GLOBALISATION – ITS ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLICATIONS ON THE DEVELOPING NATIONS
By S.D.Srinivasan
Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation (LPG) were and are the instruments used by World Bank-IMF-WTO to capture the markets of the developing and under-developed countries and through them siphon of the profits from the host of nations back to the kitty of the corporate and multinationals. In order to understand the concept of globalization per se we should look back to the facts and figures dating back to many centuries.
Before the collapse of Soviet Union, there were three categories in which the world was divided. First World consisting of United States, Canada, United Kingdom and the countries of Western Europe, Japan and Hong Kong. The Second World countries were led by USSR and were called Eastern Bloc Countries. The Third World countries are developing, under-developed nations.
The world’s population now is 677 crores. Japan, Mexico, Hong Kong, USA, Canada etc., account for 15% of the world’s population. The rest of the countries make up 85% of population count.
The first world countries which account for 15% of globe’s population have 86% of global income and the third world countries having 85% of population of the world have only 14% of global income.
It is predicted that in the next 10-15 years, the population of the third world countries would be 90% of world’s population whereas the income of the third world countries would be reduced to 10%. Conversely, the first world countries with only 10% of global population would receive 90% of global income.
The people in the first world countries enjoy, use and utilise the following percentage of the global production:-
Fish Meat 45%
Food 60%
Electricity 70%
Metals 80%
Wood 85%
Transport 87%
Further, the First World countries account for 90% of pollution of the world.
The following facts are also given for proper appreciation of the realities.
The assets of 3 richest persons of the world are more than the annual income of 48 poor countries.
The assets of 32 richest persons of the globe are more than the annual income of whole of South Asia, Iran and Afghanistan.
The assets of 225 richest persons of the world are more than the annual income of 250 crores population of the globe.
The richest in the United States consisting of 1% of US population is controlling more wealth than the annual income of 57% of American Population.
Hence, this world’s assets are totally controlled by only a few. The distribution of assets and income are totally topsy-turvy making the rich, richer and the poor, poorer.
Therefore, the policies adopted the world over under the guise of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation are making clean and clear roads to make the 225 richest more richer rather making 32 richest more richer and ultimately the 3 richest becoming Super-rich. This is the effect of globalisation and that is what the developing countries are doing economically and politically by framing rules suitable for corporates and liberalising their economies.
The fact remains that the real incomes of Africans as on date are much less than what it was in 1960s and 1970s. The same is true for all the countries that adopted the conditionality of World Bank and IMF.
Why and when this started? What is the origin of globalisation? To answer these questions, we should trace back to the end of 15thcentury.
First phase of globalization: The first phase of globalisation and Imperialism dates back to 1492 when Columbus started to go to India and ultimately discovered America. Initially, when Columbus approached Italian Government to help him to get some ships and men to go over to India, they refused. Then, he went to the Queen of Spain with the same request. He was turned down by her also. Sometime later, he went back with a fresh demand. He told the Queen of Spain that he would go to India and declare that she would be the Empress of India and further requested that he should be made its Governor. The Queen was positive to his suggestions and gave him men and ships to sail to India. However, he ended up in America reaching “Haiti Islands”, a part of present West Indies now, and misconstrued it as India. He called the natives of the land as Indians. That was how the name “West Indies” came into existence and even now, the native tribes are called “Indians” by the Americans. The real natives of America were initially scared and later received Columbus and his men with warmth, gave him food and water, greeted them with expensive gifts.
But, Columbus had other ideas. He discussed with his men and decided to take over the vast land of the native tribes of America and their valuables. He ordered “Kill the men; Take their Women”. This had actually happened and the facts are available for everybody to read in the pages of history. Three times thereafter Columbus visited America. He killed so many of the natives. When the bullets were scarce, Native Americans were asked to stand in a row and more than one were killed with single bullet. The graves were dug by the tribes themselves and were made to get down in the pit to be killed subsequently. This concept of killing many with a single bullet was termed as “Economising”.
Next time, he had brought with him dogs and hounds. These dogs were made to kill the native tribes. One of the historians observed, “Those hounds tasted and relished the intestines of Indians.”
