Australians protest against US exploitation of Latin America

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday November 11, 2002 04:04 by ANNCOL

US policies towards Latin America have caused an increase in hunger, unemployment, illness and infant mortality, Australian solidarity organisations say.

10.11.2002 (Por Luis Ernesto, ANNCOL Sydney) After concluding a seminar on the economic, political and social situation in Latin America held recently in Sidney, Australia, a network of solidarity groups decided to increase their efforts to support the struggles of popular movements throughout Latin America

In a document handed over to ANNCOL’s correspondent, the groups explained:

For most of the twentieth century the United States has seen Latin America as its back yard. It has been the region where it has attempted to dominate politically, economically, socially and culturally. Its domination has been through direct military intervention and through the active support of client military and or civilian governments.

The decades of the 60s & 70s, inspired by the Cuban Revolution and the Vietnam war, sparked clearly anti-imperialist struggles which the US responded by supporting and actively encouraging bloody military coups throughout the region The 1980's and 1990's saw military and semi military regimes directly sponsored by the United States which promoted a policy of super-exploitation based on the prosecution, jail or direct assassination of thousands of political militants and trade union activists.

The politics of ''Neo-Liberalism''

Over the last 20 years international financial institutions such as the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to name a few have put on the screws pushing for policies commonly known as “neo-liberalism”. Though neo-liberalism has taken specific characteristics that are different from the early 1900's, its role in keeping Latin America as a client continent to the interests of the United States and the various international financial institutions is the same as before.

Neo-Liberalism was and still is being enthusiastically pushed by the WTO and the United States. In essence it pushes for further deregulation of the domestic market so as to allow for further foreign investment and also the opening up of international trade. However due to the unequal terms of trade the already exists between Latin America and the more powerful and rich nations it simply means a further erosion of services and living standards for the majority of the people of the continent.

These policies have been enforced through US imperialism and through the promotion of military regimes. It has resulted in basic human rights being ignored such as availability to proper health care, education, right to work, and it has caused further destruction of the environment, increase in hunger, unemployment, illness, infant mortality, and illiteracy.

The politics of “neo-liberalism” has caused increased political, economic and social instability. Increasingly throughout Latin America governments have been forced to stand a side due to their inability to tackle basic social justice. This instability is caused because the masses can't take any more and are understanding that the only way out is the resistance to imperialist policies and pressing the dominant classes to became the meat in the sandwich, leaving less crumbs from the cake, for them to enrich themselves.

How is the left responding to the crisis?

After decades of military and semi-military regimes controlling Latin America the people have been able to begin to fight back against the injustices created by the neo-liberal policies. Throughout the region the working class has been on the move. There have been increased protests against the policies that governments have in the past been able to get away with.
Over the last few years in particularly there has been mass protests against further privatisations of essential services and the amount of corruption that has been rife throughout big business and many elected government officials.

* In El Salvador a nation of only just over 3 million people has witnessed over 200,000 people taking to the streets in protest over
privatisations.

* In Bolivia a peasant leader almost won the presidency.

* In Ecuador an ex-military personal who has been compared to another Chavez is poised to win the Presidential elections in late November.

* In Colombia the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) together with other social forces have continued to resist the right wing government of Uribe and the para-military death squads.

* Argentina:
In Argentina four presidents where removed in a month in December 2001 due to mass protests. The only achievement of the current President Duhalde has been that he has managed to survive so long. None of the fundamental problems that Argentina faced at the end of last year have been resolved. There is still wide spread economic and social problems resulting in over 50% of population facing poverty.

The working class in Argentina has responded through the organization of popular assemblies that have played the role of organising the local economy where it has all but collapsed. There is still mass pressure on the politicians to resign encapsulated in the slogan that has become so popular, `Que se vayan todos' (They should all go). This very much reflects the total lack of confidence that the mass of people in Argentina have in the current system.

*Venezuela:
The election of Chavez in 1998 sparked outrage by the Venezuelan oil elite and the United States. Since his coming to power Chavez has managed to enrage international financial institutions by refusing to implement the neo-liberal agenda.

Chavez's "Bolivarian Revolution" had been most focused on elaborating the new 1999 constitution after his overwhelming victory in the 1998 presidential election. The 49 laws were the first serious step towards actually implementing the values and principles enshrined in the constitution of the Fifth Republic. This defines Venezuela as a "Democratic Social State of Law and Justice" - against the free market, against an economic oligarchy that lives and thinks like its US cousins and against the country's corrupt past.

Not that the laws are in any way socialist. For example, the land law simply brings to Venezuela measures that were adopted in some advanced capitalist countries two centuries ago: the right of the state to redistribute idle and poorly worked land. As more objective ruling-class commentators point out, it is a much less radical project than the land reforms of the Mexican, Russian and Chinese revolutions.

The hysteria of the oligarchy (the "squalid ones" in Chavez-speak) derives from the fact that the law explicitly subordinates the principle of private property to that of the common good. Since his election Chavez has managed to survive a coup that was directly sponsored by the United States and various other attempts by the ruling economic elite to oust him

*Brazil:
Elected in a landslide victory with over 61% of the vote, Luis Inacio da Silva will become president on January 1 of Latin America's largest country with 175 million inhabitants. Lula, as he is commonly known, received three million more votes for president than George Bush junior did in the United States in 2000.

Brazil has a public debt of US$240 billion, the largest in Latin America. In the run up to the election on October 27, foreign capital began to flee Brazil, leading to a depreciation of the country's currency, the real, by over 40%.

Much of Lula's campaign questioned the free trade policies launched under the "Washington Consensus" during Ronald Reagan's administration in the 1980s. The consensus has meant not only the opening of Latin American markets to US trade, but also the privatisation of state enterprises and the slashing of social spending in health and education.

*Cuba:
The Cuban revolution since its victory in 1959 has played an important if not critical role in standing up to the United States and the international financial institutions.

Even the head of the World Bank Mike Moore has had to concede and acknowledge the ability of Cuba to provide essential social services to its people, and that is without the help of the Bank and at the same time as suffering the effects of a 40 year blockade that has cost the economy an estimated USD $70 billion.

The main example that Cuba shows is what can been done through a planned economy that puts the interests of people before the profits of big business and the interests of international financial institutions and bodies such as the World Trade Organisation.

Solidarity in Australia, what can we do?

The people of Latin America are fighting back against the policies being pushed by the World Bank the United States, international financial institutions and the political and economic elites.

We can play a very important role in showing our solidarity with these struggles. By protesting against these policies and the further exploitation of the people of the region we can place pressure on these organizations and governments to change.

Endorsed by:
Committees in Solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean (CISLAC), Colombian Solidarity Committee, Australia-Cuba Friendship Society, Amigos de Cuba, Latin American Action Group, Chilean Indigenous and Popular Network, Adepu Chile, Uruguayos Unido,
Madres de la Plaza de Mayo