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Re: NAFTA, Capitalism and Alternatives: Debate, pt.1
Did you read the Food First policy brief, CHIAPAS AND THE CRISIS OF MEXICAN
AGRICULTURE, by Roger Burbach and Peter Rosset (it appeared on this list)?
They talk about village-based development that could be integrated with
ejidos or other rural communities so that it would provide jobs and positive
cash flow integrated with traditional agriculutal life. Can't development
occur collectively? Isn't that an alternative to capitalist development?
Development is good for the economy, sure. Is it always good for the people,
the land, the air, the culture? It is not.
I've been on this list for a few months. I have to admit that it has
awakened in me leftist leaning that had been on the back burner. It seems
clearer to me every day that human rights, environmental concerns and true
global cultural diversity are threatened by huge powerful capitalists, not
because they are evil or sinister, but because they have such a clear
interest in increasing efficiency, production and profit.
So Victor, I don't think its about adolescent fantasies. It's about finding
realistic alternatives. Capital and government have their places in the
world, but they should not be the arenas in which all the agenda are set.
Power to the people. It's not a matter of looking back nostalgically, but
about understanding it better and making it happen, in our lives,
communities and in the world.
--peter
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