During those times, Plague, Leprosy, Small Pox and Chicken Pox were prevalent all over Europe killing many people. The clothes of those infected patients were taken in ships and thrown at the native tribes in America. By wearing these clothes, many of the Native Americans perished succumbing to these dreaded diseases. This was the first biological warfare invented by man.
By 1650, hardly 150 years after discovering America, due to relentless genocide, almost all the natives of America were wiped out. Now, the original sons of American soil are living in slums in United States and are called “Ethnic Minorities” (crudely called "Kaattu Payalgal"). In Canada and Mexico, these inhabitants of America for over 40000 years live in forests and deep inside jungles.
In the years between 1503 and 1650, 185000 kilograms of gold, 16 million kilograms of Silver were stolen and shipped from America to Europe. That was the first phase of globalisation and was termed as “imperialism”.
After having tasted the loot, the Europeans went to Africa in search of gold and other valuables. When they went to Africa, they were shocked to see the “Black People” and considered them initially as animals. Thereafter, the blacks were humbled and were taken in ships to Europe as slave labour. These slaves were auctioned in European markets and street corners. Holland, which now boasts to be having a lot of Human Rights Organisations, has a legacy of human rights violations in earlier centuries. The blacks who were auctioned in street corners were taken to America to kill the natives and to capture their enormous wealth. These black slaves were used for slave labour and to plough the lands. To reach the land from the boats and small ships, the masters used the black slaves as human bridges. These black slaves made the land fertile by their hard work and for this these poor beings were given a few loaves of bread and a little water every day. The working hours were well beyond 16 hours per day. After the slave labour, these blacks were tied in front of the houses of the masters. This was the reason why, Holland was then the richest country in the world by the loot they made using slave labour. Slave labour was abolished in United States of America in 1860 when Abraham Lincoln due to political compulsions enacted law banning slave labour.
The above concepts, which were alleged uniquely to Germans during the Second World War, were actually followed much earlier.
Hence, in the first phase of imperialism and globalisation, Mercantile Capital moved all through the globe. In 1498, Vasco Da Gama came to India. Later in 1561 Portugal left India. The East India Company was registered in 1599 in London and came to India in 1600. They have obtained the permission of Jehangir and started a factory in Surat. The profits were so high due to exploitation in India, the East India Company gave 250% dividend to the shareholders in London. One of the historians commented that no country had looted any other country like the British swindled India. With the money they earned, the East India Company bought 2 parliamentary seats in London.
In India, when Nawab of Arcot required money to wage a war, East India Company was very willing to help him. When the Nawab could not repay the loan, East India Company acquired the rights of tax collection in Southern India. The person who collected the tax was called “Collector” by them, which name stands till date for the District Head. That’s how they started conquering our land and ruled us till 1947. The first phase of globalisation and Imperialism came upto the beginning of the 20th century. In the first phase, the British laid railway lines to take their goods to harbour for exports.
Second phase: The second phase of Imperialism commenced with 1917 Russian Revolution. The Workers drew inspiration throughout the world from this tremendous victory of labour and peasants. In India, AITUC was formed in 1920. The world over there was triumphs for labour and the onward march of Imperialism was put on brakes, if not stopped completely.
Till that time, Capitalism treated labour as a commodity Only when the Second phase of Imperialism began, when the concept and the power of imperialism was under threat, the language of human rights, concessions and dignity of labour came into existence.
The human rights activism gained momentum after the end of Second World War owing to brutal and bad treatment given to slave labour by Hitler and his men. After the fall of Hitler owing to his defeats in the second front opened in Normandy, in the Russian Front and in Africa, after witnessing the treatment given to the Jews and others in the hands of the Nazis, the realization that fellow human-beings and especially labour should be treated with respect had dawned in the minds of the powers that be especially because of the widespread threat to their empires.
At the end of Second World War, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) started actively for championing the cause of the labour world over. The Philadelphia Declaration stated, “Poverty anywhere is a threat to Prosperity everywhere” is basically the voice of the rich. The collective bargaining in India and elsewhere in the globe started after Philadelphia Declaration.
After Russian Revolution in 1917, ILO was formed in 1920. The first strike was organised in India in the Buckingham & Carnatic (B & C) Mills in Madras. The High Court of Madras gave injunction when the management approached the Court. Mr.Wadia, who organized the strike was fined by the court and asked to pay compensation for the loss suffered by the company. However, owing to the global developments, when the Imperialism was under threat, the capitalists started giving concessions. The Trade Unions Act, 1926, was enacted thereby making the judgement in B & C Mills redundant and giving immunity from civil and criminal actions to the agitating workers.
