist economy, and make it spin listlessly. Italy’s borrowing rates are rising to the levels that forced the PIG to seek bailout “benevolence” in all its crudeness. With a $2.5 trillion debt Italy has agreed to let the IMF monitor its implementation of austerity program.
But, as a Reuter’s story described, the “fierce pressure from financial markets and European peers” was not a humiliation for Berlusconi as he agreed to have the IMF and the EU monitors. It was reported that Berlusconi “was summoned to a late-night hotel meeting with Merkel, Sarkozy, the IMF director general Christine Lagarde and Obama, where he was instructed to bring Italy under […] IMF surveillance to ensure he implements […] measures, including changes to the labor market, […] the sell-off of state assets.” However, Berlusconi tried to minimize the satiric-political impact of the decision, saying that it had been requested by Italy rather than imposed by world leaders. He boasted: He had invited the IMF to offer advice; he had rejected an offer of IMF funds. He claimed that his country was more solid than France or the UK. “Italian restaurants and vacation spots are always full. Nobody has the sense the country is in a crisis”, said the scandal-ridden Italian leader.
The IMF bosses will audit Italy’s books of accounts to make sure the austerity measures are implemented with brute force. An EC team will also supervise. Moreover, the Media Mughal of Italy with a history of not standing by promises had to make a new promise to European leaders in Cannes, the famous film festival place that sees attractive film figures: a confidence motion within 15 days in Roman Senate. These developments achieved by external and Italian finance elites impacted Italian politics. Desertions from coalition government of Berlusconi have made its life uncertain.
Shall there be horse trading in the country’s political market dominated by the rich? Shall the trade be called democratic distribution of patronage by one of the richest men of Italy? All, from Catholic Church to business, want Berlusconi’s exit. But the democratic warrior knows well that Italy is not Libya. This perception has led him to brush aside the desire of powerful interests. He has already found traitors to the country as he described party rebels. Have ghosts of fallen dictators overshadowed the character of Italian comedy in a Roman Holiday? However, there are all the possibilities of Berlusconi’s Mubarak Moment.
The world now is a bit different whatever the Italian leader claims. The IMF bosses do not only dictate the poor in the South. They are now showing muscles in advanced capitalist countries. Now, after Greek Tragedy and Italy Incident, the ruling elites, many of them are pure robbers and plunderers, of IMF-dictated-poor countries should get “rid” of sense of shame. The founding fathers of the Bretton Woods institutions had not imagined that one day in future their institutions designed to subdue the poor world would discipline advanced capitalist countries. Even, Marx had not imagined. Has something rotten down in the core of capitalism? The IMF is disciplining Ireland, Portugal and Greece, “dignified” capitalist countries not “shameless” like the poor countries.
Russia made a major advance in the summit as the country will be allowed into the WTO, “the biggest step in world trade liberalization since China joined a decade ago.” The step will have implication on present major players in the world trade club. China’s increasing power was evident in the summit as the country resisted calls to allow its currency to appreciate. It now appears that these two countries are making their voices heard in the gathering of the powerful and aspiring-powerful.
The disarrayed drama, the unwillingness to fund IMF, the flexing of power reaching close to coup in advanced capitalist countries, the humiliations, etc. raise a few fundamental questions related to capitalist world system that was in euphoria with a brute onslaught named globalization a few years back.