Page 161 - Fernando Sinaga. Ideas K

Total Trade
Growing neoliberalism is trying to convince us of the need to open up different markets to free trade and investments of major corporations as the only way of expanding progress and combat- ing poverty.Trade is to neoliberal thought a sort of terminal of leftist internationalism, as only through economic growth can unemployment be defeated, which is tantamount to the increas- ing growth of the major multinationals coupled with the growing deterioration of our ecosystem.TheWorldTrade Organization endeavours to convince the different governments to foster negotiations on free trade, a Trojan horse which the business world is bringing in to keep world politics under control.
The WTO and the International Monetary Fund are today considered by those who protest to be the main culprits of the political decline of states and democratic institutions in favour of the major economic and financial pressure groups. In contrast to the so-called soft power—cultural influence of the dominant ideology—minorities the world over feel nowadays that their culture and means of life are under attack from multinationals, which relocate, sniffing poverty and seeking out the cheapest labour in order to up their profits.The US trade unions, in turn, oppose a liberalisation of investments that would allow companies to relocate in search of cheaper labour and call for a prior agreement to guarantee a decent minimum wage in all countries.
The rules have changed and many of them have been left out of the game without realising and are now trying to react by break- ing up at least part of the established play.The black ball grows still and gazes at its surroundings.
The world is heading towards a form of progress based on boundless material growth and on ways of life that are increas- ingly absorbed by the needs of practical life.This archetypical impulse is no coincidence and has not lacked its advocates and champions; on the contrary, it has been favoured above all by the advances and advantages brought by technological and scientific development.A narcotic formula clothed in progress which conceals its mercantile ambitions by granting a few
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