A Strategy to Create
New Beneficiaries from World Trade
David Barkin
Profesor
de Economía en la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco,
México, D. F. BACK
Hans Singer published a similar analysis at about the same time, a result
of the collaborative relationship between the two (cf. Sapsford and
Chen 1998). BACK
This
so-called dematerialization of production, celebrated by environmental
economists as a way in which the economy has incorporated self-correcting
mechanisms for reducing the ecological footprint of economic growth,
only serves to reduce the rate of growth extractive industries in the
Third World, not to lower output or reverse their harmful impacts on
the environment or the communities in which they are located. BACK
For
a more complete discussion of the internationalization of capital and
its impact on society see, for example, Froebel, Heinrichs and Krey
1979; Karliner 1997; and Barkin 1985. BACK
The
difficult adjustment process in markets for rural products led to the
formalization of the famous cobweb theorem in standard economic analysis.
Because there is a lag in the supply process, important differences
in demand and supply at prevailing prices often lead to unstable fluctuations
in supply and significant changes in market prices which invariably
affect the majority of smaller, less well capitalized producers more
harshly than their more affluent competitors. BACK
A
note about electrical generation is in order: recently (2002), the Supreme
Court invalidated government efforts to transfer responsibility for
this service to private suppliers. The original nationalization involved
a constitutional change that the jurists interpreted to mean that this
sector was the exclusive responsibility of public sector. In contrast
to the political atmosphere ten years ago, when the land reform was
terminated, a continuing series of incidents of mismanagement, corruption
and bankruptcies has undermined support for the continued transfer of
public assets and services to private investors. Pressures for further
privatization during the administration of President Fox (2000-2006)
are intensifying. BACK
There
are more than 60 distinct ethnic groups who still speak their own native
languages, down from more than 100 that existed a century ago. BACK
Officially
these international remittances from Mexicans now approach $14,000 million;
however, many consider this to be a serious underestimate. My estimates,
which include income from employment in the urban economy and commercial
agro-export activities in Mexico, suggests that transfers to rural Mexico
now amount to more than 40% of the value of rural GDP in Mexico. These
resources contribute to explain how rural communities can survive and
implement the kinds of strategies described in the rest of this paper.
However, if it were not for the commitment to reinvigorate rural society,
these resources would most likely finance further migration to the urban
areas. Along with a number of other Latin Americans, I have explored
these ideas in some depth in several writing on the new rurality. See
the collections edited by N. Giarracca (2000) and E. Pérez and
M.A. Farah (2001) for two of my contributions along with those of other
leading exponents of this approach. BACK
Proposals
to create this corridor, based on a high-speed rail and highway system
for the trans-shipment of merchandise between Asia and Europe -an alternative
to the Panama Canal- have existed for most of the XX century, but the
Mexican government started actively promoting such schemes once it decided
to implement its radical opening to the international economy in the
late 1980s. Originally labeled the Alfa-Omega Project, the present administration
has proposed a more grandiose "Plan Puebla-Panama" to promote
economic growth in the southern part of the country as well as in Central
America with concessions for private operation of infrastructure that
will attract productive investments. The Mexican agency charged with
promoting the program has placed its public documents on a web site:
http://www.presidencia.gob.mx.
International support is described on the regional UN site: http://www.cepal.org.mx.
BACK
Although
there is no grand master plan, as opposition to the Plan has developed,
local communities are realizing the importance of coordinating efforts
to explore their options. (Bartra 2001) A web site for more current
information is: http://www.rmalc.org.mx/ppp.htm.
BACK
In
2000, this assistance was withdrawn at the insistence of the Mexican
government, which decreed that the local NGO was not fulfilling its
functions and was preventing the creation of the biosphere reserve.
Following the Zapatista uprising, political conflicts intensified in
this region (Barkin and Garcia 1998 and Salas et al. 2001). BACK
See,
for example, the writings of Alburquerque (1990) and those of Bianchi
(1999) who are influential in México among groups promoting SMEs,
strongly influenced by the Italian experience. In Europe, social funds
are promoting initiatives in poorer regions that might also be considered
part of this approach (Saraceno 1994). For a critical analysis of the
spatial impacts of internationalization, see Walker, 1999. BACK
REFERENCES
Alburquerque Llorens, F. 1990. Revolución Tecnológica
y Reestructuración Productiva: Impactos y desafíos territoriales,
Santiago de Chile: CEPAL.
