Man/Woman of the Year – the Belizean worker!
Posted: 28/12/2007 - 11:03 AM
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“ … Chicagoans did not see Marxism as their true enemy. The real source of the trouble was to be found in the ideas of the Keynesians in the United States, the social democrats in Europe and the developmentalists in what was then called the Third World These were believers not in a utopia but in a mixed economy, to Chicago eyes an ugly hodgepodge of capitalism for the manufacture and distribution of consumer goods, socialism in education, state ownership for essentials like water services, and all kinds of laws designed to temper the extremes of capitalism.”
- pg. 53, THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, by Naomi Klein, Metropolitan Books, 2007.
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Amandala chooses the Belizean worker as our Man/Woman of the Year 2007. The Belizean worker, and we include in this category many self-employed (such as farmers, fishermen, vendors, etc.) saw his/her earnings lose an amount of purchasing power over the past year. The Belizean worker saw his/her utility bills become crushing. The Belizean worker felt cruel taxation pain in 2007, at the exact same time that media scrutiny made him/her more aware than ever before, that the Social Security Board had become such a fat cash cow that the ruling politicians and their cronies were all over her body. Workers were poor, and becoming poorer, while SSB had so much money, they clearly didn’t know what to do with it. In 2007, the contradiction between the workers and the SSB which had accumulated the workers’ money, was stark.
Naomi Klein, in her outstanding work – THE SHOCK DOCTRINE (The Rise of Disaster Capitalism), published this year in New York, claims that the Milton Friedman school of economics (the University of Chicago) got their first opportunity to introduce their unfettered neoliberalism when Chilean president Salvador Allende, a socialist who was democratically elected, was murdered in 1973 and replaced by the military dictator, General Augusto Pinochet.
Friedman’s neoliberalism demanded urgent and widespread privatization, absolute free trade (opening of all domestic markets to foreign goods), and dramatic cutbacks in funding for social programs. Friedman called for the removal of all rules and regulations standing in the way of accumulation of profits.
Neoliberalism rose to dominate the Western Hemisphere (except for Cuba, and, briefly, Grenada and Nicaragua) until a few years ago when Venezuela, Brazil, and Bolivia began to look at different models of development.
Until there was a change of government in Belize in 1984, George Price’s PUP had committed itself to the same “mixed economy” which Friedman and his disciples saw as their real enemy – Keynesian ideas.
When Mr. Price returned to power in 1989, however, Ralph Fonseca, appointed to Cabinet as a Senator to run the Ministry of Finance, began to introduce Friedman’s extreme capitalism. The question is whether it was the 1984 to 1989 UDP administration which had softened up the Belizean people for Fonseca’s financial experiments.
Whatever the case, there are people who have to work to earn the money which these financial gurus fling around. The Belizean worker has been strong. The Belizean worker has been steadfast. The Belizean worker has been patient. The Belizean worker has remained committed to the democratic process, even though the Belizean worker has witnessed abuses and larcenies which have afflicted the national wealth which the Belizean worker has created.
We are not economists at this newspaper. As small business people, nevertheless, we can see that the time has come for the political debate to become a financial/economic one. Is the UDP which Belizeans are about to elect, committed to the same neoliberal ideas which have ruled us unashamedly since 1998? It is for sure that the most dominant individual in the Belizean economy, Lord Michael Ashcroft, is 100% neoliberal. He finances election candidates in both the PUP and UDP. These candidates are chosen because they accept Lord Ashcroft’s leadership and neoliberal philosophy.
The Belizean voters, the majority of whom are workers, need to ask the political candidates in their respective constituencies what plan does the candidate have for the economic development of Belize. The debate which only goes so far as red and blue, is primitive. The Belizean worker has been voting for the PUP, in many cases, because he believed this was a party with a working class foundation and tradition. The evidence is now overwhelming, however, that the PUP is being run by neoliberals.
Working people have suffered under neoliberalism in Belize. The wealth the workers created has been appropriated by the greedy, reckless and irresponsible neoliberals who have taken over a party which was founded on a trade union. No one can say whether Mr. Price is simplistic or complicit in this contradictory change. With the Leader Emeritus and national hero, it remains just “PUP all the way,” forever and ever.
On the other side, Opposition UDP Leader Dean Barrow has gotten away without offering any comprehensive, detailed plan for economic development. From the standpoint of our men/women of the year - the workers of Belize, the UDP may be almost as neoliberal as the PUP. And if that is so, then it will be from the frying pan into the fire. The stove belongs to Chichester.
Workers of Belize, congratulations for your strength. You are the salt of the Belizean earth. Stand vigilant. Happy New Year. God’s blessings on us all. Power to the people.
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