Militarism and Corporate Globalization:
Iraq beyond the Headlines
by Greg Field, Executive Director, PAM
As I write this, it is difficult for me to pull myself from the headlines
about Iraq. Yet in none of this is there much news about the profound
economic transformations that have been blueprinted by US planners for
postwar Iraq.
Policymakers and corporate executives plan to make Iraq into the cornerstone
for corporate globalization and "free trade" policies in the region. While
our government's justifications for war shifted, what undergirds the US
military presence there and around the globe is the effort to yoke every
continent to the dictates of global corporations.
Companies such as Bechtel are cutting sweetheart deals with the occupying
administration, but the "rules of the game" are being changed in ways that
will sweep aside productive local enterprise and benefit megacorporations.
One example is the movement of the largest US chicken processors into the
region. Tyson's and other large processors gain access to markets that were
pried open by military power and will be kept open by the dictates of the
International Monetary Fund. Small growers and processors suffer, work
conditions are atrocious, consumers face salmonella-ridden chicken,
overstuffed with antibiotics, and the land is scarred by the environmental
destruction wrought by factory farms. But profits and stock dividends will
enjoy years of plenty.
What are our alternatives? If globalization, spiraling Pentagon budgets, and
the ongoing impoverishment of common people and the planet are inseparable,
then efforts to build bridges among movements here in this country are
vital—and we all have much to learn on how to build more inclusive
movements. Efforts by globalization activists to build ties to social
movements in other countries are already underway, as they forge a people's
internationalism as an alternative to the corporate agenda. We all can stay
informed about the corporate transformation of Iraq by going to
www.southernstudies.org. The Institute for Southern Studies is posting
information, updating it regularly, and provides suggestions in a "what you
can do" section.
In 1968, a profound transformation seemed imminent. That moment passed, but
it is now up to us to create the conditions for a new, sustainable flowering
of democratic promise.
Back to Peace Talk Index, Fall,
2003