This current phase of racist oppression and exploitation is the last throes of neo-colonialism. In the world as a whole it takes the form of what is called by the media academicians, journalists, economists, political scientists, pundits and others, globalization or globalism. What this means is the penetration and control of other areas of the world by the financial capital of the power capitalist formations that "own" what we know as the Western or North countries. What is globalization then?
"The IMF defines globalization as “the growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide through increasing volume and variety of cross-border transactions in goods and services, freer international capital flows, and more rapid and widespread diffusion of technology” (IMF, World Economic Outlook, May, 1997).
The negative effects of for-profit multinational corporations— the use of substantial and sophisticated legal and financial means to circumvent the bounds of local laws and standards, in order to leverage the labor and services of unequally-developed regions against each other. "
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization
In short the financial powers of the capitalist societies use their financial resources to take over the rest of the world.
Using their enormous financial power, effective control of the world's resources, ideological and mass communication, general scientific -- technical and military advantages, these Western or North countries dictate the policies in all spheres of the exploited country. A good example can be found in the policy reversal of the Government of present day Ghana on their agricultural tariffs policy under the pressure of the Bretton Woods institutions (the IMF-World Bank), a couple years ago. This reversal was not only unconstitutional, as it bypassed the parliament which promulgated the tariff and was the only body in Ghana that could rescind it; it was more importantly extremely detrimental to the people of Ghana. Of course it did suit the interest and the benefit of the super-rich groups which run, "own" the IMF, World Bank and similar formations.
At the same time that this form of neo-colonialism worsens the condition of the oppressed and exploited in the capitalist countries themselves. As the policies of the elements who are enriched by the robbery of the neo-colonies in Africa and elsewhere, they are able to use these criminal super profit windfalls to increase their state power, increase their technological capacity to displace workers, outsource jobs to less expensive labor market areas, and generally speaking increase the suffering of the mass of the people, especially our people and similarly impacted communities such as the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and so on.
So we find that the conditions that were bad before, as documented in the following quote, are deteriorating at a faster rate under this phase due to the increase technical and other advantages of the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few finance capitalists and their commercial and industrial allies; their tighter and comprehensive hold on the bulk of the world's natural resources, and their complete domination of so much of the globe's political, military and commercial leadership.
"The poor do not have any options, and few among them wish to remain poor; given a choice, most would prefer a higher living standard. The notion of poverty being ennobling is, not surprisingly, an observation made by those who are not poor. Most probably, the poor wish to consume the same array of products that is available to the other members of society. Given the means, they too would consume the electric can opener and the stereo components. Why not? Their tastes are formed by the same source as are those of the affluent, television, magazines, newspapers, and so on. The poor are made quite aware if the number and variety of goods available to others. Thus, unsatisfied wants, created by the affluent, mount up, and the discontent and frustration mount along with them. In the summer riots of the 1960s the stores looted first were appliance stores, where the modern gadgets are located …the things the poor were taught to want but to which they were denied access."
…
"…Again it is arrogant of the affluent economies to propose no growth policies for underdeveloped countries. People in these societies are living on the brink of subsistence now - why should they agree to close off the avenue of which their lot may be improved? The underdeveloped economies are not responsible for bringing the world to its present stage of environmental crisis – they have not consumed the bulk of the planet’s resources nor polluted its air and waters. Indeed, they have supplied the resources to advanced economies, which have squandered them. How can they be asked to sacrifice more – have they not been exploited enough?"
...
"The foregoing problems can ultimately be traced to the great inequalities of wealth and income that exist within societies and among economies..."
Macroeconomic Theory and Policy
Anthony S. Campagna
P 444
Dr. Nkrumah pointed out constantly proper ideological and organizational remedies will free us from this negative form of living. As one source put it:
“But if we step aside and reflect awhile upon the tortuous twists and turns in our history, a shadow of doubt might cross our minds. Perhaps the most imposing and effective mystification of all lies in the presupposition of harmony at the still point of the turning capitalist world. Perhaps there lies at the fulcrum of capitalist history not harmony but a social relation of domination of capital over labor. And if we pursue this possibility, we might come to understand why the planner seems doomed to a life of perpetual frustration, why the high-sounding ideals of planning theory are so frequently translated into grubby practices on the ground, how the shifts in world view and in ideological stance are social products rather than freely chosen. And we might even come to see that it is the commitment to an alien ideology which chains our thought and understanding in order to legitimate a social practice that preserves, in a deep sense, the domination of capital over labor. Should we reach that conclusion, then we would surely witness a markedly different reconstruction of the planner's world view than we are currently seeing. We might even begin to plan the reconstruction of society. Instead of merely planning the ideology of planning."
