[WSMDiscuss] Germany in =?ISO-8859-1?B?bW92ZW1lbnSK?=, Anti-capitalists in =?ISO-8859-1?B?bW92ZW1lbnSK?=. : 'Hamburg protests rage as G20 leaders meet' (Al-Jazeera) / 'The rebellious hope of Hamburg - A first, preliminary assessment (Interventionist Left) / 'It¹s Not Only Necessary to Devel
John Holloway
johnholloway at prodigy.net.mx
Sat Jul 22 05:14:37 CEST 2017
Many thanks, Laurence,
John
De: Laurence Cox via WSM-Discuss <wsm-discuss at lists.openspaceforum.net>
Responder a: Discussion list about emerging world social movement
<wsm-discuss at lists.openspaceforum.net>
Fecha: viernes, 21 de julio de 2017 04:55
Para: Discussion list about emerging world social movement
<wsm-discuss at lists.openspaceforum.net>, Post Social Movements Riseup
<social-movements at lists.riseup.net>, Post Crisis of Civilisation and
Alternative Paradigms
<crisis-de-civilizacion-y-paradigmas-alternativos at googlegroups.com>, Post
Activism News Network <activism-news-network at googlegroups.com>, Post CJN!
<cjn at lists.riseup.net>
CC: Laurence Cox <Laurence.Cox at nuim.ie>, Yash Tandon <ytandon at hotmail.com>,
Corinna Genschel <cgenschel at gmx.de>, Walden Bello <waldenbello at yahoo.com>,
Tadzio Muller <tadzio.mueller at rosalux.de>
Asunto: Re: [WSMDiscuss] Germany in movement..., Anti-capitalists in
movement.... : 'Hamburg protests rage as G20 leaders meet' (Al-Jazeera) / 'The
rebellious hope of Hamburg - A first, preliminary assessment
(Interventionist Left) / 'It's Not Only Necessary to Devel
Two reports from activist coalitions here:
http://www.globalproject.info/it/in_movimento/the-four-days-of-hamburg/20964
https://shutdown-hamburg.org/index.php/2017/07/11/ein-gruss-aus-der-zukunft-
mitteilung-des-ums-ganze-buendnis-zum-verlauf-der-g20-proteste-in-hamburg/?l
ang=en
<https://shutdown-hamburg.org/index.php/2017/07/11/ein-gruss-aus-der-zukunft
-mitteilung-des-ums-ganze-buendnis-zum-verlauf-der-g20-proteste-in-hamburg/?
lang=en>
Laurence
From: WSM-Discuss [mailto:wsm-discuss-bounces at lists.openspaceforum.net] On
Behalf Of JS CACIM
Sent: 20 July 2017 17:57
To: Post WSMDiscuss <wsm-discuss at lists.openspaceforum.net>; Post Social
Movements Riseup <social-movements at lists.riseup.net>; Post Crisis of
Civilisation and Alternative Paradigms
<crisis-de-civilizacion-y-paradigmas-alternativos at googlegroups.com>; Post
Activism News Network <activism-news-network at googlegroups.com>; Post CJN!
<cjn at lists.riseup.net>
Cc: Tadzio Muller <tadzio.mueller at rosalux.de>; Corinna Genschel
<cgenschel at gmx.de>; Walden Bello <waldenbello at yahoo.com>; Yash Tandon
<ytandon at hotmail.com>
Subject: [WSMDiscuss] Germany in movement..., Anti-capitalists in movement.... :
'Hamburg protests rage as G20 leaders meet' (Al-Jazeera) / 'The rebellious
hope of Hamburg - A first, preliminary assessment (Interventionist Left) /
'It's Not Only Necessary to Develo...
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Germany in movement..., Anti-capitalists in movement....
[These actions took place in Germany late last week; apologies for the late
posting but I was - as I had written to say - more or less offline for the
past three weeks :
Hamburg protests rage as G20 leaders meet
Thousands of protesters descend on the German city
Al-Jazeera
"More than 100,000 people were expected to take part in protests across
Hamburg during the G20 summit."
The rebellious hope of Hamburg
A first, preliminary assessment by the Interventionist Left
It's Not Only Necessary to Develop an Alternative to Globalization -- It's
Entirely Possible
Walden Bello
G20 : The second Berlin War against Africa
Yash Tandon
Note : The last three articles are drawn from one of Patrick Bond's posts on
the Debate list - but re-organised. Thanks, Patrick, for your
always-excellent coverage. And with special thanks to Walden and Yash for
your analyses ! And all power and strength to all of you, Corinna and
Tadzio and others, in and for the movement in Germany and in Europe !
But one small point : While it's always great to see and to read
Walden Bello's and Yash Tandon's analyses, which continue to be always
stimulating and sometimes just mind-opening, where - and who - are the new,
younger analysts ?! And maybe even with new things to say ? Where are you,
when we need you ???
