The Hindu : Kerala News : Only Left can resist globalisation: Patnaik

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 26, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Only Left can resist globalisation: Patnaik

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, NOV. 25. The noted economist Prabhat Patnaik has said that the Left alone can resist globalisation, as it is the only organised political force capable of presenting an alternative to globalisation.

Addressing a session on ``Imperialist globalisation and socialism'' held as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE) this evening, Dr. Patnaik said that the Left agenda should be based on the revival and strengthening of the nation State. The Nehruvian project aimed at self-reliant growth had failed because it was not based on redistribution of wealth. The Left should base its agenda on redistribution of wealth, a substantive role for the public sector and expansion of the domestic market through employment generation, he said.

Left mobilisation

Dr. Patnaik said that though the national bourgeoisie in several countries and many NGOs were fighting against globalisation, only the Left was capable of mobilising the peasants and workers who were the worst hit by globalisation. Individual nations could hardly fight against globalisation because a coterie of former World Bank bureaucrats had infiltrated into the central organs of Government in the Third World countries.

In India, the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission were former World Bank bureaucrats.

Neo-liberal policies

It was an ironic situation where neo-liberal policies came riding piggyback on other issues. The people vote governments into power for some set of reasons but were forced to live with policies that had no relation to the issues on which the governments were voted to power.

Dr. Ninan Koshy chaired the session.

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