Globalization and trade not anathema to the left....

Globalization and liberalized trade aren't necessarily negative, argues Les Campbell, in fact, globalization may well bring outcomes favoured by those on the left

Just when prospects for NDP renewal couldn't seem worse the federal caucus announced that its latest strategy was to join forces with the haphazard coalition that promises to disrupt the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. You'd swear that to be a leftist of any stripe you have to subscribe to the dogma that globalization and its two stalking horses, transnational business and multi-lateral financial institutions, are inherently evil.

Well, I consider myself a leftist (and have the credentials to prove it) and I'd like to proffer a shocking alternative view; globalization, taken in sum, will not only increase Canada's prosperity, but is an overwhelmingly positive force in the developing world that promises to dramatically increase political and civil freedom, provide increasing protection for human rights, bring down the traditional barriers of geography, language and race and maybe even reduce the gap between rich and poor.

Much of the debate about the ills of globalization takes place in the elite salons of Canada's urban intelligentsia, isolated, in large part, from the lives of the third world citizens whose plights are invoked as the motivation for opposition to free trade, technology convergence, free capital flow and freedom from the insidious tentacles of the transnational corporations.

The reality is that Canadians are demonstrably better off as a result of access to more goods and services in a much more competitive international market and that the Canadian economy will always be inextricably tied to the world economy. Furthermore, most third world residents will eventually be better off in a globalized economy, where foreign investment, free trade, the information revolution and the free flow of ideas are protected by internationally accepted norms and laws guided by the broad principles of democracy and the rule of law. If anything, it is the relatively slow pace of globalization that should be decried by the supposedly caring left.

There is a strong argument, to be sure, that the latitude that countries once enjoyed to control the economic destiny of their citizens has decreased and will continue to decrease in the face of increasing global corporate power. But what the left has to face up to is that relatively few countries, almost all of them in the industrialized west, have the resources and the human capital to exercise that latitude. Much of the rest of the world, hampered by endemic disease, illiteracy, the oppression of women and the yoke of corrupt oppressive governments would rejoice to have the "problems" that Canada has with globalization.

A recent study published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace makes the stark assertion that highly globalized countries enjoy more egalitarian income patterns while nations that are less integrated with the rest of the world display more inequality. Globalized countries, which include Singapore, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Ireland and Canada are hardly models of inequality, while the countries with the least global integration, among them, Nigeria, Russia, Columbia and Peru, are not exactly leading the charge on worker's rights, environmental protection or women's participation. The NDP should look at all of the evidence before making blanket condemnations.

It wasn't long ago that lightning fast capital outflows buffeted the monetary structures of several Asian countries. Far from destabilizing the region and inextricably harming the notion of sovereignty, one of the outcomes of the currency crisis was the unmasking of the corrupt and unsound economic practices of the repressive Suharto government in Indonesia - leading, in short order, to his downfall.

Slobodan Milosevic's loss of power in Serbia is already leading to the opening of that country's markets to foreign capital and investment. Along with that capital and investment has come international pressure to cooperate with international criminal tribunals, encouragement to integrate ethnic minorities into business and government and a virtual flood of information and opinion from the outside world so long held at bay by the former dictator. Let's continue this trend we're seeing in Serbia by encouraging transnational corporations to do good in the countries they invest in - internet access in schools, for example, or programs to eradicate illiteracy.

I'll admit that globalization has many negative effects but I wish that the Canadian left would stop being so blinkered by the negative that they rush blindly into political obscurity. I have a lot of regard for the idealism of the young people willing to protest on the streets to defend their beliefs, but I can't help but be dismayed that the NDP caucus seems determined to follow them rather than channel their energies into solid policy making. I've always believed that parliamentarians were elected to lead and shape opinion, not to jump on the latest bandwagon in the desperate pursuit of popularity.

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