Showing posts with label Neoliberalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Neoliberalism. Show all posts

Thursday, January 13, 2022

Mass Intellectuality of the Neoliberal State: Mass Higher Education, Public Professionalism, and State Effects in Chile

 


Mass Intellectuality of the Neoliberal State: Mass Higher education, Public Professionalism, and State Effects in Chile

A new book by Nicolas Fleet

Palgrave Macmillan, 2021

Palgrave Studies on Global Policy and Critical Futures in Education

ISBN 978-3-030-77192-8

ISBN 978-3-030-77193-5 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77193-5

 

From the Publisher:

 

This book engages with post-Marxist views on the productive and social transformations of post-industrial societies into cognitive capitalism. It provides extensive original analysis on the political roles that intellectual labour assumes in the post-bureaucratic organisation of the neoliberal state. It invigorates debates on state theory, cognitive capitalism, and student movements in Chile and Latin America.

 

In his book, Nicolas Fleet addresses the political effects of the massification of higher education and intellectual labor in the neoliberal state. Using the case of Chile, the author argues that public professionalism emerges in the mass university system, producing excesses of knowledge which infuse the state with political purpose at many levels. The emergence of the student movement in 2011, then the major social mobilization against the neoliberal state since the restoration of democracy in 1990, provided a clear manifestation of the politicization and ideological divisions of the mass university system. In conditions of mass intellectuality, public professionals mobilize their political affinities and links with society, eventually affecting the direction of state power, even against neoliberal policy. Through several interviews with academics, public professionals, and other documentary and statistical analyses, the book illustrates the different sites of political socialization and the ideological effectiveness of the emergent mass intellectuality of the neoliberal state.

 

Reviews:

“Fleet’s main contribution is to identify the key role played by a totally unexpected actor: a large mass of highly educated public servants, who are the product of the explosive expansion of education and for decades have also contested the neoliberal state from within.”

Patricio Silva, Professor of Modern Latin American History, Leiden University, The Netherlands

“This highly original and readable study is going to re-invigorate debates on state theory and enliven current discourses on cognitive capitalism and the knowledge economy.  The author's insightful investigation of the Chilean university student and secondary school student movements is eye-opening and vitally relevant to the current struggles in Chile and all of Latin America today.”

Stefano Harney, Honorary Professor, Institute of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, University of British Columbia, Canada

“Nicolas Fleet shows how a mass intelligentsia grew out of a segregated education system in the world’s only truly neoliberal state. His masterly account of the bureaucracy, of education and of the clientelistic party system, offers a highly original explanation of the explosions of youth protest that opened the way to an unprecedented national consensus for the refoundation of the state in a Constitutional Assembly."

David Lehmann, Emeritus Reader in Social Science and former Director of the Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge, UK

The Author:

Nicolas Fleet is Dean of Social, Legal and Economic Sciences at the Universidad Católica Silva Henríquez, Chile. He received his PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge, UK. His research focuses on political sociology and higher education.

For more information and Table of Contents, see: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-77193-5

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

@ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn-Rikowski

@ Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Monday, November 16, 2020

CRISIS

 


CRISIS


I have an article, Crisis, forthcoming in the following book:

Glenn

London, 16th November 2020

 

Critical Reflections on the Language of Neoliberalism in Education: Dangerous Words and Discourses of Possibility

 

Edited By 

Spyros Themelis

 

ISBN 9780367629564

December 29, 2020 Forthcoming by Routledge

252 Pages

 

Book Description

Recognizing the dominance of neoliberal forces in education, this volume offers a range of critical essays which analyze the language used to underpin these dynamics.

Combining essays from over 20 internationally renowned contributors, this text offers a critical examination of key terms which have become increasingly central to educational discourse. Each essay considers the etymological foundation of each term, the context in which they have evolved, and likewise their changed meaning. In doing so, these essays illustrate the transformative potential of language to express or challenge political, social, and economic ideologies. The text’s musings on the language of education and its implications for the current and future role of education in society make clear its relevance to today’s cultural and political landscape.

