Focus on the Global South supports the call for a human chain in Mumbai on 12 December 2008 by the Mumbai for Peace campaign, as a people’s response to the recent attacks on Mumbai.
The tragic and horrific events that unfolded from 26 November in the city and continued for the next 3 days were not the first terror attack on Mumbai, but are by far the most brazen. The attacks not only took the lives of ordinary people, but also of top security personnel. Among the 195 people reported killed are 20 police officials, two National Security Guard (NSG) commandos and 20 foreigners. At least 295 people have been injured, many seriously. The attackers fired indiscriminately at people at multiple locations, including the crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) station, public roads, and two luxury hotels. They then holed up with hostages in these two hotels and a residential building housing Israeli families. The Army, Navy and the NSG worked with the local police to finally overpower and shoot the killers.
In seizing Suvarnabhumi Airport, the People’s Alliance for Democracy has escalated its mass protest to new heights. No one would question PAD’s democratic right to employ the method of direct participation in the politics of the country. Unfortunately, its single-minded goal of ridding the country of any elected government that is known to be in support of ex- Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is ultimately impossible to achieve, simply because an equally large—if not larger--part of the Thai population strongly holds the exact opposite view. More importantly, the PAD’s goal amounts to the denial of the same rights of political participation, not just of the opposing groups but of all citizens of Thailand.
This month's FOP zeroes in on some critical dimensions, concerns and
issues regarding migration. A number of high-level conferences and
discussions, including the recently concluded Global Forum on Migration
and Development held in Manila, show that migration has shifted from
being a temporary stop-gap to a permanent component of the country's
development thrust, significantly shaping the economic and
sociopolitical landscape of the Philippines. Each year, over a million
Filipinos leave the country for temporary work abroad, with Filipino
migrants sending home at least $ 12 Billion in remittances, hard earned
money that sustains families in the Philippines and 'keeps the economy
afloat.' While the scale and contribution of migration is already quite
established, there are gaps, consequences and related implications that
still need to be fully examined and resolved. Probing the complex
terrain of labor migration beyond 'maximizing the development benefits
of migration', the articles here pose key questions and offer valuable
commentary on important themes that are often relegated to the
sidelines of key discussions. The lack of government protection and
support to migrant workers, the absence of regulation and the massive
gray area left to the market and private agencies, the sociopolitical
implications and human rights dimension of migration, and the EU Return
Directive are just some of the urgent themes that, for Focus and
contributors from Kanlungan Center, Filipino Migrant Organizations in
Europe, Migrant Networks in the Philippines, and the Transnational
Institute, should be at the center of any debate and dialogue on
migration.
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Articles:
Perspective: Are OFWs falling through the cracks?: Between Unwieldy Regulation and the Middle-Men of Migration
by Julie de los Reyes
Political Round Up: In the Service of Overseas Filipino Workers
Kanlungan Center Foundation
Political Round Up: Did the Global Forum on Migration and Development really address migrants' issues?
by Marylou Malig
By Walden Bello From Foreign Policy in Focus, Nov. 8, 2008
It came together spontaneously, the rally at Lafayette Park across from the White House, even before the concession speech by John McCain. The crowd was multiracial, but the vast majority was white. And young. Lustily cheering “O-BA-MA, O-BA-MA,” they were from a generation aching for a reason to hope. These young Americans were responding to Barack Obama’s clarion call to abandon cynicism and the politics of division that Karl Rove and the Republicans had perfected as an art form over the last two decades.
The joy of victory – and a decisive one at that – caught up people throughout this vast country in a collective outpouring that for a few hours and probably a few more days will dispel the fears of joblessness and economic collapse that is literally around the corner. Many overcame the residual racial fears, in the past successfully stoked by the right, to throw in their lot with a 47-year-old African American who offered not so much a detailed program as an earnest promise to toss into the ash-heap of history eight years of doctrinaire free-market policies that had led to the evaporation of their jobs and communities.
The collapse of the global financial system heralds the end - at least for a while - of the fascination with free markets and fancy financial products. The calls for regulation are coming from every quarter, not least from some of the most energetic proponents of neo-liberalism (including Michel Camdessus, Robert Rubin and Martin Wolf, to name just three). With the future of the financial system at stake, more stringent regulation is almost certain - even the Princes of Wall Street realize that "things have to change if they are to stay the same" - and progressive voices should seize the opportunity to put ideas on the table. The first article in this issue "The Global Economic Crisis: An Historic Opportunity for Transformation" lists some ideas about how the global economy could be re-regulated to work for workers, communities and the environment.