On Planning the Ideology of Planning, David Harvey p 231
Planning Theory in the 1980s – a search for future directions
The recognition of the need for a people centered, truly democratic philosophy and ideology, such as philosophical consciencism, the kernel of Nkrumaist, Nkrumahist, and Nkrumahist-Tureist thought and practice, will lead us to a Pan-African economy utilizing systems such as described below:
"Every organizational system of people and material resources with an economic goal is a specific economic structure, the mezzoeconomy, bounded by its specific goals from the macroeconomy (social economy) and from the microeconomy (economy of individuals) which are integrated in the mezzoeconomy or are outside it.
"The mezzoeconomy, by its functioning within its macroeconomic environment, influences the state of the macro- and microeconomics and causes changes in them, being subject itself to influences of the macro- and microeconomies which manifest themselves in changes of the state of the mezzoeconomy.
"The complex of states and changes of states in the macro-, mezzo-, and microeconomies and their mutual effects make up the global social economy.
"All these effects have their repercussions in the mezzoeconomic structure.
"The mezzoeconomic structure, as an organizational system, is made up of its subsystems: the human (the working collectivity of the enterprise), the material and the financial subsystems. In the first, three further subsystems are acting: the executive function, the function of management, and the function of administration. In the second, the following ones are differentiated: the technical-technological subsystem (working resources, equipment, and technological proceedings), the subsystem of material supplies (raw materials, parts, commodities in stock). The third consists of: the allocated financial resources, expenses and income.
"All these subsystems, by their functioning in the mezzoeconomic structure, make it possible for the mezzoeconomy, as an organizational system, to perform its function in the process of social reproduction, thereby providing for the macro- and microeconomic interests and simultaneously realizing its own mezzoeconomic interests. Each disturbance in the functioning of any subsystem gives as a consequence a certain degree of disorganization in the mezzoeconomic system, entropy of that system and reduction of the economic quality of the results of functioning of the mezzoeconomy in the process of social reproduction, that is reduction of the economic quality of the exit from the system. Such a result of functioning of the mezzoeconomy affects the macro- and microeconomic interests, this being reversibly reflected both in the mezzoeconomy and its structure."
from “Feedback mechanism between mezzoeconomic structure and micro- and macroeconomic interests”, Prof. Z. Kostic, p 242-3, Progress in Cybernetics and Systems Research, Vol. II
...
"The feedback mechanism between macro-, mezzo, and microeconomic interests does not include the automatism of that mechanism. Constant decisions are required from the administrative subsystem in the mezzoeconomy, through which decisions, in the sense of business policy and respective organizational measures, the economic processes are guided in the direction of the goals laid down. The goals are defined in such a way that in the field of identical macro-, mezzo, and microeconomic interests the realization of corresponding economic maxims is aimed at, whilst in the field of conflicting interests the tendency is to find out corresponding economic optima.
"The definition of these economic sizes and their insertion as criteria of economic efficiency of the functioning, that is the economic quality of the exit from the system, requires constant analytic follow-up and regulative acting by the administrative subsystems which with its decisions has to influence the processes in order to put their economic effects back into the boundaries set, in case they surpass the boundaries of tolerance.
"Nevertheless, these administrative decisions are complicated by the fact that the factors of dynamics and the factors of the entropy of the mezzoeconomic system are not to be found only in the sphere of economic processes.
"The mezzoeconomic structure in contemporary society is no longer only a subsystem of the macroeconomy, but also a subsystem of the total social structure.
"On the other hand, the working collectivity of the contemporary enterprise no longer represents only integrated microeconomies, but also associated human personalities whose behavior is not determined by their economic interests only. Although any behavior has its economic effects, the economic effects and economic goals are not sufficient to explain the social character of individual acts.
"Individual reactions cannot be separated from their social surroundings, from the social structure and its institutions, and the social structures are subject to the dialectical dynamics of society wherein, with the transition from one system to another, the laws of the economy of the enterprise also change.
"The role which the mezzoeconomy as an organizational system receives in society is becoming more and more important, because the mezzoeconomic structure is growing to become a society in miniature, is becoming a subsystem of the aggregate social structure, which fact commits the administrative subsystem in it to much more complex and responsible decisions, which will also include the extra-economic factors of the development of the mezzoeconomy and the more so regulate the mutual reversible relations of macro-, mezzo, and microeconomic interests."
same, P 249
This system approach is the only true route to real democracy as democracy that does not factor in the need for the improvement in the quality of life of the people generally is a limited and unjust democracy. It is the kind of democracy practiced in the Western / North societies.
As always I thank you for your patience. I remain your servant, comrade and brother,
Roy
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