footnotes2marx

Recently, France has been rocked with protests from students and workers regarding the new controversial law pushed through by Prime Minister Villepin. It suggests that the companies can 'hire and fire' the youth workers more easily.
http://www.voanews.com/english/Controversial-Law-Causes-Political-Unrest-in-France.cfm

However the protests are more than they show. The new law may be an immediate cause , but not the root cause for the movement. The protests are mainly against the constant attempts to tear away and dismantle the welfare state and pursuing unbridled globalized capitalism. I recently read a good analysis of the French protests by an Ameriacn Professor-Richard Wolff.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/wolff310306.html

Mr. Wolff is quite impressive in his analysis of the protests and how it is serving as a beacon light for similar protests all over the world. However, the cynic in me suggests that these protests will not reach far.We have been witnessing serious and large movements all over the world against big bourgeiosie induced globalization. However, most of them are falling short of the desired objective.

We still do not have answers to some key questions:
(1) What is the 'way out' for a nation -job losses to the low cost developing countries by trying to maintaining wages for its workers or adopting a 'hire and fire' policy and reduction in wages and benefits for its workers?
(2) What is the alternative to a globalized world with free flowing information and capital? Is it the Soviet style 'iron curtain' and simple 'protectionist' measures? Let us not forget, that protectionist measures are sometime counterproductive too.

We need to envision a new strategy to fight this big burgeiosie induced globalization with working class induced gloablization. While Marxist theories will lead the path, a new approach needs to be followed. What if allowing big burgeoisie to leverage low cost labour by shifting bases of production, we had a more globalized working class--where there would be a uniform benchmarking for skill sets and workers possessing that particular skill sets would be paid the same, irrespective of their country of origin or race ? What if attempts were made to realign currency exchange rates according to a purchase power parity? Note while I initiate the concept of same wages --I don't do so in abosolute terms, but in relative terms of the PPP (Purchase Power Parity) of the nations. Well , these are very initial & top of the mind thoughts and would need a lot of research to understand if they are viable. But surely the existing system is not the answer and neither does the old theories provide for the answers.

Having said the above, I hope the leaders of the Paris movements and their supporters world wide are asking these questions. I would think that the time has come to reinvigorate an international body like the International as existed in the early twentieth century. We need a real alternative to the IMFs and Worldbanks of the world. We need a globalized body of trade union workers, student activists, women activists , environment activists and the like. The World Social Forum is a good start, but we are yet to see any concrete alternatives coming out of it so far. To me the opposition to globalization and neo-liberalism is far more scattered and divided than the proponents of it. Too many cooks are spoiling the broth--quite literally so.