Barkin, D. 1985. Global Proletarization In: S. Sanderson,
Ed, The Americas in the New International Division of Labor, New York:
Holmes & Meier, pp. 26-45. (en español: 1998. "Proletarización
Global" Economía, Sociedad y Territorio, Vol.1(3):429-455.)
Barkin, D. 1998. La Producción de Agua en México:
Aportación campesina al desarrollo mexicano, Cuadernos del Desarrollo
Rural, No. 40: 17-27.
Barkin, D. 1998. La Producción de Agua en México:
Aportación campesina al desarrollo mexicano, Cuadernos del Desarrollo
Rural, No. 40: 17-27.
Barkin, D. 1999. The Economic Impact of Ecotourism: Conflicts
and solutions in highland Mexico In: P. Godde, M. F. Price, and F. M.
Zimmerman, Eds. Tourism and Development in Mountain Regions. London:
Cab International; pp. 157-172.
Barkin, D. 2001. Superando el Paradigma Neoliberal: Desarrollo
sustentable popular In: N. Giarracca, Ed., 2000) ¿Una Nueva Ruralidad
en América Latina?, Buenos Aires: CLACSO; pp. 81-99
Barkin, D. 2002. "The Reconstruction of a Modern
Mexican Peasantry," The Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol. 30(1):73-90.
Barkin, D. 2001. La nueva ruralidad y la globalización
In: E. Pérez and M.A. Farah, Eds. La Nueva Ruralidad en América
Latina: Maestría en desarrollo rural 20 años, Bogotá:
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Maestría en Desarrollo Rural;
Vol. II, pp. 21-31
Barkin, D., R. Batt, and B.R. DeWalt. 1990. Food Grains
vs. Feed Grains: The global substitution of grains in production, Boulder,
CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers. (1991. Alimentos versus Forrajes: La sustitución
global de granos en producción, México: Siglo XXI editores)
Barkin, D. and M. Á. García. 1998. La estructura
social de la deforestación en México. In: Los Incendios
Forestales en México, México: Consejo Nacional Forestal,
pp. 41-55. (An English version is available: http://www.bionet-uc.org/uc-na_barkin.pdf)
Barkin, D. and C. Paillés. 2001. Water and Forests
as Instruments for Sustainable Regional Development, International Journal
of Water, Vol. 1(1), 71-79.
Barkin, D. and C. Paillés. 2002. NGO-Community
Collaboration for Ecotourism: A strategy for sustainable regional development,
Current Issues in Tourism, Vol.6(3).
Barón, L and D. Barkin. 2001. Innovations in Indigenous
Production Systems to Maintain Tradition In: Flora, Cornelia, Ed. Interactions
Between Agroecosystems and Rural Human Community . Miami, Fl.: CRC Press;
pp. 211-219.
Bartra, A. 2001. Mesoamérica: Los Río Profundos
- Alternativas plebeyas al Plan-Puebla-Panamá. México:
Instituto Maya.
Bianchi, P. (with L. Miller). 1999. Innovación
y Territorio: Política para la pequeña y mediana industria,
México: Editorial Jus.
Collier, G. 1994. Basta! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion
in Chiapas, Oakland, CA: Food First: Institute for Food and Development
Policy.
Froebel, F., J. Heinrichs and O. Krey. 1979. The New International
Division of Labour. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Harvey, N. 1998. The Chiapas Rebellion: The struggle for
land and democracy, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Karliner, J. 1997. The Corporate Planet: Ecology and politics
in the age of globalization. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Books.
McGinn, A. 1999. Safeguarding the Health of Oceans. Washington,
DC: World Resources Institute.
Prebisch, R. (1959) Commercial Policy in the Underdeveloped
Countries, American Economic Review, 49(2), 251-273.
Place, S. 1993. Tropical Rainforests: Latin American nature
and society in transition. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources.
Salas, S. et al. 2001. Chimalapas: La última oportunidad.
México: World Wildlife Fund and Secretary of the Environment
and Natural Resources.
Sapsford, D. and J. Chen. 1998. Development Economics
and Policy: The conference volume to celebrate the 85th birthday of
Professor Sir Hans Singer. Hampshire, UK: Macmillan.
