Democracy Uprising
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      Trump’s backpedaling shows he’s not invincible

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      Those Who Don’t Count

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      Six Essays About War and About Peace

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      Book Reviews

      The Pan American

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      The Godfather of Microcredit

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      Four Ways of Looking at an Aztec Eagle

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      Jordlösa kombinerar radikala visioner med praktiska reformer (Swedish)

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      Hacer Que Nuestras Demandas Sean Tanto Orácticas Como…

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Democracy Uprising

  • About
    • About Mark Engler
    • About Democracy Uprising
  • Books
    • This Is An Uprising
    • How To Rule the World
  • Topics
    • All Social Movements Religion U.S. Politics / Elections War / Militarism Book Reviews Environment Essays / First Person Global Economy Immigration Labor Latin America
      2023-2025

      Could we be entering a ‘movement moment’ against…

      Social Movements

      Trump’s backpedaling shows he’s not invincible

      Social Movements

      It’s going to take multiple strategies to win…

      Social Movements

      A new wave of movements against Trumpism is…

      Social Movements

      How to make sure your disruptive protest helps…

      Latest Articles

      Why protests work, even when not everybody likes…

      Social Movements

      Harold Washington’s lessons for taking on a political…

      Social Movements

      Strategy is a Craft

      Social Movements

      Could we be entering a ‘movement moment’ against…

      Social Movements

      Trump’s backpedaling shows he’s not invincible

      Social Movements

      It’s going to take multiple strategies to win…

      Social Movements

      A new wave of movements against Trumpism is…

      Social Movements

      How to make sure your disruptive protest helps…

      Social Movements

      Why protests work, even when not everybody likes…

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      Harold Washington’s lessons for taking on a political…

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      Strategy is a Craft

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      In God’s Country

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      Reverend Billy’s Holiday Shopocalypse

      Religion

      Toward the “Rights of the Poor”

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      The Pope and the Poor

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      Will the Next Pope Embrace Liberation Theology?

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      Remembering Romero

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      John Paul II’s Economic Ethics

      Religion

      Against the God of Free Trade

      U.S. Politics / Elections

      Could we be entering a ‘movement moment’ against…

      U.S. Politics / Elections

      Trump’s backpedaling shows he’s not invincible

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      It’s going to take multiple strategies to win…

      U.S. Politics / Elections

      A new wave of movements against Trumpism is…

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      Harold Washington’s lessons for taking on a political…

      U.S. Politics / Elections

      Strategy is a Craft

      U.S. Politics / Elections

      Think #MeToo didn’t make a real difference? Think…

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      This new model for upholding labor law may…

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      Does It Make Sense to Protest a President…

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      Lessons from the Pledge of Resistance

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      Is Rambo Still A Republican?

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      War: The Wrong Jobs Program

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      The Ascent of Niall Ferguson

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      Those Who Don’t Count

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      Six Essays About War and About Peace

      War / Militarism

      The Dangerous Dignity of War

      Book Reviews

      The Pan American

      Book Reviews

      The Godfather of Microcredit

      Book Reviews

      Capitalism as Catastrophe

      Book Reviews

      Four Ways of Looking at an Aztec Eagle

      Book Reviews

      The Ascent of Niall Ferguson

      Book Reviews

      Ordinary Outrages

      Book Reviews

      No Better Place

      Book Reviews

      In God’s Country

      Environment

      Why Wendell Matters

      Environment

      The Gulf at the Gas Station

      Environment

      Climate Disobedience

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      Farming the Everglades

      Environment

      The Winter of the Climate Denier

      Environment

      Climate of Change: An “Inside-Outside” Strategy Against Global…

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      Provoking an American Climate Crisis

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      The Real “Farmer” Story: So God Made High-Fructose…

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      Is Rambo Still A Republican?

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      Meet the Bailout’s New Slush Fund for Corporate…

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      The World Is Not Flat

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      When Undocumented Activists Infiltrated ICE

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      Immigration Economics: An Interview with Professor Giovanni Peri

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      Science Fiction From Below

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      Four Ways of Looking at an Aztec Eagle

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      Treated Like a Criminal

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      When Sanctuary is Resistance

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      The Massive Immigrants Rights Protests of 2006 Are…

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      This new model for upholding labor law may…

      Labor

      Democrats Won Power in Several States. Will They…

      Labor

      The Case for a Social Distancing Wage

      Labor

      The Seattle Protests Showed That Another World Is…

      Labor

      Reviving the General Strike

      Labor

      Jeff Bezos Has Enough! It’s Time for a…

      Labor

      There’s Still Power in a Strike

      Labor

      The Amazon Effect: Sweat, Surveillance, Exploitation

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      How movements can maintain their radical vision while winning…

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      The Pan American

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      Lessons from the Pledge of Resistance

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      The Children of Intervention

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      Against Shithole Nationalism

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      The Last Porto Alegre

      Latin America

      Kissinger Is Not Our Friend

      Latin America

      Even If You Have Nothing to Hide

  • Translations
    • All Italiano Japanese Português Arabic Thai Chinese Deutsch Español Français
      Translations

