[asia-apec 1294] Crispin Beltran's Speech For Alternatives to the APEC Agenda

[APEC Monitoring Group]

"Globalisation" and the Working Class Alternative


Prepared by the National Executive Committee of the Kilusang Mayo Uno or May
First Movement of Filipino Workers (KMU)
For the Alternatives to the APEC Agenda Forum
New Zealand
September 1999



>
>In behalf of the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno and all other patriotic and
>democratic forces in the Philippines, warm greetings! I am very much
honored
>and thankful to have been chosen by the conference organizers to share the
>perspectives of militant Filipino labor, regarding the evils of so-called
>"globalisation" and what we can do to put an end to them.
>
>As the APEC leaders hold their regular meetings right now in your backyard
>in the hope of further tightening the stranglehold of U.S. monopoly
>capitalism in the region, the very fundaments of their organization itself
>are crumbling, as evidenced by the current global recession. Friends and
>comrades gathered here today at this alternative conference, you have the
>ringside seats to an event that progressives have long foretold: the demise
>of monopoly capitalist globalisation.
>
>Even as there is cause for optimism for the victims of APEC, however, we
>must look deep into the nature of this summit in order to deal more telling
>blow against the forces that give it impetus, so as to hasten its end.
>
>The Demise of "Globalisation"
>
>As a regional instrument to monitor compliance of member-countries to the
>policies of GATT-WTO, APEC has become a cattle-prod of U.S. monopoly
>capitalism to herd "emergent markets" and rival economies alike into the
>corral of a bankrupt political-economic paradigm, Neoliberalism or
>monetarism. Conceived in the 80's by the Reagan and Thatcher governments in
>their respective countries, this praxial framework is a reaction to the
>failure of the hitherto dominant Keynesian model of economics to prevent
the
>recurrence and intensification of the crisis of the industrial countries,
>and rehashes the outmoded slogans of free-market capitalism in this age of
>monopolies. In essence, neoliberalism accelarates the concentration of
>capital into the hands of the monopoly bourgeoisie by transferring public
>funds (i.e., state-owned assets) to private corporations, and further
>emisserates the working class by reducing employment and eliminating
>government expenditures in social services to maximize profits and combat
>inflation.
>
>The effect of this policy shift on the global economy has been destructive,
>to put it mildly. We are witnesses to the series of worsening crises, the
>stockmarket crash of 1987, the debt crisis in Latin America in the late
>80's, the Mexican peso collapse and the current economic and financial
>chaos. Furthermore, the national profit rates in the three global centers
of
>capitalism, the United States, Japan and the European Union have
dive-bombed.
>
>Asia has been at the center of this global maelstrom. Trillions of dollars
>of capital in the stockmarkets and loans melted in just a few months, apart
>from more than 260 billion dollars of capital in the books of account of
>various companies. Hundreds of billions of dollars of the reserve funds of
>central banks vanished in their attempts to defend currencies under attack
>by speculators. The incomes of millions of people suddenly shrunk even as
>they lost their hard-earned savings and their jobs.
>
>The abrupt fall of Southeast Asian economies, which were estimated to
>account for half of the world's growth and two-thirds of the increase in
>world trade in the last several years, has been a major cause of erosion in
>the world market. Since the middle of 1997, the prices of all agricultural
>and mineral raw materials and semi-manufactured goods have gone down by
30%,
>their lowest levels for more than 25 years. This has proven to be
disastrous
>for the backward countries that depend on this type of exports.
>
>Another outstanding feature of the contemporary crisis is the precipitous
>plunge of the value of currencies of the Southeast Asian countries, and
>Russia soon after. It is impelled by the unhampered flow of investment and
>finance which has been insisted on by the finance oligarchy throughout the
>world. Since the outburst of the crisis, the dollar value of the Indonesian
>rupiah fell by 80%, and that of the South Korean won and Thailand baht by
>40%. Hand in hand with such a big drop, loans and investments dried up,
>interest rates skyrocketed, many companies and businesses went bankrupt,
>production and trade drastically decreased, and inflation galloped.
>
>Under the neoliberal policy shift, the imperialist countries have dropped
>their pretense at aiding the economic development of the countries that
they
>dominate. Since the 1980's, they have selected only some ten countries to
>become the so-called emerging markets.
>
>Some 75 percent of global direct investments flowed among three global
>centers of capitalism, the United States, Japan and the European Union,
>mainly to the US; while a measly 25 percent went to the "emerging markets",
>chiefly those in East Asia. Since the currency devaluations and stock
market
>collapses in July 1997, the net flow of imperialist funds to East Asia has
>dropped by more than half, as capital flight has caused a deep recession.
>
>Neoliberalism is by far the worst form of colonialism since the end World
>War II. It stunts the "emerging markets" at their existing levels of
>development and makes them dependent on exports, dumps on them speculative
>capital and surplus goods, further compradorizes them and destroys any
>self-reliant national industry. At the same time, the overwhelming majority
>of countries long depressed since the crisis of overproduction in raw
>materials in the late 70s are further deteriorating economically and
socially.
>
>Under the neoliberal policy, monopoly firms maximize profits by injecting
>more capital into new technology and by trimming down their labor force,
>thus generating mass unemployment and increasingly resorting to contractual