The financial crisis has also been seized by trade unions and others as an opportunity to talk about "green jobs" and the "green economy" - a kind of "green Keynesiansim" that will kick start languishing economies, revive the productive sector, create "decent" and useful work, and make a start on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Barak Obama and Joe Biden, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, and many other European heads of state are talking about green jobs and promising to throw a lot of money in that direction. That's all to the good, but even "green" jobs can co-exist happily in the framework of globalised capitalism, in much the same way that "fair trade" and "ecological" products barely dent the underlying dynamics of the system. In the following two articles in this issue, Tadzio Mueller and Ulrich Brand write about why we should mobilize for the United Nations negotiations on climate change from an anti-neoliberal and anti-imperialist position. For Mueller, the UN summit in Copenhagen in December 2009 offers a Seattle-like moment where the debate on climate change can be shifted just as the protests against the WTO in Seattle in 1999 shifted the debate on globalization. Ulrich Brand also argues for activists and social movement to take up the climate agenda as part and parcel of the struggle against neo-liberalism and neo-imperialism. As he says, although the UNFCCC embodies the political awareness of climate change, this "awareness is framed in specific ways and in line with dominant interests and social forces. It is not independent from neo-liberal and neo-imperial developments."
Finally in this issue, Joseph Purugganan dissects the Japan Philippines free trade agreement, and his autopsy reveals some useful lessons for future campaigns to democratise national trade policy.
This month's FOP looks at the Meltdown-- how we're affected and how to
respond. The issue includes Walden Bello's Primer on the Wall Street
Meltdown, analysis and proposals from Prof. Leonor Briones of Social
Watch-Philippines, the Freedom from Debt Coalition and groups that
participated in the Asia-Europe Peoples' Forum sessions. Also, to
continue our Mindanao discussions, Eric Gutierrez shares an initial
article, which probes the link between land issues and escalating
conflict in Mindanao.
As months go by, more and more issues crop up, demanding our attention
and action. We hope that this issue helps, as we contend with-- and
create opportunities for intervention and change in-- yet another such
crisis that has global and historical implications.
We look forward to your reflections and propositions:
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Perspective
A Primer on the Wall Street Meltdown
by Walden Bello
Development Brief
The Global Economic Crisis: An Historic Opportunity for Transformation
An
initial response from individuals, social movements and
non-governmental Organisations in support of a transitional programme
for radical economic transformation Beijing, 15 October 2008
The world is witnessing a fall of the global capitalism’s nerve center
and a reverse process towards nationalization. The U.S. government mega
mortgage bailout plan of $700 billion dollar and buying of shares of
the leading private banks is a desperate attempt by the Bush
Administration to ‘preserve the remnants of free market economy’.
Everyone, even those least connected with the ‘Wall Street meltdown’,
are wondering what’s really going on in the market? In this issue we
are carrying two pieces on what led to the current Wall Street collapse
(i) a “primer on the Wall Street Meltdown” in which Dr. Walden Bello
has eloquently explained the truth behind this extraordinary event and
(ii) an article by Prof. Arun Kumar of Jawaharlal University, New Delhi
on “The US Financial Crisis: Collapsing Sand Castles”.
An initial response from individuals, social movements and non-governmental Organisations in support of a transitional programme for radical economic transformation Beijing, 15 October 2008
Preamble
Taking advantage of the opportunity of so many people from movements gathering in Beijing during the Asia-Europe People’s Forum, the Transnational Institute and Focus on the Global South convened informal nightly meetings between 13 and 15 October 2008. We took stock of the meaning of the unfolding global economic crisis and the opportunity it presents for us to put into the public domain some of the inspiring and feasible alternatives many of us have been working on for decades. This statement represents the collective outcome of our Beijing nights. We, the initial signatories, mean this to be a contribution towards efforts to formulate proposals around which our movements can organise as the basis for a radically different kind of political and economic order. Please sign on to this statement at http://www.casinocrash.org.
Flying into New York, I had the same feeling I had when I arrived in Beirut two years ago, at the height of the Israeli bombing of that city—that of entering a war zone. The immigration agent, upon learning I taught political economy, commented, “Well, I guess you folks will now be revising all those textbooks?” The bus driver welcomed passengers with the words, “New York is still here, ladies and gentlemen, but Wall Street has disappeared, like the Twin Towers.” Even the usually cheerful morning shows feel obligated to begin with the bad news, with one host attributing the bleak events to “the fatcats of Wall Street who turned into pigs.”
IN THIS ISSUE of Focus on Trade, Chanida Chanyapate and Jacques-chai Chomthongdi shed some much-needed light on the political situation in Thailand, and Herbert Docena looks at why a breakthrough agreement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Philippines government unraveled at the last minute. Also writing from the vantage point of Asia, Walden Bello looks at the current financial meltdown with a certain sense of deja vu, and explains why it happened, step-by-step.
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Wall Street: The Causes of Collapse
by Walden Bello
Updated: 18 October 2008
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