Thereafter, in 1929, when the famous Meerut Conspiracy case was framed against the then Indian Youth. The enactment was called the “Trade Disputes Act, 1929”. This bill was introduced in the Parliament on the same day when Bhagat Singh threw bomb in the Parliament.
After India became independent, combining the Trade Disputes Act, 1929, and Sec.81-A of the Defence of India Rules, the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, was enacted. When the second phase of imperialism started, inspired by the Russian Revolution, other countries like China, Cuba, India, African countries followed the example that there shall be only State Ownership of production. The Constitution of India was framed and formulated under this background, which has extended a lot of socio-economic rights given to the citizens. Nowhere in the world a country gave more rights to its citizens than ours in their Constitution.
Subsequent to our freedom from the colonial regime, the working class of this country got enormous rights and privileges, which could be termed as Industrial Law. The enactment of laws like Minimum Wages Act, Payment of Wages Act, Provident Fund Act, ESI Act, Compulsory Notification of Vacancies in Employment Exchange Act, Bonus Act, Dock Labour Act, Mine Workers Act, Plantation Workers Act, Bonded Labour Act, Child Labour Act, Abolition of Manual Scavenging Act, Construction Workers Act, Contract Labour Act.
It is also a fact that three times the industrialists of this country approached the Honourable Supreme Court of India to quash Chapter V but in all the 3 times they could not succeed.
In the second phase of imperialism, the labour was in a better position and even though the monopoly industrialists in every country tried to stop the uprising of labour, they could succeed only marginally. It is also a fact that during the second phase of imperialism, the labour leaders did not impart work culture on the employees, workmen, especially in our country and that too in government sector, resulting in large-scale disrespect from among the general public. It should also be admitted that owing to this Himalayan blunder, what started as a genuine movement of the labour has earned the ill-will of the general public. In the eyes of the public, labour movements and struggles have always been looked upon as uprising for the betterment of the wages without caring for the industry and the public opinion. It would take a lot of strenuous effort to erase this public opinion. This is one of the reasons why the public support could not be garnered even for non-economic demands and the agitations concerning the country’s economy.
While the Second phase of Imperialism coincided with the collapse of Soviet Union when the workers’ rights were by and large curbed, the third phase of imperialism called “globalization” started even prior to the end of the second phase. But, at the time when the Soviet Union collapsed, the events that had happened around the world changed and accelerated towards the third phase of Imperialism and the USSR collapse has unfortunately acted as a catalyst to the birth of third phase of imperialism.
While the above was a narration of concessions given to the labour by the Multinations, corporate and capitalists, the genesis and the growth of the present form of imperialism, termed as “globaisation” started somewhere after the Second World War.
At the end of the Second World War, Japan and almost all of Europe had to be rebuilt. There was a tremendous scope for infrastructure, consumer goods, buildings, roads and the multinationals stood benefited by the events. Money flowed into the hands of the multinationals in rebuilding Europe and Japan. The multinationals, who had a booty in defence deals owing to private ownership of arms and ammunition in United States reaped a big harvest because of the wars in Vietnam, Korea, Cuba and Panama. Besides owing to arms supply contract secured from various countries in war with another country and the sale of ammunition to organisations waging battles against their governments.
Simultaneously, on the economic front during 1972-73, the Arab countries increased the crude oil prices. The prices of crude oil skyrocketed from $2 to $27 per barrel. The Arab countries flourished and were flush with money. Enormous amount of dollars poured into the hands of Arab Nations. When the Arabs approached the Multinational Private Banks like Citi Bank, Grindlays Bank, Standard Chartered Bank etc., initially they were reluctant to accept these huge deposits because of doubts over deployment of funds in judicious and profitable manner. But, when the Arabs insisted that the banks need not even pay interest, these huge sums amounting to billions and billions of dollars were accepted as deposits.
To deploy these funds judiciously, these banks approached the Finance Ministers of Latin American countries like Brazil, Chile, Panama, Mexico, Argentina and African countries and they have lent the loan at 2-3% for governmental projects. But, the money was not used judiciously by these nations.
