Imperialism in a cup of coffee

The politics of émainstreem in Europe and North America are constantly being divided between two hostile camps: on the one hand, conservative reactions that deglore imperialism and want his resurrection, on the other are progressive liberals and Socialists expressing shame for the past, but deny that imperialism continues in some form understandable to define relations between rich and poor countries. Even the debate over slave offspring and colonialism adapts to that form of correcting past mistakes, excluding any possibility that the imperial robbery of nature and workers is still continuing in the modern world “post-colonial”.

One reason for this miop is that imperialism is confused with colonial occupation. Apart from northern Ireland and Palestine, colonies are a thing of the past, Ergo The same is true of imperialism. But colonial order is just one of many possible forms of imperialism; point Its irrevocable is the plunder of human and natural assets. Capitalism has evolved new and far more effective forms of plunder than that of sending troops to invade poor countries and massacre their people. Just as slavery had been replaced with a silent obligation of workers to work with extremely small salaries, in which voluntary workers “ ” sell their work to capitalists, so colonial robbery has been replaced by what is known for the euphemism of the “free trade”.

Coffee Costs

Consider, for example, a cup of coffee purchased for two and a half pounds. Only 1 cent [pence] goes to farmers who cultivated it and harvested it. In recent years the world's price for green coffee beans has jumped, and at 2 pounds per kilogram, it is near the cheapest prize in history. For most of the 25 million small farmers who raise 94% of the world's coffee, that is how much the production costs are. Coffee farmers in Central America, for example, need the price to be 3.30 pounds to 4.10 just to get even, so they don't actually get it. Absolutely nothing. For the hard work their children do. Instead, they get even more in debt; they see their children dying of hunger; some start growing cocaine, opium or marijuana; many abandon their farms and head towards the US border.

Meanwhile, capitalist firms roasting coffee, almost entirely located in Europe and North America.

GDP illusion

And amazingly, only 2 cents of the 2.5-pound coffee goes to U.K. GDP. This in particular is a blinding example of GDP illusion, an amazing trick through which the wealth generated by super-exploitated farmers and workers on plantations and mines across Africa, Asia and Latin America is magically resurfaced into gross domestic products where their labor products are consumed. And they're super-explored because, there's no connection to how hard they work, can't feed their families or pay for essential needs like health care and education that workers in rich countries take for granted from birth.

What is true of coffee on a different scale is also true of our clothing, our technology, the kitchen albets, and generally the domestics and many other items. For example, for a Primark mouse for which you pay 20 pounds in Bangladesh, the most 1 minute is shown in the GDP of that country, from which perhaps only 1 cent will be paid to the worker who, even though with 70 hours of work a week, cannot earn enough to feed their children.

About 40% of the price of the final sale will end up in the government's hands and not only the 20 percent VAT price, but also the tax on profits of shops, owners and other service providers, and the salaries of all those working for them. The government uses this money to pay the military and police, NHS in [British health insurance], pensions, etc. So when someone says “why should we let immigrants use our NHS? ” should get the answer, “because they helped pay for it!” Unfortunately, no one on the left is saying that.

Imperialism of the 21st Century

During what is known as the neoliberal period, from around 1980 onward, capitalists to make products mentioned unilaterally jumped to places where workers were paid little. Their motive: to increase profits by replacing workers with small salaries for more paid jobs in the country, thus reducing wages by avoiding confrontation with their domestic workers. Most of what we know as the “3th” became a giant export area that produced cheap things for Europe and North America. As a result, profits, social peace and prosperity in rich countries became even more dependent on super-exploration of hundreds of millions of workers in poor countries. This deserves to be called true name: imperialism; a new, modern form, capitalist and imperialism, one that does not rely on harsh forms of the feudial era, but, of course, satisfy state terrorism, covers war interventions regardless of the situation.

Not only has global production dance allowed restoration of profitability and an update of capital accumulate, but grammatically has increased the race among workers along the border. In times of economic hardship, struggle to protect and improve position within the capitalist system in opposing the political struggle to bring it down by seeking protection from the adult race is a normal and natural reflective. But this doesn't make it progressive!  The other part of the currency for migration to countries where workers are paid little is the migration of workers from these countries. The hostility to immigration was the most important factor that forced most workers in Britain to vote against EU membership. The response of workers to the adult job race calls to build walls and close borders is the most obvious possible example of what Lenin called the union's spontaneous attempt to come to the aid of debt. ”

The evidence of the existence and spread of imperialism is all around us. Yet, liberals, Social Democrats and even many who consider themselves to be revolutionary Socialists are blind to the job. /Periscope