Human rights: Food for thought in the search for a way out ‘HR in the era of Globalization’
HRR 770
[TLDR (too long didn’t read): If you are reading this, chances are you care about HR. This Reader is about the economists, the Bretton Woods boys and other culprits behind globalization, imperialism and free trade agreements, among other sins. For a quick overview, just read the bolded text]. Traducir/traduire los/les Readers; usar/utiliser deepl.com
—Well, you know the Golden Rule: “He who has the gold makes the rules”.
Well, you also know economists have traditionally shied away from delving into moral questions preferring to stick to empirical, data-driven analyses
1. In that sense, economists are guilty of an economic domination that manifests itself when economists fail to apply their tools and methodologies to areas traditionally explored by other key social concerns, such as morality and HR.*
*: An economist is someone who sees something in practice and asks if it is possible in theory.
As economic environments change, should moral values shift?
–The rise of globalized markets, for instance, showed an important shift. But, ultimately, the issue is a question of ethics (never of dogma) –so much so that the bottom moral questions remain unanswered (or unasked). (Raff Carmen)
2. Economists justify their economic theories by using large-scale empirical work This does not ‘validate’ them; it does not justify the ‘ethical shifts’ these theories purport. Therefore,
- Should market theories really play a critical role in shaping moral values?**
- Should it not be that values shape political and economic outcomes?
- Should not issues like taxation, wealth redistribution, immigration, climate change, globalization and foreign aid be guided by morality?
Food for thought here. (In response to Benjamin Enke’ article in Finance and Development, the IMF publication, March 2025)
**: Just a reminder: We are not naturally moral; it is society that instills such values in us.
3. The (multi)stakeholder economy*** that our-best-mind-economists are selling to us today is governed by a mix of private sector, governments, international organizations and non-state actors; it is rooted, in the World Economic Forum vision that claims that all benefits will accrue to the public good. But just how this will come about is left to the imagination. Even the WEF’s founder admits that, in this economy, there is likely to be a problem of employment since the kinds of innovation envisaged –digitalization, robotization, ‘fake’ food– are programmed to reduce dependence on human labor. (Nora McKeon)
***: As per the WEF, “harnessing the innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution encompasses three key aspects, namely green growth, smarter growth, and fairer growth”. (hmm…?) [Critics of green growth rightly highlight how green growth approaches do not fully account for the underlying economic systems change needed in order to address the climate crisis, biodiversity crisis and environmental degradation].
4. Well, you further (ought to) know Globalization is a non-territorial form of Imperialism
—It took Britain the exploitation of half the globe to be what it is today; how many globes would India need? (Mahatma Gandhi)
- Globalization (i.e.,neoliberal global restructuring) is imposed by legally binding obligations and compliance with rules favoring Capital.
- It is enforced by trade sanctions and denial of access to finances. (Kari Polanyi)
- It lessens the political autonomy and fiscal capacity of countries in the South to finance comprehensive social policies.
5. The path to prosperity for countries in the South does, therefore, NOT lie in their greater integration into the global economy. Why? Because it is the ever-growing demand of the wealthy for more and more resources that depletes our environment and pushes those rendered poor to ever greater social desperation.**** If we maintain the current allocation of those resources, we are depriving underconsumers of the hope for social and economic justice. The time has come for a debate that examines these fundamental assumptions! (David Korten)
****: There is a pernicious implication of the, for long, emphasized practice of ‘targeting’: it suggests that the social exclusion inherent in the neoliberal growth model should simply be attenuated, not rejected. But amelioration of exclusion is not inclusion! (Jomo Sundaram)
6. In 2014, billionaire Peter Thiel declared that competition***** is for losers. By this, he implied that Imperialism was a condition for Capitalism’s emergence and rapid early development and ensured continued imperial dominance that sustained capitalist accumulation for over 150 years. So, stay the course… Due to Capitalism’s uneven development worldwide, the Third International (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_International) maintained that the struggle against Imperialism was the priorityt for the Global South or Third World of ‘emerging nations’. Fast forward, Imperialism has actually reshaped colonial and now national economies, but has also now united the Global South, even if only in opposition to Imperialism. (J. Sundaram)
*****: Actually, competition has Darwinian consequences for the least well endowed. In a well run market, weak competitors will fail. In the competitive market place, fairness tends to evaporate. Market policies thus validate the marginalization of the poorest. (R. Archer)
7. The lack of a clear and resolute anti-imperialist conduct of the current socialist leadership in the last decades –added to the lack of education and orientation of militants– has led to the fact that, at present, many old and new militants lack an anti-imperialist stance, i.e., the knowledge of its essence, of its characteristics and of its features. This has meant that the behavior and the conduct that have arisen have been, at best, confusing. So many socialists do not see, do not understand or do not realize that the actions carried out by the propaganda paid-for by the news agencies have only one objective: to denigrate governments in order to delegitimize them.
8. Our anti-imperialism is not the result of emotions. Our anti-Americanism, for instance, is based on reasons, on historical facts, on the truth, on the actions reiterated by the U.S. throughout our existence. Socialists cannot forget American imperialism. Today, under new historical conditions, the intrinsic character of US Imperialism is redoubled and reaffirmed: Today, the empire strikes back and does not allow multilateralism and secures strategic points that allow it almost absolute control of natural resources and markets.
9. Let no one be naïf, let no one claim to be unaware of what is coming if urgent, decisive, militant actions are not taken. Essentially this means we must lead this struggle as a historical responsibility, to our principles, to the legacy we have of earlier militants who gave everything, even their lives, for the defense of justice We are facing a historical dilemma: Will we be pariahs, slaves of North American transnational capital? (Cesar Cerda A.)
