Deepening Financial Markets In Fiji

The Failure of Capitalism and the Fight for Socialism Today

Nearly three years since the breakdown of the US and global financial markets in 2008, not a single problem has been resolved and the economic and political turmoil is deepening.

In Europe, debt-stricken governments are imposing savage austerity cutbacks to jobs, wages and public services to pay for the vast sums that were handed over to bail-out the major banks and corporations. Youth unemployment is well over 20 percent across much of the continent.

In the US, health benefits are being slashed, public education gutted and social services eliminated, while the Obama administration prepares further budget cuts in excess of $4 trillion. With over 24 million American workers unemployed or underemployed, millions of families have been forced to declare bankruptcy and abandon their homes. In close collaboration with the government and the trade unions, US auto companies have cut the wages of new employees by 50 percent—to just $14 an hour, setting a precedent for every industry. American conditions are being driven so low that the US is now becoming a preferred cheap labour destination.

The Obama administration’s agenda, along with that of its counterparts in Europe and internationally, amounts to a social counter-revolution, aimed at wiping out the gains made by the working class in the decades following World War II. This domestic assault is being accompanied by a return to great power rivalries and imperialist gangsterism on a scale not seen since the 1930s. The war on Libya is nothing but a naked attempt by the US, Britain and France to seize control of the country’s energy resources and reverse the growing influence of China and other “emerging” economies. In Asia and the Pacific, intense military tensions have developed between the US and China, drawing countries throughout the region into their struggle for geo-political dominance.

From the onset of the economic crisis, the entire Australian political establishment has conducted an ongoing campaign aimed at pulling the wool over the eyes of ordinary people. The claim is that Australia remains the “lucky country”, that its economy has defied the global slump and that it will never be seriously affected due to ongoing demand from China for its mining and energy resources. In the 12 months since the anti-democratic political coup against former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, however, the reality has begun to surface.

Commonwealth Secretariat - Commonwealth, La Francophonie seek to ...

The Commonwealth Secretariat and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) - two global organisations whose members include about 100 of the world's poorest, smallest and most vulnerable countries, with a population of about 2.5 billion people - are seeking to provide a series of practical inputs to the development agenda of the G20 - a Group of the world’s most advanced and emerging economies.

As part of this initiative, the two organisations organised a joint meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, on 28 June 2011, aimed at providing practical ideas on how to include the concerns of the most vulnerable of their members.

The conference took place shortly before – and at the same venue as - the meeting of the G20 Development Working Group (DWG), at the Cape Town International Conference Centre.

At their meeting in Seoul, South Korea, in 2010, G20 leaders released the G20 Multi-Year Action Plan for Development, and mandated the DWG to pursue it.

The plan focuses on nine key development challenges. These comprise of: infrastructure, human resources development, trade, private investment and job creation, food security, growth with resilience, financial inclusion, domestic resource mobilisation, and knowledge sharing.

These are issues the G20 leaders consider as significant bottlenecks to increasing and maintaining growth in many developing countries.

Dr Cyrus Rustomjee, Director of the Economic Affairs Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat, and one of the organisers, said that the Cape Town meeting focused on suggesting key action points in three of the nine areas identified by the G20 DWG: promoting growth with resilience; ensuring financial inclusion; and promoting effective participation of the world’s poor countries in global trade - to create jobs and improve livelihoods.

“These issues rank among the most crucial challenges for these countries in securing sustainable growth, effectively participating in global trade and widening and deepening domestic financial markets to ensure the participation of the unbanked and small and medium enterprises,” Dr Rustomjee said.

Dr Rustomjee said that it is also crucial for the international community to support efforts to promote financial inclusion - access to finance for households and small and micro enterprises in small and poor developing countries.

He said that growth without considering resilience - the ability to cope with external shocks - in tough times, cannot be sustainable.

Journal of Pacific studies

Public Finance, Monetary Policy and Market Issues

Confronting Fiji futures

Summary of proceedings

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