Overview of Women and Globalization

Overview of Women and Globalization

Presented to the Asian Women's Workshop on Globalisation. Manila, November 22-24, 2001.

by Susan Price - Democratic Socialist Party, Australia.

In the Marxist movement, war is defined as 'politics by another means'.

The current military intervention in the gulf region by the major superpowers and their deputies, including the Australian ruling class and their military, is the result of a crisis which has been brought about by the policies of the major imperialist powers against the Third World for decades. It is a direct outcome of the failure of the capitalist system and the failure of the project of neoliberal globalisation.

This war which was given the perfect pretext by the terrorist attacks in the United States, is an acceleration of attempts by the imperialist powers to roll back the gains of the international movement against neoliberal globalisation, and instead to engage in a permanent war on the Third World.

Far from causing the economic crisis, it was already well underway in the US and Japan prior to September 11, and certainly looks set to be further aggravated in the wake of the terrorist attacks and now through this war. And once again it will be working people globally who will suffer most from this crisis.

As Fidel Castro put it in a televised speech on November 2 to the Cuban people, "Humanity must now confront three extremely serious problems, which feed off of one another: terrorism, the war and the economic crisis".The movement against neoliberal globalisation has long been fought in the countries of the South. The anti-WTO protests in Seattle, combined with the refusal of the leaders of the countries of the South to agree to the terms dictated by the countries and institutions representing the interests of the economies of the North and before them the mobilisations in Europe around the G8 summit and in Latin America meetings of the World Bank brought the campaign against neoliberal globalisation firmly onto the political stage in the North.

Seattle, the 'other S11' - that is the anti-WEF protest in Melbourne in September 2000, as well as the mobilisation of 300,000 people in Genoa, have heralded a new movement and a new radicalism. This movement is now more and more directing its attention to the campaign against the war and for the rights of the victims of globlisation and war -- refugees and asylum-seekers. The next issue to confront this movement is the attacks on democratic rights which have already manifested themselves in investigations by the FBI against the feminist solidarity organisation, Women in Black, as well as attempts to introduce legislation through the parliaments of the US, Britain and Australia which will legalise further violations of the rights of foreign nationals, refugees, and supporters of solidarity organisations and campaigns.

The emergence of the new movements against neoliberal globalisation and the mass mobilisations against its international financial institutions have seen thousands of women mobilised on the streets and organised in campaigns. Women activists must continue to struggle to take the leadership of this movement against a new war on the Third World.

It is the women of Afghanistan and before them the women of Iraq (Khurds and Iraqis alike, as well as women of other states in the middle east, Asia, Africa and Latin America) who have been at the frontline of anti-imperialist struggle. Already robbed of their civil and democratic rights by the often fundamentalist and ultra conservative regimes (the direct result of the colonial policies of imperialism); already at the mercy of archaic and barbaric family laws which legitimise their abandonment, their murder and torture at the hands of family members -- now these women are faced with annihilation at the hands of the military weapons and troops of the United States, Britain, and Australia, and possibly with the assistance of more and more countries cowering in the face of ultimatums by the likes of George W Bush.

Women will bear the brunt of attempts to reestablish colonial rule and occupation in the region, in the name of oil profits and strategic military and economic objectives. Disgustingly, the very war has been waged on the people of Afghanistan, we are told is being waged in the interests of liberating women from the Taliban regime! And while the US pretends that part of its objective is to liberate the women of Afghanistan, it is simultaneously reinforcing the oppression of women by its support for numerous reactionary, brutal regimes around the world.Women have borne the brunt of neoliberal globalisation since the economic downturn of the 1970s brought with it an unprecedented economic attack on the lives of working men and women across the globe.While the Asian economic boom may have given the impression of a prolonged economic recovery and prosperity, this was short lived and now the international working class face protracted attacks on their rights in the face of an even deeper worldwide recession.

The explosion of speculative investment illustrated the unsustainable nature of the global financial market. Billions of dollars was shifted away from productive investment into the global casino of the stock market, which facilitated a false sense of security, and when the bubble finally burst, jobs were shed and working people's lives altered in the wake of collapse after collapse.

While the world was being told that this new era of prosperity thanks to globalisation would mean an end to economic recession and the era of self-regulation, the events which have happened with and since the Asian economic crisis of 1997 have heralded in a new phase in the world's economic situation.

Poverty, combined with a rise in fundamentalism has seen women pushed back into the dark ages in many countries. Additionally women's precarious position in society in relation to production and within the family and society in general has enabled and perpetuated their global exploitation through the sex trade, and their suffering through increasing global and local conflicts over ever decreasing resources.

In the former Soviet bloc, as the restoration of capitalism has removed the protection for workers which accompanied the planned economy, it is women who have been the first to be thrown on the scrap heap as privatisation creates skyrocketing unemployment and public welfare spending is slashed.

In the advanced capitalist countries, the capitalist class has long benefited from the exploitation of the natural resources and labour