Winter Week 13 - Wallenstein, Santos, Zapatista Army

Question 1

Neolibralism

Answer 1

• right and centrist wing response to changes after the 1968 revolution, attempts to lower costs of production in all three cost areas, abandoned developmentalism in favour of globalization and opening of borders
• Thatcher, Reagan, IMF, WTO
• market-based liberalism that is being pushed by powerful economic interests on a global scale
• allows global North to exploit global South

Question 2

5 Components of Neoliberalism

Answer 2

1. The Rule of the Market- Competition takes precedence, ex. union-busting
2. Cutting Public Expenditure for Social Services- Government funds for basic services are often redirected to ‘cover’ tax breaks for large international corporations, less funding for social services like education, healthcare, and other provisions that often provide a ‘safety net for the poor.’
3. Deregulation- Government intervention weakened in any area that may impact the ability to increase profit. This could be anything from weak legislation against foreign interests to a removal of safety regulations for workers.
4. Privatization- Many state-owned enterprises, goods and services are available to be privatized or bought by companies. This means that services (everything from hospitals to education and fresh water) are no longer a guaranteed ‘right’ to be provided by the government, but become provided by a business who has an interest in accumulating profit, often results in significantly increased fees for such services, making them largely inaccessible to many.
5. Elimination of the Concept of the Community- With such changes the idea of a community (“We are all in this together”) becomes replaced by rampant individualism (“What’s in it for me?”). This includes ‘blaming’ individuals for their economic situations (‘Pull yourself up by your bootstraps”) rather than understanding the larger social context. This also results in a massive challenge to informal communal social supports which have traditionally been very important for working-class and poor communities.

Question 3

How can a system overcome a crisis? (Wallerstein)

Answer 3

-crisis can been only be overcome by going outside of the framework of “the historical system of which the difficulties are a part”
-crisis of the system is unable to be resolved by the system itself
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Question 4

Explain ‘runaway factories’ phenemon

Answer 4

-in an attempt to continue maximizing profits companies have ‘outsourced’ or moved their factories abroad where wages are cheaper