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Ashwani Pal

Globalisation & Impact on Indian Society

t is a great honour to be asked to inaugurate this seminar. From the list of the
contributors and those who are going to participate, I notice some of the best
creative minds of Andhra Pradesh, particularly of Hyderabad. I am, therefore,
hesitant because I dont think there is much that I can really add in terms of
intellectual caliber to the input that all these contributions would make. But,
nevertheless, since I have been asked to inaugurate, I have to fulfill this formality.
This seminar has been titled as Globalisation and its impact on Indian Society and I
have been asked to give an overview of the developments that are taking place. I will
attempt to do that. But, it would not be, I must confess, a very structured lecture.
Various aspects of this theme that I would like to touch upon, I am sure in the next
two days you will deliberate in greater detail.
To understand the entire canvas of the term Globalisation, I think, at the outset, we
must be clear about its international dimension, before we talk about its impact in
India. Because often there is a misconception that this Globalisation is the result of
some sort of a conspiracy by the developed countries. They are coming together to
conspire against the rest of the world and what has been put out in the name of
Globalisation is nothing else, but a new recipe for the imperialist domination over the
world. There is an element of truth in this, but this is not the whole truth. We have to
follow, I am afraid, the method of legal proceedings when you say that I shall speak
the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The other two aspects of nothing
but the truth and the whole truth also have to be taken into account when we are
discussing Globalisation.
Because its not only a conspiracy by the imperialist west. This point we must
understand in terms of the internal dynamics of capitalism and capitalist
development. It was nearly 150 years when Marx, (I am going back to Karl Marx
not only because I am a Marxist or I belong to the Communist Party. But I sincerely
believe that the most penetrating analysis of capitalism was done by him and in a
prophetic manner, he said many things which are very very relevant to todays
conditions. I will come back to some of these aspects later, particularly when we
speak of culture and the impact of Globalisation on that.) analysing the development
of capitalism, one seminal point that he made was that as capitalism develops, there
is a tendency towards centralisation and concentration of capital and over a period of
time, you will have fewer and fewer capitalists but larger and larger capitalists. This, I
think, in the era of Globalisation has turned out to be absolutely true. Because,
what we see developing particularly before this new offensive which we call
Globalisation came into being in the world, is a very high degree of concentration of
capital in a few hands. The water shed, in that sense, the distinguishing
characteristic of this phase of Globalisation is what is now often defined as
I

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Globalisation of finance capital. This finance capital which essentially was capital
that used to live of and live on the industrial capital has branched of to become a
powerful source on its own. Its dimension can be understood, for instance, by the
fact that world trade today is something to the tune of seven trillion dollars annually.
The financial flows in the world today are to the tune of something like 400 trillion
dollars. That is more than 50 times the actual trade in the world is actually taking
place in terms of financial speculation and financial activity. This finance capital that
has grown in such a dimension has specific features.
Thanks to the technological advances it is instantly mobile across the globe in its
search for profits. It can travel across the globe within seconds. So there is no barrier
so to speak for the movement of this financial capital and since the barrier for
movements dont exist the immediate demand that follows from this development is
that no sovereign nation or a country can impose any barrier on this flow. So the
development of this phase of Globalisation, with the expansion and concentration of
this international finance capital, makes a corollary demand for maximising its
profits: There cannot be any conditions, restrictions or barriers for its movement
across the countries. This is the first characteristic, the demand on sovereign
countries to adopt Financial Liberalisation, i.e., do not impose any conditions on the
flow of finance capital. This is one part that the developments taking place.
The other part of development that is taking place internationally was the high
degree of concentration of industrial capital. All of you are aware about the growth of
the multinational corporations and the dominance that they actually have over the
world. In fact, some of these corporations have annual sales, which are larger than
the GDPs of many countries. American multinational corporations and, in fact, the
top 200 companies in the world today are estimated to account for nearly one-third of
the worlds income. This concentration of industrial capital also demands that in the
search for maximisation of their profits, conditions where there are minimal or no
restrictions imposed on the inflow and outflow of this capital into various countries.
So therefore, the demand that came in from the internationalisation of finance capital
to do away with all restrictions on its flow, is buttressed by the demand that comes
from the centralisation of industrial capital which also says restrictions should be
removed and no country will have the right to impose any conditions on the entry of
this industrial capital into those countries in search of maximisation of their profits by
exploiting their resources and their cheap labour etc.
Therefore from both ends, from the development of finance capital and the
development of industrial capital, there was a tendency in the international
development of capitalism to move towards this phase of Globalisation, that we see
now. Add to this the similar demands on having no restriction on trade flows and the
picture of globalisation is complete.

