Date: Sun, 20 Jul 1997 03:34:40 +0200 (MET DST)
From: rolf.martens-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se (Rolf Martens)
Subject: M-G: POVERTY CLIMBS FOR WORLD'S MAJORITY


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>Subject: POVERTY CLIMBS FOR WORLD'S MAJORITY
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>I N T E R N E T ' S  M A O I S T  BI-M O N T H L Y
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>         THE MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
>
>     MIM Notes 142              JULY 15, 1997
>
>
>
>IMPERIALIST PLUNDER:
>POVERTY CLIMBS FOR WORLD'S MAJORITY
>
>One fourth of the world's population lives in
>conditions of poverty, according to the publication
>Human Development, produced by UNDP (United Nations
>Development Program), released in mid-June. In
>imperialist-labeled developing countries (poor
>countries that are colonies or neo-colonies of
>imperialism), 1.3 billion people survive with less
>than a dollar a day.
>
>The director of the office of the ONU in Spain,
>Isel Rivero, said "The money that is lacking --
>80,000 million dollars -- is the equivalent of the
>fortune netted by the seven richest people in the
>world, or 10% of the amount spent annually on arms.
>For what it costs to make a Disneyland park, 5,000
>million dollars, it would be possible to end
>poverty in the five most marginalized countries on
>the planet."(1)
>
>
>STATISTICS UNDER IMPERIALISM
>
>
>According to the UNDP report, poverty is increasing
>for the world's people. The poorest 20% of the
>world's population, who in 1960 received 2.3% of
>wages worldwide, now only receive 1.1% and this
>continues to drop. There are still one billion
>illiterate people, 160 million malnourished
>children and 110 million children deprived of any
>schooling in this world.
>
>Only two to five per cent of the 500 million
>poorest households worldwide have access to
>institutional credit. Without this, they are unable
>to seize market opportunities or build up savings
>to survive crises.(2) It's important to keep in
>mind that the majority of working people in
>imperialist countries have access to credit and
>take this ability to survive swings in their
>financial situation for granted. In fact, the
>poverty reported on in the UNDP report is largely
>unfelt by residents of the imperialist countries.
>In the United Snakes, the majority of the workers
>enjoy conditions that place them in the wealthiest
>portion of the world's population.
>
>The poverty line varies according to the region,
>but the World Bank generally uses a dollar a day as
>the poverty level in developing countries, two
>dollars a day in Latin America and the Caribbean,
>four dollars a day in Eastern Europe and the former
>Soviet states and 14.40 dollars a day for
>industrial countries -- which is the income poverty
>line in the United Snakes.(3) This raises other
>questions about the measurement of poverty in
>different countries (which MIM addresses more
>thoroughly in issues 1 and 10 of its theory
>journal). Marx pointed out that the cost of living
>will vary in different areas of the world, and we
>have to take this into account when measuring
>poverty.
>
>Within a country, the report pointed out that some
>groups of people suffer more than others. Children,
>wimmin and the aged were singled out as the groups
>most affected by poverty.
>
>This year the UNDP introduced a Human Poverty Index
>(HPI), which measures the percentage of the
>population expected to survive to age 40, the
>percentage of illiterates, and lack of access to
>healthcare, safe water and reasonable nutrition.
>Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba, Chile, Singapore and
>Costa Rica score highest. On the lowest rankings,
>where the UNDP estimates that humyn poverty exceeds
>50%, six out of the bottom seven countries are in
>Africa: Niger, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso,
>Ethiopia, Mali, Cambodia and Mozambique. This index
>helps demonstrate the swings in development under
>imperialism which lead to different countries and
>regions developing at different rates.
>
>In subsaharan Africa and in the south of Asia there
>is the greatest incidence of poverty which affects
>40% of the inhabitants and this continues to grow.
>Compared to 1970, it is more likely now that poor
>people are African or Latin American instead of
>Asian.
>
>These statistics are underscored by a report
>released May 20 from the Fundacion Salvadorena para
>el Desarrollo Economico y Social (Salvadoran
>Foundation for Social and Economic Development)
>which states that 65% of the rural population of El
>Salvador lives in poverty. Two million people in
>rural areas of the country live in these conditions
>and 400 thousand of these people fall in the group
>of "extreme poverty". The Foundation attempted to
>blame the problems on agricultural failures but the
>real culprit is capitalism.(4)
>
>
>THE PROBLEMS ARE SYSTEMIC
>
>
>The UNDP report provides some useful information on
>the causes of poverty. Human Development reports
>that annual losses to developing countries from
>unequal access to trade, labor and finance are
>estimated at US$500 billion, 10 times what these
>countries receive in foreign aid. Debt relief from
>the Group of Seven and Bretton Woods institutions
>by 2000 for the 20 worst-affected countries would
>cost between US$5.5 billion and US$7.7 billion --
>less than the price of one Stealth bomber.(5)
>
>While the world economy stands at 25 trillion
>dollars, the ratio between the richest and poorest
>people on the planet has gone from 30 to one in
>1960 to 78 to one in 1994, the report said.
>Meanwhile the world's 10 top billionaires account
>for a wealth of 133 billion dollars, or 1.5 times
>the total revenue for the world's least advanced
>countries. Of the world's 100 largest economies, 50
>are mega-corporations. The 350 largest firms
>control 40 per cent of global trade, with a
>turnover that exceeds the gross domestic product of
>many countries.(5)
>
>All these numbers point to one thing:  a systemic
>problem of disparities between wealthy and poor
>that is perpetuated by those in power who hold the
>wealth and guns at the expense of the majority of
>the world's population.
