Resistance and Alternatives to Neo-Liberalism: G20 as Regulator and Reformer, Is it Sufficient?

We know by now that the Group of 20 Summit in Seoul, Korea aims to manage an imminent currency war, develop consensus on post-crisis responses and financial regulations, to allegedly ‘reform’ the financial institutions.

First, I wish to lay down the effects of neo-liberalism on women’s daily lives, not only recently.  But across the years.  And allow me to take off from my personal realities.

Six (6) years before my birth, then newly elected Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal eliminated all forms of financial and trade controls.  Under the auspices of US President John Kennedy, the Philippine President borrowed $300M from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), signaling the onset of our country’s indebtedness.  The period also saw the government’s formalization of the peso’s weakening against the dollar.  From PHP2 to $1, it was devalued to PHP3.9 to $1 (1).    

By the time I was born, in 1968, the peso was in a floating rate of PHP6-7 against a dollar.(2)   The post-war import substitution industrialization program was replaced by export-industrialization program.  This allowed foreign investors to unhampered access to cheap labor in the country.  The successor President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law and issued a decree permitting 100% foreign ownership of firms in the Philippines, lower mininum wage for places outside of Manila and more incentives for foreign investors.  By 1986, the country has total foreign debt of $27 billion.  In effect, each and every Filipino, even the teenager that I was, had a debt of $485.  

Urban wage workers suffered from tremendous deterioration of their daily wage.  It fell by more than 70% between 1962-1986, due mainly to the weakening of the peso against the dollar.(3)

I was a witness to severe poverty during this period of my childhood.  We moved from one rented apartment to another.  Oft times, I would be the one told by my mother to face the landlord/landlady or the electric bill collector, and lie about where they were, as she had no money to pay for our bills.  My youngest sister and I were traumatized indelibly when the landlady confronted my mother with verbal violence.  The altercation ended with us being told to move out of the house.

We rented servants quarters, or were separated with siblings as we were made to stay with different relatives separately.  I was often threatened not to be allowed to get my school examinations for not paying the tuition fee on time.  For school break snacks, my siblings and I will have pan de sal with cheese or hotdog broken down into small bits so as to “spread the taste”, according to my father.

The Asian Debacle

When the1997 financial crisis came, the tales of poverty worsened for the mothers I organized.  Their families eat only twice or once in a day.  They tuck their children’s school uniforms under their sleeping mats to straighten them, instead of ironing them.  With the deregulation of the oil industry, mothers stopped using gas for cooking, but started collecting wood.  Yet, even wood became scarce as growing numbers of public lands have been privatized in both urban and rural areas.

The years preceding the financial crisis saw unprecedented short-term capital inflows in the region, which registered “growth” in numerous Asian countries.  But the bubble that was the “Asian Economic Miracle” was immediately burst, as “hot money” flew quickly given perceived uncertainties by speculators, and massive borrowing which exposed the Asian economies to greater foreign exchange risks.  

South Korea registered a sharp rise in suicide rates following the crisis.(4)  Unemployment rates doubled in South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand.  Women workers in labour-intensive export industries such as garment and semi-conductors were the first to go. Foreign workers were retrenched en masse from Malaysia (over half a million) and Thailand (around a hundred thousand).(5)

Traffickers and illegal recruiters took the opportunity, having found fertile grounds in the crisis situation, to recruit women into going abroad as entertainers or as wives, but ending up in sexual exploitation or slavery.  Since July 1997 up to 1999, the Australian Embassy in the Philippines granted 690 spouse or fiancée visas to Filipinas.  And not a few were granted for fiancées coming to Germany.  Trafficking has taken even more sophisticated forms such as recruitment, selling and buying of women through the internet. (6)

Analysis

For us feminists, the gross impact of the economic problem in Asia similarly stems from the fact that the neo-liberal paradigm has never seen the differential status and valuation of work of women and men in both the market and non-market economy. The dominant economic model is blind to the inequality of decision-making powers and patterns of expending within the household. It is oblivious to the reality that women historically have been serving as safety nets of structural adjustment measures designed to promote globalization. We would be made to work in the farms instead of paying other workers. We would be forced to enter into casual or home-based work without any job security or benefits. Or we would be pushed to work abroad not only to augment the household income but also to ensure the steady flow of dollars, the foreign exchange requirements of the country. And as it always has been, we women provide health care and education even as the government, consistent with the IMF line, continues to contract the social services budget.  Because of the model’s false assumptions, the onerous impacts to women of the crisis were unforeseen. (7)

Feminists critique neoliberal globalization, thus, not only in terms of its impact on our lives, but because of its masculinist framework given its assumptions.  It rides on the gender division of labour, with women subsidizing reproductive work, and with neo-liberalism basing itself on the idea of competitiveness and domination.