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This is not happening because of the will of somebody but this is happening because
internal dynamics of capitalism itself is such that it brings you to this point where the
higher degree of concentration capital demands a newer global order. So that the
fundamental aspect of capitalism, that of maximisation of profits, continues
unhindered. So this independent sort of development of the internal dynamics of
capitalism is something that should not be ignored because otherwise it appears as
though everything is happening on the basis of the will of human beings: so and so is
good and so and so is bad. Since we have bad people governing the world today,
you have this sort of economic conditions that are developing. That is not the case.
Actual concrete developments are taking place. Remember in `Capital', Marx makes
a very very pertinent point, saying that profit is the motive force of capitalist
development, he says With adequate profit, capital is very bold. A certain 10 per
cent will ensure its employment anywhere; 20 per cent certain will produce
eagerness; 50 per cent positive audacity; 100 per cent will make it ready to trample
on all human laws; and 300 per cent and there is not a crime at which it will scruple,
nor a risk it will not run, even to the chance of its owner being hanged." So the
objective law of capitalist development is pushing the world towards this phase of
what we call Globalisation. It is, therefore, the system and not a set of any individuals
or countries that are responsible for this development.
The second aspect is the subjective utilisation of these objective conditions by the
western countries particularly by the United States of America-led imperialism. With
the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the economic
counter-veiling power that existed globally collapsed. These former socialist
economies were also sucked into the vortex of the global capitalism. Once this
happened, the onward march of global capital for maximising its profits did not have
any sort of an obstacle that it used to face during the four decades after the second
world war. In such a situation, you had a vision of a new world order that was
articulated by present Bushs father, i.e., Bush senior, when he was the President of
United States of America. This vision envisaged the global domination of the West
particularly of imperialism under the leadership of United States of America. It was
given a concrete and also a legal shape. The institutions of the IMF, the World Bank,
and the later-formed WTO in 1994 -- all became the instruments to put into practice
this new world order.
This is the current phase of Globalisation what we are talking about. I have noticed
various papers by distinguished participants on various sectional impacts of this
Globalisation. I am not going into those details, but what is the main objective of this
entire process? The main objective in my opinion is to create conditions where by
the rest of the world, that is the developing world, is again brought back into a
bondage of economic slavery. Globalisation, as it is currently envisioned by

