Neoliberalism

Bretton Woods Institutions’ neoliberal over-reach leaves global governance in the gutter

18 October 2019 - by Patrick Bond

This week, the annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund will again be held in Washington, DC, with back-slapping now that the Bretton Woods twins have reached age 75 (they were founded at a New Hampshire hotel in 1944). And with more passion than in recent years, there (...)
Ecuador: Brutal economic decisions (“paquetazo”)

11 October 2019 - by Diego Borja Cornejo

With a stubborn position that borders on political suicide, the government of Lenin Moreno, during the seventh day of massive and combative Popular Unemployment, has preferred to repress thousands of indigenous, students, settlers and workers who have risen throughout the country, by employing (...)
Something’s got to give

14 June 2019 - by Amandla Editorial

The election of a new government should be a time of celebration. 25 years since the end of Apartheid should be the time of immense celebration. Yet, 25 years since the “dawn of democracy” and South Africans are engulfed by extreme forms of anger, disillusionment and alienation. 22 million adults (...)
Explaining gender violence  in the neoliberal era

27 May 2019 - by Tithi Bhattacharya

Let us begin with an image: a naked white man pursuing a low-wage Black female asylum seeker down the corridors of an expensive Manhattan hotel in order to force her to have sex with him. The man, of course, is the then-director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), French politician (...)
Tourism: the false fix – concentration of profits and social debt

5 March 2019 - by Marta Ill Raga

This ODG research starts to look at the relationship of debt and financialisation with tourism, and how they act though this industry, that is deeply affecting life in cities (and other places) around the world. This report aims to review the impacts of the tourism industry on the city of (...)
Globalization from Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama until today

6 January 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

The beginning of Globalization goes back to the outcomes of the first voyage of Christopher Columbus that brought him, on October 1492, to the shore of an island in the Caribbean Sea. It was the starting point of a brutal and bloody intervention of European sea powers in the history of American (...)
The Domestic Consequences of China’s ‘One Belt One Road Initiative’

2 January 2019 - by Qian Benli

Currently, the prospects of China’s ‘One Belt One Road Initiative’ (hereinafter referred to as OBOR) are dim. An article published in the Financial Times in July this year pointed out that 234 out of 1,674 Chinese-invested infrastructure projects announced in 66 Belt and Road countries since 2013 (...)
The euro project and the international integration of the South-Eastern European economies

13 October 2018 - by Ana Podvršič

In the recent years, scholars in critical international political economy have considerably explored the differences and similarities between the countries of the European periphery. Most of the studies, however, have focused on the structural characteristics of the so-called Southern Eurozone (...)
Can union organising help save Nigeria’s textile industry?

2 July 2018 - by Ismail Bello, Otas Belinda

Trade Unions in Transformation: A Case Study of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria Funke Omoniyi Johnson is the founder of Mama Tee Fashion and Saidat Taiwo Oshodi is the proud owner of Sai Tai Enterprises Nigeria Limited. They are both self-employed (...)
Argentina: Macri’s Neoliberal Fantasies

13 June 2018 - by Claudio Katz

In the middle of his term, Argentinian president Mauricio Macri cannot hide the monumental abyss between his promises and reality. The promise was of an influx of dollars to lower inflation, with high growth, job creation, an entrepreneurial boom and eradication of social assistance. A drastic (...)
Protest Movements in Morocco and the Role of the Political Left in Mobilization against Neoliberal Policies

12 June 2018 - by ATTAC/CADTM Maroc, Aznague Ali

In Morocco, the experience of the 20 February Movement indicated that the left faces real dilemmas. Some of its currents refused to get involved in the Movement due to the presence of obscurantist forces, while other currents drew closer to the obscurantists themselves under the pretext of (...)
International Day for Women’s Rights: Debt is not just a financial instrument, it is also a gendered tool

15 March 2018 - by Marie-Laure Coulmin Koutsaftis

Wherever austerity and structural adjustment policies are implemented allegedly to face a foreign debt, they prevent women’s empowerment and destroy women’s rights whereas actually women are the true creditors at both national and international levels. The #MeToo hashtag should not conceal the (...)
After 15 years, World Bank’s Doing Business Report still missing the mark

13 March 2018 - by Bretton Woods Project

In October, the World Bank published its 15th Doing Business Report (DBR), Reforming to Create Jobs, noting that 119 economies had carried out 264 business reforms in the past year to “create jobs, attract investment and become more competitive”. SUMMARY Despite claims, DBR’s deregulation (...)
South Africa: Cyril Ramaphosa Relaunches Neo-Liberalism