In 1979, once again the oil prices went up. The United States also faced the pinch this time due to weakening of dollar and was brought to the stage of borrowing from other countries. The interest rate was raised from 3% to 17% by the Federal Reserve. Following suit, the private sector banks also increased their interest rates. Overnight, all the rates of interest on all borrowings including those lent to the Latin American and African countries have been hiked. In 1981-82, Mexico could not bear the debt burden besides huge interest cost. The country was about to be declared bankrupt. They have openly informed the multinational banks that Mexico was not in a position to repay their loans. But, the worst aspect was that Chile, Brazil, Argentina were also not in a position to repay the debts.
Third Phase: The period from 1982-1984, there was a lot of turmoil in the European and American banks as they were about to collapse. The entire banking industry in Western Europe and America was on the threshold of disaster.
By this time, another lobby was active in United States. After the Second World War and subsequent wars, the multinationals flourished. As the time went by, the European and American markets saturated. Every household literally was fully furnished with televisions, refrigerators, cars etc. Therefore, multinationals turned their eyes towards other markets. But, they were shocked to observe that in the third world countries, the indigenous industries were protected and insulated. Hence, they started putting pressure on the congressmen to influence these countries to open up their markets. The congressmen could not silence this lobby because huge funding was made by these multinational corporate entities for their elections. The enormous pressure from the multinationals and the impending collapse of banking industry coincided and forced a meeting of G-7 countries consisting of United States, Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Japan. At that time, U.S. Secretary of State was Mr. James Baker. He discussed with the then President of United States, Mr. Ronald Reagan and devised a plan. By this method, G-7 countries would allocate part of their revenue towards a fund and the same would be handed over to World Bank. World Bank would, in turn, lend to the Latin American and African countries to square off their loans borrowed from multinational private banks. By this method, the banking industry was saved and the capitalism was saved.
The Latin American and African countries have borrowed from the World Bank to pay off their debts. But, the important factor is that they have to accept to the conditionality of the World Bank. The conditionality of the World Bank is manifold.
They are:
1. Open up the market;
2. Reduction of Customs Duty or if possible, abolition of Customs duty;
3. Allowing Foreign Capital into the country’s core sectors;
4. Dilute protective laws and amendments to that effect;
5. Liberalise the economy and
6. Privatise the Public Sector to allow domestic/foreign capital to have hold on sensitive and important sectors.
At that point of time, the above changes that were imposed on the borrower countries were called, “Structural Adjustments” and the entire conditionality was termed as “Structural Adjustment Program” thereby adjusting the very foundation and structure of the country’s economy to suit the needs of the multinational corporates.
In 1985, when Latin American countries approached the World Bank, India advised them against signing the conditionality stipulated. In subsequent years, African countries followed the footsteps of Latin American countries. In the end, India also approached World Bank and signed the conditionality in 1991.
When Dr. Manmohan Singh, who was the then Finance Minister, explained and justified his decision to approach the World Bank, he told that all the problems would be solved in 3 years time. But, even after 20 years, the problems persist and in fact, magnified into monstrous propositions.
What happened to countries that approached the World Bank? The top brass and financial advisors in World Bank have graduated from Harvard and Top Class business Schools of the world. They know about investments in profitable ventures and business and gaining more profits. They are not taught and do not know and care about poverty, alleviation of poverty, upliftment of poor, social concepts and ideologies.
When Sudan, the breadbasket of Africa, approached World Bank, they were given the advice to export cotton. The enormous wheat producer in Africa cut down by half its wheat production and planted cotton. While in the first two years profits soared, from the third year there were losses even though exports increased. For the first two years, due to huge pile stock of food grains, they have managed. But, from the third year since the production was cut by half, there was scarcity of food, drought set-in and Sudan is facing now a civil war like situation.
Ghana was advised by the World Bank to export Cocoa to U.S. The result was the same like Sudan. In fact, during that time, 30 sub-Saharan countries were given the same prescription to plant and export Cocoa to U.S. Ultimately, United States stood benefited by reduction in prices of Cocoa due to flooding of markets from more than 30 countries. When Ghana once again approached World Bank, they were asked to close their schools, hospitals run by the government in villages, retrench the staff from government etc. The situation is quite explosive now.