This exploratory monograph will be of interest to doctoral students, researchers, and scholars with an interest in the philosophy of education, educational policy and politics, as well as the sociology of education and the impacts of neoliberalism.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


Introduction


Part I. Endangering words


[1]. Crisis

Glenn Rikowski

 

[2]. Neoliberal globalization

Spyros Themelis

 

[3]. Social value

Ewen Speed

 

[4]. Alienation

Inny Accioly

 

[5]. Hegemony

Alpesh Maisuria

 

[6]. Immiseration

Richard Hall

 

[7] Commodity

Joss Winn

 

[8]. Social mobility

Spyros Themelis

 

[9].Social Inclusion

Angela Cator

 

[10]. Markets

Dionysios Gouvias

 

[11].League tables and Targets

Patrick Yarker

 

[12]. Managerialism

Richard Hall

 

[13]. Employability

Tom G. Griffiths and Bill Robertson

 

[14] Ability

Patrick Yarker

 

 

Part II. Words of possibility

 

[15]. Essence

Grant Banfield

 

[16]. Reflexivity

Elisabeth Simburger

 

[17]. Utopia

Tom G. Griffiths and Jo Williams

 

[18]. Hope

Hasan Hüseyin Aksoy

 

[19]. Social movements

Laurence Cox

 

[20]. Revolutionary Pedagogy

Peter McLaren

 

[21]. Alternative education

Richard Hall

 

[22]. Youth

Sandra Gadelha and Claudiana Alencar

 

[23]. Educators

Maria Chalari and Eleftheria Atta

 

[24]. School

José Ernandi Mendes

 

[25]. Post-Critical Education

Juan Ramón Rodríguez Fernández

 

[26]. Educational Commons

Yannis Pechtelidis

 

[27]. Socialism

Dave Hill

 


Conclusion: Stammering

Mike Neary

 

Spyros Themelis is Associate Professor in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of East Anglia (UEA), UK.

See details at Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Critical-Reflections-on-the-Language-of-Neoliberalism-in-Education-Dangerous/Themelis/p/book/9780367629564

Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Critical-Reflections-Language-Neoliberalism-Education/dp/0367629569


Posted here by Glenn Rikowski: 

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

 

 

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies - Volume 15 Number 3


Professor Dave Hill
Chief & Founding Editor
Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies

Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies
Volume 15 Number 3, December 2017


This is the latest issue of Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies. It includes my article Privatisation in Education and Commodity Forms, which you can see at: http://www.jceps.com/archives/3620




CONTENTS:














Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies: http://www.jceps.com

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Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

International Conference on Critical Education VIII


ICCE VIII

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CRITICAL EDUCATION VIII


University of East London, Stratford, London, England
25th – 28th July 2018

Critical Education and Activism Against Neoliberalism / Authoritarian Neoconservatism in Education, State and Society

The International Conference on Critical Education (ICCE), previously held in Athens (2011, 2012), Ankara (2013), Thessaloniki (2014), Wroclaw, Poland (2015), London (Middlesex University) (2016) and Athens (2017) is a forum for scholars, educators and activists committed to social and economic justice. 

The 8th ICCE: Critical Education and Activism Against Neoliberalism/ Authoritarian Neoconservatism in Education, State and Society will take place at University of London (UEL), London, 25-28 July 2018.

At a time of economic crisis, when education is under siege by neoliberal capitalism and by neo-conservatism and aggressive nationalism, when teachers and academics are being proletarianized, youth criminalized, civilised and caring societies being stripped of welfare and benefits and rights, schools and universities turned into commodities, at such a time, critical education, as a theory and as a movement, as praxis, is clearly relevant. International communities of critical educators and activists are working together, and with other movements, to build active resistance to these processes and are engaged in fostering educational and social change leading to a more just, equal and fair society.

The current economic, social, and political crisis, that has been ongoing for 30 years, is manifesting more deeply in education on a global scale. The crisis- part of, and resulting from, dominant neoliberal and neoconservative politics that are implemented and promoted internationally as ‘the only solution’, under the slogan ‘there is no alternative’ (TINA), have substantially redefined the sociopolitical and ideological roles of education. Public education is shrinking. It loses its status as a social right. It is projected as a mere commodity for sale while it becomes less democratic, de-theorised, de-critiqued.

Understanding the causes of the crisis, the particular forms it takes in different countries and the multiple ways in which it influences education, constitute important questions for all those who do not limit their perspectives to the horizon of neoconservative, neoliberal and technocratic dogmas. Moreover, the critical education movement has the responsibility to rethink its views and practices in light of the crisis, and in the light of social, political and educational resistance in different countries - and the paths that this crisis opens for challenging and overthrowing capitalist domination worldwide.

