Athens Meeting 18-20 November 2005, Contribution of
Philippine CP -1930
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From: SolidNet, Tuesday, November 29, 2005
mailto:philcompar_1930@yahoo.com
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International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties
"Current Trends In Capitalism: Economic, Social And
Political Impact. The Communists' Alternative"
Athens, 18-20 November, 2005

Globalization is the present stage of the imperialist drive
for global hegemony, which came in the wake of the
dismantling of the USSR and of the socialist community in
Eastern Europe around one and a half decades ago. It is
characterized by the penetration of imperialist finance
capital everywhere, particularly in the former socialist
and socialist-oriented countries, as well as in the
non-aligned countries, all of which formerly resisted
imperialist dictation and exploitation at the time when
there was a strong socialist system that was a
counter-balance to imperialism.

This stage is also characterized by the imperialist drive
to tie-up or reign-in together the international community
not only as an expanded investment area, but also as a
supra-national market for transnational products and
services, as well as a borderless source of raw materials.
Absent the alternative example of the former socialist
community where social responsibility was paramount,
globalization today means unbridled imperialist
profiteering at the expense of social services and job
security, of national sovereignty and territorial
integrity, of the lives of whole peoples, and of world
peace and security.

The Philippine Experience

The economies of most of the developing countries are
constrained by the dictates of imperialism, as concretely
set in the policies of deregulation, liberalization and
privatization laid down by the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund and the World Trade
Organization. In the case of the Philippines, which has a
neocolonial system where the government acts as the
caretaker for imperialist interests, the bureaucracy is run
by agents of imperialism, with the central bank, the
monetary board, the finance and other departments having to
do with the economy being administered by members of the
Filipino elite who have previously been employed with, or
have trained under, the WB/IMF and/or the WTO.

Also permanent fixtures in other executive departments as
well as in legislative offices are US and other imperialist
advisory and consultancy firms, as well as their related
foundations and "non-governmental organizations",
inflicting themselves on our country by dishing out
prescriptions and recommendations to further deregulate and
liberalize business activities, and to further privatize or
even abolish the remaining state sector of the economy, as
recipes for national progress, even as continued compliance
with such dictates over the past decades has only resulted
in consistent economic decline.

The continued economic decline of the Philippines, in
comparison with other developing countries, is usually
explained only as the result of local corruption or
lackluster compliance with WB-IMF-WTO dictates, However,
the masses of our people are more and more realizing that
our economic under-development is precisely the result of
the long chain of WB-IMF-WTO dictates.

Deregulating the Economy

Based on the experience of the Philippines, the major
imperialist dictates related to the policy of deregulation
are the following :

1. Keeping the economy open to foreign economic
penetration, and granting investment incentives to foreign
investors (which incentives are not even extended to local
entrepreneurs).

2. Allowing foreign investment in almost all business areas
(including areas where foreign capital could compete with,
and even overwhelm, local entrepreneurs).

3. Allowing local borrowings by foreign investors --- from
banks and other financial institutions, and even through
the local floating of stocks (public offerings at the stock
market). It is tragic that instead of directing foreign
investments toward selected industries that need
development, it is the internal savings of the Filipino
people that are being harnessed by foreign capitalists for
purposes determined solely by their selfish profiteering
interests.

4. The granting by the government of contingent liability
guarantees, or the so-called "sovereign guarantees" on the
foreign debt of the private sector. With the business
failure of these private borrowers, the responsibility for
the payment of their foreign borrowings are transferred to
the government, and therefore becomes the burden of the
masses of the Filipino people.

5. The automatic appropriation of funds in the national
budget for the payment of at least the interest on the
government's foreign debt.

6. Allowing the full repatriation of profits and even
capital from the local operations of transnational
corporations.

7. The disregard for safeguards to protect the environment,
whenever imperialist countries would want to transfer
certain hazardous industries. An example of this was the
transfer to the Philippines of the copper sintering plant
which was originally used in Japan to treat its copper ore
imports from Australia. When the sintering plant's waste
discharge into the sea caused the "Minamata disease", the
whole plant was transferred to Mindanao Island in the
Philippines with the blessing of the Philippine government.
In another case, tailings from a copper mine operated by a
Canadian-based transnational corporation (Placer Dome) in
the island of Marinduque caused the poisoning of two rivers
and the adjoining sea in 1996. Instead of undertaking
corrective measures and giving compensation to the people
affected by the carcinogenic discharge, the transnational
corporation simply abandoned the site immediately after the
disaster. And just last month, tailings with dangerous
levels of cyanide from a gold mine operated by an
Australian-based transnational company (Lafayette NL) in
the island of Rapu-Rapu caused the poisoning of 2 creeks
and the adjoining sea, and thereby destroyed the livelihood
of the fishing communities in the island.

