Part
3 - De-Linking From the IMF Agenda
It is
possible, however, to imagine an alternative to the dismal reality
created by neoliberal policies and the noose created by the
investment strikes of the world’s banking institutions.
The late
Egyptian Marxist Samir Amin provided us with a framework for building
an international agenda that prioritizes the needs of the world’s
poor and dispossessed, an alternative to today’s globalization that
is dictated by the interests of global capital.
In his
interview with Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research,
Amin reflects on the era of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and
multi-polar globalization. This era, Amin said, was “a time when
imperialism was compelled to make concessions and to accept the
national-popular programmes of India and other African and Asian
countries. Instead of the countries of the south adjusting to the
needs and demands of globalisation, it was the imperialist countries
which were compelled to adjust to our demands.”
By 2030,
Amin continues, 85 percent of the population will be living in the
Global South. The interests of the majority of this group are
neglected by neoliberal policies that slash social spending and place
social wealth in private hands. This 85 percent, Amin said, “can
successfully de-link to various degrees in accordance not only with
our size but also in accordance with our alternative political block,
which would replace the core imperialist blocks which are controlling
our countries today.”
The
result of building such an alternative could indicate the ability of
the world’s poor to “compel imperialism to accept [their]
conditions or part of those conditions,” or to de-link.
Argentina’s
poor and dispossessed are already challenging Macri’s agenda and
pushing back against the constraints of global capital, having
organized four general strikes since his term began in 2015. The
country has been mired in protests similar to the cacerolazos that
halted the streets of Buenos Aires during the 1998-2002 depression.
As
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research’s recent
dossier points out, groups such as the Federation of Workers of
the Popular Economy (CTEP) are creating cooperatives among the
country’s growing sector of informal workers, providing “an
illustration of how the working class has been fragmented and
reorganised by neo-liberal policies.”
These
efforts are not limited to Argentina. In the Indian state of
Kerala, the Left Democratic Front government led one of the most
successful rescue and reconstruction efforts in the country’s
history after the most devastating floods seen in 94 years, despite
an attempt from the country’s right-wing to not only neglect but
actively stifle aid to the communist-led state.
In South
Africa, shack dwellers of the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement are
occupying lands and building homes, refusing to leave their dignity
up to the whims of the State and the country’s elite.
Across
the world, people, and people’s movements, are fighting back and
creating alternatives to neoliberal policies.
As long
as this happens, global capital will use any means that it
has—whether through economic policy and coercion or through
military force—to protect its interests. But, as Amin suggests, if
the 85 percent of the world’s poor, from Argentina’s informal
workers to South Africa’s shack dwellers, de-link from a neoliberal
agenda and link with each other, they may very well be able to compel
the current world order to accept their conditions and begin to
create a future free from the shackles of global capital.
***
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