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imperialism, is actually a blueprint for the economic recolonisation of the developing
world.
Keeping both these objective and subjective aspects in mind, we will have to actually
evaluate what is happening at the global level and the impact that is taking place on
our country. In the last ten years you find that the lowest one-third of the world's
people's average per capita income declined from 3 percent of the top one-third to
1.9 per cent and for the middle one-third, it declined from 12.5 per cent to 11.4 per
cent of top one-third. That is the lowest one-third population of the world today gets
per capita 1.9 per cent, what the top one-third earns and the middle one-third gets
about 11.4 per cent of what the top one-third earns. That is put together 13 per cent
goes to two-thirds of the humanity and 87 per cent goes to the top one third and this
trend that is widening. The essential point that emerges is the intensification of the
exploitation of the people on a global scale. There are more than 100 countries who
are actually poorer today than they were 15 years ago. That is, in absolute terms,
there is a decline in their incomes correspondingly, in absolute terms, there is
increase in profits generated by the global capital from their countries. This process
of Globalisation, therefore, represents the classical shift in the balance of forces
away from the people towards big capitalists. This is the political impact of this
Globalisation: shift in favour of multinational capital and their profits at global level
and, in the process, economic exploitation of third world countries or the developing
world has been intensified. Therefore, the singular-defining feature of Globalisation
at the international scale is the growing of inequalities. The growing of inequalities
between countries and the growing of inequalities inside countries between the rich
and the poor.
As someone remarked, finance capital is the single player in the world casino. The
world is a gambling place and this finance capital is on its speculation march making
super profit. So the first direct impact on us are growing pressures to remove all
restrictions on inflow and outflow of financial capital.
The second, which is currently being negotiated in the WTO, which is called the
multinational agreement on investment MAI, i.e. remove all restrictions on the inflow
of industrial capital and remove all restrictions on the repatriations of profits. We, in
India, have implemented this to a large extent allowing the free flow of FDI. This
Vajpayee government has gone to the extent of opening up every sector. The
strangest thing you will find with this government is it has opened up 100 per cent
access to FDI in real estate. Even countries, which are advocates of liberalisation,
Globalisation etc, have restrictions on foreigners acquiring property.
The third area of globalisation is the removal of all restrictions on foreign trade and
provide access of your markets for the products produced by the industrialised world.
Bending over backwards to appease US imperialism, this Vajpayee government has
already, not only removed quantitative restrictions, but also progressively reduced

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import duties so that virtually we move towards a zero import duty regime. That is the
goods from the advanced countries can come and take over our markets and
maximise profits.
As a result, India is moving dangerously towards being enslaved again economically
by the industrialised west. You are aware, from the 9
th
of this month, the WTO
meeting is going to take place at Doha. Though we dont know whether the venue
will be Doha or some other place because Americans have decided to land their land
troops in Afghanistan yesterday so what happens in that area we dont know, but in
any case it is very clear that Americans dont want postponement because they see
a very opportune moment because of this so called war against terrorism. There will
be very few countries that will be able to standup to US pressures.
Let us specifically discuss the impact on India. You have circulated, I notice, Prof.
Prabhat Patnaik's paper, which tells us that in ten years of reforms what has
happened to Indian economy. Therefore, I do not want to deal with the economy in
greater detail. Other aspects of Globalisation and its impact on India, I think, also
merit attention. But on the economic front, let us to sum up what has happened as a
result of globalisation. If you look at it sector wise or if you look at its macro-picture,
one myth that has been exploded is that Globalisation has lead to a higher growth
rate in India. The pundits of Globalisation have been saying we have broken out of
the so-called Hindu rate of growth. The Hindu rate of growth they define between 2
and 3 percent and they say that Globalisation has given us growth rate of more than
6 percent. Now this point is brought out in Prabhat Patnaik's paper. When you look in
to it, in terms of the five year averages, the highest growth was between 1986 and
1990, when you crossed 8 percent and after that in the next 5 year averages you will
actually find a decline. That you come down to from 8 to 7 and then to 6 percent by
year 2000. We have had an actually declining growth rate during this decade of
reforms -- one. Second, in macro terms you see particularly the accentuation of
inequalities between the rich and the poor. This has in a glaring manner lead actually
to a contraction of the domestic demand. `Rich have become the richer and the poor
have become the poorer' is unfortunately regarded a clich. But as most cliches do
it makes sense. In the process of the poor becoming poorer the actual domestic
aggregate demand declined. The net result has been the inability of large sections of
the people to buy leading to the inability of industry to sell what it has produced
resulting in a recession. This, in turn, is resulting in decline in employment. This, in
turn, again is strengthening the process of declining domestic demand. This
completes the vicious circle of the recession and unemployment. The worst situation
currently facing our country. In the first two quarters of this financial year, if you take
your core sector, that is basic sectors in the economy; steel, cement, coal etc they
have grown by 0.1 percent as compared to 6.3 percent in the corresponding period
last year. So if your core sector has declined like this means that your entire

