28/YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!
multinationals' small number of home countries. The 200 biggest
multinationals have a total turnover equivalent to more than a
quarter of the sum of the entire world's gross domestic products. The
main multinationals have a turnover that is higher than the GDP of
a large number of countries.
Table 1.2 compares the turnover of the biggest multinationals with
the GNP of a few countries and regions in the world.
THE POLITICAL FACTOR
Globalisation cannot be understood merely by looking at the increase
in the weight of multinationals. The political factor has also been
essential. Without the active political intervention of the Reagan and
Thatcher governments, and then of all the governments that chose
to follow their lead, multinational corporations would not have been
able so swiftly and so radically to do away with the restrictions
hitherto preventing them from acting as they pleased, from exploiting
economic, human and natural resources as they saw fit (Chesnais,
1996).
This political intervention was carried out with four key objectives
in mind. First, the liberalisation of international capital flows and the
opening of domestic markets to international competition. Second,
the privatisation of state-owned companies and public services.
Third, the deregulation of the labour market and the dismantling of
the social safety net. Fourth, maintaining and improving competi
tiveness through the pursuit and achievement of the first three
objectives.
The line of thinking that justified this political intervention has
been summed up by the Lisbon Group:
No matter the targeted sector (expanding or in decline, hi-tech or
not), or the size, strength and level of development of the country
in question, the argument has always been the same. Privatisation
is urgent, they say, in order to increase the competitiveness of an
industrial sector, a company or an economy in the throes of glo
balisation. In addition, all markets must be liberalised in order for
local industry and companies operating on a global scale to be
competitive on international markets. Finally, industrial sectors
and markets have to be deregulated in order to accelerate the pri
vatisation process, and in the process increase the competitiveness