Well, you may know free trade agreements represent a corporate bill of rights (Maude Barlow)
—Free traders have effectively freed themselves of all community obligations (“you shall not eat if you do not have money”). The results have been rather disastrous. (D. Korten)
10. Capitalism identifies countries not as nations but as markets. (Prem John) So, if the free market and free trade are to be the motors for development and improved welfare –and not just a meeting place for robber barons, the mafia and speculators– one must have a regulating and supportive state. (Carl Tham) I note here: The laws of the wild market legitimize a new international code of practice that basically subordinates human rights to the market philosophy. (Save the Children)
11. Unfortunately, while we often see regimes with a strong commitment to social justice and community accountability, often the principles of competitive markets, private ownership and immersion into international trade are also upheld as essential by these ‘progressive’ regimes –ergo, Capitalism creeps-in in disguise. A strategy is needed for containing the current trend of such Capitalism. (D. Korten)
Well, you know (this you know for sure) the Bretton Woods institutions spread and apply the principles of free, unfettered market economics with proselitizing zeal (R. E. Ramsaran)
–It will take no less zeal to counter them.
–Yes, you may also know that the split between development bankers and development experts in the WB staff is not resolved. [A faint, faint hope there…? Naah!].
12. The Bretton Woods institutions have been slow to come to terms with the full implications of our global dilemma; it may be that their most important contribution to sustainable development would be to phase themselves out of existence in an orderly manner. (D. Korten)
13. As Vandana Shiva once said: “In the Third World, we no longer have governments; we have caretakers for the IMF”;****** meaning that social impacts are excluded or treated as if they can be compensated–for through market mechanisms. This is a proven falacious assumption.
******: In the South, we find ourselves often stretching out our hand for money from the same institutions that ultimately are responsib for many of our problems. (Bank Check)
14. Of added interest: The Global North has 9 times more voting power at the IMF than the Global South
- In the deeply undemocratic IMF, where a country’s voting power is tied, not to its population size, but to the size of its economy, the US effectively holds a veto over any major changes and molds policies according to its whims. The United States has 16.49% of the votes on the IMF’s board despite representing only 4.22% of the world population. Since the IMF’s Articles of Agreement require 85% of the votes to make any changes, the US has veto power over the decisions of the IMF. As a result, the IMF senior staff defers to any policy made by the US government and, given the organization’s location in Washington, DC, frequently consults with the US Treasury Department on its policy framework and individual policy decisions. (Tricontinental Institute)
15. Well, you finally know Globalization is not a passing phenomenon that can be ignored or easily reversed, but rather is the central principle of the post-cold war world
- Globalization is driven by an electronic herd –the ‘anonymous international traders’.
- Legitimizing ‘Might is Right’, Globalization has resulted in deracinated and deculturized people. (T. L. Friedman)
- It is the project of the elites to erode the sovereignty of nations in order to consolidate their power and privileges.
- It is a pyramid scheme that unavoidably transfers wealth up to the elites –manufacturing poverty everywhere. This is not a case of good intentions gone awry. This is a case of bad intentions run amok. (Mark Bombois)
- In this era of globalization, international prices clearly neither reflect social nor environmental costs. This comes as no surprise since Capitalism has always been based on a rather short-term rationality.
16. So, there is a difference between Globalization and what we really need, that is, the Globalization of Democracy in which we call for globalizing social and HR values, as well as justice, peace and antimilitarism. (–“because war is bullshit supported by political bullshit”). (Jan Oberg)
17. And now, for some more of my, I hope appreciated, one-liners (as pertinent to this Reader’s content):
- Neoliberalism globalizes poverty –and indifference-to-HR– NOT development.
- TNCs: Guilt does not exist for them; they ‘creatively’ hide their faults. (Isabel Allende)
- We cannot assess the market solely using indicators that show the benefits accruing to the winners.
- As opposed to the poor, the elites already have their alliances, and they are global. (Susan George)
- When self-worth and financial worth become indistinguishable, we know we are in trouble.
- The individuals that have capital and expertise in the globalized world of today are, to a great extent, those who had these advantages yesterday. (What a coincidence, no…?).
- The post-cold war peace dividend has not materialized. The world totally underestimated the forces that would be unleashed.
- The value of a month’s worth of work in Ethiopia is achieved in the UK by teatime on Jan 4. (Simon Maxwell)
Bottom Line
18. We people were refashioned in the image of the global market whose dependants we have become. If there is really no alternative to Globalization, we are certainly no longer free; not free to disengage from the totalizing embrace of the world market. Where shall we run to hide from it, then? It is more necessary than ever to oppose, to resist, even if alternatives are not yet clearly defined. All that we have is our inner energies; older values have not been extinguished, they merely went underground. All of us are to perceive our common fate and act accordingly. (Jeremy Seabrook)
19. Under Globalization, crimes against humanity and against nature are ubiquitous. When criminal acts involve moral issues, we need radicals. (Justin Sobion) So what is to happen then? More people need to step up and commit. We know who the drivers are: ____ you fill the blank.
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com
Postscript/Marginalia
–We have a library of experience and insights from all over the world. We need to harness this new evidence and experience to propel us forward into a new era in which power is inevitably better balanced. (Stuart Gillespie)
–The GNP does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strengths of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor out courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. (J. F. Kennedy, 1968)
-“To the unknown economist, who died in the economic war, who, all his life, magnificently explained the next day why he had been wrong the day before, as well as to all those, still alive, who think we are all imbeciles…” (Epitaph of Bernard Maris in his book Antimanual de Economía).