>
>
>SOLUTIONS
>
>
>The UN Development Program insists that "it is well
>within our grasp" to reduce severe poverty in the
>first decades of the next century. The UNDP argues
>that recent advances in the world are proof of the
>potential to reduce poverty: "Few people realize
>the great advances already made. In the past 50
>years poverty has fallen more than in the previous
>500." The report cited facts that since 1960, or
>slightly more than one generation, child mortality
>rates have dropped by more than half in developing
>countries while malnutrition has been trimmed by
>almost a third.
>
>It is important that communists make clear that as
>dialectical materialists we understand the advances
>possible under capitalism. But we also understand
>its limitations. We understand the elimination of
>poverty is not going to happen within capitalism
>precisely because it exists off the exploitation of
>labor of the proletariat.
>
>When faced with the question of how to eradicate
>poverty within the imperialist system, the UNDP
>suggests that extreme poverty could be eradicated
>over the next 20 years, as long as countries
>implement policies that are "pro-poor". This would
>entail addressing structural inequalities in the
>distribution of assets, such as land, housing and
>social services; institutional and policy reforms
>to promote better access and greater security of
>tenure for wimmin and greater support for
>agricultural productivity, promoting micro-
>enterprises and the informal sector, as well as
>labor-intensive manufacturing.(6)
>
>The report put a price tag on reducing world
>poverty, which it said would cost the planet 80
>billion dollars or less than 0.5 percent of global
>income, or in other terms, less than the combined
>wealth of the world's seven richest people or 10
>percent of world military expenditures for 1995.
>Even recognizing that this is merely "reducing"
>poverty, the very fact that such reduction is well
>within reach but yet is not accomplished should
>alert socially conscious people to the fact that
>imperialists don't want to eliminate poverty.
>
>The institutional reforms the UNDP is proposing
>will not be implemented by imperialist countries
>that benefit from inequalities. Reforming
>imperialism will not eliminate the basis for
>exploitation and oppression.
>
>
>REAL SOLUTIONS:  CHINA VS. INDIA
>
>
>The UNDP report attempts to make the comparison
>between China and India to point out some of the
>differences in development in different countries
>over the past several decades. The report points
>out that "almost all Chinese children" go to school
>now, adult illiteracy dropped to 19 per cent from
>50 per cent in 1950 and infant mortality dropped to
>42 per 1,000 live births from 200 per 1,000 in
>1950. "Progress in recent decades (in China) has
>been remarkable" despite setbacks and advances, the
>report said. These advances are all measured since
>the revolution in China which overthrew Japanese
>imperialism in 1949.
>
>While some measurements of wealth continued to
>increase under the state capitalist dictatorship of
>Deng Xioping, others have fallen. The report
>pointed out that China's national poverty line,
>those living on 60 U.S. cents (0.60 dollar) a day,
>fell from 33 per cent in 1978 to 9 per cent in
>1985. But in the late 1980s, the number of rural
>poor increased as a result of a shift in
>development strategy away from agriculture to
>industrial and export sectors.(7) And regardless of
>the changes since the late 1970s, clearly
>tremendous advances for the Chinese people can be
>attributed to the Chinese revolution and the Maoist
>leadership in building socialism for almost 30
>years. (For more information and statistics on the
>advances in China under Mao see MIM Theory #4, A
>Spiral Trajectory:  The failure and success of
>communist development, available for $5 from MIM).
>
>India is a good country to use for comparisons
>between the accomplishments of capitalism and those
>of socialism. In 1949 both India and China were
>poor countries facing many similar problems. China
>then began socialist development while India
>remained capitalist. In India, the report said,
>"the record is mixed and India remains a country
>with stark contrasts and disparities" after decades
>of trying to improve living conditions. The report
>said that currently 53 per cent of children, or 60
>million, are still malnourished despite a four-fold
>boost in grain production from 1991 to 1995;  half
>of the population is still illiterate, with 45 per
>cent of children not reaching grade five. The
>infant mortality rate has been halved to 74 per
>1,000 live births in 1995, but still each year 2.2
>million infant deaths have been reported.(7)
>
>If we want to truly wipe out poverty, oppression
>and suffering in the world we are going to have to
>do more than advocate that countries adopt "pro-
>poor" policies. Historically, socialist revolution
>has been the greatest force for wiping out poverty
>and increasing the wealth and well being of the
>world's population. For all those hoping to fight
>for a more just and equal system MIM encourages
>serious study of the history of revolutionary
>struggle compared with the failures of capitalist
>development. And for those already convinced that
>imperialism will never solve the problems of
>poverty that it perpetuates, fight with MIM to
>overthrow this rotten system.
>
>
>NOTES:
>The text of highlights of this report can be found
>at http://www.undp.org/undp/hdro
>1. 13 June, 1997: http://www.eurosur.org/rebelion/
>2. New Straits Times 16 June 1997, p21.
>3. Agence France Presse 12 June 1997.
>4. 21 May 1997, San Salvador. Agencia P=FAlsar found
>at:
>http://www.eurosur.org/rebelion/internacional/salva
>dorpobreza.htm
>5. New Straits Times 14 June 1997, p.21.
>6. Africa News 13 June 1997.
>7. Deutsche Presse-Agentur 12 June 1997.
>
>
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