>and part-time labor under the so-called flexible-labor policy in both
>industrialized and Third World economies. Not surprisingly, the current
>global unemployment rate is now going beyond 40 percent and poverty
afflicts
>90 percent of the people of the world.
>
>Even apologists of neoliberalism are forced to admit, if only to deflect
>criticism from the real culprits, that "globalization" does not necessarily
>mean "paradise". The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in its 1999
>Human Development Report declared self-righteously that the gap between the
>rich and the poor, in terms of classes and countries, are widening
worldwide
>as a result of the rapid implementation of neoliberal policies. While
>praising globalization as essentially good, the UNDP denounced the
>"dehumanization" of  globalization and proposed "strong governance to
>preserve the advantages of global markets and competition while ensuring
>that globalization works for people, not just profits." It even twitted
such
>monolithic bastions of neoliberalism as the IMF-WB and the WTO for being
>"dominated by large, rich countries."
>
>While the UNDP Report is merely self-serving propaganda to smokescreen
>neoliberalism's rotten agenda, it is indicative of the extent of damage
that
>this paradigm shift has wreaked, such that its advocates can no longer
>conceal some of its manifestations. Unfortunately but not unexpectedly,
>UNDP's myopic analysis fails to discern the inherently exploitative
>character of monopoly capitalist globalization.
>
>The Working Class as Core of Anti-"Globalism"
>
>Before we can propose alternatives to globalization, we have to be united
on
>certain principles, and in this aspect I think we have progressed. We are
>one in the conviction that globalisation is anti-people, anti-Third World
>and anti-national industrialization. We are also one in the belief that it
>is the working class that suffers the most from the plunder of  monopoly
>capitalism. With these givens in mind, we can proceed from critical to
>creative tasks.
>
>We have pointed out that monopoly capitalist globalisation can flourish
only
>in a political-economic  environment where it can still exploit backward
>nations for cheap raw materials and labor, and act as dumping grounds for
>overproduced manufactures, all to serve its demigod, profits. Without these
>milking cows of megaprofits, monopoly capitalism cannot but perish.
>
>>From this we can see that the war against the empire of globalisation is a
>protracted one, and one that needs the participation of all its oppressed
>and exploited victims. Our first clear task is to do battle with
>globalisation in our home grounds, uprooting the local and rotten
>political-economic structures that have proven to be very hospitable to the
>dictates of monopoly capitalist agencies. The very fact that our respective
>governments have joined and are trying their hardest to implement the
skewed
>prescriptions of the GATT-WTO, and more recently, the Multilateral
Agreement
>on Investments (MAI), manifests an unequivocal subservience to
>globalisation. Without their active support, or at the very least,
>acquiescence, neoliberal policies will fail to make headway. Fighting for
>fundamental socio-economic changes in our backyards, especially when pushed
>towards its logical and moral conclusion, will make a big contribution
>towards severing the lifelines of monopoly capitalist globalization.
>
>In the struggle to bring about a society free from foreign domination and
>social injustice and beyond, the working class must form the spearhead.
>Aside from being the worst exploited social group in a country victimized
by
>monopoly capitalism, they have determination, discipline and the numbers to
>take on the monumental task of breaking its stranglehold. A genuine,
>militant and anti-imperialist trade union movement should act as an
>unbreakable and indefatigable core of fighters capable of leading the war
>against monopoly capitalism and their local errand-boys in the
client-states.
>
>Now, what political economic system is anathema to the continued existence
>of this evil monopoly empire? Different people of different ideological
>persuasions diverge on this point. But if there is a commonality of views
on
>this matter, it is that this alternative system we all are envisioning and
>struggling for will be pro-people, patriotic and democratic. It will put
the
>interest of the impoverished majority to the fore, while also guaranteeing
>the basic rights of the minority. It will favor national industrialization,
>genuine land reform, popular governance, a patriotic, scientific and
>mass-oriented culture and an independent foreign policy.
>
>The propaganda machinery of monopoly capitalism deride such a vision as
>utopian and therefore implausible. But contemporary history has proven them
>wrong several times over, with the examples set by such countries as China
>before 1976, the former Soviet Union before 1956, Vietnam, Cuba and North
>Korea. The viciousness of the ideological, political, economic and military
>aggression against their countries in their anti-imperialist heydays
>testifies to the effectivesness to the strategy of gradual strangulation of
>monopoly capitalism, whatever may be said of later, more nagative
historical
>developments. Far from being utopian, the vision of a humane and just
>society is within the reach of all peoples straining against the
imperialist
>yoke.
>
> Parallel to our efforts towards the building of such a society should be
>the creation of linkages between anti-imperialists in every country,
whether
>in backward or industrialized ones, and necessarily led by the working
>class. International solidarity is an effective weapon against an enemy
>without borders. We must bear in mind that monopoly capitalist
>globalisation, while projecting itself as, and appearing to be,
all-powerful
>is actually powerless in the face of united and struggling masses. While
>imperialism is a spent and moribund force of reaction, the anti-imperialist
>masses everyday multiply in committed numbers and represent the progressive
>forces of the future. To paraphrase a well-known Marxist thinker and
leader,
>"Monopoly capitalism is nothing but a paper-tiger."
>
>Only by pushing for the liberation of oppressed classes from exploitation
in
>our respective countries, and strengthening relations among those opposed
to
>imperialist globalisation can we gradually weaken this evil empire. By
>building societies devoid of inequality and injustice on a global scale, we
>will create an environment whereby imperialist globalisation will perish
>once and for all.