Here you will find resolutions from the workgroup The Economic Question: Horror Stories. To see resolutions from the other workgroups, click here.

July 30th

FINAL REPORT
AGUASCALIENTES: ROBERTO BARRIOS
TABLE 2: ECONOMY

The workgroup was inaugurated the night of Sunday, July 28 by Commanders Pedro, Leticia, Jacobo, Ma. Alicia, Vicente, Valentín, Pablo and Concepción. 466 guests participated in this group, including 396 foreigners (Italy, Spain, the United States, Turkey, Ireland, France, Belgium, Catalonia, Valencia, the Basque Country, Germany, Argetina, Colombia, Switzerland, Canada, Cuba and Nicaragua) and 70 Mexicans. Among these were well-known students of economics such as Harry Cleaver, Justin Paulson, Fred Moesely, David Barkin, Winfried Wolf, Massimo de Angelis, Teresa Rondón, Horacio Labastida, Ana Ester Ceceña, Andrés Barreda and Carlos Salas. Among the presentations made were those of the FZLN's Civil Committees, the Barzón, The Mexican Free Trade Action Network and The Authentic Work Front.

The Aguascalientes workgroups began in a plenary session on July 29th at 10 am, breaking into thematic workgroups at 11 am.

The workgroup discussions produced the following:

A) NEOLIBERALISM: FINANCIAL POWER AND ITS MERCENARIES. MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS AS A PERVERSION OF REALITY.

By the end of the work session, it was agreed to define neoliberalism as an ideology and also as a strategy that divides and isolates us. It is thus crucial to set up different types of networks to break that isolation. The globality of neoliberalism requires coming up with equally global alternatives. The struggle must be global and this intercontinental meeting provides an initial opportunity to discuss, at a global level, how to begin this work.

B) IS ANY ALTERNATIVE TO THIS SYSTEM POSSIBLE?

In this workgroup, the Barzón of Anahuac, Mexico, pointed out our need to consider economic policy in resolving problems such as the debt, fiscal inequity or the workers' situation. A representative from the Civic Alliance pointed out that the techocrats' project is not the same as that of the rest of the population, since the majority of that population has been excluded from the economic process. However, the horrors of neoliberalism are not restricted to only one or even several communities of our country.

Peter Roset of the Food First Institute mentioned that over the last 50 years, the numbers of agricultural producers in the United States dropped from 6 million to 1.9 million. This has generated not only a serious socioeconomic crisis, but also, having adopted "Green Revolution" technology, an environmental crisis unprecedented in the United States (and in the other countries that have adopted the Green Revolution). This crisis has manifested itself in the earth's losing its natural productive ability. The Toulouse Collective presented the testimony of French agricultural workers in their struggle against neoliberalism, which fosters an individualistic culture and a distancing from the earth of both the agricultural producers and the urban consumers of their production.

Neoliberalism affects even those nations trying to implement an alternative economic project, such as in the case of the Cuba. Just in the period 1989-1993, the Cuban GDP dropped by 35% as a result of the Soviet bloc's collapse and the intensification of the U.S.-imposed economic blockade.

However, the global horrors of neoliberalism can be dealt with in a global manner. The participants from Subgroup B proposed multiple actions for confronting neoliberalism on this October 23rd. Also proposed was the creation of [a system of] counterinformation from the multiple local struggles around the world, since one cannot fight at only a local and isolated level against a planetary enemy.

C) PROGRESS: SPECULATION AS DEVELOPMENT, THE BUSINESS OF WAR, HEALTH AS DRUG TRAFFICKING.

In this subgroup it was said that neoliberalism was imposed with greater ease after the fall of socialism, causing the destruction of national economies and small industry, unemployment, migration and an increase in poverty-stricken regions. The highly speculative international financial system is the base of the neoliberal policy designed and imposed by the IMF and the World Bank on the governments of our countries. These governments have made money their only god, and their acts are guided by greed. Not only have they dismantled the productive structure but also public services, while cutting public spending, increasing military spending and facilitating the control of [national] resources by transnational consortia. Drug trafficking has accompanied this process of destruction provoked by neoliberalism, and in addition to being one of the most highly profitable businesses, it contributes to the dehumanization of human beings.

Proposals:

1. Promote boycotts of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and international consortia.

2. Create a worldwide network of people, groups and organizations to carry out campaigns against neoliberalism.

3. Look for concrete alternatives for opposing neoliberalism. Learn from urban and rural communities with experience in self-reliant strategies and actions.

D) WORK, THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE FREE MARKET, DEBT, POVERTY.

Sixteen presentations were made in this subgroup. Eight of these concerned aspects and general characteristics of the dictatorship of the free market, such as privatization and reduction of public services, increasing unemployment, division and increasing inequality between regions (North-South-Eastern Countries, debt and commercial treaties.)

The other eight presentations emphasized the effects of neoliberalism on work and the processes of globalization of exploitation. These presentations described experiences of struggle by workers, unions, consumers and women against the horrors of neoliberalism at the local level (Toronto, San Francisco, Milan, Paris and Mexico, among others). Comparisons between countries were also made.

In general, initial proposals were made regarding topics such as the reduction of poor countries' debt, reduction of interest rates and the self-organization of the debtors.

