In the 1980's and in the 1990's
following the collapse of the Soviet Union most nations on Earth underwent a
mass market liberalisation process. Most countries accepted the concept of
Neo-Liberalism and Globalisation as the natural order. There was a narrative
that you must lower taxes and empower private enterprise at the expense of the
public sector. There was an idea that you should undermine your own industries
by allowing your own manufacturing to move to China and the Asian Tiger
economies. Many workers in these economies are being exploited in many
countries like China they have little rights and many workers are forced to
work in sweatshops with long hours with little pay for our own privilege in
buying cheap goods. Many people not just in the United Kingdom felt left
behind. In many western countries, these jobs were replaced with unstable
service sector jobs since it was no longer competitive to have any form of
major manufacturing industry. As people gain capital from the increasingly
automated stock markets others grow rich from a rapid increase in
borrowing for mortgages that many people could not afford. Much of the capital
used for mortgages were created by the banks. see fractional reserve banking.
Of course, the financial bubble went bust in 2008 it was the largest crash
since the Wall Street crash of 1929, it was caused by a collapse of the housing
bubble in the United States. It marked the end of global capitalism. The crash
pulled a rug under the system. We had mass opposition to the system with the
occupy movement where average people demanded more transparency and control
over the capitalist system. Neo-Liberalism failed in 2008 but was resurrected
by a series of intervention by the Neo-Liberal Western Governments. In 2008,
for instance, Prime Minister Gordon Brown bailed out the banks for a total of
£500 Billion. For the exception of Iceland, the perpetrators of the crash
across the west got away with their crimes and incompetence, many kept their
banker's bonuses. If the bailouts did not occur it is true that people would
have been economically worse off, one could say with some of the policies
implemented by Gordon Brown at this time saved the British economy from the
fate of the Eurozone countries in the following years. The general response of
those in power was not to punish for but the burden of the costs of the 2008
crash on the people who are responsible or those with the broader shoulders to
pay for the crash. But the choice of the wealthy Neo-Liberal establishment,
particularly across Europe to pay for the robbery at the hands of the bankers
in 2008. Unlike in other countries in the United Kingdom, the British Coalition
Government voluntary chose to undergo a disastrous policy that harmed working
class people in all aspects of society. Overseas the issue was different, the
European Union forced certain Eurozone countries to undergo austerity, Greece,
Portugal, Cyprus and Italy to name a few. Greece even today has not recovered
from the events of the 2008 crisis only in 2018 is when the economy has started
to see some flickers of improvement. The International Monetary fund and the
World Bank still back the Washington consensus that supports
Privatisation, austerity, "so-called marker liberalisation processes"
that these rich Bilderberg bankers seem to think it is good for the workers of
the globe. As I write this on 9th October 2018 Argentine workers are striking
against a possible IMF loan that will impose austerity on Argentina. We need to
rethink the entire economic conscious that we built up after the war. We need
to rethink globalisation and how we do things on this planet. This is simply
not sustainable. At the time of writing this there is multiple times more debt
than physical money in existence, this is another bubble waiting to explode.
The aim of the internationalist left is to look towards reforming or even
leaving these institutions. These people work for their won interests and not
the interests of the workers. We are living in the time where Social/economic
and even cultural inequality is increasing. Many of the global economic
agreements do need some rethinking such as the Bretton Woods agreement. In many
cases unrestrained capitalism is also polluting and wrecking the planet many scientists
believe we are entering a 6th mass extinction. We have a lack of creativity and
a lack of imagination to change our current situation and this will be the
greatest barrier to change. You have to remember the ideas of Neo-Liberalism
was developed alongside the ideas of Keynesian economics in the 1930's it
actually spent decades on the fringe until the rise of Margaret Thatcher and
Ronald Reagan. It was the philosopher Alexander Rüstow that came up with the
idea of Neo-Liberalism that had the idea of having an economic system in
between controlled social and economic forces and classical liberalism.
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