valeria jephson writes:
>How can you maintain that no one forced the third world to adopt
>capitalism as their economic structure? What happened, for example, when
>peasants in Nicaragua banded together to protest their exploitation by a
>government that sold their land out from under them to North American
>investors?
Valeria goes on to list some actions taken by the U.S. government to enforce
capitalism on various countries, such as Nicaragua and Haiti. While not denying
these events, my point is that all around the world, with or without
colonialism or military intervention, countries are adopting capitalism and
rejecting state-run socialism. Ecofeminists should applaud this development,
because, with all its shortcomings, the best record of women's rights and
environmental protection are found in capitalist countries. Consider the Cairo
population conference. People are finally seeing that economic development and
the improvement of the status of women is necessary to reduce population growth
and to protect the environment. Is state run socialism going to provide the
economic growth to allow for the improvement of the position of women? Look at
India, a country that has more state control of industry than most. I don't
want to oversimplify, but I believe that the world's best hope is economic
development that we take for granted, but that the 3rd world needs desperately.
Socialism is not going to create it.