The International Conference on Critical Education (ICCE) – regularly attended by between 300 and 400 participants, provides a vibrant and egalitarian, non-elitist, platform for scholars, educators, activists, students and others interested in critical education and in contesting the current neo-liberal/ neo-conservative/ nationalist hegemony, to come together and engage in a free, democratic and productive dialogue. At this time of crisis when public education is under siege by neoliberalism, neo-conservatism and nationalism, we invite you to submit a proposal and to attend the Conference. We especially welcome new and emerging scholars / scholar-activists.

Speakers invited include:

Grant Banfield (Australia)
Dennis Beach (Sweden)
Sara Carpenter (Canada)
Hana Cervinlova (Poland)
Polina Chrysochou (Greece /UK)
Christian Chun (USA)
Alessio d’Angelo (UK)
Sandra Delgado (Canada/ Colombia)
Mustafa Durmus (Turkey)
Agnieszka Dzieminowicz-Bak (Poland)
Gail Edwards (UK)
Ramin Farahmandpur (USA)
Derek Ford (USA)
Nathan Fretwell (UK)
Panayota Gounari (USA)
George Grollios (Greece)
Carly Guest (UK)
Julia Hall (USA)
Dave Hill (UK)
Lee Jerome (UK)
Wei Jin (Peoples Republic of China)
Gianna Katsiampoura (Greece) 
Nurcan Korkmaz (Turkey)
Ravi Kumar (India)
Alpesh Mairsuira (UK)
Tristan McCowan (UK)
Gyuri Meszaros (Hungary)
Louise Prendergast (UK)
Lotar Rasinski (Poland)
John Rice (Australia)
Glenn Rikowski (UK)
Leena Robertson (UK)
Juan R. Rodriguez (Spain)
Wayne Ross (Canada)
Rachel Seoighe (UK)
Kostas Skordoulis (Greece)
Spyros Themelis (UK)
Tamas Toth (Hungary/Poland)
Paolo Vittoria (Italy)
Josefine Wagner (Poland)
Terry Wrigley (UK)
Ahmet Yidiz (Turkey)

Conference Organisers: Dave Hill (Institute for Education Policy Studies) and Alpesh Maisuria (University of East London)


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Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 
Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski




Saturday, May 28, 2016

DARKMATTER



DARKMATTER

Announcing the publication of a special issue of Darkmatter Journal, "Reflections on Dispossession: Critical Feminisms" eds. Brenna Bhandar and Davina Bhandar, with contributions from Sara R. Farris, Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller, Alyosha Goldstein, Leticia Sabsay and Rafeef Ziadah.

This collection traces a path for contemporary critiques of neoliberal capitalism and colonial dispossession. The authors show the compelling need for complex strategies and tools to evaluate the interlocking or intersectional practices of dispossession, and their particular effects on racialised, Indigenous, sexualized, and gendered subjects. 

Darkmatter is an open access journal, and the special issue can be accessed here:

Praise for "Reflections on Dispossession":

"Crossing centuries, oceans, continents, and disciplines, this ambitious and extraordinary collection shows how the logic of dispossession and its productions of difference reach into a present that avows colorblindness and erases coloniality. In its courtrooms, border checkpoints, intimacies, reform impulses, prisons, refugee camps, and regimes of accumulation, the neoliberal order is shown to draw on and recalibrate histories of gendered colonial oppression as long as they are deep." - David Roediger (University of Kansas) 

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/special-issue-of-the-journal-darkmatter-reflections-on-dispossession-critical-feminisms-out-now

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‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs
Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 
Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/


Sunday, November 22, 2015

An Alternative to Neo-Liberal Education - Venue Change!



AN ALTERNATIVE TO NEO-LIBERAL EDUCATION

NEW ANARCHIST RESEARCH GROUP
JOINT MEETING WITH THE SOCIAL SCIENCE CENTRE (LINCOLN)


VENUE CHANGE

NOW AT THE MAYDAY ROOMS


Apologies for the short notice but unfortunately it has been necessary to change the venue for the meeting on Saturday 28 November.  This will now be held in the MAYDAY ROOMS, 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH, 2.00pm – 4.30pm.  

