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Globalization needs regulation, say Socialists

by Marcela Valente


Buenos Aires, Jun 24 -- The Socialist International (SI) says that the world financial crisis, unemployment, poverty and inequality are symptoms of the failed capitalist model, and require the regulation of economic globalisation.

The SI World Council will review proposals this weekend in Buenos Aires for regulating globalisation, which include the restructuring of multilateral organisations and preparation of an alternative for the next millennium.

For the socialists, unionists and social-democrats of the SI, the neoliberal model - the foundation of economic globalisation - is "uncontrolled" capitalism, which is losing support among voters around the world as they tend more and more to favour policies that address social needs.

This form of capitalism has had a negative impact on society, according to the SI, and shows signs of serious deterioration arising from the financial crisis begun in 1997, with recessive consequences for all nations - including the seemingly-immune industrialised countries.

This situation has provided a bountiful harvest for the SI. This hundred-year-old organisation has seen its membership double in the last decade.

Many SI parties have been elected to governments in Europe, and the trend continues in Africa, Asia and Latin America where centre-left forces are beginning to compete with governments that have implemented neoliberal reforms over recent years.

The choice of Argentina as the meeting's host did not escape the notice of political analysts, who point to its coincidence with upcoming elections here and in the neighbouring countries of Chile and Uruguay, where SI member candidates stand a good chance of winning.

Led by the former French prime minister Pierre Mauroy, representatives of nearly 140 parties from five continents, convinced of the failures of both communism and liberalism, propose a "third way - not exploitative capitalism or oppressive communism."

Mauroy stated that the model, with variations, is already working in the European Union, where 13 of the 15 member countries have social-democratic governments. "The continent's dominant model reconciles economic progress with social justice, democracy with development," he said.

Walter Veltrani, an Italian leftist leader on the SI World Council, maintained that the current international situation "reaffirms" socialism-inspired arguments and ideas, giving them new life to face the challenges of globalisation.

The SI parties want politics take priority over economics, allowing governments to recuperate their power to regulate the globalisation process.

Increasing unemployment, the widening disparity between rich and poor - both among nations, and within them - and unmitigated environmental deterioration, says the Socialist International, are the negative consequences of a globalisation process that lacks counter-balances.

On the international scale, the socialists say that trans- national corporations have acquired power greater than that of the governments, and that their speculative interests set the pace of capital transactions, as well as trade and production.

The SI believes it is imperative to create a balance between rich and poor countries by increasing development assistance. The conference proposes a "new system of collective responsibility" that would neutralise financial chaos, unequal development, unemployment and social exclusion.

The socialists have two ways of viewing globalisation. One is that globalisation is "ultra-liberal" - with no concern for environmental or social costs, and the other is "the responsible way."

Responsible globalisation is a process where progress is politically regulated through new international financial institutions, replacing those created by Bretton Woods, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The "responsible" process would include the revision of World Trade Organisation regulations, bending them toward a more equal trading system.

The socialists support the creation of an Economic Security Council within the United Nations, an issue that will be debated in Buenos Aires before being proposed at the Socialist International's Twentieth Congress this November in Paris.

The Economic Security Council would be an expanded version of the Group of 7, with permanent and associate members who would co- ordinate international economic policy and deal with global issues such as monetary stability, the flow of capital, unemployment and economic recovery.

The SI believes the time has come to debate welfare state reform to replace the current model of a completely retracted government that allows economic interests to dominate over politics. (IPS)

The above article by the Inter Press Service appeared in the South-North Development Monitor (SUNS).

 


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