G8 leaders preen for the camera while blood flows in streets of Genoa By MC206 Tens of thousands of protesters marched for three days in Genoa Italy as the leaders of the richest industrialized countries, the so-called G8, met to discuss economic and political issues. Multi-million dollar, "surreal" security measures included 20,000 police, twenty-foot barricades, emptied streets, rooftop snipers, and even an anti-missile defense system.(1) These military preparations led to many arrests and injuries and claimed the life of one protester, 23-year old Carlo Giuliani. He was shot twice in the face, allegedly for waving a fire extinguisher around. (See articles on pages four and five.) In this article we comment on some of the economic content of the G8 leaders talks and dissect some of their rhetoric. Grants, not loans Before leaving for the G8 summit, President Bush urged the World Bank to give outright grants instead of loans. He specifically mentioned granting money for education, health, nutrition, and water supply.(2) On the surface, this sounds great (and it's supposed to). However, as a representative of the World Bank pointed out, this doesn't differ all that much from the bank's current practice. The World Bank gives out no-interest loans for infrastructure development with no payments due for several years (because of inflation, this means recipients pay back less than what they received).(3) The World Bank often doesn't expect to be paid back for many of its loans. The World Bank is the investment of last resort for finance capital. There is so much "surplus" capital in the imperialist countries -- "surplus" in the sense that there are no profitable investments left for it, not in the sense that it couldn't be put to use cleaning up the environment or providing medical care -- that the finance capitalists are willing to give it away to the World Bank. At least there it will be put to good use "developing" the infrastructure necessary for imperialist exploitation.(4) So do these grants and loans alleviate poverty and exploitation? No, they do not. Crudely put, they build the roads to the export-oriented factories where Third World workers are cruelly exploited or the mine where their natural resources are plundered, they do not build roads or sewers in shanty towns or rural villages. In fact, Lenin considered the kind of "development" lauded by Bush and the World Bank as "progress" as a measure of how much imperialist capital had subjugated a nation. Bush grasps this too (or at any rate his handlers do). "Prosperity depends on a stable and peaceful world. Global prosperity depends on the world's economic powers keeping our economic houses in order."(2) Bush offers these grants primarily because they will benefit the "world's economic powers." For the poor, all he has to offer is the same old lie that "there is no other pill to take / so swallow the one that made you ill."(6) Internationalist bourgeoisie disingenuously criticizes "anti-globalization" G8 leaders and pro-imperialist media hacks spun the Genoa protests to make it seem that they were mainly against "free trade" and motivated by isolationism. Much of the "anti- globalization" movement has focused on particular trade treaties like the GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs), MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investment), and FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas). Amerikan labor in particular stokes chauvinist fears of "Amerikan" jobs going overseas.(7,8,9) MIM does not get involved in opposing these trade treaties between the capitalist classes of different countries, because we oppose the profit system as a whole. We oppose all imperialist-dominated trade. Nor does MIM see any progressive use at this time for an Amerika-first nationalist movement. Instead of attacking individual treaties in the fashion of economic nationalists such as Patrick Buchanan or even Hitler in his day, MIM supports an international minimum wage, an international child labor law, international maximums for hours worked per week, environmental protections etc. Many of the (mostly European) protesters in Genoa seemed to agree with MIM. The kick-off rally demanded free movement of job seekers across borders. "Organizers said they made immigration the theme of their kick-off rally to stress that they are not so much against globalization -- the ever tighter linking of economies rich and poor -- as the way the wealthy manipulate the process. "The protesters claim that, while demanding free cross- border flows of goods and capital on terms favorable to rich economies, wealthy countries restrict free flows of labor by limiting the admission of immigrants fleeing poverty in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America."(10) This echoes much of what MIM has been saying to support its campaign against the militarization of the u.$.-Mexico border. (See articles on pages on and 7.) "The internationalist section of the Amerikan bourgeoisie complains about barriers to the free movement of capital, but you rarely hear them complain about barriers to the free movement of labor (i.e. people). This is because they -- and the privilege enjoyed by oppressor nations generally -- depend on the depressed wages in Third World countries. The brutal super-exploitation of billions of toilers in the Third World ensures not only the imperialists profits, but the high standard of living for hundreds of millions living in oppressor countries."(12) President Bush hypocritically claimed that "what some call globalization is in fact the triumph of human liberty stretching across national borders."(2) The truth is that rich countries are willing to kill to restrict the freedom of people from poor countries to look for jobs in the rich countries. As just one example of this, the Amerikan INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) went ahead with its military-style "Operation Gatekeeper" despite warnings from the u.