[asia-apec 529] Asian Crisis
John Price
joprice at unixg.ubc.ca
Tue Jul 28 23:25:27 JST 1998
Vancouver Sun
Why just assurances for capital? unions ask rulers of Asia-Pacific :
A year ago yesterday, currency speculators whelped an international
financial crisis. Recovery policies have ignored working people, a
Canadian academic observes.
Publication date: Friday, July 3, 1998
EDITION Final
SECTION Editorial
PAGE A19
LENGTH 915 words
ILLUS Photo: Vancouver Sun, Files / Korean protesters last fall in
Kwangmyung: These employees of financially troubled Kia Motors have
been unable to halt the ``dismemberment of [an] otherwise
productive
venture,'' Prof. Price reports. Millions of Asians have lost their
jobs in the last year.
BY John Price
Author Note: John Price teaches Asian history at the University of
Victoria. He is a research associate with the B.C. office of the
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and recently returned
from a
three-week Asia-Pacific visit.
In Hong Kong, shoppers scatter before marching women whose
placards demand severance pay from Triumph Manufacturing, a
German-owned garment company that sacked 110 workers a day earlier.
The voices of hundreds of workers and social activists echo among
the towering skyscrapers of the city centre as they march to the
offices of chief executive Tung Chee-hwa to demand job-creation
fiscal measures and government support for the unemployed.
In Korea, 2,000 workers occupy the paint shop and head office of
Kia Motors to protest the imminent dismemberment of this otherwise
productive venture. The day before, hundreds of women demonstrate in
downtown Seoul to demand the government provide support for
unemployed women.
In Taipei, under a blazing sun, dozens of women protest their
dismissal by the Taiwanese government outside central government
offices.
In Japan, union activists distribute leaflets in front of the
ministry of transportation in Tokyo, denouncing the ministry's lack
of supervision of airlines. Airlines in Japan, according to the
protesters, lost more than $3 billion by speculating in currency
markets and other ventures.
Unions and social activists are organizing in every country on the
other side of the Pacific to confront the consequences of the Asian
financial crisis - now in its second year.
A year ago yesterday currency speculators forced the Thai
government to allow its currency, the baht, to float. A massive
currency depreciation ensued in Thailand and then in Indonesia,
Malaysia and other countries.
What began as a run on currencies quickly escalated into a serious
financial crisis, as foreign investors withdrew billions of dollar
from affected countries. In November, South Korea defaulted on its
loans and Japan's large securities firm, Yamaichi, went bankrupt,
exposing deep fault lines within the banking system.
The International Monetary Fund intervened, imposing harsh
conditions including high interest rates, balanced budgets, and
further financial liberalization in return for $100 billion in loan
guarantees. The crisis, however, has deepened and spread. Singapore
and China are on the verge of being swept into the maelstrom.
While the IMF and the governments of the country's most affected
have guaranteed that banks and international investors are
protected, the have not extended the same guarantees to working
people and their families, particularly women, who are often
expected to provide sustenance in the absence of a social safety
net.
Millions have lost their jobs in a scant few months. But the
unemployment statistics often conceal as much as they reveal.
The real story is told by the 52-year-old mother in Seoul who, in
the face of the won's depreciation, agonized about finding the money
to send to sustain her son's education in Australia, to the point
where she leapt from the 16th floor of her apartment building.
The real story is told by the 250,000 Thai children who in the last
year have been forced to quit school to find work to sustain their
families.
The real story is in the Seoul orphanage that found 20 children
left on its doorstep in the past three months, abandoned by their
parents who, for one reason or another, are unable to manage in the
face of job loss.
The real story is in the faces of the teenage runaways on the
streets of Hong Kong, young people who have fled families where
mothers and fathers are being forced to work longer hours than ever
to maintain a basic family income.
The human devastation is real and it is growing. But there is also
hope as people organize to defend their rights and their livelihood.
They face serious challenges.
In the name of international competitiveness, governments and
corporations in Asia, often multinationals, are demanding that
workers accept layoffs, wage cuts and the ``casualization'' of work
- when-needed employment. This is no coincidence. It reflects the
economic orthodoxy that dominates international economic
institutions. But this orthodoxy in increasingly being challenged.
Young-mo Yoon, international secretary for the Korean Confederation
of Trade Unions, said in an interview that his union is demanding a
review and renegotiation of the IMF deal with South Korea.
At a special APEC symposium on the crisis held in Taipei, Nigel
Haworth, a University of Auckland business professor and APEC
consultant, concluded that the social crisis imbued him with
``distinctly un-APEC like feelings.'' He suggested that perhaps it
was time to abandon the orthodoxy of trade and investment
liberalization and look at alternative models of economic
development.
APEC finance ministers, meeting in Canada in May, continued to
endorse the ``approach of the IMF, the World Bank, and the Asia
Development Bank in addressing the financial instability in Asia.''
Canada continues to pursue similar policies as a member of the G-8,
the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank. In so doing, Canada has directly contributed to
the crisis in Asia.
There are concrete alternatives that Canada can and should be
promoting to promote sustainable human development in Asia and
throughout the world. These include:
- A tax on currency speculation as a first step towards a fixed but
flexible currency exchanges system.
- Deposit insurance on short-term capital investment, which help
deter volatility in capital markets.
- Abandonment of international advocacy of privatization and
deregulation and promote the benefits of nationalized institutions
such as medicare and public education.
- Reinstatement of the overseas development budget from its
unconscionable level.
Learning from the depression of the 1930s and the world war that
followed, John Maynard Keynes and others recognized that world
capitalism required strict regulation. The Asian crisis is
reinforcing that lesson
*** END OF DOCUMENT ***
John Price
University of Victoria
Currently in Vancouver (April-August)
Tel. 604 437-5866 Fax 604 437-7014
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