(Is the fact that 'older people' like Patrick and myself keep posting the
work of the evergreens like Walden and Yash, a function of our age and
generation ? Can anyone on this list point us to people whose writings that
we should perhaps be looking for, now ? And post contact details and/or
blog links ?)
JS
Hamburg protests rage as G20 leaders meet
Thousands of protesters descend on the German city for a second day as Putin
and Trump hold first face-to-face meeting.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/07/protests-continue-hamburg-g20-summit-k
icks-170707220347075.html
<http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/07/protests-continue-hamburg-g20-summit-
kicks-170707220347075.html>
More than 100,000 people were expected to take part in protests across
Hamburg during the G20 summit [Reuters]
Fires burned across Hamburg for a second day as police and protesters
clashed while the leaders of the world's top economies met for the G20
summit.
Police said at least 196 officers have been injured in clashes, with 83
protesters temporarily detained at the scene and 19 taken into custody.
Dozens of protesters have also been injured.
On Friday, the day the summit kicked off, some protesters torched cars and
trucks, looted retail stores, lit off firecrackers and blasted music from
Jimi Hendrix in a bid to drown out the classical music playing at a concert
hall where world leaders met.
Thousands are protesting capitalism, climate polices and globalisation,
among other issues.
Police used water cannon and tear gas to try to disperse protesters as
reinforcements poured in from across the country to aid Hamburg police.
The protests <http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/subjects/protests.html>
marred a gathering that German Chancellor Angela Merkel
<http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/people/angela-merkel.html> had hoped would
demonstrate her country's unshakeable commitment to freedom of speech and
assembly.
"I have every understanding for peaceful demonstrations but violent
demonstrations put human lives in danger," she said.
Participants in the G20 meeting praised the work of police in keeping the
event safe but said they had never seen protesters closer to such a summit
than in Hamburg.
Police said 83 protesters were temporarily detained at the scene and 19
taken into custody [Reuters]
In the touristy Pferdemarkt area, activists faced off against police in riot
gear who were unable to put out fires, with billowing thick smoke
dramatically reducing visibility.
In the nearby Schanzenviertel, a supermarket was ransacked and a cash
machine was burned out. Several police helicopters patrolled overhead.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble cancelled an appearance in
downtown Hamburg on Friday morning due to security concerns. Police also
declined to clear US First Lady Melania Trump's motorcade to leave her hotel
for a tour of the city's historic harbour, her spokeswoman said.
Marine police units intercepted 22 divers from the environmental pressure
group Greenpeace who had also been trying to reach the concert hall, police
said.
Three officers required treatment in hospital, police said.
'Robust exchange'
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump
<http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/people/donald-trump.html> and Russian
leader Vladimir Putin
<http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/people/vladimir-putin.html> , in their
first face-to-face meeting, engaged in a "very robust exchange" over claims
Moscow meddled in US elections
<http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/events/election-2016.html> , US Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson said.
Trump called the meeting "tremendous".
Tillerson said that the US president opened the discussion by pressing Putin
about "the concerns of the American people regarding Russian interference in
the 2016 election".
The Russian president has continually denied any meddling in the US
democratic process and Moscow has asked for proof that it took place.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Trump accepted Putin's assertions that
the allegations, backed by US intelligence agencies, were false.
Tillerson added that the "presidents rightly focused on how [to] move
forward from what may be simply an intractable disagreement at this point".
The two-hour meeting also covered a slew of global crises including the
Syrian war, Tillerson said.
US and Russia <http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/country/russia.html> also
agreed on a ceasefire deal
<http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/07/russia-agree-syria-ceasefire-deal-170
707174828206.html> covering southwestern Syria
<http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/country/syria.html> during the talks.
"Let me characterise: the meeting was very constructive, the two leaders I
would say, connected very quickly," said Tillerson, adding that "there was a
very clear positive chemistry between the two".
Al Jazeera's Dominic Kane, reporting from Hamburg, said the duration of the
discussion indicated there were a number of items Trump and Putin's agenda.
"Discussions ranged from Ukraine, the fight against terrorism and the
involvement, if any, of Russia in the US presidential elections," he said.
"It is clear that lots of issues were discussed and the standout element was
the ceasefire deal in southwest Syria."
Meanwhile, talks on global trade at the 20 summit proved very difficult and
differences on climate change were also clear, Merkel said.
She told leaders of the G20 economic powers that they must be prepared to
make compromises as she worked towards a summit outcome that everyone
present could accept.
