My fourth case may seem almost arcane, but it is actually at the heart of the problem: left misconceptions which are useful to corporate imperialism. It is in the form of extracts from a post-Cancun commentary in 2003 by a Canadian activist, Yves Engler. It was headlined: How the Left swallows the anti-subsidy line. He wrote: "commentators, from the left and right, on the WTO ministerial meetings in Cancun seemed fixated on the harm wealthy nations' farm subsidies are doing to the world's poor. From the tone of these pundits one could be convinced that European, Japanese, Canadian or US farm subsidies were at the root of all the poor world's problems." The Guardian, for instance, bellowed, “there is only one way to address the growing gulf between rich and poor countries: abolish agricultural subsidies. We should ask what country has ever escaped poverty by depending on agricultural exports? Dependence on commodity production has, in fact, always been a r...
Left wing commentary from the heart and the head