“CURRENT GLOBALIZATION SOWS HATRED AND TERROR”

The German economist Franz-Josef Radermacher supports a Global Marshall Plan

[This interview originally published in the Austrian Der Standard, September 20, 2004 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, http://derstandard.at/druck/?id=1783772.]

[The German mathematician and economist Franz-Josef Radermacher, b.1950, is a member of numerous commissions in industry and politics and has directed a research institute at Ulm. He taught at different universities, received many awards and is the author of more than 200 scholarly publications. Since 2001, Radermacher has been vice-president of the Eco-Social Forum of Europe. Since 2002, he has been a member of the Club of Rome. He was one of the main speakers at the Alpbach Forum on the theme “Limits of Growth or Unlimited Growth”.]



STANDARD: You are a sharp-tongued globalization critic. Isn’t global economic growth the only chance for development in the South?

RADERMACHER: No. I am not a globalization critic. There is no point in opposing globalization. Globalization simply happens. However it could be organized much better. In its current form, globalization destroys the environment, makes the world poorer than it could be and sows hatred and terror. I understand myself as a globalization visionary.

STANDARD: Were the attacks of September 11, 2001 a consequence of economic globalization?

RADERMACHER: Certainly there is a connection. Through globalization, we massively influence the cultural conditions in poorer countries. We profit economically but hardly promote development since there is supposedly no money in development. Since September 11, $100 billion a year were suddenly available for so-called Homeland Security. There are people who want this because they make a fortune in Homeland Security and can keep us under surveillance more perfectly than before. The world obviously cannot raise the $60 billion necessary to finance a school education for all the children of this planet in the framework of the UN-millenium development goal by 2015.

STANDARD: You see a direct connection between globalization and terror. Why isn’t there much more terror in Europe? We Europeans also play a role in globalization.

RADERMACHER: People worldwide know who are the taskmasters or slavedrivers of a market-fundamentalist form of globalization and who are the victims. Not surprisingly this misguided form of globalization prevails more strongly in Europe through the WTO-mechanisms against the will and interests of the great majority of the population. In countries like Germany and Austria, this perverse globalization causes a massive dismantling of the social state increasing pressure on the public treasuries. Among us the whole development burdens 85 percent of the population while 15 percent are winners of this process. Those who already have plenty of money are given even more money. This is the worldwide agenda.

STANDARD: How do you see the future?

RADERMACHER: The future is very nebulous. Two different possibilities exist: balance or destruction. I see a 35-percent likelihood of transforming the current system into something better by realizing a worldwide eco-social market economy and a global Marshall Plan. However there is a 65-percent likelihood that the system will continue as in the past. This means: property- and resource dictatorship, a forced development program for the poor world, offensive wars, plundering of the environment, concentration of wealth among those who are rich anyway through the fatal world trade mechanism and finally limiting civil rights.

STANDARD: How can we afford a global Marshall Plan?

RADERMACHER: The South should be included in the further development as the new partner cou9ntries were included in the European Union expansion. In a “deal”, the poorer countries must accept the international labor-, social-, environmental- and cultural standards. The industrial nations could pay co-financing measures like school education for children in poorer countries. A hundred twenty billion dollars annually would be necessary in the next years. The funds could be gained from the international fees on trade, financial services et cetera.

STANDARD: That sounds like classical economic aid to developing countries which has never really functioned.

RADERMACHER: No, new conversion methods with NGOs and the world civil society are vital, not classical economic aid to developing countries. Child labor would no longer be encouraged worldwide through commitments beyond the standards of the World Trade Organization (WTO). That would be an enormous advance.

STANDARD: You dream of a more just world, a very ancient dream.

RADERMACHER: A world in which 24,000 persons die of starvation everyday and several hundred million children are without a school education cannot be just and is unacceptable.

STANDARD: The rich become richer and the poor become poorer. Isn’t this formula too simple? The massive economic growth in China does not only bring prosperity for a small elite.

RADERMACHER: Yes. China, a country that isn’t a democracy and follows a rigorous population policy, is the best example for development at present. This is true although China does not do what market fundamentalists always propagate. In Africa there are even declines. You should not forget: Ten percent economic growth in China represents per capita only a third of the absolute growth that one percent growth in Austria represents.