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industrial sector is in a big crisis. And that is why the captains of industry when the
budget was being presented I am sure all of you were seeing on TV Mr. Rahul Bajaj
was giving 9.8 points out of 10 points to this budget. I remember, on the
Doordarshan, I was called for the last session in the night. The anchor when he
called me said Sitaram its been a boring day because there has not been a single
person who opposed the budget." Then I said you called me late you know, if you
could have called me earlier I could have opposed it earlier. He said Mr. Rahul Bajaj
gave 9.8 points out of 10 to this budget so I said I would not give more than 2. I said
within 6months you will find this budget instead of reviving or kick-starting the
economy will push the economy into greater recession. That has been vindicated.
The classic feature of liberalisation has been the intensification of exploitation,
capitalist exploitation of the Indian people where by profits have grown , peoples
capacity to spend has decreased, as a result of which, overall economy is in a phase
of recession. This is very typical of a liberalised economy, because the objective is
not overall economic growth but to maintain and increase the levels of profits of your
capitalist class. This impoverishes a large section of the people to the extent that
the economic survey of this year has shown as that the employment growth rate of
last year has been close to 0 percent. And if you look NSS data, it shows you that
during this phase of liberalisation, there is a drastic fall both in rural and urban
employment. If you look at the primary sector, that is agriculture, for the first time,
you have the growth of foodgrain output, actually falling below the population growth
rate and nothing typifies the actual graphic description of this liberalised economy as
the mountain of food stocks you have on one hand and the starvation deaths and
distress suicides of farmers on the other. This is that glaring inequality that we talk of
which is exacerbated after these policies have been brought in. Agriculture in that
sense has been going through a very serious crisis, with a third continuos year of
either stagnation or decline in its growth.
Now, this is typical again of Globalisation. One important feature of liberalisation is
the States withdrawal form economic activity in the name of free market -- the
philosophy , the ideological tenet of Globalisation. This, in other words, means the
States capacity to invest in the economy declines leading to a decline in capital
formation. Declining domestic capital formation adversely affects the future health of
economy. That is actually what is happening. States withdrawal has two types of
impact. One is that the gross domestic capital formation declines, which impacts on
the general economic growth. Secondly states withdrawal means whatever little
responsibility that the state has towards the people in terms of education, health, in
terms of other social obligations, are progressively abandoned by the government.
In other words, the people have a double pronged attack on them. Because of
decreased economic activity the employment opportunities and their livelihood get
adversely affected. Secondly, because of the State's withdrawal from social sector

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what ever relief they were getting that also gets reduced. The livelihood of the vast
masses of the people deteriorates sharply.
Impact of Globalisation in India has also many other dimensions. It has wide ranging
impact on everything else connected with our lives. It impacts our entire culture or
the entire value system, on the milieu in which we are living. Again I go back to
Marx. 150 years ago, he actually said that capitalism not only produces the object for
the subject but it also produces subjects for the object. He made a very penetrating
statement. In todays advertising world if you see this what is actually being created.
You are creating human beings who are capable of consuming certain products. The
emphasis is no longer on creating the products that are required by the human
beings rather creating human beings that are required for the products. This is
essentially the defining feature of culture under Globalisation. Human beings are
reduced to the status of products who will consume the other products that
capitalism produces. This entire trend of culture -- consumerism, degeneration etc --
creates its own atmosphere which effects every aspect of our life and society.
One immediate impact can be seen in the declining political culture. Globalisation
has thrown up in India absolutely newer avenues for corruption, which were unheard
of or unconceivable ten years ago. The entire range of corruption that you find in our
country today and the political corruption that you find as a consequence -- flood
gates have been opened by this process of Globalisation.
Globalisation and liberalisation mean the opening up of areas for kickbacks and
commissions to a large extent. In the process, the entire culture of corruption if we
may call it, has undergone a `revolutionary' change where you find the ways in which
money can be made has not only expanded but it is having a tremendous impact on
the political life of this country. This is an important aspect because the causality
here is actually genuine democracy and the obvious consequence is the very sharp
rise in political opportunism. This sharp rise in political opportunism also is creating a
degree of political instability which will seek to move the polity towards
authoritarianism. The degeneration of polity seeks to divorce politics from all
democratic content and reduce it to sordid bargaining and manouvering. Very often,
we see now a days, the corporate world saying separate economics from politics.
This is their politics! They are actually saying that reform process should take place
independent of what is happening in our political life. They want to separate reforms
from politics so that nobody can interfere and the politicians are told that you can
confine yourself either to destroying Masjids and building temples or giving
reservations! That is your agenda and do not talk of economics. So the attempt to
separate economics from politics in other words separate the political life of the
country form the actual economic decisions that are being taken, is a very important
consequence of the process of Globalisation. How this is impacting on our political
life we are able to see in various aspects of the type of governance that we are

