Labor, Trade, & Finance Archives - Page 83 of 214

Don’t Celebrate Mexico’s Independence…Yet

by Manuel Perez-Rocha | Sep 15, 2010

Contrary to common belief, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico’s national holiday. That date is September 16, which this year marks the bicentennial of the independence of Mexico. In 1810 Mexico started its independence struggle against Spain, its formal colonial ruler. One hundred years after that, in 1910, Mexico rose up to free itself from three decades of dictatorship under Porfirio Díaz and leave behind the unjust redistribution of wealth, the concentration of large extensions of land (latifundios) in a few hands, the exploitation of workers by capitalist industrialists, corruption, the denial of democracy in elections, and other historic problems.

60-Second Expert: The Political Consequences of Stagnation

by Samer Araabi, Walden Bello | Sep 10, 2010

Two years after the collapse of the global economy, prospects for economic recovery remain distant. Despite modest upturns at the end of 2009, the end of public stimulus spending in the United States, China, and other states has renewed fears of a double-dip recession. All major sectors in the economy remain cautious; firms are not investing, banks are not lending, and consumers are not spending. Partly to blame for the continued mess is a lack of coherent, focused, and directed government action.

Dodging World Bank Schizophrenia: The Looting of Africa Continues?

by Patrick Bond | Sep 10, 2010

The continent’s own elites, together with the West and now China, are still making Africans progressively poorer, thanks to the extraction of raw materials. Reinvestment is negligible and the prices, royalties and taxes paid are inadequate to compensate the wasting-away of Africa’s natural wealth. Anti-extraction campaigns by (un)civil society are the only hope for a reversal of these neocolonial relations.

The Political Consequences of Stagnation

by Walden Bello | Sep 1, 2010

My apologies to T. S. Eliot, but September, not April, is the cruelest month. Before 9/11/2001, there was 9/11/1973, when Gen. Pinochet toppled the Allende government in Chile and ushered in a 17-year reign of terror. More recently, on 9/15/2008, Lehman Brothers went bust and torpedoed the global economy, turning what had been a Wall Street crisis into a near-death experience for the global financial system.

Mining for El Salvador’s Gold — In Washington

by Manuel Perez-Rocha | Aug 11, 2010

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to travel to Cabañas, El Salvador, to meet with some of the bravest and most successful environmental activists in the world. Ordinary villagers in this remote area of the country have joined with religious groups, research centers, and others to take on the powerful international mining companies that are seeking to plunder their country’s gold. So far, the activists have been winning this David-vs.-Goliath fight. Two successive Salvadoran governments have denied permits for gold mining on environmental and human health grounds.

A Solution to Congolese Violence — or Empty Gesture?

by Michael Busch | Jul 30, 2010

As part of the sweeping financial reform bill signed into law this past week by President Barack Obama, a surprising legislative rider took effect seeking an end to the internal conflict plaguing Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The provision, which resulted largely from intensive lobbying efforts by the Enough Project to stop genocide, is designed to prevent destabilizing elements within the DRC from feeding off the country’s lucrative trade in precious metals. The DRC boasts rich deposits of tungsten, tantalum, and tin—metals commonly found in cell phones, laptops, video game consoles and other electronic devices—profits from which have long been seen to fuel the activities of non-state combatants there.

Iran-Turkey-Syria: An Alliance of Convenience

by Richard Javad Heydarian | Jul 19, 2010

The Israel-Palestine conflict has been at the heart of regional affairs since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. This is the context wherein the “de facto” Iran-Turkey-Syria axis should be understood, although substantive normalization of relations in the last decade between Turkey and its neighbors Iran and Syria served as a pre-requisite for the supposed alliance.

Greece: Same Tragedy, Different Scripts

by Walden Bello | Jul 14, 2010

Cafés are full in Athens, and droves of tourists still visit the Parthenon and go island-hopping in the fabled Aegean. But beneath the summery surface, there is confusion, anger, and despair as this country plunges into its worst economic crisis in decades.

The Scramble for East Africa

by Dana Wagner | Jul 2, 2010

The East African Community has accelerated negotiations with Europe for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). The race is on for negotiators and lobbyists to either let Europe in or keep it out. And so far, influential EPA advocates are in the lead, according to Yash Tandon, former head of the South Centre and critic of African EPAs with Europe. As corporate proponents advance the trade deal, negotiations threaten East African unity at a critical time in its still early development.

G20’s Central Role? As a Lightning Rod

by Walden Bello | Jun 27, 2010

Endorsement of minimal financial regulation and an informal agreement to disagree over the stimulus question are likely to be the vapid results of this latest summit of the world’s so-called powerhouse economies. But the structural fissures of global capital have become too great to be papered over by the G20 in Toronto.