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Dramatic changes to capitalism on the cards?
Can capitalism, as we know it, with its modern offshoots like globalisation, unbridled free trade and the dictum of unlimited linear economic growth with its iconic institutions like the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and IMF survive the twin onslaught of the present deep crisis “financial capitalism” finds itself in and the challenges posed by climate change?
The captains of trade and industry would do well to take note that not only is the theoretical under built of an alternative structure to the present global economic regime almost completely in place, but that some elements of that theory are already becoming practical reality.
Likewise, investors and those advising them, would do well to take note of which corporations and businesses are responding best to the developing new order. This includes the response of adapting green technology and environmentally-friendly business practices.
On the front of international institutional structures, we saw in late September this year the replacement of the Group of 8 by the more “democratic” Group of 20 as the main custodian of the global economy. See earlier article "New Economic Order"
It is interesting in this regard to look back at a landmark presentation in March 2002 by Randy Hayes of the Rainforest Action Network in which he said: “The G8 countries – in particular the United States – are the engines of economic and cultural globalisation. As citizens of the world, it is our responsibility to get this foot of the throat of the rest of the planet.”
In his presentation to the 2002 Johns Hopkins Symposium on Foreign Affairs series, under the title “Paragon or paradox? Capitalism in the contemporary world ("http://www.undueinfluence.com/restructuring.htm") he makes out a case on what is regarded as the ills of the present unsustainable international economic and trade dispensation. He also spells out a set of “economic principles and timelines for a better world via economic localisation.”
He adds that it is hoped “that via these principles we can rebuild more diverse, community-based, equitable, democratic, and ecologically-sustainable economies”.
Other signs that the present dispensation is due for some serious restructuring, is the increasing talk – and even behind the scenes practical moves – to replace the American dollar as the international reserve currency over time.
Signs of the growing resistance against the powerful position that huge international corporations have attained via the process of globalisation, is not only found in Hayes' presentation. Recent weeks has seen the development of a strong lobby against international seed suppliers, who they claim use loopholes in intellectual property regimes to establish monopoly patents on genes, that they will market as “climate ready” crops. African Centre of Biosafety
Lobby groups for a new dispensation to replace the unchecked drive for globalisation is also increasingly shaking off the image of mere demonstrating fringe groups and moving onto centre stage with fully formulated and researched alternatives. These include a comprehensively formulated restructuring plan by the International Forum on Globalization.(www.ifg.org)