Protests are expected to continue on Saturday.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>
> From: Patrick Bond <pbond at mail.ngo.za>
>
> Subject: [Debate-List] (Fwd) G20 fail, BIICS collaborationism, mass resistance
> (Walden Bello, Ravi Kanth, Yash Tandon, Interventionist Left)
>
> Date: July 20, 2017 at 11:03:54 AM EDT
>
> To: DEBATE <debate-list at fahamu.org>, "progeconnetwork at googlegroups.com"
> <progeconnetwork at googlegroups.com>,
> "safis-solidarity-platform at googlegroups.com"
> <safis-solidarity-platform at googlegroups.com>
>
> Reply-To: pbond at mail.ngo.za
The rebellious hope of Hamburg
A first, preliminary assessment by the Interventionist Left
Let's say the most important thing first: Hamburg was not only under a state
of emergency enforced by the police for one week, which should be a warning
for us. No, it was as important that tens of thousands defied it. Tens of
thousands were not scared or took to the streets despite their fear. Every
demonstration, every "cornering" and every tent that was put up was under
the permanent and omnipresent threat of police force. Nobody was safe from
it. That is the frame in which every single action and each number of
participants have to be seen. This courage and this disobedience - from
young to old, from peaceful to militant, from political to cultural -
remains. This sign will also be understood by our friends in Brazil, Greece
or South Africa. No matter what the press says, no matter what the polls
say. The political calculation, to isolate the left through repression and
defamation, has proven a devastating failure on the streets and has been
turned on its head. Maybe Olaf Scholz and his units would have been able to
deal with a few leftists - but they were not able to manage that great parts
of the population showed their solidarity. Through their own bodies. On the
streets. In masses and disobediently, in every form and color.
Summit of 20, Summit of Many
Let's shortly talk about their summit: Angela Merkel has thoroughly failed
her G20-show. Concrete results of this summit, that cost at least 400
million and for which a week-long state of emergency had been declared in a
city with over a million inhabitants? None! The promise of a "festival of
democracy" or of a summit without almost any impairment? Broken! The attempt
to keep the protests far away and small with a huge police invasion and a
rigorous policy of prohibition? Failed. Disaster has been a term often used
by the bourgeois press. Olaf Scholz and his interior senator have made
complete fools of themselves. Summit meetings of this scale in a big city in
Western Europe? Unthinkable for years. All the lack of perspective and the
sadness of global capitalism that doesn't promise any future got tangible in
their hollow summit theater. It is therefore not only the riot of Friday
night that lets politicians and the media cry out, but also their defeat on
the streets. They cannot permit that this defeat appears as our victory.
Now about our summit: We didn't only want to disturb the spectacle of power,
we wanted more. We wanted a rebellion of hope, to disrupt the denial of
alternatives and demonstrate that resistance and fundamental opposition are
coming from the left. That the real conflict about and in Hamburg would
actually take place as a resistance against the state of emergency, as a
conflict about democracy, as a fight about the right to the city - that was
of course not planned, but it corresponded to the matter itself. The old
motto of the globalization movement "Think global, act local" has taken on
an interesting and new meaning in Hamburg.
A week of disobedience
The week of rebellion started with an intimidation and a threat: We should
be nowhere. Sleep nowhere, eat nowhere and not be political subjects within
38 square km. Our places to sleep and to assemble were brutally harassed
and removed. The police revolted against the judiciary. Their occupying army
militarized the city. But in the end the many where everywhere and they had
lost their fear.
That was in no small part due to the overwhelming solidarity in Hamburg.
People shared their living spaces. Tents were put up in backyards. Several
churches in St. Pauli and Altona opened their doors and camps formed around
them. The Schauspielhaus let people in to sleep and eat, just like the FC
St. Pauli. They wanted to drive us apart, to separate and divide us, but the
opposite happened: The bond of friendship and solidarity between very
different people and spectra grew stronger and stronger - and it will
outlast the days of protest and resistance.
3 Days Awake
The change from intimidation and powerlessness started with the
"mass-cornering" on Tuesday and the water cannon-attacks of the police at
Arrivati parc. People retreated briefly, but they wouldn't let disperse
themselves anymore. The fear slowly gave way to defiance and
self-confidence. The police wanted to occupy the city and its public places.
The strong response was the demo-rave by AllesAllen, more than 20 000 came
together and danced against G20. Thereby the dam of powerlessness was
broken.
Then on Thursday there was the police assault on "Welcome to Hell" that was
excessively brutal and enforced without any provocation. It was obvious to
all that the senate and the police had already decided beforehand to not let
the approved demonstration run. But despite the beating, despite the massive
deployment of pepper spray, despite a police brutality that could have ended
deadly at this point: The demonstration gathered again, new people joined,
showed solidarity and finally they walked. "This is our city" was a slogan
that from then on was hurled against the police over and over again.
BlockG20
The rebellion of hope took place, a solidarity and courageous revolt of the
many. The G20 summit could not take place without us making a noticeable and
perceptible difference. The "blue zone" existed only in the heads of the
summit strategists, practically it had no meaning on Friday, on the day of
the blockades.