Costa Rica was advised to export hamburger. The government destroyed the forests and planted grass. Now, due to de-forestation there was no rain and people suffer from hunger and face drought situation.
In Bolivia, water resources were privatised. While the people of Bolivia faced severe water problems and water became scarce for agriculture, the private owners sold water to the natives at enormous prices. While there was a shortage of drinking water to the Bolivians, the private capital used the water resources for entertainment purposes for the tourists and made huge money. There was a revolution in Bolivia that had brought down the Government. The new government nationalised the rivers. But, the France’s private tycoon, who was the owner of the theme parks, filed a case against Bolivia and got millions of dollars as compensation. It will be interesting to observe, in this background, that a river for about 2 kilometres is privatised in Chattisgarh in India.
We should draw lessons from what is happening the world over but instead we blindly follow the Americans despite their present debacle.
But, after the introduction of reforms in 1991, there is reduction in job opportunities. 7 lakhs small scale industries and 7000 big industries have been closed down. Now, quadrilateral roads to join 4 metropolitan cities are being laid at a huge cost of Rs.66000 crores to take goods from place to place to market the products just similar to laying of railways lines for the British. The cost has already escalated since last 4-5 years.
Now, Ajanta Clock factory with the capital of Rs.200 crores is about to be closed. They cannot compete with Chinese products. The locks from Aligarh have no markets. The manufacturers of Aligarh locks are starving. The indigenous battery industry is on the verge of collapse. In 1997, only 40 lakh batteries were imported. But, last year, we have imported was 22 crores batteries. Chinese televisions cost cheaper. The home-theatre model television is priced at Rs.15000/-. The two-seater car is priced at Rs.50000/-. The scooters and motorcycles can be purchased at Rs.12000/-, cycles cost only Rs.800/-. What would happen shortly to Indian Television industry, Car industry, Cycle and Scooter industries? Justice V.R.Krishna Iyer says that the economy of Kerala is ruined. There is no market for their Cashewnuts, Betelnuts, Coconuts and rubber. Apples are imported from Washington. What would happen to Himachal Pradesh apple growers? Australian grapes are in the market. What would happen to Dindigul grape growers? Last year, cabbage, cauliflowers were imported. What would happen to Nilgiris Agriculturists? Watermelon is imported from Japan. What would happen to our farmers? In terms of W.T.O. agreement, we have started to import 2% of our total food production. India’s food grain production is 200 million tonnes. We have to import 4 million tonnes every year. What for? Already 62 million tonnes of food grains are in the government and FCI godowns and the Supreme Court of India has already come down heavily on the wasted food grains while the teeming millions are starving without one square meal a day. Rice from Thailand, Wheat from U.S. and Hungary are to be imported. What would happen to Thanjavur and Punjab? Silk from China is much cheaper and is available in the markets. The silk producers from Mysore are out of job now. Egg is imported from Japan. In Japan $2700 subsidy is given to poultry farmers. Where is the level playing field? What would happen to Namakkal? Daily 3 crores eggs are being sold in Namakkal. The biggest toy factory in India, “Leo Toys” is closed. In France, farmers have been advised to retire the land. In other words, Government advises them not to produce anything for a period of one year. The income is subsidised by the government itself.
In developed countries, the subsidies given to the small industries, farmers and agriculturists amount of an whopping $311 billions every year.
But, the subsidies given to our farmers, SSI, free electricity to agriculturists are being withdrawn on the conditionality of the World Bank. Where is the level playing ground? The corporate and personal tax exemption in the last budget was over Rs.1.38 lakh crores while the poverty alleviation programmes got the budget outlay of a pittance considering the above concessions. In the last three years, the corporate and personal tax concessions were to the tune of a whopping Rs.5,11,630 crores.
Dr. Amul Kurian, the father of operation flood in India, opined about 20 years ago that if the milk and milk products were imported, then that would be the doom for India. Now, under WTO agreement milk products have started coming to our markets. Australian Cheese, Milk Powder are available in plenty. A simple comparison is that an Indian cow would give 3-4 litres per day and in exceptional cases 6 litres per day. But, in Australia, cows give 30 litres per day. They have machines to milk the cows. As per the WTO agreement, from 1stJanuary, 2005, milk is being imported. What would happen to the women who are given loans under Self Help Groups to buy cows and do self-employment. Already farmers in Punjab have sold their cows and milch animals and are out of jobs. What would happen to the loans given to these sectors? Coffee will be imported from Brazil, Columbia, Bolivia. What would happen to Coorg and Yercaud? Tea is imported into the country. What would happen to Nilgiris and Darjeeling Tea Estates? In U.S., Americans eat only “Leg Chicken” and throw away the other parts of the chicken in the Pacific, as they contain fatty substance. But, in India, we consume “Breast Chicken” and now, the U.S. has started exporting “Breast Chicken” to India instead of throwing it away in Pacific. What would happen to poultry farms in Namakkal?