      Jordlösa kombinerar radikala visioner med praktiska reformer (Swedish)

      Español

      Hacer Que Nuestras Demandas Sean Tanto Orácticas Como…

      Italiano

      C’è più di un modo per colpire il…

      Português

      As reformas não reformistas de André Gorz mostram…

      Español

      Las reformas no reformistas de André Gorz

      Deutsch

      Die nicht-reformistischen Reformen von André Gorz

      Italiano

      Richieste dei movimenti: sia pratiche che visionarie

      Chinese

      泛美洲人 爱德华多·加莱亚诺的世界 (Chinese)

      Italiano

      C’è più di un modo per colpire il…

      Italiano

      Richieste dei movimenti: sia pratiche che visionarie

      Italiano

      La strategia di Gandhi per il successo –…

      Italiano

      Le promesse infrante di Obama

      Italiano

      Guantanamo deve sparire

      Italiano

      IL BANK TRANSFER DAY: UN SUCCESSO

      Italiano

      Come il movimento Occupiamo Wall Street si sta…

      Italiano

      Economia tabù

      Japanese

      ガンジーはどのように勝利したのか? (Japanese)

      Japanese

      Truth Versus Superpower (Japanese)

      Japanese

      Bush’s Bad Business Empire (Japanese)

      Japanese

      Revenge of the Combat Cartoonist (Japanese)

      Japanese

      Bush’s Uneasy Mexican Visita (Japanese)

      Japanese

      Mark Twain in Iraq (Japanese)

      Japanese

      Globalization’s “Lost Decade” (Japanese)

      Japanese

      Hawks Say the Damnedest Things (Japanese)

      Português

      As reformas não reformistas de André Gorz mostram…

      Português

      A vida na Nação Prisão

      Português

      Outro pretexto?

      Português

      Imigração tem efeito positivo sobre emprego e salários

      Português

      O império hipotecado

      Arabic

      Abandoning the World Bank (in Arabic)

      Arabic

      The Return of Daniel Ortega (in Arabic)

      Arabic

      Where’s The Jubilee? (in Arabic)

      Arabic

      The Last Porto Alegre (in Arabic)

      Arabic

      Seattle At Five (in Arabic)

      Arabic

      Is Market Access the Answer to Poverty? (in…

      Arabic

      Mexico’s Democratic Transition Still Incomplete (in Arabic)

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      Progressive Good Tidings of 2007 (in Thai)

      Thai

      2006: A Global Justice Year in Review (In…

      Thai

      WTO: Best Left For Dead? (In Thai)

      Thai

      Is Market Access the Answer to Poverty? (In…

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      Globalizers, Neocons, or… ? (in Thai)

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      泛美洲人 爱德华多·加莱亚诺的世界 (Chinese)

      Chinese

      Why Wendell Matters (in Chinese)

      Chinese

      Globalization’s Watchdogs (in Chinese)

      Deutsch

      Die nicht-reformistischen Reformen von André Gorz

      Deutsch

      Als Martin Luther King seine Feuerwaffen aufgab

      Deutsch

      Mikrokredite: Die Entlassung eines Nobelpreisträgers

      Deutsch

      CAFTA – am besten stillschweigend beerdigen

      Deutsch

      Bush in Mexiko

      Deutsch

      Das globale Duell in Evian

      Deutsch

      Die Rückkehr des Daniel Ortega

      Español

      Hacer Que Nuestras Demandas Sean Tanto Orácticas Como…

      Español

      Las reformas no reformistas de André Gorz

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      ¿Adoptará el nuevo papa la teología de la…

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      Wall Street quiere que les estemos agradecidos

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      Si Las Monjas Se Fueran a una Huelga,…

      Español

      ALEC retrocede; a la derecha le da un…

      Español

      ¿ALEC disgustado ante la pérdida de patrocinadores? Se…

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      La vida en la nación prisión

      Français

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      Le pari risqué du populisme au Pérou

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      Hong Kong Phooey

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      Bush Nuit Même Aux Compagnies U.S.

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      Le dynamisme du mouvement pour la paix

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      La déroute de l’ALCA dans une Miami en…

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      La guerre en Irak : une expo des…

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2009-2010Blog

“Free” Trade Makes Earthquakes Worse

by Mark Engler April 7, 2010
written by Mark Engler April 7, 2010
“Free” Trade Makes Earthquakes Worse

A dispatch for the “Arguing the World” blog at Dissent magazine.

Published in Dissent.


Here’s something you don’t see every day: One of the most influential promoters of market fundamentalist “free trade” policies admitting that he screwed up big time—and that as a consequence people in Haiti are starving. Amazingly, that’s just what happened in the lead-up to last week’s International Donor’s Conference on Haiti.

Earlier in March, Bill Clinton—currently honing his elder statesman chops by working on Haiti disaster relief—made a remarkable apology for the failure of policies he once championed. His statement was put in context in an excellent article by Associated Press reporter Jonathan Katz entitled, “With Cheap Food Imports, Haiti Can’t Feed Itself.” The article hasn’t received nearly the attention it deserves, so if you missed it when it first came out, do check it out. Katz writes:

“PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—The earthquake not only smashed markets, collapsed warehouses and left more than 2.5 million people without enough to eat. It may also have shaken up the way the developing world gets food.