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seeing in the last few years both at the center as well as in your state Andhra
Pradesh.
The type and scope of corruption in the Globalisation period is enormously
enlarged. This is having a direct impact on the polity: who will form the governments
and who will not form the governments. In 1998 when the Vajpayee government fell
by one vote, what ever be the other political aspects, the prospect of an alternate
government with the support of left was something, that the corporate world actively
worked to make sure does not happen. Why? Because you had on the agenda the
privatisation of insurance sector, you had on the agenda the changes in the patent
laws that had to be brought about. Now the moment a government comes with the
support of the left then this entire process of economic reforms or liberalisation will
not proceed at the same pace that the corporate world wants. There are rumors of
large amounts of money that were transferred to make sure that such a possibility
does not occur. So, with this Globalisation, liberalisation you have an active
involvement of the corporate sector and big money in defining or deciding on what
type of government you will have, what sort of parties will come together with whom
and there fore the entire process of your political institutions and the political
structure of our country itself is being altered significantly. Globalisation is having a
serious impact on the content of democracy that we have, spread of democracy that
we have.
Let us return to culture at large. Globalisation is accompanied by a need to
homogenise the product, even the cultural product. The more homogenous the
product, the greater the market it has whether. Where ever you go in the world, you
will have the same soaps, same toothpaste, and the same sort of other products that
you will find in our country. The homogenisation of the product is the first step in a
globalised economy for maximisation of profits by the multinational corporations.
Homogenisation of products also has a natural consequence in the homogenisation
of culture. Studies have shown that in Sub-Saharan Africa, people may not have
anything to eat, they may not know how to read and write but the moment you show
them Walt Disney's mickey mouse, they will recognise it. This is homogenisation of
a certain thought process and homogenisation of certain symbols. Homogenisation
of symbols requires cultural products to be produced on mass scale. One immediate
impact is that all the rich variations in the cultural legacies will be eliminated in order
to create the homogenised product. This is the essence of culture of globalisation --
homogenisation of cultural products and symbols.
In India, the communal forces and communalism in a way also requires the
homogenisation of culture. For them, this is essential to portray that the entire
cultural heritage of this country is a monolithic heritage that is derived only from the
Hindu religion. The plurality and the diversity and all that variety that we have is
actually sought to be erased by giving a communal interpretation of culture. The