Saturday 28 November 2015
2.00 pm - 4.30pm

The Social Science Centre (SSC) in Lincoln is a self-organised co-operative higher learning provider that is democratic at all levels of its organisation. The scholars who are members of the Centre work and study together whether they are traditionally students or teachers. One of the aims of the Centre is to analyse and dissolve the tensions in the relationships between research and teaching, and students and academics. Set up by academics from the University of Lincoln, the Centre has no relationship with the University, although it is a critique of the formal institution as a dysfunctional neoliberal arrangement in many ways. The SSC aims to ‘reinvent’ the University and transform the scholars’ relationship to knowledge in order to insert their own experiences into theoretical knowledges that aim to emancipate them as active change agents. The SSC engenders provocations, conversations and discussions that enliven the notion that all those who are involved in active knowledge work should become (co-) producers of knowledge. Two of the (student) scholars and an academic from Lincoln will be visiting the Anarchist Research Group to talk about the centre and their experiences studying there.
In this session, we would like to tell you a little about our experiences with the SSC and then invite a discussion on the SSC, self-organised education and the relationships between education, learning, and social change.

The Social Science Centre provides free public higher education in the city of Lincoln and emphasises the collective and collaborative nature of education. The Centre was opened in 2011 by academics and students and Lincoln residents who feel passionately that those wishing to study higher education should not have to take on the burden of debt. There is no fee to pay when joining the Centre, only what you can afford. Free also means freedom to study outside of the current disciplinary structures of higher education around topics and issues that are of direct concern to you and your local community.
  

***END***
‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs
Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 
Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski
Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Crisis and Insurrection

CRISIS TO INSURRECTION: NOTES ON THE ONGOING COLLAPSE
A new book from Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen on ongoing crises and insurrections…

Crisis to Insurrection: Notes on the ongoing collapse
Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen
The crisis runs deep. The economies of the US and Europe are in profound crisis and the developing economies are also beginning to feel its effects. Everywhere it is workers who are paying the price. The crisis is being socialized and austerity is the order of the day; the crisis is used as a pretext for further savings and cuts. In other words, capital has intensified the class war. But the proletariat has started moving. The revolts in North Africa and the Middle East have challenged the neoliberal world order and its division of the world, and the ‘movement of the squares’ in Southern Europe and Occupy in the US have picked up the baton and joined the new protest cycle. Even though dictators have been toppled in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, the protests continue. This is also the case in Greece, Spain and Portugal where people reject the austerity programs. There are protests in Bulgaria and Bosnia. In Syria the civil war is raging. In China the number of strikes continue to rise. In Turkey the youth reject Erdogan’s neoliberal ‘success’ and urban restructuring and in Brazil ‘the dangerous classes’ have taken to the streets. There are a variety of protests going on – the ones in the West are defensive, the ones in the rest of the world offensive and reformist – but together they are knocking a hole in the neoliberal world order. The old mole is back.


Bio: Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen is Associate Professor at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen.
PDF available freely online: http://www.minorcompositions.info/?p=678
Released by Minor Compositions, Wivenhoe / Brooklyn / Port Watson
Minor Compositions is a series of interventions & provocations drawing from autonomous politics, avant-garde aesthetics, and the revolutions of everyday life.
Minor Compositions is an imprint of Autonomedia
www.minorcompositions.info | minorcompositions@gmail.com

***END***
‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs
Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Neoliberalism and the Degradation of Education

NEOLIBERALISM AND THE DEGRADATION OF EDUCATION
Alternatives Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research
VOL 26 (2015)
Edited by Carlo Fanelli and Bryan Evans

Contributors to this anthology trace how neoliberalism has impacted education. These effects range from the commercialization and quasi-privatization of pre-school to post-secondary education, to restrictions on democratic practice and research and teaching, to the casualization of labour and labour replacing technologies, and the descent of the university into the market which threatens academic freedom. The end result is a comprehensive and wide-ranging review of how neoliberalism has served to displace, if not destroy, the role of the university as a space for a broad range of perspectives.

Neoliberalism stifes the university’s ability to incubate critical ideas and engage with the larger society. Entrepreneurship, however, is pursued as an ideological carrier serving to prepare students for a life of precarity just as the university itself is being penetrated and occupied by corporations. The result is an astonishing tale of transformation, de-democratization and a narrowing of vision and purpose.




**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com  

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Academics Raise Alarm Over U.S. Trade Deal

ACADEMICS RAISE ALARM OVER U.S. TRADE AGREEMENT
From: http://researchprofessional.com
Academics raise alarm over US trade agreement
22nd May 2014

Higher education must be excluded from any future trade partnership between the EU and the United States to avoid an influx of private universities, according to university groups.

Concerns have been raised as discussions are under way about a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, designed to reduce barriers to trading goods and services. Discussions on the TTIP began in July last year and are proceeding on the basis of a negative list approach, meaning that unless a subject is explicitly excluded, it could be up for negotiation. If higher education is tabled, the implications are that both sides could open their borders to free competition from elsewhere, a stark change for many EU countries in which universities are state-owned and protected.

