Globalisation

This paper looks at the nature and extent of privatisation around the world, including an analysis of the bodies or interests which promote this `panacea' policy. It identifies a number of responses which public sector trade unions have made to such policies, especially where these have been ideologically driven. It offers some examples of ways in which trade unions have developed their own models/proposals for modernisation of public services and shows how these have been both challenges and benefits to unions and service recipients.

Full-text sample article FREE from Taylor & Francis. Recent initiatives from the OECD, the World Bank, and others on the subject of corruption have received widespread attention. However, the author argues that the incidence of corruption is closely connected with contracting-out, concessions, and privatisation, where multinationals based in OECD countries stand to gain profitable business.

This international NGO conference was held in Birmingham, England, in January 1999, to explore `the opportunities for civic action that global trends are creating for NGOs.' Discussions around NGOs and aid, capacity building, civil society, social capital, complex political emergencies, community development, advocacy, gender and microfinance took place, and the author highlights the most interesting points from each of these sessions.

In this personal Viewpoint, the author argues that globalisation has led to increased inequity in health and healthcare provision, just as it aggravates social inequity in general. He highlights the growing sacrifice of equity to efficiency, and the complicity of `elite' countries and companies in the deterioration of social conditions. Medical knowledge is being traded as a for-profit commodity, and the benefits of globalisation and liberalisation are bypassing poorer countries because of the concern for profit.

The author describes incentives used by governments to attract foreign investment and create export processing zones (EPZs), also known as special economic or free trade zones. The low cost of labour, mostly provided by women, is one of these incentives. Making special reference to Jamaica, Belize, and Barbados, the author discusses the impact of EPZs on the Caribbean, and the challenges facing small countries in the face of monopoly agreements.

The authors explore the deleterious effects of economic globalisation on people in the USA, and explain the rise of poor people's organisations as a response to these conditions. They look at the impact of economic changes in terms of public policy and argue that the global economy is preventing a growing number of people from being able to meet their basic needs, by limiting or eliminating living-wage jobs as well as welfare programmes. However, poor people in the USA are organising to end poverty, and the Kensington Welfare Rights Union is given as a case study.

The authors report on this workshop, held at the Flood Hazard Research Centre at Middlesex University, which brought together participants experienced in each of these three fields to share their knowledge and enrich each other's understanding. There was debate on the social factors which make communities vulnerable to hazards, including consideration of human rights, environmental sustainability, and the extent of our definition of vulnerability, as well as how `globalisation' can either enhance or threaten the ability of groups to cope with hazards.

The author reports on this conference arranged by the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, England, in April 1998, ostensibly to agree on ways forward for socially responsible enterprise and corporate accountability. Participants were overwhelmingly business leaders and academics, and the author found challenging views were not particularly in evidence; it became clear that the issues under discussion were too complex for a consensus to be reached at this time, and by these representatives.

The authors begin to outline the epic now unfolding at the grassroots, arguing that pioneering social movements are groping for their liberation from the `Global Project' being imposed upon them. Going beyond the premises and promises of modernity, people at the grassroots are re-inventing or creating a fresh new intellectual and institutional frameworks. As is clear from the recent rebellion in southern Mexico, ordinary men and women are learning from each other how to challenge the very nature and foundations of modern power, both its intellectual underpinnings and its apparatus.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has promoted the so-called `Tobin Tax' as a major mechanism for generating a substantial increase in global resources for tackling human-development priorities. Such a levy, on largely speculative and unproductive international transactions, may be capable of generating over US$300 billion per year: several times higher than existing levels of bilateral aid.