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Globalisation and the
Neo-Liberal Offensive
THE DETERIORATION IN LIVING CONDITIONS:
EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES
During the 19 70s, the world economy began a long wave of slow
growth. This stood in stark contrast to the nearly 30 years of rapid
postwar economic growth that had come immediately before
(Mandel, 1972, 1978, 1982; Husson, 1996; Montes, 1996; Went,
1996).
During the period 1960-73, before the beginning of the long wave
of slow growth, the average annual rate of growth in the European
Union (known as the Common Market at the time) was 4.7 per cent,
in the United States 3.9 per cent and in Japan 9.6 per cent. Between
1982 and 1994, the respective growth rates were 2.1 per cent, 2.4
percent and 3.6 per cent (Montes, 1996).
The crisis that began in Southeast Asia will lead to even lower
growth rates in 1998. At the very best, the Japanese and South
Korean economies will grow by 1 per cent. The head of the US Federal
Reserve, Alan Greenspan, wondered if 'deflation might now be a
possibility' (Le Monde, 12 January 1998 and International Herald
Tribune, 9 January 1998). If this possibility were to become fact, there
could well be a simultaneous fall in prices, wages, household
consumption and industrial production. A new round of massive
dismissals in industry and services could take place the world over.
Even if such a sequence of events does not occur, it seems highly
unlikely that high levels of growth will be reached in the short term.
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