ripening contradictions?

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Today's Financial Times has a think piece by reporters Bruce Clark and
Nancy Dunne reflecting on the failure of fast track. As they say, this
setback to the free traders' agenda "coincides with the appearance of three
other dark clouds...on the global horizon": the collapse of Asian
currencies and stock markets, international reluctance ot go along with
Washington's policy of "dual containment" of Iran and Iraq, and the
inevitably acrimonious Kyoto global warming conference.

The authors don't draw this conclusion, but those three clouds, plus the
fourth, the fast-trace defeat, look like the ripening contradictions of the
hypercapitalism of the last 20 years. If the Asian "miracle" is over, then
the export model is in need of a serious rethink; if the U.S. can't get its
allies to sign onto a bombing run over Baghdad or the continued isolation
of Iran, then the New World Order of 1991 seems a lot more disorderly; and
if some approach to greenhouse gas reduction can't be crafted, then life
itself is in danger. That, plus a growing political backlash against free
trade and capital mobility, all suggest some major political quake is
underway. Don't know what it all means yet, but something's happening.

Doug

--

Doug Henwood
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