Howard Davies, an adviser at the European University Association, says higher education is a public good that should remain outside the remit of such an agreement. It’s mainly a member state jurisdiction, and member states should continue to have the right to run their systems as they please, he says.

Education International, the global federation of teachers unions, is also pushing for education to be exempt. ‘Including it in an EU-US partnership would directly lead to an increase in privatisation, which we oppose’, says Guntars Catlaks, the unions senior coordinator for research. Negotiators are also considering agreements on the mutual recognition of professional qualifications, intellectual property, e-commerce and data protection, which could affect universities.

Some member states may support a TTIP higher education agreement as they are in favour of commodification. In the UK there are universities that have opened campuses abroad and the whole ambience is entrepreneurial, says Davies. But that’s not true of other countries.

However, awareness of the TTIP negotiations in universities and rector associations remains low, which could be a problem if higher education is included in a final deal. If an agreement is reached, it will be presented to ministers and the European Parliament and there won’t be much time for lobby groups to amend whatever has been decided, says Davies.

The Parliament and environmental groups have been pushing for more transparency in the discussions to aid public debate. Davies says this has made the negotiating parties more nervous about public opinion. But it will never be totally transparent because you can’t conduct negotiations in a glass box, he says.

This article also appeared in Research Europe
- See more at: 
https://www.researchprofessional.com/0/rr/news/europe/politics/2014/5/Academics-raise-alarm-over-US-trade-agreement.html#sthash.v2KMMid4.dpuf

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski
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NEGOTIATIONS BEGIN ON NEW SERVICES DEAL

Steven Kelk, Sunday 7th July 2013 (from GATSeducation Yahoo Group: GATSeducation@yahoogroups.com)
http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/news_details/2615/
Negotiations begin on new services deal (05 July 2013)

Trade talks aimed at developing a new global services pact have begun following an agreement on a negotiating framework earlier this year.

The Trade in International Services Agreement (TISA) is being negotiated by the so-called ‘Real Good Friends of Services’ within the World Trade Organisation: Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, European Union, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States.

Informal talks within the group began last year in response to pressure from business groups frustrated with the impasse in WTO negotiations to develop new and enhanced commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

In March, negotiators agreed to adopt a ‘hybrid’ framework for the talks which would involve countries making market access commitments on a ‘positive list’ basis, and national treatment on a ‘negative list’ basis. With a positive list approach, countries agree to liberalise only those service sectors that they agree to, while with a negative list agreeing to liberalise all areas except those explicitly excluded.

The WTO members engaged in the talks have indicated that no service sector will be excluded, but some are pushing for priorities. A joint Australia-EU paper issued late last year suggested 10 issues should be the focus of the TISA: cross-border movement of professionals; domestic regulation and transparency; financial services; professional services; information and communications services; transport and logistics services;  maritime services; environmental services; energy services; and government procurement.

‘While education services are not a specific focus of the talks to date, we nevertheless need to watch developments closely, says Education International’s trade consultant David Robinson. ‘For instance, the inclusion of domestic regulation could affect rules around the  accreditation of schools, and around qualification requirements that could  have an impact on the design and delivery of vocational education and training’.

Robinson added that the targeting of financial services for further liberalisation is particularly worrisome given how weak regulatory oversight played a key role in the economic crisis of 2008.

‘If there’s anything we’ve learned over the past few years it’s that the liberalisation of financial services has been a catastrophic disaster for the economy, for government finances, for working people, and for public services including education,’ Robinson said. ‘Trade deals threaten to constrain policy space precisely at a time when governments need to rein in the financial sector’.

Robinson noted reports that the financial industry is lobbying to use trade deals as a way of weakening domestic regulations.

According to U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, there are ‘growing murmurs’ about the financial industry’s efforts to ‘do quietly through trade agreements what they can’t get done in public view with the lights on and people watching’.

In letter published in May, Peter Allgeier, a former U.S. Trade Representative and now president of the Coalition of Services Industries, said that trade rules require that regulations are ‘least trade and investment distorting’ and do not constitute a ‘disguised barrier to trade’.

Meanwhile, WTO members not participating in the TISA talks have criticized the initiative as undermining the multilateral approach of the WTO. Brazil, China, and India have been vocal opponents of TISA.

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com