When 62 million tonnes of food grains are stocked in government and FCI godowns, what is the use of importing 4 million tonnes of food grains under WTO agreement? Our Government claims that 26% of the people are below poverty line in terms of Planning Commission Report. But, the U.N. Report says that more than 45% of the Indians are living below poverty level. But the Arjun Sen Gupta Committee reported that more than 79.9% of the Indians are able to spend only Rs.20/- per day. This is 3 times below the international Below Poverty Levels (BPL) of US $ 1.5, which in our currency terms is around Rs.60/-. But Tendulkar Committee puts the poverty levels at 37.2%. But the ironical fact is that the Planning Commission headed by Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia says that for our country whose who earn below Rs.20/- per day for metropolitan cities and Rs.16/- per day for rural areas should only be considered as living below poverty line. Where is Rs.60/- per day earning and where are the figures blurted out by Montek Singh Ahluwalia? This is the irony and arrogance of the powers that be and attempts are being made to paint a rosy picture about our poverty levels.
In India 5 crores of people have registered their names in the Employment Exchanges throughout the country waiting for jobs. Out of this 45 lakhs are graduates. The literacy level in India is only 56%. Among women, it is only 40%. In Haryana, Bihar, Orissa tribals, the literacy level is only 6%.
Why are we not addressing these issues? Why the Government Machinery is not willing to give “Food for work” despite Supreme Court directives and why not the Government use those 45 lakhs graduates to impart education to the vast masses, who live below poverty line and who still live in villages. Why don’t the Government plan to use these unemployed and under-employed illiterates for road laying, cleansing and connecting the rivers and other allied additional works and developmental projects? By these and similar projects, we not only given them employment but also make the food grains amounting to 62 million tonnes and perishing in FCI godowns for the project “Food for Work”. By this, all the Indians would definitely go to sleep every day with 3 square meals a day.
Without addressing and analysing these issues, we are going on rendering people jobless and implementing the conditionality of World Bank, due to the pressure from IMF and WTO. Are we not learning lessons from other countries? Even in developed nations like England, the sectors privatised during Margaret Thatcher’s regime are not functioning well. Railways, water, electricity that were privatised are not functioning up to the level expected. Even the toilets in the trains are not maintained properly. There is a lobby operating inside England now to renationalise these sectors. The same is the case in France.
Then what is the need for privatisation? To be frank, in India 70% of agriculture is in private hands. There are only 262 industries worth Rs.250000 crores in government sector. After privatising these industries, what more we are going to privatise? We have privatised BALCO at a very paltry price not even worth its land and buildings. What happened to its machinery? Why price was not attached to machinery? Why price was not tagged on the trained human capital? Who gave the mandate to the government to privatise these sectors? Where was the consensus? Did they mention anything about these privatisations in their electoral mandate?
The Multinationals want only the market. They do not care about anything other than profit. The fact remains 30% of the Indian Market are worth more than two and half times the European market. Now, can you see why the Multinationals are after our market?
Further, the Coca Cola and Pepsi, for example, have announced that they would bring water from Alps and sell at the rate of Rs.40/- per bottle. They want to capture the Rs.10000 crore mineral water business.
The economies of the World is sought to be changed by the imperialists by the market economy by making us spend more. But, the hardcore fact is “Consumption cannot lead to Employment. Only production will lead to employment.”
But, where the production will increase when there will be no market for your products.
What is the problem in India? Why are we governed by U.S. and IMF-World Bank-WTO? We are spending more than Rs.165000 crores for ammunition. We are paying interest on our external debts to the tune of Rs.169000 crores. Our fiscal deficit is more than Rs.369000 crores. But, we are not ready for poverty alleviation by engaging the poorest of the poor for developmental projects and giving them “Food for Work” at an affordable cost of Rs.10000 crores.
