CURRENTS
CAMBODIA
EVERYTHING BUT ARMS
Garment workers in
Cambodia just received a pay
raise. From the start of 2020,
the minimum wage will rise
to $190 per month. While any
extra income is welcomed,
much of the gains will be
taken by landlords who have
often hiked rents when wages
have increased in the past.
The clothes manufacturing
sector is the country’s largestUK
NOT SO NOBEL
Boundless growth isn’t the
only goalpost in economics
that’s now being questioned.
A new prize is challenging
the authority of the orthodox
Nobel Prize committee.
NotTheNobel – launched
by the Promoting Economic
Pluralism foundation –
says that by repeatedlySPAIN
GET OUT
The Basque town of Altsasu
has seen the same vigil every
Friday night for the last three
years. Attendees call for the
release of seven young Basque
men who have fallen victim
to what they call a politically
motivated miscarriage of
justice.
The men were imprisoned
after getting into a bar fight
with two off-duty officers
from Spain’s Guardia Civil,
and their girlfriends, in the
early hours of 15 October
2016 in Altsasu, a town
in the Basque region of
Navarra. The most serious
injury in the brawl was a
broken ankle – sustained by
one of the police officers. But
a controversial trial in
Madrid’s Audiencia Nacional
saw eight defendants tried
with terrorism offences and
hate crimes, with each facing
up to 62 years in prison.
Prosecutors claimed the
incident was a pre-meditatedattack, which they linked
to the now-defunct armed
Basque separatist group
ETA. But defence lawyers
believe the excessive
charges are partly in revenge
for the Altsasu-based festival
called the Opsa (‘Get out’
in the local dialect), which
combines theatre, satire,
marches and talks to protest
against the heavy police
presence in the Basque region.
‘The young people of
Altsasu are victims of a
set-up,’ says Aritz Leoz,
a spokesperson for the
solidarity platform, part
of a dynamic grassroots
movement that has sprung up
to campaign for the prisoners’
release. ‘In Spain, justice isn’t
equal for everyone.’
The legal process has
been widely condemned
by Amnesty International,
MEPs and legal groups across
Spain and the Basque
country. In June 2018, an
appeal saw the terrorism
charges thrown out. But eight
men were still convicted,
with seven imprisoned for
between 2 and 13 years each
for assault, battery, public
disorder and threats, with
the aggravating ‘hate crime’
charge serving to maximize
jail terms.
At the time of going to
press, the verdict had yet to
be announced from the latest
appeal to Spain’s Supreme
Court.
EOIN WILSONchampioning neoliberal
economists, the Nobel
committee is betraying its
mantra: to recognize those
bringing the greatest benefit to
humankind.
They point to its decision
last year to award William
Nordhaus, an economist
who undermined climate
action by recommending that
policymakers stabilize global
temperature increases over
pre-industrial levels at 4°C by
the mid-22nd century.
To help light the way,
the campaign ran its own
contest in October and voted
Mariana Mazzucato as its
first winner. The Italian
economist specializes in
government innovations- in direct contrast to neo
classical economics, which
assumes that the state blocks
innovation.
NotTheNobel says
contemporary economists
must address both ecological
breakdown and a burgeoning
debt crisis, or else risk ushering
in another financial crash.
HUSNA RISVI
10 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
INEQUALITY WATCH
$2.
billion
THE DAILY INCREASE
IN WEALTH FOR THE
WORLD’S BILLIONAIRES
IN 2018.Source: OxfamSIGN OF THE TIMES
‘Deforestation is not a hair
cut’: Global climate strike,
B a r c e l o n a , S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 9.
SOPA IMAGES LIMITED / ALAMY