By Whatsupic with Global Research



The main goal of imperialism today is to ensure that the former imperial states still maintain economic dominance over their former colonies. This is accomplished in the form of neo-colonialism. When neo-colonialism first took hold, political scientists were unable to formulate a concise definition. After independence, many assumed that the newly liberated nations would begin to “to develop very rapidly, politically and economically.” [1] However, when that did not come to fruition, political scientists looked again at the dependency theory and added a second part. This new addition acknowledged that underdevelopment in the newly liberated countries continued due to highly developed countries dominating underdeveloped economies “by paying low prices for agricultural products and flooding those economies with cheap manufactured goods.” [2] Because of this, the post-colonial countries would be unable to industrialize their economies, and thus would remain at the mercy of their former colonizers.

Also, the colonial powers used debt to keep their former colonies in check. One example is the odious debt, which is defined as “unjust debt that is incurred as rich countries loaned dictators or other corrupt leaders when it was known that the money would be wasted.” [3] In loaning out this money, it served the colonial powers in two ways. One, they could use the debt to keep the nation(s) under thier control, and two; they made money off the high interest rates.

When it comes to loaning money there has been complete hypocrisy between developed and developing nations. One example is after WWII, when the US loaned the U.K. at low interest rates, and the Allies cancelled most of Germany’s debt. In both cases, it was intended to enable the developed nations to rebuild in the wake of World War II. Yet, when in it comes to third-world nations, double standards prevail. Many sub-Saharan African countries are being forced to pay back debt at rates “three to five times the level that Britain or Germany paid after World War II.” [4]

In addition to insuring dependency of the former colonized nations on their old masters, the colonial powers also encouraged their companies to move in and take full control of the economy of developing countries. This was presented to the public as “economic liberalization.” In this process, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was the tool used.

One tragic case of IMF intervention is Jamaica. After the island nation’s economy crashed in the early 1970s, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Michael Manley, giving into pressure from the IMF and the conservative People’s National Party, came up with an initiative that “included many elements of democratic socialism as it called for disengagement from international capitalism, socializing the means of production and exchange, increasing Jamaica’s self-reliance, and diversification of foreign economic relations.” [5] The conservative People’s National Party was not pleased with this idea of “democratic socialism,” and thus went to the IMF for aid. This was disastrous for Jamaica. They were lent the money in 1977, but had to agree to “pension and wage [cuts and] the removal of price controls” [6] and by 1980, “the economy in Jamaica was in worse condition than before the IMF loan. Thirty percent of the island’s workforce was unemployed and the foreign exchange deficit was significantly higher than in 1977.” [7] The freeze on pensions and wages were beneficial to the foreign corporations, who later moved in as they were now able to fully exploit the Jamaican people without having to worry about any minimum wage or labor laws.

We can see that the IMF being used by the European Central Bank to protect the interests of the economic elite in the situation of Ireland’s debt crisis. This is also evident in Greece, where the banks are being bailed out at the expense of the working class, sending them into of crushing austerity measures. However, the populations of Ireland and Greece, realizing what is at stake, are determined to resist. They will not take this oppression lying down. Instead, they actively protest the acts of their government and demand that they not be held responsible for the incompetent acts of the powerful economic elite.

Dazzling and supremely erudite, Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner denounced as terrorism the economic policies that have been strangling the developing world during the past century, and are continuing these criminal actions today, the legacy of Milton Friedman’s Chicago Boys’ gangster economic policies. These policies, implemented by the infliction of “shock therapy,” institutionalizing torture, murder and disappearances of individuals, groups, and often heads of state who defy these barbaric economic models, are policies which are more accurately described as global economic theft, sanctioned by the theory that “might makes right.”

The IMF’s “conditionalities” were described, in sanitized language, as “structural adjustment programs,” demanding the obliteration of free national education and health care programs, causing the destitution of majorities of citizens in the developing countries, and resulting in the gross indebtedness of collaborating governments to parasitic interests of multinational corporations, banks, hedge funds, vulture funds and their ilk. The Milton Friedman Chicago Boys policies were described by one of Friedman’s most brilliant students, the German born economist Andre Gunder Frank, as “economic genocide.”

The Cuban delegate to United Nation stated the appalling fact that “Developing countries had paid many times the amounts originally received as loans and that devoured resources essential for development.” The distinguished American economist Joseph Stiglitz has repeatedly emphasized precisely this same fact.

President Fernandez Kirchner explicitly denounced as economic terrorists the “vulture funds” which, supported by the United States’ judicial system, are attempting to destabilize and ultimately overthrow her government. She stated: “Not only those who place bombs are terrorists, but also those who destabilize the economy of countries, and cause hunger, misery and poverty from the sin of speculation.”

Even though the United States and its allies constitute a power force, a resistance movement is in the making. In the future, we may see developing nations wielding influence over their own domestic affairs; and neo-colonialism, much like the direct colonialism that preceded it, could become a thing of the past. People are waking up, the wind of revolt will rise everywhere and will challenge all despicable Kissinger who have polluted planet Earth. The end of capitalism and imperialism is looming on the horizon.

End Notes:

1: http://science.jrank.org/pages/7920/Neocolonialism.html

2: Ibid.

3: http://www.globalissues.org/issue/28/third-world-debt-undermines-development

4: Ibid.

5: http://science.jrank.org/pages/7920/Neocolonialism.html

6: Ibid.

7: Ibid.