The actions of BlockG20 started with the collective refusal to accept the
zone in which demonstrations were prohibited. From all sides, we advanced to
the protocol routes. We were attacked, stopped and beaten. But we stood up,
gathered again and kept on. And indeed, we managed to disturb the schedule
of the summit. Donald Trump was late, Melania Trump could not leave the
guest house of the senate, several delegations had to turn around due to
blockades, a meeting with the minister of finance Schäuble was cancelled and
the concert in the Elbphilharmonie could only begin after a considerable
delay.
Crucial for this success was the good planning and preparation through
action trainings as well as the disobedient and brave spontaneity of the
many. The colors of the fingers filled the streets, they flowed, flooded and
congested. And they took on a life of their own when during the day they
developed from an organized blockade of the protocol routes to a spontaneous
occupation of the city by the crowd. We rediscovered to be amazed, amazed
about how irresistible and unstoppable the spirit of rebellion flowed
through the city. People of Hamburg, activist travelers, newly politicized
and above all the youth stood up to the arrogance of power. Now more than
ever.
Solidarity without borders
In the end 76.000 people joined against a world of fear. They followed the
common call for the demonstration. The government demonstration of the
Social Democratic and the Green Party that took place at the same time was
only an embarrassing side note. All those protestors came although they
should have been rendered scared, although they had been told by the media
and the Federal Intelligence Service how many dangerous left-wing extremists
would be part of the demonstration. They came nevertheless and they came for
this very reason. Together we spoke up for a solidarity without borders,
against the world of the G20 and their capitalism, for a better life.
"Ganz Hamburg..."
Among the pictures of resistance are also those where people had enough,
where they fought back - and where this fightback turned into actions which
were not directed against the summit or the state power, but also against
local residents and shops. Those were not our actions. The Interventionist
Left stands for the global solidarity summit, for BlockG20 and for the great
demonstration. There we said what we would do - and did, what we said.
But we cannot and do not want to detach the fires of that Friday night from
the state of emergency within they took place. If the police throughout days
harasses, beats and injures people, acts like an occupation army that seems
to never have heard of de-escalation, then a spontaneous response at some
point is inevitable. We have already said in advance that we would not
distance ourselves and that we would not forget on which side we stand. We
do not add our voice to that of those people who now talk about "criminals"
and who put the melange of organized militants and enraged youngsters in
vicinity to neo-Nazis. The disruption and rejection of the existing system,
that underlay these actions, even if we frequently consider them wrong in
their forms and aims, is appreciated by us.
As far as these actions were conducted by organized groups, we find it
problematic that they don't assume responsibility but instead leave it to
other political spectra to talk with, for and about them. We will talk
critically about the political concept of insurrectionalism which indeed
stills the hunger for rebellion but from which does not arise hope and
solidarity.
Schanze & Co.
On our side are also many residents of St. Pauli, of the Schanze district
and of Altona. Not a few of us live there themselves. Without them, without
their practical solidarity, these days of protest against the summit would
not have been possible. When they are attacked and threatened, when actions
are suddenly not directed against the summit anymore but also against our
friends in the district, we stand on their side.
We continue to be an Interventionist Left that lives in the city district.
We are part of this city and of these districts, part of the
right-to-the-city-movement. We will engage in a dialogue with all those who
are on our side. With those who endorsed it and those who cannot see any
political act in it. We want to listen and to learn because as left radicals
we cannot simply talk away the social realities but have to move within
them.
The days after
One last clear word concerning solidarity: Against all attacks by the media
and all threats of eviction we stand firmly alongside the Rote Flora that
from its point of view has said everything that was necessary about the
riots on Friday night. We are just as solidary with the G20-Entern-groups
and all the others that are now in the focus of state repression. And we
will support all those who are still in prison or are hit by repression. You
are not alone!
At the same time, we detest the hypocritical double standards of parts of
the bourgeois and political class. They need the images of burning cars and
smashed windows to get the images of those drowning in the Mediterranean, of
the victims of their wars or the homeless that sleep under the display
windows of their favorite shops out of their head. We are shocked: So thin
is the civilizing varnish, under which are hidden supposedly liberal
people's hatred against every questioning of the existing order and their
police-state punishment fantasy. Instead it must be talked about the
excessive police brutality during these days, about the legitimization of
this state of emergency and about how to organize broad and solidary
resistance against all this.
We cannot understand how in a country, where ten years could pass until a
murdering right-wing terror network was even discovered and where refugees
are attacked daily, only one day has to go by until so many people speak of
leftist "terror".
We'll meet again...
For the future, we will thoroughly analyze which forms of action and which
political strategies are appropriate under the conditions of a policy civil
war training in an urban area. We will comment on this and on the other
principal questions raised in due time and after in-depth discussion.