The fact also remains that US 1.3 trillion of Indian Black Money is siphoned and are in the Swiss bank vaults. Why don’t we enact a law to repatriate this money? For Central Government, the tax dues are to the tune of Rs.60000 crores from corporate sector. The Non-Performing Assets from the big borrowers in Banks amount to more than Rs.200000 crores. If we collect the above dues, then there won’t be any budgetary deficit and we need not have to go to any outside borrowings.
The Multinationals and foreign corporate entities want to enjoy from our markets and give nothing back to us. Lawrence Summers, Secretary of Treasury in the Bill Clinton’s Government and Economic Expert once commented, “Why not we pass on the dirty industries to the third world”. This was the solution given by him to avoid pollution in the developed countries. This is the attitude of the developed nations towards third world.
The world is in the hands of the share brokers, currency brokers, multinationals, imperialists who don’t care about poverty, poverty alleviation and social concepts.
George Soros, a currency broker, says “Man is a profit maniac”. Mr. George Soros assets are more than US $ 14.5 billion. He can do or undo anything in currency market. He can bring the currency of the world to a naught. He became known as "the Man Who Broke the Bank of England" after he made a reported $1 billion during the 1992 Black Wednesday UK currency crises. Soros correctly speculated that the British government would have to devalue the pound sterling. That is the effect of the presence of brokers in the currency market. The value of U.S. Dollar is not in the hands of Barrack Obama. But, it is in the hands of brokers like George Soros. From the time, President Nixon of the United States, in 1971, put the fate of the dollar into the hands of the currency brokers, many countries followed his footsteps only to see that their currencies lose their value in the hands of currency brokers. The turnover in the currency market is more than US $ 3 trillion.
After the East Asian economic crisis during mid-1990s, in Hong Kong, a meeting of the currency brokers had taken place. The Malaysian Prime Minister had openly told that “The economy of Malaysia, which was improved and developed through the hard work of the people for over 50 years, has been brought to a standstill and on the brink of disaster due to currency brokers. I shall point out that his name is Mr. George Soros.”
To this, George Soros replied in the same meeting that “I have played in the currency market only within the framework and ground rules laid down by your country and not otherwise.”
But, this is a fact. The hard work of millions and millions can be brought to a naught by the brokers like the one mentioned above. What are we going to do to stop these onslaughts?
The hardcore fact is that even the MLAs, MPs, Ministers are not aware of this menace. We should educate everybody and try to bring about a revolution in our country against the onslaughts of imperialists, corporates and multinationals. Only through this we can counter these offensives in an effective manner. Only through public support we can defeat these onslaughts. If we fail, we will fail not only ourselves but also the future generation.
We are not addressing issues. We do not fight our elections addressing issues. We are addressing non-issues like Ayodhya, Babri Masjid, Cauvery problem, and what not? Our people are divided and scattered through caste, creed and now with religion by the politicians and this is effectively used by the multinational corporations and corporate entities to their advantage. In fact, this is what the multinationals and corporates want and they are only worried about their profits and it does not matter whether the currency is blood-stained or otherwise. This is the division that is bringing us down. Hence, we should unite and fight.
Mahatma Gandhi said: “I will give you a talisman. If you start any work that affects the society at large, try to think for a minute one aspect. That is whether what we do would bring the poorest of the poor atleast a step up from their poverty. If the answer is yes, then the work would be a fruitful one.”
The campaign against privatisation, globalisation is nothing but such a project, mission and a service to the nation. We should gear up and fight these offensives. If we do, then we have done our service to the nation in a satisfactory way.
“What we enjoy now in this world is not what we have inherited from our forefathers but borrowed from our posterity. What we enjoy is given to us by our forefathers through their struggles and sacrifices. If we don’t give them to our future generation in the way we inherited them, then we would have done an injustice.”
The future generation would curse us for not fighting these offensives. We would go down in history as cowards if we don’t fight even after knowing the ill-effects of this menace. If we fight, then that would not only be a service to the future but also to all the down-trodden people from the children who work in factories in Sivakasi, boys who clean the tables in hotels, toil in mechanic sheds and elsewhere down to the poorest of the poor, who do not have even a single square meal a day.
Will we do it?
