Oppression

Abstract Contemporary globalization has created vast wealth that has liberated hundreds of millions of poor peasants from lives of misery, drudgery, and destitution. But at the same time, it has also reconfigured traditional forms of oppression as well as led to new forms of oppression. Contemporary globalization, like any other hierarchical social system, is a system of domination in which some groups have wealth and power and others, the great majority, have little or none. When domination becomes cruel and unjust, when people are mistreated and exploited, indeed forced into servitude, tortured, raped, or murdered, it becomes oppression. In so far as the fundamental goal of a capitalist enterprise is maximizing profit, the quest for profits often fosters oppression. This is not to suggest that the agents of globalization are cruel people that intentionally inflict pain and suffering; rather, oppression is often an inadvertent consequence of the logic of capitalism. Oppression and often intentional cruelty have been present in traditional forms of colonialism – especially as settlers displace indigenous populations and slavery becomes widespread. Imperialism and recent capitalism have each been oppressive. But there are certain distinct and unique features to contemporary oppression (Falk 1999). The embrace of “neoliberalism” by transnational capital, and the guiding premises of the global regulatory agencies, has greatly contributed to the “freedom” accorded capitalist enterprises with minimal interference from the government (Harvey 2007). To be sure this has been profitable for some, but at the same time, this “freedom,” as seen in “structural adjustment programs,” development projects and/or privatization has fostered a great deal of oppression and human misery.