Import Liberalization

Regarding the imperialist policy of liberalization, this
continues to be enforced with particular severity in the
area of import liberalization, which resulted to two (2)
major economic disasters for the Philippines: (1) the
closing down of many industries and handicraft factories
which cannot compete with low-priced non-agricultural
imports; and (2) the ruin of farmers and livestock growers
who cannot compete with low-priced agricultural imports.
Industry closures have led to higher unemployment, and the
reduction in the membership and clout of unions in general.
In the agricultural sector, hard hit were rice and corn
farmers in view of the removal of previous production
incentives, and the freezing of support prices to levels of
over a decade ago. Our local livestock raisers and
vegetable farmers are also heavily hit.

Import liberalization is also an anti-industrialization
scheme under which developing countries are consigned to
consuming imported finished products, diverting their
attention away from the goal of developing their own
internal capacity to manufacture their needed products. In
the Philippines, import liberalization has led (on the one
hand) to the closure of more job-sustaining factories, and
(on the other hand) the mushrooming of supermarkets,
department stores and shopping malls selling imported
goods.

Privatizing the State Sector

Regarding the imperialist policy of privatization, this was
first introduced through structural adjustment loans
extended to the Philippine government by the World Bank in
1980. In the wake of the collapse of the socialist
governments in the former USSR and in Eastern Europe,
privatization was even more forcefully enforced. The fall
of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, which was responsible
for the expansion of the state sector of the economy in the
Philippines (through debt-financing) in the 1970s, became a
chance for imperialism and its Aquino puppet regime to
undertake large-scale privatization.

Government television and radio stations, airlines,
telephone companies, iron and steel mills, ship repair
facilities, fertilizer plants, local waterworks and
electric plants, light rail transit systems and
expressways, petroleum companies and military camps were
privatized, with most of the proceeds from privatization
simply disappearing. A few years ago, the country's biggest
water distribution system (that in Metropolitan Manila, the
national capital region) was privatized, with US and French
companies financing the take-over. The promised decrease in
water supply rates and development/expansion of facilities
never materialized ; the cost of water was simply raised a
number of times. Next for privatization are the national
railway, the national power distribution grid, and the
national postal service.

The very lucrative government pension funds for
private-sector and state-sector workers (the Social
Security System, and the Government Service Insurance
System, respectively), as well as some warehouses used to
store security stocks of food grains, plus some hospital
and educational facilities, are also being considered for
privatization. There is even a trend to "privatize" the
system of justice, with litigants now increasingly being
referred to private conciliators and arbitrators, instead
of regular courts. As a result of an international
arbitration case, the Philippine government continues to
pay millions of dollars every year to the Westinghouse
Corporation of the USA for an unfinished nuclear power
plant, whose contract was marked by corruption so massive
as to deserve condemnation in any real court of law.

Practically all public services are being targeted for
privatization under the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in
Services (GATS). However, widespread objection among
developing countries against this target has led to the
collapse of the Doha (Qatar) Round of the WTO negotiations
on such privatization. Unfortunately, this Doha Round is
now set to be reopened with the forthcoming WTO ministerial
meeting in Hong Kong this December, and we have to mobilize
to put mass pressure on the government not to agree to the
purpose of this Doha Round reopening.

The Economic, Social and Political Implications of
Imperialist Dictates

In the Philippines, there is greater impetus for the masses
of our people, and especially for the progressive
organizations, to step us the anti-imperialist struggle, in
view of the socio-economic and political crises that has
engulfed our country.

Without basic industries, the economy cannot grow fast
enough to meet the needs of a rapidly multiplying
population. The economy is extremely vulnerable to external
conditions, because of its excessive dependence on foreign
loans and investments. Even the Philippine currency (the
Peso) is vulnerable to speculators and to the whims of
western "financial ratings" companies (the US-based
Standard and Poor, and Moody's Investor Services, and the
UK-based Fitch Ratings). Portfolio investments usually go
to speculative stocks manipulated by market vultures, and
investors are not concerned with the long-term development
of productive capacity, but only with getting a quick buck.
Prices of petroleum products and basic commodities are
balooning way above their real costs. The economy and the
government's fiscal situation are kept afloat by
remittances from overseas Filipino workers --- earnings
made at the cost of sufferings and discrimination,
victimization by illegal recruiters and abusive employers,
and untold family and social dislocations.

