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Speculative capital in the global age, by Jim Davis
The ‘casino economy’ is a more apt metaphor than ever to describe the way that global finance operates today, with an unparalleled freedom made possible by the information revolution. Jim Davis here lays its workings bare, to show that scandals like the collapse of Enron or the devastation caused in Asia by the currency crisis of 1997 are not aberrations but integral to the whole system. The poverties that are inflicted on the developing world and the insecurities faced by ordinary people in the developed world are revealed as an inevitable consequence of globalised capital.
The military backbone of globalisation, by Sohan Sharma and Surinder Kumar
How do you get poor and Third World countries to swallow the neoliberal medicine that globalisation’s pundits say is good for them? In this exposé, Sharma and Kumar, document the methods by which countries are brought in line with the dictates of globalisation. From Venezuela to Colombia to Egypt to Haiti to Indonesia to Pakistan – and all points in between – different combinations of political and financial pressure are exerted. But, if these fail, always ready to be activated is the threat of outright military force, funded and provided on an almost unimaginable scale by the US.
American Cataclysm, by E G Vallianatos
In turning over its agricultural lands to agribusiness and in furthering the eradication of small family farmers across the nation, the US is turning its back on its own historical traditions. Such a process is creating environmental damage on an unprecedented scale, with profound human consequences. In this passionate analysis, Professor Vallianatos looks back to the ancient Greek tradition in which farming was part of the practice of democracy to indicate a way forward.
Multiculturalism in Singapore: an instrument of social control, by Chua Beng Huat
Multiculturalism, or multiracialism as it is officially termed, is inscribed into Singapore’s ethnically determined Constitution, with parliamentary representation split, according to guaranteed quotas, between Malays, Indians and the numerically dominant Chinese. But its significance as a factor shaping the nature of Singaporean society goes beyond the franchise into every area of social interaction, serving as a means of control and warding off any but the most superficial examination of racial and ethnic questions. In this, it serves to preserve racial hierarchies in aspic, rather than potentially encouraging them – as in more open, self-styled multicultural societies – to break down.
Race & Class is published quarterly, in January, April, July and October, by Sage Publications for the Institute of Race Relations; individual subscriptions are £27/$47, for four issues, with an introductory rate of £20/$35 for new subscribers.