Moreover, it becomes necessary for neoliberalism to use might and arms of states, from the martial law in the Philippines, to the authoritarian governments of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia.  Presently, the G20 itself, in connivance with the conservative South Korean government, is cracking down on migrants, denying voices to those affected from the Global South, forcibly dragging and hurting those who dare protest.  Military aid from the beginning up to now is dangled and anti-terrorism bills are pushed down the throats of poor countries by powerful nations to ensure the “security” of foreign investors, in the guise of a fight against “international terrorism.”  Wars are similarly instigated to generate profits for arms manufacturers in the Global North.  The World Trade Organization (WTO) itself encourage manufacture of arms, given its exemption on security in Article IX of the GATT, thus the encouragement of Bombardier operations in Canada.

Now both globalization and militarism creates the conditions for violence against women, such as sexual slavery, trafficking and prostitution.(8) Liberalization of tourism has always been part of the agenda in the WTO General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS), as part of Mode 2 (’consumption abroad’).  As we already know, liberalized investments in tourism do not only contribute to a loss of jobs in traditional sectors as fishing and agriculture, but also renders women vulnerable to sexual exploitation.(9)  Soldiers demand for bodies of women, as entertainment or weapons of war.  A decade after we booted out the US military bases in the Philippines, I continue to help organize survivors of prostitution in more areas of the country as the Visiting Forces Agreement allowed docking of US ships in 22 ports of the country.

The 2008 Global Crisis

The more recent crisis resulted from a development thrust that promotes profits over people. The growing precariousness of jobs being created and the race to the bottom wages unleashed by neoliberal policies clearly illustrated the failure of an economic model destined for overproduction, in the interest of profit.  “Financialization” becomes an escape in case of overproduction, for maintaining and raising profitability.(10)   Since industry and agriculture render low profits due to over-capacity, large amounts of surplus funds have been diverted to the financial sector.  To make matters worse, governments bailed out corporations at the expense of the people.

Can the recent global crisis make matters any worse for the women?   Mothers now report that instead of buying chicken from the market, they are buying chicken bones just to render their soup tasty.  That will be enough to go with rice for the day’s fare.  Students I teach in the rural areas talk of studying under street lamp posts for lack of power supply.  And their studying will be cut short as village security will turn off the lights early in the evening.
 
Conclusion and Alternatives

In the course of the rise and fall of neo-liberalism, it has undeniably asserted itself as the dominant thinking, defended by country leaders and the self-proclaimed managers in the G20.  But neoliberalism exposes itself to be clearly anti-poor, anti-people and anti-women.  While there are debates between active state regulation and market fundamentalism, and over international financial institution reforms, our duty is to build public understanding and consensus on the true nature of the models being defended by these leaders.

Our duty is to challenge the people, to put their fate in their own hands, not in the hands of the few powerful countries, who have coopted developing countries within.  Our duty is to convince peoples of the viability of alternatives coming from below.

It is our duty, along with the people, to oppose measures that make the poor and the marginalized bear the burden of the crisis. The poor were not responsible nor did they benefit from the policies that led to the crisis. We ought to demand then for the accountability of those responsible for the crisis, and that the economic paradigm they pursued be abandoned.(11)

The economic crisis underscores the need for a more decisive role of society over the market, for more democratic access to resources, as well as for greater public participation in economic decision-making, in countries and the world.  

The World March of Women, contributes to the international resistance against neoliberalism in globalizing solidarity against capitalism and patriarchy.  Connecting grassroots groups and organizations working to eliminate the causes at the root of poverty and violence against women, we are present in five regions of the world.  We march simultaneously across 160 countries denouncing free trade, militarism, and violence against women, mobilizing 5,000 women’s organizations as members.

Our values and actions are directed at making fundamental political, economic and social change.  Our aims include the promotion of equality and justice between women and men, among women themselves and between all peoples; convincing  the general public, other social sectors and social movements to support and institute the changes necessary for improving the status and living conditions of women and women’s quality of life the world over. We also develop and implement feminist actions and proposals that denounce the economic and financial institutions promoting the exploitation and degradation of our resources, climate change and the loss of our biodiversity.  Rural women member organizations struggle for the self-management of our environmental resources based on a development model that respects the basic needs of present and future generations. (12)

As a contribution, I would like to share alternatives formulated by social movements in the Philippines, in the wake of the global crisis, which may resonate with the rest of the Global South.  This is not presented as comprehensive and exhaustive:(13)

We must push for public ownership in strategic industries with a view to assuring universal provision of basic goods and services.   The government should have greater participation in regulating prices.  Banks should be put under strict regulation and demanded to open financial books.  Speculative investments and the like should be regulated and capital controls imposed.  Short term capital flows should be taxed.