The absence of political stability is due not only to the
unabashed corruption and deception on the part of the
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime, but also because of the
massive poverty and the exclusion of a large number of our
people from meaningful participation in the country's life.
Unbridled corruption and cynicism are rampant in both the
public and private sectors, and the Arroyo regime can never
be able to lead the country out of the present crises.

The electoral system in the Philippines remains one of
patronage, with US imperialism as the main source of
support for aspirants to national offices, and with local
gambling and other vice lords as the main source of support
for aspirants to local offices. By manipulating many
strings leading to the military, the churches, the business
community and several political parties, US imperialism
maintains support or destabilizes particular regimes
according to its own imperialist interests. US imperialism
would have no qualms in deposing regimes (such as those of
Marcos and Estrada) which have outlived their usefulness in
the service of imperialism. For this reason, puppet regimes
in the Philippines have always availed of the services of
professional lobbyists in Washington DC who do propaganda
work for them in the corridors of power. In the middle of
this year, the Arroyo regime availed of the services of
Venable LLP, a lobby group which is supposed to drum up US
support for Arroyo's proposal to change the Philippine
Constitution. Here is a case of a puppet regime paying a
lobby group hundred of thousands of dollars to get
political and financial support for a project that
imperialism itself would like to foist on our country --- a
project which would demolish all remaining patriotic
provisions of our Constitution.

The present Arroyo regime is increasingly unable to make
both ends meet, as indicated by chronic budget deficits and
the constant increase in taxes and fees. Further, the
government is now also unable to service the public debt
without having to take out new loans.. All of Arroyo's
grandiose plans for job creation, poverty reduction and
financial stability remain only as deceptive promises as
she continues to do the bidding of imperialism. As a result
of the government's bankruptcy, public infrastructure is
deteriorating, and the national environment is being
degraded. Public morale is declining, as shown by rising
rates of emigration.

The neocolonial system despoils the country's manpower
potentials due to limited employment opportunities, and has
forced 10% of the country's population to seek employment
and permanent residence outside the country. The country
sends abroad highly trained doctors to work as nurses, and
nurses to work as care-givers, thus sowing the seeds of a
future crisis in our domestic health services.

Lacking in employment-generating industries, half of the
country's employed manpower works in the service sector.
Well educated professionals are forced to work as "customer
relations officers" and "product marketeers" in call
centers, and skilled teachers as nannies and domestic
helpers locally or abroad. The quality of public and
private education is expected to deteriorate with the
massive emigration of teachers, and this would affect the
future of our young people.

The neocolonial system makes inevitable the demolition of
the middle class, and the widening of social disparities
within our country. Crime and even terrorism continues to
rise because of glaring inequalities in life's chances and
opportunities.

The Context of Independent Economy

Independent economies are those which resist the
imperialist impositions of deregulation, liberalization and
privatization. The remaining socialist countries (primarily
Cuba, Viet Nam and the People's Republic of China) are at
the forefront of this resistance. While some socialist and
socialist-oriented countries allow some limited capitalist
enterprises to develop certain limited areas or fields of
investment, however, the engine of growth remains primarily
that of the state sector of the economy.

A very promising addition to the socialist and
socialist-oriented countries is Venezuela, where the
Bolivarian Revolution led by President Hugo Chavez is
endeavoring to build socialism. Venezuela is blessed with
excess petroleum resources, and the Bolivarian Revolution
is primarily relying on this to build up its economy as a
whole. With the assistance of Cuba, the Bolivarian
Revolution in Venezuela is working hard to eradicate the
poverty, the lack of educational services, and the lack of
health and other social services that are the legacies of
Venezuela's neocolonial past.

The economic independence of socialist and
socialist-oriented countries can be safeguarded and
consolidated with the ruling parties standing firm on the
basic focus of socialism, which is the improvement of the
life of the people, the optimization of education and
culture, the provision of adequate health and social
services, and the eradication of poverty; with the ruling
parties constantly reaffirming its nature as the
representative of the working masses, and not as the
caretaker for the interests of imperialism and the native
elite.

We are very confident that Cuba and the Bolivarian Republic
of Venezuela will continue to stand firm against
imperialist economic pressures, and will stay the course of
independent economic development.