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impact you will find also in education and in the entire area of knowledge. Therefore,
to homogenise this culture requires efforts to actually rewrite or redefine our own
diverse cultural heritage and put it into one singular monolith. This is the ideological
project of the communal forces.
So globalisation's need for homogenisation of cultural products globally dovetails
with the communal forces need to homogenise cultural products domestically.
Saffronisation of education, rewriting of Indian history, or the symbolism that is
constantly being shown or assimilation of non Hindu religions into the Hindu fold, this
entire process that is taking place at the ideological subterrian is directed towards
this project of creating a homogenised culture which actually suits the agenda of
communalism. This is having a very deep impact on India and Indian society.
Ramjanma Bhoomi movement that is taking place in UP today or in what happened
to the Taj Mahal the other day when the BJP youth went and attacked it. I mean,
Taliban attacks the Bamian Buddha's in Afghanistan the BJP attacks the Taj Mahal
in Agra. What type of difference do you find between the two? They are two sides of
the same coin. Mr. V.P. Singh, the other day, called Bal Thackeray, the Osama bin
Laden of India. The culture that is paraded by globalisation actually finds a very
strong ally in fundamentalists of all hue's and cries the world over. Incidentally it is an
irony of history that today the country that is being bombed, Afghanistan, its people
are probably the only people in the world who have not seen the destruction of WTC
on the television because the Taliban banned TV some years ago saying it is anti-
Islam! So In Afghanistan no body saw the terrorist attacks. The poor Afghan who is
being attacked by bombs does not even know what happened.
Globalisation of Indian society, taken on the whole, we see the direct impact that is
taking place on the economy which is leading, on one hand, to the ruination of
millions of people and, on the other hand, to severely mortgaging our country. The
Comptroller and Auditor General of India, reviewing the accounts for last year has
shown that India, a) is already in a foreign debt trap, b) the outstanding debt and
liabilities of government of India today stand at more than 16 lakh crores of rupees
and the interest being paid is one and half lakh crore rupees annually. The country is
being mortgaged, millions of people being ruined, the economic fundamentals in
terms of infrastructure, the countries economic wealth being ruined and the assets
and wealth of the people of the country being looted. Public sector is being sold for a
song. In other words, bolstering the private capitalist class and their profit making
capacities at the expense of the country and the people. This is the impact in the
economic sphere.
In the sphere of polity, we have situations where political alignments are decided by
which type of economic policies will be pursued. The nature of political culture is
defined on the basis of your commitment towards liberalisation and to that extent the
fall in political morality also takes place correspondingly with a higher dosage of

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liberalisation and globalisation that takes place. The latest example of this is the re
induction of Mr. George Fernandez into the cabinet. Today no questions are asked,
except by people like us who keep on shouting. The government says go to hell. As
long as big business and capitalists are supporting this government because of the
reforms that are being implemented they do not care too much for peoples opinion.
Three more years are there when the elections are due. May be that year, they will
consider the views of the people but otherwise satisfying corporate sector and the
capitalist world and foreign capital has become the defining yard stick of political
culture today.
The third area of this impact we have to take it into account is in the sphere of
culture. It is having a very very deep impact in India and is ably aided and assisted
by the communal forces in the country. They also seek the same objective of
homogenising the cultural product or homogenising the cultural milieu that is there in
our country which the communal forces seek to utilise for their agenda. Globalisation
uses it for its agenda of mass production of cultural products. Together they are
wreaking havoc with Indian society. It is a serious danger for India's unity and
integrity.
Regarding globalisation, in that sense, there are various other aspects that we can
talk about. How it is impacting the State; how it is eroding the national sovereignty of
independent countries; whether the `nation-state' itself is a viable concept under
globalisation or not. These are issues which you will be discussing in your papers
and I have not gone into it. Broadly speaking, these are the three main areas of
impact of Globalisation, that I wanted to share with all of you, of course, in the
background of the independent process of the dynamics of world capitalist system
itself which is being utilised in the present phase by the advanced capitalist countries
particularly the U.S.A to strengthen its hegemony over the world and extract the
maximum exploitation of the third world countries. I said earlier that what they seek is
actually a blueprint for economic recolonisation of the developing world. That is the
actual purpose and intent of the present phase of Globalisation.
In this light, our struggles against this will have to be defined. So finally, I would end
by talking about how do you struggle against this? One aspect is to resist the
governmental policies and oppose this government's succumbing to the interest of
foreign capital and to prevent the government from going the whole hog that it wants
to go in mortgaging our country and putting the burdens on the people. Yes, we have
our traditional forms of struggle and these are growing both internationally and
nationally, as you all know.
However, I would like to refer to what many people are saying that in todays world of
modern information technology where you have now, 6.1 billion e-mails being sent
every day, your enemy also appears illusionary. It doesnt appear tangible. I mean
how are you going to determine against whom to have a demonstration. At a point of