What remains is the look back on an encouraging summit week with a wide
variety of actions and forms of resistance that have mobilized and given
strength to tens of thousands, from the autonomous political scene to unions
that agreed on the rejection of the G20, the summit meeting and its effects
in Hamburg. Hamburg was the rebellious city that has enlivened this protest.
We took courage and confidence, in ourselves and our allies that stood with
us. These days of Hamburg went deeper than opinion polls and medial moods.
They will still be alive when nobody knows who Olaf Scholz was anymore. They
carry us to the fights that are still ahead of us until everything will be
finally completely different.
It's Not Only Necessary to Develop an Alternative to Globalization -- It's
Entirely Possible
It was the left who diagnosed the ills of globalization. So why is the right
eating our lunch?
By Walden Bello <http://fpif.org/authors/walden-bello/> , July 19, 2017.
Free trade and the freedom of capital to move across borders have been the
cutting edge of globalization. They've also led to the succession of crises
that have led to the widespread questioning of capitalism as a way of
organizing economic life -- and of its paramount ideological expression,
neoliberalism.
The protests against capitalism at the recent G20 meeting in Hamburg may
seem superficially the same as those which marked similar meetings in the
early 2000s. But there's one big difference now: Global capitalism is in a
period of long-term stagnation following the global financial crisis. The
newer protests represent a far broader disenchantment with capitalism than
the protests of the 2000s.
Yet capitalism's resilience amidst crisis must not be underestimated. For
trade activists, in particular, who've been on the forefront of the struggle
against neoliberalism and globalization over the last two decades, there are
a number of key challenges posed by the conjuncture.
Neoliberalism's Surprising Strength
First is the surprising strength of neoliberalism.
The credibility of neoliberalism, to which free trade ideology is central,
has been deeply damaged by a succession of events over the last two decades,
among which were the collapse of the third ministerial of the World Trade
Organization in Seattle in 1999, the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98, and
the Global financial crisis of 2008-2009, the effects of which continue to
drag down the global economy.
Most of us in the field remember the time late in 2008, when after hearing
accounts of the Global financial crisis from an assembly of orthodox
economists at the London School of Economics, Queen Elizabeth posed the
question: "Why didn't anybody see this coming?
<http://www.irishtimes.com/business/virtual-explanation-for-market-cycles-1.
731595> " None of the dumbfounded economists could answer her then -- and
last I heard, the queen is still waiting for the answer.
What one finds puzzling is despite this loss of credibility, neoliberalism
continues to rule. Academic economists continue to teach it, and technocrats
continue to prescribe it. The false assumptions of free trade theory
underlie the free trade agreements or economic partnership agreements into
which the big powers continue to try to rope developing countries.
To borrow an image from the old western films, the train engineer has been
shot and killed, but his dead hand continues to push down on the throttle,
with the train gathering more and more speed. The takeaway from this is that
so long as there are interests that are served by an ideology, such as
corporate interests and knowledge institutions that have invested in it,
even a succession of devastating crises of credibility isn't enough to
overthrow a paradigm.
Export-led Growth Is Still on Course
The second challenge is especially relevant to developing countries. It is
the persistence of the model of export-oriented growth.
Now, this model of development through trade is shared both by neoliberals
and non-neoliberals -- the difference being that the former think it should
be advanced by market forces alone and the latter with the vigorous help of
the state. Now, over the last few years, the stagnation of the once dynamic
centers of the global demand -- the U.S., Europe, and the BRICS -- has made
this model obsolete.
It was, in fact, the non-viability of this once successful model of rapid
growth in current global circumstances that pushed China, under Hu Jintao
and Wen Jiabao, to push the country away from an export-oriented path to a
domestic demand-led strategy via a massive $585 billion stimulus program.
They failed, and the reason for their failure is instructive.
In fact, a set of powerful interests had congealed around the
export-oriented model -- the state banks, regional and local governments that
had benefited from the strategy, export-oriented state enterprises, foreign
investors -- and these prevented the model from being dislodged, even given
its unsuitability in this period of global stagnation.
These same policy struggles are going on in other developing countries. In
most cases, the outcome is the same: The export lobbies are winning, despite
the fact that the global conditions sustaining their strategy are vanishing.
The Right Eats Our Lunch
A third challenge has to do with the fact that when major changes in trade
policy do take place, it's not because of the actions of progressive groups
but of demagogues of the right. I think this is clearest in the case of the
United States.
It was Donald Trump who shot down the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that
had been the object of so much criticism coming from the left. Trump may be
a demagogue and his motives may be opportunistic, but it was he who came
through on one of the central demands of U.S. labor -- not the Democrats --
with the consequence that he's been able to win over large parts of the
white working class.