Prioritize social services over debt payment.   Dismantle the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and contribute to the global efforts to create more democratic international financial institutions that promote the interests of peoples over bankers.  Undertake an unprecedented reallocation of public funds to social services immediately.  Reverse the privatization of all social services.  

Increase investments and employment in socially-owned and controlled renewable energy projects and energy efficiency measures.  

Restructure the economy to build the domestic market.  Pursue national industrialization plans that foster socially owned and accountable domestic industry without sacrificing agriculture and without harming the environment.

Stop free trade agreements (FTA), whether bilateral or multilateral, and pursue people-centered bilateral and regional trading and other economic arrangements with other countries that promote people’s welfare and not those of transnational corporations, that is based on solidarity and not profit-seeking.  Pursue model offered by UNASUR, Bolivarian Alternatives for the Americas (ALBA), the Trade Treaty of the Peoples, etc.

Implement agrarian reform to accelerate the redistribution of lands to the landless and to
farm workers.  Promote rural development that will provide decent jobs and adequate income for the rural poor.  Ensure effective protection of indigenous peoples’ (IP) rights.

Value reproductive work; apply tax cuts and provide social benefits for non-income-earning but working women.  Increase taxes on luxury goods and other imported goods already produced locally; reduce taxes on goods produced by communities and small producers.  Remove tax holidays and other fiscal incentives for large investors while providing support for socially owned enterprises.  

Move towards food self-sufficiency, away from export-driven agricultural production. Augment the resources for credit and support services for farmers and fisherfolk.  Ban genetically engineered food.  Provide more incentives for local and small producers instead of transnational corporations in food production.

Pursue full employment as the overarching goal of economic policy.  Embark on a strategic long-term plan through which workers can contribute to national development – and not be at the mercy of transnational or outsourcing corporations ready to relocate whenever they wish to.  Secure national treatment for migrant workers in terms of labor rights, social security, and access to justice through agreements with receiving countries.  Provide universal access to unemployment benefits, social security, and insurance.  Ensure equal pay for equal work for women.  

Formulate a coherent national plan on climate change that puts the interests of people over those of mining and logging companies, oil and energy corporations, and others.  In international negotiations, push for agreements that mandate reduced consumption on
the part of the world’s rich.  Work with other governments in demanding compensation for historical ecological debts.  Suspend oil and gas exploration projects.  

Ban land conversion for agrofuel plantations, and abandon agrofuels which divert land away from food to feed cars.  Create a national program for organic agriculture by increasing budget for technology development and training.  Reject false solutions to climate change such as nuclear power, ocean fertilization, “clean coal”, carbon trading, and the like.

Devote resources for peace, not for bombs.  Render justice to victims of military sexual violence and all forms of violence against women.

I would like to end by saying that the mothers, survivors and students I was talking about with whom I, and I’m certain, many women in the South, share similar experiences with, are sending their courage and inspiration to fight with us all.  In the face of the harassment that my partner labor leader and colleagues faced coming here, they told me how the repression only ignited their collective desire to fight.  They are aware that the repression is due to the fear of the powerful that our message will be heard by more people.  As Fumi said, with its actions, the G20 has already failed.  They are already defeated.  As more people were enraged yet challenged to struggle even strongly, because of the desperation of the defenders of neoliberalism.

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(1)  Scipes, Kim.  Global Economic Crisis, Neoliberal Solutions, and the Philippines.  Monthly Review.  December, 1999.
(2)  Rajput, Pam and Swarup, Hem Lata.  Women and Globalisation:  Reflections, Options and Strategies.  1994.
(3)  Boyce, James. Philippines: The Political Economy of Growth and Impoverishment in the Marcos Era,  Journal of Philippine Development, 1993.
(4)  Bello, Walden.  All Fall Down: The Asian Financial Crisis, Neoliberalism and Economic Miracles.  The Asia-Pacific Journal:  Japan Focus.  2007.
(5)  De Dios, Aurora. Macro-Economic Exploitation and their Impact on Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of Women and Girls: Issues, Responses and Challenges. www.catw-ap.org. 1998.
(6)  Enriquez, Jean.  The Asian Financial Crisis and Prostitution:  A Question of Pragmatics and Ideology. www.catw-ap.org. 1998.
(7)  Ibid.
(8)  Enriquez, Jean. Globalization, Militarism and Sex Trafficking.  2006.
(9)  Enriquez, Jean.  The Demand Side of Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation in the Philippines:
Focus on the Role of Korean Men.  2010.
(10)  Bello, Walden.  Alternative Views of the Economic Crisis.  BBC.  April, 2010.
(11) Ynares, Caridad. Why Gender Equality is Important in Addressing Climate Change.  www.worldmarchofwomen.org, 2007.
(12)  People Over Profits, Society Over the Market. 1999.