Fences and Windows- Naomi Klein

Fences and Windows (FaW) is a very readable account of the globalisation debate at the turn of the millenium. Naomi reports on debates, protests, and speeches from all over the world, bringing the evaluation of the globalisation process to life.

May I just add that the majority of the protests outlined below were not 'Anti Globalisation'. Instead, they protested against the current system, which only benefits the few.

The Klein managed to visit the majority of the turning points in the globalisation debate:
  • Seattle, December 1999. 
    • Anti-WTO governance protest
  • Washington, April 2000
    • Further WTO protests
  • New York Riverside Church, July 2000
    • Planning the next steps of the open globalisation movement
    • The lack of a central leader in the movement makes it harder to control, only increasing its effectiveness.
  • Los Angeles, August 2000
    • Shadow convention challenging the money not ethics culture found in global trade today
  • Prague, September 2000
    • Vandera Shiva: "The World Bank takes power from people, gives it to the government, and then sell to a corporation through privatisation"
    • Prague has had a tumultuous past with governance (Velvet Revolution), so they had some issues with the World Bank's approach
The main thing I took from the book that we haven't covered in class was how global processes contain democracy, reducing it to an illusion of democratic control.
  • IMF (International Monetary Fund) in Argentina
    • In order to receive a loan, the Argentinian government had to abide by the IMFs terms
    • They had to stop printing regional money
      • This resulted in huge numbers of public sector jobs going unpaid
    • Huge cuts to social spending
      • With 30% of the workforce unemployed, these cuts pushed them further below the poverty line.
    • To recover from the huge amount of debt, Argentina resorted to mass privatisation
      • When they appealed to the international community, they were called 'greedy' and received minimal aid.
  • Metalclad in Guadalcázar, Mexico
    • A disused toxic waste facility was purchased by TNC Metalclad under the promise that they would clear it, and restore it for safe use. 
    • The facility began to pollute groundwater supplies, resulting in a court case. 
    • According to chapter 11 of the NAFTA agreement that this deal had come under, the regional government were sued, and had to pay Metalclad $16.7million
      • Chapter 11 grants investors the right to sue foreign governments without first pursuing legal action in the country’s court systems, in order to protect foreign investors from discrimination
  • Monoproduct economies (rice in India)
    • When India began to trade with the rest of the world, they realised that by growing one thing in abundance, they could lower the prices but maintain a profit (economies of scale)
    • They then moved from subsistence farming, to intensive rice farming
      • This resulted in vitamin A deficiencies. 
  • Globalisation has increased the popularity and diversity of the 'economies of scale' approach- one area being food. GMO crops are one way to increase production and reduce labour
    • Starlink Corn was marked unsafe for humans, but ok for animals
      • The seeds spread into neighbouring areas, and resulted in a product recall
    • Another case of GM seeds spreading into a neighbours field resulted in the farmer paying $20,000 as they had 'stolen' patented work
Naomi's book is great read, and will really make you think about globalisation from a much higher level. This is her 2nd book, the 1st being the highly controversial 'No Logo'- you can get a PDF here- http://www.tcnj.edu/~allyn/No%20Logo%20-%20Naomi%20Klein.pdf

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