Ney, Chris

Chris Ney

Military violence and economic exploitation

1 March 2001Feature Chris Ney

This excerpt was taken from the introduction to the new US War Resisters League booklet on militarism and globalisation examines both the evolution of the dominant economic system and the roots of the contemporary struggle for economic justice.

The relationship between military violence and economic exploitation is not new nor is it limited to modern capitalist economics. The dynamic was present in the former Communist societies and it was present before industrial capitalism developed.

Many have argued that globalisation began more than five hundred years ago when the Europeans first sent their armies to the New World. The conquest of the Americas (and subsequent subjugation of Africa and Asia) produced fantastic wealth…

The fight for water in Bolivia: nor any drop to drink

1 March 2001Feature Chris Ney

The declaration of martial law in Bolivia last year as a response to nonviolent protest against water privatisation exposes the relationship between the military and economic interests. Chris Ney talked with prominent Bolivian activist Oscar Oliveraabout the impact of World Bank privatisation programmes, the mass mobilisation of concerned citizens, and the response of the state.

As thousands of protesters filled the streets of Washington in April 2000, closing the US capital to oppose the policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, their peers in Bolivia were demanding the right to drinking water.

Following massive protests against the privatisation of the nations water supply, the Bolivian government had declared martial law. A leader of the Bolivian movement, Oscar Olivera, escaped the repression just in time to join the Washington…