In the discussion about work, it was proposed that the workday be shortened and that networks of workers be formed.

DISCUSSION PANEL: POLICY AT THE SERVICE OF THE PEOPLE, NOT THE PEOPLE AT THE SERVICE OF THE ECONOMY.

Participants: David Barkin, professor at the UNAM and adviser to the EZLN; Andrés Barreda, professor at the UNAM, editor of the magazine Chiapas and advisor to the EZLN; Massimo de Angelis, Italian researcher and editor of the magazine Vis a Vis; Harri Cleaver, professor at the University of Texas; Ma. Elena Martínez, student at the University of California.

Barkin said that globalization inexorably transforms our lives, but few doubt the profound havoc it wreaks. People become aware of globalization because it affects their consumption patterns. Some look for alternative ways out. One of these is the promotion of economic autonomies. If we were to give due recognition to the permanence of today's drastically stratified society, we could design policies for improving the wellbeing of social groups that recognize and take advantage of these differences. Strengthening rural communities would be one way to make diversification possible, thus allowing growth to be dealt with more easily in those areas whose development is linked to the international economy.

Barreda pointed out that the worldwide changes in the patterns of reproduction of the workforce increases the chaos of the control mechanisms. This opens possibilities for stimulating alternative experiences, such as a popular self-motivating and self-reliant economy, born from the many wounds inflicted on the social body by neoliberalism. Some fundamental questions that we must ask are: Will such a popular economy have the subversive capacity to define alternative platforms for the medium and long term, or is it equally condemned to failure? Is the alternative economy simply fodder for the beast that it can employ to save on social spending and to neutralize political contradictions during the massive liquidation of what capital considers to be its leftovers? Or is it, rather, that resistance by this surplus population affords new opportunities for the revitalization and construction of old forms of struggle in combination with new forms and new rebellious subjects? As always, it is we who shall have the last word.

Cleaver said that if we remain under the dominion of the economy, we will stay under the dominion of capital. Our struggle must be to break the link between life and capital; we must free the value of the earth from the logic of capitalism and introduce a social logic. But, we should think if the changes that we are proposing really escape the logic of capitalism or if, on the contrary, they further reinforce it.

De Angelis expressed the idea that worldwide solidarity with the people of Chiapas should be based on our own struggle against neoliberalism in each of our own areas of activity. To construct a social movement that goes beyond the taking of power, we should begin by recognizing concrete desires and needs. This must be the central axis of our economic policy; an economic policy that recognizes the desires and hopes of the people will be, necessarily, one that erodes the policy of gain and will destroy the reign of money.

Martínez said that what the Zapatistas teach us is that there is not one sole line nor one sole path, but rather that we must invent them. She emphasized the importance of using electronic mail to share information and to build communication networks against neoliberalism. And speaking about the transfer of technology from the First World to the periphery, she said that neoliberalism has caused poverty in the old industrial metropolis, citing as an example the crisis of cities such as Detroit, where the great iron and steel factories are today in ruins, but not as beautiful as the ruins of Palenque.

Press Bulletin, Aguascalientes

Roberto Barrios, July 30, 1996. Table 2, Economy.

This subgroup began working at 9:00 am. The participants of subgroup C (El Progreso) agreed that neoliberalism could be defined as a policy used by capitalism to get out of its deep crisis by sowing conflict, international economic integration, and expanding its markets while strengthening its arms industry. They said that globalization has been a process accelerated by neoliberalism that led to the concentration of the areas of production, destroying local productive systems and forcing people to abandon the rural areas; and that this globalization has provoked a greater dependency among nations, such as in the example of Maastricht's Europe.

It was mentioned that neoliberalism has an ideological component that favors individual over collective interests. In order to survive, it sustains itself in phenomena such as speculative capital, the war industry, the environment and drug running. In this process, capital is concentrated in few hands and, as a result, reproduces itself at the cost of the quality of life and the basic needs of individuals. They added that it is important to underline its antidemocratic character and its need to use ideological arguments such as individualism and to employ the the media (among other [tactics]) to reinforce the globalization of this model.

In subgroup D (work; dictatorship of the free market; debt and poverty), it was said that at the global level, the imposing of the neoliberal labor policy has meant the deregulation of work, which translates into the loss of acquisitive power in workers' salaries and an increase in worldwide unemployment at all levels, as well as increasingly common employment practices and the lack of compensation for overtime. The proposals from the subgroups included: increase the productive capacity of the groups excluded by capitalist development; a national reconstruction project that recognizes the need to guarantee the adequate provision of basic needs; an international campaign in defense of the right to work as a fundamental human right; the creation of networks of unemployed, as well as coordination with social movements, construction of networks of workers and consumers to identify new forms of consumption; the struggle to reduce the workday linked to the defense of wages as well as the modification of the internal power structures within the unions; recovery of the basic concepts in the struggle against neoliberalism such as solidarity, equality and respect for minorities.

In the identification of these common evils and the creation of an alternative strategy, it was stressed that neoliberalism is an international phenomenon, and because of that, the responses must be international and in a framework of solidarity, acknowledging the need to seek new forms of social struggle and resistance in order to confront the strategies of neoliberalism that divide and challenge humankind.

This workgroup's labors will conclude with a plenary session and a press conference tomorrow, July 31st, at 3:00 pm.

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