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time, a good friend of ours, Mr. George Fernandez, thats why I said at one point of
time he was a good friend and not at the moment. In those days, we used to go for
joint conventions. Whenever the organisers used to bring cool drinks, he would
always look for thums-up or something domestic, pick it up and show me and say
you Marxists will drink Coca-Cola but I will drink only Campa Cola, I am nationalist!
Then I used to tell him, you may be drinking Campa Cola, but tell me where is the
profit going. Coca-Cola has bought up Campa Cola! You can have your symbol of
being nationalistic but basically the profit has gone to the same multinational
because he has already bought up the other company.
Many may say now comrades in this present new world how are you going to
struggle against the intangible forms. That is wrong. I mean to say that the enemies
are very tangible, they are actual class forces that will have to be fought and the
class battle will have to be sharpened. That is one aspect. However, as the situation
develops, new forms of struggles will also develop. All those of you who are familiar
with computer technology and use your e-mails will know a big movement is growing
today and has millions of followers world wide called the free software movement --
the Linnux/GNU movement. What is that? It is a revolt taking place at one level. We
have to recognise that this is a revolt that is taking place against new manifestation
of capitalistic exploitation. This is telling Microsoft that we will not give you super
profits for your control of your copy right of the software. We will have our alternative
and millions of people are doing this all over the world voluntarily, not really
connected with each other through any party or through any mass organisation. But
their voluntary response, that is the essence of what Marx said, capitalist
exploitation by itself generates the rebellion against exploitation and that is what has
to be organised in order to over throw capitalism. But the fact that it is triggering a
rebellion is something we will have to understand. What is it the other new area
where the struggles are emerging? I am sure many of you are familiar with a book
called NOLOGO by a person called Naomi Klien. If you are not, I seriously suggest
you procure a copy and read it. Two weeks ago, the London Economist, one of the
most respected but right wing journals of the world, had a cover story on this
NOLOGO calling it PROLOGO. The book is against corporate brands and the main
point it makes is that modern day capitalism is no longer interested in producing
products, as I told you earlier. It is interested in familiarising brands like Nike, Coca-
Cola etc. Where the product is produced is not important. The product might be
produced in Thailand or it may be produced in Malaysia or produced anywhere but it
is the brand that is important because it is the brand that sells. As a result, in the
advanced countries, millions of people are loosing jobs. She explains the whole
situation and then she notes the protests that are emerging in the universities of the
west. How are these protests emerging? Suddenly in the night, she says, in Toronto
a group of youngsters decided to go and blacken all the logos, all the major

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advertisements and destroy their Neon signs. Who are these youngsters? Why are
they doing this? Behind this is the expression of revolt against capitalist exploitation
under new conditions. It is finding newer forms.
People through their own experience will find these newer forms and these newer
forms are emerging and it is through this newer forms, I think, the struggle against
this entire process of globalisation will strengthen. From Seattle to Genoa, if you
see, who are these people; people of the first world. We have not been there. They
always invite us saying why dont you come. We can take even lakhs of people from
here but how do you reach these countries with such expensive travel costs!
Ticketless travel is not possible on planes! Now they are forcing the G-8 countries to
go underground! The next summit of G-7 and G-8 was supposed to be held in
Toronto in Canada. They have now decided to hold it at a hill resort where the kings
used to meet earlier where nobody can reach. One will have to be dropped by
helicopter or something so that people cannot reach there. So the leaders of the
capitalistic world if they have to meet, they have to meet in isolation. They cannot
meet amongst the people. Such a situation is also coming where this struggle
against these policies is on the rise. This is what we will have to note and work out
how we in our country, I am sure that you will discuss in next two days, how we will
be able to promote these struggles into growing struggles world wide against the
process of Globalisation.
These were some of the thoughts which I wanted to share with you and I am sure
that in the next two days you will discuss many of these issues in greater depth and
come to some conclusions.