WE have received a number of letters from North American
CONTENTS subscribers, expressing displeasure at the long time it takes IV to arrive from Paris. After investigation, it seems that we have been the unwitting victims of public sector "rationalisation" of one sort or another! Please don't hesitate to write if there are any other such problems. — The Editors *
OUR DISTRIBUTION NETWORK
001-1050035-86 "INPRECOR-IVP"
Jaucourt, 75012 Paris, FRANCE; account no. 30076/02044/
3 VIEWPOINT
DOSSIER: Mexico
The New Zapatistas
Sergio Rodriguez Lascano
BELGIUM
Please state "International
Viewpiont"
DENMARK
Internationalens Venner
Box 547, Nørre Alle 11A
DK-2200 København N
Salinista celebrations dashed
Alfonso Moro cheques to: "Outlook International"
EZLN Communiqué
20 January 1994
IV c/o Outlook International
PO Box 1109
London N4 2UU
CANADA
IV c/o SC
PO Box 4955, Main PO
Vancouver V6B 4A6 cheques payable to: "SC
HOLLAND
IV c/o ISP
St. Jacobsstraat 10-20
1012 NC Amsterdam
SRI LANKA
IV c/o NSSP
143/3 Kew Road, Colombo-2
SWEDEN
IV c/o Roda Rummet
Box 3077, 400 10 Göteborg postal giros to:
41 25 94 - 4 "Roda Rummet"
UNITED STATES
International Viewpoint
PO Box 1824
New York, NY 10009 cheques payable to: "IV"
13 SOUTH AFRICA
New phase begins
- Peter Blumer
17 DEBT
(one year — eleven issues)
Solidarity between peoples
• All surface mail and Europe airmail:
— Contributions from speakers at the Belgian
280FF; £18; USS48; CS65; 320 DKK; 345 SEK; f 85
CADTM conference in Brussels, December 1993
— Susan George; Michel Chossudovsky; Michel
Husson; and Charles Andre Udry
(half year - five issues)
• All surface mail and Europe airmail:
140FF; £9; US$24; C$33; 160 DKK; 175 SEK; f 43; 825 FB postal giros to: 444 7645
24 TUNISIA
Setback for unions
— Ali Ben Nadra
(BLOCK LETTERS PLEASE)
28 BELGIUM
Pointing to the potential
- Alain Tondeur
Last name.
Address..
First name.
31 PALESTINE
Inside the PLO
- Walid Salem
Country..
36 AROUND THE WORLD
• France • Abortion
International.
(PECI).BP 85, 75522 Paris cedex 11, FRANCE.
editors.
City....
Renewal O
Means of payment..
Code.
VIEWPOINT Chaos
WHAT is the link between the major events of the last few months, such as the ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement by the
US House of Representatives, the results of the Russian elections, the conclusion of a deal between the European Community and the United
International Viewpoint #253 February 1994 king both the cash and the will - has decreased, the debacle of the Stalinist state system and its "Third Worldisation" (Russia included) have considerably increased the number of credit-see-
States of America on the Uruguay Round of the GATT negotiations, the devaluation of the CFA franc, and the insurrection of indigenous peoples in the state of Chiapas, Mexico? SALAH JABER - 26 January 1994
W ould it be a new
by-product Chaos Theory in form which postulated a relationship between the fluttering of butterfly wings in one part of the planet and an atmospheric disturbance
But would the metaphor not recall the classic image of a global socio-economic system conceived as a dynamic system in which price changes on the London and New York stock markets have direct repercussions for the daily life of peasants in this or that remote region of the Third World?
### Link
In fact, the direct link between different socio-economic events and their political consequences on a world level is much easier to establish than the relationship between microscopic phenomena in the field of meteorology. There is, indeed, nothing mysterious about the common denominator of the events listed above. Those who are responsible for them are not indiscernible.
The common denominator has a name, and it is "free trade". Its managers are those who make the most from it — the rich industrialised countries, or, to be more precise, the rich in these countries and their partners in the dependent countries. And the exasperated reactions of the poor - such as those in Chiapas, or those who express their desperation through the ballot box - only confirm the tendency towards disorder and chaos embedded in this "dynamic system" which is the globalised capitalist economy.
Those who claim to be the system's expert managers regularly show themselves to be nothing more than sorcerors' apprentices. They only manage to increase the tendency towards pauperisation (not only relatively but absolutely), which is manifesting itself in a spectacular and frightening way on a planetary level.
Indeed, ever since the global economy entered into its long depressive wave twenty years ago, there has been an inexorable growth in the proportion of the wretched of the earth. In a period of near-zero (if not negative) growth, the "underclass" no longer have the right to even the crumbs which were once their means of survival. The "icy waters of selfishness", as the Communist Manifesto described it, lead to the rich letting the poor die of hunger in increasing numbers, or else sinking into a barbarism which already gives this "fin de siècle" an anguished character.
"Free trade"
The fact that the post-Stalinist States have converted to the religion of "free trade" has considerably accelerated the above tendency. In the ex-USSR and even in China, the "shock therapies" of economic liberalisation have produced social inequalities which, in many respects, are worse than those of many dependent countries.
Moreover, global competition between the two superpowers undeniably benefitted the underdeveloped countries, or at least their leaders. They were courted, and received favours as an incentive to remain firmly in one of the two blocs, or even to maintain a friendly neutrality. The smallest of these countries acquired strategic importance in a global confrontation which neither bloc could win.
Now, however, while the available credit from the wealthy countries - lackers.
The barons of the Group of 5 (USA, Japan, Germany, France and Britain) no longer fear the "Communist peril", and thus are giving fewer and fewer "gifts" to countries in difficulty. The conditions imposed on them when they do so are increasingly draconian; the aid is increasingly meagre; and the recipients are subjected to increasingly rigorous selection criteria.
Low-income countries, as defined by the World Bank, which have no immediate political or military strategic interest, are, quite simply, abandoned. It is now, more than ever since the Russian revolution, purely economic calculation which determines the orientation of the imperialist powers' foreign economic policy and loans are only given to rich countries, or those which are potentially SO.
### Brutality
The five events mentioned above fit in perfectly with the new set of programmes developed in institutions like the Group of 7, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which have imposed "structural adjustment" on poor countries over the last few years with unprecedented brutality (See pages 1723). The devastating effects of NAFTA on the poorest layers of Mexican society, and particularly the rural population, were already felt even before it took effect. The rebels of Chiapas provided their own welcome to NAFTA's inauguration on 1 January (See pages 4-12).
The Europe-America deal on GATT was made openly to the detriment of the interests of the poorest and most populated countries. India is one of the main victims. And France abandoned outright its misery-ridden African protectorates by imposing a sharp drop in their purchasing power, and by firmly ordering them to submit to the dictates of the IMF and World Bank.
Isn't the "New World Order" just wonderful? *
3
----- pull-quotes on this page -----