- The Guardian
- Issue #2116
“Free trade” is pushed by the big corporations because it permits them to undercut domestic manufacturers or growers, to drive them out of business or take them over. “Free trade” is really anarchy and the law of the jungle by which the stronger drive all others to the wall and into bankruptcy, while workers are left on the scrap heap.
A struggle between “free trade” and “protectionism” has waxed and waned in Australia for over 100 years. One of the early political parties in Australia went by the name of ‘Free Trade’ and won over 35 per cent of the vote in the 1901 elections.
The alternative to these methods of trade is the adoption of the principle of “mutual benefit.” “Mutual benefit” trade means that the buying and selling of goods between countries is carried on with an eye to the benefit of both countries – not just one. It means the widespread use of trade agreements which set out the terms and conditions and quantities of goods to be bought and sold. It introduces a planned approach to trade and industry development.
It involves the public ownership of major trading organisations so that the national interest can be effectively protected while taking into account the interests of a trade partner.
When the struggle against apartheid in South Africa was at its height, a global blockade was implemented, to make South Africa’s isolation tangible and clear. Several countries – and quite a few capitalist firms – sought to thwart this blockade but few dared to do it openly because of the world-wide abhorrence of the blatantly racist apartheid system.
One state that did not hesitate to give aid (especially military aid) and succour to the South African racists was Israel. South African gold helped make Israel one of the world’s major arms manufacturers and suppliers.
The universally-condemned South African policy of segregated areas or ‘Bantustans’ for the black population of the country today forms the basis for Israel’s policy in illegally-occupied Palestine, with Palestinians substituted for Africans.
For half a century the US, with an eye to securing control over Middle East oil and at the same time countering Arab unity and possible Arab power, has given Israel open and unstinting support, using military might and UN veto to provide a shield for Israeli aggression.
Israel has been the USA’s big stick in the region, and a mighty useful big stick it has been. In the meantime, on the strength of this special relationship, the Zionist ‘Israel Lobby’ in Washington has flourished, attaining extraordinary influence and consequently power.
Now that power is attempting, with the aid of the corporate mass media to hide from the eyes of the world Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians. It is a reflection of the changing world that the post-apartheid South African government has now brought charges of genocide against Israel for this crime in the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
PARASITE OF THE WEEK: Peter Dutton and the Coalition he represents: someone so rigid, so stiff with crippling hatreds, so spiritually dysfunctional, out of touch with everything that is joyful and beautiful, with no discernible reverence in him for human life, with never a hope of wisdom, living through politics in a constant striving for self-gratification, as if politics were a colourless blood substitute in his veins.
