T here are a lot of resources to be taken, and lots of cheap labor
for assembly plants. But first we have to impose the capitalist model
on them. We don’t accept it for ourselves—but for the T hird World,
we insist on it. T hat’s the IMF system. If we can get them to accept
that, they’ll be very easily exploitable, and will move toward their
new role as a kind of Brazil or Mexico.
In many ways, Eastern Europe is more attractive to investors
than Latin America. One reason is that the population is white and
blue-eyed, and therefore easier to deal with for investors who come
from deeply racist societies like Western Europe and the United
States.
More significantly, Eastern Europe has much higher general
health and educational standards than Latin America—which, except
for isolated sectors of wealth and privilege, is a total disaster area.
One of the few exceptions in this regard is Cuba, which does
approach Western standards of health and literacy, but its prospects
are very grim.
One reason for this disparity between Eastern Europe and Latin
America is the vastly greater level of state terror in the latter after
the Stalin years. A second reason is economic policy.
According to US intelligence, the Soviet Union poured about 80
billion dollars into Eastern Europe in the 1970s. T he situation has
been quite different in Latin America. Between 1982 and 1987,
about $150 billion were transferred from Latin America to the
West. T he New York Times cites estimates that “hidden
transactions” (including drug money, illegal profits, etc.) might be in
the $700 billion range. T he effects in Central America have been
particularly awful, but the same is true throughout Latin America—
there’s rampant poverty, malnutrition, infant mortality,
environmental destruction, state terror, and a collapse of living
standards to the levels of decades ago.
T he situation in Africa is even worse. T he catastrophe of
capitalism was particularly severe in the 1980s, an “unrelenting
nightmare” in the domains of the Western powers, in the accurate
terms of the head of the Organization of African Unity. Illustrations
provided by the World Health Organization estimate that eleven
million children die every year in “the developing world,” a “silent
genocide” that could be brought to a quick end if resources were
directed to human needs rather than enrichment of a few.
In a global economy designed for the interests and needs of
ann
(Ann)
#1