Saraceno, E. 1994. The modern functions of small farm
systems, Sociologia Ruralis, Vol. 34(4)
Walker, R. 1999. Putting Capital in its Place: Globalization
and the prospects for labor, GeoForum, Vol. 30(3), 263-284.
Wolf, E. 1982. Europe and the People Without History.
Berkeley, CA.: University of California Press. (1987 en español)
Profesor
de Economía en la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco,
México, D. F. 
Hans Singer published a similar analysis at about the same time, a result
of the collaborative relationship between the two (cf. Sapsford and
Chen 1998). 
This
so-called dematerialization of production, celebrated by environmental
economists as a way in which the economy has incorporated self-correcting
mechanisms for reducing the ecological footprint of economic growth,
only serves to reduce the rate of growth extractive industries in the
Third World, not to lower output or reverse their harmful impacts on
the environment or the communities in which they are located. 
For
a more complete discussion of the internationalization of capital and
its impact on society see, for example, Froebel, Heinrichs and Krey
1979; Karliner 1997; and Barkin 1985. 
The
difficult adjustment process in markets for rural products led to the
formalization of the famous cobweb theorem in standard economic analysis.
Because there is a lag in the supply process, important differences
in demand and supply at prevailing prices often lead to unstable fluctuations
in supply and significant changes in market prices which invariably
affect the majority of smaller, less well capitalized producers more
harshly than their more affluent competitors. 
A
note about electrical generation is in order: recently (2002), the Supreme
Court invalidated government efforts to transfer responsibility for
this service to private suppliers. The original nationalization involved
a constitutional change that the jurists interpreted to mean that this
sector was the exclusive responsibility of public sector. In contrast
to the political atmosphere ten years ago, when the land reform was
terminated, a continuing series of incidents of mismanagement, corruption
and bankruptcies has undermined support for the continued transfer of
public assets and services to private investors. Pressures for further
privatization during the administration of President Fox (2000-2006)
are intensifying. 
There
are more than 60 distinct ethnic groups who still speak their own native
languages, down from more than 100 that existed a century ago. 
Officially
these international remittances from Mexicans now approach $14,000 million;
however, many consider this to be a serious underestimate. My estimates,
which include income from employment in the urban economy and commercial
agro-export activities in Mexico, suggests that transfers to rural Mexico
now amount to more than 40% of the value of rural GDP in Mexico. These
resources contribute to explain how rural communities can survive and
implement the kinds of strategies described in the rest of this paper.
However, if it were not for the commitment to reinvigorate rural society,
these resources would most likely finance further migration to the urban
areas. Along with a number of other Latin Americans, I have explored
these ideas in some depth in several writing on the new rurality. See
the collections edited by N. Giarracca (2000) and E. Pérez and
M.A. Farah (2001) for two of my contributions along with those of other
leading exponents of this approach. 
Proposals
to create this corridor, based on a high-speed rail and highway system
for the trans-shipment of merchandise between Asia and Europe -an alternative
to the Panama Canal- have existed for most of the XX century, but the
Mexican government started actively promoting such schemes once it decided
to implement its radical opening to the international economy in the
late 1980s. Originally labeled the Alfa-Omega Project, the present administration
has proposed a more grandiose "Plan Puebla-Panama" to promote
economic growth in the southern part of the country as well as in Central
America with concessions for private operation of infrastructure that
will attract productive investments. The Mexican agency charged with
promoting the program has placed its public documents on a web site:
Although
there is no grand master plan, as opposition to the Plan has developed,
local communities are realizing the importance of coordinating efforts
to explore their options. (Bartra 2001) A web site for more current
information is: 
In
2000, this assistance was withdrawn at the insistence of the Mexican
government, which decreed that the local NGO was not fulfilling its
functions and was preventing the creation of the biosphere reserve.
Following the Zapatista uprising, political conflicts intensified in
this region (Barkin and Garcia 1998 and Salas et al. 2001). 
See,
for example, the writings of Alburquerque (1990) and those of Bianchi
(1999) who are influential in México among groups promoting SMEs,
strongly influenced by the Italian experience. In Europe, social funds
are promoting initiatives in poorer regions that might also be considered
part of this approach (Saraceno 1994). For a critical analysis of the
spatial impacts of internationalization, see Walker, 1999.