Guest blog post: Pirates of the Caribbean

Date: 21 January 2010

This is a guest post by Adam Ramsay who writes for the blog brightgreenscotland.org

It was President Eisenhower, I think, who coined the phrase “The Military Industrial Complex”. West Wing geeks know why he did so: if he couldn’t dismantle the monster he had helped create, he could at least describe it.

Naomi Klein’s book “The Shock Doctrine” describes what she calls “disaster capitalism”. Klein tells us how, the day after the Asian tsunami, tourist developers sent in armed security guards to mark out and claim newly cleared land they had long coveted. Apparently some people were physically prevented from returning home to collect the bodies of their children (The Shock Doctrine, p402).

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, an aging Milton Friedman wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal describing the hurricane as an opportunity to privatise schools. When the grieving residents of New Orleans returned home, they discovered that Bush’s government had taken advantage of the crisis. It had introduced policies they would have otherwise fought tooth & nail – asset stripping their public sector, dismantling public schools and social housing. (The Shock Doctrine, p5)

“The Shock Doctrine” has examples spanning nearly every continent over 40 years. From post-Soviet Russia being pushed into allowing oligarchs to plunder (Chapter 11), to torture paving the way for privatisation in Chile (Chapter 3). Reading the book, one thing becomes clear: wherever populations face massive upheavals, corporations will efficiently take advantage of (or create) this distraction to maximise profit for their shareholders. Or, put another way, to plunder and to loot.

As you would expect, western governments (with the help of the International Monetary Fund & World Bank) have been effective in standing up for the interests of their domestic companies. The book documents the role of the US, and of these intergovernmental agencies, in enforcing unpopular neo-liberal policies at times of disaster.

It was with this in mind that, on Thursday, I launched the Facebook group No Shock Doctrine for Haiti. The basic idea is a simple one: We should assist the people of Haiti in their hour of need. Then, once they are ready, they should work together – with as much help as they ask for – to design the country they want to build from the rubble. After 200 years of failed imperial interference, no one should get to impose economic policies any more.

As I launched the group, it seems the IMF were already at work. This article in The Nation claims that they demanded that Haiti freeze public sector pay and raise energy prices in exchange for a loan of $100 million.

As I write less than a week later, more than 19,000 people have joined the Facebook group. There is much discussion of the role of the American army on the group ‘wall’ – with at least one UN aid worker expressing fears about this prospect – as does this al-Jazeera film.

Despite knowing I should be more cynical, I cried like a baby when Obama was elected. I want to believe that the troop deployment is not a sign of the US taking advantage of the situation, as right wing think tank ‘The Heritage Foundation’ suggest they should (as discussed here – the original paper has been taken down).

But this will be tricky. The Military Industrial Complex was already too big for Eisenhower to dismantle. Along with disaster capitalists it has had a revolving door (or, as one of Klein’s interviewees puts it, “an archway”) with power for decades. Neo-Liberal ideologues run the IMF, Pentagon and State Department.

For decades, these companies and organisations have been the true Pirates of the Caribbean, ransacking Latin American economies. Whether they will use this disaster as a chance to draw a line under this bloody past, or to revert to type – plundering Haiti and imposing unpopular policies, is yet to be seen. It will be a true measure of the extent to which Obama is able to bring the real change we need.

Partners in Health have a great reputation for work in Haiti. You can donate to their relief effort here.

You can join the group here.