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Respect policies Globalisation Nightmare
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All materials published and promoted by L Smith, PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU
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Respect rejects the way in which the globalisation of the world economy is taking place at the expense of jobs, conditions, public services and the destruction of the environment. It hands immense powers to the multinational corporations and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) – whose job is to enforce their agenda onto member states.
Production is moved around the globe to the most profitable locations and people are thrown out of work.
Slave labour, child labour and poverty pay have become the norm for many areas as the multinationals drive down living conditions in their thirst for profit. Deregulation and privatisation are forced through, and local markets and services are opened up to the multinational corporations. Third World economies, already hamstrung by debt repayments, are saddled with Structural Adjustment Programmes that strip them of their financial
autonomy and enforce austerity measures on their populations.
The role of the supermarkets becomes ever more unacceptable and unsustainable. From their domination of the retail market they have moved on to banking and financial services. Their global reach generates ever-higher food miles and environmental damage.
Their destruction of small independent retailers is only matched by the destruction they wreak on small farmers and other producers.
We are told that this process is inevitable, that corporate power is unstoppable, and that environmental protection is too expensive. Respect rejects this view of the world.
Only a break up of corporate power and the introduction of social control can
challenge this situation. Our allies are not the powerful governments of the G8, or the World Bank, or the WTO. Our allies are the working people of the world, whose struggles are reflected in the great global justice movement, which started in Seattle in 1999 and continues today as a positive alternative to the domination of multinational capital.
RESPECT SAYS:
> Cancel Third World debt, with no strings or conditions.
> Introduce a tax on currency speculation – often known as a “Tobin tax”.
> End the “structural adjustment” conditions, which impoverish Third World peoples.
> A big increase in aid spending in the impoverished countries on health, education and welfare.
> Curb the power of the multinationals. Restrict the relocation of jobs without protection for the local workforce.
> Curb the power of the supermarkets through the effective regulation of their activities.
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