28 February 2018 - by Patrick Bond

After Jacob Zuma’s Firing, South Africa Risks Budget Austerity and Even Renewed BRICS ‘Poisoning’ Cyril Ramaphosa’s soft-coup firing of Jacob Zuma from the South African presidency on February 14, after nearly nine years in power and a humiliating struggle to avoid resigning, has contradictory (...)
Tunisia: protesting austerity, demanding sovereignty

26 February 2018 - by Hamza Hamouchene

The recent protests show that Tunisia is still a cauldron of popular resistance against neoliberal and neo-colonial attacks on the country’s sovereignty. Around 800 people were arrested, dozens were injured and at least one person was killed in a violent police crackdown on the protests that (...)
Labour strikes in Serbia: the Pit of Foreign Investment

22 January 2018 - by Aleksandar Matković

A number of strikes in recent months points to wrong policies for subsidizing private investment and curtailing labor rights. The entire economic politics of the Serbian Government is based on two assumptions, both of which are false. Firstly, that the existing labour market problems cannot (...)
Industrialists-Creditors order, SYRIZA-ANEL Vote and the People Pay the New Bill

17 January 2018 - by Leonidas Vatikiotis

A catastrophic multi-bill that brutally affects the interests of workers, consumers and the poor and lower middle classes was voted by the Greek government on Monday, January 15, amid strikes , closing the third assessment. Despite the SYRIZA-ANEL’s attempt to downgrade its importance, the (...)
Punitive Neoliberalism and Financial Melancholia in Puerto Rico

6 November 2017 - by Rafael Bernabe

BEFORE HURRICANE MARIA smashed into Puerto Rico with devastating force, the previous Hurricane Irma caused relatively manageable damage compared to its horrific impact in much of the Caribbean. Even so, the island’s electrical grid — before Maria utterly destroyed it — had already suffered outages (...)
A legacy of liberalisation in Sri Lanka

4 October 2017 - by B. Skanthakumar

The Sri Lankan government recently released its ‘Vision 2025’ manifesto, heralding a new wave of economic reforms. Its timing coincided with the 40th anniversary of the island’s embrace of deregulation, trade liberalisation, and privatisation ahead of the rest of South Asia. While the current (...)
Colonialism’s new clothes: The EU’s Economic Partnership Agreements with Africa

22 August 2017 - by GRAIN

Since 2002, African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries have negotiated a reciprocal free trade agreement known as the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU). While it was marketed as the magic bullet towards the ACP countries’ industrialisation and development, it (...)
Despotism, neoliberalism and climate change: Morocco’s catastrophic convergence

26 July 2017 - by Jawad Moustakbal

Claims of Morocco’s exceptionalism during the Arab Spring now ring hollow as protests spread in the face of elite policies that deny dignity to the majority. On Friday, 28 October 2016, a tragic fatal incident happened in Al Hoceima city in northeastern Morocco when a state official seized (...)
The unbearable burden of being an Indian farmer : shot dead for demanding debt relief

19 June 2017 - by Sushovan Dhar

A nondescript district in the centre of this vast country has suddenly become a most sought after destination for politicians and media people. Lamentably, this transformation has come at the cost of human lives. Farmers in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh started their protests since June 1 (...)
Honest Accounts 2017 - How the world profits from Africa’s wealth

6 June 2017 - by Mark Curtis, Tim Jones

Profiting from Africa’s wealth Africa is rich – in potential mineral wealth, skilled workers, booming new businesses and biodiversity. Its people should thrive, its economies prosper. Yet many people living in Africa’s 47 countries remain trapped in poverty, while much of the continent’s wealth (...)
Egypt’s debt trap: The neoliberal roots of the problem

5 June 2017 - by Mohammed Mossallem

Table of Contents I. Introduction II. The Causes Behind the Debt Crisis in the 1980s III. Post Debt Crisis: The Golden Opportunity Squandered Debt Implications of The Policies Adopted IV. Falling back into the debt trap: 2000-2011 Debt Implications of Policies Adopted V. (...)
Will rating downgrades intensify or reverse Treasury’s neoliberal ideology?

18 April 2017 - by Patrick Bond

Supporters of austerity are happy because South Africa’s junk rating is a good stick with which to whip President Zuma. But his immediate concern is survival, not the economy. Could the current crisis generate a long-overdue era of redistribution, racial justice and radical economic (...)