Decades of inexpensive imports—especially rice from the U.S.—punctuated with abundant aid in various crises have destroyed local agriculture and left impoverished countries such as Haiti unable to feed themselves.

While those policies have been criticized for years in aid worker circles, world leaders focused on fixing Haiti are admitting for the first time that loosening trade barriers has only exacerbated hunger in Haiti and elsewhere.

They’re led by former U.S. President Bill Clinton—now U.N. special envoy to Haiti—who publicly apologized this month for championing policies that destroyed Haiti’s rice production. Clinton in the mid-1990s encouraged the impoverished country to dramatically cut tariffs on imported U.S. rice.

“It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake,” Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 10. “I had to live everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else.””

Katz elaborates with discussion of some of the dynamics of Haiti’s situation. These will be familiar to all who followed the food crisis in the global South, which was particularly acute in 2008:

““A combination of food aid, but also cheap imports have … resulted in a lack of investment in Haitian farming, and that has to be reversed,” U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes told The Associated Press. “That’s a global phenomenon, but Haiti’s a prime example. I think this is where we should start.”….

[F]or Haitians, near-total dependence on imported food has been a disaster.

Cheap foreign products drove farmers off their land and into overcrowded cities. Rice, a grain with limited nutrition once reserved for special occasions in the Haitian diet, is now a staple.

Imports also put the country at the mercy of international prices: When they spiked in 2008, rioters unable to afford rice smashed and burned buildings. Parliament ousted the prime minister.”

It is a global phenomenon for sure. Indeed, the ever-astute Walden Bello basically wrote the same article two years earlier, with Mexico and the Philippines as case studies.

What’s new—and far more rare than it should be—is the part about Clinton seeing the light. In the wake of the global economic crisis (and the food crisis before it, and also the total collapse of Argentina’s economy in 2001, and don’t forget the Asian Financial Crisis of the late 1990s, and, well, you get the idea) you’d think we’d get a lot more former free marketeers publicly eating crow. We have seen some economists and policymakers recant or defect. But plenty of others keep plugging on, undaunted and undeterred.

In fact, these stalwarts have taken the occasion of recent earthquakes to remix some of their favorite golden oldies. In one choice example, they’ve argued that Chile fared much better amid the recent disasters than Haiti owing to long years of worship in the church of “free market” neoliberalism.

Leading the way with this is (no surprises here) the Wall Street Journal, which published an article stating,“Milton Friedman has been dead for more than three years. But his spirit was surely hovering protectively over Chile in the early morning hours of Saturday. Thanks largely to him, the country has endured a tragedy that elsewhere would have been an apocalypse.”

Investor’s Business Daily came up with a similar riff, which John Feffer commented on over at Foreign Policy In Focus:

““With no exaggeration,” writes Investor’s Business Daily, “Saturday’s earthquake shows that Chile’s choice to unabashedly embrace capitalism, made decades ago, has saved thousands of lives.” According to this free-market argument, greater wealth in the private sector created a larger tax base with which the government could “afford better earthquake preparation in building codes and disaster education for the public.” Where pundits of an earlier era might have identified the saving hand of God, Investor’s Business Daily thanks the invisible hand of the market.”

There’s much to be said about perennial right-wing misuse and misinterpretation of Chilean history. But in this case, Paul Krugman pretty much gets the job done. For starters, he includes a link to an old Milton Friedman interview; reading it reminds you that the late Chicago School professor was the type of guy who would have been inclined to use the words “building inspector” as a slur on par with “Commie stooge” or “plague-infested subway rat.”

In (more or less) setting the record straight on Chile’s economy, Krugman also ends with a nice aside about a right-wing double standard. Even though I’m not a big fan of Obama’s economic team, I enjoyed the observation:

“The economics of Chile under Pinochet are a lot more ambiguous than legend has it. The way the story is told now, the free-market guys moved in, liberalized, and then there was a boom. Actually, what happened was this: Chile had a huge economic crisis in the early 70s, which was, yes, partly due to Allende and the accompanying turmoil. Then the country experienced a recovery driven in large part by massive capital inflows, which mostly consisted of making up the lost ground. Then there was a huge crisis again in the early 1980s—part of the broader Latin debt crisis, but Chile was hit much worse than other major players. It wasn’t until the late 1980s, by which time the hard-line free-market policies had been considerably softened, that Chile finally moved definitively ahead of where it had been in the early 70s.

So: free-market policies are applied, and presto! prosperity follows — fifteen years later.

But remember, Obamanomics has definitely failed after 13 months.”

Latin AmericaMilton FriedmanneoliberalismPaul KrugmanBill ClintonChilefree tradeHaiti
Mark Engler

Mark Engler is a writer based in Philadelphia and an editorial board member at Dissent magazine. His latest book, written with Paul Engler, is entitled This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century.

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Mark Engler is a writer based in Philadelphia and an editorial board member at Dissent magazine. His latest book, written with Paul Engler, is entitled This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century (Nation Books). Mark’s full bio is available here.

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