In Europe, working classes are moving to right wing parties in significant
numbers as well, not only owing to a racist response to immigration, but
also because these far-right parties are espousing anti-globalization and
anti-free trade rhetoric. As in the case with the Democrats in the U.S., the
Social Democrats in Europe are identified with financialization and free
trade, and this is a central reason for their loss of credibility.
But it was the non-establishment left, the left of social movements, that
began and developed the critique of globalization, neoliberalism, and free
trade in the 1990s and the 2000s. But for a variety of reasons, we weren't
able to translate our politics into an effective movement. The extreme
right, on the other hand, opportunistically expropriated our message,
rebranded themselves as anti-neoliberals opposed to the center-right as well
as the center-left, and now they're eating our lunch.
The Alternative
The final challenge has to do with coming up with a credible alternative
paradigm.
My first two points stressed the importance of powerful interests in
sustaining a paradigm despite its loss of intellectual credibility. But this
isn't sufficient to explain the continuing powerful influence of
neoliberalism. Our failure to move from a critique of neoliberal capitalism
to a powerful alternative model -- like socialism provided to so many
marginalized classes, peoples, and nations in the 20th century -- is part of
the problem.
The theoretical building blocks of an alternative economic model are there,
the product of the work of so many progressives over the last 50 years. This
includes the rich work that has been done around sustainable development,
de-growth, and de-globalization. The task is to integrate them not only into
an intellectually coherent model, but into an inspiring narrative that
combines vision, theory, program, and action, and one that rests firmly on
the values of justice, equity, and environmental sustainability.
Of course, the work towards this goal will be long and hard. But we must not
only be convinced that it's necessary but also confident that it's possible
to come up with an alternative that will rally most of the people behind us.
Ideas matter. To borrow the old biblical saying, "Without vision, the people
perish."
These are some of the central challenges confronting trade activists. We
cannot leave the field to a neoliberalism that has failed or to an extremism
that has appropriated some of our analysis and married them to hideous,
reactionary values.
A progressive future is not guaranteed. We must work to bring it about, and
we will.
Foreign Policy In Focus columnist Walden Bello is an international adjunct
professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Binghamton.
He's the author of Capitalism's Last Stand? Deglobalization in a Time of
Austerity (London: Zed, 2013), an associate of the Transnational Institute,
and co-chair of the board of Focus on the Global South.
***
http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/
G20: the second Berlin War against Africa
Posted on July 13, 2017
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/> by Yash
<http://yashtandon.com/author/Nid-Yash/> 1 Comment
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#comments>
Germany holds this year's presidency of the G20.[1]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftn1> On
12-13 June 2017, the German government organised a high-level conference in
the historic city of Berlin where Africa was fragmented in 1885. The
ostensible objective of the June 2017 meeting was to support private
investment, sustainable infrastructure, and employment in African countries,
as well as contribute to the AU Agenda 2063.[2]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftn2> Its
real effect is to deepen Europe's colonisation of Africa.
The "Compact with Africa"
The background document of the Berlin meeting had all the "correct"
sound-bites that we have heard for more than 70 years in various
institutions of global economic governance including the IMF, the World
Bank, the OECD, the European Union and others.[3]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftn3>
Listen to the sound-bites of the "Compact with Africa" - what I call the
New Berlin initiative. It is expected to:
* Ensure that the Investment Compacts between African countries, G20
Partners and International Financial Institutions are demand driven;
* Create a sound investment climate in relevant sectors of selected African
economies;
* Build on existing regional and international strategies in the context of
addressing root causes of migration;
* Strengthen the framework for private finance and investment - including
Investment Compacts, which include a country specific set of measures to
improve the macro, business, and financing framework for private investment;
* Develop quality infrastructure, e.g. access to renewable energy...
climate-related risk finance and insurance schemes... to implement the Energy
Access Action Plan (Sub-Saharan Africa).
* Launch an initiative to stimulate employment and income generating
opportunities for young Africans including the empowerment of women and
girls through digital inclusion - eSkills4Girls.
And so on and so forth - the whole liturgy of well-meaning phrases that are
music to the ears of African regimes but, in reality, aimed at advancing the
interests of global corporate capital in Africa.
The G20 at Hamburg: Who is the G20?
The Berlin conference was followed by the G20 Summit in Hamburg on 7-8 July
with the whole panoply of the giants of world capitalism - including Trump,
Xi Jinping
<https://www.google.co.uk/search?biw=1366&bih=638&q=Xi+Jinping&stick=H4sIAAA
AAAAAAONgVuLUz9U3MEtLMzMAALEflvgNAAAA> , Putin, Modi, Shinz? Abe, and Terisa
May. They were greeted by rallies, raves and riots by an army of
anti-capitalist street protestors and civil rights movements.
The G20 (the Group of Twenty) is essentially a western creation with
participation of some selected countries from the global South. Look at the
composition of the G20.
