Susan George passed away in Paris on February 14 at the age of 91. Born in the U.S. and naturalized as a French citizen, Susan was one of the most important figures in denouncing capitalism over the last 50 years. She stood out for her elegance and refined voice.
But above all, she was known for her dedication to just causes and her authority in explaining the structures of inequality. Throughout her career, she wrote 17 groundbreaking books that have been translated into several languages, such as The Debt Trap, The Lugano Report, A Fate Worse than Debt, and We the Peoples of Europe, to name a few.
All of her work is of utmost importance to Latin America. She criticizes the Bretton Woods System and the Washington Consensus. She was a central figure at every forum she attended, such as the World Social Forums and European Social forums. She is credited with coining the phrase “another world is possible” and published a book with that title, but adding the condition “if” as a call to action. The phrase has been associated with the Zapatista slogan “one world where many worlds fit,” and both are seen as a direct confrontation to Margaret Thatcher’s “there is no alternative.”
She was honorary president of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam and ATTAC France, and a key founder of both organizations. As TNI states in its obituary, “Susan always defended an objective, honest look at the magnitude of the progressive task. As formidable as it might look, Susan believed that the system has cracks, and ‘we just have to get out there with our pickaxes and work along the fault lines.’”
TNI quotes Susan:
“Either we achieve together a new level of human emancipation, and do so in a way that preserves the earth, or we shall leave behind us the worst future for our children that capitalism and nature can deal them. No one knows in which direction the balance will tip, nor does anyone know which actions, which writings, which alliances may achieve the critical mass that leads us one way or another, backwards or forwards. I am acutely conscious of the precariousness of our moment, and my much-loved grandchildren give me added resolve to address it.”
As the French chapter of ATTAC, the global organization against foreign debt and other injustices, remembered Susan as “an inspiring figure of anti-globalization and the weaver of a vast network. Politicized by her opposition to the Vietnam War and France’s welcome to American draft dodgers, her internationalist spirit never wavered. During those years of war and repression, she worked to bring an American think tank, the Institute for Policy Studies, to Europe, where it became the TNI, Transnational Institute, based in Amsterdam.”
John Cavanagh, who headed IPS in Washington for more than 20 years, says of Susan, “we have lost a true treasure of a colleague, ally, and leader.” He credits her book How the Other Half Dies for helping to “change the world’s view of poverty and development.” Susan “had a gift for translating complex realities into beautiful prose,” John said.
I was fortunate enough to meet Susan in Paris in 1998, in a humble café in a working-class neighborhood near the Gare de L’Est. I was on a tour of several European cities in search of partnerships for our work ahead of the negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement between Mexico and the European Union (MXEUFTA).
Our goal at the Mexican Action Network on Free Trade was to influence the outcome of the negotiations to achieve an agreement that was different from NAFTA — one based on human rights, in contrast to the liberalization of trade and the privileging of foreign investment.
I gave her a copy of our first report, “Citizens of Mexico before the European Union,” which was based on a forum with dozens of organizations and experts at the Convento del Carmen in Mexico City (I would also like to highlight the participation of the recently deceased Maestro John Saxe-Fernández). She seemed amazed, as she was at the center of the campaign against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), which sought to impose a global investment protection treaty — one designed and commanded by the OECD, the so-called club of rich countries, into which former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari had enrolled us.
The MAI largely failed due to France’s rejection — and Susan’s leadership in mobilizing thousands of workers and organizations. An investment chapter could not be included in the MXEUFTA because in 2000 the issue was still not within the EU’s competence but that of its member countries separately.
But since the 2007 Lisbon Treaty, the EU has gained this power — and now the governments of both Mexico and the EU are seeking to impose an investment chapter that includes, for example, the possibility of suing countries in supranational courts (through ISDS).
Susan warned in a publication by IPS, TNI, the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation, and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy that “when companies talk about ‘barriers’ to trade, we call those same measures ‘safeguards’ for people’s health, well-being, and the environment. Companies want absolutely no restrictions on access to natural resources, as several arbitration cases have made clear. All they have to do is set foot in a country and we have to say goodbye to the natural resources of poor countries, including basic necessities such as land, water, and forests.”
Susan George was never against the European integration project, but she was against its agreements with third countries that she said “are not about trade, but about power: they are not about tariffs, but about corporate control of regulations… they are negotiated in secret… and are almost impossible to reverse,” she warned. That is the truth about the “modernization” of the MXEUFTA that is about to be signed any day soon.
Susan George was a pillar in unraveling the obscure mechanisms of capitalist domination through so-called “free trade” and in the global struggle for justice and democracy.
This commentary was first published in Spanish by La Jornada.