Seth Donnelly - The Lie of Global Prosperity

THE LIE OF GLOBAL PROSPERITY

The Lie of Global Prosperity

How Neoliberals Distort Data to Mask Poverty and Exploitation

by SETH DONNELLY

Copyright 2019 Seth Donnelly

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Donnelly, Seth, author.

Title: The lie of global prosperity : how neoliberals distort data to mask poverty and exploitation / by Seth Donnelly.

Description: New York : Monthly Review Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2019028697 (print) LCCN 2019028698 (ebook) | ISBN 9781583677650 (paperback) | ISBN 9781583677667 (cloth) | ISBN 9781583677674 (ebook) | ISBN 9781583677681 (ebook other)

Subjects: LCSH: PovertyDeveloping countries. | Neoliberalism. | CapitalismMoral and ethical aspects.

Classification: LCC HC59.72.P6 D66 2020 (print) | LCC HC59.72.P6 (ebook) | DDC 339.4/6091724dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028697

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028698

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Contents

Dedicated to my father, who stimulated my interest in global economics, introduced me to Monthly Review, and inspired meand still doesto work for revolution

In systems organized upside down, when the economy grows, social injustice grows with it.EDUARDO GALEANO, OPEN VEINS OF LATIN AMERICA

Preface

A new era has been proclaimed. In recent years, we have seen one public figure after another come forward to announce a dramatic decline in global poverty. These heralds of a new age include Bill Gates, the World Bank, and a host of anonymous writers at The Economist. All bring the good tidings that capitalismstoked by information technology and spread globally since the end of the Cold Warhas ushered in a new epoch of shared human prosperity. The message bearers do not agree about everything: some cleave to neoliberal doctrine whereas others argue for a more statist, regulated economy. Yet all concur that current-day capitalism has spawned a new era of human redemption, and all believe that it combines economic development with a systematic reduction in poverty.

It would all be wonderful, if only it were true. In fact, capitalism in our time continues to produce distorted and stagnated development, and it goes on grinding down the majority of people. Yet the capitalist class and its allies work hard to make us think otherwise. They do so by spinning a web of spurious data, bad arguments, and sometimes outright lies. Its this class-based project, expressed in obscurantist claims about global prosperity, that this short book aims to debunk. The purpose is to expose the epidemic of poverty that is the real and persistent fruit of capitalist development.

In the arguments deployed here, I have tried to synthesize the findings of researchers from different fields into a work of popular education. The books main audience is revolutionary activists and participants in social movements. In addition to bringing together previously disparate pieces of evidence, I have attempted to communicate the information in a clear, accessible manner. Along the way, I illustrate many of the more abstract findings with examples taken from my own experience as an activist.

In reporting on poverty in Third World countries (often called today the Global South), I try to show how global imperialist capitalism systematically produces poverty and subsequently attempts to cover up that crime with bad data and misleading arguments. The book does not directly address the interlocking forms of dominationnational oppression, white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, xenophobia, ecocide, and othersthat are key aspects of the same capitalist system. Nor does it deal with the grassroots and labor struggles that spring up throughout the world, resisting oppression and sometimes fighting to uproot exploitation once and for all. The methodological decision to leave such struggles outside the books framework is not meant to discount their importance. On the contrary, the hope of overcoming global poverty depends on inter-movement solidarity and consolidating our collective capacities across borders into a revolutionary project. As Audre Lord declared some forty years ago, The masters tools will never dismantle the masters house.

Note: The bulk of the research for this book was done between 2016 and 2017 in response to trumpeting by the World Bank and neoliberal trendsetters such as Bill Gates that global poverty had been dramatically reduced and that the corresponding United Nations Millennial Development Goal on poverty reduction had been successfully achieved in 2015. As such, this book does not address more recent developments, such as Trumps international economic policies, and the most recent data collected by international institutions. However, these more recent policies and data will not alter the fundamental findings presented here.

Many people have influenced my work in this book. Family, friends, and activists in social movements in which I have participated are all fundamental sources of inspiration. I also owe special thanks to John Bellamy Foster for initially encouraging this research, to Michael Yates and Chris Gilbert for their amazing editorial work, and to Martin Paddio and Susie Day at Monthly Review Press for helping shape and publicize this book. Finally, I owe thanks to Erin Clermont for her excellent copy editing.

Introduction: A New Millennium?

O n February 29, 2004, one year after the United States invaded Iraq, an unnumbered aircraft bearing a U.S. flag flew out of Port-au-Prince. Inside were President Jean Bertrand Aristide and his wife. This was part of a carefully orchestrated regime change that Haitians refer to as the coupnapping of their democratically elected president. In the months that followed, U.S. troops, together with their French and Canadian counterparts, began to occupy the Caribbean country. Meanwhile, a U.S.-backed interim regime systematically waged a war of repression against the countrys poor majority, and especially against activists associated with Aristides Fanmi Lavalas movement.

Following the coup, the U.S. government was able to secure a UN Security Council resolution establishing the Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH). Stabilized by UN peacekeeping soldiers (Blue Helmet troops), the interim government ramped up its reign of terror. UN troops began directly collaborating with the Haitian police in violent actions against civilians in popular, pro-Aristide neighborhoods such as Cit Soleil and Bel Air. Thousands were murdered, as bodies piled up in the streets and morgues, in what amounted to a systematic campaign to eliminate

A public high school teacher in Californias Bay Area, I was able to spend much of the summer of 2004 in Haiti, investigating prison conditions in Port-au-Prince as part of a small human rights team. We found the countrys penitentiaries to be overflowing with political prisoners from the Lavalas pro-democracy movement. They were there together with random people from poor neighborhoods whose crime had been to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The prison conditions were abysmal, far below the most basic human rights standards.

The next summer I returned to Haiti to continue this same work in prisons and also to participate in a Haitian labor movement conference. On July 6, a young Haitian journalist, activist, and friendgaunt from malnutritiontracked down our delegation with a view to sharing his video footage of a massacre by UN troops conducted earlier that morning in Cit Soleil, his own neighborhood. The next day, he skillfully guided me and a small team of Haitian human rights activists into this huge, pro-Lavalas community of approximately 300,000 people. At that time, the interim government and MINUSTAH had laid an all-out siege on Cit Soleil. The young journalist was clearly trusted by people of all ages who came forward to meet with us. His graceful way of relating to children, peers, and elders, combined with his energy to fight injustice, are still with me as I write this.