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Introduction:

With the end of the Soviet Union there were no more reason for a Cold War and 
Russia at first became quite friendly to its former Western enemies. Now people in 
the former East Bloc could travel freely as could goods and profits. This was taken 
as signs of globalization and as a good thing. And why not? Isn&rsquo;t it good to realize 
that we all share this planet? Could there be anything bad in globalization? 
 
Globalization as an idea might be a good thing, but when judging it you need to 
understand what the current globalization really mean to people. In 1999, large 
protests blocked the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle, and 
around the world protests were heard. Many protests were directed against 
international agencies that promote a version of globalization that is extremely 
friendly to multinational companies especially US companies. The agencies that 
have been criticized are among others the WTO, the World Bank, the IMF and the 
G7, G8 and G20 meetings. The purpose of these agencies is to improve the working 
of global capitalism. What they are working for is not just globalization but 
&ldquo;capitalist globalization&rdquo;. You may add to this that the capitalist globalization they 
strive to build is under US economic, political and military leadership. 
 
The former socialist countries as well as many countries that were not declared 
socialists had a large government sector that controlled and limited the activities of 
big companies. Many African countries used to own mines, railways and grain 
marketing boards and through their banking systems they restricted investment and 
expatriation of profits made by private companies. These nationalist economic 
policies were aimed at securing the national economy and protect smaller businesses 
against unfair competition from multinational companies. 
 
These nationalist economic policies came under major attack from the international 
agencies and in particular the IMF. As many poorer nations had borrowed heavily to 
invest in infrastructure and building a better life for people after many years of 
colonialism and neo-colonialism the IMF that has a lot of money to lend could force 
nations to change policy as a precondition for new loans. 
 
The IMF proposed so-called reforms that invariably was very good for foreign 
companies and only had few positive effects for the poor countries that had to open 
up their borders for goods, allow foreign companies to invest and to freely take out 
their profits and at the same time governments were forced to cut down on 
education, health care and social programs and to sell government property to 
foreign multinationals or to well connected government officials that sometimes 
overnight became millionaires or billionaires when they became owners of phone 
companies, banks, mines or large tracts of land. 
 
The age of globalization has seen a big boost for big companies often to the 
detriment of the poor and marginalized. However, the fact remain that we all live on 
one planet, that we are more and more people and that we in the end will have to 
cooperate on a global scale to survive the many challenges of the future. Thus a 
people&rsquo;s globalization could be a really good thing.

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