FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT GLOBALIZATION
AND ALTERNATIVES
Ideology
Institutions WTO IMF
World Bank NAFTA, FTAA G8
Trends Race to the Bottom Misc.
Rich Nations Asia Europe USA Eastern Europe
Poor Nations Africa The Americas
Alternatives and Proposals What can I do?
Debates

Sources:
Z Magazine
Noam Chomsky
Susan George
ATTAC
Co-Op America
oneworld.net
Amnesty International
Gregory Palast
Human Rights Watch
Inter Press Service
Electronic Policy Network
American Prospect
Indymedia
Steve Kangas RIP
Mike Huben
authors of
Anarchist FAQ
Public Citizen
The Peoples Summits
World Development Movement
George W Bush Watch
Global Exchange
plus a few zillion others.

Europe

The Versilles Treaty

The Versilles Threaty was basically an early IMF, with unpayable debts and austerity measures (this time at least including the military) being forced on Germany. The result was a depression that allowed the rise of Nazism.

The Marshall Plan

After the Versilles treaty prooved to be Hitlers greatest ally, the Marshall Plan was intended to ensure that the USSR would not have any discontent to exploit. Since the September 11th attacks, many have pointed out that today terrorists are also using suffering to gain sympathisers, just as the Stalinists and Nazis did before them. Todays leaders seem to have forgotten the lessons of the past, unless a few crumbs of food dropped in minefields counts as something.

But Europeans already had skills, while the third world does not

The Marshall plan did not only help skilled Europeans. Among the ten examples of aid on the Marshal Foundation web site are projects in North Borneo and Tunisia. Indonesia (Dutch East Indies) recieved $101.4 million.

The Marshall plan also provided training, over 3,000 Europeans made six-month visits to US industries. There was a similar project for agriculture. So in short, the Marshall plan could still work today.

Neoism

When neosim arrived, (especially in Britain under Thatcher) things went downhill. From 1983 to 1988, low-pay part-time jobs grew 27.7 percent while full-time jobs increased only 2.4 percent.

Germany

Like Japan, Germany had to develop from ruins.

The Economist describes the German Economy as "incapable of flight...well-paid workers, who sit on oversight boards...cradle-to-grave welfare" and of course, high taxes.

Like Japan it quickly went from rags to riches.

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Holland

...used more than 400 cartels coordinated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs regulating production, sales, supplies, prices, etc.

Britain

Development:

Britain only started talking about free trade after they gained power through protectionism, especially of their naval industries that helped them literally sink their competetors.

They did not abolish the protectionist "Corn Laws" until as late as 1846

The "Navigation Acts" created many British monopolies.

Land enclosure ruthlessly forced farmers to become industrial workers.

Neoism:

Crime took 30 years to double in Britain (from 1 million incidents in 1950 to 2.2 million in 1979). However, between 1979 and 1992, 13 years of the "free market" and "individual responsibility" the crime rate more than doubled, to over 5 million in 1992.

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Switzerland

At the Davos meeting in 2000 the mainstream media was urged to spread the message of free trade. While protestors used a laser system to write slogans on a mountain, police tried to get liquid fertilizer to spray them with (The shocked farmers refused).

Italy

Naples saw 20,000 protestors on March 18th, 2001. By July, more than ten times that number were protesting in Genoa despite the city being shut down by a "ring of steel".

Tunisia

Surprisingly, there is one African nation that is not crushed by poverty. Just like in Asia, the neos claim it as their own dispite the facts.

The neo World Economic Forum calls Tunisia the most competetive nation in Africa. Like the Asian NICs it has ignored neos.

While the World Bank suggested massive projects funded by massive borrowing (producing massive profits for the bankers), Tunisia ignored them. Without debt the IMF never got a chance to force neo policy.

As a result, Tunisia was free to spend massively on education. It also has very little income inequality (what neos call "inventive").

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