A
group of four students from Keele Globalise Resistance were among the protesters
in Genoa. We were there in an attempt to bring to the eyes of the world
the injustices that our leaders and the undemocratic institutions such
as the World Bank, IMF and WTO that they walk hand in hand with are pushing
upon the entire world. The neoliberal agenda pushes the philosophy that
by giving freedom to big business, to corporations the divide between rich
and poor will shrink and the world will become a more equal place. Finally
more and more people are coming to realise that this is the most ridiculous
bull shit theory since I have no clue what and are joining the fight against
capitalism and the neo liberal picture of globalisation. This theory to
aid the world's poor is nothing more than a boost to the profits of massively
rich multinational corporations and the elite of the world’s poorer countries.
The gap between rich and poor is increasing at a staggering rate both on
a national and global scale. Every day 19,000 children die of preventable
causes as a result of the inequalities in wealth seen throughout the world.
Children throughout the world are being forced to work long hours in sweatshops
for pittance wages, as clothing manufacturers in the West such as Gap and
Nike attempt to find cheaper and cheaper labour to make clothes for these
child labourers western counterparts. As Susan George stated in Seattle
1999, “The objective of that corporate system, whether financial or industrial,
is to be able to go where it wants, and produce what it wants, when it
wants, for as long as it wants, to make as much money as it can, and damn
the costs,” and this is what our leaders are giving to the corporations.
Added to the problem of globalisation is
Jo
and Kylie on the train to Genoa, photographed in
the horror of debt
that many countries in the developing world are under
the
Italian newspaper Il Manifesto
constant suffering
from, with many countries paying more in debt repayments to their rich
neighbours than they are able to spend on the health and education of their
own people. With the World Banks structural adjustment programs stating
that these countries must also charge user fees for basic health care and
education it becomes increasingly apparent that the neoliberal agenda is
hardly working for the benefit of the world’s poor. These are some of the
reasons that 300,000 people descended on Genoa this summer, to say enough
is enough, our world is not for sale and that a better world is possible.
