Failure of Global Capitalism

From Cape Breton to Columbia and Beyond

Terry Gibbs, Garry Leech

What do Cape Breton and Colombia have in common? Coal, for one thing. Coal mining was the backbone of Cape Breton’s industrial economy for more than one hundred years, but the last mine was closed in 2001 when the province’s utility company took advantage of neoliberal globalization by importing coal—from Colombia.

Colombia and Cape Breton represent the loss of well-paid, unionized industrial jobs as a result of neoliberal globalization—the economic hegemony that allows multinational corporations in the global North, primarily North America and Europe, to exploit the natural resources and cheap labour of the global South: Latin America, Africa and Asia.

But the commonalities between Cape Breton and Colombia do not end with coal, there are numerous connections directly related to the capitalist system: militant labour struggles, repression, economic insecurity, population displacement, social inequality and environmental devastation.

The Failure of Global Capitalism uses the examples of Cape Breton and Colombia to illustrate the harsh realities suffered by people throughout the global North and the global South under neoliberal globalization, particularly with regard to socio-economic and environmental issues. Ultimately, it exposes the failure of industrial capitalism, and looks toward more sustainable and egalitarian alternatives.

Contents

·      Foreword

·      Introduction: The Impossible Dream

One: The Rise and Fall of Industrial Capitalism in Cape Breton

·      The Cape Breton Radicals

·      From Confrontation to Collaboration

·      Dismantling the Compact

·      The Era of Industrial Decline

·      Back to the Future

Two: Colombia in the Era of Neoliberal Globalization

·      The Path to Neoliberalism

·      Plan Colombia and U.S. Intervention

·      Natural Resources and Human Rights

·      Canada and Colombian Coal

·      The Human Cost of Free Trade

Three: The New Economy in Cape Breton and Atlantic Canada

·      The Call Centre Phenomenon

·      The Anti-Union Strategy

·      Canada’s Energy Policies in the Era of Free Trade

·      The Social Fallout

·      The Failure of Community Economic Development

·      The Need to Challenge Global Structures

Four: Alternatives to Global Capitalism

·      A Venezuelan Alternative: The Bolivarian Revolution

·      The Environmental Challenge

·      A Colombian Alternative: Las Gaviotas

·      Local and Global Linkages

·      Conclusion: We Have Met the Enemy

·      Epilogue

·      Notes

·      Bibliography

·      Index

·      About the Authors

About the Authors

Terry Gibbs is an assistant professor of Political Science and director of the Centre for International Studies at Cape Breton University. She specializes in issues related to democracy and globalization. Gibbs is a contributor to the book New Perspectives on Globalization and Antiglobalization: Prospects for a New World Order (Ashgate Publishing, 2008) and her articles have been published in various journals.

Garry Leech is an independent journalist and editor of Colombia Journal (www.colombiajournal.org). He is the author of several books, including Beyond Bogotá: Diary of a Drug War Journalist in Colombia (Beacon Press, 2008) and Crude Interventions: The United States, Oil and the New World (Dis)Order (Zed Books, 2006). He is also the co-author of The People Behind Colombian Coal: Mining, Multinationals and Human Rights (Pisando Callos, 2007). Leech is a lecturer in Political Science at Cape Breton University.