Globalization and Militarization
by Chris Ford
So called “free trade” agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and economic “liberalization” policies set forth by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have a devastating effect on working families throughout the world, so much so that military force is often required to implement these harmful policies.
For example, since NAFTA took effect in 1994, the number of people living in poverty in Mexico has risen from just over half of the population to almost two-thirds of the total population.[i] The real value of the average manufacturing wage has dropped by 21%[ii], while the average wage drop for all workers was 34%. At the same time, the cost of the official "market basket" of food, housing, and essential services has risen by 247%. Many products, including milk, chicken, bread, and even beans, are more expensive on the Mexican side of the border than on the U.S. side.[iii]
Millions of Mexican farmers and their families have also been forced off their land because of the opening up of Mexican markets to cheap, subsidized U.S. corn imports. Estimates as to the number of people that will ultimately be displaced from these imports run as high as 15 million people, or 1 in 6 Mexicans. During this same time period the price of corn tortillas (which represents half of the calorie intake for many poor families), has risen by 50 %.[iv]
Military force is almost always brought in to quell opposition to these “free trade” policies and agreements; as was the case of the Zapatista uprising in Mexico and the protests against the IMF “structural adjustment” policies in Ecuador in 2001.[v] It has been said that globalization cannot exist without militarization. Thomas Freidman of the New York Times has noted that “the hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist; McDonald’s cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas…”.[vi]
The United States and its allies have long used militarization to enforce their economic policies throughout the world - either through direct military intervention or by providing client regimes with the capitol and military hardware needed to crush local opposition. Numerous examples of this can be found throughout Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. While ostensibly promoting economic modernization and development, the U.S. and its allies are in reality crushing human rights, labor movements, national sovereignty and sustainable development in order to extract resources and commodify people into cheap sources of labor.[vii]
We are now seeing these tactics being used here in the United States, most noticeably along the U.S.-Mexico border. Using ground troops, helicopters, infra red cameras, sensing devices, and other military hardware, the US government has turned the border into a militarized zone where fear and tension run rampant. Free trade supporters say the purpose of these agreements is to open up borders to allow the free flow of goods and capitol. The same cannot be said for workers, although numerous studies have shown that the U.S. economy would be in a state of disarray if it were not for immigrant workers.[viii] Many people see the militarization of the border as a way to keep workers in their countries of origin, where they can continue to be exploited as cheap sources of labor.
With the prospect of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and other “free trade” agreements looming on the horizon, we need to reconsider neoliberal “free trade” economic polices, and examine the reasons why we must use military might to force them upon others. We also need to reconsider the racist closed-border policies that force people to risk their lives to come to the U.S. to take jobs we are in desperate need for them to fill, but which deny them protections from exploitation and abuse.
©2003 Chris Ford. Reproduction must be authorised in writing by author only. Altering, redistributing, or selling this material is strictly prohibited.
References:
[i] World Bank, May 21, 2001.
[ii] NAFTA at Seven, Economic Policy Institute, April 2001.
[iii] Six Years of NAFTA: A View from Inside the Maquiladoras, American Friends Service Committee & Comité Fronterizo de Obreras, 2000.
[iv] “Down on the Farm: NAFTA’s Seven Year War on Ranchers and Farmers in the US, Canada and Mexico,” Public Citizen Global Trade Watch, June 2001 (pgs 23-26).
[v] “Four Dead in Ecuador Protest,” BBC News February 6, 2001.
[vi] Freedoms That Are Abolished: Green Paper #3, Action for Community and Ecology in the Regions of Central America (ACERCA).
[vii] Reifer, Dr. Thomas Ehrlich “Beyond Injustice & Violence: State-Corporate Globalization, September 11th & the Challenges Facing the Global Justice & Peace Movements,” February, 2002.
[viii] The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy Press, 1997.
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