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
the horror of debt
that many countries in the developing world are under 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.