Group 1: Australia; Canada; Saudi Arabia; United States (4)
Group 2: India; Russia; South Africa; Turkey (4)
Group 3: Argentina; Brazil; Mexico
(3)
Group 4: France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom (4)
Group 5: China; Indonesia; Japan; South Korea (4)
Besides the 19 individual countries, there are 2 representatives from the
European Union (EU): one from European Commission and a second from the
European Central Bank. (That comes to a total of 21, not 20!)
It must be a genius who worked out this remarkable configuration:
* Western countries and their allies (like Japan, South Korea and Mexico are
spread out in 3 groups
* There is no grouping for Africa. The only African presence is that of
South Africa (in the mixed bag of Group 2)
* In addition to a minimum of 11 members of the west and its allies
(Australia; Canada; Saudi Arabia; United States; Mexico, France; Germany;
Italy; United Kingdom; Japan; South Korea), there are two additional members
from the European Union -representatives of the EU Commission and the EU
Central Bank!
The G20 is more or less like the Green Room of the WTO, which makes all
critical decisions on behalf of the so-called international Community.[4]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftn4>
However, this body is different from the WTO in some ways that might be
important to bear in mind. One is that its decisions are not binding.
Second is that while the G20 is a club of likeminded countries from the west
(or close allies of the west), there is an increasing influence of China in
it. The last summit of G20 was held under Chinese presidency in Hangzhou in
September 2016. But at Hangzhou, Africa was side-lined.[5]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftn5>
China is a shrewd player in this game. It is there not to fight for
Africa's battles, but for its own, whilst, at the same time developing
parallel institutions (like CAFTA - China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, and the One
Belt, One Road (the new Silk Route), and its own currency.
The financial iron fist of G20
G20 is the larger co-ordinating forum, but let us be clear about this: its
real iron fist is its "finance track" which is coordinated by the German
Federal Ministry of Finance headed by the dominant figure of Wolfgang
Schäuble, the author of the financial package that has reduced Greece to a
pauper nation held in captivity by largely German finance capital. The five
African countries that were invited to the Berlin meeting in June - Côte
d'Ivoire, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia - wrote letters of
appreciation to Wolfgang Schäuble.[6]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftn6>
Germany is the real financial and industrial hub of Europe. The Compact with
Africa was engineered by the German Ministry of Finance. In its essence,
its thrust was to force open African doors to European and generally western
investments. African governments have been told in no uncertain terms that
for them to receive FDIs (foreign direct investments), they need to improve
conditions for such investments. To this end, the World Bank, the IMF and
the African Development Bank (ADB, which in reality is an extension of the
WB, despite its name) produced a joint report that was well received by the
G20 finance ministers and central bank governors at their meeting in
Baden-Baden. This report proposed a catalogue of instruments and measures
Africa should take to improve macroeconomic, business and financing
frameworks. Using its financial muscle the West (through Berlin) is waging
war against Africa.
Western countries have promised massive funds for Africa: for example, for
Agriculture $21bn per year; Energy: $55bn per year, and so on. These are
just promises. I can say with knowledge of similar past promises, namely,
that none of these would materialise, and if they do, they would be hedged
by multiple conditionalities that undermine Africa's sovereignty and human
rights. The irony is that there is a net outflow of capital from Africa.
According to the African Union's High Level Panel on Illicit Flows, chaired
by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, Africa loses more than $50
billion every year from such outflows.[7]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftn7>
These are "illicit" outflows. However, if you add the other "licit" or legal
outflows - including super-profits that big corporations earn in Africa, and
money sent through "transfer pricing" (which involves underpricing African
exports and overpricing imports into Africa) - then the outflows from
Africa, conservatively estimated, run into over $150 to $200 billion every
year.
So what options does Africa have?
Options for Africa
As always, we need to make a distinction between the common people of Africa
(and the civil society), and the regimes in control of state power.
At the G20 Hamburg meeting, Africa was officially represented by only one
country - South Africa, which was obsequiously behaving like a neo-colony
that it is. Also present were some invited "guests" from Africa - Guinea,
Kenya, and Senegal (why only these were chosen and by whom is anybody's
guess). We have already mentioned the countries that were invited at the
July Berlin meeting on finance - Côte d'Ivoire, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal and
Tunisia. The latter, as I said, wrote letters - bowing and scraping - to
the king of German finance capital, Wolfgang Schäuble.
This said, I need to add that this is no reason why we who come from the
civil society should spurn our regimes. So here are my recommendations.
1. Resource sovereignty
We demand from our governments that the resources of Africa be used for the
development of the people of Africa. Of course, this is easily said than
done. For over half a century, "independent" Africa has been exploited for
its resources (especially oil, minerals and agricultural commodities). It is
time for a "global compact" that we write (not the empire), and we (the
civil society) strategise amongst our friends in the west on how to upfront
"our" global compact for wider discussion among civil societies in the west.
