The division of the world between the rich oppressor nations and the poor oppressed nations is the fundamental economic, social and political fact of our age.
Unlike in almost all other natural phenomena, and most social phenomena, there is no normal distribution of income in the world. A graph showing the distribution of average income by country, such as implied by UN reports on Human Development, has absolutely no middle ground. There is a small group of nations with average incomes of over $US 15,000 per annum, and then the vast majority with average annual incomes of less than $7,000. And the vast majority of humanity, some 80-85% survive on incomes of much less.
Poverty kills. The average difference in life expectancy between the `First World` and the \\\'Third World\\\' is nearly 20 years, that is one generation. In every conceivable sense people born in the \\\'Third World\\\' are treated as sub-humans by the world system. That is by imperialism, which has been reproducing the system of structural inequality for the last 100 years or so. Any movement such as that of the refugees which asserts the humanity of the oppressed carries within it a challenge to the very core of the system.
We are holding this conference in the former German Democratic Republic. It is my belief that the collapse of the Berlin wall, and the collapse of the social structure in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union marked the beginning a new historical phase within imperialism. That is to say the fundamentals of the system have not been overthrown, yet there have been qualitative as well as quantitative changes in the modes of exploitation which have been captured by the fashionable term globalisation. So, from this point of view, we are now living in the phase of globalised imperialism, or as friends in the Philippines put it, imperialist globalisation.
II The Main Characteristics of Globalised Imperialism
What are the main characterisics of our phase in history? The following characteristics are closely connected:
The first and most obvious consequence has been the \\\'third worldisation\\\' of the ex-USSR bloc; countries where the average mode and standard of living was different to both the rich oppressor countries and the poor oppresssed nations are now surely being pushed down into the Third World camp. There is no \\\'Second World\\\' any more.
There are qualitative changes within the technical mode of production which have given capitalism an apparent vitality, especially in the areas of communications, computers and biology which also require structural changes within the working class both as producers and consumers of the new commodities.
Imposition of neo-liberal economics in the interests of the multinationals. Neo-liberalism is the poltical economy of imperialism today. The drive to privatise resources, deregulate and diminish the role of the state is underpinned by the IMF, World Bank and WTO organisations. The most pivotal of these economic policies is the continual pressure on Third World couurrencies to depreciate their value.
The elevation of the power of money capital as a seemingly independent force. First, despite the claims of the G7 at Köln, the foreign debt is every year worse. Between 1987 and 1997 the indebted nations paid $2,200 billion in repayments, and yet their debt grew by $900 billion and now stands at $2,500 billion, most of this now to private banks. Secondly, money capital is moved in and out of Third World currencies and economies adding a degree of valtility in the system never before known. The potential for a local crisis becoming a global financial crisis has never been more immanent than it is today.
The pre-eminence of the USA. Not only are the world\\\'s capital markets dependent on the health of the New York stock exchange, but the world\\\'s peoples know that they live under the threat of US military intervention. From the two Gulf wars that continue today the US uses its military might to secure economic advantage over the other imperialist powers. Ten years ago there was speculation amongst commentators at what point would Japan\\\'s or Germany\\\'s challenge lead to confrontation with the USA. At the turn of the millenium there is no doubt who is the world\\\'s one super-power. The inter-imperialist rivalries have not gone away, it is more that for the time being it is US interests that dominate, as seen for example in the resolution of the East Asian crisis. (1)
The next point, and for refugees and the majority of the world\\\'s population the most important, has been the ever greater economic genocide that has been conducted by imperialism on the peoples of the world. In Indonesia the standard of living fell by 30% in just one year. This pattern is reflected across Asia, Africa and Latin America. The peoples of Latin America\\\'s nort-western corner - Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela - all suffered declines in average income of 6-7% in 1999, they were preceded by the \\\'Fujishock\\\' in Peru at the beginning of the 1990s and similar massive impoverishment in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. We heard almost exactly the same process in the Ivory Coast and the diamond producing countries of Africa. The truth is that hardly any Third Wolrd country has been able to withstand the devastation, the exceptions are very specific.
How then do we summarise these different characteristics? In my opinion it is no longer accurate to speak of neo-colonies as being the normal condition. The USA and the other imperial powers are once again intentionally trying to submit Third World countries to semi-colonial status, where they control a national elite that they have trained and corrupted, and where they intervene politically and militarily to counter any popular movement.
III Political Consequences
I have looked at where we are in the historical stages of capitalism and what are the main characteristics of the current phase. Finally, I want to add three points concerning the political consequences.
The movement of the opressed and working peoples that was profoundly set back and demotivated by the capitulation of the Soviet Union is already recovering. The heart beat of this recovery lies in the Thgird World and is only now beginning to be picked up in the North.
The inter-imperialist rivalries that have for some time been covered over will once again break out in an ever more open fashion. Disputes within the EU will especially reflect these rivalries.
Refugees are the advance guard of the rejuvenation of a movement here inside the rich world. It is therfore absolutely vital that a universal, European wide refugee movement comes into being based on its strongest point, the Caravan here in Germany.
I would even say that refugees have a triple and not only double role, if we are thinking strategically and in the medium term and long term. I believe that through the Caravan movement you refugees will not only struggle against your own social exclusion and deportations; that you will represent the needs of your brothers and sisters in your home countries; I furthermore believe that your movement is a vital, necessary and entirely welcome catalyst for re-creating the socialist, internationalist and anti-imperialist movement inside Britain, Germany and the other imperialist countries.
Down with Economic Genocide!
Down with Imperialism!
Long Live the Caravan!
Long Live International Solidarity!
Andy Higginbottom
Jena, Germany
22 April 2000
(1) I think that it is very clearly US and British concern to maintain their control of Middle Eastern oil that explains their continued blockade of Iraq. In the case of Yugolslavia the timing and manner of the UN intervention was clearly linked to the interplay of rivalries between the US, Britain, France and Germany.
