Published on The Bullet, Socialist Project’s E-Bulletin no. 1040, by Benjamin Selwyn, Sept 28, 2014.
A we near 2015, the United Nations (UN) will probably set new objectives on behalf of the global community to supersede the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are held largely by the UN, the World Bank and many anti-poverty campaigners, which I label here the anti-poverty consensus, to have been a success. According to the UN, The First MDG – the objective of halving world poverty between 1990 and 2015 – was achieved already in 2010 … //
… Anti-Poverty Consensus: … //
… Labour-Centred Development:
In The Global Development Crisis I propose the concept of Labour-Centred Development based upon the actions of mass movements. Examples include: struggles by landless workers from Brazil to India to gain access to land; attempts by indigenous communities to protect their natural resources from Multi-National companies; mass protests by industrial labourers in China and by South African miners for living wages and improved working conditions; and unemployed workers in Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America taking over and running factories rather than face a life of unemployment and insecurity.
There are examples of attempts at labour-centred development the world over. Each one contains the seed of an alternative mode of human development to that proposed by the anti-poverty consensus. However, they face repression by states and private armies, demonization in the media, and are ignored in much of the professional development studies literature. This is because they potentially threaten the elite view of the world that prioritises economic growth and wealth concentration over real human development.
These movements embody ideas of development based upon using existing wealth to eliminate poverty and to enhance human abilities and choices, directing production toward human need rather than profit, of sharing and reducing working hours, and ultimately, economic democracy.
These social movements have another thing in their favour compared to the global anti-poverty industry. They are part of the mass of the world’s labouring class, whilst the anti-poverty consensus is led by, and serves, the interests of the world’s elites. But this is why the latter require doublethink – to mask their own self-interest as part of a global common interest. •
Benjamin Selwyn teaches at the University of Sussex and is Visiting Professor in the department of Political Science, York University, Toronto, and is the author of The Global Development Crisis (Polity: 2014).
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Related Links:
- Basic Income BIG – Revenu de Base, September 1-30, 2014;
- Poverty woes continue in Illinois, on The Southern, by Molly Parker, Sept 28, 2014;
- Letter: We have to do more to eliminate poverty, on Buffalo News, by Sister Eileen O’Connor, Sept 24, 2014;
- How China plans to eliminate poverty by 2020, on GMA News, by JONATHAN DE SANTOS, Sept 23, 2014;
- A basic income guarantee would help alleviate poverty, on Guelph Mercury, by Teresa McKeeman, Sept 17, 2014;
- Eliminate the Poverty Line, 23.36 min, uploaded by Yogan Barrientos, Aug 11, 2014;
- Book: The Global Development Crisis, by Ben Selwyn, 224 pages, ISBN: 978-0-7456-6014-1, Jan 2014;
- Have We Given Up On Even TRYING to Eliminate Poverty in the US? 15.40 min, uploaded by The Point with Ana Kasparian, Oct 24, 2013;
more about Eliminating Poverty:
- on YouTube-search;
- on Google Web-search;
- on Google Scholar-search;
- on Google Images-search;
Some Related Websites:
- Build On.org: building a better back to school (a movement, not a charity);
- United Prosperity.org: Poverty Elimination;
- The Hunger Project.org: Stop Poverty;
- Save the Children.org.uk: Stop UK Poverty;
- Eliminate Poberrty Now.org;
- Inspiring Youth Education in Nicaragua BECA.org;
- Help End Poverty.org: become a catalyst for change;
- Village Earth.org;
- AleeVee8: disrupting poverty;
- The Small-Scale-Sustainable Infrastructure Development Fund S3IDF.org;
- Give Hope, Fight Poverty.org;
- Plan Canada, 5 ways to end poverty around the world;
Millennium Development Goals MDG:
- on it’s Official Website;
- on en.wikipedia; /See also; /External Links;
Other Links:
Assange sneaks into US conference… as full-body 3D hologram, (VIDEO 1.19 min), on Russia Today RT, Sept 29, 2014: … from Equatorian embasssy live to Nantucket MA … // … Speaking with filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, Assange closed the 2014 event, sharing his thoughts on importance of research and free access to information, and risks of censorship. “As a researcher, I’m all too well aware of what people are now calling Google blindness, that the information you can’t find on the Internet doesn’t exist,” Assange said, cited by the Inquirer and Mirror, not missing a chance to take on the corporation and call it a “revolving door” of NSA and close partner of the US Government … // … The Nantucket Project is an annual conference held over the past three years, which strives to provide a relaxed setting to gathered innovators, entrepreneurs, thinkers and decision-makers …;
Another mass grave reportedly found in E.Ukraine, on Russia Today RT, Sept 28, 2014: the reactions to the Manning-WikiLeaks disclosures by governments and influential media outlets in the US and the EU have, by and large, been negative and hostile. The reactions also rarely seem to deal with the content of the disclosures …;
What do WikiLeaks, Manning and Snowden Reveal about US Political Culture? on teleSUR english, by Bruno Jäntti, Sept 27, 2014;
Why we need a new anti-war coalition of the left and right, on Russia Today RT, Sept 27, 2014;
Crime Scene New Orleans, on Zmagazine, by Greg Palast, Sept 24, 2014;
Welcome to The NEW Point with Ana Kasparian, 1.27 min, uploaed by The Point with Ana Kasparian, April 24, 2014;
… and this:
- Oliver Shanti: Ocean Girl – Water, 3.37 min, uploaded by Kanal von Polarmeerblau, May 27, 2011;
- Oliver Shanti & Friends: Chief White Bears Trance Dance, 5.15 min, uploaded by Sjef van Hartum, Nov 7, 2008.