[8] <http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftn8>
2. Taking advantage of current geopolitical shift
The world is going through a significant geopolitical shift. We need to work
out ways of using this to Africa's advantage. I mention only two of its
manifestations. One is the emergence of China as the global leader
displacing the USA in many aspects of global economic governance. China (as
I said above) is developing parallel institutions to the Bretton Woods
structure (like CAFTA, the One Belt, One Road, and its own currency). This
is opening space for Africa to play the west against China, and vice versa.
There is nothing wrong in this. Also, Chinese investments in Africa are long
term and are focused on infrastructural development as well as resource
extraction; whilst Western investments are focused only on resource
extraction. Of course, let me repeat, China is a capitalist state with its
own interests. In trying to, for example, reforming the IMF and building
parallel global economic structures, it does so for its own interests. That
is to be expected. The question is how we in Africa can take advantage of
this. (I will write more on this another time).
The second development is the changing political-economy of the United
States under President Trump. My advice is that, despite his famously
unpredictable personality, we can benefit from his challenge to
globalisation and his "Make America Great" nationalism. At the G20 Summit
in Hamburg, whilst China and India came out against protectionism (the
policy of building firewalls of protection for national industries), Trump
was in its favour. Trump has threatened, for example, to impose 20% tariff
on imports of steel and other products from China, Germany, Canada, and
other countries on "security grounds". Whether he will achieve this is a
different matter, but on this issue he is on our side ideologically. Why? It
is important that we use this aspect of Trumpism to, also, demand for the
protection of our industries from the dangers of "globalisation" that has
destroyed Africa's industries (and now also agriculture).
3. Building state capacity to analyse and negotiate on global issues
At the national, regional and pan-African levels, we must continue with our
nonviolent struggles for democracy and respect for our human rights. At the
same time, we must help - yes, help - our governments to take the courage to
stand up to the empire, and where possible to build the capacity of our
state officials to analyse global events, and to negotiate in the global
organisations for economic and political governance on matters related to
trade, investments, and technology transfer and resource sovereignty.[9]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftn9>
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
@Yash Tandon
[1]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftnref1>
The G20 is a group of twenty major countries that meet annually to discuss
issues of global concern. See below for further details
[2]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftnref2>
The AU Agenda 2063 is a strategic framework for the socio-economic
transformation of the continent over the next 50 years
[3]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftnref3>
See:https://www.bmz.de/de/zentrales_downloadarchiv/g20/2017_03_Fact_Sheet_G2
0_Africa_Partnership.pdf
[4]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftnref4>
At the 10th Ministerial meeting of the WTO in Nairobi in December 2015, for
example, the green room was convened on the last day which, essentially,
laid out the program agreed, first, between the US, Europe and Japan, and
laid before the rest of the members selected from the South (including, of
course, China, India, and Brazil). None of the countries of the South could
overturn the decision made by the imperial countries. Although the chair was
held Kenya, Kenya had no influence at all on the outcome. I was present at
the Ministerial, and made an appraisal of the outcome. See:
http://yashtandon.com/trade-is-war-a-postscript-to-wto-mc10/
[5]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftnref5>
For a critical appraisal of the Hangzhou meeting, see: Aldo Caliari, G20
Hangzhou agreement unlikely to heal global economy's malaise, SUNS #8316 21
September 2016
[6]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftnref6>
Source: Federal Ministry of Finance. Also see:
https://www.g20.org/Webs/G20/EN/G20/meeting_ministers/meetings_ministers_nod
e.html
[7]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftnref7>
Mbeki panel ramps up war against illicit financial flows.
http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/april-2016/mbeki-panel-ramps-war-ag
ainst-illicit-financial-flows
[8]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftnref8>
At the 7 June 2017 meeting of civil society representatives from Germany and
Africa in Berlin (where I was present) it was decided that those coming from
Africa write a "declaration" to be widely disseminated and discussed. Once
it is out, I'll write more on it.
[9]
<http://yashtandon.com/g20-the-second-berlin-war-against-africa/#_ftnref9>
This is what SEATINI (the Southern and Eastern African Trade, Information,
and Negotiations Institute) has been doing since its creation in 1998.
***
______________________________
Jai Sen
jai.sen at cacim.net <mailto:jai.sen at cacim.net>
www.cacim.net <http://www.cacim.net> / http://www.openword.net.in
<http://www.openword.net.in>
Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on
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<http://www.cacim.net>
Jai Sen, ed, 2013 - The Movements of Movements : Struggles for Other Worlds,
Part I. Prefinal version of Volume 4 Part I in the Challenging Empires
series. New Delhi : OpenWord. Prefinal version 1.0 available @
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<http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/the_movements_of_movements/>
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&
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