$. Government Accounting Office that it would lead to the deaths of migrants.(13) If the big capitalists are going to clamor for a WTO to protect their "free market" -- never mind that the "free market" is dominated by First World monopolies and the WTO is controlled by a few bullies like the united $tates -- we should demand WTO-like protections on a global, free, fair labor market. Other protesters like Bono's "Drop the Debt" organization marched in support of global reforms like debt forgiveness for the world's poorest nations. MIM is in favor of debt relief, even if the money for it comes from middle-class taxpayers in imperialist countries.(14) Debt relief is a possibility for many of the same reasons World Bank grants are. While ignoring the internationalist aspects of the protesters messages, the G8 and their stooges tried to convince people that they were the only ones who could meet the needs of the world's poor. "[Globalization] holds the promise of delivering billions of the world's citizens from hunger and want," said Bush. "Those who protest free trade are no friends of the poor. Those who protest free trade seek to deny them their best hope for escaping poverty."(2) MC206 nominates that statement for the "Goebbel's Big Lie of the Year" award. We've had fifty plus years of a u.$.-led imperialist alliance under the rubric of "globalization" and "free trade," and it has done nothing to alleviate the suffering of the poor. In 1980s, we talked about 12 million children dying of malnutrition every in capitalist countries. That number has not significantly changed. The Third World "development" model based on attracting First World investment and using it to industrialize has failed time and time again: In the Philippines, Mexico, Indonesia, Peru etc. etc. The investment that does come in is not used to develop industries that could serve the needs of the local people or the local market. Instead it goes to export-oriented industries, dependent on the whims of First World markets. Most of the foreign capital invested in Third World countries is in export-processing or resource extraction. In the meantime, imperialist countries dump surplus products on the Third World in the name of "free trade" and drive local producers out of business. This dynamic was behind the recent protests of tens of thousands of farmers in Mexico. Imports of corn (for example) from the united $tates have driven down corn prices 45% in the last three years, leaving farmers in the state of Sinaloa with $2.4 million tons of unsold corn.(15) A talking head from Fox News Sunday Morning exonerated the imperialists by blaming poverty and humyn rights abuses on Third World dictatorships(16) -- never mind that imperialists set up and support these dictatorships exactly because they are good for business. Dictators like Suharto in Indonesia, Marcos and his cronies in the Philippines, etc. break up unions to keep wages low and open the country to foreign capital -- for a cut of the profits of, course. So the imperialists claim that their "free trade" can alleviate global poverty and even promote workers' rights. That's bullshit. We have to expose these charlatan's schemes and continue to press for real global protections for workers. We shouldn't cede the field to the imperialists -- we should hoist them on their own rhetoric. Militant action recently embarrassed multi-national drug companies to lower their prices for AIDS drugs.(4) We can do the same on the issue of a global minimum wage, global protection for union organizers, and the like. Of course, a global minimum wage and other guarantees for a "free and fair" labor market are reforms within a capitalist system, currently dominated by big monopoly capital from the First World, a.k.a. imperialism. We believe a revolutionary struggle for socialism -- where people's needs are placed first and individual profit comes last or never -- is a necessary step to eliminate exploitation and the related evils of poverty, disease, and starvation which kill millions every year. Anti-imperialist struggle with a socialist perspective in Third World countries can in one blow remove those countries from the dictates of First World monopoly capital and all its institutions: The IMF, World Bank, WTO, etc. The best thing we can do here is support the struggles in the Third World while preparing to topple Amerikan imperialism when the time is right -- and make sure it never arises again. That said, global regulations on labor conditions are a progressive reform struggle. For hundreds of millions of toilers a wage hike can mean the difference between life and death. And, although global labor-market regulations are consistent with capitalism, they undermine the principal prop of modern capitalism: The super-profits sucked out of the Third World. Notes: 1. "'Surreal' security as Italy holds sealed-off summit," Los Angeles Times, 20 Jul 2001. 2. Deborah Charles, "Bush urges more help for poorest nations," Reuters, 17 Jul 2001. 3. "Talk of the Nation, National Public Radio, 19 Jul 2001. 4. "REVIEW: 'Masters of Illusion: The World Bank and the poverty of nations,'" MIM Notes 146, 15 Sep 1997. 6. Rage Against the Machine, "The Battle of Los Angeles," 2000. 7. "GATT is a trade framework, not a system," MIM Notes 96, Jan 1995. 8. "Seattle protests bolster Amerikan chauvinism," MIM Notes 201, 1 Jan 2000. 9. "Middle class attacks the Summit of Americas," MIM Notes 234, 15 May 2001. 10. "30,000 join Genoa march for a 'Global Village' sans borders," Los Angeles Times, 20 Jul 2001. 12. "Stop Gatekeeper, open the border!" MIM Notes 233, 1 May 2001. 13. "Fourteen die crossing u.$.-Mexico border," MIM Notes 236, 15 June 2001. 14. "U2 band leader exemplifies progressive politics," MIM Notes 238, 15 July 2001. 15. "Farm unrest roils Mexico, challenging new president," Los Angeles Times, 22 Jul 2001. 16. Fox News Sunday Morning, 22 Jul 2001. 17. Los Angeles Times, 22 Jul 2001.