Globalized economy? Globalized control!

Laila kindly translated my article from this week's Badael in Al Akhbar

The Globalised Economy


The world economy is controlled by the rich and powerful nations led by the United States. One way in which these countries establish their control is by cloning their own economic system onto the weaker nations by force if need be.

As a consequence, the poor, weak countries become hooked up to a multifarious global system over which they can exert no power or control. This system, based on transnational capitalism, is sometimes called the ‘globalised economy’. It seeps into every household, determines the way of life of every citizen, and it is an integral part of the mechanism of power and control.

That is why we should count the globalised economy as a form of rapacious occupation, benefitting the richest countries by allowing them to steal the resources of poor and weak countries and open up new markets to their products.

So without deploying a single battleship or mobilising a single soldier, the globalised economy allows the rich countries to suffocate production sectors in the poorest countries.

Today, their soldiers wear formal business suits and belong to international financial organisations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Such organisations have agents in poor countries who are the de facto ruling class, although they play no role in national government. They control economic decisions, they control the banks, the media, international franchises, contractors, the service sector and much more.

This class can push its agenda through and legitimise this economic occupation and subordination by promulgating appropriate laws and supporting favourable policies in ministries and parliaments that fall under its financial and political influence.

For this reason, no single Arab revolution, or even uprising, will succeed if we do not deal with this reality. It is a problem that can no longer be ignored. Addressing the economic reality will revitalise calls for Arab economic and political integration and that is exactly what the occupier and his acolytes do not want to us to do!