But insofar as non-socialist-oriented developing countries
are concerned, is there a possibility of building
independent economies in the present context of neo-liberal
globalization? The hope lies not in the hands of the
stooges of imperialism that are periodically rotated as
native ruling regimes in order to present an illusion of
"democracy". The hope lies in the hands of the organized
masses, the representatives of the working peoples who
truly embody democracy. It is the educating, organizing and
mobilizing activities of Communist and Workers' Parties,
and of the various anti-imperialist mass organizations in
these countries, that keep alive the hope of a successful
fight-back against imperialist dictates, and for the
liberation of the economy from imperialist exploitation.

The Possibilities for Economic Independence

Beyond the rhetoric, the basic questions concerning
economic independence for developing countries are the
following:

1. Can we re-nationalize? Can we resist the pressures for
further privatization? Surely, dwindling petroleum
resources and the constant increases in oil prices will
compel many governments to re-nationalize the petroleum
industry. This is a call of many mass organizations in our
own country, and this demand is now being echoed by
patriotic elements in the Philippine legislature. Further,
there is growing resistance against the drive for the
privatization of hospitals, the food security agency, the
government-administered workers' pension and health
insurance funds, and the other agencies which are presently
mandated to extend socially-necessary services.

2. Can we re-impose protectionist measures? Can we resist
the continued pressures for import liberalization? In the
Philippines, local entrepreneurs have revived the National
Economic Protectionism Association (NEPA), which
organization is leading the fight for the re-imposition of
protectionist measures by way of quotas and tariffs.
Organizations of farmers, livestock raisers and even
consumers are also active in the struggle against
destructive import liberalization, and are demanding that
the government renew the extension of production
assistance, and the reasonable adjustment of support prices
for vital crops. Another organization, the Fair Trade
Alliance (FTA), groups together exporters, other local
manufacturing groups, as well as labor groups in industries
affected by the flood of imported goods, and takes a united
stand against import liberalization.

3. Can we refuse to pay the unjust foreign debts? There is
a growing call among our people for a thorough audit of the
country's foreign debt, and for the repudiation of all
those onerous debts which have not really profited the
country, but have only gone to line the pockets of the
foreign creditors and their local agents at the expense of
our people. We know that international creditors will try
to enforce economic measures to compel debtor states to pay
the so-called "obligations", but at least, the solidarity
of debtor countries similarly situated can help ensure
observance of the Drago Doctrine in international law,
which prohibits any country from declaring war just to
exact payment.

The Need for Solidarity

The struggle of developing countries to liberate their
economies from imperialist dictates is multi-faceted, but
in general, the different aspects relate to the following
United Nations' Millennium Development Goals : (1) Trade
Justice; (2) Debt Cancellation; (3) Increase in the
quantity and quality of aid; and (4) Progress in national
poverty reduction and eliminate. To these goals should be
added the democratic reform of the United Nations itself.
The democratic reform of the United Nations should not be
limited to the political reforms outlined in the Campaign
for A More Democratic UN (CAMDUN), but should extend to the
economic aspects as well. However, this can be realized
only with the broadest solidarity and cooperation among
countries and peoples.

Going back to the particular case of the Philippines, our
most pressing concerns in the economic field are the
following : enactment of measures against the forced
liberalization and privatization of public services; ending
the dumping of commodities by imperialist countries and
transnational corporations ; increasing the accountability
and transparency of the government in dealing with the
WB-IMF-WTO ; and a public and transparent audit of all the
loans secured by all the past regimes or "kleptocracies",
in order to root out and denounce all those odious loans
stemming from fraud-tainted deals.

These general and particular issues are expected to entail
uphill battles for our Party and the masses of our people,
but surely, we have to step up and strengthen the struggle
because these issues are intrinsically entwined with the
overriding issue of national sovereignty --- the very issue
of maintaining our people's livelihood capability. The
success of the Philippine anti-imperialist struggle is
intertwined with the anti-imperialist struggles of other
developing countries. Our different national struggles give
strength to each other, and thus the issue of solidarity is
more crucial than ever.

In this spirit, I would end by proposing the creation, by
this International Meeting of Communist and Workers'
Parties, of a center, or even of an informal structure or
mechanism, for the regular exchange of information on the
different methods and ways of combating imperialist
economic dictates and exploitative practices. Such a center
or informal structure or mechanism would surely help
strengthen solidarity, not only of the libertarian economic
struggles of developing countries, but of the broad
anti-imperialist struggles throughout the world.

Thank you for your kind attention.